Frugal living

It has been a frugal few days. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the regular frugal living stuff that we always do. These things add up so quickly though! Kevin changed the oil in his car this weekend. I cut his and Michael's hair and also trimmed Claire's bangs. These few things alone saved me at least $60.

We also have used only cloth napkins, hung all but 1 load of laundry, eaten a lot of leftovers, combined errands, used a rain check to get soap at a great price, kept the heat at 65 even though we are a little cold (blankets and snuggling on the couch do the trick) and combined coupons with sales to get even better deals. Tonight while we watch Biggest Loser I will clip coupons - from my paper and the ones my neighbor saves for me. Tomorrow I will return our library books on time so no fines, we are going there for a meeting. I will bake a treat for snacks at the meeting from scratch - something Emma can eat.

All of these things combined might save me a few dollars a week, much more if you count all the coupons I use. Over time though these things really add up. By living frugally I can stay home with the kids on one teacher's salary. With room for extras some of the time. We have all of what we need and some of what we want. Isn't that how it should be?