Mommy Wisdom Wednesday- Making money by saving money

Are y'all ready for a very practical MWW? Here ya go:

Once I changed jobs from nursing to full time Maddie care, our monthly income took a drastic dip. Motivated by the intense desire to work at home I decided that it was up to me to save our family as much money as possible. My husband has been a wonderful example to me of living within our means and the value of saving money, but now it was my turn to put those principles into practice! I took on most of the responsibility because I was the one who was spending our money. I figured that if I'm not making our family money by bringing in income, I can at least help make the money we have coming in go farther! My focus on was on three things:
1. Get rid of costly "unnecessary" expenses- mainly ditching cable and switching to rabbit ears. It saved us over $55/month and although we thought we were going to, we haven't missed it! We still get all of the local channels, and now we get them in HD! I don't spend nearly as much time in front of the TV as I used too, which is wonderful! Also, thanks to Netflix, Hulu and many of the networks allowing you to watch past episodes on their websites (ABC, NBC, Bravo, etc) not having cable is becoming more and more popular.

2. Manage our budget better- we have always used a budget, my husband got Quicken for his 14th birthday, so clearly he knows the ins and outs of budgeting! However, we weren't always great about sticking to it since we only updated the budget twice a month. So, we switched to a cash envelope system. Now, when the money is gone, it's gone and we can't go over budget! We have envelopes for groceries, entertainment/date night, personal fun money, Maddison, clothes and gifts. Gas and utility bills don't get envelopes since we get cheaper gas with our Shell credit card and our bills are paid automatically online. Both Mike and I have experienced so much freedom in using cash and no matter how much our income changes in the coming years, I don't think we're going back to our old ways!

3. Meal planning and grocery shopping less- I had always planned out our meals on a weekly basis, but after doing some blog surfing I realized that you can save a lot of money by planning out your meals monthly. I have a collection of our favorite recipes that I rotate through so we don't get bored eating the same things. I also love to cook new recipes, so I always throw a couple into the mix. I will usually make four meals a week max- we have two nights of leftovers, one night we eat dinner at Watermark and there is usually a night for a Mike/Katy date or a family date out to eat. I found a cute idea to display the menu for the week on Pinterest and I write out our meals for the week so we know what's coming up!

Our menu board, my calendar with all of the meals written down and grocery list! 

 Because I have my meals planned for the whole month, I now only do a big grocery shop twice a month. I still run grab the weekly essentials like milk, bread and fruit once a week, but doing a big shop twice saves me time and money! To save the most money, I try and buy meat on sale and I buy enough for a month or two. For example, due to some amazing sales at Sprouts on their natural, hormone/antibiotic free chicken and a recent trip to Costco for organic ground beef on sale I have my meat for the rest of January and February. Knowing what meat I have already helps tremendously with meal planning!

I love my job and wouldn't trade it for the world and I am so blessed and thankful that I can stay at home with Maddie. My husband rocks for being a stable and diligent provider for our family. He also is a saint for being so patient with me in the early years of marriage when my immature spending self didn't realize the value of saving and living frugally...boy am I thankful for his maturity now!

I hope that these little tips can help you achieve your family's financial goals!

What do you do to help your family save money?
Love,
The Vogs