I'm A Frugal Wannabe

Here's a little secret: My greatest desire is to be a SAHM (stay at home mom). There are so many reason I think this would be a good thing. Ok, sure, you are thinking "Who wouldn't want to quit their job and stay home?" (and if you are thinking that, you also have no clue what life is like at home all day with a four year old and almost two year old!) I have had the great pleasure of having a really wonderful job AND being able to bring my kids with me to my job every day. I can simply walk down the hall and check on them. And on slow days, I may even spend a little time hanging out with them in their classroom. It's been a comfort to leave them in the caring hands of people who I know and trust. It's also been wonderful to be able to see them throughout the day. I have truly had the best of both worlds. But I have great aspirations!
When I was growing up, my mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I would ALWAYS reply "A Wife and a Mama." This was not just my reply when I was little. This was my reply when I was in high school and even college! My mom would tell me that having a family was a dream. She would say that being a Mama would be life but I needed to think about a career. And this one time, I have to say my mom was wrong. See, my mom stayed home with us. She did not go to college and she wanted to be sure that Biz and I did "more" with our lives. I understand where she was coming from. I certainly don't regret my education or my career to this point, but I see great value in my "job" being my family.
My life right now is hectic. I work full time. I have a "career" and I do love my job and the work I do for children and families, but I feel like I am often giving too much of myself to other people's children and families and leaving very little of myself for my own family. Brandon travels often. {Denmark two weeks ago, Mexico this week, South Africa next week and Chile in about three weeks.} He is typically gone 2-3 weeks a month. I have two small kids. I go back and forth between thinking I am lame and pitiful that I can't get it together and deal and thinking I have it HARD. I guess I am really somewhere in the middle. I know people have it much worse, but my life is no piece of cake.
I am {mostly} past the days of calling in reinforcements every time Brandon is out of town. I have mastered the art of getting something {fairly} nutritious on the table, feeding two kids, bathing two kids AND assisting them both in getting out of the tub and in their jammies. {This is actually more complicated than it sounds!} They can now help with feeding three dogs and two cats and I am kinda over wondering if all 22 cows are still in the fence. My days go something like this: Rise at 5:30, get myself ready and pray both kids stay asleep until I am done {if they don't, my getting ready routine is constantly interrupted with "Can you fix my waffle? can you get me some milk? will you turn the tv on? Mason is hitting me. And that often causes us to be late.}, get both kids up and dressed and pray that Ellie won't throw a fit about not eating breakfast at home {they feed them at school}. Get them in the car by 7:15, make the 30-45 minute drive to work. Work a pretty stressful job at which I have a lot of responsbility. Leave work at 4:30 {if all is going well} and make the same drive home with two hungry, thirsty and tired kids. Try to get something together for dinner. Feed the "livestock". Feed the children. Bathe the children. Entertain the children. Get the children to bed. Clean the house and kitchen and get myself to bed {hopefully before 11, but often not until much later}. Somehow, Brandon being out of town always seems to make said children have sleep issues so I can always count on someone waking in the night. {at least they usually take turns} And right now we are doing all of this in a one bathroom, one closet, 800 sq foot house. Good times.
I make good money and we are so blessed with all we have, but I want MORE. I want to cook good dinners for my picky kids so they will learn to like more things. I want to have a cleaner, neater more organized home. I want to be able to fit more quality time in with my kids and spend less time saying "honey I don't have time for that, I have to get this laundry done". And I want to spend FAR less time saying "Come on! We are LATE!" I want to be home when Ellie gets off the bus next year and I want to be able to volunteer at her school. I want to be able to take some stress off Brandon by being able to do more yard work and have his clothes clean and folded and put away when he is packing for a trip instead of living out of laundry baskets or or {gasp} out of the dryer!
Brandon is skeptical. He absolutely agrees on all points that me staying home would be a great thing for our family. But I am a spender. And Brandon is the family financial advisor. I've told him all my great plans to save money, menu plan, coupon clip, sew to make extra money, and shop consignment sales for the kids. But the proof is in the pudding, right? So I am going frugal.
I'm starting with groceries. {meaning food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies} I am clipping coupons, printing coupons, using electronic coupons and shopping sales. I have found TONS of great blogs that actually make it pretty simple to save by telling you where the best sales are and what coupons to use. I am doing my best to stay out of the major department store that starts with a wal and ends in a mart. There are many reasons for this, but I find that I spend so much more when I see a bin of water bottles for $1. {who could pass that up, really?} When I go to a simple grocery store, I don't even think about perusing the kids clothing section or running by the shoe department. I think this one step alone will be helpful in savings.
I have more steps I want to take like meal planning and frugal Christmas and Birthdays. I also want to start sewing again and I would really love to grow that business. It may take a while, but I am really serious about this. I'm going to start trying to share all the great deals I find here. This week I spent $80 at Kroger and saved $70! That's pretty amazing to me! At this point, I have no set time of when I would like to finalize this plan, but I really am committed to this! So here's to frugality!
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I started typing this post yesterday. Mid-post, I saved it and went to talk to a teacher in the gym while Mason's class was in there. I walked in to find Mason sitting on a tricycle and thought he was just sitting there...until he took off PEDALING. KNIFE IN MY HEART! I had no idea he could pedal a bike!!! And he can pedal backwards and forwards. And I missed it.
Last night, Mason woke up at 12 am throwing up. Brandon is out of town. So at 12 am, I had to strip Mason, strip his bed, start a load of laundry in the wash and clean up the rest of the mess. All the while, Mason SCA REEMED. Poor baby has never had a stomach bug before. At two am when he threw up for the third time, I broke down in silent tears. So today I am using my last sick day until November. This sucks! The good news is Mason is tired, but hasn't had any more "episodes" since about 3 am. I'm exhausted> Biz took Ellie to school so here's hoping she doesn't come down with it agian (she was sick last Friday!)
Anyway...ya'll have a good holiday weekend!