Oh, how my life has changed...

Whenever I think back on the person "I used to be", I am amazed and sometimes shocked at how far I have come. Sometimes I wish I had known then, what I know now!

My life has changed in so many ways in the past 6 years. Shortly after my wedding, I had an accident that caused me to be out of work for a few months. When I returned to work, it was only part time. Less money coming into the house, meant less money to spend. Changes needed to be made. My husband and I cut back on a lot of spending, but not enough.

The big changes occurred when we purchased our home 2 years ago. We lived in a small apartment for YEARS and finally found a home that we both agreed on. We finally had our own home and we were finally out of the city! As a result of our move, I left my job of 15 years and since we were planning on starting a family, we decided that I would just not work. Which resulted in less money, more bills. More changes needed to be made. More cutting back.

Now for the biggest change in my life...the birth of our first child in May 2009. Our sweet, baby girl. Now it seems that any extra money we have, we spend on her (as it should be) and I have a feeling she is going to be SPOILED rotten! (As every little girl should be!)

Due to all of the major changes in our lives and our paychecks, we need to really try to cut back as much as we can in order for the Stay-at-home-mom thing to work out. After reading many money saving blogs (thanks, ladies), I have made it my goal to be cheap! (Oops, I mean: FRUGAL!)

I shop for sale items as much as I can. I clip coupons as much as possible (mainly printable coupons found online). I try to decide if an item is a NEED or a WANT.

Long gone is the girl that shopped for clothes several times a week, the girl that spent her entire paycheck in the mall every week, the woman that ordered take out 3 sometimes 4 times a week.

Those people were replaced by a much older (hopefully wiser), money-saving momma!

I am still new at this and I still have a long way to go before I am really any good at this whole being cheap (I mean: Frugal) thing. But I'm going to try my best. My feeling is that even if I only save 50 cents during a shopping trip, it's still 50 cents less than I would have spent without the coupon. Every little bit of savings will help.

The reason I am starting this blog, is to help me keep track of my savings, my meal plans, new tips, etc. Hopefully, I'll be able to help others along the way.