Why I Don't Do No-spend Months

 WOW! It's been a long time, folks. Here's a long post to make up for it, hahahah...

After DS2 was born in October 2018 let's just say life got a little busy for a while. Well, ok it's still really busy and it's fixing to get even busier. Baby #3 is on the way! We will be a party of five in May, whoop whoop! 

So what does this mean for our family? Welllllll....I don't really know just yet. I can tell you what I want it to mean. I very much want it to mean that "Halfway to a Housewife" becomes "All the Way to a Houswife" but that might not be in the cards for us just yet. That doesn't mean we aren't going to try though. For my part, that means stretching every last penny (and still trying to live a little--if you have older kiddos you know that they tend to feel the sting of tightening up more than littles! And as if 2020 hasn't felt full of deprivation anyway, we don't want to make the rest of this dreadful year unbearably worse). So how do we do it?

I'm channeling the 2013/2014/2015 me here...back when we lived on one income (mine) and my hubby was going to school full time and our finances were still reeling from a flopped restaurant business. Here are a few things we did to stretch our money back then:

• Pantry cooking. Or as one of my favorite bloggers calls it, Shelf Cooking (shout out to Jordan Page over at FunCheapOrFree.com) Use what you have.
• Simple food. AKA "kid food". Fish sticks, rice, and a hot vegetable is in fact an acceptable meal. This is NOT the time to make fancy meals. 
• Shop on the CHEAP. One of my favorite places for bargains (and least favorite places to have to go...I'll admit) is .99 Everything. While everything is no longer .99, most things are and you absolutely CAN'T beat their produce prices. I can buy an entire week of fresh fruits and vegetables for $20 over there. 
• Shop the sales. My favorite grocery store is Smith's--fuel points and advertised sales, plus the newly available grocery pick up service is amazing. Plan your menu around what is on sale if you have to fill the gaps in your pantry.
• A word on grocery pick up: it sure is convenient nowadays and we didn't have that on the table back when DS1 was little and I had my brother's kids at my table every night. But, if you do grocery pick up you miss out on the fabulous managers specials (especially the .99 produce mesh bags and the fancy cheeses in the dairy case marked waaaay off! And I do love me some fancy cheese). So, it's a time saver and believe me, I get it, time is as good as money.
• Coupon. Clip of course, and use apps (Love, love, love Ibotta, Fetch, Shopkick, Receipt Hog, and Coinout) Some are slow earners but they add up. See below for my referral codes--if you're not on those yet I'd love it if you'd use them!

• Ibotta: https://ibotta.onelink.me/iUfE/8cc13c64?friend_code=7ynb9q
• Fetch: Referral code V7981
• Shopkick: Referral code MALL527959
• Coinout: https://coinout.com/referrals/new?r=XEJ96FF

• Buy used. Especially baby and toddler clothes. You can usually pick up an entire wardrobe or set of PJ's, etc. in great shape on Facebook marketplace for $40 or less. And when that fails, I bounce over to Goodwill. Also a great place to buy dishes, women's and maternity clothes, and BOOKS.
• We have a fabulous used bookstore here called Grassroots Books. Most used books are only a buck or two and we are really trying to get DS1 to read more. Look for one in your area.

Now, we are admittedly in a much better income situation than we were back then--I have another 5 years in my career field and have since finished a Master's degree, and my husband is working full time with 4 years in the field. BUT we have also made ourselves a mess. A BIG mess. We have 2 car payments (yeah...I know...) and have racked up an embarassing amount of credit card debt. Which are HUGE barriers to All the Way to a Housewife--henceforth known as ATWTAH. Which in my head sounds like "at wattah". So what to do about cleaning up the mess? A couple more things:

• Side hustle. I have a super fun side hustle that has made me a better homeschooling mom. I teach with VIPKid! Sometimes this means I teach at 3:30 in the morning, or 11:00 at night, so it does cost me a bit of sleep, but it's really fun and the money is better than most part time jobs. 
• Side hustle. Sell stuff. I've had mixed success selling clothes on Poshmark, Mercari, etc. but I have had much better luck purging my gift closet on Mercari. Things purchased on clearance on a whim several years ago that I cannot see gifting to someone make a great addition to someone else's gift closet! And a nice little addition to our pay off debt fund. 
• And side hustle. Notice a trend here? Ha--get creative. Craft items to sell online, babysit, clean houses for friends/family, tutor, etc. These are all things I've done. My husband has done yard work, fixed cars, moved stuff, etc. 

Thanks for reading! Until next time, friends!