Rachael’s Corner : Save more with less.
This is a guest post by Rachael Wards :
Rich and miserable
My husband and I were married for a little over a year when I had my greatest turn around to becoming the Home Maker I am today. We were making good money yet we were miserable. We ended up spending more than we had trying to soothe our heart ache. What ever the heart ache God helped us with wisdom and self-discipline. You may not find yourself at this part of the road of life, but this was my beginning. I hope it can encourage some of you. We had more consumer debt, nothing to show for it. We were living with family at no cost. Why were we not getting ahead?
Discipline
I had no self-discipline. One day I was listening to the Larry Burkett program on the Christian radio station. He recommended a book written my Jonni McCoy, “Miserly Moms”. I highly recommend this book. It was the best $8 I have ever spent. I had to use my credit card to buy it, but it was the only way I could “afford” it at the time. “Miserly Moms” was worth the debt because it has helped to get us out of debt. It was like a rope to a drowning person.
My 3 simple steps :
1. Buying this book is my first recommendation. Frugal Families: Making the Most of Your Hard-Earned Money by Jonni McCoy (new title) starts at$7.89 at Amazon.com. If you can not afford it, stay tuned to me. I will teach you all I know and have learned. You can also borrow it from the library. That is what I should have done instead of using my credit card.
2. Of the many things I do here at home the one that began saving money fast was cooking and baking from scratch. Hard? NO! Only different. Have you ever calculated how much time it takes to order a meal out? How much time it takes to go to a restaurant and wait in line for a meal? I’ll wager you can have a classy home cooked meal on the table faster, cheaper and healthier. What does it take? Planning. Thinking ahead. In our micro wave culture we do not want to be bothered with the future, only the now : To-be-rich-is-plan-ahead.
Are your bills out of control? Are you spending more to feel better about what you have already spent? What difficulty will it take for you to want to try your best at Home Making?
3. The Plan. Make a menu for the next week. Plan for four days your regular eating habits. Plan the other three days for trying new recipes that are cheaper and healthier. Consider your time and it’s worth. Some cheap recipes my family loves are: black-eyed-peas and rice or chicken and rice, refried beans on burrito wraps with lettuce, tomato, sour cream and cheese. I try to always have a soup, salad and bread night every week.
Play with it. Consider what your family likes to eat. Plan at least one real nice home made meal a week. That always helps moral. My family likes the food I cook…either I am getting better or they are getting used to it.
