My Experience as a Thrifty Mom

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Secrets of a Thrifty Mom...I’m a thrifty Mom. I get excited about saving money. I use coupons. I shop at consignment shops. I’m a Mom who is in a tremendous amount of debt due to financing a law degree in addition to marrying a wonderful man who financed his masters degree. We are in debt solely for our education to the tune of tens of thousands! When my first son was born, I knew my husband and I had to make some changes with our spending habits. My experiences as a thrifty Mom have been amazing and here is a summary:

  1. I haven’t always been thrifty. I grew up blessed and always had everything I needed and most of what I wanted. I have the utmost respect for my Dad who was my primary caregiver. He taught me the value of a dollar and made me sit down when I was 18 years old and forced me to figure out how to budget how I was going to move out. I have had a job since I was 14 years old. I made some decisions in life that led me down a path of frugality. I have had to learn how to be content with and enjoy using coupons and shopping at consignment shops.
  2. Using coupons is FUN! Seriously, I love seeing the savings on most receipts. I think its awesome and its almost like cash in my pocket. Learn more about couponing here. 
  3. My family still does fun things! We vacation. We go to the zoo and to museums on a regular basis. We go to festivals. We budget for these activities. When appropriate, we research the most frugal way to do fun things. When planning for a week-long vacation, we were able to pay for a rental car for a week, 3 nights of a hotel stay and had 2 $25 gift cards by using rewards programs. Learn more about rewards programs here. 
  4. Shopping consignment shops was the most difficult for me to get used to. Its more time consuming to look through racks and shelves to find what I want. I can be impatient but I like to shop. So, over time consignment shopping has become a hobby.
    1. Read more about my experience shopping at Lorelei’s Boutique here.
  5. If I had more money, I would continue my frugal ways…. I think! I average saving 35% on groceries which is an average of $60. I can’t imagine spending $60 additional every week on groceries by making different decisions. I like the lesson, ‘once you know, you do better.’ I know how to shop frugally so I will do better by not spending needlessly.
  6. I hate meal planning. I said it! Meal planning was critical for my family in changing our lifestyle but that doesn’t mean I like it. I’m not a great cook although I have certainly learned over the years. I usually sit down on Sunday to plan meals for the week and I never know what to cook and what will sound good during the week. Once I get the meal plan done, everything else as far as grocery shopping, coupons and prepping falls into place.
  7. We still splurge. We like to go out to eat, preferably without kids. We have a budget and we try to stick to it. We aren’t perfect and we do splurge.
  8. My husband nor I are perfect. We research about budgeting. We research and second-guess ourselves. We make decisions and hope that they are right for right now but also for the future. We try to plan for next month but also 10 years from now. I have learned a lot about frugality and I have so much more to learn.

What are your frugal tips? I would love to hear your experiences!

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Lisa H
Hi, I’m Lisa and I’m a 30-something year old Mom to 2 adorable and active boys. Kamdyn is 6 months old and Kasyn is 3 years old. I have spent my professional career working with students with an autism spectrum disorder as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. I currently work part-time with my husband through www.keyaba.com As a Mama and Wife, I grocery shop with coupons and try living a frugal life (although I’m not perfect). I also like to scrapbook and capture every moment possible. I love to travel. I’m getting better at meal-planning and cooking regularly. My boys and I are on-the-go and always taking advantage of various opportunities and activities around Dayton. My favorite things about motherhood are watching my children learn and discover and rough-housing with my boys.