The reason why I choose to work at home is because I really want to be home with our children. In order to make that dream a reality, I have had to reduce our spending. If I had known before I was married and had children that I'd one day want to be home with my kids, I could have avoided incurring such a high mortgage debt and I wouldn't have to reduce my spending so dramatically, but I happily reduce my spending to enable me to be home with our children. A resource that has taught me a lot about how to really reduce my spending is the book: Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy ( http://miserlymoms.com/ ). I recommend it to all moms, those who work at home, stay at home or work outside of the home.
Some of the ways I saved money this Christmas were:
I made 3 aromatherapy heat / cool wraps as gifts. The fabric for each one cost about $3. I filled them with rice and herbal tea. I only bought 1 box of tea $2.99 and used some more tea and rice I already had at home. I had the opportunity to use my husband's home-made heat wrap today and it worked beautifully.
I bought plain wood picture frames ($1) and painted them and put pictures of the kids inside.
I made an all natural scented body scrub for my DH. These ingredients were not that cheap-$7 per scented essential oil, $3.50 for a bottle of safflower oil; $3.50 for coarse sea salt. $1 per bottle with a cork to store it in. But I have enough ingredients to make a million batches. The recipe I used for him was:
- 4 tablespoons crushed coarse sea salt
- 10 drops spearmint oil
- 2 crushed bay leaves
It exfoliates and moisturizes.
I made blankets for the children of my close friends. The blankets were made from no-sew 27 inch pillow kits. The kind where you cut the edges into strips and tie in knots. Since their kids are preschoolers, the pillows are the perfect size for blankets. I also found some Raiders football fabric remnants and made a pillow for my brother-in-law. These pillow kits were $4.97 each in the clearance bin at the fabric store.
There is a picture store in my area called Pic**** Peo*** and they had an in store special for free pictures. I ended up getting 2 sheets of 2 poses so I paid $20. I went to Wal****** and made 4x6" copies for 29 cents each. I never buy school pictures or sports photos, so I felt is was ok to spend the money.
I also finally got around to planting the veggies I bought a few weeks ago. (: I bought approx. 40-60 onion plants for $3. I also planted 6 baby cabbage plants which cost about $2.50.
Cabbage cooked with bacon and onion and garlic makes an excellent tasting cheap meal.
I plan on growing some more greens and some fruit trees, too.
I guess I should get to work now, while my baby is sleeping. Achieving the right balance between family, work and rest is a challenge for me. But that is because I am very weary of allowing my time to be taken from my kids, even if it is to work. I desire to work at home and have time to do homemaking and have time for my kids and have time for me. ( The preceding was written in reverse order of importance to me )
One thing I think I need to do is to make sure I allow myself to be off 2 days per week-preferably on the weekends when DH is home. In order to do that, I will need to do more work during the week. Because my business plan included setting aside time to work and care for my kids and rest, I know I can do it, it will just require diligence. My learning curve will be steep during the startup phase so I can make sure that this business meets my needs. I am very picky now becuase I had a different work at home mom business before that was idyllic in the first few years, but then I had bigger goals and it no longer suited my needs. Yes, I do want the world. *If* I'm going to work while raising our kids, the children will come first, then my health-which is dependent on my not being stressed or overworked.
Darn, the baby is up and I haven't even begun work. That's what happens when I don't get right to work while he sleeps.
-signing off
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