A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! : Frugal Lifestyle Check In Number One... and Where ...

A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! : Frugal Lifestyle Check In Number One... and Where ...: Well it has been just about two months since my family and I decided to start living a frugal lifestyle. Now I thought about checking in abo...

Frugal Lifestyle Check In Number One... and Where We Go Next

Well it has been just about two months since my family and I decided to start living a frugal lifestyle. Now I thought about checking in about my blog every month but I thought that would be redundant and not very useful of time because the reality of life is nothing happens on a perfect time schedule.

Well what do you do after you make such an announcement? Hubs and I had no idea really expect that we needed to start saving better. I heard the term frugal all the time and understand the concept but really had no idea had to put into action as sad as it sounds. So where did we go from there? Research of course!!! So I have been researching many ideas, theories, and ways in which to be frugal. I found some of these ideas to be interesting, common sense, and in some cases extreme. To say the least not all frugal ideas or lifestyle ideas are for everyone but there are enough ideas and concepts out there that anyone can find tips and areas to be frugal in.

However, with all the research we did put a couple of plans into action. One in which was the 52 week savings plan! This has been very successful and actually been very fun to do! We are currently on week 8 and having fun with saving! You can find out about the 52 weeks saving plan blog post here 52 Week Saving's Challenge .

Still sitting up on my book shelf and added Walter for protection! Picture belongs to A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life

We also started making plans on how we wanted to tackle this and really wanted to make an action plan. For example, Christopher realized where the one area that he wanted to explore and that was making bread vs buying bread. For our household we go through a lot of bread and making are own bread offered us a huge amount of savings on our grocery bill. That will be for another blog post.

So we decided each month to focus on applying new frugal tips and techniques to apply for our lifestyle. As I have stated before you must make small changes at a time to accomplish the larger goal in your life! Also my accomplishing the smaller goals you feel empowered to keep moving forward with the change! That is what has exactly happen for us. However, with all goals and challenges there are always high and lows and I think it is only fair that I discuss the high and lows so far that we faced with adjusting this lifestyle.

High: it was first f freeing to admit that we needed to make a change in our lifestyle! Employing some of these changes have been very neat and have been encouraging to move forward and that we are on the right path. The 52 weeks saving plan has been not fruitful but fun! We actually look forward to each Sunday for our deposit and joy when we put more than min deposit in!

Low: just as it was freeing to admit that we needed to make this change it as at the same time very scary for far we need to go to make the improvement we need. When you see this is it hard not to feel defeated and feel bad when you make a slip up (i.e. run through a drive through when you promised not to go out eat).

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: The next areas that we plan to really exploring into a new family budget, groceries, coupons, and cutting back.  We also plan on setting up no spending goals to lead up to are first no spend month!

You can find why we decided to live more frugal blog post here ( Frugal Lifestyle Announcement )

A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! : 52 Week Savings Challenge : Frugal Change or shoul...

A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! : 52 Week Savings Challenge : Frugal Change or shoul...: There are many aspects of the frugal lifestyle. As I have researched the many areas of being frugal the one area of being frugal is the abil...

52 Week Savings Challenge : Frugal Change or should I say ching ching?

There are many aspects of the frugal lifestyle. As I have researched the many areas of being frugal the one area of being frugal is the ability to start saving money. Now there are many topics about saving and which is the best way to go about it to pay down your debt and save at the same time and frankly for me it is overwhelming with all the information and which is sad I am a person who likes to research. All I can is say about this point I highly doubt I will blog about this exact subject and which way we decided exactly to go. However, but that will be for a different time and blog post if that does happen. There are also many articles out there about easy ways to save and how to cut cost to put some extra money in your pocket. So I figured that is prefect area for someone who is exploring the frugal lifestyle to start when it comes to savings and to really get started about serious about saving money.

Now with most of these frugal post I am going to put a little bit of testimony/truth/confession in here on why we are doing this. I feel like expressing these on here it helps relieves the stress but being honest where you at in your life makes you face reality and you can move forward. I also know if I can be honest openly I know maybe there is someone out there that I may reach and say "hey I am not alone","Wow they are really being honest about their life situations and they are taking it a step at a time" or "they are just telling me how to do it they are living it and really doing it step by step". When I ready for a change or want to make a change in my life I usually get all excited about it and bite off more than I can chew whether it is weight, taking a new approach to my bipolar disorder, organization, a new plan with the kids, and so on. I read stories, research, start with too much, and so on. I become overwhelmed, become very intimidated by all the success stories, and even a little jealous who I view has their life really put together (whether it is actually or not because I do not know what is going on behind close doors). However, it took me a long long time to realize with any change it really does take small steps and nothing will really happen overnight. Even though if you have this huge goal or change in mind if you take small steps, small goals, small changes to reach it... you will have amazing results. So at the end of this blog post I want to thank a couple of people who really inspired me. So moving on  from this sidebar and on to the truth part of this post.

TRUTH: My husband and I are horrible at savings whether we like to admit or not. Now we have multiple savings accounts and besides the one I keep for small craft business Gifts By Vaughn (https://www.facebook.com/GiftsByVaughn?ref=hl)  they are pretty sad. Now why cannot we save? Well the first answer is we can't but that really is a lie because we have an allotment going to one and if we were able to leave it alone than we would be "saving". Well the first honest reason is the main one that usually goes hand in hand with checking (like most people have with banking) we just do not add money to the savings account plain and simple. If we do start putting money in there it will eventually make it way back over to checking whether we moved it or the bank moved it because we were short in our checking account and then we lose a $1 for them moving our money for us. So we open an additional account outside to a different bank and set up an allotment to that account to start building our savings up. Well sadly every time we thinking we are getting ahead something comes up and we have had to take from that savings and when you take take from savings and only put the bare minimum in you have no growth in savings and a whopping no balance and the constant fear if something happens what are you going to do next? So what does this really mean? My husband and I really need to reprogram ourselves on how to save money and save it well. So that is why we decided on the 52 Week Savings Challenge as one way to approach to saving and the main reason for this post!!!

52 WEEK SAVINGS CHALLENGE

If you simply Google 52 Week Savings Challenge you find your answer and tons of charts on what type of challenge this is. However, the basic concept of this challenge each week of the year you will deposit a certain amount of money into a account or place of your choice. It is recommended that your  weekly deposit follow the week that you are on. So for week one you will deposit $1, week two $2, week three $3, and week fifty two $52. If you follow these amounts by the end of the year you will have saved $1,378. You can find more information about the basic concept of the 52 week savings challenge here http://www.52weekmoneychallenge.net/welcome-to-the-52-week-money-challenge/ .

How we are doing it. Now we decided to take this challenge but decided to leave the money outside the bank and a place to see the money to watch it grow.  So if you are going to leave the money outside of the bank you will need a 52 week savings challenge chart you can simply Google it or look it up on Pinterest there are tons out there that range from fancy, simple, and even are modified a little for people who have adjusted the challenge to meet their need. I posted below a simple example of the 52 Week Savings Challenge Chart for you but I will also show you what and how we are doing.

Source: amittenfullofsavings.com via Google images

Like I stated above you just have to search and you will find tons of these charts! Now onto the way Christopher and I are doing it and I will throw a little psychology into it. Hey I have a Bachelors in psychology and working on Masters might as well use it! Well my chart is nothing fancy in fact I jotted it out on an index card... I know fancy right?

source: image belongs to Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! http://pcos4lifejourney.blogspot.com/

Well I decided to write it out one it was quicker to jot it down and because we are "both" doing the challenge I can write down the actual amount of each weeks deposit. So for us week one is $2, week two is $4, and week fifty two is $104. We also let room if were able to save a little extra. We actually just deposited week 2 and we actually put in an extra $1.77 so as long as the base deposit is met each week by 52 weeks we will have saved $2756! Do not fear the bigger deposits towards the end of challenge because by the end mark it should be easier to save which is the goal of this challenge!! Also if you are living frugal it should start having extra money to save making this challenge easier as is progresses through the year. You also need to decide when you are going to deposit your money each week since it is not going into a bank account. For hubs and I we decided on Sunday and since we may be adding more than the base deposit we store the deposit on the side until it ready to go into the jar so it can be counted.

source: image belongs to Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! http://pcos4lifejourney.blogspot.com/

Since the money is being stored in our bedroom we have these plastic leave dishes that went with our bedroom decor (we are country/woodsy) that I bought at the Dollar Tree a couple years back that ended up not being used and were collecting dust on top of jewelry box. So this where we sit that weeks deposit until the wend of the week until Sunday and count it put in  the mason jar! The cat is just my crocheted kitty that protects the money...hehe! Our challenge sits on my bookshelf  on the top shelf with Dean Koontz you cannot get any better than that in our bedroom!!!

source: image belongs to Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! http://pcos4lifejourney.blogspot.com/

Now if you remember earlier in this post I stated that my husband and I needed to basically reprogram ourselves on how we think about saving. That is why decided to keep the money outside of the bank and bare with me this where the psychology comes into this and why this is a good challenge for someone who needs to reprogram in the way they think about saving and how to positively reinforce that behavior by positive motivation. Motivation is simply defined as the process that initiates, guides, directs, and maintains goal-orientated behavior. It is literally the desire in which we decide to do something whether to actually make a change or just sitting around thinking about making a change. In psychology terms motivation involves biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces to activate one's behavior. Now there are a number of theories on motivation and fancy terms that are used when psychologist discuss/debate about what motivation really is but that really is not the point. So lets stay focus on positive motivation and why me and hubs are using are using at as a tool to positively reinforce our behavior on saving. By seeing are money actually grow through the year we have a tangible results on hand to see that it is working and growing. You can also look at as extrinsic motivation or outside positive motivation at work at this challenge and at the end of this challenge we can take that tangible "result" and do something with it whether it is vacation, investment, savings, and so on. Now there is also intrinsic motivation or internal positive motivation at work as well in this challenge and what I view as the most important of these challenge. By completing this challenge not only will you have personal gratification that you completed your goal but you are helping yourself reprogram your brain on how to save and setting yourself up for positive results, success, and a long term future. Well that is what we want to do! Well that is my psychology degree at work now only if my grammar was better and my student loans would just up and vanish...hey I can dream/wish?

Sorry I had no idea this was going to be as long post

Personal Thanks: There are a couple of people I wanted to thank who have motivated me though my life. These thanks are not all directed at 52 week savings challenge but just in general about motivation and change. 

I first want to thank my parents. They have been one of my biggest supports in my life through so much through my heath issues, life struggles, ups, downs, good times, bad times, and so on. They are who keep me motivated besides my husband! I am not sure what I would do without them. 

Shannon-  I first met Shannon when we first moved to Camp Lejeune. You talk about a woman jack of all trades. She has been one of the most motivating people I have ever met!! She actually reminds me of a much younger version of my mother and which is amazing because my Mom is one of best friends. Now I can go into details of all things on why I am very motivated but all I will say she is an amazing military wife and mother and now it is her time to shine! So I am going to give her a shout out. If you live in North Carolina check out  https://www.facebook.com/shannon.sines.9  the Owner Formal Creations she does amazing work! I just want to thank Shannon from the time that I known you from your jokes that people often do not get, to some great conversations, being a role model whether you realized it or not, and reaching for dreams you truly are a motivating person to me. 

Lisa- she is also another positively motivating person I have ever met and the sweetest. She has helped me embrace my physical life changes as well as the emotional ones that come with trying to make a healthier lifestyle. Just with type of change it can be overwhelming and she is right there with you helping you. She runs a group Lisa Kingslayer Fit Future https://www.facebook.com/FitFuture1 and I promise she is not in your face about her group but actually cares about the ups and downs of obtaining a healthier lifestyle. She is a real person not a supermodel and embraces herself flaws in all and which makes herself that more motivating! I want to thank her so much for the impact that she has made on my life. 

Ashley- I have known you through a couple of deployments now and I think you are an amazing and motivating person, wife, and mother. I know there are tons of wife and mothers out there in our shoes but you have always to me seem so motivated and positive in the things you do through the life of being a military wife. Which is extremely motivating and encouraging to move forward with all my goals in life especially as a mother and I thank you for that.

There are a couple of wives that I just need to thank: Jodie, Megan S, Dara, Dawn, Carri, Sarah C,  Shelly F, and Rebecca D.  

A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! : The Start Of This Full Frugal Adventure Of This Bi...

A Bipolar Mom and Her Daily Life! : The Start Of This Full Frugal Adventure Of This Bi...: When you look in a mirror at your life are you where at in your life? I am sure you can answer this question nine ways to Sunday and hop...

The Start Of This Full Frugal Adventure Of This Bipolar Mom's Family...The Honesty May Shock You

When you look in a mirror at your life are you where at in your life? I am sure you can answer this question nine ways to Sunday and hopefully for some of you are where you thought you would exactly be. However, my husband and I are not where we thought we would be at this point in our lives. Now let me stop you right there we are very happily married and have two wonderful miracles. I am talking about financial stability future, goals, and the dream of my family.

When Christopher and I first got married of course we had the American dream and we thought it would come easily probably just like most young and in love couples. However, reality sets in quickly and the American dream is a lot harder to obtain and there are usually a lot of bumps in the road to get there or even some where close to a dream you have for yourself. Now very sadly early on in the marriage suffered identity theft and for a young couple who is just starting out who has nothing it is really hard to recover if you really recover at all. The case was so bad the police were involved and once your identity is stolen it seems you victim the rest of your life here and there. Now I can blame all our financial problems on identity theft but that would not be beyond fair. My husband and I made tons of mistakes a long the way and up to the really near future. Like most Americans we have debt, I would not say we are not in a combined extreme amount of debt but I guess I would say average. We have one car payment, two credits, student loans and we consolidated the rest.  I will not lie we have debt collectors calls or places of payment because of late payment it is humiliating. Now why I said I combined debt is because I personally have a lot of student debts. You see my family was not rich enough to pay for my college and we were not poor enough for me to qualify for financial aid except for student loans. So the price of bachelors degree and master work is sixty thousand plus. So yes I am personally up into my eyeballs in student loan debt.

Now we are a one income family by semi-choice. I am sure people who will look at this and be like if you you both work you will likely get out of debt faster...blah blah blah. I once again will have to stop you right there. All of our bills are paid, are kids are very well taken care of( health care, food, clothes, and so on), we do not qualify for any assistance, and we have a roof over are head. My husbands career comes first and because of his type job it really does make it hard for me at this time to establish my career. So where we are currently stationed all my income would basically go towards decent childcare. I am however always toying with the idea of getting a part time job when my husband is home to watch the kids but that will be for another post and time. I have a very active 2 year old little boy and a precious 9 month little girl who I am lucky enough to stay home with and raise until they are both in school. So if you can imagine our income even though enough is very tight. There has been even a couple of mishaps and without the support of my parents I do not think we would have made it. The thing with being on a tight budget it makes it a very hard to save well for anything. As much as I love my parents it is not there job or place to help us when we were in that type of bind and I was incredibly grateful that they did help but it hurt that we could not help ourselves for that reason. Just like anyone my parents have a right and a reason to spend their hard earn money on what they want and not because I really screwed up my family budget. Now I said early in this blog paragraph that all our bills are paid and they are but I am not being honest with you or me if I do not admit about the mistakes that I have made in the past and how I was helped out of them now can I?

My husband and I decided we no longer want to live like this. Well live like what? Well we do not not have top of the line of stuff, are furniture is old, we have yet to be on a family vacation, and so on. So live like what? We want to no longer have to fear living on such a tight budget if something comes up that we will fail into back thee steps into financial ruin, paycheck to paycheck, in debt, and so on. We would love to be debt free, savings to be proud of, a dream family vacation, own a home, and so on. So what is the first step to this? Well since are bills are paid we decided to explore the frugal lifestyle. Now like any lifestyle change it is something can happen over night for most people and we are no exception. The point of being frugal is to understand the cost-per-use and the longevity of a purchase. Live below one's means to accumulate your nest egg, dreams, values, and the good life. Living and embracing the frugal lifestyle you will be able to live honestly and have your priorities in order. I hope you plan to follow me as I explore this adventure for my family from a mom and wife who is truly starting well from the beginning.

So here is to homemade laundry soap ...well again we will revisit that post to looking in the mirror and where we want to be.