Dave Would Be Proud...

Ever since my husband and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, money has become a huge topic of conversation around our house.  Steve and I sit down frequently for our "Budget Committee" meetings (sounds official, doesn't it?) and we are always discussing ways that we can save money.

The kids often overhear the talks that we have and have started using many of our financial terms in their day to day vocabulary.  When we're at the grocery store, it's pretty cute to hear them say, "We can't buy this today because it's not on sale AND we don't have a coupon, right mom?"

Because I have a very strict grocery budget that I force myself to stick to each month, I started revamping the way I did my grocery shopping over a year ago.  Each week I utilize sale fliers and coupons to plan meals, while also stock piling certain food and toiletry items.  It definitely takes time each week, but the money I end up saving is so worth it.  Plus, it's such a rush to be able to work deals and get things for free or next to nothing.  When did I become the crazy person who has 15 free tubes of toothpaste stacked in my linen closet, after 15 other free tubes were given to charity?

Each week, I pull out my huge stash of coupons as I begin to compile my grocery list.  I'm fortunate enough to have several people in my life who give me their coupons that they aren't using (a big shout out to Nolie, Virginia, and Barb for your weekly coupons). The kids always love sitting with me and often help me sort coupons into different piles.

Last week while I was working, I was expressing frustration over not having a particular coupon I was looking for.  Madison immediately pulled out scissors, paper, and a marker and got to work on making me some extra coupons.  It was so cute!  She made sure I had them when I went to the store the following week.  She said one coupon was for ice cream, so I should be sure to pick up some of that for her!

In addition to couponing/meal planning, I've also started selling the kids clothes at consignment sales throughout the year.  I still give a lot of the girls' stuff to friends or Goodwill, but I definitely sell some things.  It's nice because I use the money I make to turn around and buy the kids clothes for the upcoming season.  It ends up being a great way to never have to worry about adding kids' clothing to our monthly budget.

I recently was preparing clothes for a sale, so the kids were hearing me talk a lot about selling their old clothing to make some money to get them new clothes.  One day, they announced that they wanted to go through some of their toys and get rid of some of things they didn't play with anymore and I welcomed the suggestion.

As I worked on  a few other things, I listened to them working in the playroom, discussing what things they still used and what they wanted to give to other kids.  The sound of them was totally warming my heart and making me smile.

At least until I walked into the playroom and ALL of their toys divided into the following two piles:

Their most favorite toys that they can't possibly live without (and if you look closely, there IS a rubber band in the pile)

The thing they don't need and think we should get rid of

Ok, so maybe Dave wouldn't be SUPER proud, but at least it's a start!