A Series of Unfortunate Events

.....better known as how our lack of discipline and planning caused us to have to be total tightwads for a while.

We've had a lot of expenses lately, most of which I should have planned for, I just did not think about them. Since the first of the year we've had to buy dance recital dresses, pay for Mason to play baseball, I totally messed up the house payment (I was way too tired for multi-tasking and trying to understand a new banking system and GOOFED), the girls birthday and weekend getaway and a bunch of other junk. So, it seems that we are finding ourself in a position that requires being REALLY careful with our money, or more like we aren't spending any. Thanks to Mr. Dave Ramsey we have some savings, but we are trying not to touch it. We're not broke or poor (compared to most of the rest of the world we are truly wealthy), but we just need to be careful. And guess what.......I'm so THANKFUL that we are in this position. We've been living like a bunch of spoiled brats, not thinking about where our money is going or being careful enough with it so we could be generous in areas and this has brought me back to a place of frugality. I used to be so frugal and I loved it. It was so fun to save money. It sort of felt like beating the system and it impresses my hubby and I LOVE that! So this week I've found myself being self-controlled (go figure, guess I needed some work on those fruits) and creative and it's FUN! So what have I been doing.

~Yesterday I went to 2 stores and bought NOTHING! I didn't need anything anyway, so why do I feel compelled to buy something just because it's a good deal????

~We went to my Mom's for lunch (we actually do that most Sunday's so it wasn't very creative, but it did save me money) and we ended up staying for supper too. It was such a relaxing day and I didn't have to feed my family once. Mom had a TON of leftovers from my brother's birthday dinner, so we all ate those and we just had corn dogs for supper (None of us were very hungry after lunch anyway).

~Today I finally made homemade laundry detergent. I've had the ingredients for ages, but didn't have a 5 gallon bucket to make it in. I finally found a 2 gallon recipe. I didn't have a 2-gallon bucket either, but I did have a few old laundry jugs that we'd been saving (okay, okay they were just here because we'd all been to lazy to get them in the garbage). I made the detergent in a lg. pot on the stove and then poured it into the bottles. It will have to set up overnight before we can use it, but we still have a little store bought left. HERE'S where I found the recipe. I think I'll be getting more ideas from her site as well. I have read that this is fine for HE washers.

~I also found 2 bottles of half used fabric softener, so I diluted those with water. When I was a teen and lived with my uncle he did that all the time and it still worked great. I've read about another way that the Duggars do it (which you can find HERE), but I think my kids might make too big a mess with it their way so we'll stick to this for now.

We'll be eating out of the freezer and cabinets for a while, but honestly we should have been doing that anyway. To be truthful we will financially be back to normal in a few days, but I'm praying I'll get back into my old frugal habits and stay there. I have lots of ideas on how to put some extra money to good use, so we are gonna be busy working to make those ideas become reality. This is gonna be fun!