My vice: laziness

I am one of the most naturally lazy people I know.

Two surprise babies sixteen months apart (yes, we do know how that happens, thankyouverymuch) are slowly beating that out of me, but it's not something that's easy for me.

I'm starting this blog as a way to keep track of the things I'm doing around the house to save us money. I don't have a job, other than my SAHM duties, and not contributing to our finances is starting to get to me. My husband is enthusiastic about the importance of my role; he regularly thanks me for the things I do to run our home in an efficient manner. The problem isn't him or a lack of support; it's all in my own head.

I enjoy my life, but I've been feeling the burnout lately. We live in a small town in Wisconsin. Good shopping is limited. We have a Wal-mart and a Pick 'n' Save, and those are our best options. Learning to live the tightwad lifestyle is a lot tougher when you're also taking care of two little balls of neediness and self-destructive impulse. Two years without a break from kids is taking its toll. I so very much wish I'd practiced a wiser way of living before they were born, but now I have to make do with the way life is.

When it was just me and The Guy, we could get by on cheap food, small extravagances, and carefree living. We were poor, but we didn't care. Everyone our age was poor. We unwisely chose to live without saving money. And then... BAM. We were expecting a baby and realized we had no savings for such a huge life commitment. Ever since, I've been scrambling to learn a more efficient way to live, slowly relearning my old ways of thinking.

---

I get a thrill every time I think of a new way to save money. As a way to motivate myself, I'm going to keep track of such things here. Let's hope this blog doesn't fizzle before it even starts. Here's what we're doing so far:

The Oil Cleansing Method for my face instead of expensive skin care that only aggravates my obnoxiously sensitive skin. My skin has never been clearer. I love it!

Vinegar in the rinse cycle and dryer balls in the dryer instead of fabric softener. Added bonus: my skin appreciates the clean, clean clothes free of extra gunk. We also use Charlie's Soap, which is slightly more expensive, but so very worth it.

I make the baby food instead of buying it in jars.

I make almost all of our food from scratch. We rarely go out to eat, however tempting it is sometimes after a day riddled with bad naps and more tantrums than usual.

We only drink milk and water. The Guy likes juice, but we don't buy it often.

I scour the weekly fliers for good deals and try to match them with coupons. At Pick 'n' Save, I do double coupon days. This has fallen by the wayside in the last month or so, however. We're getting ready to move halfway across the country, and fixing up the house has taken over almost all of my extra time and energy. That, and the baby is newly mobile and getting into EVERYTHING.

We bought a small chest freezer for a pittance a few months back. I've been stocking up on meat when it's on special and freezing half of large batches of freezable foods.

I've recently joined the Simple Living forum. I'm already picking up ideas for future use there. Most of them I can't apply now, but I'd like to start planning for it anyhow.

---

In order to get my brain started on the right track, I want to start doing one thing thing every day that saves money. Like going a full day without turning on any lights (maybe I'll do that tomorrow). In our current house, this is very possible; our entire downstairs is full of light, even on cloudy days. It won't so much be about the money I save by doing such tiny things as it is about molding my mind into a different way of thinking. I get such a rush out of the idea of saving extra money, but when it comes to actually doing it, I like my things and my comfort more than I really should.

---

Ideas in the works:

Use a cloth diaper on the toddler once or twice a day. This won't save a ton of money, but it will help the boxes of diapers stretch just a little bit longer. One day, I'd like to convert completely to cloth diapers, but that will have to wait until after the move, and possibly after the toddler is potty trained.

Get rid of one car. If we move close enough to The Guy's work, we can do this. We'll save about $200/month in gas, about $60/month in insurance, not to mention wear and tear on the vehicle.

Gardening. I'll have to figure out a way to do this with out extreme arachnophobia problems. But I do so love tomatoes, and supermarket tomatoes taste like cardboard. They're also overpriced.

Canning. This will have to wait a while. The equipment is expensive, and I can't imagine that learning how to do it and getting it done will be very easy with two little ones underfoot. I'm aiming for next summer/fall, but we'll see.

I love to write. And when I actually try, I'm pretty good at it. I'm trying to figure out my niche; that's the hard part. The market is flooded with funny mommybloggers (ugh; I hate that word). I'm lousy at fiction. I'm lousy at deadlines, and the surest way to turn off the funny is to put me under pressure. I need to figure out a way around that.

I don't really care how little money I make. Just a few dollars a week would make me feel better about life.

---

So, dear readers who don't yet exist, do you have any ideas? Are there good books out there that deal with this subject? Do you have little tricks you employ to save pennies here and there? What's your favorite way to make every dollar scream?