Change is not always a bad thing.

The pastor at our church that Vince and I go to had a really good sermon on Sunday morning.  What I got to hear of it anyway. My three year old was being a butt for some reason this week. What I did get out of it though was you should love God more then material things and not always have to have the best in life. Go with what you got and make it work, because when you are gone all that does not matter anyway. Another term I guess you hear most people say is do not try and keep up with what everyone else has. One of the many reasons I love Vince so much is because over time he has shown me just this and when I heard the sermon yesterday it really made me think about some things. So, as most of you that follow my blog know, we are expecting baby number 2 any day now and with that comes more money and needing to cut back on some things to be able to put a little away. So here is some things we came up with and while it is not alot it is enough to give us more money in our pockets.

Groceries- We shop at Aldi's for the basic things we use all the time (milk, bread, cereal, etc.) We save quite a bit by doing that. We always buy at least 6 to 10 gallons of milk at a time, poor some milk out and freeze it. We thaw the milk when we need it and it tastes just the same. Same goes with bread and cereal. We freeze both of those also so they do not go bad.  We were very lucky when we bought our house that it came with an old deep freezer in the basement that works like a charm so we can do this. Other then then that I plan each weeks meals that way I know what we are having and I do not have to pull my hair out trying to figure it out and spend extra money on useless stuff. I incorporate the ingredients I have from home already and this also saves alot of money along with NO eating out. Vince and I have finally got it down to eating out maybe once on the weekend and this also saves alot of money.

Television- Thankfully we have finally got rid of cable!!!! I am so excited. The 25.00 we paid each month is not worth the channels we got at all. Vince called this weekend to see when our contract was up and luckily it ended Saturday. Whoo Hoo!! So we have a router that we just got this weekend and decided to sign up for Netflix. Now we get so much more and we stream video through the router. We have not decided if we want to sign up for the mail DVDs, but we have a month free to figure it out. The best part it is only 8 dollars a month. Which may not seem like such a big save but like Vince has taught me when you look at how much you save in a year it is. Plus Vince is going to get the antenna on the house working hopefully this weekend so we get regular channels though that. My family is not huge television people anyway so this works for us. We would much rather go and do something then loaf in front of the television and waste our time. That is just us though. Every now and then we have a lazy day but not to often.

Car and House Repairs- For the most part Vince does both of these which saves us a ton on labor. There has been a couple of times when we have had to have someone else do a repair for us but not to often. As far as updating things in our house we pretty much like our house the way it is. The bathroom could use it but we do not have to do it and can use what we have so we deal with it. Alot of people cannot believe we have a tub and no shower, but it works and that's all that matters.

Cloths and Shoes-We do as much goodwill as we can and second hand shops. Especially for the kiddos. I figure they are going to just get it dirty anyway and be rough in it so why spend the money on new items. I have found some pretty cute things at goodwill to and yard sales from anywhere from .50 to 2.00.  Toys we try and do the same thing on. Wyatt does get new ones from Walmart every now and then but we try and buy the ones with no batteries (if possible).  He gets toys on special occasions such as Christmas or when he helps so much around the house.

These are just a few things we have done and started to do to cut back on expenses and save a little cash.  Trust me it has helped. Luckily in December I will be getting rid of Verizon and going with Consumer Cellular which will also help out with money and we are looking into some other things as well. The point of this post is to maybe give you out there in blog land some ideas and to say, try and be happy with what you got and make it work to save some money.  I love the fact that I do not own a blackberry, Ipad and any other of that  fancy stuff. Do not get me wrong if someone got it for me as a gift I would love that but I do not need it and can do without it. By cutting back and being content with what we have it makes Vince and I be able to afford when the boys want to play sports or when we want to do something as a family. I am happy our pastor gave the sermon he did cause we all get frustrated with wanting more and not having the cash to do it but he made me think and realize I do not need that stuff to be happy, what I have works and allows me to spend more time and do more things with my family and keep my heart true with God and not material things in life.