This is me...

Well, I'm just a normal stay-at-home mom. We live paycheck to paycheck, get overdraft charges every once in a while (uhhhh, maybe a little more often than that), and pray that we make it until the direct deposit comes through. Let me be clear, we are not super irresponsible people. My husband is pretty tight when it comes to money. I LOVE to eat out and spend money on things that we do need, but we just don't need them right away.

Recently, it got pretty bad. We got our tax refund checks in and "caught up" on things we needed to buy. Needless to say, we blew through $2600.

Now, before you judge, please know that I am a person being honest to you so I can get better. I feel like if I put this out there and talk about my struggles to complete strangers, I will somehow be held accountable. These are not things that I easily admit, but I promise to be completely transparent and honest about these struggles.

Ok, now that's out of the way, I can get on with telling you my plan. I HATE stressing about debt. That is not how God has called me to live. God has called Christians to live within their means and be able to help others in need. Our family can't even feed ourselves some days, how are we going to be able to feed others??!!  This is where this blog comes in. I am tired of living this way and I'm determined to get out of debt, not live paycheck to paycheck, and get back my life.

Our family has decided to do the "cash only" plan. I am going to try and feed my family of 4 on $50 a week. I know this sounds CRAY, but I'm going to try. That is my goal. I'm going to treat it like a game. I am also not going to spend a crazy amount of time looking at sales, coupons, etc. I just don't have time for that. I home school my 2 boys and cook three meals for my family a day. I know this will be tough, but I'm hoping it's worth it. 

So, this is going to be a journey with ups and downs and twists and turns. I will probably fail some days and splurge on something stupid, but I'm asking your forgiveness now.

I would love some helpful tips on saving money. And again, please be kind.

Xandra