The beginning of frugality is a Dacyczyn

I have always leaned on the side of conservatism when it comes to money but it wasn't until I received a book entitled, The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyczyn that I was launched into a full blown obsession with the wonderful world of penny pinching.  As I have said in a previous post, my husband and I have begun our relationship while working in ministry and as far as I know we will continue in that lifestyle.  God has really blessed us with a fulfilling, meaningful life.  No really, I mean that.  But from a monetary standpoint our particular path in life is rather ... tight.  So, the question is how do I fulfill God's calling in my life and provide for my children?  The answer; Amy Dacyczen.  She is a woman who realized that the only way she can obtain the quintessential dream home, large family and rich life that she wanted she needed to reject the philosophy that the income needs to increase to make these things become a reality.  Rather, she suggests that the spending must decrease to gain financial liberty and a well-rounded life.  This is a simple truth, but isn't it rather a novel one? In a culture of debt and living outside of our means, the people have amassed so much debt with so little to show for it that we are drowning in our own greed.  The book itself is a compilation of years of newsletters created by Dacyczn and chocked full of amazingly simple ways to decrease spending.  But the premise of the book is waist not want not, every penny counts and a general rejection of over-consumption.  The book is comprised of Amy's own nuggets of wisdom as well as reader contributions with suggestions on how to decrease spending.  Now really, you need to take it with a grain of salt and use a filter when you read this book because everyone is different and all that.  For example, the washing my freezer bags and aluminum foil is a big money saver that I gleaned from the book but I am not going to use Crisco as lip gloss.  Helpful tips on how to avoid the flashy displays of overpriced food that grocery stores put in front of the aisles has really motivated me to speed past the siren's call of prepackaged food that looks like a deal but really is just a marketing ploy BUT I am probably never going to substitute dry milk powder for the real thing. 
So there you have it, one long unedited paragraph on one way to jump start your way into a more independent life.  Free from regretful impulse buys, free from too much stuff you really don't need, free from debt that ties you down, free to do the things you really want to do with your life.  This book is an awesome resource, an encyclopedia chocked full of wonderfully simple concepts that have made such a huge difference in my life.         

The Men in My Life

 These are the men in my life... I will call them Bo (on the far left), Mr. Man (middle) and Dragon (far right). 
Bo is my baby, he is four and likes to draw funny pictures of large bellied super heroes and mice with hats.  He is famous round these parts for his extreme cuteness and constant stream of oddly musical gas. He's pretty random too. Yesterday he, without warning, broke the silence in the car to say, "What if you barfed up a huuuuge 'samwich' and it was so big and had teeth and then ate some peoples ... that'd be bad." Mmmmk

Mr. Man is the man. He's pretty much the best and I have a big crush on him ... He and I have been married for seven years this Sunday. I am still pretty sure that he is the most deserving of the title MacGyver of any guy alive.  The man can fix anything. Unless it's the bathroom sink which he's "getting to".  He's an obsessor, one month he must have/make/research/constantly obsess over making the worlds heaviest amplifier container and the next month he's so onto guitar pedals.  I can't keep up. Where I am ordered and self-controlled he is impulsive and spontaneous (i.e. he's the fun one).  And he is hilarious too.

Then there's Dragon.  He's my fiery five year old.  He's been pretty miffed with me lately for not naming him Dragon so I figured a blog name is close enough.  This child is something else. The Psalmist wrote that he was fearfully and wonderfully made.  I'm pretty sure that there was allot of that when Israel was being knit together in my poor aching womb but I have to believe there may have been a bit of laughter and maybe a few, "what else can I add to humble this soon to be mother..."   

Put that all together and you have this amazingly strong willed little guy with a sensitive heart and a ready fist.  He's a pretty neat kid. He likes to think of himself as a ninja robot super villain with death ray eyeballs but then he will cuddle up on the couch with me and insist that I read to him from Little House on the Prairie for two solid hours. Go figure.

So these are my men.

Why me?

Well hey there! You have found yet another blogging mom ... So now that you are here you may as well snoop around and see what this computer illiterate housewife has concocted on this here blog.

A little about myself...

My husband thinks I'm odd (he's one to talk) and my kids think I'm pretty much the best thing ever (usually). I, like the countless other and more clever women who have endeavored a blog of their own, love to take pretty pictures, garden, spend time with my family, figure out how to make everything on my own, and am in the process of honing my tightwadery skills to become the next biggest cheapskate in town... 

My husband is a youth pastor (and a youth center leader and a substitute teacher) and we live in a gorgeous old apartment in a quirky little town with our two boys who are as energetic as the day is long. 

Why yet another blog you ask? Because my sister wants me to. Also because I figure that if I publicly create a blog with a goal in mind I may be more inclined to make that goal happen.

What goal? I'm so glad you asked... you did ask didn't you?  I have always dreamed of raising a big family on a big spread of land in an old farmhouse. Cliche, I know but there you have it. Chickens, barns, giant veggie gardens, you know the usual. In the here and now I am a stay at home home schooling (yeah I'm one of those people) mom and my husband is in the ministry. Calculator please? Ah yes, that adds up to exactly ... not allot of money.  Be that as it may I am determined to prove that low income families can make goals happen not by increasing their income but by decreasing the spending.  Income increase would be nice, don't get me wrong, but in the area I live in employment is desperately low and countless families feel trapped in their incomes because there is no way up the latter.  It's depression times again, folks, it's time to plant gardens, barter babysitting for haircuts, hang laundry out to dry, and regain our self-sufficiency.

So here goes ...