Grant me serenity...

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

I need to accept that things cannot always be the way I envision it. Life has a funny way of changing your plans for you. There is no way to truly tell if things could have or would have been different if you had chosen a different road.

In all honesty there cannot be good without the bad. The difference is how you choose to deal with the things that cannot be changed into your favor.

Job-
I cannot change the economy, or the lack of jobs in the field I chose to pursue.
I can change my out look, be patient, and grateful for the fact that I have a relative in the profession willing to help me out with what he can.
I can continue looking, and avoid discouragement by telling myself all good things come to those who wait.

Money-
I cannot change the fact that there will always be bills to pay, and that some months we will feel in over our heads.
I cannot change the fact that I need to be home with my child rather than working full time somewhere.
I can practice wise money management, and organize our lives.
I can choose to live simply, reduce unnecessary bills or costs.
I can plan how to use the resources we do have wisely.

Self-
I cannot change who I am as a person.
I can choose to be optimistic, caring, and encouraging.
I can lose this pregnancy weight and become healthier through clean eating.
I can make healthy meals for my family and feel like I am contributing.
I can make my environment more inviting by using my creativity.
I can focus on my blessings instead of my down falls.

There is so much more that I CAN do, than cannot do.

Shaking My Money Maker

source

As of right now I may have 3 hours a week plus one 4 hour Saturday a month, working at my Uncle's pediatric office starting in November. I worked about 7 hours last month, and I will have about 10 hours this month. Anything is welcomed that's for sure, but in order to get out of our financial rut, I need to get my butt into serious gear and find a hygiene job with more hours.

It's really hard right now. Lucas is officially a stage 5 cling on, the poor kid refuses to sleep in his crib anymore. So we are back to bed sharing. I'm not a fan since I loose out on space in our king sized bed. But I do love baby snuggles so I'll put up with it since sleep is something I choose not to live without.

Right now I'm working on a few random sources of income. Right now it's scarce but I haven't really put too much into working these sources yet.

My main squeeze has been Opinion Outpost. I've signed up at multiple sites for paid surveys and this one has been tried and true for me, other sites I haven't even accumulated one measly dollar. Here I've earned about $160 in about 3 months time. My payout method of choice is Amazon Gift Cards, and I've been accumulating money for Christmas gifts.

Speaking of Amazon... I've been looking into the Sell Your Stuff option, there is random stuff around here that I'm sure could find itself a new home since I'm not using it. I plan on searching through some of the boxes in my basement to see what I can unload. The fee is very minimal if you sell under 40 items a month, and I'm sure this will probably be a slow source of income for me, so I don't expect to sell too much.

My next venture will be Etsy, and creating my own shop. Right now I have about 11 babyland cloth dipes that failed miserably in my attempt to cloth diaper. The plan is to use fabric paint to make these dipes go from boring to fun, so I can sell them and maybe make back a little more than I paid for them.

Last but not least, I'm trying my hand out at being a virtual assistant on Odesk. Getting started on here is the hard part. Finding your first job when you have no reviews is a pain. I only just got my first mini job, and it's not paying much, but I hope the experience makes me more marketable.

There you have it! If I think of any more I'll update this.

I Should Be Thanking My Lucky Stars

Awkward and Awesome Thursday will be a short list, since the life of a stay at home mom can be uneventful...

Awkward:

• Lucas deciding to scream through most of Josh's cousin's wedding ceremony. It's a good thing he is darn cute, but that was pretty embarrassing.
• Being babyless for a good portion of the night, due to relatives stealing him for snuggles, sometimes I forget Lucas isn't an extension of my shoulder lol.
• My phone deciding it doesn't want to take pictures any more and restarting any time I try to.
• Finally getting half of the babyland cloth dipes in the mail, and realizing the fit is all wrong. Grrrr... now I'm going to have to figure out how to get rid of them since I ordered them from Hong Kong.

Awesome:

• Figuring out that Lucas loves Yo Gabba Gabba. He loves that show and it's stinkin cute to watch him.
• Getting an awesome deal on two cute outfits for chilly weather at Kohl's for Lucas.
• Losing a pound this week despite eating badly.
• Going through all Lucas's clothing and realizing how big he's gotten, I love seeing my baby grow.
  

Frugal Friday: Revamping My Grocery Bill

I am currently in love with the idea of frugal living. Especially with only one steady income and my rather scattered and scarce income, it's come to my attention that the way we spend money needs to change.

The first thing I looked at is what our biggest pitfall was. And that would be our grocery bill. Every week for two people I would brave the store with no list, no meal plan, and an empty stomach, and let my hunger to the shopping for me. I would leave the store with $130 worth of food, but not a single clue as to what my plans to do with it were (I mean, other than eat it of course!)

When you add the numbers up, $130 x 4weeks is a hella lot (a.k.a. $520- holy high heavens!) For two people that is seriously a sad sad number, and not to mention all the random runs for take out or fast food. What on earth was I spending all that $$ on? You would cry if you knew how much food got thrown out after spending all that money!

So I started a meal planning subscription to e-mealz, for essentially $5 a month (you have to buy 3 months up front), they send you a weekly meal plan of your choice (we picked the low fat Walmart meals for 2). On average for $45 a week you can make 5 meals with some leftovers for two people by following their meal plan. It went well the first week. I went over my budget by $0.15, and I was pretty proud of myself. However, I thought I could do a meal plan better myself the next week, well I left the store feeling like a sore loser, and went over budget by $20. But I like the meals I picked out to make better than the ones from e-mealz.

I started reading the blog Money Saving Mom, and she has a series on how to lower your grocery bill called 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget.

First she says to keep an open mind and change your attitude about budgeting your groceries. Which makes sense, if you keep acting all "I can't do it" then I guess there is no point to even trying.

Next is to see how much you are currently spending, and curtail it a little bit. She doesn't recommend going all out and cutting your spending by 50% (but I've managed to skip that part and go balls to the wall as they say). I think though that I will try and give myself more wiggle room so I don't leave the store a sore loser again over $20.

She also talks about menu planning, and different ways to come up with ideas every week. I really liked the idea of having a themed night for every week. I guess my biggest struggle point is coming up with lunches and dinners for myself. I am a vegetarian, I can't really afford to go vegan right now, but I'd like to in the future. However 75% of what I buy is just for Josh. Some days I find myself in a bind because I don't know what to make for myself.

She then says to use the envelope system to shop. This is the part that makes me nervous. Having cash on hand. Cash is unaccounted for in this household. Once it's out of the banks reach we don't track it or keep track of it. I guess this is something we need to work on, and not see it as fair game. She says if you just bring what you can spend in cash to do your grocery shopping you can't be tempted to buy other things not on your list unless you part with something that is.

Next there is the buy ahead principle. I get this but it's not often I see a good deal. I am going to try it this month with her shopping at more than one store idea. At some point I'm going to venture out and buy $25-30 worth of meat at Arnolds, which is a lot! And should last us the month. I'll then do some minimal prepping and freeze meal size portions into freezer bags, which will cut on cooking time too.

Then there is of course coupons! I have yet to learn how to make couponing work for me. I went out and got a little file organizer and stuffed my coupons that I've been clipping the past two weeks into it. Josh's mom does the sunday paper, so I've been lucky to get a few extra inserts that way, as well as printing coupons from coupons.com.

She also talks about playing the drugstore game. However I will save that for next Friday after I give it a go at it and report back how this weeks grocery shopping went as well!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

I figured I really enjoyed seeing this on a friend's blog so I'd venture to give it a whirl.

Awkward:

• Working at my Uncle's office again, this time as a hygienist. It's been so long since I used to just work there helping out after school.
• Having a young patient tell me that she wants to be a stay at home wife after I had asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Not only that but she was going to adopt because child birth is too painful and she would have maids to clean and cook for her.
• Finding random bits of prophy paste on me later that night.
• Having a sharp pain in my leg for some unknown reason, and having to walk funny because of it.
• Going to the big E and spending half of what we planned on spending there just to park and get in, and then walking around only to get bored and hot and leave much earlier than planned.
• Going over my grocery budget by $20 and feeling like a failure.
• Over drafting by $300 in our account... oops.
  

Awesome:

• Coming home after work to the biggest and cutest grin from Lucas.
• Baby snuggles, lots and lots of them.
• Getting a onesie in the mail from my secret santa that says "peace, love, and dental floss".
• Having my brother be able to come home more often now that he has his car back.
• Lucas is starting to say some words! Like "hi" and "love you".
• Possibly having one afternoon every week at my Uncle's office.
• Publishing my first mini e-book on kindle!
  
• Starting to blog again!

Right now I'm reading a how to: 31 days to a better grocery budget. I plan on writing about it and posting the link to the series for this weeks frugal Friday!