Frugal Living – Page 31 – Grocery Shrink

School Supplies and the budget Part 1

By Angela on July 29, 2013

I have 5 children going to school this fall. How can this be? Grant and I are going to have a wonderful time together just he and I. But we will be excited for the brothers and sisters coming home in the afternoon!

I miss homeschooling sometimes….the total influence I had on their lives. Always being together. I could decide what I wanted them to learn and make it happen. But sometimes my dreams and reality didn’t always mesh. Poop happened. Dirty dishes distracted me. The baby cried so loud we couldn’t hear each other and he refused to sleep. Every child sometimes said, “Mama, mama” at the same time and my head would pound. And when I was busy with one, another might sneak off in a quiet corner and read….and I might not miss him for awhile…because he was so quiet.

Homeschooling took all of me–my every minute. And I would sit and wonder what I could do with my business if I had a little more time. (Which is funny because now while I work on my business I sit and think about what it would be like to be with my children instead.) I was a public school teacher before children and could easily handle 25 kids in a classroom. When I taught school, there were no babies to poop and cry, no laundry to wash, someone else cooked our food, and cleaned up. All I had to do was focus on those kids. But still, if the time was right, I’d homeschool again.

Dollar Tree baskets hold each child’s school supplies off the floor in my office until the first day of school. Somehow it looks messier in this photo than it feels in real life. The shelves will be getting some TLC while the kids are at school.

While somehow they got a great education at home, they are getting a great education at our little private school too. They enjoy seeing friends and doing messy projects (that I never managed to fit in.) I love that they are memorizing scriptures and having prayer service together. And I love teaching High School choir there….LOVE. IT. I love the friendlier relationship I have with my kiddoes now that I’m not the one assigning the work. So this time of year comes a little bittersweet for me. It’s a chapter in my life I never saw us living…but the living is good.

Anyhoo, We purchased most of our school supplies this week. And for 5 children that added up to over $100!!!!! That was without the backpack or art smock for our kindergartener or the 12 pairs of shoes we need. Yep you read that right, 12 pairs—gulp! Or the complete set of scriptures for my 2nd grader….not sure how we are going to do that, but God always provides.

We somehow missed budgeting for school supplies…..??? Um, they come every year. So I think I may dust off my sewing machine and use up some stash to fill our needs.

Check out this adorable back pack:

Source: From pinterest–cites Made-By-Rae but link is broken.

This next backpack has a complete tutorial. I’ll leave off the front pocket since Brandon just needs to carry a folder and his lunch and then add the spikes form the photo above. I love her method for the straps:

Source: http://uniquety.blogspot.ca/search?q=back+pack

And this art smock

Tutorial: http://creatingbycami.blogspot.com/search/label/Art%20Smock%20Tutorial

And thinking ahead to cooler weather, I love these mittens:

Tutorial here: http://mmezsazsa.blogspot.com/2010/02/celebrate-dino-mittens_27.html

They look so easy to make. I might add a ribbing cuff to keep them on better. Wouldn’t they look darling with a dino backpack?

Big Question

By Angela on June 18, 2013

I’m posting every day over at my other blog Centsably Fit and have a yummy healthy waffle recipe over there:

Your plate will look like this:

Please don’t look too hard at the paper plate. I know it’s not frugal at all, but sometimes being sane is the most frugal thing, lol. Hospital bills are crazy expensive….ok, so enough excuses….

Our remodel project is on schedule. Wahoo! The plumber came yesterday and the electrician is due later this week. I still have some wallpaper and ceilings to scrape down, but there will be plenty of time for that later.

Anyhoo, I have pictures and stuff to show you another day, but for now here’s a burning question:

In the comments below tell me one thing you have been doing without for frugality sake and how you have coped. Have you decided to do without forever or is there a date on the horizon when you will have it again?

Small homes can be Beautiful too

By Angela on May 31, 2013

Please read all the way to the end to see how to vote for Carmella in the Small Cool Contest. There aren’t very many families in the running with 3 boys! I’d love to see her win.

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I’m so excited about this post! I get to introduce you to my friend Carmella. I thought I was queen of crazy when it came to drastic moves to get out of debt, but Carmella is a notch above. She took her family (husband and 3 sons), sold it all and built the best house they could debt free. That turned out to be a 665 square foot cabin!

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Not only is she amazing, but her prose is poetry and her poetry is so beautiful it has flavor. Everything Carmella touches is beautiful, but not extravagant. This is one blog post you’ll want to grab a cup of tea for and absorb every word:

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Q. Carmella, Your home is amazing and I can’t wait for my readers to meet you. But even more inspiring than your home is the story behind your choice to build it. Will you introduce yourself and your family and the reason why you decided to live in 665 square feet?

A. We are just us, a husband and wife, with an assortment of boys (9, 11, & 13), living our days in the largeness of small at the foothills of Wyoming’s mountains.

We didn’t set out to live this small, unusual way. We set out for steady jobs and progressive careers, for even keel and sound decisions, for work hard and buy a good house. We set out for normal. Our life wasn’t frivolous or fancy or over-the-top; it was normal and mortgage notes and furniture and fun, that’s how you work this American Dream. But then the keel went akimbo, the market crashed, the steady jobs weren’t, and suddenly, shockingly, our normal was not, and nearly everything worth anything was totally gone.

Stricken and vacant, we wondered how, and we wondered when, and we wondered where we could go from here.

Then, right there in the middle of the mess of it all, a new inclination appeared, training our vision toward a different view. Simplicity called.

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Instead of another house and a mortgage and a saddle of debt, the idea of a cabin settled itself into our sights. A cabin that we could live in and pay for now, that would become the guest house further on. With cautious excitement, we began to explore this big idea of small.

Six hundred sixty-five square feet small.

It wasn’t a magic amount, plucked from thin air. The size of the cabin encompassed a comfortable minimum of space for our family of five. Small was the goal; cramped and tiny were not.

We considered how we lived, what we loved, and what we’d need to get along, and I began to sketch: a kitchen here, bookcases there, a sofa tucked below this window, a dining nook below that one; a bathroom for five, a master bedroom for two, and a ship’s ladder stair to lead three to the loft. After a man who builds worked our vision into an unfinished shell, we took over from there. In each month of these past twelve, we brought this cabin closer to done, closer to home. And here we are now, living in what was only a vision just a short time ago.

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Q. Who made the initial decision to build a tiny house and how did the rest of the family react?

A. I guess you could say that, even though we considered other options, the idea of designing and building a little house had a very strong pull for me. I’ve always had an affinity for small. There’s something about the feeling of enclosure that cradles the soul. There’s also something personally appealing to me about the challenge of making a small space work comfortably. This natural leaning toward small, along with my interior design and architecture inclination has lead me to be an informal student of small space design for a long time now. The more my husband and I considered and explored the idea, the more we knew this was something we could fully embrace, and when we presented it to the boys, explaining the goals in front of it and the reasons behind, they were fully on board. The idea of living in a little wooden house? Totally cool.

Q. What are the hardest things you let go in preparation to move into a tiny house?

A. This change truly felt like walking from bondage into freedom for us. When we considered the magnitude of stress that we had endured over a seven year period, it wasn’t hard to leave hell behind. We had gained a new understanding that, comparatively, there were only a few things that were truly important to us, and the rest was just hollow stuff. Neither of us can remember anything that was hard to let go of.

Q. What did you think about that made this decision an adventure instead of a punishment?

A. This decision was an adventure. A life-filled adventure. Punishment is what we left behind.

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Q. Looking back is there anything you would do differently? What financial advice would you give to a young family just starting out?

A. Honestly, if I could advise our newly-wed selves, I would say to begin where we are now. I would say that, certainly, this living with less is not a perfect prescription for all of humanity, but I would offer a counterpoint to the widely-seeded assumption that more is better, that bigger is best, and that life is all about striving to attain some lofty material goal which could, in the end, be more empty than full.

Q. What influences and elements form your design style?

A. My design style is informed by a serene palette and natural elements. I respond to things that are time-worn and story-bound. I’m drawn to the interplay between the rugged and the refined. I admire the timeless quality of good design and careful craftsmanship, and I don’t believe any of this has to cost a fortune. Constantly reading and learning, I am a perpetual student of design, gleaning from the greats who have laid down their talent in photos and words.

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Q. What is your money saving advice in furnishing a home?

A. If you train your eye in good design, you’ll soon begin to recognize it – in furniture, in art, in accessories, in architecture – and you’ll be able to find treasures in places other than glossy catalog pages or fancy showrooms. When you walk through a thrift shop or visit a flea market, you will be able to spot the good stuff and skim over the bad. The sofa in our home was a $50 thrift store find. An exchange of euro pillows for the existing back cushions, and a slipcover made from painter’s drop cloths turned an ugly blue couch into something that’s both fresh and timeless.

And from Carmella:

Friends, I’ve got some very exciting news!! Our little home has made it into Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool contest!

This means that we need your vote to get to the finals (my, my, there’s some great competition this year)!

If you’d like to cast your vote our way, you may go to our entry here and click on the red heart. If you’d like to give us even more of a boost, you can retweet this post, feature it, facebook it, hold a banner on a street corner, shout it from your rooftop, whatever. The polls will remain open until May 31.

You can also read more of Carmella’s beautiful writing on her blog.

Faux Leather Floor Update

By Angela on May 17, 2013

I’ve done several faux leather floors (aka paper bag floor) and some definitely worked better than others.

The paper floor on my dining room looked amazing when I first got it done, and was a huge improvement over the vinyl:

Here's a current view of our dining room window. (The only part of this remodel that makes me sad is I just painted this room and added molding. This was before we knew that tearing down walls was possible.

Unfortunately the floor didn’t hold up as well installed over the vinyl as it did installed over wood subfloor (particle board). I’ll elaborate on why in a minute.

Here’s a better picture of another floor I’ve done in a red Mahogany Stain:

For my previous post with detailed instructions on how to lay an inexpensive paper floor see here:

http://groceryshrink.com/2010/05/illustrated-guide-to-faux-leather-floors.html

The floor is moppable and holds up well when installed over a hard surface like subfloor plywood or particle board. (I haven’t tried it over concrete but have heard that others had good success with that.) For areas that will get wet, seal the edges with quarteround and caulk and be sure you have at least 5 coats of floor strength poly on the floor.

Back to why my dining floor was a fail:

The vinyl under the dining room was super cushy and not in good shape–with divets in the surface and air pockets underneath. The elmer’s glue didn’t stick to the floor after it dried creating a floating floor effect. The paper did stick to itself and once sealed with poly I had an awesome flooring sheet that was shaped perfectly to the room. But I could have gently rolled it up and carried it right out :).

This wouldn’t have been a problem if I had sealed the doorways and edges with caulk, or trim or something. I was lazy and knew it would be temporary so I left it. When a breeze went through the room it would lift up the floor which would flap around then lay back down, lol. This can be hard on wear and tear especially when the back side of the floor is still just paper.

Also my chairs had metal feet on the bottom (under the wood legs.) I didn’t cover them with felt or anything and they tore holes in the floor pretty quickly. The furniture that was covered or didn’t move much (like the rubberized feet of my big round table) didn’t damage the floor at all.

Another mistake I made was to just end the floor across the entrances to the next rooms without threshold or anything to tie it down. I had planned on adding on within a few days to those areas and eradicating all traces of vinyl, but it never happened. The kids would catch the edges of the paper floor with their feet and tear up sections (you can see this really well in the after picture at the doorway to the kitchen.)

I still recommend the floor wholeheartedly for small areas that will go directly on wood subfloor. Larger areas take a lot longer to lay but can still be beautiful and work out well if you are sure to protect the floor from rough furniture, and have every edge covered and sealed.

Hope that helps anyone considering this inexpensive flooring option. We’ve recently been pricing tile and hardwood to make a more permanent floor for our remodel and can really appreciate how affordable a Faux Leather floor is!

3: Quart Jar Spice Mixes

By Angela on May 2, 2013

Update: For even more mix recipes check out my new post here.

I’ve been out of town and there’s so much to catch up about. But first I’d like to give you a post that’s actually useful :).

Our large family uses a lot of spice mixes especially ranch dressing mix; taco seasoning; and onion soup mix. I’ve never purchased a packet of seasoning from the store–it’s too expensive for my sensitivities :). But I have gotten tired of running out of seasoning and having to make it on the fly. Life is much easier since I’ve put together a whole quart of stuff at a time.

Thrift Store Finds

By Angela on April 2, 2013

I took a short break one day last week and ran to the thrift store by my home. I took with me a trash bag of donations. There wasn’t a lot–a king duvet cover; a nice woman’s shirt that was too small; a curtain rod and a pillow. They gave me a 30% off your entire purchase coupon to use that day and a 20% off coupon for another time. Woo Hoo!

I was looking for a new purse in a spring color. A pair of jeans that didn’t scream, “I’m a mom of 6.” And anything I might be able to wear for Easter–also Easter things for Heidi.

I found:

A tankini top that fit wonderfully. It was $2.99 regular priced. I have a whole bolt of black swimsuit fabric that I got at a garage sale that is begging to become matching bottoms.

A bag of plastic fruit. This is the realistic kind that mature ladies use in bowls on their counters–not really meant for toys. But I bought it for toys since it looks so real :). Regular price $1.99.

This one is hard to show without modeling, but it’s an amazing tank top with a draped neck and ruching and studs on one shoulder. It still had the brand new tags on it. Regularly $7.99.

I found both these bags. One will be the perfect spring purse ($4.99) and the other holds my scriptures for church ($1.99). So fun that they are the same color but one is printed. I haven’t had a new scripture bag since I was 12. Turns out they also match my diaper bag–it was meant to be.

Then I found this adorable top that will be perfect for work. $7.99–seems brand new.

And not sure what happened to the picture, but I also found a pair of jeans (Maurices) in low rise boot cut ($7.99). It’s hard for me to wear skinny jeans when boot cut does such amazing things for my figure. But I did get a lighter wash this time (mainly because it was my only choice, lol.) But it does look nice and Springy–although the darker wash was more slimming.

I did search for Heidi but came up dry. She’s a hard one to buy for. I found her Easter dress at Target (see previous post for pictures :).)

Easter Sunday

By Angela on March 31, 2013

I’m not very good at taking pictures and don’t have a shot of their Easter baskets. I bought plastic bucket style baskets at Walmart for $.97 each. They look just like ice cream tubs but say Happy Easter and have spring things on them. I intended to sew covers for ice cream tubs I already had on hand, but I decided it was better to be cheerful and sane and have dinner on the table. (My 10 year younger self would have made a different choice, lol.)

The tubs were all the same so I bought a different color of plastic grass for each one. They will turn these items in in the morning and I will stack everything into my spring bin for next year so I don’t have to spend the money on it again.

Heather Easter 2013

I filled their tubs with: silly string; bubbles; assorted chocolates from Dollar tree; Easter theme pencils; matchbox cars for the boys; and hair stuff for the girls. They had choir practice early this morning so instead of hiding them, I stuck them right in front of their faces so when they woke up it was the first thing they saw. It was very effective–almost more fun than a hunt.

Heather and Heidi Easter 2013

The Easter photos are on the porch at Mom’s house. Heather’s dress came from Costco ($16.99) and Heidi’s came from Target ($20.00 on sale.) We also bought Heidi a skinny belt to got with the dress and she wore her shoes from last year. We would have all been happier if Heidi’s dress was about 3 inches longer. Hello, Designers. Are you listening? It was 3 inches longer than the other dresses being shown.

Angela and Darren

I wore a skirt I ordered from Kohl’s when they had 20% off their sale prices plus free shipping. If I had shopped for it in store I wouldn’t have purchased it because the fabric is so thin that it shows every lump. I had to iron my slip because the wrinkles from being in my drawer showed through! I love the stripes though.

The tank has lace at the top and bottom and was from my maternity pile (though I don’t think it is a maternity tank.) The sweater came from Target last week ($15 on sale.) And the shoes I’ve had for years but rarely wear them since they are linen and I’m afraid to get them dirty. I wore these footbed sock liners with them instead of hose and they were very comfortable all day and not at all sweaty.

Heidi and Heather

It’s hard to see but I found a huge coral stone necklace at Forever 21 that was the inspiration behind the sweater and them some white stone earrings in a similar style at Target. Anyway, this is probably the most I’ve purchased for Easter–we usually sew and don’t go for jewelry much, but it was a nice change of pace this year.

Grant Hunting Eggs

The boys weren’t into dressing up and since I’ll being buying Brandon (5) a black suit in June to be a ring bearer, we held off on the new stuff right now.

We had a lovely service at church with the children’s choir and adult choir providing ministry. Darren was an advanced greeter (code name for the security team) so spent the service standing outside wearing an ear wig to make sure that everyone inside was safe. That left me juggling the children and I’m glad I sat in front of my brother who could grab Brandon by the neck when he got squirrely after I left to take Grant out.

Dub and Grant

After that we headed to my mom’s with my brother and his family for a roasted chicken dinner with scalloped potatoes; homemade rolls; fruit salad; lettuce salad; cheesy broccoli; green beans; and 3 kinds of dessert. Plus all the chocolate candy we could want. And I didn’t cook any of it, although I did set the table with my Sister in law’s help. (Does that count for anything to keep me from total slacker status?)

It rained a lot yesterday, so Mom planned an indoor egg hunt. Each child had a unique color egg to hunt for. That way we could hide the eggs simply for Grant and super challenging for Heidi.

Heather

After the egg hunt we sat around in the living room and took turns talking and napping until the evening was well on. The children spent the entire time playing out in the yard leaving the house quiet and perfect for adult conversation. Interesting that not one of them came in muddy after all the fuss of having an indoor egg hunt, lol.

Happy Easter to you and your Family.

Jesus is Alive and is preparing a place for you and me, our loving advocate with the Father who has won the victory!

Bountiful String Quartet Winner and Sponsor Love

By Angela on March 20, 2013

We have a winner! Chosen completely randomly by rafflecopter, Heidi Wiskur won a digital copy of Bountiful String Quartet‘s New CD. I know she will enjoy that!

We are swamped with schoolwork at the Grocery Shrink house. And I’m having too good a time cleaning, doing laundry, and catching up on my mending basket to blog. Oooooh, and I got a new laptop! Darren accidentally dropped my old one and while we got it to come back on, it wasn’t working quite right. He came home with a mac instead. It’s quite an adjustment but I’m already in love. I told him, “once you go mac, you’ll never go back, lol.” Now I’m trying to figure out how to buy him one too. But until then I’m figuring out how to use this thing :).

I’d also like to give a shout out to my Sponsor’s:

First is Sandi Sullivan at MomCEO.com If you are looking a way to earn money from home while using natural cleaning, beauty, and nutrition products, you should see what she has to offer!

Next up is Your Jamberry Nails Consultant, Heidi Perkins. She can hook you up with fashionable and long lasting nail decals. I tried them out personally at Christmas time and loved them. The company has since improved them to make them even easier to apply! And the designs are buy 3 get 1 free. Think how popular you would be at the next slumber party!

Of course, there’s our favorite personal trainer, Holly Rigsby from Fit Yummy Mummy. Holly’s program is designed especially for the busy mother who’s willing to trade in hours of cardio for 90 minutes of her specially designed workouts a week. I took the plunge 18 months ago and will never look back! Goodbye belly. Hello muscle. I write more details about my Fit Yummy Mummy journey over at my second blog: Centsablyfit.com

If you are a beginner and want to bake light, tender 100% whole wheat loaves of bread. Then Breadclass.com is the place for you. Lori Viets will teach you in her easy video lessons how to save money and bake your family delicious and healthy bread.

Don’t forget about Grocery Shrink Plus. Where members download weekly meal plans that include 7 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks; gluten free and dairy free modifications. Helps for the Fit Mama; a shopping list; a meal plan at a glance and an action plan at a glance. You won’t believe your eyes when you see how affordable it is!

And then there’s Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a search engine similar to Google, except they pay you in swag bucks for using it. You can trade your bucks in for gift certificates to places like Amazon and Target. There’s no adware and they don’t sell your email address either. It’s the real deal.

Then there’s Zulily. Zulily is a bulk buying coop for baby, maternity, lady and kids stuff. Since it’s a limited time bulk deal, they can offer reduced prices. Just recently I bought 2 spring jackets for $15 each and a stretched canvas wall art for Heather’s room remodel. I’m just in the planning and gathering stage for this so far :).

One King’s Lane is like the zulily for home decor. I haven’t actually ordered from them yet, but I love to get their emails and look for ideas.

Scouting Out Spring Styles

By Angela on March 11, 2013

We still haven’t purchased any of our spring clothes, but I’ve been searching the web for things we like. I’ve noticed some definite trends in what is showing–not sure how I feel about things yet. The hi-low skirt idea was ruined on me in High School when my best friend’s dad named them the saggy diaper dresses, lol. It seems like we’re seeing a lot of early 90’s styles resurface this spring. The nice thing about recycling 90’s trends, is there is bound to be treasures to find at thrift stores :).

I’ll be honest, I’m living in yoga pants and t-shirts right now. I’m focusing super hard on fitness and not many of my real clothes fit. I’ve been trying to get back into them for 2 years and had them for many years before that–so I’m tempted to just chuck them all (garage sale and donate for coupons to use at the thrift store) and reward myself with a new wardrobe when I reach my goals. All of that will be done frugally of course. I’ll recycle the money I earn by selling the clothes and sew what I can too. Here are some of the trends I’m seeing this spring:

1. Hi-Low Skirts: High in Front and Low in Back.

Source: anthropologie.com via Angela on Pinterest

Source: shopruche.com via Angela on Pinterest

2. Peplums (also last considered fashionable in the early 90’s…)

Source: anthropologie.com via Angela on Pinterest

Source: shopruche.com via Angela on Pinterest

3. Narrow Elastic Waists either worn plain or with a fabric or thin leather belt. (My grandmother had a closet full of these….I’ll have to regroup my thinking on them if I’m going to wear one, lol.) But they look comfy, reasonably flattering and a BREEZE to sew.

Source: shopruche.com via Angela on Pinterest

4. Cute Ballet Flats in bright colors:

Source: target.com via Angela on Pinterest

These are best worn sockless. Payless carries little footlet socks that aren’t supposed to show in shoes like these. Our experience is that they do show AND they tend to come off the foot as we walk. Pretty annoying little things. I recently purchased washable terry cloth food bed liners instead (from Amazon.) I’ll let you know how they work.

It looks like Maxi skirts/dresses are back again, as is navy and white stripe or chevron prints. Mint, turquoise, coral; and watercolor florals are everywhere too.

With jewelry anything goes. Chunky or slim, bright colors are in (even chartreuse and bright bold yellow). And gold is back in a big way.

Most of the cute dresses I found were in a super mini length (33″). This would cause an awkward moment if a spring breeze came up. They remind me of the length of dress Shirley temple used to wear when she was 6–with the ruffled panties underneath. It just doesn’t have the same charm on a grown woman. Fortunately, another popular length is the midi dress which is between 36-37 inches and hits most ladies near the knee.

I also saw a lot of jewel necklines which are rarely flattering on anyone. And fit and flare styles that could be a lot of fun for girl’s with narrow waists and wide hips that would melt away under fluffy skirts.

Have you seen trends I didn’t find? What’s your favorite spring look?

Meet Work at Home Mom, Lori Taylor

By Angela on March 7, 2013

MomCeo has been our longest and most loyal sponsor of the GroceryShrink blog. Many readers here have started their own home based businesses with her support. One of these mom’s is Lori Taylor. Come on in and meet her below: Dec 2011 133

My name is Lori Taylor. I’m 42 and headed into my 20th year of marriage. The funny thing is,I still feel 30 and most days my husband still amazes me like he did way back when. I think a big part of staying young is children and we have 4 of them. Seeing the world through their eyes is always an adventure.

Hannah our oldest is 16 and then there is Perry Austin who is 15. So this past year we have been working on driving. I can laugh or yell. Most of the time I laugh.

Then we have Laney who is 10. She is our quiet, analytical kiddo that we all want to be like. When she was born we called her the grand baby because she was so easy and still is. Since Laney was so easy we figured we had the parenting thing figured out and went for number 4. We found out quickly it was not our parenting.

Ella our 7 year old is wide open. Everything in life is an adventure and she has us all running to keep up with her.

Before I began working part-time from home I home-schooled our children for 10 years and before that I was an elementary teacher for 10 years. In November of 2011, I found out about MOMCEO from my friend Danielle Ray. At the time I was homeschooling two of our children, plus chauffeuring children to baseball, football and cheer practice. I was very busy, just like everyone, but busy is also a matter of perspective. My friends, Danielle and Brandie McNeal, introduced me to MOMCEO and Sandi Sullivan. At the end of October I met Sandi and realized what she was doing made complete sense. I can remember lying in bed one night and being more afraid of not making the most of the opportunity and teaming up with Sandi and my friends than I was of doing it. My husband, Perry, told me to try if for three months and see what happens.
I had no idea what 2012 would hold for our family nor what my home-based business would come to mean to us financially. In January we hit a major financial snag in our traditional business. It took a huge financial and emotional toil on our family. While my husband battled that, I continued to consistently work my part-time business. Soon I had others that wanted to team up with me. I saw that others had needs greater than mine and my part-time business quickly became about others and not about me. So through 2012, my part-time business paid our bills, kept us from dipping into our savings, kept us from all credit card debt, and allowed us to continue our tithe as a testimony to God’s faithfulness. On top of that, our efforts have blessed others. It truly amazes me how God used us in our need to help others.

Our children have been challenged this year. Being a stay at home mom allowed me to be available to them and to accommodate them and all of their activities. This year they had to pull together to help both me and their dad. They learned that life was not all about them. We started putting monthly goals on the refrigerator and they began to help me with meeting those goals. They give me names of their friends parents and tell me to call them. “Mom, you need to call Anslee’s mom. She is working three jobs now and she needs to do what you are doing. You can help her.”

So, knowing what I know now, what advice would I give someone considering starting a home based business? First of all, know why you would want to do it. It has to be more than just money.

Second consider the timing. I’m not talking about hours in your day. A major life change could be a reason to begin a home-based business or it could make a great opportunity a flop. Thirdly, know and evaluate your business…does it make sense, what does it require financially and timewise. Is it backed by a reputable company. Is it financially sound? And I guess last, will it make a difference to others and do you believe in what you are doing?

With the company I work with I have no doubt that what I am offering to others is the best and nothing compares. I have great confidence in what I am doing and I believe others can do the same.