We're on a tight budget, like most people in America (and if you aren't, you should know that you are in the minority...and we are always accepting donations). We work full-time jobs, pay our bills on time, try to not spend our money on unnecessary stupid shit, and eat at home a lot. It's a good thing I love cooking, or we'd be screwed.
I came up with a few other great ideas for saving money:
1. Drive your therapist crazy enough that she moves out of state so you don't have therapy for a few weeks. That saves you money immediately.
2. Start brewing beer at home. Sure, you'll need to purchase the ingredients, a few items, and there will be experimentation with the first few batches, but in the long run we'll save money and enjoy some great home brews! I hope.
3. Start making hard cider at home. Sawyer is helping me with this. Something about how he wants to take a bottle of hard cider to each of his teachers at daycare. I told him usually it's an apple, and he is arguing that it should be multiple fermented apples for each of them. He might not have any of my genes, but he sure as hell as my ability to argue and make a good point.
Sawyer is helping me make hard cider!
4. Make bread at home. 'Nuf said.
5. Join a local CSA. This is good for a number of reasons: you get a chance to support a local farmer; you get fresh vegetables at a cheaper price then in the grocery store; you get to try some new vegetables and fruit (I had no idea there were that many different types of melons!); you are occasionally given caterpillars when you receive ears of corn that you can then add to your garden and they eat what few strawberries you had left; and you have the joy of weekly trying to figure out different dishes to include squash and eggplant in without your wife realizing it until after she has eaten the dish.
6. Try to convince your wife to drop the NFL network, but then realize that if she drops it she'll be very sad on Sundays, and it'll be my fault. So, let her keep the NFL network, and instead drink more tea--it's cheaper then coffee. Sure, I might be the cranky one on Sunday's, but I'm sure everyone is use to me being cranky.
7. Put Lincoln on a diet. FYI: he is NOT happy about this.
8. Dessert...yep, melons from the CSA box will be our dessert from here on out.
9. Put Sawyer on a 1,000kcal/day intake...oh wait, that would be poor parenting since he is growing CONSTANTLY. Never mind. I'll go on a 1,000kcal/day diet.
10. Try to reuse bags you already own for daycare, and then inform Blue Bag that he was fired and recycle two new bags from our drawers to use. If these two new bags (4-Pack and Polka) fail, then we have to actually spend money and purchase new bags. 😕 (Check out my Sent Home blog for clarification.)
11. Call the fertility doctor's office where you went for your wife's IVF and offer to sell them YOUR eggs (or sperm, if you're into that sorta thing).
I'm sure there are more ways that I will find for us to save money. I'll list those when they come to me.
Holy hell...I need a coffee.