Taking the time: Our Frugal Challenge Update

Nineteen days into the challenge. Seems like it's been a full month already! We've surpassed the naive initial budget I had set, but when we continue this challenge next month (yep, we are doing this again in August)  we know our needs better and can make a realistic budget that won't break the bank!

The biggest eye opener so far has been that being a good steward means taking the time. No matter what we do, there will always be 24 hours in the day, the quality of the time spent is the key! I used to think that going out to eat or ordering in saved us time and let us get to more important things quicker. What was so important? Sitting our butts on the couch watching "our" TV shows everyday! How sad. Today one of the important things is deciding when we are going to start cooking dinner and what is on the menu. I still don't have a good grip on menu creating but I'll get there.

The past 18 days we have missed many of our shows on TV, but we've spent more quality time together even if it was while drying the dishes, hanging the clothes on the line, or having a toy instrument parade through the house.

Some goals for the next couple weeks:

• Keep stockpiling coupons and getting awesome deals on necessities
• Use the dryer no more than 2 times
• Freeze our debit cards so we can't use them last minute-which we've done a few times so far
• Look into our cell phone and cable/Internet plans so we can lower those bills.
• Drink more coffee and eat less sweets! Being in the kitchen more has made access to sweets too easy!