Comments on: This month has been a frugal flop!

By: October - The Final Numbers and a Public Declaration | beingfrugal.net

October - The Final Numbers and a Public Declaration | beingfrugal.net — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:55:18 +0000

[...] my goal for the Reduce a Bill Challenge was to reduce the grocery bill (more on that tomorrow). I stopped tracking my spending mid-month. Yeah, it’s been a rough [...]

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:04:01 +0000

@danielle – “If you are in a financial bind, it does matter to an extent if the work you do is paid or not.” You are absolutely right on that point, and I do appreciate your concern. :)

By: danielle

danielle — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:19:21 +0000

Ann- I do not think that she “isn’t working”. I was trying to help her financial situation, not unjustify that being at home is work. If you are in a financial bind, it does matter to an extent if the work you do is paid or not.

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:50:56 +0000

@Ann, Flylady WOULD be proud! And thank you for your encouragement! I’m a perfectionist too, but I can tell you at almost 10 pm, I’m not noticing grammar mistakes. I’m probably making a lot of them as I’m working my way through my blog visits tonight. :)

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:16:07 +0000

My perfectionist self is cringing at all of the grammar and punctuation errors in my previous post…but I will resist the urge to correct them. Flylady would be proud! :)

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:11:51 +0000

@Danielle-you bring up a lot of very good points regarding childcare and investigating ways to pay for others to care for our children while we eek out a paycheck. Like they adage goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way! However, just because Lynnae isn’t out of the house earning an income doesn’t mean she isn’t working. Sounds like she has plenty of work to do at home, income producing or not.
@Lynnae-Flylady rocks! My whole life would be CHAOS without her gracious approach to life/home management…I love how she joins us SHE’s in accomplishing what we’ve set out to do, never haveing a air of authority, but more like “I’ve been where you are”. One of her favorite sayings “you are never behind, just jump in where you are!” motivates me to keep pressing on!

Sounds like you and your husband have been very thoughtful and creative in looking at work/home/family in all different angles with the long term vision you have for your family. As far as “contributing”…just because you don’t have a paycheck direct deposited into the checking account biweekly doesn’t mean you aren’t “contributing.” There is way more that goes into “managing a home” than feeding and clothing everybody. Just keep your eyes on the goal(Phil 3:12-21), press on to what you know you’ve been called to do!

By: Updates, updates, and more updates! | beingfrugal.net

Updates, updates, and more updates! | beingfrugal.net — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:06:10 +0000

[...] the checkbook this morning. It turns out I’m pretty good at doing math in my head. After not writing things down all month, I found that we came close to being within our budget anyway. We went over in [...]

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:44:28 +0000

@NKUWTJ (like the abbreviation? :)) – thanks! I haven’t gone back and read in a while, and that was one of my purposes in starting this blog. I think I will take your advice.

@Danielle – I see where you’re coming from. When my husband is working, we generally make a few thousand a year over the point where we’d see any form of assistance. If I added to that with any sort of income, we’d definitely be way over.

And I don’t want to give the impression that I only try to get by on my frugality. I’m pretty resourceful in bringing in a small income that doesn’t require childcare. In the past I’ve done a fair amount of selling on ebay, I do OK with blogging, and take on odd jobs here and there. So it’s not like I’m not contributing at all. And while my husband is trying to get his copywriting business off the ground, I’m doing a lot of work to help him out.

Definitely if my husband’s unemployment lasts a great length of time, we’re going to have to consider all options, including me going to work. We’re not at that point yet, and I doubt we’ll get there. My husband has a lot of sales experience, and I’m sure he’ll be employed again soon. Salespeople are always in demand.

By: danielle

danielle — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:08:05 +0000

In your story, you state that your son was born in 2002. That would put him at 5 years old. I was just doing the math.
Several of the parents at my daughter’s daycare make minimum wage, and therefore qualify for grants from the childcare licensing agencies. Here, it’s called Neighborhood Centers, Inc, or NCI. Both single moms and dual income married couples get NCI benefits if they make under a certain amount. I don’t qualify, because I make just barely the max, however, childcare expenses are still a tax deduction. My daycare director will give me at the end of the year, a form similar to W2, to file with income tax. That means that all the money I pay into daycare gets knocked off of my income, and I get even more back- *on top of* the credit you already get just for having kids. Most people I talk to say they get most of it back.

I do not think in-home childcare is a good option for at home moms. If you don’t believe women should work outside the home, then the guilt of making money off of something you don’t believe in might eat at you. There’s also no accountability there for you. No one to share the workload.
I am not telling you these things because I think you SHOULD work. But, if it was me, I would be trying to figure stuff out beyond frugality. Frugality doesn’t seem to be working. I don’t know if you already know the things I am telling you (about tax breaks and grants), but if you don’t, then it’s worth looking into.
If childcare in that area is that expensive, you can probably still get a grant if you make twice the minimum wage.

By: Not Keeping Up With The Joneses

Not Keeping Up With The Joneses — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:52:30 +0000

Hey, I see we have another Heather lol, I decided to put my blog name in place of my real name so we( I) won’t get confused :)

I need to get better organized too. I lost track on how many no spend days we had!

If you ever feel down or like you are not keeping up the way you would like just go back and reread your entries on your blog, they are so very inspiring and then give yourself a Pat on your back,you have done so well! :)