Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Managing Our Budget

We recently rewrote our budget to push our savings for a home to a new level. (This is the first time since we've been married that it made sense to even consider a home -- and in New York and Boston, even saving for a home was a bit of a joke at our income levels.) Anyway, this new budget was a drastic cut from our old one and I was having trouble making it work.

At just the right time, my friend Tiffany recommended a wonderful resource - Money Saving Mom. It's a fantastic blog that does all the hard work of finding the best deals for me. All I have to do is follow the links for the coupons and head to the store! With her help, I've not only stayed within budget for the month (so far), I'm running about 20% under budget! We haven't even had to give up the organic milk and eggs or all the local meats.

I've been thinking and reading a lot of the vocation to facilitate a smoothly running home, so you'll probably see more posts on these kinds of topics and books coming up. Of course, I expect it all to crumble (for a little while) when baby #3 is born. Those few weeks after a birth, it's enough of a challenge just to make sure everyone is fed and clothed!

In the meantime, I've added Money Saving Mom to my resources and encourage you to check it out! (Thanks, Tiffany!)