Frugal

Before I had my boys I never realized how much I supported consumerism in our economy. Every penny in my pocket went from hand to mouth, or back, or car. I lived a very one use life style and wasn't really raised to live very environmentally conscious. We had paper towels, Tide laundry soap, and plenty of toys. My mother was just very good at managing money, but never really shared the process with us. When I moved out on my own for the first time at 17 it wasn't so bad. I was working a job as a Switchboard Operator for a local hospital and made decent money. Enough to afford a fancy newer car, whatever food I felt like throwing in my cart, going on with my friends, and shopping for new clothes.

After I met Tim and became pregnant with Ethan, I quit my job as the Front Desk Manager of a local hotel. I was constantly on my feet, under appreciated, and just stressed. It was directly effecting my pregnancy and my baby was more important. Two weeks after my financial contribution ceased to exist, Tim was laid off. We now found ourselves just short of homeless with car payments close to default with a baby on the way no less! We sold our cars and actually ended up staying in one bedroom of a should have been condemned house with no functioning toilet or furnace. Talk about scary. We stayed in the master bedroom, ate as minimally as we could with me being pregnant, and prayed for Tim's unemployment to quickly arrive. We were in the house for almost 5 long months living like this. No A/C, pouring 5 gallon buckets down the back of the toilet just to flush, battling bugs and other "friends." We finally received Tim's unemployment and my tax return, by the grace of God, and were able to rent a small two bedroom apartment that was just a step up above where we were. Tim finally secured full time employment just shortly after I had Ethan, our first born together.

When Ethan was just four months old we found out we were pregnant with TWINS, non the less. After a very complicated pregnancy and a traumatic birth, we were blessed with Gavin and Gabe. Due to being born 10 weeks early after having Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome we were now faced with brain injuries, Cerebral Palsy, and a lifetime of complications to contend with. We will still only a one income, now special needs family, barely above the federal income poverty line. We were left to figure it out on our own. Thankfully Gavin and Gabe's Cerebral Palsy are qualifying diagnosis's for Social Security Disability, for without which we would severely struggle for me to stay at home with them. Not that staying home even with SSI allows us to not make sacrifices.

Last year our total family income for a family of 6 was just about 17,000 for the year. We rent a nice 3 bedroom home with a partial basement and nice big yard, own a 2005 Honda Odyssey Van, and a 1995 Ford Escort Wagon. We pretty much pay the bare essentials bill wise with no added extras; electric, water, gas, trash, rent, renters insurance, car insurance on both vehicles, gas, van payment, internet, netflix, cell phones.We spend about $70 a week on groceries to eat clean for our family of 6 but do get supplementation from WIC and friends and family enjoy feeding us as well. :)  We cloth diaper, thanks to gifts from friends and family and for BumGenius's Share the Love Program. We make our own cleaners and laundry detergent. I do not use paper towels. We use a shampoo bar to wash our hair as it is less wasteful then conventional liquid shampoo and its organic and free from all the synthetic and harsh chemicals. I also plan on writing a dedicated post to our house hold purchases monthly and cleaning supplies.

We are very blessed to have immediate family that understands the challenges of raising two special needs kids and a third with a diagnosed behavioral issue on less then 20,000 a year. We also receive some assistance with therapy co-pays and Assistive technology/ equipment from Illinois's Early Intervention program and Illinois Assistive Technology and United Cerebral Palsy for their wonderful lending libraries.

I am growing our first garden this year. It is about a 25-30ft by 15ft plot. I have spent about $60 on it so far between seeds, fencing, and starter plants this year. It has already paid its self off though. I have already harvested 30 bags of spinach, buttercrunch and romaine lettuce this year, an estimated retail value of $65. So if anything else produces in my garden I will have already made our money back. More posts of the garden to come as well.

This is just a little incite on how our family functions on a minimal income. We very much enjoy striving towards a self sufficient and debt free lifestyle. It is not for everyone. Less is More. I will write a dedicated post on how we feed our family of 6 on such a small budget, cloth diapering and our system of doing it, paying for special needs related purchases, gardening, and homemade cleaners soon!