Living within your means

So.... This morning as I was doing my daily stalking reading through other blogs, I stumbled across a post that really spoke to me. Usually I am all over the baby trends, and lately all of the weight loss/diet posts, but today it was this post that caught my eye. If you read that post than I really don't need to repeat everything since that is EXACTLY how I feel.

I have always known that I wanted to be a stay at home mommy and after I had Jaida we made that happen! It's funny to me how many people stay in other peoples business too. You would be surprised how many people asked me personal questions about how much money my husband made to figure out HOW we would possibly make it work. Guess what friends, my husband is blessed with a wonderful job BUT he makes a lot less than you would ever imagine. Matter of fact if you look at what he makes VS. how we live and what we have you would be soooooo surprised! I have the answer to that though. GOD. The Lord provides for us even when we don't think it's possible. Seriously the numbers don't even add up.

I wrestle with this identity a lot more than my hubby does. I am a keep up with the Joneses, shop-a-holic type but in the end he is constantly reminding me to look at what we have been blessed with! You truly never know what goes on behind closed doors, and while I see that other people have nice things and vacations that we can't afford right now, they may be doing it all with credit cards. Now clearly not everyone lives this way but it is a LARGE part of the "average American lifestyle."

Secretly I am glad that thrifting has become "cool" and that people love my handmade gifts sometimes more than if I would have bought something.... and no, the coffee I brew at home doesn't always taste as good as a coffee from Starbucks would but if I struggle to spend $10.00 on a mascara that lasts for months, shouldn't I struggle a little harder to buy that $5.00 coffee that's gone in an hour?! Also, all those clothes that Jaida has were either hand me downs from her cousin or purchased from a consignment store (sometimes still with tags!) for only a couple bucks a piece.

My husband always tells me.... people are really not paying as much attention to you as you think! ( I still think they are....but it's ok because we still live well on a budget!)

I think I just found a new topic to blog about..... I will need to really wrap my head around how I want to set it up but give me a couple weeks and I will have a new "Thrifting Thursday", or maybe "Savings Saturday" blog topic up! FUN!!

Seriously people.... there is nothing wrong with hand me downs, and from this moment on i am REALLY going to work on making "living within our means" the cool thing to do! :)

Now I am off to thrift!