Reusing ziploc baggies only gets me so far...

Lately I have been thinking a lot about whether or not I should try to re-enter the workforce. Since my second lay off due to the craptastic economy in May 2009 I have been home full time. I have looked for jobs, and am currently interviewing for two part time jobs, but nothing has excited me.

My most important job, I feel, is taking car of my family. That means cooking, cleaning, feeding, making sure my boys are healthy, keeping the house (relatively) neat, keeping myself healthy, shopping, banking, making sure our finances are in check...the list goes on and on.

Its this last point that has me on edge though lately. While we have enough to get by, or stay afloat and tread water as I have been expressing to friends lately, we are not moving forward AT ALL. I couldn't tell you the last time we put money in savings and for the first time in years we are carrying a credit card balance -- this is in large part because of the emergency bathroom work we had to in July. We can easily pay in full, but it makes me nervous to not have funds immediately available so I am taking my time with this for peace of mind.

The thing is, I really have zero desire to go do something else. I genuinely love being home three days with our son. We have him in daycare two days so he can get socialization and its payoffs have been huge! But I love that we can sleep in until 8:15(as we did yesterday) and I will be greeted by a very happy rested little monkey "Good Morning Mammeee" when I go in his room. I love that he shows me triangles when he sees them and that we can have playdates where he dances and grooves with his friends, as we did on Monday.

He is only going to be 2 once. We have food on our plates, a roof over our heads and are not completely deprieved. In the grand scheme of things, living in 800 sf is not the worst of all equations.

But we are still not moving forward. If anything I feel like I am in a permenant holding pattern waiting for something to happen.

I am very torn. The only job that seems the slightest bit appealing to me is that of a high school teacher. Its what I always wanted to do. I am a few credits short and I figure it would be two years before I realisticially can get in the classroom.

This is not a SAHM vs. WAHM debate. Everyone woman and family needs to decide whats right for them. There are no easy answers or solutions. The person who said you can have it all lied. I don't need to win the lotto (although we did buy tickets last night, alas we didn't win), but I do need figure out what is best for us in the long-term.

Do I stay doing the job I love that pays nothing but is rewarding beyond words, or is staying selfish? Should I go and find a part-time or full-time job and then be able to pay for things for my son, but then also be torn between doing things with him and doing all the other things I feel need being done (the aforementioned jobs) on the weekend and spend even less time with him? I simply don't know or have the answers....

Organic v. savings?

We are trying to eat healthier. For a host of reasons I have been reading labels, tracking vitamin content and making choices. An example, on vacation last month, my father-in-law told me my fat-free half-and-half was really just high fructose corn syrup. I had no idea. I will read labels up and down for my son, but never had before this for us.

Until now.

This week I spent $10 on two boxes of cereal bars for my husband for work. Expensive, but at $2 per meal over a two week period, I could stomach it. THen I compared against the cereal bars I buy for the monkey, and his bars are just as good at $1.69 a box! I can buy three boxes of his for the price of one for my husband. Since they are just as good, my husband and son will now have the same ones...that is once my hubby has finished his 24k gold-filled cereal bars. Ugh.

I read this article in Time yesterday with interest. It was the first one in awhile I had sat down and read. Now I am wondering if I should buy organic all the time? I have been hearing from friends organic milk is the way to go, and I am nearly convinced. With the egg recalls, I am wondering if we should get organic eggs too. The health content makes it a no brainer, but the price is insane. I am at a loss. And then meat, fruits and veggies too?

So I don't know. What I do know is I want my family to eat healthy. I don't want us in debt to the high ceilings. And I definitely want us all to live long healthy lives. I don't have any solutions....what are yours?

Way to Save

Loyal Readers know that hate and loathe are not strong enough words to describe how I feel about the good people at Wells Fargo. If you want a refresher course, feel free to click here or here.

BUT....I will say that the Wachovia program Way to Save has been a BIG helper to us. July was no exception. I tie these two companies together since they are now one and the same.

The way it works is everytime we use our debit card, $1 is transferred into a savings account. This money earns precious little interest, but since its an immediate transfer, we never feel the pinch. In July we had to dip into our regular savings for major home improvements but when the end of the month rolled around we still were dangerously close to the $0 balance line.

I transferred $50 from this account and we should be in the clear until the next pay day. Its not a huge amount I will grant you, but the breathing room this gives us is huge. Overdraft fees are a big problem, so its nice to not have to worry about them.

New blog listing found for NoVA area shoppers

I just stumbled across a great list of regional blogs for moneysavers, like me (ha!) in the Northern Virginia area. I know I have readers elsewhere and will keep my eye out for other regional blogs, but wanted to pass this along.

Hope you find this helpful, enjoy!

Click here for great NoVA/DC area blogs...

Tax Free Weekends coming up

I follow a bunch of different blogs with a bunch money saving tips. I am going to try to post more of these (I know I always say this!). Got this one today from Becentsable and wanted to pass along!!! :)

Happy saving and shopping!

July was a challenging month

It seems the last few months have been hard for me to get online, talk about money saving tips, and get ideas. I hope and pray August is different.

My father passed away last month. Anyone who knew JJ knew he liked to save a buck better than anyone. He was a leftie, but it was cheaper to buy rightie golf clubs, so he did. He sacrificed an incredible amount to make sure my brothers and I received a Catholic education (because in Baltimore you just don't send your kids to public school). He always wanted what was best for us. I take comfort in knowing he is upstairs watching out for all of us. I will try to be better about posting here as a way to honor him.

We also went on vacation in July. While we drove 10 hours each way, it didn't cost us that much because we had already budgeted for it. All our spending money came from our Pennies in Jar and the money we would normally spend during a week. And the cost of rent on the most beautiful lake anywhere was covered by a freelance job I had several months ago. I put the money aside immediately so we never felt the pinch.

I have decided I need to be doing more freelance work if we are ever going to escape our 800 sf of love, so I have a few ideas I may be bouncing around in the coming months.

Sorry this is rambly. More later.

PS to the spammers who keep trying to post. I am deleting all your posts, so please stop. Thank you.