It's official!!!!

As of 3:27 this afternoon, I can officially call myself a stay at home mom!

As excited I am about this, it was SUCH a hard, but awesome day.

Early on in the day I was given my going away present from Karen, my boss. It was PERFECT, and super cute!!! My SAHM survival kit:

Included in this awesome kit were:

-An apron (duh!)

-A little jar of M&Ms labeled "Mommy's Happy Pills"

-Dum dums (for making kids happy!)

-An egg timer

-A SUPER CUTE Vera Bradley wristlet wallet

-A Pizza Hut gift card (to take Karen out to lunch with)

-A Dollar Tree gift card (to buy a balloon to Delaney so I can keep track of her- kind of an inside joke)

-Magic towels (to entertain my children)

-A little Mom wall hanging and Wits and Wisdom book

-Mom Rocks wine glass

-And my favorite part: The little Biohazard planner. In the planner she entered in days that I need to come visit throughout the year! Had me cracking up!

Throughout the day I had several of my coworkers come tell me how much they enjoyed working with me and that I would really be missed. It was so incredibly sweet! 

We had a super delicious lunch of Famous Daves, therefore the entire staff was in a meat coma the remainder of the afternoon. I also got a super sweet card from our manager (and Shaun's aunt) Carmen with some restaurant gift cards for when I need a night out.

Finally, I got a card that the entire staff signed for me. It is crazy how one card can hold so many emotions. I had messages from people thanking me for some certain thing I had done for them. I had people telling me how they would miss me. I had people (a lot, actually) comment on how they were happy I would no longer be there to give them errors (a big part of my job was informing the staff when they had done something incorrectly) which I thought was hilarious! 

As my day started wrapping up, it was so weird. As I logged out of the computer, I realized that it would be the last time I would use my computer. I walked through the center to say goodbye to everyone, I realized that I was saying goodbye on my LAST DAY. Weird!!!! I was so proud of myself- saying my goodbyes with my eyes only getting a little watery. 

Then I clocked out. 

Don't ask me why, but this is what broke me. As I walked out of the center the tears just came. To make that even more awesome, a donor was walking in as I walked out of the building with a basket of stuff, so he probably thought I just got fired. Oh well... I cried about half the way home. Not only am I really going to miss my work people, I was also just so touched by all the kind words said to me throughout the day.

Picking up the kids for the last time at Barb's (their sitter) was much easier than I thought, partly because we will probably be paying her a visit on Monday to help her with something (we definitely don't mind having an excuse for a visit!). It was really hard to take that box filled with blankets, clothes, and extra diapers that have accumulated there in the past few years (hard enough, actually, that I am actually tearing up as I write this). Have I mentioned that we will miss her TERRIBLY?????

Overall, it was an amazing day. I don't think it will fully hit me for awhile- I am a stay at home mom. I am living my DREAM. I am so incredibly blessed to have such beautiful children to care for and a amazing husband who has worked incredibly hard to make this dream come true for me, and I am SO excited to start this next chapter in our family's life!

Things to do when "Mommy, Jameson, Laney days" are everyday!

When I have the day off work, I explain this to Jameson as a "Mommy, Jameson, Laney day". In just over two months, these days will be everyday. I am, of course, VERY excited. But, I am also nervous.

Since they will no longer be going to daycare I am concerned about them getting in enough social time. I am wanting to make sure to give my kiddos plenty of opportunities for social interaction. Here are the ideas I have come across so far:

-Gymnastics Plus Open Gym
-ZooFari Trails
-Library storytimes
-MOPS
-Wee Wigglers class and adventures (preschool type classes for Jameson's age)
-Zoo Classes (Jameson has gone to several of these and loved them!)

I have also found a playgroup on Meetup.com but I haven't heard anything back from them yet.

Since we live 30 minutes away from pretty much any activities I am going to have to be careful to create a balance between getting them enough social time, not overloading the kiddos with car trips, and watching the gas budget. It would be awesome if I could find some activities closer to our home but our area is pretty small so it might be a little difficult!

I would love to know if any of you have ever tried any of these activities and what you thought of them! I would also love to hear of any other activities in the Manhattan, Riley, or Randolph areas! I am open to any and everything!

My super exciting stay at home mom announcement!!!!!!!

Now that we have officially notified all the necessary people, I can proudly, exuberantly, blissfully (enter your synonym for "ridiculously over the moon happy" here) announce...

My last day of work is April 27th!!!!!!!!!

I don't totally believe it is happening yet. When my manager made the announcement on Wednesday that I am leaving, it took me a minute to process it: I put in my notice at a job that I have been at for 7 1/2 years. I don't know that I will totally believe it is happening until my second or third week. But, disbelief or not, I am over the moon.

Don't get me wrong, I am really going to miss certain things, and not all of this will be easy. For example, some of the people I work with I would count among my closest friends. I will very much miss having this social time on a daily basis. I am going to have to work hard at it, but I am really hoping that I am able to maintain these relationships on some level because I know I will miss them badly. Becoming a stay at home mom also means having to say goodbye to our daycare provider, Barb. Barb has been an enormous blessing in our lives. She has taken such amazing care of my babies. I have always felt like I was dropping them off with family, not a sitter. She has been there for me as well, answering more parenting and kid health questions than I can count. Though we hope that the kids can still have the occasional "Barb day" (when I need some mommy time!), we will definitely miss having her in our daily life. (By the way- if anyone in the Randolph or Waterville area is in need of a babysitter, I happen to know an AMAZING one...)

But... mostly I am so excited! Don't get me wrong- I am not under some ridiculous delusion that everyday is going to be this blissful, sunshiny day filled with constant yea mommy moments. I know that there are going to be days where I want to rip my hair out. I do know what I am "getting myself into". But I think it is 100% worth every hair ripping day to know that I got to spend this time with my kids during their tiny years. :)

Sharing the Wealth: Where to begin?

When I look back on what made this financial goal one we could achieve when others have failed, I realize that there is one thing that made this time different. It is the thing that made our goal something we worked for every day with very few setbacks. It is what we lacked in the past when we have tried to save money or pay off a bill.

It is a pretty big secret. You ready??? The big, amazing, highly sophisticated thing we finally got right waaaaaassssss (drumroll please)...

We actually set a goal. 

What, you thought it would be more exciting? Sorry! 

But, seriously. When I look back at what has made us so successful the past few months in our saving and bill paying mission, it is our goals that have made the difference.

And here is what I have learned:

Whoa, dream big! (and then find a way to make that your goal)

For Juno's stepmom, it was Weimaraners (If you don't get this reference, that makes me sad). For me, it was becoming a stay at home mom. I think that the fact that we were so passionate about this goal is what made it something for which we were willing to make significant lifestyle changes. Rather than just having something on paper that looked like a good financial decision, we had something with emotion attached to make sure it always stayed a priority. We never thought of what we were doing as "paying off bills and putting money in savings". We always thought of it as "making it so that Brandy can stay at home with the kids".

While not every necessary financial goal has emotion built-in to it like ours, I think you can find a way to put the emotion in it. For example, as we work to continue building our emergency fund after I am not longer working, I think I am going to make it our goal that we never again have to panic about a surprise expense. The finance based goal of a certain dollar amount that we want in the savings account is necessary and helpful. But, to actually imagine a world where a phone call from the mechanic telling us that our simple oil change is turning into a huge shop bill doesn't ignite a minor panic attack is what will really keep us motivated. Will I ever be excited about that phone call? Heh! Of course not! But, it will be nice for it to be an unfortunate check to write instead of something that we will lose sleep over.

Momma goals need baby goals

Throughout everything, we constantly have our main goal in mind. But, no matter how committed we were to those goals, we needed "baby goals" and milestones along the way to keep us encouraged.

There were times where we felt like it was going to be forever before the day would come where "going to work" meant getting up and planning my day with my kids. It were those little milestones that kept us going. For us, we had milestones each time we paid off a card. Another thing that we would achieve that would help keep us going were the little mini missions that we had. These were our mini goals for changes in our spending that needed to change to reach our ultimate goal.

One good example of this would be Christmas. We were absolutely determined to pay cash for Christmas this year. We have never put a crazy amount on credit for Christmas, but we usually have some bills looming over us come January. We knew that this is something that isn't going to be an option for us anymore when we go to one income. We broke down our budget and figured out exactly how much we needed to save and what we needed to do to save toward that goal. When our Christmas shopping was done and I knew that it had all been paid for, this was a huge accomplishment for us. We proved to ourselves that this is something we can handle. Not only Christmas, but we knew that we could identify a financial need and take the proper action and make the appropriate sacrifices to meet that need. This was a huge boost that really helped give us momentum to make it to the SAHM finish line!

You're always on my mind


Something that was instrumental to this goal actually making its way to reality was the fact that it was the center around every decision we made, big or little. When we decided we needed to buy a bigger vehicle, we thought "How does this purchase work into our long term goal?" This lead us to purchasing an older van that we knew we could afford on one income. Yes, it is obvious that a big purchase like this should take your goals into consideration. But those weren't the only times we would use these goals to make a decision.

I think what had the most impact was that we had our goals in mind when we made even the smallest purchases. When I would be a great kids clothing sale, I gave a lot more thought to what I was purchasing than I ever had. Yes, that shirt may be a great deal at $2, and it may be perfect for Jameson. But, does he need another shirt? No, he has plenty. Am I willing to put myself $2 further from staying at home for that shirt? No.

As simple as it sounds, we could not have made it this far if we hadn't sat down and decided what our goals were and how hard we were willing to work for them. This summer, my favorite money saving blog www.moneysavingmom.com, posted this quote. It is a quote that I constantly have on my mind and has truly made an impact on my daily decisions:

photo credit

link to the blog post

Brandy :)

Our SAHM mission and the things we have learned

I have had several friends and family ask me about our finances preparing for me becoming a stay at home mom. These are very logical questions like how we are going to adjust to one income and what we are doing to prepare for said adjustment. These questions have lead me to discover that I have learned a LOT about budgeting through this journey to becoming a say at home mom...

But I am getting ahead of myself. First, what we are doing to prepare...

First off, we set down and decided where we wanted to be financially while I am staying at home. We considered things like how we want to be able to live during that time. Are we okay with the fact that our vacations during that time will be limited and on a tight budget? Are we cool with shopping garage sales and CraigsList when possible? Can we be content with the fact that we will have to give certain things up? Our answer to all of these questions was yes. However, we also didn't want to end up putting ourselves in a position of struggling financially for many years to come and we didn't want to stress about money every month. We wanted to have a sufficient emergency fund built up and be putting more into savings every month while I am at home.

After some discussion, we decided that we didn't want to have any consumer debt while I was staying at home. We didn't have a huge amount, but it was enough that it was taking a chunk of our monthly income and causing a fair amount of stress. We both agreed that we would be happier waiting till these debts were paid off to lose my income.

This "step" kind of went right into the next: learning to only have Shaun's income. In April 2011 when Shaun got his promotion, we sat down and figured out our budget. We really looked at what we were spending our money on and where we could make adjustments. We cancelled our cable and opted for Netflix and Hulu for our TV watching. I decided that with couponing, cooking more from scratch, and just spending more time planning our menu we could take our grocery budget down. We started getting more careful about how we were spending our daily money. After tweaking other little areas of our spending we were a little surprised to discover that we could already live on just his income once you took our our childcare costs (which we obviously won't have once I am staying at home). Which went back to the paying off debt thing...

We decided that we could achieve both goals, paying off our debt and learning to live on Shaun's income, at the same time. We would snowball our bills (pay just the minimum on all our bills putting all our extra money towards the smallest bill till it is paid off, then put all that money to the next highest bill, and so on) and put my entire paycheck, minus childcare, toward these bills. So, not only would we be paying off our bills, we would learn if we could actually make it on just his income. Our goal was that once these were paid off, the money that was going to that each month would start going into savings to build our emergency fund.

Now, here we are, 6 months later and 2 1/2 weeks from reaching our goal of paying off all our consumer debt. After those are paid off, we will be putting all that money each month into a savings account for our emergency fund. We have learned that we can live frugally, but confidently on just Shaun's income. We know that we are going to have to make sacrifices here and there, but we both feel that it is worth it for me to be at home with our kids.

Which leads me to digress to something that I want to make clear: this was a mutual decision. This is not some thing where Shaun is wanting a little wifey sitting at home cooking his dinner or where I want Shaun to work to pull in all the money while I sit at home a eat bon bons. This is a dream we have BOTH had since we had Jameson (really, even before that). We BOTH feel that this is the best decision for our family right now and BOTH feel very blessed that it's an option for us. (There had to get that out there- feel better now).

On to the what I have learned stuff: Well, I have really felt like I have learned a lot about finances, discipline, and goal setting that I really want to share with others. I am by no means an expert, but I do want to share what I've learned in case it would help others out. Soooo...

I decided that I am going to do my first "series" as a blogger over the things I have learned throughout this journey. Over the next few weeks, I will be putting up a post about a particular lesson learned! I am sure many of you will read it and think "Well, duh Brandy, I could have told you that". My hope is that if even one person can learn something from all of the posts, maybe they will be able to get a step closer to their goals! I have decided to call this "Share the Wealth" (yes, I know, I am amazingly clever). Stay tuned!

Another brick in the road to being a stay at home mom!

As many of you know (especially since I said it on my first entry) we are working diligently toward the goal of making me a stay at home mom. It has been a long road, and we are ecstatic to say that we are most definitely going to reach that goal soon! When Shaun got his promotion in April that made it a possibility for me to become a stay at home mom, we knew that one thing we wanted first was to be completely out of consumer debt. We didn't have an immense amount of credit card debt, but we definitely wanted to eliminate what we had. We are now almost to that goal and it feels so good! We have really been working hard toward this goal and it is so nice to see and end in sight!

In order to pay this off, my entire paycheck, plus a little of Shaun's has been going solely to these bills (with the exception of the daycare bill which is coming out of my paycheck). Because of this, we have already been living for several months without my paycheck, so we have already grown accustomed to what our situation will be. After I quit, we will have enough for our monthly expenses (including bills, groceries, gas, etc), plus a little extra so we can be putting money in savings. We are definitely going to have times that we will have to make sacrifices, but we are 100% okay with that!

Even though we have gotten used to this one income living, we are hoping to have a little bit of extra income to put in savings towards Christmas, vacations, fun money, etc. So, I decided to become a Scentsy Consultant! This is a very big step for me, and definitely out of my comfort zone, as I am not exactly a huge salesman (probably the opposite...), but I love Scentsy, so I decided to give it a shot! I am going into it hoping for the best, and realizing that it will not be my ticket to a full time work at home income. My goal is just to earn a few extra bucks to tuck away for the fun things in a low pressure, low risk situation! Shaun and I have been discussing and praying about this decision for a few months, and we really feel like this is a direction that we should go!

All I am asking for is many prayers and support in this endeavor! (But if you wanted to buy something from me it wouldn't hurt my feelings... (:  )

Oh my. So I am really going to put it all out there?

After admiring the blogging of others for years now, I have decided to try my hand at it. I love sharing my opinions (to those unfortunate enough to be listening) but am a little nervous about putting myself out there. After all, I think my thoughts and opinions are interesting, but I don't know if anyone else does... oh well! 


In general, I am a person who keeps my opinions to myself. However, give me a topic that I am truly passionate about, and you won't hear the end of it!


My favorite passions:
-First and foremost, I am a Christian. I make it my goal to glorify God in everything I do, but it is definitely something I struggle with on a daily basis.


-My family!!!!!! There is absolutely nothing more important to me on this planet than my family. Basically every decision I make is based around them. Which leads me to the next...


-Becoming a stay at home mom! I currently have a full time job and I am grateful to even have a job in this economy, but it is not where I truly want to be. In April, my husband was promoted to a new position that pays enough to support us. However, we are wanting to do this the "responsible" way (blah!), so we are paying off a few debts and building some savings before I quit my job. We don't really know yet how long this will be, we are just taking it one day at a time.


-Breastfeeding! I don't think there is anyone who has spoken to me in the past few years who doesn't know that both of my children have breastfed. I am a huge advocate for it and hope that some day I can find a way to make a job (even if it is just volunteer) out of helping women achieve their breastfeeding goals.


-My most recent passion is becoming more frugal! I have used coupons here and there for awhile, but never really saw huge savings. Then, after watching an a documentary about extreme couponing (yes, the documentary that lead to the series) I discovered how I was totally not using them to their full potential! I found a few blogs that really helped me understand what to do and I went on my first true couponing shopping trip- three sticks of free deodorant and I was HOOKED!!!! The more I read the blogs, the more I see all the ways that I could be saving so much money! I love to brag about my deals and share deal ideas with others!




So, how the heck am I supposed to make all of that mess in to a blog?? Well, I don't know yet... I guess we'll find out!