Monday, May 17, 2010

My inspiration Mondays - Money Saving Mom


My sister-in-law Louise told me about Money Saving Mom's website and I've been hooked ever since.

Written by Crystal Paine, the website offers loads of helpful tips for living frugally. I've particularly enjoyed her series 31 days to a better budget. It's encouraged me to menu plan, eat from our pantry and dabble in freezer cooking, as ways to stretch our grocery dollars further.

I'm also enjoying her series on Saving 100% Down for Our First Home. Paul and I have already decided to save a whopping big house deposit before buying our first home - our goal is to buy when interest on a mortgage is about the same as rent would be. Money Saving Mom's series has helped cement my own thinking on this.

Money Saving Mom is an American site so some of the content doesn't apply to me here in New Zealand. I've been fascinated to learn about the US couponing system. It seems if you're clever with your coupons over there, you can actually combine them with store deals to get items not just for free, but you can also get paid to take them away, ie. get given credit towards buying other items in the store. Makes the mind boggle! In New Zealand if there's a discount on an item, there's usually a clause saying no other discounts can be applied.

I've realised New Zealand is a pretty expensive place to live, but we're blessed in other ways...

Not to mention the fact our cows are pasture-fed, which makes for healthy and tasty meat and dairy products. (Thanks Anita for the reminder that our food is good!)

Money Saving Mom also encourages me in my parenting endeavours. Crystal is the mother to three littlies, and takes her responsibilities seriously.

I'm so glad I live in the computer age, where I can read the blogs and websites of other mums like this one to get ideas and inspiration for better ways to manage my own home.

What are your favourite blogs and websites? Use the comment box below to share the goodness.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting post Emma. The food is heaps cheaper in the US but the quality of it is pretty poor. NZ food is much much better :)

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  2. Hi Emma! Just been checking out Money Saving Mom and discovered that they have been using Dave Ramsey's principles too! Yes, we found his book at a cheap price over a year ago and it's been fantastic for us!! We too thought we were doing pretty well, but found that he had some great pointers that we needed!!! Awesome!
    One of the websites I follow is: Adding Zest to Your Nest! :o) They have some great ideas for 'that' area of marriage! ;D http://www.addingzest.net/
    Inspiring to see your progress with your blog!! Way to go!! I've got heaps to work on too...

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  3. Ooh, I would love to get a Dave Ramsey book. What's your one called? What sort of advice have you been following out of it?

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  4. Hi Emma! Been working on sorting out my blog...it's coming. Just going to put your blog on my blog roll and found your reply to my comment!
    Hmmm...Hubby has used his advice to modify our budget/cashflow spreadsheet and it's working so well. Happy to share more.

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