Halloween and more money talk in Life as a Mom of 2 boys.....and a girl!!

I’m so tired of stressing about money but I have no choice. When I was working, I used to make $1050 every two weeks. Now, on maternity leave, I make $732 every two weeks. Which rarely ever covers my portion of the bills. So I sell stuff and use a bit of my monthly child tax money to make up for it. And I try not to spend more than I have to. It’s tough knowing you don’t really have the money to do anything and trying to think of new ways to make money without working a formal job (I get money taken off my mat leave pay if I work before she turns 1). I’ve been trying to save 70% of my child tax money each month but it’s getting tougher to do that. It’s pretty bad when I have to use money my parents and grandmother in law gave me for my birthday for bills. But I need to. And my MIL is getting me winter boots because mine broke last year and I will definitely need them soon. Mike is going to let me pick out whatever I want and I’m still deciding. Do I get pants? Because I have about 3 pair that fit me right now.....or a new purse because mine is too small and starting to break? Or something else? I don’t know....

I put some more Jamberry wraps up for sale on ebay this morning. So that will help with the money situation since I know they’ll sell (last time I had a ton up and all but one sold for a decent price). And I sold a couple used baby items this morning.

Yesterday I went to Walmart with Miles and Summer to print out a ton of pictures for a photo album for my Mom for her birthday (both our birthdays are tomorrow. She had me when she turned 30). I had to kill an hour to wait for my prints unless I wanted to pay double the price for them (17 cents a pictures versus 34 cents)....so Miles and i shared a muffin, cookie and cheeseburger at McDonald’s with some free vouchers I had from the Monopoly game. Then I picked out an album for my mom and some Vitamin D drops for the kids....wandered over to the baby section and I was like screw this. I can’t just go forever without spending an extra cent ever. And I spent $25 on some clothes for Summer. 4 tops that were $4 each and a set of 3 tights ($8). A part of me felt guilty but she really does need more clothes for the sizes after what she’s wearing now and those prices weren’t bad at all. I usually only shop at Once Upon a Child but that’s ok.....$25 won’t kill me. However my mom’s pictures cost $20, the album was $16 and I still have to mail it to her which probably won’t be cheap. But what can I do, right? It’ll all be fine....once Summer turns one in the spring and my mat leave payments stop I will try to find something really part time that I can do without leaving the kids much until I look for a full time job next fall. Oh and it’s no wonder it’s been hard for me to stretch my money to pay for bills! I figured out that when I was working I used to survive on $2600 a month (pay plus child tax money) and now I’ve been getting by on $1765 a month for my portion of the bills. When you look at it that way, it’s a wonder I’ve been able to do it! Figuring out how to get everyone Christmas gifts should be fun! lol

Summer is waking up so I will leave you with the Halloween pics of the kids. They had a lot of fun trick or treating and we were out for like an hour and a half. Then Cody got cold because his costume was thin and he refused to wear a coat. It was past their bed time anyways and I was more than ready to go home anyways :)