A Simpler Life... prayer

To read the previous posts in this series, go here.

Prayer is a good thing... essential for the Christian life, and essential in marriage for that matter.  Nic and I decided when we got married to pray together every night before we fall asleep. Confession: sometimes I fall asleep before he's done praying! (But this addition to our day has helped changed our perspective so much.)

We've seen over and over how God has clearly answered prayers, healed family situations, and given us a continued reminder if His work in our lives and in the world. It's been interesting to look back and see how our prayers have changed over the year that we've been married.  We recently entered a season where many of our friends and family are expecting babies, adopting, or trying to get pregnant.  We've been praying for Rob and Monica and their twins, as Monica has dealt with lots during her pregnancy!  JE and Emily are on the road to adoption, and we've prayed for them as well as many others like Brittany (my sister-in-law) and Kristen, one of my best friends, who are both pregnant, 3 ladies in our community group... and I could go on. 

It's funny how we find ourselves in a new season of our prayer life!  We are thankful for all that God has taught us and continues to teach us through prayer.  We'd LOVE for you to join us in praying for those mentioned above, as well as friends Emmett and Wendy as they faithfully continue to fight Emmett's battle with cancer.  I could go on, but I'll stop here.  We serve a BIG God, who can do BIG things!

A Simpler Life... Dave Ramsey 101

In January, Nic and I enrolled in Financial Peace University (an awesome wedding gift from our friend Jon).  In April, we graduated... complete with a graduation cake.

It's now October, and we've paid off all but one debt.  Dave Ramsey's principles have helped to make our life, home, and finances so much simpler...

No more credit cards.

photo credit squeakymarmot

Every dollar is already spent before the month begins... here on the Teasley Family Budget.

We use the envelope system, which limits spending on the check card.

photo credit daveramsey.com

Couponing to help keep the grocery budget low.

especially when you get all this for less than $11

Working on Baby Step 2, and hopefully on to Step 3 very soon... and then we hope to purchase one of these:

photo credit lockridgehomes.com

Excitement, rather than fear, about what the future holds!

Oh, and we just got tickets for Dave's Total Money Makeover LIVE! from the recommendation of one Carlyn Menser. We are stoked, to say the least... and VERY thankful that Dave's principles have helped us find a much simpler life.

A Simpler LIfe... Penny

Meet Penny.  She has changed our habits, and helped us tremendously over the past year.  We met Penny on the shelf at Michael's and thought, "What a great addition to our home!"

Penny is our piggy bank.  We feed her often.  She needs nourishment.  We operate on a cash budget, so all our lose change goes to Penny.  We count up the money at the end of the year, and use this as part of our vacation fund.

Here are some great benefits of a piggy bank:
*It's a hassle-free built-in saving account that you manage from home.
*It's difficult to get money out of it (which is a good thing if you're SAVING.)
*It grows only if you're using a cash budget system, so it's great accountability to use cash.
*It is much more fun than just setting money aside.
*If you've ever worked at CentriKid Camps, you know how fun it is to count money... this is like your very own camp store or missions offering to count!
*If you don't count on Penny for a while, it's like extra "SURPRISE!" money you didn't know you could spend.  We're using ours for an extra excursion on our cruise.

Oh, and it doesn't have to be a pig.  A clear jar, a fun jar, a box, a bag, anything will work.  Just make sure it's not easy to steal from, and that you really are SAVING!

A Simpler Life... Couponing Part II

Yseterday, I went to Harris Teeter for Super Double Coupons.  I got everything pictured here for $10. 23 and saved over $57. I couldn't have done it without some great couponing resources.

Here are the top places I get coupons:
*The Sunday Paper. I try to buy two per week on good coupon weeks... and these are $1 at Kroger starting Monday.
*eCoupons. These will load straight to your Kroger Card... but sadly, Kroger's the only place I can use them right now.
*Printable coupons.  The best places to get these are coupons.com and smartsource.com.
*All You Magazine.  I subscribed to this, only after discovering some incredible deals each month.  You can also buy this on the magazine rack, but it's only available at Wal-Mart. 

Here are my favorite sites for couponing:
*southersavers.com.  This blogger lives in South Carolina, so not all the deals match up... but she offers the most helps, ideas, and possible coupon deals.
*faithfulprovisions.com.  This blog is local, so I love reading all the Nashville deals, and can be fairly certain that what's listed on the blog will be what I find when I show up at the store.
*thethriftymama.com.  She focuses more on organic and natural food deals. 
All of these blogs tell you not only what coupons are in the Sunday paper, but what's on sale at your local grocery store, and how much you'll end up saving with sale prices, store coupons, and manufacturers coupons.  They highlight tons of great drug store deals as well.

Couponing has helped our budget tremendously, and it's been a fun hobby for me over the past year. My blog isn't a coupon blog, so I won't bore you with pictures of my weekly purchases... and we'll leave it at these two posts for now.  Here's to saving LOTS of money, and here's to a simpler life!

A Simpler Life... Couponing for beginners

Couponing isn't even a word, according to my spell check.  It has quickly become a hobby, though.  In fact, I'm quite addicted to saving money.  Word is starting to spread.  My mom saves her coupons for me each Sunday, and I even had some coupons show up on my desk at work last week thanks to a fellow coworker!

Here's my version of of the basics on stores and stockpiling:

More value than you think: A few grocery stores double manufacturers coupons up to $0.50 (for me, they are Publix and Kroger).  Some double up to $0.99 on a regular basis (Harris Teeter).  These stores are where your big savings take place.  No more Wal-Mart trips for me! Match a sale with a coupon, and you end up paying literally pennies, for items.

Stockpile. The idea behind couponing is stockpiling... no, it's not hoarding.  Okay, it has the potential to become hoarding but Nic keeps me in check.  Just find some accountability.  Generally, items go on sale every 6-8 weeks.  Stock up what you need (not so much that you can feed a family of 8 for two years), but only what you think you'll need until it goes on sale again in 6-8 weeks... If you buy it at the cheapest price (40-50% off or more) then you start saving lots of money.  Weekly trips no longer include the same items each week.  They now include a few weekly items (milk, bread, etc.) and many more sale items.

Nic and I now spend about $50 a week on groceries for our family of two. When we got married we'd budgeted $80 a week... so we're saving about $120 a month and we have way more food in our kitchen.

More to come on where to get the best coupons and the best resources for couponers.