Wherever You Go Whatever You Do... May The Luck of the Irish Be With You

I have had past lives, I don't mean like I was Cleopatra of Egypt, or Besty Ross in a past life... I just mean my life was not always what it is today.  I have led 6 different lives so far:

Life #1 was my childhood

Life #2 was that of young bride to a very controlling older husband

Life #3 was a CRAZY single in the city in my early 20's kind of life

Life #4 was me as highly stressed very anxious new mother

Life #5 was me as an even more stressed, single working mother to 2 young boys

Life #6 is me now, married mama to 3 babies

If you had asked me when I was a single in the city girl if I would have ever moved out of California and my beloved San Francisco to the often dull and dreary city of Spokane I would have laughed my ass off at you, "Um... you're like outta your mind!"  Those days were days of excess, of spending way too much money on partying, clothes and mostly SHOES.  Though I was single I had a very passionate love affair with shoes... oh how I loved them and I swear they loved me back... me and my shoes we were very happy together.  

Things have changed so much since those days, I often look back at all the wasteful spending and wish I had known better, had cared about saving for the future.  When I think about having spent as much on a pair of shoes as I now spend on 2 weeks worth of groceries for my family I cringe.  I work hard to help my children understand the value of money I have on occasion pulled the cash needed to pay the rent out of the bank and let the kids count it. They get excited handling a large sum of money but then when I tell them we have to give it all away to pay for our house they are amazed that it cost that much just to have a house to live in.  I tell them how much I make per hour and we do the math to figure out how many hours I have to work to pay for our home.  Once I tried to explain to them rent was only one of MANY expenses we have as a family; car payment, power, water, cable, internet, cell phones, groceries, clothes, gas.... the list went on and on and they soon got overwhelmed and lost interest.  So now I just talk about things in terms of how much I have to work for something.  When they ask for a new Lego set that cost close to $100 I tell them to figure out the math to see how many hours mama would have to work to pay for that.  They understand more and more as they get older and they are starting to value second hand shopping and saving money which I think are VERY valuable lessons.  

So these days when we want to spruce up our place for the holidays we try to do it as cheaply as possible using as much secondhand and repurposed as possible.  I was browsing Pinterest and was getting inspired to put up some St. Patrick's Day decorations.  I saw this pin and LOVED IT so I went to Michaels all set to buy wood letters to paint and decorate but after I saw that the wooden letters were $3-$7 each depending on size, and then I would have to spend another $5-$10 on paint and ribbons it would have been about a $30 project, way more than I was willing to spend.  So I bought a couple of fake potted flowers on clearance for $2.50 each, 2 little signs also on clearance for $2.50 each and a package of little leprechaun hats from the Dollar Store.  Then I came home to search for things I had to make decorations with.  I have a craft room packed with crafty things so I pulled out a roll of craft paper, some green construction paper, scrapbook papers and ribbons.  Then I raided hubby's packing supplies (he sells on ebay so we always have a bunch of shipping boxes in the house).  I sat down with the kids and we created this display with the things I found around the house and the $12 I spent at Michael's and the Dollar Store.

Do you ever cheap out on your decorations?  I find that I love and cherish the stuff the kids and I made so much more than things we buy :)  Don't you?