Living Life for Less and the crazy journey of how I got here

If you’ve been here from the beginning (Hi to my Aunt Jan!) and have followed along this journey, you may have noticed that thehings are looking a bit different around here on this website. Today, I want to share a bit of my heart and the journey that’s led me to this place. (And cue the corny music. That sounded like something from a Leann Rimes song).

Through the years, I’ve blogged about many things.

When I first started writing on this blog it was mainly as a lifestyle blog. I would write to remember things that happened (still do). Around the time that our local newspaper picked up my blog as a column, I began to think about what else could be done with this little corner of the world wide web, that I call all my own. I left my job at the newspaper to stay home as a SAHM and turned writing a little more towards trying to help other moms. I would write about things like crafts, recipes, scheduling naps, decorating. This and that. I did that for a few years and then I woke up in a hotel room and realized I was writing on a blog titled “Super Busy at Home” but was rarely at home. We were travelling all of the time with Nick as he worked across the country. So I changed the entire website to “The Wonder Collective”, put together a whole new look, and started a whole plan to write about family travel. Which was wonderful.

Until just six months later and my husband stopped travelling as much. Which did not make for such an easy time when trying to write a travel blog.

But I still felt called to write. So I switched gears. Still loved my “Super Busy” but I rebranded totally to help mamas love life even though it was busy. I jumped all in. I hired several blog coaches. Our website made it to the 2nd biggest website in our city. But then my husband’s job was eliminated.

Starting at that time I became the CEO of our new company. My husband and I over the last couple of years have been hard at work getting our business underway and off the ground. That has required most of my blood, sweat, and tears, leaving little time for much else. Not to mention all of my creativity was directed towards our business efforts.

Each topic I write about have this one thing in common.

Now that we are in year two of running a business I am at a place where I can still feel the call of the Lord to keep at it. Keep writing. To use this as a creative endeavor.

I am now 40. In a lot of ways I feel like I am no longer a mama because when I think of a mom I think of those with babies in arms and in the thick of child rearing. I am not.

I am raising teens. I can go to hobby lobby and leave them at home. It’s glorious. It’s sad.

Yet still I feel the tugging to share what I know. What I’ve been through. That is the point of life, right? To help others on their journey. To help carry the load of those going through life with you.

The website has always felt a bit disjointed. There’s lifestyle articles, and travel advice, and mothering notions, and decorating styles. There’s homeschooling, and gift ideas, book recommendations, and autism articles.

There’s one thing though that has always been a simple thread, connecting all of these topics together: saving money.

Necessity is the motherhood of invention.

My husband and I decided early on in our marriage what our hard would be. We decided that having a mom home when the babies were growing up was what we wanted. We then decided we wanted to homeschool our children. We decided that we wanted our children to see all 50 states. We’ve decided the amount of college we want to pay for our kids, and what portion we want them to pay themselves.

All of these things bring struggles with them. They are wonderful and beautiful decisions but they also require hard decisions to forego some things to save money for our decisions.

Decisions sometimes are hard. And life sometimes is just hard without asking for our permission. Things like inflation, covid, job loss, things that are hard, that change our circumstances whether we like it or not.

That’s what I’m here for. I’ve raised two babies saving money, now I’m raising two teenagers, saving money.

And so the journey has brought me here. To share with you how to do things on the cheap. Where to look for deals. How to shop ahead of holidays to save money on gifts. And most of all, how to not save life for when you have more money…for when things are better financially. No, friends, the time to live life is now.

So that’s my story!

So that’s why I’m here. I’m here to motivate you! To live life on a dime, yes! but also to keep things fun! Let’s enjoy life, right where we are, right now!

It’s time to start, friends! Are you ready? Join me for fun on a dime!