One of the biggest reasons for creating MommyLuvs2save was to create a community of moms and dads who want to help their family save money when buying essentials in order to free up money for debt repayment. My own family has paid off over $111,500 in consumer debt including credit cards, student loan debt and 2 vehicles. I am a teacher at heart. I want to use the skills that I have learned to help YOU ditch debt. I want to encourage each of you in your efforts so that one day you can feel the freedom of being debt free. I’m not quite there yet either (we still have a mortgage) so I need encouragement as well 
It can be very difficult to pay down debt. There are many temptations to spend money. We live in a culture that encourages debt and spending. In addition, expenses come up and there never seems to be any extra money for paying down debt. I want to urge each of you to participate in a challenge. Just leave a comment about one positive step you’ve taken for your family each day. Did you eat in instead of going out? Did you save money at the grocery store? Did you pay extra on your credit card? Leave a comment below and we will cheer one another on every day and every step of the way.
The challenge is to leave a comment about what YOU have done to work on getting debt free each day. One winner will be chosen to win a $50 Amazon gift card at the end of each month. To participate in the challenge you must comment on at least 10 posts during the month.
* I will also be sharing my progress from the day prior.
My Progress : I had a busy, busy day yesterday. The good news is that there wasn’t much time for spending money. We are packing, moving, packing, moving … We’d pack up most of a room (aside from the large furniture) and fill my husband’s truck and my mini van and take it over to the new house. Then we come home and do it all over again. We didn’t get done as much as we had hoped to so we’ll really have to do alot today.
We did take a lunch break. We used a gift card that I earned doing surveys. We owed $2.33 + tip after the gift card. We went to a family birthday party for dinner. It was my niece’s 12th birthday. We had lots of fun as usual and didn’t spend anything on dinner. My sister actually had lots of leftovers and asked me to take some home so I packed it up for my girlies for lunch today. It’s Kayla’s favorite meal (The Potato Volcano) so she’ll be excited. The girlies got to bed around 10 and were asleep within 5 minutes. Ro (my husband also fell asleep within 5 minutes. I am the only one that takes awhile to fall asleep. My mind is too busy ( especially now).
I am SO excited. Ro and my dad are going to work together to make my stockpile area in the garage today. I’ve always had to have a mini stockpile because of space constraints, but now I will be able to have a real stockpile. I will be sharing pics of it in the coming months (once it’s up and running). I know I’m a dork, but I already have 36 cans of veggies (from the deal I told you about a few weeks ago) waiting to go on my new shelves. They will be the first stockpile items- yeah!
What did you do ? I hope you had a blessed day. Leave a comment You could be the December winner.
I am a mom who has paid off $111,500 in debt in less than 4 years by saving money at the stores and putting all of our extra $ on debt. Subscribe to 
I’m working on some calculations this morning so I can show my husband exactly what we have to work with this weekend. We still have $50 of fun money for the weekend, but weekends seem to be especially tricky for us! Hopefully we’ll stay in budget.
No spend day here.spent 2 hours planning todays trip.Last big grocery trip till after new years. $50 is my goal. Also cashed in huggie rewards for a starbucks $15 gift card!
Yesterday was a no spend day for me either when its cold out I hybernate lol. It wasnt a good mail day either as I only recieved one thing a bill aww boooo… But the most exciting thing I got was a mystery gift card to victoria secret im so excied because tomorrow me and my 2 girls will be heading to the mall to have FREE breakfast with Santa and i will be stoping in at VS to pick up some free items!!
I have quit my job as a teacher 🙁 and opened up my own in-home daycare :). This means I cut the expense of taking my son to daycare ($500 a month). This also means we’re eating in a lot more because I’m actually home and can get a meal fixed. I’m just waiting on more kiddos to enroll with me so I can have income & feel useful! Couponing to save & building at least a small stockpile are what I need to work on now!
WOW ! You are who I want to be when I grow up 🙂 I am also a teacher and always toy with the idea of doing just what you have done. PLEASE keep me updated on your progress. I have a friend who did it and did very well. You are on the right track. Think of your time at home as income producing because you are cooking and saving money in SO many ways. Your stockpile will really help. Keep me updated !
Today I start pulling coupons for next week sales. I received some free things in the mail yesterday that I forgot about so that was exciting.. Got my rebate for brita so that was also good. We are going to try and go to dinner tonight on a gift card that we got six months ago but never used. Hubby is fussing that we don’t eat out any more but I have to keep telling him we want to get out of debt so we do what we have to do now to be able to do what we want later. I guess I need to come up with some more fun money so the family will still want to work together on this. I will do the budget over again on the first of the month to see what we can do. 🙂
We got a first time ever surprise “thanks for a great year – here’s $1000 (minus taxes of course :s) to all FT employees” bonus in our direct deposit today. My jaw hit the desk when I read the email – it showed up today in my checking account! Had this happened 2 years ago, it would be spent $20-$50 at a time and I would not know where it went, however since we are doing our TMMO, we took it and made an extra payment on our next debt in our snowball! Its a great friday for me!
I also received a few freebies in the mail yesterday – I love going to the mailbox now!
I am so excited about your new stockpile space. Today was a no spending day I went to the Dr. I did not have to pay a co-payment, I had some credit on my acct. I dont remember that but I will take it so save $10. Got 2 perscriptions to fill went to Target to fill them used my Target coupons that came out of the little magic machine last wk. for $10 for new or transfered persciptions used 2 made $20 in gift cards, I did not have to pay for my perscription they were generic so FREE. I will use the gift cards for buying X-mas gifts. I also got lunch FREE It was my Birthday on the 8th so I used my emailed Birthday coupons saved $7 on that meal. In the mail I got a check from eBay for $10.24 saying their was a settlement and I was entilled to this amount for selling through them. Nice surprise I have not sold on eBay for over 2 years now so total suprise. I hope it real I have to check it out before taking it to the bank. Have a wonderful day
Congrats on the stockpile room! I have limited space at the moment, so I have to really pick and choose the items I stock up on…
It was another 24 hours away at work for me yesterday = a $2 in tips only day. Plus scored free breakfast at the hotel (not all have that). I had an unexpected surprise waiting for me at work as well. Our company decided to reward the employees for recent positive performance during a major system transition by giving each of us a $100 gift card. I somehow missed the memo, so it was quite a nice and unexpected surprise! It couldn’t have come at a better time either.
I am a Dork, too! I cannot wait to clear space to create my stockpile! I look forward to seeing your pictures!
I saved $15 with my coupons at the grocery. My goal was to spend under a $100 but I went over $15. But I still saved the $15 so I guess thats ok. We are so close to getting all our debt paid off except the house. It will be done after Christmas. My generous inlaws always give us money at Christmas so all that money will be paid on it. It will be worth it to not have any extra bills.
On this day, I ordered one final Christmas gift for my husband’s former step-father. He is and was a very important man in his life and we wanted him to know that. I ordered him a photo book from Photobin that I bought a deal for several months ago for $2 (with the new person credit) from 8Moms.com. The book ended up being $6 shipping, but it is a beautiful book and I hope he loves it as much as my husband did looking at it.