365: A Year of Saving!

365 days doesn’t seem like a lot of time to change your life, but for anyone that has experienced life-altering circumstances, they know that even one day can change your life entirely. The life lessons you are taught by each day give you the opportunity to change.

Now, lets get to the life-altering moment in my life that brings me to creating this blog and taking on the hefty task of saving $15,000 in 365 days.........

As a child, my parents owned a business, a beautiful home in a quiet country neighborhood in Oklahoma and it was the picture perfect life for our family of six. But come on? That wouldn’t be interesting, right? No, of course not, so we continue.

Flash-forward one year. Switch the beautiful home in a quiet country to this....

No, we didn’t own it.....

For almost two years, we shared time living at this motel, a van and a WONDERFUL homeless family housing project. The time we spent homeless was stressful at times, but we also gained unimaginable memories and strengths from the lessons that we learned EVERY day. Surprisingly, some of my favorite childhood moments came from a time that my family and a dog camped out and lived in one van eating $1 Whoppers from Burger King for many dinners.

With that being said, it also created indescribable fears that I would carry through life and I will probably never be able to shake. I don’t ever want to live the life of uncertainty ever again, especially as a mother. And luckily, I haven’t since graduating college.

And here we are with 2011 freshly sprung upon us, we are changing our habits and everyday lifestyle as we “tighten the belt.” With our income, we could get by living comfortably like we have done in past years, but we wouldn’t be able to save for the all-to-common “rainy-day” that I know too well can come in an instant.

So here’s the plan: Cut every unnecessary cost, luxury and bills down to the bare minimum that our sanity can withstand! This blog will document our journey that leads us to $15,000 in 365.

And no post about childhood would be complete without a glorious family photo (sans dad). Marvel at our eye-catching style and please don't be too jealous....