I think I'm OK

I feel like I have finally turned the corner on this whole pay cut business. Joseph and I were finally able to review (as much as possible with kiddos on the loose) our monthly financial state, and I was able to take my latest pay breakdown and estimate the future. It's a little less than what Joseph was guessing when figuring our monthly in and out, but it's doable with some debt payment adjustments and a little cutting back here an there. We did almost all of our grocery shopping at Aldi this weekend and saved roughly $40-$50. We didn't even step foot in Walmart this weekend. We picked up the couple of items that Aldi didn't carry at Target because we had a few things to return there that we didn't need for Rylee's party. My sweet wonderful hubby even bought me a peppermint mocha at the Starbuck's in Target. The barista was new, so it wasn't the best; however, it was a very nice treat. We also got a free Shutterfly book coupon with our receipt. Yay!! Now, I can do a first year book for Rylee like I did for Aiden. We are looking at changing our cable/internet provider to save some money as well. We currently have AT&T Uverse and don't have any real complaints, but Cox has a pretty sweet deal that looks like it could save us about $60 a month. We still need to see of the channel availability is comparable, but that's a nice savings and guaranteed for 24 months. We also discovered that Rylee's day care tuition went down by $10 when she moved up which we hadn't realized. What a blessing!!! I also have a little plan for saving on after school care, but we'll see if it pans out. It's kind of somebody else's decision, so I'm just going to hope for the best. We made some adjustments to our car and home insurance a few months ago, but I'm not sure the savings has fully come through yet. That could be another $20-$80 savings per month. It goes without saying that God is good and provides when we have faith that He will. I never really doubted that we would be OK (especially when Joseph said we could do it), but it's still terribly demoralizing to go through a pay cut. I've literally been set back 7 or 8 years in pay, but I'm doing about 7 or 8 times as much work. It just doesn't seem right. I just wasn't sure how much we were going to have to give up as a family, as a couple, as an individual. But it looks like the cutbacks are fairly minor all things considered. We finally took pictures of some purses that I've been looking to sell for a while, so I'm hoping to get them posted to ebay or Amazon this week. I need to do some market research and find a reasonable price. They are Dooney & Bourke, so the retail is pretty high and some of them have never been used. I'm also going to revamp my Scentsy business this month. I'm going to dedicated myself to getting some parties booked, and if all goes well I will finally have the launch I've been looking for. I don't believe in coincidence. I think everything happens for a reason. I don't know the reason for this new state for my family, but I'm going to go with it. I'm going to make the best of it. I'm going to use it as the reason to do some things I've been needing to do for quite a while. God is good, and He will be with me every step of the way. I just have to make sure I search for and follow His guidance. ~Heather