New here

**GFNancy** · 08-06-2007, 12:23 AM

Hello,

I'm a SAHM of a 5yo girl and a 3yo boy. My DD is starting kindergarten in a week.

My kids and I have a form of celiac disease, which is kind of like having a food intolerance - in this case to wheat, rye, barley and oats. I did a quick search on this board to see if this subject has come up and I've seen that it's come up in conversation several times. So it looks like I'm not the only one here.

If you're on the gluten-free diet, you know it can get expensive if you let it. If not expensive money-wise, expensive time-wise.

I just got back from a two-night camping trip that took me three days to pre-cook most of our food for. But that's okay, we had s'mores with my homemade gluten-free graham crackers. So it was worth it. I'm just soo tired now.. LOL.

So anyway...

My husband works in the IT department of a mortgage company. About six months ago there was an office politics situation at work and instead of giving my husband a promotion he was told he was going to get, a decision was made to reorganization his department. We had just bought a house we could barely (squeeeeeak...) afford so he could be near his work in order to put in the extra hours at work (as well as to be able to spend time with the kids and I) when that decision was made. He wouldn't have gotten a huge raise, but it would have been enough that we wouldn't be squeaking by every paycheck.

Then just a couple days ago there were some changes in the whole mortgage industry that has created some real problems, and some companies have gone out of business. The owner of the company my husband works for is a very conservative guy with how he runs his business, so the company should be able to get through it okay, but it's "batten down the hatches" time for everybody.

I've been able to keep the money under control, but that was with the hope that after the beginning of the year when there are reviews and raises, that he would get a bit of a raise and we could relax a bit. But with this last development, it could be a couple of years before anyone gets any raises at all.

So I'm here to see what else I can do to be more frugal. There are several things I haven't been doing that I can do. Like shopping the clearance racks for back-to-school clothes and really keeping track of what stores are cheapest for food rather than just going to the most convenient or least crowded one. I want to see what other things I can do too.

I've also found that challenging times are a lot easier to handle when you've got a place to go where people are rowing along with you in the same boat.

I'm looking forward to meeting everybody.

Nancy

**Its_Donna** · 08-06-2007, 05:15 AM

**FrugalMomof3** · 08-06-2007, 07:51 AM

Hi Nancy and

I am sure you will find tons of ways to cut down on things. Shopping yard sale / flea markets are great! Cutting off phone features, cable features or cable all together, using candles at night instead of the lights and using natural light during the day.

Also, most of the people here set food budgets, seems food is a major expense so try cutting that down even just a bit to begin with and everything else one-by-one.

**emily_hope** · 08-06-2007, 08:07 AM

Welcome to the Village! I have a client who has celiac disease. It does take a lot of your time to bake/cook correctly.

**nuisance26** · 08-06-2007, 08:09 AM

~Welcome to FV, Nancy!~

**kittykatstrong** · 08-06-2007, 10:41 AM

Hello and Welcome

Katy

**imforpeace** · 08-06-2007, 11:00 AM

Oh, yes. You will find lots of help here! Welcome!

**Mom23boys** · 08-06-2007, 11:40 AM

Nancy, hello and welcome to the Village.

**baxjul** · 08-06-2007, 11:51 AM

Hello Nancy, and welcome!

**lwlynch** · 08-06-2007, 11:53 AM

hello and welcome to the village

**Neeley** · 08-06-2007, 12:18 PM

**Luv2BeFrugal** · 08-06-2007, 12:24 PM

Hello and welcome from Alaska...glad you joined us!

**sdrjeolsen** · 08-06-2007, 12:27 PM

Hi Nanacy! and welcome to the village.

**GFNancy** · 08-06-2007, 01:35 PM

Thanks for the welcome everybody. It's great to see such an active message board. I was surprised at how many new posts were up since I visited last night.

I have been thinking about stopping cable for now. To be honest there aren't too many shows we really watch. And those that we do we can usually watch the next day online anyway. I think that would work out fine.

Nancy