A penny for your thoughts

Hello! 

My name is Ruth and I am a "wannabe" stay at home mom. I am a newlywed (with 3yrs under my belt-woot woot!) and mom to a beautiful 10 month old girl. I will be posting here and there about ways I cut costs at home on my quest to quit my day job. 

I am a RN, working at a plasma clinic but have a passion for anything DIY and am always on the look out for ways I can save my family money. While nursing is a wonderful profession, my goal at this stage in my life is to find away to stay home with my baby. A little history about me, I was raised by a very frugal family. Growing up with four siblings, we HAD to be careful about money. My mother stayed home and was always finding ways here and there to bring in some extra cash. Meals were usually from scratch, we shopped the sales and thrift stores, and we were always finding ways to make things ourselves. My mom did sewing work for others, babysat, and made bread for a local farmers market.

I love a good deal. I love it when I see something in the store, then go home and make it for half the price. While some may not agree with me, I would much rather give my time than my money. I might be called a penny pincher, but that's okay; I know that with every penny I save, I am that much closer to being rid of school debt (ugh!) and one step closer to my dream :) 

In an effort to bring in some extra money, I started an Etsy business recently (You can check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/BoundWithHope !!) You can read about how it all got started on my Etsy shop info page, but I'll share a quick blurb here too. "Bound With Hope" was born through conversation with Erica about cancer awareness. I had made her a wallhanging with a cancer poem before she moved to Chicago and she suggested that I sell them. She works with cancer patients daily and knows how much a simple word of encouragement can brighten their day. My hope is that my quilts can not only encourage those battling cancer, but also comfort those who lost loved ones to the deadly disease. It is exciting to be able to join my two worlds of nursing and sewing into a productive outlet. 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing my discoveries of how to cut corners and save some cash! 

~Ruth