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Introduction:
Welcome to Industrious Thirty-one! Let me start by telling a
little bit about myself. I don't know what on earth I was thinking when I
decided to begin this blog. My life is pure INSANITY right now! I am a Stay at
home wife and mom. My husband and I have two beautiful little girls and one
prissy Mini Poodle. I decided to call this blog "Industrious
Thirty-One" because my name (Emily) means "industrious." The
"Thirty-One" comes of course from the Bible passage of Proverbs 31 (The
Virtuous Woman). I have always felt that these two things are clear
instructions for the LORDS plan for my life; to serve him while being an
industrious wife and mother. I guess I began this site to share some tricks and
tips I’ve learned along my journeys thus far that I felt might be helpful to
other moms and wives. I’ll be giving some creative and practical tips on ways
to save money (such as couponing, DIYs, financial tips etc.), cooking tips,
recipes and more. I don’t claim to be an expert on any of these subjects but I
feel the LORD has graciously taught me, through my experiences, many things
that I feel would be beneficial to not only other moms and wives, but to pretty
much ANYONE! Hope this site is helpful and beneficial to you. God bless and
ENJOY!
A while ago, I had read a thought provoking statistic. It
stated that stay-at-home mothers make almost the same amount of money as an
hourly employee in money savings alone! I, at the time, was married, in college
and working an almost full-time job. I was shocked at this statistic and
couldn’t quite believe it! It was amazing to me that here I was working
practically a minimum waged job and going to school to “get a career” in order
to make ends meet, when I could be making the same or more just by staying
home?! I’d always wanted to be a stay at home mom but never thought it was
financially possible for us. I decided to figure out a list of all the things
being a stay at home mom and/or wife would SAVE (therefore money in our bank
account) us money on. This was my list:
-Daycare/Childcare- Even though at the time we didn’t have
any children yet. I plan ahead!
-Food- By me being home to cook almost every night and not
having the excuse “I’m too tired from work”, we could save a lot of money by
not eating out so often. Also, not having to buy breakfast and/or lunch while
at work!
-Gas- I wouldn’t have to drive to and from work every day.
Doesn’t seem like a whole lot of benefit, right? So I looked
into it. This is what I found: They average cost in America for
daycare/childcare a year is over $11,500! That’s about $220 a week! That was
about DOUBLE my paycheck after taxes! Just for childcare alone! Still, we had
no children at the time and although we were trying, I wasn’t even pregnant
yet. I continued to brainstorm
and I
just couldn’t justify staying home with no children. I talked to my
husband
about it and he LOVED the idea of me being home but I still wasn’t sure.
Still,
the idea of being a housewife was constantly on my mind. We began to see
what
God’s word said about it and through scriptures (such as Proverbs 31) we
finally decided as a family that we felt it best that I be
home. So I gave my job my 2 week notice. The very next week we found out
I was
pregnant with our first child. Amazing how God works things out, huh?
So my work as a stay at home wife began.
