Our nickname for taking control of our finances is BROKEWATCH. We describe things when we’re chatting online during the day as VBWC (”very BROKEWATCH compatible”) or deny each other purchases citing, “Sorry, not during BROKEWATCH.” I’ve been reading a finance guru because I lack even the most basic sense of household money management and we rotate referring to him as Dave Barry, Jeff Ramsey, or even Gordon Ramsey when it comes up in conversation.

I find that a little humor about it definitely helps, especially when we’re working really hard at it. For example, this weekend. We were out of town in Atlanta, our first jaunt without kids since, well, since we’ve had kids. We had free airfare from winning a raffle and a free hotel room from DH’s accumlated points since he used to be a frequent business traveler. We had relatively inexpensive tickets to see the world’s finest baseball team. We opted against a rental car for public transportation and set ourselves a strict food budget limited to our cash on hand and a starbucks gift card we got via coinstar.

And you know what? It was kind of fun. I liked the sense of challenge it gave us. We were more creative, for sure, and everything tasted that much sweeter.

My famiy has a Hallmark habit. A bad one. You haven’t shown that you care if you haven’t selected exactly the right mass-consumer paper greeting. Because of the number of grandmas in our life (5), I spent $26 on cards in May, and then another $10 just for my dad for Father’s Day. Add in postage and we spent over $40 in the past two months on something that doesn’t mesh with our budgeting or environmental values. I say no more! I have a bulging pile of kids’ artwork on top of our microwave, and fine printables like these from hotcakes:

I just can’t pay into the “Your Greetings Must Come from Wallgreens” cabal anymore, you know?

A lovely new organic market opened across from the public market in our city. As a promotion, I got a postcard from them in the mail yesterday. For 30% off…. ENTIRE PURCHASE. I think my husband was a little scared by how gleefully I clutched that piece of paper. It felt like a present! I’m pretty certain they didn’t anticipate someone filling up a cart or two of groceries and then presenting that postcard, but I read it 47 times and there is no fine print! I am working really, really hard at reigning in our grocery budget (a post for another time), and this will go a long way towards that goal for this month. Yay!

One household task I’ve never really minded, and maybe even kind of enjoy, is laundry. Good thing, considering on any given Friday, I do 4-5 loads, and then another 3-5 across the course of the weekend. It probably explains, at least a little, why we never batted an eye at the idea of cloth diapering triplets.

I work Tuesday-Thursday, so by Friday my inner domestic goddess is literally bursting at the seams. During the morning nap, I clean up, get the first few loads going, and perhaps a few other household projects. For the school year, we picked up my 4 year old (P) before lunch, and then during the second nap, he and I would do a project of some sorts. Today, we made brownies. But this is our last Friday of the school year, and from now on he will be at summer camp, and by the fall, who knows? I could be working full time and this could be it. Sniff!

As the whirlwind of my life seems to be calming down a little, oh how I find I miss blogging! I’m back, but sage is going to be a different place. Less reposting deals from other sites, more ‘Holy crap how do I deal with this economy with six mouths to feed?’, less round-up of crafts I want to do, and more what I’m actually doing. (Read: more mommyblogging) Please join me!

What have I been up to for the last three months?

• Physical therapy for the little guys, who aren’t quite walking yet but will be soon. They’ll be 15 months tomorrow.
• Lots of projects and cooking with the big brother.
• Mostly, marriage repair, a category I’ve never excelled at but that we desperately need after 12 intense years, two cross country moves, countless job changes, and four kids.
• Uncabling! We are an AppleTV and DVDs from the library household now, and couldn’t be happier.
• Trying to budget, finally, after living for years like just hunting for bargains would be enough.
• Tons of cooking, especially the once-fearful whole chickens.

I don’t know how often I’ll blog. I don’t know if I’ll always be on topic. But I really miss writing, so write I will.