Happy New Year All!

Welcome to 9 to 5 Frugal! This is my web log where I hope to chronicle my continuous quest for frugality and simplicity.

New Years is a time to make resolutions and changes that are meant to help us grow and mature. Personally I think resolutions are a load of crap, If I were going to make a change, I would have already gotten off my duff and done it, but for whatever reason I was too lazy to do it. I know the date of Jan 1 is not going to change my laziness.

However, for whatever reason, I feel that this is a year for a change. I have had all of these crazy ideas running through my head for well over a year now and I keep thinking to myself “Self, you should really start a blog and connect with other like minded moms and dads who are struggling to keep a balance between frugality (aka early retirement) and keeping the time jam that all of us working parents experience to a minimum.”

There are hundreds of magazine articles and websites that tout frugality and tips to be frugal, but frankly, most of them eat up a lot of time. Something that I am in short supply of. On the other extreme, you have magazines and websites dedicated to making life simpler for working partents. FANTASTIC, except most of the ideas they tout cost a lot of money.

DARN IT, I WANT THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS! I want to have my cake and eat it to. I want to keep my money in my savings accounts growing toward the end goal of early retirement, a trip overseas, a screened in back porch, yet, I still want a house keeper.

I say we can have both! I have LOADS of tried and true ideas that have worked for me and I suspect many of you working folks have ideas I have never heard of. Will you join me on this quest?

To start, I am going to post a simple personal goal that will jumpstart me on this frugal journey. Will you post your goals so we can help one another and cheer one another along?

My goal for this week is to re do my budget. I created a budget about 6 years ago (before my second son was born) and haven’t updated it since. For some reason I keep getting frustrated when I can’t get a months worth of groceries for $250 anymore. Can you say UNREALISTIC?

I am looking forward to getting to know you.

Peace, FJ (Frugal Jen)

(As a side note, this is my first blog, so if any of you tried and true bloggers have any advice or comments for me, I MORE than welcome them!)

January 7, 2010 Posted in: Weekly Challenges, Welcome