Welcome to LIVING FAITHFULLY FRUGAL!!!!

I'm excited to get this blog started and start getting information out to everyone in a streamlined way.  I was tired of having to tell everyone to search 5-7 sites each week to find the best deals for each of our local stores and wanted to be able to make it easier for those just starting out to find information quickly with one website.
Let me start by giving you all a little bit of information about who I am and how this all started.  My name is Nicki and I am a 30 yr old, Christian, single mom, teacher, artist, who was trying to figure out ways to save money to help my family thrive.  I figured out some basic, easy, not too time consuming ways to do this and some time consuming ways as well.  And had several "duh" moments (as in; why have I not been doing it this way the entire time) along the way.   I will get into all these ideas later on.

2002 -  I was a full time college student in Iowa, had a 2 yr old, and had 2-3 jobs at a time, working at night; just to pay rent in a very bad low income housing apartment, pay daycare, and all that left me with was $20/month for groceries. My daughter never went without food, but I cant say the same for me (I was definitely struggling everyday!!)

Fast forward to 2011:  I bought a home built in 2000; 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2000 sq ft on 1.3 acres of land, not a thing wrong in it (except the previous owners choice of paint colors), I did have to replace AC and outside copper electrical line, and I still paid less than $36,000 total.    Praise God!!!!!!  I have over $1000 in an emergency fund, all bills are being paid each month, I have a food stockpile for 3+ months, 2 freezers full of food, a stockpile of household items and personal necessities to last me several years(most of which were FREE), I have been able to donate more items to our local food pantry since August 2011 than I have in my entire life, and I was able to give over $700 worth of items that my extended family needed this year for Christmas (food and necessities make wonderful gifts).
I also have my budget calculated to have all bills (medical, truck loan, lawyer, etc) except student loans and house paid off by the end of  May 2013.  My house will be paid off in 2018 (that is only 7 years and I have a 20 year loan), with student loans being paid off in 2023.    Thank you Jesus!!!!

The reason I decided to share so much of my life with everyone was to show you that it doesn't matter where you start from, you can have a very rich, blessed life without emptying your wallets each month.