Not Typical

So, I mentioned we are not the typical family. What does that mean to me? Let me fill you in a few fun facts about us.

I used to have a sales job and before that a recruiting, training and selling job. Both paid very well and had lots of flexibility at certain times of the year. However both involved travel and very long hours at other times. When it came time to get married and start a family I knew I didn't want those 'other times' to be a factor in my life. This led to me taking a 90% pay cut. How is that possible? I started working at Starbucks approximately 20 hours a week for less money than I made waitressing in high school. Why would I bother continuing to work? We need health insurance for our family and Starbucks is a wonderful company that provides benefits for employees who work an average of 20 hours/week or more. It is sometimes very humbling to my graduated-with-honors-from-the-honors-program-of-a-well-respected-university self to be a barista. However, I am so grateful for the flexibility and benefits that Starbucks provides. Everyone, go buy yourself a latte and keep our family covered. :) At some point we would really like me to be home full time, but until we can afford to pay for insurance out of pocket I will keep pulling espresso shots!

The reason I need to provide health insurance...Mike is self-employed. He has 2 main interests, but one of those is his true passion. He does website and graphic design (enjoys) and plays polka music (serious passion). I figured out a way to marry a polka musician. Some may not consider that odd, living in Wisconsin as I do. Although finding one who is under 30 and does it full time is a very rare thing. Others may not even know what polka is. Trust me when I say I had no idea I would ever end up with someone who plays the accordion for a living! He has played since he was 6 years old and it is what he really loves. I'll do an entire post about it at some point, but for now the best way to learn about what he does is http://www.pintsizepolkas.com/. Mike works from home and watches our little one when I work. Hard to believe our 10 month old has never been with a sitter.

Other things that aren't typical...
1. I bake almost all our bread products
2. Our grocery budget is $100/month
3. We only have one vehicle
4. I rummage, thrift shop and freecycle for most of our 'needed' items
5. Yet, we own a Wii
6. We own a rental home, previously my house
7. The only debt we have is our home
8. We cloth diaper and love it
9. We pray before meals and eat almost all of them together
10. Mike is pining away for an HD TV, but won't buy it until he earns a certain amount of money in a year. He set the amount, not me!

There are many more things, but we'll cover those in the future. We are a funny, fun loving, but not very typical crew! And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Heather