Frugal mama

[edited 9/22 to remove specific amounts of debt, at M's request; why he cares if I put it on here I have no idea -- either you're a random stranger and I don't care if you know how much we owe, or you're a good friend or part of our family, and again, I don't care if you know how much we owe. Oooh! Just thought of a third possibility: maybe you're a bored, rich dude with nothing to spend his money on, and you'll send me a check!]

I feel like we are drowning in debt. Adoption debt: $A lot. HELOC balance: $An obscene amount. Credit card: $Bearable, but I'd rather not have it. Student loan: $Small compared to other people's. And M's car is near death and will have to be replaced soon (like next week, it turns out). It makes me crazy. Before we started the adoption, we had no debt (except for the student loan) and $A comfortable amount in savings. Now we have $A substantially less comfortable amount in savings and debt up the wazoo. Considering that childcare + our mortgage together = half our take-home salary, it's hard to imagine when it's going to get paid off. The adoption tax credit will help next year, and believe me, I'll be filing our taxes the very day I've accumlated all the paperwork.

So I'm trying to be a frugal mom. Yesterday, I:
- Peeled, chopped and froze all the tomatoes from the garden that had gotten too soft to eat raw -- our garden is producing tomatoes at a rather alarming rate, and I've vowed that I won't throw a single one away. Look out basil, you're next -- I see batches & batches of pesto in my freezer soon. And parsley, oregano & sage drying in the crawl space.
- Made french toast using the 1/3 can of pumpkin I had leftover from making a cheesecake on Saturday. Why throw it away? Yummy + a little extra kick of vitamin A.
- Tore up all the heels from 2 loaves of bread & stuck it in the freezer in a ziplock bag. Instead of feeding it to the squirrels, I'll have bread crumbs ready next time a recipe calls for it.
- Went through the Costco coupon flyer & circled everything we routinely use. I'm going to go buy it all, whether we need it right now or not. It'll all keep until we do.

Today, I've spent ALL DAY washing, folding, hanging and tagging a bunch of the kids' outgrown clothes. I'm going to sell them and the baby gear we no longer need at a sale that benefits the PTA of a local elementary school. I do this every fall and usually take home about $100-$150 plus a tax deduction for a charitable donation. This year I'm hoping for twice that, thanks to all that baby gear.

I've started sewing & selling my stuff again, mostly baby blankets. I'm thinking of opening an Etsy store. Actually, I already have one, but there's never been anything in it.

I'm going to apply to teach a course at the community college where the kids' preschool is. The paycheck is only about $500/semester/class, but it will cut 2/3 off the cost of their tuition if I'm teaching there.

We moved the kids to a preschool that has part-time tuition, saving us about $75/month. Plus, I can ride the bus to work from there. I have a free bus pass from work, so the savings on gas & car repairs should be more than $150/month. Our auto insurance might even go down a bit.

Last but not least, I'm debating whether I should go back to work full-time. It would bump my salary by nearly $20,000/year. I think they'd let me cram it into four days (35 hours is full-time where I work, so it's not as bad as it sounds). The problem is that I desperately need my Mondays home alone. It's not only when I do stuff like cook and clean, it's when I recharge my batteries. I'm a classic introvert, and I need some time alone in order to cope with living in this zoo. The kids aren't in school on Fridays, so I'd be home with them on my day off work. No housework (although we could afford a cleaning lady with me working full-time), and no recharging. Once I go back to full-time, I don't think they'll ever let me go back to part-time again. A possible compromise would be to wait until next fall, when B starts kindergarten. Then I could send Z to preschool on Fridays and have most of the day to myself. But we need the money now!

What to do? Any advice or suggestions, anyone? What do you do to save money?