An "Aha" Moment and Newly Found Money Saver!

Just a quick and simple post today.  I want to share an "aha" moment I had a few days ago.  As anyone who visits my blog can clearly see by the title I am a single mom.  I have been a single parent for a long time now and as I reflect back over the years, I realize that I see things differently than I did a year ago, five years and even ten years ago when my son's father decided to walk out.  In life we all struggle. Single and married alike; it's just that we may struggle in different ways.  One thing that has stayed constant for me is the fact that I want to be physically present for my son as much as possible and have worked many different jobs and tried many different things to be able to find that niche for me. Something I'm not only good at but also happy doing.  When we leave the corporate world for the excitement and uncertainty of entrepreneurship, one of the things that comes with it is stress.  Stress in not having a regular paycheck that is there every two weeks.  Now what I'm about to share is something that I am going "duh, why didn't I realize this before" and whoever reads this may also think the same thing.  I'm not perfect and make mistakes and am only sharing this for one simple reason.  If there is anyone who has not thought of this then maybe my sharing will help save them money.  You see, as someone who as I have said doesn't receive regular paychecks every two weeks, I've always just kind of gone along and paid my bills and gotten groceries as the money would allow. So many times, I'd go through the drive-thru at McDonald's or Subway.  Picking up something quick for right now this minute. What I realized the other day was that while it's ok to "drive-thru" once in awhile, what about the next meal or the next day?  A hamburger is one meal.  If I make the effort to go to the store and buy for example, a pizza and fresh green salad and other veggies, I've just stretched my dollar and made more than one meal for myself and my son.  Last night, I did just that.  I went to the store bought a pizza, salad, carrot sticks and canned juice.  We ate that for dinner and then this afternoon for lunch, what did we have?  Pizza and salad! The best part, I kept my money, we ate healthier eating not out of a box or bag as the case of fast food and I stretched my dollar further.  I hope this helps someone who may not have thought of this before.  I have been through many struggles over the years being a parent raising a child alone and sometimes my thoughts were scattered and stressed and so I'd do whatever worked for that moment, like driving through a drive-thru not really thinking about the next meal not to mention what we were putting in our bodies! While it has taken time to get clarity, I can say that with time, we evolve and grow and hopefully learn.