The Adventure Begins

On May 29 I turned in the keys to my old job and turned towards a new one:

Chief Bargain Hunter
(And Domestic Fiscal Administrator)

Fancy fun-sounding names aside, I was scared shitless.  I had just walked away from a good-paying job (sort of) and unabashedly cut our income stream in half.  Was I crazy? 

Fortunately, I had run the numbers before making my exit, and figured out that even though I was doubling our income with my job, I was also making us miserable in the process. 

As a Property Manager, I was responsible for the success or failure of the portfolio I managed, and I took that responsibility seriously.    My first month on the job averaged 16-18 hour days 7 days/week, including holidays.  I drank so much Starbucks coffee during that time I qualified for their gold card within 2 weeks.  I was literally running on passion, caffeine, and an unwillingness to fail.

As time went on, my workload lessened slightly, and I was able to take one day off per week.  This became my "household chores day" when I would madly do laundry, clean house, wash dishes, etc.  Fun way to relax, huh?

This continued for about 6 months, with both my husband and I becoming more and more miserable, and our bank accounts never growing substantially like we had planned. 

One night I sat down and calculated what we were currently spending vs. what we would spend if I weren't working.  When all was said and done, we could easily live off of one salary and still have a decent amount left over for savings each month.  If I could increase my cooking and reduce or eliminate pre-made foods, I could reduce our food budget and increase our savings even more.

The plan for exit was made. 6 weeks later I fired my boss and became CBH of our household. 

The adventure had begun!