Living on Less

My new motto in life, if you will, is learning to live on less and love it.  I know we've been told countless times to avoid debt and to get out of it ASAP.  We have been doing an AWESOME job in the past year of not using our credit cards and it feels great!   The biggest thing that went on them were vacations and unexpected expenses just made it worse.  Our move-in-with-parents-and-pay-off-debt plan isn't going quite how we planned.  Sometimes this frustrates me, but then I am reminded that the Lord really does know my situation and has a plan for me.  It just isn't on my timescale.  We recently found out that we are responsible for a couple thousand dollars worth of HOA fees plus some until the bank forecloses on our condo.  Just what you want to hear with a baby on the way, right?  It turns out that a lot of times, HOAs will simply put leins on your home, but not ours.  Ours only cares about money.  The same day our lawyer told us this, Alex got a call from one of his teachers at the UA who said he had a check for him for 300 to reimburse him for catering his class project on the last day of school.  AMAZING!  $300 definitely won't solve our problems, but it is an answer to prayer. 

Before we moved, we really tried to get rid of stuff we don't need and we plan on purging even more stuff if (ahem, when...) we move out of my parents' place.  We won't be able to afford a large place (nor do I want to clean one) and frankly we don't need everything we have.  I am trying to live on less and actually enjoy it.  I don't want to spend my life wishing we had more money than we do so that I could buy stuff.  I'm a real sucker for kitchen gadgets.  Anything that makes food preparation easier on me is right up my alley.  I also want things to match.  Alex is much more into matching than I am, but I am quickly catching on.  However, buying a couch and matching recliners...not exactly cheap.  I am going to have to become one of those garage sale people and find things cheap! 

Any ideas about how to be frugal and enjoy it?  What do you do to stretch a dollar?