Mrs. Pears Questions

She's been asking some good questions, and I want to answer them. However, I don't want to take up all her comment space. Sometimes I can get carried away since these are my favorite subjects. So I've decided to answer them here on my blog.
The first question I want to answer:
What are your top 5 tips on saving money?
When I go grocery shopping the most important thing I do is take my hubby with me. When I go alone I end up buying things I don't need. Plus I count it as time spent together.
The second thing I do is make up a menu and shopping list. My hubby gets paid every two weeks, so thats the way I shop. I only really consider dinner in my menu. My hubby prefers cereal for breakfast, and I eat sandwiches for lunch. Dinner is the only meal I cook and most of what I buy is for dinners. My hubby only gets paid every two weeks. So I buy enough food for two weeks. I try not to go back to the store simply because its a trip. I don't have a store just around the corner.
Third thing, I go where I know I can get it cheap. If that means I've shopped at 5 different places in one day then so be it.
Fourth, I use coupons when I find them.
Fifth, I buy veggies and fruit locally. Its so much better than the fruit thats been sitting in the back of a truck for a week or in a infested warehouse. In most cases its cheaper anyway, but also it lasts longer and in the long run thats more frugal.
What sources do you consider the definitive guide on frugal living that are both practical and realistic?
The best source I could think of is my husband. Growing up, his family didn't always have much money. His mother taught him how to be frugal when it counts.
What are your best tips on home management, and what source do you rely on for sharpening your skills or learning more?
My best tip for home management is "go with the flow". Just when you think you've got yourself all put together, something breaks or someone gets sick or somebody needs something. If you spend most of your time being frustrated that things aren't going the way you planned your going to be one very discontented woman.
Please share a rough outline of your daily and weekly schedules!
For sure I go day by day. I try to have some routine when my husbands at work, when he gets home we have some schedule, and on the weekends we are completely wild.
Monday
2:50 a.m.- wake up
help hubby get ready for work
3:30- hubby's out the door
Lately I've been going back to sleep because even this early its too hot to do anything.
6:00-7:00a.m.- get up
breakfast
shower
Start looking to see what needs to be done.
12:00 p.m.- lunch
I catch some of Martha Stewart.
In the afternoon I've been crafting, its too hot to move much.
2:00-3:30 Hubby gets home
5:00- dinner
I've been exploring different ways to serve your basic sandwich again because of the heat.
7:00-in bed
Tuesday:
Looks like Monday except I work from 9:00-12:00
Wednesday:
Looks like Monday
Thursday:
I have to work again. When hubby gets home or weekend begins.
I don't really have a cleaning schedule, I just do what needs to be done when I can.
Everyday:
laundry
dishes
make the bed
sweep the floor
What is your story? Have you always worked at home? Did you work outside the home until you got married? Had children? When did you come home from the work world? If you have not, what is the big thing stopping you if that is what you would really like to do?
My story:
My mother is a career woman. She says she stayed home for two weeks after she and my dad got married and it nearly drove her crazy. Shes worked every since. So it just seemed natural for me to get a job once I graduated from high school. I got a job cleaning offices in a factory. I worked there both full-time and then part-time for 2 years. In 2002 started babysitting for my husband's cousin's 2 children. The children were coming from a survival situation, and I devoted most of my time to helping them heal. I cleaned the house, ran errands, did laundry.... the works. After 8 months with them I was replaced by a live-in girlfriend. From there I just stayed at home, but I didn't know to use my time effectively then. Until 2004 when I started my church secretary job to help pay for medical bills that I made. The bills were paid off a year later, but I'm still at it. Right now I only work Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I have time at home but I'm not at home full-time. My husband wants me to work. His mom always worked too, but she was a single parent. The bible says I am to be submissive to my Husband. First and foremost. Above all the hype about "women should be at home" and everything being said on the subject in our blog community, I have to obey my husband.