October 26th - Spending

I've always believed this.
I've always thought if I just had more money,

that I'd be able to do all the things in life I wanted to do.  

But I've learned that the trick is to

 live how you want to live on what you've got.

 

Start Quote

 Without a doubt, we'd all be darling millionaires.

We know that money can't buy happiness, 

but we also know where to shop.

The problem for many of us is that 

too often we act as if we're already millionaires. 

"Acting as if" is a very powerful psychological tool 

to help us make positive life changes. 

We act as if we're confident and we become so. 

We act as if we're clean and sober and we stay so. 

We act as if we're serene and we 

experience more moments of calm in our daily round. 

"Acting as if" can improve the quality of our lives enormously, 

with one exception: spending money. 

You can't act as if you have all the 

money in the world if you don't. 

You can't spend money as if there were no tomorrow

if you can't cover the check, pay off the charge card bill monthly 

or barely make your minimum.

As far as paying for your pleasure is concerned, 

tomorrow always arrives in a white envelope

 at the end of the month...

[There's spenders and savers, but there is a happy middle ground.]

Taking the middle path of money

- Simple Abundance -

is really taking the best from both approaches;

extravagance and asceticism.

Extravagance offers gratification and a feeling of abundance.

Asceticism endows simplicity and a sense of security. 

Simple abundance offers it all.

 

One of the greatest gifts my husband has ever given me is the ability to think before I spend. This is how savers behave. Savers don't get a high from recreational shopping. Savers don't shop in order to make themselves feel better. Savers have seen many sales they can walk away from. Should they have to spend money, savers will ask, "Do I really want this? Do I really need this? Can I do without this? Where can I find this 50 percent off?" Like naturally thin people who don't eat when they're not hungry, savers don't spend if they don't have to.  And they certainly never squander money. Savers put aside for rainy days, which is why they don't panic when the roof starts leaking.

An interesting eye-opener is to discover how much money you've earned in your lifetime...You will be astounded at how much money has passed through your hands. It's even possible that you've seen several million dollars come and go.

This comes as no surprise to Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, authors of  

Your Money or Your Life, a guide to achieving financial independence by transforming your relationship to money.

"Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for.

Our life energy is our allotment of time here on earth, 

the hours of precious life available to us...

it is limited and irretrievable...our choices about how we use it 

express the meaning and purpose of our time here on earth."

It's amazing how this enlightened definition of money

can alter the shopping experience. 

Is that $90 blouse really worth six hours of your life? 

This week, keep track of your every expenditure, be it large or small, routine or one-time-only, for services rendered or for actual purchases, 

and whether it's made with cash, check, or credit card...

At the end of the week...list your expenditures under these headings: 

Necessities, Comforts, Wants, Indulgences, Extravagances, Insanity.

How much life energy did you spend?

Was it worth it?

What expenditures make you sigh?

With happy recollection or with regret?

Now look at the choices that make you feel uncomfortable.

What could you have passed up without a sense of deprivation kicking in? Now take that amount and multiply it by fifty-two. I'd be willing to bet that the total amounts to a nice chunk of change that could have been saved either for an authentic want that would thrill you or for a peace-of-mind savings investment. And you probably wouldn't even have missed it...

Today, be willing to gently explore your life-energy expenditures. 

Don't blame yourself for bad choices.

Do attempt to make better ones.

Most of our problems in handling money stem from unexamined patterns 

rather than from uncontrollable urges. 

End Quote

 In short, make a budget.

*** 

Gratitude Journal

***

1) Finally finishing those costumes yesterday meant I had so much more time today. All of a sudden it seemed I had all the time in the world, I cleaned up my craft room so I could actually do a craft.

 Ta da! Bats. Pretty, sparkly, bats. It'll only be up for a few days, but I'm okay with that.

2) Robbie was home at 5 today. After two weeks of late nights, I was so grateful to have him home.

3) Dave Ramsey, and parents who taught me to not spend more then I made and to think before I buy.

4) Debt free. The only debt we have is the mortgage, which to me seems normal...but according to statistics a lot of people have a lot more debt than that. I'm very grateful.

5) My Shark vacuum. It's amazing.