Commitment according to Webster's dictionary is an agreement or pledge to do something in the future esp an engagement to assume a financial obligation in the future, something pledged and the state or instance of being obligated or emotionally compelled. Commitment, future, agreement, obligation, pledged...all the same words in my book. When you make a commitment to something or someone it's your word. With everything that happens in your life, your word and reputation are the one things you control. What you say and how you do things are solely based on decisions you make. What have you committed to lately?
My commitment is to take one day at a time to work out my finances and somehow in the process enjoy life. Frugality doesn't mean dull or inactive. Commitment doesn't mean dread. What both of these words together mean are good decisions based upon knowledge and prayer. My husband and I have committed to being frugal while I'm laid off. We have committed to finding ways to make life happen while keeping our spending to a bare minimum. We are committed to each other and a plan.
What we have found is laughter and love together in frugality. We have gone square dancing, to movies, to the library. We have found joy in cooking dinner and sharing a meal. We have found love in every aspect of life and laughter everyday. We are moving back to the basics of life, a simplier life that involves getting to know each other on a new level.
Commitment and Frugality together have unleased a new way of living that is truly enjoyable. Try it, you may like it!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Second Week
Well, we did much better in this second week of the pay period. We started the week with $28.00 to last until Friday. One movie and a breakfast out and we are down to $19.00. I think we should be able to end the week with $15.00 left in the bank to put towards credit card debt. Now I know that you think, why do you even bother, what is the point in paying an additional $10 - $15 every two weeks. Well, this is exactly how I got out of my first credit card debt. It's baby steps that grow into children steps that grow into teen steps that grow into adult steps. What that means is this $10-$15 will grow and eventually become $20 - $30, then $40 - $60, then $80 - $120. You see as you pay off, even minimal amounts, of your debt you stop paying interest to the bank which gives every dollar you pay more leverage. It may take awhile for my big debt but by my next paycheck I will have one debt paid off and will start working on the next one. Every time one debt is paid off, there is a sense of relief and excitement that you can do it even on the little salary we make. Try it, you may find financial freedom in the little dollars you add to paying off your debt.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Two Lists
I was just reading this wonderful article on my obsession lately, the recession. It was talking about doing a flip flop in your thinking. Taking the negative of forced furloughs or being laid off and turning the situation into a positive. I have to admit, this was a stretch for me. I mean really, I get laid off and I'm supposed to be happy about it. But then I read the last paragraph. It suggested we make two lists one that lets all our worry come out, shows us our ruminations about this economic situation and gets it off our chest. The second list is a list of all our blessings in life, what we hold most near and dear to our hearts. Go ahead, take a few minutes to do this. I'll wait.
Do you have your two lists? I found that it was really easy to write these lists. I'm worried about paying the bills, never getting work again, being on government subsidies. I'm absolutely thankful for my God, my Husband, the friends I have, the family who supports me no matter what I try, the church I go to, the laughter and joy surrounding me, health to run marathons. Now would I trade anything on my thankful list to take away my worry list. Absolutely NOT! These are the joy in my life, the most important things to me. I can't imagine saying see you Robb, I need to have a job. That is insanity.
So as I go through a little bump in the road, I realize that I am blessed. I have so much more than money could ever buy and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I hope this exercise gives you a moment of pause, something to say thank you for as you are stressing out. A list that you should post where you can see it. When stress hits, a simple thank you prayer for the blessings will get you back on track.
God Bless.
Do you have your two lists? I found that it was really easy to write these lists. I'm worried about paying the bills, never getting work again, being on government subsidies. I'm absolutely thankful for my God, my Husband, the friends I have, the family who supports me no matter what I try, the church I go to, the laughter and joy surrounding me, health to run marathons. Now would I trade anything on my thankful list to take away my worry list. Absolutely NOT! These are the joy in my life, the most important things to me. I can't imagine saying see you Robb, I need to have a job. That is insanity.
So as I go through a little bump in the road, I realize that I am blessed. I have so much more than money could ever buy and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I hope this exercise gives you a moment of pause, something to say thank you for as you are stressing out. A list that you should post where you can see it. When stress hits, a simple thank you prayer for the blessings will get you back on track.
God Bless.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Friday can't come soon enough
So this frugal living is kind of hard right now. We are in forced frugal instead of chosen frugal. You see Christmas did a small number on us and now we are paying the piper. It's too hard for me to go to someone's home for the holiday without a gift and there were a lot of gifts that needed to be brought. We did regift some of the gifts however, there were many we purchased which was definitely difficult.
Trying to pay off these debts before February 19th (possible layoff date) has been challenging in that we are strapped to the maximum. This week we have $17 to last until Friday payday. If we make it to Friday that $17 goes towards paying off a bill. My thought is that we will have about $7 to put towards bills but I do know that whatever the dollar is it will all go towards the credit card bill and we will struggle again in two weeks.
There is a bright spot to this. We had a lovely dinner last night of shrimp, broccoli, baked potato and wine and the entire dinner cost us $9.00 for both of us. We even had enough shrimp left overs that my husband can eat lunch on it today. So I'm learning that even in the frugality of the times, we can have wonderful dinners and show our love for each other.
I'm also finding that taking my lunch everyday isn't that bad. A little planning and a lot of will power creates an atmosphere where taking my lunch everyday is quite uplifting. With the frugality of bringing my lunch, I find my confidence level increasing. I know it sounds wierd but when I eat the lunch I brought and know I'm saving money, it gives me financial confidence which then translates to work confidence. I'm in control of something and it's working all right. That brings confidence.
So even during frugal times, there are lessons to be learned, confidence to be learned and control to establish. In the end, when the dust settles from all this, he who has adjusted their lifestyle and created wealth will thrive!
Trying to pay off these debts before February 19th (possible layoff date) has been challenging in that we are strapped to the maximum. This week we have $17 to last until Friday payday. If we make it to Friday that $17 goes towards paying off a bill. My thought is that we will have about $7 to put towards bills but I do know that whatever the dollar is it will all go towards the credit card bill and we will struggle again in two weeks.
There is a bright spot to this. We had a lovely dinner last night of shrimp, broccoli, baked potato and wine and the entire dinner cost us $9.00 for both of us. We even had enough shrimp left overs that my husband can eat lunch on it today. So I'm learning that even in the frugality of the times, we can have wonderful dinners and show our love for each other.
I'm also finding that taking my lunch everyday isn't that bad. A little planning and a lot of will power creates an atmosphere where taking my lunch everyday is quite uplifting. With the frugality of bringing my lunch, I find my confidence level increasing. I know it sounds wierd but when I eat the lunch I brought and know I'm saving money, it gives me financial confidence which then translates to work confidence. I'm in control of something and it's working all right. That brings confidence.
So even during frugal times, there are lessons to be learned, confidence to be learned and control to establish. In the end, when the dust settles from all this, he who has adjusted their lifestyle and created wealth will thrive!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Bailout Idea
Every where one turns these days there is yet another story on the bail out plan. Another $819 billion has been approved by the House and is going to the Senate floor. This got me to thinking, $819 plus $734 (previous bill) is $1.553 trillion. I can't even fathom the amount of zeros on that number. Then I read that we will need billions more for a full recovery. My mind started thinking, how can this money come directly to the American people. How many American people are there? I googled it, $384,505,000 people in the United States. Could we give the money directly to the American people?
So now here's where it gets tricky because I'm not really great at math and this is a lot of zeros to play around. If everyone in the United States got a check for $100,000 that would be $3 Trillion. So that would be more than we have allotted already. What if it was $50,000? That should be $1.5 Trillion so less that we already have allotted. If we give the money to the people, they could spend it, save it, invest it or pay off debt with it. All of these options will help to stimulate the economy while creating a "feel good" atmosphere.
1) If every single American spent the money our economy would spike and therefore the world economy would spike. If during this spike, companies continued to get lean we would emerge a world leader with lean companies who had money in the bank from the spike in sales.
2) If every single person saved the money, this would be quite an influx of money to our banking system which should open up their ability to lend again. Credit scores would rise because borrowers have the ability to pay back debt, banks would have excess cash reserves to borrow and the American population would feel like they have a safety net to catch them if this happens again.
3) Could you even imagine Wall Street if everyone invested these dollars? They would be going crazy trying to buy all these under valued $10 stocks before their prices rose. The market would rise again as everyone determined their buying strategies. People would be in control of how the money is spent. I wouldn't be investing in Citibank because I don't believe in how they have handled the money thus far however I would invest in Ford because they have a great management team that prepared the organization for a day such as today. I would invest heavily in American stocks because I believe in putting our money back into the society in which we reside. Yet I would still invest some in foreign stocks because in the end we are all connected in one big life circle.
4) I have a lot of debt. There is less than I had before however it is still there. To get an influx of $50,000 would pay off all my credit card debt and my small mortgage. Right now I can only dream of what this would feel like. The freedom to do what I want because my debt load is relieved. I continue to pray for this day and in this blogs fantasy world I can almost taste the victory that would be. For the economy, even if everyone paid off their debt, the disposable income this would provide families would be enough to spark the economy again.
This is all a dream but could you even imagine what our country could do if this amount of money was actually given to the general population instead of business as usual up in Washington. It will be interesting to watch our new President and how he handles this money. The first test will be if there are stringent checks and balances on the spending of our next bailout plan.
God Bless.
So now here's where it gets tricky because I'm not really great at math and this is a lot of zeros to play around. If everyone in the United States got a check for $100,000 that would be $3 Trillion. So that would be more than we have allotted already. What if it was $50,000? That should be $1.5 Trillion so less that we already have allotted. If we give the money to the people, they could spend it, save it, invest it or pay off debt with it. All of these options will help to stimulate the economy while creating a "feel good" atmosphere.
1) If every single American spent the money our economy would spike and therefore the world economy would spike. If during this spike, companies continued to get lean we would emerge a world leader with lean companies who had money in the bank from the spike in sales.
2) If every single person saved the money, this would be quite an influx of money to our banking system which should open up their ability to lend again. Credit scores would rise because borrowers have the ability to pay back debt, banks would have excess cash reserves to borrow and the American population would feel like they have a safety net to catch them if this happens again.
3) Could you even imagine Wall Street if everyone invested these dollars? They would be going crazy trying to buy all these under valued $10 stocks before their prices rose. The market would rise again as everyone determined their buying strategies. People would be in control of how the money is spent. I wouldn't be investing in Citibank because I don't believe in how they have handled the money thus far however I would invest in Ford because they have a great management team that prepared the organization for a day such as today. I would invest heavily in American stocks because I believe in putting our money back into the society in which we reside. Yet I would still invest some in foreign stocks because in the end we are all connected in one big life circle.
4) I have a lot of debt. There is less than I had before however it is still there. To get an influx of $50,000 would pay off all my credit card debt and my small mortgage. Right now I can only dream of what this would feel like. The freedom to do what I want because my debt load is relieved. I continue to pray for this day and in this blogs fantasy world I can almost taste the victory that would be. For the economy, even if everyone paid off their debt, the disposable income this would provide families would be enough to spark the economy again.
This is all a dream but could you even imagine what our country could do if this amount of money was actually given to the general population instead of business as usual up in Washington. It will be interesting to watch our new President and how he handles this money. The first test will be if there are stringent checks and balances on the spending of our next bailout plan.
God Bless.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Brown Bagging It
The latest in my frugal lifestyle is brown bagging my lunch. Well it's actually a really cute pink and black lunch bag from Target boutique, but still brown bagging non the less. I started doing the math on my spending about 3 months ago, realizing that I needed to understand exactly where my money was going. Lo and behold, I found that I was spending on average $50 per week on lunches alone. If I added in the coffee and breakfasts, which I sometimes purchased, this could easily hit the $60 - 70 range. I almost got sick. That is a lot of money going to food, something I will never get a return on my investment. So for the last month I've been taking my lunch almost everyday and eating most of my breakfasts at home. This has been quite the change in that I go to the grocery store and spend about $100 per week so I wonder if I truly am saving money. However, the grocery bill is for two people for a week and includes dinners so yes, I am saving money. Then we need to actually eat the food that I purchased. This was difficult the first couple weeks but we have it pretty down pat now. I threw away a lot of food at first. I would purchase the groceries and they would go bad before we got to eating them. Now we truly don't go out so that is saving us money.
Now, don't get me wrong, it has been hard to watch my friends go out to lunch while I'm at the microwave heating up last night's dinner. There are moments when I feel left out of the conversations because I don't go to lunch and get the scoop. But then I remember that God doesn't want me gossipping, He doesn't want me spending frivolously and He wants me to have a great life. So missing the gossip and being a good steward of God's money, now that is where I want to be.
The extra cash has gone to paying down my debt. It is working too. I still feel stressed about the pending layoffs but I believe by the time I'd be let go, I will have my two smallest credit cards paid off and the last one on track for a large payoff once I get another job. So I say Bon Appetit my friends, bring the lunch and pay off your debt. It's amazing the freedom you find for yourself in this small act of frugality.
Now, don't get me wrong, it has been hard to watch my friends go out to lunch while I'm at the microwave heating up last night's dinner. There are moments when I feel left out of the conversations because I don't go to lunch and get the scoop. But then I remember that God doesn't want me gossipping, He doesn't want me spending frivolously and He wants me to have a great life. So missing the gossip and being a good steward of God's money, now that is where I want to be.
The extra cash has gone to paying down my debt. It is working too. I still feel stressed about the pending layoffs but I believe by the time I'd be let go, I will have my two smallest credit cards paid off and the last one on track for a large payoff once I get another job. So I say Bon Appetit my friends, bring the lunch and pay off your debt. It's amazing the freedom you find for yourself in this small act of frugality.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Greed
When President Obama was sworn into office and started his inaugural speech, I believe people cheered when he said that greed got us where we are today, not greed from everyone, but greed. I have to agree and disagree with this statement when I look at my financial records. There was greed when I got divorced, the greed of I deserve to live the lifestyle I had on two incomes on just my own income. That greed led to a mountain of credit card debt that after the denial phase, I am still paying off The worst word in the English language isn't a swear word, it's deserve. When people decide they deserve something that is when greed has comes home to roost. I didn't deserve to live on more than my income, I didn't earn it, I didn't need it and I certainly didn't deserve it, I wanted it. Deserve is another word for wants and we all understand the meaning of want, not something needed but desired.
So in my situation greed came home to roost for about 3 years of unabated spending and the life I deserve. Then reality set in when I couldn't pay for everything I deserved and now am making amends. I certainly earned the frugal lifestyle I'm leading and lucky for me frugal is in style now. So yes President Obama, greed got me into this mess and frugality will get me out of it. I pray the same for our country, that frugality will get us out of it and President Obama is setting the tone right for this path.
God Bless.
So in my situation greed came home to roost for about 3 years of unabated spending and the life I deserve. Then reality set in when I couldn't pay for everything I deserved and now am making amends. I certainly earned the frugal lifestyle I'm leading and lucky for me frugal is in style now. So yes President Obama, greed got me into this mess and frugality will get me out of it. I pray the same for our country, that frugality will get us out of it and President Obama is setting the tone right for this path.
God Bless.
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