What does it mean to YOU?

What does living on less mean to YOU? What would it mean for your family? If you decided today to get rid of the clutter in your life what would that do for you?

1. You would have a LOT less to clean. You could clean your house in half the time if you didn't have SO much furniture to dust, so many nick nacks to move around and clean off, and so much stuff on the floors!

2. You would have less piles of "give aways" and "garage sale items" laying around. You wouldn't constantly be creating stacks of items to take to the good will. You wouldn't have excess things.

3. You would have more money. If you chose to live on less then you WOULD save money. Think about it... you'd have less dishes to wash, less clothes to wash, less cleaning products to buy, less gas to put in your car which saves money, less electricity to pump through your house... you WOULD save money.

4. Your debt would go down. You would save money and prevent the spending of money if you chose to live on less. You wouldn't have to go buy the newest and latest gadgets. You would relieve the pressure "keeping up with the Jones" and you could rid your life of "stuffitis."

5. You WOULD be happier. You would be happier because you would be more content. You wouldn't feel this CONSTANT pressure to have more. You would sleep better, live longer, and have more time to focus on your family.

These aren't necessarily life altering changes, but they would alter your life to some degree. Think about how NICE it would be if you chose to give it up! To give up the pressure, to embrace contentment, and to watch your financial world change.

How NICE would that be?

Goals

This post is also appropriate for www.thebargainhuntingmommy.blogspot.com

I try to keep my blog posts written specifically for each blog, but it doesn't always work that way.

I am currently reading the book "Does this make my assets look fat?" It's a woman's guide to financial understandings. From little things like budgets and shopping to the big topics like stocks and bonds. It's a GREAT book. i checked it out at our local library. I encourage you to do the same.

one of the things that really stuck out in my head was the whole GOALS chapter. I understand goals, but i've never sat down with a pen and paper and prayerfully considered what my short, mid and long term goals are. I mean sure, I have blogged about my financial goals for this year but I haven't looked at the BIGGEST picture. So I started doing that this weekend.

Short term goals: These are to be completed within 2 months and 1 year.

Mid goals: 2-6 years. Something you expect to happen in the "next few years."

Long term goals: these may be a lifelong process. An example would be contributing to a 401k or an IRA. this is not something that can just be completed one day soon.

It makes you think--what would you REALLY like to see happen this year? in 5 years? in 30 years?

I've started my list... not complete yet but here's what I have so far.

Short term goals:
Pay off my car (next few months)
Pay off credit cards (next 3 months max.)
Save 2 months worth of bills

Mid goals:
Pay off student loans (not much in there, but I need to do it)
Have 10,000 in savings
Contribute to IRA faithfully (max it every year-$6,000)
Pay cash for a new car in about 4 years(if mine lasts til then)

Long term goals:
Buy a house (with at least 30% down)
Have a GOOD retirement saved up!


Some of these may seem silly, or seem like they aren't "goal" worthy, but to me these are the things that keep me from spending when i want to. These goals keep me in "check". Dave Ramsey always says that you HAVE to see milestones along the way. That's why he says you pay off your smallest debt first. That way you see the progress and can get excited about it.

So there ya have it... my goals.

What are yours?

As the new year approaches...

Well folks, we have already begun talking about our new years resolutions... but it seems as though I am CONSTANTLY adding to this list :) I told you about my financial new years resolutions in THIS post, but I failed to talk about my minimalistic resolutions.

I walked around my house this weekend when I was taking down all of my Christmas decorations and looked around at my "stuff". No matter how much I get rid of, there is always more to gain. No matter how much i want to not HAVE all of this STUFF... I do. So that got me thinking about New Years Resolutions in a minimalistic way.

While these resolutions may not be as cut and dry as my financial goals, they are still very real to me.

In 2012 I would like to accomplish the following:

1. I want to buy less. I do better each year, but still not good enough. I pray that I can be content with what I have and that I can fight urges to splurge.

2. I want to get rid of more. I want to downsize my closet, my cupboards, my storage building... I want to be content living on LESS!

3. I want to teach my daughter the value of a dollar. Whether that is going to be through an allowance, through having her pick items to donate, or what ... i haven't decided. But before 2012 ends, she will understand more about money.

4. I want to blog more about living on less. It keeps me accountible.

5. I want to give more. I want to give more money and more time to those less fortunate and those charities that NEED me.

6. I want to appreciate nature more. Sounds so silly doesn't it?But it's true. I get SO caught up in going, and doing, and hanging out with friends that I forget to appreciate the little things that are around me that GOD created for me to enjoy.

7. I want to spend more time reading. Granted I do read a lot as it is, but I want to spend more time reading.

There ya go. 7 Minimalistic Matthew's Resolutions.

Financial New Years Resolutions

It's that time of year... the time we sit down and think of "resolutions" for the upcoming year. It's always an exciting time... it's a fresh start and I HOPE that this coming year will be yet another fresh year in my financial future.

My financial goals are as follows:.....

1. Put $2500 in my IRA
2. Pay off my car by SEPTEMBER 1st (that would be exactly 18 months early)
3. Mantain my food budget of $100 a month
4. Donate more items to Goodwill, etc. (take write off's add up more than the cash in my pocket from a yard sale)
5. Teach my daughter about finances using allowance
6. Put $5000 in savings

Okay so 6 is a random number... but that's what I got :) What about you? have you given much thought to your financial goals for the year?

to read about my OTHER New Years Resolutions that will posted by the end of the week go to www.jereandcara.blogspot.com

Are we entitled?

I've read lots of blogs lately about the Generation Y which happens to be the category that I fall into. We seem to be the generation of lazy, entitled, instant gratification people. Follow me on this. Don't get offended.

Our generation is LAZY because we make more money the generation before us yet work less hard. Think about it. The generation before us worked from sun up til sun down and made less money than WE make. Therefore we come across as lazy, but I think it's quite the opposite. We just have more opportunities than those before us. There are more jobs to chose from then there were before us. And yes, we are lucky in that we do not have to do as much manual labor as the generation before us, but we are NOT lazy. We are just fortunate to not have to work AS hard and make MORE money. That does not make us lazy.

Entitled. Now that part got me to thinking... we DO feel the need to shop more, buy houses younger, and spend more money. To say we are entitled seems to me to be an over statement but I can see some truth in there.

Instant gratitification describes our generation perfectly! WE ARE LIKE THAT! We want something, we buy it. We don't wait years and years to buy a house...we buy one as soon as we get married! My parents never owned a home until they were in their 40's. Now, thats a very rare thing. We want it NOW!

Part of these qualities make us the generation of "Go-getters" which is very admirable! We don't take it laying down. We fight for what we want in life and we are goal oriented. GO US! But... we do have to chill for a moment. I've been guilty of it to so i'm not casting judgment. BUT I will say that this is the reason our generation is in so much DEBT! We feel like we earned the money to spend so let's spend it. And we spend more than we have.

It's very important to ask yourself questions like:

do I need this?
how will this benefit my life?
can I afford it?
What bills are coming due?
What will happen if I DONT buy it now?

These questions pertain to buying shoes, a $2 dollar shirt or a house. We can't just GO GET IT! Even if we have the money to do so, it's so crucial to STOP and think about it.

I don't think i'm lazy or entitled and i'm working on the instant gratification thing. The journey through minimalism and living on less isn't over night, and it's not an "idea"...it's a LIFESTYLE. Are you ready to commit?

I save the biggest on...

CLOTHES AND SHOES!

I've mentioned being prepared, having your list, and KNOWING what is in your closet. That is so important. You aren't saving money if you do NOT need the item. That's why it's so crucial to know EXACTLY what you have.

How many times have you bought something, gotten home and realized that you already had something similar but you had forgotten about it? Yep-it happens to all of us. If you keep a running list of things you have then that won't happen. That allows you to NOT overflow your closets with un-necessary things and allows you to save that money for other things.

Just today I stopped by my favorite consignment shop. I found a rack of items for .25 cents! I got my husband 2 shirts, me 1. I spent .75 on items we need. WOW!

Then inside they were having a huge 50% off sale on certain color tags. I got my daughter 3 pairs of jeans for school, me a pair of never before worn black heels PLUS I got my daughter a pair of tennis shoes that are a half size too big, BUT, she will need them before the school year is out. They looked BRAND spankin' new!

This is how you do it folks...this is how you save BIG and allow your money to be spent elsewhere.

This whole money saving-living on less-minimalistic lifestyle is challenging. But challenges can be fun. You HAVE to make it fun.

I will post more about keeping it fun in the VERY near future!

Stretching it all

One thing that gets all of us often is those little things that you constantly have to purchase. The things that you don't necesarily budget for, but it hits you one day that you needed a new one!

Examples:

cleaning supplies. We forget to budget for these because we always think we have enough.

toothbrushes. Those are supposed to be replaced every few months and that sneaks up on us.

cleaning brushes. You know the handy thing that sits in your sink that you use to pre-wash things that go in the dishwasher? Those get so gross and have to be replaced.

I have a few tips to help with these...

1. Cleaning supplies. You really only need 3 things. Windex, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol will get stains out of ANYTHING! Carpet, clothes, rugs, etc. And its CHEAP. super cheap!!! Vinegar kills germs but won't harm you to breathe it in. you may not like the smell, but its healthy to breathe in and you can use it to clean ANYTHING! Just pour it in a spray bottle and add water.

2. Brushes. Whether for your teeth or your toilet...boil it. Boil them every other week and they will last longer. Promise. I have done this for YEARS!

Another thing I want to challenge you to do is to install a clothes line. That will save on energy, keep your house cooler in these terribly hot summer days, AND your clothes will last longer and smell fresh! I have my supplies laying here on the counter just waiting for the hubs to get home. :) Drying sheets, towels, comforters, clothing... it's going to save energy, keep our house cool and I am so pumped!! I am going to monitor my electricity bill and let you know for sure how much money it saves. I do not plan on hanging up small items (my childs clothes, underwear, hand towels, wash cloths) but the rest will be hanging up to dry (quickly) in this summer sun.

To live on less means to take what you have--and stretch it!

Why do we over consume?

There are lots of different blogs out there about the consumption of America and the impact of the media on our lives. One of my favorite blogs ever, Becoming Minimalist, had a post just today about ways to escape, and WHY to escape consumerism. He says and I quote, "After all, to live is to consume." Please check out his blog and when you comment tell him who sent you!

***Random thought I need to share.... I quote a LOT of bloggers and I always give them credit. I've never had one have a problem with it, but I like to let them know that I used them in my own posts. So IF you read a blog that I suggest please let that blogger know that I sent you. I don't EVER want a blogger to think I am using them without permission or without the appropriate links to their page.***

The big question here is WHY do we over consume? Sure I could list all of the common reasons:

1. the effects of media, print, tv, commercials, etc.
2. the desire to want more thats within us all
3. "keeping up with the Jones' " 

But I think it goes MUCH deeper than that. Sure, all of those things I listed are very real. If everyone is buying the newest IPOD, it's hard for us not to buy one too. We want to be cool. We want to have what others have. I think thats normal. It's natural to want things. I believe that God made us that way. But WE have to learn how to control it. 

In my opinion, the reason we over consume has to do with the list above, but more than anything I think it's this...

A RESTLESSNESS WITHIN OURSELVES.

I know that probably sounds so extreme to you but stay with me. I feel strongly that when I am restless on the inside for whatever reason, I tend to over consume. I think the desire to want to go buy something comes from something not being right on the inside. Have you ever had that feeling inside of you that you wanted to go buy something SO bad? You didn't have anything particular in mind but the thought of spending money and walking through the mall made your stomach get in knots? That comes from restlessness. 

When our hearts and heads have priorities straight we don't feel the need to over consume. When we don't get overly stressed out about things then we don't feel the need to get a "high" from shopping. If we can condition ourselves to understand that stress happens, bad days will occur, things DO happen that convince you that you need to shop, your friends WILL have cooler stuff then you.... if we can let ourselves KnOW these things than we can begin the process of curing our restlessness other ways.

I hope I haven't lost you. :) And I hope that this makes sense, and if it doesn't I hope that you will at least CONSIDER listening to what I am saying.

Since I was a youngster I have always had that tid bit of restlessness in me. I always wanted more. Which in SOME areas is a good thing. I always knew I was better than some of the losers i dated, I knew that I deserved better friends, and I knew that I had what it took to "go places." I mean none of that in a self centered way, but it was true. I allowed myself to feel down a lot but somehow I always shook it off and rose above. Dead end jobs would satisfy me for a bit and then i'd feel that urge to FLEE and go onto something better. Some of that is good. It's called being driven... but it ALSO effected me in my shopping habits and financial aspects. I work VERY hard to keep that under wraps. There are days I want to delete all of my blogs and start over with writing about fashion, and the arts, and I want to spend money like its water, shop every day, travel the world and totally (excuse my language) screw this minimalistic-saving money-living on less-thing i've been working on for so long. But I FIGHT that.

When I feel restless and feel that urge to shop, I sit down with my checkbook and budget sheets. I go over what I have spent, how much I have saved, what bills are coming up soon, what things are coming up that I need to save for, and that gives me that same "high" as I call it without me spending a dime. We need reminders of where have been and where we are headed. And that is
OK.

To sum it all up... i think we over consume because we are restless on the inside and always want more. i think we as a society, or those few of us that WANT to live with less, have to wake ourselves up and quit sugar coating it. It's not that we needed those shoes, its that we wanted them and couldn't think of anything else. We have to learn to be real with ourselves or we can NEVER get to the root of the problem.

Did any of this make sense? Do you agree or disagree? I'd love to know your thoughts.

I love comments--please give me some love, and share this blog with a friend!

Letting go of some favs.

As sad as it may sound... one of the steps you have to take if you truly want to live with less is to let go of some of your favs.

Those fancy meals you like to make...the ones that require all the extra ingredients and it ends up being an excellent, but costly meal...you have to let those go.

The salon shampoo and conditioner may have to go.

The manicures and pedicures may be a thing of the past.

The cell phone that does it ALL may say bye-bye.

I know I sound like "Debbie downer" right now and i'm not trying to. But to truly live on less money, and live with less things you simply have to get back to the basics.

I plan my meals now by whats on sale at the store and what I can stock up on. In my recent post on The Bargain Hunting Mommy I wrote about finding an awesome deal on hamburger meat. I stocked up. The past few weeks we haven't had much hamburger meat at all because it wasn't on sale. Now we had chicken. :) But no hamburger. I can't buy something that's not on sale to make a meal. But I CAN buy items that ARE on sale and make a great meal out of those.

I've had to let some things go...shopping has been a favorite of mine since I was but a wee little thing. I never spent much on clothes, but it DOES add up.

This blog, The Minimalistic Matthews, is not meant to go hand in hand with my blog on being a bargain hunting mom, but a LOT of these things do go together. My plan for this blog is to write about HOW to live on less. Less money-yes, but more than that how to just simply enjoy LIFE on less. Without all the fuss. Does that make sense?

Basically it comes down to a MAJOR question. What can you live without?

You have to have a roof over your head, food, beds, a place to sit in your home, a car, clothes...but what about all of the OTHER stuff? What about the junk drawers that literally have nothing but CRAP in there. Can you get rid of that stuff? And the swimsuit drawer(totally guilty here)... I have 11 swimsuits. INSANE.

Minimalism, to me, is about living with less to enjoy life to the fullest. It means getting rid of things in my life that cause me to stress and to NOT enjoy life. It means if the stack of magazines sitting on the shelf make me crazy, then I should chunk them. If I get mad because I can't fit all the towels in the cabinet, I should probably donate a few. If my closet is so full and I only wear HALF the items in there, I should probably have a yard sale.

That's what minimalism is to me. And unfortunately, that DOES require getting rid of some favs...

Buy it used!

We buy nearly EVERYTHING used.

Just this past week I went into our local Goodwill store and bought my husband 4 shirts! All were in great condition. The brands were PING (he loves that brand), POLO, and the other was a brand I had never heard of... Peter Miller? I thought that was the name of a weird attorney here in Arkansas. Anyway--then I got me brown pants for work, an adoreable shirt, and I bought my daughter 2 adoreable shirts for fall.

TOTAL BILL: $22.00.

We decided this year for Chrismas we were going to buy everything used. It's easy to do that for my 5 year old. We have nice local consignment shops, Rhea Lana and Duck Duck Goose travel through twice a year and i can ALWAYS rack up on awesome toys. But I had never given the thought about me and my husband doing that.

I wish I could say more but I have an amazingly supportive husband and he always reads my blog. :) Let's just say I went to a certain store and bought my husband an AWESOME Christmas already! Consisting of items that still had TAGS on them. I spent $22.00 (wow-I just realized I spend that amount a lot-weird.) and we had set our goal for $50 for each other. So I still have $28 bucks to spend and already he has more presents (and nicer ones) than I could give him LAST year and I spent well over $150 on him last Christmas. INSANE.

I understand the used thing is weird for a lot of people. And maybe it's not your thing. These are the tips that I can offer for how we have managed to spend a FRACTION of the cost on clothing, toys, and even some household things.

I must confess... I can't do used shoes. I know its weird, but I don't even want my friends to try my shoes on. :) Okay I guess there are a FEW people i'd let do that, but it goes no further than a FEW!

i have managed to always have the cutest clothes for my daughter and myself even when buying used.

So that's our thing... we buy things used. We save so much money and the other part is it makes it a CHALLENGE! It's a challenge to find new, fun things that are USED. It keeps us excited about our journey.

I hope that's a good tip that you at least give a try!

Changing your mind and changing your world

Our journey through minimalism and what that means all started because of a conviction that i felt in my head and heart. I began feeling a "change" in me. Something that was urging me to change.

Living on less, couponing, saving money, spending less, getting rid of the excess--it ALL comes from changing your mind which in turn creats a whole change in your world! Chosing to live this way is not just a mind-set, it's a LIFESTYLE change.

Minimalism is not something that you change in one area. This is a lifestyle, change how you have lived, change your way of thinking, change what you do and say kinda decision.

There are no defined rules of what minimalism is. I have written about that several times before on another blog. Check out those posts HERE and HERE to kinda see where I got started and what I think. :) Okay so as I was saying, there are no "Defined" rules of living a minimalistic lifestyle, but I feel very strongly that it can't be half ass. It has to be all or nothing. It has to be a lifestyle change that benefits you and your family and allows freedom in finances and less stress in your home.

In the end, Step 3 is all about change.

Changing your way of thinking.
you don't HAVE to have those shoes

Changing habits
no more browsing the mall. You foolin' with that word "browsing" anyway?

Changing your hearts
priorities shouldn't begin with tangible things. They should begin with love, our families, our friends, our Savior.

Changing the world one step at a time.
I have a plan to change the world. No seriously... i do. I'll post that later. Don't laugh--I really think I have this one figured out. If you can't change the "World" this year, change your family's world. That would be super.

Planning ahead

I learned the hard way. I didn't want to take the time to prepare a list for anything. I REFUSED lists! And I was proud... then I later realized how silly I had been.

PREPARATION Is key.

PLANNING AHEAD IS CRUCIAL!

Before you go to the grocery store you MUST be prepared. Have your list ready, the store paper, and your coupons lined up and ready to go.

Before you clothes shopping you MUST have a list of your "inventory". How many khakis do you own? Yep-that's what I thought. PUT THOSE DOWN! :) You HAVE to know what you have. It's all about being prepared.

Christmas is a huge one to be prepared for. You must plan ahead! Christmas cards, gifts, budget, meal planning, decoration list, etc... you MUST be prepared.

Unfortunately I am not cool enough to create these "list" sheets on my own. But I have some blogger friends whom I adore that did that for us!

Check out http://www.orgjunkie.com/! You can print out budget sheets, babysitter lists, anything you can think of!! AMAZING site. Please follow them... this site rocks!!!

Click HERE to be magicially transmitted to Christmas lovers heaven!!! This site has printables for EVERYTHING Christmas!! This is a terrific way to stay on top of the game. PLAN AHEAD!

That's what its ALL about!

JUST SAY NO!

This is a crucial part of our lifestyle these days...

JUST SAY NO!

Hopefully you are already saying no to drugs... now its time to say no to SPENDING MONEY!

NO!

Think of a HUGE NO SIGN! The one that means DON'T do something? Think of that everytime you want to shop. NO!

Think about how you have NO money to spend! You can't have extra money to spend if you are saving it! If you are watching every penny then there is NOT anything left over. REMIND YOURSELF OF THAT!

If that doesn't work... think of this...

Think of the whole world banding together to spell out the word NO everytime you consider swiping that card!

Maybe i'm a tad extreme, it wouldn't be the first time I have been told that, but it's effective.

Still on the whole FIRST THINGS FIRST idea... you have to not only cut back what you spend at the store (I say that because that is where a HUGE chunk of people spend their checks. They overspend at Walmart, K-Mart, what have you), you have to STOP shopping. You have to say NO! You have to say NO to spending money. You can't truly save money and learn to live on less unless you are saying NO!

Repeat after me...

NO, No, NO. NO!

Unfortunately, step #1 (spending less at the store) is a lot more fun than this step. *SIGH*

Welcome to our world.

Welcome to our world.

We are the Matthews family. We are a diverse family to say the least. Here's some background on US...

I am 27. My husband is 49. My daughter is 5. His kids are 19 and 21. We live in the south. Faith-family-friends-food. That's what we live by.

I work in marketing, my husband owns his own business and my daughter is getting ready to start to kindergarten. (tear)

We had some changes to make in our life and we knew it. About 6 months ago I began couponing. Not EXTREME couponing, but I began any way. I learned how to save us money with each shopping trip. It was very exciting for me! I began following other bloggers that wrote about couponing, saving money, etc and even started a blog of my own.

Let me go back to the first F in our life which is FAITH. I believe that God is in the center of everything we do. All of the choices we have to make in regards to ourselves, jobs, children, spouses, etc ALL need to go through him. I'm not wise on my own. I NEED the help of God to guide me through decisions. I began praying over my finances. I began praying that God would open my eyes to the mistakes I was making and help me see how to fix them. I began feeling very guilty about my spending. I prayed that God would show me how to work through all of this.

A little background---I have ALWAYS loved shopping. It was my cardio as Carrie says on SATC. :) But I have ALWAYS been a bargain shopper. My mother taught me at a very young age that you can get so much more if you wait til it goes on sale. :) And I LIVED by that. Everything i've ever bought (with the exception of VERY few things) has been purchased while it was on sale. That's helped a lot, but it didn't exactly fix any problem. It just allowed me to spend the SAME amount of money as those that shopped regular price, I just had a lot more stuff. STUFF. STUFF--stuff-itis.

I read a book called "THE 100 THING CHALLENGE" and if you haven't read it and are considering living on less or even if you are NOT, read it. It's very good. The first chapter, as I recall, gives a scenario of him walking in his house, tripping over a toy, spilling something on his fancy polo shirt, dropping and cracking an IPAD or IPOD (something fancy like that), knocking over a $1,000 vase, etc. (I made a lot of that up. It's something like that. Very dramatic and talked about expensive stuff.) Anyway, he finally gets in his room goes to pick up a pen and realizes that pen cost like $150 bucks... he looked around the room and felt sick. He was consumed, stressed out and overwhelmed by stuff. So he decided to live on 100 things for a year. That got me thinking about MY stuff. (NO, I do NOT want to only have 100 things. But he did make me realize that a lot of times my "stuff" consumes, overwhelmes and stresses me out.)

My closets are filled to a brim. 2 storage rooms, tons of shoes, toys, hunting gear, golfing stuff, home decor, etc crams my storage buildings!

My hubs---well, he has lots of hobbies. And I don't mean reading books. I mean golfing. Hunting. Things that require LOTS of STUFF. Don't get me wrong-I don't begrudge him for his hobbies or for his stuff. We just don't need more. I am a hunter myself so I know that "gear" is important.

My daughter--has one of EVERYTHING. And two of most things. It's insane. She has so much stuff she doesn't even know WHAT she has. And it's funny... out of all the things she has she will come find me and say "Where's that toy--ya know the one from Chick fil a?" And inside I think yep--the innocence of a child speaks volumes. It IS the little things like the happy meal toy, not the fancy V-tech, X-Box looking thing in her room. It's crazy.

We have more stuff than we know what to do with.

I began feeling convicted, yes, that's where I was in my story before I went off on another tangent. (I do that a lot, get ready and bear with me). I began feeling guilty that I had so much yet felt like I needed more. So what does a person do that feels that way? Give everything away? Sell it? I can't do that... or can I.

So that's where this journey begins. You have a family (in the house) of 3. 3 people that have it all.

This is our journey through sifting through the "STUFF" and learning to find peace on less.

I hope that you will follow along this journey. I plan to laugh, cry, get mad, pout, sulk, and be an emotional roller coaster. I think I do that best.