And on the subject of wish lists...

My wish list may be a tad extreme, but it's okay to "Wish" ... as long as it doesn't over take your life. :)

1. A very cool, sporty, luxury type car.

I think I could really rock this car :) very fun, sporty, and spunky! LOVE IT!

This Lexus has been my dream car for a LONG time!! I love the RX 300. The newer ones I don't like as much.


2. Some fancy new boots for fall. Not cowboy boots, I am good there, but some nice-all leather- boots for work. Something super stylish that will last forever! Remember the boots that Monica bought on Friends? They cost more than her rent and then she ended up hating them and losing them?? Well, those boots were perfect but oh my dear! That is MY Fear. Buying some super nice and fancy boots and then hating them.

3. Anything with diamonds in it. :) I am a diamond fa-REAK! I love diamonds. Earrings, bracelets, rings... you name it, I love it. I don't have that many diamonds which is TOTALLY fine, but in a perfect world on my own personal wish list I would add a very bold DIAMOND on it. And it can be DIAMOND anything :)

Sometimes it feels good to make some big, extravagant list of "wishes". :) It makes me realize that these things are kinda silly. BUT, i'd still enjoy them :) :)


What are your wishes? What are the secret things that you REALLLY want?? It's okay to share :)

We STILL have wants...

One thing that I get asked a lot is how can I live a life and "not want?" Well, I wouldn't know... :) I live a life that has many WANTS! MANY MANY at times.

I think it comes down to being able to look at the bigger picture with these wants.

I would love a new car. I mean LOVE a new car. In March, I sold my beloved Honda Accord Ex-L with nav-leather-sunroof-auto everything-and simply beautiful-and bought an old car. I paid cash for it. I had been adiment about paying extra on my Honda because my plan was to pay it OFF and drive it forever... and then I just started thinking about how I actually could sell it, make a profit, and go pay cash for something. When I did that my monthly outcome changed more than I expected. Read the full story here. Anyway, I had only thought of really a car payment going away and insurance possibly going down but I had NO idea the amount of money I would save.

My car is not a looker. It's not terrible but it's not a young, hip or desireable vehicle. But it gets me from point A to point B. AND, it allowed me to live debt free! (well, now I have medical bills but that's a whole different subject). I do not regret my decision even though I do see lots of Accords on the road and sorta/kinda miss mine.

But everytime I start to feel like DANG-I sold my beautiful car-- I think about how much more money I have. How it feels great to have basically no debt. And how this car is kinda fun... :)

But I still have wants. I would LOVE a new car. There is actually a Benz that I am just DYING to test drive. But I know if I test drive it--it will be ALL over. I work hard. I pay my bills. I save money. I try to help others do the same. "I deserve this car"...

At the end of the day living minimally is not easy. It actually requires more self control than I feel I have -- especially at this moment while I have the car I want pulled up on my computer and SAVED. Oh vey--I need help :)

Control your wants. Remember how blessed you are. Remember how fortunate you are to have less clutter in your life and less debt. That's how I talk myself down. And USUALLY it works... unlses i'm on a car lot or in a shoe store :)

An awesome reminder...

Sometimes we all need this reminder.

It is so easy to get caught up in things that you want that you can forget how blessed you are to have what you have.

Just yesterday I was stuck in traffic and began adding to my "list". I keep my list with me at all times and I keep up with my "Wants". FIRST of all I do it to track how good or bad I am doing at keeping my wants down. Second I do it so that I have a written record of what I have said i wanted and then i can refer back to it. It helps me balance wants vs. needs and even more than that, it helps me to see what I REALLLY want to save for and purchase.

ANYWAY, here I am jotting down a few things I want when I look up and see a lady who has garbage bags tied around her feet (i'm guessing those were being used for shoes?), looked like she hadn't eaten in days, and was out walking in the heat.

We as a society do NOT realize how blessed and fortunate we are.

Sometimes we need reminders. Sometimes we need to stop and take a breath and just be grateful for what we already have instead of ALWAYS wanting more...

Maybe I have to change MY perspective

I've said it before, but it's so true... our perspective on can make or break a situation. If we perceive someone talking down to us, then we get upset. Even if our perception was wrong! If we percieve things negatively, then we will more than likely act in a negative way.

The same goes for our finances, our wants, our desires...

Let's look at it this way. From a personal way. I have a huge stack of bills sitting on my desk. Doctor bills from the surgery, co-pays due, medications that need to be refilled, bills from my ER visit, not to mention just everyday-gotta pay em-lights and water are necessity--kinda bills! I could:

A. Be SO stinkin' mad that the vacation I wanted to go on is now going to be a downpayment on a new car for my doctor! 

OR

B. Be so grateful and feel so blessed that I can pay these bills. With or without a vacation, my family is provided for.

Ya see, I have had to remind myself that it IS about perspective. One perspective makes me feel less stressed, more relaxed, causes me to smile, breathe, sigh, and say a prayer of thanksgiving! The other causes me to feel depresses, down, pale (because I need that time in the sun of course), and aggrivated with EVERYTHING in my life.

Obviously those are pretty extreme, but unfortunately they are the truth. We so quickly go to this negative place of feeling sorry for ourselves because we can't afford something, when WOW--look at the blessing we have in that the bills that DO stack up, can be paid. With cash. And there is tons of food in our fridge. And our kids are happy and healthy. and we can take them to do fun things. And we have jobs.

It's so easy to get down, but I encourage you to look at how you take a look at things :) Being negative helps no one.

Make the choice to be happy with what you already have! What God has already blessed you with.

The power of a purpose

It's good to have a purpose. this applies to so much more than just finances and living with less.

This applies to your life. To your job. To your relationships. To your parenting styles. EVERYTHING is better when there is a purpose. Otherwise, well, it just doesn't make much sense.

If you are chosing to live minimally, (minimalistically), then there needs to be a clearly defined purpose behind it. And everyone's may be different.

For me, minimalism started as a conviction. I felt like God was telling me to live on less and to get rid of things. To de-clutter my life. Then, as I have mentioned before, it escalated into other areas of my life.

To my family, living minimally is a choice, but it was an easy one to make. It's about following God's plan for our life which involves living debt free and living with the concept that our happiness comes from relationships, not through our "stuff".

What is your purpose for being on this journey? I saw that over the weekend this blog was ready over 300 times. Not as many as I would like, but it's a start. :) So over 300 people found me on purpose or on accident. Some of the keywords used to find my blog were "living on less", "living minimally", "What is minimalism" ? This tells me that so many people in the world (at least 300..hehe) are looking for something in their life to help them. They are looking for happiness. They have come to the conclusion or are on the journey to find the conclusion that their material possessions are actually causing them stress, not the happiness they had expected.

I guess I write this post so that you can ask yourself... what is your purpose? What to hope to gain by living on less? What do you hope to gain by getting rid of things that you don't need? Good questions to ask yourself, and for me they are wonderful questions that remind me of why I am here. They allow me to find the strength during the difficult times when I am wanting to go back to old habits.

So one more time I ask... what is your purpose?

All about the basics.

Sometimes it is CRUCIAL to go back to the basics. They are "basics" afterall, but sometimes those are the easiest things to forget.

1. Keep track of every dime you spend.

You can do this by using the envelope system, by keeping a notebook with you at ALL times and keeping up with every transcraction, or by using an online site to help keep you on track. Either way, keeping track is ESSENTIAL.

2. Keep lists.

I know that it's fun to make a random stop by the mall, or visit ebay "just to browse", of course, but that can get you in trouble. If you don't keep LISTS, then you will spend unnecessary money. Keep a list of your clothes. Your kids clothes. Your shoes. Your stockpile. ANYTHING that you own... keep track of it. If you don't keep ongoing lists of things you have then you just may stop by the store and end up buying something you ALREADY had. When we have lots of STUFF, we tend to forget what we have. I know I can't possibly be the only one that has been so pumped to get a new black pair of heels only to go home and realize that I already had 3 pair... keep lists!

3. Keep going to your checkups.

Just like when you are sick and the doctor tells you to come back in a week, the same rules apply to finances and our stuff. We HAVE to go back for checkups. We HAVE to take the time to look through our financial statements, our envelopes, our closets, etc. It's not a "one and done" kinda process... it is a PROCESS which means it is ongoing.

Just some tips for a tune-up.

how did you do?

Free months!

I often write about my free months at my other blog....
www.thebargainhuntingmommy.blogspot.com

But I am choosing to write about it here as well. :)

Free months. What are those? Let me explain

It is a month when you spend NO money outside of your already prepared budget.

It is a time for many things. It's a time to save money. (obviously) It's a time to meditate, pray, and ponder on what you REALLY want out of life. It's a time to ponder what your wants/needs REALLY are. It's so easy to think how badly you WANT something when you are walking through the mall. But what if you could NOT go to the mall? Would your wants be less? It's a time to really stop and think about what you want to spend your money on.

It's also a time to learn contentment. It's a time when you KNOW that you cannot spend money so it forces you (in a good way) to be happy with you already have. It's a time to read more. It's a time to journal. It's a time to finish projects around the house because you are NOT going to the store, you are not running to grab a movie. It's a time to be at your house more and focus more on your family. SUCH a refreshing time.

It's also time of purging! When you cannot buy anything you tend to walk around and notice how much stuff you already have! it's a great time to clean out those closets and cabinets. It's a time to clean out your DVR! My goodness, I cannot be the only person on the face of the earth that has 87 things taped on my DVR. Shows and movies that I just HAD to tape, and haven't even watched. Since you won't be going to rent movies or go to the movie theatre it forces you to clean out your DVR!

I am getting ready for round 3 of not spending any money for a month. This means I have to have some things in order. This means that when I say "I'm not going to spend any money outside of my budget", that I have to have a ROCK SOLID BUDGET in ORDER! This is so important. It's important even if you are not having a zero spending month... it's crucial! I need to sit down with my already written budget and do some thinking. Is there anything I have left out of my budget? did I allow for gas? Did I allow enough in my food budget? It's a great time to get things in order.

I encourage everyone to have a FREE MONTH! A ZERO SPENDING MONTH! I think this is so crucial! And, it's fulfilling. i have never ended a free month and thought "WHEW i'm glad that's over!" It's more like when lent is over and you can finally have potatoes (thats what I always give up), I don't rush out to go grab a potatoe. It's just nice to know that i CAN have them if I want them. I promise it would be worth it!! :)

Thanks for reading. Comments, emails, are always welcome.

cararoxanne02@aol.com