Another Video to Add

I wanted to post another online video, The Two Income Trap: Why Middle Class Families Are Going Broke.

I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to. I think it's important to educate ourselves on how people get to the point of no return financially. I sometimes jokingly think that we are too poor to go broke. We have never had high expectations or need for expensive things so we have never had any debt (although I know there are many other reasons for debt, mainly student loan debt, which is something we were both able to avoid). We live within our means and save the rest.

Finances and budgets and food, oh my!

I guess you can group finances with simple living. Everyone needs money to live in the western world, no matter how simply. I won't go into dollar amounts since cost of living varies so much from place to place and it isn't really here or there what we have and where it goes (except food, which everyone loves to talk about, lol!).

After going through all our bills I know for a fact if it were not for the tithing we pay we would not be able to do as well as we are able. I hate doing budgets because on paper, it does not seem to add up. BUT!! with the Lord's hand in our lives, we have all we need and more. It seems like faith pays the bills and lets us tuck some aside for a rainy day, lol!!

However we still need to make simple changes and try to tighten our belts a little more. I am trying to get more on board to simpler, healthier eating which isn't so meat intensive. It will take me a while to get used to it since I have, err, bowel/intestinal problems (dx'd as IBS but could possibly celiac). I really hope I can get the kids eating a wider variety of foods. It may be strange to say but I miss beans and have been craving things like lentils and rice. One of my favorite foods is falafel and there is a box of mix taunting me in the cupboard.

I have our grocery budget at $300 a month since the price of food has shot up. I used to have it at $200 and I could probably get it down again, especially if I'm ever successful in getting the family weaned off junk food. I have to remind DH all the time not to buy stuff. Besides, we have so much in our food storage that we would only eat if I make more of an effort (and kind cool, sneaky ways to incorporate it into what we do eat. Jessica Seinfeld has nothing on the mother who doesn't want to waste food, lol!!). I am also planning on gardening this year, which should be quite an adventure since we live in an apartment :)

Solar Cooking

I have started looking into solar cooking. I think next week after I have the bulk of the cleaning out of the way, I will make one and see how it goes. They go from very simplistic (a pizza box with tin foil and plastic) to very complex $500 jobs. I'm looking to do this on the cheap so I'll try the pizza box (I have two in the hall closet DH never got around to putting in the compost. I guess I can't complain now!). You can make almost anything in these! I can't wait to try.

My basement has done a miraculous transformation and I'm not even done. I will be putting out a lot of garbage and recyclables this week, plus there is a ton for the spring clean up (May 28th!) and everything we have saved for the yard sale we'll be having, the remnants of which will be given away. I've already sold a rocking chair :). I love simplifying. I wish I could get hard core about it as there's a lot I'm still hanging onto, but eventually I'll let it all go.

We're doing pretty good with not spending money. We have more in savings than I ever could of expected. A few hundred more and we'll be bumped into a higher intrest earning category, woo!!! Plus we'll earn 1000 PC points a month, which is equal to a dollar. I can't wait until those dollars will be buying us our house :D

Going Shopping

This is sometimes the first place we can generate the greatest change. We have to evaluate our shopping habits. Every time we pick something up, some of the questions we should ask ourselves are, "Do I NEED this? If I buy this, will I use it? How often will I use it? Will it enrich my life? Will it end up being something I resent for taking up space and wasting valuable resources? Why do I want it? Can I live without it?" and so on. I find with a lot of items, I don't even get past the do I need it. Quite often it is something I can live without.

For example. The kids LOVE shopping at Dollarama, the place where everything costs a dollar. I usually say they can each get a toy. One will usually get a book and the other a piece of junk that barely makes it home. This week I managed to talk the child with the junky toy into getting toy furniture that we could go home, put together then paint. After spending 5 minutes talking him into it and out of the goopy stuff we could make at home (lol, persistent preschoolers!), we moved on. I started grabbing things I thought I needed, you know that lovely impulse shopping bug. Some things not so bad like a big roll of kraft paper for me to make wrapping paper (so much more paper on a roll than wrapping paper and I have the fun of stamping it :) ) and a pedometer, which I want to track my steps since I want to get to 10000 a day (and far exceeded it yesterday, yay!). However the lure of the summer isle was almost too much to bear. I started forgetting I wanted to be simple. That evil impuse attractively dressed in things we want. As we walked to the checkout, I started giving DH things to put away and by the time we paid, we truly had the things we needed. After we left, I told the kids we were not going there any more and if they wanted Dollarama junk, they would have to get their grandmothers to buy it. I probably shouldn't of said that though.

I know my need for stuff comes from being poor as a child. It's not that we didn't have a lot of stuff but I was always scared there wouldn't be more so I would hoard what I had. I don't want my children to think that. I want them to grow up appreciating the simplicity in having little but appreciating what they have. DH and I are both pack rats and it's hard letting go. People are always giving us stuff and it's hard to say no, but we have to start. We are so scared of hurting people's feelings that we end up suffering. Our parents give us bags of stuff almost weekly, mostly clothes for the kids. Our darling children could clothe about 10 children with the excess and do not need more clothing. Our pleas of "No more" fall on deaf ears. I think most will henceforth be donated to people who really need it, or at least something will be in it's place if it's something really nice ;)

I kind of went off track there, but I think there's a lot to be said for really thinking about what you are buying. A little here and there adds up over time. Are you bringing in more than you're putting out? If you are trying to simplify, more should be going out than what you are bringing in.

Right now, I am waiting for the weather to warm so I can have a massive yard sale. However I daily look at all I want to get rid of and wonder....will I last that long? I want this out of the house. The clothes I have no problem giving away but I would like to recoup some of my loss by selling the good stuff. We don't get tax credit here like they do in the states (plus we give our max in charitable donations in other ways so it wouldn't help). After I have sold what I want to, THEN the big purge will begin.