Money has been on my mind a lot lately and I am offering this blog post this week as I believe that money is a great source of stress & anxiety, marital/relationship conflict and can completely derail our efforts to be whole and healthy. We live in an age of instant gratification and thus many ppl today subsist in a life mired by debt, living what I call a "plastic existence" where they owe/spend more than they make, but have mobile phones, cars, computers, tablets, eat out at restaurants, or choose prepared items, take weekend vacations, in short, have everything they need and much, much more. I have spent/am spending a lot of time this year learning about properly budgeting and managing money. This is something I have traditionally left to my husband, but it is not his strength either.
Some of the best tips I have learned/used in better managing our finances (and thus stress levels!)
1. Write down everything you spend. Like for real - everything. For at least a month - then review. I guarantee there are lots of ways to pare down some of your necessities.
2. Don't buy/spend unless you have the cash in hand. Credit is useful for credit ratings and points ONLY!
3. Allot money from each pay cheque for "emergencies" and "fun stuff" and don't touch it unless absolutely necessary. And no, a bag of cheetos is NEVER an emergency, and fun stuff should be saved up for things/activities that have importance and are worthy of the effort it took to save.
4. Say NO to family and friends who are in different financial situations than you are. A meal in, or potluck, or picnic is just as much fun as a fancy restaurant, and will cause less resentment in the relationship. The bottom line is, you do not have the money, let's get creative and have fun doing something that costs little or nothing.
This is a fun one to navigate at Christmas!
5. Be tough with yourself and be straight about what is need and what is want.
6. Write down your priorities - be honest about what is important to you/your family.
We wrote down our financial priorities last week, here they are in no particular order:
- fresh, healthy, home cooked food
- dental, prescriptions, other emergency health care expenses
- children's education savings
- retirement savings
- yearly vacation
- time (and yes, time is money) in my industry, I have to make do with less money/more sacrifice to have time with my family. This is also my reward - time with people I love, rather than the fleeting gratification of a new lipstick or other physical item that I don't really need.
- date night
-emergency expenses (vet bills, car repairs, home repairs)
We avoid after school activities like dance/hockey with the children and instead do a community program. We rarely eat out. We covet our scene points for date night free movies. We support local business and try to buy quality items over cheaper dispensible ones. We never impulse buy anymore.
Are we financially healthy? Nope - but we're working hard way towards it. Best of all, we almost have our plan ready, and it is not constantly weighing us down, bickering and stressing constantly over money. It's like so many things in life..financial issues don't solve themselves, but the process can be satisfying and hopefully lead to independance and success!
Get away wolves - you aren't welcome at our door!
FIND YOUR CORE
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