I cannot tell you the number of times that I sat in my walk in closet surrounded by clothes and shoes and a new purchase filled with stuff I didn’t need. Going on shopping sprees became almost like a blackout bender for me. Most of the time I wasn’t really even thinking. I was just grabbing and buying until I got home and was hit with the realization that I had spent too much money on stuff I didn’t need…again. These moments can be filled with so much shame and resentment. It’s had not to beat ourselves up over these mistakes, but the truth is, doing that won’t change the outcome. After years of actively working to break my bad spending habits and create a home (and closet) filled with things I love and intentionally chose, I have a few words of advice for you if you are fresh off of a shopping bender.
The title of this post is totally misleading, but I think it’s important to hype my kids up and give them credit where credit is due. Unfortunately for our older children we didn’t get our financial shit together in time to be of much service when it came to smart money management. When we finally decided to stop being broke and figure out our money issues once and for all, we also set the intention to help our younger two be better with money than we had been. Here is the super simple game plan for what we did to help our children learn money management, generosity and delayed gratification.
College is expensive, especially in the United States. Nearly 70% of college students have a part-time job. Having extra cash on hand can help with living expenses or help you avoid having to take out expensive student loans. There are plenty of options out there for students looking to earn extra cash while working around their class schedule – safe, legal, and sometimes even tax-free job options that students can work in their spare time. All it takes is a little extra initiative to start working and making some useful extra pocket money.
We talk a lot about the New Year and who we are going to be, what we plan to accomplish, or what we want to have. What we don’t realize is that a lot of times all of this requires adding things to our lives. However, if you are one of the millions of people who is already living life feeling overwhelmed, then listen up, my friend…the first thing you have to do to succeed in the New Year is start by eliminating anything that is going to slow you down from being that newer, better version of yourself. Otherwise you run the risk of adding more clutter, more chaos and more overwhelm to your life. What happens when you’re overwhelmed and exhausted? You’re less likely to take any action on the things you envision for yourself! Ahhh! How terrible would that be? To save you from this terrible fate, I have put together a list of 6 things you absolutely HAVE to eliminate from your life in the New Year.
I may in a bit of a tizzy this morning after stumbling upon some minimalist posts that share extremely one sided opinions of minimalism. People who say it is too restricting, that it’s not possible for everyone or that it takes 1 – 2 years to make the change to minimalism. Ugh, people. Can we all agree to stop putting restricting guidelines on everything. No, you don’t have to live out of a suitcase to be considered a minimalist. Yes, you can most definitely live out of a suitcase to be considered a minimalist. Nope, it doesn’t have to take 2 years to simplify your life. You can simplify your life immensely in the span of 5 minutes. So, if I haven’t been clear in the past, let’s break down why there really are no rules for minimalism, or life at all for that matter and it’s time someone said something.
