Thursday, February 24, 2011

I spend money--it is ok

Today my mom said, " So you are trying to do all this stuff to save money so why did your family take your sister out for a nice dinner at Outback last night?"  Made me realize that if she doesn't get my money philosophy maybe I need to clarify.

I don't save money just to save it.  I save it to spend on things that enrich life.  Yes sometime those are "important" things like putting money in our Roth IRA, but sometimes it is things that allow us to live.  I don't want to live to work, but work to live.  If we are working so hard we want to be able to enjoy our personal splurges.For use those splurges are usually travel related, eating a nice meal out, or activity related.  These are the things that make us feel more free.  We don't want money to rule every part of our lives.  Sometimes it feels like it does, but we try not to let it.  Also my Hubby figured out that we could add $20 a month to the food budget but I realized again I don't want our extra money to just give us more food budget or gas budget- though at times we may have to do that-  I want it it be money we can go to Mexico with, or make a worthly investment, or buy a pair of jeans with!  I look forward to being able to bless others without worrying if we can afford it.  I don't want to spend more on food- I want to make my $350 work more efficiently.
So that is that- my philosophy on money=).

Side note:  I bought 10 boxes of cereal on sale at Smiths (Kroger affiliate) - spent 18.00 and saved 23.00-- I love that they tell you how much you saved!  Also bought a two drawer file cabinet for $10 off of the school district classifieds.  I have been looking and waiting and bam! found one A LOT cheaper than in the stores new.  I do need to buy the little bar thingies to go it it but that is ok=).  So yes this fine Thursday (new Bones tonight!) is just a good day- working in my favor.  Now my son just needs to fall asleep for nappy poo.

3 comments:

Erika May said...

going from two salaries to one is not easy...especially when we love to spend money on music, yarn, baseball games :) it has forced me to be more conscious of my purchases and thankful for the things that are truly important.

grace said...

I totally agree Erika- when we do splurge I think we appreciate it a lot more than we used to!

Nate and Michelle said...

I love the classifieds on the district website. We have bought so much and sold so much on there... I think we got a 4 drawer file cabinet for $25... way cheaper than a new one and does the same thing.