Spend Less...

Due to the fact that tomorrow will be my last day at work, and that Daddy keeps asking if I have been looking for another position (have applied for 2 so far) and added to that we had the emergency budget on Tuesday, I spent a while actually looking at how much things cost while doing my on-line shop this morning. Things are pretty expensive - especially when those things are Baby related!!

I recently read; The Spend Less Handbook: 365 Tips for a Better Quality of Life While Actually Spending Less by Rebecca Ash, Capstone Publishing (2008), See: http://grumpymumtobe.blogspot.com/2010/02/dust-if-you-must.html The key points for me were:

Why are our lives so hectic? Because there is so much stuff in them. The more we shop, the more we own, the more chores, hassles and complications are created in our lives.

Your unconscious mind is weighed down by everything you own. Clutter impairs your development, because things that are piled up are frequently associated with memories, so they bind you to the past.

Slow down and enjoy every second of life more. Enjoy and reclaim the simple pleasures in life.

You won’t get to the end of your life and wish you’d made more money – you’ll wish you spent more time staring at the clouds, playing with your children or doing something more meaningful.
Don’t do a job you hate just to finance a lifestyle that is a compensation for the work you have to do in the first place. The less that you spend, the less you will have to work to be able to afford it. The less time you spend spending, the more time you can spend living.

Teach your children how to find joy and wonder in the small details of life – as opposed to spending money on an expensive toy that will be barely played with after 3 days. It is the ability to take pleasure in the everyday beauty of the world and life that will set your children up for lifelong happiness.

Ask Yourself: Do I really, really need this? Remember that what you actually want is less stuff in your life, not more.

Remember that you only have one life, and you really ought to live life as if you only had a few months left of it. Make time to do things that will add real value to your life – things that will make you feel like the person you want to be, the person you would like to be remembered as when you die.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler." Henry David Thoreau