Thursday, January 26, 2017

January- No Clothes Shopping- complete (almost)

So I have written about our financial distress, and how even though we have nice jobs and nice salaries, we also have a lot of debt. A. LOT. We also got caught up in the cycle of spending money on this we didn't need. I slacked on the grocery budget, I slacked on the clothing budget.
SOOOOO...

January 1 I implemented a NO CLOTHES BUYING MONTH. I actually hope that I can go the whole year without buying myself anything. Not even stuff from the thrift store!!
The kids are a bit different because they are growing. Literally growing like little weeds. So with them I will just try to be extremely frugal with their purchases.

My husband has a super plain wardrobe anyways, and I'm thinking he may need a pair of shoes soon, so he's not going to be in on my little experiment. I do plan on documenting what I actually buy for him though as well.

So even though it's only January 26th so not technically a whole month. But so far this year I have bought NADA. No underwear, no socks, no shoes. Nothing. For some of you that is not a big deal, but for me and my family and me trying to get back into a super frugal habit, it's something. So we'll start with that.

I don't want to be restrictive or have lots of rules. I don't want to wear ugly things that don't fit or aren't comfortable. But what I do want to do is get back into the habit of really examining our purchases. Contentment! Yes I should save money in the mix, but I also want to learn to be content with what we have and not feel the need for more. I want to teach my kids that contentment also.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Content with being me

I didn't ask you to be her. 
I asked you to be you. 
- GOD


You may remember that this year I chose my 2017 word to be "Contentment". You can read about that here

I found the quote above scrolling through instagram and thought. Whoa. I work in the world with women. I go to church with some amazing women. My children's friends have some amazing mothers. It's easy sometimes to get carried away with comparing ourselves to others. She's taller, she's thinner, she's smarter, she has a better this or that or seems closer to her kids or husband or this or that. It's easy to do that. SO EASY!

But God didn't ask me to be like her ( and of course her could be lots of people here). He wants me to be the best ME I can be. He's given me my family, my job, my body, my home. Yes it's important to try to keep ourselves healthy which may result in a fitter body, and we need to keep our home nice. But we have to stop comparing ourselves to other mothers, to other women. I've really trying to be content in the life God has chosen for me. A beautiful family, a beautiful love with my husband. We all have issues, but I chose to be content with the greatness God has prepared for me!

Do you guys ever struggle with this? What are some solutions?