~ This month's topics: Financial Woes, $$-Saving Ideas, FREE Financial Planning Software, FREE Simple Times Newsletter ~  Hello once again! Well, I’m almost half way through my yearly journey towards simpler living and finding contentment with my life. Since I last wrote, I had intended to read several simple living-type books I have sitting here just waiting to be picked up and devoured. However, my family and I seemed to find other ways to fill our spare time and so my reading time was cut to almost nothing in the past 2 weeks! I will be reading them this month so that I have some more good information to share with you next time I update my story! Our yard sale was a profitable one, although we didn’t make as much as in past years. However, it was enough to cover the costs of some telescope accessories my husband wanted and to pay for a dinner at Applebee’s for the family. Dinner out is something we just don’t do but a couple of times a year and we had a very nice time. Our kids have a hard time sitting still, but they proved to us that they are maturing and we can definitely take them to adult functions on a limited basis. However, all was not hunky-dory in the finance department this month! I was careless when handling the checkbook and found a significant shortage when balancing it which means June will be a very tight month. I also wrote too many checks in the last batch (which in turn means I was spending too much money on non-necessities!) and it is only through God’s grace that we made it through the month of May. Unfortunately, I think that we borrowed against June to pay for May thus resulting in the very tight budget for the next 4 weeks. I’m in the middle of reading through several of Larry Burkett’s Financial series books ( The Financial Planning Workbook; A Family Budgeting Guide and How to Manage Your Money) and am learning where we are spending too much money and where we are spending within our budget. The biggest problem is our debt load which we hope to have corrected in about 2-3 years. Once we get rid of that, I’ll feel much less stressed. I want to share some ways I save money when money is running low. I received two unexpected family high school graduation announcements (which in turn meant I had to send an unplanned monetary gift!). Instead of running to the store to buy a card, I got out my book of lettering (geared towards those who do scrapbooking, which I do not do because of the financial requirement and temptations to buy all those neat stickers, etc!). I then used some invitation paper stock I keep around (overstock purchase from a stationery store and great for making up my own cards/letters!) to make a "Congratulations" note to go along with the gift! I also used that fun computer paper with pre-printed designs on it to make birthday invitations for my son’s party. It was an improvisation because it has jelly beans on it and is not exactly a "party" design. However, what mattered was that I didn’t spend any money (because I already had the paper at home!). Here are some ways I try and save on groceries which for us averages $75-90 a week for a family of four. I know a lot of families eat on less than that and I’ve tried, but can’t seem to get it much lower for several reasons. First, my children are picky eaters and no amount of cajoling can get them to eat "grown-up food" although my oldest is coming around slowly. This means that I seem to buy a lot of "extra" items that not everyone eats. Second, meatless meals just aren’t our thing so even though meat is a high-ticket item at the grocery store, it is an item I buy. However, I only buy beef and pork when on sale. As for chicken, when chicken quarters (legs and thighs) are $2.90 for 10lbs, I stock up. Now, I am buying bone and skin in that package, but it definitely beats paying $2.00-$4.00/lb for boneless chicken breasts! Even if I only end up with 5 lbs of meat (and I usually end up with more than that!), that’s still only 58¢/lb for the meat. I do spend a lot of money on fresh fruit and vegetables since that is what we eat for snacks because I am not an extreme buyer of junk food. Carbonated drinks, ice cream, chips and Little Debbie goodies are purchased in moderation, usually 1-2 times a month. If any of you want to share with me your ideas for cutting grocery costs, I’m more than willing to listen so email me! For a great FREE online resource for simple and frugal living, you should consider signing up to receive the following newsletter! This twice-a-month newsletter is distributed in conjunction with: A Simple, Frugal Life and Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION To subscribe to this free newsletter, click here! In the BODY of the e-mail type: subscribe SIMPLE-TIMES (be sure to include the hyphen between the words simple-times) This is a private mailing list which isn't sold or shared with anyone else. SIMPLE TIMES ARCHIVES ~ http://hub.xc.org/scripts/lyris.pl?visit=simple-times Well, I guess that that is all I have to share with you at this time. I want to leave you with some scripture that my pastor preached about on May 23rd in his sermon titled "Grumbling or Contentment - Your Choice." It was a very good sermon and he had a lot to say which went along with my current journey towards contentment. First, he talked about some scripture relating to the Biblical history of grumbling: 1 Corinthians 10:6,10 "Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did…..And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angels." Numbers 16:41 "The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron." The last highlight of his sermon was titled "What to do instead of grumbling" and he listed these choices, which I’ve written down as they apply to my life. I have taken some liberties with his sermon and moved some of the scripture around so that it helps me focus on the topic at hand: 1. STOP GRUMBLING! Read Philippians 2:14-15. 2. Go to the Lord and give thanks for what you have. Read Hebrews 13:5-6. 3. Repent of your sin of complaining and talk to God about your troubles. (To me there is a distinct difference between complaining to God and talking to Him about your frustrations and complaints.) Read Psalm 142:1-2. 4. Submit to God’s will ~ He always provides our needs if we have faith in Him! Read Hebrews 11:6 and 1 Peter 5:6-7. 5. Speak to others (I can’t remember the exact explanation of this part, but to me it means that it’s ok talk your frustrations out with family and friends. I know that for me it helps immensely to be able to talk things out. Sometimes I see a way out of my predicament by just talking about it and bouncing ideas off of people.) 6. Be content with what you have. Read Philippians 4:11-13. I hope that I have left you with some things to think about as you try to simplify your life and find contentment with it. Trust me, I know it’s not easy! But the good things in life are usually worth a little work, right? I do know that I’m focusing more on my family and friends and my new-found faith since I’ve lost my desire for the material goods. Lately, I’ve bought some stuff and ended up returning it a few days later because I just knew that I didn’t need those items! This doesn’t mean I don’t want all of those wonderful things for sale in the stores, but I just finally know that I don’t need any of it to keep me happy! I wish you the best in June as you keep trying to stay on the right path towards a simpler and more contented life! I have copied the following information directly from AMERICAQUOTE'S website. 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Very simply, we want to keep our name in front of you (but only once a month), so that if you are interested in purchasing life insurance at some point, you won't have to look very far for an online quote. Please review the first issue, if you don't want to receive it anymore, you can unsubscribe and keep the software with our compliments. Please fill out the form at AMERICAQUOTE and you will receive the software as an attachment to an email from the company. The following is stated on their site: We believe your email address is your property, not ours. We do not sell, rent or lend any addresses to anybody. If someone has you on a "junk mail" list, they will not have received your address from us. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?
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