Think Long…Spend Less

We are a society that is driven by the media. It is hard for me to believe that there are still people who believe everything they hear without researching it. Let’s take for instance the new program that was introduced by the government to push sales within the car industry. Is it really that great of a deal?

Did anyone ever stop and consider what the real motivation behind this idea was. I seriously doubt it. If you did not need a car previously, then you sure do not need one now. If you could not afford another monthly payment before, you sure as hell do not need one now. My father used to say that nothing is a good deal if you do not truly need it. It is money wasted if you do not need to be spending it. How hard is that for people to understand.

I am discovering that most people around me are still under the illusion that you are what you drive, live in and wear. Think long and hard before you put yourself in a financial situation that may hurt you in the long run. Let me give you an example of what ignorance I have to put up with. Last year I needed new tires for our truck. My line of work is seasonal so every purchase has to be thought through. New tires would run me around $500.00 or so, but I never purchase without making sure I am getting a reasonable price. My budget was tight, but could handle buying new tires versus buying a new car. However, the mentality of my in laws were I should just go buy a new truck because it would come with new tires. What the hell???????

I did not NEED a new truck. My expense of tires was just a part of the ongoing upkeep of the vehicle. Hello, if I was budgeting for tires do you really think I had the finances to even consider a new truck. What idiots!!

That ignorant statement infuriates me and every time I see them I am so reminded of it. The goal is to think things through. The goal is to spend wisely. What kind of goals they have I will never know. Keep in mind they are the same ones that thought I was ignorant for starting my own business with my husband, and almost 10 years later we are still here.

My car is almost 9 years old and when I purchased it I paid for it in full. It has all the bells and whistles that most people want, and I still love it. I love it even more when I do not have to write a check each month for a payment.

My point is this, do  not listen to others alone. Be wise and do your own research. You and only you know what you can or cannot afford. Stop and consider what would you have to give up ,that you enjoy, in order to look good driving down the road. You are what you are not matter what you drive.

Think long…spend less!

Frugal Self Promotion

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A little frugal self promotion never hurts sometimes!

Frugal Thought For Today

The space between life and death is a mass array of choices. Those choices either push us further ahead in life or leave us at a standstill. But it makes no difference whether they are good or bad decisions we are only given a certain time here on earth. The reason it is important that we choose wisely is because it may determine the quality of the given time we have.

Taking to much time deciding what to do can be a downfall, only because it may be seen as a waste of time. Deciding on something to quickly can send you down the wrong road, and that too can be a waste of time. Hence the theory damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I am the kind of person that still needs to see the pictures on the menu at McDonald’s even though they always have the same thing. I am a visual person. My thought process involves visualizing the outcome. That is a good process for some things, but how do you visualize your life choices. I have heard many a  motivational speaker state that you should see yourself where you want to be. Visualize your success and it will motivate you to reach that goal. That is a good theory, and I have applied it to my own life. However, without a plan to get you to that goal it may be hard to reach. We never plan to fail, we just fail to plan.

Let me share with you my plan and theory on making the best life choices. It took me a number of years to realize that only God above knows what my true life plan is . I can envision where I want to be, but if it is not in His plan I will never get there. There are many times when I have no clue what to do and all I have to do is consult my Personal Advisor from up Above and then be patient. People spend millions of dollars to be guided by life coaches, mentors and therapists. My Coach does not cost me monetarily. He only requires Faith and Trust in Him.

My philosophy is grounded on frugality, but when it comes to my Faith I refuse to be thrifty.

Frugal and Thankful

I would like to thank those of you who have left kind and inspiring comments on my blog. I truly appreciate them and take them to heart. You are like the motiving family members that I wish I had around me all the time.

I am pushing hard towards fighting my procrastination and taking it day by day.  But I have been trying so hard to fight against myself and the bad habits, that I have failed to realize I need to have peace within myself in order to overcome any obstacle I may tackle.

Peace within myself or around me is almost impossible to have in my life. Anyone that has an aging parent to take care of and juggle their own life knows that it can be draining on your inner spirits. Especially if the parent is harder to deal with than your own children.  Life in itself is difficult without any extras that we are handed. We can choose to deal with our circumstances gracefully or fight them head on. I have done both and still question which method is proper.

Through the years of dealing with my father it has drained my emotionally and financially.  It has effected my children, my marriage and my business. I have kept it all afloat only by the Grace of God. My happiness is out there lost somewhere with my cash flow. It is to the point where I am waiting on the power company to disconnect, my business to go under and who knows where the marriage stands since we no longer communicate on a regular basis.

In my world I have truly hit rock bottom. This is not me. I have asked myself over and over what could I have done different. I am not a shopper, credit card user, overspender, or live beyond my means person. I am a responsible child, parent, wife and business owner. What did I do to make all this happen?

In the midst of all this thinking and being on the verge of a pity party I received a phone call. It was my neice-in-law, newly married and new parent of a 5 month old little girl.  My nephew was on call due to the weather and she was home alone with her baby. She was in a state of panic due to the furnace was not working and it was below freezing outside. Within seconds my mind shifted from me and went into full troubleshooting mode in order to help her. Thanks to my husband working in HVAC for many years I have learned more than I wanted to about heat pumps, furnaces and such.

To make a long story short she was merely out of oil. Now, common sense to most would be making sure you had heat in the house, especially with a new baby. You do not wait until 1:00 in the morning to realize you have no heating method for your house. But before I gave the motherly lecture I remembered back to when I was her age, newly married and starting out. I assume that everyone knows how to be proactive. I assume everyone knows how to check their furnace, change a filter or just use common sense.  Quickly I realized that this was not the case. She was not brought up being shown or taught these things. Her parents always had taken care of these things and all this was new to her. If you are never shown or taught or told that you have the capability to learn these things it is a great possibility that you never will. It is possible that a person will always be depending on someone else to handle things for them.

After our phone call,  my attitude totally changed from wallering in self pity to peacefullness and joy. I had taken time to help someone else and make a difference. By restoring her peace of mind I had restored my own. AHH HAA!! That my friend is the answer. I have spent so much time worrying about my situation in life that I have failed to see opportunities to help others.

Will helping others get my power bill current, I doubt it. But helping others will restore the faith I have lost in myself.  It will bring back my resourcefullness, motivation and will power to get me back on track. I will also have the opportunity to share with others how to avoid getting to where I am now and possibly keep them on track.

We all need to be reminded from time to time that we have a lot to be thankful for.  Thankfullness is a great motivator even when we feel as if there is nothing to be thankful for.

Do It Tomorrow

I am so far behind…again!! If you have been following my path to overcoming procrastination let me make a suggestion to you.  Never try this alone. Never attempt to strive for excellence without an accountibility partner. It is extremely difficult to be accountible to yourself all the time.

It will not take long before you stop listening to yourself. It will not be long before you begin to tune out your inner self and do the opposite of what you are intending to do. My husband used to irritate me and now I irritate myself.  I am starting to believe that it would be easier to just keep putting things off. However that is not an option at this point.

I have made progress, although it doesn’t feel like it. I never knew how much crap that I had put off doing until I decided to deal with it.  The reason that half my life has been put off until tomorrow is now perfectly clear. It is nothing but a pure mess. The hard part now is to figure out what is needed to fix it.

Do it tomorrow. Start a new day and do not be so hard on yourself for what you did not accomplish today. Do it tomorrow. Take a deep breath, remember to take time to enjoy those around you, say a kind word and help someone in need. Do it tomorrow.

Frugal Insights

I know that I have always been proud of my frugal ways, and never understood why people were not more cautious of how they spent their time and money.  I still wear my frugality proudly, but it is time for us to spend some of the money that we are afraid to spend.

Now let’s be clear. Given the current situation of the economy it should be obvious that overspending or living above our means is just plain stupid. But in order to begin the revival of the economy we must start spending. It should not be up to the government to bail us all out or save the economy single handedly.  We all have to be a part of the solution.

I live in a small (and I mean small) rural community. Their idea of a bargain is “FREE”. Now getting something for free is not a bad thing, but there is a fine line to follow on that one.  Let’s take for instance the FreeCycle community. It is a forum where people in your city offer free items to other freecyclers instead of just throwing it away. Items range from swim toys to upright freezors and anything else you can think of. This is a super idea to save us from filling up landfills, but people in my area have turned FreeCycle into Santa’s year round wish list. People are asking for new cell phones, cars, car parts, video games and everything else. Freecycle is now being abused by those people who would rather receive than give.  I do not think you should ever ask for someone just to give you something for nothing.  So, do you see the mentality of the area in which I live.  I truly do not fit in and neither does my consignment shoppe.

I am in the midst of a “Spend Local” campaign for the local merchants. I am beginning to feel it is a waste of time. No one seems to understand that in order for people to keep their jobs there must be a demand for the company they are working for. In order for there to be a demand, consumers must be spending. But it is difficult for people to spend when they are in fear of loosing their income.

So I would personally like to thank those greedy individuals who managed to set us in a downward spiral. Now everyone has fell into a panic and trying to swing to frugality overnight. It just doesn’t work that way.

So, try spending frugaly and spend it local. Don’t expect life to be a hand out.

Day 4.5 and Counting Sheep

This is so ridiculous. I updated this blog during the wee hours of the morning. I shut down the computer and turned off the t.v….but then nothing.

Fast forward to now at 7:39 am and I have still not went to sleep and updating here again. I know I am trying to overcome putting things off, but what the hell….I did not mean to include sleep on that list. Do you know that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, on television all night long. Apparently the sheep I usually count have decided to catch some shut eye because they were no where to be found.

There is an upside to this. I have actually overcome the daunting task of getting up early. I will be hitting the shower in 10 minutes and ready for work earlier than ever. Grab a cup of coffee, a couple of Red Bulls and I will be set for a very LONG day!!

Procrastination: 2 , Me: 1

Prime example of my battle with procrastination is the fact that I have not posted any updates in more than 4 days. Why, you ask? Well, because I have not been doing to well.

New Year’s Day was suppose to be the day I accomplished it all. In my mind I had a plan laid out that would fill my day with needed tasks. There was even time scheduled in to take time out for my family.  However, it was not as I had hoped. It seems as though the more thorough my planning, the more difficult it is to adhere to. It was a day of pure interruptions and annoyance. I think I transgressed into my normal bitch mode until after lunch.

Why is it so easy to feel guilty or like a failure if the first few attempts do not succeed.  Failure is when we quit trying and just give up. I have not given up, but boy do I feel like a failure.  I believe that we are so used to instant gratification that small achievements bring us less happiness.

But on a lighter note, here is what I did manage to accomplish. I went and saw my mother. This may not seem like a big deal, but I have not seen her in 6 years. This was something that had been eating away at me.  I just knew that if I let go of all the things that had happened in the past, and became the bigger person, that would be a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. It was good to see her, but nothing had changed. I was simply reminded of the reasons that I had stayed away for 6 years.

This journey to overcome procrastination is more than meets the eye. Each task that I attempt evolves into something more that what I had anticipated. Now I know why I put all this stuff off for so long. I just did not want to deal with it. Healing past relationships, owning up to past mistakes, and trying to avoid making new ones is a huge mountain to climb up. I am emotionally and physically drained, but the journey has just begun.

Day 1: Getting Started

In retrospect of my previous attempts to overcome procrastination I realized the biggest obstacle was feeling overwhelmed. My mind would go in a million different directions as to where to start first and I would just simply shut down.  Another problem was that I would start to many tasks at one time and then overwhelm myself and quit all of them.  If  I see no immediate results then I feel like my efforts are a waste of time.

However, this day has been very different. By realizing what had been preventing me from my goals in the past I used a different tactic this time. I have to start small and keep reminding myself that it took me a while to get this way and it will take more than 24 hours to fix me. I made a simple list of a few things that I had been putting off.  Due to my need for immediate gratification they were easily accomplished in my given time frame. The one thing that I had been putting off was organizing my bedroom and stop using it as a storage facility.  I also wanted to tackle those damn dirty clothes that have to be handwashed or washed seperately on the gentle cycle.  My frugal habits, thank heavens, prevented me from taking everything to the dry cleaners. But my procrastination kept me from actually cleaning them myself.

I am so happy to say that I did accomplish my goal of getting my bedroom back in order and all those items that I had been hanging on to are ready for donation. All fine washables are washed and hung up to dry. Even my 3 section hamper has been labled and ready for use!

This may seem trivial to some, but I feel as if I have moved the Earth somehow in one day!  For once, I do not dread waking up in the morning. For once, I had time to actually cook a meal, clean up afterwards and hold a conversation with my husband without being a bitch.  Even to my husband this seems rather silly.  I have explained numerous times that when my surrounding are out of sync, so am I. My mind cannot focus or concentrate with things are just a mess.

I am actually proud of myself for today and have excitement for tomorrow. The key is to keep it simple, start slowly and have faith that this year I will defeat procrastination.  I  hope that you will check back in frequently with my progress and I hope that my daily trials will help encourage others to reach the goals they have not yet reached.

Procastination Delays Our Destination

Do something for at least 7 days and it becomes habit. This is what I remember being told in one of the many motivational classes I attended several years ago.  I am pretty sure that comment was referring to positive action being repeated for 7 days. However, I have subconciously applied that statement to negative habits.  I will spare you all the bad habits I have managed to adopt, but I will confess the biggest one.

Procrastination. It has become a member of my family. It wakes up with me in the morning, stays with me throughout my day, and rides home with me from work.  It has taken over my entire being and I am fed up with it.  I carry with me worry and dread over things that have no significant meaning.

Procrastination is nothing but fear, and I am tired of being afraid of fear! So, this morning as I woke up late, pissed off and dreading the day before me, I realized that I hate the person I have become on the inside and I am the only one that can change it.  I am ready to make that change.  I am ready and I want to share my journey through change with you.  Maybe there are others who are like me and cannot make the change without someone to help them along.  I would love to have the company and the more the merrier!

Procrastination only delays our true destination. If we keep putting it off we will never get there.  This journey is not about marking off the trivial tasks on our to do list. It is about truly living and sharing it with others.