Money Monday

Is your spending in alignment with your goals and values?

That question changed my life. I happened to pick up the book Getting a Life when I was trying to figure out  why I was so miserable in my life. I had a baby and a 2 year old at the time and working full time. It was shortly after my mom died that I really started trying to figure out what I was supposed to do in this life. I was completely burned out on life. I was TIRED!!!

My mom died at the age of 50 - she worked soooo hard, didn't ever have time to read a book....or wait, maybe she didn't take the time?

One question in the book that jumped out at me was - what would you do if you didn't have to work for a living? In a heart beat I knew that I would love to be a homemaker. We paid off all of our student loans, car loans and started saving money like crazy. At the time I made twice as much as my husband so we knew we'd have to make some drastic changes. We planned to move back to our home state of Montana so the cost of living would be cheaper.

I had a "financial" attitude change when the book asked the question "Is your spending in alignment with your goals and values?" I always entered our spending into the program Money, but I didn't ever do anything with the data. WOW!!! Was it ever eye opening when I found that we were spending $600-$800 per month at the grocery store.

Often times I won't spend the extra money to buy junk food for the kids, but I buy good shoes and clothes that fit me. I don't ever want to be a baggy butt jeans mom again. I was talking to my friends about the jeans that cost $100. That's not frugal right? Well, they've lasted 4 years (well, I bought them 5 years ago, but the first year we lived in AZ so I didn't wear them much). So monthly they cost me $2.00. Hmmmm...that sounds like a bargain to me.

Now cell phones on the other hand...we have a tracfone that costs about $8.00/month to own. I LOVE having a cell phone. I don't use it very often, but it's comforting to me to know that the school can call me if something happens to my kids or if something happened on a road trip that I'd be able to call and get help. The $40-$100/month that a lot of people spend would NOT be in alignment with MY values. Other people enjoy having a "real" cell phone. It would may or may not be in alignment with their values, but that's not something for me to worry about.

My husband loves to go on vacations and hang out with me. Why he wants to hang out with me after all these years still amazes me. He wants to add entertainment money and vacation money to our budgeting envelopes. It is in alignment with his values; since we are married I need to be respectful of his values! Now, if we didn't have the money that would be one thing, but we do. We're talking different values here. He still wants to pay off student loans, but he wants to hang out with ME and our kids before they are gone!

Dave Ramsey's financial advice has helped us, as a couple, work together towards our family goals.

Getting a Life changed my views on spending...the real reason why I was spending money.

I would love to hear from you! Is your spending in alignment with your goals and values? If not, what can you do to change this?