A month ago I wrote about my change of perspective about finances. You can find my posts here, here, and here. Viewing a recent talk show, I was affirmed that I had been hiding behind things…stuff, to show others I was successful in life, worth something, and someone to like. I sat there on the sofa and knew in my heart that I am more than just my belongings and that experiencing life is more than material things.

I am working to shed all that extra “stuff”, become more conscious about what and how I consume, be aware of what values my children see me living, and to become debt free. In essence get back to a simple life like so many of you out there in the blog world are doing so wonderfully.

Getting Rid of Stuff

To start to purge the cluttered possessions in our home I sorted through my kid’s toys (they are too young to help with this) and chose 5 shoe boxes full of toys to keep. The rest will be given away to the doctors office and our therapy center. I cleared away 5 mega diaper boxes full of toys that the kids seldom, if ever, play with.

Conscious Consumer

Shopping for my son’s birthday present I asked myself, how much enjoyment will this item bring? Will it continue to bring someone else joy after we have tired of it? Does it elicit creativity or develop skill? Or is it merely a fixture. I am realizing now that although I want to give him everything, this will teach him to rely on stuff for entertainment instead of his own creativity. I don’t want him to feel deprived either, which is how I felt as a child, and I think is why I started buying things as soon as I could.

I am buying items only when they have a planned landing spot in my home so that I don’t buy clutter. I also seeking to be a bit more resourceful by borrowing books from the library instead of buying a book for $30 that will sit on my non-existent shelves. Or, re-purposing an old accordion folder instead of buying a new one. My goal is to cut down on our spending and the number of items we have in our home.

Getting to Debt-Free

Now you are probably wondering how we did the first month of our journey toward becoming debt free. I’d say we did very well. We added up our expenses, took a stab in the dark at a spending budget, and started using a cash envelope system. The run down? (Even though the month isn’t entirely over, we have a good idea of what we are going to spend this week.)

:: We cut our spending by 50%. This month we spend 1/2 of what we usually spend for everything (other than bills.)

:: Didn’t do well with the envelope system or logging purchases. I am so used to tossing cash receipts for items we aren’t going to return. I realized this month that most all our purchases were in cash and that there is no back-up method of tracking what you spent when. Also, my husband kept on buying things with his lunch money, and then needed to get “reimbursed” for it from another envelope. This made things more complicated.

:: We ate together at home more. We ate out tons less and spent less cash doing so. I have also noticed the amount of food I toss in the trash has greatly diminished. Less waste, less money in the trash.

:: I need to plan more inventive meals and meals on-the-go.I started taking sandwiches, snacks, and drinks with us to the park-play-dates we do. The kids are HUNGRY after running around in the sun and having food on hand prevents crankiness and trips through the drive-thru. The trick is giving them something that an 18 month old can handle in her seat (and she is still rear-facing so I can’t tell when she has made a mess,) and that my 3 year old picky son will eat. Does anyone have a non-messy alternative to peanut butter sandwiches? Nevertheless money saved. Nutrition better. Needed: better planned meals.

:: Diapers and milk are still huge expensesand probably will be for a while to come.

:: Easier to balance the checkbook with fewer transactions.

:: We may need to adjust our spending budget a bit. This month we overspent on foods since we went to the farmers markets a bit. We also overspent on eating out. Some of this is poor meal planning and some of this is our busy lifestyle where schedules change quickly sometimes.

Overall our first month getting to debt-free went really really well. I am now more sure we are going to get there as a family. Coming up this week, I will share with you a few ways to get back to a simpler life and share how we celebrated my son’s birthday on a budget and with the simple life philosophy.

Do you have areas of your life you are working to simplify? If so, share them here for others to be inspired! Happy Organizing.