Mo Money, Mo Problems

I never really got that phrase (click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about..). I always thought that if you had money everything else would be fine. Our current financial statement is one of 'no money'. Were basically living off social security payments which cover necessities (barely) and not much else. this post is not one of complaint. it is not a post seeking charity. It is simply a post highlighting to POSITIVES this situation.

yes POSITIVES!

when my husband got accepted into university we were both over the moon because he had been trying to get into uni for a long time. Discussions began on when he would stop working before uni started & neither of us even flinched at the thought of him not working. Ive been a stay at home mother for almost 4 years now. we both agreed that is what we wanted for our children, so we were used to living on a single income. Now we are living on no income (basically) and its tough but its actually changed our lives for the better in my opinion.



1) life has slowed down... by that i mean we aren't always off rushing to go out to the movies or make dinner reservations. we aren't always rushing out to make it to the shopping centre and circling the car park to find parking to then buy things that we don't really need. We spend a lot of time at home where things are calm. Home has always been important to me and its my favourite place to be. Its where we have our most fun. Its where we feel the most comfortable.



2) Were spending more carefully. With less money going around being conservative and making a budget and sticking to it is vital. I find that when we were comfortable and money was not an issue, it was just that, not an issue. My husband and i never talked about how much the bills were, how much the groceries cost this week, how much to spend on things like fixing the car, birthday presents and eating out. Because i was basically the one in charge of the budget and how we spent our money i would hold both ATM cards and if he needed anything he was take some cash or his ATM card. Now whenever either one of us is going to or has spent any money we tell each other just so we both know where we are, financially. Its not romantic at all and it almost feels business like but i think its an important conversation that we weren't having before. We used to have fights over money because neither of us knew where the money was going and what it was being spent on. Now that there's a constant dialogue fights about money don't occur.

3) Creativity is a must. Ive always considered myself to be a creative person, but when you don't have a lot of money to spend on whatever you would like, imagination and creativity are very helpful. My creativity has expanded from painting canvases & crochet (my weapons of choice) to meal planning, reusing & up-cycling things around to house, ways to entertain the children for free, how to clean the house for basically nothing & other ways to save money. I feel like i haven't been this creative in my life ever!

4) An appreciation for everything. every little thing. We cant afford to buy new things or travel to far away destinations which forces us to look at what we have now and love it. Of course an appreciation for each other has always been there. An appreciation for our families is inevitable. But now i appreciated things like dish washing liquid, laundry powder, my massive arts & craft box accumulated since i was in high school which has come in handy now that i have 2 creative little angels. I appreciate all my shoes, i really don't need this many but I'm grateful that i have them all. I appreciate all the gifts from baby showers and birthdays which were too big at the time but now fit perfectly. I appreciate the fact that i have less than 20 dinner plates. who need more than 20? i hardly ever entertain.

5) Cleaning occurs more often & with less complaint. Along the lines of appreciation and due to the fact that we spend a lot of time at home, i try to make it as comfortable as possible. i try to keep it organised so there isn't any "where is my other sock?" "where is my school bag?" "can you find my phone!??" yelling conversations going on as were are heading out the door. De-cluttering was the first step so once there was less stuff in the house, there's less stuff to pick up & put away and cleaning is easier.

there are obviously a lot more positives but for now i must be off, time to tackle the dishes & the pile of laundry just crying out to me.