Enjoying a Renewed Spirit

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).

The other day I blogged that I feel lost. As with anything, facing your feelings gives them relevance. Examining my breakdown, helped me to give these feelings a voice. My overwhelming urge to take a lower paying job with less hours just because it gives me greater flexibility is not something I can financially think about right now.

My first task was to make a lateral move in my job. Instead of being responsible for a unit and doing the same rooms every day, now I float so I am on a different unit each day. It gives me the perception of flexibility and has made me a bit happier.

The second thing I did was to pick up a weekly calendar that was divided up for four different people. I outline the week with my kids and I. Also, I list the weekly menu on it. Our chores are listed there as well as any appointments we have. I have actually been using this system for a few weeks and I will be switching to a dry erase version in the new year.

When I take time for myself and have a relaxing bubble bath, I watch Youtube videos to learn new things and to time myself so I am not in there all night. I watched one the other day by Erin May Henry titled Ten Habits to Start before 2019

1. Do something new everyday
2. Declutter
3. Reframing
4. Meet new people
5. Start being honest with yourself
6. Get Organized
7. Budget and take control of your finances
8. Stretching or yoga
9. Journaling or Reflecting
10. Laugh

My top five, the ones that I am personally working on right now are:

1. Decluttering- make sure your environment is not sucking the creativity from your soul. My house has been in a constant state of construction for the past year or so. I need to just find myself a corner to call my own so I can GYST. (Get Your Shit Together *More about that in my next post).

2. Get organized- Use your planner and calendars together. If you write it, do it. I have been doing pretty well I just have to keep at it and do better.

3. Budget and take control of your finances- Know what you have and stick to your budget. This is the personal goal I have been trying to tackle all year and finally figured out last night what I have been doing wrong so its back to the drawing board for me.

4. Start your day with stretching or yoga- stretching keeps your body in balance, increases your energy and decreases the stiffness in your muscles.

5. Journaling or reflecting- “It’s really hard to feel empowered and motivated to move forward on your journey if you don’t know how far you’ve come.”

With that, I have a starting point of how to move forward. This blog post is a day late but I did it. Always be proud of the progress you make.

SMART Financial Goals

Eight years ago we had a family counselor who taught us that running a household was just like running a business. She told us that we should have an accounting meeting every pay period. Money should never be spent without your partners knowledge and both of you should at all times know how much money you have.

At first this was really easy because my hubby worked third shift and I worked evenings so every frid ay morning we would get our kids off to school, grab our coffee and sit at our local park discussing where our money was going then we would go pay bills and grocery shopping.

Now we both work first shift and we’ve both had some very difficult health and financial struggles. Luckily, the only credit we have is a car payment and a mortgage. Our utility bills, however, have not been paid in full for months. Our goal for 2018 was to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle.

Since January 1st I have been keeping track of our income but I am having a little trouble wrangling in our spending. Our goal of breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle was too broad for me to work with.

Starting with today my mini goal is to pay down these utility bills and sock away some savings. We are, however, starting with a few struggles including:
* before yesterday’s check my account was in the negative because we underestimated the cost of a car repair.
* my husband hasn’t been paid from disability since the beginning of the month.
* with my hubby going back to work in two weeks we add the initial expense of a bus pass for me to get back and forth to work.
* because of these struggles I owe my daughter 3/4 of my freelance pay she helps me with this job and I have not paid her in full from the last 3 checks.

I have a whopping $140 to work with this week. Our sound financial decision is to buy the groceries we need and keep the rest in the account to cushion whatever next week brings. Now that I am done with my errands for the day, we have a small cushion of $68 to carry over to next week.

This has been the first in the Finance Friday Series.