I went to a Women’s Conference yesterday at my mother-in-laws Stake. It was wonderful to hear Brother and Sister Eyre speak and I was even more excited when I say that one of the classes was on Finance. Of coarse that was one of the classes that I attended, but I was soon disappointed and a little discourage with the teaching. Now the information was great and the speakers had put together a good presentation, I just thought that they were missing some very important points. They did give out a flyer with a quote that I thought was valuable and worth sharing.

“Create peace of mind through building some financial security for yourself… As you work toward getting your finances under control, you are bound to find your feelings of peace and happiness on the rise.” “Try an experiment; spend a whole month not purchasing anything in a store except your normal groceries and gasoline. When an item breaks, try repairing it instead of buying a new one. Make do with what you already have available to you. It’s amazing how creative you can become. Break the buying habit!” “We become a slave to our unnecessary possessions. They steal our time and our life from us, forcing us to leave home and to work longer and harder than we would otherwise need to.” “In our rush to obtain wealth, we often neglect, and sometimes forget, where our greatest treasure lies.” “Rather, the success of your life may more accurately be measured by how much true happiness you have experienced, how much spiritual growth you have achieved, and how many lives you have touched for good.” “Money, and more importantly how we pursue it and our attitude toward it, can be either a blessing or a curse in our lives. It can help us achieve greater happiness or can multiply our misery. Learn to use it wisely…” By Gregory Wille Happiness 101

This goes right along with the theme that I have chosen for our family this year; Fix it up, Use it up, Make it do, or Do without. We made the decision not to purchase any gifts for friends and family this year and have already been put to the test. We have made a gift for a birthday party, I made a table runner for my mother-in-law’s birthday that was today, and we made a CD of music that each of the kids helped put together for my brother-in-laws birthday. It really makes use think about the person and what they would like.
The quote also goes along with the theme that my in-laws have chosen for this year and that is to “Simplify”. I have spent a lot of time the last few weeks cleaning out closets, the storage room and drawers, getting rid of things we don’t need or making uses of the things we have. It has felt so good and I look forward to being able to spend more time taking care of my family and less time taking care of my stuff!

I think I would like to try the experiment of not buying anything extra for a month. (February is the shortest month!) I think I would be surprised at what I could save. January we were able to have almost $250 extra by being very conscious of what we spent. So here is the challenge, if you dare, only buy the things you need at the market. That is food. If you are running low on soup or shampoo, use the little bottles that you take form the hotels (don’t tell me I am the only one that has those under my sink). Be good, you can do anything for a month, it won’t kill you. Then we can report back and see how we did. Let me know if you are up for the challenge!