For a few years now, I have been tracking my spending in an attempt to get out of debt. Luckily, I only have a couple of debts that would seem small to most people, but they seem large to me, and although I’m not overly worried about them, as I know they will be paid off eventually, the fact that they are there makes me feel really uncomfortable and yuk. My ideal situation is to be debt free, with enough money to comfortably live on, with savings in the bank and an emergency fund. This has been my goal for a long time. However, it’s not happening. I am going round and round in circles….I spend ages paying the money back, and finally just clear my overdraft, then ugh, I slip back into the red again, and it spirals downwards, and so this cycle continues.
What am I doing wrong?
I took a good, long hard look at my money situation today, and the answer lies in my habits, or rather learning to stay in the habit of learning to love the energy of money, ie. getting into my money rhythm of asking, receiving and feeling grateful….my money flow.
I LOVE these words to describe money….rhythm, flow, cycle, abundance, attraction. To me, these words mean love, and as I am discovering, the huge and powerful energy of love seems to be what life is all about. Every time I feel stuck in a thought/feeling/situation, I ask myself how I can find love with it. So, what I am getting at here is I am now going to try a new approach to getting out of debt;
By asking love to help me
I’m sure you’ve heard of asking the universe and surrendering in certain situations. This may be something that you think is a complete load of rubbish, but for me I have done this several times in my life, and found that if I stop resisting, struggling and learn to let go and be carried, and allow the things to find me that I need to get unstuck, it usually seems to work. Ask and it is given, and what you focus on grows.
So I’m starting my money journey again. I am writing up my ‘why’ I want to be in a better place financially, and I am creating my money vision for where I want to be, along with using some powerful money affirmations. I am tracking every single penny I spend, and the idea is to not spend anything at all, unless it is essential, so of course for things like rent/mortgage, bills, food etc. One thing I do believe is hugely important to me is spending money on good, high quality food and essential products for health and well-being, such as vitamins and organic chemical-free skincare products.
What’s the plan then?
This system of tracking every penny really works for me, but it only works when I commit to it and put 100% effort and discipline into it. I hide my credit card in a safe place, and don’t go out with it. I keep every receipt until it’s tracked in my big money notebook. I follow a fantastic money blog called The Frugal Cottage where they have a Facebook group too – they regularly do a No Spend Month which is actually a really fun thing to do, especially when you can buddy up with other people doing the same thing.
One of my best friends gave me this awesome book for my birthday which I am about to re-read. It’s called The Wealth Chef by Ann Wilson, and my friend actually got herself debt-free by working with this book.
It’s all about changing my attitudes with money, realising that I don’t need to buy things just for the sake of it. The whole point of this is to keep my life simple and enjoy simple living which means simple money. I want to stop looking for things outside of myself to give me a hit or a fix and a little rush of excitement! I want to find new ways of doing this…. such as learning to just ‘be’, appreciate and enjoy what I have got.
Simple money is the way forward….please get in touch if you fancy joining me on this simple money journey. It’s about changing my relationship with money, finding the love, becoming a money magnet and saving for a bright future with the security behind my back, and it’s about losing the careless attitude, the ‘I want’ and ‘ I need’, when actually I’m fine and much happier with less.
So….are you with me on a simple money journey? I’d love to hear from you!