We're a week into 2014 and I bet you bills are starting to come in... you're trying to finish the left overs... decided to lose weight... exercise more... pay off your debt... like most of us do at one point or another in adulthood... and sometimes every January...
As the bills are starting to come in it may have an effect on your resolutions to loose weight, exercise more, pay off your debt... If you're anything close to what I was at one point, bills coming in are really annoying and stressful! Now, listen to me... trying to relax by going out to eat... shopping... or buying expensive tickets to a show you're not gona help yourself!!! I am not saying that you cannot do anything until bills are paid... I am saying that you need to decide your priorities!
Therefore, you need to come up with a budget! Take each one of your living, mandatory expenses. That includes:
Shelter
Food
Utilities
Insurance
Medical fees if any
Anything else is NOT mandatory and needs to be looked at carefully... And to be honest, shelter, food and utilities can also sometimes be excessive!!!
You need to make a list of what is a priority... to YOU!
After you know what is your minimal cost of living, look at your income... and see what is left... a percentage of that should go towards paying off debt and another percentage to savings... YES you need to save EVEN when you have debt!!! Now if you're lucky enough to have savings/pension at work well good for you... one less thing to take care off...
Once you figured out what is really left after cost of living and paying off debt and savings, this is what you can use for whatever you want to do!!!
This is how minimalist do it... We budget... Figure out what is left and then decide what we really care about! It can be activities, vacations, outings, parties... whatever... you just can't get/care about everything... and between you and me, you do not really want everything! You want to do/have stuff because everyone else is doing/having it... not because you truly deeply have a desire for it all the time!!!
And you know what? Your resolution to lose weight and exercise more can actually come in handy to your financial situation... By eating better and less, you'll save money on groceries (my next post will be on that on Friday)... By finding ways to exercise cheaply ( walking, hiking, swimming, running, yoga) you can boost your morale, have more energy and stay out of movie theater, malls and other places where you spend money... Having more energy you'll cook more... hence save money on food and eat better and contribute further more to weight loss...
See it's not that complicated!!! You exercise more, therefore you feel better... you loose weight... have more energy... cook more... therefore save money and loose more weight... which also boost your morale... makes you want to do more exercise... all this keeps you away from money spending places!!! Therefore you pay off debt faster and save more for a project that is more meaningful to you than buying the most recent dress from a designer or the latest game for your console... or seeing the latest movie that just came out!
It's a win-win!
It's not that difficult... but it needs discipline... it helps if you have people in your surrounding going thru the same... so comment here after this post... and we can stay in touch with each other and support one another! I really want to help you out! So let me know what you need.... what could I blog about to help you achieve your resolutions???
You are not alone!!!
love&peace,
nath
xox
www.thissavvylife.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=734016786
http://www.facebook.com/MinimalistVeganNath
https://twitter.com/NathalieBriseb1
http://www.pinterest.com/briseboisnathal/boards/
http://instagram.com/nbrisebois?ref=badge
http://www.facebook.com/MinimalistVeganNath
https://twitter.com/NathalieBriseb1
http://www.pinterest.com/briseboisnathal/boards/
http://instagram.com/nbrisebois?ref=badge
No comments:
Post a Comment