Goal 56. Save $1000 Emergency Fund

Hi everyone who reads my post! Does it make you sad to be losing the penny? Today we are going to talk about a subject that can get really emotional, really fast..... money.

But! This post is meant to encourage. It really encourages me. Here is the basic set-up. In the past two years while living below the poverty line (which is actually cool because then you get free money from the government! Yay free money!) Prince Charming and I have been able to save up our $1000 emergency fund and last year saved $9,000 for school.

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Goal 49. Simplify Meal Plan / Groceries

Last night at my small group I posed this question, "I just don't understand how one can go to the grocery store without having a meal plan. When I try that I leave the store with tons of food and nothing to eat!" All the girls agreed and most of the men did too! This of course sparked a little conversation between all of us, but then the men went on to talk about sports. The girls of course kept talking!

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For me the benefits of meal planning are first of all time. I hate it when I get home from the store and don't have enough food to get through the week. This means that I actually plan all of our meals and snacks when considering my menu. The second goal is budget. I am still not great at this part, but I am sure I would be in a much, much worse position if I didn't plan. And the third goal is health. We are much less likely to go out to eat and aren't continually eating junk food snacks when we have easy, healthy, tasty food at home. For us now eating out is purely emotional, as in, we tend to eat out more if we are feeling down, sick or just "hard-done-by". We also eat out if we are feeling celebratory. So we still have a ways to go, but I want to share how I organize the part I am good at. :)

Off-List Goals: Going shopping!

{Read part one here}
{Read part two here}
{Read part three here}
{Read part four here}

Finally we have come to the post about shopping! This can be wonderful news to some, or a dreadful task to others. I fall into the latter category. But! One does have to shop once in awhile if you are to remain un-naked. Here are a few tips to making this process easier, both if you love shopping or hate it.

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Off List Goals: A Purging Party

{Read part one here}
{Read part two here}
{Read part three here}

Lets have a purging party! In order to clean up our wardrobes and get ready for change we need to get get rid of the bad and the ugly. Don't just make piles! Determining what to discard and how to do it is still an important step and needs to be done carefully. No one wants to accidentally throw away an item or worse, throw it away and then need it shortly after! We have to steel ourselves and really make good decisions. Keeping to much, and getting rid of too much can both be a problem. So here's the process to determine what you need to get rid of.

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Hitting the Delete Button

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Obviously, since my blog is entirely based on my quest to finish off a huge list of goals, I like lists. Actually I have always loved lists. Like as in, my sisters and I would take hours to create a beautiful attendance list when we played school. Well, it's more crazy than that, but that's all the crazy we need for one day.

Lists are great because they allow you to get everything out of your head and onto a piece of paper, which will hopefully allow you to actually remember to do them. I love the idea of a brain dump and do it often, whether it becomes a list of tasks, a list of great things I wish I did for other people, a list of great things I wish I did for myself, or maybe just a journal entry. Or maybe just a written down prayer. There have even been times in my life that I have written letters to Prince Charming to try to explain something. Sometimes you need to write it out.

But there is another great skill that needs to be addressed: the delete button. Deleting items can create a breath of fresh air in a busy life.