Journal of a Busy Mom

living one day at a time

Week Two Decluttering: Done!

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This week was a little bit tougher than last week. I had a set back. So I missed a couple of days, but I did catch up by doubling up.

This week I accomplished all my small decluttering jobs including:

  • Medicine Cabinet-done! I had some really, really old stuff. I’m talking 2014 expiration dates. The cabinet looks so empty! I do have to restock eventually.
  • Dining area-done! although now its my area for keeping stuff to sell. It was clean for a few days
  • Entertainment area-sort of done! We have so much stuff in two areas that I focused on the family room area. I pulled out all the workout DVDs. I had at least 10. If I am not going to use them, they should go. I also moved the games to one area so that when its time to sort through that its all together.
  • Magazines and books-done! I just recycled all the magazines. Didn’t even bother to look at them. I have so many books, I couldn’t possibly begin to sort through those.
  • Junk drawer- done! I have three junk drawers so I focused on one. I actually had worked on these a while back and they are still okay.
  • Bathroom Cabinets-Done! I threw out alot of expired creams and things. I didn’t through medications because I will wait to dispose of these properly. Our city has a event once or twice a year where you can bring your old medication.

Most of these jobs are not taking more than 15 minutes, but I know that the next set will probably take some time:

  • Linen Closet
  • Makeup
  • Jewelry
  • Closet
  • Catch up day

For a complete list of decluttering jobs, visit: 31 Detox Challenge

Reasons to Save

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I am currently working through The Financial Peace Planner by Dave Ramsey. Right before, I had read through his Financial Peace book and More Than Enough both by Dave Ramsey.

Currently I started the section on saving. Thankfully, we are debt free and are building our full emergency fund.

He says there are 3 reasons to save

  1. Emergencies
  2. Major purchases such as cars or furniture
  3. Wealth Building: giving, retirement, estate planning

My 2019 Financial Goals are based on these three reasons.

The Key to Saving is SACRIFICE. You have to be willing to give up something now so you can have more later. Quote from the FPP.

I feel that saving isn’t taught enough. I recently saw my Social Security Statement and it blew me away. From 1990-1995, right before I went to my four year college I made $46,000. I had nothing to show for it. I had to get student loans and work 3 jobs in college so I could afford to go. If I had even saved 15% I could have had $7,000. If I had saved 20%, which would have been easy to do when you don’t have bills, I could have had $9200. Still not enough to avoid debt, but it would have helped. So I am teaching my children to save. I talk about saving and all time.

So here are my 2019 financial goals:

  1. Replenish my emergency fund. We had a set back last year so we used up our emergency fund. This year, I am on a mission to save it back up. I have several goals along the way including doing a NO Spend February. I guesstimated that if we only pay bills we could save $2,000 this month!
  2. My daughter and I will be taking a trip in 2021 when she turns 21. I am opening an account at ally.com and start putting money into it so that we have a good chunk saved. It will be a joint account so she can start saving too. Again, teaching her to save for what she wants.
  3. My third goal: To fund my accounts by selling things around my house. I have alot of stuff. This is why I am doing the Decluttering Diet. I will purge and sell. My goal is to have several garage sales (I actually enjoy doing them) and sell things online. If I can sell $300 a month that would be a nice chunk of change for our funds.

So, first step is starting the Decluttering Diet. Just this first few weeks I have already accumulated a lot of things for our first garage sale. This first week is just the detox. Every month after that I will be focusing on a room maybe even two.

Second step, is to cut back in our budget. I was going to do a NO Spend February but that fell apart. BUT! I am still doing a low spend February and trying to living out of our pantry as much as possible. Its a challenge but so far I have saved alot. First week I only spent $60 at the grocery store. And last week I spent around $112. Most weeks I spend $200.

Third step will be selling. I have so much homeschool curriculum to sell. I think it is at least $700-$1000 worth of curriculum. If I can sell most of it that will give me a good jump start for our savings accounts.

So for now, I am saving for emergencies and big purchases. Once I have funded all my emergency fund, I will move on to savings reason #3 which is build wealth and give.

Ligia

How I Set Up My Prayer Journal

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Last year I decided that I would start a new prayer journal every year. I like to go back and read my prayers, but sometimes I couldn’t find things because I had 2-3 years shoved into one book. So, I found these nifty binders at Office Depot for $1.00.

I was so excited. I selfishly bought them all-like 15 binders. They come with five dividers with write-on tabs and a nifty storage pouch. I don’t know if they were being discontinued, but I found a similar set at Amazon. It costs more than a dollar, but worth the investment. I like my binder to fit in my prayer box so I don’t use a full size binder.

I did find something similar at Amazon, it has dividers and a pouch. Here is the link the that.

I found an amazing post over at Intentional by Grace about how she sets up her prayer journal and she takes you step by step. There is even videos. So visit her site if you want a step by step.

My prayer book and Bible

My prayer journal is similar but I have less sections:

  • Praise
  • Thanksgiving
  • Confession
  • Daily
  • Monthly
  • Days of the Week

Then I Have a Daily Section which is where I keep all my daily prayer sheets for my family, friends, loved ones. This section is followed by Monthly. This section is for specific prayers for that month. For example, in February I will start planning for our VBS this summer. I will write that in February.

My Daily Sections

Then my Days of the Week are broken down as follows:

  • Monday- my church, church in America, Fellow Believers,
  • Tuesday-Grieving, Important Events, Lost & Backslidden, Neighbors, Persecuted Church
  • Wednesday-Specific Extended Family, the Ill, Those in Authority (president, governor, mayor, etc)
  • Thursday-Peace in Jerusalem (specifically pray for Jews for Jesus), several close friends, and foster families (I know alot of them)
  • Friday- missionaries, my Compassion kids, and homeschool family (specific family I pray for each year)

I am trying to help my kids establish their own quiet time so I am linking several printables I have found for them. Including prayer and reading guides.

10 Bible Reading Plans

180 Days Guided Tour of the Bible (this is the one my son chose)

http://chico1st.com/hp_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/180DaysGuidedTour.pdf