Meaningful Work Outside of the Home

I've worked in higher education, while earning my degrees, and raising children, over the last 15 years. Recently, I began to apply for full time positions. I was offered, and accepted, a terrific full-time job at an outstanding university! Full-time for me, Mom, is new to our family.

When I began this blog of Frugal Abundance I asked the question of more time or more money? Is it possible to be frugal minded when it is not a necessity to be so? Save, Share and Spend are the motivating factors for us when we are blessed with more. Avoiding the frivolous and wasteful spending of $10 a day lunches (which I have been doing) is something to focus improving on. Automatic savings deductions taken from the pay are also a great way to save. Setting up a scholarship, or other means of giving, will make you feel invested in the work that you are doing. Giving is its own reward.

Then there is the outstanding debt. For us it is student loans and what remains of the mortgage. Over the next few months we hope to make progress on both of them, with the goal to pay off both in half of the time.

Join us here at the Blog as we journey into Saving, Spending and Sharing responsibly in the coming months ahead.

Rainy Days

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain. ~Author Unknown

Rainy Days.  I've always liked them. Do you remember "bubble umbrellas" and galoshes? A time where a mud puddle meant Jump! Splash! and Giggles...

Maybe you've graduated to warm blankets, and hot tea, as the sound of the rain hits the ground outside. Isn't there something calming and soothing about a rainy day....

Saving for a rainy day is also a very good idea. Do you have a rainy day fund? A rainy day would actually be a great day to take a look at your "rainy day" account. How much could you save in a week to put into the "rainy day fund".... Grab a notebook and jot down some areas where you could save between $5-$50 for starters. It is easier than you think. Then put the increments into a safe account, and watch it grow.

Then you will have the extra cash for when the next rainy day approaches.

Satisfaction + Gratitude = Abundance

Getting back to the basics of abundant living. Satisfaction + Gratitude= Abundance

I really believe the equation above says it all. It matters not how much you have-whether a little or a lot. I have been contemplating purchasing a new car if I get a new job. Why? Do I have the cash for this vehicle? Or can I simply afford the payments now-and not the purchase price in total. Why not save for a new car with the extra money from my new job? Why not be satisfied, with gratitude, until I have saved for a new purchase? Why go in debt? Make payments? Why do we do this...

The reminder of what abundance truly is-never more important than when you have a small (or large) surplus. Let's look up the definitions according to Webster's online http://www.merriam-webster.com:

Satisfaction:

a: fulfillment of a need or want b: the quality or state of being satisfied: contentment  c: a source or means of enjoyment  

Gratitude/Grateful:

a: appreciative of benefits received

Abundance:

An ample quantity

We are in charge of what is "enough". Save, Spend, Share from the abundance that we have been given. Take care of what we have been blessed with. Not begrudging it.

Satisfaction + Gratitude = Abundance

Waiting

Have you ever been told to wait? Or Been in the situation where you had to wait? It conjures up feelings, that word, doesn't it?

WAIT.

The anticipation of what is coming gives one an uneasy feeling. Wait for what?


Even if we realize what it is that we think we are waiting for, it takes a certain amount of patience and faith to wait with grace. Often times we fill that space of waiting with distractions, frivolous time wasters, or worse. Is it possible to understand the true meaning of what it means to wait?

Take a conversation. One person talks, while the other listens. Then there is a response from the listener. The back and forth goes on in the conversation, and there is ultimately an understanding that happens.

What if one person continuously talked, never offered a response, and didn't listen? That person, it could be said, has never learned to wait. Sometimes the greatest gifts are discovered in the listening.

The waiting.

Don't be so quick to fill the spaces in between.

It is in the pauses between the notes in which great music is made, the empty spaces around the paint on the canvas that images in art are developed, and in the quiet moments of waiting where we are given direction in our lives.~