What I spend money on.

" A penny saved is a penny earned."

I have been reflecting on my spending habits these days. I am quite proud of my accomplishments! It used to be that I would spend as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted. It was fun, it felt good, I had lots of "stuff."

I have always been good at saving money, but I am even better spending it. I think it's because I grew up the first 5 years of my life literally having nothing. My biological father had a drug habit. He would sell our clothes, and furniture for drugs. We opened up cardboard boxes with donated toys from the community for our Christmas. We ate a lot of canned sloppy joes (gross)!

I was 4 when things started to look up. We met my dad (step dad). He did well for himself. He fell in love with my mom and us children, and took her, and her 4 children under his wing. Don provided quite well for us all.

My dad did so much for us, paid for us to be in just about every school sport there was, buy us horses, bikes, snowboards, clothing etc. I believe most important of all, he taught us how to save money, and learn how to budget. It was nice to be taken care of, and have "things."

Eventually I got married, and living in Oregon, Jamie and I started out with having no money. We ate ramen noodles, or Carl's Jr. a lot ( I worked at a fast food joint, so it was free.) I didn't ever have enough money to buy anything extra, we lived paycheck to paycheck. Paid our bills, and that was all we could manage. We were happy mind you, living a minimum wage lifestyle.

However we moved back to Wyoming, Jamie and I landed well paying jobs. I again became quite materialistic! I wanted everything I laid my eyes on, and I bought it. Then Jamie started making even more money, and I started seeing him less and less...oh the joys of the oil field! So I had a void to fill, and I filled it with spending money on STUFF!

I am happy to say that I have found a happy balance, and I save even MORE, and spend even less! It feels really great.

Now that I have Elijah, I am more grown up and responsible. Before Eli was here these are things I would spend money on.

•Pedicures and Manicures Facials, and massages

•Haircuts and colors

•Home decor

•Clothing ( I still find clothes that have tags on them)

•Makeup

•Electronics

•Eating out at restaurants

•STUFF I can't even begin to remember lol

Now my spending habits have rhyme and reason! Now my money goes towards things like this:

•Diapers/wipes/formula/clothing- Things for Eli.

•FOOD. Grocery shopping. I mean I spent money on food previously, but now that I stay home I have MORE TIME to do one of my FAVORITE things, COOK and BAKE. I stay away from most items that are frozen...bad bad bad bad! I LOVE raw, fresh foods, and cooking healthy, fulfilling meals from scratch.

•Donating to credible foundations

•Activities such as city league volleyball/Zumba/swim lessons for Eli.

Really that is pretty much it! I do facials, manis, and pedis in the comfort of my own home! I still get my hair done, but I do it every 3 months, and I quit coloring it, gonna let me natural color come in! I am a mom, so I really don't wear makeup, and I have such a huge array of clothing, that there is no need to buy any at the moment!

I have come a long way over the years, some of you might find this blog topic a little silly. I however feel a need to celebrate my accomplishment, BY TAKING A TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND! hahaha no no no...by just posting a simple blog, to share with my loved ones. :O)