A Full Rich Life – Ways That We Save Money & Live Frugally – Part 5 – Conclusion

Our family lives a full, rich life! We make spending time together a priority, making memories, laughing often, reading lots of books, and even watching more movies than we’d like (with Grant & I both dealing with chronic pain issues, evenings get hard. So sadly, this becomes the “I don’t feel up to doing anything else” option. But we do invest in things like ClearPlay so that we can enjoy more movies without the filth.)

We find a balance between choosing what to spend our money on & what we say no to. And always being careful to live within our means…if we don’t have the money for it, we don’t buy it.

Many years ago, someone was lamenting the fact that they “couldn’t afford” a computer & were upset that even though we made a fraction of what they did, we had 3! Grant had one, I had a laptop (that I used to run a successful EBAY business for many years, which paid for our homeschooling for those years!) & we had one for the kids to play educational school games on, watch DVDS, etc.

They “couldn’t afford” a computer because they chose to take expensive vacations, had ATVs, ate out a lot, had a camper & riverfront property, a boat, etc…. See where I’m going with this?We all make choices. What choice do you want to make?

**A challenge…should you choose to accept it… 😀 Try keeping receipts & writing down everything you spend for 1 month. Categorize it by food, misc, entertainment, eating out, etc. (whatever works for you). You might be surprised at how much you are spending in a certain area!! We do this every once in awhile to try to keep on track, see if we need to adjust our budget, etc.