Living And Growing From My Decisions



I had a lovely lesson yesterday that truly resonated with me. For the past few years, probably more,  I haven't been taking care of my money.  I have just been winging it, never keeping track, these past 3 weeks I've really buckled down and started following a budget. 

For close to 10 years I've walked into the grocery store, filled the cart without thinking but I've come to the point that I'm not able to do this any longer, besides I have wasted food which really upsets me that I bought like that and then thrown it away.  That's disgraceful when there are people starving.


So, I've had a weekly budget that I've been following and although food is expensive, I buy what I need and I buy pretty healthy food. Lots of vegetables and fruit. I thought I might have to do without but that's not the case, I'm just much more careful and less wasteful. That feels good, I'm on the right path.

I guess this all came from living on a very tight budget while raising my oldest daughter and feeling as if I was limited. Then when I started working two jobs, I felt like I had the right to shop willy nilly, I had worked hard for that.  That was me not respecting my money, I was thoughtless.

I don't have a huge salary but I certainly make a decent wage and I should be better off than I am, not always just getting by.  Well the lesson today was that even if I am blessed with abundance doesn't mean I should waste it, maybe I should even be more frugal.


Just because I make a good salary doesn't mean I should spend, spend, spend... for once in my life I should actually be able to save for something that I want.  The lesson I learned was simple...  just because I have doesn't mean I should spend.  It's like what we do for our children, when I had very little money, I made sure that my oldest daughter had big Christmases and I always made sure she had lots of money for clothes the first day of school.  This wasn't truly appreciated by her though... she would come back to me and say things like... Is this all there is?  or... I don't have enough money for what I want.

With Valentina, I decided to be different, I rarely spend a great deal of money on her and she is one of the most grateful and thankful little girls I have ever known.  She loves whatever I give her and she beams because I gave it to her.  She also has chores to get her allowance, she never questions this, she does the chores.

I didn't do this with my oldest because I was raised in a crazy household where we had no allowance and we had chores... which would have been fine if my ex step mother Ruth hadn't been so insane in that we had to be perfect or get slapped for not doing it perfect.  When I tell people how Ruth was, they often wonder how I lived with someone who was so insane.  As a child we have no choice.. I wonder what my father was thinking? 

So with my oldest I did a 180 degree turn and had her do nothing but give her everything, definitely not the way to go, she wasn't grateful, she didn't feel thankful, she felt like I didn't do enough.  That was my fault, I raised her that way, I allowed her to become that way, just so I wouldn't be like Ruth.  I was more like my oldest daughter's sister than I was her mother.  With Valentina, I am her mama... I make the decisions for her while she is young, I am open to listening to her but ultimately I make the final decision. 

I went down a long dark path after my oldest daughter grew up and when I met Andrey; it took me until almost a year ago to realize that I had chosen that path and now I have chosen another path, one where I am more in control of where I am headed (since we are never completely in control).  I cannot say it is easy but I can say that it makes me happier that I have made better decisions.

"Everything you want, also wants you" ~ Jack Canfield

4 comments :

  1. Hello Launna:
    This all sounds very positive to us. Budgeting is simple to do but one must be disciplined and stick to it. However, as you say, it does mean that money does tend to go further as a result and there is far less wastage. That is all to the good.

    Children do, we believe, need to be made aware of the real value of money and to recognise that it does not grow on trees. It is very good discipline for them to earn what they receive, even if it is only by doing small jobs around the house.

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  2. I totally agree Jane and Lance, children need to know that money does not grow on trees, doing small jobs around the house teach them that money is to be earned.

    Thank you for commenting!!

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  3. These are good lessons. It's hard to distinguish what's right and wrong when parenting because sometimes you just DON'T want to be like your own parents no matter how much it might hurt your children. And budgeting can be really tough so stay strong and stick with it! Great job :)

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  4. Thanks Jaimie, I am happy I found your blog and made it a favorite, I will check in on yours every couple of days.

    Yes... sometimes we don't want to be like our parents that we go the opposite direction which is not always good for our children!!

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I love and appreciate all genuine comments, to save a little time, I won't be commenting on the comments on my blog (unless you don't have a blog), I will just visit your blog and comment there, if you have left a meaningful comment for me... I would much rather spend the time reading and commenting on a few extra blogs ❤