23-343 Spend Less #7

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Today’s Mandala Message: Create a Spending Plan

This week I’m working through Principles #59 and #60: Master the Spending Game and To Spend More, First Make More of Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles”. We continue with more principles about money and our relationship with it. I set my intention today to continue on from yesterday’s post to ponder more ways to slow down my spending. From an article by Rachel Cruze on RamseySolutions.com about ways to stop spending she states: “Ready to create your monthly spending plan? This is what I mean when I say budget. And my favorite kind of budget is a zero-based budget, which simply means that your income minus your expenses needs to equal zero—because you’ve told every single hard-earned dollar where to go. Just remember, it’s a working budget. You have to keep coming back to it in order to stay on track.”

She lists 5 ways to stop spending (she explains them in the article):

  1. Know what you’re spending your money on
  2. Make your budget work _for_ you
  3. Shop with a goal in mind
  4. Stop spending money at restaurants
  5. Resist sales

Today’s focus is on #2, making a budget that works for you. I do like their term “spending plan” … which feels less like deprivation and more like spending consciously. At Ramsey Solutions they offer a budget app (EveryDollar), which I installed…the free version. They have an upgrade version which offers more features than I think I need at this time. It was easy to use and set up. Now my challenge will be to maintain it…I need to make it a habit, ideally daily, but maybe weekly to start. I just now added it to my Reminders app.

A good mindfulness practice would be to consider creating a spending plan.

So how about you? Do you have a budget or spending plan? Do you know how much you spend each month? Do you monitor or track your spending?

“The key to stop spending
too much money
is to create
better money habits
in your daily life.”

— Rachel Cruze

Blessings,

Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas

An Invitation

I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.

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Published by The Mandala Lady

My Mission: connecting with our Inner Light in delightful, inspiring ways For me, creating mandalas is more than just coloring pretty patterns in a circle. I do it because my spiritual evolution and creativity require it of me. My mandala designs come about within an active meditative state, connected with my higher self, my spiritual guides and nature spirits. Together, we bring into form, mandala art the allows me to re-connect with my own inner peace and joy, letting me explore and expand my own creative spirit to however far and in whatever direction I want to take it. As part of my own spiritual journey, I encourage, and hopefully inspire, others to explore their own creativity, to help them re-connect with their own inner peace and joy. As a means to that end, I make all of my mandalas available for people to color. Why should I have all the fun?

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