How to Stop Being Lazy and Save $1000

What's money got to do with laziness?

You get home from work, are hungry and don't want to fix dinner. So you order out instead of cooking. Lazy!
You rip a seam or lose a button and so you go to a tailor or seamstress for help. Why not go to a store, buy a button or some needle and thread and fix it yourself? Lazy!
You are tired of your clothes and can't figure out how to mix and match and create new outfits of what you have. so you go shopping. Why don't you ask a friend to help you rethink what you have? Because you are lazy!
You are bored and don't have a book to read so you buy some online. What about the library or borrowing your firend's books? Lazy!
You are bored and so you go to the movies at night, pay premium prices and buy junk food to boot. Why not use Netflix or borrow flicks from the library or friends? Because you are l_ _ _!
You are not organized to pack a lunch so you buy it almost everyday. Why? Because you are_ _ _ _!

I figure that if you reframed your thinking about these bad habits, you would save more than $100 per week, some weeks. That could be $1000 a year.

Want to give yourself a raise? Stop being lazy and cook, sew, rethink, borrow and stop before you spend another dime!

Clinton Is Looking Better To Me

Never say never. I never thought I would have a good thing to say about our former President, Bill Clinton.

But he must be teachable. After all he has become a vegan and his health is improved. He's no longer a heart attack waiting to happen. I applaud him. I'm proud of him. And if he can do it, so can others.

The second reason he is looking good to me is that he had a balanced budget. Less than 2 decades ago, he did it. Why can't we?

I'm not inviting lots of complicated explanations. I'm a simple woman when it comes to money. Spend less than you make, borrow as little as possible and pay it back as fast as possible, and stick to it .

If everyone were asked to contribute a dollar towards our deficit, or if the rich decided to give more, in a one time donation to the government, we would come very close to wiping out the deficit.

So the sugar daddy exists and it is us. Why won't we do that? Because it's too obvious, it's too simple and it's too easy.

It seems like we would rather fuss, fret and argue than do the right thing. How about it America? Let's be the sugar daddies and mommies and watch Congress and the President swoon from gratitude overload!

A Bad Economy is Good

Lest you think I've lost my mind, let me tell you about a dream I just had.

I dreamed I was getting married and I had a groom and a dress. That was it. It was snowy and it was hard to drive around.  I was teaching a class and so I had a few potential guests, my students, the ones that might feel like showing up. I had a place to get married. I hadn't booked it but I felt that some room or porch would do. It was a beautiful, very large house that was a meeting place and I was sure I could use a corner.

I had no cake or other food. I had no chairs for guests to sit on and I had no advance planning.

What did I have besides the groom and the dress? I had God, I had love, and I had time. I was also excited because I had confidence that it would work out. And it did.

The people in the house were thrown into a tizzy. Why did I take it for granted that I could have a room, a closet or a porch to use? They were hanging onto what they had and no rule breaker was going to invade their space.

I persevered and it all worked out.

You see you can have a wedding without much. You can also have a life without lots of amenities.

Most people are focused most of the time on what they don't have. How can I get what I don't have? Why can't we focus on what we do have?

It would be a huge shift for Americans to learn to do that. Our lifestyles, our economy, our hopes and dreams are based on what we don't have. And yet, the less we have, we still chug on, doing what we can with what we have.

I love to read about people who grew up poor but didn't know it. Their parents never told them. Whatever they ate at dinner, they gave thanks for. They weren't focused on the food they didn't have.

I remember taking a big bag of outgrown, used clothing to Goodwill when my boys were little. Son #2, in the car with me, asked, "Where are we going?" "To Goodwill, to give the clothes to the poor." I'll never forget his response, "But mom, we are the poor!"

What had I done wrong? How did he know he was poor, that we were poor, a divorced mom with 3 kids scrambling to make ends meet? Of course, I must have told him. I must have been focused on what we didn't have instead of what we had. That was my mistake and I am passionate about sharing my mistakes so you don't have to make them too.

Times of lack, like today, are good for us. It gives us an opportunity to practice being rich without the money, amenities and lifestyle that we think we should have. We are still richer than 80% of the world. We need to start being grateful for what we have and act grateful as well. Our happy future depends on it.

We need to learn the secret that Paul discovered more than 2000 years ago. "I know what it is to be in want, and I know what it is to have more than enough - in everything and in every way I have learned the secret of being full and being hungry, of having abundance and being in need. I can do all things through him who gives me power."

Remove Temptation

How do we stop spending and thinking about spending?

The answer is a little know fact: remove temptation.

Oh, you already knew that? Then how come we watch TV and see ads all the time. We surf the internet and have ads all over the pages. We get emails tempting us to buy almost everything at a discount.

I have taken a bold step. I have "unsubscribed" to almost all the cool deals that used to be delivered to my inbox daily: ebates, groupon, livingsocial, daily swirl, Kohls, Ralph Lauren, Macy's, Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, Kodak, Replacements, Williamsburg Marketplace, and much more.

When you want to resist temptation, you need to replace the tempting thing with another, more satisfying pleasure. So I made a list of those things that I will do instead of internet browsing and just musing on what would be fun to buy if I ever had enough money.

Here's my list: lengthen my Bible Study time or even have more than one a day, create meal plans and prepare food, watch some Food prep DVD's I own, work on my book, write and shop for publishers and/or literary agents, and write my blogs.

This is more than enough. But in case I need more, I can exercise more than once a day, I can just hang out with my husband, and I can nap.

What's on your replacement list?

Leaning Book Shelves

I am decorating my daughter's condo in Fairfax VA ultra modern, a new style for me.

Naturally, if I save money on furnishings, the sooner I can tackle the kitchen renovation which means the sooner I can have you over for dinner:) I already know that I want Ikea to do the kitchen.

So the leaning library shelves I wanted on a "nook" off the living room cost over $1000! No way!

I looked online in every catalog I could think of, Overstock.com and ebay. Finally, I saw exactly what I wanted on ebay. The wall is 36" wide and these shelves are 34" wide. They will fill the space nicely.

My wait paid off. I got them for $99 and free shipping and handling. That's a bargain.

What's not a bargain is that they arrived in a box which means someone will have to assemble them when I bring them to Virginia.

I'll pray that my neighbor's brother, who is handy and very nice, will be around.

Save Money To Do What?

I woke up this morning with a revelation that is BIG.

My motto as Q of B used to be, "Live rich without being rich." The missing piece is why? If Q of B was all about me, my clothes, my house, my bank account, then is was poor indeed.

I woke up with a new motto, one that answers that question and is way better than the first.

             "Earn and spend every dollar as if each had the potential to change the world.

  Inspire and help others to do it too." 

Just yesterday I was lamenting to my husband that it seems to take forever for me to have real clarity of thought, especially on all the important things in life. Well, this one was worth waiting for.

So how would your earning and spending change if that motto were yours? 

Let me know how you answer that one. You have a lifetime to work it out.

Bad Advice from The Washington Post

 June 2, in the Style Section of The Washington Post, there was an article about buying “investment” piece furniture that is classic, will stand the  test of time and wear, and be the best “first” pieces of furniture to get when just starting out.

Baloney.

The prices on that furniture were appalling.

Let me tell you about what I just bought, classic investment pieces of furniture to adorn a condo in Fairfax county. I found a Natuzzi  red leather tufted sofa and arm chair for around $1800 at Hamilton Sofa and Furniture Gallery in Chantilly. I went back and special ordered two ottomans to match for another $600. And a beautiful painting to go with, a modern autumn scene rich in hues of reds, yellows, oranges, browns, greens, some blue and dots of black, stunning.

I bought a clearance dining room table, round glass topped with circular wood base and 4 chairs at Macy’s for $627.

And a platform bed from Ikea with storage drawers underneath was $300. Later a tufted, genuine leather headboard will be bought on eBay for $345.

It my rate I can furnish 3 condos for the prices quoted in the Post for one place.

You need the Queen back, Washington!