A lot of misery and unhappiness comes when buying the latest toys, clothes and just plain stuff runs unchecked. Uncontrolled finances creates stress. Too many people in America spend $105 for every $100 they make.
A friend sent me a link to Challenge Yourself To A Money-Free Weekend, which starts out:
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For the last few months, my wife and I have been doing something every other weekend or so that we call a “money free” weekend, in an effort to live more frugally. It’s actually quite fun - here’s how we do it.
We are not allowed to spend any money on anything, no matter what. In other words, we can’t make a run to the store to buy food, we can’t spend money on any sort of entertainment, and so on. Since we often do our grocery shopping on Saturdays, on a “money free” weekend, we delay it to Monday or Tuesday.
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In sports people practice and practice for hours so that in a game or contest they'll be ready to perform well.
Going for a weekend without spending money seems like a good way to practice controlling wants and desires. In our society, with the great proliferation of new and interesting products it is easy for wants and desires to be nearly infinite.
Consider going for a weekend without spending any money.
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Technorati tags: children, parenting, education, money, finance
4 comments:
I've heard of people going a whole MONTH without buying stuff, but I'm not quite up to that challenge. Mostly because I hate powdered milk and don't own a big freezer.
In February, I typically try to avoid any non-essential spending. It's the shortest month, and also the Lenten season usually starts then. So I'm already trying to simplify my lifestyle as a reminder of Christ's great sacrifice on my behalf.
We've tried things like "No Eating Out For A Week" and "No Visits To Costco For A Week."
We're not always successful. But it's the thought that counts. Anything to get us thinking about ways to cut back on our consumerism.
Like you said, Americans just spend way too much money on things they don't really need. I'm trying to teach my kids to think really long and hard before they purchase something.
Have a weekend, a week, or a month gives us a short period of time to practice discipline. A couple days to a month isn't so overwhelming. The idea of trying to make a fundamental change, permanently, can be overwhelming, but many people can handle a few days.
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