During a coaching session, I was told to pick three words and write about them each day. I started with words like energy, health, happiness. I changed the words every so often depending on what I felt like I needed. One of the most recent words I added was abundance. The reasoning was that if I was able to look for ways we were abundant, I would feel abundance and it would continue increasing in our life.
Shortly after I started writing about abundance, I noticed it more and more. Some of the obvious ways I noticed abundance was getting money back from overpaying our clinic bill, a decrease in our water bill, an unexpected $3,000 tax refund.
Another amazing example of when abundance came was through our daycare. We recently started at a center daycare with our youngest son. Up to this time, we had grandma and a part-time home daycare. We have paid minimal childcare costs throughout our parenting years. Having to take on an $800 bill seemed impossible but I knew it would work out because we had no other choice.
Abundance entering: we finished paying off our basement loan ($250/month) and my mother-in-law encouraged us to take the money we donate to her mission and put it toward daycare instead; another $100/month. Our previous daycare cost was $400/month so we were now found $750. Everything just shifted for us.
My husband and I completed the Dave Ramsey course a year and a half ago. Throughout this time, we have paid off more debt and saved more money than we had ever previously done in our 11 years of marriage. Do we have a ton of money in our account? Nope. BUT we budget our money every month and the key is to shift the money around.
When we have an unexpected bill, our grocery budget is less that month and we have less personal money in our category and the clothing category goes down too. By having these fixed categories, I can compare each month’s budget and plan for the next month.
I feel empowered doing this and we feel abundant! Money is energy. So if it is just energy and we are positive when it comes to this area of our life, shifts will keep happening.
Abundance is all around us! It finds us in mysterious ways:
· Accessing a plan our daycare has for teachers in which one month is free (aka no daycare) and the other two summer months we have access to 10 days of daycare and just pay for these days. This was $1400 in savings.
· My husband coaches high school basketball. We randomly decided to put our oldest child in the basketball camp his team runs. We wrote an unplanned check for $110. When Josh went to give it to the head coach, he refused the money and told him we didn’t need to pay; it was the least he could do for all the help Josh provides.
· We examined our donation category. We have always given $100/month to our church. We decided not to anymore. I realize this is a controversial decision for some that may read this. I grew up going to church every Sunday but have moved away from standard religion. If we are giving money lovingly, wonderful. But this money was out of obligation and not love. One day, we may give to them again but it will be out of love.
· Auto insurance. We have three older vehicles, all of which we own. We will drive these cars until they no longer work and have no intention of accessing insurance if they go out. I cannot recall a time in which we have actually used our auto insurance and it was costing us $180/month. I did some checking and found I could get the same coverage through another company for $80/month.
· Cutting out subscriptions. Josh gets a monthly chess piece $40 and I have been a long-time Beachbody member. I decided to stop my monthly Shakeology as I have a large supply and I know there are other ways to maintain my health. This is a $120 savings.
As I continue on my journey of decluttering, minimalism, and simplicity, we will find more ways to save money and grow our energy. These are just real-life examples of my family’s abundance. Once I started looking for it, it kept coming. Abundance is there for everyone; you just have to look for it.
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