Haaaaay mama,
If you cannot tell, I am about to run laps from the pure excitement I feel writing this post. I just believe it is going to set a lot of you FREE from unnecessary pressure, especially financial ones.
Then you can spend on what truly serves your family vision, save more and live your BEST LIFE, baby!!!
N.P This post was first published in this blog on August 2022
So, one of my goals this year is to be MINIMALIST. Cut down on everything that doesn’t matter, and live Zen and simple.
This goes for material things as well as relationships and activities. I have left groups, unsubscribed from emails, and blocked many. Lol
We going minimalist baby!!!
Ok, so I was watching a minimalist video on YouTube last night and she shared on 50 things she no longer buys, the idea for this post came to me, and even though I initially planned to do a post on how to spend less time in the kitchen while achieving a lot, I decided to do this first.
I know that some of us struggle with finances at home, and sadly, I see us spend money on some real useless stuff just because this is how it has been done since, or what society calls normal.
I live my life and especially run my home by Romans 12 v 1- 2 in the Message paraphrase.
so here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in youRomans 12:2 MSG
I especially love where it says ‘…that you fit in WITHOUT THINKING…’
Ouch to the Ewwwwww!!!
I am thinking about EVERYTHING these days and asking myself WHY I am doing this? Where did I pick it up from? I am so done just going with the flow. I don’t mind being a rebel. I am good and complete in Christ.
Society and trends change.
Jesus doesn’t!!!
COME ON!!!
Let us follow Jesus not this fading world
And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.1 John 2:17 NLT
So here is a laundry list of things I do not spend money on in this home as a Mom. Sit down, engage your mind of Christ and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Let’s save more, mama.
Legooooooo!!!
PS
Please do you, mama. I am not judging your choices. I am just sharing how I save money and not spend on unnecessary things, and this is my encouragement for you to really think about where your money is going, before you complain about not having. If you have plenty of cash and wanna splurge, ENJOY mama!!!
1. Drinks
Nah, I don’t buy any of those here as snacks for my kids. No caprisun, 5-alive, Bigi and so on. My kids drink water and take water to school too. We make smoothies, fresh juices, tigernut milk and zobo at home, but we mostly drink water. I can let them have a drink every now and then, maybe when visiting with family, and maybe a yogurt once in a blue moon, but I don’t buy drinks here.
If you give me, I give it all out. Got quite a bit at Christmas. Gave all out. Have a few left in my store and I give my security every week when I give him food.
If hubs brings it in, I give it to the security or pour it down the drain, if he doesn’t drink it quickly.
2. Biscuits
Same as number 1. I don’t have biscuits at home or give them as snacks. Once a while, I could buy them a biscuit but gosh, I hardly. I give them whole fruits and nuts to school as snacks 90% of the time. The day I don’t have fruits, I buy a biscuit but I try to not have those days abeg. You would hardly come to my home and see biscuits, and that is such a testimony because your girl used to throw down on biscuits.
3. Party packs
If my kids’ birthday falls around school time, I give books as gifts to the kids. I no longer waste money on party parks. I also let my kids write a note in them to their classmates. When my kids get party packs, I trash almost every edible in it, or give them out. I don’t want crap in my kids, and I am certainly not giving crap to my kids
4. Fries
Another stuff you would NEVER find here . Had a season I got maybe a pack or two then after some research, I decided to buy and peel my own potatoes.
#ChildNutrition: The Dangers Of Store-bought Frozen French Fries.
Not only are they more expensive, they are high in sodium and have all these crappy preservatives. Ugh!!!
5. Sausages
Nah, never never never. Not for my kids. Never.
#ChildNutrition: The dangers of sausages
Waste of money and super dangerous to their health PLUS it is addictive. No way!!!
6. Shoes
Now, of course they have shoes but I don’t waste money buying countless shoes just because they are in vogue for boys. They have a few functional shoes, one for school, one/two for church, canvas, and sandal and that is all. Oh and slippers, one each. Funny recently, we were with a friend and her kids and while I admired her boy’s footwear, I didn’t feel a need to buy for my kids too.
2020, my kids got lots of shoe gifts and while I am grateful for them, they also present an issue for me when they have grown into it, so I will be giving out too.
Kids don’t need many shoes.
7. Cloths
Oh another way I save money. I ask my sister to hand down her son’s clothes to my first son and I hand over my first son’s own to my second son. I honestly don’t sweat it when it comes to clothes. Again, kids need so much and no more, and this applies to girls and boys.
Simples.
8. Expensive toys.
My kids destroy toys so I stick to cheap ones. And I buy books instead. Any pricey toy here is a gift or I found it in a thrift store for really cheap!!!! Kids don’t need so many toys. They need to play with themselves and what we already have at home, like pegs and tyres outside.
9. Golden morn and cereals in general
I buy one pack of Golden morn and it can last 2 months or longer. I give them golden morn once, and on a rare occasion twice a week. Sometimes, not at all. I don’t do any of those fancy cereals because they are choke full of sugar and preservatives. Kids need food, not ‘non-foods’ which is what these cereals are. Hubby takes cornflakes, the plain old regular Nasco and sometimes I give that to the kids too. Basically, nothing coated with chocolates, colors, sugars and all finds its way in here. Too pricey for nothing nutritionally
10. Milo and other such drinks
I have a tin of pure cocoa which will probably last 2 years because it is bitter so you need only a little. But we mostly do Lipton here or only milk. Stopped Milo about the middle of last year and all such beverages.
11. Noodles
NEVER. Again, it is empty and too easy to get addicted to, like cereals. Dealt with addiction. Won’t let my kids go through that. We eat food here. Even stopped making it for hubs so I don’t buy again. We eat pasta, simple. Then I give my kids real food like yam, potato, beans, plantain and swallow.
12. White rice
We Kissed it goodbye with 2020 and now, we only have brown rice here. Good thing is we got a nice bag of brown rice as a gift this Christmas. So we are done with white rice.
13. Custard
We do Pap here. I get someone to make N2000 pap for me and it lasts a month or more. If you find custard here, it was a gift, but we hardly have it.
Ok so let me stop here and jump into another task today
Like I said, this is not to judge or make you feel bad. This is to encourage you to take a minute to think about where your money is really going and ask yourself the simple question WHY??
Remember, we are STEWARDS, both of our money and our kids, not OWNERS.
Will the real Owner be happy with the choices we are making so far?
And feel free to share stuff you cut back on to save more for your kids too please.
Cheers to being GREAT stewards
Queen Eziaha.