PURCHASE: DAY 9
We became a single income family overnight; my mom was alone raising 4 girls. The hardest times were felt after the separation. I admire my parents; we never knew how little we had. Later in life I learned how often they went without in order to provide for us. When I was two, they moved us to the small logging town of Drain and opened up a True Value Hardware store. My dad was an aspiring entrepreneur, my mom a homemaker. With the fall of the timber industry, they lost it all. I believe it was no coincidence, their marriage became a casualty with the death of our family business.
I’ve had a fear of not having enough money for as long as I can remember, so I’d like to think of myself as a saver. However, history would prove otherwise (thank goodness for Matt’s lead in this department). A budget has always been important to me as I don’t thrive in the grey area of life; the more defined the boundary—the better I do.
The subject of money was never really an uncomfortable topic for me until I started making my own. The rise and fall of the economy has dramatically affected our income over the past 10 years so I’ve learned a lot about prioritizing and the commitment to long term planning. These are life lessons I am forever grateful to have learned at a young age.
When I am spending money, I like to first spend it on travel. A planned trip with my family or vacation with Matt, this is what motivates me to save. I like to shop for myself, for Matt, for the kids…for a complete stranger—doesn’t matter who, I thoroughly enjoy my role as a consumer. While I still haven’t figured out a way to make money shopping, I enjoy fashion and keep up through retail therapy.
So, what did I buy today? I bought two books from Smith Family Bookstore, Jane Kirkpatrick’s “Homestead” and “The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food and Love” written by Kristin Kimball. Both books tell a story about the journey of leaving a professional life to live more simply on a farm in discovery of sustainable living. Hypocrisy or irony?
