Clean Behind the Furniture – Look for Leakage or Unused Expenses.

It is so, so easy to forget about a subscription or to assume small expenditures are not affecting you So easy, in fact, I have a perfect example for you from my own life. I recently started playing this game on my phone called Fishdom©. I found that I really enjoyed it because there weren’t any advertisements. However, the way they make money is by charging you to get more lives or help with the level you are on Every now and then, I’d pay $2 99 or $0 99 and sometimes $4 99 if there was a special When you are in the game, it’s super easy to spend money And I found myself doing it thinking - It’s only $2 99, I’m not going to the movies this week Or, it’s $0 99, that isn’t anything

Well, doing my spring cleaning, I decided to tally up all my game expenses for the month. Shockingly, I was at $48.81! What! How is that even possible?

Needless to say, I’ve removed the app from my phone That amount of money would serve me much better in another area. An area that is moving me toward my goals and sadly, spending money on a game isn’t doing that.

So, I encourage you to take a good hard look at subscriptions, game spending, another entertainment spending, specialty coffee drinks, etc There are all kinds of ways that small amounts of money get spent without us realizing what the totals are. So, look in those dark spaces, you might be surprised (like I was) at what you find https://mailchi.mp/0ba1f1d8913a/money-workbook

These are just a few ways you can spring-clean your finances Paying attention to our money is one of the best ways we can improve our financial situation and our mindset about money. It’s all about empowering ourselves with knowledge.

Knowledge gives us choices.You might choose to leave things as they are, or you might choose to make some changes Either way, gathering the knowledge (spring cleaning), is the ticket - The ticket to conscious financial decisions that just might help you reach your goals faster.

Sherry Parks, CPA, is a Life & Money Mindset Coach who helps women escape feeling trapped by their finances. She is passionate about helping women change their mindsets, emotions, and actions regarding money so that they learn to keep what they have and generate more.

Check out her 5 Steps to a Better Money Story workbook or join her women-only Facebook group More Than Enough Money Sisterhood.

When life doesn’t turn out the way we’d hoped, planned, or expected, we feel tremendous disappointment and start doubting everything, including ourselves What we need to acknowledge first is that we aren’t in as much control of our lives as we think. Things can change on a dime. Events happen, and life happens, as we all just witnessed these past few years with the Covid pandemic

But what we can control is how we react to the things we can’t control!

There are several things I incorporated into my life to help me. First, accepting where I’m at in my life today (and that’s no easy feat) and second, keeping me looking forward instead of back, because hey, there is no future in the past, and we can’t go back Plain and simple You know, some people are optimists, some pessimists, and I guess I’m somewhere in between I consider myself a realist So, here are some of the things I did to make all this easier:

I started practicing Gratitude. I’ll admit, there were (and still are) days I wasn’t grateful at all. It took everything I had to find just a few things to add to my nightly gratitude journal things like my morning coffee, a shower, and a bed to sleep in

It wasn’t too much of a reach, but I seriously couldn’t think of anything other than the basics to be grateful for and I know, my basics are someone else’s luxuries, but that wasn’t how I was feeling at the time. I made it a practice to start noticing good things, beautiful things, living things, and to make a note of them during the day.

Nature Yes, flowers, sunshine, ocean breezes, trees, clouds, an early evening rain shower, and a new coffee shop in town that I needed to try

Practicing Forgiveness When we think about forgiving, we usually think of forgiving someone else well, now is the time to forgive ourselves. We forgive ourselves for past mistakes or bad judgment, for not knowing better. Our past is just that, our past and if we don’t let it go and stay present or future-focused, we become prisoners of that past, victims in that story We hold on to hurt, grudges, and regrets (I have some great forgiveness practices if you’d like me to share them with you Just send me a message and I’ll email them to you!)

Journaling. I would free-write, using prompts, such as I’m sad because, I’m ashamed because, I’m disappointed because, I feel guilty because, or, I’m angry because . . . When freewriting, don’t analyze, edit, spell check, or judge. After you’re done writing, take a deep breath and acknowledge your courage in working on this exercise. Then you can either rip up the paper into tiny pieces or burn it. This helps you to fully release the energy of your emotions.

Staying present — being mindful. Focus on the now. When we look too far ahead, we can become fearful, and if we keep looking back, we can become sad, resentful, or depressed. Being mindful is simply noticing what you are doing in the moment — whether it is enjoying your cup of tea, washing the dishes, or writing a letter — focus on that activity — stay with it — 100%.

Having a purpose. When we have a purpose — we stop focusing so much on ourselves — we get out of that victimhood mentality. A purpose can be anything that gets you up each day and out of bed. It can be as simple as tending to your houseplants, your garden, and your pets, or something major such as volunteering, helping the homeless, fighting human trafficking, or finding a cause that touches your heart. When we are busy helping others, we help ourselves as well. Life becomes bigger and can become much more meaningful.

Feeling and honoring all my feelings. I honored all those things I wished would’ve happened. But then accepting and appreciating the way things are today. The best thing we can do is to stop dreaming about the life we never had and start living the life we’ve been given

Trusting my future. Trust the future, whether trusting the universe, God, or yourself, to bring wonderful things into your life. It’s not over till it’s over and we still have time. As long as we’re here, we still have the opportunity to create a life we love a life that is gratifying.

Work on letting go of the past. You can visualize taking all those painful memories of your past and forming them into a ball Feel the heaviness of the ball and notice how it weighs you down Then imagine throwing the ball as far as you can This allows you to see that you and the ball of the past are separate You may find that this helps you to lessen the emotional impact of your memories.

So, after years of wondering how my life seemed to have gotten so off track, judging myself, and feeling a combination of both shame and guilt, I got tired of throwing myself endless pity parties (those parties consisted of watching daily episodes of Sex in the City, eating baked Lay’s potato chips and rice pudding!) I knew I needed to control the way I was thinking about my life instead of letting those thoughts run my life So, that much we can control We get to choose Which will it be? Sweet or sour?

Kim Klein is a Life Coach, Certified Holistic Health Coach, Certified Feng Shui Practitioner, and author. She is the founder of Kim Klein Life Coaching and Wabi-Sabi Women and is the author of Damn, the Pusherman ~ Sugar, The Legal Drug that is Keeping You Sick and Fat, and Nine Degrees North, a young adult fiction novel. https://kimkleincoaching.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/boomerwomen/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberklein/ kimberjklein@gmail.com