Update

[Brenda]

Wow, I have not been here in AWHILE!!! And it seems there are a lot of people in the group, very cool!

Well in the past few months we have moved to a less expensive place, which is helping us SOOOO much in cutting down our bad debt that we have had for YEARS!!! The place is much smaller and taking some getting used to but it feels so good to be paying stuff off (we got to pay off our minivan and now have no auto loans, we are now working on those icky credit cards)

This is one of the steps that we needed to take to start on our path to financial freedom. We feel like we finally REALLY UNDERSTAND money and how it works, now we just need to take care of all this debt and then that will have cut our monthly expenses nearly in half!!! no kidding!! We will go from $4200 a month out the door to only needing $2400 to live on a month, we are very excited to be going down this path.
Plus I started doing some contract work (very part time, from home) to help us with fun money, we are using this money to save to go to conferences and to play, so we do not feel like ALL of our money is going to debt.
Anyways I am VERY GREATFUL!!!!

How is everyone else doing???

[Andrea]

Well, I didn't realize I hadn't joined this group, so I just did so that I can reply to this. :)

Our family is doing well. The only thing we've paid retail for recently was some candy that our eldest daughter bought at Target the other day. We like to "window" shop retail stores sometimes, I was planning on buying at item that I use at work that's terribly handy and I wanted to know retail price before I started bargain hunting for it. Daughter NEEDED chocolate, but she did get it on sale, so it wasn't full retail.

We're not to the point of paying down our debt, though we are almost. We are now at the point that we can manage our daily expenses plus handle those "things" that come up (i.e. new brakes on the car). We're learning to do as much as possible to our car so that we don't have to fork out dollars for others to install $15 parts to it.

We're managing our food a la America's Cheapest Family by buying extra and freezing so that none of the food is ever full retail price. We're also making our own cleaners and condiments et al at home a la Homemade, which is saving us tons of money.

Our eldest turns 18 this year and he's planning to move out near the end of the year or beginning of next, so we're planning to cash buy a sedan so we can ditch the minivan (and related payments) after he moves out. We could really use a second car right now, but we definitely don't need it to be able to carry the entire brood.

[Amy]

That's so great that you feel you *really understand* money and how it works.

I looked back at my intro...I still feel somewhat in recovery mode on a financial level from the not-good decision to move to a small town...but doing better. Childcare that is of a high quality, that also is easy on a logistical level and meets her needs, and that I can afford is always the challenge. Right now I'm choosing to work quite a bit less, and spend more time with my daughter. My childcare guy comes 1-3 days a week, and occasionally I ask if her grandparents can be with her for a few hours.

I'm trying to change the mix of the type of work I do so I need less childcare as well. I'm having some success with this. Last summer I started using a subconscious mind re-education technology called PATHS, and then in December became an affiliate for them. I still do regular sessions, but I have a few students that I teach energy-reading to, and I really enjoy that. I did teach it as a course, but I actually feel much more comfortable with it as an apprenticeship model because I provide more value, and get to care-take each student as they move into multi-dimensionality. It also is less work and I get paid more per unit of work I do.

I'm in the process of writing a grant to start a single mother's health and healing group, and also designing a workshop on vicarious trauma and self-care for youth workers. That's feeling good and hopefully will yield the $$ in the near future.

I've cut costs as low as I want to go (which feels good), and working on my vibration around money again. This is something I did several years ago, and right now need to do again - I'm really feeling the impact of the collective low around money. But I feel that energetically it is all for a purpose, and good that certain things are being corrected for.

One thing I was thinking about today was that I have never really looked for financial freedom in the sense of having a sizable enough chunk of money that I can live off the interest. More I am looking for financial balance and sustainability, which comes from a trust in the universe and my ability to create what I need in the moment. So I'd rather have work that I love to do, and is flexible enough, and enough of a buffer to take a break from it or take the risk of changing what I'm doing. My work doesn't sap my energy, it gives me energy -- and that has been a total miracle in my life.

This is an piece of writing that I found recently. I like it because it expresses the economic/vibrational balance I'm talking about - in other writings he calls it "the gifting way". Great name.

The balance for me has had to shift as a single parent -- I need more time to just be supported by Nature to raise my child. So I've had to start thinking about things differently, and redefine what I feel my purpose is. Interesting learning experience.

Amy