Treating Me with Common Sense ( Money Wise)

I had this teacher in High School( Mr.Frankie Hall) who was the cheapest, funniest Southern man you would ever want to meet). Mr. Hall was really adamant on reminding us to attend church over the weekend and getting in touch with the "Good Spirit" as he would call it. He was a Peaceful man but we could tell that life's experiences made him the way he was.

I had his class twice during High School, for African American Studies and Economics. I enjoyed AA Studies, but economics opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about cash.  By my sophmore year, I had held down the same after school job for about 1 year and received a few raises ( Yeah, 125 weekly tax free was good money at that age). I wasn't the best at saving but I was never broke( I lived by the rule of tithing 10percent to my place of worship, still live by it now too).

Mr. Hall always had a way of amping us up in Economics Class about what he was going to teach. We would always hear talking in the halls about "Common Sense" and secretly( The Nerd in ME) anticipated the introduction of the book.
When he FINALLY passed it out, I quickly put my name in it and went through the book. Lessons on how to save money, how to invest and live better were just a few of the many worksheets we would be working on. I was excited.

There was this one lesson that has stuck with me throughout life and I'm now going to pass it on and share with you. As a mother, there are so many times I find myself forgetting my needs, putting aside my wants and focusing directly on the needs of the home and my children. People have the misconception that once you become a business owner and work for yourself that money flows freely. That is definitely a MYTH. You have to mentally and financially set yourself up to lose a little here and there. I'm learning how to budget my income $100 less just in case something arises with my clients.

But here is the challenge, in order to make time for yourself you have to invest in yourself. Another challenge has been paying myself what I feel I'm worth. Yes, another hard one but I'm getting the hang of it.

THE CHALLENGE: Find an empty jar and place it in a secret place that only you will have access too. At the end of each day, you can do 1 of 2 things, dump all of your change from your pockets, wallet etc or add $2.00 (DAILY). You will follow this process for 3 months straight without touching the jar or trying to count what's in there.  By the end of the 1st quarter( 3months) you can either purchase something for yourself, or invest it or save it in your account. The challenge is: that YOU will use this on YOU and nothing ELSE.  Sounds like alot but in actuality it is not. You are rewarding yourself. Job well done!
Thanks for being a dedicated Wife, Mother, diligent Worker, a Peace maker, A listener.. etc. These are all thankless jobs that go without the extra acknowledgement.

Since we are in mid January, you can either start today or wait til Feb 1st. If you are willing to take part in the challenge please, at the end of this blog, leave a comment with your name. I will blog follow-up posts just to check everyone's progress and the hear your stories. We have to build each other up and be apart of a support team for our sisters.

So, here's to an awesome 3months of saving and actually reaping the benefits of "kinda" putting you 1ST!!!Thanks Mr. Hall, years later Common Sense is still apart of my LIFE~



Signed,
A New Handbag in 3months...lol