Hello Friend!

Welcome back to claiming simplicity. If you are new here, welcome! I so glad to have you here!

I often hear moms complain about not spending enough time with their kids or missing kids' events because of work, but then don’t do anything to change their situation.

A good indication of what is important to you is what you spend money on. You might say Jesus and family first, but your checkbook might say otherwise. Another way to look at it is where are you spending your time. If you spent most evenings in the gym, I would say sports are important to you, or if you spend alot of time on your phone, it may look like social media is important to you. Sometimes the values don’t truely line up, so I just want to give you a few tidbits to help you live out your values so when the guilt of not spending time with your kids, you know where you can start to change that.

So grab a pen and paper and lets get to work. If you are driving, make sure to come back to this, because this can change the direction of your life as it did mine!

First, you need to make a list of what are your true priorities because if you are saying this is important, but your pocketbook and time are not confirming that, there will be friction and you won't feel aligned and something will always feel off.

Once you have your true priorities and most important values written down, now I want you to go to your calendar and bank account and see where exactly your time and money is going. This is so very important and very eye opening for many that I work with. For example, if you want a simpler life, but your calendar is always full, there will be friction and you may feel a little anxious, so the 3rd step is to figure out a way to get there. With this example, maybe it is less time shopping or this may even be spending all your time at sports events when you can say no to live simpler if this is a top priority.

There are so many options, but in order to live this life of simplicity, you have to get good at saying no and making sure that you are saying yes to the right items that line up with your values. When your life is coming to an end, will you be proud and peaceful about how you lived it or will you be stressed and worn out until the end?

I hope you will have peace living a simpler life that you are able to create. It is simple to do, but you do have to take the steps to get there.

Blessings!

Monica

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

Website -> https://stan.store/ClaimingSimplicity/

Hello Friend!

I have had so many people asking me how we spend so little on food and the answer is actually pretty simple. I have been posting on claiming simplicity on instagram about saving money on groceries the last few months and I have had so many people say they are struggling in this area and have no idea where to start, so this episode is going to get you headed in the right direction to saving money on food that you may not have thought of..

Yes, it is true…..once I learned how to spend very little on food (at the time was when I had 3 kids under 3 years old) and it was out of necessity with a very small food budget and no credit cards to go in debt with, I found out how easy it really was! I remember looking through recipes that would be filling and I would look through cookbooks and figure about how much it would cost to make the recipe. I actually had such a low food budget that I would bring my calculator to the store to make sure I didn’t go over because I certainly wasn’t going to bounce a check! Yes, cookbooks is where it all started, so I am dating myself as it was nearly 30 years ago when I began this journey, but I still use this process today because I would rather spend money on assets than food. It took me some work to figure it out, but over the years, I learned skills that make it even more possible.

If you want to save over $6000 on groceries this year and cut your grocery bill in half, you are in the right place.

The number one thing that people don’t realize is those unhealthy packaged snacks and meals are costing you nearly 10x more than they would be to make from scratch. And no, most of them are not difficult to make. Anything packaged is usually unhealthy and when you make homemade meals and items at home, you are only putting ingredients in them that you want in your body. There are so many additives and unnecessary ingredients in them so once you start reading labels, you won't even want to put them into your body and certainly not your childrens bodies. I’m working on a simple snack guide now that will give you simple easy snacks you can make from home on a budget and I know you are going to love it. Watch for it on instagram!

Once you start making homemade meals, the next step for you will mostly likely be how to learn how to make all your own dressings, mayo, and mixes such as onion soup mix packet, ranch packets, or your own boullion which is another super simple way to cut food costs and add healthy options. It really is a rabbit hole and once you learn how simple it is with such little time it takes, you will start making your own sour cream, yogurt, granola, vanilla, and pretty much everything in your kitchen! You will not only save thousands of dollars every year, you will learn skills to be more self sufficient because you won’t need any started from the store once you make your own sour cream or yogurt and those type of items.

Another way we spend so much less on food is buying in bulk and cooking in bulk. Not only will you save money, but you will have so much less waste and will more likely not to spend wasted money eating out. It blows my mind, that people don’t think it is possible to spend less that $75/ week on dinners for a family of 4. It really depends where you live, but I can’t definitely show you how to cut your grocery bill in half. We now spend less than $100/month on food since we grow a garden and raise our own meat, mild, and eggs along with hunting, but the $75/ week, I teach people to do from the grocery store with the grocery price list from walmart or aldi and it is very doable.

If you are thinking that you want to learn how to do this, here is the link to to a 1 week sample of the exact steps to how we save.

https://stan.store/ClaimingSimplicity/p/weeks-worth-of-dinners-in-just-2-hours-under-75

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

Have a great week! Love you friend!

~Monica

Hello Friend!

We hit 100,000 downloads last week, so in appreciation, for everyone that adds a rating and review, I am going to put you in a drawing for $100 amazon gift card!!! You just need to send me an email at monica@claimingsimplicity.com letting me know you left a review with your user name. If you have already left a review, share with a friend and add me in your instagram stories and tag me and you will be entered in the drawing as well! This podcast wouldn’t be as successful if it wasn’t for all of you, so I appreciate you all!

I really want to talk today about 3 areas where you can easily simplify your life to live more intentionally with ADHD. As I have talked about a few times here, I have never been diagnosed with ADHD, but I have many characteristics and that is really why I had to simplify my whole life to live with more intention. I really enjoy slow living with my family now and I wouldn’t have it any other way. When I was working as a full time nurse with 5 kids at home and all the activities and sports, it was exhausting, but once I changed the way I lived, I was able to quit my full time nursing job which gave me so much freedom to how I spend my days & more time with family.

The first area you can simplify is your cooking, if you haven’t followed claiming simplicity on instagram, you should do that now. A large portion of many family’s budgets goes to food, but it doesn’t have to. I can show you how a family of four can eat dinners on $75/week and that is nutrient dense, healthy meals. You don’t need fancy expensive meals and you certainly don’t need to buy convenience foods at the store but instead learn to cook simple homemade meals at home on a very low budget.

Next, declutter your home. Living with less stuff really reduces stress. You will also feel less overwhelmed when you have less stuff to care for - start with one room of you home and see the difference. Always make sure you carefully think about each item you bring into your home. I am going to do another declutter challenge, so email me if this is something you would like to be a part of. It is for busy moms, so it will be steps you can’t quickly declutter in a short amount of time.

And lastly, you will want to reduce debt, living debt free can be rewarding in so many ways. If you are spending more than you bring in, think about where you can make changes. I will be doing another no spend challenge starting January first and this time I am going to do all audio. If you are interested in joining, please reach out by email or DM me on instagram!

And with all of this, make sure you are putting Jesus at the center of it all!

Love you friend! Have a blessed week

~Monica

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com