Minimize My Living Cost

One way for me to practice living simply and beatifully is to minimize my living cost. Yeah, we know that, don't we? But it is very difficult to PRACTICE it. Just LoOk ArOUnD US. We bought SO MuCH StufF and ended up not using most of them. They are parts of our collections: cards, books, shoes, jackets, and the rest. They fill up our living space and make us want a larger space. And the cycle of living large continues.

I try to instill this value to my sons. At the fundraising to help Merapi eruption victims and Mentawai tsunami victims yesterday, my eight year old son and I sold smoothie. It was his idea and I jumped in since I have been wondering how to teach him the value of MONEY = WORK. The cost was $80 for ingredients - milk, strawberry, yogurt, banana - and menu sign. It was busy 2 hours as I was making smoothies non-stop and I saw him busy receiving money. Good, I said to myself; he is learning how money is made.

We made $149 and one-half went to the fundraising cause. I doubled his profit so he made $140 as a part of the deal he would be selling the smoothie.

This morning he asked me to go to his game store to get the Little Big Planet 2 game. He brought with him old games, and some were valued at 50 cents or less. So he learned another lesson. His brother gave him $25 coupon. He figured out at the end he spent $25 from his money. GooD, I said to myself.

Minimizing my living cost also frees me to do what I want later in life. I don't want to bear a HuGE mortgage when buying home. I don't want to carry TOO much StuFF when I travel. Why create burden? Why be a BeaST of BurDEN?

If I am poor, then I Don't WoRRY too much since my cost is low. If I make some money, I can SaVE to do other THings, like TRAVELing and eXPLORing this WORLD. That's my DREAM.