Happy Aniversary to Time To Budget!

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Well, I can’t believe it’s true but I created Time To Budget a year ago today. Actually it had a different name when I first started and I can’t seem to remember what it was. It also had a different purpose. I was going to post about shopping and coupon deals but I decided to create a blog where I could talk about making money online and money matters.

I stopped writing about making money online when I launched my other blog, iwebis.  My very first post titled Are you broke? was simple and to the point:

So am I. So I decided to blog about the best ways to save money. Find the best deals, coupons and saving tips.

It’s that just true poetry ;) . Boy has my writing changed since then. Here I am a year later. Still blogging and still making money. Currently I have 4 blogs with at least two still in development.  It is very possible that I am addicted to this blogging thing.

I am very thankful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to use blogging as an outlet and an income source.

September 30, 2007 | Filed Under Blogging Goals | Leave a Comment 

Getting Over Yourself So You Can Succeed

stress.jpgI think sometimes our biggest obstacle in life is ourselves. For some reason we often fail because we don’t believe in ourselves. If others don’t believe in us it makes believing in yourself much harder. With regard to successfully reaching the goal of financial freedom, we sometimes give up because of our hang ups. Our feelings and thoughts begin to work against our goals. This makes staying focused very difficult and it’s all because our goals have become clouded by doubt and lack of confidence in ourselves.

Doubt has crept into all of our lives at one time or another. Sometimes doubt is there when we wake up, driving to work or school, going to sleep at night or in the middle of a restless sleep. Should we allow doubt to control us? If we are doing the right things in life, should we be letting doubt have any control?

The lack of confidence in our ability to do things that others don’t feel important is another issue we often struggle with.  Even when others do share the same goals we often have to battle with our own disbelief. Should we allow the lack of self confidence to control us? When we know we are making the right discussions, should we allow our lack of confidence to have any control?

What does a person who is self assured (or Christ assured) look like? A person who does not let doubt and lack of confidence control them is focussed, intentional, plans ahead, and lets life happen with out becoming discouraged or distracted. I wish I could tell you that I was this person. As long as I am striving to be the person that I know I should be, great improvements can take place. We should not disregard the small steps that are taken. Taking small steps are still steps taken to reach the finish line.

Follow the changing web  and make money online with iwebis. 

September 27, 2007 | Filed Under Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk, Life Goals | Leave a Comment 

A New Look for Time To Budget

Well, I finally did it. I changed the theme for Time To Budget. I think this theme will give me more room then the last theme. My two columns were making it very crowed around here. Now that I have three columns I feel like I can stretch ;) .

When I changed themes some things didn’t transfer over very well. For instance, the blogroll is all messed up. In the previous theme I had different blogrolls for making money online and favorite websites. So I will have to spend time separating the blogroll into two or three categories.

I will still be modifying the sidebars and the footer a bit but everything else is pretty much going to stay as is. The old theme was good to me and I am very thankful for being able to use it for almost a year. I hope you like the new theme.

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September 25, 2007 | Filed Under Blogging Goals, Blogging Tips | 2 Comments 

Is ‘Living Like No One Else’ Really Worth It?

As many of you who struggle with financial stresses know, trying to keep focussed on the goal of gaining financial freedom can be very difficult. Dave Ramsey stresses that people who are serious about gaining financial freedom have to “live like no one else” in order to accomplish this goal. To live like no one else one needs to have control of spending and be committed to handling money differently than most of American and much of the world.

Living like no one else means you have to say no to the temptation of buying things you don’t need and you have to stop trying to keep up with the Jones’. For some this type of commitment means that you have peanut butter and jelly dinners to save on the grocery expenses, commuting to work or school to save on the gasoline bill, buying used clothes or taking hand-me downs to save on clothing expenses and spending as little as possible on entertainment.

With all of these sacrifices to taken into account, is living “like no one else” really worth it? What if we just decided to give up and give in the world’s view of wealth, success, happiness and freedom? What would our world look like if we continue on a destructive path of poor money management?

Buying the latest greatest toy will make you happy but how long with this happiness last if you couldn’t really afford it? Buying things we cannot afford sure does put a damper on the enjoyment of a purchase, doesn’t it? I don’t know how many times over the years I have purchased things, even small things that I thought I really needed at the time then a few days pass and the excitement wears off. I would find myself wondering why I bought it in the first place. Other times I have bought really good things that I enjoy till this day but either because I bought it on credit or it was way to expensive, I end up feeling guilty about buying it.

Since I don’t know what it is like to be truly financially free I can’t be for certain whether it is worth it to keep working at it or not but I can imagine that it is a much better way of living. So we need to really ask ourselves if it’s worth it to “live like no one else” now so that later we can “LIVE like no one else”. Do we buy all the things we want now, wasting our money away so that we can feel like we are living the dream for short periods of time or do we plan ahead and save, budget our money, make sacrifices so that later in life we can know we are living the dream for our remaining years of life.

I often times write post like this one because I struggle with staying focussed. The blog posts I offer you are meant to be an encouragement and pep talk to keep all of us who are serious about financial freedom focussed. My hope for you as well as my family is that we will stay focussed and reach our goal ;) .

September 22, 2007 | Filed Under Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk | 2 Comments 

Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees. Does it?

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My teenage daughter predicted I was going to blog about a conversation I had with my neighbor today about money. She was right but it was my daughters suggestion that prompted me to write about it ;) .

My neighbor was talking about some improvements she wanted to make to her house and said “The money tree stopped growing money”. I thought this was very funny and proceeded to tell her we never had a money tree and that we are still trying to grow ours.

I think we all wish there was a money tree. We may not have the ability to plant a physical seed and grow a physical tree but we can grow money. Proper handling of money and smart investing is a way of growing money. My response to my neighbor may have been good for a laugh but it really did have truth to it once I thought about it. I am still growing my money tree. At this point my tree is still a seed under ground but eventually it will take root, sprout and grow into a tree as long as my husband and I stay focussed on nurturing our seed.

We must not forget to water it (pay down debt), keep the soil fertile (spend wisely), offer it sunlight (save for the future) and prune it when necessary (have self-control and say no to impulse buys). As we watch our money tree grow we need to be sure we are not neglecting any of it’s needs because it only takes a short time for a tree to die, especially a money tree ;) .

Follow the changing web and make money online with iwebis.

September 10, 2007 | Filed Under Financial Advice, Life Goals | 3 Comments 

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