Inspiring people

Recently, a FB friend wrote that he had decided to search his house rather than think about what to buy and found lots of albums that he was thrilled to rediscover - brilliant, simple and cheap. I love it! I'll add that whatever you're not thrilled to rediscover can be converted to something you will use and removed from the stressful clutter - read more of this blog for ideas on that.

Another friend told me that a March goal was to look into her points and see what she could get for free. How exciting is that? It had been a while since she had checked. She had Disney Movie Rewards points and SA reward points (including her oil changes that work on that) that added up to some things that could fill a need or want without cash spent. That inspired me to look at Disney Movie Rewards and order some herb seed papers for us to use this Spring. It came as a set of 2, so my daughter sent the second of each herb to her cousins - even better!

My husband recently took advantage of health incentives at work and a $20 gift card to Target arrived today - awesome! That will be converted to groceries, most likely. Sidenote: if you're from other parts of the country, you must understand that Walmart and Target have reversed roles and reputations in these parts.

With the warm streak, we realized that our daughter has grown since last summer. We sorted her clothes into piles and removed the ones that no longer fit. I called my sister-in-law to see if they wanted anything before I hit Once Upon A Child, and despite the fact that she's moving into a house, she is preparing to do the same. That's inspiring! I'm tired doing it without the moving in part!!

Whatever you can do, do it. You'll feel good and the excitement is contagious. Even if it's one small thing, you might be amazed at how things can progress from there. Today, we closed on our mortgage refinance. We've been doing this stuff a long time, but it gets pretty exciting to be cheap. Our new payment on a 15-year mortgage of our 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3&1/2 bath, is less than half what my rent was on a 2 bedroom apartment 15 years ago. You'll be surprised how quickly it all adds up with one small change at a time.