Spending or Saving - One of our Habits

Howdy y'all - time to get back in the saddle and on the trail of this little series I started about handling our finances.

You've been so gracious about waiting for me to get back here and get on topic, so let's see what we can get nailed down today, okay?

We've been talking about habits to cultivate, and I've up to this point shared what I think are general ideas.  The following, (and final), habits are some that Weekend Farmer Husband and I have personally adopted.

I've only got a few minutes so I think I'll only get to one...
(And, pssssst - today is Weekend Farmer Husband's BIRTHDAY!  I'm gonna scuttle away from the computer really quick like and help my little farm chicks make their daddy breakfast in bed. Awwwww.)

Be Healthy.  Honestly, this is something we didn't pay much mind to until our post 40 bodies demanded it.  Suddenly there were aches, pains, noises, mild injuries, ailments, and energy drain that seemed to come from nowhere.  And, they were chronic.  They got our attention.

We changed a number of our practices - exercise, food, supplements, reducing toxins in our food and environment, began learning about essential oils, and overall became our own health advocates. Not only are we doing this for ourselves, we're including the farm kids.  They tease that I'm a little too out there when I suggest for example that we might try rubbing some essential peppermint oil on their temples and neck when they've got a mild headache rather than offering a  common pain reliever, but once they get the initial thrill of ribbing their mom, they're respectful participants.

And, you know what?  We all feel better.  True story.

Although we cannot see into the future, and we can't know what health threats we might encounter, we've decided to pursue a slow but steady progression of stewarding our health day to day rather than singularly having a well funded medical savings account.

Specifically, we've increased our food budget and decreased our medical expenses budget.  Understanding food as medicine, we pay our grocer and our farmer more, and we participate in our local health food center's buyer discount. And, when necessary, we visit our pediatrician, chiropractor, and other health care practitioners.

We started by reading blogs, newsletters, journals, books and talking to folks who are ahead of us in adopting and integrating these practices.

As I've said before, the changes we've made have been incremental. We're a strong willed highly opinionated bunch, so changing everything all at once was not only financially too complicated, I think I would have had mutiny on my hands.

So, if this is of interest to you I'd suggest picking an area or two that seems "right" for your circumstances to research and then apply your findings.  And, then pre-plan how it will impact your budget so that there aren't surprises to the bottom line.

The little chicks are barely able to contain their excitement - off I go to scramble up some super healthy eggs from our hens and whip up some sort of spicy and potent warm drink.  I think something with chocolate is the way to go - what do you think?

xoxoxo,
Laura