I'm a big girl

This week I did something that I actually found really difficult to do and feel so proud of myself that I want to share. Plus it's almost the end of the month and I owe two posts :)

The volleyball team does "Secret Panther" gifts for every home game. My sister (on the team) asked me to swing by Claire's and pick up some cute studs for her Secret Panther gift on my way home and then bring them to school on Thursday. We live right next door to the shopping area that has Claire's so it was going to be no problem.

Wouldn't you know that I found the CUTEST set of studs that was EXACTLY what my sister was looking for. Of course earrings were buy two get one free, and hair accessories were buy one get one 50% off, so within a matter of minutes I had two more pairs of earrings and cute hair accessories - I've been loving the cute headbands and hair clips that everybody's wearing these days. Plus I haven't bought new earrings since I got married. So I figured that I DESERVED it and told myself that it'd been so long since I had bought hair accessories and earrings that I really NEEDED to do so.

Almost immediately, I thought of the budget we're working so hard to keep and wondered what envelope the money would have to come out of - there wasn't any money left in our "blow money" or "clothing" envelope. The only money we have left is dedicated to food or gas. I thought of the notes I'd just looked over from conference and remembered President Monson's talk where he said that it was easier to obey 100% of the time than just 98% of the time. Now, this may be a little bit of an abnormal application of that concept, but it makes perfect sense to me.

So what did I do? I placed that darling headband, the cute hair clip, and the two sets of darling earrings down, paid for the earrings my sister asked me to get, and promptly left the store.

Saying no to those accessories was hard - I LOVE me some cute earrings and have been wanting cute hair stuff for a while :)

As I drove away, I felt an immediate sense of accomplishment and pride and a renewed sense of gratitude that I was exercising the self-control to say no to such a frivolous thing. We've been SO blessed these last few years as we're working so hard to be better with our money. It feels good to have zero debt and a 6-month emergency fund in the bank. It feels great to have, on top of that, a car fund for the car problems we seem to have every 4 months on the dot :) It feels wonderful to have things that we're working for and saving for and knowing that we're doing everything we can to be wise stewards of the financial blessings God has given us. We've seen blessings in SO many forms (including almost $5000 of money that's been placed in our laps at key points in our journey) and I love feeling like we're working hard for something worthwhile!

Anyways, I know it's something little, but I felt awesome about it and wanted to share my pride and gratitude for the financial choices we're trying to make!!! We feel secure, happy, and oh-so-blessed :)