Five Things We Learned This Month

The beginning of January, I wrote This blog about starting our 31 Days of Zero Spending without any expectations. Though our month is almost over, we will continue to do this randomly throughout the year and there are many lessons we will carry with us as a forever change. Here is my take on this month.

Five Big Things We Learned in the 31 Days of Zero Spending (some we knew, but had light shed on them in a new way):

1. When we take away convenience, we find something much better! We made beef jerky in the dehydrator last week and made a yummy marinade. It called for a lot of worcesterchire sauce, we ran out, so I made my own. It was so much better than the store bought stuff. We truly loved it so much that I made more to fill the bottle back up. I also made chili powder as we ran out of that, too. So good!!!

My daughter had a birthday party she attended, so she made lots of cards, gave her own toys and made a bracelet for her friend. She planned this gift for over a week and it was much deeper and far more heart felt than anything we would've went and bought.

2. We learned the true power of preparedness. We learned that at any given moment in time, we can well survive for months - even with our slew of kids! We love canning, freezing, and keeping our pantry stocked and it paid off! We had very balanced meals every single night. We had lots of sandwiches for lunch, but breakfast and dinner was always well done! Prior to this month, our canning and such was more for the yummy factor, but we learned how needed it could be.

3. We learned the love of a community. Dan and I are blessed financially, so this 31 Days was not a form of getting on track in that area, but it didn't matter to our dearest friends! From friends offering to buy dinner, to waiting to pay for something until February, to buying a coffee and getting us gift cards to take a night off of cooking. Seriously, so blessed to see that we have friends who understand and love us enough to support our decisions - as crazy as they are! :) To those of you who supported us full fledged, we appreciate you. To those who will be doing this, please tell me so I can pass on that support and love!

4. We learned that we live in an amazing area with a lot to offer for FREE! When we go places for fun, we usually spend LOTS of money for our family to get in places. We had our very first weekend with Dan last week where he wasn't working or we weren't traveling, so we HAD to do something. Getting online and looking at the QC Events Page we realized there is really so much to do for FREE! We wen't to the John Deere Pavilion, the Icestravaganza, we did a craft at the Figge Art Museum and we walked the Sky bridge. So simple and so fun and so free!!! :)

5. We learned the love of contentment. We learned the power of not getting what we want, but taking joy in it anyways. The first few weeks were the hardest for the kiddos as they "needed" clasps for their rubber band bracelets, one "needed" batteries for her Furby, etc, etc. There were many nights I "needed" a bowl of cereal and a few mornings where I "needed" a coffee. There were many days where we "needed" a certain ingredient because we wanted to have this certain meal. We learned a lot in the terms of pointing out how blessed we are even when we don't get what we "need". Everything we truly needed was here all along, it just took a few weeks for us let go of our wants.

So, what our hopes were when we began, God provided every single one of them and then some. During this month we also learned the power of divorcing our phones. We have a basket that sits on the kitchen counter and our phones do not leave that basket. We learned that living simply is overly satisfying and just enough. Not a single day going through this have we complained about anything. Not a single day did we want to take the easy way out. Satan tried, but God defeated!

Another fun advantage was the fact that we saved extra than normal and that savings is more than enough to pay for our son's braces that he's getting in a couple weeks. That's awesome, huh?!

This month was challenging at various times, but I assure you, the blessings have far outweighed the temptations. Plus, those temptations have taught all of us self control on a whole new level. They have taught us another form of gratefulness. We make desserts often and we didn't have much this month, but when we did, it was much more loved and appreciated from everyone.

The most important thing in the way we live is that we have contentment by focusing on the eternal, not the temporal. Whether we have money to save or not, whether we are able to keep our pantry stocked, whether we live in a circle of giving believers, whether we live in a huge home or small one, whether we never have a financial concern or we battle one every week, we are to focus on the eternal, not the temporal. 1 Timothy 6:6-8 says, "Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that."


We all will be taking what we learned and carrying it through as a daily walk of life. I'm so grateful that God laid this on our hearts and I'm so glad we came out far happier about these "little things" than when we started. I would truly encourage everyone to go through a period of Living Simple so we can Simply Live. Go ahead, give it a go!