It's the end of the month and I'm working on my budget...Can't you tell from the title?
Last night I had a short heart-to-heart with my teenage daughter about money, which seems to happen a lot around some teenagers. In this case, though, I was "opening up" to my daughter about my plans to apply for a permanent position again, which would lead to us having more money in the bank every month.
The discussion basically started as a question about whether my daughter would mind if I earned more money. (Actually a silly question to ask a teenager, but nonetheless.) The conversation then turned to the fact that she would still love us even if we had no money, or less money and then the discussion turned towards the question of why money became such an important thing in peoples' lives and caused so much stress at the end of every month.
That's when I realised that money is important...if applied an used correctly. You will note that Family and Friends comes before Finances in the title of this message. Obviously we all need money to buy things, but the things we buy with that money is what concerns me. Money is needed to buy things, but I am starting to wonder whether a person couldn't get back to the old bartering system to some extent?
I have certain talents and gifts that could be used by people who hae other talents and gifts that I could use again. Yes, there are obvious flaws in my argument, but just think about it... If I can fix a tap, while you can do woodwork, why don't you fix my cupboard door(s), while I fix your leaky tap(s)? That way, neither of us needs to pay someone else to come and do the job, so we need a little less money to get along.
Then I started thinking about my Family and my Friends and how we could apply this amongst ourselves. I started thinking of the number of guys that I know that are clueless (and I say this in the nicest way possible!) about technical things, but they are good with things that I'm clueless about. So why don't I help them by servicing their cars or bikes, while they help me with the stuff I know little, or nothing about?
Acfter all this, thinking, though, I got back to the point of where the spares and materials for these jobs would come from...That's when the flaw in my plan became VERY obvious, because one of the parties would still have to go and buy the spares or materials needed for the job. Someobody would still have to make the snacks and the food necessary to sustain ourselves through the working process. We'd have to have something to drink while we were working...and we'll need light to work by, so we'll need a supply of electricity for that...and don't forget the tools we need to get the job done, because those would have to be bought from a supplier somewhere.
OK, so the plan is not all that well thought out at the moment, but I'm sure some of you can see where I'm heading with this and have started thinking of some names of friends who could possibly help you with some of the things you're struggling with? I know my wife has been thinking of tending a small veggie patch in the back yard to make things a little easier when it comes to groceries every month...
The question remains...Do we really need all that much money every month? Isn't it more important that we have a family that loves us and friends that care for us and support us? Shouldn't we take more care of the family and friends around us than worrying about our income and how to increase that?
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