Around our house, we have been on a mission to simplify our lives, from how we spend our time, to how we spend our money. We have found ourselves moving way too fast and spending way too much. There are several very good books out there to help in a mission such as this and we have been reading them all!! One that has been very helpful from a spending money aspect is:

Your Money or Your Life:

Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship

Yes the book is about finances and in some places a little long winded but the idea of  9 steps to getting your mind and emotions on track when it comes to money is really enlightening. The Author uses the analogy of money as your “‘life energy”.  You will spend some time calculating how much you really make per hour when you deduct all the expenses for the “things” it takes to keep your job, then translate that into how much of your life energy it takes to buy things, basically how many hours of your life does it cost you to buy that new car, new house, new outfit!

The main concept of this book is to change the way you think about money. To spend your time and money in ways that help you feel good from the inside out. This has  given me a completely different perspective on my job and what I am spending the money I make on. The ideas in this book have really given my husband an I a lot to work with on our Mission! We have discovered that to simplify your life, you have to move past the idea that you need a TON of money to live a happy life, it is not about how much you have, its about leading a fulfilling life.  We have determined what is really important to us,  thank goodness it looks more like our life than the money! Now it is time to put all that we have learned into a more simplistic life, to discover our true passion and pursue that instead of the dollar. If you are looking for ideas on changing your mind set about money and leading a simpler life, letting go of the “getting ahead, having more, will make me happy” ideas, I recommend reading this book.