By Chris Bennett

What does being frugal mean to you these days? It doesn’t take a financial guru to tell you that each dollar must be stretched for those of us bearing the brunt of this recession.

So what can you learn from it?  I see these times as a learning opportunity to change habits, and redefine a term that seems to have lost its way in the American buying culture … frugality.

Being frugal means using your leverage as a consumer in a buyers’ market, which is everywhere.  Exploring your spending habits is crucial to coming out on top … or just breaking even for that matter.  

Focusing on how we buy and consume food on a daily basis is an excellent way to begin this process.  After all, we all have to eat, right? And doing so can be healthy as well.

Maybe we don’t have to eat as much.  Or maybe we can use this penny pinching time to change what we do eat to more healthy and cost-effective alternatives.

Before you even begin to grocery shop however, conceptualize how much money you need to save compared to how much food you normally buy.  This varies from house to house, but depending on how many mouths you have to feed, your “cost-benefit” ratio needs to be realistic. Read More »

Article by Stefanie Johnson

There are magical places that exist within each one of us, inside our minds, hearts, and souls. By visiting these places, we can tap into the infinite and bring peace and abundance into our lives.

Each journey will be unique, as we are unique, so you may want to have a notebook and pen nearby to record your experience afterward. You may choose to have another person read the meditation to you so you may experience it more fully.      

Find a comfortable place, close your eyes, open your mind, and prepare yourself to travel within.

This week, let us experience the freedom and beauty of the Bird’s Flight. We will grow wings to soar above the problems of the day, and see the landscapes of our lives as they truly are, the majestic mountains as well as the deep, dark valleys.

The sun has just risen, and everything around you is soft, edged in gold light and silver dew. You are perched on a branch, watching the new day being born. You are a bird (what kind of bird do you see yourself as? What color are your feathers?), and the world looks bigger and sharper and more exciting to you than it ever has before. A soft, cool breeze ruffles your feathers, and you feel full of joy. Read More »

Article By Jennifer Snelling

For the last few years, I’ve had trouble falling asleep at night.  It mostly started after I moved to a new town from an area I had lived in my whole life and was introduced to new sounds that kept me awake. 

More recently I have found that my mind is too active at night for me to be able to fall asleep when I go to bed, which doesn’t help me maintain a sleep cycle.

In addition to the methods described in Judy Mosley’s article, “Sleeping with the Enemy:  How to Put Worry to Bed,” I have tried a lot of different things that really work in helping me both fall asleep and stay asleep.  Here are what I consider 10 “musts” for me: Read More »

Article By Judy Mosley

Many people, at one point or another, find it difficult to fall asleep.  Worries of all sorts tend to be amplified once our heads hit the pillow. A crisis of any kind doesn’t exactly help those who already find sleep a struggle. There is the choice of using medications, but there are also some simple and natural solutions that will help ease your mind into a state of restfulness.  I have used all of these suggestions during different stages in my life and I hope they can help you as well. And, on the plus side, they’re free!

Turn off the News

It’s important for people to be informed about what’s going on in the world.  However, I don’t think it’s healthy that we know everything.  Staying up for the news generally fills our minds with information that is rarely positive and it’s mostly about things that we can do nothing about in that moment.  Then we try to go to sleep!  Recognize that all this information may not be the best to digest right before bed.  And, if you really want to know what’s going on, I can almost guarantee that those same stories will still be airing the next morning. Read More »

Article By Marie Monroe

Money can be tight here in recent times and we all need to cut-back from time to time anyway 

So have yourself a stay- at-home vacation, get some much needed rest, and pretend you’re wealthy on a shoestring budget like I’ve been doing for a glorious week.

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing that have stretched the vacation dollar to the breaking point and showered me with all the good feelings of a luxurious go-out-of-town, hit-the-spa and charge-it-all break: Read More »