Hi there, friends!
It is time for Saturday Share and this time, I want to share an author and a mini book review. Geneen Roth may be familiar to some of you who have worked through food issues. I was *wowed* by her book, Women Food and God: an Unexpected Path to Almost Anything. It is about the beliefs about yourself and how your relationship with food is a microcosm of your beliefs. Do you believe you will always have enough? Do you deserve kindness, forgiveness, and tenderness? Is food a stand-in for your need for love or affection?
About a year ago I ordered her audio book Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money. In it she describes losing all her money in the Madoff investment scandal. She writes that food is microcosm for our beliefs, and how we approach money is also a microcosm of our beliefs.
It is an excellent book if you have ever wanted to think deeply about your relationship with money, and examine your beliefs and how they were developed. I have listened to the audio many times and done some work on this issue in coaching.
Many of us formed our attitudes about food and money when we were young. While it is not universally true, we often adopt food attitudes and behaviors from our mothers and money attitudes and behaviors from our fathers.
I am going into a period of transition, drawing down my savings while I move from a generously paid corporate job to freelance consulting. Now is a good time to get more conscious about money, and my beliefs and actions around it.
In general, I have an attitude of abundance, but I realize this can also make me a little careless with money. One of my beliefs is “there’s more where that came from…” so I do not tend to worry about it. I realize this reflects an enormous amount of privilege. With a good education and skill set, I can find work *somewhere* doing something.
Knowing where my money is going came up during a 3-week class with Women Venture on getting started with small business. Tracking my daily expenses felt impossible chore to me, but other women in the class (especially the Moms) had all kinds of strategies for tracking and budgeting.
So I am curious about your experiences, readers. What are your attitudes about money? Do you have systems that work well for you to track your expenses? Any advice on living with the ups and downs of freelance income?
Thanks in advance for your insights.
cristy@meximinnesotana.com
mexi minnesotana 
I thought for the longest time that the path to financial freedom was to earn as much money as I could. This led quickly to burnout. I now view having as little debt as possible as my major financial goal.
I use an excel spreadsheet to track how I plan to spend each paycheck. It includes a column for how much I anticipate spending on my credit card. I then use an app to record each purchase I make which I try to keep under my credit card limit. I don’t succeed 100%, but I’ve cut back enough to be able to work fewer hours so it has been worth it.
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I’m thinking to track it down. Hope I could find a good tool to help me
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My attitude about money is that there is never enough. I am old school; as in I use a paper general ledger and pencils. This is the easiest way for me to track everything.
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I guess it might be worthwhile to ask if that belief is serving you. We tend to move through the world in ways that confirm our deepest beliefs, whether or not we are conscious of them.
I also prefer to track things with old fashioned pencil (or pen) and paper. I’ve wished I could have an electronic form that works, but writing things down slows me down enough to focus better, I think.
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