[Music] social media really sets up this lie to believe that it's possible to create a perfect balance in life in every category to have great friends and family and working on your faith and having a job and taking care of your mental health and your physical health like all these parts of life but listen you're not going to be perfect all the time i'm not going to be perfect all the time but there are some ways that you can actually buy back your time to free it up to do the things that you really want so today I'm sharing four ways that I use my budget to improve my quality of life and later my number one tip for finding balance and living in freedom so make sure to subscribe to this channel share this episode with a friends let's get started so Arthur Brooks always talks about there are things that you can do with your money that actually bring you joy and happiness and this is one of them is to buy back your time to outsource things that you can outsource and then the time that you are buying back you actually use to benefit yourself not just like scrolling on social media but to to read or to work out or to meet with a friend so again if you are able to be in a position where you can buy back your time it is a great way to spend your money or maybe you're getting out of debt or you're building your emergency fund but this is a goal for you later down the road to be like I want to get to this point so again here are four ways that I buy back my time number one a house cleaning service so when we started doing this uh it was probably after I think Caroline our second was born i was like "All right let's get someone to come in and deep clean." We started doing it once a month and then that was seven years ago and now we were at every other week and now it's once a week but this idea of having someone come in and deep clean is amazing and I know that it's not available all the time for everyone watching this but I know for me as a mom like when I can spend weekends not deep cleaning but like hanging out with the kids and going and doing things it is phenomenal and so we did at the beginning like look at our budget and we were only able to afford once a month at that point and so it was like okay that makes sense and then as the things went on we kind of changed things because it did become a priority for me and so especially when you're work if you're working if you have kids all the things it's just nice to get a deep clean it is like one of the best gifts ever and when you're looking at your budget if you need a great spot to start budgeting every dollar is phenomenal and it makes budgeting easy for every season you're in so I'll put a link down below number two lawn care winston sold his lawn mower gosh when was this probably 5 years ago and it was uh it it kind of hurt his heart a little bit i'm not going to lie he was like he grew up mowing lawns um and he was like it was just important i don't know for him to do that for our family just like it was like something that he like always wanted to do and then we got to a point three kids later and all the things and it's like yeah on Sunday afternoons I would rather have you here hanging out with us than going and doing yard work so we ended up hiring a lawn care company to mow the lawn and he still will do stuff for sure in the yard himself because he just likes it but to get his time and energy back it's worth it number three is child care so child care looks different I think for everyone depending on the situation but when I'm talking about this child care it's not like for me going to work child care but it really is about babysitters and if there is a day maybe you are a stay-at-home mom and maybe it's like a parents day out program or a preschool or whatever that looks like but for me in our budget um for us to know that we can pay a babysitter and sometimes it's like a middle school girl in the neighborhood right or um whatever it is but just having the ability for someone else to watch the kids for a period of time um even beyond work is so nice i mean right just to have a break especially if you're a stay at home mom and you like have all the grocery runs you want to do and I mean all the stuff out there to do just to know like there's a day to have to yourself is so key and again depending on the season of life you're in maybe it's there maybe it's not in the budget but for us that is a really big one because when we know we can have a date night or go out like it just brings some peace of mind for sure love the kids love them so much but also love a date night every now and then now one thing that is in my budget that I love is my Delete Me plan so Delete Me is a fabulous service that goes in and removes your information that is online now so much of our information is out there and data broker websites will gather your information and this is everything you guys from like where you've worked to your full name your address your phone number i mean so much is out there and they gather your information and then they sell it to other websites and that's when we get so many spams uh scam calls like all of that because our information is out there so with Delete Me going in and removing it is phenomenal and then they actually send you a very detailed plan on exactly how many websites they've removed your information from and these websites are nuts you guys like when I look down my my plan I'm like I didn't even know how half these websites even existed like where are these but knowing my information was on there and now it's not because it's Elite Me gives me so much peace of mind so you can save 20% off on an annual DeleteMe plan which comes out to be around $9 a month so go to joindeleteme.com/rachel and check it out all right number four is grocery deliveries so this is one that I started during COVID and I was using Instacart to do all my grocery deliveries now I've pulled back some on this um because it has it got so expensive and there was certain times that I was like "Oh yeah I am able to go and just get groceries at the store." Now one place I still do it is Costco costco stresses me out and so I will do a Costco delivery run with Instacart but now again this is a total splurge right so if you are in a position where you're like "No I can't because it is expensive you have to pay for the subscription." They do jack up the prices of the items which is so frustrating but they do uh and I get it because you're paying for someone to like shop for you but then also there's a tip because you want to leave a tip to the delivery person so all of that it definitely eats into the budget but again you're paying to get your time back instead of going to Costco or going to the grocery it's just being delivered and then you can use that time how you want so for me in this season of life those are like the four best things that we do service-wise that we pay for to get our time back and again it may change season to season we may not do some some we may add some whatever it looks like but that is a great way for you to use your money so if you are out of debt and you have a fully funded emergency fund and you have some wiggle room in the budget this is a great use of your money instead of going and buying a bunch of crap you know stuff you don't need pay someone to do things in your life to get your time back because as Arthur Brooks says it is a place where actually it can bring you happiness all right my number one tip though for living a balanced life is to release yourself from the pressure that you have to do everything perfectly so there are some perfectionists out there and so you have to let go of this you guys you have to now I'm not going to lie mine is more about efficiency not perfection mine's more like "Oh I just want to get everything done and I I want to work out i I I want to spend time spiritually in the morning i want to drink coffee and have a conversation with Winston and I want to get the kids ready for school and take them to school and go to work and like do everything and I can't i can't do it all." Right so I have to pull back and some of you you feel like if you want to do these things they have to be done perfectly so like no get rid of that too you're not going to be perfect and we're not going to do everything we want so I think living in reality is really key so ask yourself what will feel most convenient in this season for me like what are things that like I value and that I want and list them out in priorities because there's going to be some seasons you're not going to be able to do everything you want but getting the things you want done in the season you're in and being intentional with those things that can give you peace of mind and feel like you're on top of it but when you're trying to do everything all the time or perfectly it's going to stress you out so release yourself from that now remember if you are in baby steps one through three all of these things that we talked about here in this episode are luxuries so if you're in one through three cut everything you can cut these luxuries out to get some money to pay off debt and get that fully funded emergency fund and then when you're beyond that then you can bring some of these back in but all of this is to create a life that we love because that's what we're all about around here now for more purchases that are worth the investment make sure to check out my episode on 11 things you'll regret buying cheap you can click here for that or if you're listening on podcast I will leave a link below all right you guys remember to take control of your money and create a life you love
