Happy New Year’s everyone! Cheers to 2021 and I hope it is filled with resilience, gratitude, intentionality, simplicity, grit, and presence.<\/p>\n
Before jumping in, we wanted to announce that we will be organizing a T<\/strong>eam Declutter Challenge during the month of February<\/strong> as well as hosting our second annual Team Social Media Digital Detox Challenge during the month of April<\/strong>!<\/p>\n The Declutter\u00a0<\/strong>Challenge<\/b><\/p>\n The February challenge is based off the #LessIsNow challenge from the new Less Is Now<\/a> documentary from The Minimalists which just came out on January 1.\u00a0 If you haven’t seen the film yet, you can find it on Netflix<\/a>.\u00a0 Here’s how it works:<\/p>\n That’s a total a 406 items – but who’s counting.\u00a0 Yes, I am very intimidated by this challenge myself and to be honest I don’t know if I’ll be able to rid our home of 406 items.\u00a0 But here’s hoping!<\/p>\n The beauty is there is no winning or losing in this.\u00a0 Even if you “only” find say 50 or 100 items to declutter, that’s WAY better than nothing!\u00a0 The purpose is to become more mindful of what’s in your home and how much more inviting and calming your home will feel with less shit in there.<\/p>\n At the end of the challenge, send us a picture of ALL the items you piled up to remove from your home and we will post the pictures in a future post.\u00a0 For those who want to partake in this challenge let us know<\/a> and we will send you some questions once the month is over to see how it went to include in that post as well!<\/p>\n The Social Media Detox<\/strong><\/p>\n We are big proponents of stepping away from our social media accounts to recharge and reassess what it is that truly brings us happiness – deep connections with people in real life.\u00a0 (This does not mean stepping away from phones, computers, emails completely<\/em> – just your time sucking mostly-mindless accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc.) I won’t belabor this on this post in particular, but if you’re interested in learning more, check out these previous posts we’ve written on this topic:<\/p>\n If this is something you’d be interested in, please contact us<\/a> if you’d like to join in the 2021 party!\u00a0 We’d love to get over 50 people on board this year.<\/p>\n It may sound daunting, but trust me, your life will be just fine without social media for a month<\/strong> – in fact, it likely will be much better!\u00a0 It’s hard to imagine it for most folks, but trust us and the other members who joined in last year, we know from actual experience.<\/p>\n We even had folks who “needed” social media for their businesses take part last year.\u00a0 They simply removed their personal social media accounts for the month to ensure they were only focusing on their business needs and not getting sucked into the mindless trap on their personal accounts.<\/p>\n Emails to the team will begin in early March to help prep for April’s detox so please get in touch with us<\/a> asap so you can get the full experience of the group challenge.\u00a0 If you’re still on the fence, go watch The Social Dilemma<\/a> on Netflix (or at least watch the preview<\/a>) and check out anything from Tristan Harris and maybe then you’ll see the light \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n For both of these challenges, we ask for nothing in return.\u00a0 No subscriptions required.\u00a0 No spam emails coming your way.\u00a0 We just want to see you improve your life.<\/p>\n Ok, let’s dig in to some baby costs!\u00a0 And we also have a giveaway in this post too!\u00a0 Lots going on this week ha.<\/p>\n For anyone following along, this is our third post outlining details of baby-related items and costs we’ve encountered.\u00a0 If you missed the first two posts, you can check them out here:<\/p>\n We’re now going to dig into the costs during our baby’s second year.<\/p>\n Some caveats:<\/p>\n Drum roll pleaseeeeeee<\/p>\n We spent a grand total of $1,416 during our little lady’s second year.\u00a0 That comes out to $118 per month.<\/span> Not too shabby considering a large chunk of this was the sports center pass which we used daily in the winter months for 4 months straight.\u00a0 Without that splurge, we’re looking at $85\/month.<\/p>\n We also contributed $2,500 towards her RESP education fund to get the full 20% match ($500) from the government so a total of $3,000 was invested into her future education this year for a grand total of $6,000 invested so far.<\/p>\n She’s also an eating machine and by the end of her second year, we were likely spending $75\/month on food-related costs.\u00a0 Here’s her typical day:<\/p>\n I’m pretty sure she eats more than me.<\/p>\n So if we also include the $2,500 RESP contribution and ~$50\/month on food from 1-1.5 and then ~$75\/month from 1.5-2 ((50*6)+(75*6)=$750) we’re looking at a total of $4,666 out of our pockets in her second year<\/span>.\u00a0 Of course, the RESP is elective and we recognize our privilege of being able to contribute this $2,500 towards her education each year.<\/p>\n There you have it!\u00a0 Short and sweet as we really didn’t spend that much \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Those with parents, are you as crazy as us and keep track of all of your baby-related expenses?\u00a0 Would you say you spent more or less than $1,416 on baby-related expenses (not including education and food) during their second year?\u00a0 What was your largest baby-related purchase?\u00a0 How have your child-related costs changed compared to their first few years?<\/p>\n Those without kids yet, if you’re reading this blog you likely are not part of the herd mentality and hopefully, you too can stay well under the average of $8,000-$13,000.\u00a0 There is no right or wrong way to parent.\u00a0 We are simply showing that the “norm” $8,000-$13,000 annually in the first few years can be challenged.\u00a0 Any questions for us?\u00a0 Hope this helps!<\/p>\n And again, if you’d like to check out the related posts on this topic, you can check them out here:<\/p>\n Last but definitely not least, we have a giveaway to announce!\u00a0 Last weekend we were one of the ~20 speakers in The Abundant Family Summit.\u00a0 I fired through all the other sessions over the weekend while they were available for free.\u00a0 And I just have to say wow<\/span> so much great info there and most of the speakers had an FI approach to life so it really was a one-of-a-kind summit.\u00a0 They also provided links for very helpful material to use with your kids.<\/p>\n I know life gets hectic and many of you likely were not able to attend.\u00a0 Totally get it.<\/p>\n That being said – I’d like to offer one of our awesome readers a FREE All Access Pass to The Abundant Family Summit!<\/p>\n What does this mean?<\/p>\n You’ll get unlimited, on-demand access to ALL of the incredible sessions (including the two live panel discussions), a one page cheat sheet of each session, audio downloads AND multiple bonus workbooks, video trainings and PDFs.<\/p>\n You can learn more about the All Access Pass<\/a> here.<\/p>\n Here are the sessions you’ll be able to access:<\/p>\n I truly think this summit will benefit any parent or soon to be parent out there, regardless the age of your kid(s).\u00a0 If you don’t have kids, you can gift it to a loved one who does.<\/p>\n All you have to do is let us know that you’re interested<\/a> and we will add your name to the drawing.\u00a0 Simple as that.\u00a0 No required sign ups, no extra emails coming your way, or that type of BS.<\/p>\n The cut off to enter is January 21st and we will announce the winner in our January 28th post!<\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n And for those who want to get in on the action without trying to win a contest, you can use the code “FIMILY” for $20 off the current $69 price tag of the All Access Pass<\/a>.\u00a0 So instead of $69 you can get the pass for $49.\u00a0 This coupon is valid until January 31.<\/p>\n If you liked this article and want more content like this, please support this blog by sharing it.\u00a0 Not only does it help spread the FIRE, but it lets me know what content you find beneficial.\u00a0 Writing is NOT my strong suit and it honestly takes me hours to write each post so the more encouragement the better!\u00a0 Engaging in the comments below keeps me motivated.\u00a0 You can also support this blog by subscribing to receive emails anytime a new post is published.\u00a0 Thank you FImily!<\/p>\n We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account.\u00a0 Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:<\/p>\n Happy New Year’s everyone! Cheers to 2021 and I hope it is filled with resilience, gratitude, intentionality, simplicity, grit, and presence. Before jumping in, we …<\/p>\n\n
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How Much Did We Spend?<\/h2>\n
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