Sometimes I like to think I have it all together and then I look around my house and see the mess, the clutter, THE STUFF! While we have been working towards purging it really seems like an never ending battle. With every birthday and holiday more THINGS appear in our home. As I write this I realize how snotty this might sound so let me be clear. Every gift, every item every and every thing that we are given we appreciate. That is not the issue, the issue is what we buy for our kids during holidays, birthdays and even just a random Saturday at Target. These are the things that we are preparing to change.
Why We Are Choosing Experiences Over Things
Jude and Teagan have been blessed with so many incredible experiences in their short lives and I want to continue to provide those experiences. Jeremy and I sat down and made a list of our top experiences we want to have with Jude and Teagan and while that list was really fun to make, we started adding up the cost of these experiences and wondered how we would pull it off. Honestly, it was a bit overwhelming but then I looked around the house.
The THINGS That Take Our Money
If we stop buying the little things and even those big birthday and holiday things we can put our gift budget to experiences instead. Seems like a simple solution right? Well, sure, but we have to train ourselves and our kids and it has been a struggle. BUT we have decided that we are going this route. We will begin to work through our experiences wish list and make goals for saving money for those experiences all while working to clear out the clutter!
We will continue to budget for birthdays and holidays but add that budget to our experiences rather than gifts that we wrap up. Now, let me be clear, we will still give our kids a birthday gift but it will be more intentional when we go shopping. This is not going to be easy for us or the kids, we have a lot of retaining to do!
Some Of Our Favorite Experiences
Over the years we have had a few big experiences like Disneyland, Beaches Turks & Caicos and many trips to the beautiful Colorado mountains. These are some of the bigger experiences but I want to make sure that when we are thinking about our wish list that we also add in smaller experiences like seeing a movie in the theater, going to a play, going to the local water park, attending a professional sporting event and even going out to eat a favorite restaurant.
What Experiences Are On Our Wish List
As discussed the smaller experiences do include seeing a movie in the theater, going to a play, going to the local water park, attending a professional sporting event and even going out to eat a favorite restaurant. But we have a few big experiences we would like to make sure our kids have.
Heading to Disneyland again is a big one for us all. We have so much fun there. It really is magical! But before doing this, we would love to go to Amsterdam to visit Jeremy’s sisters family. The kids are asking to see where their cousins live across the ocean. This is a huge goal for us as traveling overseas is not only expensive, it takes a ton of planning and also means the kids might miss some school. I hope we can get this experience on the books soon!
And while my kids are not big ocean water lovers, they love the beach resorts so we always have goals of heading to a beach soon!
No matter where we decide to put our experience money I know we will have a great time as a family. Spending time together is key. The memories made are worth it all.
I am excited for this new journey and so ready to start purging. Having a home that is filled with things is not a happy home. We have work to do and experiences to enjoy! Time to get going!
