Your mom always said that there are starving people in the world...

One thing I have never been able to master is meal planning. It seems like a couple times a month I end up trashing groceries that went bad or buy groceries that never saw the light of day (or the inside of my stomach). I found a jar of red curry in my fridge today that hasn't been used for over a year. In fact, if I recall correctly, I think I used it for one dish, one time.

One problem, that whole "I look into the fridge and can't find what I want, so I'll go get what I want" attitude that I can blame on being American, but will just blame on me. What if I just ate what was in my fridge, even if I don't want spaghetti from yesterday, instead of leaving the house to grab some food "to go," which really means, "to go to my house and eat at the coffee table."

Wow, that might require things life self-control or resisting instant gratification. That's a novel idea.

But still, how do I plan meals that are: cost effective, efficient, healthy, and full of ingredients that won't end up in my trash can because I couldn't figure out how to use them again?

My Closet: The Black Hole of Time

I waste so much time each morning trying to figure out what I am going to where. I sit on the edge of my bed, stare at my closet and try to put an outfit together, while trying to remember what I want to wear later in the week. I also am amazed at how many tops I own, and how few bottoms.

I'm telling you, figuring out what to wear would be a 10-20 minute process.

First step: I had to clean out the closet, and I'll share taht 8 trash-bag story later.

Second step: I spend 30 minutes on laundry day putting together my outfits for the week and hanging them as such, thinking about what I have going on during the week.

Now, I get up in the morning and just grab the next outfit, and this has saved my life in the morning.

It also helped me to figure out how much excess clothing that I had in my closet, realizing that I could go through months of outfits without wearing certain items in my closet.

The Vacation Account

Ashley and I are fans of INGDirect, and online bank, which usually has higher interest earnings than a traditional bank (though in the recent economy has caused the interest to take a hit). One of the reasons we like ING is because it takes about a week for withdrawn funds from ING to arrive in your traditional bank, so you really have to plan your finances.

The best thing is that you can open multiple savings accounts and label them for what you want the money to go toward. Thus, the vacation account!

Everyone has their priorities, and travel is one of ours, so we opened a vacation savings account that Ashley and I both deposit into monthly, about $100-$200 a month.

People ask us all the time how we can travel around the world. Ashley and I always say that everyone has their priorities that they choose to spend money on. We like to travel. Consequently, we don't go out to eat in nice restaurants, we don't see movies (outside the cheap theater), we don't have nice clothes or nice cars, etc.

In the end, Ashley and I decided that travel is an important enough part of our life that we have a savings account that we set aside money in so that we can travel without stressing about how to pay for our adventures. One of the best financial decisions we have made.

Bring My Own Bags

Most of us have a cupboard that is a mess of shopping bags. I stuff these bags in this cupboard, where I don't have to see them, and I think I'll use them again. However, it turns into giant cupboard for storing an unnecessary amount of plastic bags.

I finally made the choice to buy a couple of those "green," reusable grocery bags for about $1 for each bag and cleaned our the bag cupboard. Now we have a use for each kind of bag:

• Plastic bags: trash bags for our smaller garbage cans like in the bathroom.



• "Green" bags: for general shopping at the grocery store, Target, etc.



• Large garbage bags: trash bags for our large garbage can in the kitchen.



• Paper bags: bags for donating clothes, books, etc. or for carrying supplies or gifts outside of the house.
  

I also found out that most grocery stores will give you a five cent discount for each "green" bag you bring; Sunflower markets give ten cents per bag.

I helps to keep the "green" bags in my car trunk. Otherwise, I tend to forget them, or when I have an impromptu trip the store, the bags are with me.

I heart Dave Ramsey

In the pursuit to simplify, my husband and I have been taking a look at our personal finances to figure out how to simplify our financial life. Really, it is a pursuit of financial health. One of my friends introduced me to Dave Ramsey and his financial wisdom, and we just love him. It is more of a biblical financial plan than a budget.

I agree with Dave Ramsey's ideas and principles about how to handle finances because it means having specific goals for your money and designating money for certain purposes. The idea is that if your money is already designated, you are less likely to spend it.

Dave Ramsey has seven baby steps to financial freedom, and sadly to say, I'm only on step two:

1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt
3. 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate

But is has totally changed how my husband and I look at our personal budget.

Check out more information about Dave Ramsey' Baby Steps.