Kath | The Life Spotters
Writer, procrastinator, life enthusiast. Lover of all things joyful. On a quest for the best!
Kakeibo – the Japanese Budgeting Journal
The creation of the kakeibo (pronounced kah-keh-boh), which literally translates as ‘household finance ledger’, is credited to Hani Motoko, Japan’s first female journalist. It was her belief that financial stability is essential to happiness, and in 1904 she published her accounting book designed to help Japanese housewives manage their budgets. In Japanese culture women are usually solely responsible for money management, handling all the families financial affairs. Since it’s publication, the Kakeibo has become an essential part of everyday life in Japan and is fast catching on here in the Western world, here’s why….
10 Ways to Simplify Your Life
Do you ever feel the urge to simplify? The way we live our lives today is faster, bigger and busier than ever before. In many ways this is a superb thing – we have access to information 24/7 – a whole world of knowledge at our fingertips. We can connect with people – loved ones or strangers – all over the world at the touch of a button. Our needs and wants are met quickly and efficiently, and if we can imagine it, we can own it. There is a rich world of opportunity and abundance out there, and we have the ability to have it all…
But instead of enhancing our lives, all too often it seems we are drowning in a sea of overwhelm.
The Eden Project at Christmas
Just a quick post this week – I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s December, which has rather snuck up on me, despite my so looking forward to it…so I have umm, one or two things on my ‘to do’ list!
However, I REALLY wanted to take a minute amidst the mulled wine and greenery to write about how we kicked off the holiday season this year with a trip to The Eden Project – Cornwall, to see their spectacular Shadows and Light Christmas Experience, and how we couldn’t possibly have started Christmas with anything more wonderfully festive!
How to write a personal mission statement and find your inner awesome!
You might be familiar with the idea of mission statements, especially when used in a business context. Simply put, a mission statement is a short written declaration of an organisation’s main goals, usually covering what they do, why and who for. It’s designed to become a kind of driving force, the ethos by which a company operates.
One of my favourite ways to connect with my own personal awesome is to utilise this idea by creating a personal mission statement, or as I prefer to call it, my Big Life Ethos.
Reduce waste and spend less this Christmas
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! A time to come together with family and friends, to celebrate and show our love, to share and feast, to dance, sing and be joyful. But it has also become a time of excessive consumption and mass overspending. I LOVE Christmas, truly, I’m still just like a kid, giddy and excitable and hopping up and down in anticipation from now until the day itself, (did I say now? Ok, so, actually I have been hopping up and down for weeks, waiting for it to be “acceptable” to show my colours…)
Downsizing – 5 things I Have Learnt Living Tiny
2 years ago we had to leave the cottage we had lived in for 13 years when our landlord decided to sell. It was an old ramshackle cottage with low beamed ceilings and nooks and crannies aplenty (and dust, so much dust!). It was pokey and cramped, in the delightfully cosy way that cottages often are, but we loved it, and it had been our home for many years.
- Health & Well-being, Inspiration & Motivation, Life Design, Personal Development, Simplicity & Slow Living
Meditation – a beginner’s guide
Meditation has long been known to be beneficial to your health. Practiced for centuries by those in the know, there is now so much scientific backing to those benefits that even the most sceptical couldn’t doubt it’s effectiveness: Meditation has been proven to help reduce blood pressure, improve heart rate, relieve stress and anxiety, boost your mood, improve sleep and even help ease chronic pain. Not to mention the boom-massive spiritual effects such as increased awareness and understanding of self, mindfulness, harmony, and connection.
5 Glorious France Passion Stopovers
Not familiar with France Passion? Allow me to enlighten you… France Passion is the self-proclaimed “official supplier of small paradises”. Simply put, it is an amazing membership scheme which enables campervan or motorhome owners to stop overnight safely for free at a choice of over 2000 farms, winegrowers, cheesemakers and other producers of local delights… Yuuuuum!
Campervan France on a budget
We had decided to have a pretty scant year this year, trying to save we thought it best to maybe not go abroad at all, but wanderlust got the better of us…”France? Just 2 weeks maybe? We could do it on the cheap…??” So how exactly do you spend a couple of glorious weeks away, particularly with a couple of tweenage consumers in tow, without breaking the bank?
3 Simple Ways To Help You Take Control Of Your Spending
How often do you find yourself reaching payday with nothing left, dipping into your overdraft or putting everyday items onto credit cards? Too often? Then it’s time to take control of your spending!
