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Maybe you’ve gone from no-budget to successfully sticking with a budget. Or maybe you’ve been really successful at following a cash budget. Or, perhaps budgeting has allowed you to do something amazing. We want to hear about it!

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• Posts must be high-quality, original content (i.e. not published anywhere else online).
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• Please make a concerted effort to use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.
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• Posts must be received by October 14, 2013 to be eligible.
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Submit Your Budgeting Success Story

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JessieLeigh from Parenting Miracles shows you How to Make 5 Fall Meals from 5 Pork Chops. I loved her great ideas!

During the month of October, I’m following along with Edie & Ruth on their 31 Days of Less & More journey. I’d love for you to join in by reading the posts and completing the projects, or just sit back and read along each day.

Less Comparison

Not too long ago, I had a little extra time one day and was perusing blogs. I somehow stumbled upon this beautiful blog written by an even more beautiful woman.

As I read her posts, I began to feel very inadequate. She was pretty, in shape, creative, witty, had a gorgeous home, had more children than me, and really seemed to have it altogether.

I started to feel ugly, disorganized, out of shape, and like a really pathetic woman in comparison to her. But I kept on reading–and continued to feel even worse.

Then I landed upon a post where she talked about this woman that she so admired and wanted to be like. I was shocked when I clicked on the link and discovered the woman she was referring to was me.

Yes, this woman whom I felt I paled in comparison to wanted to be like me.

And then I realized how silly this was. Here she wanted to be me and I was secretly wishing I were her.

It hit me anew just how easy it is to want what we don’t have–better hair, better decorating skills, a better personality, more creativity, more spunk… there’s always someone who it seems we’d like to trade places with because they have what we want.

But trading places with someone wouldn’t fix anything; we’d just inherit a new set of things we wish we could change. No one has it altogether. Everyone has struggles and difficulties. Comparison only leads to discontentment.

More Confidence

We can’t change who we are, but we can make the most of our situation. We can’t choose the personality we are born with, but we can choose to be thankful–even in the midst of difficulty.

And we can choose to be intentional and purposeful in how we live our lives so that we make the most of all that we’ve been given instead of wishing we were someone else.

I loved this part of Amy Lynn Andrew’s post on The Trouble With Blogging:

…Never forget that what you see on the screen is not the whole picture.

Never forget that the people behind the blogs are, well, people…with unorganized cupboards, unmanaged time schedules (ahem!), cranky children (ahem again!), painful stories, crafty train wrecks, struggling marriages, unpaid bills and burnt meat loaf. (Those are the examples I use, because those have all been me behind the scenes.)

Never forget that their story and their journey and their choices apply to them, not to you.

You are who you are for a reason. You are where you are a for a reason. Don’t do what I do and beat yourself up for not being where someone else is. It’s a colossal waste of time.

Appreciate everyone else’s outside, but embrace your inside. (Read the full post here–it’s fantastic!)

Originally posted January 2012.

For more on this topic, check out Ruth’s post on Less Comparison and Edie’s post on More Confidence. I promise you’ll be inspired and blessed!

Welcome to Frugal Photo Friday! This month, I am partnering with Rebekah from SimplyRebekah.com. Each Friday we are sharing pictures of simple ways that we save money.

We are blessed to have many friends who share from their garden abundance. We’re always happy to take the extras off their hands. And nothing beats fresh-grown tomatoes!

I love it when I can quickly run into the store and come out with some great bargains (thanks to my friend, Angie, for texting me about these deals!).

We can’t seem to have too many library books around here! Here’s our stack of books we read this week! Oh how we are thankful for the library and the money we save because of it!

You might not be able to tell what the above picture is, but that’s two hunks of frozen pizza dough. We save so much money by making our own homemade pizza. And whipping up a couple batches of Homemade Pizza Dough for the freezer makes it even easier to pull off dinner on busy days!

Head over to SimplyRebekah to see the savings that Rebekah is sharing today.

Now it is your turn to share the simple ways that you save. Post your link below or on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #FrugalPhotoFriday. All of the link-up details can be found here.

“Mommy, can you play with me?”

His voice broke into my concentration as I studied my to-do list for the day figuring out which more pressing thing I should do next.

I started to launch into a gentle explanation about how Mommy was busy this morning, but I quickly caught myself as I looked at his pleading eyes.

I glanced back at my list — the list that just moments ago had seemed so important — and all those handwritten to-do’s paled in comparison to my little 4-year-old.

He will only be little once. Someday soon, he won’t be begging me to play with him. He’ll be all grown up and involved in his own life and dreams.

For today, the to-do list can wait. I’ve got more important plans… I’m laughing, giggling, loving on, and playing with my little boy.