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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years ago

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How Journaling Practices Have Helped My Financial Situation

Ive mentioned often on The Simple Dollar how journaling is a daily practice for me and has been off and on (but mostly on) since middle school in various forms. At times, its taken the form of simply cataloguing my day; at other times, Ive written in response to various prompts; today, its completely different (and Ill write about that in a bit). In any case, writing in my journal simply put, getting thoughts out of my head down on paper is something that is a daily part of my life. Why have I kept up with it for so long? How has it helped me in any way thats made it worth the time investment? And what does that practice look like? Thats what I want to share today. Lets start with the why. The Benefits of Journaling, Financial and Otherwise I keep up with a daily journaling practice for a lot of reasons. First of all, it feels like a mental relief to do it because it quiets the monologue in my head. Along with meditation, its one of the two most effective routine things Ive found in my life for getting the constantly chattering voice in my head to quiet down a little. That voice is constantly going over things I need to do, things Im thinking about or worried about, my upcoming plans, some problem Im interested in, and all kinds of other stray thoughts. That constant stream of thought is distracting. I find that dumping some of that stream of thought down on paper quiets that distracting voice pretty well, at least for a while. Ive found that one big burst of writing in my journal at the start of the day coupled with having a pocket notebook on me at all times to jot down other stray thoughts throughout the day keeps that voice a lot quieter and a lot less distracting. Second, I use it to work through challenging problems in my life that Im not quite sure how to solve. When I observe something I dont like in my life, my mind often worries on that problem without ever really coming to a good conclusion on it. Ill think about that problem over and over, but at best my idle thoughts will come up with really half-baked solutions. When I sit down and journal and dump that problem out on paper, I find that I almost always work toward an actual good solution to the problem (or problems) in my head. By writing out the problem as I see it, I usually get some better insight into whats really going on, and then as I write down that insight, more pop up, and eventually I lead myself to the real source of the problem and perhaps a start down the path to a good solution. This applies very well to personal finance. For example, it was writing in my journal that really helped me piece together that something was wrong with my financial life and gradually led me to the decision to make some major changes. It has helped me figure out what things in my life were frivolous expenses and which ones were not. It has helped me to identify situations where I was spending money nonsensically as an emotional response to some other situation in my life. Third, its helped me to understand complex ideas by taking a bunch of swirling bits and pieces Ive learned recently and didnt fully understand and combine them into something meaningful and comprehensible and useful. Many of my journal entries have originated from my thinking about something I read recently or experienced recently that I didnt quite understand, and by simply spelling it all out piece by piece, the idea came together for me. I used to do this a lot when I was in college, but I still do it quite frequently when Im reading something or when Ive had a difficult interaction with someone. For example, it was this practice that really helped me to understand investing and how index funds work and helped me decide that I should put as much of our investment money as possible into index funds. The ideas made sense on their own, but it was assembling the ideas and relating them to our own situation, which I did over a bunch of journaling sessions, that locked our retirement planning into place. I did the same thing when we were shopping for a home. Many of my entries during the months in which we were house shopping were oriented around figuring out how the house buying process worked, how mortgages worked, and so on. This actually leads well into my next point. Journaling has helped me come to a firm conclusion when there were a lot of options on the table. Often, decision making comes down to being able to filter through a lot of options, figure out which elements matter the most, and choose from those options based on that. Journaling has helped me with every piece of that process for many different major decisions in my life. As I noted earlier, journaling was essential in our home buying process. I wrote down extensive thoughts on each home we visited, the relative merits and drawbacks of each, and what each would look like financially. My journaling process helped Sarah and I choose a home that we could afford that met our needs, a home we still live in. Its helped me decide between investment options. Its helped me make career choices when I had several options on the table at a few points in my life. Simply writing through each of the options, figuring out what was good and bad about each one, and then coming to a clear decision not only helped me make a great decision at each of those crossroads, it also helped clear my head of constant worrying and constant thoughts on the subject. So, how exactly do I do this? What does my journaling practice look like? My Own Journaling Practice Ive used a number of practices over the years, but the one Ive used for the last few years, with a few tweaks, has been a small variation on the three morning pages journaling practice first popularized by Julia Cameron. In Camerons original practice, she simply suggested that a person sit down with a blank journal and start writing, filling up three pages in a journal with their writing before stopping for the day. Write about whatevers on your mind if its on your mind, just write it down, no matter how inane or pointless it seems. It gets that thought out of your head and makes space for whatevers next. Some days, everything is inane, and thats fine. Other days, youre working through some very difficult things, and thats fine, too. The goal is to empty that junk out of your head so you can get clean start to your day. I tried doing this exact thing for a while, but I ran into a number of small problems with it. The biggest one was that my handwriting is small and the pages in my journal are big. I tend to journal by writing in block capital letters it just feels the most comfortable to me and the writing is pretty small. Most of my journals are either full size pages or close to it. Thus, it can take a long time to simply fill up a page with words, even if Im writing as fast as I can. So, I modified the practice to what I call 45 morning minutes. I just set a timer for 45 minutes, sit down with my journal, open to the next blank page (or partial page), and start writing. When the timer goes off, I keep going until theres a clear break in thought and then I write a big double line across the page indicating the end of the day, and Im done. Journaling with a strict time limit keeps it within a reasonable time frame for me and makes it easy to schedule. Obviously, I do this in the morning, usually before anyone else is awake. I find that doing this early in the day is really effective at quieting down that internal monologue that distracts me with chatter and ideas throughout the day. Id rather have it quiet in the mornings and afternoons so that I can get focused work done. So, thats another big part of the equation for me: journaling in the morning quiets my internal monologue so that I can focus better during the work day. After I finish, I usually read back through my entry over the course of a few minutes, mostly to extract things that I need to get done in the near future. Are there any actionable items that I thought about or generated during that journaling? If so, I move them to my to-do list manager or to my calendar so I can find them later on in the day when Im actually doing stuff. Again, another key point: journaling often generates specific actions I need to work on or things I need to take care of, so I transfer those out to a to-do list. After that, I just close my journal and go about my day. There are a few obvious questions that come about from that description, so let me address them right now. I read old entries, but nothing older than a few months. After four or five months, the old entries start to read like they were written by another person living another life. Its familiar in the way that a distant memory is familiar, but it doesnt feel like me any more. When journal entries reach that point, then there isnt really any value to them any more, at least not for me. The method of journaling I use is not really a record of what I did each day, so once the entries arent fresh, I dont find any personal value in them. Ive changed enough as a person that the situations and solutions I wrote about in old journals no longer apply specifically to new situations. I havent actively read journal entries more than a few months old in a long time, and every time I happen to see one, I really dont care to read it. There are a few reasons for this, but most of it boils down to the fact that my journals reflect my active thinking at that moment, but when that moment fades away, theres not much value there. Its not a record of my life, but an outpouring of my current thought. There are some specific reasons, too. I am often deeply critical of myself, something that doesnt need to be re-read and dwelled upon. I sometimes tear myself to shreds when Im writing a journal entry. Im extremely critical of my flaws and mistakes, and while that can be good in the moment when Im assessing a situation or setting out a goal, it doesnt do me any good to read it later or for someone else to read it. I am sometimes honestly critical of my children in a way that I wouldnt want them to read; I do this not to be cruel, but to figure out how to be a good parent to them. It does not make me a good parent to pretend that my children are perfect and flawless. Rather, one of the best things I can do as a parent is to honestly assess their good features and their flaws and take those into account when I figure out how to communicate well with them and guide them toward good decision making practices, life ambitions, and things of that nature. For example, I might write down that one of my children is extremely conscientious of others but is sometimes excessively boastful, or I might write that another child is richly thoughtful but very quick to frustration and anger. (Obviously, these arent actual observations and are quite sanitized to boot, just examples so you understand what I mean.) Those arent thoughts that I want them to read, or anyone else to read. The same is true for my wife and my role as a husband and, occasionally, some of my friends and my role as their friend. I do similar evaluations of my wife at times. In what ways is she amazing? In what ways can I complement her with my strengths? In what ways does she complement my own weaknesses? How can I help out in areas where shes not as strong? Im sure shes glad that I think about such things and consider how to be a better husband, but I dont think even she would want to actually read such thoughts. The same thing is true if I assess a friend, particularly if theyre asking me for some life advice. I want to give the best advice I can to them, and that sometimes means being critical, and sometimes those words find their way into my journals. Thus, I dont save old journals, at least not anything older than my most recent one. I keep my current journal and my previous one in a secure place where they cant easily be found. My current journal is easy for me to grab in the mornings, but its not in a place where it would likely be found. When my current journal is full, I destroy the previous journal after I read through it again. For a while, I was keeping digital copies of my old journals, but I found that I was never looking at them, didnt really want to ever look at them, and didnt want anyone else to find them, so I stopped doing this. The downside to others finding those thoughts was worth more than the upside of any potential limited use I might have for them in the future. The policy of destroying the journals and keeping the current one secure lets me be more unguarded with my journaling. Given that I know my journals wont be around for posterity, I feel more comfortable just letting my thoughts fly on the page. I dont worry about who might read them or how they might appear for posterity. At worst, the most recent journal or two might be found, and that doesnt worry me too much. I usually start off each journal with a note saying that this is a collection of my unguarded thoughts as I worked through personal decisions and I would appreciate that the journal would be destroyed upon discovery if I were to pass. I vastly prefer handwritten journaling, but I may switch to using a stylus and writing on a table in the future as those technologies improve; writing by hand provides a clarity of thought that typing doesnt quite provide for me. For me, typing is conducive to rapidly recording ideas, but the process doesnt allow me any space to think about them. If I want to explore my thoughts, consider things, and actually remember them, I write things out by hand. This is true for journaling, but its also true for taking notes at meetings, taking notes when Im reading, taking notes during a lecture, and so on. I write all of those notes by hand and, if theres potential value that I might get out of them later, I convert them to digital format. I feel like taking notes with an Apple Pencil on an iPad is 90% of the way to where I want a stylus to be, but its not all the way there yet. When its perfect, writing thoughts down on a tablet using a stylus will be the best way to journal and take notes because it offers the advantages of both writing by hand and digital notes, but for now, its not quite there yet, and given a choice between the two, the thoughtfulness and retention of writing by hand outweighs typing out journal entries for me. I use Leuchtturm 1917 journals and either Uniball Signo 207, Pilot G2, or Pilot Juice pens. The journal isnt a requirement Ive used all kinds of different things over the years but I really like the size and the binding and paper quality of that specific journal. One of those usually lasts about two and a half months for my journaling purposes. As for the pens, I really only have three requirements for a pen: it needs to write when I want it without a lot of futzing around, it needs to have a thin line and not bleed all over the page or make a mess, and it needs to not leak in my pocket. The pens listed up there pass those tests with flying colors. I can get weeks and weeks out of writing with just one of them and it costs less than a dollar, which is good enough for me. Id rather spend $0.75 on a pen that will write for weeks without fail and not make a mess or leak than a $0.25 pen or a freebie that will need a bunch of waving around or tinkering when I want it to write, leave a ton of messy ink on the page, and inevitably leave a big blotch of ink on the paper or in my pocket. Final Thoughts Spending some time each day journaling simply writing my thoughts down on paper not only helps me piece through the problems in my life and ideas in my head, it also helps clear my mind and make it easier to focus on the tasks of the day because it quiets the voice in my head that would otherwise keep running through those problems and ideas. It has helped me not only figure out a bunch of financial and professional problems, its also helped keep my mind focused when actually doing work to earn an income. I find that my 45 morning minutes practice works extremely well for me, but there are many practices out there that range from simply listing the events of the day, writing what youre grateful for, brainstorming, and many other things. I highly recommend trying several practices until you find one that works well for you and then stick with it for a while. You might just find that it becomes an essential part of your life toolbox. Good luck! https://www.thesimpledollar.com/how-journaling-practices-have-helped-my-financial-situation/

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thecreativecochrane-blog · 7 years ago

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Good morning all! Today I’m sharing a super special, indulgent, delicious recipe. As per normal, the end result of this recipe looks complicated and difficult, however, actually making this mega ice cream cake is super simple. Don’t believe me? I made this particular variation about a month ago for my husbands birthday, with a 6 fussy, teething 6 month old in tow.

You could take this recipe an extra step further and make homemade ice cream for the ice cream layers, however, for me, this was too much work, and time that I didn’t have to spare.

As I have mentioned in my Mouth-watering Pulled Pork Pizza post, I mentioned I had attempted, and almost successfully thrown a surprise 27th birthday party for my husband. One crucial element to a birthday party, in my opinion at least, is the cake. I am already excited to make birthday cakes for my son (and he’s only 7 months old!). One snag to this plan when it comes to my husband however, is that he doesn’t like cake (what is the matter with him?). Seriously, he is not a sweets person. He rarely eats desserts or anything sweet. Which I guess sort of works out for me, since I don’t have to work about him digging into my chocolate stash. This does also mean that his birthday cakes are not the typical “cake”. One thing he does like, is ice cream cake.

For his birthday last year I made a cookies and cream ice cream cake that turned out so well. This year, I knew I’d be making another rice cream cake, but wanted to try out something a little bit different. If my husband chooses to eat chocolate or candy one of his favourites is Reeses. Therefore, this year I chose to try and make a play on a peanut butter and chocolate Reeses Ice cream cake.

In order to make this mega ice cream cake you will need:

*One disclaimer I will add, if you can, try and make this the day before you need it. it will allow the whole cake to really set. Since you will need to melt or soften your ice cream slightly in order to make the ice cream layers, you’ll also need some time to be able to re-freeze them.

1- 4L tub of plain vanilla ice cream ( or 2 – 2L tubs of vanilla ice cream )

½ cup salted peanuts

½ cup peanut butter chocolate chips

1 cup of white sugar

⅓ cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, your choice)

½ cup butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups of all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ cup of milk

whipping cream ( for “icing” your cake)

Chocolate sauce (optional)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F and greasing two 9 inch circular cake pans with butter or another oil ( I like to use coconut oil ).

In a large bowl, beat together your butter and sugar using and electric mixer. Next, mix in eggs and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder and add to the wet ingredients. Next, add in the milk and peanut buttter and mix until combined and smooth. Pour the batter evenly into the two greased cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before going forward. Once the cake layers are almost completely cooled you can remove them from the pans and take your ice cream out of the freezer. You’ll also want to get out a 9 inch spring form pan. This type of pan will allow us to build up the ice cream layers and eventually remove the cake very easily. To make removal even easier, line the pan with plastic wrap.

Next spoon out about half of your ice cream from the container into a medium sized bowl. You could leave it in the one big container, however we want it to start thawing and softening so its easier to work with. Also I wanted to add some goodies to spruce up the plain vanilla ice cream. When your ice cream has softened slightly (we don’t want soup, or liquid, you’re looking for soft ice cream consistency), add in your flavourings of choice. For the first layer of ice cream I added in mini peanut butter chocolate chips, but you could add in anything, cut up peanut butter cups, regular chocolate chips, peanut butter even for a fully peanut cake. Mix in your “ad-ins” until they’re evenly distributed.

Place one of your cooled cake layers carefully into the bottom of the spring form pan. On top of your cake layer begin spooning on the first half of your ice cream mixture. Once its all on, gently begin to spread out the ice cream to create one even layer. Make sure to press it all the way to the sides and to press down slightly to avoid any gaps in the ice cream or between the ice cream and the cake.

When your ice cream layer is all smothered out squeeze on some of your chocolate sauce and spread out to cover the top of the ice cream layer.

Next carefully place your next cake layer on top of the ice cream and chocolate sauce. Push it down a little bit to again remove any gaps.

This next step will depend slightly on your spring form cake pan. For me, I was starting to get pretty close to the top edge of my pan and therefore, didn’t have enough room to create another equally thick ice cream layer. You could by all means stop here and still have a delicious cake, but I said we were making a mega cake. So what I needed to do was place the three layers I had already made ( cake-ice cream – cake) into the freezer to freeze solid, give it an hour or two. Then when they felt sturdy I undid the springform pan, and used the saran wrap to remove the cake from the pan. I then flipped the cake and placed it onto a cake board.

Next re-wrap your spring form pan in plastic wrap, and create a layer in the bottom of your cake pan of just ice cream. My second ice ream layer I added in salted peanuts for a bit of a salty element. Smooth this layer out just like you did the last ice cream layer.

Now this is the tricky part (in my opinion). Take your three layers of frozen cake from step 10 off the cake board and carefully place it into the spring form pan on top of your second ice cream layer. The other layers oft he cake will poke out over the edge of the cake pan but if they’re frozen they won’t be going anywhere. Gently push down to make sure theres no gaps between your newest ice cream layer sand the rest of the cake. Also be careful not to get any of the plastic wrap sandwiched between the layers!

Place this whole contraption back in the freezer to chill.

Once your whole cake is frozen together and is one piece, you can remove it from the springform pan once again, and flip it upside down onto the cake board. I suggest flipping it to make sure that the bottom layer of the cake touching the cake board is cake rather than ice cream. This is because when you take it out to serve it, it will begin to melt or thaw slightly, and we don’t was the whole base of the cake to become unstable.

Now its time to decorate! This set is completely optional, however i feel like it adds a nice fancy finishing touch to the cake. For icing on an ice cream cake I always like to go with a whipped cream, either homemade or store bought in a container. I like it because it doesn’t freeze as solid as an actual icing would but looks like an icing. Also, if its homemade you can control how sweet it is, since the cake itself is already pretty sweet. I coated the sides and top of the cake with the whipped cream, smoothed it out and placed it back into the freezer just to set up little bit. In a small container I warmed up some peanut butter in the microwave util it was runny and smoothed a thin layer over the top of the cake and let it drip down the edges.

Next I took a bunch of the Reeses, chocolate and peanut goodies I got from Bulk Barn and basically went to town decorating the top of the cake. I mostly just haphazardly placed stuff on top until I had something I liked.

You’re all done! Place your cake back in the freezer to set and try and keep from eating any before its cake time! Before cutting I would recommend letting the cake sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes just to make slicing a little bit easier

While theres a lot of steps involved the overall process of creating this delicious ice cream mega cake is pretty simple! Even the decorating doesn’t need to be symmetrical or pre-planned, just toss some goodies on there and you’re good to go ! Your friends and family will be astounded to hear that you’ve made it yourself !

Looking for another delicious dessert? Why not check these out:

Maple Cheesecake Topped Carrot Cake

Lemon Cheesecake Blondie Bars

Cherry Chocolate Pavlova

If you give this recipe a try make sure to let me know and by all means show off pictures of your finally results on instagram using the hashtag #thecreativecochrane, I always love seeing what you guys come up with ! If you’d like to follow The Creative Cochrane blog and stay up to date on recipes, crafts and other posts just fill out the form at the bottom of this page!

If you’d like to see sneak peaks, updates and behind the scenes check us out on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Bloglovin’.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day !

Reese’s Ice Cream Cake | Dessert Good morning all! Today I'm sharing a super special, indulgent, delicious recipe. As per normal, the end result of this recipe looks complicated and difficult, however, actually making this mega ice cream cake is super simple.

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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years ago

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How Journaling Practices Have Helped My Financial Situation

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