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by Hope

The challenge this month is not directly finance related, but I truly believe it can have a significant impact on our financial lives. How we view money. How we spend money. How we value what we can purchase with money.

Your challenge this Thanksgiving month is to truly turn it into a Thankful Month…start each day with an #AttitudeofGratitude!

1. Each morning, before you roll out of bed, think of 3 things you are grateful for. Truly, anything!
2. Throughout the day, say thank you for even the smallest act of service or kindness offered to you. And offer that thank you for sincerity and a smile.
3. Before you turn off the lights for the night, think about 3 things that you were grateful for during the day.

(If you are really into it, write the 3 things you are grateful down in a journal. Even share this challenge with your family.)

Some optional pieces to this challenge:

1. Post an image of something you are grateful for on Instagram. Use the hashtag #BADgratitude so other members of the BAD community can find you.
2. Share the gratitude…we always read about people paying for others in the fast food line, buying someone coffee or even helping with yard work. Make a plan to give back somehow, some way every single week. And definitely come tell the BAD community about it.
3. Any other suggestions?

The expected results…

My thought is that when we starting expressing thankfulness for even the most mundane things, we begin to value our lives more, the things in our lives more, the people in our lives more. I think this will lead to better spending habits when we know what we value.

It may not be immediate or conscientious change, but I believe it is a powerful one and a permanent one.

Hope

Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.

But life has a way of rewriting your plans.

A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.

Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.

Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.

She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.