Money date No. 20: Listening to my body

Working while menstruating, feeding myself for less, expanding my travel options and more

As I write this, I’m working through period pain. And you might not want to know that, but it’s literally all I can think about when it’s happening, and why aren’t we more OK with talking about it? I know the answer to that is because it’s a woman’s trouble, and we don’t culturally treat women as if they matter. I guess I’ll just keep talking about periods until that changes.

Noticing what’s happening in my body has been an important part of my relationship with money. Letting my work ebb and flow with my natural energy levels makes me a lot happier with my job. (Keeping the ability to do this is also a big reason I remain self-employed.) And listening to your body is a key element to conscious spending — knowing what you do and don’t want to buy without defaulting to restriction. That’s a big lesson I learned this week when I noticed restriction in my grocery spending (more below on how I corrected that!).

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💡 Inspired by a Healthy Rich contributor, a money date is an exercise I crafted for You Don’t Need a Budget. Subscribers can follow along in a private space after the paywall, and I encourage you to steal my questions to guide your own reflections!

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Buy You Don’t Need a Budget

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What’s the most joyful thing you did with money this week?