Do you know when you give things away? Do you give things away without knowing that you do. Maybe you don’t just give things away for free but maybe you don’t sell them for what they are worth. Are you aware of what you are worth? Do you have something of value to sell? Can you actually afford to give this stuff away?
If you are aware of how you give things away, then you can get in control of what and how you give things away and you can do so when you can actually afford to do so. Have you heard the story of the little red hen who grew the wheat, made the bread, and then gave it away, but did not keep any for herself so died of starvation and could no longer provide the bread for others. Of course, the little red hen even liked to grow the wheat and make the bread; but she could not keep doing this when she did not get anything in return and ran out of resources to do it.
One way that you give things away is by offering free samples; but you need to leave your audience wanting more. This is when you offer to sell them more by getting something from them. You have to sell it for more than the cost of the ingredients because your training and experience, your knowledge, your time and energy are worth more. In order to develop new products, to offer quality services, to make improvements in your existing product, and thrive, you must price your product appropriately.
Everybody does not know everything and there is a good chance that you know something about something that is not common knowledge and could be worth an appropriate amount of money to other people who need this knowledge.
Becoming more mindful has led me to realize that the amount of money that something costs and whether it seems like too much or a real steal depends on what it is, who you are, and where you are. I first began to think about this when I started watching HGTV and realized that what was considered a reasonable price for a house in one part of the country or the world was not reasonable in another part. Decent-sized homes could be bought for $200,000 or less in some places, for $500,000 or less in others, and for over a million dollars in yet other places. The same was true of rent which ranged from under $1000 to several thousand dollars a month. The bigger prices were found not just in resort communities but also in suburban areas.
I am currently on a fixed income and am very money conscious. I found that what I considered to be a good price for something depended on what category it fell in. I found that I was the cheapest about clothes, hitting clearance racks and garage sales and usually spending under a few dollars usually no more than five or ten bucks; but I found that I would spend that much on eating out and on a very special occasion, I might double that. It all dealt with what I allowed myself to spend even actually keeping a running total in my head. Why is it more acceptable to spend more on laundry detergent than than on many grocery items?
You might not be on as tight a budget as I am and you may have to spend more to keep up appearances than I do. Even the higher house prices don’t shock you and you may have already invested that much in a place to live. What determines what seems reasonable to pay for one type of thing and not another? Yes, this can be a matter of personal taste and the desire for quality in something you purchase. But it does seem at least for me that I am willing to spend more on somethings than others. How did I get that way? Is it price fixing like the cost of a carton of pop? Is it brain washing? Is it due to propaganda? What one person considers acceptable to pay for something may not be acceptable to another person. How much of this is due to what is the usual price for something in a certain area and how much of this is due to what its really worth. Or are things not intrinsically worth anything, except what you can get people to pay for them?
Do you find somethings hard to deal with in life because you get anxious when you think about them? These things don’t inherently make you anxious. Something had to happen that was associated with them which taught you to be anxious when you have to do something with them.
Money, I thought, was dealt with constructively in my family growing up. When my mother shopped, she always had a budget to follow even if that meant she didn’t get some things that she wanted that week. My parents also got around the dining room table to pay the big bills together once a month. Oh, yes there were some arguments when my dad would help his family (mother, brothers, and sisters) out and my mom was worried that we didn’t have the money to do that and that it wouldn’t get paid back. I never did without when it came to the important things and I always had three hots and a cot (just joking). Also in those days, there weren’t the TV advertisements that we have now that create desires for things we think everybody should have.
You get your first sense of security in your family of origin. It is there that your needs are met or not met. Although my parents were very practical about money and we never did without that I can remember, still there was some anxiety about the whole subject. The great depression had just ended and it had had to have made an impression on almost everybody who experienced it. We didn’t have a welfare state and family members were expected to help out family members in need.
Dealing with money still makes me anxious and I would avoid bill paying if I could, but I have learned through experience that not dealing with something can make for even bigger problems in the long run. I keep a much closer track of my money than I used to. Even with these better money handling habits, I still get antsy about dealing with it.
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