5 Things I’m Thankful For And Not just On Thanksgiving Day

There’s more to Thanksgiving than eating food, laughter and pumpkins, such as being thankful.

Often the meaning of Thanksgiving gets mixed into pies, cakes, gravy, turkey and mashed potatoes.

Thanksgiving Day Celebrations in Canada will begin soon, and we will be spending with family.

This time around, though, our son will partake in the festivities especially giving thanks. 

Aside from all the Fall and Thanksgiving decor we put out, we know that we all interpret Thanksgiving Day differently from one another.

I mean that we all give thanks for different reasons, and some of us give thanks every day, not just Thanksgiving Day. I’m that person.

We won’t be going home to see the family like we typically do because of my work schedule, so we are spending the day as a family without the massive turkey dinner.

The good part is that we will be enjoying a small dinner of roasted chicken, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables and homemade brownies.

No pumpkin pie for us this year, I’m afraid, but I do have some pumpkin puree I might sneak into the batter to jazz it up a bit.

It seems the focus of giving thanks is always based on the calendar.

If we could only spend a few minutes every day thinking about all the positives in our life, I bet that we would have a happier outlook.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m happy, I accomplish more, so I aim to keep that happiness going all year round.

If you are one of those people who wake up miserable and negative for whatever reason and allow that negativity to fuel your day, try something different.

You have choices, and if you choose to be miserable, then you will be.

What I do is set my alarm 10 minutes earlier so I can lay in bed and either cuddle my wife or stare at the ceiling to think about all the reasons I’m thankful for waking up for another day.

This is sort of my time to embrace my day with a clear mind, and it allows me to wake up without jumping like a maniac because I’m in a rush.

So, for all of you reading this post today, I wrote down the top 5 things I thought of yesterday morning during my quiet time ritual to share with you.

I want you all to know that being thankful for all the things we experience in life means we should be thanking ‘ourselves’ first. We need our motivations to carry out our goals.

Thanksgiving Day Is Every Day

Hanging with Mr.CBB at 4 am…

My alarm goes off in a fury, and my wife smacks me in the arm most times because our son is sleeping, and she hates my alarm.

I keep telling her I will buy a new one, but I like this one because there’s no way I will sleep through it.

As I lay in bed listening to the soft rain hit the window, these are the blessings I thought of and are thankful for every day.

I don’t limit my thankful thoughts to 5 every morning, but just as an example, I wanted to share how I fuel my day on a positive note.

5 Things I’m Thankful For Ever Day Not Just Thanksgiving

1. My Family (My wife and Son) , Relatives and Friends
2. Myself for not giving up when the going gets tough in all aspects of my life
3. My career for challenging me to strive to be who I want to be
4. The blog and my amazing fans who are always there for me
5. The roof over our heads, food on the table and the love that surrounds us all.

Thankful For Living In Canada

I believe we are fortunate to live in such a wonderful country here in Canada, and with that, we are given freedom that we should respect and appreciate.

Although I know that I may not be a Canadian citizen, I consider this life in Canada home.

I’m thankful for how my life had turned out because it was all up in the air when I got here, and without so many people pushing for me behind the scenes and my motivation, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

I live through this crazy schedule every day to create a better life for my wife and son.

Thankfully my schedule will eventually tone down in the next year as I hopefully transition to one full-time job.

I’m so thankful for the support from my wife even if I am away at work most days, up late blogging or working out. She’s my rock, and my son is my light.

Discussion: What are some things you are thankful for every day and not just for Thanksgiving Day? Please leave me a comment below on five items you are grateful for every day.

Mr.CBB

CBB Week At A Glance

This week we picked up our cheap $1.50 pumpkins to carve on Halloween Day with our son.

We only buy the small pumpkins because that’s all we need.

Buying monster pumpkins only means more work cutting them up to put them in the compost heap.

However, I did get some pumpkin inspiration from my fans, who shared how I can use the pumpkins since they are not sugar pumpkins.

The sugar pumpkin, also known as the pie pumpkin, is used to make pumpkin puree.

I think next year I will invest our money in a couple of sugar pumpkins.

Two years ago, we went to a pumpkin farm and spent $12.99 for a regular pumpkin.

It was so pricey, but the grounds were beautiful, and they had plenty for the kids to do.

The kids looked like they were having so much fun on the hayrides, viewing the animals and picking out their Halloween pumpkins.

It’s all a ploy to get people through the gates to buy pumpkins and all the desserts they sell on the premises.

Marketing at its finest.

Pumpkin Patch And New Tires

The desserts look divine, and they do have some pretty amazing pumpkins.

If we go this year, I will see how much the sugar pumpkin is to budget a couple in for it next year.

Around the house, I’ve pretty much put most things away for the winter months, so at least that is done.

All I need to do now is change over the winter tires, and we are good to go.

Other than that, I’ve been working pretty much non-stop the past two months.

I also just found out that I get more hours starting in November, but I’ll make the best of it.

How was your week?

Published This Week On CBB

If you’ve missed any of my blog posts this week, I will share them all below.

If you are looking for past Saturday Weekend Review posts, scroll down to the bottom of this post, where I will list up to 5 previous weeks for you to read.

If you have a question that you would like to ask Mr.CBB fill out the Contact Mr.CBB form on the Home Page and send in your questions.

If you want to share a story via a Fan Question only, please ensure that there are a minimum of 500 words and lots of details.

Right now, CBB is posting Tuesday (Grocery Game Challenge), Thursday (Personal Finance Post), Saturday (Personal Finance and Weekly Wrap-Up and a recipe on Sunday!

• How many budget categories should I have? Plus our September Budget Update
• President’s Choice World Elite Credit Card is Helping Us Get Free Groceries
• Homemade Sweet Corn Relish

Budget Brags From The Readers

Submit your Deal or Brag:

We are saving money while grocery shopping, and that’s why we share our grocery shops every week in The Grocery Game Challenge 2015. Note: GGC Is now over.

What I love the most is when my fans share their excellent shops with me, whether groceries or other deals they find at a garage sale, online or freebies!!!

If you have a brag that you want me to share, email me at canadianbudgetbinder@yahoo. (ca) < remove brackets) or fill out my contact form by Friday each week to have your brag considered for the Saturday post.

Today the budget brag belongs to the CBB family because we wanted to share just how easy it is to get free stuff.

Below is another box of free children’s books we picked up for our boy from Kijiji.

We now have well over 100 children’s books, all of which we picked up for free or for about $0.25 each at garage sales.

If you read the back of the books, the retail price will blow your mind, as would any book.

We got for free is my brag and something to consider the next time you plan to buy your kids books.

Check the second-hand shops, garage sales, Kijiji, Facebook auctions, garage sales and frugal, free pages for the best deals and free stuff.

Making A Difference (MAD)

Note: If you are a personal finance blogger (anywhere around the world) and would like your blog to be MAD featured, drop me an email, and I’ll explain the process to you.

This is my way of giving back to the personal finance community through networking and sharing knowledge with my fans.

Hello to all the CBB Readers,

Before I begin, I want to thank Mr. CBB for sharing my story with everyone here at the Canadian Budget Binder.

My name is The DeLeon, and I am from the United States and write a blog on Building Your Net Worth (BYNW).

This is awesome that my first post on another blog is on a Canadian blog as I was born and raised just outside of Toronto and lived there for seven years.

I am a millennial who graduated from university in 2013 with minimal student debt. It was manageable, and I paid it off within my first year.

I never had credit card debt but do use a credit card to my advantage.

However, I spent much of my youth and time in a university using different methods to make money and save money. I invested that money and leveraged debt to my advantage.

This is my method of building my future over BYNW.

Thankful For The Strength To Help Others

My blog developed from the horror stories I would hear from my millennial friends about how they managed their money, debt and their outlooks on finances in general.

I would hear too many says;

• Saving money is pointless
• They don’t need to think about retirement
• The stock market is a scam
• Real estate is a terrible investment
• The government is only out for the big guys
• They will never pay off their student debt

Mostly they wanted to spend their money on experiences and things while they were young.

However, I got tired and had to share my thoughts to counter this trend that seemed to be forming.

I do not believe in overall frugality but focus on living life based on priorities that we each define.

Admittedly, I own nice things but also skimp on other areas. I enjoy shopping at high-end stores, eating out at restaurants, and driving nice cars, but those are the areas I love.

In the other areas of my life, I focus on eliminating excess because it is not helping me live the authentic life I want.

Overall, I believe the #1 priority is to build a career around our lifestyle and not our lifestyle around our jobs.

What This Blog Is About

I use my blog to share my thoughts on;

• The economy
• How to invest money
• How consistency builds wealth
• Thinking big-which we all need to do!

I am thinking beyond millionaire status and thinking much larger to live a fuller life. My goal is to never ‘retire.’

I love working, making money to use towards dream material items, dream experiences, and dream businesses.

I promise to be completely transparent about how I battle my internal debate on when to splurge on items.

It will all be chronicled and for everyone to see.

Thankful For More Than Your Needs

My goal is to show everyone that it is possible to create financial freedom through a multi-purpose system while balancing a healthy lifestyle.

I would love for readers to share their views to help challenge each other.

By doing so, I’m hoping it will lead to a greater understanding and observations of the world and others.

• Inspire everyone to feel better about going after that raise
• Taking risks in investments
• Starting their own full-time business or side-hustle
• Using the financial system to your advantage
• To build a net worth for your future generations. Thanks for having me on M.A.D and come on over and check out my blog!The DeLeon

Top Recipe

Food and grocery shopping is a BIG part of CBB because food is a large part of the budget people struggle with.

If you would instead buy convenience meals or products, consider cooking homemade meals or baking from scratch.

Not only will you save money, but you will be proud of what you accomplished, and you’ll see that from the smiles on those you feed.

If you don’t already know, I have a second Facebook page called The Free Recipe Depot, where I share recipes from other Food Bloggers from around the world.

I also share recipes on the blog once a week on Sundays, either made by my in-house blog cook Nicola Don or myself.

So we’re not just a boring personal finance blog. This is a fun, interactive blog where we talk about everything that happens in our world.

This week our Top Recipe Pick goes to Jus Saying Foodie Website for this amazing Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars recipe. I hope you enjoy it. Boy, does it ever look so good.

Editor’s Pick

Every week I will pick a blog post from around the web that I found interesting and want to share with you and an Editor’s top blog post pick.

Editor’s pick (That’s me, Mr.CBB) goes to Think Save Retire for a post they recently wrote titled “How much is your job costing you?”

My wife and I have discussed this many times because there are pros and cons to staying home and going to work.

It all boils down to how much debt you have, how important time is to you, and whether it is worth it to go to work? Going to work costs money, and this post doesn’t skip a beat.

Saturday Giggles

Every week I get thousands of people to visit Canadian Budget Binder because they searched online and found my blog.

Keep in mind any spelling errors below are because I shared with you the exact way they typed their search engine query to land on my blog.

• What do people need to budget groceries in Edmonton – Money is a good start.
• Meet rich people who I can borrow from today – Best of luck to you
• How to make fast money as a teenager – Great topic idea so I’ll write about this soon!
• Husband won’t talk about money – Did he not talk about money while you were dating?
• I have a rock garden full of weeds– Time to get weeding and read this post about rock gardens.

That’s all for this week, friends but be back here next Saturday to enjoy the next edition in the Saturday Weekend Review Series.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my daily blog post by entering your email address on the home page and verifying the subscription email.

-Mr.CBB

Related Articles From CBB

• Could you survive a recession in Canada?
• The Saturday Weekend Review #138: Is a housewarming party another Money Grab for free stuff?
• There’s a cheaper way to save when buying used stuff
• The Saturday Weekend Review #140: How Distraction Theft Will Make You Their Next Win
• Could your budget handle a 6 hour workday?

Share to...