TOPIC:
"How do you manage money? Do you have a budget? Do you do this as a family or is one person responsible for the budgeting? If needed, how could you improve your budgeting skills?"
First of all, let me say that I chose this topic and it's really forced me to look at things...how much money we make, how much we REALLY spend, where we could improve, etc. In fact, that's part of what I've been doing the past 2 days...hence why my blog post is a day late.
Right now as it stands, we employ the Dave Ramsey method for budgeting. (If you don't know who he is and you need help with debt and money management, GO IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY and check out his book The Total Money Makeover. It will change the way you look at money forever. I suppose you could BUY the book too, but that doesn't really help your budget, now does it?) Do we run a tight ship? Well...it depends. Right now we do not. And that could change. Actually, that MUST change.
While I love a good routine and like that I have a steady job that keeps me busy the same days every week and allows me to have weekends off, things tend to get boring and stagnant with a routine. I get up everyday at the same time, cook the same 7 or 8 meals on a rotating schedule, do the same activities, etc. It gets...boring. And while that appears at first glance to have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with money, I'm about to connect the two. In a strange way, but they'll be connected.
When it comes to money, I tend to be pretty "fly by the seat of my pants." Don't get me wrong here...the bills get paid. The college fund gets...well, funded. The savings account gets it's share.
Or does it? It gets A share. But probably not the share it deserves.
It gets what I BUDGET it to get. And that is up to me. So why aren't I throwing ALL THE MONEY I CAN INTO THAT SAVINGS? I mean, we only want to move into a bigger house, buy a better car and go on some vacations. And all those things take money.
But it isn't **fun** to save money. It's **fun** to go out to dinner. It's **fun** to buy Goodwill furniture and refinish and repurpose it. It's **fun** to build a garden. And it's **fun** to buy my kid new things.
There, I admitted it. I hope you're all happy.
If I had to make a list of monetary priorities RIGHTNOWTHISMINUTE, saving money would probably be somewhere near the bottom. And that, my friends, is NOT cool.
After 6 months of Dave's methods, you start to get a feel for how things need to go even if you don't stick to it every day of every week. For example, I know that I am only allowed to eat lunch during the weekdays at a restaurant ONE day. And I know that I'm only allowed to eat at a restaurant on the weekends ONE time. I know that if there isn't cash in the envelope, then you wait until next week. I know that if I want to buy beer at the grocery, I have to wait until the end of the trip to see if there is money left.
And most of all, I know the value of EVERY penny we earn. I know. And yet it's still very difficult to control the impulse to do **fun** things.
And even though I KNOW all of those things, since I've strayed so far away from the envelopes and the monthly/weekly budget forms, I've just simply put it out of my mind. Not cool. Soooo not cool.
So...I suppose I'll have to change my definition of **fun.**
Jayna is just as happy with going to a park as she is to Chuck E. Cheese. She'd be even more happy with visiting friends and playing at their houses or having them come to our house. And I've come to learn that those pesky "last 5 pounds" come off quicker if I forego restaurants all together. Those are both things that are feasible, logical and easy to understand in my brain.
I am the money manager at our house. I am a firm believer in Dave Ramsey's methods and I suggest him to someone atleast once a month. It is a practical budgeting system that will allow you to see a change in your debt:income ratio in a matter of just one year. One year IS NOT A LONG TIME. Wasn't it just January last month?? See, time flies...and this year is almost already half over.
Chris is involved in our budgeting also. He helps me control my urge to spend. Most of what we spend money on is projects. Furniture, garden, swingset, home improvements. It seems that when I do a project that I can justify it to myself because I'm going to get something as an end result. I've gotta stop thinking like that. Chris has put a firm hold on projects until we pay off some things. And he'll force me to stick to it. He's a mean, mean man, folks!! I mean, just look at him!!
If that isn't the face of meanness, I don't know what is!!!
(This is actually my ploy to get a picture in here that I LOVE.)
He's right, though. He is absolutely right. That kid up there in that cutest little skirt with that cutest straight hair wants to go to Disney World before she starts school next year. And we have GOT to make that happen.
How could I improve my budgeting skills? I COULD GET A GIANT FAT RAISE!!!
But seriously...I just need to spend less on needless things and put as much money as I can find into savings. It's just that simple.
How do YOU manage money? Do you have a budget or do you just pay the bills and save some and spend the rest?
1 comment:
Thanks for the Dave Ramsey recommendation . . . I had heard good things about his stuff before, I'll have to check it out.
And that is a GREAT picture. It's good to have a good husband, isn't it? Say hi to Chris for me :).
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