After nearly 5 years of marital bliss, my accountant husband has been able to create in me a love for budgeting. I'm not even joking, I love our budget and what it does for us. I admit I fought it tooth and nail at first. For one, I thought it was boring. I hated sitting down and accounting for all that I spent. Most of all, I didn't like the guilt of seeing how much money I spent on dumb little things that I didn't need. It really added up. Andy was persistent. It is in his nature. He wondered how I survived 24 years of life without knowing where my money was going.
Here's what worked:
1. Buying a money management program. Excel is not my friend.
2. Looking at the budget periodically throughout the month. It is a bummer looking at it only at the end of the month just to find out that you overspent on everything. We check ours every Sunday.
3. Give each person some blow money that they can spend on stupid stuff. Now I don't feel dumb buying more nail polish, glitter glue and yarn.
4. Don't cheat. When I overspent in one category, I would want to "steal" money from a different one. Andy would never let me. You have got to be honest. When you rework your budget, you can see what is and isn't working.
The reason why I now love the budget is because it has empowered me. I actually have more money because I am aware of where I am spending it. I don't buy things on a whim, rather, I recognize my priorities and make my purchases wisely. And I don't buy crappy things any more, I buy fewer things, but of better quality.
I felt prompted to write this because of my new purchase yesterday. New dishes!! I love, love, love them and they make me happy. I got my old ones my first year of college. They aren't necessarily ugly, but the green and purple flowers are outdated. I couldn't find any linens that would go with them. So this time I stuck with classic white. Love them!
Thanks to the gift cards I get from my Citibank rewards (I use my credit card for everything humanly possible, but never-ever carry a balance) I got 12 place settings for $24.
5 comments:
Angie, this is Megan (Olsen), I hope you don't mind me checking out your blog and leaving a comment. This was a great post. I have been trying really hard to figure out a way to start a budget. I try to say each month we have this much for groceries, this much for fun, and so on but we always end up spending more. Maybe if I keep track of our spending and see what and how much is going where, like you, it will be less tempting to spend.
Thanks again!
And Maren is sooo cute! I love her curly hair!
What a great post Angie. One of these days I am coming over and you are going to show me exactly how you do it. We have been trying but nothing has really worked well. And Maren looks adorable in that hat. You will have to teach me that too.
Bramwellica! Hi cutie. so I thought I would let you know I'm stalking your blog now...i was inspired by all the random people stopping by to see mine-it made me happy. Bilo je predugo sto nismo se culi! Volim te.
Emily Cannon
Go Angie! Very inspirational post! What software program do you use?
What program do you use?! I NEED ONE!
Post a Comment