A VERY Different Date Night

I will preface this entry by saving that my husband and I have been on a “budget” for 12 years. We have had to manage a little and now we manage more. Looking back, we much more successful with our money when we made less. Our savings was abundant, our purchases less, we kept things simple.

The more that we have made, the more we are finding ourselves spending! YIKES! I’ve heard this adage my whole life and yet I still fell for it!

Our Life Group made the decision to begin Dave Ramsey’s Financial Freedom series a month ago. We have listened to two of the sessions so far. WOW! For being a self~proclaimed “frugal gal” I know VERY little about money! I just know that I enjoy it and I enjoy spending it! I do have to give myself props though because our spending could be MUCH worse if I weren’t frugal. (http://www.daveramsey.com/)

Yesterday, my Mr. and myself had a VERY different kind of date! We went to Starbucks to plan our September budget! (Something we will be doing now on a monthly basis. Budgets are not just a set it and forget it thing.)I will be honest, I was afraid! Ignorance really is bliss! We used the budget planning tools on Dave Ramsey’s site. I thought it was going to be a d-r-a-w-n out complicated experience. Here’s the deal...numbers are black and white! When the money is gone, you are done! It was quick and pretty pain free. The pain I had came from looking at all of my debit card action on NON~budgeted items. OUCH!

I honestly, in my state of ignorance, believed that we had “fun money” aside from my spending money. I though that I could be a bit frivolous or spend here and there to non budgeted items. I can, but it does com at a cost, debt! OOPS!

It was my job to enter the amounts of money that we spend on certain categories: Health insurance, car payments, mortgages,etc. I had become DISCONNECTED from our budget! I didn’t know that I didn’t know!

Here’s your challenge and mine: Study your budget! Know it! Stick to it! Succeed! Know where you can save on the things you need so you can spend on the things you WANT!

Final food for though: It isn’t a good deal if you don’t have $$$ for it to begin with!

Stay tuned as I give it my best to live within my means and make friends with my new budget.