Wednesday, April 15, 2015

budgeting and being a responsible adult

Yeah... it's still sunshine and rainbows over here.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled internet time for a PSA about being fiscally responsible.

You see, the husband and I sat down and took a long, hard look at our finances this past weekend and the results were sobering. We took some heavy financial hits last month between paying taxes (least favorite adult milestone ever) and coming out of pocket for our fertility testing. In fact, those things are what prompted the review in the first place.

I'm not ready to call them blessings yet (even ones in disguise), but they were the heads up we needed to realize we were about to jump off a financial cliff.

We went through our bank statement line-by-line to determine where our money was being spent and realized we spent an OBSCENE amount of money on food. The only category that surpassed our spending on food was the giant portion dedicated to paying on our debts. By the time we finished we were well into the red.

I was also seeing red.

I got so mad at myself for being so careless when it came to sticking to a budget. I was mad for overspending and for being wasteful when I was not raised to be that way. I'm a smart woman. I should be able to follow a budget.

So.... I have had a fire lit under my bum to be more frugal and more mindful of how we use our resources. Not just money either. Money is obviously a big one, but time is another resource I feel might not be spent as wisely as possible. I was raised by some truly amazing people, men and women alike, who knew a thing or two about being frugal and making the most off a limited amount of resources. There is very little I can't DIY.

That being said, I am putting my money where my mouth is and changing up the way we do things around here. "Here" as in my home and life as well as "here" meaning this blog. I'm going to be taking steps to reduce our spending, increase our resourcefulness, and aggressively chip away at this big debt monster we have created. Throughout the process I hope to share successes (and less-than-successful efforts) here on the blog. After all, who doesn't like saving money?

If you've got tips on being a responsible adult, please share. If you suck at adulting like me, then feel free to commiserate. No judgement here.

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