Our finances feel very strange at the moment. We’re 4 days from payday, and we’re not trying to stretch every dollar trying to make it until the next infusion of income – which was the standard method of operation for so many years. We have our budgeted amounts for groceries, gas, and allowance for the kids plus our own weekend entertainment fund. Did I mention we have a baby emergency fund too? That’s the power of sitting down and having twice a week budget discussions with Vonnie, making a detailed spending plan, and most importantly actually sticking to it.
I just checked our bank account balances to make sure I wasn’t dreaming – the amounts add up, it’s all there. Un – freaking – believable.
On to my favorite posts of the week……
Posts That Make Me Fist Pump
- It’s a Good Sign: Stuff I Own Is Falling Apart from American Debt Project
- Digging Out of Debt? Treat Yo Self from The Empowered Dollar
- Get Out of Debt Guy Gets a Collection Notice from The Get Out of Debt Guy
- The Fine Line Between Frugality and Living Life from Plunged In Debt
- My Son Eats Deadly Weapons for Dinner from So Over This
- Having a Budget vs. Being on a Budget from A Straight Talk On Debt
Shameless Self Promotion
- Gym Habits are Like Life Habits is my post this week in the CareOne Community
- Why Entertainment Is an Essential Part Of Your Budget is my latest staff post at My Personal Finance Journey
Kick Ass Giveaways:
- The Most Frugal, Versatile Pantry Item Missing From Your Life: Coconut Oil Giveaway from The Empowered Dollar
- Cobra Cane w/ Hidden Blade: Your Supervillain Starter Kit from Take Our Stuff
Thank you kind Sir for the inclusion! So happy you guys are in a good spot with your finances. We’re sort of realizing that ours needs a bit of a revision. We’re not giving ourself enough money so need to change it up a bit. I’m living in a dreamworld when gas was less than ($1/L or about $3.78 for you Americans) when in reality we have to pay about $1.30+/L of gas $4.92/US gallon) and food prices keep going up. I’ll be back to work soon so that will help a lot. Have a great (budgeted) weekend!
You are SO welcome, Catherine! We recently learned that same lesson as well, my friend. We kept short changing areas of our budget to make everything “fit.” But then we’d end up overspending in those areas (groceries was a BIG one -oh, those secondary grocery shopping trips!) and had trouble staying on budget. In order to be successful with your budget, you have to be real and honest about how much things cost, and how much you spend on them! Hope you’ll give an update every now and then on how the budgeting is going!
Oh, I was going to ask too…..do you have some leads on the job front? What kind of work do you do?
Great links! Have a great weekend.
Thanks Mike….What was your favorite link?