Valentine's day: Just another day.

When you're on a budget, trying to save money & pay off debt, spending money on chocolates I don't need, a stuffed animal I will stuff in the closet or roses that will die, is just not necessary!!! I warned my husband.... DO NOT get me anything for Valentines day. I don't need any unwanted calories. I don't need a card unless there's lots of money inside (and we know that can't happen). I would rather save our money!!! I asked him, "don't you love me everyday?" His reply, of course I do. Okay well that's all I need. I don't need you to declare your love for me on a certain commercialized day by spending money we don't have!

Valentines day is just another day....

Pushing through...one dollar at a time.

Before getting on a "budget"/ if I can even call it that YET... We would spend freely, buy pretty much what we wanted, when we wanted...THEN paid the bills. Somehow it always worked out. Yes, sometimes something was a little late but never more than 30 days to effect the credit. Things fell into place, I guess u could say. I don't know how, but they did.

Now... It seems like the more I watch every penny being spent, the less money we have. The more I try to save, the more I realize how much money we don't have. I wonder what changed. Why are we feeling so broke all of a sudden? What if I hadn't started keeping tabs & cutting back when I did? This is just a prime example that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, God doesn't put more on us than we can handle, everything happens for a reason, & it only gets worse before it gets better.

I know with perseverance, determination, & that "Gazelle" approach to our $23K in debt, we will be in a better financial state . It just takes time! It takes commitment. It takes thinking outside the box, generating extra income, doing without the wants & only supplying the needs.
...living like no one else, so later we can LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!!

Tomorrow I have an interview for a second job. It's contract work, working 5 months out of the year, in one month intervals, weekends Sat & Sun, first shift. It will be tough working 7 days a week for a whole month! That's approximately 30 days straight with no day off. I'm going to be tired, but I will make an extra $500 for the month to throw at my smallest debt. It will be worth it in the end!!!!

The numbers are in!

January has come & gone & what I'm left with is a pile of receipts and what appears to be a deficit in my budget. Are we spending more than we make? How can that be???
After a second look at the numbers, I see that in December we had money left over that carried us into January, so that is why it doesn't seem to balance. This is also why they say creating a budget takes at least 3 months. Dave Ramsey, you are right again!

Weird.

I had a friend send me a text message yesterday asking if I was busy this Friday or Sunday, did my hubby & I want to get together with her & her bf to go out to dinner. My reply was, sure I'd like to get together but we can't go out to eat, as we are on a budget. I got NO RESPONSE! Did I piss her off? Now that's weird!!

"Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else." -Dave Ramsey