One Step At A Time

This week, we do not have class due to the 4th of July. All this week will allow us to continue to put into effect some of the things we learned. Our budget is still on track, we have had to make some adjustments but not from under budgeting. There were a couple of categories where we budgeted too much money, so we re-allocated those funds. The thought behind the re-allocation is to not have money floating around, but to spend every dollar. I even got an extra $8 dollars in my paycheck that helped us with some of the 4th of July expenses. The nervousness I was feeling after we did the budget has helped us stay on track. We try to make sure every dollar is well spent and it feels good. The next time we get paid is 07/10/09 and we are pretty sure our money will last that long. I was really nervous about the grocery envelope, it is getting kind of low, but I just looked in the kitchen and we have enough food to last until payday. However, we still may need to get some bread, milk...

Last Sunday was our 3rd class in Financial Peace University, and we talked about the the dreaded B-word, Budget. Since I read Total Money Makeover months ago, we have been doing the budget and have posted several times about it. Therefore, I am not going to go over every detail of this past Sunday's class, but will discuss some of the issues I have with budgeting so far. I believe if I keep honestly critiquing us and our money management, it will help us in the long run to win with money. Having a lot of money is not the desired result of this process, the results we are looking for are Financial Peace, retire with dignity, and pursue some of our dreams later in life. Below are just some of the things and habits that gets in our way of achieving our goals. One of the things that I do that absolutely does not work is create the budget and never look at it again. I work hard to make a zero based budget and making sure every dollar has a name, but never pull out the game plan to m...

I wrote yesterday about how we have been messing up and we need to get back on track. We finally went grocery shopping and I think we did a good job. We budgeted 150.00 for the trip and only spent 133.00. Not too bad. Like I said yesterday, we will work hard to get back on track.

Spending is a Hard Habit to Quit!!! Felicia just asked me what we were going to eat for lunch, and I am trying to think about what I can go out and buy, because I just did the dishes and they are not even dry yet. I don't want to dirty them again. But a voice told me to cook the pizza we had in the freezer, I yelled out to her I can make pizza and she said she could make the salad. We sat down next to each other and I told her what my first thought was for lunch, but for some reason this lunch tasted really good. I think because it was a tasty, healthy, and guilt free lunch. I think we count this as a small victory, we did not buy lunch and we ate food that was in the house already paid for. I don't know how many times before, we would buy groceries and then throw most of it out. Spending is a Hard Habit to Quit!!!

Just went shopping again using the envelope system, this time there was money left over. A couple of weeks ago, we had to get 47 cents from Felicia's purse to cover the bill and did not get enough milk for the week. What a difference this time because I got everything I needed and still had $4.97 left. That is a little over $5.00 difference. This time I went to 3 stores to get the best prices. First was El Rio Grande Supermercado,$49.17, second was Tom Thumb, $10.49, and he last was Minyard Food Stores, $35.37. I am really excited because the total was under budget, $100.00 and I haven't even learned how to incorporate coupons into shopping yet. I have to admit I felt a little weird because while shopping I wrote down the price of everything on the list and walked around using my calculator. Everyone else seemed to know what they wanted and threw it in the cart. I saw kids waiting until their parents turned their backs to throw what they wanted in the cart too. If bein...