Creating A Budget {and sticking to it!}

Budget

Ick. Isn't it such an icky word? Scary, even.

I totally associate being on a budget with nearly every negative word imaginable

{restricted, unsatisfied, jealous, grumpy, bored}

you get the point, it's not fun.

I guess I've always thought of being on a budget as not getting what you want

and I like to get what I want {who doesn't?}

{when I want it, might I add}

Well, I'm determined to change my thinking!

{even though my mom has been trying to get me to change my thinking for years}

Thanks mom, I heard you

I just have to figure stuff out the hard way :)

It's not that I have no idea where our money goes,

it's just that I don't spend it as carefully {ok, nearly as carefully} as I should.

if I see something I like, and it's any reasonable price, I buy it.

So at the end of the month I have stuff - 95% of which I'm SURE I could live without

and a very minimal amount left to save

Boo!

But I don't want to live like that anymore.

I want to simplify

I want to find contentment

I want to feel grateful, and appreciative of all that I've been blessed with

I don't want to be a slave to my paycheck

I want to choose where my money goes and why

I want to decide how much I save and how much I spend

I want to be in control of what I need and what I want

{mind you, I'm typing this after I just, literally, just made a totally unnecessary etsy purchase}

I don't think it's going to be easy,

in fact, I know it's going to be ridiculously hard

I'm sure I {well, we...this is a family thing} will fail,

but I'm also sure that we'll pick right back up where we left off

 and start again.

I was reading a blog post by Gussy

{have you checked out her blog?}

and came across this post

check it out for her advice on following a family budget

and how she and her hubby saved enough money for her to quit her day job!

We're going to take the next week or two to set up our budget

and from there, it's crunch time

I'm talking {excuse my french}

balls to the wall, start saving for real

I do, however, want to be realistic

we'd be setting ourselves up for failure if we said that

every penny

 that doesn't go to a bill will be saved

We'll have to do the math and figure out what our

"fun money"

{see, even talking about spending money is more fun!}

budget will be for each  month

I think allowing ourselves to have some sort of disposable income will help keep us on track

Anyway, I suppose all of this is to make a commitment to become a

smarter spender and a better saver!

Please feel free to jump on board!

I'd love to hear your savings tips, money saving ideas,

and to have other people make a saving commitment too!

Happy saving!

Oh, and it wouldn't be a post if I didn't include some pictures of my sweet boy

{We spent lots of time coloring yesterday}



Happy day after President's Day!