Being Money Smart

Since times are tough in the economy we thought it would be wise to evaluate our budget and see where our money was going. My husband has a wonderful job, but it doesn't hurt to stay money smart to avoid the many problems we see in the country around us, ie. living beyond one's means. So we sat down and looked over things.

This is where I share that I am a dork. The kind of person who gets excited to buy new school supplies. I loved the beginning of the school year or semester because it meant new pens, pencils, and notebooks. (Party animal!) There was just something so fun about being prepared. Well, I felt that same excitement about going over our budget. I am our budget person. I am always crunching numbers because I like to know everything down to the last penny. I live for good deals. There are certain things I will not pay full price for. I just can't do it! So budgeting is in my blood.

But I digress. We discovered that there were a few things we really didn't use much. Like the newspaper. We both rarely have time to read it. The funnies are great reading material for the bathroom and I love getting all the fliers in the Sunday paper, but was it all worth $10 a month or $120 a year? Not really. So we cut it out. Sweet! It was nice to do some "housecleaning" and get rid of a few money wasting expenses.

And we also started a fun new budget system for our groceries, toiletries, and entertainment money. It's the cash system and it's wonderful. Instead of using our credit and debit cards, which can leave room for "splurging", we take out the cash amount allotted for those areas of our budget. It goes into an envelope and we take out what we need when we go shopping or out to eat. The idea is that once the money is gone, it's gone. So we have to be good with our purchases and make sure we don't go crazy at the store. (Well, I still often go momentarily insane shopping with little kids, but that's a different kind of crazy.) It also motivates us to split up over the month when we go out to eat so we still can have fun near the end of the month. I love it! It's so much fun. When I went grocery shopping at the end of the month, I was proud to report that I had $4 left when I finished! Not bad for a month's worth of shopping for food and toiletries for 6 people. It's a fun new "game" to see how low we can go. We still treat ourselves to some fun stuff, but are more conscience of what we buy. "Do I really need that or not?" It's great! And it's calming to know that we are being smarter with our money.

Even though I am a dork about my budgeting, it pays off. Everyone should pay attention to where their money goes. I don't care how wealthy you are, you still need to be money smart. Maybe you'll even be crazy like me and have fun doing it! Wouldn't that be a great new craze to start?