A Month and a Half into the "B" Word

So, Rob and I are a month and a half into our BUDGET,
the dread B word.

To be honest,
it has been one hundred times better and easier
than I imagined it would be.

First of all
it was horrifying,
once I sat down and looked at all the facts and figures,
how much money we were just frittering away.
LOADS OF MONEY.

Our biggest culprits were convenience-
too much eating out, picking up quick meals or lattes-
or just buying STUFF.
Big stuff, like a Mac for the living room for the kids for Christmas,
and little stuff, like a book here, a cd there, that kind of thing.

Money just kind of disappeared into that black hole
of unaccountability.
That "where did all that money GO???" feeling when,
at the end of the day,
you wrack your brain and realize you just Have. No. Clue.

Some of it was money well spent:
like a family trip to DisneyWorld (and we did get free food, at least!)
or home improvements,
or my LASIK surgery, which I am so glad to have had.

But still.
It would have been helpful to have saved up or budgeted for these things FIRST, perhaps.

So, I can't undo what I have already done, but I can make changes
and that is where my friend THE BUDGET comes in.

So how has it gone?
Well, let me give you an idea:
over the past month and a half,
we have spent about 1/4 to 1/3 less than we usually do.
Maybe more.

The only time a credit card was used was on the trip to New Orleans,
for travel expenses covered by Rob's job.
Otherwise, it was paid in cash and covered under our budget.

Today I went out to lunch with some of my mom friends.
It was covered in my budget- my blow money category-
and I just made sure I didn't eat out in the few days leading up to it
so I could save that money up.

I am three days from re-filling my cash envelopes
for groceries, miscellaneous (Target/Costco, general household and non food item purchases) and blow money
and right now I still have one hundred dollars unspent from the first half of the month.

I am so proud. :-)

Later on in the week,
I will share with you some things I have done, changes I have made so far
in reducing our costs.