I know that you've heard me say that we've tweaked our budget at least 5 times. I say we've done 6 budgets, Hotsauce says only 5 for the month of September. So in the spirit of compromising we will say that I am totally right we've done 5.5 budgets this month.
Why so many?
Because we've never, ever, ever, ever done this before. Surewe've Hotsauce has sat done and wrote out all the bills that we owe on. Ugh! Is that ever daunting?! Then we have the "talk". The we're never going to drink another Mt. Dew or go out to eat or even breathe until all this debt is paid off. Any bets on how long the "no-more-Mt.-Dew" budget lasted? Any bets on how long it took me to stop crying?
Those talks were always stressful. Hotsauce starts off frustrated because he sees this pile of despair and knows that as the man of the house he needs to be the provider. He has worn a coat of inadequacy and failure for far too long and he has no idea where to go for help. On the other hand, where he knows exactly how bad it is, and that it's only get worse. On the other hand, I am forced to pull my head out of the sand. My natural tendency once my head is out of the sand is to be a cheerleader... to try and rip that horrible awful coat off of Hotsauce. But, I still have no desire to work on making things right. My head is only out of the sand because I'm pretending to be an adult for a few minutes.
Before I continue, let's get this straight:
My husband is not inadequate. My husband is not a failure. He works hard and as a matter-of-fact he works harder than most men I know. I will not have him or anyone else say any different. If you have the *a-hems* to say that he is any of these things you will have a battle like nobodies business in the form of a scrappy little fireball, known as me!
That being said we found ourselves enslaved to our debt. As Proverbs 22:7 so aptly points out,
"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender". Were we ever in chains to our lender! We had no training, no plan and no hope to ever find ourselves walking in freedom. That's where "The Total Money Makeover" has made such a huge difference in our lives. It gave us a plan. It opened our eyes to our immediate need to tell our money where to go instead of wondering where it all went!
I have made a promise that I will no longer follow my Ostrich Approach to money. Hotsauce has promised to make me a part of the conversation instead of giving a semi-annual state of the union address. We are a team. We will act like it. We will sit down and discuss where are money is going and agree on the plan together. Furthermore, we will stick to the budget. We will stick to the budget. We will stick to the budget!
And in the short time that we've stuck to the budget we've found money we never knew that we had! For the first time in our married life we will pay the total $699 of our property taxes in the month it's due, no late charges here, not this time! Who knew that we had that kind of money? In this first month we will also be caught up on all of our bills and won't have to decide if we're going to pay for gas in our Suburban or gas to heat our house. How exciting is that? Did I also mention that we've given ourselves an allowance too? So for the first time in I don't know how long, I can buy what I want to buy without feeling guilty (as long as it doesn't exceed my "blow fund"). Because I know my bills are getting paid and these Fiscal Misfits are on their way to freedom!
How many of you have a working budget that you follow? If you're married do you and your spouse agree to it? If you've never used a budget or have gotten off track are you willing to commit to getting back in the saddle?
Why so many?
Because we've never, ever, ever, ever done this before. Sure
Those talks were always stressful. Hotsauce starts off frustrated because he sees this pile of despair and knows that as the man of the house he needs to be the provider. He has worn a coat of inadequacy and failure for far too long and he has no idea where to go for help. On the other hand, where he knows exactly how bad it is, and that it's only get worse. On the other hand, I am forced to pull my head out of the sand. My natural tendency once my head is out of the sand is to be a cheerleader... to try and rip that horrible awful coat off of Hotsauce. But, I still have no desire to work on making things right. My head is only out of the sand because I'm pretending to be an adult for a few minutes.
Before I continue, let's get this straight:
My husband is not inadequate. My husband is not a failure. He works hard and as a matter-of-fact he works harder than most men I know. I will not have him or anyone else say any different. If you have the *a-hems* to say that he is any of these things you will have a battle like nobodies business in the form of a scrappy little fireball, known as me!
That being said we found ourselves enslaved to our debt. As Proverbs 22:7 so aptly points out,
"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender". Were we ever in chains to our lender! We had no training, no plan and no hope to ever find ourselves walking in freedom. That's where "The Total Money Makeover" has made such a huge difference in our lives. It gave us a plan. It opened our eyes to our immediate need to tell our money where to go instead of wondering where it all went!
I have made a promise that I will no longer follow my Ostrich Approach to money. Hotsauce has promised to make me a part of the conversation instead of giving a semi-annual state of the union address. We are a team. We will act like it. We will sit down and discuss where are money is going and agree on the plan together. Furthermore, we will stick to the budget. We will stick to the budget. We will stick to the budget!And in the short time that we've stuck to the budget we've found money we never knew that we had! For the first time in our married life we will pay the total $699 of our property taxes in the month it's due, no late charges here, not this time! Who knew that we had that kind of money? In this first month we will also be caught up on all of our bills and won't have to decide if we're going to pay for gas in our Suburban or gas to heat our house. How exciting is that? Did I also mention that we've given ourselves an allowance too? So for the first time in I don't know how long, I can buy what I want to buy without feeling guilty (as long as it doesn't exceed my "blow fund"). Because I know my bills are getting paid and these Fiscal Misfits are on their way to freedom!
How many of you have a working budget that you follow? If you're married do you and your spouse agree to it? If you've never used a budget or have gotten off track are you willing to commit to getting back in the saddle?
Great job...hope you stick with it. Keep us all informed!
ReplyDeleteThank you! The comment I hear over and over from people who have done the Total Money Makeover is that they need to get back to their budget! I hope that with God's help that we will make it a lifestyle change.
ReplyDelete