The Budget

I'm proud to say that after 14 years of marriage John and I started and have been living on an actual budget.  I just felt this needed mentioning because I think it's a pretty big deal!  And we didn't even have to go to a Dave Ramsey seminar or read one of his books to get us there.

I'm sure we are decades behind most other fiscally responsible couples.  We were just slow to the game.  For our first years of marriage, and while living on student loans, our budget was simply...Don't spend any money.  While our spending habits have evolved as we have been out of school for 8 years now, we never really formed a budget.  We tracked our spending and saved money when we could but that was about it.  But we never set a limit for what we were able to spend at the beginning of the month before we actually spent it.  Super smart, I know.

Now here we are only 5 months into our budget and I have to admit I am loving it!  We sat down and tracked our expected monthly and yearly expenditures.  Food, gas, utilities, etc. for the monthly, and birthdays, holidays, kids activities, car registration etc. for the yearly.  What was most shocking to me was realizing what we really needed to save for our yearly expenses.  What our list really did was put everything in perspective.  Doing bills used to be quite stressful.  It is so much easier and more organized now.  Why did we not do this sooner!  So there you have it, I am now a fan of budgets.  And I want the world to know it.  Actually I want my kids to know it.  Hopefully they learn this life lesson much earlier in life than their parents did.