Kinley is on the floor playing with a fun size Reese's and Snickers which allows me the ten minutes I need to empty my mind. Yes, just ten minutes. So, do I type fast or have a small mind? Haha
You just don't even know in how many directions my mind has been pulled this morning. I start thinking of my blogs as I go to sleep at night. I mentally write it out long before I sit down to the computer. Last night, I think I wrote three or four as I drifted off to sleep.
Richie starts his new job today. It's actually the same kind of job, just different company. I'm really nervous for him. You'd think that I was starting my new job. I am pretty sure that he'll love it. But until I know for sure, I'll be nervous. This position is going to allow him to really grow in the company. Being a tree climber, we know that one day his body won't be able to keep up with the manual labor required so finding a position that will allow him to one day move into management and sit behind a desk (at least some of the day) is extremely important. It's just unrealistic to think that he can climb trees forever, even though he would be thrilled to do just that. So the pay increase and better position was a no-brainer for us. He had to take the job. Turns out that the company he just left, laid off several people last Friday. Just dodged that bullet! They told us he would never be laid off.....but how much can you really trust 'em, you know?
Finances are consuming my every thought these days. We're doing just fine. And I mean that. I know that finances are one of those taboo topics that no one wants to talk about. People just say "oh yeah, we're doing great" when they really aren't....but just because somewhere down the line it became *not* okay to admit that you're struggling. I've been there. I know. Remember butthead, the ex-husband. Yeah. Him. Annnyway. I'm more worried about throwing in the costs of childcare come January. It's an expense we've never had before. We're going to be adding on several expenses that we've not had to deal with in a long time.
Childcare, gas for both vehicles every week, my professional wardrobe, eating out more (I won't be as available to cook dinner every single night) and the cost of school (books, supplies, etc). I'm sure we'll make it all work, we always do. But it's a change and I stress over change. And then come August when I student teach, the costs go up even more. I'll be full time in class, so that means full time child care, more clothes for school, less time to cook..... ugh. I'm totally pulling tomorrow's clouds over today's sunshine.
I saw this "article" (are they called articles when they are online? I'm drawing a blank this morning...I'm sure there is a better word, but we're going with article for old-school's sake) on Yahoo this weekend and it got my wheels rollin'. For me, saving money/cutting the budget is just the same as exercise. I claim to start working on it or starting a new plan...but it never happens. It's like good for a day and then I let it go. Yeah, remember the P90X? It's still on the TV table, behind the TV, out of Kinley's reach. Cause God forbid she gets a hold of it and RUINS it! It's never even touched the DVD player. Yet my baby gut (okay, I can't blame the baby anymore. She's almost a year old. It's not a baby gut. It's my "I eat too much crap" gut) just keeps on getting bigger and I keep on complaining about it. Makes all sorts of sense, right?
Well, it's just the same as my budget. It's totally not a budget. It's the furthest from a budget. I can't even sleep at night by calling it a budget. I mean, I found the "article" and felt all motivated about it and ready to start a "new leaf" (why is it a new leaf when we obviously aren't trees) with our spending and thennnnnnnn......I ordered Kinley a new pair of Nike Shox. Seriously? The child got two. TWO. pairs of shoes this weekend. Adidas (from Nonie, in my defense) and now Shox. She doesn't even walk yet! Grrrr. I have a problem.
How many weeks of child care would those Shox pay for? Let's not discuss it.
My self discipline sucks. bad. I know. I KNOW. But at least I'm aware of the problem, right? I'm going to try to do better. I've bookmarked the article (and now it's forever linked to this blog, or, until Yahoo yanks it, anyway) so when I need some motivation, I'll reread it. I mean, it doesn't get better on its own. Just like my
So how do you budget? How did create yours? I like the idea of tracking expenses for a month or so and then creating one from that. This is probably the worst time of year to begin a budget, right? But it's got to start somewhere, I guess.
ADD at it's finest:
Other things floating in my mind:
We are
I finished my Shakespeare online midterm and did such a crappy job. I just wanted to call it done. I am kicking myself now.
Seeing my student loan total grow with this next semester's award letter, makes me even more motivated to make another deposit into Kinley's account.
I think that my daughter's nose is going to run for the rest of her life. Seriously. A week of this cold is insane. I'm so over it.
I bought the new Nicholas Sparks book about two weeks ago, and still haven't found the time to start it. I was seriously thinking that I would read a little of it each night before drifting off to sleep. Yeah, right.
Now that Halloween is over...the weather is turning colder and I can't wait for our first snow fall. Winter in Chicago is cold, and some days it sucks...but I've never in my life seen Christmas more beautiful. I can't wait to play my Christmas music and rock my baby by the tree at night. It's my most favorite time of year.
And if you haven't yet, VOTE FOR KINLEY today!
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2 comments:
It's been less than a year since I changed the way I look at money. It's hard to change. It really is a pain to sit down and decide what bills get paid on what day and how much money we're going to have left and what to do with that money. It's a pain to make menus and grocery lists and try to spend as little as possible.
Once you get used to it, though, it becomes second nature. I used to struggle with the bills, with menus and with not spending money. It's all pretty easy now.
At first, I turned the spending into a game. It was fun to go somewhere and see how much I could get without spending much. Now, I'm afraid I've become a cheapskate. Over the summer, I had the crazy idea to get rid of one of our cars. I don't think I was serious about it, but here we are in our third month of being a single car family.
It's not easy, but I can appreciate money and the thought of just having some sit in the bank so much more than I could a year ago.
@Brandi-- Kudos to you guys for doing it with one car! That is the ultimate sacrifice! :) We're so fortunate that we paid off both cars before Kinley was born. If we hadn't,we'd be in a mess right now! You are so thrifty and seem so good at being wholesome...you don't seem like a cheapskate at all!
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