Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The opposite of cha-ching is....

Seriously, is it really *that* difficult?  I consider myself a pretty smart girl.  I mean, I have my moments, but who doesn't.  Why can't I figure this out?

Maybe it's because it's one of those things that takes two to tango.  I'm on one page, he's on another.  But we're not working against each other....we both have the same goal in mind...so why can't it just work?

I'm talking budgeting. 

I really even hesitate to blog about this topic because it's almost embarrassing to admit that we both absolutely don't get it.  Well, we "get it" but we're not implementing very well.

There are so many "tools" out there and I use the term "tools" extremely loosely.  Most are just glorified calculators that cause more confusion.  There are countless financial geniuses out there that offer suggestions but for some reason we can't make any of them work for us.

Most recently, I attempted the Gail Vaz-Oxlade program from the show "Till Debt Do Us Part" and it seemed super easy and do-able with our lifestyle....and yet, no.  I made our little "cash jars" like she recommends and they have become receipt holders.  I think I spent more time decorating the little labels than I did making the actual plan work.  Yeah, I'm pathetic.

The simple plan of just "don't spend" isn't even an option. 

Richie's answer is that we travel too much and that cost of traveling is what throws our budget out of whack each time.  He's probably right.  Didn't I already say that after the first of the year our traveling will be at a minimum?  I think that our answer is that we need more self discipline, and when we become totally serious and ready to save more aggressively, we'll find that discipline. 

How do you budget for your family?  What have you found that works or doesn't work?

2 comments:

Brandy Junge said...

We're right there with ya, Joy. We've tried multiple ways of budgeting, and none really work for us. It's all about the self-discipline, which we apparently don't have, either!

Amanda said...

You are not alone! It is all about self-discipline and that is something we don't have either. I have been using the method of here is what we make and here is the bills and then ok here is what we have to live off of for 2 weeks and yeah it sucks and I want to save but can't squeeze those pennies out yet.

 
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