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Saturday, July 12, 2008

The FOURTH Day of the Rest of My Life

Want to know about the first day? Click here.
Want to know about the second day? Click here.
Want to know about the third day? Click here.

Day 4: My Finances

I used to be the kind of person who had our money so in order. My mom instilled budgeting qualities into me. I did really well after moving out onto my own (despite typical challenges) and even after we got married I had a strict budget in order. We were good enough and strict enough to buy a home at 19 years old.

After we had BabyGirl, things got a little tighter, but I kept onto that budget. I even had a friend of mine praise me on my ability to be so good with our money. It seems the downfall of our finances was when daycare threw us over our manageability when BabyGirl turned 1. I started to not be as good at following that weeks budget, our bills seemed to climb before my eyes, and we were even buying a few luxuries before paying the necessities. Over time and through the birth of our BabyBoy, it only got worse. It has reached a point now to where our expenses far outweighed our income due to economical stresses, yet we still indulge in things we shouldn't. I have been much quicker to just say screw it, and buy what it is we want. I will put off a bill for the next month just to use the money to cover groceries or necessities. Having $150 in daycare per week and about $40 worth of formula and diapers a week isn't helping either!

I had a real reality check happen to me about a year ago. Thinking back on that now, and having gotten to a safe recovery place after my 3months off unpaid after having BabyBoy, I think it is possible and NECESSARY for us to get back on track. I have so many things that are too personal to talk about, even in this blog, but I am to the point of taking ownership of them and doing what I need to do to move past them.

My goal and turning point needs to start now. I really am still at a loss at what to do with our unsecured debt, but if I can figure that out, I think we can manage to take the reigns by the neck on our current expenses and even save a bit for the future.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried to find a 0% interest credit card? This is what we did when we got in over our head. It's interest free for one year. By that time we were able to use our taxes to pay it off and at no cost to us in the meantime. I will actually admit that we even transferred it one year to ANOTHER 0% interest card so that we could take 2 years to pay it.