Money, Money.

I have wrote before about budgeting. I am not one to say how amazing P and I are with money... in fact we are probably the farthest from it. We were both not taught well on how to handle our money. My parents always tried to make me calm down when I had money... but it burned a hole in my pocket and I was dying to buy that dumb toy I didn't really need or even really wanted. P's mom is horrible with money anyways... so P just never had an example with money. I watched my parents go through debt, and getting out of it with millions of stumbles along the way... but they did it! But I certainly do not want to do that! Ever.

P and I really try to not take out loans unless we feel like we can afford the payments. Usually our loans have consisted of cars, furniture and once emergency money. Our car payment we feel is just one of the things we knew we would have... so to fit in buying a new couch we had to be sure we could pay it off early while still getting a low payment... which we have done great with! We pay $30 extra on our furniture payment and we will be out of that debt next paycheck! Then we will start putting that money towards paying off my car. P's car got paid off when P was deployed... huge relief on our end, other wise my car wouldn't even be in the picture!

Since I stay home, I pay the bills and know where our money goes. I am the one who knows when bills are due, and which bills can be spilt into two paychecks. I have felt for the last year that P and I should really start a budget. We already know we need to do it, I mean we have so much we want to do, especially when P is out of the Army and we have always talked about finally taking our honeymoon... but talking and doing are obviously two different stories.

I went to a church meeting this last week and they talked about budgeting and being prepared for emergency's and such. The lady teaching it told her story about doing the Dave Ramsey system... they got all of out debt and had a bunch of money in savings.. a total of 6 months worth for them when their car literally exploded and they had to buy a new car. So almost all that saving they had done had gone to their new car. And thank goodness they had the money to buy a new car otherwise they would have been in trouble.

After her story I started realizing that P and I really need to stop procrastinating. Its not like our money being spent is going towards great things... really we just like to eat out and buy stuff we don't really need. So we got paid and I decided to really watch our money this go around... and so far, I'm pretty proud of ourselves! Its only been a few days... but all the bills are paid, a few things have been bought, we have food in the fridge and we have money left over... plus I put a little money into our savings account. With a new baby on the way we need to be saving anyways... and I have even already started an account for Evelyn... she may not have a huge start right now, but I hope when she's 18 I can give her a good chunk of money to start her life with. Same with the new baby.

The church meeting also really helped me learn that is was ok to purge a little bit... but just budget it out. No shame in needing that ice cream or new pair of shoes... make a budget and if its not in your budget wait until it is. Which I gotta say is one of my biggest issues... I am so impatient!

I'm looking forward to starting this up again... and I felt like the meeting really helped me get a grip, and the fact that I am not the only one with this issue makes me feel so much better! P and I have plans on cutting out things such as DirecTv (so not worth the money!), and hopefully we can pay off my car in the next year and a half! It would be nice to not always feel like we are living paycheck to paycheck.

If you have any suggestions please feel free to tell me them :)