I am embarrassed to admit, that I have never really used a budget. It's stupid really, especially since I grew up with a mom who was always on a strict budget. Actually, maybe that's why I have always balked at the idea of using one! I remember my entire childhood, my mom having X number of dollars to spend on groceries every 2 weeks. We only bought food every 2 weeks. If we ran out of something before it was grocery day again, we simply did without. We never ate at a restaurant or ordered take-out. My mom baked almost everyday - we couldn't afford to waste money on store-bought treats. We never had new clothes, always hand-me-downs. I also remember my mom having X number of dollars for "spending money" every 2 weeks. And when I say "spending money", I mean anything that wasn't groceries had to be covered with this small amount of money. Did I have a deprived childhood?! Not at all!! So why, have I been so resistant to the idea of budgeting, and better managing our money?!
Since the triplets were born, all of my kids have always had brand new, usually name brand, clothing. If I see something at a store that I want, I buy it. When I am grocery shopping, I throw whatever I want into the cart, and don't worry about what the total is going to be until I get to the till. We eat out, or order take-out, several times a month. I want to bake, but I usually just end up buying over-priced packaged snacks, because it is easier.
Why? I think part of it has to do with wanting "better" for my kids. MY kids aren't going to wear hand-me-downs, WE can afford to buy them brand new clothes! And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I have never really felt like we have needed to budget!
Just after we found out we were expecting the triplets, Gairod quit his job, and started up his own welding company. He made really good money that first year, and we pretty much just wrote ourselves another pay cheque whenever our personal bank account started to get low. We continued that trend, even when the company wasn't bringing in very much money - we had enough padding in the company account, why should we change our spending habits?!
Fast-forward to this past September, when Gairod's welding truck and tools were stolen, and Gairod started working for CFD. Suddenly, we had to wait for payday to get money, I couldn't just randomly write us a cheque if we were getting low on money in our personal account! It was definitely an adjustment, but to be honest, I actually started to enjoy feeling like I needed to start planning our spending better! lol!
Now that we are hopefully (just waiting to find out the results of the water test!!) going to be moving, we are going to have some different and additional expenses. There are a bunch of renovations we want to do on the new house, but they all take money!
I don't think we are really bad at managing our money, but there is definitely room for improvement! We have some debt, but not a lot compared to a lot of people!
Over the past few weeks, I've started looking at a few blogs and websites about money management, budgeting, getting out of debt, and saving up to pay cash for things. It has motivated me to start looking at our finances, and see where we can cut back and start saving money, to pay for reno's, and start paying off some debt.
I realize that over the next few months, we are likely to get into a bit more debt, before we can start working our way out of it. But I want to start budgeting NOW, and once we are settled into our new place, I want to start really scrimping and saving, paying off debt, and saving up for things we want, instead of just putting them on a line of credit or a credit card.
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