Money

  I have a confession. . . I am a nerd!  I love charts and lists and numbers and keeping track of things and organizing and thinking things through.  So this past month I decided we need to get serious about a budget.  We were married at 18 & 19 and never really thought about budgeting so we are now trying to crawl out of our youthful indiscretions.  We have tried to budget before but it never fully encompassed all the expenses that pop up.  So we would end up dipping into savings to cover things and having to wait until the next pay day to do something.

  Yes, we both have good jobs and a nice house and animals and cars, etc.  We have never really done without necessities, but we were not using our money wisely.  I was raised to believe God gives you these things it is not happenstance or fate.  And we should use it as a gift.  I believe I am a dental hygienist in an awesome office not by coincidence, but because that is where I am supposed to be.  I finished my schooling in Georgia and when we moved to New Mexico it wasn't even a factor that we thought about when choosing a place to live.  So to find an opening at a dental office in the mountains where the Dentist is generous and takes care of his staff and all of the staff is friendly and have proven to become some wonderful friends is not just luck.  Trav has had his job in the Air Force for our entire marriage and we have been grateful for that stability.  In times when people were loosing jobs and worrying about insurance we had the knowledge that we were ok.

  So, I got on our bank account and used the tool to chart our spending for the previous month.  I made lists of all the little things that take money out of our pockets, eating out, coffee, pet supplies, clothing, supplements and vitamins.  Anything I could think of.  I then started looking for some sort of way to keep track of all this information.  Through a friend I found out about a website called PearBudget ( https://pearbudget.com/?ref=chocolate-127571 ) where you can enter the income and the expenses and even those odd expenses that are not just once a month.  It was super easy to set up and they gave me a free month to try it out.  I was hooked!  I set up a quick link on my phone so I could see the balances and enter receipts, like gas, on the go. 

  We are on the second half of the first month of this budget, I know still early, but we are doing well.  I have put money into savings and pull out cash for certain categories and have successfully stayed within the budget for groceries, eating out, clothing, haircuts, etc.  With having to use cash it has made me think twice about spending money on things.  Glitches have been worked out during this first month so it will make it easier to bring Trav on board when he gets home. With Trav being gone right now we are hoping to be almost out from under the majority of our debt by the time he gets back, if he ever gets paid correctly that is.  He will be home soon and has still not been paid for actually being gone or for being promoted back in August.  Oh, finance you are the bain of my existence.  On the plus side we have wrangled our money without the extra income.  So once they finally figure out how to click the right button under his name it will be gravy.

  Being a grown up is hard and budgeting is not fun but with a little nerdy fun it can be done, I am hopeful we will continue on this path and will be using our money wisely as we are supposed to.