Budgeting.

I have fallen out of the habit of religious and intentional budgeting.  I guess I need to put myself back through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to revive my passion for it.  But tonight I decided to sit down and budget out the rest of the year (yes -- I just said budget out for the REST OF THE YEAR).  Why?

Well I journaled a few days ago (that's right -- I both blog AND journal) about how there is so much of this nation and this world that I want to see and experience, and how it's time for me to just bite the bullet and start knocking some of these things off my to-do list.  It's time for me to start exploring!  It's time for me to be an adult and DO WHAT I WANT!

So the first place I want to travel to is Washington DC.  I've never been to my own nations' capital (I've been to Canada's capital, I've been to England's capital, but I haven't even been to my own nations' capital! It's shameful), and I want to go.  I'm already taking some extra time off in December -- some of which I'll be using to visit Dad and Meghan in SC for an early Christmas.  And then I'll have several days after that where I don't have any plans.  So why not go ahead and take my trip to Washington DC then?  It'll be decorated for Christmas!  (hopefully there won't be any snow storms...)  DC is only about a 5.5hr drive from where I live, so this is a relatively easy trip to begin my travels with -- I don't have to worry about booking flights or ANYTHING like that.

But before I set my heart on traveling to DC, I needed to know if I could afford such a trip on such short notice.  Hence the budgeting frenzy.

And here's about how I felt:

I felt incredibly aware of money.  And I'm not going to lie -- I felt somewhat defeated by the numbers.  Not so much because I couldn't afford a trip to DC (because with $870 budgeted I believe I can afford it), and not so much because I can't afford any Christmas gifts ($470 sounds like a lot, but spread amongst about 10 people, it doesn't end up as much), but because I realized just how little wiggle room I have.  And how I really need to be very careful and conscious of how/where I spend my money.

Dave Ramsey spoke in FPU about how budgets aren't there to LIMIT us, but they're there to EMPOWER us.  This lecture was so long ago (nearly 2 years ago to be exact) that the passion and belief in this statement has faded.  And frankly, I feel quite limited.  I feel quite insignificant.  And I worry that I'm living outside of my means (but how in the world I could cut back is beyond me -- I'm pretty bare basics folks -- that much HAS stuck with me from FPU).

I suppose I need to look at the fact that I AM meeting all my goals. I'm tithing.  I'm saving for the wedding.  I'm saving for Christmas.  I'm saving for vehicle taxes (ick -- dreading that).  I'm paying more than the minimum on both my car and my credit card.  And I've found a way to put a little extra money aside (unfortunately at the sacrifice of a fuller wedding fund) to potentially fund a trip to DC.

But now that I know just how much I'd be putting towards the trip instead of putting towards the wedding, I wonder if it's the right thing to do?

Love the Green!

This weekend, I was blessed to spend some time with Daniels grandpa -- his maternal grandfather who lives nearby, but whom we don't see very often.  On one hand, this is a shame, but on the other hand, grandpa has a LOT of personality and a LOT of opinions.  So small doses spread out over time is sometimes necessary.

HOWEVER we had some great conversation.  Grandpa may be opinionated, but he is very wise and experienced in the ways of how tough the world can be -- and he has excellent financial advice.  Despite the tough judgments he passes on his family, one thing that he said really struck me.  He was talking about one of his other grandsons when he said "If he'd just put away $10 every pay check into a savings account, in 10 years he'd have $2,600 (plus interest)."  Now this may not seem like a lot of money, but the principle is this -- I need to go ahead and start saving for certain things in life that are going to come.  At some point in the future, I'm going to need to purchase a new car -- this is just a fact of life.  So why not go ahead and start saving, so that when I do have to make such a purchase, I don't have to finance much if anything at all??  Same concept with purchasing a home -- why not go ahead and start putting money aside so that when the time comes, we already have a hefty down payment ready.  And same concept with children!  We want to have them, so why not go ahead and start squirreling away some money to help out when they arrive??

So this is one thing that I want to start implementing!  More savings!

All this thought about smart money choices really makes me want to put my Dave Ramsey CD's on and listen to the wisdom flow!

Now if only I knew more about investments so that I could really maximize my money....
And if only I could find a third small job to help the money flow in!