learn to manage my money better

I’m learning a few every interesting budget tips that you couldn’t learn in any business class.

1. When you need to dry your clothes and you have no dryer and no change for the lunary mat, some chairs, the kitchen counters and a blow dryer will do the trick. If you don’t have a blow dryer then a fan will work just fine.

2. Dish soap can also clean your cloths and its less expensive.

3. If your hungry but you can’t find any food in the house, you can make a sandwich just by asking your neighbors for the stuff you need. (This one was actually something a friend of mine did when he was a child)

4. If you really need gas money there is always loose change around the house its just a matter of looking really hard. (It is much easier if you have a motorcycle less money you lose for gas)

5. If you know the right people you can get the plumbing project done for the price of a case of beer instead of half your pay check.

Right now I am washing the boys pillows, the dogs saw fit to pee on them because no one let them out in time, we still haven’t gotten around to getting a new dryer and I’m watching the children while everyone else is at work.

I can’t help but laugh with amusement as a drape the sheets over the chairs and crank up the tunes.

I GET IT NOW NOLLIE! I finally see how the optimism works. I have no job and no time to go to the laundry mat but here I am smiling and dancing around the kitchen while I dry the sheets with a fan so the boys don’t get have to be without sheets and pillows.

I’ve never thought I could find optimism during a time like this, but I have to admit it makes life a lot easier than stressing out all the time.

4 days until I get paid and I’m in the red. Maybe if I’m lucky the bank will chill out on the overdraft fees. I never got this bad when I didn’t have a job.

What an irony….

I’m good at math. I sat down and worked out a budget for my paycheck…it’s a rough draft because I don’t know the withholding rates, I should just look those up.

Anyways, have a budget…roughly…that’s a good start if you ask me.

If I want to get my life on track I need to manage my money better. This is going to be so hard…no more sudden shopping sprees. Oh that hurts to say.

I read the book Everywoman’s Money Book (again) and actually took note this time.

• calculated my gross annual income (I only knew my monthly income)
• created a “horizontal profile” or net worth statement
• created a spreadsheet to track my spending, which I’ve done for about 4 weeks now
• created a budget and got a list of fixed expenses, plus discretionary spending
• stopped buying lunch, instead buying groceries and cooking/chopping up my own food every day
• cooking some dinners too; not so intimidating once you get the hang of it
• applied for shopper’s cards at various groceries to collect “points,” hopefully to save some money
• waited for the 2nd contact with a desirable good to spend money on it (clothes, shoes, books), sometimes deciding I didn’t need to have it right away or at all
• saved a consistent % of my income every month for the past 6 months.

So far it’s going well.