become more financially responsible

I have done well on this goal but I could do much better. It’s a work in progress and there’s so many different areas to consider. Yesterday was the first day I spent in awhile. I had to make a Costco trip. I really love that store. I could spend hours just looking. There are some really really good deals in there. The only downfall I can find is impulse buying. You know you’re a good shopper when you can get out of Costco with only what you came for. I only ended up with one item I didn’t go in for. I think I’d still give myself an A on that shopping trip. Last year was the first year I got a membership because I knew I could spend a fortune trying to save. I did pretty well and I’ll renew my membership and I need to explore the store more and calculate it’s best buys. The number one item I buy there are water softner salts. I always make back my membership fees in the salts alone.

Today I’ll make my own breadcrumbs instead of buying the store version. I’m pleased with not wasting the ends of the bread and my bread crumbs are better than the stores. It might sound nit picky but I almost can’t bring myself to buy such things as breadcrumbs any more because they cost near nothing to make at home and knowing that I’m appauled by the price charged at the grocery store. I’m mean this to include a great many things other than bread crumbs. The more things I learn to make for myself – the more I feel ripped off when I shop.

Spending less this month by making not only my own laundry soap but also my own dishwasher soap. I really like my own and I’m going green to boot.

I noticed I had several goals pertaining to money and credit. I wanted to create a goal that covered them all because they are so closely related. I’m hoping I’ll track progress better this way. I promise myself when I’m in the stores today I will limit myself to only what I’ve come for. This is a GREAT habit that I’ve acquired.

Well, I am not doing too good. Hell, I am not doing even a little bit good! I don’t know what my problem is, I just can’t get it together!

Luckily, I have only one Credit Card with a limit of just $750. At present the card is over the limit and I owe $851.06! [Yikes!]

Herein will be a log of payments made to that debt:

I owe my sister $3000 for helping me to repair my car.
Herein will be a log of payments made to that debt:

$110 paid on May 26th.

When my mom died nearly seven years ago, she left my sister and I some money. And it was the kind of money that would [or rather maybe should] send panic surging through the veins of any grieving kid. It was, in my head, dead mom money. And I struggled with it …

I struggled with the having it. With the what it meant. With the way people treated me because of it. Lately, though, I’ve been struggling most with the idea that I squandered it away. That I wasted it. That it was meant to last longer or do more …

I guess I’ve decided that now is the time to let all of that go. All of it – the struggle, the pain, the panic, the fear. Now is the time for me to accept that there is abundance in this world and that I am as deserving of it as anyone else. That sounds so simplistic.

It must be true.

...this month is to keep track of EVERYTHING I spend money on. It’s getting a bit ridiculous, the amount of money I’ve been wasting lately, and I feel like if for this next month back at school I can keep track of where it goes, I can find a budget for myself and hopefully be wasting less of that hard earned cash.

I figured I’d be working more over break than I have been, so this is getting even more important as the savings account gets lower & lower. I think mainly if I keep better track of my spending I can get a grip on it…but who has time for that? Blah.