Monday, August 22, 2011

The Dreaded "B" Word

disclaimer *I know this may be a controversial topic, so please no judgies*

Nope, it's not a curse word, it is FAR worse..

It's.......budget.
I cringe just typing that dreaded word.

I have to put myself on one of these so-called budgets according to my husband...probably due to the fact that I have nothing to show for myself as I save zilch. Nada. $0.


Oops.


Since we are buying a house, our monthly expenses are going to dramatically increase. By adding a mortgage, full time childcare, and house expenses...this lady is not going to have much "play $$" anymore. Thankfully my husband has contributed to our savings account and we were able to use our wedding money as our down payment. I'm just going to be honest here, I have a difficult time differentiating between what I need and what I want. It is a very blurry area for me and I have a hard time determining the difference because..


Hi, my name is Quinn and I love to shop.


I have about every retail credit card that one could possibly have and they are way too easy to use. JCrew, Ann Taylor Loft, and Banana get WAY too much use, I am literally like a platinum member. I do always pay them off in time and let me add, I do have excellent credit. It is so easy to get sucked into purchasing items when you receive an email that says "40% off your entire order" or "Buy 1 sweater get the second 1/2 off". I just buy right into their advertising..i'm such a sucker. It has gotten even worse since I have had Saige, seriously, could little girl clothing be any more tempting? She had so much clothing for 0-9 months, some that was never even worn.


I really need to sit back and look at my finances. We both make a decent living, have plenty of nice things, and aren't buried under student loans like many others. There is no reason why I shouldn't be putting a nice sum of my paycheck into savings every month. I should be contributing more to Saige's college fund, rather than spending $100 at Target when I all I needed was cat litter. I don't want to dig myself into a hole that I can't find my way out of, that wouldn't be fair to my family. So here it goes...my attempt at NEED VS. WANT.


Wish me luck.


6 comments:

Brittany said...

UGH I hear ya! I feel the same way, I am ashamed that we didn't put more away into savings before the costs of twins and a mortgage came into our lives. I too am a platinum member of most of the same credit cards. SO hard to resist the urge to shop! If you need some support maybe we can help each other! :) Good Luck!

Jessica Hudson said...

You took the words right out of my mouth today! We literally started our morning with a meeting with our financial planner. I can't believe how much I spend each month - it's just stupid. But it's so hard to be good! I'm glad I'll have some company on my journey through this budget stuff!

Rachel said...

I can totally relate to this post! Check out www.daveramsey.com. We don't agree with him 100%, but he has some really good views. Check out the 7 Baby Steps! Good luck!

Katie @ Chronicles of KT said...

Yuck,i was realizing how much I spend on stuff we digg really need and it is getting out of hand, we are also starting the budget thing, its gonna be hard but its necessary

Darci White said...

I can TOTALLY relate.......so VERY hard! I really miss my days of spending away at Banana Republic and Ann Taylor Loft! Here's how I learned how to budget ----- I had a baby and quit my well paying job to stay at home with the little mini.... that'll throw you into "budget" mode in no time at all!

And isn't it funny how Target will do that... I went in to buy detergent the other day and left spending $76....on what I'm not even sure at this point?!

Best of luck - it is hard, but you'll get the hang of it and truthfully, it's kind of fun to save / cut back sometimes. It's amazing to see how much money you once wasted on silly things! ***Don't misinterpret this to read that I DON'T miss Banana, JCrew, pedicures galore, etc... because I do! Haha. I'm still learning and have some really good weeks and some bad.... the bad ones I don't tell my hubby about. ;)

Melissa @ I Pick Pretty said...

Yep, I can definitely relate. We had a big budget pow-wow before Master P was born; it stinks, but like White House described in the comments above, you do get used to it. I'm still a huge shopper at heart (and in practice occasionally), but over time I'm learning to discern between the wants vs needs.

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