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Every once in a while, I get an insight into myself, and even though its not always good, I think its important for me to share it.
As they say, confession is good for the soul but bad for the reputation, so here goes ...
To give you some context, let me tell you a story.
A few weeks back my brother and sister in law were over, and my sister in law got talking about using excuses when dealing with my behavior. I agree with the idea, taking ownership of my behavior is a good step, so I am gonna do that for one area right now.
I really suck at handling money. I mean I really really suck at it.
I have gotten into the habit of spending 5 - 10 $ every day, on things I really don't need.
And I have to stop. The amount of money I'm spending per day isnt much, but if you add it up over a year, that's a lot of money that's basically going down the drain, especially when I'm struggling to keep up my responsibilities.
So what Carol suggested for me is to keep my receipts, and that's good, but I want to go a step further and share them with you all, so I can have some accountability.
What do you guys think of that idea?
Comments
I could recommend nice app...
If you have iphone or android. It is called CoinKeeper. It is paid app but first month is free. I don't use it now, but used it for almost a year and it helped me greatly.
accountability
When I was working in Red Deer, I used to get a coffee at Timmy's at the start of my shift. Since I worked at least 5 days a week, that worked out to be about $500/yr. $2.00 a day doesn't seem like much, but it sure adds up. A lot of the time we do not think about the little things. As the old saying goes "take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves"
cheers
dougstaxi
Shoes!
Just how many pairs of shoes that rarely if ever get worn does one woman need? Certainly not the 54 pairs I counted at my last clear-out!
Be strong Dorothy and say "Not today." Never is too much to expect so like an ex-smoker or alcoholic I suggest 'One day at a time.' and sharing your resolution with friends I think will help.
Rhona McCloud
I'm up for it.
Accountability can be a real good thing. So keep your receipts and each day or each week depending on how tight a control you want, share them with us and say what they're for.
Around here an espresso drink will run a bit more than $ 4.00. When I was working as a maintenance person at a machine shop, a very personable guy used to stop at break time with his portable espresso truck and well, after about two months, I had to tell him that while I liked him, I couldn't keep spending the grocery money on his coffee. So you see, it's really easy for that kind of habit to get started and it takes some decisive action to break the habit.
Something you might want to do is start a spreadsheet for your expenditures. There are some really good free templates available. Another method is the old fashion envelope system. Simple label an envelope with each monthly expense and then determine how much is needed from each payday to meet the monthly expense and then put the cash in each envelope each payday. When people use this system there are often two envelopes they they don't make. The most important is savings. A small amount should be put away on a regular basis for emergencies. The other is blow money... a set amount for you to spend without having to account for what you did with it. Five or ten dollars a payday likely won't break you and it'll make the rest of the budget more workable because accounting for every penny will leave a real sour taste real quick.
Good luck. If you want some more information on budgeting, PM me and I'll direct you to my favorite budget guru.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt