Reassessment Day

Last week, I put in my planner a Reassessment Day to take a new look at our finances. Friday was that day, friends. Here's what I learned about our finances in the last 6 months: Kitten shots hurt ($295) Moving hurt (truck rental, application fees, cat deposit, microwave: $905) Our eating out habits sunk us ($1240.32)   Insert all of the shocked, crying, angry emojis here. The last 6 months has been a free for all. In our defense, we did move which pushed the eating out, but over $1200 worth!? And it would be different if we weren't buying groceries, too. If that was our eating budget period, maybe I'd be a little okay with it. But no... I buy almost $100 worth of groceries and household items (paper towels, cleaning stuff, medicine) a week.   We also bought a washer and dryer and are paying 3x the minimum to get them paid off in 1/3 of the time! They're no interest, so that's a blessing for sure.  (I know Dave, I know.) We have 6 months left on Jackson's little car paying almost $60 extra per month on that. We've saved up for car registrations and tags in the next couple of months, and we're working on saving for the bachelorette shindig I have to throw in March where my bride is wanting to go to Gatlinburg. As far as our Baby Step 1 Savings? yeah... See "Moving hurt".    So my plan of attack:

1. Pay all of the extra we can on Jackson's car to get it paid off quicker. There's less than $1,000 left and that is $150 a month we can put other places like our Baby Step 1!
2. List a whole lot of the stuff we found while moving that we just don't use anymore; put all of that into savings.
3. Institute a "cash only" eating out budget. Cash envelopes are hard for us because we're always running opposite ways and I don't want Jackson to need an envelope and not have it. But, when we eat out, we're together 99% of the time. So this will be a good place for that.
4. Allowances. That's right - like we're ten.  We have a monthly spending budget, so I am splitting it right down the middle and putting it in cash money. When it's gone, it's gone, but that way we don't always have to ask if we can spend that extra bit. We can save it for something big, or we can dip into it for that Friday Dunkin run. ;)
5. Learn patience. A lot of my struggle is that I want our debt paid off now. and that just isn't going to happen. Learning patience and not letting our money run me or our family will help my sanity a little. Understanding that I will be provided for no matter what... it seems to be my daily needed reminder.

 

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