With my hubby's new job and my current UE benefits, we're doing ok. Over the weekend, I made a conservative budget and was trying my best to NOT use my UE benefit money. I want to plan for the day it runs out. I want to save the excess in a savings account, so if that day happens and I don't have a job, there will be a little money to live off of for a bit.
Unfortunately, I couldn't budget without the money. We're just too tied up with liabilities right now. Because of the new home purchase and wedding stuff, there's just some things we haven't purchased yet that really can't wait. For instance, the 4 tires on my car are bald. We've been holding off on buying new tires because we really didn't have the spare cash. Also, my wedding dress is interest free until July. I haven't put a dime towards that yet.
One thing we can fix right away is our eating habits. I use mint.com to evaluate my financial situation, and there are WAY too many fast food joints and restaurants listed in my transaction history. It's sickening how much we spend on that stuff. Usually, we go out because we've each had a bad day. We just want a nice, comforting, quick and easy meal. Other times, we order pizza delivery or whatever because we've run out of "real meals" in our kitchen and don't want to make a trip to the store.
These habits have to stop. We need to stock up on more food choices. We need to each play devil's advocate whenever one of us gets the urge to dine out. It's going to take work, but we just cannot afford it. I'd say we can't afford it anymore, but all along - we couldn't afford it....
1 comment:
I know how you feel about not wanting to cook after a long day of work. I stock up on lean cuisines so I can pop one in the microwave after a long day of work. Also taking the time to plan your meals for the week helps. We do tend to get sushi at least once a week which is expensive, but it is also healthy & the alternative of buying fast-food wouldn't do us any favors either. It's hard to break bad habits, but more money is as good a motivation as ever. Also save now because after you have a baby it will be ten times harder to save any money -- kids bleed you dry!
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