Budgeting

It's a pretty common occurrence for my friends to call me up and ask me if such and such is a great deal down at the wall-to-wall mart or the grocery store. I am a certifiable penny pincher.

I am. Really.

I even have a whole 'nother blog chronicling my life as a penny pincher. I cut coupons, I buy 4 or 5 Sunday papers just for the coupon sections. I am that lady in front of you at the grocery store checkout that has a coupon for everything. I am also the one that can buy $200 worth of grocery for less than $50.

BUT... I had my husband to help me. We have 3 kids. I am but one person. My coupon clipping time has been cut down considerably and my shopping time even more. See, when you have 3 kids, you want to get in the store and out of the store as fast as possible.

Shopping with 3 kids is kinda like herding cats.

It's difficult, lengthy, but is possible.

This year has been a struggle for me.

I like order.

I like budgets.

I like assurance.

I LOVE consistency.

OK quit laughing. I know this is the wrong profession for Chris to be in if I like all those things. I have budgeting software that hasn't seen the light of day since November 2009.

I feel like a lost puppy wandering around looking for something, anything to come in and swoop me up and show me the way.

I do need to pat Chris and I on the back for a moment. We paid off our car last week. 6 months early too! We could have paid it off last February when we got our tax return, but we needed that money to live on until he got a steady paycheck.

Steady paychecks have pretty much been nonexistent since he started in January. It has definitely been hard to get used to and actually still is. Last week he had an awesome check, this week... well... he will be lucky to get 1/4 of the amount he made last week.

Now that our car is paid for, we have no debt other than our household bills. And since getting on the budget plan with our electric company, those bills are pretty consistent from month to month.

I'm gonna pull out the ol' budgeting software and give it another go. I am also gonna try to prioritize my time more so that I am able to clip those coupons more!

If you don't hear from me for a while, send backup.