I realized last night that we are WAY over budget for this paycheck (not that we had a budget before last night, but you know, still over what we have to spend)... I downloaded a free trial of a Budget application that has a virtual envelope system set up... We will have $42 after all the bills are paid before the next check comes... That is not counting food and gas... Yikes! But we can do this... I am sure I have enough food supplies to last 2 weeks and 2 days... Though we may be mostly veggie for these 2 weeks :) In the mean time I will not be able to start my Grocery Game shopping, but I did order the local paper on weekends only (Fri, Sat, Sun) using a promo code from the MVP circular (because all I got in my regular circular were dine out and fast food Qs... grrr...), I asked to be billed for it, so I will not have to pay for 18 weeks! By then I will have the $20, but right now I just don't, but I can get started on finding the Qs (coupons) I need to play the game (it really is a game and I like it)... The only thing I am worried about is Halloween... We are hosting a small gathering, but I told everyone to bring something to eat, something to drink, and some candy (not that we ever get Trick-or-Treaters, but if it looks like a party maybe at least the neighbor kids will come get some sweets :)... I am going to make something in my crockpot... Maybe chili... I have lots of beans and some ground beef in the freezer... I have also started to think seriously about how Christmas is going to go this year... In the past we have maxed ourselves out to pay for gifts, but this year I am making food gifts for friends and family... I don't think anyone will hold that against me... Hopefully I will be able to score some good deals on candles or something to beef it up... Just looking for ways to get by, and maxing out our credit card again is just NOT the way... With friends we were thinking of doing a gift exchange, but that might even be too much for some of us (mostly newly weds) I was thinking about maybe doing an ornament exchange (bought or made) that could be really funny with our group of friends :) How do you deal with lean times around the holidays? I don't want to get down about this, I am really looking at the bright side, maybe I can use up most of my 50lbs. of powdered sugar that I bought at Costso for cake deco class and didn't make it into the 2nd class (because of time and money issues)... Hot coco anyone? :)
Gift Guides 2024
3 days ago
3 wishes granted:
Holiday budgeting? It can be hard, especially if you love to be generous. :) But when we have needed to be most careful with cash we try to plan out how much to spend per person for birthdays and Christmas and then figure out how much per month that would be over a year. In theory this works fine so long as you start planning early. So long as you can shop with all your self control handy. :)
Friends ... white elephant exchanges can be a lot of fun, especially if everyone goes all out on funny stuff. It's often so much more the getting together and celebrating than the gift itself, don't you think?
The nice thing about all the careful spending is that hopefully if you can do it for a little while now you'll not have to afterwards. Peace of mind is mighty comfortable. :)
Good luck!
You know, God really blessed us this time around! We had a check come in (from my job prior to coming to visit you guys) that we were skeptical about and it covered some necessary bills and we had a few bucks leftover to get some party food (a pork shoulder on sale for carnitas, some $.69 tortillas, a small bag of rice, and some limes - 10 for $1, score!)
Ah....the budget. Love it and hate it at the same time!
Thanks for de-lurking--you're welcome to link away! :)
Post a Comment