Budget.

That was your first thought, right?

Do you use a budget?  Wing it?  Excel spreadsheets?  Kind of eyeball things?  We used to have a VERY loose budget….a monthly tally of which bills are to be paid and when….which kept us on track and on time but really didn’t do a lot of  accounting for dollars or planning ahead and kept us in a paycheck to paycheck cycle.  Through my job we were offered the opportunity to Dave Ramsey’s budgeting app Every Dollar.   We painfully and prayerfully and sometimes loudly created our actual budget, instilled the envelope system and went at.  Talk about your wake up call.  Phew!!

I’ve talked about our Dave Ramsey journey before here  and we continue to plug away.   We have gotten away from our monthly budget meetings and haven’t really touched base in awhile so this weekend we bit the budget bullet and updated our journey.  Annnnnnnd this is why it’s a good idea to actually meet on this regularly, because apparently I have been a litte loosey goosey with some extra funds—I am absolutely a “free spirit” when it comes to budgeting and the Hubs falls more in the “nerd” role.  Yesterday as we added, subtracted, updated and figured this out, I was laughing OUT LOUD at my fluid cash flow issue, however, I was internally ETERNALLY grateful for the guy who was NOT LAUGHING across from me–because he keeps us on the path to our goals.   So thank you, Hubs—YOU ROCK!!!

Long story short, there really was no fighting, we updated our budget and planned to review again in April after my new job and benefits have kicked in and we have our new budget to update.

The encouraging piece of the meeting was looking back to where we started—shudder—and where we are now…..soooooooooooooooooooooo close to Baby step #3, with just the car left to pay off.  It pays off to just start.  It might be slow.  It will definitely be frustrating.  Consistency pays off.  And so now, as we continue our way through the Baby Steps (which you can read about and follow if you don’t already have a budget system with Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover)  I’m also fascinated by Chris Hogan and Everyday Millionaires—because it’s completely within reach.  Not today or tomorrow, but realistic. The reality that we can absolutely retire at some point and live our lives comfortably and have the ability to give to others……that’s an incredibly freeing feeling.

On that note, I am going to try and get a nap in before work tonight…..peace!!

Tracy