Don't Mess with Me, Ugly Kermit

Every journey starts with a plan.  In our case, the plan was a monthly budget.

Have you ever dissected where exactly all the money goes in a year? It will absolutely separate you from the wimpy kids who fainted in Biology class.

It took me more than 2 hours to create categories for our spending.  This is what I came up with: mortgage, groceries, utilities, savings, cell phone, Kids, dining out, medical, charity, household, clothing, ATM, dog, insurance, auto and gas. 

Household was one ugly amphibian!  It was shocking to see how much we spent at Walmart.  Ocean State Job Lot and Dicks Sports were equally awful. But the one that truly grossed me out was the local convenience store at the top of the hill.  More than $200 per month on what I can only assume is beer wine, candy, lottery tickets, and cigarettes.

Staring at me, with its beady glassed over eyes, were the exact reasons we never have money left at the end of the month.

So I slapped that Budget Frog on the lab table and grabbed my scaple.  Don't mess with me, ugly Kermit.

I sliced and diced the budget for another two hours.  Some categories were wicked easy to snip a leg off.  If you are on a budget, everyone knows going out to dinner is pretty much a formaldehyde dream.  Others were tricky.  Do we cancel the cell phones to save $242 per month and go back to the telegraph?  How much can we really cut from the grocery bill when the kids grow an inch each week?

In the end, with hard line determination, I created a purposeful spending plan that allowed $3000 savings each month. Now that's a frog song. Croak.  What are we going to do with all Les Grenouilles Jambes?

 

My two cents.  Know what you spend each month.  If you are embarrassed at any amount, that should be the first thing to go.