Okay - I am the first to admit in these hard economic times that I am not doing my fair share in "budgeting" our family expenses. I am sure if Walt is reading this he is shocked (heavy on the sarcasm) that I am admitting this.
I stink at budgeting. I have the best intentions in the world to make a budget and really follow through with it. I grasp my mind around it and put on my brave face to try and make the budget work. But something always falls through.
My first priority is to start re-establishing my emergency fund. We were doing pretty well on it and then when I got sick and was off work in April I was not paid for that time so we pretty much used up our 1 months worth of expenses we had stashed in a savings account. This was a real eye opener for me. Since I am still fighting my work's insurance company I have no guarantee that I will be able to replace those funds quickly.
We are back to square one. I got out my Dave Ramsey books and have been thumbing through them again. I do enjoy the stories of how people got out of debt and I think it would be nice if someone would write a book just about the success stories and how they did it! I would buy it! Those stories are inspiring!
So wish me luck as I start tackling my budget again....no more weekend runs to Schlotsky's....no more Friday runs to Starbucks.....no more once a week eating out...
By cutting out these items alone we should be able to save up quickly. *Heavy sigh*
Moral of this whole story? You can't prepare enough for the unexpected. Try to have at least 2 full months of expenses and I mean every expense saved up. This will give you enough of a cushion to float you by for a while. I didn't expect to get sick and be off of work. I truly believe that God was watching over us. If we hadn't been so focused on saving up then we wouldn't have had any money saved and I would have attempted to go to work and probably made myself sicker.
Check out the above website as they have a ton of great advice on the importance of having that emergency fund.
I HATE BUDGETING!
TTFN
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