Okay. It’s time for me to ‘fess up…. please do as I say and not as I do.
You see, December was not a very frugal month for us. Two birthdays, Christmas, numerous social outings and a date with hubby, and our budget was BUSTED.
And on top of that, I didn’t even use coupons all that much. GASP!
I really think it was a bit of budget fatigue. It’s hard to be disciplined, to watch those pennies all the time. I was lazy. It is so much easier to just spend what you want, when you want.
But in the end, I know that approach is what gets millions of people into debt each year. So, time to forgive myself, learn from it and move on.
On a positive note, with my husband home on holiday break (he’s a college instructor), our gas bill is waaaay down and I didn’t buy ANY household items all month (just lived off our stash of stuff.). I was also able to stock up on some good diaper deals and great clearance stuff. I saved $102.83 using coupons.
I’m still continuing to track my expenditures, which is such a useful exercise. It’s really helpful to see where your money goes.
We’ll have a few budget changes coming on the horizon. Since I’ve increased the amount of money we’re putting into our flexible spending account in January, we need to get ready for a slight decrease in our paycheck. We’re also in the process of refinancing our mortgage (I’ll write more about that later), which, if all goes well, should save us $200 a month. We’ll have to see how all the new figures play out and adjust accordingly.
How did your month of December go? What goals do you have for January? 
You may also like:
Comments on this entry are closed.