It's Budget Time!

I’ve decided, much to my husband’s chagrin probably, that this “living-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” deal is not working. When it comes to buying crap, we’ve always lived with this motto:

Have Money, Don’t Know How Much, But We Have Enough to Buy It So Let’s Just Buy It.

So I’ve changed my name to “Green 3 Budgeting Queen” and hereby announce the following:

1. There now exists a Green3 Family Balance Sheet. This will be reviewed monthly, if not more often. And that Net Worth line better increase month by month.

2. Another new item is the Green3 Monthly Budget Worksheet. And this will be followed. But since we really have never kept track of how much we spend, January will be a fact-gathering month. I know our standard bills, but all those debit card withdrawals have been unaccounted for…up ‘til now.

3. After January is done, a detailed list of our expenses will be reviewed. It’s my goal to knock $250 off that amount for February. That in itself would be an awesome birthday present for me!

Here are the things I know I will not be doing in 2007:
1. Switching my blog to Typepad. Sorry Typepad fans, but my freebie blog is working out just fine.

2. Getting a new car. It seems like I change cars with the seasons. I downgraded my vehicle last year and I’m sticking with this lower-dollar unit for quite some time – no matter how much I love those ginormous SUVs. LOVE EM!

3. Eating out for my lunches as often. That alone should save me almost $100.00 per month.

4. I will no longer buy my precious bottles of Diet Mt. Dew by the bottle. Did you know that those babies cost $1.60 each these days? So now my kitchen is full of 6-packs of my Dew and DH’s Diet Pepsi.

In case you are wondering, I haven’t had this revelation because we’re on the verge of bankruptcy or anything. I just have been doing a lot of research and thinking lately and there are so many better ways to spend our money than on $1.60 bottles of Diet Dew or $30.00 meals by eating out at night rather than staying home and making a meal. And I also want to be able to put my Excel knowledge to good use.

I know this post has totally bored you and you will probably unsubscribe from my blog just because of it. But darn it, I had to write it down to make myself accountable!