Tightening the purse strings

I'm certain this will sound just downright ridiculous to some of you. You will laugh and think to yourself, “is this nut for real?”. “Is she actually someone's mother?” “How could she possibly be educated . . . wait – isn't she a teacher?”

Brace yourself.


I just completed my first budget. A real life, actual budget that monitors and limits your spending.

Dictionary.com defines “budget” as the following:

–noun
1.an estimate, often itemized, of expected income and expense for a given period in the future.
2.a plan of operations based on such an estimate.
3.an itemized allotment of funds, time, etc., for a given period.
4.the total sum of money set aside or needed for a purpose: the construction budget.
5.a limited stock or supply of something: his budget of goodwill.
6.Obsolete. a small bag; pouch.
–adjective
7.reasonably or cheaply priced: budget dresses.
–verb (used with object)
8.to plan allotment of (funds, time, etc.).
9.to deal with (specific funds) in a budget.
–verb (used without object)
10.to subsist on or live within a budget.

Number 10 kind of hit me like a speeding train at rush hour. I mean, this is what normal, grown-up adults and parents do, isn't it? And while I'm sure there are many of you shaking your heads, thinking I must be an unorganized, over-spending goof . . . there must be a number of you nodding in agreement, recognizing that a concrete budget is something that's been on your own to-do list for far too long.

Despite not having a budget on paper, I'm not a crazy over-spender. We don't live a lavish, extravagant lifestyle. At this point in my life, I choose not to work and I have an extended maternity leave from my career (and I have been fortunate enough to have retained my full-time status and position in my school board) so that I am able to spend this part of my life at home, raising my children. It's a choice. But one that comes with some restrictions and limitations. We live in a modest, small, home in a mid-sized city. We drive basic, no-frills vehicles (what I wouldn't give for a power window at the drive-thru). We don't have a home filled with expensive gadgets, equipment, or “things”. Our recent Wii purchase (for Father's Day) is our first video game and only item of that genre that we own. We don't eat out often, we don't own NHL season tickets anymore, I don' t have extravagant jewelry and we don't take world-class vacations. We don't have any debt outside our mortgage.

I used to work in a career where I made a fairly decent salary. I chose to leave that career to pursue a degree in Education and become a teacher. Not because I hated the previous career, but I felt that I had a calling to become a teacher, and I had always loved and felt natural teaching children. It was a huge life adjustment for me and a large pay cut (but evidently extremely rewarding). My husband and I used to be DINKS (double income, no kids) and we ate, drank, traveled and spent. Changing careers and then having three children was a real wake-up call to our financial stability.

After putting our budget discussion on the back burner for ages, we finally got our act together and did it. It wasn't so hard. I'd always been great at saving receipts and documenting all our costs, so I'm certainly aware of where we spend too much money, and where the majority of our money goes.

The biggest and most aggressive change we made was to deliver a largerer percentage of our income directly into savings for retirement, education, etc. What is left we divided among our bills and typical monthly costs. At the end of that, well, there is not a whole left. You can see this is not rocket science, I didn't even use a fancy program like Quicken, I did it in simple old Microsoft Excel.

So this is where things change for me. Suddenly every penny I spend comes from a pre-existing category. I have certain allotted amounts per month, per category. I'm careful with money and I don't believe I waste it, but I'm not used to contemplating every dollar we spend. This is really going to make me think about things, and ultimately, that's a positive thing for our family. I've found lots of useful websites and blogs with great tips, so I'm learning a bit more every day.

Be sure to stay tuned in the coming weeks to see how a crafty mom does on a budget!