Skip to main content

The Cold, Hard Truth

For several years, my husband and I have kept track of our total debt and spending with spreadsheets charting what goes up and what goes down. On a monthly basis, we would get together and look at where we stand financially. My thinking was that seeing just how much we owe would force us to keep that total in mind and strengthen our resolve to pay it down.

Overall, I think it's helped, but it alone hasn't been enough to inspire us to eliminate all of our bad financial behaviors. If it were, we would've been a lot better off several years ago. It has, however, inspired us to be a little better about our spending.

I know this because we haven't been as diligent about the spreadsheets since our daughter was born. I say "we" because my husband is further behind in his share than he typically is, too, but I haven't really even tried to keep up with my part, especially this year after all of the long trips back and forth to visit my dad in the hospital. Eventually, I got to the point where I really didn't want to know. Ignorance may be bliss, but it doesn't help the problem go away.

So, on Monday evening, for the first time in four months, I got a glimpse of what we owe. In those four months, our overall debt has climbed by nearly $1,000.

I knew it wouldn't be pretty, but I'm still disgusted with myself that I haven't done better.

I NEED to look at this every month. It's not a cure-all, but it definitely helps me focus.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Washing that Gray Right Outta My Hair

When I turned 37, I tried coloring my hair myself. I had never colored my hair before at all, and the whole thing was a big mess. It dripped everywhere . Rather than try again, I started going to a friend who is a hairdresser to get it done after that. It cost me $30 each time I go, but for me, the cost was worth it. But now, I'm rethinking that expense. Telling my friend I was going to do my own hair wasn't high on my list of things to do. I was afraid she'd think I was unhappy with the way she does it. Well, she's moving away within a few months, so she'll stop doing my hair anyway. I dread the thought of trying it by myself again, but to cut expenses, I should at least give it a try, or just let my hair go gray. Anyone have ideas on which home product is easiest for a newbie?
Post a Comment
Read more

Tackling the Electricity Bill

I got our latest electricity bill this past week. It went up. Again. I don't understand why. It's been a mild winter, so we haven't used the heater as much as last year. Plus, I've made a few small changes that I had hoped would add up to even a slight savings: I've cut down on the time the TV has been on. I haven't been perfect about it, though, because I still turn it on to watch something, decide to work on something else at the same time, then after an hour or so, I realize I'm not watching the TV at all. Wasted electricity. I've unplugged my alarm clock. When we first brought our daughter home, her pediatrician recommended we feed her every two hours for the first week or so. After the first night of pushing an awkward combination of buttons and waiting for the alarm time to advance every couple of hours, I realized it was tons easier to just punch the time into my cellphone alarm. I kept the bedside clock until about two weeks ago. I also unpl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Making Money

Last year, I participated in a local consignment sale that sells all kids items . I made $37 for the work I put into it, which is more than I could've hoped for given how little I had to start off with. A few weeks ago, I signed up to participate again. I have a few weeks to go through everything, get it all tagged and ready to go. I can also take some items that got left behind last time. Hopefully, I do at least as well as last time. Speaking of Consignments ... Our local newspaper ran an article a couple of months ago about local consignment stores I found really interesting. One of the store owners featured in the story said she had a consigner who shops local garage sales for cheap finds, then sells the items at the consignment store, receiving a check from the consignment store that averages about $800 a month. Of course, that doesn't account for the money she spends at the garage sales buying the items to begin with, but even a net income of $400 a month on consignm...
Post a Comment
Read more