Numbers

There are certain number that make me stressed out! Primarily budgets, income vs. outflow. And let me tell you, we are in the red almost every month. This makes me very cranky, because last august, after the sale of our home, and purchase of this home, our ONLY debt was the house. sigh. Then there was this list of things we NEEDED, and the list of things we wanted, and the list of things that just couldn't wait. Here we are again up to our noses in ugly debt. Drowning in it. And I can't seem to get a grip on it. In the past, we've gotten bad, but I've always been able to figure it out, get us back on track, set up the budget. This time, I just get stressed out!

So I keep reading the blogs I love about budgeting, and read the schemes on making money on the internet, and keep checking the job ads for that perfect pay me millions to stay home and play with my kids job... and still can't make ends meet.

But those faces in the photo make me long to live simply, and rightly. I want to teach them the value of hard work, and budgets, and savings! I want them to live in a way that they understand how to save for something they need or want - instead of just getting it! The economy doesn't make it much better. My usual route of consolidating to one low interest credit card or refinancing my mortgage to include the debt seems to be stymied as well. It's time to figure it out. We are drowning, but somehow, we will get through this. We didn't get into debt overnight (although it feels that way) so I guess it will take at least twice as long to get out (maybe even 10 times as long). So it is here and now that I will say again, I want to live debt free. I want to live on a budget. I want to stop spending!

Step 1 I have read is to track spending and come up with a budget - I'll try to do that before I post again. And I'll also try to post the blog links that i'm reading now, as well as the websites I'm visiting.

Thanks for your support!