Wow, you know, some things just make me happy. My favorite movie of all time is the sound of music. One of my favorite things to do is give people happy surprises. These people combined both of these when they surprised a crowd in an Antwerp Belgium Train Station. I LOVE THIS. Yes, I've seen it before, but everytime I see it I get the biggest goofiest smile on my face. I read that they had only two rehearsals before they pulled off this incredible stunt! Enjoy.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
budget blues.
A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it.
William Feather
If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.
William Feather
William Feather, my new "go to" guy for quotes that drive the knife deep and twist it around a bit. I spent the three hours my little ones were in school today, and the five hours after they got home, glued to my computer screen trying to get a grip on a family budget. oh, my aching head.
This is not my first attempt. I've tried quicken, I've tried moneystrands, I've tried mint.com, I've tried my own handwritten and typewritten spreadsheets. I've quickly given up as it became either too complicated (quicken!), or did not offer the budgeting tools I wanted that showed me what was left of my monthly pay as I planned it (moneystrands!), or was simply not what I envisioned when picturing what I needed out of a budget program (mint.com).
Well, after 8 months of my husband being off work due to heart surgery(he went back on the 1st of September, healthy and strong, God is good!), and the debt piling up and the creditors calling, I realized we REALLY needed to get a budget going, if only in order to see how much money we didn't have. So.... I went again on that elusive search and ended up spending 15 dollars today (not in the budget, but fully refundable if I don't like it) on a program I found on the web that is simply a series of linked exel spreadsheets. It's perfect. I spent the day entering all the budget categories I could think of and copying and pasting them out through the middle of next year. I then went on my bank website and I tried to figure out when in the month all the bills came due. Next, I made a long list of all the dates money will be entering the bank account and an estimate of how much money will be entering, no matter how briefly, into the hallowed account.
Now, starting October 1st (I wasn't about to work all those hours for the 2 remaining days in September) I can simply click on the spreadsheet page that says "daily spending" and record everything in all my categories I spend each day. I even set an alarm on my phone to remind me each morning to put the previous days spending in the program. At the end of the month (or anytime during) I can click on overview and it will tell me where I'm at.. how much I've budgeted and how much I've spent on any given category.
According to the forecast, I'm about 500-700 dollars in the hole each month. I asked Joshua if he thought we could live without utilities and maybe one of the kids, but he said no. I guess I'll have to look less obvious places to find out where to cut stuff out. Can you pawn a pile of dirty laundry? A huge help would be if I could sell the house I moved out of to marry my wonderful new family. That would about take care of that deficit in one fell swoop. Lord PLEASE find me a buyer!
Now, even though it has turned what was kind of fuzzy vague bad news (I think we are in the negative every month) into a cold hard fact (Heck yeah, we're really broke), I'm still happy I did it. Now I have a really pretty spreadsheet with lots of red numbers on it to back up my "no" when I tell the kids they can't have something. When the creditors call I can tell them with all certainty that yes indeed it is true.. blood can not be got out of a stone. I can send them a copy of my spreadsheet to prove it. Also, it's a starting place. As William Feather predicted - the world has disciplined me - and now it's time for us to discipline ourselves a little more and make this budget thing WORK. There are no more credit cards to fall back on, the savings have been gone through. It's up to us and us alone to keep the wolves from the door, and battle back to solvency. God has never let us down before, and I believe he'll continue to take care of us as we work our way back to a safer more comfortable financial place.
Tomorrow I'll be taking my due date data and transferring it to a calendar sheet where I can see at a glance which pay period things come due and I'm going to figure out what needs to come out of which paycheck. Then I'll be pretty financially organized and at least be able to track the money as it flashes into and out of our account faster than the naked eye can see. Somehow, that is comforting. A starting point. We all need them. A fresh new year, a new month, a new week, a new day. Yes, even a new budget. As one of my favorite songs on the radio says:
We lose our way,
We get back up again
It's never too late to get back up again,
One day you will shine again,
You may be knocked down,
But not out forever.
(love you Toby Mac!)
So there. That's all I've got to say about that! Good night and many blessings.
William Feather
If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.
William Feather
William Feather, my new "go to" guy for quotes that drive the knife deep and twist it around a bit. I spent the three hours my little ones were in school today, and the five hours after they got home, glued to my computer screen trying to get a grip on a family budget. oh, my aching head.
This is not my first attempt. I've tried quicken, I've tried moneystrands, I've tried mint.com, I've tried my own handwritten and typewritten spreadsheets. I've quickly given up as it became either too complicated (quicken!), or did not offer the budgeting tools I wanted that showed me what was left of my monthly pay as I planned it (moneystrands!), or was simply not what I envisioned when picturing what I needed out of a budget program (mint.com).
Well, after 8 months of my husband being off work due to heart surgery(he went back on the 1st of September, healthy and strong, God is good!), and the debt piling up and the creditors calling, I realized we REALLY needed to get a budget going, if only in order to see how much money we didn't have. So.... I went again on that elusive search and ended up spending 15 dollars today (not in the budget, but fully refundable if I don't like it) on a program I found on the web that is simply a series of linked exel spreadsheets. It's perfect. I spent the day entering all the budget categories I could think of and copying and pasting them out through the middle of next year. I then went on my bank website and I tried to figure out when in the month all the bills came due. Next, I made a long list of all the dates money will be entering the bank account and an estimate of how much money will be entering, no matter how briefly, into the hallowed account.
Now, starting October 1st (I wasn't about to work all those hours for the 2 remaining days in September) I can simply click on the spreadsheet page that says "daily spending" and record everything in all my categories I spend each day. I even set an alarm on my phone to remind me each morning to put the previous days spending in the program. At the end of the month (or anytime during) I can click on overview and it will tell me where I'm at.. how much I've budgeted and how much I've spent on any given category.
According to the forecast, I'm about 500-700 dollars in the hole each month. I asked Joshua if he thought we could live without utilities and maybe one of the kids, but he said no. I guess I'll have to look less obvious places to find out where to cut stuff out. Can you pawn a pile of dirty laundry? A huge help would be if I could sell the house I moved out of to marry my wonderful new family. That would about take care of that deficit in one fell swoop. Lord PLEASE find me a buyer!
Now, even though it has turned what was kind of fuzzy vague bad news (I think we are in the negative every month) into a cold hard fact (Heck yeah, we're really broke), I'm still happy I did it. Now I have a really pretty spreadsheet with lots of red numbers on it to back up my "no" when I tell the kids they can't have something. When the creditors call I can tell them with all certainty that yes indeed it is true.. blood can not be got out of a stone. I can send them a copy of my spreadsheet to prove it. Also, it's a starting place. As William Feather predicted - the world has disciplined me - and now it's time for us to discipline ourselves a little more and make this budget thing WORK. There are no more credit cards to fall back on, the savings have been gone through. It's up to us and us alone to keep the wolves from the door, and battle back to solvency. God has never let us down before, and I believe he'll continue to take care of us as we work our way back to a safer more comfortable financial place.
Tomorrow I'll be taking my due date data and transferring it to a calendar sheet where I can see at a glance which pay period things come due and I'm going to figure out what needs to come out of which paycheck. Then I'll be pretty financially organized and at least be able to track the money as it flashes into and out of our account faster than the naked eye can see. Somehow, that is comforting. A starting point. We all need them. A fresh new year, a new month, a new week, a new day. Yes, even a new budget. As one of my favorite songs on the radio says:
We lose our way,
We get back up again
It's never too late to get back up again,
One day you will shine again,
You may be knocked down,
But not out forever.
(love you Toby Mac!)
So there. That's all I've got to say about that! Good night and many blessings.
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