One of the things I’m trying to get a handle on is my finances. I’m working on ME and finances, I’ve found out is a huge part of being me. When I was younger, I always had the mind set that money is not the most important thing in the world. I still believe that but I’ve also learned that it is how we see money and how we treat money that becomes integral in our life. We may not even realize it but money does permeate and affect every aspect of our life. My sister once told me, ‘money is not everything but it sure makes everything easier’. It is true to some extent.
When you have money, it’s easy to say it’s not important. I have been without money and I can tell you that when you don’t have money, it becomes VERY important. It’s just the nature of the society we live in. We live in a money driven world and everything runs on money. Money becomes tied to your emotions whether you know it or not. It’s like a drug. We are dependent on it and when we are cut off from it we feel lost and worthless. We need to develop a relationship with our money that will not hamper our development as a person.
One of the ways I’m doing to not make money a ‘big deal’ in my life is to live within our means. That means we only spend what we earn, taking into consideration the bills, mortgage, insurance, taxes and other expenses. We are learning to put off gratification. Whereas before when we feel like eating out or going to the movies and we don’t have the money we whip out the credit card, now we say let’s wait until next weekend. We’ll have extra money to spend out by then. And really, it doesn’t hurt. Whereas before I would start feeling sorry for myself, feeling deprived somehow, I now look at it as staying healthy. I look at it the same way I would when I deny myself a KrispyKreme glazed donut. I’m saving up the calories for something better for me like broccoli 
It doesn’t sound as fun, or delicious, but ultimately, that broccoli will do more for me than the donut.
It’s the same thing when we make choices about our finances. We can splurge now or we can save and be comfortable later.
Too many people hate their jobs but are afraid to leave, because they wouldn’t be able to pay their mortgage, credit card bills, car loans, or boat loans. Debt can turn a free, happy person into a bitter human being. Debt can turn you into a slave.
— Debt is Slavery, Michael Mihalik
I said on my previous post about a simple budget that I will start tracking my expenses. When I wrote that and resolve to track my spending for a month, I thought to myself, I will probably end up cutting back just because I’m consciously thinking of what I’m spending. Well, that was partly true. We went shopping last Saturday and sometimes I thought what I was spending on and went ahead and did it anyway. There were a couple of times though when I refrained from buying a couple of things because I did not really need it and was more of an impulse buy.
Like most people, I don’t have a budget and I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes I stay within the limit of my income but there are also times (too often) when I do go over what I earn and have to either use credit or dip into savings (and there isn’t much there to dip either). So I know I have a problem and I know I have to solve it. It’s the getting started that is hard.
