Can We Do It?

As with many folks, the beginning of a new year ALWAYS brings conversations about money and financial goals to the Booth household. We are far from debt free, but find that every year we are less and less comfortable with owing lots of folks. We have looked into Mr. Ramsey and Suzie, we've taken a little advice from here and a little advice from there and figured out what we can “live” with.

We’ve never lived with a budget. I admire the heck out of those that can follow a budget. Budgets scare me. I know I’d be REALLY frightened to learn where our money really goes. We’ve just always been blessed to live how we want to live.

As our country, and our friends and family, look at difficult times ahead, we’ve talked about steps that we can take to cut back. Last week, we were talking about how much money we spend going out to eat. Between work lunches, family dinners, meeting friends, and a date night here and there, we figure food is one of our biggest monthly expenses.

So, just for fun (because we’re fun, JB and I) we’ve made a family commitment…no restaurant or fast food for the entire month of February. For the ENTIRE month! (What are we thinking???) No McDonald’s for the kids, no Arby’s on the way to cub scouts, no take out pizza on Friday night, no lunch after church…nothing. Not one $$ anywhere but the grocery store.

We’re tracking our savings and even with the increase in groceries, we figure we’ll save $500 this month. (Crazy huh? Shows how much we don’t eat at home!)

Day Four – We are surviving.