{Money Monday} Family Planning; When you fail to plan, plan to fail.

One of the things I was never taught as a child was how to budget. Probably because my mother grew up in a patriarchal household where her father worked and her mother stayed home. He paid all of the bills and his wife reaped the benefits of having such a great provider. Before my parents divorced, and before we moved in with my ailing Paw-Paw, we moved. A lot. Since my mom was a homemaker, I'm guessing my dad wasn't so good at budgeting either. (Does that mean I can blame my lack of budgeting skills on genes?)

When I got married, in the beginning, my then husband was very good about budgeting the money that we were bringing into the house for what had to go out when we got our bi-weekly checks. I liked the idea of having a budget. Of paying bills on time, not just when someone called asking for the money or threatening to shut something off for lack of payment. I would have loved to stay in the budgeting habit but once I saw the scales tipping out of my favor when it came to pocket money being budgeted to me, I fell out of love with the idea of budgeting.

As a single mom and the sole person responsible for making sure that things stay on around the house, food is kept in the house, a budget is a necessity. The only problem I have with the budget is (as Dave Ramsey always says) there's always more month at the end of the money. What I have come to learn about budgeting is that, as with most other things, it is better to be proactive than reactive. Even if it takes longer than you hope or anticipate; stick to the budget. You'll get ahead faster with a plan than you would just winging it.

I've got some very ambitious goals for my very modest budget. What I keep telling myself is that by sticking to it; any overages will allow me to maximize every dollar that comes into my household. That's one of the advantages of working in sales; if I go hard enough, I can bring in more than what I even expected.

Awesome.

Anesha Birchett - "Broke"