Nov 21st, 2012 by Jennifer Lynn
After a slight pause due to car toil and trouble, M. and I have successfully smoothed over and revived our envelope system of savings, despite facing a semi-dissolved emergency fund. We were looking into online savings account rates as well to help speed up our savings.
We cracked open the budget last night to fiddle with the viability of working toward previous goals while simultaneously re-fluffing our emaciated emergency fund. Then a tense forty minutes was spent on relentlessly nudging, jabbing and cleaving at the numbers until we could reconcile a functional solution, which we managed to do, and which is genuinely excellent.
It was stressful calculating where nearly every penny had to go but we did chisel away a teensy percentage that was being frittered away on rubbish, like unnecessary entertainment costs, which instead would be veered into our specific savings goals (such as purchasing a king-size mattress, also gravely needed at this point), in addition to re-plumping our emergency fund. And instead of trying to scrunch all of our objectives together, we decided to intensely focus on a lone goal and scrape it from the agenda before continuing forward.
We even inaugurated our little savings envelope with a dab of cash: nearly $20 from a massive pile of bottle returns, hah!
Our savings envelope, back on track.
It feels lovely to be progressing forward.
Baby steps.
Fellow peoples: although I enthusiastically support giving hearty obscenities toward insatiable consumerism and other such blatant nonsense represented by Black Friday, I still would like to wish everyone a truly joyous holiday weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving, from Lexi and me!
=^..^=
Happy thanksgiving!!!!! And yay for saving again, even when it sucks.
Nice job on balancing your budget Jennifer. We all know how tough it can be, but it always feels good to do it.
Also, I agree with your sentiments on Black Friday. Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving.
I'm sure you feel much better now that you have a plan in place for your budget and savings; congrats!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
It does suck to have to start over, but at least you had something to deplete. I love the word Anew. Great title!
It must have been tough balancing your budget and finding where you can trim some "unnecessary expenses". Although entertainment hardly qualifies as unnecessary – we're all humans and need some fun once in a while! Sad thing is that is usually the first one to get cut or eliminated entirely. I hope you figure out other ways to have more fun – somehow I suspect this won't be a problem for you.
@Femme Frugality, yay, nearly time to induce the food coma. Nom nom.
@Grayson, thank you for the encouraging words. It was a painful process, but necessary, at this point.
@K.K., thank you for stopping by. It does feel good to tackle the problem and work toward a resolution. Enjoy a lovely feast
@Kim, thanks for the title compliment. Yes, it is always nice to have a gentle reminder that our emergency fund dutifully served its intended purpose.
@V., we'll be cutting way back until the e-fund is replenished, which does suck. Now the boy and I can find creative ways to drive each other mad.
At least you are finding your way back into the black. Plus by the looks of it, your partner is as keen as you are to save money. This will make it so much easier to do as you will both be sharing the same goal.
I'm with Glen- having a partner who is willing to sit down and go through finances even when it's stressful is so important! For me, having a partner who is also committed to saving 755 of her salary is the only way we could realistically retire early. Without her I'd be working for my whole like, or retiring early … by myself!
Happy Thanksgiving girls! Love the envelope, it is adorable. If you use cash, maybe a change jar would help too, you empty once a month or so and take it to the bank in exchange for a crisp bill to put in the envelope.
Good for you guys! We're at the same point (depleted our emergency when I was put off work 5 weeks earlier than expected w/ mat leave…although baby is now 5 mos old). Have a great Thanksgiving!
Happy thanksgiving and good job on your budget!!!!!
Good for your and it's good to have plan. Never give up even when the going gets tough. We all have rough spots but we pick up where they left off and move forward. Happy Thanksgiving. Mr.CBB
[...] Balancing Our Family Budget Anew – Broke-Ass Mommy [...]
[...] Balancing Our Family Budget Anew – Broke-Ass Mommy [...]
[...] Broke Ass Mommy – Balancing our family budget anew [...]
[...] Balancing Our Family Budget Anew on Broke-Ass Mommy [...]
You guys make excellent points about how imperative it is to have your partner on a similar page financially. It's a rough patch, for sure, but enormously more navigable due to M. and I having parallel goals.
@Pauline, love that change jar idea! We have a rolled up sock ready to burst open with pennies.
[...] an envelope savings system and aggressively tackle a specific goal until it has been accomplished. PASS! M. and I [...]
[...] a pre-determined percentage siphoned away to our joint savings account (long term investments) and our savings envelope (for short term needs and [...]