Patience Is a Virtue

Patience is a virtue, and something I don't presently have much of. I got home from work today and found a DSW shoes rewards coupon in the mail. My first instinct was to head out to the City (1.5 hours away), and buy a new pair of shoes..... Then I remembered A) My family expected me to fix dinner tonight B) The stupid "Dave Ramsey" envelope budget thingy C) If I got held up in the City shopping and couldn't make it back to work tomorrow my boss  SO wouldn't understand. Then I realized.... God must be trying to teach me patience and I'm think to myself "After 47 years.... Why bother?" I remember when my daughter was a wee one, scooting around the house in her walker (my gosh I don't even think those things are legal any more).  One of my vows of motherhood was that I would never put my nic nacs away. My kids were just going to learn that there were some things they could not touch.  My daughter would scoot up to a little pretty knowing she was not suppose to touch. She would sweetly look at me as she reached her hand toward the "no no".  In my sweetest mommy voice I would say..... "No, no. Don't touch" and she would quickly draw her hand back. Seconds later her sweet little arms would once again extend to the "no no" and she would glance at me and back to the "no no" again. Those little fingers would ever so slowly arch toward the "no no" and as they did her chubby little fingers would stretch as far apart as they could and she would wiggle each one in turn as each little finger longed just for one touch of the forbidden "no no". Isn't that just like us all. Whatever is just out of our reach or "forbidden" is exactly what we are craving at that second. Do I need new shoes? Ha!!! You have got to be kidding me.  I could wear a different pair of shoes every day for probably several months and still not run out. Still, that coupon is burning a hole in the pocket of my purse. I don't need shoes, but I want them so very badly. I hung my head and proceeded to the kitchen with coupon in hand. What should I fix for dinner? Then I see it!!!! The expiration date on the coupon isn't until November 14th!! That gives me almost a month to siphon money from one "Dave Ramsey probably knows best" budget envelope to my very own "Dave Ramsey doesn't know EVERYTHING" budget envelope. I have time to... ummm, Budget new shoes!!!! Yes in fact I believe the Lord may be trying to teach me something..... I'm not sure I've totally learned it yet, but I have accepted the fact that he is trying to teach me something. They say every journey begins with the first step and I plan to start my journey in cute shoes. You know... Sometime next month. For those of you who are wondering.... All 3 of my kidsn (for the most part)  never crossed the nic nac boundaries I put in place for them. Today those sweet little fingers sail the ocean blue and have occasionally been wrapped around a N240 machine gun as they protect our freedoms. So yes, eventually the lessons are learned and after the fact they are a sweet memory of life's journey.

Pay It Forward Works Well With Budget

As I left for work this morning my husband asked "Why you leaving so early?" Apparently he had forgotten my Friday routine of getting a Starbucks coffee for breakfast. I got to the hospital with fingers crossed that all their machines were in working order. I was really looking forward to my coffee and didn't want to start the day out with a hissie fit on the floor of the hospital. Let's face it, that's just embarrassing(but sometimes unavoidable)! I waited for the coffee girl to spot me from across the cafeteria when a frazzled hospital administrator scurried by looking for the coffee girl. She was obviously in a hurry and didn't seem in the mood to have to wait so she went over and got the coffee girl instead of patiently waiting. The girl asked her what she wanted and Ms. Frazzled pointed at me and said "She was here first." Well, it's Friday, I've had a great week and I'm looking forward to a great weekend. I'm not stressed today and I don't plan on getting that way so I told the woman "Oh no, I'm in no hurry, you just go right ahead." Coffee girl seemed to be clueless about Ms. Frazzled state of mind and having someone that antsy standing there waiting on her did not encourage her at all to move a little faster.... I mean my gosh, even I was wanting to hurry up and help her get on her way to whatever she was late for. Don't get me wrong,Ms. Frazzled was very polite and very nice, she was just in a big hurry. Long story short, coffee girl got Ms. Frazzled taken care of and when she had finished taken care of me I discovered that Ms. Frazzled had paid for my Friday morning treat. How sweet was that? I didn't think to ask my husband this morning if our new budget strategy had a special envelope for Starbucks, but it doesn't matter, because that act of kindness fits right in my budget.I'll just slip that $5.00 into my shoe account, he will be none the wiser.

Let The Budget Begin

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After being the official "Bill Payer" at our house for 20 some odd years, I decided to turn the reigns over to my husband. We've been married now for almost 29 years. There have been times.... Very short periods of time, where we attempted to do the bills together. Let's just say that we decided that we would live longer and happier if we didn't do that any more and yours truly somehow ended up with it. I remember the day "I Quit" like it was yesterday. I worried and juggled and still nothing came out with us on the winning end, so I gathered all of the bills, all of our check stubs and all of my ledger stuff in one big arm full and headed up the stairs. My husband lay on the bed reading a book as I dumped the load of bills (I really want to use another word there but won't since this is a family friendly blog)on the bed and in the sweetest tone I could muster up told him..... "I'm not doing this any more!" It was one of those rare moments where he just had to take one look at my face and he instinctively knew.... "Just don't ask any questions, remain calm and give her whatever it is she is asking for." I had big crocodile tears rolling down my cheeks and I was in a full fledged meltdown. He sweetly said he would be happy to do it from now on, I turned around, walked down the stairs and went along my merry little way. From that point forward every Monday has been his hell day. Every Monday I would come home for lunch to find him hunkered over the breakfast table with the bills and checks laid out neatly in rows on the table. He didn't talk about it and I didn't ask. Truly I felt like I had paid my dues and it didn't bother me a bit to watch him pay his. I know that sounds harsh, but that's how I felt. So last month he read a Dave Ramsey book and a couple of weeks ago informed me that "We are going on a budget." I think I was turning the bed down as he began to tell me how The Budget would work (I thought I'd wait and hear him out before I turned his side of the bed down since I wasn't so sure he'd be sleeping in it that night). He explained there would be an envelope for different things (such as hair care and stuff) and if there was any money left in each envelope at the end of the month it didn't carry over (like my roll-over cell phone minutes) but it went directly into the savings. My response was A)My hair care and shoe and shopping envelope needs to be LEGAL size, not some little note card size envelope. B)Since he only needed two pairs of shoes,hence I should be allotted a portion of his shoe allowance. C)Who the heck doesn't allow roll-overs? Some months my hair needs a little care, some months my hair may need a lot of care and I'm just thinking this whole envelope budget thing should pertain mainly to low maintenance gendered people such as males. He ever so gently assured me that.... and these are his exact words...."This is going to be fun!" I kid you not, those words actually came out of his mouth. He made the mistake of telling me we had to wait and start it at the beginning of September. Yes!!! Sunday the 29th of August, was my all day shopping trip to the City! With cash in hand (because we are starting out debt free and will no longer use credit cards, LOL), I hit every store I could Sunday. Bought clothes for the fat side of the closet, the skinny side of the closet and the transitional side of the closet. I am now officially ready for the fun to begin!!! Bring it on.