Going back up that slippery slope...

So I've really been trying to stick to a plan our meals for the week, grocery shop for the specifics, cook on Sunday so it's all ready type deal. It's perfect for a number of reasons: meals are already prepped, helps us stay within our budget (obviously), keeps us from saying "Oh, we're too tired to cook. Let's eat out." Two weeks in a row, it's been botched, which is rather disheartening.

Last week, I made a load of stuffed shells on Friday and a chicken dish Sunday night, so all meals for the week were prepared. Monday morning, I came down with the stomach flu. Couldn't eat either the stuffed shells or the chicken thing all week due to personal issues with any food smelled or tasted during that yuckie period. Great. A TON of food wasted (although DH ate the chicken dish a couple of times). This week I made a roast which, in waiting for it to cool off, left it out on the counter overnight.

Will I ever get it right? Sigh. I feel like my planning wasted so much money when something "unplanned" came up. Now I've ruined a roast. Ahhh well, Rome wasn't built in a day.

My husband and I have a very easy tax return. We own no property and have pretty straightforward expenses--childcare, student loan and that's it. A friend of mine, who freelance edits/writes, got me into doing event research for a small website. It provided a small bit of extra cash monthly, which I relished.

Now that it is tax season, I am worried about filing my taxes incorrectly all based on my little freelance gig. Will an audit be worth the extra $1725 the job provided during 2007? Is an audit that bad? Sigh. I am reluctant to hit "send" on my electronic return for fear of how badly I've completed my return and yet I do not want to spend any money having my taxes prepared. What to do?

Why is it that people believe "well, if you can't afford it, just put it on credit!" My mother recently asked me to join her for a trip to Florida (she recently went through cancer treatments and needs all the uplift she can get). I told her that would be great, however, I currently don't have the funding to pay for a ticket. I know as she looked at me quizzically she was thinking, "just put it on credit."

First of all, I am trying not to pay for things on credit cards. I am trying to learn how to budget and use the cash I have to pay for things. Second, I only have two credit cards that have very small credit limits. I am trying to build back my credit score (although due to Christmas and DS's 4th birthday, they are rather overspent, but will be paid off with tax return and money earned from coaching).

I understand that some people have a bigger base and they use their credit cards and pay them off in full every month. I am pretty sure, though, that this is not the case for people such as my siblings who must do things of this nature on a consistent basis. It's simply a philosophical difference, but it still floors me everytime. My family's way of thinking is what has gotten me into the trouble I'm in in the first place.

I don't know why I ever shopped at large grocery stores for produce. Absolutely no flavor and WAY too expensive. I paid the amount I would've spent for my apples alone for my entire purchase at a local fruit store. I am loving this frugality thing. It makes me feel more productive.

Another thing, how fulfilling to clip coupons and savor the fruits of thy saving when handing them over at check-out time. Sigh. I may become money savvy yet.

Went on my checking account this morning. I had a really busy weekend with the little man's birthday and all. Didn't deposit mom and sister's checks for gifts I purchased for them and whoops! Overwithdrawn in the checking account. Grrrrr...part of the problem was DH bought gas and didn't know exactly how much and also an automatic payment went through that I forgot to take into account. But most importantly, I dropped the ball. Dammit! And the fees will be coming too! Minor setback.

This has absolutely nothing to do with finances, however, it is burning a hole in my brain.

My four year old received a Leapster from my brother for his birthday. I am very anti-video games, especially for very young children like my son. I know in my heart that my brother shopped long and hard for a good gift and chose the Leapster especially for my son. Do I go against the grain of my laurels and allow my son to play with it? Do you think he'll become addicted to it and stop playing with all of his other toys altogether?

I am paranoid and fearful.

Well, for two solid weeks I have kept an accurate checkbook register. Daily, I pop online to check my balance and check it against my checkbook register. It's working out very well. What it is truly showing me, however, is how much money I/we waste on stupid little crap like a run to Walgreens for Vaseline and Chloraseptic tablets for my strep throat. Or how about $13.07 for sleep diapers (we need to begin going to bed without those...goals goals goals). And then there's the "left the house without a lunch because I didn't think I'd eat one I'm so sick and throat hurts so bad" but then I end up going to Subway for lunch because I'm famished and OH they serve SOUP too! Sigh. I'm a work in progress. At least I know exactly how much money I have in my account and how much I'm working with in the next week. It feels much better being aware rather than being completely oblivious and hoping my account doesn't hit zero before the following Friday.

I am not sure if any of you have experienced this as it seems that most of the readership of this web site is relatively serious about finances, but the weeks, even months, after Christmas historically have been wraught with worry and a lack of cash. For the first time in six years, thanks to a very simple excel spreadsheet, I budgeted our money and we did not over extend ourselves this year. I'm so happy about this fact that I could click my heels together and run through the neighborhood proclaiming the joys of a budget.

A little background: the six years on my own--that is outside of my parents' house--have been tumultuous financially. I believe that the largest of it is due to depression. One's finances are very similar to one's house--if you don't keep either clean, it symbolizes a distaste you have for yourself. Also, although I love my parents very much, I blame them for not giving me more direct instruction in the ways of my finances. However, I do remember days when I first opened a checking account when I was diligent about recording everything.

That said, one of my goals for this year, in addition to staying above water, paying off debt, and saving something, is to keep a good checkbook ledger. I have been notoriously poor at this. Year after year, I try, but fail to implement it properly or for a long enough period of time for it to remind me of how little we actually have in the account and how we really couldn't afford the expenditures at Wal-Mart (don't we all go a little shop happy at Wal-Mart?).

In addition to better accounting practices, I am also going to try to write strict lists of what is needed each week and use that to guide purchases at the grocery store. One tip that I read years ago is to set up a system of envelopes in which you store the amount of cash you have budgeted for specific expenditures. I, for example, will have two envelopes. In the first, I will put $120 which I have budgeted for gas (two week period). In the second, I will put $400 which I have budgeted for groceries. Whatever is not spent out of those envelopes for those two weeks will be placed into savings.

Needless to say, I have full knowledge that I have wasted thousands upon thousands of dollars over the last six years. It sickens me to think about it, however, I look to the future. Someone out there, please keep me honest this year.