Let's get started, shall we?
I fight with money. I generally hate it, but that's only when I don't have any. Which is normal for me. I've never been good with money. I have phases that last usually no more than 4 months in which I have it together. I'm budgeted, I'm balanced, I'm worry free. Then something happens and I'm reminded of how I failed to save, failed to track my spending, failed to record something in my checkbook that I should have.
It's been very frustrating and now it's not just my money I have to help manage. After a two and a half year long distance relationship, my boyfriend and I are finally together. Now we're dealing with two of us that have money issues. We're both spenders. Neither of us knows how to budget for ourselves. And now we're in this together, which means we're either going to drag each other further downhill or we're going to work together to be financially free and comfortable.
At the present time, neither of us are working. He's a college student and I just moved here. I'm hoping to have a steady job by the beginning of next week and after this week of classes, his job search efforts will be going in full force. We have one car between us and right now, I'm the only one with a drivers license. Which can be good and bad as far as the price of gas goes and what we're willing to do. At this point, I'm willing to try anything, especially because the only money we currently have is 17 dollars on a Wal-Mart gift card and 25 dollars in cash that I'm trying not to spend until I absolutely have to.
I'm not getting down about it though. Life has a way of working out, so between trying to live cheaply, we're also going to try to make money where we can. Jobs are around the corner. My goal is to live frugally past getting jobs though. I want to have a savings account, I want to be able to pay my bills, and I don't want to have to freak out if the car breaks down or something comes up. I also want to be able to go on dates, do dinner with friends, and take trips throughout the year.
Blogging about it will hopefully keep me on track, which is the main reason I'm doing it. I'm making it public in the hopes of getting input from others and maybe giving some useful hints to others along the way. Here's to the first step in making myself into a self made cheapskate!
M.
This was originally published on "Stretching a Dollar" on May 6, 2008.
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