Photo: Great grandparents at their farm in Blandinsville, IL, with five of their six children .. my grandpa was yet a twinkle in grandma's eye. Stable boy and governess also pictured. Hodges farm, circa 1903-4

Friday, December 03, 2010

Making Every Dollar Count

Yesterday was budget day a The Mangy Moose Lodge.  I have been working with a household budget for the past eight months; it's getting easier.  Allocating our spending categories at the beginning of the month ..  makes for good spending habits.  Its' easier to say "NO" to impulse buys.  Christmas shopping is easier with cash set aside in an envelope.  When the $ is gone .. no more shopping :).  Our youngest daughter is just starting out in life .. albeit .. still at home .. but learning good foundations that will carry her through life.  Being able to live on a fixed income AND budget will be vital for her future success.  Today I helped her type up an easy to read budget form that she can print out each month and fill in with pencil.  Learning to live within your means at an early age is a very good thing.  Our economy and government could use a good dose of living within a budget .. my wouldn't that be a saving grace!


Speaking of making every dollar count, look at the good turkey stock and meat that was made from cooking the turkey carcass after Thanksgiving.  We had a small 13 pound bird that gave us enough for an additional three meals ...

3 comments:

Wendy said...

How timely for me to read this. Honestly, I grew up in a very affluent community and married for love. This has been a very difficult thing to reconcile! Talk about champagne taste on a beer budget. I did have a major revelation just a couple weeks ago and won't bore you with the details. I feel really good about it though. The difficult thing comes when there's an unexpected large charge - like car bills or something and it's like, geez - all that penny pinching and it all goes out the window. It's easy for me to think, ok, what's the point then?!

that's a great skill you're teaching your daughter. Though my parents really tried to teach me these skills to I think, in college, they definitely lectured me constantly about using credit cards - it's not my money, etc. etc. but I just lied to them. I think there's a lot to be said about the community you grow up in. I'd really rather raise my kids in our very "regular" neighborhood than raise them where I grew up - in some crazy little microcosm fantasy land. Sorry for the dissertation - but like I said, this is a fairly new revelation for me! :)

Rebecca said...

Your daughter is beautiful and the skills she is learning from growing up in your house and from the instruction she is receiving will serve her well in the future.

I failed to cook the carcass this year. Now, after seeing the results of your effort, I'm sorry :(

meemsnyc said...

Learning how to budget is something I wish I learned when I was younger. That is something I learned the hard way. I love using Thanksgiving turkey to make broth, soup, chili, it's great!