I've Cooled Down .. a bit

Mrs. Mac Cooling Off .. in a little bit of powder ;)

The weather turned a nice temp .. we got some rain .. I took a few days off from my break-neck pace .. and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (sorta .. tomatoes are ripening up;).  My computer is REALLY acting up now and not allowing me to transfer any pictures from the camera .. says I'm not the administrator .. which is a lie ;(  but I can't talk any sense into the hard drive/memory.  About ready to get a new one .. (again).

Today was budget day.  That means I work out a budget for the whole month and spend on paper all the money at one time .. ending with zero money.  I have so many categories and cash envelopes .. it's hard to mess up or omit something.  Doing this helps to have the money already set aside in the bank when the bills arrive .. say for example life or car insurance.  By setting aside 1/6th of a semi-annual payment each month..  I can pay for it in full and save a little by not having to make installments.   I LOVE/LIKE budgeting because it really makes a person think twice before buying something if it's not allocated ... makes saying NO much easier :)

We just bought our quarter of beef for the year .. this was budgeted and made it less painful to fork over a large chunk of money since we had been saving for a long time.  In this economy, living without a budget would be scary.  If I could go back in time .. I'd do a better job of teaching my kids how to budget; not all of them got the benefit of seeing and living through a written spending plan.

Well .. if I need to buy a new laptop .. or at minimum get this one fixed, I'd better start setting aside some funds.