Every minute of life we are learning some important lesson. We can choose to learn from the experience or we can ignore it. If we choose to ignore the lesson we can bet we will be experiencing the same thing again and again until we learn what we need to.
I am learning about money right now. My other half and I are now doing the bills and finances together. The good news is we make enough to pay our regular bills and we could begin paying off some of our debts. The bad news is we are seriously behind on several bills and that is killing us this month.
Accepting the fact that the money you make is just going to pay bills and that generally speaking there won't be any money left for "luxuries" is a hard thing to do. Many people become overwhelmed and frustrated by this and they choose to ignore particular bills if they can. That is how we get ourselves into trouble. Denial is part of the problem with finances. People just don't want to "deal with" that type of thing, so they ignore it.
Do you know exactly how much you will owe in regular bills at the end of the month?? Do you know exactly how much money will be left over when you pay all those regular bills every month?? I know that the answers to these two questions can be depressing for some people but knowing about your bills and income will help you. If you know how much money you have after bills then you are less likely to overspend. If you are not able to live comfortably after paying the regular bills maybe it is time to sit down and try to eliminate some things.
Last night I made up a spread sheet for myself in Microsoft excel that adds and subtracts all my numbers for me. All I have to do is punch in my bill amounts and my income. The spreadsheet is helping me sort through everything and slowly but surely we are going to get things straightened out financially and hopefully get out of debt!
Does anybody have any tips or pointers about finances? How did you get all your finances under control?
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Comments: 4
You simply cannot keep allowing yourself to "fly blind" though. Ignoring the problem only makes things more difficult in the end. Knowing exactly how much you pay on bills and how much is left over will surely wake you up and yes it will be scary... but it will take you steps closer to living within your means and it will help you get caught up!
Some of his recommendations were to stop buying gifts--I have 6 kids and 13 grands, now how can I stop buying gifts. I do limit the amount though to under $15.00. One thing I found to be a good economical gift is to buy a magazine I think they will enjoy and give them a gift certificate to it. So far it's been well received.
The other suggestion--no FREE baby-sitting! That is toooo hard for me to do. I think I'll just market my books a little bit harder. I've been very negligent about that.
Hoping you all get out of debt soon.
Mary