Obligatory New Years Resolution Post - Part IV (I swear I'm almost done!)

New Years Resolutions wouldn't be complete without talking about saving money.  I say this every single year, but the difference is this time I have a plan!

And to be fair, my past "I vow to not spend any money ever except on gas and groceries and that really cute skirt I saw at Banana Republic" resolutions must have worked somewhat because for the first time in my adult life I am beginning the new year debt-free.  No car payments, no credit card payments, nothing.  Also for the first time, I have a savings account.  With actual money in it. 

With all that said I struggle to manage my money.  To start, I'm terrible at math.  Thank God there's an app for that.  Secondly, in the nature of what I do with furniture, part of the gig is having to spend money to make money.  I get to shop and kind of sort of in a very back-asswards way, get paid for it.  I also have a tendency to jump the gun when it comes to my savings account.  I see my checking account balance, transfer way too much money from checking into savings, and the next thing you know I'm left with $25 to live off for two weeks which causes me to then transfer funds back out of my savings which makes me feel like a failure.  Feeling defeated, I then decide if I can't save money I might as well spend it, and I go buy that cute skirt I saw at Banana Republic.  

Mo' money, mo' problems y'all.  

Which is why this year I am truly going to try to budget (oh boy).  One way I plan to do this is to use more cash.  Cash isn't just for yard sales and flea markets - it's a for real currency accepted at all major retailers and more. 

Using cash will hopefully force me to budget because well, once it's gone from my wallet, it's gone until I'm allowed to withdrawal more the next week.  Also, if you know me, I'm not carrying around a LOT of cash so please don't rob me.   

So far we're on week one of this resolution and I've done kind of ok.  Although we did go over our weekly grocery budget because someone decided he needed $9 worth of granola bars despite already having $9 worth of granola bars stashed in the pantry he forgot about.

...

 

In other news, I think Winter has finally gotten to all of us.  Kenny was officially ready for bed at 8:00 PM.

 

 Today was a rough day, so I made the conscious decision to come home and paint.  

Of course I would choose red which is probably the least satisfying color to work with because it needs so many coats, but it felt good!