Celebrate the Small Things ~ On the Road to Contentment

Last week I met a new to me blogger, VikLit of Scribblings of an Aspiring Author through DL Hammon's Blog Blitz. I'd seen her weekly “Celebrate the Small Things” blog hop all over the place, and now found the founder!  I'm joining in, because it fits so well with my word of the year focus on CONTENTMENT.  

This week I'm celebrating the work I've done on straightening out our finances. We've done Financial Peace University TWICE, yet it seems that every few years we need to do a re-set and basically kick ourselves in the rear and start behaving responsibly with our money. Lots of unplanned expenses lately (which if you've been reading Life is Good even for a little while you're familiar with them...I let it all hang out ;-) 

I'm happy to say we've found some great software that's really helping. It's called YNAB which is You Need A Budget. Yes, yes we do. So far we're liking the 34 (what's up with 34?) day free trial very much and will most likely buy it.

I'm also celebrating some victories in my continual battle with my body image. Some of you know my history (anorexia – there, said it out loud again – and every time I do it gets easier).  I don't like being this size. I struggle constantly with food. 

Alcoholics “get” to just quit drinking. Not saying that's easy AT ALL. My point though is that we can't quit food cold turkey. Well, we can, been there done that and that's the problem...Food is constantly there as a source of stress. My success is that I'm feeling good about my weight for the first time in a long time.  

Maybe the weird combination of meds keeping me breathing is helping me in some way. All I know is that I'm wearing jeans that haven't fit me since 2010. I wasn't going to say anything to anyone, but hey, it's celebration day, so there you go. (To read more about me and this topic here.)

I'm also celebrating my wonderful kids and all they've done for me lately. They have really stepped up and done all their chores and most of mine, and mostly cheerfully. 

Yesterday The Transporter had a very difficult job to do to get his mother to her friend's new apartment. Elevators out of order...four flights of stairs for asthma girl not a possibility...but he (and Mr. Maintenance) found a way to get me up there! (I know you're going to be wondering...we got let into the residents parking garage and drove up to her floor, well as close as we could get anyway and that was enough.) He did all that while carrying a vase of flowers. 

OYT is going on his first overnight youth retreat this weekend which is a huge step for a shy guy and I'm so proud of him.

What are you celebrating this week? Since it's an ongoing, weekly hop, you can join too! Or just leave me your celebration in the comments so I can cheer with you!

~Tina

The Battle of the Budget

A big thank you to all of you who went to “lit” and read and commented on my story. I appreciate your time and your feedback! I will be a little slow in return visits. Life is Good but Insanely Busy right now.

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How do you do your budget? Do you use software? Do you do it the old-fashioned way on paper? Are you somewhere in between and use a spreadsheet? The Engineer and I are in the agonizing process of making our budget for 2014. So far, we're both alive, and talking to each other and had a wonderful, belated “30^th Anniversary of our fist date” dinner last night. However, I feel like I've been doing nothing but budget stuff for two weeks.

Of course that's not true. There have been plenty of other activities, you know, last week being what it was, plus we had two other major events.  It just feels like it's been parties, grocery store, food for parties, or BUDGET.

We are terrible at following through on our budget.  We've taken the highly recommend Financial Peace University class TWICE (were small discussion group leaders the second time) and have tried over the years to follow Dave Ramsey's principles of naming each dollar before it comes in, and not spending more dollars than you have.

“No, you can't have that dollar for Home Depot. It says groceries on it!”

We have been...sporadic and not very successful, especially as of late. So back to the drawing board. The difference this time is that The Engineer has been beside me every step of the way. As a mathematician and former office manager who did accounts payable, account receivable, and payroll, along with our family's taxes, I've usually been the one tasked with the...onerous task. However, having him beside me, seeing in black and white (and of course RED) what we're really up against with some of our recent challenges has been SO GOOD.

I've of course “shown my work” before, but he's been pretty much Chevy Chase at the Grand Canyon about it, and then wondered where all the money was at the end of the month. No more. He's fully awake and aware and together we are trying to come up with a solution to what seems impossible to balance.

I'm asking seriously here, how do you handle the budget in your family? Any advice is welcome. Or maybe you have so much money that it doesn't matter where it goes, there's always more. I've dreamed of one day being there. I'd buy a big sailboat...

~Tina

I know this isn't in English, couldn't find one...but the point is he glances at it for .8 nanoseconds...