Not exactly the post I wanted to write

Okay, Okay. I didn't exactly write the entry about the spending fast like I wanted to tonight but oh well.  So far day one was a success.  We ate leftovers from this weekend (something that we are going to be doing an awful lot this upcoming year) and I didn't go out and drive around aimlessly.  Instead, I sat down and took a hard look at our finances.  I just finished the book America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right On the Money which really helped a lot.  Unlike most of the financial books I've read this doesn't just talk about cutting your spending but actually helps show you how.  The book is broken down into sections with your typical budgeting and debt categories but also helps you figure out how to save in the other areas like groceries, cars, utilities, clothing, etc.  

To be honest, when it comes to cutting my spending I'm a novice.  I look at Katie who is full of tricks and creative solutions to help save money and I wish I had her skills.  Still, there's no better time to learn, right?  I know we're going to make mistakes,  I think that's a given but I'm willing to take two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back, and so on until we find a system that works for us.  All I want is to go in the right direction and I'm ready to commit to that.  Hopefully, Katie won't be shy about sharing some of her money saving techniques and Dave grew up being very frugal so I think I'll be able catch on eventually.  

Today, I created a budget for our needs and actually made a complete spreadsheet based on the one supplied in the book.  How I plan to implement it is still to be determined but it's a work in progress.  We plan to eat a lot of the food we already have in the house before going grocery shopping so I have a couple of days to figure out how to feed to the two of us for a week for $50-$75.  I know that some of you reading that may laugh at how high those numbers are but it's going to be a real struggle for me.  If you only knew what we spent on food in month, it's sickening.   Some people could probably feed 100 people on what we normally spend on food.  In addition to that, I think I've determined how we are going to pay off this month's credit card bill in full and not go under water.  It will require tapping into our savings... a lot but we'll make it work and we'll have a fresh start.

If we can maintain our budget, heck even if we make a few small mistakes here and there, we should be able to create a small cushion without our checking account and start putting money toward that debt by February.  It's going to be super slow moving and I know I'm going to get impatient and frustrated by the progress but I just need to take it one day at time.  Hey, at least I'm not trying to lose weight or run a triathlon or something else ridiculous at the same time.  I can focus on this.