Savings? What savings?

Wow, been a while huh?? I guess other than the random updates, I didnt have much to post about, and most of you already know whats going on in dailey life. I do, however, have a great topic for today! A financial overhauling.

Justin and I bad spenders. We have virtually no savings, and litterally go paycheck to paycheck. We are never 'hurting' for money between paydays because we have enough to spare in between. We only have about (not including allotment bills) $770 in bills each month. His paychecks are about $1500 a payday (we have a good bit in allotments... about $730. $220 of which just ended on Feb 1st., so next month it will only be about $510 in allotments) If you think about that, then in reality, we have only about $1290 in bills every month. And thats ALL of our monthly bills. Add in about $400 for groceries, $120 in dog food, $300 for gas, and around $50 for diapers and that puts us at $2160. I have NO idea where the other $840 a month goes. I mean I know there are things Im not accounting for that arent paid every month, but still give or take even $400. That leave $440 that we should be able to save every month, but do we? No. I 'save' money on coupons, but what am I saving it for? It doesnt get put into savings... it gets spent on something else I wouldnt have normally bought. How is that helping me at all?

Its not.

Yet, here we sit, with no emergency funds or anything but complaining because we dont have this, that or the other. Which, to me, is totally hilarious. We would have all these other things we want if we were just smarter. It seems we just cant see past the next payday. Sad really. I mean, Nathin could be in college in 12 years. If we ONLY save $6,000 a year, thats only $72,000. That MIGHT cover college for him, but that doesnt even account for the other two kids! So we would be saving, saving saving... and probably only have enough for for each of our kids to have about $30,000 for college, and then all of the money we saved is GONE. We would have to start all over again. Crazy, right?? But it has to be done. I know we can save more than that if we just put our minds to it. Plus as the years go on, we will have a higer income, so we could be saving more money each month, plus Justin will get retirement pay which will help out a lot. Its not like we will actually get any of the money that he pays into Social Security. That will all be gone in the next few years. Hell, my PARENTS got a letter saying they wont be getting it because the money just isnt there. That being the case, we definitly arent getting it, and yet we still have to pay into it every month?? For what exactly? That really ticks me off. All wecan do for nowis cut back on the frivilous spending.That doesnt mean NO fun, it just means spending wiser on a dailey basis so that we can set aside money for long term savings, emergency funds, and fun savings. So my goal... by the end of the year, we will have $5,000 in a long term savings account, and $2,000 in an emergency fund, on top of saving for Christmas and birthdays, both of which we are going to scale back BIG time on this year. Our kids have been WAY too spoiled the last few years, and it needs to stop. They can either have huge Christmas' now, and no college money, or smaller Christmas' but a decent amount of money set aside for college. I am going to tell family too that gifts for the kids will be money to their college funds. Instead of my mom dropping $500 for each kid at Christmas, she can do $100 in gifts, and the other $400 to their college. They might get to be teenagers and think it totally sucks, but I really wish I had something like that waiting for me!

We have also thought about the possibility that the kids wont all go to college, or may get a scholarship, or join the military and have school paid for. In that case, they will get HALF their money at 25, and the other half when they turn 30. I think thats fair. Anyway... I need to get off of here and create a bills list and an 'In and Out' ledger :) Wish me luck!!

♥Ashleigh

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."