Jason & I had been regularly putting a pretty good chunk of change into savings. Savings for when the car insurance is due, homeowners insurance, property taxes, vacation, Christmas, etc. Big purchases. The method had been working pretty well.
But here lately, we haven't had nearly enough to put aside. In fact, there have been several pay periods where we haven't put anything into savings.
I didn't understand why. We haven't changed our spending habits. So why now do we have less money for savings.
I figured it out this morning. See, back in April I was given a mandatory 10% paycut. I hadn't really noticed any differences, until here recently when I realized we hadn't been putting hardly anything into savings. Stupid bad economy. That and I have noticed the past couple of months that our grocery bill has gone up, due to increased grocery prices. Combine the two together, and one thing is obvous: we have to do something to change our spending habits.
We're pretty good about managing our money, I think. We spend hardly anything on entertainment. All of our vehicles are used. Even our house was purchased as a fixer-upper. I'm an avid coupon-clipper, and hate paying full price for anything.
But we do have one bad vice: eating out.
Not only because we enjoy eating out, but it's aggravated by the fact that with both of us working, and Jason's odd shifts, we don't really want to "waste" what little time we have together by doing chores like cooking. Add to that the fact that I'm really not very good at meal planning, and we have a recipe for disaster.
But I think we've reached a point where something has to change. We have to get better. If we stop putting money aside for these inevitable large expenses, then some day it's gonna come back to bite us in the butt.
Now, to find the time for more diligent meal planning, and cooking, and more aggressive sale/coupon comparison, and grocery shopping, and.... ugh. It's exhausting just to think of it.
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