Budgets, Bills, and Awesome Apps!

As we have established... for multiple reasons... I was a trainwreck in life #1.  One of my many big issues was money.  The spending of money.  The not saving of money.  The spending of money that was not there.  The fighting about money.  In case you are not getting it... money was a big problem in my marriage.  

The smart solution to that would have been to find a rich dude ;-)  .....but since that didn't happen, I got the next best thing... an organized dude who is slightly more responsible than I am ;-)

The biggest thing that I have learned about myself recently, is that I am an AVOIDER.  I always THOUGHT I was a "charge in and take control" kind of girl... holy lack of self-awareness.

  1. I hate paying bills, so I avoid them by not even opening them, or looking at them and only paying them when the disconnect notice comes because THAT is the REAL bill when they REALLY want the money (LOL.... but seriously).  
  2. I hate "dealing with things" like car registrations, changing bank information, insurance stuff, paperwork... so I just avoid it all until some catastrophe forces me to deal with them (like a police written warning... for example. LOL again... wow I suck.)
  3. I tend to just swipe my debit card and have a "general idea" of how much money is in there, avoiding actually LOOKING to see how much I have.  I also tend to swipe that card even when I know there isn't enough in there and bank on "pending time" skating me through til payday. Which as you may guess results in lots of overdraft fees when the roulette wheel doesn't spin my way ;-)
  4. As a result of #3... I HATE going online to look at my bank account.  I get a queasy feeling in my stomach, and my heart pounds like crazy every day when I check it... especially when I have been hitting #3 pretty hard.  So I avoid it... and sometimes only look on payday because I know then that it will be a positive balance.
So yeah. Bad, bad girl.  But fortunately for me... Lonnie don't play that way ;-) ....and I am open, willing, and CRAVING to change.  He has been such a great influence in my life about facing things head-on and not avoiding ever dealing with anything.  And it is amazing how much more relaxed I feel when I DON'T avoid this stuff!

I have also had to HUGE assists in the bills and budgeting department from my other bff... Technology!

The first one, my buddy Karyn turned me on to when she was doing Dave Ramsey's program.  I LOVE THIS WORKSHEET!!  I love sitting down at the beginning of each month and figuring out exactly where the money will be going, and when it needs to go there.  It's been a huge help to get me organized, and to help Lonnie see where and when stuff needs to be paid since he just recently joined the household.

The second one quite possibly could have saved my marriage had it existed back then.  (Ok not really, but it's BIG!)

https://www.clearcheckbook.com

Lonnie and I each have the Clear Checkbook app on our phones and whenever we use the debit card, we enter it in the app, and it's always live and updated.  It's BEYOND lovely to always know exactly how much money we have and also to not have to report our spending to whoever is maintaining the checkbook.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
Another fun thing about Clear Checkbook is their website because you can go on and see reports and charts of your spending and make budgets and stuff.  Loves me a good pie chart! 

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