the b word...

No, not that one. I'm talking about....dum dum DUM...a budget. As in, starting in August, I am going to begin following one. I'm sure this will provide a whole new world of topics to blog about, so hopefully you'll bear with me.

At present, the only "budget" that I keep is basically as follows: I get paid twice a month. And twice a month, I pay half of my monthly rent, bills, and expenses. Then I just...live. I buy groceries. I go to lunch with friends. I gas up my car for a weekend trip to Florence. I buy the odd item of clothing. I don't spend like crazy...at the grocery store I often avoid the expensive cheeses. I go out with a friend and order a beer instead of a glass of wine or a martini. I browse a clothing website and then steer myself to navigate away from it without placing an order. More often that not I'm relatively pleased with the amount of money left at the end of the two weeks. But I don't have a PLAN.

So I was inspired today during a long drive with a friend. Char has, from a financial standpoint (among others), always impressed me. She went to college with very little outside assistance. She needed her financial aid, and very rarely did she abuse it. Given the option between a part time job or another loan, she chose the job. When it came to using a credit card, Char treated it just like a checking account, never charging more money than she would have available to pay at the end of the month. When we graduated from college, Char seemed to have her student loans paid off in no time. And for the past several months, she and her hubby have dutifully followed a very specific budget.

In Charlotte's budget, if you habitually spend money on something once a month, every three months, etc....there's an allotment for it. And that six pack of beer? That's not groceries, that's entertainment. There's no sliding things that have fuzzy lines into larger chunks of the budget.

This does not sound fun to me. In fact, this sounds like something that requires a dreadful amount of time and attention and THOUGHT. I mounted a fierce attempt to poke holes in my friend's reasoning during our trip. But it's so much harder to grocery shop for one person! And I'm in a long distance relationship, so since we only see each other on the weekends, it's important for our relationship to make those weekends special (aka, often expensive). I can't really just create ONE budget that works for me all year long, because I spend more and less depending on what I'm involved in during various parts of the year. Char calmly and patiently shot down every excuse I provided. Because, yes, that's what they are. Excuses. I CAN figure out a realistic grocery budget for one person, I just have to take the time to pay attention to what I'm buying, how long it lasts, and how much it all costs. And yes, of course my weekend time with the fella is special, but it's special because it's the time we get to have together, not because we go out to eat multiple times/stay at the bar longer than we intend to/convince each other that it's really OK to buy those sunglasses, that scarf, that CD. It's no less special when we buy a bottle of cheap wine, cook an inexpensive dinner at home, and just hang out on the porch listening to music and talking. And finally, yes, it's definitely true that I spend more at certain times of the year...like on presents for family and friends at Christmas, and less at others, like groceries during football season (hosting a house full of football fans is beneficial when they tend to leave copious amounts of tasty leftovers from the Grove). As Char pointed out, that's the beauty of the budget. During the easier months, you hopefully wind up with surpluses in one or two categories. Those surpluses can then be tucked away to get you through the more expensive times, or put on top of debt based monthly payments.

In the end...Char wins. She'll be sending along her handy-dandy Excel worksheet, and I'll be starting a new punishment...I mean, project...

I'll keep you posted.