My Wife Was Overspending At Stores

Category: Finance, Credit.

Let s get back to where we left off in the first part of this series.

You thought I was going to let you off the hook. Is there a little kid in you that is spending too much? You might think that you re doing fine. When I sat down and did my first budget I was feeling a little overwhelmed at what all I was spending my money on. Perhaps it s the mortgage that is out of line or the cost of fuel these days. Learning to budget is the start of healing your bad decisions.

It s really that simple, spend less than you make! Budgeting will help you identify if you have enough money coming in to pay what you have going out. If you sit down and realize that you are$ 500 under budget, you got a problem. When I first did my budget I quickly realized I was spending roughly$ 500 a month more than I made. But this problem is far better than not knowing your shortage. This kind of financial stupidity will sneak up and bite you.

If you are spending more than you make congratulations, you re like most Americans out there. I will go into more details on basic budgeting in further articles but here are some basics that you need to know. Really this is the problem because of aggressive debt marketing. You and I just fell for it. The fairy tale is sponsored by MasterCard or some other advertiser. The way I was covering for my$ 500 dollars of overspending was almost as dumb as using a credit card. So, I would put this amount in the bank and then draw from it as needed.

Come tax time each year I was getting a pretty nice refund because I was not utilizing my deductions correctly. Basically covering my overspending and covering up my bad habits. My wife was overspending at stores. The facts were starting to become clearer as I did my first few budgets. The kids were getting something each time we went out. Groceries had no limits, and amounts spent on food were blurred with purchases from both. We were eating out way to much.

I was also spending a lot of going out to eat for lunch at work. Our family was not some extravagant family. These little expenditures were leaving a bad taste in my mouth. We were not driving new cars, or wearing very expensive clothes. We were financially fat. But we made up for it in other ways.

We needed help. Keep reading other articles to find out how I fixed this problem and started my family on the right track. Somewhere along the way the dream was twisted into you can get what you want now and pay for it later. It s not as hard as you think, you just have to be willing to change your circumstances.