I'm not exactly talking about Mounds and Almond Joys...but more about this blog. I had an intense desire to blog when I started this. I thought I would have words of humor or wisdom to share with the world about our first year of marriage.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all disappointed in our first year....I am however more disappointed with letting our story fall to the way side. Now I'm not promising new or constant updates but I will say that last night I knew that if I didn't blog about a certain incident I'd regret it.....
For kickers, we celebrated 1 year of marriage on Monday August 31st. The year has brought us so many ups and downs, but over all I couldn't have asked for a better way to start our marriage. Money has always been our great debate. Always.
For our Sunday night (Labor Day in this case) tradition we grabbed two movies from the Redbox....'I Love You, Man' and 'Confessions of a Shopaholic'. We watched the first Monday night but ran out of time before we got to the second.
So after a long Tuesday, including a night meeting for me, I returned home to find that Stephen had sweetly prepared spaghetti for dinner and offered to watch my chic flick. Go ahead and say it......awwwwwwwwww! But just wait.
If you haven't seen the movie, consider this a spoiler. If you have...you'll know what I'm talking about...this fashion loving, working girl racks herself up some credit card debt. I think the movie first mentions $9,000 and it ends up to be about $16,500. Poor Girl.
For the record I have NO credit cards. I had two in college maxed out my $2,000 limits and then paid them off with my first job. Forgive me for being blunt but my only current debts are my student loans, my car payment...and now a mortgage. I'm not bragging by any means. Some people have debt who need it....this girl just wanted clothes with labels and the latest accesories for her I felt no sympathy!
Ladies, before the handsome suave protagonist can arrive my husband has whipped out the laptop and is asking me questions about our budget. CAN YOU BELIVE IT???? I was merely watching a work of fiction and he dives into our banking statments, bills and develops a family budget before the movie is over.
My heart sank. I know I'm not perfect. I see stuff, I often buy it. I'm overly genreous sometimes sharing or gifting things. Our new house has perhaps turned me into a monster. But nothing I buy is designer, top of the line, straight out of Southern Living. I work so hard to find it on sale or discount. I live at Hudson's for heaven's sake. But that is exactly my problem. Because it's on sale....I think, it's ok!
For the first time I feel like peer pressure has moved upon me. When friends or family or the neighbors say stuff like:
"it'll look great when you get your shutters up"
or
"have you thought about what kind of curtains or rugs you want?"
or
"let me know if you want to paint more and I'll come help"
my brain says to me.....
"ooh you need to go ahead and buy those valances for the living room"
or
"maybe I do need to paint..."
or
"I need to buy the first rug I find on sale" YOU GET THE POINT!
In my quest to finish everything with the house lately, I've been doing it a little here and a little there. This is driving Stephen CRAZY! $10 here. $7 there (even if it's on SALE) Adds up.
I'm not building some crazy mound of debt. But I'm not adding to the savings account either! I was just beyond me that the mere mentioning of debt and shopaholics annonmyous sent him in to a budgeting tither!
So I held in there....reviewed his budget and went to bed. Calm. Cool. Collected. I can do this! I need to do it. Stephen isn't being some kind of big mean restrictive man, he's looking our for us our lives and stabilitly. Luckily I work too, or else I have a feeling I wouldn't be able to justify what I do spend.
So I recognize that if I spend everything I want now, I'll never get to saving for the European vacation that I want or be able to go hog wild when we start the nursery. I did it, I tightened up for the last year with the goal of our house. It was easy to save when you didn't have room in the apartment to bring anything home to. For now...I get it and I love him for it. Yet, I admit it won't be easy to stick to the plan. Because the last thing on my mind before I went to sleep was... "what am I going to buy with my $25 house decorating allowance?"
