budgeting

The dreaded "b word".....I have never lived on a budget until about 2 years ago. My dad talked about them a lot, my mom laughed at them a lot, my husband talked about them a lot and I NEVER could make it happen....so I didn't....until 2 years ago. It was almost 2 years ago today that I found out we were going to be adding to our family. I was so excited to do this parenting thing again. I was working retail selling high end exercise equipment at a great store and had recently started my own personal training business. We were going to be doing GREAT. I was going to find a great Mother's Day Out program that I could take the girls to 3 days a week. I was going to have 3 very FULL days of training in people's homes and I was going to be making A LOT of money. Sometimes it's just not in the plan. The personal training business never took off and eventually we decided that daycare for 2 was going to be WAY more expensive than we had originally budgeted. It was time to get creative. That's when we rebudgeted. What if I didn't work? What if we took out of the budget daycare all together? What if I breastfed only, made homemade baby food and used cloth diapers? The verdict.......we would only be lacking $200 a month....and so my Pampered Chef business was born. I love my Pampered Chef business. I love the flexibility and I love setting goals and meeting them. I now live on a cash only budget and my family very seldom argues about money anymore....I love our budget! (usually)......so I recently hit a very substantial business goal and I thought I deserved a reward. The problem? It didn't fit into my budget. I have wanted some super cute UGG look alikes for quite some time....they are SO expensive - I just haven't been able to justify it. But today I took Sydney to buy boots. I had set some money aside to get her some shoes and maybe pick myself up a little something in the way of a reward.....I had $25 set aside for Sydney's boots (she had found a pink princess pair at Payless that lit up.....and so she LOVED them). At the last minute, Sydney decided she wanted to use her own money to buy her boots - I thought that was awesome!! When we tried them on she decided she didn't love them (Sydney is a picky picky shopper). On a whim we went into Stride Rite. I knew that Stride Rite wasn't going to fit into her budget, but I had the money I had originally set aside and so I decided we would go in.....she immediately spotted pink UGG look alikes...and had to have them. I, too, was in love. Seeing the love on my face the saleslady asked what size shoe I wore. Knowing this was a children's shoe store, I couldn't imagine why she was asking. She asked if I would like to try on a pair of the big girls in a size 4 - that a ladys size 6 translated to a girls size 4....WHAT???? And so - within my budget and with Sydney's help -the two of us managed to combine our money and pick up totally cute matching UGG look alikes.......I love my budget...and I love how sometimes it just seems that things were meant to be...like UGG look alikes!!!