Family budgeting! - Real Mum story on MoM

6 Comments

Up until a few weeks ago we were living it up. When we wanted something, we went out and brought it. We needed something, we went out and we brought it. Whatever it was, we brought it. Money was no major concern. We were living for the day to day life and very happy doing so. Until…friends of our came back from an overseas snow holiday. I was very happy for my friend that she and her family had a wonderful time; however, I was jealous. It is not often that I get jealous and this was a feeling that I wasn’t keen on. So I sat down with my husband and we talked about how we could afford a wonderful snow holiday for our family. We went to a travel agent and investigated how much it would cost and for the first time in a long time, we couldn’t just go and get what we wanted. And it hurts. We have finally realised that living in the “now” isn’t the best. We should be looking to the future and having some savings behind us. So for the last 3 weeks we have been living our life completely different. In fact a complete 180 degrees different. And it is amazing! The first 2 weeks hurt. We couldn’t go and buy that magazine, new clothes, make up that we wanted it. This last week the pain hasn’t been so much. We are focused. We know what we want to do and we are saving up for it. We are excited by achieving our family budgets. I went to the shops today and I nearly brought some clothes that I liked but then at the last minute…I stopped… I thought about..and I realised I didn’t want those clothes purely because I wanted to make budget for the week. Oh, how life has changed! The best part is our kids are now looking at this lesson and they are encouraged to start saving their pocket money rather than just spend it. A small light bulb moment of jealousy has really turned our whole life around and believe it or not we are enjoying it! We don’t need those empty purchases, we get so much satisfaction out of achieving our weekly financial goals. I must say I am surprised and for everyone else out there who lives in the “now”, take a moment and think about it. Is life about purchasing new toys/make up/clothes etc or is it about creating memories and spending time with those we love rather than shopping?

Posted by kyles, 31st May 2013

6 Comments

- - mom110650 said
  - 30 Apr 2015
    7:47 pm
I’m so impressed and inspired. We’ve been trying to budget too, but because we bow have a small child and I don’t want to get into credit card debt due to not planning for surprises. It’s quite a thrill for me to successfully meet out budget and see the green in our budget app. But it is hard to be disciplined.

- - mom93821 said
  - 20 Jan 2015
    2:26 pm
Needing and wanting are two very different things; happiness comes from this realisation.

- - mom57522 said
  - 03 Jan 2015
    7:37 pm
The more we have the more we want.

- - mom93821 said
  - 29 Dec 2014
    6:07 am
Jealousy is such a wasted emotion; glad you were able to learn from it and move forward.

- - eestigirl said
  - 09 Jun 2014
    4:50 am
I just read your story and it’s a year later. You did an amazing turnaround. I’d love to know how things worked out and if you stayed with your saving plan after your holiday.

- - tilly said
  - 09 May 2014
    7:44 pm
Wow you have done a turn around. Holidays are a great reason for the change and you will enjoy it all the more when you know you have the savings to do it with ease. We did exactly the same at the start of the year and splurged on the best accommodation we could get and it was well worth the saving and missing out on a few things here and there.