Over the past couple of month, I have let me spending get away from me. My financial house is a lot like my physique. Not bad, but not what I want it to be. With just a little more effort, it can be amazing. To that end, I started reading the Total Money Makeover again. I get exasperated with the spiritual overtones of the book, but I appreciate the message. Do the simple things (not easy) and reap the rewards. My oldest daughter is in band now. She has excelled very quickly, but was wanting to know what she could do to get really good. I told her to practice her scales. It’s basic. It’s tedious. And at first really boring. However, once you get good, get them memorized and know them well, you can zip up and down, make up little tunes and it improves your ability in all the music you’ll read. Just from doing some basic (not easy) things, you can get huge results.
Due to a windfall, I am paying off my credit cards and setting a little aside. I have a good chance at getting ahead with a little planning. I’ll have to sacrifice some trips I wanted to take this year and postpone some other plans, but by next year I should be in a better position to do those things. In the meantime, it’s just keeping it simple and cheap with the kiddos and when hanging out with friends.