Thinking Clearly

I always seem to think more clearly about money when I don't have it. You know, the in-between paycheck time when it is very clear where the money should be going versus the money-in-my-pocket time when I desperately need things I didn't even consider before - and need them more then I need to pay a bill. So I have started budgetting differently. Since I don't have a steady income, I haven't been able to have a steady budget. On one hand, it has been great to know (and a good deal less stressful) that I don't have credit card bills or major car payments, but on the other hand it means I have to reign in the freedom and make good decisions. Realizing all of this I have started to make out my bi-monthly budget during the low points in the ledger. It is then that I remember bills I tend to put on the back burner during the surplus. It is then I tend to want to be the most generous. And it is then that I count my blessings for at least knowing a check is on the way. So today, a barely-made-it-to-work-with-that-amount-of-gas day, I budgetted my upcoming paycheck and am proud to say it looks better then I expected. I have thought it through, kept emotion out of it, and wasn't trying to budget in any new fabulous clothes staring me down straight from the rack.

I also have discovered the newest form of cyber coupon cutting. Check out the Safeway or King Soopers websites and you will find a link to a site where you register your club cards, click on the coupons you would want to take to the store and, instead of clipping, printing and trying to remember, the coupon is loaded right onto your club card and is used automatically when you scan it at the register. Beautiful.