The Progression of a Budget

It starts out with just a few little dollars you get for allowance (if you get one... I didn't). For me, it was the prize for getting good grades. Every report card brought that lusted-after money into my possession and the proverbial hole in my pocket.

Then my budget was my income from those first jobs (for me, janitor and Popcorn Cottage). At that age, my budget was saving for EFY, gas, and a little college (not nearly enough, mind you).

College. I was lucky with parents helping out with the basics and Scholarships, expenses were low. I learned to allocate for my needs and keeping them below my allotted money (giving me room for play).

Now, with marriage and the full weight of finances, it's been interesting to see how things work. We started with living off of student loans with a huge lump sum that I watched slowly dwindle over time. Now that we are out of school and in a real job, it took a little adjusting going to a month to month.

I love our budget, I'm addicted to it. I love being under budget and watching that savings build up. Granted, I pad our budget to represent the theoretical maximum we would pay (doctor bills we might incur, extra gas money for unexpected trips). Sometimes Aaron freaks out when I tell him what our budgeted amount for the month is, but then he remembers that I'm a "worse case scenario" sort of person and calms down. I ALWAYS make sure our budget is below our income for the month. Anything left over from the month before goes into loans, savings, and save ups for certain more expensive items (furniture, etc).

Oh, the freedom of the budget! It allowed our entire family a trip to London. It helped us save enough to survive the month between Aaron's jobs without worry.

Yes, I'll use powdered milk just so we can make it the last 3 days to the end without going over on groceries. I'm that person at Costco with only one thing in their basket sometimes. (it's literally 3/4 mile away, I don't need to make a huge trip) BUT with all my saving tendencies, I do have my itches. I'm an unfulfilled clothes horse. HOWEVER, watching our loan payments plummet, because we are paying more than required, is so fulfilling. I can't wait until four-five years down the road when that last loan payment is submitted. I'm sure we'll have acquired other loans by then and, maybe life will throw a curve ball and we'll be living off our savings. Either way. I know that the prophet's counsel to live within our means and follow a budget is a beautiful way to not fear what may come. It also provides HOPE that we'll have the money for a mission and to relieve that travel bug we both have ;)