The Failure Spurs Future Hope

Cartoon Courtesy of Google Images  

      Last I wrote I had to find $109 dollars to take out of my flexible budget and put it into my savings/debt budget in order to be successful at creating a 50/20/30 Budget.  Well...I'm here to tell you I've failed.
     That's right, I failed.  I put off adjusting and thinning the flexible portion of my budget until the second half of the week because I didn't know how I could thin out my expenses.  I knew this because I've gone through Pinterest a million times and read over and over articles telling me how to thin them out, but I've never found anything new that I was already doing.
     I finally tried on Thursday and I was right.  I was not able to make my budget fit the 50/20/30 Budget.  You may be thinking I failed because I already thought I would fail, but either way, I failed.  I wasn't sure how to handle my failure because I knew I had to not only face the readers of my blog, but of course, I had to figure out what to do about my budget.
     I also put off what to do about my budget, out of fear of failure.  I didn't know what to do until today.  I've actually been avoiding Pinterest because of my fear of failure, but today I sucked it up.  I searched Pinterest for pins about beginning budgets, but what I found was much better.  I found asunnysideuplife.com .

Image Courtesy of asunnysideuplife.com

     This is Sami.  Today she gave me future hope.  She took me through her journey taking Dave Ramsey's baby steps.  Never heard of Dave Ramsey?  Then you are living under a financial rock.  He is THE leading mind in finances!
     Sami wrote a great article in her blog that gave the overview of what her family went through as they took Dave's baby steps.  Starting with their failure to truly begin following the steps.  If you want to read her blog click on her picture.
   What I learned from Sami was that it's okay to fail.  It's okay to not know what you are doing at first.  I learned that I have to keep trying though.  Her debt was five times more than mine and she made it through.  So, what did I do with the information and new found hope?
     I started again.  This time I decided to follow the advice of Dave Ramsey and follow his baby steps.  What are they?  Well, good question.  They are as follows...

Image Courtesy of Google Image

     Tonight I started with making a budget sheet for my bi-weekly paychecks.  More importantly I made a list of all my debt from smallest to largest.  Today starts my journey to save $1000.  I know I can not (most likely) save money in the month of April or May seeing how I have 3 birthdays to throw.  I vow to put whatever is left over each paycheck into the $1000 savings pot.  I vow to start a visual reminder of my goal, such as a picture of a savings thermometer.  I vow to commit myself to my family's future!

     If you want a copy of my budget sheet, you will have to wait until next week.  There are bugs to be worked out first.  Sorry.  Until then, visit Sami at asunnysideuplife.com and check out Dave Ramsey.