Bananas, baubles, and budgets

We are trying to get caught up on a few bills around here. Summer is fast approaching which means I won't be at my part time job for three months. And due to the fact that we are driving around two cars that are both from the 1990's decade and the fact that I developed allergies that occasionally "act up" we have incurred some unforseen expenses this year.

All that to say, I'm dusting off the Dave Ramsey book and trying really hard to keep us on a budget. The hardest part for me has been that our budget doesn't have an "oh, that would look really cute on Emma" section. I think that cute clothes should be a need but Dave Ramsey seems to think that they are a "want." I also think that Jake "needs" for us to renew our Sea World passes for this year so he can visit his beloved Shamu, but again Dave disagrees.

So, once we gave up fashion and theme park fun the only other place I could really find for us to cut expenses was food. This includes dining out. We used to go out to lunch a couple times a week. Over. Gone. And it's really not that bad. I have found that I'm happy eating a sandwich at home. Okay, happy is a strong word. I'm okay eating a sandwich at home.

And I'm really trying to make sure that the food we do buy is locally grown and that we don't waste anything. And this is why my children are driving me crazy. They are prone to begging me for hours for a banana and then finally getting that banana only to eat one or two bites and claim they are "DONE". Oh, no you're not. You will eat that entire banana and you will love it. However, it is really hard to force feed banana to a child who has his/her mouth closed in defiance. This may have led me to go on a rant the other day which ended in the phrase "it's like ya'll think bananas grow on trees or something!"

Then I realized that bananas do indeed grow on trees. Note to self. Make sure crazy rants are scientifically accurate so children will continue to think you know everything. It is your last defense.

Tonight at dinner, I learned that my children were beginning to reap the rewards of our new found budgeting skills. Jake was talking about wanting a whale shark toy. So Mike asked him if he had any money to buy one. At first, Jake pointed to my change jar and said "yeah, there's some money." His face just fell when Mike reminded him that was mama's money, not his. Five seconds later his face lit up again as he informed us he had a great idea! So, tomorrow Jake is heading off to the local money festival. I plan on following him because, ya'll, I didn't know they even had those!