Show me the money

Do you ever feel like you just keep getting older, yet you never grow up. I have felt this way financially for a long time now. I don't mean to boast or anything, but I do think that we have been blessed with the gift of living simply and being thrifty. I don't think we do half bad living off of a youth minister's salary. I would dare to say that not many people could live the way we do. It's always tight, yet we have still been able to maintain a high quality of life. I often feel blessed and like we are living the good life. But in a lot of ways, even though we have done alright for the past 7 years of marriage, it hasn't really been until the past 3 months that I feel like we have made the choice to grow up financially. We have been sort-of following a budget the past 2 years of pay off our debt and living by the concept of don't spend more than you have. But the past 3 months we have really started to grow up and stick to a strict budget. The best part about this budget is that it is amazing how much money you can find when you know where it is all going. I am amazed that we went on vacation last month and paid cash for everything. Dave Ramsey (our financial guy) says that the best vacation is the one that doesn't follow you home. And now having experienced this myself, I would have to agree. In the past, Visa would have picked up the slack for us on a vacation and we would have spent several months paying it back off. It is nice to know that we had such a great time and we came home and we know there's still money left to eat for the rest of the month. So I am not here to just brag about it, but it feels pretty darn good for us to feel like we know where we are spending our money and knowing that we have extra money set aside to pay for things when they come up, etc. The other thing about a budget is that I have been very hesitant to really live by a budget because I am a free-spirited person and a rule-breaker. I do not like feeling restrained or limited or restricted by anything. I was so apprehensive to actually commit to this because I thought it would take my freedom away. The good news is that since having a budget, Jeb and I both feel even more free to do what we want because there is actually money to do it with. If we want to take a trip, we save for it and do it. If we want to go on a date and go to the movies, we have money set aside to do it. If an emergency comes up, we have money set aside to take care of the problem. So for the first time in a long time I really do feel a lot of peace about this area of my life and I feel more free than I have in such a long time. It isn't always easy, but it sure is worth it!