Mom, I just have to have these boots!

Boots - $40, marked down from $80 she pointed out. Think of all the $$ we're saving!

And that PacSun shirt, marked down to $19.99 from $30, wow, we've saved almost $50 already. Oh and that $7 charm marked down from $30 at Target, how can you say "no" to that.

Well, I did and I am.

Every payday, my family likes to go on splurges, out to dinner, movies and Jennifer likes to buy stuff..as much stuff as she can get away with. Unf. we pay for this by borrowing out of savings when the payday is still a few days away and the bank account is beginning to look awful thin.

I've had these lectures with both the kid and the hubby, since I run the accounts, that we have to monitor ourselves so this doesn't happen all the time. We'll NEVER get a holy shit fund built up, much less a car for Jennifer fund if we're constantly borrowing from it to buy all this shit.

They look appropriately downcast when I give them this 2x a month lecture, but then they always seem to find ways to buy the stuff anyway. So yes we have the $40 boots, the $19.99 top and the $7 charm now. And Gary bought $50 plus worth of orchids (but we'd planned for that) and yes I bought $30 worth of books and stuff for moi. But now the boots don't fit, (so I was dumpster diving for the receipt to take them back) and I think she's already lost the charm. And I'm almost through my book.

And it looks like we'll be having to borrow again this month out of the car account. The 29th seems like an awful long way off on the calendar.

She actually put an item back

I really couldn't believe my eyes, when my "I have to spend it now" daughter decided , on her own, to return a $6 bath wash at WalMart, saying "I guess we really don't need this."

I'd just put my spendaholic family on notice that we were going to have to go on a monthly budget, all the bills paid based on all the $$ coming in for the month, and then we take out food (up from $100 a week to $130) and gas (up from $60 a week to $100) will be factored in to. We play with what's left. This includes $10 a week for allowance for J., a $30 a week entertainment budget and 10 percent for charities.

Apparently, she was listening. I'm amazed.

A Great Day Balancing the Budget, Then the Day Goes to Heck

Went as a chaperon to Junior Achievement with J. middle school class (only field trip this year by my count) and the kids were supposed to balance out a budget given a profile they received (married, 2 kids; single, 3 kids, married, no kids) and salaries ranging from $21,000 to $50,000 a year.

And darned if the kids didn't make a good go if it, finding room to pay the mortgage, rent, car payments, food, insurance, vacation, med. insurance, down to savings and donations. J. ended up as a single woman with a salary of $51,000. So she lived on the beach and drove a sports car. She had $7 left over at the end of the month.

I think some adults, moi included, could use this rundown.

But then things went haywire from there. Her best friend wouldn't "wait for her" a faux pas in friendship etiquette. Wouldn't save her a seat and one of the girls put a sticker on her back and no one would tell her about it.

Then the coach got mad at some girl mouthing off, and made them run lines until they were in tears. Ahem. This isn't the 1980 Olympics team (see Miracle if want to know what I'm talking about) or the Marines.

So I picked up a tearful J. in the back of the gym.