Overspending alert!

I want everyone to be forewarned -- I haven't even done the end of the month finances, but I already know we went WAY over on eating out. We slid back into our old ways of running errands on Monday and taking the recycling money to In-n-Out for lunch. Plus we had to drive to my Number 1 Son's college twice, which requires eating out unless you pack a lunch, which, get real, hardly anybody does. Plus we were celebrating both Basil and I getting into a gallery show together. Of course, how do we like to celebrate? Food! I predict the eating out budget to be upwards of $300. That would have been a good chunk if it had gone to the credit cards. Hopefully it doesn't cause us to actually have a negative balance for the month. I guess this is about the time the New Year's resolutions start to waver, but we're going to try to get back on track next month. We'll take it one day at a time....but with In-n-Out less than a mile away, it'll be difficult.

$4.27 to Celebrate a Life-long Dream!

I've been feeling guilty this week. I'm usually the frugal one, but since we started this new year, Basil has been doing much better than I have. I only have a car payment, but I do have a freshman in college and a junior in high school who will soon have college expenses. I have no problems spending on them, but feel guilty spending anything on myself. This week I splurged (only two weeks into the new year) and ate out with my co-workers (again!), but only spent $6.33. Now my car payment is under $200 (though I always pay more), I have no credit card debt, and I made $40,000 last year, you'd think I wouldn't feel guilty about spending $6.33 on lunch (a salad and water), but I do! I also had a big victory in my art, in that I'm participating in a group show at a gallery and doing a joint project with another artist. I majored in art in college, have been painting on and off ever since, and my dream is to be able to sell my art. This is a big step in fulfilling my life-long dream. I went straight from work to the gallery to talk to the curator and had a headache from not eating anything when I got done. So to celebrate I took Basil to In-n-Out and I used a $5 gift card from Christmas and spent $4.27 extra to feed us both. Did I feel terribly guilty? Of course. I know I shouldn't feel guilty about spending so little to celebrate a life-long dream, but I do. We used to celebrate every little thing by going out to eat, and I don't want to get into that mindset again. I guess it will have to be an ongoing struggle.