Monday, July 9, 2012

Budgeting and a Bizarre Phenomenon

For a long time I have thought keeping a budget was impractical. There are too many things to keep track of. And why not just spend as little as possible?

There are two reasons that doesn't work, and those are a., we actually have to buy certain things that I tend to not want to buy, but we need to, and b., I'm not single and childless anymore. I can't eat homemade gorp for a week and count on that being my only expense.

I'm intrigued by cash budgeting. It seems so simple once you've got everything straightened out. There are still hundreds of things that we spend money on every year, and I'm not quite sure how to deal with longterm expenses (this summer, unexpectedly, we replaced our tires, distributor, and wheel cylinders, which I certainly did not anticipate), and things that we buy maybe once a year. I also find it daunting to figure out how much we spend on things to begin with. How many rolls of paper towels do we go through? I don't even know how many diapers we use a month, I just buy them when we're out. How often do we go through shoe polish? I have NO clue.

I'm definitely going to give this a go.

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Now for the bizarre phenomenon, I keep finding blogs and pages by people who are near me. Is that weird, or what? I was looking for budgeting info and came across this blog about budgeting and it turns out I recognize the corner of her library card in her wallet (same as mine!) and then I dig a little further and she really is quite close to where I live (an hour away). I found this blog about yogurt making  and she says "Oh, and, if you are local (Willamette Valley, Oregon), and want some of my starter, I am happy to share. Let me know." Which is exactly where I live. Do I just happen to be looking up things that local people are involved in? I suspect google may have something in their search engine that includes location. 

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