Why we live beneath our means

Every Wednesday I share an honest look at my weekly budget. Before I had two kids I could keep my grocery budget at $100 or less. Now that I’m a busy mom of two while juggling a blog, I’m not the best at keeping my spending in check. In order to stay accountable, I share all of my spending with you! Here is a look at what I spent, saved, and reviewed this week. As well as my thoughts about money.

As I sit down to type up this blog post, I can’t help but feel grateful for all the wonderful things in my life. Living beneath our means has not meant that we life in poverty. I’m looking out at my perfectly groomed (albeit messy from the children) backyard that is kept up by a lawn service. I have so much more than I need in my life. It’s times like this that I am genuinely happy that we have chosen to live beneath our means (that could also be because both boys are napping).

[bctt tweet=”Find out why you should live beneath your means. “]

Don’t be fooled, I’m not constantly happy with all that I have. It’s easy for me to get jealous. Just yesterday I had lunch with a friend who is an interior decorator. Don’t even get me started on how envious I was of her perfectly decorated living room. I can’t wait to have my entire house decorated the way I want.

Here’s the deal:  We probably could decorate our house exactly how we want. We could finance a few big purchases or take some money out of savings. It wouldn’t be that hard to get everything just right in a matter of days.

Tom just got a raise and a bonus. I can’t tell you how proud I am. He deserves it for all of his hard work. We could take that raise and bonus and do some really fun things. Our house could be redecorated, we could go on a big trip, and we could put down some money for a van.

Instead, we paid off a credit card bill, put money towards Tom’s loans, contributed to our IRAs, and put money into the kids’ college funds. Pretty boring, right?

It wasn’t even a big discussion for us. When Tom told me he got a raise, I immediately knew what I wanted to do with the money. It’s a no-brainer to pay off debts and save for the future. Of course, we celebrated with a bottle of wine and talked about all the ways we could spend the money. It’s always fun to dream!

Sure, we could die tomorrow. If that happens then I’ll never get a chance to cash in on those IRA contributions or see the benefits of living debt free. But I could also live to be 104. It’s a gamble. I like to play it safe. One of us could get sick, or one of the cars could die. Anything could happen, and I want to be prepared for it financially. We live beneath our means so we can feel comfortable in the future. I don’t care how much money you have, it’s never a good idea to live at or above your means. Even wealthy people can end up in a financial crisis.

[bctt tweet=”Even wealthy people can end up in a financial crisis.”]

While we won’t be going out to buy a new dining room set, we do have a little money to make a few fun improvements. I plan to paint some furniture and buy new bedding (to go with a cool new bedskirt I’m reviewing tomorrow). I may even have some money for new lamps in the bedroom. I can’t wait to show you my work-in-progress.

Of course, I tell you all of this and now I’m going to admit that I still went over budget for this week. I think I’m going to have to increase my grocery budget to $150 a week. What is a normal grocery budget for a family of 4?

[bctt tweet=”What is a normal grocery budget for a family of 4?”]

Here is what I spent this week:

Target: $31.13 (some of this will be reimbursed, but $20 of it was on make up)

Target: $78.78 ($20 of it was on a blogger gift swap I’m participating in)

Trader Joe’s: $105.86

Publix: $51.10

Babysitting: $45

Total: $311.87

Eek! Way over my $150 weekly budget. Even though we aren’t buying big things with that raise, it’s a good thing Tom got it so I won’t feel too bad buying groceries as prices go up.

How did you do this week? Over? Under?