Money Management

I went to an Enrichment meeting last night and the speaker talked about Money management. He was so good. I heard so many things that I needed to hear. He told us the reason that economy is such a mess right now is because of all the borrowing. As a people we have not made it very important to live within our means. I have known all my life that this is important but I am one of those people that needs to work on this. The General Authorities of the church have been saying for years to avoid debt, discipline yourselves in spending, and save your money! One of the things the speaker said that really helped me was when he taught us how to make a budget. Say you make $5000 a year (his example). This would be your gross income so your gross salary would be $60,000/year. After taxes take home pay would be $3800 and then you figure out your fixed expenses which would be those bills that you have to pay each month (mortgage, utilities, tithing, etc). What you have left is discretionary income which in his example was $1800. This is how much you make and control and this is what you budget. If you spend more than this, you go into debt and you need to figure out how to cut back. If you spend less than this, you can save money, build your food storage, etc. The main point is: Once your discretionary money is gone for the month IT IS GONE. You don't spend anymore! Wow what a concept. I wish that I could write everything that he said because it was so good. Tonight I am planning on going to a gardening class. This summer I am determined to growa really good garden. In years past I haven't done bad. In the summers that I have had babies, I haven't done so well but maybe this year I can concentrate better. I do pretty good on the growing part, it is the preserving part that is challenging to keep up on. Hopefully, I will do better this summer. It is hard to imagine spring and growing things with all this snow though!