For a while now, I have been a reader of self-development books. (Yes, I am one of those who hope to find the answer to a fulfilling life in a book or on a tape or in the next speaker or… ). Now we got that confession out of the way, lets move on.
Being a Christian, I have read ones of a christian variety but then have also read the ‘heathen’ sort :-). Surprisingly enough, they are remarkably alike except for the actual mention of Jesus as opposed to the higher self, aligning with the universe and all that sort of stuff. Well, I took a break from all that kind of reading and listening material when I introduced V, E and H into the world as I really could not see how I could actually make any of my dreams happen. In fact, a few months ago while still in the haze of recent childbirth (For those who do not understand, this is when all you can see ahead of you is sleepless nights and endless nappies and crying and so on), I decided to sell a lot of my books and give away material only to emerge from the haze and realise that I want it all back but hey! too late. So now I am regathering material much to Tloml’s horror as he rolls his eyes 🙄 wishing I would make up my mind and stick to it. Thankfully, he is understanding of my craziness really.
OK, now to get to the point, most of these books tell one to take stock of where one is at the start and also figure out where one wants to go by the end. Stock phrases pop into my mind such as ‘Fail to plan, plan to fail’, getting into a taxi with no clear idea of the destination and so on. Now specifically in the case of becoming solvent, one MUST know and control how much money is spent! Now, I always HATE really thinking and keeping track of my money and I always thought that one of the perks of being wealthy must be an ability not to concern oneself with the cost of things. However, I am led to believe that the truly wealthy are very much in control of how much they spend and usually use cash rather than ‘plastic’.
Finally (it only took about 4 years of reading and a whole lot more of living! 🙂 ) I decided at the beginning of July to start keeping a little notebook where I detailed all I spent. No, I am not quite at the point of budgeting first and then spending as then I may have to NOT SPEND sometimes – the horror of it!!! So I am taking a more reactive stance, spend first and then analyse said spending. Tonight was the night of reckoning…
As soon as V and E went to bed (H did go too but then screamed the moment Tloml put her in bed so down she came again 🙂 ), I got out my notebook and put all the numbers on a spreadsheet – courtesy of Google Docs. I proceeded to break them down into categories and after about an hour or two of this, realised more figures were required so I retired for the evening – fed up of it already!
So how much closer am I to knowing the true state of my finances, about 2 milli-inches 😀 but hey it is a start, right…
