My Money Tree Was Struck by Lightning

I’m not good with money. I never have been. I usually blame it on poverty. It’s hard to be good with money when you are always having to pinch and stretch to make it until the next pay day. But that’s just an excuse like eating three plates of food on Thanksgiving. I’m better than I used to be though. I don’t spend money on stupid shit instead of paying important bills like rent or utilities anymore. I have in the past. I guess I didn’t really spend on stupid shit when I would want to take the kids to do something we couldn’t afford to do. I was just irresponsible with money. Maybe it’s the same thing.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m probably still irresponsible with money. Or at least I probably would be if I had it to be irresponsible with, but now I make sure my main bills are paid before I decide to splurge on a night out or a movie with the kid.  Still, I have times after I get paid where I am thinking, “where the hell did all my money go?” I say “all” as if it were a truck full or if I have a money tree in the backyard that was all of a sudden struck by lightening and left barren. I just mean, I have had weeks where I get paid on Thursday and my whole check is gone by Friday and then I have 13 more days to go until payday. And I manage to make it until payday every single time. It’s kind of crazy, but the Lord works in mysterious ways and I am full of trust so I don’t ever really stress about because it always works out.

Regardless, I’ve been reading a lot of Dave Ramsey lately because he’s supposed to be the God of Finances or something. I don’t really know. I do know that people worship him, though.  One day, as I was perusing an article that popped up on my Facebook, this little pop up ad was in front of my face about an app that helps you budget your money. It might have been a link in his blog. Not sure. I’ve never used a budget mostly because I never have any money, but since I want to know where I am spending all my dough and because I have the memory of Dory (before she got her memory back, did she get her memory back? I don’t remember), I clicked on the ad to see what the app was. It’s called Every Dollar. I don’t know if it’s his app. I don’t know if he endorses it, though I think he did in the article, but I can’t be sure. Either way, I downloaded the app and I just recently started using it. I was waiting for a new month. Luckily, it corresponded with the new job which pays more than the old one, so that’s good news.

It has a “planned” spending page, a “spent” page and a “remaining” page. There is space for miscellaneous items so (in theory) I will be able to write down every place I am spending money and see where it is all going. Since this is the first month I am using it, I am not really “budgeting” per se, I’m more just trying to get in the habit of putting all my spending in the app so I can see where it is going. Next month I will use it in more of the way it is supposed to be used. Of course, once I check the numbers on this lottery ticket laying around in my wallet, I won’t have to worry about budgeting my bazillions of dollars, but at least I’ll know how. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it, right?!