Time to grow up ... or is it???

How can two people who look like this EVER grow up?? I guess it's gonna have to happen though. I don't mean we're gonna lose our fun ... that'll NEVER happen. But I mean, I just turned 30 ... it's about time we do some grown up things like save money and plan for our future. Josh wants to be a successful musician, and I want that for him too more than anything. We can't have money for new music equipment, making a CD, promotional materials, or hiring professionals to help take him to the next level though if we eat out or waste money on STUPID CRAP!

I think we're getting better though, so I won't bash us completely. I combined our auto insurance, which saved us almost $100/month. We got the storage unit cleaned out and that's going to save us $65/month. If WildBlue makes me mad one more time I'm going to give them the heave ho and go to cheaper HCTC DSL. I think a tougher financial situation in the second half of 2010 has set us up good to be successful in 2011. We had the wedding to pay for and Josh's gigs dwindled toward the end of the year, not to mention me taking a pretty good pay cut myself with the new job so we had no choice but to make some cut backs. I also managed to spend under $100 at the grocery store yesterday to replenish our groceries. I think we're getting there.

We need to prepare ourselves for buying a house, having kids, and making Josh's music a success. We want all of these awesome things for ourselves, and I think having to work hard to get there we will appreciate them once we get them. We're still going to try to take some mini vaca's this year ... but maybe just some cheaper trips or visit some of the wonderful places within Texas.

Neither of us are great savers ... I've had people suggest Dave Ramsey, and give us their own money tips. But honestly, Josh and I are the kind of people that we have to figure out the best way to tackle our money habits BY OURSELVES. Some of you will cringe but I used to overdraft my checking account CONSTANTLY. I've managed to organize myself enough to stop doing that ... however we still don't end up with extra money and occasionally have to find ways to cover bills or accounts so we don't overdraft. We find it so we don't have to pay that #$&*ing overdraft fee ... but I don't like getting into that panic situation. I used to manage my checking account with Microsoft Money where I could manage it on my computer and my PDA. I can't seem to find another program that does that for Mac and iPhone. I've found a couple more I am going to try but I think that is the key to my money organization so I know what I've spent and I don't look at my bank account and THINK I have money when really I forgot about a debit card swipe from a few days ago.

Anyhow ... that is one of my current mind boggles. We need to grow up a bit ... but we're getting there.