Friday, August 12, 2011

Budget Smudget

Rob and I began working on our new budget this week. We figure we have lived here for three months now so we have a general idea of how much it's going to cost us to live here. I went to update my old budget spreadsheet and discovered that it doesn't exactly reflect our current lives. We have been off budget for about eight months now with preparing to move, moving, and settling in here.

Our old budget made me want to laugh hysterically, cry, or shoot myself in the head. It had categories such as "entertainment" which included things like the symphony and movie theaters and fancy dinners. "Travel" which was trips to see family and drives under eight hours to friends. Needless to say, we don't drive anywhere more than an hour with Gus right now unless under threat of death and I'm pretty sure the last time I was at the symphony was while pregnant. We haven't gone to a movie since we took him, spent the whole movie in the hallway with Gus and the movie people took pity on us and gave us two free tickets, which we never got to use.

What was missing was even funnier. No category for buying a new wardrobe every two months for a sprouting weed. No category for a toddler eating us out of house and home. No category for bulk packages of smarties to use as bribes. No reflection of the quadrupled volume of laundry soap we go through now. No budgeted area for toys. No budget for my ruined clothing or shoes that have chunks chewed out of them.

Do they have boarding school for toddlers? Maybe that would be cheaper?