Beautiful, Hateful Money

In the last ten years, I can’t remember ever feeling really secure about my finances. First, there were the college years, during which I was working a work study job for something like $500 a month, and I embodied the starving student to a T. Then I was out of school and working as a receptionist, paying my own bills for the first time and trying to figure out how to budget. And, seemingly just as I got to a place where I was making a decent salary and staying on top of bills with money leftover for fun, I shack up and get knocked up all within the same year, and I’m now juggling family finances on what should really only support a single gal.

As recently as two years ago, the whole being broke thing didn’t bother me as much. It’s almost glamorous, in your early and mid-twenties, to be living on the edge of one’s paycheck, finding creative ways to eat and entertain oneself, commiserating with other about who’s got less money. It's the whole single person lifestyle, you're having fun and being reckless and hooray!

But with a baby and a fiancé, now being broke just kind of sucks.

My priorities have changed. I’m not looking to live in cheap apartments for the rest of my life, or even the near future. I want a nice home for me and my family, a car that was manufactured in this century, the ability to take family trips and money in the bank in case of emergencies. I want to put money away for the baby’s education, and lay a financial foundation for her future.

Oh, and a wedding. Did I mention wanting to have a wedding at some point in, oh, the next year?

And on top of that, I’m just getting sick and tired of feeling like crap because I have no money. I’d like, for once, to read a magazine and not have to fantasize about buying a $25 tube of lipstick. I would like to feel as though it’s not a complete pipe dream to buy a new Coach bag, provided I’ve salivated over it for long enough to make the purchase justifiable. I’d like to bargain hunt because I want to, not because I have to.

I’d like to feel like a grown-up who can afford nice things, basically.

Step one is to get myself back to square one. I’ve started using Mint.com, a very nifty budgeting website, to help me keep my spending in check and put money towards the things that need to be paid down. I’ve canceled my gym membership in favor of the beach trail outside my house and the many dvds I own. I’m looking at cutting a lot of things, actually, memberships I don’t use or items I don’t really need to buy.

I’ve never been super great at sticking to a budget. I’m hoping that Mint, with all its lovely graphics and alerts and colorful tools, will crack the digital whip and keep me honest. 

What tricks do you mamas use to manage your family finances? I will gladly and shamelessly steal all your ideas!