Planning for Baby has meant making a lot of financial decisions. The closer my due date gets, the harder Husband and I have been working to make sure that our money is in order.
Shortly after we found out that I was pregnant, we started living almost exclusively on Husband's pay check. This has helped us save money. It has been surprisingly easy for us to live on a reduced income. Fewer restaurant meals, less shopping, fewer trips to the movie theatre, less travel... but it hasn't devastated our lifestyle. I'm SOOOOO glad we decided to save money this way. On one hand, Husband and I are disappointed in ourselves for not doing it sooner-- we could have paid off so much debt!-- but on the other hand, we were living it up before babies and foster kids came into our lives, and that's okay, too.
We also made a budget recently. Like, a real budget. One we have to stick to. I've made budgets before, but they were always more of an excercise in my philosophical musings on the ideal way to spend money and not something that I had to live by. Now, we have a set amount each month for groceries and that is that.
We've been paying down some debt (those interest payments and service charges sure do add up!) and talking about investing in CDs. We're making sure Baby will have everything it needs, including a pre-paid college plan.
I feel so grown up.
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