financial freedom

I saved over $1000 this month, free and clear.  Amazing.  The budget is working!  I won’t save that every month, but I do know without the budget, I would’ve shopped and entertained it away.  Instead, as I saw extra, I shipped it over to my ING account.

Thanks to my budget, I also understand how much I spend on eating out; how little I need to spend on clothes (quality over quantity); and what it really takes to support my lifestyle.  I see clearly that until I pay off my debt, I will never have the fullness of what I make.  The good news is that the budget will definitely help me pay off about 3-4 commitments this year (like the new laptop I had to buy when my old one was stolen!!!).  Imagine buying two laptops in one year, ugh!  I am on a great path.  It feels so good to finally have an understanding of how to manage my money, not from an investment perspective, but from a month to month, real life one.  I’ve always been good at saving, but that’s not the path to wealth, I think.  It is instead knowing how to daily make decisions that impact your ability to build wealth – knowing that each expenditure is a sacrifice of one goal for another.  Lovely!