Confessions of a Budget Breaker

OK, so the hubbs has decided to implement a budget for the Schurz family. Pretty cool, huh? I mean, I’ve been trying to do the budget thing for a year, but we didn’t really NEED to and Hubbs just wasn’t into it. But he got to thinking about it recently, and read a Dave Ramsey workbook, and then we went and bought a new, bigger house, so here we are now in budget-excel spreadsheet-ville. I’m really proud of him and excited to think that we can pay down some debt quickly if we make good choices. It’s not easy, though, let me tell you. Of the two of us, I would have guessed I was the more money conscious one. Like I would tell myself, sure, you can have Starbucks. How about once a week? Sounds good. Or I’d be at the store and see that they had ONE DOLLAR CEREAL. Value brand. ONE DOLLAR! Is it tasty? No. But is it cheap? Yes. I’ve never been the girl who looks down her nose at brand names or won’t spend good money on a great pair of jeans. But I am the girl who gets her hair cut at Great Clips instead of Aveda and is even sometimes known to put a little water in the last of the shampoo bottle to make it last a little longer. Speaking of shampoo…I went with a few girls from work to the annual Beauty Brands liter sale. Never heard of it? Me either, but it happens to be this sale where you can get liters for $11.98. Great deal?! It is if the liters were normally $42! Who could pass that up? And they smell so wonderful! And they come in bright pink and orange colors with seductive names like Sexy Straight or Candy Curls (OK, I made that one up.) Hello, these are WAY better than plain old Suave or Pantene. $11.98 is a STEAL! Not to mention when I step out of the house in the morning I’ll probably look like Julia Roberts or Angelina Jolie or something. YES! I am the best shopper in the world! And I didn’t just buy one bottle. No no no, I bought 4. Yep, 2 shampoos, 2 conditioners. I know. I just saved, like, $2000 or something. Wait a sec. Then why is it that as soon as I walked out of the store I had buyers remorse. Could it have anything to do with aforementioned budget? Or aforementioned Suave, which is, by the way, .97? Hmmm, perhaps. So that night I say to Hubbs,
“I did something bad.”
“Oh boy, what did you do?”
“I spent money. A lot. On shampoo.”
“what? How much?” “$40 (said in timid, embarrassed, regretful little peep.)
“hahahahahahaha! No you didn’t!”
“WHY are you LAUGHING?”
“Because that is funny! I can’t believe you did that. You would NEVER do something so silly!”
Hmmm. I wasn’t expecting such a laugh out of the whole thing. But I confess it made me feel better. And it was a good point. Don’t get me wrong. I can spend money. I don’t have to ask permission. I don’t feel guilty when I shop. I’m not being monitored any more than Hubbs, we just want to be cautious. But I did feel a little ridiculous spending that amount of money on shampoo, which I never do. We’ll just chalk it up to learning. I probably won’t do it again. But in the meantime I’ll have some fierce hair. And $40 less in my personal budget category for the month ;)