My name is Jenn, and I'm a 27 year old married and babied chick. In addition to a husband, a seven year old daughter, and a five year old autistic son, I also have four cats, three hermit crabs, two frogs, a few fish, and one snorty little Pug. I work from home doing a variety of writing and even some web design. I love blogging, digital photography and web design.
2010 is all about frugality. Well, maybe not total frugality, or any type of frugality that is close to what I’ve seen some bloggers accomplish (if I wanted to be like them, I would sell textbooks — Dan’s college textbooks that he never uses anymore!), but we are being very careful with our money. Bills first, groceries & household supplies second, pleasurable spending last. We’re budgeting vigilantly, and we’re religiously documenting any non-bill spending. Damita mentioned using Spending Diary to track her spending, and now I’m using it too. The interface is simple, and the input is simple — type the name, the category (our categories include Grocery Stores, Stores, Pets, and Restaurants) and how much you spent. The week is laid out in a calendar format, and you can click back and forth to enter spending amounts for different days.
We hope that by seeing exactly where every last penny is going, we’ll be able to cut down excess spending and thus free up more money for savings. Wish us luck! 
Post a comment