These past couple weeks have seen a couple benchmarks for me (us).
First of all, I am very excited to report that I have lost 10 pounds!!! I'm halfway to my goal!! Yahoo! I have been finding a lot of really great paleo recipes that have been very helpful. It's sometimes difficult to come up with new and interesting meals when you're eating just meat, fruits and veggies. Thanks to paleo bloggers and cooks like Louise over at www.ancestralchef.com , I no longer have to experiment on my own!
(And thanks for giving me permission to link up, Louise!)
Secondly, we're two paychecks into the envelope budget, and I have to say it's been much more difficult than I imagined.
Grocery budgeting is pretty easy for me at this point. Even the not spending any extra money here and there thing has been surprisingly easy - so far! What's been difficult is needing something - something that is truly a necessity - and not having enough funds in that particular envelope.
For instance, the dogs needed refills on some of their supplements. Lakota cannot get around well at all without his glucosamine and other joint health supplements he takes. We were about to run out of one of them (as well as one of Annie's that she cannot be without, unless we want to clean up piddle puddles) and desperately needed to order them, but there wasn't enough money in that envelope. So, I took a bit out of savings to cover what was needed. The same thing happened with Brian's and my multivitamins. We were down to the last few days' worth, and, again, not enough in the envelope. So, again, I dug into savings.
The past week has been pretty quiet, budgetwise - thankfully! We got some compost and mulch for our square foot gardens, and we had plenty in the "home improvement" envelope to cover that. Whew! We'll need dog food again at the end of the week, but I think there's enough in that envelope now...
I guess I never thought about putting some seed money in some of these envelopes. You know, the things that I knew, or suspected, that we would need right away... before we'd had time to accumulate enough for a full purchase.
Has anyone else out there tried this type of budget? What worked well for you, and what didn't work so well? Any helpful tips are appreciated!
One last note - not really a benchmark, but still - we have gathered all of the paperwork that we need for our China dossier! Two originals of everything, waiting to be notarized and County- and State-certified. We have to wait because the last piece we need is not something we can do ourselves. We have to wait for the USCIS to send our approval notice. It's a powerful lesson in "hurry up and wait", but I know that God is in charge, and things happen according to His timeline - not ours. So, once we get that last piece, we'll be good to go! I'll keep you posted!
Recognizing benchmarks is great for gauging where you are in accomplishing your goals. They can encourage you, if you're doing well. They can also convict you, if you're not doing so well, and spur you on to do better. May we all be encouraged!!
First of all, I am very excited to report that I have lost 10 pounds!!! I'm halfway to my goal!! Yahoo! I have been finding a lot of really great paleo recipes that have been very helpful. It's sometimes difficult to come up with new and interesting meals when you're eating just meat, fruits and veggies. Thanks to paleo bloggers and cooks like Louise over at www.ancestralchef.com , I no longer have to experiment on my own!
(And thanks for giving me permission to link up, Louise!)
Secondly, we're two paychecks into the envelope budget, and I have to say it's been much more difficult than I imagined.
Grocery budgeting is pretty easy for me at this point. Even the not spending any extra money here and there thing has been surprisingly easy - so far! What's been difficult is needing something - something that is truly a necessity - and not having enough funds in that particular envelope.
For instance, the dogs needed refills on some of their supplements. Lakota cannot get around well at all without his glucosamine and other joint health supplements he takes. We were about to run out of one of them (as well as one of Annie's that she cannot be without, unless we want to clean up piddle puddles) and desperately needed to order them, but there wasn't enough money in that envelope. So, I took a bit out of savings to cover what was needed. The same thing happened with Brian's and my multivitamins. We were down to the last few days' worth, and, again, not enough in the envelope. So, again, I dug into savings.
The past week has been pretty quiet, budgetwise - thankfully! We got some compost and mulch for our square foot gardens, and we had plenty in the "home improvement" envelope to cover that. Whew! We'll need dog food again at the end of the week, but I think there's enough in that envelope now...
I guess I never thought about putting some seed money in some of these envelopes. You know, the things that I knew, or suspected, that we would need right away... before we'd had time to accumulate enough for a full purchase.
Has anyone else out there tried this type of budget? What worked well for you, and what didn't work so well? Any helpful tips are appreciated!
One last note - not really a benchmark, but still - we have gathered all of the paperwork that we need for our China dossier! Two originals of everything, waiting to be notarized and County- and State-certified. We have to wait because the last piece we need is not something we can do ourselves. We have to wait for the USCIS to send our approval notice. It's a powerful lesson in "hurry up and wait", but I know that God is in charge, and things happen according to His timeline - not ours. So, once we get that last piece, we'll be good to go! I'll keep you posted!
Recognizing benchmarks is great for gauging where you are in accomplishing your goals. They can encourage you, if you're doing well. They can also convict you, if you're not doing so well, and spur you on to do better. May we all be encouraged!!