The Jones Family

Truth: I'm having a really hard time remembering I no longer live next to the Jones family. Surely you've heard the phrase "keeping up with the Jones'"... and that's what I'm talking about.

We used to have to have everything that everyone else had... and then some. We managed our money horribly. One year for father's day, I took hubs on a surprise trip to an outlet mall a few hours away from our South Texas residence and we stayed in a hotel and spent a lot of money. The girls even came with us. One thing he wanted to buy was a Dave Ramsey book. We started reading it as soon as we got back to the hotel. Our lives changed that night. We counted up what our income was and compared it to how much we were spending on crap. It hurt to see how much we could have been saving had we just not cared about having things. It was a hard habit to break. We chanted the Dave's phrase "Live today like no one else, so later you can live like no one else." It basically means that we should save more and spend less so we'll be financially secure in our future. Others won't because we're all trying to keep up with what our neighbor has - and even out do them at times.

Fast forward to today. Life took a strange turn and we no longer make the kind of money we used to. Sure, we can live without a lot of things and kind of pride ourselves on doing so. In fact, it annoys me to see others throw away so much of their own money on things like we used to - especially when they have a couple of jobs just to support their spending habits. It's certainly a hard life living on so little, but it's how it is right now. And we do okay.

This time of year is really hard. We come out of Christmas where we may have received things that we've drooled over but wouldn't dare spend our own money on. Then, through January, we spend the gift cards - still allowing us to have things we wouldn't normally have. February comes around and I have a birthday where I may or may not be able to squeeze one more thing I want out of someone. Then, there's tax returns.

And that's where we are now (since I received my birthday present early from mom and dad). We just filed our taxes and were able to find out what our tax return is going to look like. We certainly have our fair share of bills to catch up on. But there's going to be some extra money there once those things are taken care of. My husband and I are both having a hard time not mentally spending that money already on things others have. I want a better cell phone. He wants a better computer. We want a bigger/more modern television (we have a 13 inch box tv). We want lots of stuff that we don't have - but aren't currently struggling without.

My brain is reminding me that every time we start spending like this, one month later, we're in trouble again. So of course, I'm thinking we should save it. It will be sweet to not have to worry about bills in a few months when something goes wrong (like getting snowed in and not being able to work). It will be nice to have an emergency fund for the first time in our lives. We also need new tires on the van (our only vehicle).

We need to save this money. We just need to. But it's so hard right now to see extra money for the first time in a long time and not go back to spending it on stuff we've been missing out on. We're praying we'll do the right thing.