My Mind on My Money and My Money on My Mind

Several weeks ago I caught Ben throwing away a half full box of Frosted Mini Wheats. When I protested he wondered what the big deal was. As I pointed out, there's a depression on and there might soon come a day that he would give anything to have those stale mini wheats back. And I was only kind if joking.The state of the economy has definitely changed the way I value pretty much everything. I am careful to not waste food and to keep our clothes in good shape. (Though I did throw out a pair of W's jeans that did a poor job of containing some explosive diarrhea last week). I'm careful to visit the discount meat section at the grocery store and have identified what items should be purchased at Costco, showing great discipline to avoid the numerous money traps there. I shop around for bargains and really think about what I want (materially and in life) before I make purchases. Even small ones.Neither Ben nor I feel insecure about our jobs. We're paying the bills, we're staying afloat and we're extremely grateful for that. So much so that we realized that we needed to work harder at managing our money and coming up with creative ways to save more. We feel we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of the blessings we've been given. I'm not sure we really understood that until things got so bad for the country (and world) as a whole. So in a way, the recession has been good for us.We are now budgeting very carefully and tracking every dollar we spend. I found a great Excel based budget planner online that I downloaded for $9.95. It allows us to set a budget, accounting for all kinds of different expenses, track actual spending and compare. It's a great value for the cost, far cheaper than Quicken and other home accounting software. Daily tracking takes discipline but the accountability that it creates is super helpful. Whenever Ben or I spend anything, we send the other a text. Both to have a record of it so we remember to enter it in, but also to make our spending transparent.Money was always something that scared me and in my life I've had the tendency to hide from it. But that's a mistake and one that I'm hell bent on fixing. If you are disengaged from your finances, I urge you to take control of it ASAP. There aren't many things we can control in life but your money is one of them. It's very empowering to face it and make your money work for you, instead of the other way around. And I truly think that working hard at this with Ben has been great for our marriage. It solidifies our partnership and reinforces our shared values.I'm sure I'll be talking about bargain hunting and thrifty living a lot around here. I'm actually beginning to see it as a game that I intend to win. And if you've got any great money saving ideas, please share.