Confession . . . we don't follow our budget

I've given up on budgets. Not entirely, but they aren't all that useful for us. They are more useful as descriptive documents, describing how we *have* spent our money in the past. And as a theory, for planning purposes, to get an educated guess of where we will be in a few months.

I really wish I could get the budget to work. I like the idea of being so organized, of joyfully pointing out that we are under-budget sometimes. But it just doesn't happen. I can never track our spending that well. I can only manage a general, "Well, our spending looked something like . . . THIS."

So I'm going to try just tracking our savings / debt repayment with a nifty tool online called "NetWorthIQ". It's much easier, and keeps me focused on the real goals - paying off our house, retiring early, doing something with our lives besides working for "The Man", having more time as a family. I want to make a real difference in the world, and that's easier with financial resources.

I want to travel abroad, help people build and rebuild, work hard, live on little . . . but that's another life, after my children have grown older (maybe they'll come along?).

Hrmmm . . . how many people can say they've planned for their mid-life "crisis" at the age of 25?