Every Dollar Has It's Day...

I had good reason to hit the snooze so many times this morning. Last night, after many previous attempts, we finally did it! It is a monumental achievement. Every dollar has a name. Every purchase is under the watchful eye of THE BUDGET!!! Let me try that again. THE BUDGET!!!!!!!

Truly, it only took ten years to get around to it, during which time we have made some fairly sound decisions about money, but hammer down, baby! We are taking it to the next level. Once upon a time C was a director over a program that ran under the governmental financial policy: This is how much you get, and unless you use it all, you won't get this much next year. Last year an opportunity opened up for a possible change. He flirted with it, but not seriously, and lo and behold, he came out as the prime candidate to take over a different program, also as the director, but with financial goals and limitations for which he would be held responsible.

We do not make decisions based on financial gain. I personally believe there is a part of your soul that dies when you disregard all aspects of a decision and sell out for a sum of money. It's like stating that you have a price, and are for sale to the highest bidder. At any rate, after weighing the fact that C would be able to learn some important new skills and would have a great impact on the new program, he took the job.

Last night, I watched with admiration as he used these newfound skills to flip through the numbers I'd gathered from our finances (which have been entirely in my care for many years), and after tearing our hearts and livers out and stomping on them a few times, we produced a lovely budget. Having completely annihilated all consumer debt some time ago, and destroying all portals to consumer credit, we are ready to sign up for the no payments plan. No house payments, no anything payments.

I won't mention the part where we were up until 1:00 in the morning doing this, nor will I mention the part where we got grumpy at each other because I forgot to get the phone number from the tree pruners to tell them NOT to come yet, and because C was not interested in hearing my expert knowledge on how to properly define a food budget, but then I woke up this morning and saw this:

Did you know that dry erase markers are a celestial form of communication? Truly, they are, especially when left on the mirror with the words "I love you!" The "You be hot...you beautiful!" were pretty darn close as well.