I have already gone through all my things and anything I haven’t used or worn for 12 months is either being sold or given away so all I will have to move is my furniture and clothes.

It is so freeing to start to have empty spaces in the cupboards and more money in the coffers. Lol.
Sassy.

I am becoming more confident each day that I read this info. The power of reinforcement, I suppose. I did crunch the numbers. I did a form of budget–what threw me off I think is that so many of our accounts and bills are combined and your worksheet has those numbers separated or combined with other things.

A talking wallet would be cool! I think you could really sell those. I think I will take the person here’s advice and wrap a paper around my cards that says “Enough” or “Just Say No.” LOL. Course, I haven’t used my credit cards in nearly six months now, just my debit. But I keep them with me for an emergency.

Thank you again for the wonderful advice. I love your straightforward tone of voice and manner.

“Enough” is the trigger that works from me on so many levels; enough stuff in my house, enough purchases for the day, do I have enough extra money to spare, is there enough for retirement, simpy put enough is enough when it comes to consuming! It’s a strong word to me, and that’s enough to stop me from impulse buying.

We’ve always had my paycheque in my acct and his in his. He’s been a slow reformer in letting me “take care” of his payments, his vehicle insurance, etc. But only after he was driving without insurance for 6 weeks. Thank goodness nothing happened. He missed his renewal, how does that happen? It won’t again, because I have taken over that dept.

I’ve been trying to get him to sit and watch Gail’s show with me, but no luck there yet. BUT, I have been able to get him to read a few of Gail’s blogs and I think I actually am starting to see a light flickering in there!

So…our plan is finally to combine our income and have one budget, instead of mine and his, but not till January. At least I’ve got him to commit to a date, I can’t wait!

I have all my credit cards paid off, working on my small LOC and that’s it, well except for mortgage and that’s only at $60,000. Now we’re working on paying off HIS consumer debt which is approx $18,000.

He says that I have “wrecked it” for him, that he can’t spend money like he use to! YAHOO! It certainly has not been SIMPLE or EASY. I have been persistant and finally seeing the pay off.

I’ve managed to save for all our annual big expenses, taxes, insurance etc…it’s all there in savings, working on building our emerg fund, gifts etc. I’m so excited that I’ll be able to work off one budget rather than trying to juggle and make sense of two.

Thank goodness my daughter listened to me (after telling her the errors of my youth and the evil of credit) She has always “paid herself first”, has maxed out her RRSP’s (she’s only 21) and has never paid interest on a credit card balance. We’re so proud of her. And when she was living at home, she would sit and watch Gail’s show.

Gail….you do an incredible job. Please don’t ever stop, keep doing what you are doing. I like so many others, read your blog everyday.

As for the talking wallets… brilliant! But I already hear your voice whenever I open mine so I don’t need one personally.

I’m feeling frustrated, but haven’t yet sat down with the actual budget numbers we (or rather I) have to crunch out every month. Time for a sit-down in January, once the house is back in order I think. For now I’m keeping up with bill payments, but have yet to start living on cash as I’m a month behind with groceries, gas, etc. Put it on the card, pay it of the first of the following month, never get enough set aside to start from cash the next day. It’s a vicious cycle that I’d love to know how people get around!

I also love the idea of a money mate-in my practice I call this an “accountability partner” but its the same idea. Find some back up! It’s a hard position, but a worthwhile one to fill. As always, an inspiring blog! (If I could only get my husband to read it… sigh… I think I’ll be his Money Mate forever, even if he doesn’t realize it!)

I’m a Money Mate to my husband. I have always been the saver, and my husband, the spender. He came into our relationship with store cards with balances, high student loans, and no concept of how to save. He has learned a lot in our 10 years together, and is now good at stopping and thinking about purchases beforehand now. Although, I’m still there when he has a great idea of something to buy, to talk to him and ask, “Do we really need it?, Where will we put it?, Is is a need or a want?” It’s a slow process to deal with someone who has always just bought it and worried about it later. But we are doing well working as a team – through the good times and bad. Thanks, Gail for being one of my Money Mates!