Prettified Budgetting

And so the thing is that at home, my daddy always did our finances.

Mike’s Mommy always did their finances.

This created some interesting expectations and conversations in the beginning of our marriage.

At first I flat-out refused. Then I repented because the guilt kept me awake and I enjoy my sleep, thank-you-very-much, so I grudgingly and grumpily opened the evil, horned, fire-breathing thing otherwise known as Excel.

I did okay for a few months and I learned how to pay bills and neatly put all the numbers in the boring, white little squares.

Then I got a baby and stopped doing my best and then my husband made a little program for me that would, so he said, be easier then Excel. Because that’s what he likes to do. He loves solving problems and if the problems can be solved by writing a computer program for it he rejoices greatly and gets straight to work.

No, I will not give you his phone number. My husband. My computer program.

Except the program was even more confusing than Excel and I cannot begin to tell you how confusing I find Excel.

And so up and down it went and I tried this program and that program and did it a couple months and did it not for a year. Not a hugely successful strategy in trying to keep track of your budget and all that.

Recently, I decided to man up and better my life and do the thing no matter how dreadful I find it because life is not about doing the stuff you like best. When I said I do, ?that included the little things, the little un-fun compromises and doing the thing you both hate. Mundane unromantic unnoble things.

This time I did it my way. In my head, the soundtrack of ‘I did it my way’ plays along with this, it makes it into such a memorable, inspirational moment. In my head, anyway.

I prettified the process and am thoroughly pleased with myself.

Beat that, boring-mind-numbing-grumpifying-finances-things.

I kind of feel like Rory Gilmore going to the building-a-house project with a pink hammer but at least there is no pink on my paper.

I’m not showing you our actual numbers because that would be impolite and I, I am never impolite.

Conclusion: Life is better and funner when you prettify it up. I mean, look at giraffes and ladybugs and Nemo-fish. They make life better for no apparent reason whatsoever.