Just finished our 2012 family budget; I’ve been doing my
budgets for home and work on spreadsheets since the days of VisiCalc. It is getting tighter for us to make ends
meet, but if we can quit adopting sick cats and helping out destitute friends
and relatives, each who say that they “keep track of my finances in my head,” we
should be okay at least for another year.
The taxes and health insurance costs are murderous, but I assume those problems are nationally pervasive. It is
funny that the government programs to help the needy are not available to help the
needy that I know. Quite frankly I am
growing weary of people practicing foolhardy financial hygiene for their entire
lives then loudly adorning themselves in the robes of victimhood when their
world falls apart. Please BUDGET,
people. Quit spending money you don’t
have on things you really do not need.
In my blue, gray, and white-collar lifetime I was amazed to meet so many
people who felt qualified to manage multi-million dollar corporate budgets when
they lived one paycheck away from bankruptcy.
Money in your personal bank account is power and freedom. Debt indentures you to a life of sycophancy
and servitude, which is exactly where the banks and politicians (and
occasionally, your spouse or significant other) want you to be.
As far as our other contingencies, today I exercised the engines
on the portable generator, both snow blowers, and (optimistically) the riding
lawn mower. I have cut down on the
emergency supply of food and household paper products so I can reorganize the basement,
but I expect to be done with that project and fully restocked before the end of the Mayan calendar when the gods shower cataclysmic horror down on our poor
defenseless little noggins.