dreaming...

Earlier this week....



Well we battled through looking at our finances this morning... Please email or comment if you have a good system for doing finances, we could use some ideas.  I get the basic idea of knowing where your money is and then trying to make your spending less than your earnings, but what that process looks like is a bit vague to me.  I think these weekend finance times would be much easier on me if I actually had a routine or process to lead me through. For example, I don't love laundry, but I know the steps of gathering clothes, sorting them, shoving them in the wash, adding soap, hanging them or shoving in dryer... etc.  If i just start doing the steps, eventually it is done.  Also, once clothes are folded an put away its pretty clear that you are done, I feel like once you start 'doing finances' you have no clear sign that you are done unless something saves you from yourself like missionaries knocking on your door or an earthquake.  

Elsewise you just just keep following this road of tangents, one of us tracking down the various bank account balances, then realizing that we forgot the password and trying to reopen the account. One of us goes off to estimate how much a future trip will cost. Pouring over various bank statements looking for spending trends – which basically comes down to Internet, power, rent, phone, and then lots and lots of food. Oh, and lots of coffee. We don't even really have a heating bill as I think half of our heating comes from the heat of the dryer, oven, and computer-its a little perk of living in a one room flat. It just never feels like we're getting through the process of 'doing out finances'. At least with preparing your taxes, you know roughly if you are at the beginning, middle, or end of it for that year.

One of the main motivators to make use go through this torture, okay maybe its just torture for me, is our various dreams that carry large price tags.  For Traveler, that is flying. For me that is owning a house.  I think both of us our so enjoying our new lifestyle of reduced working hours that is hard to convince ourselves that living our current dream of not being maxed out on stress is worth giving up for things like owning a house or flying - at least for me.

Then again, the following photos just appeared in our inbox.  They highlight both dreams... the glory of having some time off during the work week to play as well as having money for big toys, in this case our friend's newly purchased sailboat.  



well at least looking at the pretty blue water is free:)