Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Lifehacker starts us off with a topic near and dear to my heart.

http://lifehacker.com/software/money/stop-living-paycheck+to+paycheck-299594.php



For years I lived paycheck to paycheck. Some of the things I could have done to stop this madness:

1. Stop going to the mall for something to do with the girls, which inevitably led to shopping!

2. Get over my sock fetish that led me to purchase way too many socks over the years (not having enough when you are a child leads to overpurchasing in the adult years).

3. Discuss finances with DH and gotten him involved earlier.

4. Gotten over my soda addiction earlier. No a can of soda would not do, it had to be a fountain soda that was costing me close to $40.00 a month.

5. Packed my lunch instead of eating out at Subway nearly every single day! It was right across the street from work.

6. Worked with DH to cook and grocery shop instead of leaving it all to him to do, which led to great meals, lots of waste and way too high a food bill.

7. Planned snacks and meals for the family activities instead of inevitably buying fast food and snack bar food.

8. Actually follow a spending plan better known as a budget instead of just making them up for fun.

9. Found a place for everything and put everything in it's place instead of not being able to find things and buying new. (I think I have three rotatory cutters for quilting, how did that happen?)

10. Pay myself first.

To be honest, I am still working on some of the above list, but at least could live a month or two without a paycheck.... gulp is that all, a month or two?

Time to get to work on this!