Fooling myself….

I had believed that I was budgeting and managing my money.  I think I was just fooling myself.  I was probably doing it on a higher level.  Things really hit home Tuesday night when I went grocery shopping.  I had a list of things that I wanted and I wanted to spend no more then $100.  I had mentally budgeted $100 for groceries, $100 for vet bill and then would have some change left over for anything else I needed.  Since it was very important to me to not spend much more then $100 on groceries I kept a running tally in my head on how much I had spent.  I got half way through the store and realized that I had more things on my list then I had money.  That was when I started prioritizing.  I will not argue that some of my priorities were out of whack.  Top priority was my birthday dinner, second milk, juice and cheese.  The third was cat food but I passed on cat litter.  I chose instead to buy beer and coke.  I bought a book instead of buying tv dinners.  I know I know my priorities weren’t really in line.  I realized that I have been fooling myself thinking I was budgeting….really I was buying whatever the heck I wanted and then trying to make it work.  I vow to do more of the budgeting and less of the making it work.  I know I can do this.  It is going to suck but in the long run it is for the better.  *sigh*