A little bit of sunshine....

Well, only halfway through the month and I have a bit of sunshine in the budget!

I currently have $246 left over for the month of December after paying all the bills including the snowball I have built in for my smallest debt!

If I average my low averages from the last 4 months and get full child support, I will be able to get rid of one debt and still have about $700 to budget for food, household products, and Christmas. (I have $450 saved up for Christmas, but with 3 kids, the man, parents, grandparents, etc, I always go over the budget, no matter how hard I try! One year I only went over by $75, I was pretty stoked about that!)

I have started my Christmas shopping and have spent $248 of the $450 so far. Haven't gotten anything big, mainly just some "little" things that I know the kids will love. Starting early may really help me stay on budget because I have more time to browse and decide whether I really want to purchase an item or not. I say "little" meaning not expensive, not because of size.

In anycase, I am quite happy about this progress. Why does it always seem that when I stray from trying to make progress I always feel like I don't have enough money but when I stick to the budget and commit myself to making progress, I always seem to have more?

Even if by the end of this month I don't have the low average or the full child support, I am still ahead for the month and will be able to make more progress in the month that usually means more spending than I have in the last 4 put together.

And that, my friends, is AWESOME!