I used to think about money all of the time and it made me so unhappy. This was at a time when DH was finally making good money and we had gone without for so long that all we wanted to do (after we got our emergency savings set up) was spend. I'd wake up in the morning and just think about what I "needed" to buy. It was a little bit (well, maybe a lot) of that "keeping up with the Joneses". Yuck.

Ever since we have gotten serious about our money, we don't think about money at all except when we sit down to track our progress. It is wonderful. Somehow, setting these goals freed me from the need to keep up in a materialistic way.

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~Vicki~
Mama to Hailey, 4 and Ella, 2

I think about money a lot and it exhausts me. My dh is paid bi-weekly (which means he's not paid the same amount every month), so I have a budget set up for the year so I know what bills are paid with what paycheck. Then I have to figure out what money I have left over, if I can pay some bills ahead, etc. It's very tiring. Also, like KathrynHannah, I think twice about every little expense. I'd feel guilty if I bought some fun thing now for $20 then my dh was laid off 3 months from now and we didn't have $20 for gas.

I'm not a greedy person, but money (and having a sizeable amount of it) is important to me. I've always been a frugal person, but when my dh was laid off 3 1/2 years ago (and had to settle for a lower paying job just to secure some type of employment), I donned my blackbelt of frugality and made it my mission to be even more careful with money. The thought of having no money at all to pay bills absolutely terrifies me. I wish there was a way I could peek into the future and find out if we were going to have any financial problems. If I knew for a fact that we were going to be OK, then I could relax a little. It's the unknown that causes me to be so paranoid about money.

I could have written this exact post. We had two incomes, no kids when we got married and I moved into dh's house that he was paying for on his salary so we just put away a lot in savings so I could stay home when we had children. We did go to Europe and buy nice bikes, but those were goals of ours and stuff we would not be able to do when we had kids.

I was already frugal so I did not have to really change anything after I started staying at home.

I agree. That borderlines on obsession, in my opinion. JMHO

I agree that it would have been nice if my parents had taught me a little more about saving. They did in some respects, but they did not teach me how to plan my life financially. My Mother was VERY frugal as I was growing up. So, I have to give her some credit where it is due....many of her frugal ways are etched in my brain. But, the part that hurt me is that my Mom was soooo frugal that I was a sad child growing up sometimes. Each fall before school started my Mom would have my sisters and I all layout our clothes on our beds to see what we HAD to have for school. It always seemed that what I felt I had to have and what my Mom felt I HAD to have were quite different! There were always those times when I would hide certain pieces of clothes because I did not wanted it to be counted. Usually it would be something that I felt I looked horrible in but....according to my Mom it was still new and it still fit so you need to wear it!

Anyhow, when I went to college, I really enjoyed my freedom and though I did not go crazy, I did rack up too much debt buying the things I wanted FINALLY!

The problem with my Mom is that she was not interested enough to know what my feelings were about the things I had. With my Kids, I won't buy lots of expensive items, but I do want to make sure that they are comfortable!

I absolutly get tired of this. Its extremly stressful. WE do all we can to save up, shop sales, clip coupons ect, and it always seems like its not enough! There is still never enough for what we need/want.

I can honestly say, if money were NOT tight around here, I would still live frugally though. I would see it as FUN, rather than a priority. Have to live this way out of nesscity just takes the fun out of the savings.

And yeah MAN! I wish I knew 5 years ago what I know now......... Things would be DIFFRENT.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

SAVE HANDMADE TOYS!!

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/sav...from_the_cpsia

Yeah, sometimes. I'm frugal out of neccessity so I got to plan ahead & use my money wisely. I'm more frugal now than 5-10 years ago. In my younger days, I'd just spend my money foolishly and not save much of anything.

Money is a very stressful topic. But I think the only thing you can do now is learn from your mistakes...wouldn't it be great if we could have started out with the knowledge we have now? Sure, but we can't so we have to learn form it (and teach it to our children!).

I stressed over money and some days I feel like I obsessed, but like my DH says, you still have to live your life, and that's what I'm trying to do....I'm not obsessing( as much) over every nickel and dime....and I think I'm a little happier for it!

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass~ It's about learning to dance in the Rain