Harvest Budgets

I'm a really terrible blogger. I am just uncommitted. I'm sorry. It's not that I'm super busy. Blogging just really does take dedication, and I don't guess I realized that. Maybe that's why my last attempt at a fitness blog was a complete bust...or maybe my fitness was the bust.

Speaking of bust, I am busting with jealousy of you folks in Bay this weekend. It's my favorite time of year there, and I am 900 miles away! It's Harvest Fest weekend, and I have been the Harvest Fest's number one fan since I was born! I love the way my little hometown smells during this time. That big pile of compost behind the cotton gin isn't quite soured yet, so the town doesn't smell like a giant toilet. Instead, it smells like helium. You may think that's a weird way to describe fall in Bay, but I've always thought all the harvested crops smell a lot like a helium balloon. It's a nice smell. The air is so crisp and the leaves are still green but starting to yellow. I like it.
Harvest Fest reminds me of love. When I was little, I was usually chasing a boy at the Fest. I always bought one of those ribbon crowns at a booth so that when I ran, the ribbons bounced in my hair. I felt so pretty.
I always rode in the parade, too, whether it was with a cheerleading or school club float, or with my dad in his police car. I always thought the parade was the coolest, and it was.

Last year was a particularly special Harvest Fest for me. I had dropped Derick off in St. Louis the day before so that he could embark on his journey at Officer Candidate's School. I remember not crying as much as I did when I took him the first time in January of 2009. I had grown a little tougher and become more educated on the whole OCS ordeal. I was more excited than nervous, more happy than scared. I remember telling him, "Don't come back to me this time. Let me go to you." He passively said, "ok, Babe." His focus, for weeks, had been off of me and on the journey ahead.
I came back to Arkansas and settled into my new, yet temporary, life. I immediately packed all of Derick's clothes in huge plastic bins and cleaned the room so that I had only what I needed to survive the next two and a half months without him. I figured if I made our room at my parents' house more of just my room, I wouldn't dwell on his absence and be sad all the time. I could get up and get stuff done. Surely, that would make the time go by more quickly.
One year ago today, I made the trek back to Arkansas from St. Louis, renovated a room, and "unofficially" became a Marine wife. One year ago today, as Derick began his journey by heading to Quantico, Virginia to get yelled at for two and a half months, I began a journey of my own.

There was really no time to mope and whine about not having my husband around anymore. The next day was the Harvest Fest, and I'd volunteered to instruct Zumba on the stage. Thank GOD for my friends Cristi, Dana, and Christina, who promised to be there to do Zumba, just in case no one else felt like shakin' it. They kept me from looking like a fool! It was fun, and more people joined in than I'd expected. Luckily, the second Zumba session of the day became a competition. I chose the best Zumba student in the crowd, and the winner got some goodies from the concession stand. I stand by my word that my nephew, Nathan, was actually the best, but that's not quite fair, so I chose the second best. :)

The next few months weren't so bad. I got into a routine and stayed quite busy, though at the time, I just wanted to relax for one second. I woke up early, drove 45 minutes to work, worked all day, taught Zumba at night, drove home just in time to scarf down a late supper, write Derick a two-three page letter (front and back), do a quick devotional, shower and hop in bed. I was busy all the time and tired all the time. I'm so thankful for my mom and dad who stayed up to feed me supper late at night and listen to my complaining about how pooped I was. Arkansas had never looked so beautiful to me until last year, when I was too dang busy to enjoy it. I stayed busy because I thought it would be good to be productive while Derick was gone. But, to me, time went just as slowly or quickly as it would have, had I not been working or instructing. I am thankful, though, for being able to spend time with my work and Zumba friends. I'm also thankful for the money we saved because Derick and I were both too preoccupied to spend any of it.

While Derick was gone, I learned to pay ALL the bills by myself, make important decisions without consulting him, secure a place to live and set up utilities three states away, set up any type of insurance you can think of, and deal with any issue that came up (which, if your husband is out of contact, you can bet any and all types of "issues" will come up). Last year, I was the most independent I'd been in my whole life. Because we were married so young, he'd always been there to deal with those sorts of issues. Last year, I had no choice but to handle everything myself, and it felt somewhat liberating.

Here I am, though, a year later, allowing him to pay all the bills. (By pay, I mean, get online and submit payments.) I feel a little guilty about that because he's the one who gets up early and heads to work all day. He's the one bringing in all the dough. I could at least help by making sure everything is paid on time.

SO:

My mission for this weekend (and maybe next week, depending on how quickly I grasp the reigns) is to have Derick teach me, once again, how to pay all the stinkin' bills. I want to make a budget worksheet and get a little organization going. I want to be a little more thrifty with our money. We don't live outside our means at all, and we have always been pretty smart when it comes to spending. We don't blow a lot of money on useless stuff. We don't spend if we don't have. We pay our bills well before they are due. And we typically try to maintain a steady amount in our bank account. But I've been thinking that we could save even more if we had some sort of functioning method of paying bills and keeping up with what exactly goes out and comes in.
That said, if anyone reading my blog has any advice or their own budget worksheet that you would like to contribute, feel free to comment! My friend and her husband have a worksheet, so I'm going to have her come help me set ours up. But in the meantime, let me know what works and what doesn't work when it comes to, not necessarily just budgeting, but organizing your bills, receipts, and any other piece of paper that has to do with personal finances. ;) Right now, Derick and I pretty much just throw the bills in a pile, pay them when we think of it (which, lucky for us, is before they are actually due), then the bills themselves just seem to linger around our house for weeks. I don't know what to do with them. Do I hang on to them? Throw them away? And if I hang onto them, where do I put them? I have a tiny organizer box that I used in Quantico (I was still in the habit, somewhat, of dealing with everything). But if you have a method that works, please share!

How this post went from Harvest Fest to OCS to budget worksheets is beyond me! Y'all have a good weekend anyway, and enjoy the street dance for me!:)


...Speaking of street dance, I may not be good at organizing finances or maintaining a healthy amount of energy when I'm working two jobs while my husband is training to be an officer of Marines, but I AM a professional at choosing good music to listen to. If only I could get paid to post good youtube videos...one can only dream!
I feel like this is a nice harvest time song: