Cleaning Up Your Life {and by 'yours' I mean mine, but saying You instead of Me makes me feel less threatened. I'm a weak person}

I wanted to call this post "Getting My Shit Together" but thought better of it since I already cuss enough on this blog.

Sorry to all the decent people who may stumble upon this and want to wash my mouth out with soap.

P.S. : Already tried that. Shit didn't work.

Anyway, back to the point: cleaning up my life.

It's an ongoing project, at least for me. {but please say it is for you too so I dont feel like a total loser!}

Getting my finances back in order after the whirlwind that was "18", extricating myself from all negative and poisonous people, trying to find good people to be friends with {not perfect, just good} and trying to be a good person/friend for other people.

I would include being a better mom in this all, but really, no matter how much of a saint I someday may become {HA} motherhood will always be a work in progress for me. Kids are hard.

So on the topic of finances, saving money is something I'm kind of obsessed with. Or more curious about in a lurker way. Like people who save money each paycheck are this exclusive club that I'm eye balling from across the room, trying to decode all their mystical secrets. 

The idea of saving money makes so much sense to me.

It's safe, it's responsible, it means never being backed into a corner. It means never being without options, or a back up plan, or a way to flee the country...wait, what?

Nevermind.

The point to all of this is I like the idea, and in theory I have it down, but in practice I suck at it.

I put money away, and always end up needing to dip into it for some unexpected expense, or because I didn't budget correctly or because I overspent on something I didn't plan on, or whatever. OR I use my debit card for every freaking purchase and the next thing I know, I'm broke.

I don't seem to have any connection to my money if I can't see it.

My idea?

This:

I saw this on Pinterest the other day and was all "OK! Sounds neat!"

The idea is, you pay for things with cash as much as possible. You pull money out when you get paid for things like groceries, spending money, gas, or any other expenses you can't pay for online anyway.

You pay for stuff in cash, and whenever you meet a five dollar bill, you put it away. In a jar, in an envelope, wherever. If you're Bill, you throw it on the bathroom counter until your bathroom looks like you had a stripper party and made it in rain up in there.

The point is, you never spend a five dollar bill in your possession. You save 'em up, and over time they should add up rather quickly. 

If you're also putting 10% of your paychecks into savings too, like you should be, {#I'mahypocrite} then your savings will grow even faster. 

Sounds awesome right?!

A hawaiian vacation in a damn mason jar on your kitchen counter, right?!

And totally easy to pull of, RIGHT?!

We'll see.

I'm going to try, for the rest of the month, to pay exclusively in cash for things I can't pay for online {I am not driving to the cable office to pay my bill, so shut up}

and every 5 dollar bill that I come across, I am going to genuinely try to save.

I am not making any promises here, but seeing as how there are only 2 weeks left in this month, you'd think I'd be able to stick to a plan at least that long.

Wish me luck. 

In two weeks, I will post and let you know how I did and how much I saved.

And if I cried when I put a five dollar bill in a jar instead of a Starbucks barristas hand whilst saying "Vente iced no whip white mocha please"

I know. I'm ashamed of me too.