One of my big goals for 2011 is to balance my budget and stick to it. I budget every month, but then I find myself exceeding those budget categories all too often. Once in a while happens, and that's what the slush fund is for, but instead, I find myself pulling money from one budget fund to put into another.
Not a good plan.
So for 2012, I want to start the year with a solid budget in place and see where I can go from there. Sure, there will still be unexpected mishaps, but I want to do my best to control them - so that a budget flub isn't a random shopping trip, but rather something truly unexpected, like a dental emergency.
We'll see how long this lasts. Ideally, I'd like to create a large slush fund cushion so that I can have those random shopping trips again. Oh, the fun of home ownership. I love my home, and wouldn't make a different decision, but sometimes I miss the financial freedom I had.