Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Being a Responsible Adult (and how it sometimes sucks)

I have been umming and aahing about whether to blog about this.  I like to keep my "public self" as positive as possible.  I also initially started this blog with the intention of writing about how well we manage our budget and still do a lot of what we want.  But life is life and we don't always get what we want even if we try really hard to do so.

Wow, that sounds really cryptic doesn't it?  Sorry about that. 

I'm sad because despite our very meticulous budgeting we won't be able to go away for a family holiday this Easter.  Even though it would have been the cheapest we could do it, driving, staying with friends, taking all our food, it's just not possible if we want to be Responsible Adults and keep on top of things.

And we do want to be Responsible Adults that keep on top of things.  Although for a few moments I just wanted to be an irresponsible child and stamp my foot and say "No, I want to go anyway".  In all probability I could have wheedled the King into agreeing to go with promises of further shopping cutbacks and all sorts of other things (which then would never have happened, I can't let my family STARVE). In the end, though, we had to think that it was better to stay at home and use the money towards bills, and the Princess's school camp early next term, and the Prince's birthday in May and normal Responsible Adult things.

I know this is the right thing to do.  I know that we will be better off for it.  But gosh darn it, I was looking forward to catch ups with our friends interstate and my sister and her little boy.  I was looking forward to our first family holiday since the Prince came along.  But this is life when you live to a budget. 

I'll get over it.  We hadn't told the kids about the possible holiday so they will never even know what they missed.  We'll still have a lovely time as a family over Easter.  And we'll spend it with my parents on Easter Day.  As I said, I wasn't even sure if I should post about it, but I did say in my very first introductory blog post that this is our story.  A good story always has happy parts and sad parts, good parts and bad parts.  And it's definitely a part of a Budget Life story, so it had to be told.  I guess that it shows that even though I believe that you can live happily on a budget, sometimes you just wish you didn't have to!

Anyway.... onwards and upwards!  School holidays begin this Friday afternoon so I'm going to research some activities to do with the kidlets that are Budget Queen friendly.  I think we'll do some Easter craft, cooking, see what's going on at the library and who knows what else?  Stay tuned to find out!

And thanks for listening to me whinge.  I feel better for being a Responsible Adult now.