I suppose I should start with a little background.

I went to college for five years to get my bachelor's degree, survived on a job that paid 6k and met my husband while there. Knowing that the Michigan economy wasn't exactly hopping, we decided finally on moving to Denver, Colorado. The day after we both graduated, we were in a moving van on our way.

We have been out here for nearly three years now, both have decent paying jobs and we now need to pay for all the luxuries and necessities that we have acquired between now and then. I started trying to clean the mess up about a year ago and we are currently on track with our budget (I will be posting real numbers in the next post).

Our biggest set back so far was helping a lifelong friend of mine get herself started out here. She had been jobhunting for a year in Michigan with no luck but after having her out here for a month and a half, she is now employed, has a job in the field that she got her associates for and is living on her own.

We just finished this and it set us back 4k but it was worth every penny knowing that my friend can have a job outside of retail. Don't worry, she is on her own now though I have been teaching her about budgets.

The biggest challenge in our household is that I am the spender but my husband can't say no to me. So really, this is about me learning that I don't need everything that I want.

Especially since I had been teaching my husband some very bad spending habits and he was starting to pick them up.