So are you saving and getting ahead yet?

In the 2 years that I have been writing this blog I can tell you that I have paid off plenty of bills in that time. Just managing money and learning to go without some of those impulse purchases has made a big difference. I can sleep better at night, where as I use to wake up worrying about bills or where to get the money to pay for them.

Handling money correctly was something our parents never taught us. They just told us to save, save, save, which is OK if you don't have bills, bills, bills. I had to learn by trial and error. Those errors got my family into some deep water at times. Making bad decisions on using credit cards and thinking we would always have a steady job was one big error.

I also learned to watch friends and family to see how they handled money. I learned from one family member not to use credit cards for an Outer Banks vacation rental when they could not afford to pay it back. It was when the credit card took her to court that I learned more about how not to handle creditors.

It has only been the last 5 years that I turned around my family's spending habits. If I had not decided to change our money management when I did, we would not have faired well when I went through several layoffs in the past 5 years. It was 2 years ago that this blog was started to share my knowledge of how I did it with you.

Now I have a question - how have you been handling your finances? Are you happy with the results or do you need help? If you think that your money situation can only be cured by throwing money at it, you would be wrong.