Money Money Money

If money is the root of all evil I must be a saint. Right now we make do on about $18,000. Yes we get foodstamps (About $250 a month worth, and I am decent at feeding 3 people on that), so at least we won't starve to death.  Honestly we live in reasonable comfort, one way or another I get bills paid each month (sometimes even I don't know how I do it..), we have enough to get a few little luxuries and I never feel really all that poor....until something big happens....oh say like our car starts to crap out on us.
We bought our car straight out with our income tax return a few years ago, it has been relatively problem free (had to replace the radiator within a year of buying it and it got a flat tire once but seriously, it is over 20 years old, it has run well so far). We have not had the money to keep it maintained like we should and we are now facing the consequences of that and now it needs quite a few repairs and replacements. We considered buying a new car but the bank said nope, can't do it, so that's that I guess.  I did find out I have a decent credit score though, yay for being responsible and paying bills on time!  Anyway, we are taking it into a garage tomorrow to have it checked out and find out what is wrong with it (it has started leaking oil rather badly) and how much it should cost to fix. Hopefully it won't be too much.
Because of all this stuff I have realized how badly we are mismanaging our money. I hadn't thought about it much before because well frankly we don't have much left after bills and gas. I sat down to look at our funds though and realized how much we waste in times of plenty (fat check comes in from Skull's freelance work) and how we regret that in times of lean (little to no work and we are just getting by), so I need to start budgeting and putting what is left aside for later.
I found out that with our current average incomes (a surprisingly difficult number to figure out since I work seasonally and Skull is freelance) we only need to increase our income  or reduce spending by $550 a month to be able to pay bills, account for yearly payments (insurance, back to school etc), set aside money for costly repairs and have a $2000 fund established in a years time. If one of us gets a minimum wage part time job we only need to work about 16 hours a week to make that. So, that is pretty much my goal and I think it is a pretty achievable one.  Feeling a little more hopeful about all this (at least until I hear the repair estimate tomorrow, ha!)

Anyway, that is pretty much it, not that entertaining but that is life kids. I will probably post a bit about trying to make it to my goals over the next year.