learning how to be responsible... again???

lately i've been thinking a lot about how i'm going to make next semester more manageable.  the obvious things are there: get sleep, stay hydrated, eat right, get exercise. but even those require a plan rather than just a piecrust promise.

anyway, it all comes down to discipline and time management--two things which have not been my strong points lately.  i keep thinking about some advice that was given to me: to budget my time.

Mom and Dad were always experts about budgeting money.  no matter how little we had to work with, they were brilliant about making the necessary cuts to live on what we had.  Mom was a genius about estimating precisely how much everything would cost--she was generally within a few cents of the actual price.  and even in times when Mom and Dad were sure there wasn't going to be enough to cover even the bare minimum, God provided just what we needed.

now i've heard the phrase "budgeting time" a lot before, and i've always thought of it as just planning my time out well.  but what if time were actually like money?  i have many commitments and obligations at any given time.  those are my expenses.  fortunately, i have a steady stream of income--time is always coming.  i mean, it could potentially stop coming at any time, but then i wouldn't really have any of this to worry about, would i?  whew, that got dark quickly.  anyway, the big difference between time and money is that you can save money, but--as much as people use the phrase--you cannot save time.  at least, you can't save it up.  it's impossible.  whether you intentionally use it or not, it leaves you anyway.  i get into debt quickly when all my time drains and i still have expenses.  :(

so, how do i stay on top of my expenses with a bank account that is constantly emptying?  budgeting!  fortunately, the time draining does not keep me from using that time to pay off my expenses, if i use it right.  monetarily, i'm typically very frugal.  i like to save as much money as i can, so that expenses won't catch me unprepared.  the closest thing to saving time is paying off time expenses as soon as possible, and hoping that there will be extra time left over.  the more slowly i pay off those expenses, the more expensive they become.

sometimes i can splurge, spending extra time with friends or using more down time--but only if i have that extra time to spend.  yet i know that those things are necessary too.  so i think the key there is to budget that in as well, at least to an extent.

people use charts and notebooks to keep track of their finances.  i will start this with my time, using an actual planner.  i think this might help.

the outgo cannot exceed the income, so i must make cuts and be diligent.

*stops splurging and returns to work*