Top Two Tuesday {Money}

Whoa, I feel like I am on a blogging roll today! My followers probably know I don't always participate in T2T — because I never want to blog just for the sake of blogging — but I love this week's topic!

Top Two Things I've Learned About Money

{1} Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to spend it. 
My parents taught me this at a young age, always making me put any Christmas and birthday money in a savings account and save at least half of my paychecks from my part-time job when I was in high school. Although it may have stunk at the time, I was SO GLAD to have those savings to fall back on while I was in college. While I didn't make the greatest money decisions right after I graduated and had a full-time job (basically quadrupling my income, and I don't make much!) I feel I have gotten back on the path. I grow a garden during the summer and preserve as much as possible, I shop sales and use coupons. It's nice to see how far I can make $50 stretch — and also to have that money to save or purchase other necessities. 
And on the same note, just because you are approved for it, you don't have to borrow it. I've seen too many people get trapped by credit cards and end up filing for bankruptcy! J and I do have two loans outside of the house and his truck, BUT they are both 0% interest for a set period of time, and we make larger payments so we can get it paid off without accruing any interest. This works out really well for us :)


{2} It's OK to splurge every now and then. 
Did you just do a double take? Ha! Yes, even though I am Miss Frugal, I've learned that you can't pinch your pennies all the time. Every now and then, it's OK to go out and spend 50 bucks on a nice dinner date just for some time out. It's OK for me to get highlights in my hair a few times a year, if that's what makes me happy. It's alright to have a night out with the girls. A couple years ago when we got serious about buying a house, J and I didn't have  much savings built up, and that kinda freaked me out. Although we qualified for a 100 percent loan and closing costs, I was apprehensive about borrowing that much and having little to no equity, and no nest egg. So we saved BIG TIME for about five months while we house hunted. During that time, we basically quit going out and didn't buy anything for ourselves. While I think that's a good thing to do for short periods, I noticed that we definitely splurged once we were off of our savings kick. Like right now, we're really starting to focus on saving up for our wedding. But that doesn't mean we stress over spending money on other things we want, we just do it in moderation.