Personal Finance for Dummies: Create A Household Budget In 5 Easy Steps

Perhaps you’re by yourself the very first time. Maybe you've experimented with developing a budget but failed. Or else you have just never contemplated much about viewing your spending habits before. It doesn't matter what your life-situation is right now, having a household budget could seem intimidating. However,basic finances are actually not difficult! Whenever your understanding of developing a budget might be, take it one stage at any given time. Don’t make an effort to complete the steps in just one sitting. Instead, schedule 1 hour for every activity and take a look at these step-by-step secrets for generating an easy financial budget.

Start by keeping your information together. Pull together your entire documents, including paycheck stubs, checkbook, bank statements, bank card statements, bills, and any receipts you could have. If you haven't opened these things from their envelopes, now is a superb time to complete the task! Get everything you have together in one place. Don’t worry about sorting it now or making any sense of it. Just get those little components of paper altogether in one location.

The next step is to find out what is coming in each month? On a single piece of paper, list your current income. Include income from work, tips, house-sitting,babysitting, selling things on eBay, a part-time job, stock dividends, interest, etc. for an average month. List the figures in gross (before taxes or any other deductions). If you are in a situation where you have irregular income and you don’t get a regular paycheck, take your best conservative guess at what you earn during a normal month. Always figure within the low end in case you have a bad month. Overestimating your pay won’t help your budget in any respect. It will only hurt you!

After you have completed that task, you will want to find what’s going out each month? This list will likely be much longer versus the previous one, unfortunately! Use your paycheck stubs, bills, bank statements, and charge card statements and list your expenditures for only a typical month into two columns: Permanent Expenses and Discretionary Expenses. Your permanant expenditures normally include payroll deductions, lease or house loan, property taxes, insurance policy, car or truck payment, power bills, charge card payments, and savings. Your discretionary bills would normally can include food, gasoline, eating out, clothing, hair care, memberships, and entertainment. Now you see where the money is going.

What’s the real difference? Compare your pay to your costs. Are you spending more money than you will be making monthly? Are your credit card payments a substantial area of your fixed expenses? Are you experiencing “mystery” expenditures within your discretionary fees aside from the list? If that is so, turn it into a habit to get started on documenting Your entire spending. Odds are good, you’ll find you’re wasting away $5 or $10 on lunch or at the drugstore on items you don’t even remember purchasing. If you’re out of balance (you’re spending greater than you’re making), you've got two choices: not spend as much or make more. Keep re-thinking your spending until you have a workable budget - one where the “money in” side is AT LEAST equal to the “money out” side and you are obviously reducing your debt.

The final step is stick to the plan! This step is frequently the toughest. It’s easy create a financial budget on paper, but it’s much tougher to say no in the event the office company is going out for margaritas after work on Friday and you’ve already spent your fun money for the week. Remind yourself that budgets can be like diets: If you ever splurge in one location, you must replace with it elsewhere, or you’ll have to suffer the results. Knowing where your financial budget is leaking, you are able to shut off the faucet! When you're set on setting up a budget that sets you on the direction to financial peace of mind, there are lots of good personal savings management and budget sources designed to use.

If you'd like more tips on personal finance, check out more personal finance tips for women and don't forget to take a look at my budget bootcamp!

Personal Finance Tips: What Every Woman Should Know About Becoming Financially Independent

Truly being debt free can seem like an unrealistic concept for many of people. The normal American presently spends a great deal more than they earn and can barely keep up financially. To become free from debt is certainly not hopeless, regardless of what people may assume right now! Keep reading to learn several money tips that each and every female needs to fully understand, even if she hates math!

In order to be debt free, you must start out by having a spending budget. Regardless of whether you earn a whole lot of cash or a little right now, you will need a budget to fully understand where exactly you are going. Just think of it as your budgeting guide meant to help you long term.The budget is your own personal financial road map. If you don't know where you are going, how will you know how to get there? Analyzing your spending habits will enable you to know where you are going so you can develop an absolute financial plan for your future.

Start saving money early on and often, even when it seems extremely hard. Saving money every month is essential on many levels. It allows you to have immediate cash when times are difficult, no more relying on credit cards! Saving money each month can help us to learn to be self-disciplined with our financial resources. If you have absolutely nothing in bank account, your first objective is to have $1,000 in an emergency fund you can fall back on. The emergency account will let you rely upon your own own cash rather than credit lines when a situation suddenly happens (and it will!). When you get your emergency account put together, start contributing to your retirement by committing to your corporation's 401k plan or start an individual retirement fund. It's certainly never too soon or too late to begin saving money for the future!

Consumer debt can be devastating to your personal finances. The best way to be financially free, is to repay your debts and not accumulate any more debt. This way your income coming in will go towards personal savings, as opposed to eliminating debt. Start off small by paying off the card with the smallest balance first. After that card is paid back off, start putting on that money towards the card with the next lowest balance etc. If you happen to end up with a raise or maybe a tax reimbursement, apply this income towards debts instead of wasting it. This highly effective "snowball" method is a wonderful technique to pay off debt quickly. When you see debt being eliminated, it is actually fulfilling and motivating and will help keep you going!

The small things we don't think about can have the biggest effect on your finances. Even though it probably doesn't seem like it, small items can add up and burn up a big portion of your hard earned money. Wasting just $5 extra each day will add up to a whopping $150 in unplanned costs for the month. However this will also work in the complete opposite way. Putting $5 to pay off debt every day can equal another $150 paid back in debt monthly!

It can often feel like it's next to impossible to begin to get your own personal finances in order. The most crucial thing to remember is changing your financial situation is almost always about behavior. If you're able to change many of the habits you are accustomed too, you can start to see a massive impact on your budget. Once you pay attention to the little expenses, you will see they no longer add up.

If you would like more assistance with getting or have questions about the area of personal finance, check out my 16 week Budget Bootcamp: A Common Cents Approach to Personal Finances and Money Management for Women.

Oh, and I also made a cute little video about it too!!

I'm MOVING!!!

I'm moving to:

http://thejennypincher.com

Please come visit me!! Updates to the site will be coming soon :)

Another organizing resource

Organized Home offers some great printable forms to help organize your life. I'm a big fan of planning ahead and highly suggest trying this, especially for meals.

I save so much time and money planning ahead for what I am going to eat. It stops me from running through the drive through on a night when I'm just too tired to cook.

I also organize my shopping trips and have coupons in hand before I shop. I put my coupons in an envelope (the reply envies that come in the mail are the best) and write my list on the back. This helps ensure:

1. I use the coupons I have, especially the good ones
2. I don't forget anything
3. I can stop really quick even if I wasn't planning on it because I'm organized
   

Menu Plan Monday

Ok I know its Sunday night but I always think ahead! If you have not visited orgjunkie.com I highly recommend it. Menu Plan Monday is just how it sounds, you plan your meals for the week! Her site links to 300 other blogs who also plan their meals, great place for ideas!

Here is a template to help you plan you meals!!! I'm doing this for 2 reasons, 1. because I love to plan and 2. because I need to plan. If I don't plan my meals, this means a stop for fast food which I don't need! I also do not want to spend the money on it given I have a huge stockpile for a single person!

I will show my lunch and dinner plans because I take my lunch to work each day and this will keep me on track. Keep in mind, I'm just feeding myself here so some nights won't be that creative because I have limited time or I'm just plain tired!!!

Here is my plan for the week:

Monday
Lunch: Leftover hamburger from the grill and fresh sweet corn, bananna
Dinner: Chicken salad sandwhich, some form of fruit

Tuesday
Lunch: Mexican wraps (rice, salsa, chicken, & black beans all mixed together to marinate), banana
Dinner: PB & Jelly, mango, chips & salsa

Wednesday
Lunch: frozen Kashi meal
Dinner: Mexican wraps (again)

Thursday
Lunch: beef & noodles (made the night before with items from freezer)
Dinner: Mexican wraps (yet again). I told you I don't get that creative!

Friday
Lunch: office lunch (we usually eat out on Fridays for lunch)
Dinner: Leftovers! I'll be too lazy too cook so I'll scrounge around for what I call 'scraps' a mix of things leftover from the week :)

Gardening!

Gardening is one of my favorite summer hobbies. I've always loved gardening, even as a kid. I love it more now because I can grow my own food. Not only does this save me money, its a lot of fun too!!

I have a 10x10 plot at the community garden in our neighborhood. It costs $20 to rent it for the year (well worth it to me).

This year i have tomatoes, zucchini, squash, onions, hot peppers and 1 green pepper plant. Green peppers never do well for me. Not sure why. I bought a hearty looking plant so I'll see what happens with it, although I'm not getting my hopes up! I would like to plant garlic too but haven't found it anywhere.





I have also found a new love for growing herbs. I grow them in containers on my porch. They are great to cook with and smell delicious! This year I have basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, cilantro, chives, lemon, catnip and stevia.







I also love flowers so here is my herb/flower garden on my porch!

Kmart Doubles - 4/19/09

I'm a little late in posting this but I did pretty good at the last Kmart doubles, they doubled up to $4!!! Thats right! A $4 coupon became $8!!! I was in heaven!

I got:

Total before coupons $233.xx. After coupons $25.17.

5- 12 pks mt dew
5- bags yesterdays news cat litter
2- 12 pks of cottonelle
4- olay body wash
3- dove heat therapy spray
2-phisoderm face wash
2-vaseline lotion
5-clairol hair color
6- suave shampoo/conditiner
2-venus razors
4-barilla pasta
2-v8 fusion
1 sun chips
5- cat treats
1-air wick imotion
2- renuzit crystal elements
3- kraft salad dressing
1-vitamin water

I'd say this is probably my best trip with doing kmart doubles. Since I work full time now, I didn't have the time to go as much as I wanted. I am also getting to the point where I don't need much more or I will be out of room!

Free KFC Meal!

Free KFC 2 pc meal with sides!

Wanted to pass this coupon along, it won't last long. Here are the details

Coupon available for printing from 9am CDT 5/5/09 to 9:59pm CDT 5/6/09. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the U.S. from 5/5/09 to 5/19/09, excluding 5/10/09.

You get:

2 pcs Grilled Chicken
2 sides
1 biscuit

great free meal!

I'm featured on the St. Louis BeaconTech podcast!

My first feature, I couldn't be happier! If you haven't visted the St. Louis Beacon, check them out! You can also find them on twitter www.twitter.com/stlbeacon

Here is the link to the podcast


Thanks to Brent Jones, Presentation Editor at the Beacon!!

"It's only"

This is the phrase that is going to get you in trouble.

I have found in my experience teaching budgeting and also doing one on one budget counseling that people who say this the most during our conversations have the most trouble.

I had a situation where I was doing one on one counseling with a couple. I was going through the budget with this couple and they were really struggling. When we got done going through their monthly expenses, I started looking over the numbers. I said "are you sure this is all you spend each month?" "yes, yes" they said "that's it". I sat there looking at them. The husband had a McDonalds cup and a pack of cigarettes in front of him. These things, as insignificant as they may be, were not accounted for in the budget. I brought this up. Then I heard the phrase that makes me cringe..'it's only $x.xx".

This is how people get in trouble!!! Buying the small dollar things here and there throughout the day. Those days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months.

Think about it.

If you spend $5 per day by stopping at the gas station to get cigs/soda/candy/whatever you are spending an extra $25 a week in junk that you probably can't account for. That's an extra $100 a month not accounted for or $1,300 a year!!!!!!! And that is just one area of the budget! What if you did this in say 3 different areas of your life (think Walmart trips, extra grocery trips during the week, lunches out) no wonder people are broke!!!!

If you find yourself thinking "it's only" before you buy something, take a second to stop and think about if you really need item x. Chances are you wouldn't miss it. After all "it's only $x.xx" right?

When times get tough...

I know a lot of you are losing jobs these days, myself included. I have went through two job losses. In a row. In 2 years. So I guess that would make me at least somewhat qualified to talk about how to make it when times are tough!

If your over the shock of the situation and you've moved into action mode - trying to decide what to do about your income situation (unemployment just doesn't go that far) here are some things to consider:

• You will be spending less with out really trying - since your not going to work, your gas expense, eating lunches out, bus fare etc.. will dramatically decrease
• You will have more time to watch what you are buying. This may include paying more attention to the grocery store ads and having the time to clip and match coupons to the weekly sales
• You will probably spend a lot of your time on the computer because you are looking for another job - spend some time in the 'etc' section of craigslist. I have found tons of odd jobs in there to make some extra cash (think focus groups that pay you for your opinion, helping people in your neighborhood move, yard work etc...)
• You will have lots of time on your hands. More than you will know what to do with. If your feeling productive, you could start cleaning out closets and finding things to sell on ebay and craigslist for a little extra income.
  
• You could consider cutting back on some things - in my classes I never tell people what they should or should not cut out. It's up to you, you have to do what works for you. Remember this is only temporary. It might not hurt to look at your expenses and see if there are some things you can cut back on or cut out entirely.

It might make you feel a little better if you sat down and wrote your income and your expenses. Thats all a budget really is anyway. To get through this time, some tough choices will need to be made. I know its not fun. Trust me, I'm living it too.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger" or something like that.

I teach budgeting

I made up a budgeting class about 3 years ago and presented it to the local community college as a continuing education class. I had no idea if the school would be interested in it. After a few phone calls, I got to the right person, she paused after I asked and then said "yes, we're interested".

So three years later I'm still teaching my same class. Its called "Basics of Budgeting". I teach my students how to build a basic budget, cut out some necessary expenses and how to read a credit report. I usually throw in some relevant consumer topics that are happening around the time of the class.

I don't know why but I can never bring myself to prepare for this class. I know what I want to say and the order I want to say it. So most of the time, I just wing it. And you know what? It usually works out.

If you are interested in learning how to build a budget and you live in the St. Louis area, come to my class! I'm teaching again in April '09. If you live out of the St. Louis area, leave a comment and we will see what we can work out.

Happy Saving America.

Kmart super doubles - you would think I would be sick of this by now!

But alas, I am not!!!! I just love it and I keep going. Riding it out b/c I know this will not last forever!!!!
So I went to two different Kmart's yesterday - One in O'Fallon (not a very nice Kmart - older, dark and dirty, they rarely restock the shelves) and another one in Ballwin, like night and day - clean, bright and fully stocked!!!!

Here are my trips

Trip 1 &2 ( did 2 different transactions)




1-Endust
2-Knorr side dishes
2-Betty crocker frosting
2- turtles
1- ziplock bag pump
1- ziplock bag refill
2- rice krispies
1-apple jacks
7- gilette body wash
4- pert plus (no! more pert!)
2-brut deod
3-dove hairspray
4-kotex liners
4-olay bar soap
1-herbal essence hair dye
6-zest soap
2- revlon beauty tools
6- tic tacs
1 - reynolds wrap
1- bleach

So total before q's $162.xx
Total after q's $8.29

3rd trip (in Ballwin)



$85.xx before q's - $10.84 after q's ($6 of that was for hair dye for my mom )

5 pert plus
4 olay
2 zest
3 natural instincts
4 betty crocker cookie mix (found on end cap)
1 corn pops
2 reynolds wrap
4 beggin strips
1 cat ( jk - had to move way back to get everything in and cat was just sitting there staring at me!)

So my total before q's was around $240.xx after q's $19.xx and I will get back $8 from my mom for the hair dye so $11 for two carts full!!!!

I know I know your wondering what I do with all this right? I can't possibly use it all can I? Well this is what I do:
1. Stockpile - I have a nice stockpile of items going - This works for me but would NOT work for everyone. I like knowing that I really could go without shopping for 2 years.
2. Donate - Food pantries, shelters etc...
3. Friends/Family - I spread the wealth around

Kmart doubles is seriously addicting to me, I have so much fun with it. I am NOT a selfish shopper, I don't clear out the shelves and I also leave coupons on the shelves for others to use.

Thank you Kmart, I never thought I would wait in line at 7 am on a Sunday to get into one of your stores!

WAGS Trip today - Can you say YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so today was probably my best day at WAGS (Walgreens for those not familiar with the slang). I spent 8.76 oop (out of pocket) and saved $180.05!!!! I got the following:

11 Revlon Eyeliner
3 Revlon Lipgloss
2 Revlon Eyeshadow
1 Suave Hairspray
3 Suave Mousse
2 Bic Razors
6 Bic refills

How did I do this you might ask??? Well Let me tell you....

First I had a 15% off coupon for WAGS Friends and Family - traded this online (A FULL CUP)

The Revlon eyeliners and lipgloss were on sale $2.59 - they were buy 1 get 1 50% off this week. So I bought one for $2.59 and got the second one for $1.30. I also had $2 off any revlon product that I used for each of the Revlon products giving me overage on 8 of them (approximately .70 overage ea). I traded on A FULL CUP for the $2 coupons (had about 22 of them - I will use the rest at Kmart doubles)

I had 2 - .75/2 coupons for Suave and they were on sale for $1.67

The Bic razors and refills were on sale buy 1 get 1 free for 6.99 - the Friends and Family discount took these down to $5.94. I had 8 of the $3 off any bic razor and/or cartridge refills so I got all of those FREE!!!!!!!!!!

YIPEE!!! What a great feeling!!

I have already listed 4 of the eyeliners and 2 of the lipgloss on sale for a starting price of $8.99 so if I sell those, my haul will end up being FREE!!!

Gotta love it, dontcha?

Kmart Double coupons

WOW is all I can say. This is some of my haul from Kmart Double coupon days. I can't tell you how addicted I have become to Kmart double coupon days. Kmart has been offering a promotion since the beginning of October where they are doubling manufacturer coupons up to $2. So a $2 coupon becomes a $4 coupon, a $1 coupon becomes a $2 coupon and so on. Anything over $2 is not doubled, so a $3 coupon stays $3. This has been the craziest thing ever for me.












I tried to chart it all out and to the best of my knowledge this is what I have gotten:

1 yesterdays news cat litter
6 zest 3 bar packs
4 gilette fusion shampoo
4 vaseline for men
19 dove
3 welchs
8 crest
5 crest for kids
1 bic
4 cover girl eyeshadow
1 almay eyeshadow
1 revlon tweezer
2 knorr pasta sides
2 snickers
1 reeses cups
21 suave
2 pudding packs
4 covergirl eyeliner
4 maybelline great lash
4 party mix cat treats
1 physicans formula powder
21 tic tacs
10 dog/cat treats
2 bags cat food
8 Loreal Bare Mineral Mascara

And on and on... I know I'm forgetting some things because I have given ALOT away... I'm missing a set of pictures too. I can't help it, the excitement just gets the best of me then I start giving it away and forget to take a picture! I promise I'll do better next time. The best calculation I've came to is before coupons the total was approximately $420. I spent around $50 oop after it was all said and done. GO ME!

DOUBLE COUPONS WILL HAPPEN AT ALL KMARTS NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 6TH 2008!!!!

Start Saving your coupons now!!!!!

Oh how I love it when the new Mary Kay catalog comes out

I stare at it. I want everything in this book every time it comes out. I love how these women look. I want to look that way and I picture myself walking out the door looking so fresh and perfect and wonderful. Oh I just can't stand it! I want it all!

It drives me nuts this makeup is so expensive. I know I could become a MK rep and get 50% off. I tried that. You have to place such a big order it just is not worth it to me. Then the hounding calls from the directors to try to get you to go to meetings etc. It's such a dilemma.

I will stare at this magazine all night and justify why I should or shouldn't buy this make up. In the end, I probably won't buy anything. The booklet will fall to the bottom of the pile with other items I want but never buy.

Who knows, maybe this time I will treat myself and buy a few things! Its unlikely but stranger things have happened in my world.

Book review "A Pocket Guide to the Bible" by Scott Hahn

I was lucky enough to get included in a book review program sponsored by The Catholic Company . I heard about the book review program on The Catholic Moments podcast hosted by Lisa Hende. Catholic Moments is a talk show that is a part of the SQPN network. I listen to almost all of the podcasts put out by SQPN and love them all!

I was excited to receive my first book "A Pocket Guide to the Bible" by Scott Hahn. I had heard about books that Scott had written from The Catholic Hack podcast and the Into the Deep podcasts (check them both out on itunes, they are worth it). I hadn't read any of his books yet and was excited to get started!!

The book really lives up to the title "a pocket guide" in size, its a 4x6 book! My first thought was, how is this tiny book going to tell me what I need to know about the bible? The bible is huge and can be intimidating and this tiny book is going to explain it all to me? Ok so I'm a skeptic, but that didn't stop me from reading.

I am definitely impressed with the content of the book. In 78 pages, the book efficiently explains the contents of the Bible and why the information is there. I am a lifelong Catholic and learned more than I expected to from this book.

My two favorite chapters where chapter four and chapter eight. Chapter Four "What belongs in the bible" laid it out the best for me. This chapter explains the Old and New Testament and what belongs in each and why. It is easy to read, to the point, and make sense! Chapter Eight "The books of the Bible" ties it all together outlining the books and the prophets. The last chapter is a "where to find" chapter for stories that appear in several places in the Bible.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick and thorough explanation of the Bible. It is an easy read and is a great reference book. I also think this book would be a great gift for someone who is new to the Catholic Church or a long time member like myself.

This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on A Pocket Guide to the Bible.

No spend day 1

Don't worry, I won't be recording my daily troubles with cutting back on my spending. But I did want to write about my first day because it was......well....harder than I thought it would be.

The first thing I did wrong today was I did not plan for my day. I'm in the car a lot for my job so sometimes I stop at the gas station to get a little snack or treat. I told myself I would not do this anymore and guess what I stopped today! I needed a water and wanted some turtles. Strike 1. What I should have done was had a water bottle with me that I filled up at work and brought another snack from home like fruit or string cheese. Ok so note to self, plan better next week.

I had a NY&CO coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase. I wanted to use this coupon today. I thought well $10 out of my monthly budget was not to bad to spend on clothes. So I went to the store, found 4 sale items and proceeded to take them to the register. The cashier started taking the clothes off the hangars and I gave her my coupon. Ooops she told me, can't use the coupon on the sale items. I said ok then I don't need the clothes. And I left! Yay me. One bad spend and one small victory makes me even for the day.

I knew lunch would likely be a problem for me since I'm not always in the office and its hard to plan. I bought lunch for a client today so I was saved by that one because I get reimbursed for business expenses. Ok good deal. Next week I will have to try to pack something in a cooler. Will that work in this 100+ degree weather? I don't know. We will see I guess.

This weekend is the no sales tax weekend in the state of Missouri. You have to give me huge brownie points here because I am not going to let this lure me out to possibly buy something and blow the budget!!!! I do need to make a trip to get a few groceries but I should spend under $10 on that as everything on the list is on sale.

So all in all I think my first day went ok. It was definitely harder than I thought but really and truly made me realize how I am more tempted than I thought to spend money each day. The thought of paying off my car 14 months early is what keeps my wallet shut!!!!

$10,530 to $3,800 by December 31, 2008

I was lucky enough to find a blog recently called SmallNotebook where the author wrote about a "no spend month". The author and her family chose only to spend $250 for the month of July. Read about it in her blog, its a great story!

This blog 1. got me thinking and 2. inspired me. I have been wanting so badly to pay off my car. I keep wanting a 'quick fix' where I come into..oh I don't know lets say $10,350 after taxes, which would allow me to pay off my 2005 mazda 6. I still love this car, I have no plans of getting rid of it. I just want it paid off!

After reading the blog I decided to make August my no spend month. I would cut out a little here and a little there and only spend $140 on the extra "stuff" for the month. Its just me, so its a little easier for me to control my spending.

I started calculating further and crunching the numbers. When I was done, I calculated I could pay off $6,550 by December 2008. WHAT??? I did the math again. And again. I could not believe this! By the end of this year I could have a HUGE portion of my car paid off. AND still have a decent amount of money in savings.

How did I do this you might ask? Well it all started with cutting a little here and a little there. I had recently canceled a monthly membership that was costing me $100. I got an offer in the mail to switch my cable/internet/phone that will save me $50 a month. I cut $20 a week off the groceries and spending cash. I paused my savings and will be putting all that extra money into paying off the car (I am only doing this because I feel like I have enough in savings that will allow me to do so). And the list goes on.... I do not feel like any of these changes are so drastic that they will cause me to fail. For me this was about taking a few dollars here and there and before long all those few dollars started to add up.

So this is the challenge I have set for myself for the rest of 2008. I won't be eating out much. I won't be buying fun items on Etsy. I won't be taking extra trips to target. And guess what, IT WILL BE SO WORTH IT!!! My goal is to have the car paid off by March 2009. 14 months early. I am excited and hopefully and will be so dang glad when I have a clear car title!!!!!!!

Changes

I'm going through some changes around here, trying to decide what/who I want to be when I grow up. I'm having a hard time finding my niche in life or the place I need to be.

I'm trying to decide what my next step will be. It's really scary but exciting at the same time. Somehow I have developed this fearless attitude that is so unlike me. I guess you just get to a point where you get so beyond being fed up that change is the only option.

Please say a prayer for me as I go through these next few months. I have no idea what will happen!!!