Shortly after I said I do, my husband started saying a four-letter word that was spelled with six letters - budget. To me the word had a negative connotation. To me it said less - not more. That's when I decided to budge-it. I kept track of the money I saved, as well as spent. Coupons, discounts, sales - a dollar here and a dollar there add up. Last year I saved over $4,000. Being able to spend that money on something I haven't had to budget for is my saving grace.



Time is something else I try to budget. Because I'm not the only one who's trying to find time for everything I have to do, as well as some for things I want to do, time management has become big business. Books, lectures and classes tell us we can save time by using action plans, activity logs and to-do lists. Although I've tried them all, there's only one thing that will guarantee we have time on our hands. That's wearing a watch.

Because a budget is defined as an amount allotted for a specific use, a diet is a budget that allows a specific number of calories per day. The lower the cost in calories, the more of that food we can afford to eat. A diet plan is literally a spreadsheet. Instead of expenses, we try to control expanses. Because balance is important in both, I recommend a cookie in each hand as a balanced diet.

When gas cost $4 a gallon, I budgeted gas. I put more thought and less driving into what I had to do. Instead of organizing my errands by days of the week, I organized them by location. Instead of doing errands weekly, I did them every other week. The cost of gas motivated me to do more shopping on line and less at area malls. You'd think the cost of gas would have also motivated me to walk to nearby stores, but it didn't. The only store within walking distance sells gas.

What I want to budget next is patience. Because I seem to run out of patience by the end of the day, I was inspired by this quote, "It is very strange that the years teach us patience - that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting". Who would have expected my patience guru would be the eight-times-divorced Elizabeth Taylor.