I kind of suck at structure. Which is funny, because I actually crave it in my life. I love knowing what's expected of me, and then fulfilling those expectations to the best of my ability. When your job description however is Army wife, and Mum to a 9 month old son, knowing exactly how things are going to go doesn't happen. Ever.
I decided that I wanted to be organized this move. This is the first army move that we've had (the other two times we moved ourselves and didn't have assistance from the military) and I'm not 100% sure what to expect. I figure, the more I know, the smoother things will be.
I made a meal plan for the last two weeks in our house here, using as much of the remaining food we have in the house as I can. I really focused on the meats, since it's generally the most expensive thing that we buy, and the thing I want least to waste.
It's kind of expected that at least once a week I'll get a phone call that starts with, "Hun I'm not going to be home until late." It's just part of the lifestyle. In the final two weeks before the move though, my carefully laid plans have now shifted back a day, and rather than coming up with a creative solution for the extra day I'm instead left asking myself why I made a plan in the first place.
The (very drawn out) point is this. Sometimes, things will change, plans won't go our way. It's the case with our food, and it's the case with our finances. Would it have been better for me to make no plan at all, knowing that there's a chance it may be thrown off? Not at all! And for me to let go of my financial goals just because a wrench MAY be thrown into our plans is not the right way either. Yes, things are going to come up. A car will break down, or I'll slip up and make a poor spending decision. It's still worth it to try. I know that the time I invested into my meal plan means that I'm farther ahead than if I had made no plan at all. And I know that when I try to be disciplined with my finances, I'm farther along than if I had thrown up my hands and said "It's too hard, I can't do it." Sticking to a non-perfect plan is better than living by no plan at all.
2 comments:
Great thoughts! I'm all for the planning and then dealing with wrenches. Better to have planned and failed than to have never planned at all...? The key is to be flexible, right? You can be content no matter what if you have the right attitude and perspective.
I completely agree. I often try to make plans for the future, with the understanding that they probably won't go quite the way I planned (sometimes, they go nothing like the way I planned). But keeping that in mind, it's fine when things go awry, 'cause you had a plan for at least part of the way, and it got you this far.
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