A party within a spending plan

5-18-14

My sister, godson, and nephew all graduated within this week, so I hosted and funded a graduation party for them. The hard part was not the money, but trying to pull off a good, affordable reception that wouldn't have my sister and me arguing about it later. I feel like I can appreciate the simple things in life, but she will get upset over little things not being as she thinks they should be.

Well, I had nothing to worry about. She was very grateful and everyone felt like it went well.

My cousin works at the facility where we rented the room. There was a reception for graduates at 3:00 yesterday. After the reception, my cousin swiped leftover food and offered it to me for our reception. That meant a lot of the food that I paid for we longer needed and I can return it to the store and get a refund. Great for me, but two problems - my sister and godson gave me feedback on what they wanted to eat at the party and we didn't serve what they wanted, and my sister had already eaten this food at the reception at 3:00 and there it was again at her celebration reception.

She actually laughed it off! I was surprised.

I had a budget of $300 for food and utensils, and underspent ($233). I didn't budget in the room rental and cash gifts, though. I am proud and feeling weird about how I've been managing every penny. I never paid this much attention to money before.

Some people don't like budgets because they feel restricted, but I like budgets (which I prefer to call spending plans). While shopping in the store, I could tell myself, "I have $300 to spend." I felt a little rich.