Photo by: Gilles Gonthier

If I learned anything from elementary school, it’s that groundhogs have the cosmic ability to predict how long winter will last depending on their shadow.

This supernatural event only happens on the 2nd of February every year. If the groundhog sees his shadow he goes back down his hole to hide from six more weeks of winter. The universe will have spoken.

We have no ability to change whether winter will last another six weeks or not – that is up to the cosmic groundhog – but you do have the ability to choose to follow a budget for the next six weeks. Try signing up for One Month of Budgeting for some extra help:

If you’re reading this in a reader, you can click through here to see the form.

(Ok, the One Month of Budgeting emails only last for five weeks, but you still get six emails.)

—

PS – I was going to include a bunch of mildly obscure references to the movie Groundhog Day, to drive my wife nuts, but I deleted them.

Oh what the heck:

Watch that first step… it’s a doo-hoo-sie! Am I right, or am I right? Right? Right?

Photo by: silent-shot

It rained all last week here in the AZ, and the wife and I passed our fair share of accidents on the road.

Coming from a slightly wetter climate than my wife, these sightings often lead to short conversations between us about driving habits between different states.

The thought I always seem to return to is that when roads are wet they play a trick on you.

Most of the time you feel just as in control as you are on a dry road, and most of the time you might be. But it only takes one awkward puddle, or slick spot, or glare (or another bad driver) to take that control away. And on a freeway that’s all it takes.

The best thing, as most people know,  is to simply give yourself a reasonable buffer between you and other cars.

Some months, for my family,  it’s tempting to live right at our means, or even beyond – but it’s just like hugging a car on the freeway. Most of the time we’ll get through the month just fine, but it only takes one instance of “life” to take that control away.

Try to live within your means and give yourself a bit of a buffer. The more you save each month, the safer you’re driving. You may run into heart pounding situations (that may leave you using colorful language), but you just might have enough room to avoid an emergency.

Photo by: emdot

WithinMeans dot com is getting older every week.

Today I wanted to re-visit three of my favorite posts so far:

1. My favorite post: A Strong Budgeting Foundation

When I was done with this post, I almost felt like everything had come together on its own.

The picture, the idea, the structure – it all seemed to say exactly what I was excited about that week.

2. Most proud of: A New Perspective on Budgeting

Is it possible to be proud of a post about how I need to be more humble? Seems like that would negate the whole concept.

3. Highest hits: Burn!

Not sure if I should be proud of this or not.

—

Thanks again for all of your readership, subscriber-ship, comments, and budgeting efforts!