How much is a safe amount to have saved to start life over with?! It will be 8 years by the time I get home. My credit history has cleared up with lots falling off but I realized it was time to do some relearning in the finance department so I spend better and will not be so reckless with my funds once I get home. Behind these walls it is expensive to live in some senses but we also learn to be very thrifty and in reality can live off what is provided besides some essential hygiene and a few good sets of clothes and shoes. Some years ago as I was busting my spend at commissary and eating bunch of unhealthy junk until I had a come to moment. This had to stop. I had fines to still be paid, child support still accumulating and a whole life that one day I was going to return to.
Why can I not start now? I started saving everything that I had. Once making it to camp I was blessed with a UNICOR job so I really had no excuse. After paying off my major fines, making sure my driver’s license was also good that was a major accomplishment in itself. Recently read Dave Ramsey’s ‘Financial Peace’ which was a good reminder of budgeting and taking care of the small debt first. As well as the spending habits and the importance of the emergency funds.
While in prison I am still able to budget, I am saving, paying off debt and preparing for when I come home with funds set aside for those important buys to get started again to relieve some of that pressure for starting over. I still haven’t come up with an answer of what is a good amount so I am just going to keep saving, a good habit for when I am home and do have bills to pay. I have set some goals and then once I hit that I bump it up. I know its not a security blanket but I know that I can have that discipline.
