Choices

I got a little wild and crazy with Mrs. Oz this past weekend.

This is sad, I know. It’s not sad that we would resort to such activities, but it is sad that our version of wild and crazy these days consisted of…

going over a spreadsheet with the family budget. Yes, sad indeed.

It would be nice, though, if the cash going out came closer to matching – or even better – falling short of the cash coming in. Chalk it up as another goal for 2008.

This allegedly is a running blog – I say “allegedly” because the running, and frankly the blogging, has been a bit limited lately – so I am not going to digress much further into the world of personal finance.

I bring this up at all, though, because of thoughts the budgeting exercise triggered.

What is budgeting, really, besides making choices? It’s about how we choose to spend our money.

Sometimes the choices we make are not so good. We can be wasteful. Other times it’s not so much frittering away bucks on self-indulgent junk, but just meandering and not paying much attention to how we spend our money. Going out to dinner a lot, eating out for lunch too regularly, frequent visits to Starbucks, partaking frequently from iTunes and other splurges leads to a lack of focus that doesn’t leave much cash left over for what’s truly important. It’s a poor way to save and stretch for a bigger goal. Maybe a cool vacation. Real good college educations for the young’uns. Or that new gas stove I sometimes lust over.

There’s definitely a financial aspect to my running. I go through at least a couple pairs of shoes a year. To pinch some pennies, I pushed this last pair closer to 400 miles. My feet had been hurting lately, but still I waited. Then I went out this morning for the maiden voyage in a brand new pair of Mizunos…..aahhh…it was like running on pillows.

I also am shelling out some cash for my running group. It seems like a worthy investment to get regular water stops on hot summer days in Kansas, camaraderie with some fellow goal-seeking runners and the accountability of the group that helps keep my weekly running on track

As much as anything, though, my running is about how I budget – make choices – about the way I spend my time. Getting up at dawn and blasting out for a morning run sometimes makes the morning rush of getting lunches made, the Ozlings off to school and me to work a little more hectic. Bugging out for a couple hours or more for a weekend long run also can impose a burden on the family.

Lately, since the half marathon way back in October, really, when I do run, it has been more of the meandering variety. I’ve been logging a fair amount of miles and hours on the road, but I have not really been getting much back in return. I definitely enjoy my runs for the running – the crisp feel of a morning breeze, quiet early-morning streets that feel like they belong only to me, the occasional treat when an owl hoots or a fox darts across the road and the satisfying feel of my healthy heart pounding away when I am running hard. But I enjoy them most when I can take satisfaction from the moment, but know also that I am investing the exertion and discipline for something down the road, a longer race.

So, with a little focus and more deliberate spending of my time and money, I might just finish 2008 with a couple of completed half marathons, maybe a full, and…a gas stove.