You probably are thinking a very long time right, like you whole life could be covered... all your problems "solved". Well it could if you were really smart with it. Lets see, say you are really generous to your family... you give a million to each of your family members... between you and your significant other you have a total of 2 sets of parents.... and 2 siblings. So you have just spent 4 million. You now have 10 left. You would probobly buy a new house and new cars and some toys, like jewelry and clothes and you know things you just have to have!Not! Anyways the average luxury home in your area (we're pretending to live in Orange County, CA) is about $10mil, so you are going to have to settle for a $3mil. house. You'll buy cars that are each about $70K and about $200K on toys. I'm sure you will go on a vacation too! You might even quit your job, your rich right? Why not!  So now you have $ 6,660,000 left. So my guess is that that lasts you about 2 years as you've already blown through more than half in just a few months. You'll want to keep the high roller life style going for as long as possible so you won't really be watching your spending. The average Lottery winner ends up poorer that when they started. So sad. Really with a winfall like that you could easily really be set for life! If you bought and/or paid off a nice 1.5 million home. Kept your job or used the money to make more money... started your own business (conservatively) invested it or other wealth preserving idea you could really stretch that out and take care of your family too! Even buying a new house, and new cars and living it up a bit could still be done. Oh well. At the point you realize you wish you had been more careful, it's gone. Maybe you'll win the lottery again. Not! 

I was out having dinner last night, not much of an event as I'm not a "cook" per se. When the waitress came for drink orders I began thinking of how much money people waste on other drinks beside the free and healthy one water! So I eat out at least once a day. We can talk about that part later. I always order water. I do this as a benefit to my health and I like that I'm not wasting extra money too. Know how much I saved last year by doing this?..... How about $547.50. Okay so this is not an exact amount. I figured if I ate out 365 days a year and the average cost for a beverage is a buck fifty well that's a cool amount of money not spent. I have been known to get a cup of joe after dinner, so that's a little extra, but still it just shows that there are so many ways to be a little more careful with your money! Website still being worked on. I just want to have a complete site that can really help you change your whole financial ways so I'm being pretty detailed!

No rants today... Just was thinking while working on the website that budgeting is just the first step. I haven't really explained where the "no excuse" part comes into play. Once you see where the money is going and were it has to go it's easier to identify ways to cut back. Some of them can affect your way of life per se, but other ways don't really. You can still drive the same car that you bought 6 months ago. You love it and making you sell it might not be a good idea. You need a car to get to work to get paid. You might even be upside down in the amount you owe. So how can you save money on something you already bought? You can really research car loan rates and refi! You can also save on gas by lumping all trips together. Save on washing it (do it yourself). Take care to get regular oil changes (use a coupon) the car will get better mileage with a good working engine! This is just to make an example. The No Excuses are about once you decide to budget amounts to pay your bills you have to stick to it, no matter what. It means taking extra jobs that you might feel above doing in order to bring in more money. It might mean no expensive vacations and not buying a new car. It means different things to different people depending on your individual situation. That's it for now... will be working on the website more now! Let me know what you think.