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Getting Through This Month

September 14th, 2005 at 09:55 pm

My gall stones have been hurting me more again ever since seeing that darn doctor yesterday ...all the poking he did I guess! Today it is also hurting up in my back again, and I didn't get much sleep last night. Just couldn't turn off my brain...thinking about the new way of budgeting and the possibility of surgery and other family issues. Finally fell asleep around 3 am and woke up about 7:45 am. My dh said he got to sleep even later than I.

We were determined to get to the gym this morning though so we went. I didn't have nearly the energy I usually do but I got through my aerobics class plus spent about 15 min. on the machines before the class.

After that we went to Wal-Mart and picked up a few groceries...very few..but with what we have on hand we should be able to make it through a week except maybe for milk. I only have about $8 left in the grocery envelope so we'd better! We also went to a bakery for some bread and got 2 loaves for the price of one.
My dh also bought a scone for himself out of his own allowance.

So this is our spending for today. Not counting my dh's personal allowance:
Groceries: $13.95

Last night my dh and I talked about our financial situation this month. The rest of the month is going to be tough! We only have $14+ in our checking (draft) account that is not committed and the only reason we have that much is because of the automatic deposits from our line of credit (to cover overdrafts). We have money in 2 savings accounts but those are for Christmas and Taxes. We also have an EF but I don't want to touch any of these and there is a penalty for withdrawal from them. We have another small savings account but it only has a little over $50 at this time...still that would help if we have to do it. The overdraft of $200 is already new debt and I hate that but I know it is just a matter of timing of deposits and payments so I can fix that from now on...we have enough money to cover all our expenses each month and we are pretty good about keeping to our allotted amounts in each category of our budget, so things should be fine after this month but it is going to be a pretty tight for the rest of this month!

My plan is: when my check is deposited on the 21st, I will pay remaining bills out of that. I have rescheduled some scheduled payments in BillPay so they will now be paid after my check is deposited. That makes me feel more in control. I have to go to the doctor once more this month and there are about 8 other bills to pay yet, but my check should cover all these. At least we are not behind in anything. My dh feels he has enough money for gas to get through the month. I think after paying these bills, there will be about $75 left so we can each take a few dollars for allowances (but not what we usually take) and use the rest for groceries for the rest of the month...there will only be 9 days left so I think we can make it.

I think I accidentally threw away the water bill so will call and find out how much that will be but I am estimating pretty high so should be ok. This will probably be the highest water bill of the year due to watering yard and garden.

Oh another thing I did is cancel our dental checkups and cleaning appointments. I have the surgical consult and my dh wants to go with me and that is the same day so I cancelled both dental appointments and have rescheduled my dh for next month. We should be able to handle both the cost of that visit and if necessary, my hospital stay (just in case I have to have surgery in Oct) next month. I will schedule my dental checkup and cleaning asap but don't know when it will be...maybe November or December.

If we can get through this month like this, it won't be much fun, but I think we will then be fine on the my new budgeting plan from now on. I don't know if we are saving a lot of money paying for daily expenses in cash or not (I know we have at least a little), but I do know that I am much more cautious about my spending and I suspect we are spending less. Part of it though is just that I am really focused now on paying off debt and not taking on more debt. That's why the overdraft bothers me so much, but we should be able to get it paid off pretty quickly. I hate to rush my life, but I will be glad when this month is over! :-)

At this point (after 2 weeks) my feeling is that I think this cash system (for day-to-day spending) is better for us that using a credit card. We won't get the rebates but I think we are more careful about how we much we spend and are sticking to our budget in general better than ever. I have only made one impulse purchase this month and that was to purchase the new budgeting program, but I think it is going to help us out in the long run. I like that I can see our whole budget at once and plan it out and also make notes about what I am doing and planning to do. One of my few complaints about Mvelopes has been that I can't make these notes.

Cash spending this week (not including dh's allowance):

Groceries: $60.42
My allowance: $19.61 ($3.22 for skinc are, $1.50 lunch, and $12 co-pay at doctor's office, $2.89 for notepad and personal care item)
Gas: $22.52

Total cash spending: $102.55 -

Non-cash spending (paid by cc but money saved in bank to pay for it)
Household Maintenance $ 20 (carpenter ant spray)
Budgeting Software $34.95


5:38 pm In summarizing the past week, I forgot to add that we made $35 by opening our ING accts! Yea! That pays for my impulsing purchase of the software! :-)

I just got back from Walgreens...went to buy a couple small items and used the very last of my allowance cash. $2.89 so had to change the above figures. I think we have done pretty well this week, but now that we have very little cash left it will be a looooooooong week! :-)



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