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Archive for September, 2014

Near Disaster

September 27th, 2014 at 03:21 pm

So I'm using YNAB, but it was the end of my first month and I don't have my buffer built up yet. So at the end of month 1, I had $10 in my checking account after the rent comes out next week.

I have all my bills perfectly timed, so I wasn't concerned. I should have been concerned. For some reason, the car insurance people pulled out our payment a week early. We aren't supposed to pay them until October 4th! So I logged into mint so I can see all my balances at the same time and realize I have nearly $200 lower than I should in my bank account right now.

So I immediately look and realize that the stupid car insurance came out way before it was scheduled to. Ugh! I hate autopay!! But it gives us a discount for paying that way and we didn't have the money to pay the premium up front. Ugh!!

So I logged into my bank account and had to move $200 from savings into checking to keep myself from overdrafting just in case they take the rent payment out before I get paid. I hate everything right now.

I'm happy I was able to catch it before I was overdrafted. I think I'm going to take the rent off autopay, that way I have more control over when it's taken out. Also, I'm slowly starting to dislike so many people having access to take money from my checking account whenever they want.

Once the paychecks come in next week, I'll transfer that $200 back. Just a slight crisis.

October Budget

September 27th, 2014 at 01:06 am

I thought I should enter my October budget. When I make a change, I'll try to remember to update you.

Education
Tuition: $166.35 (Payment plan)
Books: $170

Debt
CC#1: $73.23
CC#2: $131.69
CC#3: $62
CC#4: $51

Food
Groceries: $360
Restaurants: $50

Housing
Rent: $1210
Electricity: $30
Phone, Internet, Cable: $280

Personal
Doctor/Dentist: $400 (DH needs a filling)
Gifts: $25 (nephew's birthday)
Pets: $40
Vet: $50
Laundry: $20

Recreation
His: $100
Hers: $100 (Time for winter clothes!)

Transportation
Car Payments: $417.05
Gas: $100
Car insurance: $183.68
Repairs & Maintenance: $50
Train Fare: $95
Tolls: $10

Savings
Emergency Fund: $25
Vacation: $600

September

September 26th, 2014 at 02:06 pm

Here's my recap on September:

Wins
-Eliminated $467.58 in debt
-Added $392 to savings
-Paying cash for groceries

Learning Experiences
-$400 is a little bit too much for groceries if we're shopping knowledgeably
-Paying cash for those groceries made a huge difference on my thought process of what I could afford
-We don't make $3800 a month, we make closer to $3600
-We pay $20 more for TV a month than I thought we did
-My husband's toll pass comes out every 4 months or so
-I realized all these things a little too late in the month to make any real changes to the budget. I trimmed where I could, but at the end of it, we only have $10 in checking to close out the month.
-We spend more on gas than I thought.

Changes for October
1. Grocery budget is reduced by $40 to $360 ($90 a week)
2. Not adding anymore to savings while we pay down our credit cards
3. Extra paycheck month
4. We're using the extra paychecks to help fund our honeymoon in December(too late to cancel now, though I considered it)


I can't wait for October to start. I've updated my numbers for the end of September since I do a weekly update every Friday. I know that I've tweaked the budget for October based on what I learned this month. Either way, we made some really great strides this month and I'm very proud of us.

Oh boy oh boy!

September 24th, 2014 at 12:44 pm

Is it October 1st yet?! I just looked at it and I'm going to leave us with $10 for one day so I can pay off my husband's school tuition payment from a credit card that just posted. I don't want to have to have my credit card balance go up! I'm sure he won't like it, but he can deal. I'm trying to do something here and his education is getting in my way. LOL.

I also have two job interviews scheduled on Friday. One is a recruiter who is trying to match me to the right company and the other is for a very famous resort as an accounting manager. Also, it looks like a controller position is going to come available at my old hotel, so I'll be posting for that once the position is online.

So hopefully, we'll be able to move back home to Florida before the winter really kicks in. That would be ideal. I already feel really bad missing my nephew's birthday. I spent so much time with him when I lived down there and when I last left to fly back to Chicago, he was really heartbroken. Also, once our finances are in better shape, I'd really like to start trying for a family of our own. We definitely have some work to do before then though.

Hopefully today at work will be better and more productive than yesterday. I'm still exhausted. It was just one of those days where I was getting a million phone calls and before I could finish one item, another would pop up (or be given to me by my boss). So I'll be going in a few minutes later today since I want to enjoy sitting at my table a little longer and I left 2 hours later than usual yesterday.

At least my husband was nice enough to make dinner!

Back to the numbers, I'm super excited and I know you guys are going to be very proud of me when I post September's ending number. I can't wait to get out of the $49k's for debt! Just $1k at a time, right?

Making Strides

September 22nd, 2014 at 10:05 pm

I can't wait for September to be over so I can update that end of month balance of debt number. I was so excited to see it last Friday. And we still have money to put towards debt this month! Big Grin

I'm still learning the basics of the budgeting process here. If I go over in one area, I'm removing money from another area to compensate, but I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to work. So because we went over on gas and television (still month 1 people), I took some of the budget from what we were going to pay the credit cards. Ugh!

Either way, making good strides. I'm just trying not to think about the student loans. I'm not paying those yet, but the interest is compounding DAILY! One thing at a time. CC #2 will be paid off in full in October, so we'll have finished one!

Finally Living Within Our Means

September 20th, 2014 at 05:01 pm

This month starts a very new era of living for me and my new husband. We sit down and set a budget, and are actually sticking to it! I'm so proud of us. It's stupid, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. And though our debt seems daunting, we're making strides in the right direction.

We're currently working on our credit cards, which is why our student loans will continue to rise. After that, I think I want to start working on the cars, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. We still have plenty of time before the credit cards are completely paid off.

So I guess for now, we'll call it a work in progress. Just have to keep trucking along.