While my husband is away I'm in charge of Finances. Which isn't hard - I just got to pay all the bills on time. They just happen to be staggered throughout the month. Too me this seems overly complicating- I much rather hand over a chuck of money at one time then to be constantly passing it around. But that's not how bill collecting works (Se la vie). In preparation of 'bill-pay Monday' I put on paper a profit/loss statement for our budget. Every month a fidget with the numbers to see if I can cut cost some where in our budget.
In a month $3290 goes through our bank account and $2349 of that goes to all the little companies ($359 of that are minimum payments to school loans and credit cards the other $1990 are bare necessities not including food and gas but more on that later) leaving us with a resounding $941 "profit".
WHAT!!!!!
There is no way I'm spend $941 outside our budget! Not to say we're broke but we have not carried that high a balance as of yet. So what's going on? Part of it does go to food and gas. IN the month of May for Gas alone I spent $113.63. Food is a whole other story. In May I didn't buy groceries, I ate dinner out instead of cooking, $488.10! Please understand that includes buying dinner for both my husband and I, my sister and his Aunt and cousin on various occasions.
That's still only $601.73 for food and gas, I am going to have to re-think that segment of our budget. $200 was our goal but we tripled that, I think $300 ($ 120 for gas and $180 for food, respectively) is more reasonable and should be plenty for just myself while the Hubbie is away.
Now, the other part are us buying personal hygiene products, gardening supplies, gifts, an oil change, and a dentist visit. So cutting back on all these things could potentially actually put $300 in our hands-- good to know. I haven't brought fast food since school got out and I brought enough groceries to last me the rest of this month. So this shouldn't be too difficult since most of this purchases were one time buys or only happen every couple of months like the gifts, a oil change and dentist visit.
I think I set my savings goals way too high. Initially I wanted to have all our bills paid and the credit cards paid off completely by August. So then we would only have to focus on making regular payments for our cars and my student loans, saving all that we had been putting toward the now paid off credit cards into a high interest saving account for a house down payment. Our income would increase since I would have my teaching certificate and by November we could move to a smaller place for just the two of us. I'm realizing that in order to keep everything paid and current (no late payments) I have just enough to work with if I'm willing to put all that potentially $900 toward one credit card at a time. That would make for a very uneventful summer and me going stir-crazy in boredom.
Philip did point out that I could be working to help supplement our income over the summer, but the idea of joining the retail rat race again is just unappealing to me personally. I did apply for some teaching positions for summer programs, but nothing really developed. I am looking into doing some craft projects that lets me be artistically expressive and turn a profit. I even found a site that lets you sell your wares over the Internet. The question: What exactly would be my ware?
The other thing is saving money while paying all the debt off. Both of us set money aside, but then something comes up like a larger bill than expected, a traffic ticket from 5 years ago or registration fees for test taking and it's gone. Now originally that not what we purposed the funds for but it was nice to have that extra bit to take care of it and then we're back to zero or close to it. Shouldn't we be putting everything we can toward the debt to be rid of it sooner? And why are we spending our savings if we're putting it away? We have yet to work out the concept of an emergency fund and what constitutes an emergency.
All of these options have their hidden costs of time, money, experience, self-restraint/willpower and positive results.
WIP
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WIP?
ReplyDeleteI never really expected all of our debt from years of poor decision-making and/or funky circumstances to dissolve in the course of 3 months. More realistically, I was hoping to pay off at least one credit card, have at least $500 saved up, and either make a serious dent in a second medium-sized bill or go on a trip at the conclusion of my deployment. This will require some measure of restraint, but not a full-out ascetic life-style. I believe in maintaining a quality of life if one is to play at living; there just has to be a better balance.
While we're making an accounting, the camera, your ring, the books, shipping of items... easily $700 out of the last two checks that could have gone to ANYTHING more "responsibly," but it brought us both a bunch of joy, most of the items were an investment, and it got rid of the urge to be silly with money on the front end. I sent you my LES so you would know exactly how much I was making (which will further force me to be responsible). Out of the $1700+ that the LES shows, $900 is automatically being sent to you, which leaves me a little over $800. Of that I'd like to hold over $200-$300 for any unexpected "whatever" in the course of the next two weeks (which I did at my last pay period, and is why I was able to pull the auto. ins. payment out of my arse), but that's still another $500+ to go towards bill elimination. :-D If I hadn't had to pay Progressive, I actually would have come damn near being able to put the $1000 in Chase that you recommended. Regardless, I still intend to see it gone before the end of July.
If you'd still like to go to Detroit, then by all means go. I would advise taking circa $300 with you. (You did say it would be a week right?) Similarly, I've tried to ask you sister how much she still needed for her trip (with all intentions of providing it), but as she's yet to give me a definite sum, so how can I give it?
I am mildly concerned, though, in that there was a miscalculation regarding Progressive and that Bank of America (somehow) got missed altogether. I know I was being anal and somewhat obnoxious before I left the country on your financial plan, but it was for a fear of such instances that I did so (and now it seems that my fear was not wholy unjustified, nor that I was so mistaken when I said that I perceived a pattern that would lead me to infer such future happenings). I would imagine that the $1800/mo. ought to still be a sufficient sum given that it was based on our expenses prior to my coming on orders, and since that time several of our bills have declined in their required payment.
Pay bills first!
As soon as the money shows up on the account, before you do anything else, pay whatever bills you know are coming due before the next check arrives. Don't set automatic withdrawls which can easily be forgotten about by a slip of the memory; actively pay all the bills at one time before you do anything else with the money whether it be online or one the phone (even if that means incurring dumb little processing fees; a couple of dollars are worth the certainty and peace of mind) and write them in your ledger as you're paying them. Then, from that point forward, whatever financial decisions should be made based on the amount that you have on your ledger, not what it shows in the bank account; that way even if something hasn't cleared the bank, you still have it accounted for. Also, make sure to check your bank account daily. Just make it a part of your routine, just like checking email. That way you can stay on top of what has and hasn't cleared and will know if something "unexpected" pops up, can note it, and avoid going in the red.
Another alternative would be - AFTER PAYING BILLS - to take out cash for everything else (gas, food, entertainment, etc.). There's the disadvantage that it makes it more difficult to track in what areas you're doing your spending, but it minimizes the chances of making a charge, forgetting to write it down, thinking you have more left over than you really do, and over charging the account.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what, this is obviously shaping up to be a very involved summer. We both have our spiritual aspirations that we're pursuing. We both have physical disciplines we're taking up. We both have financial goals to be dutifully administered. We're taking control of our lives individually and together on many levels all at the same time. We've got to make sure that this does not overwhelm us or cause any undue stress upon our relationship.
Breathe.
Listen to the birds sing.
Smell the flowers.
Taste Summer in the Air.
Have fun.
Enjoy the association of good friends.
Connect with fmaily.
Smile.
Laugh with reckless abandon...
I love you.
I miss you.
I look forward to see you again.
:-*
WIP: stands for Work In Progress, as I am always working to improve myself.
ReplyDeleteI too asked my sister how much more she needed for her trip and she didn't have a complete total. Her plan ticket is about $800 at the very least. All I can guess is that she needs about $300 more for that and probably another $100 or so for supplies, etc.
ReplyDelete[WEALTH] = [WHAT YOU EARN] - [WHAT YOU SPEND]
ReplyDelete