Top 'O the Month: July 2009

We are closer to a resolution of the employment problem than we previously were. The countdown until Be's next court date is under a month (in fact, just over 2 weeks), and we're hoping to settle this whole thing before then. Keep hoping the other side gets their acts in gear, ok? Then, my lovely can finally go back to work ... assuming he can find a new job in this market, and I can stop biting my lip in anxious anticipation while opening the electric bill.

Here's the debt update ...
EFund: $1000
(I'm busting my rear end to make sure this gets paid back every time we use it. So far, so good. One day soon, I'd really love to not worry about this anymore ...)

Dream Savings: $0
(On hold until the employment crisis is remedied.)

Jeep: $0
PAID OFF! YAY!

GP: $3522.14

C1: $186.34

AV: $0
PAID OFF! YAY!

VSA: $90
(Going back down, yay!)

I'm also going to add a new feature to TOTM, including a glimpse into our budget. It's primarily a reason for me to remain accountable to myself (because, what better for that than posting it on the internet for all to see?). We'll start with the discretionary spending first as an experiment, and if it goes well, we may go to full budgets at some time in the future. The following are the budgeted discretionary amounts for the month of July ...


Track Our Spending!
Grocery/Household: $200
(family of 5 adults, includes all food, supply, toiletry, and cleaning purchases)
-$46.06 2 July
-$16.24 9 July
-$37.30 10 July = $100.40 remaining

Car Fuel: $150
(one car, shared between Be and I)
-$45.00 1 July
-$37.30 9 July = $67.70 remaining


We'll see how this goes. I'm going to endeavor to find a way to link an ongoing update to the discretionary amounts so you can watch them dwindle as the month goes if you'd like. Blogger and I are not best friends always, so it make take me a hot second to figure out stable secondary page creation. Haha.


Simply,

Em.

Top 'O the Month: June

Summer is almost here, and I absolutely love how renewed everything feels. The trees have new leaves. The little green lovelies in the garden are starting to get new shoots. There are baby birds and bunnies all over the place, and the closest farm now has calves roaming in the pasture. I love the edge of summer, and it is speaking to me metaphorically as far as our budgeting is concerned. We've had some dark moments through the winter, and we will be moving toward correcting them in the near future. We aren't perfect, by far, even though I write about money and budgets and the adoration of the Dave Ramsey. We have been slipping, and although I don't count any of my explanations as really valid (everyone can rationalize a solid excuse, right?), I think they're probably at least a little true.

Be is jobless, afterall, and unable to even seek employment currently because of the ridiculous unfortunate circumstances of his at work injury. There are far more complicated details than that which I'm prevented from talking about because of attorneys and judges and the like. I wish I could lay it all out there so others, if there are any, could know they aren't alone in the nonsense complicated process that is dealing with workman's comp disputes. This job prohibition, as I've mentioned before, coupled with my already irregular income makes for a budgeting nightmare. I can write the numbers down all I want to, but they don't really matter when the money doesn't show up when it's supposed to. There are great methods for budgeting irregular income out there, but we're in survival mode rather than a place where we can sock away a ton of savings to compensate for later shortfalls. Every minute is a darn shortfall, I swear.

When your money doesn't have a plan, it wanders off. When you don't make a plan for your money because you don't know when/if it's going to show up, it also makes a run at wandering off once you get it. It's all a big gross mess, and I cannot wait until the day we can go back to real (budgeted) life instead of this wandering craziness. That said, wacky inflow/outflow is not a solid reason for not being super cautious about spending. We have not been super cautious this month, or the month before that to be honest. I feel pretty awful about it this moment, and I'm trying to embrace the 'lessons learned' philosophy and let go of the guilt I'm carrying around for not paying better attention for the both of us.

And now, the numbers ...

EFund: $924.00
(See, I told you we'd have to use it eventually.)

Dream Savings: $0
(At least I used this first ...)

Jeep: $0
PAID OFF! YAY!

GP: $3742.14

C1: $236.02
(It's going back down at least ...)

AV: $0
PAID OFF! YAY!

VSA: $112.92
(Ah, the curse of minimum payments ... back in the snowball it goes.)

*sigh*



Simply,

Em.

Gratituesday: Lessons Learned

So, I hear the economy isn't looking so hot these days. This isn't news in Michigan ... at all. We've been enjoying the lovely recession-esque times for quite awhile. Years, I think. Tight financial times mean two things: belt-tightening and re-evaluation of priorities (hopefully) and personal financial crisis (hopefully not). You could likely ask just about any random person the street about someone they know and their financial meltdowns and get story after story about foreclosures, job losses, judgements, homelessness, hunger, and the like. None of that am I grateful for.

Some people very close to me, whom I will not indicate my relationship to as there are people who know the real life me who are likely reading, are having a rough go of it. They're overextended in credit. They have a vehicle with financing they cannot afford. They recently suffered a temporary job set back dropping their income to one instead of a much more comfortable two. They are spending more than they can really afford to, and are now scrambling to switch things up to make ends meet in the short term. In an economy where this same scenario is being played out nationwide, they are not unique or alone. That makes my heart sad.

We, Be and I, could just as easily been in the exact same place. We have one income (half an income?). We have a very tight financial situation ... and credit card debt ... and more month than money sometimes. The thing that keeps us from that same desperate, terrible feeling crisis mode is that we simply recognized the need to change earlier ... in a better economy ... when our backs weren't as tightly to the wall. We were lucky enough to get an eye opening lesson in budgeting, stewardship, the evils of credit debt, and necessary frugality before we had to crash course through it to save our skins. We were close ... precariously close ... but we came out alright. For that, I am grateful.

We didn't get here alone. We aren't that cool. We didn't even have the wherewithal or foresight or self-awareness to know we needed change until the last second, and we surely didn't think up the way we do things these days ... the methods that saved us from absolute financial ruin. For those involved in that process, who pulled us away from the edge, who made it possible that we can have the skills necessary to ride out a recession (hopefully), I am grateful.

For Dave Ramsey's straight talk about zero based budgeting and the slavery that is credit card debt, I am grateful.

For baby steps and an emergency fund (albeit small) that has saved us when Be needed prescriptions, the propane man came unexpectedly to refill the tank, my car tried to fall apart, and the security of knowing that any of them could happen again without me having a panicked hissy fit, I am grateful.

For the ladies of the budget board I used to co-host that taught me everything I know about stretching budgets, dealing with creditors, the legality of some financial institution practices, the necessity of miscellaneous categories, and the envelope system, I am grateful.

For my collected group of online friends, the source of my couponing initiation, the support system that applauds you for saving $4 extra this month and cares about how much change you pulled out of your couch, I am grateful.

For sweet personal finance bloggers who regularly teach me via my Google Reader about retirement and investing and all kinds of assorted frugal hacks, I am grateful.

For the crisis that led us to rethink the way we did things, the near rock bottom that we had to hit to get there, and yes, even the tears involved, I am grateful, for I know now that the hard part is over quickly and the rest ... when you know how to manage it ... is smooth sailing.


Simply,

Em.

For more grateful goodness, check out the Heavenly Homemaker!