Damn Credit Cards
Ya know, I don’t even remember using the stupid thing — but I know that I didn’t pay the extra bit of money that I needed because of the over limit fee that I incurred last month. Thus, I am over the limit this month too. I’m gonna pay a WHOLE LOT on it in my next two paychecks so that this won’t happen again.
Oh, and I’ve come up with a nice spreadsheet for budgeting and tracking my credit card debt.. I’m all excited to use it. Woo!
Anyhow, I’m getting serious about this whole budget thing. It’s about time.
It’s a start
I signed up for a Lifegroup at church the other day. It starts in September and its all about how to manage your money in a Godly way. We’re going to be going over the basic budgeting, insurance, cd’s, IRA’s, general savings, etc.
I have high hopes for this group and what it can teach me because I have to admit. I’ve done good about budgeting to the point where I don’t overdraw my account, but when it comes to saving, I have a serious issue. I haven’t been able to do that in a while and when my next payday rolls around, I’m usually scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as having any money left goes.
I’ll be posting on the progress I make and updating this far more often than I do!
Catching Up
It’s been about a half a month since I’ve posted here. So let me catch you up with what I’ve done with my budget. My first pay period I blew the budget completely. I get paid twice a month, on salary, so sometimes I don’t get paid every two weeks like clockwork, sometimes it’s off a day or so. The thing about it is that I didn’t take into consideration that two weeks and a two days or so, sometimes makes things stretch farther than you want them to.
So, first try with a budget, not so hot.
I’m not even doing a budget for this pay period because in day one I would have screwed it all up.
I got my stimulus check and got paid within 2 days of each other. The stimulus check was cashed and half of my check taken out and that paid for my back rent and my current rent. I had to take my son to the doctor, get a prescription filled and put gas in my car. Those three things equaled out to another hundred dollars. I wasn’t very happy about that.
However, It had to be done, and the bright side is that I had the hundred dollars to spare, right? So, that aside, I suppose its all good. I have been on vacation all week and think I have spent more money this week than I ever spend. John and I have gone out to eat a few times, but generally they’ve been at small, inexpensive places. Not that that is a good excuse, but it’s helped me out since I’ve been trying to get things accomplished for the web project I’m doing for our church.
Anyhow… I’ll be updating more often. I just got a little bit bothered by myself and haven’t posted because I knew that I messed it all up.
In an effort to save a little bit of money every month I am switching back to dishnetwork and cancelling my tivo. For what I was getting from directv i was payiing $80 a month for… and with dish it’s going to be about $65 and i can cancel my tivo which will save me an additional $12.95. I’m going to miss my TiVo box though, I have to admit. However, when I called to cancel they offered me X amount of months free, so I took it. When I go to cancel for good, if they offer me a low low rate, I’ll probably take it. I adore my tivo and my son is pretty miffed at the idea of getting rid of it because of the amazon ubox and music downloads that can be done.
We’ll see. Every little bit saved add’s up to more debt paid off.
Keeping up
I haven’t kept up much over the last week, but I haven’t really spent much that wasn’t allocated, either. Well, except for getting my car inspected and a small party for a co-worker who got married. I have kept up with reading other financial blogs, so at least that part’s still on track.
However, because of those two things, it put me over my miscellaneous budget. As of now I don’t have plans to do anything else. There isn’t anything that I want to buy, so I suppose I’m okay there. I have to admit that it’s a little harder to stay within lines of what I need to spend than I thought that it would be.
None the less, it’s all good. I get paid again on the 31st so that much is good. However, I have to say, I paid up my directv bill and my power bill. This is the first time in about a year that neither of them have been past due. That alone is a nice feeling. I looked up my directv bill yesterday to see if they’ve billed me yet and it said I owe $0.00 .
Nice.
Financial Tools
I’ve always thought that people who bought financial books about how to get out of debt, were a little bit off their rocker. Now, let me explain. I thought this because in my mindset, I thought “well, if they’re that bad off, shouldn’t they be saving their money instead of making the author richer?”
It was a pretty bad thought process, I admit.
I don’t feel that way any longer.
Everyday on the way to and from work, I listen to a Christian radio station. On that station they have small finance minutes with Dave Ramsey. I’ve gotten curious and I’ve found that I really like a lot of the advice that he gives. It got me thinking, “Have I been completely wrong and close minded about the financial guru’s out there?” I’m beginning to think that I have. And while I haven’t gone out and gotten one of these books yet, I think (especially after working in a bookstore a year or so ago), that the genre is so long that one could easily get lost in the sea of financial advice that’s out there.
So where does one start? I mean, I know of the Suze Orman books, the Dave Ramsey books and I know there’s a few others that I’d know if I saw the books, but who in the many authors out there gives the easiest to follow, and writes so that any average person can easily achieve these goals that are outlined in the book? I’m making a trip to the bookstore over the weekend and while I have no intention of buying one, I do intend on looking at them. I will only pick one up if I find it on the clearance rack, which I doubt will happen.
I don’t use any money programs on my computer either. Just a small spreadsheet that I made myself and am inputting my information into as I do it. I had microsoft money once, but that was years ago and i never really updated it. I think I had money 2003, thats how old it was. So I wonder how many people use these programs and love or hate them. Anyone want to give an opinion?
I’ve found that these things are always on my mind. Mostly because my budget has become the forefront of my attentions when Im thinking about what I can do with money vs what I should do with money. I’d say that’s not such a bad thing. It’s become very important to me, which is something that I can honestly say hasn’t been the case for the last few years. My decision to get myself out of debt, well, it’s going to happen this time. There is no alternative for me.
Blog Ads
At what point should someone sign up for blog ads? Every site I go to has them, and I can’t help but to wonder what the pro’s and con’s are of them. Can someone fill me in? How do these effect your taxes every year? At what point did the amount given turn into being a substantial amount (or enough to make you say “wow’)?
Just curious. Can anyone help?
Money Habits
I was looking around my apartment today and I have to admit that I have done a pretty good job when it comes to not spending money on things that I don’t need. It used to be that I would buy books by the arm load (which would account for my huge book piles). Books really are my only vice, but even with all the great new releases, I haven’t gone out and bought any of them.
What I have done, however, is take the time to look at the prices elsewhere. Online is where I like to do most of my shopping. Amazon hasn’t had me as a customer over the last two months or so. Though, I do have to admit that I miss getting the occasional new read. Which brings me to my initial point. I think I need to have a yard sale or something, maybe just sell some books on Ebay. I have way too many.
I noticed at work today that one of our tellers also keeps track of everything. She balances all of her accounts and thats one thing that I never could do. My math was always wrong so now I just keep track of what I spend and check the internet to make sure that it cleared. Probably not the best thing, but since I work at the bank it’s really easy to keep track of.
I’m sure that many of you out there do balance everything. Do you use pen and paper, or just the register in your checkbook? Do you use a computer program like Quicken or Microsoft Money? What is your preferred method of keeping up with your finances and how often do you get rid of the stuff you accumulate and how do you do it?
Week In Review (WIR) 1
Well, I think I did pretty good this week. I managed to do the majority of my lunches at work. In fact, I only ate out once, and only because I left my can of tuna at home. I didn’t buy any soft drinks, but have been drinking water every day. This is easy to do because our work pays for one of those water services. So I just bring a water bottle with me every morning and fill it up throughout the day. I could probably spend even less if I didn’t buy bottled water for the house, but I figure since I wash and reuse them throughout the month, I only spend about $5 a month on it. No biggie there.
I only made a few extra trips to the store, and only for necessities because I didn’t do any grocery shopping after I got paid. After I dished out money for Rent (current), my bills and paid a chunk to my landlord for back rent, filled the tank up with gas and renewed my PO Box, I had about $80 left for the 2 week period. Here’s what I spent:
$16.00 Pizza Hut (I had promised my son)
6.14 eating out at lunch
$18 in groceries (the two trips)
That’s all I’ve spent. Not bad. Books are my downfall, to be honest. I love buying books and am an avid reader. This past Tuesday 4 books were released that I’ve been waiting on for nearly a year. I didn’t buy any of them. I’ve looked at them, but wasn’t tempted to buy them. I’m going to wait until they’ve been out for a while, and get them on the 4 for 3 deal at Amazon.
I think I’ve had a pretty good week. I don’t get paid for another week, so hopefully the trend will continue. It has to! I don’t have much money left to spend.
Contest Alert!
I linked to his blog earlier, but here’s a direct link to the contest that he’s having. It sounds pretty darn good. Wish him luck in meeting his goal!
Matt’s Contest at One Million And Beyond.
How Organized Are You?
I work at a bank. I wont can’t say which bank, but I can assure you, that one of the best perks of working at a bank is being made constantly aware of money. You have to have a paper trail for every little thing. It was today that I noticed just how many clients we have on a regular basis that are insanely organized.
When I first started the job, I just thought that they were crazy anal about things. It was today, and I don’t know what sparked the thought, that I realized that those particular clients know exactly where their money goes every single month. I can’t say that. I want to be able to say that.
I made a spreadsheet last week, and I think that I’m going to put it on the blog as well. Well, not the spreadsheet itself, but the budget for the things I have to pay for that are not my main monthly bills. I got the idea from Matt at his Blog, which I discovered earlier in the week. I admit that it did take me a lil bit to get the format down, but I got it. What I loved about his blog was that it seems like he’s still struggling, as am I. So many of the blogs that I’ve come across are from people who have made LARGE strides in their finances and/or have well surpassed their goals. I liked that his seemed so real to me.
Anyways, his budget form is a good idea. For me, being held accountable is a good idea as well. It’s my hope that I can turn some of these practices into habits, as I think that anyone (especially me) could use more organizational skills. I feel like I have a long way to go. I’m $390 behind on my rent and catching up feels like it’s going to take forever. Well, its only going to take about another month (because of all my other bills) but when you get behind, it feels like catching up will take a lifetime.
So, how organized are you? Do you have tricks of the trade that have helped you? I’d love to hear about it.