Unusual Spending for August

I'm actually doing something right this time! I'm writing this post before I create my August budget!

Things I need to plan for in August are: back-to-school haircuts, school pictures, ring repairs, and a soccer tournament for me.

We have plenty of money in our "hair" envelope, so haircuts will be covered with that, with plenty of money to spare.

School pictures should also be covered out of our school envelope. However, we might have more costs associated with back-to-school than we think. The Boy is starting high school this year and I'm not sure if there are any related costs. We haven't gotten much information from the school which is frustrating! My friend also has a kid who is going to be a freshman and she feels the same way: that the lack of communication or information is ridiculous! I guess the only saving grace is that neither of us know any information.

Right before my trip to Japan, the shank on my wedding band broke. I took it into a jeweler to have it fixed and the estimate for that is $350 plus tax. However, on top of that, the prongs on the diamonds all need to be re-tipped and that's another $450. Yikes! I also brought in another ring, but to fix that one will only cost $65. Due to this unexpected expense, our debt payoff is going to be very negligable this month. :( Most of the money that would have gone towards debt payoff now has to be diverted to paying for the repair costs for my rings. It's totally worth it because it's my wedding ring, but it's also totally bad timing.

The bonus to all of this is that we will be able to afford it. I will just fund less money into all my envelopes and less money towards debt... And I will not be putting the purchase on my credit card,

I feel like now that I have recommitted to debt payoff, expenses are coming out of the woodwork. I know that is not true and that the reality is that the expenses were there but now that I'm focusing on paying off debt again I'm just more aware because I'm not putting anymore on credit!

Hopefully I've thought of all our unusual expenses for August and there are no surprises throughout the month. But even if there are, we have an emergency fund (for real emergencies) and we can just adjust our budget. No more credit. We will make it work.

Peace Out, Credit Card

Well, I did it... I took my credit card out of my wallet.

First of all, I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but to me, it feels like a commitment. Secondly, I am switching back to my Dave Ramsey envelope wallet. When I went to Japan, I switched wallets to a more convenient wallet for travelling and have been using that all summer. It's actually a new Dave Ramsey wallet that I've had for a couple years in preparation for when my finally bit the dust. My old one is barely hanging on. So I figure new plan and budget, shiny new wallet with blank envelopes to encourage using it!

I'm going to have the same categories; but I'm going to try to realistically fund them so I won't "need" a credit card to make up the shortfall.

The most difficult part of truly going to an all cash budget will be having to tell my kids no. I will hate having to say no to my kids because of past choices that we made with our finances. However, this will only be short term. Once we are out of credit card debt, we will have so much more freedom with our choices and our finances.

I'm actually excited to go to the bank today and deposit all the checks I have ($700+), pull out the cash to fill my envelopes ($1200), and send a big payment towards our credit card ($1600).

I know my progress has actually been backwards this summer so I'm going to give myself a couple months to get back on track before I start doing debt updates again. I will keep track of where I am, but I'm not going to share it with the world quite yet. I am, however, going to try to get back to writing "unusual spending" posts for each month!

I am newly committed to a life getting out of debt! Wish me luck!

Random Stuff

I did not make an actual budget for July and in no way did that help in my quest to get out of debt!

We have two more paychecks this month: The Husband gets paid tomorrow and I get paid on July 31st. I actually sat down and budgeted the money we have coming in.

First I allocated money towards our mortgage payment. That is actually the only bill we have due during the next two weeks before our next  pay check arrives.

After that, I funded my envelopes for the month. I allocated our bi-weekly $300 towards gas. I have increased our grocery budget by $50 every two weeks to $300 because like most people, we were consistently going over in groceries. I also gave $100 to "fill" each of our remaining envelopes: Essentials (which could also be called Target), Hair, Clothes, School, and Kids' Activities.

My goal over the next month is to get back on the budgeting bandwagon and to fund our envelopes. It does slow down our snowball process, but it also keeps us from accruing more debt!

After tomorrow, (which I know sounds like a cop-out, but I have to wait until I have some money in the bank and in our envelopes), I am taking my credit card out of my wallet.  Right now, I just can't trust myself with it. For a long time, I was able to charge and pay it off each month. Currently, I/we are charging more than we can pay off each month, so out of my wallet it goes!

Between the next two paychecks, I allocated $1150 to go towards our credit card. I also have several checks, almost $500, that I will be depositing and sending all of that towards our credit card as well.

As we have children, a dog, cars, and a house, I don't feel comfortable having only a $1000 emergency fund. Right now, my comfort level is $10,000. We recently fell below that number, to about $9200. Because of this, I am also depositing more than my normal $50 a month to our savings account. With these paychecks, I will be adding $325 to our savings bringing us to just over $9500. I will keep adding more than $50 until I can get us back over the $10,000, hopefully by next month and then all "extra" money will go towards our credit card as our snowball!

Anyway, this was just a short rambling update with no apparent focus about our current plans.

Sorry It's Been a Month!

Again, it's been another month... I'm sorry.

For most people, summer is relaxing and the season when they have more time. For me, as a teacher, summer is crazy. My work out routines get interrupted, my eating patterns are all off, and so are my finances.

Summer is when I don't have to have a schedule. And I don't.

We have traveled a ton this summer. The Boy and I went to Japan for 10 days, The girl went to Paris for 10 days, The girl and I spent a week in Oregon visiting family, and all three of us spent a week in San Diego visiting my best friend from high school. Sadly, The Husband wasn't able to come for any of it... :(

All that travel has made havoc with my schedules. Including my budgeting. I didn't even write a budget for July, which is awful. On the plus side, however, I did make sure to pay my bills and then paid for a ton of things with my debit card.

Debt is still my enemy. And debt is still winning our battle.

I had some epiphanies over the summer, though. After The Husband's payday this coming Friday. I am getting back to the envelope system. I am also taking my credit card out of my wallet. I'm not going to go to the extent to freeze it like some people do, but I am going to make it less accessible.

I don't even have a debt update. I have some work to do before I'm willing to post numbers again. That right there should tell you something about where my debt stands. I'm usually willing to share the numbers: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The one plus side of our finances is where we stand in regards to what we owe our kids. We borrowed $1500 from each of our kids over a year ago. Our payback has been SLOW but steady. We pay them back $50 a month. Each kid has been paid back $950. We have almost paid back 2/3 of what we owe them. I know I still have work to do there, but we are seeing progress.  The kids know that we borrowed money from them, and that we are paying them back. However, I have felt so ashamed that we haven't taken them to the bank to deposit their savings in FOREVER! Once we get them back over the $1000, I want to take them to deposit their savings... so pretty soon.

Anyway, not much of an update, just talking about date.

Until next time.