Sunday, December 11, 2011

Last week and next week...

Work is kicking my butt.  So much that I haven't had the time to sit down and write a new post.  It's Sunday night and I finally finished my work to-do list and now have the time before bed to update my blog readers on what's going on, and what's coming up.

Budgeting the first of the month paycheques is always tough.  A majority of our big monthly expenses come out during the first week of each month:  mortgage, property tax, house insurance, house alarm, and car insurance.  DH got a small bonus on his last paycheque, but that was all spent on gifts.  I wasn't very responsible with our budget and realized yesterday that we only had $70 left in the bank account and that had to last til our next paydays (this upcoming Thursday).  We still had to put gas in the car and buy groceries for the week.  Not a good feeling.  I also had to pick up a couple gifts this past weekend and buy groceries, so $270 went onto a credit card :(

I'm not feeling good about using the credit card at all.  I think we should be okay to make it to Thursday.  Thursday's paycheque should include the small bonus I received at work a couple days ago.  So with that extra money, I will need to pay back the $270 onto the credit card.  After making the credit card payment, it is extremely important that I take the left over bonus money and set it aside.  I can see myself easily spending that money on little things and not putting any money towards savings or outstanding debt.  Once the money is set aside, next month I can figure out what I need to do with it.

I need to survive Christmas.  It's stressful just thinking about the gifts that still need to be purchased and the parties that are still coming up and all the added expenses of the holiday season. 

I will need to be more financially responsible in 2012.  We have no emergency fund, no available credit.  There is money invested in shares and savings bonds that could be cashed if there was an emergency, but aside from that, there's nothing for us to fall back on.  It's a scary feeling.  Almost feels like I'm having a second wake up call to our financial situation and how important it is for me to stay on top of things and to pay off our debt.

I need to be writing more updates and goals that are related to our finances.  I need to focus.
But first.. I need to survive Christmas.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry that you're having such a rough time! :( Hope you're able to figure out your budget & find a way to build up an EF! That will give you peace of mind! Hang in there!

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  2. Hope that this season passes by glitch free and good for you for knowing that you need to put aside money to deal with later.

    I started automatically withdrawing money into my ING account so I wouldn't have access to it right away.

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