<$Friday, February 8, 2008$>
Payday Report - First half of February '08
| I got paid this Wednesday, thank goodness. It was a longer-than-usual time between this payday and the last, and we failed at stretching the last paycheck over the whole 20 days. But the good news is that this paycheck covered a longer pay period, and one that included overtime at that, so it's one of the better ones I've gotten since I worked here. As I mentioned below, we're still working on the Food Problem. This is a constant work in progress, but I'm pretty proud of how well I did matching coupons to sale fliers and buying mostly items that were on special. Like I said earlier, we didn't spend less on this go 'round, but we did buy more for the same amount of money, and hopefully it will last longer than usual, thereby saving us money in the long run. I also shook things up a little by trying some new things and going back to some old methods when it comes to keeping track of the budget. After I finally managed to build a budget spreadsheet that actually works for me, I stopped using my desk calendar to keep track of my bills. I think that's a large part--actually, probably THE reason--I missed that Paypal payment last month. So I've reinstated the calendar. The budget spreadsheet's great for doing the math and allocating funds, but it's lousy for keeping track of due dates and whether or not I actually paid a bill. I also went back to lumping all of our grocery categories together under a single fund. Separating them all out turned out to be too much of a pain in the butt for my ADDness to be bothered with on a regular basis. Next to that, I added a "discretionary fund" to provide a cushion to draw from if we go over our grocery budget. Our goal is to NOT go over the budget, and at the end of the pay period move whatever's left in the discretionary amount over to savings. This is also the fund we'll draw from if we decide to go see a movie or go out to eat--which, given my husband's homework load, isn't likely to be happening too much during the semester. The other change I made was to take out my entire grocery budget in cash and put it in an envelope. This way I instantly know how much money we have left without having to go through the receipts and subtract our spending; and with cash I can't possibly miscalculate and overdraw my checking account. Managing money is a constant learning process for me; sometimes, it's a re-learning process, as I forget to do what works, or try to fix something that ain't broke. Usually when I do that last part, I'm the one who ends up being broke. For the time being, though, I'm pretty happy with the changes I've made, and I think they're going to get us back on the right track. |
