I LOVE to read other's blogs and when I do I always wish I was a blogger! It's hard for me to stay motivated to keep it up, I guess. Life will get in the way and then I get off track.
Our monthly budget and lack of money left over after bills has been a struggle lately and I haven't been able to figure out exactly why. We've been managing along from paycheck to paycheck, and able to cover those inevitable "unexpected" expenses each month, but this week has been the worst. I have $107 left in checking and not paid until next Tuesday. I am hoping the direct deposit will actually hit my bank account on Saturday morning. If payday is on a Monday, this is what happens..well, Monday is a bank holiday and Tuesday is payday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our payroll company will be transferring the moneys to our accounts on Friday, so it will be available on Saturday.
Right now I have to figure out how to come up with some extra money for a sport coat, black slacks (he only has light colored dress pants in his closet) and black shoes for dh....in order to be a pall bearer at a funeral. I found a nice jacket at Kohls on clearance for $66 and the black slacks are running about $27. I was hoping to find shoes for $30 or less, but Kohl's only had $35 and up. Walmart had some for $24 but were out of his size. I looked online at Payless Shoes and they have several around $30. I was digging through my coupon pile and found a 20% off coupon for Payless, so that would bring it down to $24 for shoes. With tax and all this is at minimum going to come to $130 total. And of course I need to purchase it before payday. Dd's bank accounts are linked to mine and she has about $150 in hers, so I guess if worse comes to worse I will borrow from her for a few days. Or I could always get my checks from my side jobs a few days early. I hate to do that - it's no problem to let the owners know I'd like to submit my monthly invoice a few days early, but I just hate to ask unless it's dire emergency. I will probably just transfer Dd's money over for a few days. Luckily this payday is a 96 hour check so an extra days pay, since it's typically 88 hours - an extra days pay will be nice to have right now.
I have been trying for months now to get a $500 emergency fund in savings. Things just keep coming up. In March we had ants invade our house (again) so that was $240, plus another $43 added to my monthly budget. Our internet router went on the fritz, so a new one cost $84. I have to have working internet to work from home and Dh can't seem to survive without being online 24/7. Dh needed a few shop supplies he was out of, totally approx. $100, Dd needed a dress and shoes for her upcoming 9th grade dance. Though I am proud of her choices - dress only cost us $25 and the shoes were $37. She is having her hair done by a friends sister and they are eating at a friends house before the dance.
I am trying very hard to work this paychecks budget to have at least some of that $500 to put in savings. My net check will be about $2570 plus approx $600 from my side jobs. After fixed expenses I should have about $1300 left!! I need to get away from relying on the income from my side jobs to get by each month. Those could end at any time. My mom is taking myself and Dd to Hawaii (expenses paid by Mom!) next month, but I would like to have a couple of hundred to take with me. I'd like to buy my mom dinner one night and maybe a few souvenirs. And I'll need to leave at least that much at home for Dh and Ds as I know they will eat fast food every night, since neither of them cook. We'll be gone for 10 days, but my end of June payday will happen during the trip, so I could always wait until that paycheck hits my account and then I will for sure have even more money - enough to use my debit card and take my mom to dinner.
I just cashed in 7050 MyPoints today for a $50 Kohl's gift card. Darn, it sure would've been handy to already have that in my hand to purchase the dress clothes for the funeral!. Oh well, it should be here before the Hawaii trip and we can use it to purchase a few more summer clothes items. I could use one more pair of shorts, a tank top and some cheap flip flops, and I'm sure Dd would like something new. Plus, whenever you spend $50 at Kohl's you get a $10 voucher to use on another purchase, so it's really like we're getting $60 to spend :-)
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