Well, there’s your problem

The past 60 days, financially, have been challenging.

(just so you know we are mostly working with a Dave Ramsey plan, with a few modifcations because we are incapable of doing exactly as anyone tells us)

My car repairs.

A weekend away

DH’s truck repairs

My illness. Not that bronchitis is a spendy sort of illness but the fatigue leads to dinner out, take out & poorly planned shopping trips costing more than budgeted.

Plus the coming costs we have yet to absorb.

Kids uninsured dental appointments & possible orthodontia appt

Xmas shopping

Thanksgiving with family in FL & the trip costs (several dinners out & two hotel rooms)

So DH & I sat down with the budget spreadsheet and had a come to Jesus meeting. (which is much funnier if you know I’m a Wiccan and DH is agnostic)

We went over, line by line, everything on the bank statements, added up all the categories & sorted by costs(man that is a lot of money on dinner out & OMG Amazon!), discussed where to cut back to make up for the shortfall (dinner out & Amazon), what to transfer to pay what amount, how to stop us both from spending the same $100, etc.

Despite ending up over budget the past two months, we are actually doing fairly well with budgeting. See, we stuck with it for 6 months and it was 3 large expenses (2 unexpected) that threw us off. Usually we only manage 3-4 months and then a slew of minor crap from poor planning (dinner out) derails us.

Yes, we blew it.

But!

We made it 6 months before blowing it this time!

We should celebrate!

With dinner out!

Comments

  1. SciFi DadNovember 15, 2010 at 6:01 AM

    I keep track of our spending online (we do most of it on VISA since we get cash back on it; however we never carry the balance forward and therefore never pay interest), and although sometimes we stick to our numbers, most of the time our budget serves as more of a "woah woah woah" for my wife to slow down a little as we approach the limit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rinda1961November 15, 2010 at 8:05 AM

    Ore celebrate with something from Amazon! Good on for lasting so long.
    Rinda

    ReplyDelete
  3. HelenaNovember 15, 2010 at 1:25 PM

    You should totally celebrate!

    I think I am going to start entering every giveaway on the internet to help pay for christmas. I've won 6 this year, and free presents would be very useful. That's my tip.

    I hate finances.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CarrieNovember 15, 2010 at 3:20 PM

    Good for you! Been feeling nickeled & dimed here too....since school started! They just always want money! lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. LosingBrowniesNovember 15, 2010 at 8:55 PM

    Way to go! I have such a hard time with bugeting and so does Gadget Guy. He keeps talking to me about using Dave Ramsey's method, but we haven't even opened the book.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andrea @ The Creative JunkieNovember 16, 2010 at 4:07 PM

    You pretty much just summed up the financial planning strategy to which we subscribe - otherwise known as WHEW. THAT WAS CLOSE. WHO'S HUNGRY FOR CHINESE?

    ReplyDelete

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