Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Where it Went 10/29-11/11

Sad to say I was hit with the Evil Overdraft Monster during this past pay period. It was very aggravating and made me marvel at how that used to be a regular occurence back before I started budgeting. Back when I wasn't paying hardly any of my bills and was in debt to payday loan sharks. Man, that seems like a million years ago. But...even though things have gotten much better there will be no celebrating because I let it happen again.

I can't say it was totally my fault as I was out of town and needed cash so I decided to use my ATM card to take it out of my emergency savings account that I specifically set up to be linked to my checking account. Well, alas, I learned the hard way that the account was not linked to my ATM card. I still needed cash so I just took it out of my checking account (where there was none) and made an online transfer later that night at home. And what did the bank say about that? It shot me a big middle finger in the form of a $35 overdraft fee. Ugh.

I drained pretty much the rest of my emergency fund paying that sucker off and now have to start from Square One. But a lesson was learned that I need to call my bank and get them to link my Emergency Savings account to my ATM card so this does not happen again.

Now that my confession is out of the way, here's how my money was spent compared to the Budget I established two weeks ago:

Savings - 50/-4
Rent - 725/725
Water - 50/50
Sprint - 65/63.41
Utilities - 85/84.61
Capital One - 20/20
Boyfriend - 50/50
Hobby - 35/0
Groceries - 50/0
Misc. - 65/110
Out of Network ATM Fee - 0/2
Overdraft Fee - 0/35
Once again I totally didn't contribute to the Grocery bills but I told Boyfriend that the next shopping trip is on me (yikes!). Hobby I'm paying today as I have been under the weather and not showing up to meetings.

Miscellaneous spending includes Halloween costume expenses and beers bought at my very first professional football game.
And that's how the cookie crumbles.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should contact your bank and ask them to reverse the over draft charge. Explain to them your situation and they might reverse it for you. The worst thing that could happen is they say no, but they just might reverse it if you ask.
And be sure to get some over draft protection!

Daizy said...

Wow, $35 is horrid. I hate it when my account gets that low. I haven't mailed in my property tax yet because I'm waiting for payday. I don't want my account to dip under $100. At least you noticed that over draft charge. Some people don't even look at their accounts.

Miss M said...

I almost overdrew my account twice this week, with my mortgage check none the less. I realized the problem so I transfered money from my savings, but I forgot about an automatic deduction so I had to transfer more the next day. Fortunately they were slow in cashing that check, which is totally unusual.