Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Where It Went 11/26-12/09

This budgeting period started out pretty great. As I hoped, going home for Thanksgiving was a real money saver, since I was fed and entertained for so long. When I got back into town I decided I had $50 to devote to shopping for The Holiday That Shall Not Be Named. As I've explained earlier, every time I want to buy something online, I have to physically walk to my secondary bank and deposit money. So I did. Here's what happened next in consecutive order:

Monday - deposit money in secondary bank. Realize I have misplaced said debit card. Search and search in vain (note: I suspect it will still be found but since I don't use it that often it is M.I.A.)

Tuesday - continue to search for debit card but then discover the wonders of my infrequently used Paypal account. Purchase $45 worth of presents.

Wednesday - wonder why my $20 payment to my credit card has still not processed through my bank account one week later. Log into my account and discover the credit card company isn't showing my payment and instead is charging me a $35 late fee/finance charge. Wonderful. Email them to see what's up.

Friday - go out of town to see my parents (yet again). Have fun and spend no money.

Sunday - log into my bank account and discover that the group that was running my hobby trip cashed a $15 check they made me write "just in case" they didn't find my earlier payment to them. Since I only had $11 in my account at the time I was hit once again with the Evil Overdraft Monster. I'm still trying to resolve this issue but in the meantime I am out $53 because of their screw-up.

So yeah this budgeting period has sucked and I'm so glad it's over. But here are the numbers so you can see in detail where my money went compared to the Budget I set two weeks ago:

Rent - 725/725
Water - 50/50
Credit Card - 20/0
Sprint - 65/64
Utilities - 105/105
School Loan - 80/80
Presents - 0/45
Misc. ?/100

My other problem was I decided I was too poor/tired to buy groceries when Boyfriend and I were at the store so I only picked up about $10 worth of stuff. What resulted in me buying lunches out (at least four that I can recall) and buying overpriced stuff at the local bodega. I've decided to revisit my old lunctime staple of PB&J for a while to attone for this behavior.


So that's my story. Still no clarification of the future of my employment. Still no Emergency Fund to deal with it. And yes still more presents that need to be purchased. Excuse me for being slightly discouraged.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The ol' PB&J standby. It's been my friend for many years. I always have Peanut butter so it's my last resort sandwich at least once a week.

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com said...

I've done PBJ and there's nothing wrong with that. I also do tuna because it's cheap too. Leftovers from dinner the night before can easily become lunch the next day. Sometimes I'll get the frozen things, but only when they're on sale under $2. Chili or spaghetti in a can and bring my own bowl is nice too.

Hope all the best with the money game going forward. At least you're trying to plan things out so you have a clue where it's going.