Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Where is all the "extra" money?????

As most of you know, my husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to pay down a huge amount of debt in February, and put $5000.00 in the bank. We paid off a 401K loan as well, which "freed" up another $500.00 a month. Well, it's April 9th, and my checkbook is empty. Payday is the 15th. What happened to all the extra money?????? If I look into this issue closely, I will find the culprit to be me. And truth be told, I really have nothing to show for it. I've been using cash, well taking cash out of our account, and spending it. On what???? I'll have to delve into the checkbook to really look at it, but I don't think it's entirely my fault. (No it's not my husband, he doesn't spend anything!) Food prices, gas prices, increasing monthly bills are all adding to the squeeze. I have been sending money to savings, and our vacation fund, but I thought I would have so much more.

I'm scraping by to pull together a birthday gift for my daughter without borrowing from savings, but it looks like I'll have to pull out a bit that I just put in. Perhaps my savings is too aggressive, and I will have to refigure everything....again. I hate the feeling of "broke" and that's how I'm feeling again.

The bright side? I don't have a dime on a credit card....and that's a good thing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know that feeling very well! I tend to be pretty agressive putting money in to savings, then I sometimes feel broke until the next payday. It's easier for me probably because I am single and don't care if I am eating cereal for dinner or staying home doing nothing, but with a family you have more people to try to please.

And I love that you found a bright side of things, no credit card debt is definitely a bright side! :)

Meg said...

I usually get that feeling when it's the second half of the month, when our car insurance comes due and it's time to make another loan payment. It's not terribly far to next payday, though, so it could be worse. :)

My only problem with savings is when I try to get aggressive with hubby's money and he gets a little freaked out by how much I want to take out. I wish I knew how to get him to see that saving money isn't nearly as painful as he tries to make it...

Canadian Saver said...

Yeah, at least you didn't grab the CC :-)

You don't want to send so much to savings that you'll feel deprived. Hope you find a happy medium soon :-)

CT Mom said...

I feel your pain! Our checkbook was pretty fat too - then I moved money to savings, paid a TON of bills early, and had a couple of splurges (4 Cirque de Soleil tix and 2 Billy Joel tix). The first driveway deposit check cleared yesterday, plus the mortgage debit came out. Feeling pretty poor now ...

I wish regular food diets worked as quickly! Time for another Oreo ...