Budgeting is driving me nuts
I’m really getting frustrated right now at the spending levels already this month. Currently our income is not keeping up with what is going out the door. Part of the problem is making up for negative cash flow from last month. The other part is having some extra expenses due at the beginning of the month. I know how things are getting behind, but getting back in front of the eight ball here is rough.
Normally the bulk of the household bills are taken care of on the 20th of the month. Some of our expenses are technically trying to use this money before it is even there. Right now it is getting to the point of writing hot checks while waiting for payday to come. We have to resist using credit cards to ’save’ us because that won’t really fix the problem.
My wife got mad at me this weekend after we were done with our shopping tasks at the mall (I hate malls) and I was ready to go home. She wanted to see what our friends were doing and go out to eat with them or something. I told her that we simply don’t have the money right now to do that, and she got extremely pissed off. That hurt the most. It’s not like I don’t want to go out to eat or spend time with our friends, I don’t want to dig myself deeper in a hole in order to do it. I can’t wait until Friday because then there’s only 5 days of stress until the next pay period to ease the pressure I’m already facing. Normally I’m optimistic about things in that it will always get better, but money things always get worse before they get better. I have a car insurance bill that makes me want to break the glass on the emergency fund to stop the pain.
Slash slash slash those extras to get your cut down on your bills.
Stay away from the malls! I can’t think of anything in a mall that is a household need.
Dealing with dollar crunches is tough. My wife would sometimes get mad at me when we didn’t have the money to do something. My solution was simple, I said “Great idea! All the money in the checking account is tied up by bills, we can’t use the credit card, so as soon as you find some money, we’ll go!”
I can’t cut expenses after the money is already spent though. Ironically we went to the mall to actually return/exchange stuff and not actually buy anything. It was some unplanned for expenses that had to be paid within a short period of time. I also had some bills that came due which must be paid, regardless of the extra expenses because those are still important. Your solution for your wife sounds like something I should try using and maybe something will register. Once things calm down I’ll be in a better mood but right now tension is high. Getting through this week and half of next is a long time to ride out a storm though.
Hi Jim, Thanks for commenting. To answer your question - perhaps I didn’t word it clearly but what I meant to state is that my fiance at the time paid off $15K of my previous credit card debt in lieu of an engagement ring. When we broke up, I offered to pay him back but he said I could take my time.
Hm, while your wife doesn’t seem to be too understanding about the situation, I do understand how she feels and have been and AM there. perhaps you can agree to do things with friends that don’t require spending unnecessary money- such as offering to host game night and having your friends bring beers or snacks, or having a picnic in the park or beach. (it IS summer time!) I’m sure you guys will work it out and you seem very determined at your goal so I am not worried about you at all.
Btw, could you share with me where you got the DEBT O METER on your site? It’s just what my page is missing!
[…] the last roughly 24 hours I hit a breaking point and budgeting is driving me nuts. There are simply too many expenses that must be met early this month that cannot fit in the […]