So I haven't paid the mortgage yet this month, but I also haven't used any of the cafeteria plan money for the daycare payments. This means that for the next daycare payment on the 24th, we'll be able to get all of it from the cafeteria plan, so we won't owe anything for that, which will save about $150. This will also be the first month that I won't have the insurance come out, giving us another $55.00. The problem with this is that there's already an outstanding late charge on the mortgage, and we'll incur another on the 16th (won't be able to pay it until about the 19th or 20th).



The bigger issue coming might be my wife's employment status. She is having a horrible time at work right now, and I think she's going to end up quitting before long. While having her home will help with some things, namely getting the kids to and from summer school and ball games, we have to have a second income. I just don't make enough to cover everything. I have a bad feeling she may end up quitting without something to fall back on, and to a degree that's what got us in this mess in the first place (she was out of work for most of 2008 and we ended up covering the loss with credit cards). We could probably find some corners to cut, but it wouldn't be near enough to still pay for groceries, utilities, mortgage, car, etc. Right now, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what she does; I just hope that in the midst of her depression over her job, she does have enough sense to get something else before she leaves that position.



One last note, since this is a money blog. The water in our subdivision is horribly hard, and the years are starting to take it's toll on the pipes and equipement. We have to replace the hot water heater and get a water softener to keep this from happening again. We do not have the money for this, so my in laws are paying for all of it. My father-in-law is even putting all of it in for us. Not only can we not pay for any of it, we can't pay them back. I don't know what to do.

Wondering what's next

March and April went pretty well, but that was largely because of all the extra money that came in. Tax refund came in March and we ended up with about $1400 from closing the two whole life policies. My wife and I went to St. Louis for our anniversary this past weekend and spent a lot more than we should have. Where we should have extra in the account right now from the insurance money, we actually spent about $160 on credit for the weekend, as well as taking about $50 from each of the kids' accounts to cover some summer clothes. This month will be a better barameter of where we really are with the budgeting thing since we won't have all the extra money. So far this week it looks like we're going to be okay, except that I think we'll need to pay the mortgage short for a couple of weeks to cover groceries. I need to get a grip on this on we're not going to get anywhere. At least I did save the money we need for the extra for day care for the kids this summer (unless my wife ends up babysitting at home, which would save us some money, but make for some transportation issues).

The problem right now is that I really am not making much of an effort at saving; I never have. That's going to be my biggest hurdle to fixing things. But I will get it done; I have to.

Nothing Learned

In the last few days I have overdrawn my checking account, used $55 from each kid's savings account, and transfered $70 from a line of credit. This budgetting thing is going nowhere. If I don't learn some self-control soon, we'll end up bankrupt.

Trying to Figure it out

Mortgage, day care, and some life insurance is due. I know for a face there isn't enough there to take care of all that. I haven't sat down and really looked at March's numbers, but with Easter and the tax refund, I don't know that I'm going to get a "normal" view from March. I have not started tracking April yet, but just glancing at March so far tells me that there's not a lot of fat there to trim. I've already closed a couple of insurance policies; that's going to pick up about $66 a month, but we're seriously looking at getting a water softener. If we go with the Culligan set up, we'll have to pay $24.50 per month for that. They say the softener would help us save a ton of money on soap and stuff, but at $24 a month is it worth it? One other point, though, our dishes are starting to get this film on them from the water. We definitely do not want to buy more dishes, do those add up to justifying the cost? Hard to say.

One last thing, the insurance policies we closed were whole life, so we have about $1100 coming back to us. $300 of it goes to the extra we will owe the day care for the kids for summer. A chunk of the rest of it will go to summer clothes for all of us. My wife and I are also planning an anniversary trip to St Charles and a Cardinal game for our anniversary. I don't know how much will be left after that, it would be nice to put some back for Christmas, but I don't see that happening.

Oh, Ramsey is on a shelf and probably will not be touched again. The man is a complete ass.

At it Again

Well, spent more than I have again. Not a lot, but I'll have to move some from the kids' savings again to cover till my wife gets paid on Monday. We needed some groceries and I needed gas in the car, but did I need to put $20 in? I probably would have made it okay with $10 or $12, and I definitely did not need a piece of breakfast pizza and soda for breakfast. If I can't reign in my spending habits, this blog will have to be renamed, "Jerry's Road to Bankruptcy." I need some help from someone, Ramsey isn't it.

Bills Paid, maybe getting ahead

Paid all the bills that had to be on Friday, except for the day care bill that is due tomorrow. I was very careful to keep enough to pay all of the day care bill (even the extra for Spring Break). We also bought the kids' Easter clothes and some extra groceries. Did a better job of making the money last, but there was extra in the account from the cafeteria plan which was supposed to go towards a doctor's bill. It won't. I need gas in the car and we need a few more groceries to get through the rest of the week. I guess this is still not really getting to the root of the problem, but at least we've gone a few weeks without asking our parents for money. That in and of itself is an improvement.

Quick update on Ramsey: I just can't get myself to read the thing. I don't know if I'm really going to be able to get through it or not. My father-in-law gave us some other financial information and materials. I think there's some budgetting stuff in there; maybe what I need to get us on the right track is in there. I don't think I can take any more of "God's Gift to Finance." A co-worker called him the "Dr. Phil of Finance." I think that's a pretty good comparision. With both those guys, you either agree with him, or you're a loser and an idiot. I get tired of being called stupid.

Here we go again

Old habits are going to be hard to break. Bought two cds today for Easter gifts for my wife and me. Certainly didn't need them, not that we won't get good use out of them, because I know I'm going to listen to Weird Al's alot (I plan on converting the kids to Al fanatics) and my wife really wanted the Jim Brickman one, but that doesn't change the fact that I spent about $35 that could have gone to something constructive. This is going to be a long hard road, I'm afraid.