Totally fell off the wagon $1 at a time
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Totally fell off the wagon $1 at a time
| Thu, 01-20-2005 - 8:04am |
Well, things looked like they were going so great and we were going to be caught up this month.


The ONLY way I manage not to nickel and dime myself is to not spend a thing.
You may want to look at the envelope system. Others here can probably explain it better, but at the beginning of the month you take out all of the cash you will spend. Put it in envelopes marked for that purpose say lunches, groceries, haircuts, clothes, etc. Once that money is gone from the envelope, you can't spend anymore until the next month.
If you run out of say milk or bread before the month is over, then you need to take money from say the lunch envelope or the clothing envelope. But, once all of the cash is gone, it's gone. That helps from running over in the check book and when the lunch envelope gets low or is gone, then you force yourself to brown bag lunches for work, or once the clothes money is gone, no more clothes until next month.
HTH.
I understand about it being $1 at a time. I often wonder where the money goes myself. I have gotten to a point where everything goes into quicken. There is even a spare change category where every penny is accounted for, even the $1 tip here and the $1.50 for sodas there. It helps me know where my money is going. DH thought I was a little obsessive the other day when I added a category for allowance now that DD is getting $1 a week for chores and her behavior. He didn't see it as an expense that needs to be tracked. I do, because I want to be able to say, when she's 16 and tells me I haven't done enough or I don't give her enough allowance, this is how much I have given you since JAN 2005. LOL
Good luck,
Kellie
I know that feeling! And I think the best thing you can do right now is to try to think positive. Once you think you can't do it, the incentive to try goes out the window. $10 here, $10 there, especially on food, may mean that you do not have things on hand that are easy to cook that you like to eat. When planning your grocery list, try to think that there will be a few days that you won't have time to cook. Make salad ahead of time. In fact, I have found that making some things ahead of time guarantees that I won't go through the drive thru on the way home. (Last night at 11:00, I was making a huge batch of mashed potatoes and a chocolate pie. We are short on cash, but I don't want McDonalds when I can have chocolate pie instead!) If you don't want to carry cash, try having two checking accounts...one for bills, one for everything else, and never raid your bill money. Have you filed your taxes yet? Will you get a refund? Can you file online and have it depostied automatically. Last year, I got my refund in 10 days! This is just a minor setback. YOU CAN DO THIS!! It is temporary...you know what your mistakes were, and you can turn this around! Hold you head up, Heather
All my best,
Danni
My lord, this happens to us *every month*! It gets so frustrating...but I know exactly what you are saying.
One of the things I'm working on this year is to update Quicken every week, no matter how much I don't feel like it. We only get paid once a month, so it's really hard to get in the groove of keeping up with it...but it can be really dangerous if we don't! I shudder to think of what would have happened this month. We were really short because of Christmas, but we knew that we had about $150 to last us 3 weeks to payday. Bad, but at least we knew.
Sorry - not much more to suggest - just another been there, done that.
Kris