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February…. I started the month a little nervous, but kind of excited. The combination of nerves and excitement was evident in my first foray of grocery shopping on a budget. That trip ended up being a 3 hour ordeal. I studied the circulars for Publix and Kroger and scoured the coupons. I was determined to maximize my money. For the first time ever, I felt that I made a reasonable budget for groceries/household items/personal items ($300), gas ($250) and even had $100 for me. Yep, I was feeling pretty proud of myself….
In my eagerness, I estimated my expenses and set up bill pay through my bank. I mean, I really set up the payments, with the intention of going back to correct them when the bills came in. You can probably guess what happened. I forgot to change a couple of the payments. Instead I scheduled an additional payment and neglected to cancel the original scheduled payments. So, my eagerness resulted in two extra payments, one was a store credit card and the other was my water bill. The combined overpayments only amounted to $35 – not bad, but also not budgeted.
Despite these errors, I was still feeling pretty good about my budget. I paid off the three medical bills and scheduled a $217 payment for American Express, which would have left it at a zero balance. So, according to Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball plan, I should have $287 to pay towards the next bill on the list – actually the store credit card that received the extra payment to. Note that should is the operative word here….
I was checking my account regularly the first couple of weeks; often enough to notice a significant mistake. At the end of last year, in my desperation, I took out two loans with (gasp) local finance companies. The amounts of the loans were $1500 and $1000. The monthly payments are $150 and $104 respectively. I neglected to include these two payments on my February spreadsheet. I paid them at the beginning of the month, but when I created my budget, this was $254 that I allotted to other areas. I noticed the error when I checked the account and realized that the only payment I had left was American Express, but I didn’t have $217 in my account. Luckily, I was able to cancel that payment in time.
By the third week in the month, I had made the necessary adjustments to the budget, but was a little concerned about making it through the rest of the month. I have to admit that the reason I was too worried about it was because I knew I could pull out the American Express card in a real jam. Not ideal and certainly not the plan, but just in case…. I should admit here that I did use the Amex card twice in February. First, I used it for my tax preparation fees, then to mail a package for a friend – so, while it should have been paid off, the March statement will have those two charges on it.
So, three weeks into February, I was living on what I had. Eating whatever was already in the house, entertaining myself by reading or watching DVDs in my collection or what I receive via my mail service, and saying “no” or “not right now” to my friends who wanted to do something fun (e.g., eat out, movies, etc…). I thought it was okay. I thought I was handling it well. Until it happened; “IT” being getting some money. I was getting ready to leave for church on February 21st. My church just moved to a new building and that Sunday was our ribbon cutting and first worship service in the building. I was lamenting about the fact that I was not going to be able to put anything in the offering. I had already tithed (I’m back on track now), but only had $10 – I had planned to put $5 in my church offering and $5 in the offering at an afternoon worship I was planning to attend. Just before I left, I decided to check my bank account and guess what? My state income tax refund was in there. I was so happy – on that morning, I was just happy that I was going to be able to make a contribution. I left the house proclaiming that when your desires are honorable, God will certainly provide. I felt awesome! I tithed that morning in church,
