October musing

This post is not positive and I am not sure that I can put a good spin on it. My budget sucks for this month. I knew it was going to be tight since this is a 5 week month and I would need to pay the sitter for the extra week and then Halloween candy for the neighborhood kiddos. These 2 things I tried to figure into the budget and it looked like I could do it all and only be about $1.54 short. $1.54 is something I could have made up through my change jar or a smidge out of another category or heck even 1 sale through ebay, amazon, or etsy. This was a slippery slope which I slid down with one bad decision and unforseen life that should have been in the budget. I spent more than I could on lunches and a couple of quick dinners out. The life that should have been in the budget was the munchkin getting sick. By the time I was done with co-pays, meds and something to cure the dehydration I was almost at $60 so you can see how I am not sure how I am going to get through next week. I already dipped into the savings to finish out this week and I am hoping for some amazing sales on my other accounts to make that money back and pay for next week.

The positive note will be when I tally up my grocery total since I am sure I will come in almost on target this month. Also positive is the fact the weather has been beautiful so we have not run the air or the heat and therefore our electric bill should be really low.

October grocery totals as of today

I tallied all my receipts and deducted in the notebook from my budgeted amount. The grocery totals so far are $180.26, this does also include some underwear and bras that were sorely needed and since my household budget is generally lumped in with groceries I left it in this total.

October plus some

I need to recap September for the record. The month ended with me beating myself up over the budget and at the same time elated. The debt free spending plan is the budget I decided to follow which says that any extra money that comes in should go 1/3 to savings, 1/3 to debt and 1/3 to spend. Over the course of September I was able to sell a few items online and on craigslist as well as have a yard sale. Following the 1/3 principle meant that I was able to put 142.83 into savings. That of course does not sound like a ton of money but when you had nothing on reserve for emergencies this was an amazing feat! The amount of relief I felt at the end of the month was enormous. We had a sum of money come in for back pay and once we put 1/3 of this in the savings it topped out at my original goal of $1000. I am now shooting to have $2000 in the account so I can roll $1000 into a money market account and start looking to the future. The $1000 amount I picked up from Dave Ramsey, it is enough to cover most deductibles in an emergency or most unexpected repairs. Having the "cash" on hand for a rainy day takes a great burden off daily life. This plan also meant I ended the month with money in my checking account instead of just a prayer.  The part that I am beating myself up over is I did not put another 1/3 toward debt. I used the other 2/3 on daily things and a few items I had put off taking care of like hair cuts.  October I told myself I would do better but I am not sure that is going to be the case. So far this month I have only sold a small item that netted very little to 1/3 up. Buckling down to the budget is going to have to be the remedy this month.

The other weight that has been lifted in my life is a lot of excess is gone from our house. We are getting down to basics and items we love instead of stuff that just came into our lives. Being able to go home play with the munchkin, fix dinner, clean up the dishes and have very little other cleaning to do it the evening is an experience I have not relished in a very long time. Maintaining is the name of the game now and I hope to never go back to the cluttered out of control status of before. Because of the extra time in my evening yesterday I was able to go through more of my cookbooks and see if I can find some inspiration for meals this month. I picked up some extra fruits and veggies with groceries this time and I want to have fun with dinner again. The munchkin and I are also working on getting the back porch all cleaned off so he can play and we can have dinner out there now that the weather has cooled down.

Crafting may soon be back in my life which will fill a void for creativity as well as help us have items to trade and sell online. Crafting will also help by allowing me to use up some of the materials that have come into the house or are ending their usefulness at their normal function. I need to repair some of my clothing items, I just remembered another moment of clarity I had. Why am I keeping clothes that do not fit or I do not like? I decided if I put something on and I do not like it I am immediately putting it either up for trade, sale or donating it.

I need to work on totals, and since the budget I can not get out of doing them!

delusional

I realized as I was walking back into work today from lunch that I am delusional. I keep having this thought that if I get extra stuff out of my house and organize my life that I will have time to sit down in the evening at my home desk and type out this blog in an organized thoughtful way. Laughing at myself for this thought has been the best therapy. This blog is just going to have to go in fits and starts when I have time in between work, my family, friends, groups I belong to and church.

With that being said October is off to a running start with us still eating on Septembers groceries since I have not had a chance to get to the store.

I have had some sense of accomplishment at home as I have almost traded or sold everything we cleaned out from the first pass through the house. I was able last night to clean off our large table so I can start crafting soon. There was an internal debate on whether I should start with my sewing projects first or scrapbooking. I went with sewing so I can clean all of it out of the dining room and get some Christmas projects done.