Everybody runs into difficulties when starting anything new, and new budgeting difficulties is no exception. Whether it be unexpected bills or unexpected change in cash flow, it is never easy when you are trying to nail down every penny, You just have to roll with it sometimes and adjust as you go.
I was doing really good in the beginning.
I was keeping track of our spending, logging it into my budget template, and placing it into the proper categories. As the month wore on, it became more difficult. Not only was my motivation to log the financial data wavering, but it was compounded by not being sure what I had already logged or not. One of the things I learned was that I need to keep up with my spending in a check register type thingy. Since I wasn’t going into the template every day, I wasn’t sure when I had last logged our spending. When it stopped or when I needed to start it. I was lost. When you’re lost doing something that you are new to and may be struggling to do consistently, you waver. New Budgeting Difficulties.
So now I know what I have to do for May.
Anywho, the added benefit to the month of April was the tax returns that we received. They were nice to have but admittedly did mess up my budget plans with the influx of extra cash. It’s hard to complain about though, obviously. I have a term for that, it’s called Crazy Money, and you can read about that HERE.
So if the little tax issue was a positive stumbling block to my budget, crashing my truck would be the negative one. Yes, that’s right, I crashed my truck. It wasn’t totally my fault though, that cart corral at the local Sam’s Club jumped right out in front of me. It’s a long story, but the Reader’s Digest version is that as I was turning out of a parking space, I thought the guy across from me was going to hit me, so I turned tighter and yada, yada, yada, I didn’t see the pole, I just heard the loud ripping sound as it tore up my truck.
Ugh…..
Here is the offending pole. Sadly, my big truck barely left any paint on it never mind do any damage to the stupid thing.
Yup, roughly $6800 in damage to my truck and nary a scratch to the stupid pole. I called the insurance company to report it. I know what you are saying right now, “WHY!!!??? It’s going to cost you money every month when they raise your rates!” I know, but the truck is paid for and it’s really smashed, and well, I really like it and want to get it back to being nice again. So even if they were to raise my rates as much as $100 per month, where else am I going to find a truck like this one for $100 a month in car payments? This just adds to the new budgeting difficulties.
Besides, this makes it more of a Financial Moron Mobile
So it’s at the body shop and this is what it looks like now, only a couple of weeks post mortem.
With this nifty new challenge comes a price, my deductible, $500, plus a fee for 25% of the tire that they are replacing. It really wasn’t worn 25% but that’s the lowest they would go. All total I will have to pay $595 to get my truck back.
Yay for that income tax return I guess.
As if that wasn’t enough to make things ever so tight in budget land, did I mention the trip across the country to Disney World? Oh yes, the girl child and her Competitive Cheer team won two bids to the Summit International Competition so we are all going, staying in a Disney Resort (mandatory for the competition) and making a vacation of it. This trip has Kamikaze Budget written all over it. More new budgeting difficulties.
Needless to say, we have a lot going on. If you have read my other posts, you will remember about our lack of meal planning and subsequent food spending and our need for more, many more, budget meetings. But fear not young budgeteer, for it will all equal out in the end.
It always seems to do that.
One way or another, if you stay the course, things will level out. They may not be perfect but they will settle down to a pace that makes them become much more manageable. I don’t know a lot about being fiscally responsible. Mainly because I was never taught and haven’t been for pretty much all of my life. The one thing that I do know is that things will come around. You just have to keep your head up, be looking out for it, and be ready.
Just to keep you on your toes, I have a few helpful budget tips for you and you can find them HERE and HERE. I think you will find them very useful and if you are having a month like mine, you will welcome the positive distraction.
As you can see, things got really tough for us this month.
Not a great start to what should be an epic new budget month. Well, I guess it was epic, just not for the right reasons. But hey, if our budget can survive this type of trauma in its fledgling years, it will only get easier from here. Positive thoughts peeps.
See you again soon.
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