Saturday, September 25, 2010

I thought it was Two hard months followed by two eas(ier) months

We get paid on a bi-weekly basis.  As it turns out, we get paid on the same week.  Anyone who gets paid bi-weekly knows that this means that 2 months of the year are 3-paycheck months.

(Do a little dance.....make a little love.....get down tonight! Click here to hear the whole totally awesome song.)

Due to the day of the week we each get paid, G-man will have 3 beautiful paychecks in November, and I will have 3 beautiful paychecks in December. This is very handy for many reasons: 1)  Our water bill is due in November (and we aren't quite at a point of saving for this beforehand), 2)  Our personal property taxes on the cars are due in January (and yes, we are saving for "CAR" stuff, but not enough yet), 3)  The holidays are there (in the past 2 years it hasn't been too much of an issue because we used money from selling stuff to pay for the holidays), and lastly 4)  It allows a little breathing room.

In the past, the two months beforehand were tough.  Not because of the expenses per se, but because of the dates they were due in comparison to the dates we got paid.  Stuff that typically got paid from the second paycheck had to be paid from the first paycheck because it was due on the 14th, and we didn't get paid until the 16th....that kind of thing.  It would snowball and by the time we hit the month with 3 paychecks, things were mucked up.

But a strange thing is happening.....so far, we have EXTRA money.  I am a little confused.  And excited.  And worried. 

I balanced the checkbook....good to the penny.  Checked all the bills.....one bill to pay, but everything else is paid.  Checked the due dates....the next "set" of bills are due to come from paycheck one of the month, and we get paid on the 4th....so no problem with the dates.  Mortgage....got that cash waiting to be paid.  Reasonable amount of food in the house.  Gas in the cars.

So why do I have over $700 in my checking account!???

I am concerned I am forgetting something.  I am excited that I may have some extra cash to throw at debt.  I am some what proud that after our rotten month last month that we seem to be back on track with an attitude!

I transferred $300 into our savings account for safe keeping.  The remainder will be our grocery, gas, etc money until the next payday (which for us is Wednesday, when G-man gets paid from his part time job).  If we are still okey dokey, I will use that $300 to pay off the remainder of CC1, which is the left over mess from August.

Maybe we are getting the hang of this!!!!

4 comments:

  1. Extra money is awesome!
    I'm not that good with budgeting yet but *fingers crossed* maybe soon I will get the hang of it too!

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  2. I hope your math is perfect and the $700 surplus is accurate. It has to be true. Your hard work is paying off.

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  3. I love extra money. I have like 1,500 in the checking that really isn't in there because I know I balanced it right but yet the checking account says that we have that extra and it never goes away. I just don't touch it. Kindof like my emergency fund in my checking account hidden just incase I guess. It is a cushion for me.

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  4. Hope it is true, that is a nice chunk of money!

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