After 16 days, our government has decided to end its tantrum and open up again. I swear, they acted like toddlers....I am not getting my way so I am going to stomp my feet and cry. That said...it is still temporary. They could shut down again, but hoping that in the coming 4 months they are able to come to a long term compromise.
Knowing that, business around our household won't totally go back to normal. We still need to get a car, so that will require further budget discussions. This shutdown scared us and I would REALLY like to have a better cushion in the bank.
G-man "should" get his paycheck as normal on Oct 28. It is unclear at this point if his unpaid days from the previous pay (Oct 1-5) will be on this check, or the first November check. Of course that includes the rare overtime that he should get from his overnight deal when the lady ran her car through the gates in DC. (Due to the budget, overtime is very rare unless something goes "boom.")
We will have to discuss the OT pay (whenever it gets here). Save it for a rainy day? Put it toward car? Not sure yet. (I am leaning toward saving.....I already figured out that it would only save us $4.56-ish per month on the car).
I have my list of things that I made partial payments on, or didn't contribute to.....and I will be happy to catch up on those things. They are weighing on me.
One things that I will be doing at this point is redistributing some of our savings contributions. They were all coming from G-man's check, just for easy accounting. But I think some will start coming from my check, just so we don't have as large of a hit to the account at one time. Same money, just different timing.
I have started saving toward my goal of being able to pay all my bills (that aren't on a separate autodebit, like the car) on the 1st of the month, which requires close to $3,000 (including mortgage). I will need to be able to get a month ahead on the bills, so this is going to be a work in progress. I am going to work on getting ahead on one bill at a time.
Only 6 more days until my payday....we should have minimal expenses over the coming week, so I hope we can continue to not use the CC or float too much money from our savings (so far, we had to float $100 which was put back when I got paid on the 9th, so we are net zero). I know G-man will need gas this weekend, and we may need bread. Hoping anything else can wait.
Glad we are close to over with this.
Whew! Glad you can focus on the future now instead of remaining frozen & at the mercy of others. :)
ReplyDeleteBear in mind, won't you, that the government shutdown is just one of the myriad of things which can happen, upsetting your current financial position. It was brief, thankfully. If I were you, I would use this scare to further redouble my saving efforts, not just temporarily, but as a lifestyle choice. A commenter on a previous post mentioned building a food stockpile. Perhaps you switch shopping methods...say you may spend twice your planned weekly grocery budget one week on loss leaders, but then find nothing for the next three weeks that warrants even walking past the store? Just one of many mindsets one must have to build financial security. (Sluggy wrote a great post a few days ago on ""why "we should have this mindset. Others can tell you "how " to live it. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have any more to save. Our minimum payments on debt eat it all up.
DeleteAs for groceries, we do shop the loss leaders as we can. But our paychecks are such that we just don't have it to really go gangbusters. We have tried it in the past, and it didn't work out so well. We are actually doing better trying to shop for the week, and stocking up on things as we can.
Plus, when you work in the grocery store....there is no such thing as not going!
Sorry if I sound defensive, but we are well aware of the problems in our budget. I can't fix them all at once. I wish I could save more...but we can't. I wish I could stockpile more, but we can't. I wish I didn't have 66k in debt...and when that number is much lower, alot of things will change. But cash flow is the key to everything.
Well that is over and you weathered it very well. But it is scary ot to have a big cushion. I don't have one either.
ReplyDeleteVery relieved for you that this is over for now. Love the "month ahead" savings goal plan. It gives such a psychological boost to be ahead by a month (then over time, it can be extended to 2 or 3.)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good plan! We pay all of our bills for the month ahead as well... much better that way! We also have a nice cushion "just in case"! It does wonders for my peace of mind and knowing that if something were to happen, my children would still have a roof over their heads & food on the table.
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