Monday Night Money

Check-In: $1081.46
That's the good news. I have my cash that I need for the week but, I also have 2 checks out there- one for $860 and one for $300- that have not been cashed yet. They are both to my parents, but there's a slight chance for screw up (IE- overdraft fees) if they have deposited them. That's what I hate about checks! On the positive side, I still have a couple of checks to put in the bank from selling Girl Scout cookies. Still, I doubt they'll cover the difference.
The good news for this month is that, as of right now, our expected income appears to exceed our budget by about $1000 (before buying gas and groceries/ household goods). Since I'm actually paying attention to our money for a change, it's my hope that I will actually be able to account for and hang onto some of this extra $1000 to accomplish some of our goals. What are my plans/ goals for this money? Budget $300 for groceries and household, $200 for gas, $50 for a birthday movie and meal for Princess Tippytoes, $150 for a family birthday party for Princess Tippytoes (food and decorations). If my math is correct, that leaves about $300 (at least) to put towards our Emergency Fund (more to come on that later).
So, is this realistic? I accounted for all of our regular bills before I got down to the $1000 leftover. I just did a pretty big shopping trip a few weeks ago, so we are pretty well stocked up all of the little things that tend to get used up when we live off of what we have on hand for 3 weeks. Therefore, groceries/ household goods (I can't separate the two- I've tried before and it's a P.I.T.A.) should not be too expensive. Our gas is fairly predictable- about $50 per week unless we take a trip to visit our friends near the Indiana border or my sister in Indiana. Since both our friends and my sister will be visiting to celebrate Princess Tippytoes birthday, I don't think we'll be planning any trips that direction for this month. But just in case, I'm going to give myself an extra $50 for gas for the rest of the month (you never know with the way gas prices have been). This will also give us a little "wiggle room" in the budget. I'm going to try to stick to our not-eating-out thing- especially after the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the kids for our last eating out experience. As I said, we might go out to eat on Princess Tippytoes' birthday (this coming Friday) or on Saturday, we might go with some friends to see the Veggie Tales: Pirates Who Don't do Anything movie at the $2 theatre and head to the food court afterwards. Since we usually let the kids choose a restaurant on their birthday if it falls during the week, this is not too far of a budgetary stretch: $10 for 5 movie tickets, another $5-$10 for our popcorn and a drink (because what's a movie in a theatre without popcorn!), and another $20-$25 for dinner. That's a grand total of $35-$45, no more than we would pay for dinner going to a restaurant. And we will need to spend a little money on a family birthday get-together, but I think I will just have it at our house this year. It's something that I enjoy doing, so if we can get the house together in time, I'd really like to (we have been suffering from C.H.A.O.S.- Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome and birthday celebrations have been held at local restaurants for the past few years). So, overall, I am feeling optimistic about our February budget. Another boon the positive vibes is the knowledge that I can do our taxes on February 12th (we finally have all of our W-2's, but we have to wait until Feb. 11th for the "Child and Dependent Care Expenses Form". I know that I will be off on February 12th, thanks to our 16th president, so that's my official Do-my-taxes-day. I can hardly wait! (note: that's said enthusiastically, not sarcastically... I'm weird, I know!)

I did it!

I did it! I answered the phone!

This may not seem like a big deal worthy of a blog, so let me backtrack...

I am coming out of the land of If-you-ignore-it-it's-not-there or better yet, the land of If-you-ignore-it-it-will-go-away. I used to laugh when my toddler son would cover his eyes so I couldn't see him, but that's just what I have been doing! I was the proverbial ostrich with my head in the sand. Do you know what? It doesn't go away. Sometimes it just stays there. Other times, it grows while you're not looking and when you finally do look, it's bigger and badder than ever! One of the most useful techniques in this land of denial that I was living in was to ignore the phone calls and messages. If I didn't recognize the phone number, I didn't answer it because I didn't want to deal with it.
So, today, I'm staying home with my sick daughter. I resolved to answer the phone if/when it rang. No matter what. So, the phone rang just a few minutes ago. Out of habit, I checked caller ID. It was an "800- number"- a sure sign that it's a bill collector calling. But, I found my finger hitting the TALK button and my voice saying, "Hello," before I could back down. And, as an added test/temptation, the caller did not respond immediately. I could have hung up, telling myself that there was something wrong with the connection, or if the caller really wanted to talk to me that they would be paying attention, or any number of other excuses that I've used to justify not talking to them. But I didn't! I said, "Hello," again. She responded this time. And do you know what? She was actually nice! There was no "meanie" on the other end of the line waiting to chastise me for not paying this bill. I told her that my plan is to pay off all of our current medical bills with our tax refund, but I took her name and information to call back in case I could pay it back sooner. The bill is only for $37- less than we've paid to eat out sometimes- so there's a real possibility that I could pay it back before our tax refund. I wasn't just blowing smoke, for a change. And, not only did I pick up the phone and talk to her about paying the bill back, but I'm actually going to pull out my budget for February and see if I can pay the bill sooner. Actually following through on something I told a bill collector... imagine that...