Purrls

Monday, April 19, 2010

I DID IT!!!

Friday, after writing the post about financial issues, I went home and started writing down on a piece of paper the bills *as I see them*. This ended up being the important key here. Before I was trying to force my brain to accept things as Mr. Knitty saw them or as financial planners or budget tools saw them.

I came up with three categories:
Regular bills: these are bills I get on paper or electronically that happen every month or every other month. These are things I expect; mortgage, utilities, phone.

Regular Variable bills: These are things that happen every month but vary some; groceries, gas for the car, new clothes, home improvement.

Irregular Bills aka "Nasty Surprises": These are things that I'm not expecting, even if I should be. Medical bills. Car insurance (twice a year is too infrequent for me to remember to do it). home repairs. Car repairs.

Then I started writing how much each typically costs in each category. Regular bills were easy. Regular Variable were tougher, but not too hard. Irregular bills I decided to treat as one "lump", and to set aside an amount of money that seemed to be a "high average" of how much they seemed to be.

I also set aside $100 to be automatically deducted and put in my savings account.


Now the execution has always been a sticking point for me. Sure it looks great on PAPER but when the bills come and the money's gone, it's not always easy to figure out why. So I have three accounts now. Each month, a "lump" of money goes into the "Irregular" account, to be set aside against emergencies. "Regular" expenses come straight out of the main account. "Regular Variable" and "Irregular" expenses go on the credit card. We will be keeping close watch on that credit card to make sure it doesn't go over the allotted amount. Then the money can be transferred to cover each category of expenses.

Wow, I'm seeing how this sound SUPER complicated when I describe it, although visually it made perfect sense. Maybe that's why I find other people's systems overly complicated.

Anyhoo, I'm really proud of myself. I figured "I'm a college grad, i SHOULD be able to figure this out!" And I did!

4 Comments:

  • At 3:11 PM, Blogger ladyjanewriter said…

    All right!

    Well, it almost sounds like how you sort stuff for de-crapping in simple categories, keep, donate, fix, toss.

    This sounds way more manageable and understandable for you! Congrats!

     
  • At 9:20 AM, Blogger knittykat said…

    hey, you're right!

     
  • At 11:40 AM, Blogger Festival de Inverno de Campos do Jordão said…

    Festival de Inverno de Campos do Jordão, uma atração muito imperdível, 30 dias de muita música e discontração, Campos do Jordão fica no alto da mantiqueira em um clima tipicamente de inverno europeu, venha conhecer e se discontrair. www.incampos.com

     
  • At 11:43 AM, Blogger Festival de Inverno de Campos do Jordão said…

    Festival de Inverno de Campos do Jordão, uma atração muito imperdível, 30 dias de muita música e discontração, Campos do Jordão fica no alto da mantiqueira em um clima tipicamente de inverno europeu, venha conhecer e se discontrair. www.incampos.com

     

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