Boy did we cut it close this time!  My mortgage was due on the 1st, but we took advantage of the 15-day grace-period given so we could pay the bill one payday later.  This didn’t necessarily buy us another 2K, but it allowed us to pay all the bills we had last month on time.  This reminds me that my budget page is a little behind the times since it doesn’t reflect my actual spending the last couple weeks.  Nor does it show my upped income since updating my W4 at work.

So anyway, it was a small payday for Mrs. Debtbeater.  Not as many hours the last pay-period as we’d hoped.  I’m sure that’ll increase as we go into the holidays though.  Department stores have a funny way of doing that to their employees.

That finally allowed me to pay an almost late credit card bill as well as put some gas in the car.  Phew! is about all I feel right now.  Though frustration is building in the background knowing that I simply shouldn’t have this problem had I been ahead on my finances instead of in a lot of debt…

When was your last close call?  Others have to be experiencing the same thing once in awhile when trying to clean up their finances.  How often does this happen to you?

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $2454
• Spent - $235 (gas, credit card)
• Debt Reduced -$50

Knew it wouldn’t last too long, but that’s the way life is around here. 

Had to pick up a few things from the grocery store again and stop by the pharmacy again.  We’re just waiting for payday at this point with our account being so low…

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $45 (groceries, prescriptions)
• Debt Reduced -$0

Wow, a positive day without any spending.  This is almost unheard of for us but here it is!

We took back some of the items we didn’t need from the weekend and managed to get back a whole $13 back in our bank account from it!  (Can you just feel the sarcasm here on how excited I am about this?)  Yeah, 13 bucks is pretty lame after spending hundreds of dollars this weekend.  Guess we should be a little more aggressive about not bringing it home in the first place unless we really need it.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $13 (returned clothes)
• Spent - $0
• Debt Reduced -$0

Again, another trip to buy "groceries".  I think an explanation of what’s implied when I use this term is needed.  I’m not talking about just food here.  When I say groceries, I mean just about anything I can buy at Wal-mart.  This can include expensive stuff too like medicine, diapers, pet food, etc.  Now, we don’t normally go overboard with this and we’re trying to stay within our $600/mo budget.  But like I said sometime last week…it’s getting more and more bare in the pantry and we’re finding we need to replace a lot of things that normally last awhile.  We may end up near the $7-750 mark this month.  Not to mention we have family coming for Thanksgiving.  I may make that $800 before we know it.

AND - paid a credit card bill.  I try to throw $200/mo at this thing bringing the balance down by $50.  Otherwise it just seems to sit there at a $6K balance all the time.  Normally I just do the debt snowball thing, but with cards as close to the limit as this one, I’ve just had too many late/over-balance fees just from missing payments by a week.  I feel much better when I’ve got at least a couple hundred dollars of room before letting cards fall into a regular snowball plan.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $300 (groceries, credit card payment)
• Debt Reduced -$50

Ok, this is just typical of the weekends really.  You end up spending more because you simply have more time to do it.  Today was another big grocery day, but we also had to fill up the car with gas and get some warm clothes for a couple of the kids.  (I swear sometimes they wear shoes out faster than anyone I know.)

Another bad habit to break:  Buying more than we need with the intention of returning half of what we bought.  The plan sounds great because we get more time to decide what we want, but we end up keeping more than we needed in the first place a lot of the time.  Perhaps this should get analyzed more in a post of its own…

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $175 (groceries, clothes, gas)
• Debt Reduced -$0

Ok, we actually didn’t go overboard too bad, but relative to days where we get by with spending almost nothing it feels like quite a bit.  We rented some movies (cheap entertainment) and went on a date that included a $25 meal for the two of us.

Now, going out to eat may sound like it’s against every get-out-of-debt rule there is, but the two of us almost never get the chance to go out on a date.  It’s been a rough week on Mrs. DB, so we just made a point of doing it.  I can’t even remember the last time we made time for ourselves like this.  It was nice.

Also went by the local hardware store to get a replacement light for the stairway that’s been out for ages.  With guests coming to visit for the holidays we decided we’d better make some of the small fixes around the house.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $85 (groceries, dinner, movies, light)
• Debt Reduced -$0