Well, I’ve managed to knock off a few more thing from my to-do list.  I’m still trying to find a balance of time where I can apply myself equally toward development on my websites and writing time keeping everyone up with our daily activity.  On the bright side, I’m balancing the act a little better as time goes on.

As for spending, well, we’ve managed to go this entire pay-period without spending beyond what was in our envelopes.  Granted, we had to shuffle some funds around and "borrow" from one envelope to the other, but I suppose that’s to be expected until we figure out the ideal amounts for each one.

Now that we’re comfortable with the whole envelope system plan and everyone is on board with it, I’m going to start the journal regularly again with this week’s payday-filling session tomorrow. 

Also, if you haven’t already noticed, the daily journal posts are running through an entirely different RSS feed from this point forward.  Sorry if that inconveniences some of you, but I really like having the separate sites for this.  It’s what I wanted to begin with, but a friend convinced me that I could run them both from the same site and separate them completely so here we are! 

This was a really tough couple of weeks.  Between the wife and I working lots of extra hours, having a lot to do around the house, and just keeping up with daily duties…we just haven’t had any time for any fun let alone sleep.  This weekend was good though.  I didn’t have any major projects to take up my time, so on and off throughout the weekend I’ve managed to get caught up to where I can actually do some writing. 

I’m in the middle of writing my post discussing all the tax refund information with updates on where we are with respect to all of our debts after getting it.  Something else I enjoy pointing out is that my annual increase has finally kicked in.  It certainly wasn’t as much as I was hoping for, but I can’t really complain about it.  The only way I could really get more would be to uproot everyone and move.  We’ve decided to stick it out some more and continue to make things work.

For one thing, we’ve started using the envelopes system.  I just finished stuffing them full of cash and we’re not going to use any more plastic unless something unexpected comes up.  (even debit cards unless we have to)  I’ve put a few of our bills on automatic withdrawal.  That was kinda neat to watch happen a few times with the money already in there.

I drained my surplus of posts while I was away, so I’ve been building up some more this weekend.  I don’t like being without at least a week’s worth.

I’m going to hold off on putting a "Today’s Progress" summary up, because I’m going to update the budget page tonight and we’ll start with a clean slate tomorrow evening now that I’ve got all my envelopes filled with cash. 

As I was hoping to get by two days in a row without spending any money, I realized that my car’s gas light was already on for two days in a row.  Guess it’s time to bite the bullet and just fill the car.  That’s one of the advantages to having the same car for over 10 years, I really know how far I can push the limit on it when it comes to procrastinating the fill-up.

Perhaps this reveals a little habit of mine though…living paycheck to paycheck really lines up with living gas tank to gas tank.  The procrastination of every little thing that takes money away from me to the point where I’m almost late…or stranded.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $35.46 (gas)
• Debt Reduced - $0

After two days of spending what seems like WAY too much money, we’ve finally gone a day without spending anything.  Unfortunately, the biggest reason we aren’t spending any money is because we simply don’t have any!  That’s right, living paycheck to paycheck is THE LIFE FOR ME!  (that’s sarcasm if you couldn’t tell) 

The wife is really getting onto me about wrapping up the taxes, which I’m doing tonight.  Getting that refund to us will allow us to seriously apply the cash-envelope system and not feel so strained with the timing of our bills vs. our paychecks once we get our budget buffer in place and our starter emergency fund put together.

Here’s to a late night of taxes!

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $0
• Spent - $0
• Debt Reduced - $0

I took my first shot at doing my taxes today.  It was quite an eventful morning for me.  Let’s just say I’m kind of excited, but I won’t let it go to my head.  One thing I’ve discovered about paying WAY TOO MUCH interest on our mortgage is that it ends up beefing up my deductions a LOT.  To the point where there’s an extra few THOUSAND dollars that are going to end up being refunded to me.  It’s one of those YAY moments followed by the gross realization that I’m still throwing away a ton of money to end up with such a large refund.

I’ll post more about the tax results this coming week.

As for spending, it’s yet another reminder that I’m dumping over $400 in interest into my second mortgage.  This was a consolidation of a bunch of credit cards I had that were out of control, but it’s really just sitting there not making any progress.

Needless to say, it’s very depressing and motivating at the same time.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $7.56  (interest & rebates from checking account)
• Spent - $605.12 (car insurance, cell phone, 2nd mortgage, groceries)
• Debt Reduced - $32.83 (2nd mortgage)

Today I was a nervous wreck.  We’d just finished the whole cheap Valentine’s routine where we didn’t really spend any money on anything.  But the biggest concern was waiting for the mortgage check to clear right after my direct deposit showed up in my account.  Maybe I should post some more about all the skills I’ve gained in timing things just right while living paycheck to paycheck.  I’m amazed at how well I’m able to pull it off, yet disgusted at the whole idea of being just one day from a late mark on my credit report every month.

So, today our mortgage payment went through just as the money showed up.  Nothing bounced, nothing late…all is well again and we can rest our minds yet another payday.  I really need to get on the ball with our taxes so we can get our budget buffer in place.

Here’s another disgusting thought:  I’m paying over $2000 in interest every month for that 1st mortgage.  WTH were we thinking!?!?  What a waste, I’m so ready to be rid of this debt.

Today’s Progress:

• Earned - $2562.39
• Spent - $2137.41 (1st mortgage)
• Debt Reduced - $110.92