A while ago, I created a spreadsheet tracking my expenses on my credit card. I have everything either directly pulled from my checking account or I charge it so that I can earn points. I know what I am supposed to be charging on my card, my budget amount, but when I go over, I didn't have a good idea of why. So, I created an expense tracking spreadsheet where I list the charges and then categorize them. This way, I see a running total of my spending, and I also see subtotals in my categories. I pay off my card every month so that I do not accrue interest on my credit card, but I wait until the due date to earn as much interest on the payment as possible. That means, I have to subtract last month's total from the balance to get my current spending. The tracking spreadsheet , with its running total, makes that task moot. And, as I said, it shows me where I am spending.
Because I am trying to be extra, extra, extra lean in my spending and did not get where I wanted in July, I got the idea that I would put in all the fixed charges and the ones I knew would come on the expense tracking sheet so that I could start August knowing what I have left. I kept subtracting the running total from my budget number, working the sums in my head, and became more and more worried. Last night, I was in bed trying to fall asleep when I remembered another two expenses I hadn't added yet. I was down to $78 for my August spending and it hadn't even started! That's $78 for groceries, household, gas, and extra medical expenses!!
Even if my austerity plan holds for the rest of 2017, I am going to be around $350 short of my birthday spending. I have been working on stopping castigating myself for falling short. I have a ways to go in that area. I sort of blame extra medical, but also I did discover that barbecue. SIGH.
[Maybe barbecue should be my month's end reward if I make my austerity budget for the month??]
Realizing that I failed my goal, I started to really panic about 2018.
[Maybe barbecue should be my month's end reward if I make my austerity budget for the month??]
Realizing that I failed my goal, I started to really panic about 2018.
For 2018, I have a slightly less austere budget, because I do not believe it is possible, with medical stuff, to be as tight as I am trying to be through the rest of this year. But I still have a fairly tight budget because I am trying and trying and trying to manage all my spending on a fixed income. Plus, several years ago, I set out to build cushions into my checking account and all of my small savings accounts that I created as a way of saving monthly for the larger one-time expenses that hit me throughout the year. Year End 2018 is the target for them.
I am thankful that I will make the cushion goal for my real estate taxes (a year's worth of taxes as a cushion). And I will easily meet the car account's goal of $1,500. Ideally, I wanted it to be $2,000 because I always hear about $2K car repair bill coming at the worst time, but I am on a fixed income with a large amount of medical expenses, so I had to lower my ideals. Getting blood from a turnip comes to mind. I wanted $500 in Amos and Household and that will take some stretching because Amos was an expensive dog in his 6th year (I already lectured him about the need to reverse that trend). And I wanted to get $750 in checking, a goal which I wish had been $1,000.
I am thankful that I will make the cushion goal for my real estate taxes (a year's worth of taxes as a cushion). And I will easily meet the car account's goal of $1,500. Ideally, I wanted it to be $2,000 because I always hear about $2K car repair bill coming at the worst time, but I am on a fixed income with a large amount of medical expenses, so I had to lower my ideals. Getting blood from a turnip comes to mind. I wanted $500 in Amos and Household and that will take some stretching because Amos was an expensive dog in his 6th year (I already lectured him about the need to reverse that trend). And I wanted to get $750 in checking, a goal which I wish had been $1,000.
One of the ways I work on budgeting, as I have explained before, is to enter all the expenses for the next year into my register before January begins. I put hard numbers for the set expenses and estimates for the fluid bills (estimates based on several year averages, including rate increases). This way, I can tell you on any given day how much money I will have in checking.
Though normally a task for December, I entered every transaction for checking and the savings accounts into my register program since I am rather worried. To make my savings cushion goals, starting in January 2018, I increased the monthly automatic savings transfers to Amos and Household. And I will have to do a bit of make-up transferring from checking to those accounts in December 2018. To do that, I need to be fairly austere all throughout the year.
Though normally a task for December, I entered every transaction for checking and the savings accounts into my register program since I am rather worried. To make my savings cushion goals, starting in January 2018, I increased the monthly automatic savings transfers to Amos and Household. And I will have to do a bit of make-up transferring from checking to those accounts in December 2018. To do that, I need to be fairly austere all throughout the year.
I use the register to help populate my Year End Over/Under spreadsheet. Even though 2017 is not yet over, I went ahead and created the chart for 2018. That's how I can know if I will make those goals. As the hours passed, I kept trying to work out a budget that would meet my goals and have some sort of hope of still paying the ever-increasing medical expenses that I have to pay from an ever-dwindling supply of funds. Twelve hours later, I finally thought I came to a workable plan.
I want to tell myself that it is only 5 months of severe austerity and 12 months of strict discipline, but really what I mapped out for 2018 is what I'll need to follow going forward, because I have yet to make realistic room in my budget for not just managing to pay medical bills, but to start to create a savings account for them. I still have no plan for the next hospitalization, although all the testing is what's been killing me since March 2016. I should have a Medical Tests savings account! Only HOW THE HECK DO I MAKE ROOM FOR ANOTHER SAVINGS ACCOUNT???????
SIGH.
I do feel more settled, having done more math and projections and budgeting and planning in those 12 hours than I thought possible.
I did have another Come to Jesus talk with myself. You see, I used to be on a competitive mental arithmetic team. I admit to being rather prideful about it. I spent my scholastic years getting in trouble for not showing my math work except for when I was helping to win competitions! As I mentioned, when I was trying to figure out what my current spending total was, I would work it out in my head, even after I created a spreadsheet where I could have just stuck in a formula for it.
I want to tell myself that it is only 5 months of severe austerity and 12 months of strict discipline, but really what I mapped out for 2018 is what I'll need to follow going forward, because I have yet to make realistic room in my budget for not just managing to pay medical bills, but to start to create a savings account for them. I still have no plan for the next hospitalization, although all the testing is what's been killing me since March 2016. I should have a Medical Tests savings account! Only HOW THE HECK DO I MAKE ROOM FOR ANOTHER SAVINGS ACCOUNT???????
SIGH.
I do feel more settled, having done more math and projections and budgeting and planning in those 12 hours than I thought possible.
I did have another Come to Jesus talk with myself. You see, I used to be on a competitive mental arithmetic team. I admit to being rather prideful about it. I spent my scholastic years getting in trouble for not showing my math work except for when I was helping to win competitions! As I mentioned, when I was trying to figure out what my current spending total was, I would work it out in my head, even after I created a spreadsheet where I could have just stuck in a formula for it.
Seventeen hours after my panic began, twelve hours of number crunching later, I decided to finally put in a formula on my tracking spreadsheet that subtracted my running total from my budget number. I was my way of sort of polishing off the evening-turned-into-day. When I did that, I discovered that I didn't just have $78 for August. I have $251! WHEW!!
I make so very many mistakes with my bill paying and my medications, it was foolish of me to cling to my gloried past. And really did laugh when I saw that I had erred so greatly. If I had that formula in there, I could have avoided a whole lot of panic! Silly Myrtle!!
However, I now have a projected Year End Over/Under for 2017 and 2018, a banking/savings register filled through December 2018, budgets for 2017 and 2018, and a new template for my monthly expense tracking spreadsheet ... and a whole lot less worry about how I'm going to get through August!
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