"Our plants are growing our of their pots," I told Glynn last night.
"So buy more pots," he told me as his eyes glazed over at a photo of a tractor on eBay he's been eyeing this week (next week it will be an air compressor, watch).
"I can't! I didn't budget anything for plants! So I went on Freecycle and posted an ad looking for free pots."
He looked confused and looked back towards me, "You're actually serious about this thing, aren't you?"
"I want that cookbook," I confessed.
"Yeah, but you could just go out and buy it today. You're serious about this. You really want to budget."
I shrugged, "Just because we make a lot of money doesn't mean we need to spend a lot of money."
He seemed proud, "Even when you tell me you don't do anything when you're home, I don't believe you, you're always doing something to improve this family."
He finally sat down last night and looked at my budget, "You accounted for parking?"
"Only $20. Good thing I did! I spent $5!"
"Yeah but, I would have never thought about that."
"I know, that's what last month was for, figuring out where we spent money so I could put it in a budget."
"Bank fees? You put a budget for BANK FEES?"
"Good thing I did! $16 went to that."
"You really thought this through."
Except, I didn't. I've realized a critical flaw in my plan, that I do NOT think I should be held accountable for. What flaw did I have?
This month has 5 Wednesdays. Barely, but it does. Problem is, Wednesday is the day bills are due and also the day rent gets paid and the day Glynn gets paid. So my rent this month, instead of being $1440, is technically $1800. And the electric bill is another $86 more than I budgeted for. BUT, this is not fair. Theoretically I could simply pay my rent and electricity on Thursday and be perfectly within budget for the month and incredibly ahead with that extra money laying in the account.
I don't really think it's condusive to budgeting to pay my bills late just so I can say I win at budgeting. So - this last Wednesday of the month? We're gonna count it, but we're also going to add some money into my rent budget and my electricity budget for the month. Do you readers feel that is fair? Last month only had 4 weeks and I budgeted off of that.
On another note - I realized my Foxtel and my Health Insurance are due in two days. The former is $120, the latter is near $200 for the both of us. There's $150 in the account right now, $300 in cash on me and I really don't like that. It doesn't leave me with much. Especially since I owe a tad more money on my fruit/veg delivery this week as well.
I have never liked that my car payment, Foxtel and Health all came out the same day. That alone is near five hundred dollars spent in a single day. So today - I am calling Foxtel and Medibank and having them change my billing days to the middle of the month. That way I can pay for food, car payments and insurances (car/home) on the 6th, like normal, and the other ones on the 15th, so that it's easier to manage.
As for food - I have finished my mandarins. I finished my zucchinis. I finished my capsicums.
Currently I stand at:
1 pineapple
3 lemons
1 lime
1 corn
1 lettuce
1 broccoli
2 avocados
7 apples
5 bananas
2 sweet potatoes
1 ginger root
5 potatoes
7 tomatoes
1 radish
2 mushrooms
I ate more than I thought, and less than I thought at the same time. I obviously have a lot of fruit to use before Tuesday when I pick up my next box. Banana bread? Cliche. Apple pie? Done it three times this year. I'm sure I will figure it out and then post it for all to see.
Also, I have discovered recently that the trees lining my neighbourhood are edible. They're lillipilli trees and actually are good for making jam. Also good for making jam is the honey I get for free from the farm. The only other ingredient in jam, when the fruit is high in pectin, is water. I'm going out today to collect lillipillies and make a jam from it using free fruit, free honey and free water. I'm going to call it the "Free Jam", I think. Now there's taking budgeting to a whole. new. level.
I might buy an onion today.
I can tell you this - always plan a budget based on how many weeks a month has and around your pay cycle. So, if you get paid on the second week of the month, that can be when your budget period starts, that way you start with a clean slate.
ReplyDeleteAt work we budget with a week pattern of 5-4-4, which works out that each period ends in the first week of the next month, but it works out a different way also.