Catching up...

The last week hasn't seen an update because until Wednesday, there really wasn't any news.

Last weekend was okay, didn't do much. I woke up Monday with a migraine which lasted right through Wednesday. Wednesday was the "bad day" of the week. I took some much stronger painkillers and slept most of the day (after calling into work and going to the doctor) and when I woke up and went to check the mail, I had a note in my door from the management company that my rent check had been returned.

I checked my bank on line...and sure enough, they'd ran it electronically before my payroll had gone in. They'd presented my rent check sometime between 8pm and 12mid on the 3rd...and my payroll hit on the early AM of the 5th. So I had racked up $185 in late fees and NSF fees just from the management company. I worked Thursday and pulled a 12 hours shift on Friday just to make up for some of the missed time on Wednesday.

I'm now sitting with $40 to get food, gas, and do laundry for the next 10 days. Yeah, that nearly $200 in late fees screwed up my budget something bad. I should be sitting on about $240 right now in my budget and I had $150 set to carry over for rent as my next paycheck alone won't be quite enough (about $75-$100 short) but the remaining part would be enough to let me squeeze by until the paycheck on the 16th. I only need to set aside $425 of it and I'll still have enough for groceries, food, and gas. It's just going to be a three and a half weeks to get there.

I'm just glad that aside from my mistake with paying rent and the timing of the direct deposit, that my budget is working and that I *can* do it. I'm mad at myself for failing but I am taking some consolation that I can look at my budget with the $185 back in it and see that my budget would actually have been just fine.

I know now why people say put a little bit aside for emergencies now. Once I hit the 16th, I'm going to be doing just that. I'm going to see if I can have my paycheck "split" and do dual direct deposits. I want to have $50/check go into a savings account and the rest go into checking. I can just let the savings roll up until I need to touch it for something like a truck repair or an unexpected medication...otherwise, my budget will work and I can still pay rent and have food and get to/from work.

I'm stressing out some about it all, but at the same time, I also see that this should be the last major glitch in my budget (aside from the emergencies we all have) and that I can keep my TCF above $0 and still make all my bills. I don't see the point in having a full fledged anxiety attack over it and beating myself up over it...because it won't change anything in hindsight, the best I can do is take consolation that it will resolve itself and it also showed that my budget is sound.

A frustrating week but yet it wasn't an entirely bad week.

I'll post more this coming week, I usually don't post when it's just the same old "work, eat, sleep" kind of day.