Friday, February 27, 2009

Bills, Bills, Bills...

I got tired of waiting for the utility bills from the rental house to come in so I decided to add up what I have and see what the damage is. Whatever partial bills come in for the rest of February should be covered by my March budget (as long as I don't buy a camper!). The total, including fees for transferring electric, gas and cable back in to my name, came to $670 for Jan. and Feb. Wow. That is a lot. At least I'll get $50 back from the cable company because I cancelled it last Monday. By March 2 all of the utilities should be in my new tenant's name.

I had budgeted $536 for utilities. Then I got a pay cut so that took $100 away. I had a $200 surplus from January so that helped. I added in some of the furniture money and ended up with a whole $10 left over. Now I just need to find $75 for the plane ticket that I bought for my trip to Disneyland and my budget will be balanced once again.

It feels good to balance my budget. Now that I know that I don't have any extra money I don't feel tempted to buy something that I don't need (like a camper). Having money in the bank is tempting. Just because it is still in there doesn't mean I can spend it. In fact I have already spent that money or at least promised it for one of my goals.

My next goal is to see how soon I can pay my extra mortgage payment for March. I think I will have to wait until my second paycheck for the month. That's March 18th. I'm only 2 1/2 weeks from dipping below $50k! If I can stay off Craig's list I just might make it.

4 comments:

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

I cant beleive you managed to make extra payments in the middle of sorting the house out. Weel done you.
Now just kep off Craigs list!!

Lizzie

Sharon S said...

Hi there-well done for sticking to budget, it does give a great sense of achievement to do this! Lets see you go under 50k this month!

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Very well done. The 50k milestone is a big one!

Does your mortgage allow for more than one payment towards principal per month? Mine had some kind of goofy rule that only let you do it once. I can't remember all the details, but it seemed annoying.

Daizy said...

Thank's Lizzie. It is only because I didn't spend the maintenance fund ahead of time. Craig's list has lost it's appeal now that I know I don't have any extra money. Now I will only go there to sell!

Hi Sharon Rose. If I can keep resisting the urge to reward myself every day, I just might make my next goal.It is so easy to sabotage myself!

Over The Cubicle, I tried to make more than one payment online once and it wouldn't do it. But when I started this adventure I paid $25k in 2 checks at the bank. For some reason they couldn't process a $25k check so I had to split it. Maybe if I went in to the bank I could make more than one payment a month but I'll just wait until I have all of the money.