I have been living on a budget for many years, at least that I what I thought in my head.  I can’t even begin to count the number of articles, blogs, books etc that I have read over the years about reducing debt and living on less, at one point we even DVR Dave Rasmey so I should have this budgeting and getting out of debt thing down right? WRONG!! Oh boy is that WRONG!

First of all, living paycheck to paycheck and living on a budget are two very different things.  I have tried and mostly succeeded living paycheck to paycheck. The easy part for me if we don’t have it then we don’t get it. I am a master at juggling money. This month I am learing that living on a budget is a different beast, yes I have the money to cover this but that will put me over budget which  means I have to move the money from something else or simply make the choice to say no! The case in point here is that I still have $17 in my grocery budget for the month but I will not be adding to the grocery budget until February 14th due to my pay schedule, that leave 4 and 1/2 weeks for $17 to last, in addition to still wanting to buy some chips and drinks for our Super Bowl party! Next up is gas, I was excited to think that I only need to place $80 in the gas fund this week until I realized that mean I would have no gas money until February 14th as well. So I had to redo the budget for my 3rd January check to add in gas money to be used in February.

Next on the list of things I should know about money management but don’t/have forgotten is that if you know about an expense in advance, it is not an emergency and needs to be planned for. The mess up that I have corrected in this area is pool dues. They are currently not due till April but  I must make a plan to pay for them rather than just   “finding” money when they are due.

Finally, the one thing that I learned this weekend that is most upsetting and frustrating. Check each bill especially credit card statements to make sure the amount of interest you are paying. After working on a debt reduction plan and actually starting the plan in December, I was again revisiting some numbers and decided to check the amount due on our Chase Card. This account has been closed for several years, I receive the online statement and make payments on-line. I usually look at the statement’s first page when paying. As I was checking the statement for a pay off amount this time, and started looking for the interest rate. I almost feel out of  my chair 29.99%!!! I was so upset, how and why had I not seen this before. GRRR! So instead of paying off interest free medical bills my focus is eliminating Chase from our lives.  I am almost sick at the idea that for the past year I have been paying this outrageous interest rate!! My new debt goal is to get rid of Chase this month!