I’m finding myself a bit stressed about my finances lately, and I think that’s why I’ve not had anything to write about.
It’s nothing bad – I’m not at risk of missing bills or anything. And I’m still happily employed. But I just find myself overspending lately. Some of it is bad planning, some of it is just bad luck. This month, I dropped a bunch of money on a new computer cord and a new phone when both died (the cost of replacing the parts on the phone was only $50 less than the new phone, so I figured it was worth it).
Right now, I’m also finally having the planned landscaping done on my yard. Before my house was rehabbed, it sat vacant, and was a rental before that. So the yard was in horrid condition. Not just weeds and overgrown plants, but lots of soil erosion and improper drainage. Nothing good. The patio stones were broken and missing in places as well. Nothing good. So one thing I decided to do when I bought the house was have the yard professionally worked on. The bids were more expensive than I thought they would be, but I decided it was worth it. And I think it will be. It’s just a lot of money to be sinking into something right now.
I just need to tighten up the spending again. It’s hard, because there’s so much that I want to do for the house, but I just need to step back. Even with the little things. Because the little things add up.
My roommate moves out in December. I’m worried about what that will do to my budget.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I’m going thru the same thing. I just bought new windows and a new sliding glass door for my home (they were in horrible condition!). Even though I had the money, had been saving extra for it for just this purpose, I still feel uneasy about the fact that I spent it in this rotten economy.
So now I’ll tighten up again as well and continue saving for my future and for the next project – having a house means a never ending list of projects to try to prioritize, anticipated and unanticipated 🙂
I’m right there with you. We’re currently expecting our second child & recently found out our insurance won’t cover nearly as much as it did with our 1st. It’s hard to push through these worrisome times & I appreciate you sharing.
You can see my post about the same thing here: http://thegreengoddessblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/entering-panic-mode.html