Ugh where to begin with this one, just about the only good things to come from last week are these
1. The $79.00 Amazon drafted for our Prime Membership was Refunded
2. I have been working hard and when I weighed in last week I’d lost 4.6 lbs!!! So stoked about that!
3. Had an awesome date with my Son to Sweet Frog after dinner one night!
4. The car passed inspection and is finally now legal w/tags that are current
Other than that it was a horrible horrible week financially for us – our Electric bill was due and we were due to be shut-off, this I knew, but little did I know that when Duke Energy took over Progress Energy the process for requesting an extension changed from being able to do it same day to needing to do it a few days ahead of time…UGH UGH UGH and lots of F*BOMBS! So we had to find a way to pay them immediately or our power would have been shut off, un HELLO no way we would have been able to go three full days without power, so what did I do? Drained our Merrill Account and our KTC account to pay the past due amount of $109.40 + $5.40 ePay fee…UGH UGH!!
Lesson Learned Here: Watch finances better so we can request an extension going forward as needed
So because of the above, and our check to Brigades hitting late on Thursday I woke up Friday morning to an overdraft fee, $35.00. Thankfully the bank paid the check to Brigades and I didn’t also incur the $25.00 returned check fee that I am certain Brigades would have charged us…it’s going to take us quite sometime to recover from this – and now with the holidays bearing down on us, we’re screwed and I mean that royally. How? Well let’s begin with Thanksgiving:
In the past my company has given us each a $25 GC to Wal-Mart for Thanksgiving, I am SOO hoping they do this again this year as I really need it – a local coffee house company (similar to Starbucks) sponsors a program where area families can volunteer to host 2 Marines in Training from a surrounding base who cannot go home for the holiday; we volunteered last year, but they “ran out” of Marines so this year we were part of the group given first dibs and now I am going to host two young men for Thanksgiving – so to say I need that money this year is a vast understatement! The downside to this holiday is two (2) days without pay…I can log in on Black Friday, but I doubt there’ll be much work to do…
Then with Christmas approaching and the travel costs involved there we’re going to be struggling to maintain the bills, Christmas shop, and pay for our travel – oh and yeah more loss of pay for me…a full week this time, that’s $600 GONE! Thus the reason I am looking for alternative income sources and possibly a new job…
Ok so here we go – it isn’t pretty, but it’s this weeks’ budget:
| $91.03 | Remaining from W/E 09/08/13 | $496.56 | Lara W/E 11/03/13 Salary, Pay Date 11/08 | |||||
| $244.88 | Amt. Spent | $258.10 | Jimmy W/E 11/03/13 Salary | |||||
| $(153.85) | Avail. Starting | $754.66 | ||||||
| $5.76 | Wal-Mart | $(153.85) | Avail. Starting | |||||
| $4.86 | KTC | $754.66 | Total Pay | |||||
| $6.25 | Hughes Bros | $600.81 | Avail. For Bills | |||||
| $6.09 | Hardee’s | $79.00 | Refund from Amazon.com | |||||
| $109.40 | Duke Energy | $679.81 | ||||||
| $5.40 | Duke Energy | $32.00 | From Merrill/KTC Acct | |||||
| $35.00 | Overdraft Fee | $711.81 | ||||||
| $0.35 | PayPal Verifier | $0.35 | PayPal Verifier | |||||
| $70.00 | Brigades B & G Club | $712.16 | ||||||
| $1.77 | PetsMart | $4.20 | Adj | |||||
| $244.88 | $716.36 | |||||||
SO Missing the normal OT I get this time of year – sadly we didn’t do two outages we normally do and just found out this morning that we lost another one, the company we contract for did, not my company per se, but the work is lost:
| $716.36 | |||
| $70.00 | Brigades Boys & Girls Club | ||
| $646.36 | |||
| $200.00 | Groceries | ||
| $446.36 | |||
| $25.00 | Jimmy’s Money | ||
| $421.36 | |||
| $25.00 | Dinner, 11/8 | ||
| $396.36 | |||
| $40.00 | Gas | ||
| $356.36 | |||
| $25.00 | Cat & Dog Food | ||
| $331.36 | |||
| $5.00 | Tate & Kirlin, 11/10 Auto-Draft | ||
| $326.36 | |||
| $250.00 | Credit Accept | ||
| $76.36 | |||
| $5.00 | CCA, 11/11 Auto-Draft | ||
| $71.36 | |||
| $40.00 | AT&T | ||
| $31.36 | $31.36 | ||
| 7% | $2.20 | ||
| $2.20 | $29.16 | ||
I chose to short-pay AT&T so I could send a 90% payment to the car company and get them off my arse for awhile, albeit it’ll be a short while, it’s a brief persion to say the least.
| $716.36 | |||
| $70.00 | Brigades Boys & Girls Club | ||
| $646.36 | |||
| $320.00 | Cash for Week | ||
| $326.36 | |||
| $250.00 | Credit Accept. | ||
| $76.36 | |||
| $5.00 | CCA, 11/11 Auto-Draft | ||
| $71.36 | |||
| $40.00 | AT&T | ||
| $31.36 | |||
| $2.20 | Merril Transfer | ||
| $29.16 | |||
So now it’s just a matter of being extra careful and watching every single penny that goes out of our account!
Lesson Learned: Not watching is the same as ignoring and that is the same as being irresponsible! Checking the bank account daily is the smartest way to roll!
Financial Lessons Learned; Trials and Tribulations 
Does your husband have any other transferable skills where he could look for a higher paying job? I know you said he was making more before. How’s the economy where you live? Has it improved?
We’ve talked about that, his company has him on the management track, it’s a long winding road to get there, but they are saying he could be dept manager within a couple of years – I know the problem is more immediate but retail sales is what he knows and we really can’t afford for him to go inside/outside corporate sales that are mainly commission based…he’s in a low stress situation which for him is best – he was previously in a high stress store and ended up doing something illegal, getting arrested, doing probation for 18 mos. and repaying the store – so he’s got a criminal record (a misdemeanor, but it’s there)
Right now the question is me finding something that is transferable &/or on the side…