Out with May Screwed for June

The problem of over extending yourself on a low income is that it can have devastating effects on your financial picture. May could of and should of been planned for much more appropriate with no whim purchases adding to an already tight budget. Well what can I say, I am not perfect and this blog is to share the good, the bad and the ugly of low income living. We make splurge purchases just like any other family does from time to time. I always know May can get a tad pricey for us and I thought it was planned out, but then a few things came up on a whim that proved to be horridly expensive.

The other problem I have at this time of year is that TIME is NOT my friend! I have not had time to sit down and figure out June, income wise , bill wise or goal wise. April usually marks the increase in activities for me and peaks in productivity throughout the whole summer. It will not slow down again until winter arrives. This can lead to a severe lack of organization which in itself can be dangerous for an income challenged family.

• The Ugly Facts for May-  $550 spent in food on our couponing experiment which is double for most months on what we spend. It did give me $20 dollars in amazon gift cards I can use towards Christmas presents though!

• Purchase of Chickens and Hutch, Food and Feeders- This costs us around $170 altogether- a totally unplanned purchase that originally was suppose to wait until NEXT summer!           

        

• 2 Birthdays + Mothers Day- While a few things were purchased ahead of time this still left a few more items to purchase along with the extra money for Birthday meals. Around $200 was spent in this category.
• Gardening Season- Additional $80 spent here on an electric cultivator (thrift store purchase), seeds, hoses etc

• Last minute camping trip as hubby announced a 3 day off week- Embarrassed to say we spent $300 here for a three day camping trip last week of May. This included gas for truck, camping fees and the insect repellent, cooler and food we needed for the trip. Yes I was well aware we were already way overextended for the month. Hubby rarely gets 3 days off in a row though so I wanted to take advantage of it and figured perhaps getting a quiet few days in nature would help my creative ideas and still my mind for some needed solutions for our goals.

Well if ya do the math, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the money had to come from somewhere when we only make $1500 a month!

• The Uglier Truth for May: Bills went unpaid, stocks got cashed out, sealed jar became unsealed...........ummmm yeah temptation to do more than survive can get you into trouble from time to time.

• Investments Cashed Out- Here I sometimes wonder why I am doing it anyways to be honest. Hubby is so far behind the times if something ever happened to me he would not have a clue on how to turn on a computer let alone access our investments. If he managed that far, he does not have a clue about investing at all anyways and then would never know what to do with it in any fashion, shape or form!. We had built up a meager $400 that we cashed out for.

• Bills unpaid-  The telephone and electric bills went unpaid which means trying to catch them up in June. When a budget only covers bills from a monthly stand point...it can be very difficult to play the catch up game.

• Sealed Jar Unsealed- I know, this is really bad and was around $300, our emergency stash which none of the things in May were emergencies. This leaves us back to a pay check to pay check ZERO savings living which really stinks! Back to square 1 and trying to re-build what it is we are trying to accomplish here! A cushion and less stressed life!

• Garage Sale Failure- This was very disappointing for May and I don't understand it. Our garage sale business was a total and utter failure! I have a few ideas on the whys and will be working on correcting those issues in the future.

While I am not happy at all with how this all panned out, I know it was a total lack of discipline, I am by no means perfect and there is nobody to blame but myself. At the same time, it is a cash only living where we do not use credit cards or anything like that to live far beyond our means. Now in a way you could still say we did by not paying the 2 utility bills which we now have to catch up in June for but that is only a small gap of debt. You don't pay your utility bills and they get shut off which we have never let it get to that point.

So this weekend before another busy week is occurring for me of a flurry of activity, I will be sitting down and getting back to the basics. Reviewing goals, getting inspiration from extreme minimalists, no cash living types and the home business gurus and seeing what I can do and how I can grow to reach the goals we have set out.

In the mean time.......

Keep on truckin on