Newton’s third law of motion says for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same can be true when budgeting, and it is particularly true this time for me.
In a good time (and obvious moment of delirium) I decided I would finally get Falcons season tickets. Yada, yada, yada (for my Seinfeld fans) and it’s time to start paying on them bad boys. Am I ready like I thought I was going to be? Not in any shape, form, or fashion. But here we are, and so I present to you a different-looking paycheck budget that what I normally show you.
A couple of things to notice right off the bat: everything is showing as already paid (except CC 6 – only made a partial payment there). Normally by this time I still have some bills that would need to be paid, but nah. Not this time. I needed to see where every penny was going so I would know how hard I would have to hustle and how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I would be eating for the next couple of months.
I also increased payment on credit card 2 because I have a special financing offer expiring February 9. For this particular financing offer, it was 0% financing for 6 months. If you don’t pay the full balance due by the due date, all of the accumulated interest will be added to the credit card. I don’t want that kind of negativity in my life. When I do the review I will hopefully have paid that off.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have another 0% financing offer coming right behind it (my washing machine) due March 9. Probably won’t make that one, but let’s not dwell on negatives at the moment.
Choices. It’s all about choices.
My first plan of attack is to pick up my Uber and Lyft driving to help make up the difference. I also may have some funds coming back my way; repayments from money I’ve loaned out. But you know that rule (or should anyway): don’t loan out money if you can’t afford to not get it back. So I’m not depending on that, but it’ll be nice if it does come back.
Just have to make it do what it do.