That's right, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seis... making it six and a half budgets for the month of September. With only uno fighto about mula! Actually our fighto wasn't about the mula, so much as we weren't listening to what the other person was saying - which was the exact same thing the other person was saying only lost in translation from blue microphone to pink hearing aids.
The last time we had to "re-do" the budget was thrilling for us! All 12 pages of it was a joy! Here's why... We have a big old house. It's leeeeeakkkkkkyyyyy! Around this time last year we had some insulation guys come in and run a test on the house. They close all the windows and doors and put a huge 'ol fan in the door and with some sort of meter doohickey jobey deal and they give you a number... I don't remember what number our house got or what number is good. What I do remember is that our number was bad, bad, bad. In fact, we were told that we had the 2nd leakiest house that they ever tested. Uh-oh spaghetti-o! We already knew that we needed to re insulate, but were hoping to score a bit higher on the meter doohickey jobey deal. ;) Long story short it took many weeks and some odd encounters (for another blog another day) and our house was done... kinda. We have lots of construction projects left that need to be finished up and then we will have a tightly sealed house.
So what does this have to do with our thrilling budget you may ask? We have been on even pay with Alliant Energy since we moved in and we pay a lot... and by a lot I mean we pay A.LOT. Not quite so bad as we did when we lived in the old farmhouse in Arlington and paid $1,000 a month in the winter, but still we pay A.LOT. So Hotsauce, the resident nerd, was paying bills via the phone and was told by the Alliant lady that we had a credit with them... our even pay was too high and we had something like a $500 credit with our name on it waiting for us to cash it in. So cash it in we did, which left us with $79 for next month. AND our even pay was lowered! Woot wooters! We may have done a happy dance!
So we had to reallocate a little over $400 to other areas of our cash flow plan and that was a pure joy my friends!
There have also been some small victories that make me giddy too. Now, I'm the free spirit in our house which means that I like to spend ... but I have nerd tendencies too... and I love a good deal. I will be the one who wheels and deals and waves the cash around a store saying, "That's not good enough." Well... someday when I have cash to wave around I will! Anywhoo my small victories for the week. We have 4 of our 5 kids needing new shoes. And it's always a stressful thing to come up with the cash to do that in one month. But, we budgeted for it and I came in under $35 of our budget for the shoes and did another happy dance!! Now, this next one is not going to sound very exciting, but it put a huge smile on my face. We drive a Suburban and filling the tank is enough to give anyone a heart attack. I know, Dave, we should drive the van... but it has issues. Well, I always forget that we have a coupon to get 5 cents off per gallon if I drive to a less convenient gas station. But, I finally remembered to bring the coupon and after filling up I saved $1.32! If I keep this up in 3 years we will get a free tank of gas! ;)
I know you're shaking your head right now... but that $1.32 is an indication of the change that is taking place in my heart and in our lives. That $1.32 means something to me.
The last time we had to "re-do" the budget was thrilling for us! All 12 pages of it was a joy! Here's why... We have a big old house. It's leeeeeakkkkkkyyyyy! Around this time last year we had some insulation guys come in and run a test on the house. They close all the windows and doors and put a huge 'ol fan in the door and with some sort of meter doohickey jobey deal and they give you a number... I don't remember what number our house got or what number is good. What I do remember is that our number was bad, bad, bad. In fact, we were told that we had the 2nd leakiest house that they ever tested. Uh-oh spaghetti-o! We already knew that we needed to re insulate, but were hoping to score a bit higher on the meter doohickey jobey deal. ;) Long story short it took many weeks and some odd encounters (for another blog another day) and our house was done... kinda. We have lots of construction projects left that need to be finished up and then we will have a tightly sealed house.
So what does this have to do with our thrilling budget you may ask? We have been on even pay with Alliant Energy since we moved in and we pay a lot... and by a lot I mean we pay A.LOT. Not quite so bad as we did when we lived in the old farmhouse in Arlington and paid $1,000 a month in the winter, but still we pay A.LOT. So Hotsauce, the resident nerd, was paying bills via the phone and was told by the Alliant lady that we had a credit with them... our even pay was too high and we had something like a $500 credit with our name on it waiting for us to cash it in. So cash it in we did, which left us with $79 for next month. AND our even pay was lowered! Woot wooters! We may have done a happy dance!
So we had to reallocate a little over $400 to other areas of our cash flow plan and that was a pure joy my friends!
There have also been some small victories that make me giddy too. Now, I'm the free spirit in our house which means that I like to spend ... but I have nerd tendencies too... and I love a good deal. I will be the one who wheels and deals and waves the cash around a store saying, "That's not good enough." Well... someday when I have cash to wave around I will! Anywhoo my small victories for the week. We have 4 of our 5 kids needing new shoes. And it's always a stressful thing to come up with the cash to do that in one month. But, we budgeted for it and I came in under $35 of our budget for the shoes and did another happy dance!! Now, this next one is not going to sound very exciting, but it put a huge smile on my face. We drive a Suburban and filling the tank is enough to give anyone a heart attack. I know, Dave, we should drive the van... but it has issues. Well, I always forget that we have a coupon to get 5 cents off per gallon if I drive to a less convenient gas station. But, I finally remembered to bring the coupon and after filling up I saved $1.32! If I keep this up in 3 years we will get a free tank of gas! ;)
I know you're shaking your head right now... but that $1.32 is an indication of the change that is taking place in my heart and in our lives. That $1.32 means something to me.
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