Still Treading Water

We have been sharing with you some of the things we have been going through that have turned out positive. It hasn’t all been that way. So if you are following along and participating in the Project Money budgeting/learning experience, don’t get discouraged when you have a tough week. Sometimes it takes weeks and weeks to figure out that certain habits are just not going to work. 

For us, it was dealing with our Mortgage. We had gotten to that spot where we could NEVER, EVER pay it on time. (The first of the month) We tried putting money in the savings account to somewhat “hide it from ourselves… well, something would come up and we would have to take it out and spend it. We tried paying it with the “big check” at the end of the month. Larry’s check and the State Journal check come on the same week. But it seemed like the next week we had 4 bills due and we couldn’t make it until the NEXT payday. We figured if we got caught up just ONE MONTH, we could get on schedule and we could stay on schedule for good. So we “borrowed” from a PayDay… DON”T EVER DO THAT… a major mistake. The damage to our finances was devastating. 

Unfortunately we carried this craziness into Project Money. We had no idea how to really find the money to pay our Mortgage. We were still putting a lot of stress on ourselves at the end of the month to get it paid. We saved, but we still didn’t get our check out until the middle of the month and then we were behind in saving for the next month. Always treading water!! At least that’s how it felt. We started Project Money in June. July and August and September went by and we learned about how we had to deal with cash instead of writing checks or using our debit card all of the time. It seemed like; finally, we found more cash in our account. We didn’t want to let it get spent uselessly so we decided to “hide it” on ourselves. It soon became our Mortgage Fund. Now, in the month of November we actually have enough cash to put back into our checking account to PAY OUR MORTGAGE ON TIME!!! 

The fella at the bank looks at me a little funny when I take out so much cash on Fridays. (For Gas and Groceries and Mortgage) but it feels so good to finally get to the place where we are paying bills and the Mortgage on time. Don’t worry; I don’t hang on to the cash. It’s hidden safely away. I’m sure by the end of Project Money we will be able to get ourselves to the point of being able to NOT TOUCH something in our savings account. And now we have other accounts that have “emergency funds” in them in case we need them. A mind picture for you… “No more treading water. Now we get to play at the Kalahari!!”