Sins of the past

So I started YNAB (You Need a Budget) in mid-December. I had spent months and months trying to budget our money and not doing a great job. Then I stumbled across UnDebtit. This allows you to enter all your debt and helps you figure out a way to pay it off. You have to have some extra income to put towards the debt, but even a little bit will get you out of debt if you have a solid plan. I liked this a whole lot. I like to be able to see what is going where and when it needs to go. They have a calendar that shows when your bills are due. Well, here is a picture of it:

This way I can see when my debt payments are due, when my bills are due, when I get paid, etc. This is what I need so that I can plan ahead and know what is coming. Through this, I found YNAB and decided to try it out. YNAB is very different from any budget type software I have ever used. In YNAB you budget the money you have and not future money. So I got paid on Thursday and am working on budgeting that money only. Now between YNAB and UnDebtit, I have a very clear picture of when money is coming in and when it needs to go out. I will say that in the 2 months I've been using it, I haven't missed a payment so no late fees which is awesome!!!! However, it has also highlighted how recklessly I spend my money. In December, when I started, things were a little tight but we had gotten some bonus money so we made it through okay. The first paycheck in January went well. I paid what I needed to pay and had a little money left over. The 2nd paycheck in January was similar. Then the 3rd paycheck in January hit and I lost it. I kept thinking that we had extra money because of the extra paycheck and so I spent. I ended up spending $780 on 'Stuff I forgot to budget for'  Seriously!!! Well, now I'm paying the price for that. I have bills due in the next 2 weeks and I literally do not have enough money to cover them. That is providing we don't spend anything outside the budget.

Initially, I was very, very angry with myself, and I still am a bit. But I have decided that I need to use this as a learning experience. In January, because things were going so well, I got cocky and thought I didn't need to check the budget/bank account every day. I also thought I could remember everything I bought in my head - that never works. Ever. So things got out of control rather quickly. So now, I am checking the budget/bank account every day and making sure things are on track. I don't have enough money to pay the bills, so I'm having to be creative. But, and this is super important, I will get through this and I will not let it happen again.

My initial plan was to jump in and start paying things off. I had the mortgage set to pay an extra $125 a month. I used UnDebtIt to work out credit card payoff using $800/month extra. And then got crazy when I ran out of money. Hello!!!!  So basically I was committing to almost $1000 a month on top of all our bills. Well, that was destined to fail. Of course, if I hadn't spent $800 on unplanned things, it might have worked for a while. Regardless, the plan now is to take a step back. Every payment is now down at the minimum. I'm going to stay there for a  month or two to just see how our expenses play out. Once I have a true handle on our real month expenses, then I can use that data to figure out how to get us out of debt. I am also building a category in right now to cover unexpected things. I'm putting $25.00 a paycheck in there. That way when things do come up, I will have a little bit of money to cover it. The plan is that unexpected things will come up less and less often as I get a handle on this budgeting thing.

So there we are. That's where I'm at today. Came out guns blazing  and got shot in the foot. Time to rest, recover, and regroup.