I am looking forward to a good month as far as the budget is concerned. I do not anticipate any additional grocery shopping needs outside of fresh produce/milk that may need to be bought at the end of the month. Planning ahead last month I already chipped in for a group gift for the baby shower I am attending at the end of the month. GF has paid for the tickets for the fundraiser we will be attending and will pick up the cost of the dinners we've agreed to go to as well. Today's birthday party gift was purchased yesterday as well as the ingredients for the salad I agreed to bring. My federal return rolled in on Friday and I immediately paid an entire year of property taxes on my home, transferred money to the savings, and wrote a check to GF for the remainder of my half of the Christmas expenses. It was payday as well so the mortgage, direct TV, and homeowner's insurance for February have been paid as well. State return will be rolling in soon and this will be transferred to the savings. Next paycheck will cover the car payment and the auto insurance. Gas, electric, and internet will be paid when adult son makes his deposit into my checking for the month. Money earned from cleaning will be held onto and used for renewal of my license plates and my driver's license all due this month and the remainder saved for gas or just saved up. I should also be getting two small checks for the Make & Take I did last month as well as the one I am doing this month. Fish fry starts on the 20th for which I will be getting paid. No details as to how they will handle this have been forthcoming from the business office. An email will be sent tomorrow morning inquiring on how this is going to happen. So income is very healthy indeed.
Looking at the long term I need to be very stingy with my savings. It was down to nothing after last summer and I haven't had any opportunity to build it up at all until now. I will be needing tires within the next year again and there are expenses connected with the home repairs in the kitchen I will have to have money for. And there is always the unexpected.
In the meantime we inch along.
