Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Art of Budgeting (Sunday Reflections) #31WriteNow

Since I'm participating in the #31WriteNow challenge, I decided to do two sunday reflections post.

Sometime this month I'll be packing up all of my belongings and moving into a new apartment. It's been a year and I need better. My very first apartment alone started out comfortable, but problems developed. Problems the apartment people say they don't know how to fix. So I'm getting out. This has been a very last minute decision and weeks ago as I looked at my bank account worry started setting in. I'm not that good at budgeting.

See I can budget for needs. Food and bills are always taken care of. I can budget for nice things. I'm not huge on shopping, but I am huge on saving up for buying something. For instance, I've always wanted to have a MacBook and earlier this year I was able to save up enough money to finally buy one. Back when I planned for Hawaii I knew a ticket would cost at least $800, so I did a lot of saving up. Oh, and being able to move into this apartment took a lot of saving up too. I did it all to where I would not zero out my account.

As much as I try to budget, sometimes my best isn't enough. This summer I went to New York City. I already knew it would cost a lot of money for plane ticket, hotel stay, and bringing souvenirs back. Despite the fact that I'm single, souvenir requests were still tossed at me. A lot of money was spent. My savings account came out lower than I initially thought it would.

Now with less than a month left in this apartment I'm trying to hurriedly make sure I have just enough money to pay everyone when the move happens. This might possibly mean zero-ing out my savings if it has to be done. It might also mean charging up more to my credit card. Bills will still get paid on time, but some money risks will be made.

I don't want to complain though. I definitely don't want to continue to stress. Recently I read a quote that went something like "People with a whole lot less have accomplished a lot." It's true. People who were once homeless have managed to create comfortable lifestyles. People have moved up out of the projects and starting making enough to pull their friends out of the projects too. However, I do have to figure out how to budget for these emergencies better.

1 comment :

  1. Good luck! Budgeting can be a challenge, but it's definitely worth it. Knowing you need a budget AND sticking to it mean you're better at budgeting than you think. :)

    ReplyDelete

Lashuntrice

Lashuntrice