To many of you out there, Halloween day may mean dressing up in a fun costume, eating way too much candy, or turning off all the lights in your house so trick or treaters won’t ring your door bell, haha! Well, to me, Halloween day has a different, special meaning…it is the exact day in 2007 that I found out I was expecting my son…or should I say, my lil’ pumpkin (really original, Leslita, haha).
Needless to say, Halloween was not on my mind that day. I was thinking about blue or pink, boy and girl names, diapers and formula, nursery décor, etc….once I got back in to reality mode, my husband and I started thinking about budget adjustments right away. One budget item that we tackled immediately was the fact that even though I got 12 weeks off from work (FMLA), I would not get paid for that whole time as my vacation time was very low. I would get paid for a few weeks, but the remainder of the 12 weeks would be unpaid.
I really wanted to spend the whole 12 weeks with my baby, but going unpaid for several weeks was a huge worry…what were we to do? We decided to cut back on eating out, I cut out my clothes shopping, my husband started volunteering to work Saturdays to get paid overtime, we cut down the cable, internet, and cell phone packages, we cut off our land line phone, and sold several books and cds on Half.com.
Thank goodness we saved up for my maternity leave, because after my maternity leave was up, I had to stay out for another month for gallbladder surgery….totally unexpected for us and our wallet!
Are you saving up for a rainy day or is your savings account balance spooktacularly scary?
Chao for now,
Leslita
Saving for an event/purchase instead of a rainy day has always worked for the hallway. This way we have a defined focus and a specified short-range time frame. Once the goal is reached then the purchase can be made guilt-free.
Our rainy day money is a separate credit card that does not carry a balance. When we have an unexpected event, we use the card then pay it off by diverting other monies from the budget to pay it off in 1, 2, but no more than 3 months.
Also, we love using someone else’s money to buy things. Furniture, jewelry, and electronic stores usually have 24, 36, 48 months same as cash on purhases. Simply divide the purchase amount by the months of the offer and see if you can work that into your budget. BTW girls … this plan works great for jewelry.