Tell All Tuesday: Finding The Track Edition
So I drew that line in the sand and basically restarted my entire budget and tracking of spending as of February 1st. I’d say I was getting back on track, but the track feels so far away right now that I have to find it first. The past few weeks have been emotionally draining ones, and although I haven’t been spending money willy nilly or anything, between the plane ticket, flowers for the funeral, food while I was gone, and other associated travel/trip expenses, I spent most of our $1000 emergency fund.
But now I am back, and slowly becoming reacquainted with life here at home. I figured out where we stand as far as our current financial picture, and we’re moving forward. I put $750 back into our emergency fund, and our goal is still to have $2500 there, so I will be prioritizing all of our snowflaking efforts towards growing that as quickly as possible. Since I was away for a week and didn’t work as much the next week as I usually do, my earnings for January were much less than they have been, so I fell short of my goal to have $1500 from January to put into the emergency fund and had to settle for $750. Since I took everything out of the emergency fund for my trip, that puts the current total at $750, which is $1750 shy of our $2500 goal.
After our emergency fund is at $2500, the next priority remains to build our savings for a new (to us) car to $10000, and then pay off the last remaining non-mortgage debt, the student loan, as quickly as possible. Since we haven’t completed the new emergency fund target yet, we haven’t made any progress thus far towards these two goals. I paid $300 towards my student loan last month and will do the same this month, which is slightly more than double the minimum payment. After the emergency fund is at $2500, all snowflakes will go towards building the new (to us) car fund as quickly as possible.
Next week I will have made the student loan payment, so then there will be some debt progress. Yay! I am also anxious to do our taxes because I have a fund set aside to pay my self-employment taxes from tutoring and the blog, and if we actually owe less than I have set aside, that will also go into the emergency fund. I am still waiting on two 1099 forms before I can do that though, but hopefully they will arrive this week.
So in summary:
- Emergency Fund: $750 (goal $2500) February target
- New to us car fund: $0 (goal $10000)
- Student loan: $9875 (goal $0)
On to February! I am looking forward to resetting and just getting back into things. Everything still feels so disconnected right now and I’d like to start to actually care about my financial goals again. Baby steps.
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February 3rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
Yes, it is totally understandable that you feel this way right now. That will take time, of course. The lesson that I am taking from your experience is that before the upheaval of January, you already had a plan & concrete goals. That will help carry you through this time of feeling so disconnected. When I lost my mom 5 years ago, I wasn’t prepared (no one is, of course) for the myriad of ways it would impact me. Had I had concrete financial goals already in place like you do, it would have helped me during those times when making any financial decisions seemed overwhelming. Thank you for sharing your journey with us. You remain in my thoughts & prayers.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
PaidTwice, I’ve just got to say that I’m really impressed by your attitude. Emptying my emergency fund is enough to send me into a downward spiral. That you’re able to think so clearly and stay so focussed after all you’ve been through in the past two months is truly inspiring.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I’m so sorry for your loss. I think you’re doing great though - your emergency fund did what it was intended to do. Many blessings for 2009!
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
The lesson that I am taking from your experience is that before the upheaval of January, you already had a plan & concrete goals. That will help carry you through this time of feeling so disconnected. When I lost my mom 5 years ago, I wasn’t prepared (no one is, of course) for the myriad of ways it would impact me. Had I had concrete financial goals already in place like you do, it would have helped me during those times when making any financial decisions seemed overwhelming.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Well, you used the emergency fund as it was intended. Time now to replenish and boost, as you say.
Perhaps immersing yourself in the numbers, the everyday minutea, and focusing on the things you have control over will help with the healing.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:42 pm
You are doing the very best with a difficult situation. Resetting after emotional and financial turmoil is a perfect strategy. Best of luck to you.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Your emergency fund was there when you needed it and did what it was supposed to do. Now you are rebuilding it, and your life. Hang in there - both will take time… but you are off to an excellent start and have good goals in place and the ability to meet them. In a month or two, things will look and feel better for you. Just hang in there in the meantime
Best wishes!
February 4th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Be gentle with yourself.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
You’ve done fabulously throughout this journey.
What Jinger said, be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself like you’d treat a dear friend. Cut her some slack.
You’ve lost a beloved parent. Sometimes you wlll cry because of Murphy, sometimes out of frustration, maybe because of the numbers aren’t doing what they’re supposed to.
Don’t forget to let yourself just cry for your dad, no numerical explanation required.