I paid bills this morning. It was not fun. After all is said and done (and automatic debits and such come out), I've got roughly $450 to stretch through until next payday. Which is April 5. Yikes.
My budget is completely blown for the month and there are many contributing factors, but the most glaring are the prom dress, and gasoline. We usually do pretty well on keeping to our gas budget, even with the ridiculously rising prices. However, this month, we've got some stuff that I just didn't plan for.
Today, we will head to Cullman, AL (roughly 45 minutes away) for the funeral of my BFF's father. Obviously this was not factored in to my original budget, but this is a no brainer and non-negotiable. We have to go. I'd never forgive myself if I didn't. Next up, we have a visit to the Princess's college choice. They are doing a big hoopty-doo on March 31 for incoming students. The school is 2.5 hours away, so that's going to require over a tank of gas for the "there" and "back" trip. This will also require a hotel room.
On the "better news" front, my power bill was down below budget this month. So, combining that with my gas bill and I'm $10 BELOW my utilities budget for the month. Woo hoo! Although we have had unseasonably warm weather the past 2 weeks, I've managed to keep the AC off the whole time, so I'm expecting this coming month's power bill to be even lower! Well, I hope so anyway!!!!! (But I still don't think that's going to cover my gasoline deficit for the month. Sigh.)
I completely understand what you mean by stretching the budget. This month is really tight for us too and I have to make our money go until April 20th! However, I think based on some things that I couldn't control, I will end up using some money from savings for food. We have money for everything else!
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