I haven’t felt on top of our finances for at least a couple of months – a feeling that I don’t usually like, but have come to a weird sort of peace with for now.
First, our iPhone died randomly in California, taking with it all our US spending data (I tracked all our spending with Trail Wallet, and since we hadn’t backed up the phone in awhile, all our info was lost within the app). I have a pretty good handle on our average daily spend though, so at some point (hopefully over the Christmas break) I can finally tally up the total cost of our entire trip.
Then we got home, where I went straight back to work and T started job hunting. We stayed with my parents for a few weeks, which saved us tons (shelter, food, even some transport). But then we found a place and moved in, which meant shelling out a bunch of money, plus more spending on replacing a few household things we badly needed. With all the upheaval, plus a lot of busy weekday evenings for various reasons, we spent more than we should’ve on eating out.
With T not working, funds were tight and I dipped into our emergency fund, since my first paycheck was eaten up by all the moving expenses.
Then this week he got a job (!!!) which I will elaborate on later down the track, once he’s started and has a few weeks under his belt, and when we have a clearer idea of how it’s going. This means that we have to go shopping for basically a whole new wardrobe for him this weekend, which I imagine will cost about $1000. Ouch.
Basically, money has been OUT OF CONTROL and I haven’t been tracking any of it. When things are in flux, it’s always terrible for our finances. But I’m okay with our slight overspending, for sanity’s sake
I’m hoping to get on top of things over the holidays, assess where we’re at and make a plan for 2014.
Going forward, my income will be the only steady one and T’s will be entirely variable, which is something entirely new for us.
Action plan: once I finish work for the year, it’s time to stop being an ostrich about things and take stock! I’m quite excited about that, nerdy as it sounds. Fresh starts always feel good.
