Confessions Of A Busted Budget
Posted on December 27, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Budgeting
I must confess that for the past month our budget has flown out the window. I have not even done the math to see the damage yet. I’m avoiding it because I know it will be ugly.
The stress of everything surrounding the move got to us and we lost ground with many of the positive changes we had made in the year leading up to getting the new home. We saw some of the bad habits creeping back into our lives but we seemed to have a lot of excuses (stress, lack of time, too tired, etc) to justify the behavior at the time. I guess things like that are bound to happen. The real test will be making sure we work hard on restoring our frugal habits now that we are getting past the worst of the moving ordeal.
After contemplating the whirlwind of activity that has happened this last month (and still continues actually) I believe that these stress-induced bad habits led to our busted budget during the move.
All home cooking came to a grinding halt. I simply stopped cooking and opted to pick up most of our meals while out and about. Sadly, cooking even simple meals at home lost all priority. Eating out all the time not only affected our budget in a huge way but it degraded my sense of well being (physically and mentally). Cooking brings me genuine happiness and during the time when I could have benefited from the stress relief most I felt I had bigger concerns to deal with. It’s ironic. “Forcing” myself to cook during this move could have saved more than just money; it could have helped save some of my sanity.
We stopped using coupons and comparison shopping for the small things. We still comparison shopped for the big things like our new refrigerator but I stopped looking for the best deals for the small things like paper towels or trash bags. Clipping coupons went by the wayside and I shopped for convenience rather than savings. For instance, instead of getting the cheaper kitty litter I normally get at Sam’s I took the easy route and got the brand name version at Target. When faced with finding the best deals on the rare big ticket item purchases suddenly putting the time and effort to save some change on a bottle of dishwashing liquid didn’t seem to matter as much. The problem is that those little things add up. The extra money I paid for convenience could have helped pad our budget, especially when so much money was being spent everywhere else.
We lost our normal schedule and stopped waking up early. This one bothers me a great deal. I feel the most productive and happy when I’m waking up early and getting a good start to the day. Rolling out of bed at 8:30 or 9am when I have pressing matters to take care of doesn’t feel good. Instead of feeling proactive I feel reactive to my day. It makes me feel lazy, and worst of all, it makes me feel bad about myself for not being as productive as I know I can be. This affects the way I look at many aspects of my life, including money. I stop having that sense of pride about managing my money closely because I feel I have bigger fish to fry and less time in my day to accomplish it. It’s funny how something “unrelated” can touch so many facets of your life.
Although I wish we could have maintained our frugal ways a little better during this upheaval we realized a possible financial regression could occur and put aside extra money in the house fund for “miscellaneous moving expenses”. I know fast food and expensive kitty litter aren’t traditionally considered moving expenses but thankfully we have that savings to help cover these overages.
What’s important now is that I take back control of my budget and my habits. It’s time to get back on track and develop a plan for the new year!
Image Source: GoldenEel
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Know that you are not alone. That sounds a lot like my month. Time to get back on track for sure!
sorry but you deserve to be beat with the wet noodle! moving to a new house before old house has been disposed of is CRAZY from the start. now you are gonna really have to be a cheapskate instead of just frugal. pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get going!!! money does’nt grow on trees ya know!
It happens. We moved last year at the end of December so I can relate. You would drive yourself INSANE if you worried about everything at a time like this. Moving is extremely stressful and your body can handle only so much pressure. You know what you need to do now and what you like to do and as long as you get back on track, you’ll be okay. Think of all the New Year’s Resolutions you can make and know that you can keep because you normally do them all the time and you just “slipped up” for a month or so.
As far as buying one house before selling the other, as long as you are in a decent market, pricing the old home fairly and competitively, and have the house looking good and in “working order”, I think you’ll be okay there as well. Our house didn’t go on the market until Thursday, 1/11, two weeks after we bought the current one. We had several people look at it on Friday and Saturday and two offers were on the table on Sunday night, after we had an open house that afternoon. I can still remember my agent calling me from the open house to tell me how busy and great it was! I know I sound like I’m bragging, but what I really want you to know is that our market was turning down just about that time and we still sold in 4 days for $1000 above our asking price. We replaced the carpet (it was over 15 years old!), had the entire interior painted a soft white (since it was already empty), replaced switch plates and outlet covers (what a difference!) and some door knobs, had the deck cleaned and waterproofed, took out the screens and blinds to let the light stream in with just colorful valances on the windows, replaced a ceiling fan that needed it, and fixed up all the little things that we lived with for years that a buyer would want done. I’m presuming you are selling your house empty and you’ll be amazed at the number of buyers who like that because the place seems so much bigger to them when there isn’t any furniture in it!
Good luck with the sale of the old place, enjoy the new one, and don’t be too hard on yourselves!
I’m about to move house next week myself, so I feel your pain on the disruption and moving costs. I can’t wait to be out of here and in the new place so I can refocus on my debt reduction goals in 2008.
sorry for being so harsh earlier..my husband and i did military careers and lived all over the world for 26 years. we moved every 2-3 years and it was not easy or painfree, and it was always more expensive with each move. when we retired in ‘89 i was flabbergasted at the way auto suddenly cost more than my house. and with the cost of petroleum at this time…well,that has had an effect on everything we touch and spend money on…enjoy your new home and God bless you!
[...] read that off A Penny Closer today and it’s something we see quite often - ignoring your problems. Now, you might jump to [...]
Don’t be too hard on yourself, it happens to us all, i seem to lack the will power element in many things! Anyway having a blip is okay it’s the lon term trend you have to watch out for!
@Lynnae - Although it’s not a good thing that we both fell off the frugal wagon it is a comfort to know that I’m not alone. Hopefully we can support each other in getting back on! Thank you so much for your comment!
@Caryn - In our case we had no choice but to move to the new home before we could sell the old home. The new home ended up being completed ahead of schedule and after ten years the old home needed new paint, flooring, and repairs before we could list it. Luckily, we saved up in anticipation of the costs. At this time we have enough to cover several more months before we have to start tapping our regular savings. Hopefully we won’t have to cross that bridge.
I agree, though. Paying a double mortgage while it waits to be sold isn’t the best use of our funds, that’s for sure. I’d much rather be using it on the new house but that is the way things happened for us this time.
No worries and no need to apologize, Caryn. Tough love can be a good thing! I appreciate your point of view.
@Mar - Wow, it sounds like you did a lot of the same things we’re doing! We are replacing all flooring, painting the interior and exterior, replacing some door knobs and electrical plates, replacing the blinds, and repairing some woodwork on the patio. We also had to replace the roof due to a bad hail storm. We moved out of the old house on 12/10 then the holidays gave us trouble in getting workers set up. So now we are just about ready to go on the market.
We are doing the market analysis with our agent tonight to see if selling is still the best way to go. Hopefully we will be as lucky as you were!
And yes, I have learned that sometimes you can only cram so many priorities into your day before some of them get pushed to the side. I look forward to calmer days. Thanks again!
@debtdieter - That is a great attitude to have! Focusing on the future and how you can rework your goals is a positive thing to look forward to when dealing with the stress of a move. I wish you luck and I hope your move is going well!
Devil’s advocate: It’s OK to ignore your problems…
This devil’s advocate post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. I must confess that for the past month our budget has flown out the window. I have not even done the math to see the damage yet. I’m avoiding it because I know it…
This post is incredibly honest and the analysis sound. I appreciate reading this because I too find myself wavering between progress and the ease of slipping back into bad habits. Change in general thows things of off balance, the key for me has been to recognizing the tipping point faster each time and letting go of the bad feelings soon after acknowledging them to make myself ready to move on. You sound ready.