I am puzzled. It has been a couple of months and I have not figured it out yet. I had a slight pay increase and the plan was simple ... in theory at least. Whatever increase I got from that will go into my savings. I have also managed to clear my credit card debts and always made sure I use cash for my purchases (as much as possible though I have slipped some).
But it's not working out like that because I don't seem to have that much extra at the end of the month! From my calculations, I should have at least about $500 extra but somehow, I seem to be using that up on unplanned expenses. Before the pay increase, I had some unplanned expenses too and I used up all my money by the end of the month. And with the pay increase, the same thing happens.
I think psychologically, I tell myself that with my pay increase, I should be able to spend more without it hurting my budget but I am realising that it is affecting my budget ... rather my savings. I am not happy with this state and will need to look into this immediately.
What I am thinking I should do is while doing my budget and putting aside the different amounts into the different accounts I have for different things, I should put aside the $500 extra that I should have at the start of my 'financial' month (that's when my pay comes in ... in the middle of the week) instead of waiting till the end of the 'financial' month. That way, I will just have enough in my bank account for things that I have budgetted for.
I am a little uncomfortable having just enough but I really need to learn to do planned spending. I try to stay away frm the stores these days cuz I don't know if I have the will power to resist the sales that are coming up.
I am also travelling some in mid-June and unfortunately, this wasn't planned and I didn't put aside money for this. Now will have to look at the figures and see how I can do the trip without blowing my budget *sighs* It's going to be tricky!
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