FACEing Your Finances

Hi, Chris from Australia here.
Was reading about soaring electric bills in one of the messages. I don't know how often you pay them in the US, but here it's three monthly. I have what is called a bill equalizer. Which means the electric company takes my last 12 months of bills and divides by 12. Then they direct debit that amount each month. You always know how much you will pay and you don't need to worry about the bill. At the end of every 12 month period they re-assess your usage and set a new amount if necessary. I'm on a pension and it works for me

Heidi: I think you are right. The plastic has been my downfall. I like being able to track all expenses online and in Money by using the debit card but there's always that temptation to spend because I do have the debit card. I know I need to be very careful with the DC.

Chris: Thanks for the reminder. We have something here called budget billing where they do the same thing (average it over 12 months). I've been meaning to call and get on the budget billing but keep forgetting. I'll call tomorrow and take care of that.

I've been hanging out over at the daveramsey.com site lately. I've decided to add Dave's plan to Marla' and Leanne's and see where things go financially. DH and I sat down and made a budget this weekend. It's the first time that we have worked on it together. It turned out to be fun and informational. I think he really gets the finances now.

I'm still having trouble tracking (like a check register type thing). I tried doing it in Microsoft Money but that didn't work for me. I think I'm making this too difficult. I think I should just use a regular check register that you get with a box of checks, shouldn't I? Guess I'll try that next.

I've been totally obsessed with finances lately. Isn't that what SHE's do best is become so totally focused on something that it takes over her life until she crashes and burns. I've made some good steps (a budget, DH and I on the same page and bills up to date) but I have got caught up in 'the perfect budget'. I'm trying to apply FlyLady principles to finances too and get myself off this ride.

I've been using Quicken to track the bank account and that seems to be working for me. There's a cool calendar in Quicken that helps show where money comes in and where the bills go out and each day there is a balance. That helps keep me up to date easier. So I've made progress there. Still working on all the unexpected expenses that come up every week and adding them into the budget.

All of those unexpected bills become more expected in time because you will see a cycle emerging on Quicken. If you find that you have $xxx a month in stuff that "just happens" then you can make room for it in the budget. Seems like $25 a week covers the Opps! moments around here. Like, our weekly food, gas and whatever budget is $200. So, I stash any extra away for times like now where my oil filter fizzles out.