Maryanne is back today with the fourth installment of The Budgeting Project!
4: How it’s working for me after the first payday
For this system that I am trying out for the Filofax Project, I am taking into account only my earnings from my day job. My other sources of income like fees from my freelance work and royalties from some of my published work are being managed and accounted for elsewhere, using a different system. But I felt it more appropriate to use my earnings from my day job in this system because of the regularity of it, which matches the regularity of my bills and expenses.
It’s turning out much neater than I thought! I was expecting a small mess within the first week of implementation, as part of growing pains with any kind of system, but the envelopes and the checklist were able to do what I needed them to do.
And something happened, too, that I was now able to factor into my system. A few days ago we had a storm, and I kept all my window panes closed and locked. When the storm was over and the sun was shining and I wanted to let the warm breeze in, I tried opening one of my smaller windows that overlooked the front of my apartment building. It was a sliding pane. When I tried to slide it over, the pane promptly fell back and crashed to the ground, two floors below! Thankfully, no one was hurt.
But I did have to have the pane replaced at the soonest possible time, because another storm was coming in (life in the Philippines!), so that’s what I did. I spent for the window repair. However, since it was an accident and my lease contract states that home repairs caused by accidents will be shouldered by the landlord, the landlord will deduct this repair costs from the next rent due. I have noted that down on my checklist for October, to remind me that I have to deduct that much amount from the rent will pay on November.
The accounts for electricity, cellphone bill, broadband bill, trees, emergency, and Chandler, were filled in as scheduled. I was also able to gas up my car with the allotted amount for the week. But I did end up spending less for food than I budgeted, and I still have some amount left. I still have to figure out where to realign money left over.
The account for savings remained empty after the first week! But I hope to be able to fill it with next week’s allocated amount. I was finishing up some payables from September, and I used up some funds from my October 7 paycheck for that. Setting aside 20% of each paycheck for my long-time savings is not too much, since it gives me more focus if I am “left” with a smaller amount to budget per week. That way, I don’t always feel that I have a lot of money at my disposal, so I am able to prevent any impulse purchases.
So, to sum it up, the system is doing fine after the first week. But I have to figure out where to realign the money left over in case of underspending. Perhaps that can go into my emergency fund, or to the Indulgence and Chandler accounts. Just some thoughts that I need to ponder.
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Next post: How I am doing, three paydays in.
