I need to get a handle on my money.

I've been lucky enough not to worry about money too much the last few months. The only downside of that is that I should have been. I slowly began to spend my surplus while Sam was in the womb, and thanks to holiday/birthday money from family and the money from totaling my car over a year ago, I've been getting by comfortably. Well, and when that ran out, I just closed my eyes and started using my credit card. It's been at least since January, and it could date back further. I really don't know. Like I said, I haven't been worrying about money.

So, I decided to start this blog to track all my expenditures and all the money I have coming in as well. You could call this my accountability diary. I've debated whether to make this public, but if you're reading it I guess that means I decided the motivation of public shame usurps my desire for privacy.

I don't really know where to start. At this moment I owe $2,369.27 in credit card debt. My checking account contains $2,067.31. That number is misleading though, since $1400 of that is money I was recently given by a family member for car repairs. In addition to car repairs, today I will also have to pay $175 for my twice-monthly child support. I'll be paying $313.27 on my credit card today because I went over my $2100 limit without knowing it, so now I need to pay the monthly minimum plus the overage or they could cancel my card (which might not be a bad thing, but I don't want to damage my credit, which is actually very good by most standards).

So, right now, while I write this entry, I am going to send payments to both the credit card company and my son's mother. Done. That puts my checking account at $1579.04. Assuming car repairs do end up costing close to $1400, I will only have a couple hundred dollars left for the next two weeks. I should also say, I have $258.75 in savings, which obviously might come into play.

At this point I really think I should pay the minimum on the credit card for the next month or two and figure out a budget that allows me to pay off the card in a reasonable amount of time. What I had been doing was paying off as much of the card as possible, and then getting stuck using the credit card before my next paycheck. It's a cycle that has put me in the position of no longer being able to use the card, even if I wanted to.

Before I think about all of this too much, here is a record of my money beginning with June 13:


June 13

• Spent
• $35.63 for gas
• $154.84 for a medical bill of Sam's
• $7.74 for 6 packs of tofu from Sprouts
• $15 for bowling league fees; $1 for league lottery (I forget what they call it. If you strike in certain frames you win the pot. It was close to $200 on Monday if I remember correctly.)
• Received
• $14.50 from selling books to Half Price
• $1400 from family member for car repairs

 June 14

• Spent
•  $15 for therapy
• $11 for laundry (Did all the 50+ pounds that I own, so I can go a while before having to do it again)

I'm not going to worry about formatting, categories, or showing running totals for anything yet. I might wait until the first of July for that. It's hard to figure out where I stand beginning mid-month. For now, I'm just hoping that writing all of it down will change my habits. That seems to have worked for my food diary.