Last night, my wife approached me with some bad news: The checking account is running dangerously low, even though I was just paid yesterday. “How in the world could that be?” I nervously asked.
“Your credit card bill took more than half of it, the car payment is due soon, and we have $250 in church offerings coming out before your next paycheck. In all, that leaves us with $200 in the checking account.”
What I couldn’t understand is how my credit card bill was so painful even after the raise and our efforts to reduce our spending. So I took a look for any “unusual” transactions…
New summer-y clothes for my daughter – $40. Ok, this one is understandable. She’s 16 months old and obviously can’t wear anything from last summer. We got 4 outfits and that will last her for a while, especially since the grandparents are all-but guaranteed to buy her some outfits.
Grass seed for the continuing rehab of my lawn – $90. When we moved in 2 years ago, my lawn was an embarrassment. Where there weren’t dead spots, there were weeds. After 2 years, the lawn is starting to look really good. If I slack off, all of my hard work will be for naught, so this expense is a must.
Next six months of web hosting – $30. Well, this one is obvious. Without this charge, I wouldn’t be writing on this blog any longer. And, besides, it’s amortized over 6 months, so in my mind it’s really only $5.
Easter lunch – $30. In a departure from our old traditions, we went out to lunch with my parents and a few family friends from church. Surprisingly, this was the only time we dined out in the month of March. Not too bad if you consider that.
Groceries – $380. Wait… Three hundred eighty dollars?!? Well no wonder we’re in a world of hurt! In the three shopping trips this month, each time we didn’t have enough in the checking account to cover the grocery bill, so I “wisely” put it on my credit card. I tried to justify my dangerous behavior with the fateful remark, “I’ll just put it on the card for now and we’ll earmark the money when my next check comes in.” And guess what, we couldn’t earmark the money because a different bill came due about that time. Our stop-gap came back against us in a painful way.
What it boils down to is that I was trying to justify my extra spending throughout the month by pointing to my raise and hiding behind my credit card, even though I knew most of the raise was already accounted for in increased givings at church and more withholdings to my 401(k). I’m terribly embarrassed to say that I have failed to follow my own advice and my family and I are paying the price. We have another much-needed grocery trip coming up this week and we are two weeks away from my next paycheck with just $200 available in checking. Even if we sacrifice some of the less-necessary items off our list, the grocery bill will likely still reach $100.
It looks like it’s time for a spending freeze in the house of Caveman. I need to turn my ship around yet again. Hopefully this time I’ll learn my lesson.
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One way to temporarily shrink your grocery bill is to clean your cupboards out. Eat some of the canned goods, etc. that you don’t normally use. I know we accumulate lots of miscellaneous, non-perishable foods that we could eat if we wanted to trim our grocery bill for a week or two.