Savvy Budget

June 27th

What did I do to save money so far this week? It has been a bag of mixed results. Today I spent about $15 eating out. I did take my breakfast and a home bottled drink and yet ended up stopping and buying more drinks and food. The heat did play a small part.

Tonight, I packed my lunch. I could not find my mini cooler but I did find a medium size insulated lunch bag. It hold 2 soda bottles ( I have two filled with water and freezing right now) and has enough room left over for sandwiches or as I packed tonight, a nice salad and salad dressing in those tiny tupperware containers. I went ahead and packaged up two more salads as that is what I had left from my .89 salad box. 3 meals for .89. SWEET! That will more than cover my lunches for the rest of the week.

Monday was more productive. I called the credit union that holds an account I use to use for my EF years ago. The account had only a little over $100 left. At my job last year I started a $25 each payday direct deposit. I left that job soon after. I decided to use this account to build my main EF. When I went in Monday the account had $109. ???????

I had moved and did not get around to changing my address with the credit union. Well... I discovered they had been withdrawing $10 each quarter due to the incorrect address! WTF??? That is the stupidest reason I have ever seen to charge a fee.

Anyway, I went in to change the address and ask about the $10. Their response was the fact that they had mailed me notice that they were going to begin withdrawing $10 due to the incorrect address. LOL- You guessed it, I was so dumb founded I just looked at the loan officer who was supposed to be helping me. She looked at me like this was very reasonable. I mean, if they had simply said they had been unable to notify me of the change in policy and that I was going to be charged I would have understood. But to mail a notice to the same address they had been unable to deliver mail to and to really expect me to receive it is silly.

I did not say a word and she got up and walked out. I sat back. When she returned, said if I deposited the same amount they had withdrawn they would refund the money to my account.

Part of me said BS. Part of me said, "Hey, you were going to deposit $70 and they only want you to deposit $60. Easy way to just be done with this issue." I decided not to argue the point since I was getting the wanted result. I deposited the money from my EF jar and they refunded $60 in fees.

I still have a few questions. They refused to verify that only $60 had been deducted, in fact the woman ( I swiped one of her business cards when she walked out on me) got up and walked out of the office after getting snippy with me. At that point, she decided to demand my driver's license. ( nice way to TRY and intimidate me- I am not done with her yet.) I had been polite and courteous especially since it was my fault for not updating my address with them. She repeatedly cut me off and treated me like I was bouncing checks because I never checked my balance. I even admitted I was responsible for the address issue. She was just rude.

I will be looking into this and will not hesitate to report her snippy attitude. I did not even ask to have the funds refunded. I told her I wanted to ask about them and she got huffy. She made the offer but then refused to verify that only the $60 refunded was deducted. I was in a hurry, since I was using my lunch break and needed to get back to work. After leaving, I realized that this balance did not seem correct.

At least, I have restarted a long term emergency fund. It currently has $320. The baby step emergency fund has $1000 in it.

Also on Monday I did very well about not eating out. I ended up working very late. I was disciplined enough to stop at a Wal-Mart and pick up a .38 yogurt. The only extra money I spent while there was .88 for a seam ripper, hem gauge and snips. I needed the seam ripper and one by itself was $1.94. I think I did decent. I really need to start using that cooler.

Currently I have $25 to use toward gas until payday. Payday is Friday. I want to use this payday's mileage for all of July's gas and to cover July's insurance. I have my car tags due in July. I estimate car tags will be $150. This check's mileage will only be a little over $400. I could wait until the second mileage check to pay insurance and tags.

I would rather pay the tags early in July as this cuts down the wait time considerably. I want to walk in and walk out in less than 30 minutes. Especially since it is an hour to the license dept..Sooo... If I budget $75 a week ( 6 years ago, I never thought I would be budgeting $75 a week for gas. Heck, a year ago, I was only budgeting $50 a week and I drove daily as part of my job.) That would leave me with $300 for gas and maybe 125 for tags. hmmmm maybe mid month would not be so bad. We'll see how things go. I know I have one day I will be in an all day meeting. My other car that gets bad gas mileage has plenty of gas in it. I plan to drive that car on the meeting day. It is less than 10 miles from my home and I can save the gas still in my everyday car.

I have decided that instead of taking the entire month's gas allowance and carrying with me in my wallet, I will divide it into 4 envelopes. And only carry that week's allotment with me.I noticed that I tend to dip into it since it is so easy. And the whole idea is SAVE money. I am also thinking about what to do with any gas money left over during a given week. Maybe I will add it to my long term emergency fund.

I have a certificate for a free $25 deposit in a new account. I need to open that account this week. I may crown this one the Freedom Account. This account would be money I set aside for enjoyment such as vacation, extra gifts, wedding expenses etc. I have not decided the criteria for deposits but I see no need to throw the $25 away and a Freedom Account would assist me in budgeting for those extra's.

Today I made another gallon and a half of tea. I have estimated each gallon of tea saves me about $2 vs the soda I normally buy. I went ahead and put $2 in the EF jar. :)

I also received 3 coupons in the mail. Last week, I called a company that manufactures a frozen bagged meal. When I prepare the meal, it was n-a-s-t-y. I called the company to let them know. They sent 2 coupons for free bags of frozen products and one for Carnation Instant breakfast ( $1 off) they don't expire until late next year. In the coupon file they will go. More on my coupon work at a later date.

posted by Casper @ 7:19 PM