Friday 26 February 2016

My Personal Budget Shortfall

I am about half way through my payday budget cycle and my bills have been paid or the money allocated. It is about now that I start to look towards my next payday because it is at this point that I usually have a good idea as to what my paycheque will look like. 

My paycheque varies greatly due to the amount of workdays during a specific pay period and the bonus that I get from our website activity. 

My timesheet is a spreadsheet that I submit just after the pay period ends. For me my pay period ends on Monday. I have created an extra worksheet attached to this spreadsheet that guestimates what my paycheque will look like. This coming paycheque will be less than stellar. 

What complicates this is yet another bill cropping up, as in my renewal fee for the local motor association. I get my vehicle insurance through them, so I kinda have to pay that one.

So this leaves me with my own budget shortfall, and a few options on how to face it:

1. Run a deficit (just pay things as usual and dip further into my personal overdraft)
2. Defer Expenses  (just put the extra expenses on a credit card and pay it in a bit)
3. Pause my Down Payment Savings Plan. (Using that money to sure up my operations budget)
4. Slash, Cut and just muddle through.

I have opted for Option 4, because I have noticed a pattern recently, a pattern where I have opted for Option 2. I seem to have liked to cheat a bit and just put an unexpected expense on the credit card and pay it with the next paycheque. 

This is silly, as guess what, next paycheque will look not much better than this one. Even still, even if it is better, I have to pay this bill then, rather than now. All I have done is to kick the can down the road a bit. I mean, this expense is not going away. 

From here on out I have decided to make a few rules with regards to my budgeting and financial forecasting. These are rules that I will stick to unless it is deemed a genuine emergency.

1. Run a Balanced or Surplus Budget.
2. Pay expenses and bills now, no deferring of expenses.
3. Continue the savings plan (in full) no matter what.
4. Maintain  no less than $1000.00 in the main account at all times
5. Build up the Contingency Fund to the equivalent of three (3) month’s salary (to be used only in emergencies)

With these rules in place I should be able to weather any financial storm and therefore secure my financial future. I am working on items 4 and 5, but the others I can implement now.

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