Deficit or Underfund?

Okay, so, I am facing another fiscal dilemma, one which requires some pondering and fiscal dancing. 

This all started a few weeks ago when the on button on the radio in Wanda broke, sorta. 

The plastic button that you push broke from its moorings and twisted so that it wasn’t pressing the actual electric button underneath. 

What I did was take the radio apart and just removed the plastic button, leaving a hole in the face of the radio. 

For the last few weeks I have been turning the radio on and off by poking through the hole on an angle with an old stylus (a pen-sized stick with a rubber end). 

This worked until I poked that electrical button off of the circuit board . . . with the radio still turned on.

This meant that I couldn’t turn it on (or off rather) without me yanking the main wiring harness connector behind. 

Knowing that parts for this radio (as in the plastic button that started all of my problems) were non-existent (as in they wouldn’t sell me it), I knew that I needed a new radio.

I did a bit of research and was going to buy a better radio (since I had to replace this one anyways). Why not, since I was buying a new radio anyways, right?

I found out that the newer model was a power pig and the last thing I need is a radio that drains Wanda’s batteries faster, but does pretty much the same thing. (Yet still with no satellite radio.)

So, I ended up ordering the same model radio that I have from a Canadian company. Don’t get me started about trying to buy stuff from the states. 

It was after ordering the radio that I remembered that I had a remote control which I could just use that to turn the radio on and off . . . *smacks head*

I then decided that I wanted the properly working radio for Wanda and the broke one would be the shop radio . . .

As in the radio for the workshop that I will have on the property that I will buy . . . in the summer of 2019 (large cash windfall or crowdfunding effort notwithstanding). 

How this affects my current fiscal plans is the rule that I have that all credit cards are to be paid off completely each and every payday.

This means that this radio will put a sizable (yet not stupidly-sizable) hole in my budget. Up until this I was able to complete the task of putting $1K in each of my 3 accounts.

This will mean that one of the three (Main, Mid-Term Savings , or Long Term Savings) accounts will not make that mark, the question is, which one.

The other option, that I have rejected is to just carry the balance for a payday or two. This will lead to me just tossing a few other items now and again (I know me) onto that card and its balance will grow.

While, technically I should underfund the Long-Term Savings, as that one is the lowest priority, it is also the last account that I touch when I need something. So the cash in there would be left alone for a monsoon day.

I should underfund the Mid-Term Savings as that is what it is for. Yet I set a goal to put $1K in each of those accounts by this next payday and I meet my goals.

I will most likely dip into my Personal Overdraft as a way to punish myself for this spend, and ensure that it will be back up to “zero” of $1K in that account as soon as possible.

It may seem silly, but cash is still tight as starting next payday I start that Pilot Project with regards to the Wanda Loan.

That is the little experiment that I am running to see if regularly making extra payments will decimate the amount of interest that I pay on that loan. 

(Stay tuned to find out.) 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!