Another Payday

I have been going through all the bills, cards, loans, and everything in anticipation of today. Planned every penny, know where it is all going. I have generally lumped in my food and fuel budget into the same category as, being a 100% work from home, I don’t really drive anywhere except to shop. Though one of the stores I shop at is a pretty good distance away, so I try to make certain anything I am getting there is in large enough quantities to only need to go once a month or so, and anything in large quantities needs to not expire in that same time period. Everything else I try to keep as local as possible. I am not saving money buying cheaper items if I am driving an hour there and back to buy it. Nor by picking up lots of stuff cheap that will just go bad. I must consider the fuel+time as part of the total cost of the goods in question, the lost opportunity. It isn’t hard or complicated, it is just a different set of criteria when buying discount items at bulk scale vs perishables or non-bulk purchases.

Anyway, this paycheck is pretty much the only money I will have for shopping until next month, so I have to make it count. Right now I only have $38 $15.82 of “room” in my budget.. and the only way I can get more room is to reduce how much I am spending on food+fuel, and food+fuel has to make it till 04/07…

So nothing but essentials…

Update: I was updating various accounts to do automatic payments from my debit card instead of heavily loaded credit cards, and one particular utility company decided that changing the payment method meant that it should process the payment instantly instead of on the normal schedule. Soooo … now I have no choice but reduce my food+fuel budget for the month.