29 Oct
I Give Up, October, You Win!
Do you have one of those months each year? A month that simply outsmarts you? I do.
For some reason our lives gravitated to October as though it were the only month of the year. Financially October is my speed bump and I am growing to accept it.
There was a time in my youth when October was just the month that had Halloween. It was the month that began the holiday season. The month when the air got crisp and chilly. The best time of the year.
October no longer holds such an unassuming roll in my life.
When we first drafted October’s budget our debt snowball payment was over a thousand dollars. Add in the regular minimum payments and we were going to pay nearly $2,000 toward debt this month.
Here we are at the end and we are about to make that debt snowball payment, but it is only $340.
Sigh — October, how you crush even the best laid plans.
You see, dear friends, many Octobers ago a baby boy was born, dozens of Octobers later he married a nice girl, several Octobers after that they had a baby girl, twenty-something Octobers later she married me, and finally, after four more Octobers, we had twins. All. In. October.
Oh, and there’s Halloween.
I seriously entertained the idea of raising the kids to believe their birthday was in April. Why not? They wouldn’t have found out until they needed their birth certificate for a driver’s license or something and I’m sure they would have forgiven me.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s actually a wonderful month full of cake, giving and fun. Most importantly, this October The Wife and I came together to agree on all spending as we changed that first budget to accommodate the (modest) celebrations.
I have to admit it has been a fun month, but I feel the need to refocus intensely on debt-freedom and how good that will feel. November is nearly here and there is a Turkey running around somewhere that is just dying to be fried, but expenses will be minimal.
Is there a month full of events that has undone your budget? Do you have an October?
Happy Trick or Treating,
the Dad
Posted by Granny on 10/29/09 at 12:35 pm
Tee hee! it’s fun passing the October glut on to the next generation! And, I’m not sorry that my 41st wedding anniversary present was a set of twin granddaughters! You’re doing a great job, Dad, coping with what life tosses at you.
Posted by Sharon on 10/29/09 at 1:28 pm
okay, I’m slow, but does that make 5 or 6 October birthdays?
Either way, makes for a very sweet month!
Posted by Kelsalynn on 10/29/09 at 5:01 pm
Holy crap. This month has been terrible for us. We’re still sending the same amount to our emergency fund as expected, but man, have we overspent in almost every category of our budget… luckily, we had a few extra hours of overtime to make up for it, but still. We did not stick to our budget this month.
I was just saying something to my husband tonight about how we need to reign it in for November…this can’t happen again. It’s our first month debt free and while we’re not back to our old ways (still sent over $5K to our ef), we weren’t as disciplined… I’m not glad you guys had a bad month, but I AM glad to see we’re not the only ones. Let’s both do better in November- agreed?
Posted by KSR on 10/29/09 at 7:03 pm
We love your posts. they keep us going. and we really sucked at Oct too. we are so excited to do our Nov budget tomorrow and just knowing others are out there doing the same is comforting. Cheers to new month…no tricks involved!
Peace
K
Posted by Jeffrey Johnson on 10/30/09 at 12:02 am
Thank everyone has a bad month or two. Most is probably when property taxes are due. For my parents there bad months are two December and January. In December the wonderful thing called Christmas and property taxes hits every year. Its even more wonderful this year as the state of Georgia almost totally eliminated the homestead exception. It could be worse the county above us not redone there tax books since 2001 due to the idiots running there tax department and some had there taxes double or triple or worse.
January is a bad month as my parents keep being conned into upgrading there wonderful timeshare this year they only got one of them as they upgraded two of them into one week.
My bad month would have to be the month I pay my taxes down side being self employed hopefully I put enough aside and paid enough estimated taxes this year to make it more fun this last year. How I handled it this year is I put aside same amount I paid in estimated taxes hoping that would cover me this year and little more. Hopefully I over did it this year.
Posted by jpkittie on 10/30/09 at 3:31 am
with you there – dd was born in October – happy halloween! it is almost over
Posted by Music Man on 10/30/09 at 7:34 am
I haven’t been doing this long enough to have a budget crusher but I can totally see it happening around April (which is when most of my in-laws birthdays are celebrated. Fortunately, we are putting money away in our gifts fund every month so that should hlep to deefray the cost. Keep at it guys because you are my inspiration!!
Posted by Lindsey on 10/31/09 at 11:40 am
Oy! October was awful for me. Wiped out my very tiny BEF and then some. I just couldn’t get it under control even though I’ve been budgeting for 1.5 years now. November is going to be very lean as a result.
Posted by Money Funk on 11/01/09 at 12:08 pm
Ya, have you seen my October progress? LOL. I’m right there with ya! Oct – Dec are hard budgeting months. But we didn’t hit a negative. So we are still on our snowball schedule.
I think if we plan for the roller coaster months then we can continue to do great on our debt. Christmas – gonna buy one thing a week. We’re not going crazy this year. Totally no new debt for the holiday season. What joy is that?
Glad to hear you had some great celebrations in October.
Posted by pafaff on 11/01/09 at 3:48 pm
Sounds like you need an October sinking fund.
Happy, Happy October to everyone!!!
Posted by Jon on 11/15/09 at 9:09 am
@ pafaff – October sinking fund is a great idea!
@ the Dad – October is our October, too. We crushed August & September, then October crushed us. And we only had one party!
Posted by sarah on 03/05/10 at 2:27 pm
October is one of our most hated months too! Hubby’s b-day falls there which means both of our car tags need to be purchased, on top of a b-day present/cake for him. Halloween, of course means $$ for costumes. We’re always starting to buy Christmas presents too…and usually play catch up from our summer vacation that followed us home because we went into debt for it. DUMB! Anyhow, this October was surprisingly pleasant with a plan and a budget.