Oh dear lovely folks!
I am in such a good mood this morning. I did find we will be getting a tax return inspite of having child payments and me working a 1099. Last year we owed $600 on taxes instead due to both my husband and I being 1099 workers. Oh that was a rough one. This gives me some much needed breathing room to look at what we can apply it towards so we can make it through the rest of the year.
I have already filed, been accepted and approved. I anticipate around six thousand back after fees from turbo tax. That said, even if we have half that it will help to pay some of the bills we got behind on. So first is getting up to date on bills. This means paying the truck payment we are a month behind on, paying my doctor that I owe $200 to, paying my daughter back the $200 we owe her for an emergency, and the $150 we owe our son for car parts he bought. After paying all the bills we owe and all our personal debts, we might have three to four thousand left. I am still doing the calculations. Once I have a good set, I promise to put them up.
Then we will put aside at least 1 week worth of pay to just sit in the bank to cover if we might have an over draft. Over 1.5K went to overdrafts last year and I hope to avoid that this year. So we will just have $500 sitting in the bank at anytime for whatever might slip through my radar. I hope to build on this through out the year, but have no real idea if that is possible with our current income/expense ratio.
With what is left, we will fix or maintain things around the home, starting with our truck some new brakes and a new hub assembly. My husband said he can do the work, so we'll see how much that is in the end. Then we will move in towards working on the garden.
No major things this year for the garden and homestead, just some ferlizer, one or two varieties of seed I still need, a hoe or two, and a good fork. We do need a new back deck, but I'm going to see if we can just repair it with a small handful of things. I have all the major tools I need for any repairs I think. I will probably be adding some canning jars and lids to the mix also, but that is iffy. We will be getting some chickens and geese for home food production. I wanted quail, but can't justify the cost. They are three times as expensive as chickens, very hard to hatch out, very hard to make home grown feed for, and so much more. So chickens it is and geese for the fat. I will have to fix up the chicken pen area, but that should be easy enough. I will also be getting an inexpensive incubator to hatch out chicks a few at a time. The only other addition I am toying with is a piglet or two in order to have fresh meat over the winter that isn't just geese and to save the dessicated thyroids just in case for medical reasons. Pigs are a lot of upkeep feed wise, so on the fence. Between the truck and the garden, it is no more than a full thousand dollars even if I get the pig, which I am on the fence about.
We will buy a ton of feed at a time as it is cheaper...for the price of half a ton we can get a ton. That is one thing I do want to impliment immediately.
I will also be getting three months of medications. I will die without my medication. So I will be getting at least three months although I would be thrilled if it were possible to get a year at a time. I have a special fridge for it and a generator, so I might get gas for the generator too just in case. I am also going to pick up a few herbs that help to treat what I have wrong with me as back up. These are very inexpensive and doesn't even have to come out of the taxes. I can pay for them from my weekly pay.
I will be going to livestock auctions, just in case I find a steal there for a nanny goat or a lamb, just something to put milk or meat on the table since I already have the experience and room for them. However, not the main focus of what I want to do right now as eggs, chickens for meat, and geese for meat and fat are enough to survive. Also that is only after, I have everything else I need.
February 23rd, 2022 at 01:08 am 1645578538
Is this happening because you are not tracking the cash flow in your accounts?
Are you knowingly using money that is not there? Or are you surprised?
Depositing money to cover a future error is a good idea, but you need a system to prevent this.
Do you have a budget so that you know how much money you must have for bills each month?
If not, you need to figure that out.
Are your bills on autopay or do you control when they are paid?
If the overdraft is driven by a few day lag between money out and in, stop automatic payments and control the time g of when bills are paid.
Make yourself go through the discipline of keeping track of the money in your account and the deductions for amounts being paid.
If you use your debit card for purchases, stop.
You need a cash system where you take the amount your budget says you can spend each week and when it’s done, it’s gone.
Set an appointment with yourself every day or two to review your accounts and make sure there are no surprises.
How many hours did you have to work for $1500?
Take that time and use it to manage your finances.
February 23rd, 2022 at 10:02 am 1645610571
Also haven't really been using my debit card. The money didn't go to purchases most of the time, just bills. I mean, I would pull $20 to $50 from my weekly check, but that's a different account all together that doesn't have over draft and doesn't get more than $100 a week if that. This is the bills account which gets at least 2k a month. The only reason we pulled from this account for emergencies is that it typically has the highest balances deposited and the bank has a good relationship with us. They know we have direct deposit for my husband there and will have the balance paid with in a week or two every time. So yeah, bills just out of control and on auto pay for a year in a manner that did not match up with our income. It is more in line now, but it wasn't for a while. It's not perfect yet though.
February 24th, 2022 at 12:39 am 1645663197
My cynical opinion is that the financial system can take advantage of you or you can take advantage of it.
If you can get a credit card that pays cash back, you could probably use it for the autopay of your cable bill. You could then control the day you paid the bill, and ‘earn’ 1 or 2 percent on the bill. You HAVE to be disciplined to pay the bill each month and NOT use the card for other purposes. Over time, you can transition other recurring bills to the card and let the financial system pay you for the privilege of serving you.
Without the underlying details, I think you might be better off to get a second card that you use for the type of emergencies that caused you to spiral into overdraft hell. Of course, an emergency fund is the best approach for that, but again, a card that pays you for using it that you pay off every month is a much better way to solve a gap between needs and paycheck.
Sit with these ideas and consider your own discipline - if space available on a card would cause you to buy non necessities you can’t afford, you can’t win at this game.
If you do decide to try this, look for cards that provide a cash bonus to open them. Look at Monkey Mama’s blog to learn how to make this work.
February 25th, 2022 at 08:25 pm 1645820741
You have good ideas on what to spend your refund on, but may I encourage you to set up an account for an emergency fund as well and don't touch it unless you have an emergency?
February 25th, 2022 at 09:17 pm 1645823832
February 27th, 2022 at 10:42 pm 1646001723
February 28th, 2022 at 03:53 am 1646020412
As for the other topics, you've been given some good advice, and everything has already been said. Hang in there, you will get it all sorted.