Too much month at the end of the money

I hadn't held down my first job very long before I discovered that certain months have an extra payday.  It happens four times annually if you are paid by the week, and it's truly a wonderful thing.  Here's how I always paid my bills:  Make a note on the calendar of the amount of the bill, on the Friday closest to its due date (or sooner, if there are too many bills due near the same time).  On payday, check the calendar and pay the bills written on that day.  It must have worked, as we have kept a spotless credit record through the years.  Anyway, on those months with a fifth payday, we could buy some clothes or fill our propane tank or pay property taxes or eat out.  Sometimes we'd just blow some of it.  (We hadn't heard of Dave Ramsey yet, so we never gave a thought to saving any of it.) 
Oh, how I miss the extra payday!  With Social Security, we are paid by the month, and that means the extra payday works against us!  

(ignore the little notes on the I-calendar; I do.)

 Cliff is paid on the third Wednesday of each month.  That means there are five weeks between our "paydays" this time.  There's one extra Friday in September, but no extra money allotted.  What a disappointment!  We're going five weeks between "paydays".  
I told Cliff I was going to be buying as few groceries as possible, and explained that I had to make our money stretch farther this month.  The two envelopes that seemed to be suffering the most were the "grocery" one and the "fun" one.  This is not good, since I am chomping at the bit to go on a little trip on the motorcycle.  Or a big trip.  Cliff is ready too, although with the state of his back lately, I'm not sure we'll be going anywhere.  But I digress.
The calf is taking more milk all the time, and any day now the cow is liable to come to the barn with a nearly-empty udder.  Once that happens, we can leave any time we like.  But not, of course, if our "fun" and "grocery" envelopes are depleted. 
A couple of days ago, Cliff spent time at our "junk pile" down at the ditch, loading things like an old tractor frame; heavy, obsolete farming equipment and parts; old washing machines and dryers; and other metal objects onto two trailers.  Yesterday he had the oldest grandson come over with his pickup and hook up to the heaviest one; he hitched the other trailer to our Mercury.  

I rode in the car with Cliff and took this picture of the junk Arick was hauling.  I only went along for the ride; I figured the money was going into Cliff's tractor fund, and I didn't really think there would be all that much money anyhow.  
Turns out they gave him a check for over $700.
"Wow," I drooled, "that's going to fatten up your tractor fund pretty good!"  
"Yeah," he said, "or any other fund."  
When we went by the drive-up window of the bank, Cliff cashed the check and handed me $200.  
"Do what you want with this," he told me.  
He also gave the grandson gas money.  
Whoa!!!  
I put one hundred dollars in the grocery envelope and one hundred in the fun envelope.  Problem solved for this month, but the next time this happens, I intend to be better prepared.  I don't think we have all that much junk left to haul off.  
All you working stiffs who get paid weekly or bi-weekly, enjoy those "extra paydays" while you have them.

This Dave Ramsey envelope system

Now that we're using this envelope system, we have to figure out from whence the money will come for any purchase.  There's the pet (aka dog) envelope, the grocery envelope, the medical expense envelope, the clothing envelope, and the "fun" envelope.  
When I mention buying something, Cliff loves to ask, "Do we have an envelope for that?"   
So when I informed him we'll probably go get a Christmas tree next weekend, I didn't wait for his smart-aleck reply.  
"Cliff," I said, "We'll go get our Christmas tree next weekend.  The dog is paying for it."  

Living out of envelopes

In the first month or so of using the envelope system of budgeting, I enjoyed seeing the cash mount up, and decided to put a limit of $300 in any one envelope because, after all, who wants to be carrying all that money around.  
Then reality hit.  I now realize none of them will ever have $300 in them, not even close.  
The pet envelope was filling up nicely until Iris ran out of dog food, heart worm preventative, and flea-and-tick stuff all at the same time.  Maybe it really does cost $20 a week to keep a dog.  OK, my cow expenses come from that envelope too, but Bonnie doesn't require much.  We don't have to board her when we leave; I only give her sweet feed when I milk her, which is maybe twice a week.  Grass is free, and so far, so is the hay.  She just gives and gives, and asks little in return.  
The "Doctors and meds" envelope gets more money than any other one, $35 a week.  Yes, we have insurance, but there are those pesky co-pays.  Lipitor is expensive, and there's no generic.  It's the same with Niaspan.  There's little chance of extra money accumulating in that envelope for long.  
Next week, by the way, Cliff will go for a nuclear stress test.  Not because he's having a problem, but because it will soon be five years since his heart surgery and the cardiologist wants to make sure everything is working as it should.  That's a $35 copay.     
This envelope thing gets a little tricky when I'm shopping at Walmart.  Last Friday I needed dog food (pets), some socks (clothes and haircuts) and of course, groceries.  As it happened, there was correct change in all the envelopes for me to take cash out of two envelopes and put it in my grocery envelope, sparing me the embarrassment of asking the cashier to ring all these things separately.  
There's a different kind of problem with my grocery allotment, which is $70 per week.  
It's more, so far, than I ever spend.  Two weeks out of three, I spend less than $40.  
So if I get $100 or so ahead, I buy stuff I really don't need, or we eat out.  We should never eat out, because everything is so over-salted at restaurants that it isn't healthy for anyone, especially someone who's had a heart problem.  Besides, when I'm living out of envelopes, I can't help thinking about how many groceries that $25 we spent at Olive Garden would have bought.
What I need to do is allow less cash for groceries, say $50 weekly.
I imagine I will do that, once Cliff retires.   
With his retirement looming, we're both more aware of the price of fuel.  We don't jump in the car and go buy something the minute we run out of it.  If we need anything from a farm store we'll wait until shopping day and drive twenty-five miles to Richmond because there's an Orscheln's and a Walmart there; we make one trip serve two purposes.  If we only need a few groceries, we sometimes shop in Lexington, eight miles away.  If I have several non-grocery items, we go fifteen miles to the nearest Walmart, even though it's a small one and doesn't always have the biggest selection.  
The only time we make unnecessary trips is when we're joy-riding on the motorcycle.  It's what we do for fun, and we'll continue that as long as possible.   
All this penny-pinching isn't necessary right now; we could live high on the hog while we have the chance.  But I'm actually enjoying it, and this way it won't be so much of a shock to me when I actually have to do it.  
Prepare as I might, I'm sure we'll be in for some surprises, especially if the government starts messing with Social Security and Medicare.  
We'll take it one day at a time, just like we always have.

Shopping trip

Cliff and I went to a fundraiser dinner at the school yesterday; we'd purchased the tickets from granddaughter Natalie.  Since we were already planning on getting out of the house, I informed Cliff we were going to do some shopping.  You can imagine the reaction I got from that suggestion.
Cliff, however, needed underwear.  He's been giving me excuses for a long time about why he was still wearing various sizes (his size changes from one year to another) of raggedy underwear.  While he was still laying in bed sipping his coffee yesterday morning, I started removing the contents of his underwear drawer and tossing it on the bed.  
"Look at this mess," I said.  "When's the last time you wore any of these boxer shorts?"  
(He went through a brief phase of trying to wear boxers... it had something to do with riding the motorcycle, I think.)   
He agreed that he didn't like them, and said he'd take them to the shop to use as rags.  
We don't get Cliff's underwear at Walmart.  His mother brought him up in J.C. Penny underwear, by george.  Stafford brand.  They are not cheap.  
But I have an envelope with money for clothing.  Every week twenty bucks goes into the envelope.  
We don't shop for clothes often, so I figured that envelope would never be empty.  We've spent more on clothing that I thought we would, but we haven't drained the fund dry yet; of course, nobody has needed shoes so far.   
Cliff decided since I was forcing him to go shopping, he needed some new T-shirts; he has a whole drawer full of perfectly good ones, but all of them have some kind of stain or other, mostly grease stains from his playing working in the shop.  I'm a terrible laundress; I never check for stains.  I don't check pockets, either.  I'm basically lazy.  So shoot me.   
Of course his mom taught him to only wear Stafford T-shirts.  We picked up two packages.  On the way to the cash registers, I nabbed myself a couple of packages of underwear.  Ten pairs of men's whitie-tightie underwear, six T-shirts, and three packages of ladies' underwear:  $98.  
Boy, am I glad we have envelopes.  In the old days I would have used my Penny's charge card and figured out how to pay for the stuff next month when the bill came in the mail.  I no longer have a Penny's charge card.
See?  It's possible to teach an old dog new tricks.  
I'll tell about the rest of our shopping adventures in another entry.  
So now you know more than you ever wanted about the underwear in this house.  I wonder if Cliff will approve this entry when he wakes up?  If it disappears, you'll know he didn't like it.

Still using the Ramsey envelope system, but...

I am not above a little "outside-the-envelope" spending.  I've been wanting to get some essentials at Sam's Club for a few days.  Trouble is, I can't seem to amass an extra seventy bucks in my grocery envelope.  
Oh, I'm staying well below the $70 allotted per week, and there's always a little left over each week; this week I spent only $45 at the store.  But just as I was well on my way to a Sam's Club cache, I found out the Gala apples are starting to ripen.  So we made a trip to Rasa's Orchard.  By the time I bought ten pounds of #1 apples, a watermelon, and two butternut squashes, my little "extra" grocery money was really little.  
Then Amber came to spend the night last night, and I got the urge for pizza.  So I took $5 from the grocery envelope and $7 from the "fun" envelope to cover that.
There's some occasional money that comes rolling in from another source besides Cliff's job, and tonight was the night.  Normally it goes in the bank and is used for some good purpose.  You know, like into the savings account, or onto the principle of our home loan.  But the oldest granddaughter was here, and a little demon on my shoulder started whispering, "You could go to Sam's Club with some of that money; Amber is here to take you."  
I struggled briefly, then said to myself, "Cliff isn't retired yet; what the heck!"  
On the plus side, I only spent the $70 I intended to spend.  On the minus side, I told Amber if she wanted something from a fast-food place, I'd treat her, as long as it wasn't too pricey.  So that was another five bucks.  
Cliff is going to have a ball with this:  "Oh, you didn't use money from the envelope?  I thought we were sticking to the envelope plan."  
I can hear him now.   
I foresee another little problem with the envelopes.  After weeks of adding to the funds in each one and only using out of certain ones, I realize how much money I have in all those envelopes, combined.  We've never kept that kind of cash in reserve.  I think the little demon is going to have a blast with that.  
Get thee behind me, satan.  

First week on the envelope system of budgeting

Yesterday, Cliff's payday, I got enough cash to put some in the following envelopes:  groceries, dog, clothing, doctors-and-pills, and fun.  Hey, they're my envelopes, I'll name them as I please.  
I'll be fine-tuning this thing for awhile; I've designated $75 weekly for groceries, and I really don't think we'll be spending that much.  Yesterday I got by for under $50.  The only thing  that has made my grocery bill seem high in the past is that when we shop at Walmart, we're liable to be buying $20 worth of oil, a $30 pair of overalls, and so on.  For now, Cliff will buy oil out of his pocket money (he gets a pretty healthy allowance), and overalls will come out of the money in the clothing envelope.  I do count toilet paper and paper towels as grocery items.  Which reminds me, when did paper towels start costing $2 a roll?  I think I'll be using my micro-fiber cloths more, in the future.
The system sounds so simple.  And I will tell you that it made me quite conscious of what I was buying yesterday, which always means I spend less.  
I've allotted $20 a week for the dog, which sounds like a lot.  But there's her pricey dog food and those expensive heartworm pills and the monthly flea stuff.  Plus the fact that if we leave for more than one day, we get her boarded to the tune of $15 a day.  Now that I think about it, I may have to allow more for the dog!  Good grief, is it possible a dog can cost $80 a month?  
But that's what I like about this system; it makes you realize where your money is going. 
I had my first rude awakening yesterday when I stopped to pick up a couple of prescriptions I hadn't planned on.  My generic blood pressure tables are only $10 for a ninety-day supply, but Cliff's Niaspan is  $90.  Yes, friends, a dollar a day.  
Since I just started this envelope thing, I had set aside $35 for meds.  But my first $35 just covered Cliff's deductible at the cardiologist's office, leaving me with an empty envelope.   So, how would I pay for the prescriptions?  
Luckily, Cliff is still working, so we have the money.  And some extra money came in this morning, so I was able to put the allotted amounts in each envelope.  
It's a good thing I'm getting this going before he retires.  It's going to take a year just to get ahead of things.