Small Victories Sunday

As you know, I worry about money--a lot.

Yesterday, I went through our tracking sheet for January (an Excel doc that I use each month to track what we're spending and in which categories) and I'm REALLY happy for a few reasons:

1. We haven't had to transfer any money from savings!
2. One of C's paychecks was saved!
3. I was able to pay off all of the bills that are due in the next two weeks without touching savings to cover those bills or to have on hand for regular life expenses! 

I don't know about you, but January is a tough month in this house. The second half of our car taxes are due and they are a hefty sum ($333.10 to be exact). Most states don't have this, ours does--your municipality levies a tax on the value of your car, just like they do your house. The other half was due in July, but the July payment isn't as much of a hit as the January one. I think it's because the January one is due after Christmas and while we usually don't overspend, it's still one of those "oh yeah...we have to pay that, huh?" things. We also have dues to pay for C's Sportman's Club (as a hunter, he needs a place to target shoot and to sight in his scopes on the rifles), and this year, his dad offered to pay half of the dues since he also uses the club as C's guest. That was really generous of him!

We did have some credit card bills to pay this billing cycle: when C was towed (did I write about that?) last month, he accidentally gave the guy at the impound lot his credit card instead of his debit card. Our oil company bills my credit card so we can get a better discount and my Christmas present from C was also charged--all of these credit card bills showed up in the same week and of course, are DUE around the same time!

I was shocked to see that everything indeed worked out. Especially after last weekend, going to Walmart to purchase a small microwave for C's office. His work doesn't have one that's JUST for staff and he doesn't want to use one that his clients use...and I don't blame him. He's been spending a lot of money on take out for lunches because he gets tired of cold sandwiches from home; sometimes you have to spend a little money to save some money ;-) I've never seen him so excited about lunch at work now! He was like a little kid last week, packing his lunches each night, "Look! I can now have soup!!!"

Maybe this should be called SUPER Victories Sunday, just this week?