We're On Our Way!

Usually, September is a hugely stressful month for us financially. As a teacher, I get paid a yearly salary that is divided into twenty pay periods. Problem is, it leaves me a lot of weeks in the summer to go without pay. The school board for which I work has "remedied" this by allowing us to have a certain amount of money deducted from our paychecks for summer pay. Obviously, we have opted to do this for years and although it's much less than my normal take-home pay, it does help. However, it takes payroll over six weeks to get the payroll schedule back on track at the beginning of each school year. Why? No idea, but every single year, I get my last paycheck and then look longingly at the end of September for my first full paycheck.

Well, for some reason, this year, they decided to pay us two full weeks this past Friday. Couple that with the fact that I got my last summer pay check last week and that Robin got his mongo paychecks this week, we have a nice chunk 'o' change sitting in the bank. Except. You knew that there had to be an "except" there, didn't ya?

Except that Robin doesn't get paid for two weeks, and I don't get my next paycheck until the 28th of the month. Oh, and we have bills to pay. Ya. So, we sat down this morning and budgeted out the next two weeks and included a nice buffer amount just in case something comes along we weren't expecting.

We were able today to pay the following: mortgage for October 1 (yay! three full weeks ahead of schedule), the boys' preschool tuition (even though we have two months' worth sitting in another account), all our bills, our home equity loan (I DESPISE that thing!), our car/home insurance, groceries, set money aside for gas for our cars, money to get Maddy her ballet gear and a gift for a birthday present and some "fun money" for us that we budget for weekly. We even had enough to set aside some money to go out with two other couples for dinner next Saturday night! Yay! OH! And hopefully, we'll also get to IKEA so I can get a pantry closet I've been needing for months now. Like I said; the best part of this whole thing is that we have a great cushion "just in case". We will, hopefully before the end of this month have another credit card paid off and done one whole month earlier! THAT seriously excites me.

We've already discussed our Christmas budget as well as how much we will be spending to replace our delapated couches that so very urgently need replacing. We should have the couches either just before Christmas or earlyish January if all goes according to plan. Next, we need to start saving for laminate flooring for the basement. William has awful allergies that can either land him in anaphalatic shock (if he consumes peanuts/nuts/shellfish) or trigger the mother of all asthma attacks (if there's a high pollen count/large volume of dustmites etc.). We need to replace the 20 year old ugly, useless carpet in the basement so we make his environment as safe for him as possible. Then, we need to save to replace our original air conditioning. It went out a couple of weeks ago and we definitely need to replace the entire thing. It's going to cost a pretty penny. :S I'm not thrilled about it, but to be fair, the house is about 20 years old, so it is due.

We're are on our way to clearing out major debt soon and I couldn't be happier. Today is a happy, happy day!