At 7:32 this morning, my alarm went off. As I went to hit snooze, I noticed that I had a text message. There's little I enjoy in the morning, but waking to a note from a friend tends to make it slightly more bearable, so I eagerly touched "view". I deleted the unpleasant message immediately, but it was something along the lines of "Message from Bank of America: This notice is to alert you that you have reached your low balance threshold. The balance of your account is $35." Mind you, it's only the 18th of the month.
Maybe that doesn't sound that bad, but considering I was sure I had about $1200 with which to pay this month's bills and to pay most of the rent/deposit on the apartment I am moving into in 2 weeks time, I was stunned. Normally I would have cried at something so devastating, but I was sure the bank had made a mistake. My direct deposit from 4 days ago had a problem or something so my paycheck was being held.
Immediately upon logging in to my online banking page, I saw that there was no error on the bank's part. Only on mine. I had foolishly assumed that my landlord had cashed my rent check by the 17th, but she had not. So I went ahead spending like that money was mine, when really it had already been signed away. So here I am, one paycheck coming before moving day, and nowhere near enough cash coming my way to pay for my life, bills, loans, rent, and deposit.
I've read about personal finance for years. Blogs, books, Suze Orman, etc. And I have always learned from it, but only have applied whatever is convenient at the moment. That has to change. This blog will document the journey I intend to make out of debt and into comfortable, stress-free saving with room in the budget to travel.
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