Visibility

So yesterday my copy of Quicken came in, so I can sort out my finances and figure out where I am/should be spending my money.

The thing it tells me promptly this morning is I'm spending more than I should. Still.

My biggest problem, as far as I can tell, is not taking into account that it takes some time (days, weeks) for transactions to post, so I'm assuming I have more money than I do.

This means, in the end, that there comes a point where I'm just pushing more debt onto my card without even thinking about it, because I'm under the impression I've still got money for the month.

So I'm working on a budget. Until I've got my money up to date, I'm going to be screwing up still, but I should be sane by the end of next month.

Of course, this month is a total loss, with the purchase of Quicken, the cost of doing my taxes on Turbotax (woulda waited if I'd known), and this mornings annoying expense: my power supply died. Apparently I may be able to walk into the local Apple service location and say 'please replace this, sir or madam' and they'll do it free. That does me little good when my batteries are being charged with a power supply which offers electricity in fits and starts.

So yeah. It feels good to know what I'm doing with my money, even if it does make clear that I'm mismanaging it.

I'm strangely unharmed by the concept of adding more debt to that card this month, since I know I'll be able to pay it back next month. Plus, I'll get my tax return money sometime, and be able to use that as a buffer against such foolishness, perhaps.

Anycase, I'm grinning, because I'm still here, and that means I've won.