It doesn’t matter what we do, there is always one time during the year that all of our money gets drained. Perhaps no previous year has been quite as much a squeeze as this year. I take that back. Summer of 1998 was worse than this. In that summer we actually had to get a payday loan to pay some bills. I easily could have asked someone for a loan, but it was much more manly to pay someone $50 for a $200 loan for 2 weeks.
This summer it has gotten so fierce that I am actually stressing about it. Our once impregnable balance in savings is uncomfortably low. Larry Burkett instructs people to have 3-6 months of soft cash for things that come up like automobile expenses, medical bills or a lose of job. If I lost my job now I may have a months worth of savings. It is scary.
It seems that everywhere I turn right now I am spending loads of money. Babysitters. Cell phones. Grad school bills. Preschool bills. Medical bills. Clothing bills. Enormous grocery bills. You name it, and I am writing a check for it right now. I’ve actually had to drop a class this fall for lack of funds. It just wasn’t fair to the whole family to pay that much more at the expense of things we need. I committed to not mortgaging my future on today’s expenses, and sometimes I have to make a hard call and walk away from an aggressive school schedule.
The funny thing is that each year during this “cash crunch” I promise to myself that next year will be different. I know that for the next 5-6 months I will do better. I will save. I will be frugal. By next spring I will feel like I have cash flowing from my ears. I will start to get paychecks and laugh to myself since I know that I haven’t spent a dime of the previous check yet. However, instead of being wise and sitting on that nest egg, or converting it into an account that is nearly untouchable we end up spending it on something less valuable… Like stuff.
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