Depending on the type of month you’re having, you’re probably in one of two situations.
If you’ve had a super-frugal (or even just super-well-budgeted) month so far, you’re probably a happy camper! You’re on target to hit your goals, opening your spreadsheet feels like no big deal, and you’re ready to keep on rocking your month-long challenge.
What’s that?
That’s not exactly in line with how you feel right now?
Me neither guys, don’t worry.
(If that is your experience, let me just sidebar and say WOOHOO and also I am so excited for you!)
I remember my first month tracking my spending, and it was right about this time of the month that I would have done anything to avoid continuing to track my spending for the rest of the month.
There were so many unexpected expenses in the first half of the month that by my second paycheque, I could see my hopes of hitting my savings goal waving goodbye as they frolicked off into the sunset along with my carefully planned budget.
That said, after going through this again and again and again, with unexpected expenses ranging from a $458 parking ticket to my snap decision to renew The Dog’s insurance, I’ve picked up a few different ways to handle the mid-month “Oh my god please don’t make me look at my spreadsheet” blues.
If you’re having them too, here they are. (Again, if you’re not – SO MANY KUDOS.)
#1. Don’t panic.
My first month tracking my spending, I was all
“How does anyone afford to live? How do I afford to live? I need to go get five side jobs yesterday.”
But listen.
You totally don’t, especially if this is your first month tracking your spending. The only thing you should seriously worry about at this point in the month is making sure you’re keeping accurate records – put off any major decisions about changing your spending or your income for next month once you’ve had a bit of time to process.
#2. Adjust your goals.
There have been a few months where, near the end of the month, I’ve had to pull money out of savings that I had just contributed earlier that month. It sucked, I’m not going to lie, especially as I saw my savings percentage tick down even further away from my goal.
That said, it was the difference between running a credit card balance or ending the month with a balanced budget, so I adjusted and it was all good.
Even if you’re starting to see your goals slip away near the end of the month, it’s OK. You can and should give yourself permission to be flexible when life happens, and you can adjust the goals you set at the beginning of the month!
#3. Be OK with saying no.
There’s this thing that happens, especially in the last week of the month, when you’re tracking your spending.
You can so clearly see how much you’ve spent and how much you’ve saved, and the “leftover” amount is staring you in the face. Thanks to my aggressive savings goals, that leftover amount is never huge, especially as the days tick down towards the end of the month.
Having that kind of clarity has helped me say no to certain things and certain purchases, even in some cases where I might have wanted to say yes – an extra drink at the pub, etc.
But being OK with passing on those things might be the difference between withdrawing money from savings or not – so I did it, and you can too.
#4. Remind yourself of the good stuff you spent money on.
When you’re looking back at your spending, it’s easy to get caught up in “I shouldn’t have bought that latte” or “I really should have cooked at home instead of getting pizza.”
My biggest, best strategy for dealing with that kind of thinking is to focus on the wins. What was the best thing you spent money on? How did it make you feel? Did you value the experience or the need it satisfied? In the case of my $458 ticket (I’ll never be over it oh my god it was so expensive), did I learn a lesson from it?
Focus on the positive, and on the experiences and happiness your spending brought you. It’ll brighten up any spreadsheet, guaranteed.
That’s it for today, friends! I hope you’re having a killer Wednesday and that you’re totally over the time change havoc (I can’t be the only person who STRUGGLED to get up on Monday morning, right?)
Funnily enough, I had a minor mid-month budget issue just this morning. For the first time in, I think, my entire life, I’m getting paid semi-monthly rather than weekly, and I’m not really used to it yet. I got my first paycheck early this week and happily sent more than half of it to my student loan payments…and then I checked my credit card balance and was like, OOPS. And I’m not getting paid again until after the credit card payment is due.
I guess I could cancel the student loan payment, but I figured I’ll just leave it. It’s not the end of the world; I’ll just have to take some money out of my (tiny) remaining emergency fund to pay my credit card bill. The reason the bill was way higher than usual was because I had a few very odd major expenses last month (including a bridesmaids dress). Whereas this month is on track to be one of my lowest-spending months ever. So, bad and good I guess? Next time I’ll praaaaabably check my credit card balance before I make my student loan payment.
Ok SERIOUSLY the worst at replying to comments over the long weekend but omg did I ever love your post about this today! I think you handled it really well and hey – getting used to a new payment schedule and weird billing is never easy. I’m not kidding that my car insurance coming out of my account on the 26th each month STILL trips me up sometimes. I also may or may not have added a calendar reminder for when my gym payments come out every two weeks just to make sure I always have the money in there.
Which is probably a bigger issue of “I should have a float of cash in my chequing account” but I think we covered me losing my personal finance blogger card already so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?
I reassure myself by looking forward to the next month! I have a tendency to spend up-front, and then restrict myself for the remainder of the month to balance things out and meet my goals. It’s a bit cyclical, but it works! 🙂
Hahaha I am the EXACT same way, I’m glad I’m not alone on that! Getting used to the up-front spending trend was a big adjustment for me when I started tracking.
I was totally expecting a different mid month money blues… The kind where I’m smack dab in between two paychecks. I’m only earning money. I can’t save anything, there’s not much to track. I can’t even update any of my spreadsheets. What kind of hell is this!?
I did get a $1 coin yesterday for returning a cart. That lifted my spirits. It went straight into my piggy bank.
Until payday, my friend!
That’s true eh – I guess “mid-month” really does just depend on when you get paid! I was thinking about that over the weekend and how big of an adjustment it would be to have bi-weekly payments as opposed to twice a month. Now that my gym payments come out bi-weekly, I’m realizing how big of a shift it would be – the fabled three-paycheque months must be pretty great! (Says the person who has never experience them, lol.)
I’m similar to Kate. The wait between paychecks is so long, not just from a spending perspective, but from a saving perspective! I want to be able to save, save, save, but there’s only so many times you can sock money away in a month. 🙂 Of course, getting to this mindset is a pretty recent thing — in the past I was anxious to get the next paycheck to have more to spend!
Totally! Oh man, my FAVOURITE part of payday these days is seeing all the money get funnelled away into different accounts, and sending a bit extra to my priorities for saving when I can (right now, that’s the house down payment.) Sometimes I’ll even update my net worth to account for the extra saving, lol. It’s overkill, but man do I love a good spreadsheet, lol.