Unless it’s payday, I get anxious when I open my account. My jaw is clenching just thinking about it.
I either feel anxiety about how much I have left for the month, because I know it’s not a lot, or pride because I’ve been careful. Often, that pride is disrupted by some unknown subscription or charge still linked to my bank account.
For instance, Evernote.com has been quietly taking money out of my bank account since 2016. While $5 a month isn’t that much, over time, it built up to $70…. for an application I rarely use.
Getting over my bank account anxiety took some time. Having credit cards help – as long as I know I have credit on one, I’m not as anxious about my actual checking account balance.
But the thing is, that’s where so much of the data is. After actually digging through my account activity from last month, I can see I spent $80 on coffee, and only $80 more on eating out (see?).
It’s tempting to skirt over those expenses, because they seem so small. But still. That’s $160. That could easily be used to make a bigger payment on one of my credit cards. But hey, we’ll get to that.
I got all this data from the budget/planning section of my Online Banking. It’s the first time I’ve used it. You can reorganize and tag spending by category, similar to other budgeting tools such as Mint.com.
Since it’s through my actual bank, and tied to my biggest credit card, I get the most accurate information here. Plus, it’s a neat chart.
Of course, this only includes activity from one of my credit cards.
Now, I haven’t always used a credit card. I got a secured card years ago, cancelled it shortly after. I decided I needed to stop living paycheck to paycheck and have one over the past few months, so I got approved for one low balance card back in January.
Now, I have five.
They don’t have a huge credit limit for each (thankfully). But over the course of a few months, I’ve racked up some debt.
Some of that debt was travel related – flights to Costa Rica and California. The other part is just day to day stuff – portions of my electric bill (I hate you Duke Energy), groceries, etc.
One of my cards is a home improvement card, which I’m planning on playing off slowly. I’m not too worried about that one, as long as I can meet the minimum payment, and pay more off when I get my budgeting in order.
So not including that one, I have four more left, with roughly $1,800 I need to pay off.
If I could, I’d pay it all off as soon as I get paid. But obviously, that’s not how the world works. Instead, I need to make some kind of plan to pay it off, ideally before my trip to Ireland.
That means limiting my spending across the board, especially for one of my largest spending categories.
It feels like so much when I think about it. But that’s the point, right? Money dictates a lot about how we go about our lives, but it doesn’t need to control our lives completely.
That’s the part I’m going to start figuring out. ^