I suppose I have been pre-occupied.

We were in plan plan plan mode before dh's surgery. Then afterwards, I suppose I took a big sigh of relief.

& forgot to pay my bills - LOL.

There are only a very few bills that I pay manually every month (the ones not charged to credit) - and the biggies are due on the 31st anyway. BUT, I forgot to pay the HOA, and they tend to charge late fees. I expect a $10 fee for that. Doh.

Also was the gardener and PGE. They don't care - PGE was only a couple of days late.

I noticed all this when I paid the credit card around the 20th. It's not unusual for the gardener and HOA to not cash their checks for a LONG time, so I hadn't noticed anything unusual. (I had entered them in Quicken; just not in my online bill pay).

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ANYWAY, as the end of the month approaches, dh withdrew $40 to buy some game system thing. It's all up on ebay for a nice profit, but there is no way I will get that cash back by the 31st. (Ebay auction will be over, but Paypal is very slow to transfer). So my checkbook now has a negative $40 balance (as of 3/31, anyway). So, decided I better get my financial housekeeping in order. I know I have let it slide a bit - so busy with other things. So when I saw the date was getting so close to the 30th, I thought I better hustle. Especially since I have so many large bills this month.

I have been tracking all the large bills in my savings spreadsheet. I usually notate a "TT" next to items I still have to transfer money from savings for. & an "x" when the deed is done.

I showed:

**Medical Savings:

$50 Surgeon Follow Up

(I did receive a $1000 bill, but I can charge it in April and pay it in May. Phew. Will do so to prolong some interest - my whopping 2% and all).

**Mid-Term Savings:
-$1250 new TV and stand
-$200 new furniture for LM

(Mid-term savings is used for large/one-time purchases. Saving for larger things in the future).

**Short-Term Savings:
-$200 tooth pulled
-$200 Summer Camp
-$500 Life insurance
-$250 Veterinarian
$2150 Property Taxes

(Short-term savings is for any non-monthly "expected expense" within the calendar year. We put aside amounts for car repairs and misc. items like summer camp and extra-curriculars, as well as insurance and property taxes).

Veterinarian was not a planned expense, but these kinds of things I put in here, and transfer from mid-term savings at year-end, if I end up negative for the entire year. I debated where to put it at first, and eventually decided to put it here. We could have lower than usual car repairs or stuff like that, so it works out. Or, likewise, I may decide to save more next year, in this category, since my cat is aging and will likely have more vet bills.

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I made sure there was enough in my money market checking, for the property taxes, and will just write the check some time in the next couple of weeks.

I added up the rest and netted it against my $2050 savings from my April 1 paycheck. In the end, the net was $607 that had to be transferred from savings. I just did the transfer today, which will easily covered my $40 checking shortfall on 3/31. So, phew, financial housekeeping is done.

When I have time tonight or tomorrow, I will go through and pay all the April bills. Ideally, this will leave me enough in checking, at 4/30, to pay the March credit card bill. I can set everything else to pay, eons ahead of time. (I don't like bills to get paid automatically - I like to review everything once a month and agree to pay things, rather than just have them drawn from my accounts. I find too many errors, etc.).

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Anyway, all that said, the financial tide is turning a bit:

*My cell phone is magically working again. Knock on wood. In fact, someone has a wrong # and called my phone a bajillion times. I am wondering if that is what killed the battery in the first place. Who knows - it is holding its charge now though.

*The network wiring we had done was only $50 (they had quoted us $70) and included the cables, etc. So, it was a much better deal than expected.

*Took the cat to the vet, and she seems fine. We are waiting for some final culture results on Monday. All the blood work and everything came back healthy as can be. She is 12 and seems healthy as can be, but just had been drinking an unusual amount of water - which is a sign of many things. Anyway, it was kind of tapering off by the time we took her in. I am just not accustomed to thinking of her as "old." We might be better about taking her in for annual exams. Her free pass is probably over. I added a few years to her life, I am sure, not putting her through the trauma during her healthy/young years.

She did okay and was quicker to forgive us than in years past. Phew.

Of course, either because of our youthful appearance, and/or the fact we hadn't drug her unnecessarily to the vet in many years, they look absolutely petrified to ask us to pay $100 for a urine sample. I mean, come on. They must have some pretty interesting exchanges with people. Instead of dragging her in for more tests later, we preferred just to get the blood work and everything. They seemed surprised and relieved. $250. No biggie. She's my "baby!" & I am relieved to get the blood work in already and know that it is nothing serious.