Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Black Hole

I've entered a deep, dark black hole life otherwise known as being a working professional with a demanding job and also mother to a small baby while also serving as wife, daughter, daughter in law, sister, friend, etc.

There is little sleep here, I tend to run from one emergency to another and feel like I'm spinning my wheels most of the time.  I'm sure there are many out there who have been in my same position.

I just spent three hours in the middle of my busy work day paying bills and trying to noodle out a few financial riddles.

In the process of doing that I figured out that instead of paying our utility bill I paid my tenant's utility bill.  I've got all the accounts set up in bill pay because as the properties revert back to us, in between tenants, we have to pay the utility bill.  I'm sure our tenants will be pleasantly surprised by the credit on their utility account.  No, I'm not going to try and get the money back from them.

I also figured out that in July I paid our mortgage twice and that is why we were so short on cash that month.  The upside, since I've figured that out I don't have to pay November's bill.  I normally would and just stay ahead or ask them to convert the extra payment to principal, but our credit card debt is up to $10,000 so I can put that mortgage money towards that bill.

I don't have a good idea as to where we are on savings goals, my husband who is the Excel spreadsheet guru never set one up for 2015 and we are into Oct.  Hubby's situation is similar to mine except he has been spending his extra time, little that is, turning one of our rental properties into a permanent home for his father.

I know this will get better and being a Mom is such a gift, but right now I feel like I'm doing a mediocre job on everything in my life.

1 comment:

FrugalCoconut said...

With regard to the utility bills ... not sure which type of utility you were specifically referring to, but I remember reading on the FPL website that they can set it up where the account automatically reverts back to the landlord when the tenant terminates so that there's no "gap" and so that the transition is supposedly seamless without the hassle of manually reinstating. I haven't had direct experience with it yet but it sounds like it could be worth looking into.

As for other utilities such as water, etc., I doubt that they're sophisticated enough to have programs like this but it may be worth checking into.