Just Another Ordinary Debacle...

I have to say that "debacle" is one of my favorite words. I didn't really use it at all until I met Brad and Rachel and heard all about the "Checkbook Debacle of 2004" and then Chad and Rachel started adding it to their repertoire of words and have had a number of debacles themselves. Curt and I haven't had any debacles and I was starting to feel a little left out of the special "Debacle Club". I have however taken it upon myself to rectify the situation with my own debacle. Keep in mind that although I was feeling left out of the club, I did not intentionally create a debacle. A debacle is only a debacle if it happens unintentionally, and usually has some crazy consequences.

Last year my friend Rachel (yeah, I know they are both Rachel and well, you'll just have to click the link if you want to know which one...) was telling me about a computer program that really helps keep your household budget on track. It doesn't exactly keep you from overspending, but it does let you see where your spending, how much money you have and to what account it belongs too. I had been using the envelope system which this computer program emulates just without the actual envelopes. So, I thought I would check it out. I was struggling with the borrowing from one envelope and then not paying it back thing. I thought that if I could keep the money in the checkbook and just keep track of what went where then I wouldn't dip my little fingers into those cash envelopes to buy another pair of shoes I didn't really need. And you know what, it works. We have money left in our checkbook every month, more than I ever thought we would. It all belongs somewhere, so we can't just go and spend it, but it is a beautiful thing to see the total growing instead of... well... not. Anyway, the computer program has a checkbook register built in so you can see what you have spent and take it directly out of its little envelope. This system has really been great and I have seen some very positive changes in our spending habits. But, I still have to keep a written log. I tend to fret about the possibility of our computer crashing and losing all that data and not having it written down somewhere. So, although I enter every receipt, every deposit, every payment into the program I also keep a written ledger. This has led to my recent "debacle". Let's just call it the "Online Bill Pay Debacle of 2009".

I started using the online bill pay system through our bank last year and really like it. I figure it saves money on stamps, envelopes and checks. I haven't even had a late payment since I started... ahem... until now. Apparently, the payment to our cell phone provider was past due. They called to let me know and to allow me to make the payment over the phone. I thought, "wow, how did I miss that?" I looked in my "written" checkbook ledger because it was closest to me and I had in fact made the payment. Hmmmm. So, I came up to the computer, looked on our little budget program and yup, I did make the payment. Hmmmm. So then I looked on our bank site and you know what? I didn't make any of the payments from that week... none of them. I had entered them into both of the checkbook ledgers and then neglected to actually make the payments. It wasn't just the cell phone, it was the mortgage, the credit card, the gas, and the electricity. Fortunately, I found out in time and was able to send in the payment request today so although some of them might be late, they are not going to be completely missed. Thank you cell phone provider for the heads up!!

I haven't screwed up like that since Jacob was 6 months old. So, that's my debacle. I don't know how much it is going to cost me in late fees, but I'm sure it will be better than having the heat and electricity shut off.

The good news of course, is that I'm now part of the "Debacle Club"!