Tuesday, August 20, 2013

No surprises - another miscalculation


For a budget that is written in stone (well, on paper), I seem to make a lot of mistakes. They're rarely "bad", but they're mistake nonetheless. I've been driving myself mad trying to find how come I am missing another $150 for August. Try as I may, I just can't find what became of that money. I've followed all of my notes and yielded nothing. Money just doesn't go missing from accounts like that!

Then updating my spreadsheet, I found why. It seems I had written that $150 of the extra money (from August being a 3 paycheck month) was to be paid for student loans, making the total paid in August $820 vs $670 which was originally plotted. I didn't really need that money for anything in particular, but I don't think it was supposed to go into that fund. Oh well. At least it went to a good cause, even if by a miscalculation.

My budget book ends in October, as September may see a raise, however small (if any) and may need some recalculation. I will try to be more careful, but all this shuffling of funds is hard keep track of. As long as the money isn't being thrown into a black hole, I shouldn't be too upset. But I am.

What do you do when you overpay something by a little or a lot? Something that won't just issue a credit so you can skip next time's payment?

10 comments:

  1. Many times I mis-calculate a payment. It usually is my cell phone bill. Probably twice a year I will pay it twice in one month..... I guess that is better than missing a payment.

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    1. Can't argue with that... definitely better than missing a payment.

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  2. Once I overpaid on my water bill and didn't realize it until a little later in the month. When I realized it, I knew that the water company was not going to issue a refund, so it was applied to the next month's payment and I simply skipped paying for the following month.

    http://fastlanetofinancialfreedom.blogspot.com/

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    1. That's great they were able to allocate it to next month's payment.

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  3. I think you should just "forget" that you overpaid the school loan and do your regular payments if you can next month. Anything that pays them off faster is a good thing

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    1. Yeah, I'll have to do that anyway, since they won't count it as a credit towards next month.

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  4. If you didn't need it elsewhere, I would just forget about it. Like others have said....it went to a good cause.

    I rarely overpay something, and if I do, it usually works out in the next month.

    You are sooooo incredibly hard on yourself!!!!

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  5. I would just let it go. I sometimes pay smaller bills like internet and phone ahead so I can open the bill and see that I don't owe anything. I realize that it is stupid, but what ever works.

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  6. This made me laugh & remember the time I was going over our on-line checking account. Husband was still working a the time. I called him and asked "Um, husband, why did you pay the garbage man $3,324 this month?" (as opposed to $33.24) He responds, "Really?" Uh, yeah! Like did you pay us up for life or what? When I called the trash company and reached a girl in Accounting, she was laughing and said they've already processed a refund on the overpayment. Good thing for the husband! Gotta keep an eye on that boy! ;-)

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    1. Oh my, I have nightmares about such an overpayment! Oh, the fees I'd incur!

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