procastination.
I’ve been so overwhelmed with a million projects, that the finances keep falling further and further down my todo list. Managing the monthly budget is basically not happening but bills are getting paid. There are a few major money items that have been looming that I’m finally getting to today. If only I hadn’t waited, we’d be in a much better position.
Procrastinating on the purchase of oil has been the biggest mistake lately. We knew it would be cheaper to get moving on this in the summer, but we let project after project get in the way. Now, we’re looking at a price of more than 60 cents a gallon higher than we were this summer. But, at least I’ve finally made the calls and didn’t go with the person who had the contract before because their price is much higher per gallon than the other places I’ve called today. Yes, making the call still pays off, but I sure haven’t felt like doing it. We still haven’t turned the heat on, but we are getting down to just a month or so of oil left for hotwater usage.
The other big kicker is following up on a problem with our escrow account. I waited a couple weeks too late to contact our closing company about funds that went missing. They were supposed to pay our first tax bill but didn’t. So our mortgage company politely paid it, but our escrow account didn’t cover it because a tax payment wasn’t supposed to leave there until December. Then they politely jacked up our monthly escrow payments to compensate for this. Of course, this is the first indication that something was amiss, because I knew we paid for months of taxes at closing and had assumed it’d gone into escrow, obviously it didn’t. If I’d called the closing company right after receiving the notice, I would have found the money sooner (they were still holding it and never did tell me why). So, now I need to get off to the post office to send the mortgage company the money I just got from the closing company. Sigh.
Last but not least is that it’s time to get the daughter’s second round of orthodontia started and only a few weeks left in the year for the FSA thats still holding several hundred dollars in it. Of course, that isn’t anything in comparison to the treatment costs, but I need to get moving before we end up losing that cash for this year. Next year should be pretty interesting for FSA costs, looks like we’ll be taking the maximum allowance to cover the rest of treatment and some other upcoming medical expenses.
Maybe if I’d get back to posting more often, I’d be more intune with my money status and wouldn’t let stuff slip as far as it has.