I broke the budget

With interest rates climbing (and no likelihood of winning Tattslotto) I spent days during January working on a budget. It was--and still is--a thing of beauty. It has all our expenses, neatly categorised by week and month and year, and sets out exactly what can and can't be spent each fortnight. The what 'can't be spent' is especially important as it represents the extra going towards paying the mortgage early.

Now normally I stay away from shops as I have no willpower, and in general I succeed (in not going near shops rather than controlling my willpower!). But I went shopping with Wini on Sunday and fell off the budget bandwagon to the tune of $120.

My first reaction was to beat myself up mentally, but the more I thought about it I realised that concentrating on my failure wasn't productive. It's a fact I spent money that was set aside for the mortgage, and the easy thing would be to 'borrow' it from my next pay. But I'm not doing that, and I will have to live with the consequences.

Thinking about it 24 hours later I realise that the consequences are annoying but hardly life threatening. Sure, I won't be going on the July scrapbooking weekend because spending next fortnight's money means I've missed the deadline for the deposit. But hey, on the upside I have two new dresses, two new bras, a new t-shirt and new clothes for Jason's daughter Tamika.

C'est la vie, I guess!