Does it ever feel that no matter what you do you can never get ahead?
Now that the hubs and I are down to one income we have been trying hard to set a budget and stick to it. A new thing we started is paying for everything with cash. So after payday I figure out our bills and what is not needed for bills I pull out. I then separate the cash into separate envelopes such as gas/groceries, spending money and savings. We did have an online savings account but we found that it got us into trouble as it was linked to our checking account as well and we would transfer funds whenever we felt like it. I know not very smart. So I thought I would try this cash and envelope system. And this month it worked. We did good with sticking to our budget and even having money left over. That is until today
The hubs came home and commented on an email he received about one of our credit cards. He asked If the minimum payment was really a few hundred dollars. I said no and showed him what I had set up to pay online. When we went on to that credit cards website they had said we had missed last months payment. I logged onto our bank account and pulled up where the money had been taken out last month. So we called the credit card. Turns out due to a glitch in their system they took out a payment for October and November plus a late fee even though it did register our September payment. Since I only have what is needed in our account for bills we are going to be hit with some pretty hefty fees not to mention some other bills won't be paid. The company is going to send us the difference they owe us in ten business days but that still won't help us now.
I'm just so frustrated because I am anal about paying our bills. And we still get into trouble. The simple solution would be to go deposit our cash into the account but we bank through USAA. An online bank. So we would have to mail in the cash which would never get into our account by the time all the bills hit. I'm only praying that some of the bills scheduled for the 11th don't clear until we get the hubs next check.
I'm so stressed right now. A glass of wine is needed tonight
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USAA allows you to deposit checks at UPS stores. Could you get a money order using your cash and then take it to a UPS store? Or even give a friend the cash and have them write you a check.
ReplyDeleteThat's annoying!! We've been doing the cash & envelope thing since January and it's worked out real well. We've saved more money than ever before!
ReplyDeleteThat really sucks :( Have you tried calling the credit card company and explaining the situation to them? Also, call USAA and explain to them what happened to see if they'll waive the fees incurred from overdrafting. I would be pretty stern with the credit card company since they're the ones who caused this mess to begin with and they're costing you more money. If you didn't do anything wrong, there's no reason why you should have to pay any fees, IMO. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteYou may be able to go back and cancel the online payments. I know that you can do this easily if you paid the bills with USAA.
ReplyDeleteWe also pay everything with cash, but I've always been a bit hesitant to actually withdraw huge amounts of cash from the ATM. Instead, we created separate checking accounts on USAA. I just transfer the money into the specific accounts. This way, if I needed to put money back into a different account it's rather simple.