Holy Crap on a Cracker

okay - so hubby is going to kill me.

And I have gone on an instant plastic-free diet.

This is what happens when you just set up a payment without taking a CLOSE look at your statements sooner.

See i do a lot of shopping on QVC online ... a LOT recently because they have had their cast-iron items on sale. And if it hadn't been a weird charge on Christmas day (when I know I didn't buy anything) I probably wouldn't have even noticed.

Well I didn't chose it, but I failed to notice that they put some of my items over the last 4 months on 'easy pay' ... great little feature that lets you pay off in installments - so why would this be a problem you might ask if its such a great feature? for most people it wouldn't, its just a problem to me ....

because I like to know how much I'm spending each month and pay the whole thing, or as much of it as possible, each month so when hubby asks 'how much is left on the card?" (as in how much is still needing payment, not how much is left to spend) I can tell him.

We generally like to keep the expenses down to less than $2500/month on the combined outstanding on the cards so that we can monitor for any suspicious activity and we don't get to the point to where we can't just pay it off if we felt we needed to or just wanted to.

sigh ....

this meant that my cards balance would have to stay below that $500 mark each month (just pay it off every month) and then hubby's card - which is usually high for gas prices - would be the only big bill. -- most months I keep it as close to $200 as possible --

well, because I hadn't spent a 'lot' in a while I really splurged these last couple of months on stuff for christmas -- the whole family and I'd have it paid off in a couple of months -- not bad considering the size of the family ....

I just added another month to my card after getting the two outstanding 'easy pays' taken care of and some of the other spending I've done thinking I could pay it all off before Feb.

Actually I can't totally blame them -- I should have paid closer attention -- but since I hadn't chosen the option myself I didn't think it would kick in. It didn't cost extra to get it or use it ... but when I'm thinking that I've paid off a bill and suddenly there's a new charge the next month for outstanding fees -- its frustrating.

I don't want to take from savings to cover it -- that's the emergency funds ... if anything happens to hubby that's what me and kids have to make the house payments with until I can get a good paying job. It was hard enough to take funds out to buy a new-used car since the other one became a "Flintstone's car" ... it had to be done.

now its back to absolute necessities for me now ... until about May (have to be able to get stuff for son's bday -- I'll skip mine)

So ....

No KnitPicks

No Herrshners

No QVC for a while (except for the two autodelivery programs, but that may get turned into just one here soon ... we'll see)

No Nothing.

crap. still I guess its not as bad as some have it. I just hate losing control of these type of things.