Cash Crunch

No matter how well you plan there are always times when you feel flush with cash - and other times when your cash flow is crunched.

I'm in crunch mode currently. Many others probably are as well. This month is a long month - one of those where 2 paychecks has to stretch over 31 days (and 5 weekends!). Not to mention that one of them is a holiday weekend. I don't have plans for Memorial Day, but many folks are taking trips, or at least will be spending more having cookouts, going to the lake, or just going out for a few extra meals.

But I'm dealing with some unique financial outflows which all happen to converge in May:

This happens to be the month when I am dealing with a tenant vacancy. One tenant paid half rent for May and moved out this past weekend. If I can manage to get it rented by June 1, I'll only be out $375 for the month, but it's still a bit stressful, plus I have to deal with costs like cleaning, changing the locks, etc.

Also, I just got notice of my car insurance renewal premium, which is almost $1,000. I thought I had until late June and actually I hadn't even thought about it yet.

I have to enroll for my next (and last) 2 CFP classes soon. That'll be around $1450 including books - and I won't be reimbursed for the class I'm in now until July (once final grades are back and my company has a chance to process my request).

Oh, and my little sister moved in with me this week so I made a couple of big grocery runs to stock up for her. Add an extra tank of gas this month from carting her around for her interviews, etc last week. And I accidentally paid for our entire $40 lunch today because the waitress swooped by and grabbed the book before she could stick her card in.

I also picked this month to join a new gym as well, and although I got the initiation fee waived I've been charged for the first 2 months up front. AND I had to pay my old gym membership one last time this month.

I should be able to make it through without dipping into savings if I time everything right (though I won't be able to add to savings in June). We'll see!