DH is on unemployment and gets his checks auto-deposited. He has a check coming into the account tmw (wed) morning. In an effort to be more disciplined with our finances, I have recently started to check the bank account every morning. This morning I find our auto insurance payment came out of the account a day early! -- landing us red, and charging us a $40 nsf fee. DH called the bank to ask about possibly getting the fee taken off, as we're on a very tight budget being on unemployment. They wouldn't take the fee off (ok, maybe it was a stretch to ask), but to make matters worse, the insurance payment was larger than the last 6 transactions we made, and wouldn't you know it... they process transactions from largest to smallest. Tomorrow morning, we will have $280 taken from our account in NSF fees and $80 for our car insurance -- $360 total. That's HALF of DH's unemployment check.

And it's all my fault! I haven't been feeling well for a couple weeks and haven't been at the top of my game. It turned out to be an extra paycheck so I was even more lax -- instead of being anal about crunching every penny. I was at Walmart probably 3-4 times a week. I doubled our grocery budget with junk food and take-out. Between DH and I, we blew over $200 on extras (computer games, kids resale, our date out).

I know it's ultimately my fault -- I'm the one who keeps the budget and balances the checkbook. [DH doesn't even know the login information on our internet banking or our bank account number.] Had I just said no to a couple things here and there, we would have been okay with the earlier insurance deduction. I blew extra money ordering this probiotic that I planned to start, and going to the kids resale to look for bday/xmas stuff for DS ($90 together). And I'm the one who told him we were okay for him to splurge on 2 computer games and wine -- $75. I'm the only one who can drive (his license is turned in due to medical reasons), I'm the only one with a debit card/checkbook (his card doesn't work and he can't even get out of the house to buy anything anyhow). So ultimately it is my fault. I'm the one who needs to learn to say NO.

I absolutely REFUSE to have his parents bail us out so months down the road my MIL can remind me of it, just to keep it fresh in my mind. So I'm calling my dad, who will squeeze $400 out of a rock somewhere and never mention it again.

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I'm sorry. I think it's time for and your dh to sit down and have a long talk about your finances.

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Formerly Kimberly75!

I'm sorry for your situation. I know how you feel. To often I have been in a place similar to yours. I try to keep a budget but when there is hardly any money coming in as it is it is so hard at times to stay on top of it because I just get depressed about it.

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I'm sorry you are going through this. I have been there myself. I take care of our finances and have overlooked a few things before, getting us in the red. We have relied on my parents a lot. But we always pay them back and they never, ever mention it!

Ugh, I've had those months (so, so many!) and they are not fun. You feel like you're stuck in mud and just spinning your wheels and there's no one to come tow you out My parents have bailed us out before and thank goodness they have never made us feel bad about it.

What really helped us pull out of it was using cash for everything besides bills that were taken automatically, paid online or mailed with a check. I made a spreadsheet with all of those bills, filled in amounts as I wrote and scheduled payments, then checked each payment off as it cleared. The amount of money we had left after the bills was what we could pull out in cash. That cash was it until the next payday. It really makes you prioritize and realize exactly how much money you have to spend.

Good luck and I hope you're feeling better.

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eeeek! I hate when I mess up. Glad you have your dad to help though, that's a relief

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Think big! Change the world! One A.R.K at a time.

Everybody has screwed up the checking account from time to time. That's one of the reasons Himself and I keep separate accounts. If one of us does make an error, the other can usually cover things in the interim.

If the insurance company took out their payment a day before it was scheduled, I would contact them, and demand that they cover the overdraft. You had an agreement with them that allowed them to deduct a certain amount on a certain day, which they violated by taking it out a day early.

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Actually, I would be calling the insurance company and telling them that they took it out earlier than was supposed too. I would tell them to pay the overdraft fees.

If you can show that they took it out earlier than they were suppose to, in a lot of cases they will cover the overdrawn fees.

Also in some states, it is against the law to take out the funds before the due date.

How did the insurance take the payment out early??

I understand that you all spent more than usual, etc. But you were expecting to have the money on the draw day.

I don't think this is totally your fault.

I would call the insurance company. And if they don't budge, just mention that you can easily contact the Better Business Bureau and that should do the trick.

Good Luck.

I am so sorry. It sounds so stressful. I agree with Ruthie on this one. It's the insurance companies fault. They had no right and no permission to go into your bank account on a day you didn't authorize and take out money. I would be contacting them about making it up to you in missed fees.

And it makes me so angry at big banks who use these types of situations to their advantage to charge billions of dollars in overdraft fees every year. To process transactions from smallest to largest to make more money for them is unethical.

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity