Mistakes were made...

I know I skipped my weekly Budget Ronin Fianancial Showdown last week. I think I was turned around from having to make up for one from the week before. But rather than try to make up and miss another, I 'll just plan to start up again on time. There is, however, a hitch. I'm on the road again for business, so I don't have all my receipts to catch up on. Nor do I have all my Budget Ronin tools and implements of destruction.

So I'll probably do the next WBRFS next friday. Right now this is me setting myself a calandar reminder

OK. Reminder is now set.

So... what's been happening since the big reveal last post? More typically good things. We recieved a notice back from two of our creditors that we had not only finished our debt repayment, but that we had actually paid over by a significant amount. After a quick call or so, we now have two refund checks in the mail. Sweet Victory is even sweeter!

We're going to sink that money into eliminating Budget Naginata's overdraft debt that I highlighted a few weeks ago here in the 2nd Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. That will put us more square with our finances and take one more card off the table. We are then looking at a better place to start a new account that we will both use.. Advantage: Budget-Clan.

Naginata has gotten some great freelance work, and we're on track for everything. For a change, I have nothing but good fiancial news to report.

I'm on my expense account, so I will be eating craptacularly well today, enjoying every meal. I will probably do another update before the week is out.

I have something else on my mind, but I'm not sure I have the time and/or focus to go into it now.

There and Back Again: A Ronin's Tale.

I was out of the office all last week. In fact, I was on the road for a training seminar to help make me better at what it is that I do... for my job, that is. All the snappy one-liners and clever pop references you get in my blog is more of a talent, not really my career (damn my luck). So I got a budget and a cash advance to take care of my foods. I had to account for everything I bought/ate and turned in expenses at the end of the trip. As you might imagine, not so tough given the goals of this challenge. The goal was to spend pretty much everything that I budget and not to go over, because I don't want it to come out of my pocket. How close did I come? Twenty four dollars ($24). I went over budget on the last night out.

To be fair, I submitted my expense report to cover and I will be reimbursed my $24, so it all works out in the end.

I got to eat pretty much wherever I wanted, whatever I wanted and it was paid for. The downside was... uh... I don't make very good decisions on what to eat in situations like that? Yeah, I pretty much planned on heartburn and gas for the entire week. Surprisingly, it turned out better than I thought: no rumbly stomach, no long turns on the loo (that's me being all continental). Budget Naginata feeds me more healthy food than I ever managed on my own (I still contest that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner is a meal unto itself), so I wasn't sure if a week of primal Ronin would do my body good. At the very least, I don't think it's done my body too much wrong.

Inasmuch as I hated being away from Budget Naginata and Budget Edamame all week long, I did enjoy the virtual reward of splurging on my meals during that time out. I don't know why that's really a reward, I mean I had to sit through hours of class for it and travel uncomfortably away from home. The ride up and back was uncomfortable, the hotel room was actually pretty nice. I even had had room service delivered in my underware (to clarify: I was in my underware, not the room service folks), which is how I like it.

Some of the other people I met in the class went out more at night, saw some movies and enjoyed entertainment. I adhered to the challenge, though, and avoided all other spending, which was tough to do with direct peer pressure, but I did manage.

I'm back to the hardcore grind now and missing my discretionary budget, but it's good to be back home and back to the challenge. To celebrate, I bought gas for the Budget-Mobile and the Budget-Truck: $35.04 and $20.01 respectively. I also got to spend all weekend with my family, which turned out to be a lot more fun than buying gas.

Oh... And my truck is broken again. I'll post about that in a bit.