Natasha's spending information was coming in bit and pieces but if she is not constantly reminded to send it then it does not arrive for a few days. It's nearly a week behind, but that's pretty much par for the course.

Waiting around for the last 3 or 4 weeks hasn't gotten her any closer to getting a grip on spending, so I have decided to provide her with a budget based on the very limited information I have. But budgeting, or cash flow management as I prefer to call it, will only have a reasonable chance of succeeding if the person is primarily involved in putting it all together. This usually means they have thought about how much they really need to spend on certain items and perhaps more importantly, how much they CAN'T spend on certain things if cash flow simply does not allow it.

I can feel the shift in Lori's perspective now that the budget numbers are looking better and I can sense her confidence building along with her account balance. I was relieved to discover the childcare reimbursement deductions were already being deducted from her pay and that we could 'add' that money back in to her budget. I know Lori wants to increase her self-employment income by a client or two each month so that she has some additional room in her budget, but I am more concerned that Lori still find some time each week for herself than I am in the $100-200 in monthly cash that work may bring.

What a roller coaster week with the numbers.

Derek and I talked last week about the budgeting and he put together several excel spreadsheets for me to take a look at. I didn't have them in front of me when we talked, but I wasn't thrilled to hear him tell me that the bottom line was that ends would not meet. There was over $500 in short fall. I promised I'd look through things -- and I did.

At first, it appeared there was over $500 shortfall in the budget. So, of course, my mind starts spinning: "After all this, I finally get a job and I STILL can't make ends meet?" and "I'm making more than I ever have and it's still not enough?" Which emotionally translated into: "I'm not enough" and I got VERY discouraged.

One concern that did come up for me: When we discussed the financial counselors, Leah told me there were a few other bills of Eric's that she hadn't mentioned because apparently he hadn't been paying them. She said she planned to tell me about those when we met in person, back in November, but we hadn't gotten to it. It worries me that even with weekly phone calls, Leah felt she had to wait until we saw each other face to face to mention those bills. I hope there aren't other secrets. Financial planners can help the most when EVERYTHING is out on the table.

I've asked to see the stripped-down budget that she and Eric came up with over last weekend and, again, Leah stated that, with her debt payments, it was impossible to live off of Eric's pay. I know that! That's why my plan took the debt payments out: I want all of Leah's unemployment to go towards debt, and then they should be able to live off of Eric's pay.

I finally started receiving spending information from Natasha -- just over a week's worth of activity tracking. I was starting to hope that this would be the most productive week so far. But then, the daily emails of her spending stopped toward the end of the week.

The week was very tough on Natasha's wallet because a few issues arose that resulted in a lot of spending. All told, she spent about $650 in cash during that week.