Zero Day

This is one of my favorite days of the month. The day when I check all my credit card balances, after my month-end budget requirement of paying off every last penny spent during the month, and seeing $0.00 across the board.

I've had a low-key fall and winter. Very little extra spending. The necessities of life were all I needed while I hibernated (as much as I could) and spent the winter looking ahead and planning out my hopes and dreams list.

It could be the 15th of the month before I had spent a penny. Those credit cards would sit at zero, often until their next statement date, before I started creating my next pay-to-zero-at-the-end-of-the-month total.

Spring has sprung and so has the spending. I'm ready. I have never had money left at the end of the month before EVER before in the history of my memory of budgeting. I've been squirreling away the excess, waiting for this day. The day the hopes and dreams list begin to take on a life of their own.

April was a fruitful month - getting paid for the bookkeeping job that stole a small part of my peace of mind PLUS an income tax refund entirely covered the cost of my shed-so-far. Lovely. 

It feels a little bit heavenly to spend within one's means. Balancing to zero. Squirreling away those "acorns" for future spending projects.

Zero is my favorite number. In the accounting world, balancing to zero is the ultimate goal. All of the time. Remitting a payment for one of the many quarterly or annual payments that were due and receiving the receipt with the number $0.00 in the amount owing box. Checking my credit card balances and seeing $0.00; $0.00; $0.00; $0.00 (yes! I have far too many credit cards - I blame the credit card rewards) across the board.

Paying off a debt and finally seeing the magic number $0.00 as an account balance. There is nothing quite like it.

I'm reminded of a comedian my son once quoted to me. The context of their bit was they worked so hard to pay off their debts and all they have to show for it is "zero".  Zero is good. It is all positive after that point. Or it could be. If we weren't human and already had our eye on the next item on our wish list.

Dad once told me that a person will never be satisfied. You'll think "If I could just get one [next thing] and I'll be set ... but then you'll want the next thing. And the next." It is human nature.

I'm sitting at zero today but that will change in a New York Minute. For this brief moment in the sun, I shall revel in my Zero Day.