To pay attention to the things that are going on. I’ve spent much of my career getting paid on set days of the month. I’m currently paid biweekly. Many people may not be concerned by this, but all my bills are set up for certain days of the month. So when I’m stressed, or distracted — as I have been lately it means I forget that things are going on. Sigh. There’s a very very good reason why my bills were set up as automatic payments and were set to be withdrawn on the day after payday — it always meant that things were paid and I didn’t have to stress about bills. Which worked well, when paid on set days of the month. Currently, and most likely in the future, I am (and will be) paid biweekly, which means I need to have a different strategy in place.
I don’t know what that is, long term. Arg. Calendar alarms can help, but aren’t ideal. For this time, I forgot to pay my car insurance. This means I need to just pay the rest of the payments out and remove the monthly bill from my list. Also, I just received my hydro bill, and having had to buy a new heater last fall, because my building doesn’t have decent heat (though it’s supposed to be included in my rent) — so that I don’t freeze — means that my electrical bill has gone up. BC Hydro has also gone to a two tiered system, so that higher usage means higher rate, so I was dinged by that too.
This means that I am seriously frustrated by finances at the moment. Some of it is frustration at my own lack of organization due to headspace. Some of it is annoyance at my building for not giving decent heat to me. Some of it is annoyance at the constant reminder that I had to take a big paycut to take the job that I have, which makes anything related to finances extra annoying. Some of it is fear and frustration that I may have to deal with more financial stress — depending on the path I choose.  Some of it is frustration that I have to take care of all of this myself.
This doesn’t help with my grumpy-sick mood that I am in right now.  When will something give??? Grumble.