My five dollar mistake

 

Do you ever feel like your finally making progress and then something happens that sets you back?  Well that’s how I felt when starting this blog. I thought I’m finally organizing my thoughts and will be more on top of things both personally and financially.  This is only my second post and I’m almost embarrassed to share this but I had an NSF.

Just to contextualize a little, this is from a girl that has had the mindset NSF’s are avoidable silly mistakes and usually show serious financial irresponsibility.  Although I would never tell someone that, I know that I’ve thought it a few times.  I usually budget each dollar and know exactly where it is going. In fact, I can be downright compulsive when it comes to checking my budget and bank accounts.  This past week I have not been as diligent as usual. This infuriates me for so many reasons, mostly because it was such an avoidable mistake but also because:

·         The fact that I was only short by five dollars?!!!

·         The fact that I casually lent  someone  $60  just days before and I wouldn’t have done this if I only looked at my balance

·         The fact that I had money in my savings account that could have easily been transferred over to cover this oversight.

Lessons my five dollar mistake taught me?

I decided I had a choice, a choice to get upset or look at it as an opportunity to learn and grow.   I decided to choose the latter and look at what I can do differently going forward.  I learned I still had a long way to go and that there will be bumps in the road but I need to stay on course.  It will be worth it.  It was also a humbling experience and I hope it will help me to be more compassionate to others experiencing financial hardships.  I also mandated that from now on I will always double check my bank balances when I have bills coming out of my account. 

After all this learning and with my new perspective  I was still feeling a little disheartened about having to pay the $45 NSF fee so I decided to do one more thing.  I decided to call my bank!  I figured what’s the worst that could happen?  They could say no and I would have wasted 20 minutes on the phone so I decided it certainly couldn’t hurt to try.  I took the direct approach and didn’t give any excuses. I explained I made a miscalculation and it was my fault and asked if there was anything she could do to help me.   She advised that they normally don’t do this type of refund but for “good will” they would do it this one time for me.  I couldn’t believe it!  I think I learned my most valuable lesson at that point.  You need to ask or try.  Sometimes we just need to put it out there, we will never know what we’re missing out on simply because we didn’t ask or say anything.