My wife’s 2nd to last paycheck arrived last night via direct deposit. We were expecting it to be somewhere between $1,000 and $1,100. It ended up being $1280.88! That extra cash is a God sent at a time when cash is critical.

One element of our finances that we have never included in our balance sheet is our checking account balance. This number fluctuates each month, depending on our expenses, and is not worth tracking in our balance sheet. With my wife currently searching for a new job, this number is important given that we’re much more focused on managing our cash flow.

We typically keep a few hundred dollars above and beyond our normal monthly expenses in our checking account. This “extra” money is usually somewhere between $300 and $600. Whenever this “extra” money gets higher than $600, it is moved into our online savings account.

Thankfully, it looks like we will have somewhere between $500 and $600 “extra” in our checking account at the end of August. This will help greatly as we manage our cash flow during my wife’s job search. In fact, our cash situation is looking so strong that, with reducing expenses and receiving unemployment benefits, we should be able to get well into October before having to resort to tap into our saving accounts.

That is a very good feeling.