This time for SIL, we know what we want to get her, but I would also like to make her something but she doesn't eat cake, or anything sweet, and we have no ingredients for ice cream, not to mention in this heat there is no way it would make it to her house .

hopefully I will be inspired at some point today.

humph I know I should think about it, or well about DHs, SAHMs don't retire, the job just leaves. Anyway I would love to, but I can't, I am still back at getting rid of the CC . Got the bill and while it went down a good bit last month, I was depressed thinking it will not have such a huge drop for a long time .

well cooked lunch and discovered my parents don't eat as much as my 3 year old, and their adoptive kid didn't eat a bite (which was likly due to the fact that he was chowing in the car on the way)

and then for dinner the kid kept poking my DS with his chopsticks so DS didn't eat anything. Leaving us with a hungry kid and lots of food. Well lots of food is better than no food and it is all cooked, reheat and eat .

that thread about the Microsoft dude got me thinking, what do I want by the time I am 40?

First I am old! 40 isn't that far away, I am already halfway there! Ok so Im not that old, but halfway to delivery of a baby is cool, halfway to 40 is ugh.

Anyway what I want, not much, to be debt free including the house and car, though I imagine it will be a different car unless we have no more kids. (we have a sedan, seats 3 kids, pregnant with my third kid .)

Pretty modest goal, but I am not sure we will make it . We have the CC to pay off, then this car to turn around, then the house. Which at our current rate will be paid off in almost 30 years (30 year loan minus 3 years) Which is a loooooong time, even if we pay off the cc and start adding 100 to the house it still wont reduce the time by that much .

So much for staying home . We went to Discovery place, a bit more than we needed to spend, but if I am going to splurge I want to do it on fun/educational stuff. Ran about 30$ for admission and parking (sigh in pgh parking is free and the center is bigger) But the kids had a lot of fun and so did we.

Then DH decided to splurge on food, we usually get a 'reward' for finishing the peanut butter sandwhiches, but this time DH got a whole hamburger meal, and two chicken nugget meals, on the up side it was a LOT of food, we didn't manage to finish the fries, and we have some sandwhiches to use tonight when we go to the skating rink. (I know more of a splurge, but fun and kindof educational)

Today is Thursday, we always have errends or something to do on Thursday. BUt not today, no idea how we managed it, but since we went to BJs on Sunday we don't even have to go there!

Groceries were a little over 30, not to bad, much better than it has been.

Kittens actually stayed out all night, so we have hope they will revert to outdoor cats, like they are supposed to be. Fire is the one who decided they should stay out so she can't get mad at us.

For DHs birthday BIL got DH some grill tools, so DH was in the mood to grill, so even though we were just there(and had I known they had propane I would have tried to remember to put it on the usual Thursday list .)

Anyway we got milk and a few other things on our list so we could hopefully avoid going next Thursday, unfortunatly we have to find ceiling fans for the kids rooms, no one can stand to be in them for very long, kindof puts a damper on sleep .

DS did his first ever homework last night!!!!!!! My boy is growing up! He did a great job and did it all independantly and everything. Ok so Daddy had to help him figure out that the picture of a firecracker bursting was 'pop' but DS wrote it all and everything. I could even read it .

Oh money wise, I sent a lot of money to the CC leaving us with only 300$ for groceries for 3 weeks, sounds fine, but lately we havn't been doing that well, so we might me squeaking by then. But I thought about leaving more and decided since nothing else seems to be bringing the groceries under budget, maybe a lack of money will.

That will be the last big drop for the CC for quite awile, we used up what we are willing to of our savings, and have cut out everything we could. We also sold most all what we are willing to (a laptop and a computer) so we are going to have to pay the CC off for quite some time .

Got it, it is sligfhtly smaller than DDs old version, and much better looking, but the important part it has no cross bar, so I feel safer about her in the car now. We stuck the old one in the box (sortof) and are going to dump it in a dumpster, guess if it isn't safe for my DD I don't want anyone else using it.

We also had to buy kitten food, apparently they are starting to eat something, and unfortunatly they are starting to need a litter box, I hate PTing kids, and now I have kittens in need of help! ugh, fortunatly Fire (the mom) is relativly good about it, we just have to keep cleaning up the misses, so that they don't smell like litter boxes.

The major purchase of the day, a new carseat. Hopefully we can find one safe but not to big, and really cheap! OK mostly cheap.

I managed to do some weeeding last night, I am not a gardeners, right after I came inside I was reading a mag and it had a picture of poison ivy, all broad leaves look alike to me, so I really hope tiny ivy doesn't make you itch.

Also DH got another shelf up in the garage, he was talking about some other project, and we are keeping a list of stuff we need to get, but I don't want to buy anything until we finish what we have supplies for, meaning less clutter in the garage, and les money spent now (spent later)

about a bazzillion dollers

We had to get printer ink, ugh. We buy it at BJs to save money but that means a 3 pack, so it was almost 50$ (whichi is better than 60, 20 *3)

We also got some meat that we have a rebate for so hopefully we will be getting a 20$ check back for that.

Unfortunatly I discovered I need a new car seat, apparently the cross bar in DDs old one is about as dangerous as the sterring wheel for a driver, only her head is more likly to come in contact than her chest, not so cool. plus it is old and plastic apparently degrades, not cool either.

Got the CC bill last night. the intrest was dramatically less since last month due to the huge amount we put in, gonna do it one more time then it is back to piddling around with slightly more than the minimum

I kicked DH to the garage and he weedeated around the house, put up a shelf and a half, and goofed off with the cats, so we all were lazy but him (that was all during naptime, so the rest of the day he was lazy too)

Today is Monday, and today I have to err, nothing, I love my life . Actually I am going to try and get bills taken care of, hopefully I wasn't to terrible on my groceries estimate for the month and there is something left to pay the bills with.

While I have no intention of spending money I was kindof hoping to come up with some ingenious gift I could make for DH, and nothing nada zip. but I am going to plan on a nice evening with no computers, hopefully baby3 will cooperate for me.

Why are men so hard to 'make' for?

Actually that is backwards, first was the Drs for DD 18 months so we got lots of shots, but now we are all done till she is 4! I am happy about that. Unfortunatly I had to argue wiht the billing lady to even get her to check about the mistakes in the copays and then she would only check the one I had the insurance statement on me for. I really hate that I have to hunt up all the insurance statements since January to make sure they arn't billing us all wrong, by our guestimates we have enough credit from overpaying each visit for today to be free but she would only look at one visit so we only got 6$ off. Not cool at all.

Then we went to the Library, quick stop still owe 9$ from before I knew about online renewal, and got 15 more books, then the mall for packed pb sandwiches, and fries (the fries are the reward for finishing the hated pb, well hated by me)

Then it was off to starwars, really a spur of the moment decision, we never go see new movies, but we really wanted to see the Starwars while on the big screen and since DD was asleep we figured it would work, we were only slightly wrong. And we used our aniversary money so no actual out of pocket. Sortof.

THen DS reminded us we stil had to go to BJs, but the good news we were a little over 50, which included cat liter and cat food (stray had kittens and wants us to kitten sit, ugh, but cute)

All told and expensive day, but mostly neccessary or worth it. (though dude is too short to be Vader)

So there was nothing in the closet, had to go shopping, found the gift (DS picked it out) for 9$ perfectly in our range, but then you have to add the 3$ bag (forgot one from home) 1$ for tissue paper, (again forgot) and 4$ for the card (forgot to get kids to make one) Hate last minute shopping.

We also got suckered into two starwars cereals, not like we don't eat them, but they are more expensive than toast, or english muffins or bagels (our usual fare)

plus salsa that we needed (I aam no good at making it) and some new kind of pringles (that we didn't need) and some old kind for me since there is no way I was making it much onger without food (and forgot to pack) oh and a christmas preasent for DS or DD, good price and on sale. And water shoes, not on sale, not a great price, but very important around here (DS's shoes have already been waterlogfged twice from washing the car.)

Then on the way home (late of course) we had to stop for food (which we should have packed knowing we would be late), cranky parents, and sleeping kids, drove around in a circle to let them sleep (DS needed it to make up for the hockey game) so we were even later for dinner, got burgers for 17$

all told my oh so frugal gift of 9$ cost us 70$! (BTW she liked it)

my niece had her birthday on Friday and we are headed there this afternoon to give her her gift, which we havn't found yet, thru the whole month I keep telling DH to go shopping in the closet to see if there is anything for her, legos on sale from after christmas, and some DT stuff. but nope not yet. So hopefully there is actually something there for her or we will be doing the last minute shopping thing that I hate.

We bought the stuff for shelves in the garage eons ago, and DH finally cut them and got rid of the bed in front of the shelf space in the garage last night BIL toted it off, guess he has space to store that kind of stuff, and he does have houseguests that are eventually supposed to get their own place. When they do they have a counch end tables a bed and lamps . What is left in the garage is some stuff that makes a 'house' for the kittens, and a highchair/swing that we may or may not use for baby3 (it is huge) and a couple boxes for the good will, then we can finally put the car in the garage! (it was in once when we first moved, once and only once.)

I also washed the car and waxed the roof, I know I know the whole car needs it, but I don't have time to do the whole thing, I managed to do the roof and rainx the windshield. Hopefully I will have toime to go back out today or at least within the week and do another section (flyladys babsteps is really helping me accomplish big tasks flylady.net/)

Went to the store a new one cause they had beef on sale for less than 2$ a lb (my pregnant criteria) Decided we really prefer our store more, better prices on most everything but the beef. Oh and the lettuce we got was priced on the sign at 99cents, but according to the checkout lady it was really not on sale till Firiday. Why on earth they would put the sign up when it wasn't on sale is beyond me, and if I wern't in such a hurry (always in a hurry with 2 kids) I would have argued that the manager make it the sale price. As it is DH and I are much to nice to stores.

Now DH and DS are at BJS picking up some milk and such, I have high hopes that the total for the week will be around 50$ a start at making up the previous weeks total of 140.

Well the stray we feed broiught us kittens on Mothers day, she wanted them in the house but we don't have a litter box and don't want one, nor do we want to be getting up in the night to let a cat in and out. So we let them in for the day but put them in the garage with the door propped so she could get out at night. This morning I woke up to find one dead kitten laying in a pool of blood. Not cool and not easy to explain to my 3 year old.

Electric, water, and Gas, cutting the bill is frugal, green and I've been supposed to do all the stuff my whole life, lights and water off, fridge closed, unplug stuff, heat down, etc.

Phone I don't have/don't want all the neccessities of life, use the callerID on the cell, which we use so we can have a phone in pgh, not exactly a neccessity, but if we have to have a phone I prefer a cell. It doesn't ring and wake kids napping up, does keep track of who called, and can travel.

Cable net, ok pure luxury, but I do use it for email (keeping me off the phone) savings advice and parental reminders (helps to know most parents would gladdly trade their troubles for mine.

Some stuff can't be gotten rid of and can't change, my house, trust me no one is buying it, and needs sewage and waste, which is constant (well rising, but not cuttable by me)

So this leaves food. And that is a true sacrifice, not cutting out pop, DH's done that to a large degree, not cutting readymade snacks, been there done that, but everytime I have a glass of milk I think about the cost. OF MILK! I really don't want my kids growing up thinking we are so broke we can't eat, to broke for movies or eatingout maybe, but for MILK! Ugh. Bad enough we are to broke for steak, much less too broke for any beef. looking at the list of what we bought last week (when we spent double my prefered limit.) it had no real obvious 'fluff'

BBQ sauce, which the kids and DH have on all chicken, which is why they don't mind my lousy cooking,
cheese, which we use on everything,
laundry detergent, already the cheapest brand in the store, plus had a coupon.
Milk, three gallons, that is limiting them
Bread, two loaves, again that is limiting
yogurt, two cases, about two weeks worth, organic, for DDs digestive tract (ped recomended)
chocolate chips, used in trail mix and in DHs yogurt, cheaper than snack cakes
grapes, I really hate limiting fruit
bluberries, ok that is a splurge, expensive fruit there, kids love it
mushrooms, again splurge, but its a vegetable!
onion, again splurge, again vegetable
hot sauce, neccessary to get DH to eat ramen noodles (I did try to get him to switch to cyanne pepper, no luck)

some other stuff but you get the picture, not easly cut out.

err not going so well. I was going to make grilled cheese last night and it turns out the block went bad back in April, gross. (yeah kids and I notice) So I switched to cheese quesadillas, since the kids already saw the cheese (and I already had the griddle hot) good and all, but we used up all the remaining taco shells, which menas I have to make some, I hate making taco shells they never get thin enough and they take forever.

Oh and I tried to make bannanna bread, no idea where my brain was but I put in some baking soda instead of powder (yuck) and did the eggs wrong, and forgot to double the sugar. Not particularly edible.

(get your mind out of the gutters , it is a warehouse store.)

I forgot a few essentials on the list, we have to get a yogurt maker! Then there was the cheese, nice price at less than3$ a lb but still since it is BJs it is a HUGE bag. and the kids eat a lot of cheese, so it isn't going to last as long as I would like. Then the barbq sauce DH had to have, the butter I use constantly around here, and soap cause there was a coupon for it. I told DH and DCs that we will not be going to the grocery store next week, we will only be getting yogurt, milk and bread (maybe eggs). So we are about to find out what is lurking in the pantry.

Oh btw if you search for BJs website, make sure you put in the s!

Ok so I finished balancing the checkbook and was ready to write out the bill for the CC this month. Where did all the extra money come from? I was hoping to be able to make a 100 plus minimum payment but I had enough for 500 plus! weird. I mean half the time I was finding gas totals with no reciept (DH tries but always loses several) and here I am done and find myself with extra loot! I had to use some to send to my Mom to pay for DHs birthday present, hopefully it is what he wanted. And of course we need groceries till next payday, but honestly I had not expected to have that much. I seem to be unable to accuratly predict my money, but at least this is in the right direction rather than the deficit problem.

So we put DS's new bond from grandparents in the lockbox, and found some of the coins we had been keeping, mostly old or forign, prolly not worth much but interesting. I also found a bunch of dollar coins (the newish gold ones) why on earth we used a CC for stuff when we had money sitting there, and not even fancy money! (Ok so there is some fancy stuff too)

Anyway on our new no CC rule we havn't gone over budget except for the dentist in a couple months (well over here and there, but not a deficit) And I hope to keep that up, maybe even improve on it, but I still have the desperation, of I don't know where on earth more money is going to be found. As soon as we get the CC paid off I want to start putting that money away, half for emergency stuff and half for vacation (DS deserves that trip to Washington DC). I just have to convince DH to keep up the frugal stuff without a CC looming over us.

balancing checkbook
I always thought in books and movies how rude it was that the dad was balancing the checkbook and was always sniping at the kids when they came around, now I find myself doing it. I do spend lots of time with my kids so this isn't like the only time I could be with them, but I still feel guilty, something about watching money disapear and finding new gas charges with no reciepts is rather depressing.

OK I don't mind rolling coins, no big you count sort and stuff. Then the reward of seeing how much you have to take to the bank. But money is dirty! and to make it worse somehow there was green icky stuff over ALL of our coins! I spent the first hour washing them so they wouldn't stick so much.

Scrooge I am not, I do not like the feel of money at all! I like knowing we have security, I like knowing we have some for fun, wait we don't. Oh well I HATE touching it!

So I did some calculating and with eating out extra (no fridge or stove to take advantage of) It is looking around 400$ for a two day trip, a lot more than the break even we are used to. DH and I talked and we will only be able to do that once, which will be closer to 500, cause if we are only going once we are going when the renfest is in town whihc means we need an extra day, ugh.

I was thinking buying a tent would be soooo much cheaper, but so far as I know the closes camp grounds are like 2 hours away, and asking DH to drive 2 hours on top of the 7 to get to pgh is just a bit much. Sucks. Remind me when I am a MIL to tolorate anything short of abuse with NO COMMENT!

Well my dreams are vividly real and wierd (pregnancy induced), and last night involved money! First DH gave me a billion things of clothing, including a size 5 pair of jeans!!!! (I am a 6 when not pregnant, but a 12 right now) weird, he is VERY good about getting me clothing, though I often have to get him to stop, I am just like the kids, I wear my fav half dozen things. Anyway in the dream there was also a couple sweat shirts (I only sleep in them, how many different PJs can you own!) And some other stuff I can't remember.

Then their was something about a bank teller friend and her on again off again boyfriend, and the security escort to the car, like the danger stops at the car? (she was carring the money) and of course the wonderful pregnancy hormones give you 'adult' dreams so that had to enter into it, AND the bank lady was acting hormonal and disprganized (classic pregnancy signs) so there was the discussion of that, and some fake non alcholic beer, like who would drink that nasty stuff without the buzz, thats the only reason to down it! (no offense to anyone who likes the taste, I just don't)