Well today we spent a ton of money. We had to get the car inspected, and needed a few thing at BJs. We managed to avoid most of the impulse buys, though I did get some cashews, and we spent over 100, but a lot of that was milk, butter, pepperoni, and graham crackers. No diapers, for the first time in forever! My DD was wearing underwear at the store and she has been doing great, we still need a pull-up for bedtime, but I figure my DS only gave it up when we ran out so she will prolly too. We did get to spend cash cause my mother left us with some. And apparently the check for selling our laptop is in the mail, which is good news. And we will be getting one in the next month or two for selling my sons computer, we sold it to family so it will take some time, but they needed it.

We did it! We made it to the store for only 35 something! Way under the 50 budgeted. course we can mostly thank my mother for buying a few extra things that we wouldn't normally before she left. and laving us with some salmon and steak in the freezer. but hey little victories.

I also got the electric bill for december and it was 50 something, which is under the 60$ that I was aiming for, I find the monthly bills harder to get down, cause you can't see as quickly the payoff. with the grocery store it is easy, I am there every week so I get a good idea of how my budget is doing, with the electric and stuff I don't find out if I am doing good for a whole month after I try a new habit.

Ugh we ruined a chicken the other night, and I so wanted to pitch it and move on, but I did the frugal thing and am making soup. I just want to say, I really hate that! I so hate having to rescue things and fix them. I would much rather do it right the first time, but baring that, I want the financial freedom to toss my screw ups!

I woke up to a cold house, the NC warm January is over, it is COLD! I knew it wouldn't last forever, but now when I have trouble getting laundry done is a bad time.

I also woke up to condensation on the inside of all my windows, I am a bit worried that the moisture will mean mold or something. bad for the windows. But I am afraid to mention it to DH, there has been a rash of bad news latly, he doesn't need more.

Today I have to figure out a way to get more done, time to see how helpful a 2.75 year old can be .

Ok so saving money while sick is more about spending as little extra as possible!

I am trying to figure out how to make food without to much work, thankfully today we have leftover pb no J from packing to the docs yesterday. dinner might be hard as my DH wont be home till laterish today and wont be able to cook much. Not to mention the poor dude is a bit overworked already.

I read about turning the hot water off to save money, I don't think I can go that far, but when I am healthy I think I will turn it down possible without checking with my DH, he shouldn't notice, so long as the showers arn't longer than 30 minutes. he doesn't take as hot a shower as I do so the lower temperature wont bother him as much. I hope.

Well my DD had yet another checkup, the good news is that 20% is still only 18$ for the copay.

The bad news is we went to walmart afterwards. My DS bought himself a bedspread for his new twin bed, and fitted sheet so he now has two sets of sheets. very cool black with grey dragons. We managed to buy some birthday presents, legos on sale. I did manage to keep DH from buying himself any. And we had a gift card for christmas plus my christmas money, so we escaped with no cc bill or check card

Well we found out what our maternity care is, gotta know this stuff. Apparently normal pregnancy care is covered 100% but tests are 80% so as long as nothing goes wrong the next kid is going to be pretty cheap.

My Mom and her crew is gone, so I have a very messy house, and I think my elctric bill jumped about 50$ They left lights on, we used all the computers, they left the door open, and of course there was more cooking.

but the food they bought for us should cancel out. and they took the laptop, and my sons computer. the laptop they will buy and mail us a check, the computer is theirs now, may or may not mail a check, but they already left us money for Christmas so we don't need any. wait we do need it, but wouldn't feel right asking for it.

Unfortunaly I am not in the mood to save right now. I want to lay on the couch, play with my kids, be distracted, and rest, This is not good for the budget, but I need rest.

Mom bought the groceries, so that means we have extra money for next week.

And I am reminded of one of the most annoying things from my childhood. Mom doesn't like free eating of teenagers, like teens can't eat everyone out of house and home. Teens need the food! She used to keep me from food all the time. Drove me nuts! we would go out somewhere and have breakfast before we left (ok I would) then there would be no stops for food till dinner.

I hated that.

Well my mother should be here tomorrow night, she is bringing her exchange student with her, so I will get a taste of feeding a teenager. But the good news is she will be buying my groceries, prolly. So next week I can have chicken!!

Forgot to mention why it will be bad, she is my Mom! no really she isn't that bad, but who wants to tell their mom the house is at 65 cause I can't aford it any warmer? Not to mention she wants her exchange kid to get his own room, an 18 year old who prolly can manage to behave even with restless sleep while I bunk up my two toddlers, one of whome wakes up every time she is uncovered, which will wake up the other guaranteed. So not looking forward to my tired kids.

I mentioned to my husband that we might want to consider selling my sons computer, he is after all only two and he doesn't use it very often, and he is still terrible wiht a mouse, there is no reason he can't play on my computer. I didn't get to great of a reaction unless we sell it to my mom or someone who needs a computer. But I also mentioned selling his laptop, and he can have mine. He actually sonded like it was an option! Only he isn't going to take mine he will share. which is cool it has win 2000 and hat makes you log in anyway, or it sure makes me log in, so he can log in as him and I can log in as me. So now all I have to do is figureout how to sell it, and to who. (or whom? English is not my strong suit)

Well I found an old Excell budget I set up and updated it. So far we have 20$ left at te end of the month - if we spend nothing extra like presents or Dr visits. And that doesn't yet include yearly things like Car Insurance and stuff.

I am so frustrated, I am doing a billion little things, and I managed every big thing I could, and I am still going nowhere. I balenced the checkbook and we are still going the wrong way. Mainly due to every thing we manage to take out is replaced by something new. like a medical bill or the fixed bills going up! Really I am considering canceling the garbage to I can get that 60 some out of the month! Not like a family with two kids goes thru that much garbage each day, only a tall kitchen can every day!

Did I mention I miss chicken nuggets? I miss the convenience of popping them in the microwave and knowing they will be done in 2 minutes, even when I quit using honey on them I still love them. I know it isn't hardly real chicken, but it is good! I am craving chicken nuggets, and we are going to the store monday, hope the craving passes by then.

Now I have done all I am currently willig to do on the electric bill, What next? there is water, gas though I lumped that in with the electric, gas heat and all. so water, and umm thats all that is changable. ouch. I have a set rate for the phone, set rate for garbage, mortgage, car, and insurance. There must be more bills, either that or I am going to have to take a hard look at my long showers.

I had to wash the bathroom rugs again, yet another potty accident. But I felt proud of myself, I hung them over the shower bar to dry, makes my bathroom smell like clean laundry!

Tonight is another trip to the grocery store, and while I still have to make my list, I have high hopes that it will be about 50$ again. After a couple months of 50 I am going to try and go down a little further. Right now I am focusing on putting up with 67 degree house and not going to BJ's.

I made some cinnamon pie last night for the kids to eat, and I will tyr to make more beaten ships buiscuits today for the kids, though my husband ate most of the last ones. (after making fun of me for making what is essentially 'hard tac' the stuff old soldiers ate before there were MREs. (for fantasy readers, that is 'cram')

Unfortunatly for the no BJ attempt, my daughter refuses to tell me when she needs the potty, she will tell her dad, but not me. Which means that we are out of diapers and I don't want to resort to the pullups, so she is in underware and I will be doing alot of laundry for awhile.

Well we took my DD back to the Dr, and even though she looks and acts healthy she still has fluid in the ear. So we have more antibiotics for her, but this time we were able to use Cristmas gift money to pay for the visit and medicine, and since we have new not so good insurance starting in January I am greatful that we have the medicine now rather than next month.

My kids do not complain of pain to often, on the one hand that sounds nice, but in this case it is what allowed my DD's infection to get so bad before she bothered to tell us about it. And even then it was the ear leak that sent me to the Dr, not her minor complaints. So we have advance medicine since the dr, doesn't trust her to tell us if the fluid in the ear takes a turn fo the worse.

truthfully I need to do one, not that I could stick to it just yet, but I need to know how much further I have to go. But I am afraid of it!

We had to take my Daughter to the Doc's yesterday to get her ear checked out. Boy was the doc mad, seems breastfed kids who don't go to daycare arn't supposed to get those. But we had to use her money to pay for the visit and the credit card for the medicine. Sucks. Seems like there is always something. I so hope my son doesn't get it! although he started the flu thing so hopefully he already beat it up.

On a good note, my MIL had a single bed frame in their attic, two actually so we are set for the next time. Now all we need to do is find a mattress for it and my son can have a big bed (he is 45lbs, getting too big for the toddler bed he's been in for a year.) Which means we can put my daughter in a toddler bed now, and save the crib for the next kid, which my husband is avoiding because they cost money. I figure as hard as it may be God will provide if we are careful. besides I like kids!

Also on a good note I found a birthday present for my nephew which is the last thing we absolutly had to buy this year, I still want to find someting for mydad but oh well.

We have been doing rather well at the grocery slashing, so I need to figure out what to do next. I am clueless on what to do tho. The only thing I know is that obviosly the mortgage wont go down. but what can?

She was laughing and smiling and giggling and getting into things! It was awesome for the whole hour I had her, then she turned into the sick kid I've been dealing with for awhile now.

Now we need a thermometer, because my daughter broke the one we have, I have been putting up with a rough guess of fever for 4 days now. I am going crazy! Any mom will tell you that having a sick kid sick for 4 days will do that to you, having a sick kid for 4 days right after having a sick kid for a week is way to much (DS was first now it is DD's turn). And to top it all off there is no working thermometer so my frazzeled brain isn't sure if it is a bad faver or just a fever!

Though tonight she was finnally herself again, for a little bit. It has been so long I had almost forgotten how cute she was! Hopefully after a good nights rest (preferably not in my arms) she will be better.

Well I did it. We decorated the same 1.5 ft tree from other years, but I also packed up 1/4th of the ornaments to get rid of, mostly I didn't know where they were from and didn't like them anyway.

I cried, oh man how I cried when I took that little tree out, but it doesn't cost anything, and it made DH happy.

We also canceled the phone. We need the cell phone for long distance and for travel, but I honestly never use my phone, and if I did need it in an emergency I could always use my neighbors up the street.

Ok I am feeling a little like a squeaky wheel or somthing. the recent journal entrie notice in the 'savings advisor' had two of my entries! out of three! OK I like keeping track of little money things every day, but I am feeling a little silly.

I sent my husband to the store alone last night, I was a little worried but he made it back with only a $55 reciept. pretty good for a weeks worth of groceries. I should trust him more often . Course it helped that I sent him with a specific request to stay under 50 and NO pringles. that and we still have some frozen chicken and ground meat .

Thru my Discovery Toys company I can get a website to sell toys from. Now it comes the first 3 mnths free so I thoughI would check it out and see if I thought it was worth the 20$ to keep open. Well I forgot to cancel it!! so now Ihave a website costing me 20 $ that I havn't even been advertising because I thought it was going to disapear last month!!

On a plus note I found out about it because my cousin ordered her christmas stuff from there, and made me a couple bucks. Now if I can get a couple more people to order I will make my 20 back.

But why is it that everytime I think I am making headway on cutting out stuff something else comes up!!!

Now he doesnt want to get a tree 'cause of a rash of bugs seemingly related to fresh trees. but what do I put all the christmas ornaments on? Last I checked a decent sized fake tree cost close to 100$? I hope that isn't true. The only tree we own is a tiny little topper all of 1.5ft high! I have spent three years not using my ornaments, I want to use them this year! Big Pout

On a plus note I did most of the non tree decorating and managed to get rid of a box full of stuf, with the kitchen stuff still needing done. I figure I can pack better and get rid of one of the boxes. Should save space, if not money .

I work with a MLM selling toys, Ok I take the discount and hook up some friends with toys. But I do have to do some paperwork, and Apparently I need to figure out how to make a part of my house only for DT stuff so that I can deduct it. Problem is, where in a 1100 square foot house to I hide a desk? I mean I have a desk but it is in he living room, I am not ruining what little free space I have here to put up a curtain!

I have to keep thinkin on it. Someway I have to be able to do it.

I hate going to the mall after thanksgiving, not only is it busier even on a Thursday, but it is just plain not convenient. I don't like going looking for 'something' If I knew what I wanted that would be cool. But something for relative A, B and C, and friend D, E, and F is a pain in the butt! Fortunatly that was all we needed. But unfortunatly we only found 2 things, so we will still be headed back again.

On a plus note niether thing was over budget, and I managed to finish my husbands stocking without going over budget either. I didn't get exactly what I wanted but then I couldn't find it.

For starters I am completly incapable of balencing the checkbook, but my husband works so I get the task, not that it saves him any time because he always has to come help me figure out what I did wrong. And I ALWAYS do something, usually multiple somethings, wrong.

Unfortunatly my second trouble is that it never goes up! or anyway my CC payments never go up. And this time is the worst, I had to have money taken out of my account to cover a check, with accompaning fee, I have checks sitting in my desk that could go in to cover the mortgage, but I can't get to the bank to cash them! (no car and my kids can't walk that far, not that I want to either - 5ish miles?).

Now I could tell my husband but it isn't as if he can do anything, or I can keep quiet and feel guilty for keeping it from him.

And to top it all off I have to go to the DR for my daughters one year check up on Thursday and face the choice of either making her pay or using a credit card!

Ok for the longest time I have been feeling alone in my search to save money. My friends and family are the people with cable and constantly growing CC debt with no action. Sure some of them talk about it, and my SIL even uses cloth diapers when she can't afford any disposable s till payday. But A they are expensive disposables, and B she had 6 bucks for DR. Pepper, and beer.

Anyway I can babble to my hearts content on this journal and feel connected to the savings world!

Now I have to go eat breakfast and try not to feel guilty about starting a load of laundry in my energy wasting washing machine, which will then be put into my old but working dryer, again a cost I chose to pay. (while complaining about other people wo chose DR perpper. bit mean of me ain't it?)