Well...my step daughter is officially a high school graduate. Yeah. We took the "suggested item" list from the college and split it up over my family. Between everyone, she managed to get almost everything on the list!! It included everything from laundry detergent and an ironing board to power strips and a microwave. She has also gotten over $1000 so she should be able to cover what is left.


I went to get my car inspected yesterday and it FAILED. The mechanic at my work looked at a couple of things before I went, and so we think the system got reset. So I will have to drive a little bit before I can take it again. I have 15 days. I also had to buy windshield wiper blades. I budgeted for the inspection but not for wiper blades. They were $20!! But I should be able to scrape by.


Tuesday was a horrible day at work. Had a person that was not my boss "get on to me" and basically tell me all the things I was doing wrong. It was insulting and done in a very unprofessional way. So my boss called me today to talk about it. I explained how I felt about it and he made me feel better about the situation. He also said he would address it with the jerk bag. The whole thing has really had me in a funk the last few days. I have been in a negative mood. I have been short with my husband and distant to others. And I have surely neglected my house. It looks like a disaster...which will only make it harder for me the next few days. But I am glad that it was addressed and hopefully I can start to feel a little more positive.

Odd....2md post in one day!!

Somedays I feel like I have too much food. Somedays I feel like I do not have adequate amounts. Anybody else have this problem? The grocery store is the one place I can blow my budget! I have said it before....I can always convince myself that I need more cleaner or food or snacks or whatnot.

So I made a grocery list. Scaled down from what I normally do. My budget is $70:

Milk - 4.00
Cokes - 5.00
Bread - 3.00
Baking Potatoes - 2.00
Toilet Paper - 7.00
Paper Plates - 3.50
Ground Beef - 4.00
Cornbread - 1.00
Vitamins - 6.00
Block of Cheese - 3.50
Little Debbie Snacks - 2.00
Lemonade - 3.00

Total - 44.00

Should I cut out the meat and cornbread and just see if I can make it without it? I haven't done a food inventory so I have no idea what all I have. My list doesn't seem too extravegant to me. But maybe we can do with less??

I am only working a half day today and I'm off tomorrow. We are having an event at our shop tonight. Then tomorrow we have a program/chapel service for step daughter's graduation. Then graduation is Saturday. I cannot believe she is graduating high school. It has been an expensive year!! And on Sunday we are having a family dinner at a nice restaurant downtown. (With money set aside. )


I know the expenses aren't over yet. We still have to get her set up in her dorm room. But after that...hopefully the expenses slow down some.

Thank you all for your comments yesterday. Luckily we only got heavy rain. The hail and winds fizzled out, which is just fine with me. We have no rain in our forcast for at least a week. For that I am grateful!


Some of my numbers changed. CC #3 is finally under $200! Its at 193.92. And my student loan is finally under $3000 (barely). Its at 2988.88.


Here is my money plan for Friday:

Gas - $60
Groceries - $70
Household Account - $50 (Putting back for mtg pmt)
Dining Out - $20 (Jar Money)
Cash - $20
Pet - $10 (Jar Money)
House - $20 (Jar Money)
Holding for bills - $110
Savings - $30
Other - $10 (Jar Money)
Step Daughter Graduation Money - $20
Loan - $40
Car Inspection - $40

Leaves me with $6.
________________________________________________

Cash Left:

Dining Out - $30
Rx - $20 (Jar Money)
Grocery - $15 (Jar Money)
Wallet Cash - $8

I'm hoping if I still have money at the end of the week I can apply it to something.

For those of you that don't know, I live south of the DFW area. Close to where the last tornadoes hit. Today, we are all preparing to be hit by the storms coming from Oklahoma. We are all under a tornado warning already. My work is actually letting us go home early to prepare and because we work out of a trailer/temp building. This weather has been overwhelming to say the least. Our thoughts are with the Texans that are still recovering from the last tornado and with our neighbors in Oklahoma dealing with the devastating tornado that just hit.

The tornadoes that just hit Texas were about 15 miles from my house. We were slammed with large hail and high winds, but luckily we are all safe and we did not have any damage. As for our neighboring cities....they have been devastated by this horrible storm. Situations like this make me scared. Sure, I am scared of the weather itself. But I am more scared of the financial turmoil. We have $1000 in savings. I am overwhelmed with the thought of how quickly that can be blown away.


I am just left with the thought of how do I save and pay off debt and prepare for the future when there is only so much money coming in. Maybe its all just too much food for thought right now.

I cleaned out my purse last night. It had gotten really heavy...and I wasn't sure what all was in there. Well, I ended up finding $6.40 in change!! That is a lot of change. I just dumped it all into the change jar.


I also got my Ebates check yesterday. It was $11.37. So I sent $10.00 to CC#3 today. I will be able to send a little bit on Friday too. It will finally be under $200!

Well, my grocery store visit didn't go exactly as planned. Although I didn't cave in to all my wants, I did buy the dog bones. But everything was a little more expensive than I had planned. But, I still came home with $15.00 dollars. I could have gotten my wants, but it was better to keep the extra money.


I still have in cash:
14.00 - my cash
30.00 - dining out (jar money)
50.00 - RX (jar money)
2.00 - left from fuel (jar money)
So not too bad.


Saturday I cleaned ALL DAY. I didn't go to work at our shop just so I could commit to cleaning. And I cleaned every room except my office, which I hope I can tackle today after work. I have a lot of paperwork that I need to catch up on. And Sunday went great. My mom's lunch was a success. I made plenty of food and everyone liked it. It was nice to see that I could make really good food for about $30 for 6 people, including dessert. Then my husband surprised me with a movie and a gift card and the sweetest card. It was really nice to feel special.


Hope everyone else had a great weekend and a Happy Mother's Day. I'm ready to make it through this week.

I've made a list for the store today. I need to buy all the fixings for our surprise Mother's Day Lunch and there are a few things we need at the house. I am going to try to buy very little. I have $70 budgeted for the house and $20 for Mother's Day, but I am going to try to only spend $43 on us. But there are some things I would really LIKE to get at the store, including: some dog treats, a couple of dog toys, and some chips and dip. It comes out to about $17.00 worth of WANTS. I could buy them and still be in my budget. Or I could NOT buy them and have $27.00 left. I don't know that I can adjust the list to be able to buy the wants. The list is pretty much just what I need. I will just have to do without.

Friday will be my first payday with the new insurance deductions kicking in. (401K increase already started) So after raising my 401K % and adding 2 AFLAC policies, I will actually get 0.13 more a paycheck. After talking to my AFLAC rep, we found a lower cost cancer policy, so I went with that and the critical care. So all in all, I feel like I made the right decisions. My 401K will build faster and I won't take a hit in my purse.


Yesterday was a NSD. Still have all my cash. Ready for tomorrow so I can look at the budget and plan out the week.

Well, I have done pretty good. Although I think next week will be hard, especially since I need to budget in Mother's Day.


So far I still have the following in cash:
$20.00 - from pet sitting
$2.00 - left of my $22.00 for fuel
$2.00 - Leftover from week before
$20.00 - left of the $40.00 I had for dining out.


I also saw that I have an Ebates check coming. I think it is for about $11.00. I plan to send that to CC#3.

I have been battling some sort of cold/allergy/crappiness for days now. I can't breathe, so I can't sleep. And now I have this irritating cough. Nyquil and Dayquil are not helping...so I need to try something else. But I pretty much feel like doodoo.

To add to my day, my husband had a blowout on the way to work. And the lock on the wheel broke, so we couldn't put the spare on. Luckily our insurance had free towing for up to 15 miles and he was only 3 miles from our house. Too bad the tire won't be free.

Here is my money plan for the week:

Starting with $1340.73 (After deposits)
Gas - 50.00
Mtg pmt (reg pmt amt $1024) - 1150.00
Savings - 25.00
Loan - 50.00
CC#3 - 20.00
CC#1 - 15.00 (Minimum due)
Forgotten Hospital Bill - 25.00

I am left with $5.73

I also have:

20.00 Cash - for Pet Sitting
20.00 Cash - for Dining Out
20.00 Cash - for Dining Out - not used last week
22.00 Cash - for Fuel
2.00 Cash - leftover

I would like to pretend like I don't have any cash, but I am sure something will come up.