Boy, there's no easing into the New Year. After the kids being off for 10 days and me spending a quiet week at work, I thought I could ease back into the craziness that is my life. No such luck, two feet in the pool!

I'm doing well with the spending plan so far. The one glitch is that we got the final bill from the landscaper from last fall and it's legitimate, but higher than I thought it would be. I really want to get off on the right foot with the Freedom Account, so I don't want to start borrowing money from one account to pay that bill. I'll have to think about that one a bit.

I received the checks for the two book sales, as well as the $5 Rite Aid rebate and a total of $11.50 in CVS ECBs, for a total of $53.66 to be added to my $20 Challenge, bringing me up to $94.00 so far this month. I have a few rebates to get in the mail over the next few days.

I need to call our auto insurance company. It looks like my rate is going up $150/year, and I'm not sure why (no tickets or accidents). I'm really disappointed about this, and am sure they'll say it's an across the board increase, but I'll make the call anyway.

I should be able to see my 1/15 pay stub any day now, which will give me an idea of what my new taxes and take home will be. I'll spend some time over the next day or so getting my checkbook in order and making sure everything's up to date.

That's about it for now...