It's back to work tomorrow. I thought the kiddies had to go back to school as well, but they don't go back until Wednesday, so they'll hang with hubby tomorrow.

I made good use of my day. I made a ton on meatballs and sauce, enough to have tonight for dinner, and freeze 4 more meals for the family. I cleaned out the fridge and inventoried the pantry. One of my goals for 2012 (always) is to eat out less and plan meals. That'll be much easier now that I know what I have! I also did a few loads of laundry that had been neglected.

Money-wise, I did some spending, but all of it is in the budget. I ordered the kids' lunches at school, got DS's haircut, picked up dry cleaning, and got our weekly allowance from the ATM. I also ordered a discounted gift card for Staples, which I'll use to pick some things up later this week. And I went to the gym, for the first time in months!!

I try to buy discounted gift cards whenever possible. The Staples gift card was 5% off, and I recently picked up a PetSmart for 10.2% off. There are a number of different, reputable sites out there, and they offer quite a variety of cards. If you're interested, check out cardpool .com, plasticjungle .com, or giftcardrescue .com. We recently bought new carpeting from Home Depot, and I paid for that using gift cards that were 8% off.

I missed out on a coupon opportunity at the dry cleaner. I picked up $46 worth of dry cleaning. When I dropped it off, I gave the kid a 10% off coupon. He was a bit flustered and didn't apply it. I realized too late (note to self - check receipts). If the owner had been there when I picked it up today I would've asked for it, but it was another kid, so I didn't bother. So I missed out on $4.65.

I have 14 books and 2 DVDs to get in the mail tomorrow. I still need to take the pictures for the Ebay items and update half .com.