The kids had a sleepover at grandma's last night, so today I got to sleep late, read the paper in bed while drinking my coffee, clean out two closets and do 5 loads of laundry. I also got my hair cut and colored, but the thunderstorms around here (due to the 100 degree heat) caused a power outage at the salon, so they couldn't blow dry my hair, which saved me a couple of bucks.

We've decided that we're going to need to break down (no pun intended) and get a new car. The one that was fixed still sounds a bit off, and we agreed it's time. So my job now is to figure out how big a down payment we can handle and shop around for loans. Also, we got the gas bill after our first actual meter reading in months, and we're about $500 over our budget billing, which they review in November. Although we can probably bring it down a bit, our monthly bill will probably be going up come November. I'm hoping it will be offset by the gains we've made on our electric bill.

Also, after reading Kashi's last entry, I dropped Laura (Frugal Texan) an email letting her know that her savingadvice.com friends were thinking of her, and hoping she was doing well. Coinciidentally, I had thought of her the last time I was on. This money stuff is so challenging, that anytime I get into reading someone's journal then they go away for a while (or permanently) I hope it's not out of discouragement or frustration. I think the support on this site is great, and just wanted to let her know we were thinking of her...

I'm off to Edmunds.com to do my car research.