Thanks to Akaivyleaf for posting a message about www.ebookdrop.com in one of the forums. Apparently, this functions like a used book store. You enter the ISBN and if they want the book, they tell you right there how much they'll pay for it. They also cover shipping. The upside is that, unlike half.com, you know immediately if you can sell your book. The downside is that, out of a hundred or so books I entered, they were only willing to buy about 10 of them. But I still see this as a great thing, because the prices were at least what I had them listed for in half.com (sometimes a lot more), and at least they're definitely sold and out of the house, while half.com is so hit and miss. Either tonight or tomorrow, I'll actually sell the 10 books, take them out of my half.com inventory and ship them. They send payment to either your paypal account, or a physical check or money order. Thanks again Akaivyleaf!!!

I also mailed out the book I sold last week on half.com. The bummer is that it was supposed to be sent out on Friday via Media Mail. But because we left for vacation early Friday morning, I wasn't able to get it out. I felt compelled to send it out today priority mail, because I didn't want my feedback to take a beating. I ended up breaking even, because Priority Mail cost the same amount that I was getting from half.com for the book and shipping, but at least it's out of the house...

Had a great vacation. Spent way too much money, so my "fun money" account will take a beating when the bill comes due, but it was worth it! We went to the beach, waterpark, boardwalk, etc. and the kids had an absolute blast! Weather was hot, hot, hot, so there was no better place to be. I haven't totalled up the damage yet, but will list it when I do, even though it's coming from this other account.

Other than vacation related stuff, my only other spending since Friday a.m. was the grocery store and chinese takeout yesterday:

Groceries: $77.24
Takeout: $17.10

I needed both desperately after being away for the weekend...

This week looks pretty quiet. We have soccer tonight, if it doesn't get rained out, which usually means ice cream afterwards. Tomorrow we're heading to the town pool with some friends, then work, work, work the rest of the week.

It's feast or famine with this...When I first listed my books, I got a couple of hits right away. Then nothing for weeks, now another sale, this time for $1.75 + shipping. I need to find the book first...it doesn't sound familiar, so I'm sure it's in the pile my sister gave me. I'm going away this weekend, so I don't know if I'll have time to get it out tomorrow (quick turnaround is the one thing I don't like about half.com), so I might need to wait until Monday and ship it priority. Luckily, I seem to be reimbursed more for shipping than the stuff actually costs, and even if it costs a few cents more, it may be worth it. I need to get the first book sent out today.

I've already found one benefit to my new hot water heater...the shower heats up within about 10 seconds. It used to take one to two minutes. I was never disciplined enough to catch the water for plants and the like, so it literally went down the drain. I'm hoping I'll see desperately needed savings on my gas bill over the next few months. I also need to check with my gas company to see if there are any additional rebates because it's an energy efficient model. I doubt it, but it's worth checking...


My last electric bill was a bit of a shock. I'm on a budget billing plan, so each month it's $131. I had worked up quite a credit $164 of what they billed me versus what I had actually spent. I was hoping that when they recalculate my monthly payment in November, it would go down by at least $10. Now I'm not so sure. After a month of using the air conditioning ALOT (it was over 90 degrees for the entire month, or so it seemed!), my credit is down to $90. I know we used the AC a lot this month, too, so it may go down some more, but then I'm hoping to buckle down in September and October to build the credit back up...

Yesterday's spending was not too bad:
Tolls $1.40
Parking $7.00
Prepaid Milk for DD during school year $17.40
Ice Cream Cone $2.00

Total: $27.80 Pretty good, even though I could have done without the ice cream...

I realize what a waste it is to get breakfast and lunch each day at work, but I'm having a hard time bringing it from home. Today I brought breakfast, which is a good start...

Yesterday was expensive, though necessary.

Plumber - $500
Haircuts - $32 (both kids)
Groceries - $21

Total: $553 (yikes) It ended up being about $100 cheaper to have the plumber replace the hot water heater instead of the gas company, so I'm glad I checked it out.

Didn't get through as much decluttering as I had hoped. By the time we got back from our errands and ate lunch, our playdate came over, then it was dinnertime! I'll need to tackle this a little at a time. Not much going on until Friday, when we leave for the shore. Just work and home, with some laundry sprinkled in. (Oh, I did make a sale on half.com that I need to mail out tomorrow. $2.50 + shipping. Not a lot, but not bad either...)

I was talking to hubby at work when I heard a crash. Turned out that the whole bottom shelf of his closet (where he hangs his shirts, pants, suits, and on top of which are his shorts, pajamas, sweaters, etc.), came off the wall and broke. Looks like I'm going to spend the better part of today going through everyone else's closets in order to make room for all his stuff, until he can fix it...

Also, the plumber came this morning, and the hot water heater was just delivered so we'll see how that goes. I have no water in the house right now (he had to shut it off to do the repair), so as soon as I'm done here I need to run my errands. First, I need to go to town hall and get a permit for the new water heater. Not sure what that will run me...I'm hoping less than $25. Then I need to take the kids for haircuts. They desperately need it, and while I'd rather wait until closer to the start of school, they need it now and it will be less crowded.

After lunch, friends of ours are coming over for a playdate, so that will be a good time, then it's 4 loads of laundry as soon as the water is back on. Hubby is going out to dinner after work, then his friend will be staying the night, so I need to also get ready for that. Wow, it's a busy day...

August 8 spending:
Tolls: $1.40
Parking: $7.00
Lunch $2.92
Pmt on 0% cc: $100 (This was for electronic equip for the new room we put on the house).
Parking ticket: $10

Total: $121.38 Thoughts: Not bad, all budgeted except for lunch and the pkg ticket (which was hubby's)!

So I spent more this weekend than I anticipated...

I spent Saturday running errands for and having dinner with my dad, but I spent some $$ on me along the way:

Wine - $60.00
BJs (Groceries) - $44
Tolls - $3.80
Lunch - $6.67
Gas - $19.68 (with a prepaid gas card)
DVD Rental - $4.50

Total for 8/6 - $138.65 Thoughts: BJs, tolls and gas totally necessary. Wine, Lunch, and DVD not at all necessary...

Then on Sunday, we had a great family day. Went to church, peach picking, and bike riding. Peach picking was great! They also had blackberries and raspberries for picking, which I love! The farm was so family-friendly...the kids loved picking (and eating!) the fruit, they had a little petting zoo and a big pyramid of hay bales for climbing. And the weather was absolutely perfect! We spent $33, which was more than I thought, but we walked away with a bunch of fresh fruit (berries are expensive but worth it!) and a great family outing! Then we rode bikes at the local park we found, and hubby sprung for ice cream (out of his allowance).

8/7 spending:
Tolls: $1.40
Peach Picking (incl. lunch): $33

This week should be busy...DD starts soccer practice tonight, the kids need haircuts at some point this week, and we're going to the shore on Friday for the weekend. I also have to pay a few bills (including a $10 parking ticket ) and get organized before we go. I'll keep you posted...

Let's see...I don't have my totals in front of me, so I'm doing this from memory:

Tolls $1.40
Breakfast $1.00
Lunch $3.50
Circuit City Gift Cards $200

Total August 5 spending: $205.90

That last one is one of those "don't absolutely need but would really like to have" items. Hubby has been wanting a TIVO for a few months now. We've been putting it off and putting it off due to our car troubles and other attempts to save money on unnecessary expenses. But with football season coming (we have DirectTV with the football package at an extra $180/year, so we may as well get the most out of it), he wants to be able to watch the games and hear it in surround sound. Anyway, he estimates that it will be about $200 between the receiver, cables, etc. I can get the gift cards for 20% off through Main Street Savings, and Circuit City has a promotion going on through Aug 14 where they will give you a gift card worth 10% of what you spend, over $99. So if the total is $200, I'll get a $20 gift card, for a total of $220 in gift cards, having only spent $160. Better not to have spent it at all, but it we have to, I'm happy to get $60 "free".

Off to run my errands today...

Despite the hot water heater issue, I think I've had a pretty good week. I'm looking forward to a pretty cheap weekend, although I'll be spending some money today. We have nothing going on tonight, I'll be down at my dad's tomorrow to take care of his shopping and errands, then Sunday will be an at-home day. Bike riding in the park for the third weekend in a row, and peach picking at a local farm. I'll have to check out some good peach recipes...

I received my bonus $25 Target gift card for signing up with Main Street Savings (yeah, I signed up 3 months ago - they're pretty slow with these things but at least I have it!). I'm starting to accumulate a little stash of these cards which I intend to use as Christmas presents. My goal (has never happened before) is to have absolutely no Christmas spending on my credit card in January. That means I need to be done shopping by December 11, so they all end up on that month's bill.

Yesterday's spending: $58.02

Tolls $1.40
Breakfast $.92
Gas $36.00
Lunch $7.70 (out with boss)
Car Wash $12.00 (wanted to wash the car before I gave it to the neighbor)

Thoughts: There's definitely some waste here and there, but not as much as I expected. I think I'm confirming that my two biggest sources of waste are grocery shopping (duh) and buying things that I don't absolutely need to have but would like (more on that next time)...

I ended up passing on the grocery store yesterday. The kids were in their bathing suits at Grandma's when I picked them up from work, so I just left them like that and went straight into the pool at home. I think I'll ask hubby to stop by and pick up ice cream on his way home (comes out of his allowance then), and I'll pick up the rest of what I need on Saturday when I do my normal shopping. So the only money I spent yesterday was for tolls on the way to work. (I really hate NJ toll roads...).

We're giving our old car (that kept breaking down and was finally fixed, but not quite right) to my MIL's neighbor. He has a 17-year-old son who will be going to a local college in September. Although we're not charging him for it (I didn't feel right given that he's still going to need to put $$ into it to make it run, we wouldn't have gotten anything on it as a trade-in, and he really helps MIL around the house quite a bit), I will be able to take it off of my insurance after this weekend. Of course the insurance on the new car is still a little more, but every bit helps.

For any of you who have Verizon Wireless, I just signed up for an offer they have where they will give you a one-time $20 credit if you set up auto bill pay from your checking account. I previously had auto bill pay to my credit card, so I cancelled that, then set it from checking. Supposedly, they'll credit you after the first payment they receive. (I'm not that confident in VW's administration, and I don't like the idea of them being able to debit my checking account, so I think I'll change back to credit card bill pay after rec'v the $20).

August 3 spending:
$1.40 tolls

Thoughts on this: I never have NO spend days, so this is pretty darn good...

That's it for now...

So after getting the quote from our heating/ac guy, I called the gas company. They gave us a similar quote ($1049 or $1299 depending on which warranty we went with). So I guess it really is that expensive! We ended up calling the plumber. We're going to order the model he recommended, and it will be delivered on Tuesday. He'll come that day to put it in. The model is about $580, then we'll need to pay whatever his labor ends up being. The good news is that if we charge the water heater, it won't show up on the bill until September, so we can pay the plumber now and the heater later. That may make it doable without touching savings.

Today will be just work and a trip to the grocery store. I got most of what I needed last week, so I'm going to try to keep the bill under $20. I brought my breakfast to work , so no money there. If I end up going for lunch, I'll try to make it something cheap...

As for day-to-day spending, so far pretty good. Here's the tally:

August 2 spending:
Jeweler $48.50 (unbudgeted)
CVS (RX) $19.99 (will be reimbursed through Flex spending)
Service call for hot water heater $45.00 (unavoidable)

Total $113.49

Thoughts on this: Wow, August 1st spending was $113.50. I hope this doesn't work out to be my average for the whole month!

I'm an optimist at heart. But it really stinks when things derail my progress. After having all of my car problems in July, and thinking they were behind me, I now need a hot water heater! We have had water in our basement for a few weeks, and finally got it checked out today. $45 for the house call to investigate the problem, then they offered to replace the hot water heater with the exact same model for, are you ready for this, $1160! I told them I'd call if I decided to go with them. In the meantime, I'm giving myself a quick education in hot water heaters online and trying to figure if we can get a better deal. We have a good relationship with a plumber that we use, so if I can find a good model relatively cheap, I don't think the labor will kill me. But either way, it seems like it will be another $750 or so... I have no idea how old it is, because it was here when we moved in 10 years ago.

What a bummer. Today is my at home day. The kids and I will be hanging out in the pool later, then I need to pick up that bracelet that's been ready for weeks, and go to CVS to pick up two prescriptions that will be reimbursed by my FSA.

Final August 1 Spending:
Tolls $1.40
Parking/Ferry tickets $37.00
Bagel w/ cc $1.00
Stamps 1.11
Lunch $3.99
Dry Cleaner $24.00
Gas $45.00

Total: $113.50

Thoughts on this: Everything was budgeted for except the bagel, lunch, and stamps. I need to get motivated to bring food to work with me. Also, the price of gas is absolutely crazy! Oh well, back to looking at water heaters...

We had a great weekend. Went to the two parties on Saturday and the only money we spent was for gas. (Prices are insane and I didn't have my gas card with me). The gifts for the parties had long since been purchased, so I was able to just show up and enjoy myself.

On Sunday, my MIL came up, we went bike riding in the park with the kids and MIL paid for ice cream. I would have had a no-spend day, except that I ended up going grocery shopping. I figured it would be better to go alone while she and hubby kept the kids. I was right...I only spent $40 and that will be it for the week. Also, I'm cheating a bit because I want to start tracking every dime in August and since I went on July 31 it doesn't count !

I pretty much charge everything I can (and pay it off at the end of the month), so I guess I'll list the charges when I incur them, not when I pay them off. So here we go:

August 1 spending:
Tolls $1.40
Parking/Ferry tickets $37.00
Bagel w/ cc $1.00

I'll update at the end of the day, because I still need to get allowance for the week, buy stamps, exchange currency for a trip hubby is taking, and go to the dry cleaners...

I am really pleased with the way that July is ending up, with really low-spend days. I kept yesterday's spending to the parking and lunch (

I made it through yesterday with no more money spent, though hubby sprung for a pizza for dinner. We had a wicked thunderstorm that caused our power to be out for a few hours. I couldn't cook inside, and I don't know how to use the gas grill (but need to learn) and hubby wasn't home yet. By the time he got home, we needed to run an errand and decided on the pizza for dinner. I don't feel that bad knowing it came out of his allowance.

Today should be another low-spend day. I'll need to pay $7 for parking, and a couple of bucks for lunch, but that should be it. Also, MIL was generous enough to throw us $1000 toward the new car, but because the downpayment has already been made and the financing paperwork complete, we're going to put it toward the HELOC instead. That will make me feel better, considering we haven't been able to put anything toward that debt for the last two months (except for my $85...).

The rest of the week/weekend should continue to be low-spend. Work tomorrow, two parties on Saturday, the gifts for both have already been bought so no out-of-pocket except gas and tolls, and Sunday we'll either be in the pool or at the park (I'll figure $10 for ice cream). I'm looking forward to a good August...

With only a few days to go, I made it through July with about $85 left over, that will go to the HELOC balance. (Barely a drop toward the $30,779 balance, but better than nothing).

We've had a bad run with cars lately. On the way to pick up the new car last night, we got a flat. Stopped at a roadside Citgo in the middle of nowhere, and luckily the guy was able to fix it right away. $35. Thankfully, they weren't in the price gouging mood, because they could have held me up for a lot more. 2 tired kids in the back seat, late in the day...yeah, I would have given a lot more if I had to...Anyway, we've got 2 working automobiles now.

Yesterday, I opened up savings accounts for the kids at Valley National Bank. What a great experience! They gave each of the kids a coloring book, crayons, and a little plastic piggy bank. Also, they match up to the first $10 of the deposit, and they have a free coin counting machine! I've been meaning to do this for a while. What made it even better was that the kids were totally into it. I told them when they fill up the pigs, we'll bring them back to the bank and deposit 75% of the total, and they can keep 25% for a trip to Toys R Us. That way, they have something to shoot for and I don't need to listen to them badger me to buy them whatever the toy du jour is. Win-win all around. Of course, they scoured the house for change yesterday and the pigs are half full now...

Spending today for breakfast and lunch at work ($7.25 total). Other than that, I'm hoping for a spend-free day today and tomorrow. We'll see how it goes...

As expected, we bought the car on Saturday, and are picking it up tomorrow night. What a great experience...the salesman honored the price he gave me over the phone, so it was a completely relaxing experience. I was able to have him tell me about the car, take a test drive, etc., with no pressure. I really recommend internet shopping for a car. Absolutely painless! I was a bit bummed this morning, because I called my insurance company with the VIN #, and it will cost me 25% more than they estimated for me on Friday, when I just had the make and model number. Not sure why, and it wouldn't have made a difference in the type of car we bought, but I'm curious.

So after putting as much as we were comfortable with down, and financing the rest, we had a low-spend weekend (and many more to come, I'm sure ). We stopped for lunch on Saturday on the way home from the dealership ($20), and that was it. On Sunday, we went to a nearby park with the kids to go bike riding, and got ice cream ($9). Other than church and the prescription from CVS (that will be reimbursed), no other money spent. I do still need to pick up my bracelet, so will do that today or tomorrow.

This week should be a quiet one, financially. I'm still going through the budget trying to look at what else can be done. One thing I started to do was to get a grasp on the kids' clothing situation in anticipation of back to school. I'm hoping not to go until October or so, when stuff gets marked-down. With the warm weather in September, they should be good in their summer clothes, and I'm hoping they have enough fall-type clothes that still fit, coupled with a new outfit or two from grandma, to get through. That should help keep the clothing bill down. I also cleaned out my own closet, which was great because it let me see exactly what I have, too. It's "business casual" where I work, and I don't anticipate needing anything for the fall. That's good news...

The last few days have been pretty uneventful. Other than going to work, and the costs associated with that (parking, gas ($2.39/gal!!!), tolls, etc.) I haven't had much out of pocket. That will change some today and a lot tomorrow.

Today, I need to pick up the bracelet that I had fixed, dry cleaning, and a prescription and allergy medecine from CVS (which will be reimbursed). Tomorrow, we're biting the bullet and going for the car. Ouch.

Thankfully, the rest of the weekend will be quiet, as we have absolutely no plans. This should mean minimal spending...I don't think I need to go grocery shopping anytime soon, as I have plenty of milk and fruit, and stuff in the freezer. That'll be a big help. My plan for the rest of the day is to look at the budget again and see what I can slash (or at least trim) in anticipation of my new car payment .

So the bad news is that both hubby and I decided we need to get a new car, soon. The good news (always trying to make lemonade out of lemons ) is that my company participates in arrangements with three corporate buying programs, all of which contract with automobile dealers to give you the best possible price without haggling (which I hate). A colleague of mine recently used the GoldStar directory, so I tried it. They gave me the phone numbers for salesmen at relatively close dealerships for the 2 cars we're interested in. I called and told them the type of car I wanted, which options, and which prices, and they both quoted me prices over the phone that beat Edmunds "True Market Value" price, by between $1000 and $1500 dollars! Can't beat that! We like both cars, and will probably test drive them this weekend before making our choice.

Now it's on to financing. If we go with the (slightly) more expensive car, they have a promotion now where you can get the loan for 3.99% through their financing company. Otherwise, we're on our own. The salesman over the phone said going through him would probably get me a rate around 5%, so I'll try to do better than that. I'll start with LowerMyBills and Eloan and see where I end up. I was thinking of using my home equity line, but the rate (prime-1/2) is now up to 5.75%! Even though it's deductible, I think the fixed rate around 5 would be better. Man, I need to pay that beast off.

So that's my scoop. The downside of this new loan is that it will probably come out of the money I was going to use to pay down the home equity line, which means it will take longer to close that out. So I really want to redouble my efforts and try to shave more money out of other areas of my budget, if possible. We'll see...

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.

I'm feeling a little better about the car situation. It seems like the shop fixed the car, and it appears to be running well. My frugal nature got the better of me this weekend, so I'm shelving the idea of a new car (for now), and hope that my current car will continue to work for at least another year. Thanks for the comments/encouragement...

The rest of the weekend was great. The kids had a sleepover at grandma's on Saturday, and hubby and I went to a friend's house for dinner. (They don't have children, and my kids are usually bored to tears there). Then on Sunday, we brought the kids home and had two other couples over to our house. A tad on the expensive side, but not as bad as going out. We had a great time.

I'm not going to go grocery shopping this week. I went on Saturday to get ready for company, and picked up enough milk and fruit to get us through the week. Hubby's away on business for a few days, and we have no plans for this upcoming weekend, so we should easily be able to get by with whatever is in the house. I still need to go to the jeweler's and the dry cleaner's, but nothing else. Hoping for a quiet, stress-free week...

The car place just called. $860! Hubby expected it to be more. I was hoping for more in the neighborhood of $400 or so. This is bumming me out in 2 ways: First, the bill will be charged today and paid in August. That bums me out because I was really hoping to get back on track paying $1500 toward my home equity line in August. While I may be able to make up some of it cutting corners other places, a good chunk of the $850 will need to come out of that $1500.

Second, I'm trying to fight the overwhelming urge to get a new car. It's funny that we just got our car fixed, and so shouldn't even be thinking about a new car, but that doesn't seem to be the case. This is our current car situation: Hubby's car is a 2003 with just under 30,000 miles on it. We have a loan out on that car at 4.24%with a balance of about $16,000. The car that just got fixed is a 1999 (American car) with just shy of 100,000 miles on it that we own. Between this trip to the shop, and two others over the past year when the car has broken down at inopportune moments, we have fixed just about everything that can possibly be fixed on it. Then, we also have my fil's car, a 1992 with only 41,000 miles on it (he never drove anywhere)! That car was given to us for free by mil, and she paid the insurance on it through the end of the year.

The problem is that we easily drive 30,000 miles per year total, between work, families, etc. While hubby's car is fine, I'm hesitant to drive around in either the 99 (because it keeps breaking down) and to a lesser degree the 92 (just because it's so old). My worries are compounded because I almost always either have the kids with me, or am rushing to pick them up somewhere (and can ill-afford to have a car break down when I need to get somewhere). So a new car (don't want to deal with anyone else's hassles) looks pretty appealing about now.

The only thing holding me back is that I can't stand having the one car payment that we currently have, much less two, and we definitely can't afford to buy a car outright. Hubby has brought up leasing, which I have a strong aversion to, because I know deep down it's not the best thing to do, despite the lure of a $299 payment! So my plan is to try to keep my current car situation for at least a year. My goal is to have the home equity line paid off by next April, and the car loan paid off by next September. If I can hold off until then, I'll at least feel better about my financial situation.

Turns out yesterday was another "low-spend" day. $1.40 in tolls and $4.25 for lunch was it! I suppose I'm just postponing the inevitable...I didn't make it to the dry cleaners (but I have a 20% off coupon, so can go anyday). Also, the car place called and said I needed my fuel pump replaced (as this was the cause of all of my problems) and unrelated to that problem, I need my serpentine belt replaced (not unexpected). They were waiting for the parts, so I don't think the car will be ready until Friday, so no money out of pocket for that until then! So far today, I paid $1.40 in tolls and $20 for parking. My boss took us to lunch to thank us for our hard work, so I had a great meal for free! I'm not expecting to spend anything else today.

Oops, I fogot...My problem with no-spend/low-spend days is that I always end up forgetting something. I get my discounted gift cards from Main Street Savings. They took their advertisement off of the GM card website where I initially signed up, and in the discussion area here, someone mentioned that the link I gave them was no longer working. Conincidentally, I went online to place an order for some gift cards to get ready for back-to-school clothes shopping, and no matter what I entered, my shopping cart kept coming up empty at checkout. Although I have placed 4 orders successfully with them, including receiving and using the cards and getting the discount, I started to worry that they may be getting ready to shut down the program. So I ended up ordering over the phone, which seemed to work, and I bought some extra gift cards that I was planning on getting later in the year for Christmas, just in case they shut it down. Total spent: $500, and I'll get a $100 credit (20%) back. I received an email today saying the order was processed and shipped, so they're fine for now. But I guess it wasn't such a low-spend day after all!

I deposited 2 rebate/bonus checks in my savings account today, and made 2 more sales on half.com. Although it's not much, I'm happy for every bit. Other than the car, which is the great unknown, I'm hoping to have a few more "low-spend" days (no more gift card orders!) tomorrow and Saturday. We're having two couples over for dinner on Sunday. I don't know yet what I'll be making, but I'll need to do some shopping for it on Saturday. That's it for now...

I don't know why, but it seems I can never, ever have a totally no spend day. But today I came close. I don't go in to the office on Tuesdays (which right there saves me on gas, tolls, and parking). I stayed home all day, except for a trip to the town pool with some friends that are members. They paid for the guess passes (not sure how much) so I splurged for ice cream for the kids, for a total of $7.20. That's it! Yay!

Tomorrow I need to run a few errands to/from work, including dry cleaners (it's Wednesday!) and the bank. Also, we've been having problems with one of our cars (like everyone else on this site, it seems!) and that went into the shop yesterday. I don't know if they called hubby today, or if it will wait until tomorrow, but I'm sure that will be another few hundred dollars.

Otherwise, I hope tomorrow will be a quiet day...

Had a good weekend that went pretty much as planned.

Went to BJs on Friday, and ended up renewing my membership. When I went with the 60-day free trial, they were running a special (of course). Instead of the $40 annual membership, they lowered it to $30, made it good for 15 months instead of 12, and allowed me to add another person for free. (Had I known this ahead of time, I would have thought of a friend that I could split the $30 bucks with. Instead, I added hubby, which will also be good because then he can stop and pick stuff up if I'm not with him). I had never been to this BJs before (right across the street from work), and it seemed nicer than the one I was used to. I made out great. A gallon of 2% milk for $2.15!! I only got things I legitimately needed, which was good.

Also this weekend, I went to Kohls for hubby's clothes. Everything was on sale, I used my 20% off gift cards, and got a $10 reward for spending $50. Mostly used up the gift cards, with $35 out of pocket. Then I went to ToysRUs and bought the gift I needed plus an extra gift and wrapping paper for $56-$10 coupon=$46 (bought with 20% discounted gift cards). No cash out of pocket and I'm set for the rest of the month.

Library fine (last one!) - $1.70, auto parts store $3.99, jewelry repair/add charm $16. That's it. The two big bummers were filling the cars up with gas. $2.29/gallon!!! That really shot up over the last week or so. I don't think I ever paid over $2.17.

I'm hoping to stay organized/on track this week. I have menus planned, and shouldn't have any big hits financially. The only thing I'm worried about is the actual gas meter reading. They've been estimating my usage for months and it's time for them to get a real reading. I know it's way over their estimate, but I'm hoping I can make up for it during the rest of the summer. We'll see how it goes...

The kids are going to grandma's for a sleepover tonight, giving me much needed time to get myself organized after vacation.

I'm heading to BJs after work today. I let my membership lapse in March, because I wasn't really sure if it was worth the $40/year. But they sent an offer for a 60-day free trial, with full membership privileges, through ValPak (coupon mailers), so I'm going to take advantage of it. My plan is to buy what I need today and price out some other stuff I'm interested in, then go again in the middle of August to buy up what I need for school (juice boxes, snacks, etc.), and other stuff I get from there that won't go bad (razors, shampoo, etc). I've been keeping a price book over the last 18 months or so, so I can make sure I'm getting a good deal. That way, when the 60-day trial is over, I should be set for awhile and won't need to pay for the membership.

Then I need to go to Kohls to get hubby some clothes. I have $50 in gift cards (that I got 20% off ). I should be able to keep the total to under that amount, so there will be no cash out of pocket. Then I need to stop at the grocery store for a few things I can't get at BJs, and the library so I can return 2 DVDs that will be a week late (due to vacation and prior to my renewed effort to become more organized and avoid fines!). Finally, I need to go to Toys R Us (also using gift cards, so no cash outlay) to get a birthday present for a party later this month. We have 4 other birthdays and a going away party this month, but they're all getting discounted gift cards. Oops, also have to go to the auto parts store, to get the light bulb for behind my license plate, so the car will pass inspection, and the jeweler to have a charm added on to my charm bracelet. I think that's it. Hope I can get it all done today.

Tomorrow I need to head down to Dad's and do his grocery shopping, so there shouldn't be much spending there.

So far, Day 1 of the new, organized me is going pretty well.

Wow, I've been away for awhile. It took me a long time to catch up on everyone's journals and all the new posts in the discussion area.

As I promised myself before vacation, I'm going to try to make a renewed effort to get better about saving my money. I had a really bad June, money-wise. Went totally overboard on vacation, and basically just spent a ton of money. As a result, I'll need to do a lot of digging out in July.

I think I need to take Kashi's approach and look at my goals for 2005. The problem is that I didn't formally make any, so I suppose I should start now. The big thing hanging over my head is a Home Equity line with a $30,779 balance that we used to make an improvement on the house. Up until now, my approach has always been to put any extra money toward it at the end of the month. But as hubby pointed out last night, it's too easy to spend the money and have nothing leftover. So beginning in August, my goal is to put $1500 toward it each month, with an extra $5000 in September if an expected bonus materializes. That will knock it down $12,500 by the end of the year. It's definitely a stretch, especially toward the end of the year, because we have Christmas, both kids' birthdays, and auto insurance ($3200) due.

So how to reach the goal? I think getting more organized will be a big key for me. Reading over my past entries, I realize how much I've complained about my lack of organization and it needs to stop now. I'm going to spend the weekend giving this some thought, but my initial ideas are:

1) I need to go grocery shopping alone, and with a list. My kids cost me a boatload of money every time we go to the store. Also, I forget who recommended that she NOT look at the weekly sale paper because it ends up costing her more, and she should just write down what she needs. I think I'm going to try that, because I always get sucked in by the "great deals".

2) I need to get better about menu planning, including having some foods in the house that we can whip up quickly. If I had a dollar for every time I forgot to defrost something, was missing a key ingredient, etc., I'd be able to pay off all my debt!

3) I need to set a schedule for doing errands so I avoid fines, late fees, etc. and take advantage of the best deals. Our dry cleaner has a deal on Weds where you get 4 things cleaned for the price of 3. No coupons needed. If I have dry cleaning, I need to wait until I have at least four things, and I have to wait until Wednesday. Period. Library day will also be Wednesday. That way I can avoid all of those ridiculous late fees.

4) I need to get better about gift planning. The funny thing about birthdays is that they fall on the same day each year! It's not like they sneak up on me or anything. So on the first weekend of the month, I'm going to buy whatever gifts I need for that month. (Of course, if I see a really great deal and know I can use it down the road, I'll pick that up as well).

Finally, I need to keep a critical eye on all of my money, including utility bills, spending money, etc., to see where I'm wasting it and what I can do better. And as much as I really want the debt gone, I need to remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Two days to go, but only one at work, because hubby and I took tomorrow off to get things done. Can't wait.

Yesterday was pretty good financially speaking, although I did spend unbudgeted money on some flowers for hubby's aunt. She's been in the hospital for awhile now and I visited her yesterday after work.

Today's my late day at work - I'm here until 6:30. I'd like to get to Circuit City on my way home, because I've been planning on buying a digital camera for a while, and would love to get it before we leave. I ordered CC gift cards through Main Street Savings, so I got them for 20% off. I'm going to check out their sales after I'm done here and find a camera that's reasonable. Tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment, and I want to take the kids for haircuts, also I need to pick up a few things from the dry cleaners. I managed to make it through the week without grocery shopping, though I need to pick up a half-gallon of milk tonight.

The rest of my time tonight and tomorrow will be spent doing laundry (surprise) and packing...

I don't usually shop at Target, and good thing! It seems like every time I go in there for something, I walk out with a bunch of things! I went there today looking for water shoes for us to take on vacation, as well as for rollerblades (late Fathers Day gift for hubby). I ended up walking out with 6 pairs of water shoes (1 each for me and hubby and 2 each for the kids - nothing worse then putting your feet in wet shoes, "but they were only $5 each"), roller blades for hubby and me (I've been interested in getting some for a while), and some shorts/shirts/summer pjs for the kids (on sale). I'm disappointed that I took such a big step back.

Took dad for his biopsy today, and he told me that he's going to call his other doctor tomorrow to make an appointment regarding his stroke symptoms. Also, he'd like me to go ahead and set up all of his bills to be paid electronically. So I guess when I suggested both of those things on Saturday, it wasn't a good idea, but now that it's his idea today, they're great ideas! Ugh! Sometimes I feel like I have three kids...

The good news is that other than my big trip to Target (and pizza out for lunch ) I didn't spend anything else today. I guess you have to look for the good wherever you can find it...

It ended up being a crazy weekend, and is shaping up to be just as crazy a week. By the time I got home from work on Friday, ate, got the kids to bed, etc., the night was pretty much shot. I don't even remember what I did, but it wasn't much.

I went to visit my dad Saturday morning. What an ordeal! After talking with a few different people on Friday (including Dad himself), I'm convinced he had a mini-stroke the weekend before. When I tried bringing this up to him on Saturday, he attributed his symptoms to a problem he's been having with his eye (he's scheduled for a biopsy on Tuesday for this). I wanted to schedule an appointment with his cardiologist for Tuesday as well to check out the stroke angle, but he flatly refused. He wants to wait until he gets the results back from the biopsy before doing anything else. It's frustrating for me, because I hate to see him wasting time, but he's of totally sound mind (not to mention really stubborn). So I'm leading him to water and he's just not drinking! I'm curious to see how things go tomorrow.

I made it back home in time for the town's carnival on Saturday night and that was a great time! The kids went on a few rides, then we went to a pizza place for dinner, before coming back for fireworks. We didn't get home until almost 11:00, and the kids were troopers staying up that late.

I made breakfast in bed for hubby on Sunday, then we went down to his mom's for a barbeque. It was fun, but the kids never seem to be as well behaved at her place, so it's kind of tough. Also, we got back late (8:00), and I still needed to make stuffed mushrooms for a party at hubby's work today, along with a few loads of laundry.

Today was DD's last day of Kindergarten. Hooray! I also got a letter in the mail from Chase. Anyone who hasn't done so yet, you have to check them out. They're offering me $25 if I make 3 bill payments from my new checking account before August 23rd! That will bring me up to $175 from them alone ($100 to open checking, $50 to open savings and $25 for bill pay). Can't beat that! I'll sign up later on tonight or tomorrow. I'm also going to try to get to Valley National to open those kids accounts tomorrow. With all the excitement at my dad's this weekend, I didn't have a chance to get back there.

That's it for now. I'm a bit distracted tonight...

WooHoo!! I have been meaning to take advantage of all of these bank offers for awhile now, and finally did it today! First stop, Chase. I opened up a savings account with $250, and am getting a $50 bonus. Best part of this deal: They had 3 different bonuses ($25, $50, or $75), and I thought I'd have to go for the $25 one because I didn't want to keep a minimum. I stopped by the branch right across the street from where I work, and it turns out they have a deal for employees of my company, where you can upgrade to the middle account and still not need a minimum. So I qualify for the $50 bonus. Yeah! The money needs to stay in the account for a minimum of 6 months, after which time it can be closed out, penalty free.

Second stop, my computer. Went onto my ING account, and sent links to my 2 kids. Set up accounts for each of them using a $5 deposit. They each get a $25 bonus, and I get a $10 bonus each for referring them. Money only needs to stay in the account for 30 days, then it can be taken out penalty-free.

Third stop, computer/snail mail. I read a post on another site for Affinity Bank. (www.affinitybank.com). They have a Kids Only savings account where they pay 10% interest on balances up to $500. Can't beat that! That's more than my kids are earning in their 529s, and this is FDIC insured! I printed out the applications and need to mail it to them with my $25 opening deposit. My plan is to then fund it with the ING money (after 30 days) and with my almost full piggy bank, for whatever that amount is. Then, I'm going to try my darndest to deposit $50 each per month until it reaches the max $500.

Finally, I stopped at Valley National Bank because they have a Kids Savings program where they will match the first $10 when you open an account. Plus they have free coin counting, which is a really nice perk. However, when I went to the branch, I needed to have the kids' physical Social Security cards, and I only had their numbers. So I will try to get back there tomorrow.

For anyone who's interested in these deals and others, I highly recommend www.fatwallet.com. If you go to their finance forums, they have a link on banking deals. Some of them are unbelievable. It's a great way to build up an emergency fund or a fun money account.

For someone whose as organizationally challenged as I am, all of these accounts may be daunting, but I think I can handle it. This money will make up for the $27 I'm going to lose this weekend. We need to get a bike hitch for the back of our car so we can bring the bikes to NC with us. I found the one hubby wants at our local bike shop for $180 (cheaper than Sports Authority, unbelievably). They sent out a 15% off coupon through those val-Pak mailers, but it expired on June 11th. Missed it by one week. Now I'm out $27. And the kicker is that I priced this out weeks ago, knew what we wanted and where to get it, but wasn't organized enough (again). Frustrating.

This weekend is going to be jam packed with stuff. I'm working late today (unusual for a Friday), so it will be a pretty quiet night. Tomorrow our town has a "day in the park" with carnival rides, fireworks, and the like, that starts at 4:00. Sunday is Father's Day, so I'll be making breakfast in bed, then we'll head down to MIL's. The one variable is my father. I need to get down to see him, and can make it tomorrow morning, or Tuesday, or next Friday evening. I think I need to go Tuesday because he has to have a test done at the hospital, but I'd like to get down there another time. I don't know quite when it happened, but it's amazing when you look at your parents and think, "Wow, they're old". It's like overnight they become old and frail. Leaves me with a weird feeling...

Have a happy Father's Day everyone.

My number one goal when I get home from vacation in July is to be more organized. Anyone familiar with my posts understands the challenges I have here, and it's not getting any better. My daughter's last day of school is June 20, and their end of year party is tomorrow. It's been on the calendar since September, yet there I was, out at the store at 9:00 tonight. So frustrating.

Anyway, I picked up gift cards for her teacher, as well as the two class moms. I also needed to pick up some clothes for our trip, as well as hubby. Tomorrow is expected to be a no-spend day, other than normal commuting costs, although I need to pick up Father's Day gifts at some point before Sunday (waiting for the last minute AGAIN!!!!! )

July will be better, July will be better, July will be better...