As for today...

No money spent, but let me tell you something...

I love to cook. Really, truly, I do.

*But.*

I am sick of cooking.

I want to just grab some food on the way home.

I want to have someone else do the cooking, the cleaning, the everything.

I am sick of coming up with the answer to "what's for dinner?".

I want to go home & have food magically appear on the table in front of me.

I want Mexican food. From a restaurant that allows me to sit & eat as much chips & hot sauce as I like.

I want Italian food. From a restaurant that allows me to stuff my face with all the bread I can manage to shove in my face.

I want pizza. The really bad for you, I didn't make it, greasy, yummy, good kind.

I want Chinese. Lots of Chinese. Egg drop soup & spring rolls & fried rice & Moo Goo veggies. Or P F Changs lettuce wraps.

I want some Snuffers cheese fries.

I want a Chili's black bean burger.

I WANT REAL FOOD PEOPLE.

I miss eating out. Really, I do. Or, rather, I really do.

I love food. At this point though, I'd take food made by someone else that I don't have to think about, prepare, or clean up after.

None of that is happening though, is it?

*sigh*

Back to my regularly scheduled no spending week.

Food & clothes. I miss food & clothes. Will there be something else tomorrow? Eh, maybe, if it hits me. Right now food & clothes have me. (Although, a new purse would be good too...)

Another boring day.

Boring is good, right?

It's getting hard to be good though. I really, really, really want some new clothes! I seem to be the queen of stains, tiny holes, and fading. If it were any other year I'd run out & buy new clothes without thinking. I could go search a thrift store, since it's within the rules, but I wonder what the chances are that I'd find anything decent. Besides, when do I have time to go search a bunch of thrift stores for some clothes?
I'm being good though. For now at least. ;)

No money has been spent so far this week - that's a good thing. I do need to go get a few things at the grocery store. When did I become the person that had to go to the grocery store EVERY week - sometimes twice a week? It's getting old. But, we do have to eat you know. I need to work on my consolidation a bit. Although, the fill-in stuff generally is just dairy & produce, with an occasional "other", so I guess it's kinda normal. Kinda.

Long weekend.

It was long for Luke at least. I'm sure he's looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. He tried to fix my car, but too many things were against him. Hopefully he'll get it finished sometime this week. Or maybe this weekend. Although, I have to work on Saturday, so I don't know if he'll have a chance or not.

We did spend some money, Luke bought stuff for the car, I bought Kasen a few new sippie cups, and today we went to Farmer's Market & loaded up on some produce.

As for the idea to go to Utah... well, my car sucked all that money up. Oh well, it really was breaking the rules, so we're better off not going. I guess. sigh

Ah, the weekend!

I think Luke's gonna fix my car a/c this weekend. I can't wait! This week had gotten HOT. Of course, he already bought a part & thought that was gonna be it, but it turns out he needs some other part too. You got it - that means more $. Still cheaper than a car payment. Oh, and my cigarette lighter is broken. Why does that suck? 'Cause I can't plug my phone or GPS in now. Hopefully he can figure out the problem there & get it fixed too. This isn't gonna be a cheap weekend.

I'm tempted...

So, we've recently come in to a chunk of money from a few sources. The *responsible* thing to do is to put it towards the student loans... BUT, I'm thinking maybe we should re-visit the idea of a trip to Utah. We could get round-trip airfare for about $300/ea & if we go before Kasen's birthday, he flies free. Seems like it makes sense to go now & save on his airfare, rather than going next year & having to pay for his airfare. I think a 4 night stay in June would be good... BUT, it's TOTALLY breaking the rules. At the same time, I feel like we've earned it. Even if we have broken some rules here & there, we've done so well - and we own both cars out-right now! Perhaps a celebration is in order? Ugh, such a dilemma! What should we do?

Ack!

I didn't mean to not post for the past few days, it just happened. Time moves way too fast!
Let's see... money spent... ummmmm... oh, crap, I did break the rules Saturday night. We already ate out twice this month - Grandy's both times, but it was a rough day attempting to potty train & I just didn't feel like cooking. So, I grabbed some Wendy's on the way home from Target. ack! - Target. I didn't really break any rules there. I did buy a new potty seat, but I won't call that frivolous. Yes, we already have 2, BUT pee goes flying through them & they leave a red ring on Kasen's poor heiny, so I got one new one. I also got an Elmo potty training dvd - I won't call that frivolous either. I'm willing to pull out all the stops to accomplish the potty thing! Other than that, there were tons of things I *wanted*, but I didn't buy them. I still shock myself when I am able to control urges at Target. Oh, how I'd love to just go crazy in that place. (A new purse, some clothes, kitchen gadgets, toys for Kasen, the pretty pink leather case for my iPhone... I could keep going, but I won't torture myself anymore.)

Sunday we went to a Rough Riders game, but it didn't cost us a dime. Yay! We wer both off work today, but we didn't leave the house, so we didn't' spend money. Yay!

There's my past few days, I broke a rule, but I think we're still doing great on the amount of money we spent this month eating out, since all 3 outings were fast food.

The past 3 days.

Let's see...

Tuesday. Luke went to the store to buy milk. Accidentally bought skim instead of whole.

Wednesday. I went to the store. (Realized why he bought the wrong one - our local grocery store is under construction & it's a mess!) Bought whole milk, waffles for the guys, bananas, & pizza (for dinner).

Thursday. Went to the dr. No clue what that will cost me, but they ran a bunch of tests, so I'm sure I'll owe something. sigh Picked up new prescription - $7.50, not too shabby.

Friday is here & so far so good. Granted, it's only 9am. ;)

Lunch out.

Well, I had to stay at work all day today, which I wasn't expecting, so I had some Taco Bueno for lunch. It was yummy, but I didn't plan to spend any money eating out this week, so it was a bummer too. Oh well, what can you do, right?
Luke had to buy a hard drive for his computer. I'll be glad when he gets that in & his computer is working again. I know he says the pictures are on the hard drive that ISN'T broken, but I still worry. I hope my pics aren't lost.

I think this weekend we're fixing my a/c. Just in time for the warm weather. Woohoo! We're saving TONS since Luke ordered the most expensive part (way, way cheaper than the dealership was asking) & is gonna do all he can himself. Then we'll have to take it somewhere to get recharged with freon. I'll be happy when it's over. Cars are money-suckers!
*Speaking of cars.*

I got home last night & checked the mail. I now have 2 car titles to hold in my hands. No more liens. Yay! Yay! Yay!

Well, that worked out.

My great friend paid for lunch Saturday, so I didn't have to "bend" the rules. Woohoo!

We spent no money the rest of the weekend. Kasen was spoiled silly without me getting him any Easter junk (I mean, wonderful Easter goodies). ;) His amazing Auntie got him the Easter basket I drooled over - but he didn't seem nearly as thrilled about it as I hoped. sigh Kids.
Here's to a good week - without either of us breaking any rules.

2 posts in one day = not good.

I really want to lie. Or, maybe just omit the truth of today. But I won't. I'll be honest, it's only fair.
Luke & Kasen went to Fry's tonight. I knew I should've gone with them. BUT... I really wanted a nap. It was a nice nap. Their trip... not so nice. Quite honestly, I'm very disappointed in Luke. He has always been the more frugal one. He has always stuck to things he sets out to do. He's falling off the wagon.
I saw it coming, he's always wanting to get stuff lately. We suddenly "need" curtains. He had to have cable (yes, I do use it & love it, but I could've waited another year for it). He brings up stuff we should buy. Silly stuff.
sigh
He went in for a new hard drive. It wasn't a frivolous thing. One of his crashed, so he can't get into his computer. The computer that has all of Kasen's pics (along with all of Luke's crap - but that's not a big deal to ME, lol). Luckily the hard drive that crashed is not the one he stores stuff on, but he can't turn the computer on to get said stuff, so obviously he needs a new hard drive to get the computer on. I was/am fine with that need.
However. He came home with no hard drive. He said they're too expensive there. He didn't come home empty handed though. $80 worth of crap. A back massager (yes, he already has one *rolleyes*), a nose hair trimmer (really?! he's hard up to shop, huh?), alarms for the doors (okay, that's probably a smart one), pepper spray for me (I had an incident this morning), and binoculars & glow in the dark stars/moon for Kasen. Oh, and a bottle of water for Kasen 'cause he forgot Kasen's cup in the car & of course he started asking for a drink.
So, there you have it. The honest truth - we blew a big chunk of money on crapola. I'm trying to let it go, I know how hard this challenge is & I can understand why he feels the need to BUY, but still - ugh!
On the flip side. When I checked the mail Wednesday there was a great surprise - a pretty large check from my OB's office. The insurance company finally decided to send some money to them, so all the money we had to pay for my ultrasound [last summer!] was refunded. So, it's kinda like found money & makes me feel a little better about Luke blowing money... but that's a nice chunk of money to help with our debt, not to blow of frivolous stuff.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm gonna break the rules a bit myself. My friend is in town from Utah & wants to have lunch tomorrow. I didn't plan on that, so I used my weekly meal out the other day for breakfast. BUT, this is a rare situation, so I'm gonna borrow next week's meal out. I'm okay with that & I won't really consider it breaking the rules. I can call Saturday next week, right? I usually start the week on Monday, but I'll skip a couple of days this week since it's a special occasion. :)

So, there you have it. Full disclosure, in all its ugliness.

Thursday Splurge Day

Yesterday I ran out of time before I left the house, so I stopped at Whataburger for an egg biscuit. Luke had lunch at Taco Bueno (or was it Taco Bell?...). Then, I needed to run a cake over to a friend's house last night, so we decided to use one of our family nights out & we had Grandy's for dinner. Talk about spending all your meals in one day! (And all fast food at that - sheesh!)

Today Luke is home with Kasen while I'm at work. I assume he hasn't left the house, which means he hasn't spent any money. We'll continue that theme tonight. :)

Easter's almost here

I'm doing great - haven't bought anything frivolous for Kasen (or Luke) for Easter. I was tempted at the grocery store the other day... but I walked away. Whew. It's hard, I'd like to go crazy, but it's all stuff we don't need anyway. (Not to say that I won't go crazy next year...)

We haven't spent any money, but seeing as we currently have none in our checking acct, that's been pretty easy. ha

And now... the rest of the weekend.

I. HATE. BLOGGER.
There. I said it. Not only does it keep screwing up the format of my other blogs, I keep trying to highlight stuff I'm writing & it ends up deleting all of my thoughts, then autosaving before I can get back to where I was. sigh

So, the rest of the weekend. I bought a few groceries (milk, flour, waffles, yogurt), then I bought Kasen's Easter outfit & 2 shirts at Kid to Kid. (Spent $18andsomechange) Sunday night I went to a MNO at On the Border. I spent $6andsomechange, including tip. (Gotta love the kids' meals!) That's about it.
I am starting a list of wants...
New black flats. Size 8.5 if anyone has a used pair I can buy... ;) I have (had?) some ballerina flats (don't click on that if you're a sucker for shoes...) that I love but I stepped in some nastiness, thanks to a sick dog, and I threw them in the washer. I'm pretty sure I ruined them. I bought them for like $10 at the shoe store over by Sam Moon (not nice to post a link to their site, huh?), but I can't buy another pair - even if they are that cheap. I loooooove those shoes, so I'll probably wear them even if they are falling apart now. How can I not?

A bread machine. I make at least 1 loaf of bread every week. That's a lot of work. I'd love to just dump everything in a machine & let it do the work for me!
Curtains for the bedroom. They've been on the wish list a long time. We'll be getting some once the college loans are paid off.
New clothes! My size 10s are getting loose. (Okay, not every brand - some brands I still can't fit into thanks to these hips, or the butt, whatever the issue is...) My everyday pants are getting loose though. While that's great, it also sucks. I can't buy new clothes. sigh
A massage. I'm stressed lately. I would love a massage. Or, just a day at the spa with some good company. (Anyone feel like splurging on a gift for the 2 of us? hehe! If only, huh?)
New pots & pans. I've had mine a long time. They're on their last leg. I want new, I want good quality - and I don't want non-stick. Never again!

That's about it. It's funny how much my wants have changed thanks to this challenge. If you had asked me to make a list 6 months ago I would've had a bunch of useless crap to list. now I want useful things. Okay, the massage/spa day isn't useful per se, but I deserve to dream about a nice splurge.
Okay, off to bed I go.

No Money Saturday.

We hung out at home all day, then went to church, then came back home for dinner. No money spent. I did update the ticker tonight. I'm kinda shocked at how much we've paid off in 3 months - it was a big chunk of cash. To think that by this time next year we will have paid off triple that amount blows my mind! I am loving this!! Sacrifices are sooooo worth it!

No more car payments!

It's not official, since the payment won't hit for a few days still, but we paid off Luke's car! Yay! Barring any unforeseen future woes, hopefully we will never have a car payment again. Isn't that a crazy thought? So un-American. ...but so nice!!

Thanks to gas prices taking a huge dive, we are a little behind on our plan (maybe a month or month & a half), but we're making progress. (Our oil royalties took a dive, we were counting on them to get out of debt fast, but oh well.) Hopefully in about 9 months the college loan will be paid off & all that will be left is our mortgage! Yay!

I am so glad we decided to do this - even if it has been difficult. To think of how nice it will be to have a debt-free life... Freedom! True freedom! I'm still holding onto the hope that one day I'll be able to stay home & play mommy all day long, but even if things don't work that way for a long time, we're in a better place now than most Americans get to at retirement age even. We're way ahead of the curve & I'm loving it. Every sacrifice is worth it.

3 months down! ...9 to go.

How did we do this month? (Well, last month since I'm posting this on the 1st...)
Rule #1 - nothing new - broken. sigh I got that iPhone. Yes, it was an early birthday gift, but it still broke the rules. At least Luke's was free... although it was new also, so that's still literally breaking the rule.

Rule #2 - no frivolous spending - broken. double sigh The new phones & the cable. I still justify the cable as entertainment since we aren't spending money on anything else. No matter how I justify it though, we broke the rules.

Rule #3 - less eating out - not broken! We went out twice as a family, fast food both times even, so we didn't spend "that much" on food out. We also stuck to our individual once/week rules.

Rule #4 - outings - not broken! We still haven't had any outings at all.

30 transactions this month: 8 grocery, 5 restaurant, 12 gas, 5 other (1 beer run, 1 AT&T for my iPhone, 1 car part to fix my a/c, 1 car inspection), plus $20 cash withdrawal.

We should be paying Luke's car off in the next week, unless some unexpected disaster pops up. So, while we broke the rules a little, I think we're doing good. Hey, we've made it to APRIL with only one major breaking of the rules. We've just got to make it the rest of the year without it happening again... fingers crossed!