this weekend

Friday was a couple hundred dollars at Target after all. I had to wait 15 minutes for a prescription, and did some damage. 15 minutes! Underwear, curtain rods, things like that. Good thing I was first in line. . .

This morning, normal shopping. Books for Easter baskets. I spent around $100, but it's hard to feel bad about that b/c the books were about $1 or $2 each, and otherwise Andy's been buying them new at the airport. Anyway, assuming I don't go out tomorrow since we have plans all day, I've spent my avg. for Fri - Sunday.

I'm hoping to get better as the weeks go on this month. I think this will be a pretty good month -- and I NEED to finish the taxes!

good today

A little over $50 today, groceries and a few other neccessities. I wasn't very tempted to shop around the entire store, which is a rare thing. I think I'm catching on to this.

Day 3. No Spending.

Tomorrow I have to put together a dozen or so plastic eggs to contribute to Kate's school egg hunt on Friday. I'm also signed up to take veggies, so I probably need to go to the grocery store.

I don't want to go!

Three days without spending money feels good. I wonder how many days it takes before one completely loses the urge to shop. Is it even an urge? I think it had become almost reflexive.

I'm not sure how the next couple of days will play out, but I'm hopeful that I can come in under $10 for this week, including groceries. How cool would THAT be?!

Day 2

No spending today. Day two.

For the first time in a very long time, I spent no money today. I already have a small grocery list for tomorrow, though. Sigh.

I'm trying to think if I'm going to want ANYthing else this week, but I don't think so. The girls are here for spring break, and since I'm all set with projects, I don't plan on any other shopping. Eventually I'll make my way to the dollar store for some sunglasses for them, maybe next Saturday. Otherwise, I am going to take a deep breath, and stop spending money for April. Even the Easter Baskets are all ready to go! :)

For April, I'll have some bills for postage for Laura, and necklaces to Ann, and I'll finally get Debbie's Christmas gift in the mail -- four months late! We have several nights out planned and have hired Andrea, including bookclub, a night with Sheri and John, and a school fundraiser (from which we may play hooky and just go to dinner). That will be plenty of spending for April. I'm wondering what we'll get done around the house, since Andy will be home one week on vacation, and I suppose that could lead to curtains. . . .

When you give a mouse a cookie. . . .

With the way things are going at work, it won't be long before I won't be able to count on the educational reimbursement, so it looks like the goal will be to save at least an additional $250 a month to pay for classes... a fraction of my "no spending" goal, but still a significant amount. And more if I decide to take two classes at a time at some point.

The healthy eating is still going well, even if the weight loss isn't. I have an exercise date with one of my girlfriends for Saturday and have been walking Tuesdays and Thursdays on breaks at work. Even with healthier food, I still need to eat less of it, but at least I'm heading in the right direction.

Two weeks = three days?

So, on Sunday I spent about $700. On Monday I spent a couple hundred, and Andy bought a new paddle for about $300. On Tuesday, I spent $108 on new cordless phones, and over $100 on groceries and other things we needed. In total, I think we've spent at least $1500 in three days. UGH.

Next week is spring break, and if Andy's home, I'm sure it will be full of spending. We'll be trying to get some things done around the house, and I know I'll end up spending money, to say nothing of the food. If Andy's not home, I don't think it will be bad. I'm loathe to take the girls to the stores if I can wait and go by myself. In addition, some of the money I spent at the start of this week was on projects to keep them busy next week. Like I needed to do that. . .

Anyway, I don't even know what to say about this month. We appear to have done all of our normal spending. And there is still more than a week to go. Uffda.

April would look hopeful, but we have three long nights of babysitting on the calendar already! Those nights will also require quite a bit of additional spending. I am hoping I can keep those three nights under a total of $300.

I feel really bad about all this. I've got to figure out how to get back to good. Perhaps reading more Cheapskate books will inspire me!