Thankfully its pooped out and not pooped on! :-) Getting ready for the big party tomorrow night. I always get myself into a tizzy to make everything nice. Had the Merry Maids come to clean today. Part gift from SIL and part I paid. Can't say I was overly impressed. Could do a better job myself, but I guess the key is I did'nt have to do it myself!
The family took me out to dinner for an early bday dinner and DH gave me some chocolate, a gc to Michaels and a gc for a professional MASSAGE!! I have never gotten one before and I am so excited! I had to go pick my dad up off the bathroom floor a couple of weeks ago and I did something wrong!! This will be heavenly. We let you know when I go get it!

My friend and I had a great time scrapbooking! I finished 34 pages. Up to 1996 in DD1's book! Ten more years to go to catch up!! :-)

This weekend is something I have never had before. A "Me" weekend. My friend and I both have birthdays within a few weeks of each other, so this year we are treating ourselves to a scrapbooking retreat weekend! Two full days of scrapbooking, sleeping (maybe) and food and snacks are provided by the coordinator! I won't be far from home, but I am sure I will miss the family! DH has been a good sport about taking over as the family chauffer!
I'm off to have fun! Fill ya in on Sunday night!
(Gotta go finish a freelance job before I go!)

We are finally back from vacation! I think hubby and I will consider going to work tomorrow recuperation from vacation! We had fun, got some sun and shopped a LOT! I am stocked for clothes now! I know DH is glaring and unhappy, but hey, he got some much needed shirts too! Picked up a couple of gifts as well! Yum, went to Coldstone Creamery. That place could be trouble, very addicting. Got some good deals while shopping, not just the outlet mall, but Target (but since we were on vacation, I guess we should be fancy and call it Tar-ghay). Got a bra on clearance for $2.98, a new purse for 18.99 and some comfy shorts (went for the mens, as in ladies there was nothing!) for $5.00. Got a really expensive and cute outfit at Dressbarn Women (early happy bday to me!) and a jacket for this fall.
Hubby took the girls boating one day, but most of the time was spent at the pools. Did'nt eat out too bad.
Glad to be back, time to go to bed!!

Why do I do these things? I have been working for the past 2 days and it has been busy... I am exhausted and ready for our vacation (ie..family trip, as it is usually NOT a vacation for mom!:-)) So being exhausted, we ate out BOTH nights. DH did'nt lift a finger to make dinner and I left a casserole which if you even mention the word in this house it is met with gags and groans. So I will stick the casserole in the freezer for when we get back from vacation. For heavens sake it is noodles, hamburger and cheese mixed with Ragu! Not exactly gross, actually more like pizza with noodles instead of crust.
Anyway just had to rant... Thanks!

Has anyone heard from Wild Blue Yonder? Did I miss something? Are we all still sending positive thoughts??
Just wondering.....

Yeah! Our July 4th party was a hit. The food was great, the weather super and the fireworks were entertaining. Love the day after a party.... Leftovers!
Had planned for a no spend day, but had to get gas. Kept it at $20. It is $2.81 here now.

Wow! Did'nt leave the house today. Was supposed to get near 100. I did go outside to move the sprinklers around. Have to make sure the house does'nt burn down with all the 4th of July fireworks going off!
Did lots of cleaning, multiple loads of laundry, getting ready for company. Cleaned the basement, straightened it, vaccuumed. If you ask me, this should be the place to be! It isn't really finished, but we have rugs down, couches and a TV with a gamecube and toys. It is so nice and cool down there! They are saying it might be stormy Tuesday, so I want an appealing place for the kids to go if that is the case.
I "fixed" the carpet cleaner too! With a psycho peeing dog, it is a necessity to own! A piece broke and I put some tape on it. It worked for about 6 months, then last time it would'nt work!! EEEKK! So I took off all the tape, put on new tape, and it worked like a charm! I will clean the rooms upstairs tomorrow after work.
Told the girls I would treat them to pizza tomorrow night, so tomorrow will not be a no spend day, but I bet Tuesday will!! :-)

Seems like with three "part time" jobs, I am one full time working woman. Too bad I don't get paid like that! All my jobs make about $10 per hr. My youngest, DD3, says she misses me. I will take her with me to job 2 and 3 tomorrow. Not sure how much patience I will get out of her, but she will get to see me!
Today was a no spend day except to get evil gas for the bus! Had dinner waiting in the crock pot for when I got home. Threw together some fresh veggies and dip and I was saved from take out!
Accomplished getting the office cleaned. Now I just need to go thru the file cabinets. Maybe tomorrow.

Friday night went out for sisters birthday dinner Free! Yum! Then we went over to a friends house. She was having a garage sale, so we where there to early bird the good stuff! I spent $30! Got a huge bag of clothes and shoes and swimsuits for the girls, a couple of toys and then I "donated" a little extra as this was for her daughters band camp fund. The girls should be set for the rest of summer and the start of school. Need to start working on the fall wardrobes.
I got up Saturday morning to do more sales. Did'nt find too much. Picked up a couple of things at the neighbors, but I was really picky. I don't want to end up with a bunch of impulse buy junk!
We took my friend out for her birthday Saturday night. The big 4 0! My one friend had a BOGO for the buffet at the casino, so we went there. $20. Then we each gave the birthday girl $10 to gamble with and I flushed my $20 limit down the proverbial toilet right away. Glad I don't make a habit of going there! So an expensive evening in cost, $50, but priceless time spent with old friends. (And I mean old!! She's 40!) (JUST KIDDING!!!)
Today, Sunday, I am working. Got to pay off last night! FIL and DH picked up DD2 from camp for the morning and was able to run her up to my work for a quick visit. It was soooo good to see her in one piece and hug her!! Can't wait to bring her home, but glad she is out learning new things. Will still worry the rest of the week! Going to my moms for dinner, so free supper! Yeah!

One check in and everything applied according to budget. Went over just a little in groceries, will make it up with the next check by taking out a little less. Gotta go with the coupons and sales!
Worked a little this morning and used that check for a little mad money and got myself and DD1 some lunch. Also, got to go to a pre garage sale and spent $30!! Got a lot and it was for charity!
Going to the garage sales in the morning. Hope I find some goodies!

No, not done paying off my debt! :-)
Done - with the garage sale. Two day total 243.00! Yeah! The rest boxed and taken to Goodwill for a lovely tax write off!
Done - Fathers Day BBQ over. Cleaned up, leftovers in fridge, Daddies happy.
Done - getting DD2 ready for camp. Drop her off tomorrow. Hope I won't make a big blubbering idiot out of myself!!!
Is June over yet???

Splurged a little on DH for fathers day. 2 shirts and 2 ties, he will probably return. Garage saled money jar from DD2, some $1 golf nicknacks from Target and the biggy, a round of golf at an exclusive local club. (Something he can't return!!! HA HA!) He has a tendency to return everything I buy him, so I usually get gift cards. When I told him about the round of golf he said "Did you get a deal on it?" Nope.
Good deal for MY dad. He wanted a book. Picked it up at Borders with a $10 gift card. Only cost .97! :-)
My FIL is getting Good and Plenty candy and a gift card to the movies. (He takes the girls to the show all the time! The least we could do!)
The BBQ will be here. Chicken, beans, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, potato salad, tuna salad, baked potatoes, steak, fresh veggies and dip. Ice cream cake for dessert (looking for a DQ coupon!)

Well....there is not much DH likes more than a good trash pick. After the girls music lessons the other day, we saw a table that had obviously fallen off someones truck and broke, so they left it at the side of the road. We have been looking for a pedestal table, so I mentioned it to DH if he wanted to go and get it. ZOOM. Turns out a little wood glue will get it and it even has one of those leaves in the middle of the table that fold out. But the over all size of the round part of the table was too small. I put it in the garage sale today for $5. No takers, maybe Saturday???

Still getting ready for the garage sale. Went to the dollar store to pick up some goodies to make signs with. This is exhausting, especially since I worked all day. Hope this is worth it!

Here is a list of my May goals:

May goals:
*start walking 3x's a week (Nope)
*list some things on ebay or half.com (DID)
*follow 50/30/20 budget (DID)
*no new debt (NOPE)
*look into new employment (DID, NO RESULTS YET)
*add SOMETHING to my $20 goal! (DID)
*work on a garden or at least a couple of tomato plants (DID)

Almost accomplished everything!

June Goals:
*No new debt
*start walking twice a week
*redo DD1 and DD3's rooms cheaply
*add something to the $20 challenge
*have a monster blow out garage sale and get rid of some of this JUNK!

Added $10 to my $20 challenge! Yeah!

Received two more Coke coupons today! Will serve these up at my birthday party!

Wow! Four whole days since I have checked in! I missed you all!
DD3 had a big Girl Scout sleep over that I had to plan and instigate this weekend. It was fun, but EXHAUSTING! I still have not recouped! Between graduations, church and work too, I really did'nt have a weekend. And this week I am working extra and at the second job and possibly working for the agent in my office again, AND I have to work next weekend too! Geeze, I'm already exhausted and the week has'nt even started! My weekend will be next Sunday and Monday! Hope I live that long. At least all the GS troops are done meeting for the rest of the summer! :-)
Moneywise, things have been okay. We did eat out too much this weekend, but I got my other rebate check, so that paid for Saturday nights dinner out and hubby bet on the winning Preakness horse, so dinner tonight was his treat! (Poor Barbaro!)
I have been working on the budget for next month. DH will be getting paid from his old job partway and then from the new merged company after that. Different pay and different insurance. - ugh! It will be a rough month.
I am going to try to make some goals to complete this week too (in my spare time-right?) The kids school is almost done, not much time to get some of those little things tied up!
Ahhh - enough of my novel... good to be back!

Nothing earth shattering going on.
Today was a basic no spend day. We ate at home for dinner and I walked for 20 minutes on the tread mill.
Went to nephews graduation, tomorrow night is drama banquet night for DD1, so no cooking! :-) And papa paid for banquet tickets!
Like Priceplus, just trying to sneak along with out anything big popping up!

I can tell you that with my husband in charge of spending this weekend.... it will take some time to work out the budget again! Thank goodness everything is paid!
Did a very unfrugal thing, made a late payment on the Citicard. One unfortunate glitch of my new budget! They immediately back dated my 3.9%, made me pay the difference and upped me to 21.4%. I have a 4.9 for 6 months from AmEx (where I orginally moved this debt from), so it looks like I will be moving it back there and closing the Citi account. It actually should have been closed years ago, but I guess it just went dormant, so this time I will make sure it is closed! That 3.9 for the life of the loan did'nt last long!!
My goals for this week is to eat at home every night (which will be a HUGE challenge this week if you saw the schedule!) and exercise at least three times! We'll see how it goes!

Hubby and I go out of our ways to do up Mothers/Fathers day and birthdays. So guess what! This is my weekend! Ahhhhh! Bunko with the girls tonight, I think I want to get up and go garage saling tomorrow, maybe a nap, church, then hubby will treat me to dinner (no cooking!), Sunday, breakfast in bed, gifts and accolades from DD's, and lunch at my SIL's.
Spoil yourselves girls! Mothers or not! Have a great Mothers Day WEEKEND!!!

I had a lot of fun today with the girls. We went out for about 3 1/2 hours. I got a lovely shelf for the newly redecorated bathroom (5.00), a Christmas tree for the kitchen (.25), a nice big colorful mesh beach bag for our pool trips (.25).
I have always wanted a bicycle and call me crazy, but I got a brand new mountain bike 15 speed for 10.00. Am I nuts to buy at bike at 40? Maybe!
Another much needed purchase was a big pot to put my (May goal) tomato plants in. Got one for 3.00! Ran by Walmart to get soil and plants, Viola! Another May goal scratched off the list!
Boy, when I took that bike for a ride, my knees were popping more than firecrackers on the 4th of July! But I exercised - so staying on track with May goals there too! Just need to get a helmet!

Talked to DD's. Have 2 committed to going out tomorrow morning with mom to garage sale! Not really looking for too much, except for clothes for them and maybe some stuff for the lawn/garden. Been looking for two years for a bicycle pump for DH.
Got an exciting freebie today. I have been inspired by lots of you on the site to hang clothes, but my neighborhood is too snooty to allow clothes lines. So I was going to look into buying 2 racks I could set on the deck. Lo and behold walking past the neighbors garbage today on the way home from the bus stop - a drying rack. Quickly trash picked it and ran. Can't figure out how to put it up, its probably broken. Will put hubby on it to jerry-rig it to usefulness!
Good luck to everyone having sales tomorrow! I will let you know if I find any treasures!

Read this interesting book about a writer who tried living on minimum wage in various parts of the country, as an experiment. Not very informative, but quite entertaining!

*No new debt
*No spend day
*Still on budget
*Instead of walking today (and to help hubby out) I mowed the front and side yards and trimmed all the bushes! Working in my outdoor "gym". With all the clippings I picked up, I figured that to be tons of toe touches!
*Listed 5 books for auction. Will see how it goes.

Will work on getting a tomato plant or two going this weekend.

Ate at home with our own Cinco de Mayo spread. Hubby loved it!

I gave hubby our "State of our State" address yesterday and as touched on in my No Refi entry, it did not go well. He really wants me to go to work full time and I am dead set againist it. I want to raise my kids myself! I know I have not been the best steward of our money, but we are not living in a cardboard box! I make our payments on-time and pay more every month. Yes, vet bills were a killer, but should I have just paid $60 to have her put down instead of $500 to keep her alive? No dental insurance last year and $3000 in dental bills, should I have put DD down? I'm not saying its all bills and no "Junk". But everytime we overspent eating out, you can bet his butt was in the chair next to mine eating his fill! I am reflecting on Priceplus and his struggles and wonder if this is how my husband sees me? As a giant spend thrift? He buys for himself when he wants, I buy for 5 people and 3 pets. Why is everything my "fault?" I am trying to bring it around, yes we have had greater CC debt before we have had to pull ourselves out of (all my fault before, I'm sure), but now things are under control. Yes, we have debt, but we are okay! Food on the table. He keeps saying now that I am going to kill him, having to work to keep up with my "extravagant" lifestyle. I do not buy clothes, get my haircut, get manicures, have huge stashes of "stuff" that I bought for no reason. When I do buy clothes, I go to the thrift store, my girls have some new things, but mostly hand me downs and garage sale stuff. Sorry, I just needed to vent! I'm having a pity party!

Yeah! We survived First Communion. Every thing went well, no one goofed and embarassed the family! :-) DD1 carried in a banner, DD2 sang in the choir and DD3 was our guest of honor. All the family was there and many friends too. Even DD3's 2nd grade teacher came, that was sweet of her! The party was nice. My sister left the church early and came to the house to set out the food and she said she thought she had walked into the wrong house because of all the changes I made! Food was plentiful, (leftovers for days!). They had messed up on the cake at the bakery so I ended up getting two cakes for free. Free is nice, but I could have cried. Oh well, I got over it! Very tired now! Tomorrow is church, laundry and REST! Will try to post a pic!

Went to the dentist and she was able to fill my tooth without a root canal. Of course she said "We'll see how it goes", but I'll pretend I did'nt hear that!
Almost a no spend day, had to pay a $50 copay at the dentist, but who cares! Better than the 300+ I would have paid before!
Still making dinner at home and following my menus! Looks like tomorrow night is taco night!
Going to go see a musical with some friends tomorrow night. Don't really want to go because of the big day on Saturday, but someone bought me the ticket and I feel obligated to go (although I should'nt!) Called "Meonpause the Musical". Should be interesting!

Well, went to bible study, and out for fellowship, then an hour at 2nd job.
Took DD's to Walgreens to pick up some meds. Spent 20.00 on 1/2 off Easter stuff. Bad job on my part!
Had to run to JCPenney and pick up extra set of curtains to finish the kitchen. DD1 wanted chips. I told her to grab her money and we went to the dollar store after Penneys. Also found another rug for the front hall on sale, will see how it looks. So more decorating money spent.
Got my first free sample today! Degree DO from Walmart. Cool!
Still haven't received the $30 from cashing out from a survey I took.
Burned out on the ebay thing. Every transaction was great - but one. I got a lady who did'nt pay and was an absolute lying nightmare. Will stay on the purchasing end of this for a while! Maybe I'll try some books on Half.com.
Glad to hear everyone has laundry out on the line! Glad our 90's are gone for at least another week.
Have to go back to the dentist tomorrow. Went for check up on Monday. May need a root canal!:-( Will find out tomorrow. So glad we are finally blessed with dental insurance! Had I waited any longer.. who knows!
Gearing up for the big party on Saturday. Trying to make sure everything is clean so I can just concentrate on getting shopping and food done on Friday.
Thats all for now!

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter and enjoyed a nice day!