I took the girls to see Toy Story 3 today. We all really enjoyed the movie. There were a couple of parts with Mr. Potato Head that just cracked me up!

It was pricey. We probably could have skipped the popcorn and pop that we shared since we had just eaten lunch. I will remember that for next time. I spent $19.50 just for matinee admission and another $12.75 for the snacks. Luckily, I have the money for this outing.

I used to work in a movie theater as a teen. In fact my husband worked in one as a manager and eventually ran projectors as a part time job. Up until three years ago when we moved here, we were able to see free movies for the entire time we have been together!
We love to watch movies, but I just cringe when I pay those prices!!

I've definitely done my share of sneaking in water and a snack in recent years. I'm not sure why I didn't do that today. Oh well...just a reminder to do that in the future.

How many of you regularly see first run movies in the theater?

I went on a little spending spree yesterday. We bought two pairs of capris and a pair of flip flops for my youngest at Old Navy. Spent about $25. She's been wearing last years capris...and the are just too small!

I bought a gift for MIL and a friend. Spend another $25. I also bought a cherry tomato plant as well as three knockout rose bushes that were on clearance for $5 each. Again, another $25 including the Miracle Grow that I threw in at the end. I probably don't need that stuff since mother nature has been providing lots of rain lately. Anything and everything is spouting quickly!! Now things need to dry out a bit so I can get things planted.

Payday is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting the finances in order and maybe make a little progress on the goals.

We're going swimming today!! It's going to be near 90 degrees and crazy humid. I'm even getting in half price with a coupon from our Entertainment book. The total admission for the three of us will be $6!! I will probably splurge a bit and get a snack while we are there.

After it cools down a bit later, I HAVE to get out and mow. It's a jungle out there and we are getting rain nearly every day. And thanks to the fertilizer DH put on a couple weeks ago, it is growing crazy fast!!

I've been able to have two video phone calls with my husband via Skype. He was calling from Starbucks after having purchased himself a cold Frappuccino! Weird war.

It appears the extra pays are about to start kicking in next week when he gets paid. That's probably the only thing I really like about this deployment. Those extra funds will help us to meet some of the big goals we want to accomplish this year. I will hash out the particulars on payday and see if there really any extra to put towards those goals. It has still be a very expensive month.

How is your June working out so far?

My 13 year old daughter has her dad's cell phone for the next year while he is away. In the last two days, over 100 texts have either been sent or received now that school is out for the summer.

Late yesterday, I added an unlimited text to her phone for $10 per month. Unlimited to Verizon customers, plus 500 to others. So far the friends she is texting with are with Verizon. I was hoping to go with the $5 plan, but that was only for 250 texts, which didn't seem like enough.

Joys of a teenager with a phone!

I finally got word that my husband is in the desert where it is 120 degrees. I received an email from him letting me know he arrived safely. Thank goodness for technology!

I've been doing pretty good after having quite a few rough days before he arrived home on a pass and then a terrible time saying goodbye. Who wouldn't? I think once we get into a communication schedule, hopefully by phone or skype, I'll be much better.

One day at a time. Hmm...just like finances! Oh, and he seems to be on some sort of crazy spending spree this month having already spent $260. I hope that is it until next week, I'm having a hard time keeping up.

I went shopping at Walmart today. I bought annual flowers to put in the pots on my porch and deck. Flowers always make me happy when I see them. I will put one near my kitchen window where I can see them while I wash dishes.

I bought 5 six packs, two accent plants and a bag of potting soil. I had a $5 gift card that I received in the mail from Walmart, because they remodeled the store. I spent $11! I figure money well spent since it will be a nice treat all summer long.

I also received a $3 payment from Pinecone Research today as well. Yipee for extra cash!

This weekend looks to be spendy. DH's home for the weekend and that means we'll be out doing more. We are going to dinner as a family tomorrow night.

Yesterday, he wanted to see Iron Man 2. Not too bad. The writing was a bit cheesey! We went to the early show while the girls were in school, and did buy popcorn and a drink. I brought my own water from home!We skipped lunch.

We also picked up a headset he can use when he calls us on Skype. Skype will be a lifesaver this deployment. And it's free!! He also needed a new cover for his Ipod.

We did take a free bike ride last night as a family and our plans are not really firmed up for the rest of the weekend. I just know the probability of spending is pretty high!

Update on the house painting: The house should be done today! I'm pretty picky, so I have had them go back and redo some areas. So far it is a great improvement. In the end, I think it will be money well spent.

With my husband away, I only filled up the gas tank once in 27 days! I didn't check how many miles that equated to, but it was between 200 and 300.

So it looks like we will be spending about $40-45 on fuel each month for the next year. That is nice!! We are probably saving around $100 each month because he isn't driving to work daily.

1) DH will be home this weekend on a 4 day pass. It's likely the last time I'll see him before they fly out. It sounds nice, right? Well, it is an emotional mixed bag. With all the training, I've had too many goodbyes this year already.

2) I was able to reduce my gym membership while DH is away from $73 to $49. They offered to reduce it while he is away. Very nice!

3) I had to start on some prescription medications, which will cost $22 per month. Makes the gym membership savings about a wash.

4) Our painters are finally prepping our house for painting. We had too much rain over the last couple weeks, so things have been delayed. Gives me more time to come up with cash!!

5) My youngest daughter is going to play flute next year in fifth grade. I will rent to own the instrument at about $35 per month. This will begin in September.

6) End of month payday arrives early on Friday! Of course, that just means that money has to last longer.

The dance and tumbling recital for the girls was last weekend. Today, it was time for preregistration. Yikes!

I paid in full for each of them to take a 30 minute class each week for the next school year. Only set me back $808. They waived the $90 recital fee with full payment. That is a 10% savings. And I don't have to think about money for that activity again for quite some time.

In other money news, I received my second Pinecone survey payment this week and made one small sale on half.com. I will net only $1.70 on the sale, but it is $0.70 more than if I had sold this item at the garage sale! I will add this to my ebay challenge totals at the end of the month.

Today is a mow and sew day here at my house. I'm only sharing because I really plan to do both of these things and they rhyme!

In previous posts, I've mentioned that my husband will get a twice monthly allowance of $200. This has really worked out great from my perspective. I think this is primarily because his spending is a known quantity. I also do not need to track each receipt and record each purchase. What a relief!

I mentally set aside $200 on payday. So far he has pulled the money out in cash soon after. I record that transaction when I see it. After that it is our regular bills and any spending I need to do.

Honestly, $200 is likely way more than he needs. He did spend the full amount the first payday, however. I have to ask how he stands this time, next time I talk to him. I know he cut back on cigars and stopped drinking pop. That will help financially a bit.

The really great news...he's coming home on a four day pass next week! I can't wait. Of course, the time will go entirely too fast, but we'll enjoy every minute of it.

I made a Goodwill donation today of three boxes. Yes, primarily leftover garage sale items. I did keep some things for our fall sale. Probably too many things!

I did finish sorting the books and clothes from my sister. I kept a shirt and a pair of pants. I also pulled two books to read. I will attempt to sell them at the next sale.

While sorting books yesterday, I attempted to see if any could be sold on the cash for books websites. There seemed to be two or three that I could sell. I just need to decide if it is worth my time for $3.

Yesterday was a no spend day. Today I purchased a sympathy card and a couple of stamps. Money well spent.

have your house painted! Yep, the first step in the painting process, power washing, is scheduled for Monday. Our garage sale doesn't begin until Thursday and Friday and it isn't even at my house. Thank goodness for that.

It is forecasted to rain quite a bit next week, so they are likely to get delayed during the process. I guess that means I have more time before I have to pay them!!

Next week is the last week of my girls dance and tumbling classes. They have recital rehearsal next Friday with the actual recitals on Saturday.

How many votes that my next week is a little more stressful than usual?

I so rarely do this. Spend money on me. And the money spent today were on needs. But it felt good! $17 worth of good!!

Oh, now you want to know what I spent money on. You'll be a bit disappointed. Remember. Needs.

I bought three pairs of white no show socks, primarily for working out in. I do wear them other times with my sneakers. This means I can throw out a couple pairs that are really worn.

Second, a new tube and shade of lipstick. I don't wear makeup very often, so it takes awhile to go through one tube. I'm hitting the bottom of my current tube and at my age I needed an update in color as well.

A pair of cotton shorts to sleep in. My last pair was very worn. I bought that pair at a garage sale, so there were like a hand me down pair. I tossed those old ones out last month when I came across them. It is now getting warm enough to need something other than pants to sleep in.

It was definitely happy spending, with no guilt!

I made my homemade laundry detergent yesterday. I think it looks like it will work great. It seems like soap anyway!!

I also prepped our garden for planting. It was becoming overgrown with weeds and grass. Luckily, my girls were up for digging in the dirt. They dug out the grass and weeds, while I pulled much of the dirt off the roots. It felt good to get my hands dirty! I'm also glad the garden is only 64 square feet because that did take a couple hours. I have yet to decide what to plant. We have really enjoyed beans and peas in the past. They are plentiful, delicious and always available for picking.

I also made cookie dough last night. Butter, sugar, vanilla and flour. We are going to wrap the dough around Hershey's Kisses to make Secret Kisses cookies. The girls recieved a Hershey's cookbook as a gift and this is the only recipe that I had all the ingredients for and probably the easiest!

Only spent money on haircuts for the girls yesterday. If only I were that much of a homesteader!! I've tried cutting their hair before, but I'm never satisfied with the results.

Mother's Day is just over a week away. It is on Sunday, May 9. Time to start thinking about how to acknowledge your mother.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this Hallmark invented holiday. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my mom. But why do we all have to thank and appreciate them on the same day? I'm a mom myself, and I'm still not a fan of the holiday!!

I do usually get my mom a card and a small gift. This year she will be receiving 4 handmade (by me) coasters and some loose leaf tea. I'm guessing this will cost me less than $15.

As I write this, I realize I bought her coasters about three years ago that have pictures of my daughters in them. I think she uses them as small framed pictures instead of coasters.

This year, the coasters are the right thing. She was eyeing the ones I made for myself. So I think she will enjoy that I made some for her, too. I hope she likes the fabric. If not, more can be made. And she loves tea, so I can't go wrong there!

Are you buying or making a gift for your mom to celebrate the day of mothers?

My husband will be getting an allowance of $200 each pay period for the next year. We are paid twice per month. His need for cash is very minimal while overseas.

Secretly,(Unless he's reading this blog today. Hi, honey!) I hope that he will not spend it all. Last time his expenses included some pop, lots of cigars and Subway sandwiches (one does get tired of DFAC food), haircuts and occasional postage for packages.
Two hundred dollars seems like plenty don't you think?

Right now my plan is to take this allowance from our regular spending. I think this is possible because of all the things that we won't be spending money on. Less will be spent on fuel and groceries here at home for sure!

It's been a spendy month.

There is something about wanting your about to be deployed husband to get whatever he wants, even if it isn't in the budget! I've been out to lunch three times in the last two weeks and bought too much wine, beer and coffee. Oh, and the family went out to dinner and ice cream, too.

I only regret it from a financial standpoint. We did enjoy ourselves. It also isn't going to hurt us in the long run. Too much!

I'm really looking forward to payday on Friday to get back on track. I hope to keep the spending to a minimum this week so it doesn't get worse! Unfortunately, the Army has already made a paycheck error in their favor by at least $70, maybe more. Someone is looking into it, so I hope to have that money back by mid May.

Are you having a good month financially?

I wanted to buy a used Apple USB wall charger for my daughter's ipod. I went to ebay. I was the only bidder, so I won the auction. I spent $10.

It arrived on time. However, it isn't a USB wall charger. It is a firewire adapter/charger. It will not work with a 5th Generation Ipod. I knew this and was looking specifically for a USB wall charger.

Buyer does not accept returns. I'm okay with this because I knew this upfront. The model number in the auction is correct. I should have checked it though and I would have known this wouldn't work. The description was wrong. It should not have stated USB in the title. Ugh!

I'm out $10, until I can sell this on ebay. Disappointing. But it can be corrected.

listen to this story.

We are having our house painted in about 3 weeks. One of our gutters was seperating away from the house enough to allow water to run between the house and the gutter. This caused water damage to the paint and over time would cause damage to the siding.

Gutters are attached to the facia with some sort of long bolt. It seemed like something specialized, so I hired a gutter company to repair it. Turns out it is a very easy repair and didn't really require any special skill.

Our repair involved three new nails placed under the gutter to attach the facia to the soffit. The gutter is attached to the facia and since the facia was pulling away so was the gutter! (I think I have my terms right. Sorry if I'm off a bit.) They also added a bolt to the end of the gutter where it meets the another side wall of our house. I think this was just an extra safety measure to hold it in place.

Honestly, I don't even want to tell you what this cost me because I am disappointed that it only took three nails to fix the problem. Nails that I could have probably installed myself.

When I called the contractor, I said I wanted it repaired and replaced, if necessary. I did ask for a quote over the phone. I ended up paying the quoted price. The disappointing thing is I thought the quote was my maximum if I had the whole piece replaced. Nope. It was my minimum.

I will take it as a lesson learned, which is also why I'm mentioning it to the rest of you. I probably should have had the contractor out to give an estimate in person, rather than over the phone. A trip out probably would have told me that it would have been an easy repair. Next time my gutters are pulling away from the house, I will nail the facia back to the soffit by myself!

We received our second paint estimate today. Not exactly the nice figure of the first. $3,900. Nearly double the first. The second estimate does offer a second coat of paint, but no repair work included. Strange. We asked for a small repair to be included.

Two coats of paint seems like a good idea, but we are moving in about two years (or less). The main problem is the bottom edges of the lap siding, which will be scraped, primed, spray painted and then back brushed. I think this proceedure will correct that problem. We are also staying with the same colors.

Final decision: first estimate hands down.
Savings: $1,825

My post was lost. My first time ever. I wrote it pretty quickly too. I went to an area I don't think I've been before...maybe the forum login? Not sure.

Our spending is up! It was up last month. Now this month. And I expect in May as well. It's beginning to effect my ability to add to our 'new' emergency fund.

We are literally getting a gutter repaired or replaced this week. Ballpark estimate $150. This is preventive maintenence for the new paint job. I would hate to ruin it because of a bad gutter.

Turns out I will have to dip into the new EF for some of the paint costs. Darn. Once we sell the car, I can instantly replace the money. Yipee!!

If I haven't already mentioned it, our spending is way way up there this month. And last month. And it looks to be up in May, too! How is this going to help my emergency fund goal?

This week we are literally spending money on gutters. I'm hoping a repair or at most the replacement of one strip of gutter. Do them call them that? Strips. Line of gutter? Whatever.

The over the phone estimate is about $150. It has to be repaired at least otherwise the next paint job is going to fail in the same spot. I guess it is all about maintenence or at least keeping up appearances.

This is an example of home maintenence for all you renters out there that might want to buy a home. It's another reason to have an emergency fund for these repairs that come up that you might not be able to plan for. I didn't plan for this one. I'm sure the signs were there. I just didn't look!!

Some of the money for these gutters and the paint will come from the 'new' emergency fund. Darn. Once we sell the car, it will be instantly replaced. Yipee!

We have our first home painting estimate in our hands. Including tax and a small siding repair, the first estimate came in at $2,075.82. My husband guessed $2,500 and I was really hoping for less, so I win!! No just kidding. I'm just really pleased.

The salesman said that we don't NEED to paint this year, but it is definitely showing signs of wear and would definitely need it in two years. We are positive in two years we will be moving, thus the need for a nice paint job! He also said that if we waited even another year to paint, it would require more labor because the areas that are already beginning to peel away would be worse. More labor, more money. Likely an additional $300-400.

We are scheduled to get one more estimate tomorrow. Once we compare, we will decide and get it scheduled. Before this man arrived, I was starting to think we should just wait to paint. However, I think it is in our best interest to stay ahead of the problems that are developing.

Our van needed an alignment because it was pulling to one side and three out of four tires were showing wear on the sides. I was notified of this about a month ago at the Honda dealership. At the time, I declined the work.

We decided to take the van to another auto store for the alignment since it would be less expensive than the quote from the dealership. We bought a lifetime alignment for double their normal charge. Out of pocket cost: $151.

I would have spent just a little more at the dealership for the tire rotation and alignment. That would have been a one time charge.

Do you think it was a good idea to get the lifetime alignment service? It is a national chain. We expect to have the van for quite some time.

I can just feel it. Spending is about to begin. And I don't want to do it. I prefer to save money. I'm not good at the buying. Oh sure, I can buy groceries, gas, and other normal stuff here and there. But I'm seeing signs of large purchases.

Want to know what I see in my future?

Family pictures
An airline ticket
Battery operated lawn trimmer
Tire rotation and alignment
House painting
New gutters

I'm sure that is a couple thousand dollars! We have the money but I wanted to save it. I guess I'm pouting about it today. This too shall pass.

We are going to spend the next week getting some home improvement estimates. We need to have the exterior of our home painted. It is very faded. I think the previous owners painted quickly and cheaply.

We may need new gutters. Anyone had this done? How much did you pay for yours? I realized we may not be comparing the same size house. It seems these wouldn't be too expensive.

Before anything gets painted there are at least two fairly small pieces of siding that should be replaced, too. We'll be looking for an estimate on that repair also.

The house will most likely need to be sold in the next two years, so it would be nice to get these taken care of in plenty of time. Of course, we prevent further damage, too.

fabric!



I'm going to make a valance for my kitchen window out of one fabric and some placemats out of at least one of the others. Reversible placemats maybe? I have yet to figure it all out. The fabrics only set me back about $8! This has got to be less expensive than buying new from the store and maybe even equal to a thrift store for used.

My sewing machine has been a great tool for us. Do you have a sewing machine you use or another great tool worth its investment?

Yesterday was a no spend day. I like those. This is good news too, because I have quite a few things I'd like to buy right now. I will get some of them eventually, but they can wait. At least until payday!

I've made pretty good progress on the cleaning. I have only two more window blinds and windows to clean. I did get all the intake vents dusted. I even pulled down the vents from the bathroom ceiling fans. My bathroom was the worst. I think I might not have cleaned it after we moved in three years ago. Yuck! They are shiny and dust free now.

While I was cleaning, I watched (okay more like listened) an episode of Hoarder's online. That is motivation! Today, I might tune into Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey online. It helps to keep my mind entertained while I do some of the mundane cleaning tasks.

My daughter raked the front yard last night. I agreed to give her a dollar. It only took her 10 minutes. The grass had really become matted down from the 65 inches of snow that sat on it all winter!!

Today, I must finish those blinds. I will also clean the insides of the kitchen cupboards. Luckily about half of them don't need to be done.

I think my reward for all this cleaning will be to buy fabric for a kitchen window valance. I have the rod and I think I will only need about half a yard or less. Do you reward yourself for big tasks completed, financial or otherwise? Or is the completion enough?