While we were on vacation I paid two neighborhood girls to feed our pets. We have two cats, two mice and a hamster. They came over for 8 days.

Originally, I had planned to pay them $50. I figured $5/day + $10 to clean the mice cage once. Instead, I paid $70 because the girl's mother came over the night before our return and cleaned out the litter boxes, the hamster cage and the mice cage for a second time. I didn't ask or intend for her to do that. But, it was so, nice to not have it smell, or have to even clean them when we returned. So, I threw in another $20 for her.

Today, the girl's mom came by and returned $30. I did try to refuse it, as I really felt comfortable with the amount I paid. She paid her two daughter's $20 each. We never did discuss money ahead of time, so I guess it does come down to miscommunication. I think they would have done it for free! I guess in the end $40 was the price for pet sitting. Good deal.

I received a $20 check from MySurvey yesterday in the mail. I redeemed another one recently for $10, so I expect to see it soon, too.

I returned a pair of capri's yesterday to Old Navy and then let the girls get two shirts each for the start of school. We bought several shirts before our vacation. I will still need to buy one daughter a swimsuit, socks and a pair of running shoes for school. Otherwise, we are set in the clothing department for a few more months.

DH went to the dentist recently. The dentist suggested an electric toothbrush. He wants to get it. It retails for $66.99. The dentist did provide a $10 coupon and a $15 mail in rebate. I found the toothbrush on Amazon for $48.99, including shipping. So, I can't use the coupon, but I save $8 by ordering it online. I can still redeem the rebate. In the end, it will cost about $34. That's so much better than $67!

Still no air conditioning for the last 8 days! In case anyone doesn't realize, that in the midwest in July that NEVER happens. Ever.

It has been so cool, that swimming outside is not pleasant either. Today, I took them to an indoor pool, with a buy 1 admission, get 1 free. I didn't want to swim, so it cost me $4 to get them in. Good thing it was cheap, they wanted to leave after an hour!! What? Kids not wanting to swim? I have never heard of such a thing!

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We are signing up for dance and tumbling lessons this afternoon. For 9 months of entertainment, education and exercise, I will pay $742. I may have to buy jazz shoes for one daughter, but I think the old ones still fit for now! Same goes for the leotards.

We did a little shopping yesterday for school supplies at Target. I had been reimbursed by my neighbor for mailing them their medicine while on vacation, so I had $20 to spend. I also returned a shirt my daughter she didn't like. I had them put the amount on a gift card.

The woman checking me out was new and I had three ways I was paying: gift card, cash and debit card. When she entered in the $20, it ended up showing that I pay about $42 in cash. I quickly volunteered that I didn't think that was right. Sure, I could have left with $48 in merchandise, without paying the extra $22 I owed. But that's not right. She called for help and it was quickly corrected.

As we were leaving, the girls and I found $0.47 cents!! I found the quarter and the girls each found a dime and a penny. Now, that is what I call money karma!

Out of the four of us, I bought the least expensive souvenir. In addition to being inexpensive, I wanted the item I purchased to be something I would use everyday.

In the end, I bought a ball point pen, for $4.95. It has Mickey Mouse on the top. When I click the pen open or close, Mickey bends forwards or backwards. It's cute, fun and I will use it nearly everyday.

DH bought a ball cap with Mickey Mouse on the front. Our girls spent the most money. They bought lanyards, plastic pouches for lanyards, pins for lanyards and Mickey Mouse caps (the ones with the ears). The hats, were ones they could pick the ears and cap out seperately, so theirs are unique. We also bought a postcard and some chocolate pretzels.

I didn't total up the exact amount of those souvenirs, but we spent the $63 birthday fun card, the girls allowances of $21, birthday money of $25, as well as the $20 my oldest daughter brought along. So, at least $129 worth of Disney stuff! I don't know if the girls have used the stuff they bought since we've been home, but I know DH and I have!!

Everything is fine now on the computer front. I guess we filled up our computer's hard drive...probably all the pictures from Disney did it in!

We bought an external hard drive for about $85 to store all of our pictures from 2004 to present as well as music. So, now instead of only having 3 GB of free space we have 25 GB! I actually will have more once I transfer more pictures. DH just did his and all the music. He also did a complete back up of the computer last night in case something else drastic is going on. Obviously, this is something we should have done before having problems...but it seems to be our nature to procrastinate on some things.

DH had hundreds of pictures from Iraq and work that were on the computer twice!! Ugh. Can you tell, we don't keep up with this computer stuff. I'm going to weed some of my pictures out before I transfer them over. We gave our daughter a 7 megapixel camera for her birthday. She takes lots of pictures, so those are now adding to our storage space needs.

So, anyway, I guess you'll still be hearing from me. Thanks for the life preserver ToyGuy!

It's payday. I feels like forever (just April) since I paid extra principal on our home equity loan. Our Disney World vacation was worth it, but I sure missed attacking this particular debt!

Today, I made a payment of $347.10 to bring the balance to an even $6,500.

Tomorrow, I will make our regular payment of $118.01. That should bring the balance to $6,421!

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Turns out my girls have decided to dance and tumble again this year. Two months ago, they were ready to be done. I think they were just tired out at the end of the school year. We missed early registration, but I can sign them up any time. I will pay all costs upfront and they will waive the $84 recital fee, which is basically a 10% discount. So, there goes another $750!!

The cupboards were bare, when we returned from vacation. I sent DH to pick up about 8 items on Sunday night to get us through yesterday.

This morning I actually planned our meals through the end of the month! That is highly unusual for me, but it worked. I only bought groceries for 9 days. I will buy the rest on the morning of day 10.

Our garden is beginning to become fruitful. We picked cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas last night. There are more peas to harvest, too! I have onions growing that could easily be harvested for the greens. In fact, I will harvest a couple tomorrow when I make taco dip! We had lettuce growing, but in the frenzy of vacation planning I never harvested any. I think I'll plant some more this fall. There is a strawberry plant, too, that is taking hold of a corner of the garden. Only one green strawberry, so far! And, we do have two tomato plants that are producing larger tomatoes...of course, they are still green.

This is only our second year of gardening, but it has been pretty fun. The girls like to help pick weeds as well as harvest the crops. It is a simple 8' x 8' plot, so it isn't too overwhelming. We even have a little area in the garden where we mulch our vegetable waste. Even that is fun!

Ugh...the last thing I really want to do is add up all the expenses of our trip. It's kind of a downer after all the fun we had.

It appears that we spent just under $2700 while on our trip. This covered the hotel, car rental, theme park tickets, baggage fee, fuel for our van and the rental car, pet sitting, souvenirs and food.

Food is expensive on vacation. I don't have an exact figure on that yet. I'm not even sure if I want to add it up! I also know that I don't have all the receipts. Darn.

One night we spent $65 on pasta at a sit down restaurant on Disney Property. The girls had mac & cheese, with goldfish crackers and a drink. I had alfredo pasta and a diet coke. DH had a beer and alfredo pasta with shrimp. There was nothing else served...no veggies! DH left a $10 tip. I did a lot of reading before we left and I knew sit down dinners on property were expensive. Too bad DH didn't know that! He picked and was disappointed. I don't tend to say "no" on vacation. I did however have Taco Bell for dinner one night...my meal was $3.69!

We spent over $600 before we left on numerous vacation expenses, such as shoes, sunscreen, shirts & shorts, books, gum, birthday presents for my daughter, ponchos, micro fiber towel (which did come in handy on those rainy days), a water proof pouch for the water park, and refilled medication. It all adds up FAST!

Total spent $3,300. Approximately. According to my side bar, I had $3,362 before I left. Right now, it seems we don't have any of that money left over. I'm okay with that. We didn't go into credit card debt for this trip. It has all been paid with cash. Yipee!!

I will give more vacation details at some point. Right now, I'm a little exhausted!

DH gets paid on Wednesday...so we'll start attacking that home equity loan. I can't wait!

Payday is coming up, as is our vacation departure. All but the water bill are on automatic payment. This makes it easy. On payday, I simply need to record the bills as paid in our checking account.

The water bill won't arrive until after we leave, but isn't due for a week after we return. I will pay it then.

On payday, I will get to add some more money to our Mickey Fund, too. I can't wait!

We had a reunion with my DH's family yesterday. It was decendents of his grandparents. Only one daughter living, DH's Aunt. We lucked out and it was in our town and we didn't have to travel! We're the only ones who live here, others are nearby, but in smaller towns or much farther away. The aunt is from Arizona.

We spent time in the hotel lobby and bar before dinner. Dinner was good and filling. It cost our family of four $58 with tip.

My sister in law along with others took lots of pictures. Don't know if we'll see them again. It's been 7 years since we were together and that was at my father in law's funeral.

One of the cousins put together a couple of nice books explaining family history and plenty of photos! Each family received a copy. It will be treasured for a long time.

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DD2 will celebrate her bithday in a week while we are on vacation. I will be out shopping for her today. The plan is to take only one of the gifts in the suitcase with a gift bag and tissue. The rest she can open before we leave and then leave them here at home.

It turns out DD doesn't have a long list of birthday wants. I was able to get a few ideas from her by taking her to a few stores to look around. I'm thankful she does not have a lot of wants.

I'm still stressed, but not quite as much as yesterday. Can you believe that it seemed to stem from finding sun hats of all things?

DD1 has a specific type of hat she wants and it has to be white and reversible. On Monday, I found a similar one...but a little big and not reversible. I also bought one I thought would work, but not really like what she wanted. It was a bucket hat, tan, not reversible and had a blue checked ribbon around it. Turns out she is okay with it. So, yesterday I returned two hats as well as a pattern to sew hats. I actually thought I'd feel comfortable sewing hats less than two weeks before our departure! Yikes. I've never made a hat before.

So, with items returned and hats that will work for both DD's, I feel less stressed. Today...haircuts. How stressful can that be?

I'm also in the process of making a list of things we need to buy at the store before we leave. We need more hair products, kitty litter, undergarments and gum. The list keeps growing and I only have about $120 in the checking account until next week. Some of these purchases will need to come from vacation money. I'm just taking it one day at a time, to see what I can accomplish.

It is to be rainy later today, so I think I'll start printing off confirmations and maps for the trip. That will feel good to get that in order.

Anyone have any birthday ideas for my soon to be 9 year old daughter? She doesn't have any ideas and neither do I. She will turn 9 while on vacation, so I need to take at least one gift along for her to open while we are there. I will shop this weekend for her.

Thanks for reading!

My sister put a bug in my ear. Dad needed and wanted more shirts. Specifically, he loves shirts from Eddie Bauer, size XL Tall.

So, I found a solid polo shirt for $16.99!! Wow. With tax, I spent $18.01. I had budgeted $25. I did pretty good, huh?

I also did well for DH. He's getting a CD that I spent $10.50 on, as well as a pair of running shorts for $14.99. Again, pretty good. He's card is going to be one we used from last year. It's one of those musical cards where you can record your voice. We'll re-record if we can. It's a good card...it just fits him to a T.

My dad's Father's Day card is one that I bought at a Hallmark store that was closing. I think I paid about 50 cents!!

The wrapping for both gifts comes from my stash of gift bags and tissue that I reuse. They won't mind or care, which makes me happy!!

Happy Father's Day to all of you Dad's.

I thought I'd just give a peek into the financial things happening in our daily lives the last day or so. I hope it is not too boring!

The girls and I had dentist appointments yesterday. Since we are military the girls and I pay a premium monthly in order to have dental coverage. The premium is $30.29 per month. Because we go to an approved dentist, we pay no money out of pocket for regular cleanings twice a year.

This money does cover 50% of orthodontic work...with a $1500 max. I think I only have $1100 left of that max. I hope I don't need it all. DD1 will be getting braces, hopefully before school starts up again. She has one more baby tooth that needs to fall out.

After the dentist appointment, we picked up McDonald's. I spent about $15. I wish that I didn't eat the fries or second cheeseburger!! I didn't need it. I even had a drink in the car.

I picked up food because the car was packed up for a mini trip. I drove the girls to meet my mother a little over an hour away. The girls went to spend about 48 hours with their grandparents. Free time for me!! Of course, I spent a little money in gas for the trip.

After I arrived back home...I had to decide what to do. Well, I went shopping!! I needed shorts for vacation. I mean I'm going to Florida in July! I spent $50 for 3 pairs of shorts. Not bad.

Once DH was home, we went to the gym. I was still thinking of those fries I ate! Great workout followed by DH's desire for chinese food and beer. Ugh. I'm having trouble with food today can you tell? We spent about $20 for this meal. It was really good. I had sesame chicken.

We watched a movie called What Happens in Vegas. It was from Netflix and really good and funny. Okay it was predictable, but still good.

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Today, I have to spend my free time getting my Dad's gift for Father's Day. I have a plan and hope to spend about $25.

My parents are bringing the girls back tomorrow and they are spending the night here. I guess I need to clean in preparation for that and buy groceries. Fun...more spending.

Have a great weekend fellow bloggers and readers!

Yes, we saw UP today at the movie theatre. We saw the matinee and paid $25 for the four of us. It was pretty good. Although my 8 year old did mention that it was kind of sad. And yes, it was, I almost cried. We went right after lunch and skipped the snacks. Even DH, skipped getting a diet coke! Trust me, that is a miracle.

This evening we went for an hour long bike ride. That translates to about 7 miles! We can't ride any faster than smallest one in our party. I think DH & I could go about twice as fast. Oh, well. It was some exercise and free entertainment!! Gotta love that.

My oldest thought she wanted to take lessons for her flute this summer. Her first class was yesterday. Umm...the teacher, not so good. Or at least didn't mesh with my daughter. DD was upset.

There were to be only four lessons. It was just for fun. She does fine with the lessons the school provides. So, we cancelled.

Today I picked up the refund. There was a $5 service fee for cancellation, but I did get $85 back!!

Now...off to buy toilet paper!! Actually, I'm going to put it back into this weeks budget. I will put any leftover towards Disney after payday.

I joined swagbucks awhile back. I earned my first $5 Amazon gift card back in April. I finally used it!!

I purchased a book and CD. The purchase before discount was over the $25 threshold so I received free shipping! My total for the two items $20.98. One item is a gift.

Technically, I think one could accumulate several of these gift cards and use more than one towards a purchase. One might be able to get some holiday gifts for free, if you start now.

Personally, I've been a little lazy about using my swagbucks tool bar, so I have been missing out on some points, but I am halfway to another gift card!! I'm going to see what I can accumulate by the end of November to use towards a gift of some kind. Wish me luck.

P.S. There is a

Today, I went to lunch with friends that were visiting from out of town. I took the girls with me. We ate very well for $17.40 including the tip. My oldest didn't really qualify for the kids menu, but that is what they charged me for. I saved about $2!

We walked from our restaurant to the state capital building. It was a least a mile, mostly uphill. Of course, at the end we were able to walk back down! Free entertainment was welcome by me as well as our friends. Parking was even free!!

The local farmer's market was ending as we arrived, the girls and I received free samples of organic lip balm. We took 6 tubes and gave some to our friends! Can't beat that!

I like sending greeting cards. I don't like paying for them!! I've been known to buy cards at garage sales or make my own. In the name of saving money, I've cut back on my card sending. We make a phone call to relatives on their birthday. It seems a little more meaningful. We have unlimited long distance...so the cost is the same either way.

But, there are still cards I send. Turns out a local Hallmark store is closing on Saturday. Everything in the store was 75% off. The gift stuff was quite picked over, but plenty of cards.

I bought 33 cards for $18.38. Tax included. That's about 56 cents per card!! I picked up cards for Father's Day, anniversaries, Christmas, and birthdays. The majority of the cards were 'miss you' and 'love' cards to send to DH when he is deployed. It's true...deployment will rear is ugly head one of these days. Now, I'll be prepared in the card department!

Without going into detail, my DD1 managed to get grease (and a lot of it) on her fairly new white capri pants over the weekend. Ugh!

My mom suggested bleach. I really try to avoid that stuff. It gives me a headache. Besides it's grease. Don't you have to get it out before you can whiten it? Not sure.

Normally, I use liquid soap for stains. As long as it isn't colored it works pretty well. I started with this, with a fair amount of scrubbing. I also soaked them in a non toxic cleaner. They have been washed twice now, without drying.

Yesterday, I picked up Advanced Shout for heavy duty stains. I paid $2.69. After at least three treatments and a lot of scrubbing the grease stains are a much lighter gray. I'm making progress!! I have hope I can get this grease out.

I did have an alternate plan, if the stains couldn't be removed. Make bermuda shorts!! The stains are low on the inside pant legs, so I would have just cut the stained part off and hemmed.

DD1 is thrilled that she will still have capris. I'm thrilled too. These are lightweight enough to wear in the hot humid weather of Florida!

Thanks Shout! Thanks to me, too! That is a lot of scrubbing.

I printed two coupons off the internet for a sporting goods store in our area. I can get $10 off $50, and $25 off $100.

Okay, I do have a legitimate reason to spend the money. Several of us need new shoes for our Disney Vacation. Shoes can be expensive, right? Right.

So, I went advance shopping today for my family members. They have sandals for the girls, as well as sneakers, running shoes and sandals for DH. I also looked at swimsuits for myself. Can I say that last part was NOT fun?

So, my plan is to split these purchases into 3 transactions. I will need to find one more coupon for $25 off $100. I will end up purchasing 5 pairs of shoes and a swimsuit for just over $200! Not bad, huh?

Now...I just hope they still have everyone's size!!

spending!!

I've made my DH wait to buy fertilizer and weed killer. I put off buying flower for my pots and vegetables for my garden. We need a new cover...maybe an unbrella, for our deck. It's on the south side. Trees aren't big yet. And we still have yet to buy the new kitchen sink.

The hardware stores offer 10% off for military personnel this weekend, so we can get all of our project stuff at once and on a discount. Since, I knew when and what we were going to buy I was able to budget this. Any extra cash, gets allotted to the vacation fund.

Oh, we're not just spending. We will be visiting family this weekend, too! Can't wait.

I did end up going to the grocery store today. I just needed to get it off my list. I spent $61.01 on our groceries through next Monday. It helps that I am using quite a few things from the pantry.

Of course, I'm looking back at my grocery list and realize...I forgot to buy the fish and the marinade!! Ugh. I was trying to shop too fast.

I'm sure those remaining items won't cost more than $10, but now I need to make another trip. Don't ya just hate when that happens?

I've been doing better at making my grocery list based on what we have in the freezer and pantry. I skipped going to the store today because I realized I had chicken, lettuce, cantalope and flour. I made salads with chicken, cantalope and homemade cloverleaf rolls. It's the first time I've made the rolls and they turned our really well. The whole family loved them!!

Later in the week I will make a homemade sausage pizza, since I have all the ingredients. We are also having a breakfast night. The girls will probably have waffles or pancakes, while DH and I will have eggs. So, three nights of dinner withoug going shopping!! Hmm...just realizing I should make these earlier in the week and I can avoid going to the store until Wednesday. I was going to go tomorrow. I'll decide that tomorrow. Sometimes it is nice just to get that errand out of the way!!

I've planned dinners all the way through Monday, which is Memorial Day. After that, I will only need six more meals through the end of the month.

requires some extra planning and a little more spending. At least at our house!

Our oldest daughter plays the flute. She is just about to finish her second year. School lessons are free and we are renting to own the flute. It will finally be ours in 4 months. I'm going to shell out $90 to pay for 4 weeks of lessons in June. It will be good for her. She'll keep practicing and have 'fun' music to work on.

DD2 needs to take some more swimming lessons. At a minimum I will need to pay $35, unless I pick a private teacher. In that case, it might be more. I think the private teacher may be worth it since the school programs don't quite ever seem to get her to enjoy going under the water!! She's almost 9!

Every year, I say I want to plan our summer out with activities, but I don't really seem to get it done. We wing it. I don't want it overscheduled, but a few things to look forward to are important, too!

What activities are you paying for this summer?

This is the first month in several that I'm only making the regular payment on our home equity loan.

Regular payment is $118.01.
Principal portion was $75.72.

New HEL balance = $6,923.28

Hey, I'll take it!

We're in a much better place than we were at the beginning of the year AND I get to go to Disney World on CASH!!

Just a reminder: Normally, I wouldn't even condone a vacation, especially one of Disney proportions while in debt. However, DH may be deployed overseas in the next year, so I feel that an exception can be made.

Happy memories and family time: priceless.

Don't worry...we're still going!!

While we got a great military rate for the Disney properties, we decided to stay off site this time. I cancelled our reservation with them this morning. We're saving $116 in actual room cost.

The new reservation is with Marriott Courtyard at $99/night and we get free hot breakfast. We also get queen size beds. The double beds on the Disney property we stayed at last time were so small, DH and I split up and each slept with a child just to have room!! Oh, and we get a $25/night credit towards the on site food court. We would have easily spent $20-$25 on breakfast at the Disney property. Yikes!!

I could get an even lower rate at Marriott, but then the breakfast and evening food credits go away. I figure the credits are worth at least $45-50/day and the lower rate is $26 less...so better to keep the higher rate with what is included. Time is valuable when you are at Disney, too. Breakfast on site is very convenient.

I expect to have some money to add to our savings tomorrow...payday!

My daughters have their dance/tumbling recital this Saturday. DVD's are available to purchase. Last year I bought one for $28. It was worth it. They have watched it numerous times.

This year...another story. The studio has hired another company to produce the show. The quality is suppose to be significantly better. Each DVD is now $45!
Okay, not terrible, but not great. Here's where it get's crazy for us: our daughters are in two different shows, we need 2 DVD's. Each DVD will be approximately 1.5 hours long and will feature my daughter for 3 minutes!

I will get a $20 discount for buying two DVD's, making my total $70! I absolutely realize this isn't a necessity. If I didn't have the money I would refuse to buy one.

I suppose if I had skipped the DVD last year, I might not be buying these this year!!

DH is on his way home from working on a Saturday morning just to catch up on things. I think we will go bike shopping for our oldest daughter. We sold her bike at the garage sale on Thursday and have promised her an upgrade.

By upgrade, I mean, quality. The last $50 bike was not quality. The chain shouldn't keep falling off. We had BIL look at since he know a lot about bikes. He said you get what you pay for.

DH and I bought bikes that were over $400 a piece last year. They are perfect. So, our oldest daughter may just be getting a matching bike. I'm hoping to spend a little less, if possible.

I have the cash set aside for this purpose, I hope we can find a nice one that will be under my budgeted amount of $400.

We received our bill today for our gas and electric usage for April. It's all good news!!

Our budget billing is $127/month, but we came in under budget at $79.07! Comparing the usage to last year, we are even using less per day. It sure helps when the prices drop, too.

Last year, electric was an average of $1.62/day compared to $1.25/day this year. Gas was so much higher last year at $3.33/day versus the $1.29 we are paying this year!

The extra funds get set aside for the summer months, it would be nice not to need them, but it does get hot & humid here in the midwest!