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Archive for June, 2011

Another $500

June 21st, 2011 at 04:12 am

To the suv loan! I believe we are now down to $10,000 even. Some months it is a bit tough but we are commited to getting that loan paid off. We are so far ahead on the loan now that it feels good to know if we ever needed to skip some payments we could. It's nice having that cushion!

Busy and spendy June

June 15th, 2011 at 03:47 am

Lots of money going out this month.

Starting out with DD'2 16th b-day. Spent about $100 on her gifts. She also had 3 friends over to celebrate. Part of the cost for the food was for myself, dh, and dd1. Got gourmet cupcakes $19.50 (coupon used), pizza $30.00 (Pizza Hut special) and a movie for 4, $32.00 (used Regal Entertainment coupons). We are also having a family potluck on Sunday so that will be low cost.

DD2 has a 4 day soccer tournament coming up the 25th. We will be heading out of town for 3 or 4 nights. We were hoping to avoid a hotel stay Friday night but it turns out their first game is at 8:00am on Saturday. Since it is a 2 1/2 hr drive we will have to drive up and stay Friday night. What really gets me is that for these out of town tournaments is that they force you to stay in hotels they have arranged.(The club that is putting on the tournament that is) The girls room together so theirs is a shared cost there, plus dh and my room, and we all have to split the cost of the coaches room. Is it bad to hope that only 1 of the coaches will come Smile Plus it is a lot of meals out. We will have to see what is planned for that. Usually they like the team to eat together and do activities together. I am ok with eating together as long as we are not eating at spendy places every day. I know I am not the only one who feels that way. We won't have dd1 as she will be working Monday through Friday and won't be coming with us. We will have to see what kind of activities are planned as we only have 1 game a day Sat, Sun and Mon and depending on how we do, possibly Tuesday. We will be in South Seattle so a trip into town and the waterfront may be in the works.

We are ok with all of this though....playing club sports comes with a price....literally but we have made many friends over the years and lots of memories and we feel it is an investment in our kids. Well worth it (most of the time) in our opinion. It's not for everyone but it works for us Smile

I also forgot to mention that we also booked our cruise! We are starting to pay for it now so when the time comes it will be all paid for. We have paid the $600 deposit, $80 in gratuities, and also travel insurance. After some summer expenses are over, we will have her run through more on the card so it will be fully paid for by the time we leave, including shore excursions which you can book online and pay for in advance. Just hoping we can get some good airfare!

Happy News

June 10th, 2011 at 03:49 am

A couple of exciting happenings in our household yesterday and today.

Yesterday day was DD2's 16th birthday....wow does time go fast! Took her out to dinner at Red Robin for a special treat. This weekend will be taking her, her boyfriend, best friend, and possibly one more friend to a movie and then back to our house for pizza and "gourmet" cupcakes. The 19th we will have a family celebration potluck style. Spent a bit on her gifts but we are going to end up taking one back. Got her a fancy dancy curling/flat iron but she doesn't care for it so we will exchange for something else. It was one of the rather expensive ones but hey....you only turn 16 once right? And in our house hair is very important Smile Also got her a $25 gift card to Ulta so she can go buy things that I won't like super expensive hair and make up products Smile

Today DD1 found out she got a job she had applied for. It it through the YMCA for summer day camps....totally up her alley being the sports nut she is. It's been a bit of a process....application and letter sent, job closed on the 22nd of May. Had to wait until the following week to see if she would even get an interview. Finally interviewed on June 4th...short one on one interview and then it was mostly group activities....everyone had to teach a "camp" type game and they all had to participate. Waiting all week to see if she got it. Got the e-mail this evening. They will have training from the 20th to the 23rd and then the weekly camps start on the 27th. She is available all summer so hopefully she will get called every week. Not exactly sure how it works, just that the more available and flexible you are the more weeks you will work. It's also great because it pays a bit more than minimum wage which is $8.50 here in Oregon. The hours are perfect....8:30 to 2:30 Mon thru Fri. She has been applying around town and may keep doing so to see if she can get something a couple of nights a week or maybe on the weekend. It's great also because the camps run right until the last week of August. She goes back to college on the 28th of Aug.

It's a happy night here in our house.