Since my last post. I had a goal to start posting every day in September but somehow that got away from me

We have been very busy aroud here the past few weeks. DD2 had soccer camp and then soccer tryouts. Now she has soccer practice every day but has four days off for the holdiday weekend. We got DD1 off to college last weekend. It was sad but also excting to see her starting a new chapter in her life. She seems to be adjusting well, making friends and enjoying her classes. It is very strange only having one child around though....that is taking some getting used to. Work for me has also been super busy the past 2 weeks. We have been a bit short staffed and so I had to work away from my desk for several days which has made me a bit cranky and tired. Wasn't feeling up to doing much in the evenings last week and so I was a bit of a slacker

Yesterday, which is my short day at work, I came home to find the house empty! DH took dd2 out to do a little school shopping. So I took advantage of the quiet and got into gear. I wanted to get a bunch of stuff done so I don't have to spend the long weekend doing nothing but housework and laundry. Felt real good when I was done and I got alot accomplished. Today, dd2 and I are off for a bit. We have a bunch of errands to run and a few more school things to get. Have some good coupons so we will see what we can find.

Financially, things are pretty good. I did have to pay $200 down for dd2 club soccer which was due Sept 1st. Other than that, I don't think there will be too many big expenses in September. I paid the mastercard bill at the end of August which was a big one. That had quite a bit of our vacation expenses on it so I am glad that is taken care of. DH bought dd1 a GPS for her birthday coming up late October. I'm not sure if we will give it to her early, or actually wait until her b-day. I would almost rather her have it now so she can start using it. She is only about an hour from home, but she is not familiar with the area she is in (it's not an area we ever frequented) so I would feel better about her having it sooner rather than later. There are a few small things that will need to be taken care of such as soccer socks for dd2. $25 to $30 for 2 pair. They got new high school uniforms but we have to pay for the socks...go figure. A b-day gift for my brother.... a $25 gift card and probably a few other things that will most certainly come up as usual!

Enjoy your day friends!

To dh's car that is! I am so excited! Now we can begin to pay down mine

In other news, money continues to fly out the door....I am really wishing August away....I know I shouldn't but I am hoping once September hits we will be back to a more normal routine.

Trying this week to stay caught up on everything as this coming weekend is going to be busy and we won't be home much. Friday I have a hair cut and then we will spend the rest of the day organizing and packing the cars. We move dd1 to college on Saturday. We are planning on getting up early and going out to breakfast. We hardly ever eat breakfast out except when we are on vacation so this will be a treat. We will spend the day at her college moving her in and attending several seminars for parents. We do receive a free lunch though. Since we will be there until about 5:30, we will probably have dinner out on the way home. Sunday we are going to attend the state fair. We are letting dd2 bring a friend so with parking, admission, and lunch/treats it will be a spendy day...sigh....oh well, September is coming! That is my new mantra

Did pretty well this weekend except for Friday, we went to the zoo....went to the park and ride and took the train about half way to the zoo...it is located on the other side of town and we didn't want to have to fight traffic on the way home...got some popcorn and water to share for a snack and then had dinner out on the way home.......gas for the car, minimal groceries, and minimal school clothes for dd2 on Sunday.....we went to the mall to look around....dd found a couple of things and had some gift cards left over from her birthday in June that she used. I have to say...the fashions this year are awful! We got a few things to get her started but Sept is usually warm around here so she will probably still be wearing summer type clothes for a while. I told her we could go back in a few weeks and check things out. Plus the fact that there are hardly any warm clothes on the rack which is really what we are looking for.

All in all, not bad BUT September is right around the corner

Is flying out the door this month which I pretty much expected.

On a good note, we did pay off dh's car! Since my dh is a huge car buff, I figure we are always going to have a car payment for the rest of my life. It's just one of those things I have come to accept. We bought me a new vehicle in March so we could take that on vacation instead of renting a car. DH didn't trust my car to drive 2000 miles even though I am sure it would have been fine. So the deal I have with hubby is that if we must have a car payment, it will only be 1....well with all of the Spring expenses I mentioned earlier, we did not pay off his car when we bought mine....the only good thing is that there is zero percent financing. I mailed a $600 check on Saturday and then it will be ours free and clear! Now we can work on paying off mine, which also by the way has zero interest also. We also paid off a loan for some furniture we bought on 12 mo deferred interest. We have alway bought furniture like this and have always paid it off before the promotional period has ended. Basically, we take the total and divide by 12....we owed $400 on that and I just sent the full amount...now we are done with it instead of waiting until November....it feels good! Our only debts now are my car and our mortgage!

Soccer and school expenses are what we need to focus on this month. $75 this week to dd2 soccer camp, $150 next week for high school soccer team, and approximately $50 out of pocket for school registration....I have about $46 in my scrip account at the high school which I can use to offset any school expenses (if you don't know what scrip is, let me know and I will be happy to explain).

The biggie is going to be dd2 club soccer.....the cost for the winter team is $950.00....a $200 deposit is due by Sept 1st....they offer a $50 dicount if you pay in full but I am going to hang onto our cash and just make monthly payments or a couple of big payments.

So, all in all, I am hoping to be back on track come early September!

this week. Last week was rather stressful trying to get back in the groove after vacation and getting ready for that darn garage sale.

I have accomplished so much this week! Got all of those little things that I had been putting of done. The main one (which really isn't so little) was clearing dd1's account for college. Luckily I could do it online and it didn't take very long. It was mainly things like her immunization record, waiving health insurance ect...stuff like that. Got her tuition payment mailed off and this form that she had to sign mailed off too. Got dd2 signed up for club soccer tryouts, dd1 signed up for physical therapy for the month (she has an ankle injury from last fall that is still giving her trouble), all the garage sale stuff that didn't sell over to Goodwill, and finally finished my book Also had a meal plan in place so no eating out!

I am holding off on signing dd2 up for her high school soccer camp......any time I have to write a check to the school they take FOREVER to cash it....really.....like 2 months....I hate that! So, that will go out next week since it doesn't even start until the 16th.

Not too much money out this week....$30 for club soccer tryouts (I saved $5 since I did it before the 5th), DD1 will have physical therapy twice a week for the next few weeks....that means a $20 co-payment each time but that will be reimbursed from my flex spend account. DD1 will also have a physical before she leaves which is another $20 co-payment also reimbursed.

Money that will be going out later will be alot more.....$75 for high school soccer camp, $150 for high school soccer fee....not sure about registration for school...we do that through the mail.....I expect to receive that the week of the 16th....should be about $100....this includes an student body card, year book, and student "fee". There may be another small fee depending on which classes she gets into such as art. Luckily we do not need a PE uniform this year. Still have school supplies to buy and some school clothes but dd2 has gift cards left over from her b-day in June which will help offset the cost.

So all in all, I am looking forward to September, the start of a new year and hopefully more money in our pockets....I consider our year to start when school does, not January

Hi everyone! Well I am finally back at it.....posting that is. I was stressed out last week after going back to work after vacation. It's always hard to get back in the groove. Plus, we had our garage sale. I had to spend several evenings over at my mom's getting ready and then Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday. Didn't feel like I accomplished anything at all during the week! It was really busy on Thursday and Friday at the sale.....Saturday kind of stunk if I do say so myself. It was slower than I thought.....I knew that would probably be the slowest day, but, it was slower than I thought so my sister and I decided we were going to pack it up early.....and I am glad we did. Made a little over $100 which really wasn't bad considering I didn't have much. We had done a big decluttering a few months before....then my mom asked dh if he wanted us to do one with my sister and her....of course he said yes....so.... I had to round up a bunch of stuff...actually came up with more than I thought but it wasn't a whole lot. The girls were happy with some extra money too....dd1 made about $40 and dd2 about $23.

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Spent today catching up on things.....went grocery shopping, did some cleaning, and laundry. Also working on making out my August calendar. Writing everything down keeps me sane! We have alot going on this month. DD2 has club soccer tryouts coming up, high school soccer camp, and then high school tryouts. Also trying to finish up college stuff for dd1. Making lists and taking inventory. And then of course the big move to college on the 28th...sniff sniff..... Also, 2 birthdays this month (dh and my grandmother who will be 92)! Dental cleaning for me and dental appt for dd2.....

We want to try to fit in a quick beach trip but I am not sure that is going to happen. Dh is changing his work schedule and that may be the reason we can't go as our weekends will be limited. He is going back to a schedule he worked before...basically it is a 2 week rotating shift....he has to work every other weekend, but on his weekends off, he gets a 4 day weekend. So, he will work M,T,W then off Th and Fri....work Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, then off Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. Then it starts all over. It also means going back to a 10 hour work day which he really doesn't mind....he just loves those 4 day weekends....I really don't mind actually....we tend to spend alot more money when he is home!

So, I am going to log off here and start getting ready for the week....

Good night everyone!

At the garage sale that hasn't even started yet. My mom was advertising some styrofoam on Craig's List that she was trying to get rid of as she really didn't want to put it in the trash. A lady and her husband answered the ad and came and got the styrofoam (she makes wedding cakes and wanted it do displays)....of course they noticed the garage full of stuff and asked if they could look around. They bought a bunch of stuff (hoover steam vac, bookcase, and bench w/a lid) from me, a couple of dd1's knick-knack's and something from my mom. They said they may come back as there were other things they were interested it. That is certainly fine by us

From vacation that is. I started this blog and then promptly left.

We had a great family vacation...probably one of the last ones of just the four of us for a while. We are moving dd1 to college on August 28th.

2,000 miles and 5 states! Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. It was alot of fun and we have some great memories. Haven't really totalled everything up just yet. I plan on working on that soon.

Really need to start watching things and getting back on track to a solid plan....the past three months have been super spendy. May brought three b-days on dh's side, mother's day, and dh's nieces college graduation. June brought dd2s b-day, a baby gift, dd1's high school graduation, and two soccer tournaments for dd2. July has brought my sister's b-day, our great nephew's b-day and vacation. It's crazy and never ending it seems. Money is just flying out the door. August is going to bring dh's b-day, my grandmother's b-day, registration for high school, fee for high school soccer and club soccer tryouts, and of course, back to school shopping. Hopefully things will start to calm down in September

Went back to work today....ugh.....wasn't really feeling like going......hard to get back in the groove.

My mom, sister, and I are having a garage sale this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.....my girls will go over and help on Thursday and part of Friday. I will help Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. Weather is looking good so far so we are keeping our fingers crossed....

I guess that's about it for now.....have a great evening!

Hello again and thanks everyone for the very warm welcome!

This weekend is shaping up to be a bit on the spendy side. Friday I took DD2 to get some glasses. We have pretty good vision insurance but our out of pocket ended up at $117.00. That is the differnce between what the frames cost and what our insurance allows. We also got the antiglare/antiscratch coating. Insurance pays some on that so we had to pay the rest. I will be submitting this to my flexible spending account next week for reimbursement.

Today, DH spent $140 on some wheels for his car. A couple of his are scratched up and this guy was selling 4 for $150. DH went out and took a look at them and said they were in great shape so he felt he got a good deal.

I spent the morning at my mom's house pricing garage sale stuff. We had done some major purging a few months ago and then my mom decided to have a sale....well I did manage to find some stuff and had the girls go through their rooms to find stuff too. We will be having the sale with my sister also at the end of July. Felt good to get it all done. Went grocery shopping too. I usually get groceries on Sunday after the coupons come out. Since this is a holiday weekend there will probably be few. Plus we are headed out of town tomorrow for the day so we won't be around. Also picked up a prescription for DH at $10 which will also be submitted next week for reimbursement.

Tomorrow shouldn't be too terribly expensive....gas, dinner out, and a treat...probably ice cream for DH and girls and an iced coffee for me.

I hope everyone has a very wonderful and safe 4th of July!

Hi All!

Well, here I am....another long time lurker, first time poster. A bit about me: 40'ish wife and mom living and working in the Pacific NW. I am a wife to DH of 22 1/2 years and mom to to DD's 18 1/2 and 15. I have worked in the medical field my entire working life. Been at my current office 11 1/2 years doing billing and collections. I have been lucky to have worked part time for the past 11 years but recently went back to working an "almost" full time schedule...basically 8 hours M-TH and 5 hours on Friday. Getting ready to send our oldest off to college in a couple of months. Both DH and I grew up in frugal homes and we have been lucky to have made mostly smart decisions in our adult lives. Looking forward to posting and getting to know everyone a bit better!