Catching up- Last weeks spending&saving

I have been such an awful blogger these past few days.
The truth is simple, I have been exhausted. Between work, and packing, and Austons brother being in town, and Auston's car breaking down.
Really, I'm still feeling less than enthusiastic, but I figured I'd get on here and show you how well my No-Spending went last week.
I am proud to say that I did even better than I had expected. I was aiming for 4 no-spend days and I wound up with 5! I can't remember the last time that happened.
I also added $220 towards my move in March!
I was stoked by how much I was able to put away this weekend.

On the downside...
Last night, on our way to family dinner we noticed Loveyys car was acting up, it wasn't shifting right. So we turned around. Today they took it up to AutoZone, and they told us it had to do with the internal censors.
NOW, all this car talk is greek to me, but it is going to cost around $200 to fix it. OhMyLord. Thankfully, Auston's mom said she would get it fixed for us. I don't know what I would do if we had to pay for that too. I might just break down and cry from all this stress and lack of sleep tonight.
That sound nice.


So here it is, last weeks spending:

BANK FEE
2012-01-10	Cashier's Check Fee	$2.00
TOTAL FOR BANK FEE		$2.00
CAR SAVINGS
2012-01-12	Car Savings	$5.00
TOTAL FOR CAR SAVINGS		$5.00
EATING OUT
2012-01-10	Steak N Shake	$15.28
TOTAL FOR EATING OUT		$15.28
FIXED BILL
2012-01-10	Car insurance renewal	$110.00
2012-01-10	Partial Rent Payment	$300.00
2012-01-12	Electric Bill	$70.00
TOTAL FOR FIXED BILL		$480.00
GROCERIES
2012-01-12	Small Grocery Trip	$8.77
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$8.77
TOTAL		$511.05

I hate bank fees! I was charged because my cashiers check was under $500.00 - crap on them! I haev never paid anything at my bank before, because all of my checks are ususally much higher than $500, this was an unpleasant suprise to say the least.

Eating out - I know I wasn't supposed to. Honestly though, I'm not upset. I still managed to put away a good chunk of money and Loveyy and I really had a nice time.

Fixed bills hit me hard this week, but they have to be paid. On the bright side, I have no more bills for the rest of the month! : )

I already explained my grocery trip here. It was just a couple of odds and ends, at a really great price!

All in all, I am really proud of our spending this week.

Also, I am trying to put together a craft swap. I think it would be so much fun!
Go here for details
As of now no one has responded. : [

______________________

And now I shall leave you with this -

 Ellie loves the box!
Annie- Not so much. : )

Rounding out week one.

So week one of my No Spend month is over!! Today we finished strong-ish, only spending 18.44 on dog food. here's my spending for the week!

ANIMALS
2012-01-07	Dog/ Cat food	$18.44
TOTAL FOR ANIMALS		$18.44
CAR SAVINGS
2012-01-05	Car Savings	$5.00
TOTAL FOR CAR SAVINGS		$5.00
GROCERIES
2012-01-03	Grocery Trip	$50.67
2012-01-05	Local Grocery Store	$20.91
2012-01-06	Local Grocery Store	$6.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$77.58
TOTAL		$101.02

Not bad, right? The majority of it was on groceries, and NONE of it was spent unnecessarily! I am really proud of our start. What a way to start 2012!

We should have enough groceries now to last us through most of next week. With the exception of the sausage I still need to pick up.

The gas dad bought us has really helped too, He put in three times the amount I usually do! My little car is so happy to be full of gas.

I shouldn't have needed animal food! But alas, somehow they managed to get into the closet and finished off what food they had left! OH ANIMALS, I still love you.

How did your week of no spending go?

____________________

And for today's picture!! I will show you a mini-collage of some of the beautiful cakes my grandmother has made! She is making a blues clues one for my nephew tomorrow! I will post it the next time I blog... Here we go!

M's birthday cake! Complete with Barbie.

Little M's Cake!! I didn't get a chance to eat this one, but I'm sure it was as good as it looks!

This is the most recent! My Aunts wedding cake!



I wish I had a pictures of my cake from last year, that one was awesome :)

Dad's here!

Today we spent roughly $6.00 - I had to buy snacks (apples, and such) for the girls after school. I hadn't anticipated on picking them up, so I didn't pick anything up on my grocery trip.

Dad's in town! he took us to dinner tonight at my work (where we get a generous discount!), it was a blast.
I always enjoy his visits, when it comes right down to it I'm a major daddy's girl at heart. I can't wait until he comes down to help me drive to New Hampshire.

Here are some pictures from our day!

We spent the better part of an hour or two attempting crosswords! I know, what an interesting bunch!! This is my Cousin, my Grandmother, My Sister and my Father.

In the midst of all the crosswords, there was a nurf gun battle, and little M with her foam sword! She say's off with Auston's head!!!

After we went to dinner dad decided we should get some ice cream! M & little M decided they were to tired to walk, so above is what it looks like when a 6 (almost 7) year old, and a 5 year old sit in a grocery cart!



That's all she wrote, folks.

Today we went out and bought the meat (that I was supposed to buy yesterday). Our total came to $20.91. This is only our second purchase of the month, and so far I am pretty proud of myself. I am also proud that the only two purchases we're alotted for, being that they were groceries. Read more about how my month of no spending is going.

My dad came for a visit from SoCal today, so my loveyy and I went to pick him up from the airport. I was pretty excited to see him. As an added bonus he filled my gas tank. Now I will have plenty of gas to get back and fourth between my house and my grandmothers, where he will be staying this weekend. Its a little bit of a drive, and I was nervouse to begin with about making the trip numerous times in one weekend. Especially since I don't work again until Monday.

On another happy financial note:
This one is in regards to our big move! As most of you know, Auston and I are moving out of state in March. However, our lease for our apartment is up January 31st, so for our last month we will be staying with my family. This just left me with one big dilemma, where were we going to keep the animals? It was looking like I was going to have to board our dog, which would have cost close to $600.00, and I had no clue where I was going to get that money from. Luckily, during a new years barbeque Auston found out about a woman who could potentially help. For Free! We are taking him out to her property this weekend for a trial run, I really hope all goes well. This would be a huge relief for us. Moving is going to be stressful enough as it is.
I am still trying to figure out what to do with the cats though... : /



I have been really bad about posting my pictures!!
Here's for the last 3 days! :

These two girls are more important to me than anything!!

I grew up swimming here. This is one of the many reasons I want to go home. These rivers are some of the most beautiful places I  have ever seen.

Ah! A baby Posum! I met this little guy in my Zoology class, junior year of high school!



New Books. & some more photos.

For Christmas Auston and I recieved a lot of gift cards! And a lot of cash! Which really helped us towards our goal amount for our move. We also recieved two gift cards to the bookstore. Obviously those would be useless on a move so we went ahead and spent those on books for ourselves : )

Auston already bought me a whole series of books for Christmas (he wanted to get me something that would help with one of my 12 for '12 goals), so I didn't need anymore fiction stories. I decided to go to the personal finance section to see if I could find something interesting. What I found was a book by Rosalyn Hoffman called Bitches on a Budget. The title totally sucked me in. So of course, I bought it. All the others looked boring. They didn't have a very wide selection. It hasn't been exactly what I was expecting so far - I was looking for cool thrifty tips - This calls buying a $300 dress (originally priced much higher) a good deal! I don't know about you my bloggy buddies, but it better be a dress made from God for me to spend that much. (wedding gowns, and evening gowns excluded - even then I would look at second hand stores first). I am hoping as I get further into it other chapter might be useful or interesting, but thats just my initial observation of the book.

Am I just Too Thrifty? Would one of you spend that much on a cocktail dress?

________________________

Unfourtunately between work, and my internet being a little screwy, I have not been able to get on to post my last two 365 Photos! However, I still did my job and TOOK the pictures, I just never posted them... SO... Here are my last two pictures for my 354 photo Challenge!

This is Ellie, she is the oldest member of our little pet family. She's a little shy of two years. And as strange as it sounds, this cat REFUSES to sit "on the ground" meaning, she will not sit on something unless is is ontop of something else - Like you see in the photo above. She doesn't even like to walk on the ground. I know, I know, she's a freak. But I love her.

This is my new Elephant! I found him at goodwill for less than $1.00! I was so stoked. I have a strange little collection of elephants. This one is a little worn looking, so I'm going to wash him up and paint him a super awesome color. I love adding my own little touch to things. 



Photo 365 #5.

Welcome to our Christmas morning! Of course, we all look beautiful, in our Jammies, with unbrushed hair. It was a blast. We wen't over to the great grandparents (You can kind of just make them out in the backround) I cherish every moment I have with these girls. I am so sad to be leaving them in march. This morning Auston and I arrived at the house before anyone was even awake! It was about 8am before I finally gave up waiting in the car and knocked on the door and woke everyone up. Seriously, what kind of children sleep in past 7 on Christmas?!! We had all had a long night with the family on Christmas Eve though, so it was understandable.

I think its hilarious that without looking we all made basically the same "funny faces" well, all but the youngest, she just looks terrified to be there.

Hope you liked todays picture!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Photo 365 - Day 4

Today Auston and I were sitting outside in front of his mom's house, waiting for a package from my mom to arrive. I get so impatient around Christmas time. I LOVE unwrapping things. The gift doesn't have to be some gucci handbag either, I just love the suprise. Anyways, we were sitting outside, on another unseasonably beautiful day when I looked up to the tree in the front yard. All of a sudden I was struck by how beautiful it looked. I don't know why, I've seen the tree a million times before, its not some 100 year old tree in the forest either. Its just a tree, in the front yard of his moms suburban home. Maybe it was just the season, or the fact that I had been having an amazing day. Maybe God just wanted me to take a second to appreciate something natural and unmaterial for a minute. Maybe you won't think its as pretty as I do.  I could be nuts! Either way, it worked. and here is the result.

Photo 365 # 4

Photo 3 & an unexpected gift.

Today I recieved quite a few Suprises in the mailbox! None of them are what you would call ordinary.

First there were all of these random pieces of paper!

HOW CUTE IS THAT!? I haven't a clue where they came from. They weren't in an envelope, they were just stuck in there. Crazy huh? This put the biggest smile on my face today.


Next was a greeting card from a local pizza place Auston and I like to order from occasionally.
Now, greeting cards are common, I get them from my insurance agency, and all sorts of other miscellaneous places... And they usually say something along the lines of "Merry Christmas, thanks for giving us all your money"

This awesome bad boy was signed by the whole crew!! Thoughtful huh?
But wait.. I haven't reached the best part.



And inside this thoughtful card there was a $10.00 gift certificate for pizza! No "with the purchase of blah blah blah" Just $10 for me - NO STRINGS ATTACHED! I know, I can't believe it either.

This was just the boost I needed to get into the Christmas spirit. They didn't need to give us a certificate, they are doing great business all on there own.  It was just their way of giving back to their patrons, and I think its super sweet. They will have our business from here on out. Sorry Dominoes.

So - I know Its more than one, but there are my pictures for my Photo 365 project.

Breaking down our Big Move.

As I mentioned a little while back my Loveyy and I are moving to New Hampshire in March. I can not believe we are only two months out! Unfourtunately, between Christmas and work cutting back drastically on shifts, I have safed very little towards this trip. Last night, I reserved the truck we are going to need to move with. We saved $300 by going with Budget instead of Uhaul, and we also saved an additional $54 by reserving last night. Thats a big chunk of money we just saved! Today I finally broke down how much we are going to need to move with -

Truck (with a tow for my Honda) - $680
Gas for the Seabring - $200
Gas for the truck - $650
Money for a motel (notice I didn't say hotel? ) - approx $100

That brings us to a rough total of - $1,630!!!
Holy Smokes that's a lot of money.

Currently we have - $90.00 - I know I know!

But hold on just a minute! A big Chunk of this money is going to be coming from my Tax Return. That's why we decided to wait until March. Another big chunk is going to be coming from saving between Jan.-Feb.
Our lease is Up January 31st, and going month to month was not an option, so thanks to a lot of help from My stepmother, we will be staying with her. Also thanks to help from Loveyys mom, we will be storing our stuff there. We are still trying to figure out what to do with the animals in that time.  Here's to praying!

_________________________________________

Also - Here is my Photo for today:

Each day for a year I will post a picture of something that made me happy. This will help us start focusing on the little things in life, that are sometimes easily overlooked.
Want to participate? Let me know, and I will post a link to your site below.

This is from the walk Loveyy, the dog, and I took today. We wen't around five, the weather, and the water were both beautiful. I was actually suprised to see so many people out today, its December for crying out loud, where's the cold?!

Photos 365.

I have decided to start a photo challenge for myself. Each day I will take a picture of something that made me smile and post it here. I will do this everyday for a year.. I just want to spend more time enjoying the little things in life. Sometimes they can be so easy to overlook.
I was going to do this on another site. unfortunately I can't remember what it was called. I have decided that I don't need a million and one different websites though, so I am just goint to share with you, my wonderful readers.

So here it is - Photo Number 1.

This is Doser!

My poor puppy dog hasn't been feeling to well lately, I was starting to worry. However, this is what I came home to tonight! All smiles and love from my little man! I can't believe I have had him almost a year now. I love this little guy to pieces.