After an unplanned trip to Indiana, resulting in over $300 spent we are now in the hole. School starts tomorrow. Groceries need to be bought. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow is at least Friday!

The unplanned trip was to say goodbye to my DH's grandmother. She is 90 years young and now on hospice. Poor woman, her body is starting to shut down. DH will have to fly up there for the funeral -whenever that may be. There will be another $500 at least. New tires for the mini van and an oil change, racked up another $400. I couldn't see putting our family in danger driving through the mountains hydroplaning on tires that you can see the wires.

Everything has had to go on to cc's lately too. I hate it. The vicious cycle- will it ever end? I hope so!

Being a stay at home mom is challenging, I find lots of free entertainment to do each and every day, but what gets me is eating lunch out. With 3 kids, I try to get us out of the house 2-3 times a week. Otherwise they just get stir crazy in and around the house. At least the area we live in has lots of entertainment available. And free is even better.
But today after a visit to the doctor and a $25 co-pay, we went to the Nature Center here. It's very education entertainment for the kids. And the one "teacher" there is awesome. I usually take my oldest there for nature classes. Today was just a visiting day, where we were going to walk around one of the trails, stop in the nature center to see the animals and color a few pictures, etc. Miss Staci brought a snake out for the kids to touch and learn about. She is excellent with the kids! It was an awesome morning.
Then...the kids needed lunch. Instead of driving the 25 mins home to get lunch there, my friend wanted to eat out. Chick-fila. UGH. $14.36 for all 4 of us to eat. I don't even like chickfila. They're extremely expensive. So, total spending for the day was $39.36. That's way too much! I guess I will be packing the kids lunch and just putting it in a cooler in the van just in case. Tomorrow is another free entertainment, we're going to the rec center. $1 per child is almost free for 2 hours of fun! So, total spend amount for tomorrow will be $3 and I'll be packing a lunch! Lesson learned!

ON another note, we received our power bill for this month. $235.87. Yowsa! It's up $20 on the month. It's to be expected though with the temps here in NC in triple digits for almost 20 days straight!
I'm going to try and keep the air set around 80 from now on.

Another end to another day! Oh to see the sun rise again!

So, the kids are being relatively good this morning. Always a good thing. I've been able to do some cleaning and play some puzzles with them.

I transfered $1000 from our GMAC account to our remaining CC. Balance that remains is 6782.00 0% interest is up in Sept 07, I believe. I will make it a point to look into that today.

Things to do tonight include putting a shelf up in DD1's room to hang her school clothes and get her organized and ready for kindergarten. :-(

Went through the pantry- some slim pickings, but I'm not going to the store for food this week until Friday. I'll have to get creative!

Started my 100 mile challenge- completed 2.5miles. Today I hope to add at least 10 miles in there.

DH is working today doing his handyman job...he will bring it at least $75. That will be put into our checking to pay on the CC. Yay- I am so glad to see that balance keep going down each month.

Bad thing- Dh had to get a new tire for his truck. $150- that wasn't expected so it went onto the discover. Will be paid off by the end of the month.

School starts next week. All supplies and clothes have been purchased! Only $20. As a gift from my mom, DD1 got all of her school clothes. How neat! And great for us!

Did 3 survey's on NFO which adds to my balance. Hopefully I will be able to cash out again in about 2 weeks. $10 is $10 to me!

DS is sick today. Geez I am so ready for this flu virus to leave our house!

I'm planning on a no spend weekend. Oh I forgot we have to buy a gallon of milk. Not too bad!

Well, not really. But just one blow after another with my DH's job. It seems they are trying to get him to quit. After relocating to NC, with all of our family in the midwest...we always plan on going home for Christmas. Not this year. They won't let my DH take the time off. UGH. Not a good thing when you're homesick the way it is. Please dear Lord, let it turn around.

No spend day today. Still recovering from the flu..and DD1 has it now. Hoping DD2 and DS1 won't get it. Today has been laundry and thank God it rained some. Yay! We need rain!

On a side note, I was doing paid to click for ReadRevenue.com...now for some reason their website doesn't come up. Anyone have any insight on this? I'm pretty perturbed by the whole thing.

I have been so sick for 3 days. I have wanted to do NOTHING. Being sick, plus having 3 kids, and being a SAHM means no rest for me.
Today I finally feel about 50%.
Things are not looking good on my DH's job front. With the stock market the way it is and the big risk with home mortgages, of course my husband works in the residential construction sector. :-(

So, what happens next? Where do we go from here? I really need to start planning for market turns and rely on our savings then.

Big ouch today!

I am making it a goal of mine to have 4 no spend days a week Today both girls had dentist appts, we went, insurance covered it 100%. Yay! Then off for lunch at a friend of mine's. Free lunch! Whooohooo! Came home, naps, then get ready for dinner!

!

Ok so we've fallen off the wagon sort of. I haven't been that diligent about paying towards the cc. BUT it is down from beginning balance of $11,000 to 7800. So, not too bad, I guess. My husband and I have decided once that cc is paid off we will start looking for a house to buy. Currently we are renting...and I hate it.
So, now my goal is to get that 7800 paid off as quickly as possible. Any extra money I am receiving I am putting towards that debt.

Question for y'all- We have a savings acct that has about 6000 in it...we use it as an emergency fund also. If you were me, would you take about 1000 from the savings account and put it towards the CC or would you just keep paying on the cc monthly?

CC interest rate is 0% until September 07
Current interest rate on the savings acct is 5.5% Thoughts?