I only spent $14 this weekend. That is great for me. The weekend are usually my weak spot.

I went to heat up the pizza last night and discovered that while we were gone my cat ate all the pineapple off of it. I left it in the box sitting on the stove. Crafty cat, able to open a pizza box and just eating the toppings off of it. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to that pizza.

And I am okay with that. I have about 40 left in my eating out budget so I am good. Plus I will get 3 more meals out of it. I have passed on delivery though and went to pick it up. That saved me about 8.

Made pancakes for breakfast for my sick dd. She called me at 10:00 this morning asking me for medicine. She is downstairs and didn't want to get out of bed. So I found some tylenol cold and flu and took it to her. She is feeling a little better now.

Well, we didn't get any snow. I am a bit disappointed. I really wanted something. I waited until 10:00 to leave for work to give the road crew time to salt any black ice. I didn't hit any ice. They either did a great job salting or it didn't freeze to begin with.

Financially I am still coasting along. Nothing major in the next week until payday. I still have the $85 left in my account. DD is going to the chiropractor today but I already have that figured in to my budget for the next pay day.

I know that some of you have already had your first snow, but we are expecting ours later today. And when it snows here, it shuts everything down. People get crazy. The main concern is black ice that is expected to form on the road tonight. If it does than school will probably be out tomorrow. And I will come into work late.

I am feeling pretty good financially right now. I have $85 in my checking account to last until next Friday, not including my allowance which is in cash. I still have quite a bit of it left. This also doesn't include my gas budget that I have set aside. So all in all I am looking pretty good.

I was lost all day not being able being able to check the blogs today. I missed everyone!

I forgot to take my cream cheese to work with me so I didn't have anything for lunch. I had to get something. Not just a financial faux pau but nothing fast food sounds good. I settled on a ham and cheese sandwich. My bagel would have been better!

I worked on my budget through March. It is anything but final, but it is a work in process. One thing I added to the budget is $100 each payday to keep in my checking account for unexpected expenses. If I don't spend it it will stay in the account and go toward the next paycheck's 100. A little bit of a cushion for peace of mind.

I keep forgetting about the $200 I got from work. I will need to cash it in in March to make the budget.

Greatest apologies. We have been having some major issues with the site since yesterday and will be working to resolves them all day today. We are aware of them and apologize for the inconvenience.

I made my mortgage payment today. There was only $499 due but I had written the check for $535, the amount of the usual payment. I was going to pay extra but then I remembered that I only have $25 to last me until payday(not including the amount budgeted for gas). So the teller just gave me the amount over the amount due in cash. I deposited it into my regular checking account. I now have $62 until payday. This is only for things that come up at the last minute, like milk or something. I should coast into payday.

I would love to send this amount to the hospital bill but I am trying to think ahead and be smarter.

I had budgeted $125 for the grocery store and we spent $121.84.

I sucked it up and asked my mom to buy DD soccer equipment. She said she would. I just couldn't fit it into my budget. I have made an appointment for Friday to take the physical.

All this will change if DD decides not to play after the meeting tomorrow. They are going to tell her she has to take out her nose ring, but she doesn't think they will. Who knows what she will decide if they do. It would close up pretty fast since it isn't that old.

My gas budget came in $24 over this week so I sent a check to the hospital bill for that amount. So far this month I have sent $49 extra to the hospital bill. And it is only the 9th.

DD decided she wants to play soccer with the school this year. That means I need to budget in soccer shoes and shin guards. It also means more driving for me to get to each game. At least it will get me out of the house.

I have entered my check stub into quicken and my pay is about 30 less per pay period. I guess I can live with that considering some of you are getting hit with hundreds of dollars. I guess I just don't make enough money for it to matter too much.

Well, since my son and his friends moved into the rental property I have not had one month when the rent wasn't paid. There is one that I kind of have to chase, but it is always paid by the end of the month. Amazingly, the one girl that is in there is the only one with full rent on the first. I guess girls are just more responsible, at least in this situation. I take my son's rent directly out of his checking account on Fridays so he doesn't have to come up with it all at once.

One of the renters, the problem one, has said that this will be his last month. He wrecked his mom's car a couple of weeks ago and has to move back in with mom for a while. I told DS that meant that the rent was going to go back up unless they get another person in there.

He wants to talk to me about buying the property. I don't think it is a wise investment for him. The roof is 10 years old and it is fixing to need a new furnace. But once he gets something in his head it doesn't go away.

Not mine. My DS's. He apparently signed up for automatic renewal and it hit his checking account today for $64. This put his account in the negative. I transferred $50 to his account so that he doesn't have any fees but told him that I would need that money back. Right now it is just sitting in my account.

He is going to call the bank to see if he can get that charge reversed by telling them he didn't authorize it. We'll see.

I haven't left the house today so it has been an NSD.

The comforter set I bought with my gift card came in on Friday. It has been washed and just needs to be put on my bed. Will try to do that before I go to bed tonight. Nothing like sleeping on clean sheets.

DD cleans my mom's house every Saturday. My mom gives her $20 for this. Today my mom gave her two checks. She also gave her a check for her school lunches. Since I had forgotten to budget that it really came in handy.

I used the last of my allowance today to buy DD a taco at taco bell. It was only $1. But that wiped me out. I will have to be real strict with myself next week.

My boss took us all out to lunch today for our Christmas/New Year lunch. We went to a place that is okay but not one of my favorites. The food is too fancy for me.

He also gave us a Christmas bonus. I got $200. It is in the form of AMEX giftcards. In the past my bank has cashed them in for me. I hope they still do that.

I really want to send the $200 to the hospital bill but I need it for February when I am short for my budget. What to do...I could probably make some changes to budget and move stuff around but I hate to do that. I will have to think about it.

I referred my mom to ebates and at first it said I got a $25 referral fee. I thought this is great! Who else can I refer. But when I checked today it was down to $5. That is a bit more realistic. I will take it though. Better than nothing.

I was having such bad menstrel cramps that I couldn't even sit up straight. I stopped on the way home and bought a heating pad. I took some ibuprofen when I got home. They seem to be easing up a bit now. I don't usually have cramps like that. I don't like them one bit.

I spent 13 at Dollar General for the heating pad. I have about 20 left to get me through next week, not including what I have left in my allowance, which is about $15. I should make it just fine.

I called today to see about getting my children on a different healthcare option. Right now I pay $486 for the two kids. It is high because DD had some testing done earlier this year. Since that issue has been resolved I thought we could get a cheaper policy somewhere.

What I have found is that to insure just the children I have to have a seperate policy for each child. And the coverage stinks. No office visits or prescriptions until the deductible is met. I just looked a another option that is about the same money for less coverage.

I guess we will just stick to what I have.

I came home tonight and turned on the oven to cook my bagel bites. About ten minutes later I started smelling something burning. I opened the oven and after the smoke cleared I saw that I left my pizza in the oven from Sunday. I had forgotten to put it in the fridge to eat later. Stupid mistake. Not only did the house stink but I ruined potential meals. I hate it when a make stupid mistakes like that.

I budget for gas each week and if I go under it is almost like found money so I am calling the overage snowflakes.

I was $25 under budget for gas this week so I set up a payment to the hospital bill for that amount.

Each year our small town does a possum drop on new years ever. But given the lawsuit in Brasstown, NC(which is pretty close by), I don't know that we will be doing it. Apparently PETA said it was cruel to the animal. I haven't heard that Blue Ridge has changed what they do but I imagine they are on edge about it. We will probably be the next town to be hit with a lawsuit.

I don't have any plans for tonight. Just staying home watching tv. Pretty boring.

I bought a pizza tonight out of my allowance money. We picked it up again so we saving quite a bit. It was only $8. Delivery is usually triple that because I get sucked into the two pizza deal, the delivery fee and the tip for the driver. I like that I have found an alternative since I love pizza.

I hope everyone stays safe and has a great new years eve.

I don't have many financial goals but here they are.

1. Pay off Hospital Bill by December 31. It is at 2611 right now at $200 per month I will need to come up with an additional $200 during the year.

2. Pay off credit card. The balance is $599 right now. The problem is that when I get some credit I usually use it. So not using the credit card is also part of this item.

3. Pay for a trip to New York in July 2013 with cash. This should be no problem. Plan on using some of my tax return for this.

4. Build my emergency fund to $1000. Since I live paycheck to paycheck, this is going to be the toughest one for me. Sometimes I have to dip into savings just to make my bills. Going to try real hard not to do that.

See...not many but at least I have some goals.

I went ahead and got my prescriptions today so my spending for December should be done. Here are the actuals vs budget. The first column is the actual expenses. The second column is the budgeted numbers and the third column is the difference.





I think I need to up my grocery budget. I went over by $127. Everything else was pretty much in line.

I know it looks like I have a lot of money left over but that is going to January expenses.

DD needed a new bedding set and really so did I. The sheets are close to having a hole in them. So we each found a set at Walmart.com. Mine was $29 and hers was $36. All the ones she liked didn't have full size so she ordered a queen size. I hope it will fit okay. I also order season one of some tv show that DS wanted. DD is going to give me the money for it tonight as that is her Christmas present to him. And my sister gave me a gift card of $25 that I put toward the comforter. So my comforter was only $5. Not too bad. Plus free shipping on all. And I went through ebates so I should get something back.

I spent some of the day planning my budget for the new year. I couldn't update December of 2013 yet until this month is over. Then I can update it with new numbers since December 2013 is a 3 payday month. So is May 2013. LOVE THEM!

We will go to the grocery store tonight and fill the car up and that should be my spending for the month. OOPS...have it get my meds on Monday. That will be all the spending for the month. I have been looking at the numbers and I don't think I did too bad. I drastically reduced the eating out. It is under $100. That is $160 less than November. It really helps that I have my allowance that I can spend on whatever without guilt. I haven't gone over my allowance amount yet.

Starting next week I am going to start eating oatmeal for breakfast and a bagel for lunch. Then I plan on going to the rec center at least three times next week to walk. I would like to lose some weight before we go to New York.

Well...we were backing out of the driveway to go to our family Christmas in Gainesville, about an hour and a half away. We rolled down the windows to see the ditch(we don't usually back out of the driveway but my son't car was parked in the turn around spot). We missed the ditch but then the back window wouldn't roll up. DS and I tried to pull it back up but it just wouldn't come up. So we went to Midas where I get all of my car work done. We sat for nearly an hour and a half before they said it was done. Then they charged be $75! I couldn't believe it. It seem rather high to me but it is my fault for not getting the price before they started. DS was pissed that I paid it but there wasn't really anything I could do about it.

So we finally got on the road and things went smoothly after that. We had no trouble finding the hotel where my sister and mother were. My neice and her family was already there. She has two adorable step children that we have adopted as our own. Of course they got spoiled.

My mother gave me a heated throw blanket. I am sitting under it right now and am toasty warm. So what started as a crappy evening turned out to be pretty good.

When I talked to DS he said that his long time girlfriend was coming with him to Christmas today. We hadn't gotten her anything but didn't want her sitting there with nothing to open. DD and I went to Dollar General and purchased a couple of items for her. Spent $15. Not too bad I don't think. I also had to get my present for the White Elephant my family does every year. I got a yankee candle. Thought it was only 10 but when DD when to pay it was 19. She didn't think to question it.

We are down now until Wednesday night when we do our family Christmas. My mom, brother, sister and I are going to do lunch tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas!

I am not sure what to do now that college football is over. I have a few games recorded so I watched one of them today.

We had to get food for the ferret today and dd needed shampoo and conditioner. I have told her to plan ahead and get it on shopping trips but she doesn't have that down pat yet. I think that we will buy some on our next trip and that way we will be ahead of the game.

Cooked like crazy last night. I made tuna casserole, greenbean casserole, and corn casserole. I know it's a weird combination but it sure was good.

I still have $20 in my allowance left and I don't have to work again until Wednesday.

We've had some trouble planning Christmas with the family this year. My neices two daughters are going to be with their mom on Christmas eve when we usually do it. So instead we are all going to their house on Wednesday night to celebrate Christmas. I will have extra gas expense for that. Probably about 1/2 a tank. But since I don't have to fill up on Tuesday(will not have used enough to fill up) I should have plenty of money left in my gas budget.

I received a check from my ex fil yesterday for $100. I gave each of the kids $25 and kept $50, which will go the hospital bill. DD received a check from her grandmother for $25. Not sure why DS didn't get one, maybe it will come later.

I almost gave in the other night but my laziness won out. I didn't feel like leaving the house to go buy a pack of cigarettes. I guess in some ways my laziness is a good thing!

The internet has been going on and off here at work today. Not sure what is up with that. I has been raining since very early this morning but that shouldn't have anything to do with the internet. But you never know.

I checked my account online this morning and I have no pending transactions. YIPEE! I love it when that happens. Means I haven't been spending money. I am liking have my allowance money that I can spend on anything. It is more practical than trying to eliminate all extra spending.