Here are my totals for the week:
Food- 101.04
Gas- 43.35
Bills- 533.00
Toiletries- 14.47
Household- 59.08 (inc. lawn pest control guy spraying for cinch bugs)
Kids lunch- 14.00
Dining out- 12.46
Dh cash- 20.00
pet food- 21.07
School misc-19.69
Car misc- 67.72 (front end alignment)
Health/Beauty-2.86
Not necc- 157.80 (ouch!)
Clothes- 40.97 (2 hoodies from Aeropostale normally $39 each they are on sale now for 50% off pre-winter and I had a $10 off coupon. Did not need now but will eventually and this is much cheaper. Oh, plus DH undies)
Entertainment- 20.00
Charity- 15.00 (school donations)
Dr- 78.00 (my contact exam)
Saved $13.05
For a grand total of $1121.37!!

This week there will be:
NO not necessary!
I will cook all week
Not buy clothes or school supplies
I will keep food at $80 or less
Entertainment at $20 or less

Saturday I did not spend any $. Sunday we went to Olive Garden and the movies to celebrate DH bday on Wednesday. We met my in-laws at OG and they paid for the lunch. Movies cost us $20 as only myself, DH and DD2 went to see Talledega Nights. DD1 already saw it. It was a funny movie. On Wednesday I will cook a nice dinner and we will buy a couple of fishing lures for his gift.

It seems that no matter how sincere I am about my intentions to not spend money, I still do. Most of it I can justify but not all of it. This past week so far I have spent $1082. $533 of that money was for bills and $152 was for items not necessary. The rest was for gas, food, the eye doctor, toiletries and household items. I was good on gas as I only put in $45 this week and it lasted the whole week. I did really well with grocery shopping. If you take other store ads to Walmart they honor the other stores sales. Well I brought the Albertsons ad and they had some BOGOS and for example they had Edy's icecream (large one) BOGO and Walmart sold two of them to me for $1.62 each! The not necessary was related to our pond we put in. I bought Tennessee flagstones for $45 and small river rock. Now I am kicking myself. I should not have spend that money because I really could not afford it considering my financial situation. It is pretty though.

Tonight I took another baby bird to the bird rehab lady. This one may have been trying to learn to fly and was on the ground when my cat saw it. I am proud of my cat as he could have eaten it but he hardly touched it. It was more scared than anything. Bird lovers will tell you that people should keep cats inside so they will not kill the birds but I don't think it's right to keep an animal inside all its life. Of course I take my chances because they can die while outside but my theory is that they at least had a happy fullfilling life being allowed to go outdoors ;0)

I started an excel spreadsheet on the 1st of this month to keep track of my expenditures. Here is the damage for 7 days:
Food- 123.24
Gas- 68.35
Bills- 245.00
Toiletries- 21.05
household- 18.02
Dining out- 66.68
DH cash- 50.00
Pet food- 15.64
School supp- 68.90
Tools- 20.75
Donations- 10.00 (school)
Health/Beauty misc- 9.00 (haircut)
Not neccessary- 148.45
clothes/shoes- 79.42
Entertainment- 10.00
For a whopping total of $927.94!!
The not necessary came primarily from a pond liner that my DH found. I have always wanted a pond so DH dug a hole by the front door and put it in so I went and bought the pump, filter, fountain, electric connector,and misc. A free item cost us $127.00.Hopefully DH will put in this weekend. I saved only $14.84 w/ coupons.

My sister is 37 married w/ 2 kids. She has been a registered nurse for 2 yrs now. My BIL works for the airlines. My parents, sister and I have lived within 6 miles of each other since we moved out on our own.

Well, about three weeks ago my sister tells us her and BIL are moving to NC. My BIL was aceepted for a transfer at the airline he works for. His family lives there. They are not moving there because of them, rather because Orlando, FL is not the town we knew as children. It is crowded, the traffic is horrible and the schools are overcrowded and the crime rate is way up. Also, the price of homes here is astronomical compared to what they were a few years ago. That is why they are moving. Well we want to move there too but in a few years when we are in the right place. My inlaws are moving there too as soon as they sell their home here. They have built a home on a mountain,

My sister put in an offer on a home today. It is 3,000 sq ft. in a gorgeous subdivision. The home has wood floor, fireplace, two bonus rooms, etc. The price...... $379k but they offerd $360k due to outdated appliances. The same house would sell here for $525k easily. They sold the home they bought here 3 yrs ago that they paid $140k for for $269,900. They sold an acre of land they bought for $45k four years ago for %200!!! My parents will move when we do.

I am looking so forward to escaping from here myself. I cannot understand why people continue to flock to live here.

I have been keeping track of my gas usage since 7/14. I drive a 1993 Kia Sedona LX. So far I have put $190 into my tank. $190 in 21 days!! I really do not drive that far as we have every store you can think of within three miles of my house. I can only think of three times that I drove maybe 30 miles round trip. Just yesterday I made such a trip to bring a newborn baby bird to a lady who takes in such birds. This bird was no larger than my pinkie with no feathers. It was hungry and kept opening its beak. She has dedicated her home and life to the care of orphaned, and injured birds. I also left a $5 check for a donation. Hope the little think makes it!

Well today was my DH's friends wedding. I did not realize that he is 25 yrs older than her (18 & 43)! They seem very in love and I am happy for the groom as he is a really great guy. They had the reception at their house. Almost as soon as everybody got there it started to rain really hard. They had a tent set up in the driveway and it wasn't secure so some of the men were in tuxedos out there holding onto the poles to keep the tent from flying off. After about 10 minutes of getting soaking wet they finally let it fly away. As for the food it looked to me like they had made food in advance and had it in the fridge for too long. For example, the deviled eggs were rubbery and had ice on them. The meat and cheese platter appeared as if it had melted and then was frozen. I brought along a pasta salad and they had baked beans and coleslaw. They had a delicious chicken. However, the plates were small and they did not have serving spoons or forks so you had to use forks you eat with to dish out on your plate and you could not get that much. By the time we left two hours later we were still hungry. My DH and I and his two friends ended up going out for wings. That was a total of $44 for wings, ice tea, and two beers. Plus $8 for pasta dish I made and the $50 for the gift. It was an expensive day. Of course we did not have to go out for wings but one of the two friends my DH hardly ever sees so he wanted to hang out with him for awhile. All in all we really did have a good time.

Had to go out and pick up some things today. Not including gas I spent $63.33.
Some of it was avoidable some not.

Gas- $20 had to charge to Visa (will make an e-payment to Visa tommorrow after depositing DH paycheck)
Had to transfer $ to checking from savings to cover debit payments that DH made for gas and lunch (will pay that back also).

Kohl's- $10 shirt for me (impulse buy)
$ 6 (3 pr) of panties for DD2 (doesn't really need but could use)
$ 9 necklace to go w/ the outfit I borrowed from my sister (it will go w/ many other tops I have)

Party City- $1 for tin pan(.50) to put covered dish in for reception tommorrow and (.50) for a plastic serving fork

Target- $8.66 for ingredients for the covered dish
1.54 for Oreo cookies (they were $2.54 but I had Target's $1 off coupon)
2.08 for 12 full size bars of Hershey Chocolate bars (had two $1 off coupons for the 6 packs)
2.99 2 lbs strawberries (DD2 loves them)
1.79 Orbit gum 3 pack for DD1

Best deal: Target had 12 packs of Zest soap that came with a full size bottle of body wash on clearance for $4.25. I picked up two of them and then went to see how much they were individually. The 12 packs of soap were $5.59 and the Body soap was 3.44 for a total of $9.03. So I got 2 12 packs of soap and 2 body washes for $8.50!!!
Then I went to BJ's and bought a gallon of milk for $2.54 much cheaper then elsewhere and a wedding card for $1.14
and a bday card for my BF for $1.34. At BJ's they sell their cards for 50% off.

I am making dinner tonight (eggplant parmesan) instead of my usual ordering pizza on friday night.

Could say that I wish we did not have to go to this wedding because it would have saved us money but I am looking forward to it. At least we will get to eat like kings at the reception!!

Today right after I went to the bank and turned in $30 worth of change, my DH calls and says his 1993 Chevy Silverado truck has broken down...again. We have had it for around 6 yrs. My DH is a plumber and used to not use it for work but now he does. He is driving it into the ground. I do not want to spend alot of $ constantly to keep it running so we may have to look into a Home Equity Line of Credit to buy another more reliable one. Just our luck.

I went to Walmart today and stuck to my list. Only things we needed like dog/cat food, OJ and soda. I like the Dr. Thunder Walmart brand the Diet and the regular. They are only .50 each. I also bought 3 composition notebooks and 4 70-page notebooks and only cost me $1.90 and right now no taxes. Now is the time to buy these things for the entire year. I still have notebook paper from last year. I used a gift card that was DD2's that she had in her drawer for who know how long. It had $5 left on it. Nice surprise!

Tomorrow I will go to BJ's and buy milk because it is so much cheaper than anywhere else and will buy a wedding card as they are 50% off. DH may be taking the groom to be out to dinner tommorow night because they are not having a bachelor party. Well I wasn't thrilled about it because that could get expensive but he said another friend was paying half of the groom to be's meal. He was'nt thrilled that I had anything to say about it at all ;0)

Today I took my DD2 and her friend to CiCi's pizza. Her friend had invited her to a nice weekend last weekend at the Nickelodean Hotel. It was her bday and she could choose one friend to go and she chose my DD. They would not allow me to give any $(I did give DD $20 in case.)We did not give her a gift at the time so I said we would take her to lunch & a movie & she could sleep over. So today we went to CiCi's Pizza. I actually used that $20 that DD did not spend.
We had the all you can eat pizza and salad. For all three of us and 2 sodas it was only $13. Later we went to my sister's community pool & swam.

Tommorow I am cashing in some change $30 dollars worth and will use this to pay for the movies (Pirates of the Caribbean) I will sneak in microwave popcorn and water.

I went through the freezers and pantry and found that I could make dinners for 5 days with what I have on hand. Saturday we go to a wedding at 3:00 so dinner will be the reception food.

I was worried that I would have to buy an outfit for this wedding as I do not have anything that does not look businessy but after looking through my sister's closet I found something that will work great. Yeahh!

My DD2 and I met my mom, neice and nephew at the movies today. We saw the movie Monster House. It was very cute. I paid $12.50 for the tickets and I popped two bags of microwave popcorn and put it into a large zip lock bag and put it in my big purse and we brought cups to put water from the fountain in.

Then we went to TARGET where I was supposed to only buy AXE body spray for DH, toothpaste and whatever school supplies were on sale. Well I ended up buying DD2 2 shirts for school for $18 (DONE) and the NOW 22 CD $12(I am such a sucker!) I also bought food stuff that she requested that was not needed $4.43, and some school supplies for $4.65. Plus toiletries for $11. That was the only thing necessary. I am dissapointed in myself.

I came home and made dinner, Jambalaya. In a little bit I am going to go through my two freezers and my pantry to come up with dinners for the next week. I want to only buy milk, cat/dog food, fruit and ice cream for next week. I am challenging myself to only spend $40 on groceries.

This sunday we have a wedding to go to. It is my husbad's childhood friend. I asked him if they were registered anywhere and he said no. He said he was under the impression they want money because they need it. So this means $50. You cannot go to a wedding of someone you have known more than half your life and give anything less. If it was a gift it would be different because if it was something on their registry it is what they asked for anyway.

This week I am going to apply for a pt job. I think I will go to Publix. I will be taking class two days a week starting this semester and my nerves can only handle pt work with school and kids and house.

Off to eat a bowl of ice cream!

I took my DD1 to Old Navy today to buy a messenger bag for a backpack. The price was reasonable $15. Then we went to look at shoes. The one she wants are $50. Now a couple of years ago she would have been happy with $10 Payless shoes but now she is going into middle school and what they wear is very important to them at that age. I spent about $325 for my DD1's school clothes and around $250 for DD2's school clothes. I told DD2 she should wait until the 1st day of school to see what kind of shoes the others are wearing because if no one has shoes like hers she will not want to wear them anymore and I will have to eat $50 pluds more to buy her another pair. According to DD2 certain brands of clothes are considered "gangster" others "skater" and others "prep" Both my girls are "prep". Give me a break!! Then we went to Kohl's and I bought a pair of sunglasses for $15 and took the tag off and threw in their little garbage can by the door so I could wear them outside and after I got in my car I realized they did not work worth a poop. So, I pulled up to the front and went to the trash can and stuck my hand inside and pulled out the tag. My DD2 was in the car mortified. I am taking those suckers back tomorrow. Out of curiosity how much do you guys pay for school clothes for your kids really just middle and high school aged kids?

Well today I stayed home and had a "No spend day" I did all the laundry, swept out the garage, and mowed the front and back yard. I did my budget for this week and next and for the month of August. The mortgage is paid for the month of August but I have to save for Sept. I do not have an income now so after I figured out the budget I realized we only have $400 left after paying all the bills for the month of Sept. That is what I have for gas, groceries and spending $. I do not want to look for a job because I need to take the class for nursing asst. I need to go to the different schools and find out how much they are and how long. Some are 5 to 7 weeks long and cost from $500 to $900. It looks as if I may need to borrow $$ from my parents to pay for the class. It will be the first time in many, many years. After I get my certificate then I can work at a hospital. Lets see how I can make this work!

My husband worked today. He usually only works mon-fri. He calls this afternoon and says, "I am craving fried cat fish." We go to a place called the Cat Fish House that we have never been to. I order a water and the all-you-can-eat catfish. He orders the same except gets a soda. For dessert we order coffee. The bill was $31 and we tipped $6. I wish I could say I feel guilty for spending that money but.... I don't! It was worth it. We just won't go out to eat for a couple of weeks or so I say ;0)

Once upon a time I worked for an insurance company that provided great benefits. I had my child and went back to work after my maternity leave was up. I worked three more years there and then they downsized. 90 of us were laid off and payed severance. We also collected unemployment for 10 mos. That is when I realized how much I wanted to stay home and care for my child. Ever since then I worked part-time or full time for no more than two years. I have never worked a summer until this summer since my youngest child was born 11 years ago. Due to not making much money and spending foolishly we are in seriuos debt. Money was spent on clothes for school, entertainment in the summer, and groceries. Nothing extrvagant. This summer I went to work full time the hours stunk 9-6 with no flexibility. I was able to take a mini vacation with family and buy all the girls school clothes. Yesterday after a month they let me go due to company is having financial difficulties (real estate, many listings no sales) I thanked them as now I can get things done before school starts in two weeks, I can sign up for nursing asst. class that lasts 8 wks. then find a pt job in a hospital or work nights or something like that. I need to really tighten the belt.