We’ve reached those hazy, lazy, crazy days of summertime and ACKK, now we are halfway through “The Thirteen Weeks of Summer“. 6.5 weeks down and 6.5 to go.
Several things have happened. To summarize.
1. I fell off the cash wagon this week. (Wow, how I wish there actually was something called “the cashwagon”.) It was getting too confusing. I used debit, but I think I overspent. We’ll see at the end of this post.
2. I did not do a good job substituting receipt gathering for cash usage and though you have made good suggestions about etsy and mvelopes, the downside was that both of those ideas involved a. Money and b. time reorganizing. We are definitely going to have to be VERY strict for the rest of the summer or we will run out. No two ways about it. I think maybe it will be stricter now that I can see in black and white that we will run out if we don’t stay in budget.
3. My blog broke. It is a long story. Now it is fixed. I love my BIL; he rocks.
4. I had a blog identity crisis. When I asked my dad, former graphic designer turned handyman, to help me come up with a logo for my blog, he gave me a subtitle with some statement about “frugal living”. It made me want to gag and die of boredom. I realized that everyone, probably understandably, thinks my blog now and forever more will be about frugality. That made me sad because I’m already kind of bored about writing about frugality and am having more fun telling stories and drawing extremely strained connections between literature, theology, and my garden. SO while my blog was broken, I have been trying to craft a blog mission statement to help guide me forward in the blogosphere since I have decided I love blogging. 🙂
5. We got a cat, reluctantly. He adopted us. His name is Monseiur Le Cat. He is French. I am allergic to cats. There is a story that I will tell another time.
6. This week was my birthday. I turned older. The wii fit told me that my wii-fit age was 45. I am punishing it by ignoring it. That will show it.
7. I am shifting the weeks. On the schedule, I had the new week starting on Tuesdays. That is dumb. It needs to start on Mondays. I have kind of been doing that anyway, but just to clarify.
Here’s the new revised summer schedule with our vacation shift. This week’s spending update will be at the end.
- Week 7: July 6-11 $200
Nieces Karissa, Lilia and Brother Shane’s b-day. Also friends from TX in town for two days. HOORAY!
(I know, seriously, can people be born in other seasons of the year?)
- Week 8: July 12-18 $140
Niece Lilia’s B-day, but we celebrated it last week. Hopefully a lean week to prepare for vacation to campground in mountains if we can afford it 🙂
(And to the previous question, no, clearly summer is the only season for childbirth.)
- Week 9: July 19-26 $240
Family vacation scheduled! Leaving for the mtn on the 23rd, so this will hopefully get us there and partially fed.
- Week 10: July 27-Aug 1 $220
Coming home from vacation on the 28th. Sister-in-law Kim and daughter Anika (rhymes with Monica) b-day
- Week 11: Aug 2- 8 $140
- Week 12: Aug 9-15 $140
- Week 13: Aug 16-24 $160
This is actually a week and a half. If we have any money left at this point, we will spend it all on school supplies since Addie is starting kindergarten. Tear and gulp. If we are out of funds, I think it will be rice and beans and hand-me downs. 🙂
Nephew Ben’s b-day and Jeremy starts workdays
- AUGUST 25th PAYDAY!!! HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!!
Okay, so here’s the number for this week . . . I have a bad feeling . . .gulp
$200 in the budget for this week b/c of birthdays and entertaining.
-$4.45 @ Target: Bag of Luvs diapers
-$30 @ Harris Teeter: Two pork boston butts, tortillas, beans, cilantro, powerade, corn on cob
-$11 @ (don’t judge me–there’s a story, but I’m just being honest, so that is something) Food Lion: 2 bottles sunscreen, peaches, bread
-$39 @Harris Teeter: Milk, eggs, chicken, cheese, ground beef, limes, apples, lemonade, cucumbers, . . . stuff to entertain
-$2 @movie theater for my birthday date. We saw Date Night which was fun, but slightly “adult” and I could not enjoy due to family in front who brought young elementary aged sons. SHAME ON YOU!
-$44 @ Outback for my birthday date. Mojito was delicious!
-$21.50 @CVS: see picture.
-$62 @ Target on gifts for two neices and brother’s birthday
-$2.75 @Chik-fil-a for dress like a cow day. We got free meals (twice that day). 🙂 But I did order a milkshake. YUM
-$3 @ Farmer’s Market on produce (purple peas, cucumbers, eggplant)–after we picked blackberries for FREE!
= -$19.70
Aw, MAN!! That stinks. So I guess I will deduct $20 from this week. Ackk $120. That’s gonna be rough.
On that depressing note, I’m off to bed. Hopefully, my resumption of blogging this week will be awesome with lots of articles. Any requests?
Wii-fit says your 45??? I’d definitely be punishing that thing by throwing it away or running over it with the car. There’s a reason I don’t have a wii and I think this is it!
You must get to CVS early! I went Sunday afternoon and the contact solution and scissors were already gone! Boo!
It depends on the CVS. We stopped after church on Sunday at my favorite. They are VERY coupon friendly and had a large stock of all the items. But I have definitely had weeks where most of what I wanted was gone. 🙁
You can add this great news to your week for Aug 3. Aunt Kathy K from NY is coming to visit your Mom and Dad (the one with the boring logo). But if we eat lunch at your house like last time, we’ll bring lunch so you don’t go over budget. 🙂
Poor Dad got lumped as a boring logo maker when he has years of talented logos behind him (a decade behind him). I think you need to redeem him somehow, but also, check with aforementioned awesome BIL for the logo you are looking for. He is a genius of design and logos.
I did not say that Dad was a boring logo maker. I said that I realized, when reading his subtitle, that public perception of my blog is clearly that it is exclusively about frugality, which I find boring. His logo was good and I’m using a version of it as you will see at the top of this page. My problem is with my own boringness.
Hmmm, thanks for the clarifcation. Upon re-reading, I realize that I was entirely justified in my perception of your original meaning, that Dad’s logo “made you want to gag and die of boredom”. But I see what you mean now. And I stand behind whatever identity you choose, just so long as you keep us laughing, you Food Lion cheater, you.