Between yesterday and today I had to buy a few things to eat at work. Not so much lunch but snacks because I didn't plan well and was still hungry after eating. Hungry as in I am going to get a migraine if I don't eat hungry. Somedays are just like that. So, I am combining yesterday and today's food expenses into 1 day of not bringing my lunch. And I am considering 1 day as bringing it. So, I am still doing good with my lunch challenge.

I am down to $90 until payday, which is next Thursday. I already have the cash to pay for dinner tonight so I don't have to worry about that. We don't have too much going on this weekend so I am thinking it will be a fairly inexpensive weekend.

I am debating if I should make an additional payment to my Visa with some of the $90. On the positive side it is one more payment and I won't be spending that money on something foolish. On the down side I might need to buy groceries or the kids might need something for school between now and Thursday and I would hate to not have the money. Decisions, decisions.

I have worked out my schedule for next week and will be picking up 5 hours of overtime. It's not a ton but I think it is a good start for me. With the kids schedule and DH's schedule I am surprised I could find the time to do even 5! I am going to shoot for a minimun of 5 additional hours each week.

I am very tired today and have been fighting a headache all day. I am looking forward to the fancy dinner tonight but would be just as happy going home and putting on my sweatpants! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

So looking forward to the 3 day weekend. It will be nice to have Monday off Looks like the weekend is filling up with plans already. Hopefully we will have some down time as I have to clean my house...it's driving me nuts! I don't know how it gets so messy so quickly.

Today was payday. I have paid all the bills I have for this pay period. I think I am just waiting for the home phone bill still. I made my normal payment to the credit card I am trying to snowball. $55. I added to that the 25.70 I had left over in my account when I got paid today. So I have paid a $80.70 payment. I figured if I at least pay $150/month I should have it paid off in a year. I am going to try really hard to pay more than $150 so I can get rid of this small one and move on to some of the larger debts.

I still have to deposit the cash I have laying around at home and plan to do that tomorrow. I will then transfer that over to this payment.

I even managed to transfer $14 to my savings account $1 a day...won't get me rich but it's nice to know that I am not spending it!

I also transferred $150 to my saving account which I will be able to draw upon if needed for the next 13 days. I hope I won't need to touch it. After I paid all my bills and added the $14 to savings I still had close to $500 in my checking account. I figured if I left it there I would spend it.

So, I now have about $280 left in my checking account. This will buy us groceries and birthday dinner for an aunt who is turning 80. Just DD and I are going so I don't think it will be too expensive.

I am glad to be going into the weekend knowing where I stand with my money. Knowing I only have $280 to last 13 days will definately make me thing twice about what I spend it on.

Hope everyone has a nice relaxing long weekend!

So I managed to stay within my $20 budget on Friday night at the ball game. I had to pay to park (which I forgot about) and bought the kids each an overpriced ice cream and a fried dough for me. I walked out with $3 left over...yeah me!

Saturday was another story...I did better than I usually do but not as well as I had hoped. DD and I went to Old Navy for their $1 Flip Flop sale. Although DD is only 10 she wears the same size shoe as me. We got 3 pairs to share and spent $3.21.

Saturday night was girls night at the Comedy Club. We went to dinner first and tried to use a coupon but they wouldn't accept it. Seems they are changing ownership and couldn't take the coupon unless it had the new name on it. Anyways, we drank water and and my portion of the bill was about $16. Tickets to the show were $9 and I got 2 drinks during for a total of $6. So, the night came to $31. I had budgeted $30 once I found out we were going to dinner so I did well. Still when you don't go out often, even $31 seems expensive!

Sunday I went grocery shopping to stock up on fruits and veggies. I spent $51 and that should get us through the week. I breaded about 6 chicken breast to have on hand for dinners and lunches this week. I had a delicious spinach salad with some of the chicken for lunch today...yum!

I have to pick up one of my medications today which will cost $10. That will leave me with $37.81 in my checking account until Thursday. If I transfer the $14 I had planned to transfer to my savings account I will have $23.81 to add to my Visa bill I am trying to snowball. Plus the $20 cash I have sitting on my desk at home. That's $43.81 which I think is a good first step.

I am going to try really hard this week to bring my lunch everyday and eat breakfast at home. I ate breakfast at home this morning and only spent $1.25 for coffee. Normally I send $3.51 for coffee and a muffin. One day of breaking my breakfast tradition down, lots more to go!!!

Thank you to those of you who responded to my first entry with encouraging words. I appreciate it!

I am just about done with my master list of debt. I am not sure how to post my spreadsheet in here...is that even possible? If not I will post them on the side like I see so many others do.

After much deliberation I have decided that I am going to attack my smallest balance Visa card first. I think if I can get rid of it in a short time frame I will feel like I am going somewhere. And that somewhere is where I want to be all the time

So, my first goal is to throw every single spare penny I have to this account. Here is where I stand:

Visa
Credit Limit $3000.00
Current Balance $1611.05
Balance is 54% of my limit
Current minimum monthly payment= 0.00 (ok, sure)
My minimum monthly payment =$50.00
Interest on both purchases and balance transfers= 10.65%

Right now I am waiting for a few bills to clear my bank and then I will have a better idea of what I can "contribute" to this account. I have about $20 sitting at home waiting to be deposited into my account from various sources...I can definately transfer that over once I get to the bank, which I should do soon since cash doesn't last long in my hands.