My son's daycare is sponsering a night at the zoo for the kids that go there. Since this is my son's last year in daycare we figured we would go. Free entertainment for the kids. Our zoo is pretty small so going once or twice a season is about it for us. They have gotten some new animals this year so I am excited to go check it out. We are going to eat dinner at home prior to leaving so we aren't tempted to buy all the expensive treats they sell there.

I have been doing very well with the lunch challenge and need to update my side bar to reflect that. I have also been challenging myself to only buying 1 muffin a week instead of my daily treat. I figure this will help both my wallet and waist! I treated myself today to the muffin and boy was it good!

My to do list is growing longer each day. I can't seem to keep up with everything I have to do. Hopefully this weekend I will get some of it done but both days are filling up quickly and it is only Wednesday! 2 important things to do are to switch car insurance companies and our house telephone service.
*Car insurance went up this renewal period which I don't understand as I haven't been in an accident in years. I did notice that the insurance company had an inquiry recently on my credit report. I wonder if that is what made it go up? Still, I don't understand that because my credit is good. Anyways, I am sick of my premiums going up every renewal period so I am switching.
*Home phone service should be switched too. Has anyone tried Vontage? I am considering them because we really don't use our home phone that often yet I am reluctant to get rid of it. They have a plan for $9.99/month which is a lot cheaper than the $32/month I have been paying. If you have had any experience with Vontage, good or bad, let me know.

With those 2 changes I should be freeing up some cash to put towards Visa #1.

Just got the approval to work some overtime on some projects at work that nobody seems to have time to complete. With summer upon us, vacations will kick in making it harder to get all the work we have to do done. So, I have to let my boss know at the beginning of the week when I want to work overtime for the coming week. It will be difficult given all the activities the kids are involved in to find time to work extra but I am going to make it work somehow. We are rarely given the opportunity for overtime so I am going to jump all over it. I emailed DH today and told him we will have to go over everyones schedules tonight to see how we will make this work. I am not working extra next week as it is the holiday and even if I did come in it would be regular pay and I am going to need the week to prepare for what is going to be a very busy summer.

Took DS out for ice cream last night. $6 not planned but worth every penny. DH and DD went off to karate after soccer practice and it was just DS and I so I thought it was nice if we could spend some time together doing what we love...eat ice cream! Other than that, I am doing good with not spending. Got a coffee at work today for $1.40. Brought my lunch and we had bagels during a mroning meeting.

Tonight is the first and only night of the week where we do not have plans. I am looking forward to getting caught up on some housework and then just relaxing

It has been a lucky couple of days for me...I hope it continues!

Yesterday I found $10 while doing the laundry. I do all our laundry together so I really don't have a way of telling if it was DH or DD. I don't think it was mine as I seldom keep money in my pockets. Nobody is missing it so I am adding to my laundry stash. I am up to $14 and change

This morning I stopped at Dunkin Donuts before work to get a muffin and large coffee. I went through the drive through and they messed up my order so they gave me the muffin for free! I love free!!!!

That is where my luck has taken me so far. Unfortunately I was in a hurry this morning becasue I had to drive DD to school with her science fair project so I didn't have time to pack my lunch. I really need to get into the habit of doing this before I go to bed. Anyways, I have done well today without my lunch. I bought a bag of pretzels for $1 and have been drinking water and ate a bananna I had left over from yesterday. Mental note to self...pack lunch tonight.

Tonight is soccer practice and I don't anticipate needing to stop anywhere or purchase anything so I think today will be a pretty expensive day. Yesterday wasn't too bad either. $5.48 at the pharmacy for my medication and $1.50 for coffee. It's amazing how little you spend when you are paying attention to what you have and where you want to be with your funds.

Payday is this Thursday and I am excited to see how much I actually have left over for my snowball

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog page. As my entry title suggests, I have issues of the financial kind. Well, lets face it...I have issues of several kind but I guess this is the place to discuss the financial ones. I'll have to find another site to blog about the others.

I am not sure where to begin with the mess I have created. I don't have exact figures to share with you. I can say that about 95% of my debt is credit card debt. The remaining 5% is my car payment and student loan. I am going to guesstimate that my credit card debt is about 20k. What, you may ask did I spend that money on? Funny you should ask as I look at that figure and wonder the same thing.

I do know that being a parent is very expensive but I can't blame this all on my kids....I like to shop. A lot. For clothes mostly. I often wonder if I have a shopping addiction. Currently I am trying to stay out of stores because if I don't go in, I won't spend. I don't really engage in on-line shopping so no worries there.

If you took a glimpse at my marriage you would see 2 successful people, holding down 2 successful jobs. My husband has always been great with his money. He is able to use his credit card during the month and pay it off every month. He has no debt except for his car loan. I, on the other hand, use my credit cards to make up for the money I don't make. My husband makes twice as much as me. We have seperate checking accounts and a shared savings account. This works for us. I don't like the idea of someone constantly questioning me about how I am spending my money and I don't think it is fair of me to do the same. Although the more I think about it, the more I think I do need someone challenging me. The way we break down expenses are as follows:
Husband is responsible for the house payment, day care, his car and insurance, his credit card.
I am responsible for all the utilities, most of the kids stuff, groceries, my car payment and insurance, credit card bills, and student loan.
Once the fall is here and our son is no longer in all day, every day daycare that expense will drop dramatically and I am hoping my husband will take over some of the utilities.

I know what you are wondering...if we have such seperate financial lives, does he know about my debt? Well, he has a vague idea. He doesn't know how bad it is and seriously, I don't want him to know. I think he would leave me if he knew. And then where would I be? I am hoping, and I may be living in a fantasy world here, but I am hoping that I am able to get this under control before he realizes how large it is. Call me crazy, I know.

So my fellow peeps...I am hoping that by blogging about this huge mess I will be inspired to stop shopping and start digging my way out. I am always open to suggestions and will try just about anything to fix this situation. I will try to get more details posted so you have a better idea of where I am coming from, but in a nutshell this is me.