Day 7

Total Spent: $46.46

Eating Out:  $24.52
House Maintance: $6.94
Misc.: $15, gift

In March, we moved to a new area.  We had lived in our old house for 13 years and made a great group of friends that all lived in the same neighborhood.  Since we moved, we try to get together about once a month.  Most of the time it involves eating out and then hanging out.  I don't worry about spending money these nights.  I consider it "keeping me sane" money, and you really can't put a price on that!

We ended up picking up food from one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants, Mexican Fiesta.  We each got Chimichanga with rice and beans and "hot" chips with salsa.

 Our total "eating out" budget for the month is $200.  When you add in the pizza we bought earlier this month, we still have $165.37 left for the month.

I also had to buy a hose for our vacuum cleaner.  I thought about getting a new one, but there really isn't anything wrong with the one we have except the house that connects the motor to the floor device.  So, in the interest of saving a vacuum cleaner from going to the landfill, I bought the part for $6.94.  I think that's a good buy.

We have $100 budgeted for home maintenance a month, so we a few other items bought for the month, mainly salt for our water softener, we have $57 left for the month.

My daughter also went to a birthday party, and we spent $15 on a gift for her.   We have $85 budgeted for Miscilanious items, so our remaining balance is $70.

So, it's our most expensive day so far, but it's all money well spent, so I'm not stressing over it.  Every purchase was either planned in advance or we really did need it.  I don't want to budget so closely and be so frugal that when day's like these happy that they make me feel guilty or unhappy. I had a great time with my friends, my daughter had an awesome time at the party with her friends, and I saved an appliance from the landfill while also saving money in the long run. I think today was a success.

Day 4

Total Spent: $10.11

Ugh.  I was doing so good.  I took time this morning to make homemade pizza dough, got it all set up and started cleaning.  I briefly thought about the Maple Pecan Latte, but scolded myself, and just kept myself busy.

While I was cleaning, I went to turn the bathtub faucet off and the knob just fell off.  The water was still running, so I had to shut the water off to the entire house.  Feeling defeated, I went downstairs to check the pizza dough and it looked exactly the way it did when I put it in the bowl.  It didn't rise.

At this point, I was over it.  My daughter had a cross country meet after school, and I thought my son had baseball practice (it was cancelled), so I made the decision to get Little Caesars Pizza.  I don't like that pizza, but it's always ready and it's $5.  As you can see, I spent $10 because I also got bread sticks, and pizza sauce, and garlic butter sauce.  The kids ate 1 bread stick.  1.  So, next time, no bread sticks.

I probably should have made the tacos.