Spending this month continues to stay under tight control, with nearly every dollar spent a planned expenditure. (The unplanned spending included floor cleaner and shampoo and conditioner that I got for a dollar per bottle.) Grocery spending is still at $57 for the month, although I need to go get milk for DD as well as for me and DH, so that's a good $12 right there. We could use some other things too, but it's been a good challenge to try and eat at home, cooking whatever we have on hand, trying to stretch out the time between trips to the grocery store. Aside from the surprise windfall and trip out to dinner, there hasn't been any other dining out, including snacks or stops for coffee. Every time I've been tempted, I think about it and decide that the fact is, I'd rather not go.

Home improvements: we need to buy tile for the walls around our tub/shower in our bathroom so that we can finish that project. I'm pretty sure we'll pick out the tile Saturday. Once the tile is in place, we can paint. We're going to turn the old shower stall into a storage cupboard, so that will be a job unto itself, but at least we'll have a fully functioning bathroom again soon and can stop cramming all three of us into our tiny guest bathroom. We'll cram ourselves into our slightly less tiny main bathroom.

We also need to buy exterior paint, prime all the spots where the insulation was blown into the walls and then patched and then paint. Paint is relatively cheap, thankfully. It's the time involved that I'm not looking forward to, having painted the house ourselves once before, 6 or so years ago.

In saving news, I increased the automatic transfer to DD's 529 plan today by $25. It isn't so much that it will feel like a big chunk out of the monthly budget, but it's an extra $300 a year that we might not have saved otherwise for college.

One of the things that has been on my to-do list is take some money that we've had set aside for DD and find a better way to invest it. I have some funds bookmarked, so this month I'm going to go back and look at them and try to take some action.

August...four weeks left of summer for me. Time has gone by way too fast this summer. I still have a lot to do and figure out so that I am comfortable the first day of school.

I'm almost ready to put DD's new loft together. I'll check to see if anything needs a little more paint, and I'll see about getting some 3/4" plywood to support the mattress, and then it will be ready to assemble! DD is looking forward to trying out her new bed.

Lunch tomorrow with friends fell through, so I don't need to worry about getting things together for that. Hopefully DD and I can get to the pool at least once this week. Things have cooled off considerably around here, and we are back to having thick fog in the mornings. If it burns off before lunch the afternoon will be nice. I'd like to go to the pool, given we have passes tha are already paid for and so it makes for what fels like a free activity.

Have I mentioned the kittens lately? They are doing great. They are on to kitten food now, though I still give them some milk in a bottle once or twice a day too, just to be sure. I had to move them into our bathroom, as they were climbing up and over the enclosure that I had them in. I have some recent pictures; I'll attach one. They are so fun.


Climbing my leg...

I got DD a razor scooter at Target yesterday. She's currently practicing in the house. :O Probably not the best idea.

A parent of a friend from her class set up a web page to organize different play dates and outings over the summer. I think that's a great idea - she'll serve as a point of contact, so when someone has something to suggest, she can add it to the page. We all have each other's email addresses and phone numbers already, so getting in touch with one another is pretty simple.

I'm off to school today to meet with one of the teachers and go over what curricula and resources are available for teaching the 7th grade class next year. That's the one class I feel like I need to concentrate on the most, as it doesn't have a great curriculum already in place from what I understand. I could be wrong - that would be a good thing to be wrong about. I found out that my first class starts at 8 a.m. which is also when DD's class starts. I was hoping I'd start later, but it didn't work out that way. I still need to work out when I'll be teaching my other two classes.

We spent about $48 today on groceries to take with us when we go skiing. We still have a few things left to buy, but that is most of what we'll need, given we already had some things at home we can bring. I'm going to make a few things before we go - applesauce cake (recipe was given to me in the forums - thank you!), baked tofu (it's been marinating in soy sauce), and possibly some chocolate chip cookies.

Blew $4 today on a box of Thin Mint cookies. I wish those things weren't so good!!

I set up some online bill payments earlier today, just to make sure that nothing gets overlooked while we're gone. We are only going to be gone for a few days, but I'd hate for something to be late.

I'll take the car in for an oil change this week, and I need to make vet appointments for all of our pets sometime in the next few weeks. I'm also long overdue for a dental check-up, and DD is due next month. Lots of spending coming up. Oh, I need to go get more cat litter tomorrow, too. And we owe the deposit on next year's tuition. I think that's due by the third week of this month. I need to loook over those forms and fill things out.

Bills, bills, bills. I'm glad we are able to swing two days of skiing - we can all use some R&R around here.

One more thing - I did 5 more reviews at InsiderPages, so hoepfully that will be another $5 for Target.

Dh and I spent a couple of hours last night filling out the financial aid forms for DD's school, in the hopes of qualifying for something next year. It was a pint, but it would have been SO much worse had we not been keeping track of things like medical expenses, savings, business expenses, etc etc, as well as keeping important papers in one easy to find place. I turned it all in this morning and am VERY glad to be done with it.

I've decided that when I do buy a latte, I'm going to use the Vons Starbucks whenever I can. When you buy 7 drinks, you get your 8th drink free. So that means 8 lattes for $18.20, or $2.27 each, for a savings of 33 cents per latte. Not much, but why not take advantage of it if I can?

I sent in for my Rite Aid rebate this morning. That'll be $14.50. I will add it to my challenge account once it gets here.

1/1-1/13:
Groceries: $92.32 (goal = $300)
Dining: $75.69 (goal = $160)