New Year's Resolution

I've made several resolutions. I'm really going to work towards sticking to them.

For my family:
I'd like us to go to church more often. We're going to try to go once a month, and if that works out, we'll increase it.

For my household:
I'm going to do 1 load of laundry per day. I hate having to do massive loads on the weekends. It ruins my whole day. So one per day. I think I can handle that. And I'm going to try to follow the Fly Lady more than I have been.

For our finances:
I'm going to try and work on paying down our debts. I'd like to be able to pay off several credit cards.

For my blog:
I'm very hot and cold. I'll blog a lot one week and then not at all for 3 weeks. I'm going to try to post at least 3 times a week.

For myself:
I'm going to try and be more health conscious. I'll think twice about what's going into my body and how much activity I'm getting. I'm going to start a food log and document everything.

I spent $100, but saved $52.

I am so awesome.

Here's why:

Yesterday we went to Target. I needed to get some toiletries and paper products that we had run out of. (Well, I have a list of all the toiletries, cleaning supplies, and paper products that we use. On this list, I have the best price that I've found and where I've found it. Most of the items on the list have their best prices at Target since J gets a 10% discount.) So anyways, off to Target we went. Before we went I looked at Target's weekly ad so I had a game plan! And it was an awesome game plan. I saved $52.08.

I saved $15 on Enfamil formula using formual checks. Goob isn't on formula yet, but we wanted to start stocking up since he will be in a few months.

I saved $7.32 on paper towels. Target had a special on Bounty. I usually spend $11 for 12 rolls and they were $7 for 12 rolls. We bought two packages.

I saved $10 on cereal. Target had a special to buy 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal for $10. AND if you bought 4 boxes, you'd get a $5 Target Gift Card. So we bough 8 boxes of cereal, and got 2 $5 gift cards. (J loves cereal!)

I saved $6.92 on deoderant. They were packaged 3 deoderants for $4.99. Regular price would have been $6.72 for 3. So we took advantage and bought 2 3-packs for me and 2 3-packs for J.

I saved $.86 on face wash and astringent. They were just 10% off, but since every little bit helps, I stocked up.

Finally, we saved $10.84 with J's 10% discount.

In the car on the way home, J apologized for thinking I'm nuts for being a coupon fanatic and so frugal. Yay.

I love coupons!

I've recently become a coupon freak. I clip out all I can find from the Sunday paper, I check the back of my receipts at HEB (there's always coupons!), I print off online coupons, I love coupons!!! And my husband thinks I'm ridiculous. He thinks it's a waste of time. It's not. It saves us money. So I've decided to keep a running total of how much I've saved with coupons, just so I can prove him wrong!

I just got back from HEB. I saved a total of $2.25 which was 6.79% of my total cost. I saved on 2 boxes of cereal, biscuits, and lunch meat! Yay!

Whirlwind Weekend

Our weekend got off to quite a bang on Friday morning. J went to work super early so that we could leave for Houston as soon as I got off of work. But on his way to work, J's car broke down AGAIN! (A few months ago we spent abou $2500 to repair the car!) Once he called me, it was clear that we needed to do something. Well, we've been talking about getting an SUV forever. So it was time to take the plunge. We decided to just leave for Houston that morning (I called in sick!) to go car shopping.

Once we got to Houston, we dropped off our dogs and luggage at my parents' house and started shopping. We started with the Ford dealership and found an Edge. It was love at first sight. We talked with a kid there for about 20 minutes and then headed to the next dealership.

We stopped by a few other place, but nothing compared to the Edge. And since my parents have a deal with their employers when they buy a car they told us to wait for them to go talk to the salesmen. Plus they've been dealing with a certain salesman for a few years now when they've been buying their cars. My mom called him and let him know we were coming and to get a good deal ready.

Let me just say THANK GOODNESS that my parents were with us. J and I have never done anything like this before and probably would have gotten eaten alive. But my parents were able to get us a fabulous deal!!!

We are now the proud owners of a Ford Edge. It'll be perfect for all of Goob's stuff. And J and I are already fighting over who will drive it. (I'll win!)

The longest week!

Today marks my 31st week being pregnant. It feels like I'm coming down the hill. Before we know it, the baby will be here. It's getting kind of scary.

I'm feeling okay. The exhaustion is back. I haven't been this tired since I was 8 or 9 weeks pregnant. My back is starting to kill me all over. And I can't get a good night's sleep. It's not so bad...at least not yet.

Goob is still kicking away in there. He's exactly like his momma. He doesn't like any unnecessary touching. I'll put my hand on my stomach and he'll kick it away. J puts his hand on my stomach and Goob will kick it away. He's certainly gonna be a Mommy's boy.

This week marked the end of my tutorial classes. Thank goodness! I was having to stay in school til 5:30 three days a week and it was taking it's toll on me. I'll miss the extra bucks, but it'll be worth it to be home and take a cat nap during Oprah. :)

And the next few weeks are gonna fly by. Next week, we'll only have a 3 1/2 day week due to Charro Days. The next week is our TAKS test which will be an easy week. The following week J and I will be driving to Houston for baby shower #2 for me, and then it's Spring Break. The next week after that is Easter Weekend and baby shower #3. Then it'll be April.

OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDNNNNNNNNESSSSSSSS!

Goob's room is coming along. We got carpet today. Hopefully, we'll be able to go pick up the crib tonite and order the dresser. Pics will be up tomorrow of the crib and carpet!!

Our Resolution

J and I've talked about all our money issues today. We discussed ways to save ourselves money. We're going to get rid of our home phone (which we NEVER use) and get rid of some of our cable features on our TV.

We made a budget that includes our current utilities and our credit payments. But the best part of the budget is that we're going to be saving $500 a month. We know that our nanny is going to charge us $100 a week to watch Goob so that's $400 a month. We won't need the nanny until the end of August so all the money we're saving will just be our stock pile in case of anything. Also, J should be getting a pay raise come March. It should be a substantial pay raise so whatever we have extra will just go towards credit payments.

It's going to be hard to cut out all the extra spending. We'll really have to work at it. But I think we're determined to make it work. It'll mean no more eating out and no more frivoulous spending!! But it's all for the baby.

Our new budget will start Jan 25th which is the next time we get paid again. Wish us luck.

Happy New Year!

So it's 2008. I must admit that I'm thankful that 2007 is over. Don't get me wrong-it was a great year. I married the man of my dreams and found out that we're expecting our first son. But it was a stressful year with all the changes that went on.

And now it's a new year. I love new years. It's like a fresh start. I don't really have any specific resolutions. I do just want to save as much money as we can for Goob. We're doing good right now. I just need to be vigilant about it.

J and I spent a very low-key New Year's. When you're about six months pregnant, it's hard to go all out. We went to Tony Roma's for an early dinner and then home to watch some TV. I actually think that we were asleep for the New Year. At least I was. What do you expect????

Happy New Year!!!