Spending Log:
Dec 9: no spend day
Dec 10: no spend day

Today I need to do a litte grocery shopping, return a mattress to Ikea and get the right one, get gas, etc. so i till not be a no spend day.

Good and bad news: dinner with two girl friends was cancelled so no seeing them until after christmas but no spending done either and my fun money lives for another cople of days.

this weekend I have a party to celebrate dutch christmas and my nieces 23 birthday. I need to get her a gift and I am afraid I will have to hit the mals to get it. She was married a month ago so I think that I will pick up something off her registry at bed, bath and beyond or target or crate and barrel. something girly but sill good for their new life. Talk about easy gifts for the next few gift giving opportunities. I am excited about that!

It will be a quiet rainy weekend but I am glad for the rain. It is still cld here but not as much as it was earlier this week.

No spending Dec 7
No Spending Dec 8

I am freezing! The heat is on in the apartment but this apartment has bad insulation near the windows and very old windows. I can feel the cold seeping in. I am heading to bed in a few minutes after I put the chicken in the slow cooker to cook overnight.

It is just so weird for this city to be this cold.

Started my new weekly balance for this week today. I still have planty of groceries, gas and no plans to spend money until Friday when I might go catch a matinee. I need to start christmas shopping too. So far this month I am under budget by almost 7 dollars. Pretty good since I have been over budget for the past few months. I'll take it and hope that more savings will happen this month.

Spending log:
groceries 38.68 (still have 6.32 in budget)
movies 10.00
lunch 12.92
gas 27.00

All spending from my budget. I had a coupon for the gas station for 2.00 off a ten gallon fill up so i paid 25 and got 27. It was just over three quarters of a tank and it should last for at least a week but if it doesn't i have a new gas amount available on the 8th.

I saw the movie the blind spot. Loved it! Well worth the afternoon at the movies and since I was gone and someplace warm I could turn the heat off at the apartment. It is freezing here and mom has gotten some snow. Roads will be clear but icy for her tomorrow. We are supposed to get between 2 and 4 inches of rain but I have not seen more than a couple drops on my windshield all day.

Grocery shopping after the movie. It was all planned for on my grocery shopping list although I probably didn't have to buy the ice cream sandwiches!

Work this week is four days and a furlough friday. I have a dr. appointment for what I believe to be a pinched nerve in my back that I have been struggling with for 7 weeks. It needs to go away!

Even with the spending today I am within my budgeted amounts for the week Dec 1-7. I have new amounts for the week the 8th - 14 that I will put in my purse tonght. This is the first time i have been under budget in about 5 months.

Spending log:
$21 of spending money. Had dinner out.

Quiet day. I watched some tele as I sorted through a box of stuff I just tossed into a box when I moved. Thank goodness I only did that with two small boxes! One box down, one to go.

Tomorrow I think I might go see a movie. I need to go grocery shopping before the week begins. I also need to do that return at ikea to get the right stuff for the chair.

I discovered that the bed is high enough with the new frame that the clearance will actually allow me to put the boxes i packed under there. The clearance is a little more than 11 inches so I will find a coupld under the bed storage boxes for items that do not fit in the smaller packing boxes and it should be good.

Oh, I passed the written exam i needed to for my dream job and wrote the personal narratives i needed to but i don't think they are strong enough to make it to the next part but i hope they might be!

Spending log:
12/2 nothing
12/3 nothing
12/4 nothing furlough Friday. I stayed home in my apartment, watched some TV and some recorded items, laundry, cleaning, and putting away another box of the 10 or so I still have. I need some under the bed storage bins that I will pick up tomorrow when I return the wrong mattress at Ikea.

December Budget:
Rent 703
Spending/Fun 185
November Estimated electricity 75
November Natural gas 21.33 (less than I expected by about half!)
November Cable/internet 132.92
November Water/sewer/garbage estimate 40
Cell phones 125
IRA 50
Rental unit 10
Groceries 200
Donation to Care 15
Auto gas 125
Auto insurance savings 125
Auto repairs savings 100
Dentist bill 30 (1 of 2)
Netflix 15.21
Audible.com 14.95
Contacts savings 40
Chase 135
FIA 117
Amex 375
National 205
Car 150
Savings 1: 50
Savings 2: 50
Christmas 325

I have figured out what my grocery/fun/gas bills are for the weeks 1-7, 8-14, 15-21, 22-28 and 29-31 and enveloped them. The full weeks equal $115.16 for the grocery/fun/gas spending and the extra three days is 49.35 for the grocery/fun/gas expenses. (Daily money is groceries $5.96, fun $6.45, gas $4.03.)

I have yet to spend any money this month from my grocery/fun/gas budget. I will need to get gas tomorrow and might do some grocery shopping from the list of items I need for this next week and the meal planning I have done.

I am buying a treadmill from a colleague. She used it when she was recovering from knee surgery and has only put about 150 miles on it because as a runner she hated walking/running inside. It is in great condition and she said $150 and her husband will deliver it. It will have to go in my dining room area but I am excited about the possibility.

I have worked out my budget for 2010. If I stay on course with paying off debt instead of saving for a house I will have all but $2500 or so left and this is with the furlough days was have and the lost 15%. If the furloughs end in July 2010 and my raise takes effect that same month I could be completely credit card free by the end of November 2010. That is a nice feeling.

I wrote a long post about my expense plans for this next month and lost it so I am just ging to report spending for today:

12/1 took mom to lunch for $19.00