I have one more paycheck from my previous job on the 1st, that will have to last me until 1 October. My new job only pays once per month. I'm looking forward to knowing what my actual paycheck will look like, so that I can develop a better budget. I have run a paycheck model so I have an estimate, and I should be able to save quite a bit more at this job, even with the higher cost of living. But we'll see when the final numbers come in.

I will also put money aside in a high-interest summer savings account from my credit union, as my job spreads my salary over the 10 months that I work, leaving July and August with no paycheck.

So lots of budget tweaks to consider as I wait for my first paycheck. It should be larger than usual, though, since the additional trainings I've had to attend these past 2 weeks will be added onto the first paycheck.

I'm looking forward to getting my savings back on track so that I can still make my investment account goal by the end of December.

I've been thinking lately about money sort of "floating" around the universe. Many times in my life I've had occasions where financial emergencies have come up, and yet I managed to get through them. I had money saved in an account, I was able to not purchase something else, or a check came in the mail from an overpayment, etc. The money balanced itself out. I do trust that I will have enough.

Now that I am paying before school care for the first time in years (my kids went to the same school that I taught at up until this year), I think of my money balancing itself out in a broader sense. I have to pay $300 a month in before school care. But I have significantly increased my salary, so that this expense is well affordable. More than that, though, my $300 is going to bless the day care provider. She is a very caring, hard worker who cares for Alzheimer's patients at a nursing facility during the night shift, and cares for children before and afterschool when she gets home. Her husband had a stroke at age 42 so she has been doing whatever she needs to in order to take care of her family. My money is not in my pocket, but it is still balancing out, because it is adding to another.

and then I moved!

Try moving from a bigger to a smaller house,that truly forces you to minimalize. Despite all of the decluttering that I did, we still have too much stuff in this new house. I have several boxes of non-needed or duplicate items that are going directly to Goodwill, I didn't even take them out of the box.

I have an alter table that carries my crystal and my grandmother's wedding china. I do use the crystal for entertaining several times a year, but grandma's wedding china is too delicate to use for anything. It's beautiful, but I just don't know what to do with it. It feels silly packing and unpacking the china whenever I move, otherwise it doesn't get touched.

I'm considering holding onto a dessert tier that is part of the set and selling the rest. I like to use the dessert tier for my girls' birthdays and other special events because it brings a touch of elegance to the table and it is a physical reminder of my grandma.

Has anyone had any luck selling fine china? Did you regret it?