I was paid $450 for the babysitting this week, I'm glad the parents pay weekly, that keeps me motivated!
This money goes into my savings account for now. I'm putting moving expenses on my rewards credit card so I will pay that off with savings when everything has cleared.

We sold our washer/dryer on Craigslist for $300 within an hour (pricing is everything on CL!). We used some of that money to pay cash for the food and drinks for DD's 14th birthday party. After eating we all went to the pool down the block. Everyone had a fantastic time, I loved watching DD with her friends. They hadn't seen each other since the end of the school year and they were all giggles and nonstop chatter, it reminded me so much of my BFFs and me when we were that age! I'm really praying for my girls to find good friends in our new neighborhood. Good friends just make life so much sweeter!

The credit card bill is really high, since I put all vacation expenses on it and now moving expenses. I will still be able to pay it off by the due date, I think, I'm just waiting for all of the checks to clear and all of the "holds" to be released from online accounts.

All in all, I'm optimistic about the upcoming year. I haven't heard from HR as to my official salary, just looked it up online, but from what I found it is much higher than I'm making now. After taking into consideration the cost of living increase, I should still be able to bank most of the difference between my old salary and my new salary. Plus what I was saving on my old salary. I just can't get sucked into the trappings of having extra money, namely getting used to spending all of the new salary.

I know that looking at my long term goal will help me stay focused on keeping the saving and investing up. We will probably be in our new location for 4 years, and then we can look to something else. At that point we want to have a lot of cash set aside so that we have more choices, since we might be looking at military retirement. That means we may be able to move where we want to, and pick a house we really imagine ourselves living in for a while. Or it might mean more travel jobs. But we want to have choices.

In the meantime, I know we won't be miserable living a simpler life, it can be quite enjoyable!

After a grueling week of packing at school, I was able to check out for the summer. I am sore, feels like I have a stomach bug, and I can barely keep myself awake for my girls' sleep over. But I made it, and I'm hopeful that after a restful night of sleep I will feel better.

I have $78 dollars left over from last payday, so I will transfer that over to savings this weekend.

I may have a short 3 week job in DC this summer, as a nanny to a family while the regular nanny is on vacation. I can bring my girls with me during the day, and the kids are the same ages as my kids. So I would be getting paid to entertain the kids all day. Obviously I've simplified it but still, a great way to earn some good extra cash for a few weeks. Plus I will be in DC, spending time with SO. I'll see how that pans out soon.

I've been a little slack on my condo lately. I haven't been trying too hard to find a new tenant, and I need to get on it. That will be my goal for Spring Break, to get a tenant. My last guy moved out in the beginning of March.

I've had several calls for the place, but I've noticed a pattern. People are really concerned about the security deposit! I've never had anyone blink an eye at it in the past. It is pretty common to expect one month's rent for security deposit, isn't it? Yet lately when people call and ask about the deposit, that seems to be the deal breaker. Can it really be that people don't have one month's rent in reserve somewhere? I don't want to lower the deposit amount, because that money is there for security for taking them on as a tenant, in case of damage or failure to pay. My take is that if the potential tenant has trouble scraping together enough money for a month of rent and a security deposit, they probably aren't going to be dream tenants who pay timely.

I made it to Friday! I have a few pressing tasks to complete this morning at school during my planning, then I should be well caught up from my assistant being out. She doesn't make nearly enough money for what she does, which I've always known, but she is a very special lady and hard worker!!!

Last night I went to Dollar General while DD was at dance and I picked up some supplies for the classroom, $9.83. Then I went to CVS for the BOGO on vitamins, 2 big bottles for $9.49, which I paid for with a gift card, so no out of pocket expense for those.

This weekend I NEED to get out some thank you cards!!! And log some miles in for the month.

I ordered some materials to "test out" in my classroom, if I like them I will sell them on my website that I am slowly building. It's a project of mine that has been stewing in my mind.I have a website (well, an address!) and a resellers license from the state. I can also sell some of the related products that I make. Just a fun project right now!

For the past year and a half my family has been saving rebates, credit card rewards, and spare change. I guess this is what others consider "snowflakes". We have almost paid off our cruise with this extra money!

I could easily have drained this money throughout the year on things here and there. Yet by saving it in an account especially for the cruise, I felt a responsibility to not touch the money. The money has a "face".

I added $15 to the cruise fund after selling a textbook, getting close to the deadline!

I also updated personal savings to $6,443. Getting there, slowly, but surely!

I work a few hours this morning at the part time job and then I have the rest of the day off. I haven't gotten a paycheck from the new place yet. It will be automatically deposited into my ING account, so I won't have to touch it at all.

My finances have been a bit in an uproar in June. My ex husband is retiring and his finances are all out of whack, so child support has been a problem since May. I have faith that he will have all of the kinks worked out soon. He's never had an issue with child support in the last 5 years. It's tough to adjust from 20 years in the Armed Forces to civilian life, especially if you didn't plan very well!

Fortunately I can cover things with the family and home on my own, I just won't be saving very much. Thank goodness this is temporary, though I have no idea what the new child support amount will be, if it changes.

I started my new part-time job this week and met my first client. I think that it can be interesting work and I have no problem working 12 hours a week in the summer. I'm just concerned about the time commitment when the school year starts back up. However, I've got to keep my eyes on the prize: Invaluable experience in the field, that will set me apart from other educators. The extra cash won't hurt, either. I have my paycheck set up to automatically be deposited into my ING account, where I keep my long-term savings. Out of sight, out of mind.

We all ate at home this week, minus a trip for Italian Ice, delicious! This summer I see us spending lots of time in the kitchen, as my girls enjoy cooking. I "supervised" while my youngest made homemade tortillas and hummus. Then for another meal my girls worked together to make lasagna, I was impressed that they worked so well together. Usually during the school year there isn't much time for leisurely cooking, so this has been fun.

The water bill at my rental condo is $100 more than it usually is, and I don't know what that's about. I have to add the water agency to my list of phone calls to make...

Way back in March I applied for a part-time position to gain experience in a related field that I have been taking classes for. I never heard back from the company, and just assumed they blew me off. Well, today after work I got a call from the company. They asked me if I was still interested in a position, because they have secured more clients to serve.

In the summer it wouldn't be a problem- I can work part time, easy. During the school year, though, not so sure. I have plenty on my plate as it is with my family and my full time job. But this job can provide me with the supervisory hours I would need for a certification I want. So it would be a temporary sacrifice of free time, in return for some very valuable experience, that may lead to much higher paying career choices in the near future.

I accepted the job offer, because this certification is something I really want to earn. The extra money each month will be nice, too! We will just have to see how this pans out with my family.

The weekend was full of family, enjoying the water, and celebration. Exhausting! Luckily I have a short work week, looking forward to relaxing over the upcoming weekend.

I will be busy the rest of this week getting the condo rented. The tenant moves out today, so I will meet up with her to do the final walk-thru after work. And I have several people interested in looking at the condo tomorrow after work. So hopefully by the weekend I will have a new tenant. A little hectic, to be sure, but once the new tenant is in place things will relax a bit. This stuff gets easier with practice. Also I'm learning to just plunge ahead with the tasks that need to be taken care of, instead of avoiding and hoping the issues will just "disappear".

My savings is a bit stalled at the moment. With the child support delay while exhusband is in the process of retiring from the military, and a huge payment to my student loan that was not expected, I've actually had to take out of savings this month. I do get paid tomorrow, though, and I'm still expecting tuition reimbursement. If I don't get the reimbursement this paycheck I will be calling to check on it. I've got till the end of June, though, to make my goal, so I can still make it!

This time of the month gets a little dull, financially. I've put money in savings, paid the bills, now I have what is left over to work with until the next paycheck. Repeat.

I'm such an optimist, though. I'm just thankful my finances are "boring" at the moment. I've had the days when everything breaks at once and the savings account dwindles to zilch to cover it all. I'd much rather have boring finances!

I will, however, continue to seek out opportunities to improve my finances and learn more. Soon I will be looking for a new tenant. That is some income. I have applied for summer school. That is another opportunity. It's something.

I'm already looking forward to next weekend!

I did a 5K "extreme" mud race this weekend. Mud is much more painful than I thought! There were mud hills, walls to climb, tunnels, water pits,and barbed wire to crawl under. It was great, a lot of fun! I'm also proud of myself for accomplishing this, I'm in much better shape than I was in my 20s, even though I might have weighed a little less back then (I'm 35 now).

There will be some big meetings this week, as well as another field trip. Busy, busy! It makes the week go by fast. I plan on getting my exercise in through a zumba class this evening, followed by a dance class. I've done two sessions of yoga/stretching already this month towards my 555 goals.

On the financial front, I received a $14 check from selling books. This will go right into the cruise fund. I will also be taking $160 out of savings to pay for an appointment for SO and myself.

Hope everyone has a productive week!

I'm a teacher so I don't work in the summers. I'm considering this year advertising a drop in "camp" for a child or two. Not designed for every day, but for days when a parent has an appointment or just needs a break. The idea is that the child comes hangs out with my kids and me during the day while we do campy kinds of things- go to the pool, local attractions, crafts, etc. Nothing extreme like water parks, but not a day of sitting watching t.v., either.
What do you think, as parents, would this be an interesting idea?

Yesterday I registered for the certification classes I'll need in order to do my side business. I'm looking forward to getting back into the scene, I'm hoping it will be fun and profitable this summer! Next I'll need to get a business license so I am legit,and just save those receipts. The most expensive part of the business is the intial certification, but that will be good for three years. February and March will be buzzing with training, and then I can work on promoting myself. That's the scariest part for me!