It's that time of the year for dh's annual raise, which amounts to around $50/month. THEN he found out that our charges for health insurance will be going up by about the same amount.

So, essentially no raise. Inflation, gas prices going up, kids getting bigger and needing/eating more, . . . wages are the same.

Hmmm, time for me to get more creative OR get a job. Really - time for me to get on my knees and pray for wisdom. Thanks for letting me vent.

I'm tired of watching/worrying about every bite I eat. I'm tired of watching/worrying about every dime I spend. Grrh! LOL I guess I'm in a mood today. Call it pregnancy hormones! My poor family.

I want to eat what I want to eat and not worry so much about what the scale says. I have things I need to sell on eBay, yet am having the hardest time doing it.

How do you all get over times like this???

I love surprises - especially those that are monetary and in our favor. Today we received a health insurance rebate from dh's employer for the past year. We weren't sure when we'd be getting it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find nearly $500 in the mail today!

I'm anxious to get it in the bank so I can schedule another credit card pmt. This'll get our total debt under $5,000. Woo hoo!!

Our youngest dd turns 1 yr old next week and I wasn't really planning on getting her much for her birthday. I'm sorry if that seems mean, but they just don't remember at that age!

Anyway, at the end of the Used Book Sale last Friday, there was a lady who was *giving away* her leftover items that didn't sell. Among these items was a table of toys. Among the toys was a Little Tykes xylophone that I'd debated buying earlier in the day and a brand new cow puffalump. This one was really cool because my dh works on a dairy farm.

So, baby girl gets two birthday gifts after all and mom and dad don't spend a penny. It's so fun when stuff like that happens!

I was thinking about counting my no-spend days for the month of June, but I find it too complicated for my little brain. Do I count when dh puts gas in the truck? Or is a no-spend day just counting when I personally don't spend??

Anyway, yesterday ds and I stopped at WalMart (he wanted a sub from Subway) and I had a couple returns and nothing to buy. So, for the day I didn't spend, but received money back. Gotta love that!

OK, so it was a small shopping trip to the grocery store. However, I'm at home entering the amount spent into my checkbook and notice that the amount spent was $20.29 (including tax) and the amount saved was $17.96.

It helped that the only items purchased were on sale. The toilet paper was on sale for a price cheaper than WalMart charges. Also the peaches were 1/3 of their normal list price.

Regardless of how big or small the purchase, it is still way cool to see a savings like this!!

Well, the book sale was yesterday afternoon. I worked for the sale, so the evening was spent sorting the remaining books and cleaning up the room where the sale was held. We started the calculating at about 11 pm last night and finished at 5 am. Long night!

Now for the exciting part: My sales totaled $732.95!! More than my total goal for all book selling. This brings my grand total (so far) to $816.93. I'm so excited to send the payment to our last remaining credit card!

I do have some books left and will continue to sell them via eBay, perhaps half.com, and on an email list I'm on. Maybe I'll see my DREAM amount of $1,000 total yet!

I know some of you are thinking, "Duh!" But as I was walking my 2 miles today, I was thinking about how much I don't like to work at exercising. I'd like to exercise, get fit and then never have to exercise again. Actually, I'd like to exercise for 1 week and have it work for me for the rest of my life.

Financially speaking, I'd just like the debt to be gone *poof* (like I'd want the excess weight to be gone), but it doesn't work that way.

It takes WORK - daily - to chip away at the debt. It takes WORK - daily - to chip away at the extra pounds. The reward will all be worth it and will take a little work to maintain, but the REALLY HARD WORK is now.

A year ago we purchased a cool gift certificate deal for a pizza place near here. "Buy a $25 gift certificate, get one free." We bought 2 and rec'd 2 more. We had only used 2 of them in the last year and had 2 left to use.

Just this morning dh thought maybe it would be good to use them today as a treat for us all. We found them and they expired YESTERDAY!!!

Just for kicks we called the restaurant and asked if they would honor it 1 day late. We were so thrilled when they said they would even give us to the end of the month!

Not sure if I could have lived with myself if we'd have "lost" $50 because of missing the deadline by 1 day.

Blessings to Fox's Pizza Den for their generosity! And you can believe that I'll be watching those expiration dates more closely . . .

I've never actually kept track of my "no-spend" days before, but am thinking about doing it in June.

I'm curious how many "no-spend" days other people end up with at the end of the month. This'll help me set some kind of a goal for the month.

Thanks for sharing!

I went to my cousin's wedding at Mackinac Island on Mother's Day weekend (with 2 friends) and had all the $$ that I needed for the trip without having to dip into our regular budget. Cool!

I saved coins (and sometimes dollar bills) in an old food jar. I sold a few things on eBay. I redeemed a grocery rebate on my debit card. I took advantage of the PayPal bonus that was offered in April(?). And then to top it off, my sweet mother-in-law sent me a check toward the trip.

This money paid for 2 nights in the hotel (we didn't stay on the island), gas to get there and back and food (we also brought a lot of food and there was a breakfast at the hotel). The money that my mil sent allowed me to have enough to take a carriage tour of the island and to bring fudge home for the family.

All in all we had such a fun time! We relaxed, looked at shops and we were able to sleep so well without little ones. However, I was very ready to get home.

Now to start saving for next year's homeschooling purchases . . .

This might seem like a silly question to some, but I really do fight feelings of guilt when spending money on what I would consider non-necessities.

Pause for definition of Necessity: Something necessary to sustain life. This would include food, shelter, transportation for dh to get to work. All other items (in my book) are luxuries, to varying degrees.

A little history - I was raised in a home where my mom gave me perms and haircuts until I left home. I cut my dh's and the boys' hair. For all other haircuts, we go to the local SuperCuts training center when they are offering FREE haircuts.

Back to this haircut - It had been about 3 months or more since I'd had a cut. I trim my bangs to lengthen the time before I need another cut. However, last week I realized that it was definitely time, especially before the wedding. The free cuts were not being offered and I had a coupon for a $12 cut. With the tip it was $14. I've felt somewhat guilty ever since.

Tell me, am I crazy? Should I feel guilty and should I have waited until the free cuts were being offered?? Or should I just take it in stride and realize that it's one of those "non-necessary" expenses that will crop up from time to time???

Some of us traveled 5 hours to my cousin's wedding this past weekend. My uncle rode with us and filled our gas tank on the way. This may not seem significant to some, but the gas tank is large in our 15-passenger van. The total cost for the fill-up was over $88.

This was a huge blessing and I thought that we'd be able to apply more $$ to debt. However, there were car issues with the ones that didn't go to the wedding and we ended up needing a new car battery for $70.

Gain a little, lose a little. Do the best you can and hope and pray that you don't go backwards!

That's how we're viewing our current finances: Be responsible with spending, budgeting, paying debt and saving, but recognize that there is only so much that we can control.

I just love these money-saving blogs! Glad to join this community.

We're working at getting our last credit card paid off. I was just able to transfer two cards to one 0% card until mid-2008. However, the debt needs to be gone by December, as we're possibly moving to China in early 2008.

Plus, we are due to have a baby in August and need to pay the insurance co-pays for him/her.

I'm looking for this to be a place to 1) share how we're doing, 2) keep accountable for our spending, and 3) get feedback and ideas to do better from other thrifty friends!

Thanks!