robex's Personal Finance Blog

I was doing my banking over the phone today and realized that Dh was paid an extra payment of just over $700. I talked to the bank representative who confirmed it was an authorized payment from Dh's work. Dh called his accounting department and left a message asking for an explanation but no one called back. I can't imagine why he's being paid extra, so we pretty much just assumed it was an error on their part. But we can always hope that there's a good reason for an extra dollop! My fingers are crossed that it's supposed to be there and we get to keep it...

Dh thinks his car might be on it's last legs (err...wheels). It's a 1990 Honda Civic with 445000 Km on it. I don't know if we'll buy another new-to-us Honda or try and get by with one vehicle--my 1996 in perfect condition Dodge Caravan. The same van I keep clean as a whistle, unlike Dh's locker that he drives around in! Oh, I would love to say that we'll once again be a one vehicle family! I walked way more when we had to share a car...but I love the freedom of having my very own van! We'll wait until the current Honda is buried, and then decide. I can't stand the thought of our hard earned savings account being emptied for a gas guzzling machine.

We spent $150.00 at the liquor store for all our over the holidays alcohol. I don't even drink, but our guests do and we always have a big open house. Dh says that's actually pretty cheap! We then took ds5 out for a Japanese buffet. We all love sushi and pigged out...spent $25.00 there. I put $10.00 into the fund at work to collect money for one of three families that we've adopted for Christmas to provide them with something of a special day...dinner, gifts, and a stocked food cupboard...I'll add more money into the envelope tomorrow too. I'm ashamed to say that I did not do one little thing to save money today...well, I did save the extra $700.00 in our bank account!!!

Dh answered a survey over the phone last week. Don't ask me why because I flat out refuse to answer anything over the phone, but that's another story...Anyways, yesterday we got a phone call from the survey company telling Dh that he'd won a kitchen accessory prize and someone would bring it by between 6:00-7:00pm. Dh said that would be fine. I told him he's nuts. Just before 6:00, we get a phone call from the company saying that someone would be there shortly with our 'prize' and they were going to give us a short presentation on an air filter. Dh said o.k. I told him he's insane. So the guy comes, sits in my house for two hours, demonstrates a vacuum/air filter system, and then proceeds to tell us the cost. Are you sitting down? A WHOPPING $2785.00...for a VACUUM...I immediately said, 'Absolutely not. Will not happen. No way, no how.' Oh, the price dropped to half after that, we don't have to put any money down, we can have little monthly payments, blah, blah, blah...By the end, the kids were starving because they hadn't had dinner, I left the room in frustration, and Dh basically told the guy enough was enough...Anyways, we all had a good laugh while we were eating dinner, and I think Dh is probably convinced to not answer anything over the phone ever again.

Ha! Spent today doing just that...diddly squat! The kids all have an early dismissal because of report cards and I have parent/teacher interviews starting at 2:00 this afternoon. I'm very curious as to what the teacher is going to say about ds11...he's smart but knows it and takes it for granted...not studying and getting a B is fine in his opinion. Dd9 is the opposite...she will only settle for an A and she works for them. Both their report cards were really good, but it's always interesting to me to hear what the teacher's perspective on my kids is! They are my favourite subject so if someone is willing to talk about them for 20 minutes straight, I'm in like flint.

So far I haven't spent anything today...didn't even go get toilet paper. I really do have to do that.

Saved money today by:
1) Doing nothing.
2) Having leftovers for lunch and making dh enjoy them with me!
3) Was given some leftover frozen cookie dough from our fundraiser because when I went to the fundraising company to straighten out a mix-up on our part, they wouldn't let me pay for the extra dough and just gave it to me because we 'had done a great job and made them money, too'! Very nice...sometimes there are monetary perks to all this volunteer work!

Yep! Ds's chit chat got to Dh and he got KFC for dinner. I was at the school doing a fundraiser but they bought me dinner and I had it when I got home. I don't mind doing the fundraising stuff for the school but there's always one parent that's unappreciative. There was one tonight that I had to phone 3 times to come pick up her frozen dough and she finally showed up 45 minutes late and told me this wasn't a convenient time for her because she doesn't get home from work until 6:00...jeepers! I worked all day and then spent 3 hours organizing the fundraising orders--I wanted to tell her that it wasn't convenient for me to wait for her for 45 minutes, but I bit my tongue!

Took ds11 to the orthodontist today. He doesn't need braces until probably April. They're still waiting for two of his baby teeth to fall out. That puts that payment off for a little while!

I didn't spend any money again today. I don't work tomorrow, so I'm sure at some point I'll be hitting the grocery store. I know for sure that I need to pick up toilet paper... not a good thing to run out of!

I went to work today while the kids were at school, and my Dh came and surprised me with a visit. It was nice to see him in the middle of the day. We had lunch together in my office...
We got the Christmas tree up and decorated this afternoon. It looks nice, but I think after Christmas we'll be getting a new fake tree. The tree we have now is about 14 years old and looks small in our vaulted ceiling livingroom!

We're having chicken and noodles for dinner. Ds5 is begging for KFC popcorn chicken, but I don't think so...oops, he's off working on Dh right now! Maybe tomorrow--it's Twoonie Tuesday!

Two of the other managers stayed for the parties last night, so I left at 8:00pm. It was so nice. The new manager who was hired to take care of that department told me that I'm not supposed to be staying anymore and is, in fact, putting a posting out to hire two new people to do the part of my job that is extremely time consuming. I have too many new additions to my job this year and am unable to keep up with everything that I used to do. If this all goes through the way she seems to think it will, then I will be a very happy worker. This may mean that next year I quite possibly could be working shifts that end when my kids get out of school for the day...ooohhh...I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but having weekends off would be unbelievable!

Took the kids to the Christmas party this afternoon. It was fun. Lots of kids, noise, disorganization and Santa all rolled into one fun-filled event.

I didn't spend any money today or yesterday, but I can't think of anything that I did to actually save money. I ate at work from the buffet and don't pay for that, but that wasn't a planned thing, I just happened to be hungry at the right time!

I woke up with a really sore throat and I am sooo tired...I'll try to have a nap before going to work this afternoon. I went grocery shopping and bought some Cepacol for my throat. It usually helps calm things down. We're pretty busy tonight at work--have a few parties to organize. Tomorrow my brother and nephews, Dad and Stepmom are all coming for breakfast before I have to go to work at 9:30. Work tomorrow may be a double shift because we have two private parties in the afternoon and none of the managers can make a decision about who is going to stay to the end. Since it was booked through my department I'm thinking I may be staying. This will really suck, since they'll go until after midnight and I have to work Sunday as well. I'm leaving at 3:00 on Sunday to take the kids to the Company's Children's Christmas Party.

On the money front, the bad news is that dh's benefits are not what we thought them to be so we're going to just stick with my plan because it's cheaper than his. He will be putting into his pension plan which is matched 100% by his employer, so that's really good. If we find it too tight financially then we'll lower our RRSP automatic payments that we have with Investor's Group. The good news is that Dh won $100 on a football pool. Actually, this doesn't really matter to me because it's his money, although he borrowed the money from me to pay for the pool squares...hmmm....who's money is it then? Just kidding!!!

Christmas shopping is coming along nicely. I'm going slow, being semi-organized, although I am really stuck on what to get my Dad and Stepmom...maybe tomorrow I'll be able to fish for ideas! I love them lots and want to get them something special, not buy just for the sake of buying!

Yesterday ds5 told Dh that he "will never be a Grandpa because he doesn't have old man hands!". You gotta wonder what goes on in their little minds...

Ds11 was fine after his immunizations, although two kids threw up and three fainted. Of course, after having the shot, I was informed by my sweet, darling boy that there was no way he would be able to do his paper route because his arm hurt sooooo much...I nixed that thought, but I did play nice and go help him finish the last half. I didn't think he was suffering too much since I knew that he'd got in trouble for throwing snowballs at school at lunch time. Immunizations were at 9:30am.

We spent 150.00 on groceries yesterday. This is counting towards December's groceries, though, because I decided not to do it today so I could have a cleaning day. We baked chocolate chip cookies, cleaned three bathrooms, changed bed linens and did 4 loads of laundry. No plans for tonight--love it!

We did well this month with our money. We spent less than what was budgeted, and earned more than what was expected, reached our goal of saving $5000 this year, and had a wonderful four day mini vacation! Let's hope December goes as well. Each month I put $100.00 into a special Christmas account. I have started to shop, will be using cash only, and, hopefully come January, will have no unexpected credit card bills. For the last 3 years, this plan has worked well. When I shop at Superstore and pay using my debit card or use my Superstore Mastercard I collect points that are good for Superstore groceries. I currently have close to $100.00 saved up on this system and use those every December to buy all the junk food, snack food and appetizers that we don't normally buy at any time other than Christmas season when so much company comes.

Ds11 is having his MMR immunizations today. Both my boys have bad reactions to immunizations. Ds11 had seizures as a baby due to high fevers from his, and ds5 had two immunizations and both times was taken to emergency after because his fevers went so high that he was lethargic. Ds5 hasn't had any immunizations since he was 2. Ds11 is now pumped full of tylenol and I asked his teacher to call me immediately if he feels hot. He'll probably be exhausted because of the medication, but I'd like to avoid the fever route with him! I'm sitting on pins and needles waiting to make sure that he's okay. I have to go pick up ds5 at 11:15 from kindergarten, and would love to check on ds11, but don't want to embarass him in front of his class. Eleven year olds seem to embarrass fairly easily...mmm, this may work to my advantage one day! Does anyone remember the 'Roseanne' show where she walks the kids to school dressed as a hillbilly with her teeth blacked out?

We're going to get some groceries later today. We are completely out of kitty litter...a must have!

We have snow!!! Since we live in Canada, you may think this is a regular occurence, but in the lower mainland we only get snow a few times a year, and because it rains so much here, it doesn't last very long. In fact, it looks like it will all be gone by tomorrow. Our kids don't even have snowboots because there's really no point. Now rain boots we have!

I spent the day in a customer service training seminar. It was informative but more of just a reminder from all the other ones that I've done...was served a lovely lunch with it, though, and I drove with two friends from work whom I really enjoy, so we had a lot of laughs in the hour and a half commute.

I'm going shopping with my brother tomorrow...looking forward to spending some time with him. I have lots of laundry to put away and some groceries to buy, too, but I have two days off in a row this week--very rare occurence.

Things I did to save money today:
1) Gave the kids leftover pizza for lunch--it was free from a meeting yesterday.
2) Had beef dip for dinner made from leftover roast last night.
3) Brought breakfast to work with me and enjoyed a free lunch.

Dh and my brother went to Grey Cup today so I woke up at 9:00am (I worked until 1:30) to five kids in the house. Thankfully, my mom came over at noon and took my nephews home with her. Ds is in a really bad mood, due to 1)Being 11 years old
2)Having to spend the bulk of his day rewriting his homework assignment from yesterday because it wasn't done properly, and
3) Being allowed to have sleepovers two nights in a row even though we have a rule that the kids are only permitted to go on one sleepover each weekend. That decision was made by my dh because I was at work yesterday...now he's exhausted and dh is not home to deal with small grumpy people. You may think, "lucky him!', but don't because when he does get home, he'll get to deal with taller grumpy people!

Today was a no spend day. We saved money by eating leftovers and staying in, curled up with a book, a t.v., and a cup of tea. I'm on my fourth load of laundry, the kitchen is tidied, and that's about as far as I've got today...or am planning on getting. Everyone will be hitting the sheets early tonight!

Ds11 has an assignment due on Monday...was given 10 days to do it, and pretty much completed it, except for the part where he's actually supposed to use a certain book and not the internet for information. Of course, when he told me this, I whipped him over to the library and the book is not there. So, we went to the library in the next town about 20 minutes away, and, being a good parent, I felt the need to natter at him the whole way about being more organized etc., and then the book wasn't there either. The librarian, however, was extremely helpful and helped us find a way to actually download the part he needed off the computer. When we left the library I asked him what he had learned from all this and he answered "The internet is our friend." I don't know how I raised such a smartass kid...must be from dh! LOL!

Dh is finally feeling better. He took ds5 and dd9 out for a while today to a Fall Festival. I have to work at 3:00, so will be starting to get ready soon. I have lost 4 pounds this week by following the South Beach Diet. I was fine until today when I got a craving for nacho chips. I haven't given in yet, and hopefully the craving will go away soon. I'd really like to make it through the first two weeks, and then maintain the weight. I don't want to lose more than 10 pounds.

Today was a no spend day. Yesterday dh got a bonus cheque of 700 dollars from his summer job because they realized that they had underpaid him! Unexpected and very appreciated. We have reached our $5000.00 goal for this year, and are slightly over, but will be paying the orthodontist 1500.00 in January, so as soon as I can get it to $6500.00 I will be one happy camper...

and I'm still taking care of him! This flu is not fun. At least ds5 is feeling better and finally had a good sleep last night, which means that I had a good sleep last night!

Today is a no spend day. We went to gymnastics and came home. Not much interesting going on around here today. I'll be going to work around 3:00, so maybe something exciting will happen there...not likely on a Thursday night, however.

Things I did today to save money:
1) Used all the leftovers in the fridge and made a chicken, rice, vegetable soup for dinner.
2) Didn't buy anything from the snack machine at the gym--this is actually because I'm trying to lose weight, not because I was trying to save money. The kid behind me bought a bag of Hickory Sticks, and they smelled great!
3) Paid all the bills on time so I wouldn't have any late charges...I know--I'm really fishing for ideas!

and home for the day. He was supposed to have a 12 hour workshop today, but he can't go...coughing, fever, etc. Ds5 was up most of the night coughing again. He seems fine during the day, and then can't sleep at night. He's sleeping right now, though. I'm going to take the other kids to school and then I'll come home and clean up the kitchen and bathrooms, do laundry, and hopefully catch a nap. Nothing too interesting happening around here today.

We seem to have an abundance of money around here lately, and I think it has to do with our envelope system... I'm really liking knowing how much I have for the month and paying for everything in cash. It was nice doing some Christmas shopping, having a big bill, and when the clerk asked,"Credit card or debit?" I got to answer,"No. Cash only."! Love it!

Oh, Man! Our work contracted out professional decorators to come and set up Christmas trees! This is absolutely hysterical to me. I can't imagine what the cost was for this. Anyways, I spent the bulk of my work time yesterday and today setting up the other Christmas arrangements--reindeer, stars, etc. It looks quite beautiful, but, really, how hard is it to decorate a tree?

Ds5 is sick with croup. He sounds like a seal and no one in the house is getting much sleep. Hopefully tonight will be better. I'd feel sorrier for the little guy but he's soooo sick that he spent most of yesterday rearranging every pillow and sofa cushion in the house into a pile at the bottom of the stairs and then diving down into his arrangement. Sick? I think not!

Yesterday was a no spend day. Today I spent almost 50 dollars on groceries. We had no vegetables or fruit left in the house, and I wanted some sliced turkey and cheese for lunches. I'm trying to lose the 10 pounds I've been carrying around for the last year. I lose weight fairly quickly, luckily, but this 10 seems to really like me. My pants are feeling tight and I hate that! So, if I have all the stuff that's healthy for me close by, then I'll go for it. Basically, I like to eat.

What a great movie! The kids all loved it and it was fun to be in a theatre full of people that you know. I debated throwing popcorn at one of the managers, but thought that might lead to an all out war, and then I would have felt really bad for the guy who has to clean up the theatre.

After the movie we came home and pretty much relaxed for the day. I did scrub the kitchen but that was only because I took the 'Start Late, Finish Rich' cd set out of the library and I was listening to it while I cleaned. My brother came over with his sons and watched football all day with dh. The kids played, made their usual huge mess, and were really loud. I hid out in my room and watched HGTV, and folded laundry. Apparently, I accomplish a lot when I listen to CDs. I may have to borrow more...

We had roasted chicken for dinner with noodles, and carrots--dd9's favourite. Kids are bathed, lunches are made, backpacks are ready, and clothes are laid out for tomorrow. I will iron my clothes for work, and we are set for Monday!!

Today was a no spend day. Movie and snacks were free, and everything else for our afternoon company was already in the house. I don't usually buy special for my brother, since his coming over is a regular occasion--a few times a week because they live so close...doesn't even knock anymore before walking on in!

Had a great cleaning day today. I cleaned all three bathrooms, vacuumed the whole house, thoroughly swept, did 3 loads of laundry and tidied the boys room. Tomorrow I plan on cleaning up the yard, washing my van, and doing the kitchen and bathroom floors.

I had a good night at work. I spent about 2 hours in the restaurant, and went down to my office for the rest of the shift to catch up on some work. The technician came today and finally installed the program into my new computer that I've been waiting for 3 months for. Yippee--more work for me--happy dance!

Things I did to save money today:
1) Let my manager buy me dinner.
2) Fed my family leftovers for their dinner.
3) Stayed away from stores, so it was a no spend day for me!

I'm still in my pajamas because the older kids walk to school with friends on Thursday and Friday. I only go with them on days when ds5 has school. I''m going to clean the bathrooms, wash the kitchen floor, and take ds to gymnastics. We'll be home by 12:00, have lunch, read some books, and then I'll get ready for work. Dh has a meeting this morning but he'll be back by 3:00 when I leave. Leftovers for dinner.

My work won a fundraising contest. It was to raise money for children with health problems, and we went up against other companies in the lower mainland. We had a bake sale, car wash etc. and raised over 10,000 dollars. Because we won, we were given free movies, complete with snacks, at a local theatre for Sunday morning to go see the new Harry Potter movie. It's going to be fun because the only people in the theatre will be from my work...and their spouses and kids. We would have gone to see the movie anyway, now we don't have to wait for it to come to the cheap theatre and it's FREE!!!

It's paper route day! Yep, grumpy ds11 (who would like to quit his part of the route but isn't allowed according to very mean parents) will be extra grumpy when he finds out that his special helper sister won't be helping him all week. She's been coerced into doing her cousin's route...same neighbourhood, more papers...cousin is in Disneyland. Should be prime time at our house in about 15 minutes when everyone gets home from school. According to ds he hates Fridays now. Why, you may ask, would that be? Well, his very mean parents won't let him quit his paper route AND he has to deliver papers on Friday. What kind of a weekend is it when you can't even relax on Friday after school? Well, I don't know what kind of a weekend it is, but I do know that some children are learning all about responsibility...life is very, very hard when one belongs to sarcastic parents who make their children actually WORK for their spending money...SHOCKERS!

Ds5 and I had a very lazy day, lounging, reading, watching t.v. and eating junk. Not much to say on that.

Dh and I went out and did some Xmas shopping together yesterday. It was so nice because usually I do it all and I do it alone. Dh has always worked full time and extra long hours around Christmas. That's the way social service agencies have to run. Since he got his new job we have so much more free time together. We went for lunch, got a smoking (not literally!) deal on a gift for ds, and picked up some small things.

Our electric bill is on a monthly plan, and we were under 150 dollars from last year. Yay for us! We're taking the 150 bucks and buying things that will save more electricity over the year. Last year we had 50 dollars and I bought the energy saving lightbulbs and a second drying rack. Yesterday I spent 25.00 on new heating duct covers that we will be able to close if no one is using the room and for the ducts beside the doors. I will also be buying a low flow shower head for the ensuite. Does anyone have any other ideas? I'll have to think about it.

Today was a no spend day. We're having roast beef, potatoes, and yorkshire pudding for dinner. I don't think we actually did anything special today to save money, though. I just finished reading The Weekend Millionaire Mindset by Mike Summey and Roger Dawson. It's a good read and I picked up some great ideas from it.

Dh is owed money for using his car for work. When he added it all up last night, because he wasn't using a company vehicle, he is being paid the maximum amount of $150 dollars for each of the last three months! Our gasoline bills don't even equal that for both our vehicles. So that's $450.00 going into our emergency account...woo-hoo!

As reported in another entry on our moldy macaroni and cheese, I received our rebate yesterday. It is good for one Kraft product up to $3.33--that's an expensive box of orange stuff!
We bought two gifts for the kids' friends parties and spent $24.00. That was fine because I took it out of our gift envelope for the month and we still have $11.00 in there for November. I only have $100.00 left in our grocery envelope...hopefully, we'll make it! I relaxed pretty much all day today, lounged around, picked up a few groceries, and will be getting ready for work soon. Big manager meetings going on there--may or may not pertain to my job. Frustration is hitting me hard and I'm keeping my eyes open for something elsewhere.

Tomorrow we're going to my brother's for dinner. He's making spaghetti, we're bringing the garlic bread! Easy peasy...

We got back today from our little holiday. We had a wonderful time and I feel very relaxed and tired. The kids were great and we did tons of sightseeing and touristy things. We also spent a fair bit of money, but no more than what I had planned on. We were pretty dead on...the biggest expense was food. We ate out at some really nice restaurants.

I work all weekend. Friday is Rememberance Day, which in B.C. is a civic holiday, so just about everything is shut down, but not my place of employment...the kids and Dh will go to the services near where I work, and then maybe come and visit me for a bit. Luckily I don't have to work past dinnertime, so it will be an early Friday night for me and that is not something that happens very often!

Other than that we have no major plans coming up...the two youngest kids each have a party to attend this weekend, so I'll have to go out and get gifts for these tomorrow.

Oh, happy, happy, happy...a new library opened two blocks away from our house. We are a family of big time readers (excluding dh) and we go to the library about every two weeks, and take out about twenty books for me, ds11, dd9, and ds5. We walked in there today and it just smelled new! All the books are new and it was so cool! Now that we have a library so close, maybe we won't have so many overdue books...

Dh went to make a box of Kraft dinner the other day and it was moldy! Yeppers, the macaroni was actually green. It was totally disgusting--has anyone ever heard of this? I emailed the company and received a nice email back apologizing and saying that they would reimburse us through first class mail and we should receive a rebate within two weeks. I'll keep you posted on this...shockers!

Today was a no spend day. I think that makes three for this month...hmmm, I tried so hard last month to have 14 no spend days and failed miserably. This month I decide not to set an amount, and I'm doing so well...could be I'm just jinxing myself.

Things I did to save money today:
1) Went to the library.
2) Ate off the buffet at work--no charge.
3) Spent the morning cleaning the house and helping the kids do their paper route.
It was a productive and fun day, except for the work part. Same old, same old...

I was treated to lunch today by my best friend. We brought ds5 with us--he loves my friend and was so good in the restaurant. After lunch we went to dd9's class to help with a clay project. I had to be at work by 3:00, so we rushed home, I got changed and left.

Work was fine. We have new managers who are not sure of their place yet, or what they should be doing staffwise. I went down to my office to do some work, but was called on the radio twice within five minutes of being there, so I just went back up to the restaurant and stayed there. After we shut down, the manager from another department took me out for dinner. I was expecting to pay for myself, but he signed the register receipt and told me he was happy to treat me because I'd helped him out a lot lately. So, with two meals out I had a no spend day.

Things I did to save money today:
1) Brought an orange for a snack to ds's gymnastics class instead of buying something from the vending machine.
2) Returned a sweater that I bought without seeing the black spot on the front of it.
3) Froze all the leftover cranberries that were given to me (about 8 cups), to use in baking as needed.

I think that's it. We should do fine this month, and be able to stay within our budget. I used the same envelope amount as last month, and will try not to combine them all at the end of the month. We will be spending money when we go away next week, but I'm taking it out of savings, and I am NOT going to feel guilty about enjoying ourselves and will NOT count every penny spent...okay, I will count every penny spent but I will try very hard to not feel guilty about it!

After I dropped the kids off at school, I went to WalMart. There was a big sale there on garden supplies so I bought Dh's Father's Day gift, and 3 end of the year teacher gifts, as well as Mother's Day gifts for my Mom and stepmom and two Christmas gifts for the kids. I also purchased a 50% off box of 70 mini Halloween chocolate bars. I'll keep those at work for little munchie times...not that I need them! Altogether I spent just under 60 dollars. Then I went to Superstore for fruit and vegies and some other items that I couldn't find at Costco yesterday. I bought 3 Christmas gifts, 2 sweaters for me for work, and 4 containers of the hair mousse that I like (with a bonus deep conditioner attached to each bottle) and altogether it came to 120.00. My Christmas shopping is coming along nicely. I save all my Superstore points until December and then use them towards a big Christmas shop for our Boxing Day Open House. It's up to around 100.00, so that's pretty good.
I put in some laundry, tidied the kitchen, and loaded and started the dishwasher. I'm going to start dinner, finish the laundry, and get my clothes ready for work. Dd has an orthodontist appointment at 2:00, and I start work about 3:00 today, so it's going to be a bit of a rush. I suppose I'd better detach myself from the computer and get moving...

Things I did today to save money:
1) Bought gift items on sale
2) Ate leftovers for lunch
3) Washed clothes using homemade laundry detergent
4) Pre-planned great dinner for family...using crock pot!
5) Won't buy dinner at work, I'll eat when I get home.

Well, the start of a new month means the start of a new budget! Yay! We did overspend a bit in October, nothing too terrible, but I always enjoy the challenge of a new month...we'll pretty much keep things the same as last month, including the envelopes, although on October 30th I emptied all the remaining money, combined it equaled 20.00, and we went to the pumpkin patch. So now we'll be starting over fresh! Today after work, I took the 3 kids and we did our big once a month Costco Shop which cost 178.00, but pretty much supplies all our dinners for the month. I think I had items for 5 dinners left over from October, and we're going away for 4 days next week, so we should have plenty. Dh is happy because he gets his 200 bucks in spending money today, and last month he overspent by about 100!!!! He kept 'borrowing' and saying that I could take it off November's money...if I do that he'll be 'borrowing' from December, so what's the point? We'll see how he manages this month. Sometimes, he's worse than the kids, and I told him last month I'm not his Mom and, as wonderful a Mom as she is, I don't want to be her!

Work went better the last few days. I work 6 days this week, because I'm trying to make sure that I'm ahead when I take 3 off next week...oh, well, hopefully things will be slowing down soon. We'll see.

I am so tired. I started work at 6:45am and finished at 12:45am. I'm too tired to even add up how many hours that is. O.K...it's 18. Yuck! My overtime is going to be huge again. I spoke to my boss about changing some of the workload, and I've been promised that things will change, although not everything that I asked for. Some compromise on both our parts will be happening. I'm looking forward to having tomorrow off. I may take Monday as well, but I'll see how I feel. Right now, the idea of two days off in a row sounds pretty darn great.

I'm glad that a new month is coming. I have to add up our budget for October, and I know we spent more that I'd planned, but we also made more than I'd planned. Something went into savings, but I'm not sure how much. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to work out how much. Right now I am so tired I can't even think straight!

Well, the kids have done it again! I have been volunteered for classroom baking duties. Halloween is coming and the kids need witches' finger cookies for their classes for Monday. Normally this isn't a problem, except that I work today, tomorrow (all day--7:00am until 1:00am), and we've made plans with friends for Sunday to go out for lunch and to the pumpkin patch. Somewhere in there I still need to get costumes organized, as well as all the other normal household cleaning, organizing etc. The witches' fingers look great, but are fairly time consuming. On top of that, one of my customers gave me a gigantic bag of fresh cranberries, and I need to do something with them, too. I have some drying in the dehydrator (like craisins) and I'll freeze some. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some cranberry sauce as well. I'll give half of whatever I make to the gentleman who brought me all the cranberries. He's a widower in his 80's--a real sweetheart.

Work last night was ridiculous. The tech guy came in with a brand new computer for me (it's really, really nice!) but they forgot to install the program I need. I've only been waiting for 3 months. My boss at head office is getting frustrated because the work I was hired to do has yet to be started. I have enough to do with everything else going on, so it's not like I'm not busy, but I'm not taking the blame in all this because since August I've been given 3 computers, one of which didn't work, and none that had the program in it that I need. I work with a bunch of managers who think their job is to 'manage' which apparently means to sit in an office and tell everyone what to do and then complain when it's not done the way they'd like. I think I'm reaching the point where I either have to quit caring so deeply about what's going on in my department, or I'll have to leave. I can't find a middle ground and I'm very sad about it. Yesterday, one of the managers stopped by my office to ask me if I was going up to the main restaurant. I told him that I was and he asked me to pass on a message from another manager to the wait staff. He had just walked through the restaurant, saw something he wasn't happy with, phoned this manager and asked him to phone me and get me to deal with it! How stupid is that? Frustrating...

Barbara,
I, too, would love a maid! Whenever anyone asks me what I want for a gift (birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, whatever), I always answer, "A maid." Guess what? I'm still waaaaaiiiitttting! When my friend had her first baby, instead of little baby clothes, her mom got her a cleaning service that came every two weeks for 3 months...I did everything but beg for that gift when I had my second baby...and my third...and I'm still WAITING! I can't justify spending the money myself but if my darling, sweet, wonderful DH should ever happen to come across this entry, well, Sweetie, I'm STILL WAITING!!!!!!!!

O.K., I feel better now. Truly, I do. My house may be messy, but I feel better.

So, my boss and I worked for 10 hours today and caught up on everything that was on the to do list. Well, not quite everything. I had scheduled her nervous breakdown for 11:00am (right before lunch), but we decided to forgo it for the day because we were too busy. We re-scheduled it for December 4.

I had a nice lunch with the General Manager and about 10 other people. All of us had birthdays in September. It was fun and the food was good. We went to a local pub. God forbid we eat lunch at one of the 7 restaurants available where we all work!

I'm planning a 3 night getaway for us in November. The kids were in school for 4 weeks, then the teachers went on strike for 2.5 weeks, now the kids are back in school for 9 days, and then they get a week off. Four weeks after that, they get a 2 week Winter Break...life is sooo hard. Anyways, I'm planning a little getaway for us during their November week off because we didn't go away in the summer and we always have gone somewhere. I emailed a whole whack of bed and breakfast places tonight so I hope to get some feedback tomorrow. I have the whole day off, and I can't wait. I plan on doing some baking and some house cleaning. Why? Because I don't HAVE A MAID!!!!!!

Well, we didn't go to the pumpkin patch today--it was too rainy! Ds11 had gone to a sleepover party last night so I went to pick him up at 11:00 while Dh and dd9 did her paper route. Then she went down to her cousin's to play and I watched a marathon Coronation Street. Dh went to visit his Dad with his siblings and I played two board games with ds5 and then went grocery shopping. I am officially over in my budget this month, and we're having KFC for dinner because I promised the kids we could have it for dinner theatre tonight--Beetlejuice is on t.v. I haven't seen that movie in years, but I really like it and I'm sure the kids are going to enjoy it. They're a little disappointed because it looks like they'll be going to be back in school tomorrow. The tears are rolling down my face...tears of joy!

I'll be turning in early tonight for sure. I really need to catch up on some sleep after the past three days!

I had a customer come in today and announced that he was changing my boss's name to Thelma and mine to Louise, so all night whenever we needed oneanother we called "Thelma" or "Louise" over our radios. By the end of the night I had staff from all over the building asking who Thelma and Louise are. We had a great laugh...the same customer came by later in the evening and brought us these lava chocolate cupcakes. I can't wait to eat mine tomorrow.

Things went much better staffwise at work tonight, however I did have to deal with an extremely angry customer. He was so mad that by the time I got to him I had to tell him that I wasn't going to speak to him while he was yelling and he was 'to remove his finger from in front of my face this instant'! HOLY COW!!! He was still mad by the end of our conversation but at least calm and, I think, understood that I agreed with him and felt for his situation...never ending fun.

Yesterday was no spend day number 6 this month. I'm nowhere near my 14 days I had hoped for but I'll keep trying and see how far I get. I bought my boss and I dinner tonight because I really wanted a steak sandwich...and I enjoyed every bite of it! Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to the pumpkin patch. I have a free family pass which includes a pumpkin, but I'll have to buy at least one more, if not two, and probably some treat food there. The pass includes the entrance fee, hay ride, and petting zoo. I'm sure that it will be quite fun--the kids love it!

I'm tired and going to bed now. The teachers may be back at work on Monday--parents all across B.C. have their fingers crossed....