The Family Budget

My New Year's Resolution, if I were to call it as such, was to get a better grip on our family's finances and bring us to a comfortable financial position. After 5-1/2 years of marriage (read: sharing my hard-earned money with someone else), I finally started an official budget for the family. I've been planning to do it for months, but I finally put my foot down, bit my lip and said "This is the month!"

My husband jumped on board. Oh, alright, he didn't jump but he wasn't kicking and screaming, which is a good sign. I must add, I am the shopper in the family, but my husband takes the cake when it comes to accumulating receipts for snacks, pop, junk food. While I haven't bought anything in months, he routinely charges ridiculous amounts on his credit card.

So it's now mid-February and we're not quite over the hump yet. We've got a Vegas trip we're saving up for, end of March, so a lot of our extra funds are going there. After this month, hopefully we'll have a better idea of how to really allocate our hard-earned money, when there are no credit card bills to pay.

The only things charged to the Visa are preauthorized bills. I did charge a small number of items, such as some gas purchases, but it really works out well if I pay that amount immediately back onto my Visa. When I look back at my online statement, these amounts cancel each other out and it's like have a debit card rolled into your Visa. For the first time, hubby has a zero balance on his Visa statement, mine has a credit rolling over for the 2nd month (Dividend dollars...looking online for something to spend), and our family Visa has just preauths of under $300.

Life is looking good again.

Tenants

Life's been busy, and to top it all off, we need new tenants by February 1st.

Our previous tenant left after 13 months. Nice enough guy, a little nerdy around the edges (not a bad thing), but seemingly proven intelligent (though I do frown on his opinionated written word). I surf onto his website every so often. He's apparently a self-professed expert on all music electronic, if that isn't nerdy enough, I don't know what is. I chuckle because I sometimes liken him to Ross Gellar from the TV show "Friends" fame in his high school keyboard days. But I don't think this guy actually creates music; he just classifies them: house, (french, deep, euro, etc), jungle, trance, etc. Like I care to know the difference.

Hopefully we'll be able to find someone in time. I'd hate to find out what we'll have left in the bank after paying for next month's daycare.

Brain Farts

What the heck was I drinking when I wrote that last post? I apologize for the melancholy...I shouldn't be allowed to blog at 2am!

Anyone who knows me knows that I take on a lot on my plate; I can't concentrate on one thing alone. I multi-task. I have lots of hobbies, or could-be hobbies; if I had the time, I'd do it all.

While sitting at my desk at work today, my mind my buzzing. Brain farts. Yes, brain farts. A rather obtuse description of my rather flatulent brain working hard. Here I present a smattering of what went through my head today.

• Half-marathon. Yes, I would like to try it again. I did it once, back in 2003. 2:16:11, give or take a few seconds. My only problem is (ok, there is actually more than one!) I used to have quite a running base before tackling a half-mara. I did a few 5 and 10k runs before hand. Hey, if Katie Holmes can run the New York, and look fantastic, can't I get a piece of that satisfaction too? Could I even afford new shoes? Katie probably had 7 pairs...

• laineygossip.com. If you haven't checked out Lainey's website, it's a hoot. Wow, I wish I could sit around all day and blog about juicy celebrity gossip AND get paid! A sweet gig on eTalk doesn't hurt either. Sure beats looking down a microscope.

• University of Phoenix. Do people actually receive real degrees or are they the collegiate-equivalent of those postage-stamp adhesives I see in the bulk mail envelope advertising for high school diplomas, amongst the other highly-coveted choices of Professional Dog Walker or overweight Fitness Instructor? I fondly recall the chuckle I enjoyed when I saw this high school "diploma" belonging to the 16 year old son of my mother's friend, the same kid who, at Grade 10, was failing miserably at the real school he skipped out of constantly. I guess he needed a permanent vacation.
  

• Vegas. I need an el-cheapo flight from home to Vegas in the long weekend in March for a stagette. Yeah, right....so do hundreds others. Party weekend....bring on the booze!

• Pregnancy. When's the best time? Is it time? Gotta wait until after the March weekend of debauchery. Gotta wait until after that half-marathon I'm crazy enough to consider. Gotta wait until the wedding in November I have to attend in Virginia. Gotta wait.

• Birthdays. My sister is turning 30 this week. That makes me 34 this year; I'm getting old. Little brother is turning a Quarter Century. Ugh, I'm double-old.

I pretty much blanked out after that. Then I repeated the whole loop again with something else off-topic, starting with Guitar Hero (So grateful to have finished the last Battle on Easy in Career Play last night!) and ending with antiperspirant (you apply it at night, even before a shower, and it still works? Guffaw!)

And as soon as the brain farts occur, they cease, just like that, without a warning. Thank God; sometimes I wear myself out thinking so fast.