Tuesday, February 7, 2017

I tried hard to be positive, but at least I can still save money

Remember Sunday's post about being positive and having a good attitude. I already failed. Bad, I know. Work was hard today, and I almost could not take it. Thankfully my other half got home early and was able to get the kids. It did save me from having to leave work and let me catch up just a bit. The biggest problem with teaching is that you never really catch up. It is continuous. "You never really catch up. You never really catch up."  Maybe if I make that my mantra I will relax a bit more.

Now let's talk money. Thursday is pay day. Yippee. I already know the total so I can crunch the numbers and transfer that $500 into savings.  I did make it through the first two weeks. My spending was quite low. I have to really tweak the numbers because a few unexpected things happened. I missed the cable/internet/phone bill in January, so now it is double. Yes, I know, kill the cable. Well, killing the cable is off the table for now, but maybe we will revisit it in the future. Also, my excise tax came in, so now I have to find another $52.00 in my already tight budget because I have been a life long spender I am the queen of saving money.  Trying to reframe things to keep myself positive. Anyway I am really looking forward to waking up Thursday and throwing the $500 into the savings account.  I can't wait. Also, it may snow Thursday, so let's pray for a snow day!

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Why I dread the weekend and how to make a change

Pretty negative title, I know.  But it really wraps up how I feel when Saturday morning roles around. Stressed, overwhelmed, a list of crazy things running through my head, clean the house, do the laundry, grocery shop, take kids to activities, be a crank. The last one is just what happens. I become a drill sergeant and start bossing the kids around.  I didn't even include work in my post.

This weekend started sort of the same way with the exception of grocery shopping. That was one thing I managed to get done on Friday after work. My plan was to leave work at a reasonable hour, but I got caught up in things to do. So there I was, grocery shopping at 5:00 p.m.. Wandering around Wegman's and thinking about my grocery budget, savings goal of $6,000 by June and how tired I was when it became Frozen Pizza Friday. It worked and it wasn't that expensive. Probably twice the cost of homemade, half the cost of Wegman's premade refrigerated pizzas and a fourth of the cost of ordering out.  It wasn't half bad. 

Saturday morning was basketball, cooking and cleaning the house. I made the kids do their part. We all live here. Saturday did get better. I did not exercise like I planned, but we had my mother over for dinner, which was fun. 

Today I made blueberry bread and hit the store (oops) again. We already used all the eggs and were out of sugar so I really had to go.  I spent about four hours on work doing my plans. Now I have snacks in the oven and will be signing off to watch the Super Bowl.

My point of a rather negatively titled post is that it is my choice to have a good weekend. Stressful job or not, messy house or not, bad mood or not, I make the choice to have a good weekend. It is up to me to separate my job from my life and choose to live in the moment. Enjoy every minute and just be there.

In addition to my goal of frugality is a new goal, an important goal, a goal to be happy in all that I do.