Still not feeling terrific, an asthmatic with sinus infections just isn't a good time! Lungs are so scarred that I'm taking too long to get over this. Bought comfort food $2, meds $2, and sent paperwork for a $34.50 reimbursement from a mystery shop. Trying to do less procrastinating about paperwork, but I'm finding I need to rethink my whole mindset. Does anyone here chart progess as far as finances, I wonder? Perhaps seeing it day-to-day would remind me to be more effective in my pursuit of retirement some day. Many goals still to accomplish, just need to stop shooting myself in the foot! Hoping for good weekend weather and ripe strawberries. I'd like to make strawberry jam again, and my sister loves apple butter. Found a great deal once on kiwis and used those to make jelly, and boy was it a hit!

Haven't been posting because I've been sick. Since Friday I've spent $10 co-pay for doctor, $20 script, $7 in cough medicines and Tylenol, $3.98 on comfort food. Much better than I usually do. Also spent $5.42 on videos... local store has 5 for $5 for 1 week, and I've been awake at weird times coughing. Spent nothing Sat or Sun as I didn't leave the house. Today paid mortgage, bought $69 groceries, hadn't bought anything for 10 days, and then it was only bread so I'm pretty happy. Still want to figure out how to have a frugal social life while still working 4-midnight... Thanks for the responses to posts, it really helps!

The trip was a success in unexpected ways! My son is starting to really get the whole frugality thing.
I had to make an early morning Walmart run while my son (22) was still sleeping, and when I got back home he'd gotten out a large cooler, filled it with ice, ham, bread, and sodas. I added a bit of fruit, and brought the snacks into the car and we were happy for quite a long time. Turned out that was a good thing, because we didn't eat a meal until 11pm that night. My daughter charged the pizza on a credit card... She was supposed to take my son and I out for dinner for different celebrations but had little $$ to bring. I think she expected that everyone else would pay her way as we'd done before. She's 26 now, and it's time she carry more of her own weight. I paid for the rental car, gas, 1 lunch, most tolls (son picked up up the rest), tip for room maid. My sister is willing to eat the whole cost of the hotel we stayed at because they chose an expensive one. ($600 for 2 rooms 2 nights). This is nearly my house payment! I think I'll send a check for $150 to my sister and brother-in-law. they are very good to me, and my daughter made my immediate family all late for the graduations we'd gone to see. We were so late that we only made it to 1 of 2!
Our spending was pretty under control, and planned for. I had no credit card debt, and expect to pay the charge for the car as soon as the bill arrives. I expect to spend money on gar and groceries, pay the mortgage this week, but hopefully no other bit expenses. Anyone have ideas on how not to feel like the poor relation?

Got a letter from my state tax dept. today about owing penalties and interest. Once again I'm my own worst enemy by procrastination... On the good side of the day, dog will be happy all weekend visiting with other doggies. The flip side of that is that Holly will be with my ex-bf and his on-the-way-to-being-new-gf. Good for them, but a bit sad for me. Hard to see someone you care about continue to make the same mistakes of not becoming happy with who they are and looking to others to make them feel good. Financially I feel okay about today. My kids and grandson are headed to NYC for a college graduation. Gift money out, trip money out, but I do get to see all my living sibs and their families Very important! I'm renting a car, getting a pretty good internet rate, then improving it with a code found on www.flyertalk.com, a site mostly used my frequent fliers, organizing to save maximum $$ and get maximum rewards out of various programs. Interesting site. Found snacks for trip on sale at Rite-Aid, esp. useful when traveling with a 3 year old. Still need to fax receipts for reimbursement from Ms, and make a copy of a ticket also for reimbursement, but for a different company. Those 2 companies should be sending checks totalling around $200, so I need to do that quickly. May not be able to post again until Monday or so, have a frugal fun time everyone!

Trying to get through a bunch of paperwork and catch up on "should do"s and all kinds of things I've been procrastinating on. The bad news is that I still have to fax and mail a couple of items. The good news is that I have about $200 of checks to deposit from little jobs done over the past month or two. Much of it is actually reimbursement, but I still like the direction of the cash flow! Spent about $275 today on car repairs/maintenance. Haven't had to spend anything on the car for about 5 months, so I'm fine with that. Also spent $6 having lunch when the car took 3 hours (problem found) instead of the half hour expected. I would have been late for work if I tried to eat at home. Preparing for a trip to NYC this weekend with my kids and grandson to see a nephew graduate from college. Fun, but expensive...