Money Monday

 Ugh-- I stopped tracking mid week last week when the wheels sort of fell off. Nothing fun, you guys. A parking ticket. A note from a COLLECTIONS AGENCY because BEN AND COOPER did not pay a PA turnpike toll going to dive nats last summer (SO STOOPID), prescription food for the dog (we missed a call from the vet about her PARASITES TWO WEEKS AGO ARE YOU KIDDING ME), lunch account payments because the kids hate the planet and will spend like $40 a week on single-serve plastic water bottles--even though they pack their lunches and have lost ALL OF OUR cheap Gatorade sports bottles AT SCHOOL, preschool fundraiser winter decor, a big choreography fee for Dorothy's dance trio, some holidays gifts at long last, sportsball fees because it is high school dive season-- etc etc etc.

Note: I bought Minnie the horse stable/ manor house thing she fell in love with the Amazon toy catalog and has been talking about for WEEKS. And then she changed her allegiance to the Barbie Dream House the literal DAY IT ARRIVED. We told her maybe she could wait and see if she still wants that on her birthday, but she is pretty passionate. **eye roll**

Ben swears that we are saving a ton of money because we aren't buying stupid crap every day (Annabel got 2 new sweaters last week tho), and I am choosing to trust him blindly (not smart if you see the turnpike thing above).

One AWESOME thing I bought and DO NOT regret is THIS shampoo and THIS conditioner. Yes, this is the same company who makes the moisturizer I love, and the hair stuff? IS ALSO AWESOME. I had a sample that I brought with me to Peoria. I used it after the ball and fell asleep with wet hair and woke up with a GLOSSY MANE. It was like the hair fairy visited me in my sleep. IT'S SO GOOD YOU GUYS. I went straight to Blue Mercury to buy it the second we got back to Madison.

A MAJOR change I have seen since we started being aware of the money we hemorrhage on the daily is the amount of take out, fast food, bar food, etc, we eat on a regular basis. That is to say, we almost never eat out at all, and I don't miss it even a little bit (probably because if I do miss something, we eat it. We had lunch at the golf course bar a couple weekends ago, and it was perfect. We have enjoyed some sushi take out nights, and we have gone on a sandwich run here and there, DQ on the way home from diving occasionally). Mostly, though, we eat the fridge, and it hasn't even really been a hard adjustment or felt like a sacrifice. And! We are definitely making better nutritional choices.

This week, I want to buy one major gift for each kid and figure out the rest of our winter break travel arrangements. **crosses fingers** I am also pledging to write everything down in my calendar even if the numbers make me feel yucky.