Hi, My Name is Heather.....

Well, as of today, I have admitted to myself that I am the WORST budget person EVER. Now granted there was a wedding in July that was quite expensive, but still..... I think there will always be something like that, so I have to be a big girl and not spend outside of my means.

I am trying to cut back. I even cut back on the birthday party guest list. I even tried to 'save' money by doing Christmas cards myself.....you know, borrow a really nice camera and take pictures.... Where are the pictures? Are the cards done yet? Well, no, no they are not..... Why? Because the camera I borrowed was my Sister in Law's and I broke it the day I brought it home. It was a Konica Minolta, who is now out of business....I didn't know that until I went to get it fixed and was told, buy a new camera....Well, that'd be fine it was MY camera, I'd buy a cheapy no frills thing. But it wasn't my camera, it was someone else's..... It was a $500+ camera.....OUCH!!!! My choices were:

1) spend $230+ to fix the old one which probably can't be fixed (they are out of business)
2) buy a Pentex camera for $230 that would give the same quality of picture (but who knows if Sister In Law would want a different type of camera)
3) try buying one on-line on ebay......camera shop guy told me not to spend more than $60....buy hey, he wasn't the one who broke his sister-in-law's camera
4) give my brother and sister in law $230 to purchase a new one

The good news is that one week and one day later, I have a new 'used' camera from e-bay that is working just fine. THANK GOODNESS! Husband attempted to get angry with me when I originally told him that I broke the camera....It went a little something like this....

"Hi Hon, I'm having a horrible day, the kids haven't been listening, they haven't been eating, and I broke Sister In Law's camera....."

"Why do we HAVE Sister In Law's camera?!?!?!" (Note: hint of anger in Husband's voice)

"Well, (lump swells in throat as if I were 5), I was trying to save money......(deep breath) by taking Christmas pictures ourselves (tears well right about here).....so I borrowed the camera. As I was taking it out of the holder...(clearing throat....the lump has reached the back of the mouth, voice cracks and trembles) it fell on the floor and I broke the battery door." (full blow tears here.....can't remember much of what was said by me after that)

In Husband's keen sense of concern for his distraught wife, he wisely says "We'll take care of it."

So, luckily, instead of $230+ to repair the old one, I got a new "used' replacement for $105. I paid $30 more than it's worth, but I didn't care cause I somewhat 'fixed' my idiotic move.

On the lighter side,

Sweet Pea turned 4 yesterday. I still don't think she understands why we had a party for her on Sat. when her birthday was on Sunday. She loved many of her gifts and I believe I totally scored with the Leapster2 purchase.....ummm, yeah, that's why my budgeting blows. I bought her 5 gifts....It was too much money, but honestly she got gypped her first 2 birthdays as there's not terribly expensive things to buy at those ages. At least not that I bought anyways. Her brother is likely to get royally screwed on his next birthday. We just have so many toys already! Poor guy is gonna get a lot of clothes (although some bought for his last birthday are fitting him now)! I figure, for birthday parties, we'll just have ourselves and grandparents after the kids turn 5. I figure there will be a little 'school friends' party and then our little one at home......I don't know. I hate to put that on other parents to buy my children gifts......Husband's family never had 'kid' parties, only his immediate family, but then again, their family is a ready-made-party (7 kids).

I've got some ideas for gifts for both kids for Christmas. Sometimes the ideas are the hardest part. There are additional gifts for me to buy this year. Sweet Pea has two, yes two Sunday school teachers.....there are only two kids in her class counting HER! She's got a preschool teacher . Two cousins on one side, two cousins on the other side, God-children, friends kids (thank goodness there are only four of those), two adult gifts to buy, 4 godparents, ....I'm already crying....remember that budget I had mentioned? I asked Husband if we could re-do the powder room on the first floor as a gift . He said no, we tried that once already! Great.....now I've got to get gifts for him! = ( I think I'm going to have to save myself and take it out of savings.....to catch up and start a new. I really think I can do this, I just know it. This is without Husband even pitching in any funds.....which will help out with the debt in the end.....I guess we go overboard on parties because husband never had them.....AND we have to feed everyone like kings and queens when they are here. I'd have been happy with appetizers and a cake.....can't talk husband into though. I tried to cook the meal myself and he was a no go on that too......

So, wedding, Husband and Sweet Pea's birthdays, and Christmas. If it weren't for those, we'd be alright! ::wink::

The first step is to admit that I have a problem. I did do the numbers, I knew I had to stick to them.....it just gets to the end of the year and poof, I explode. I am humbled.....I promise....right after Christmas is over!

Lazy Winter Day

Being home part-time and having husband work at a school, he and I are off more days together than usual. Remember all those lame school 'holidays'....Kasmir Pulaski, MLK (sorry, but kids moslty look at it as a free day off). His over-time ends shortly, which will be missed monetarily, but not so much physically. Yesterday he was home (other than a building check) and today he's home (other than the building check). He could have someone else do it, but since it's a holiday, it's double time.......The cruddy part is that it takes 40 min. to get there, he's got to be there an hour or an hour and a half and then 40 minutes to come back home. It's a 3 hour event. So that pretty much stinks, unless he has someone else do it. I can tell you this, he appears to be more relaxed now that I'm a part-timer....at least it seems that way.....

I blew the weekly budget yesterday......DARN Easter baskets! Darn Baby Boy's 1st birthday! ; ) But I can return a few items, but I just couldn't recall if I had some things or not and I didn't want to waste the trip.

Whilest I was shopping, Husband forgot to start the roast(he wasnt' sleeping or anything, just tuned into the TV and tuned out of the rest of the world).......so we ended up eating pizza ordered out. Now, normally I don't really care, but $27 for a pizza is too much of our weekly food budget, so that's gonna go out the door soon. My Brother and Sister in law had a party for my nephew and got pizzas at Wal-Mart (Super WalMart), they were only $10 each and they were actually quite good. So, I think next Friday, I will try shopping at Super WalMart, two towns over.....woo hoo! I know, can't you feel the excitement?!?!?

Today I was supposed to visit the in-laws, but my kids were so dirty and I wasn't sure if baby girl was sneezing because of a cold, or the general dust level in the house.....So, for now, we'll wait on that. Besides, it was a lazy morning. Baby Girl didn't come and wake me up til 7:00 am and Baby Boy didn't wake up til 7:15 am! WOW! What a wonderful gift! It almost makes me cry!

Quite a lame entry today......I'm sure the next one will have a better biatch! Ha!