Sticking to a Budget

Lively discussions have been held about the new car.  We sketched out our taxes and realized, sadly, that the withdrawal we made from retirement savings the first part of 2015 has nudged us up - it wasn't even 1/3 of what J. made when he worked and we did have them withhold - but not enough. So our thought of maybe withdrawing more this year to make a nice down payment on the car is now 'what can we cash in to scrape together a down payment on a car?'.  (And I acknowledge with a grateful heart that we are blessed to have options such as these).

I'm on a frugality kick - which I promptly almost blew upon seeing a Facebook link to specially packaged Oreo cookies - winter theme - you 'customize' the packaging and they make it and add Oreos.  I had $40 worth of cookies in my 'cart' when I stopped myself and said 'this is what you do at Christmas ever year.  Buying two for 'the boys' isn't enough.  You have to buy one for every person unwrapping under the tree and before you know it, you've spent an absolute fortune on Christmas'.  So I stopped myself.

I've also stopped myself from ordering one or two cases of our favorite wine - it was 25% off AND free shipping so the deal of a lifetime - but I looked at the notepad by my desk where we've been writing down what we've spent this month (so far) and said 'no, not going to do that, either'.  Yes, I really want that wine because I love it - but no, I don't want to spend $240 a case for it - not now, and probably not ever.  (Well, maybe when I'm sure there's no young adults looming around that finish a bottle off really quickly).

Yesterday, H. performed meaningful chores in exchange for money we'd advanced him - and I have to say that if he worked this hard and diligently every time we've tried him earning money through chores, I'd do it weekly in a heart beat.  He took the list seriously and worked constantly and well for hours yesterday - got some things done that needed doing.  His 'getting the place all sparkly' gave me inertia to also do some things.  We've been piling up boxes and packaging materials in the garage for awhile 'cuz I have gifts to ship for Christmas.  I decided to tackle the box graveyard and started breaking down boxes to put out for recycling this week.  Sadly, I couldn't actually find the box of gifts that was also out there and I mis-judged the size of boxes I would need to ship them - so I broke down a lot of 'right size' boxes before realizing (upon finally finding THE BOX) that I now don't have boxes to actually ship.  Grrr....  .  And also grrr - the gifts are 1 inch off from every box I can find that's close - thus necessitating using a larger box.  More packing material.  Oh well.  We still have plenty of shipments coming in so we'll see where we end up in a week or two.  I hope we can figure out something vs. having to buy boxes.

We were supposed to be brunching with H. and his new girlfriend today - but she got called into work so had to cancel.  Hoping for a dinner sometime this week -

We're also heading to Gallo today for a mid-afternoon show - Jeanne Robertson is in town!!  Ready to laugh my head off.

Working tomorrow because I was asked to participate in an interview committee and if I'm getting up early and dressing for work, I might as well make a day of it.  No one else in my office there so should be able to make steady progress.

Tuesday, I'm heading up to Thunder Valley (not Jackson!  Surprise) for a free hotel night and some play time.  I am taking work items with me - reviewing and writing what needs writing for our annual audit as well as some other projects I can tackle in the quiet.  The room is free so why not?

J.'s car shopping is stalled - they found a car that's what he wants but 'it's 300 miles away'.  (I'm not entirely sure why they aren't moving heaven and earth to get that car here 'cuz if they want to make a sale, they should).  They are discussing ordering it but I foresee the 0% financing offer will not be available when the car arrives and though they may insist it will be, they don't control their financing company so....  we can make it with one car, honestly - very few days I actually need a car so J. can just use mine.  Though I know he's excited about a new car (so am I even though it's not 'mine') -

J. took the french horn to the music store in Modesto that accept consignments and they encouraged him to put it on eBay - so we're going to go back to trying to do that.  Today, maybe, now that our morning is unexpectedly free.

That's all the news here....it's cold and time to either get moving or get dressed.  I think I'll try moving.  Making a recipe for dinner tonight that my cousin shared with me and there are some prep items I can start on to get the dish completely ready to pop in the oven when we get back from the show this evening.