Money Woes

So Todd and I set a pretty lofty goal for ourselves this year. We set an amount of money we wanted to save by the end of 2010. Well, if you don't know Todd, I will tell you that he gets very excited about things and often thinks he can do/things will turn out/we can end up with more than is reasonable. I think I was able to talk him down a bit, mostly by showing him how many more expenses we actually have than he thought we did. But he is so cute in wanting to save for the future. So we finally settled on a goal, though lofty, possibly attainable. Now we are nearing the end of the year. We have done fairly well I think. There have a been a few months that we didn't review our budget, but we revamped it when we paid off our car in August, albeit we did have to then add a new expense we dubbed "baby stuff," plus the new baby medical bills.

And as we strive to meet budget each month, we have done very well in the categories we have made. But things always come up. We need new tires. When we last got the oil changed, Jiffy Lube wouldn't even rotate them because then it would be a liability to them if one the smooth surfaces did something wrong (I don't know anything about tires, does that mean they are afraid it will pop? or just not drive well?) Anyway, with winter coming we are now facing a decision on how much we can spend, how many tires to buy (the front are completely bald and the back just close to it), and we aren't very much of tire experts. I just don't want to die in the snow. We also just changed our cell phone plan. We will actually end up saving a significant amount of money in the long run, but now we will have to pay cancellation fees on our old plan. I wouldn't mind so much if it was January, but we have just over 2 months to save up to our goal! I don't even want to talk about maternity clothes. Right now I basically just stretch out my normal ones. I don't want to buy a whole new wardrobe for 3 months of wear! And none of my sisters have ever been pregnant through the winter so I can't even really ask to borrow anything. Come on, 7 kids between the 3 of them and the latest was November, but he came out in Florida so not much need for a maternity coat or long sleeved shirt!

Anyway, the bottom line is we have been so blessed with what we have been able to accomplish this year. We have sacrificed a lot to get what we have, and we are oh so close to that elusive number! I think if we don't make it we can just blame it on Lila, and in my mind that is a pretty good excuse. Definitely a good reason to not quite make it. Plus we have already saved more than I thought we might be able to. Whether we meet our goal or not, I am so grateful to have had a job this whole year so we could actually put away towards it. So really, this blog should be titled "Blessings".

Diapers and Rain

So we bought some diapers today. First diapers ever, but most certainly not the last. Today we spent $89 at Costco on diapers and baby wipes (using, of course, coupons for both). We have budgeted $100 per month until Lila comes to stock up on the goods. I guess we should probably use some of that money for carseats and such. We haven't spend Septembers $$$ yet and I think that's what it will go toward (a carseat I mean) if we can just make a decision. Sheesh how to you pick from 100,000 options! But we also want Lila to have a clean bum! It just feels weird to actually make that purchase....

It has been raining off and on the last couple of days. And I just thought you should know that I love it!!!!! The other night when I was making dinner I opened the big kitchen window because of the downpour and even with the feet of roof over the porch I still got a bit sprayed but the pouring water being pushed by the wind. It felt wonderful. I hope we have a few more days left in a desert rainy season.