The weekend on a budget

I like to go to garage sales, it is a hobby of mine, but this time I went with just $30 in my pocket and I promised not to go over. I just bought what I thought I could use, I got some clothes for my children, I bought a monkey from Aladdin, still in the box, I bought a few toys for my daycare and I got my mom some movies and books for her daycare and I got her a weed eater and I spent $32 I went two dollars over but that is not bad at all. I am proud of myself. everything was on a budget. we took the kids to the local theme park and got the special season pass for everybody. I already had mine and everyone else had theirs so I just bought my kids theirs. So now even when we are broke we will still have something to do. I bring my own food and drinks for everyone in a back pack, and with the kids being on a special diet we would have to anyway, but it saves us a ton of money. I bring bottles of tea and Capri suns and two kinds of chips and the older kids bring their own in their bag, the park charges $2 for a small bag of chips, I can get a great big bag for $3 at the store. I am still broke and money is still tight, but I am going to make it through to the end. I have my eye on the big house in the country. today I am going to try not to spend any money at all. I will report tonight.

making a new start

I haven't posted for awhile because I have been busy and I kinda fell off the wagon in saving and getting out of debt. If anything I am in even more debt now than I was. my student loans are going to default in about 3 months and I do not have any more options to pay them back. I do not bring in enough income to take care of my children and help with the utilities and rent here. I have four loans out now that I am paying back, one was for my sons birthday so that I could give him one, the other three are for various things like food, clothes etc. I am trying not to buy anyhting that I do not need, I did buy my son a power wheel because the one I got at a garage sale did not work and I knew that he would not understand why he got one and can't ride it, my daughter's works that I got at the same sale. I am also still buying most everything used when I do buy something. i got my son a dog in january, he is part boxer and part lab so he cost about $100 a month to feed and my daughter has a cheweenie (part daushund part chihauhau) she cost about $10 every three months to feed and we still have the cat but he doesn't cost much to keep. another new expense is that because my son is adhd and autistic, and my daughter is adhd I have put them both on the gfcf diet, it cost a fortune to feed them and I am still coming up with ways to feed them for less they are both doing better and are coming off their medicine, so it is worth the expense I am also no longer going to give myself a year to do it all. I am going to give myself till the end of my sons fifth grade year, he will be going into third this year so I have three years to get it done. I am going to quit eating out, quit buying junk for me and make more stuff from scratch. I am only going to buy school pictures in the spring and I am not doing book clubs this year, I am going to pay off my loans and get slowly weened away from borrowing money, I am going to then start paying my credit cards and get them to be at a zero balance then I am not going to use them. I am going to start saving first by saving my change then go up from there. I will report here every night and share my expenses, my purchases for that day and why I made them and what I should have done differently. This blog will be my accountability person. I am starting on 6/20/2009 and I shall conclude this blog on 6/20/2012
by then I should be debt free and own my own house in the country and also own my own daycare center where I will be a partner with my mom.