Goodbye Weekly Money Check-Up

So, I guess My Weekly Money Check-Up has come to an end.

My Pretty Pennies typically published it every Monday but she hasn't since August 20th. I just looked back and read closer and on that post, she mentioned she was tiring of it. I guess it's run it's course. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in her weekly post. It made me consciously check myself to see how I did the previous week. I suppose I could continue on my own or start something new, but I'm ready to move on too.

As the picture above says, I'm ready for some new adventures!

We're in a pretty good spot financially. This month we will finish paying off all of our miscellaneous credit card balances that aren't listed on the side bar. Then, starting in October, we'll start banking money for a down payment on a house. Assuming we stay on our plan, we'll have about $13K saved up by the end of the year. That should help us with buying a home. We'll likely go the FHA route and only need 3.5% down, so we should be okay.

One of the new things I'm doing is getting back into photography. I love taking pictures! The hubby and I recently went on a trip and decided to purchase a better camera. Nothing too spectacular, but something nice that I feel comfortable with and proud using. I think photography can be a fun and inexpensive hobby for me.

I have decided to try to use only my own pictures on my blog going forward. I really should have listed photography in my 12 goals for 2012 but I didn't think to. (That reminds me that I need to update my goals list soon! I can't believe the year is more than half over.) I took that picture above this weekend. I went out on both Saturday and Sunday and took lots of great pics. I look forward to sharing them :o)

So, I say farewell to the Weekly Money Check-Up. Thanks for keeping me on track when I needed it the most.

Weekly Money Check-Up 8/20/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. 

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a payment to our credit card. We sent in $2,280.41!

2. Today I am thankful that I didn't have the yucky "Monday Morning Blues" that I sometimes get. Hopefully that means this is going to be a great week!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was toured a condo that had an open house near us this weekend. It's fun to check these out to get an idea of what we like and don't like, so we'll know what we really want when it comes down to buying something.

4. I will consider this week a success if I stay positive, focused and as relaxed as possible. There are some tough things coming up at work this week and I hope that I can push through with ease and grace.

5. This time of year makes me miss New England (only a little bit!). There is nothing like fall in New England. As summer winds down and the leaves start to change and a coolness sets in, it's a neat time of year. Time for apple picking and decorating for Halloween. I love it and miss it! It's not the same in San Diego, that's for sure! 

Have a great week!

Weekly Money Check-Up 8/13/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

 

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice weekend. It's finally starting to get HOT out here in San Diego, so we had a lazy, relaxed weekend at home. Plus, our cable box is broken, so we ended up renting a ton of movies and stayed inside with the AC on, which was a nice treat! Luckily cable is included with our rent, so the landlord is taking care of the problem and someone is coming out today to replace the box.

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a payment to our credit card for my hubby's child support. $770 from his check went directly to that bill.

2. Today I am thankful for the library. I know it may sound weird, but I absolutely love the library! I love the quietness, the dim light and the huge selection of FREE books. I went this weekend and picked up a new one. I'm trying to make real progress towards my 2012 goals.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was renting some free movies! I frequently use Red Box to get movies and when I went to out local one, there was a big sign on it saying that you could rent a free movie at that location, if you use the code they posted. I did this on Sunday, on four different credit cards and got to watch four different movies! Granted, I fell asleep during the last one, but it was such a treat to watch that many movies for free :o)

4. I will consider this week a success if I blog Monday through Friday! I've been hit or miss with blogging lately and I'm going to really make an effort to blog more regularly, even if it means I write them in advance and schedule them to post each day.

5. The last thing I won was a 30% off coupon at Kohl's! I know it sounds funny, but we love shopping at Kohl's for work clothes and stuff and the hubby needed new pants last week and we were lucky enough to score a 30% off coupon at the register. For those who shop at Kohl's, you know this is almost like "winning!" It's rare that you get 30%, it's typically 15% or 20%, so this was a sweet score for us. 

Enjoy the week and stay cool!

My Weekly Money Check-Up 8/8/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Happy Hump Day! I'm back from vacation, feeling well rested and ready to tackle anything. Well, not really, but I keep telling myself that if I say it enough, I'm sure to start feeling it eventually! Actually, I've been tired since we landed and dragging a bit this week. Oh well. It's still good to be back :-)

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. 

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a payment to my hubby's child support. He fell behind when he wasn't working full time and it was time for us to pay it off and put it behind us. We actually charged it to our credit card and plan to pay it off by September 15. It ended up being $6,363.91. I'll keep you all posted on how that's coming along.

2. Today I am thankful for my health. I'm in a good place health-wise and I like to take the time to appreciate when I'm not experiencing any aches and pains.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was reading a book on our vacation. The resort had a selection of free books that you could borrow and I ended up reading "Husbands" by Adele Parks. It was a light read by a UK author. I really enjoyed her writing and unique way with words. I plan to go check out the library to see what other books she's written.

 
4. I will consider this week a success if I completely unpack and get our home back to the condition it was in before we went on our trip. I purposely had us come back a day early from our vacation so we could unpack, wash our laundry and go grocery shopping before our week started. None of that happened! I had such grand ideas about starting the week off on the right foot after our trip, but we're still half living out of our suitcases and items are everywhere! I'll consider it a successful week if I can get everything put away and our life back on track.

5. I am trying to incorporate more veggies and fish in my diet. We have been eating less carbs (until our vacation anyway!) and by doing that, we are eating more veggies and now fish. We're both looking to get back into this healthy way of eating again now that we're home and have more control over our food choices.

I hope the rest of this week goes well for everyone!

Weekly Money Check-Up 7/18/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Hi there! Boy have I been slacking. It's this new job. It keeps me very busy with little downtime for blogging. It's a blessing and a curse, I tell you!

Anyway, hope all is well in your financial worlds. Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a credit card payment. We have one card that we use for living expenses from time to time because it gives us miles. We paid this in full!

2. Today I am thankful for my friends. I don't have a bunch of girlfriends, but a couple of good, real friends. People that will be there if you need them. They live thousands of miles away but I am thankful for them and how they make me laugh!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was reading a magazine from cover to cover. One of our fellow bloggers posted about this great deal that Shape magazine was having where you could get 3 years for like $10 or something ridiculous. I purchased a subscription and got to enjoy reading it this weekend. (Not completely free, but almost!)

4. I will consider this week a success if I finish a presentation I'm working on for work. I want this crossed off of my to-do list before our vacation!

5. One recipe I want to try soon is  something Atkins based. I don't have one selected, but we are eating very few carbs and could really use a new recipe to spice things up a bit. This is motivating me to go online and find one!

Weekly Money Check-Up 7/10/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on our trip to the casino, $600 down the drain.

2. Today I am thankful for good mpg in my car! I love that my car gets 30+ miles per gallon. It came in handy today when I was trying to make it to the gas station before I ran out!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was spending some time in our backyard and our tropical oasis. The weather was great on Saturday, so we spent some time in our yard sunning and enjoying the pool. It was so wonderful and relaxing! I hope we can do it again this weekend :-)

4. I will consider this week a success if I continue to eat healthy and work out on a regular basis. So far, so good! 

5. This week I am looking forward to getting paid. It'll be my first official paycheck with my new salary since my promotion. I'm anxious to see what the new number is so I can put it in our budget spreadsheet for the rest of this year! I'm such a dork.

My Weekly Money Check-Up! 7/3/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Hi there! Long time, no blog :(

Boy, have I missed you all! Being away from here, I realized how therapeutic writing can really be for me. In addition, blogging about my money helps keep me on track for success. I need to continue to find ways to fit it into my schedule.

Anyway, it's been almost a whole month since I've blogged! It's been a pretty busy month. I traveled to two of our other facilities, in addition to a conference. I'm starting to rack up the frequent flyer miles and hotel rewards :-) It's funny how when your job doesn't include traveling, you think it's so glamorous and get excited about the opportunity to do it, but after one bad or aggravating trip, your mood can change. That being said, none of my trips were bad (yet!), I just realized how it could grow old - fast.

So, you may have noticed that there's been some changes to my status update (see the right side of the page >>>). We finished paying off credit card #2! That brings us to over $43K paid towards our debt. It felt amazing to make the final payment on that card this past Friday. I wanted to get on here so bad and share it with you all. But, as life would have it, things got busy.

Also, over the past month we moved! We are now renting a small cottage. Our rent did increase a bit, but so did our happiness and you can't put a price tag on that :-) Believe it or not, we moved from our small studio of 525 square feet to an EVEN SMALLER furnished cottage that comes in around 400 square feet. Somehow it seems larger though. It could be because the furniture is smaller than what we have or that the layout is better with a separate bedroom and walk in closet. We're not sure, but we love it. This place is "all inclusive", so our electricity, cable and internet are all included. (I'm excited because we get all the movie channels now! I can indulge my passion for movies more often.) We also get to enjoy having our own little oasis, with a tropical backyard and pool/hot tub set up. It's really nice to not have anyone above or beside us. We could get used to this! It's making us reconsider buying anything really big now that we've seen how small we can comfortably live in.

On the money front, I have some small updates to share... In about 2 years of blogging, I finally hit $100 earned from Google. Yippee. I received a deposit of $103 in my checking account and put it right towards our debt. I didn't get into this to make money, so it didn't matter that it took so long. It was just a nice perk of being able to share my financial journey with you all. Another small money change was that my car insurance went down by about $100 per year since we moved to a safer area. Unfortunately that savings was eaten up by the fact that we now have to have renter's insurance. The good news is that it is almost a complete wash... our car/renter's insurance combo only increased our monthly bill by about $5 a month.

Here's My Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on our final payment to credit card #2!

2. Today I am thankful for my hubby. He is a great partner. We're counting the days until our trip later this month and are both looking forward to dropping a few pounds. It makes it easier when you have a supportive partner who is willing to eat the healthy stuff and put the time in for exercise. I am thankful for his support.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was ate my lunch over near a local dog park and watched the owners with their pets and kids running around. It was a  peaceful and enjoyable way to have my lunch.

4. I will consider this week a success if I exercise each day. As I mentioned above, we are trying to lose a few more pounds before our vacation and the plan is to walk each night after work. I will consider this week a success if I do!

5. This July 4th I am  probably going to have a cookout, get some exercise and watch the fireworks. We've moved to a new town, so I'm curious to see their display. Fireworks are one of my favorite things, so I hope it's a spectacular show!

Happy 4th of July!

My Weekly Money Check-Up 6/4/12

 (Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Happy Monday! 

I've had a heck of a past few days. So, to pick up where we left off last week... I received a written offer of employment on Thursday night. I thought about it overnight and decided it was the right move for me. I gave notice at my current employer on Friday morning. Well, knock me over with a feather, within about a 1/2 hour of giving my notice, I received a counter-offer! I guess I didn't think it would be possible for them to find a position that would suit what I was looking for. Well, they did come up with something quite tempting. They offered a small bump in pay and much greater responsibility in my career path, in addition to some traveling. All of these things excited me. I asked for the weekend to think it over. 

I was a ball of stress! 

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I didn't want to disappoint anyone. After lots of thinking, I decided to stay where I am at. I hope it was the right decision. Time will tell, I guess. I'm being optimistic that these new job duties will help me feel more fulfilled, engaged and challenged. If not, it will be a lesson learned for me. Here's hoping it all works out for the best though!

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a new passport to change my name. We haven't traveled internationally since our wedding in 2010. Since we have a trip coming up later this summer, I needed to send my passport in to have my name changed. This cost $110.

2. Today I am thankful for second chances. As I explained above, I'm giving my current employer a second chance. I hope it's the right decision. I'm thankful for the opportunity. 

 3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was talked with my niece. We have a close relationship and I value her opinion. I shared my predicament and got her input. It was great to catch up with her!

 4. I will consider this week a success if I find us a new apartment! We gave 30 days notice on our current place, which ends at the end of June. I'm hoping to line up our next place this week or next... the latest!

5. One craft I’d like to master is photography. I took a course in college but would love to buy a great camera and really take it back up again.

My Weekly Money Check-Up 5/21/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. 
 
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on another payment to our debt! I can't believe in 10 days, I'll be making the final payment to a card that has been like an annoying monkey on my back for years! I can't wait.

2. Today I am thankful for long weekends! I'm really looking forward to having Memorial Day off next Monday. Even though we don't have any plans, it'll just be nice to have an extra day to relax.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was exploring a different part of California. We took a drive up the coast and got to check out some new places. It was a really nice day!

4. I will consider this week a success if I stay on track with our budget! We are so close to the finish line with this stinky old credit card and I just don't want to mess it up. This week will be a success if we behave.

5. I am really trying to stay on track with our healthy eating. We are about 10 weeks away from our vacation and we are trying to drop some more weight before our trip. We've done well so far but I really want to kick it up a notch as we get closer!


Hope you all have a great week :0)

My Weekly Money Check-Up 5/14/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Here's My Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. 

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a huge payment ($3,151.09) to our debt!

2. Today I am thankful for new beginnings. Last week's interviews went well and I should have two follow up interviews this week. I'm really looking forward to moving along and starting fresh. New beginnings can be exciting!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was painted my toenails. I know I use this one often, but really, I just love when my toes look so cute and fresh for free!

4. I will consider this week a success if I can successfully sneak off to my interviews this week without being noticed!

5. My favorite Disney character is Ariel from The Little Mermaid. She's adorable!

I hope you all have a good week! I'll keep you posted on what happens at my interviews :-)

My Weekly Money Check-Up 5/7/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

 Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. 

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on groceries again! Lately we've been going a bit overboard on our food budget. We've been trying to buy lots of veggies and fresh food and that stuff doesn't come cheap!

2. Today I am thankful for sunshine. It really does impact my mood. Today is cloudy and gray and my mood is the same. When it's a bright and sunny day, I feel more alive and my attitude is definitely more positive!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was drove around and looked at houses and condos with the hubby. I haven't been posting too much about it but we are in turmoil right now about what we want to do. I actually have 3 draft posts on the subject and hopefully this week, I'll actually sit down, write a clear thought and get it posted so you all know what's up.

4. I will consider this week a success if I do well at my interviews. I have 2 interviews this week and I tend to interview horribly. Here's hoping I do well at at least one of them!

5. The most delicious thing I ate all week was a quick sandwich I made for lunch yesterday after we did our grocery shopping. I had a loaf of French Bread, so I cut a slice of that, put on a couple pieces of ham and a slice of pepperjack cheese to make an open faced sandwich. I microwaved it for 1 minute and it came out delicious! So simple, but a yummy treat!

My Weekly Money Check-Up 4/30/12

(Photo is courtesy of My Pretty Pennies) 

Another Monday! Last week ended up being a pretty good week for me. I guess there is power in deciding to have a positive attitude. I plan to have another great week. (Here's hoping it's as easy as just telling myself that!) Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on food. We went a little over our $60 food budget, but now we have plenty of food on hand to last us a while.

2. Today I am thankful for my job. There was a layoff at my company last week, so I'm very thankful for employment right now!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was that I made up a delicious chicken salad from scratch. I followed my Mom's recipe and it came out delicious. I take enjoyment in preparing a yummy meal.

4. I will consider this week a success if I go through my old clothes and donate items I'm no longer wearing and haven't in a while. We hope to move in the not too distant future, so any progress I can make now will help me in the long run.

5.  If I could redecorate one room, I would choose our dining room. It's not really serving as a place to eat right now, but more of a place to put everything. I'd like to have a designated room for meals and celebrations. It's just challenging being in such a small place.

My Weekly Money Check-Up 4/23/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Here's to the start of a new week! I'm trying to be super positive this week and I'm hoping it will pay off. Fake it til you make it, as they say :-)

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on groceries. Neither of us was paid this last week, so we didn't make any big payments to anything. $60 on groceries was the most we spent.

2. Today I am thankful for having a job. As frustrated as I've been lately at work, I do realize that I need to be thankful for having a job because so many others are unemployed. If it weren't for my job, our debt repayment would almost be non-existent. I appreciate how we've been able to make such great progress, so "thanks" job!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was made some good progress in a book I'm reading. It's "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks. Once I finish reading the book, I plan to see the movie. We have some free movie passes at home, so I'm looking forward to that treat.

4. I will consider this week a success if I hear back from a company regarding a position they brought me in to discuss a few weeks ago. It's not even an open position yet (or it wasn't when I went in) so I'm hoping they officially open it and we move forward in the process.

5. I am currently wearing a black shirt, black sweater and gray pants. I tend to wear A LOT of black. 
 
Here's hoping you all have a great week! 

My Weekly Money Check-Up 4/16/12

(Photo from My Pretty Pennies)

Here is My Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on taxes! Yippee :-) I am in pretty high spirits since we paid this bill. Now it's time to polish off the rest of our credit card debt!

2. Today I am thankful for possibilities. I love that our future is unwritten. I love spending hours chatting with my hubby about what we may want to do in the future and where we may want to go. It's exciting to plan for the future and not dread it. I'm thankful for that!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was we had a picnic at a local park. It was great to eat outside and enjoy the nice weather. Since we brought our own food from home, there was no extra cost. I love where we live!

4. I will consider this week a success if I stay on track with eating well. The hubby and I have really stepped up our game and want to continue to make good strides with our weight loss. Here's hoping we stay on track this week.

5. The last TV show/program I watched was House Hunters! I love that show. Especially now that we are thinking of buying, we really enjoy watching the process the couples go through and trying to guess which house they ended up buying.

My Weekly Money Check-Up 4/2/12

(Photo is from My Pretty Pennies)

Here is my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies. 

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a payment towards our debt.

2. Today I am thankful for this updated version of blogger! I like it so far. It has some of the formatting things I had hoped for.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was getting a new book from the library. One of my 12 goals for 2012 is to read 12 books. I just finished one and went back to the library for another. I'm enjoying this goal :-)

4. I will consider this week a success if I finish our taxes! I pretty much have all of our information entered. Now we just have to review it and hit send. That will be on my goal list for this week.

5. I started my blog because our finances were OUT OF CONTROL! We needed to fix things and I found enjoyment in reading financial blogs and figured it would be good to start my own. It has really helped me to stay on track and be accountable.

My Weekly Money Check-Up 3/26/12

Photo is from My Pretty Pennies

Here is my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on taxes. Still saving up the $6K I believe we'll need for taxes next month.

2. Today I am thankful for laughter! I really have a great time laughing and hanging out with my husband. He makes me smile hundreds of times per day :) Laughter really is the best medicine.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was downloaded "Draw Something"on our iphone and ipad (both items are courtesy of my work, so please don't think I purchased those! There's no way I could justify buying those treats.). The hubby and I spent most of the weekend lounging around drawing things! I was surprised by the amount of detail my husband put in his pictures. He's quite the artist :)

4. I will consider this week a success if I get those damn test results that I'm waiting on. But, since I guess that's kind of out of my control, I'll pick another. This week will be a success if I am able to find my husband's last pay statement from that job that didn't send him a W-2. Rather than guess at the numbers, I'd love to place my hands on the actual pay statement. We moved last year, so it may still be in one of the boxes in our closet. My goal this week is to find it!

5. One thing I love about my home is the location! It's close to our jobs and many stores and restaurants. We are sure going to miss that when we move someday!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

My Weekly Money Check-Up 3/20/12

(Photo courtesy of My Pretty Pennies)

Here's My Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on taxes... again!

2. Today I am thankful for good days at work :) They aren't as frequent as I'd like, so I'm grateful when I have them.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was going to the local St. Patrick's Day parade. It was fun to get out (even in the rain!) to watch the festivities.

4. I will consider this week a success if I get some test results back. I went to the Dr recently for some joint pain I was having in my hand and she took a ton of x-rays and ran some blood work and the labs came back abnormal. I went back in today for more tests. She thinks it may be lupus. Don't know too much about it, so I've been reading up a bit. I'll be happy if I get the test results back this week since I'm anxious to know one way or the other what is going on.

5. If I could afford one unnecessary luxury, I would have someone come clean my house! I'm allergic to dust and kind of lazy, so some help around the house would be my luxury!

My Weekly Money Check-Up! 3/5/12

Here's this week's Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on our taxes. I've started to put away every dollar I can get my hands on, towards this bill.

2. Today I am thankful for having insurance. This week I will be going for my first mammogram and I'm happy to have insurance to cover the visit.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was checked out a new (to us) place along the California coast. It was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. We only spent 75 cents (for a water) but otherwise the day was free!

4. I will consider this week a success if I make 2 more Dr. appointments. I NEED to have an eye exam and get some prescription glasses with my FSA (Flexible Spending Account) funds. I also have been having severe pain in my hand and need to get it checked out. I'll consider this week a success once I do these things. It's just tough going to Dr. appointments when you have a job. I hate missing too much work.

5. I consider myself an introvert! Although I do come out of my shell once you get to know me a bit, I HATE being the center of attention and really prefer to be alone or with a small group, rather than a large one.


Hope this week goes well for everyone!

My Weekly Money Check-Up 2/27/12

(Photo from My Pretty Pennies)

Here's my Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on our taxes. Although I don't have the absolute final numbers yet (still holding out hope for that last missing W-2), it looks like we're going to owe about $6K. Yeah, I'm a little sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I know how we got here and it's from playing with our with-holdings last year to come up with the money we owed for taxes. I'm refusing to play with our with-holdings again, so instead I have to change the debt repayment schedule some. I don't love the idea. at. all. But, it's what has to happen. More on that later!

2. Today I am thankful for my good salary. Without it, our debt repayment would have been much slower. I'm thankful that I make a good salary and can throw a large amount of it towards our debt regularly. In the future, that money will be put right into savings!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was watched the Oscars. Since I'm a huge movie fan, watching the Oscars is something I really enjoy!

4. I will consider this week a success if I finish our laundry! We tend to fall behind with our laundry and the piles just keep getting bigger. I'll be happy if we can finish our laundry before the weekend, so we won't have to think about it.

5. The thing I am most excited about spring is daylight savings time. I agree with My Pretty Pennies on this one. I love when the sun stays out longer and you can do more outside at night.

Have a great week!

My Weekly Money Check-Up 2/6/12

Here's My Weekly Money Check-Up, courtesy of My Pretty Pennies.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on another credit card payment : $1,863.94.

2. Today I am thankful for my positive attitude. Sometimes shitty things happen and I could get really down, but I'm lucky that I have a positive attitude overall and it helps me take things in stride.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was explored a neighboring town. It was fun to take in the sights of a new place.

4. I will consider this week a success if I get my Atkins book in the mail. I'm participating in a weight loss challenge and I think that reading the Atkins book may give me the jump start I'm looking for to really get going!

5. I can’t start my day without water! I feel sluggish until I get some H2O in my body.