Our Family’s Vacation – Weekly Wrap-Up

Once per summer we spend a week in Cape May, New Jersey with our extended family. We budget $1200 for the trip (saving $100 per month all year long for this week). Following is a breakdown of the expenses we actually incurred. Since we were with family, they treated us to a few meals. We took my mother-in-law with us and she filled up our gas tank a few time. All of those expenses are included here to show an accurate cost of our trip.

Lodging: We stay in a hotel where rates go up on July 1. By staying there the week before we are able to take advantage of lower rates while still enjoying nice summer weather. The rates are slightly higher on the weekend ($140) than during the week ($120). Our total for a six-night stay including taxes was: $856.
Total: $856

Groceries: We ate breakfast in our hotel room each day and at least one lunch or dinner at the hotel. The hotel has a barbeque around the pool area that we used for a few meals. We brought a few groceries with us that are not included in this expense list since they were bought in prior weeks with our regular grocery budget.

We stopped at WalMart just outside of the beach and bought a few groceries: $12.56
We shopped at Acme Supermarket at the beach: $50.94
Total: $63.50

Meals Out: One meal was eaten out each day at a restaurant or takeout:
Lunch at Sub Shop on way down: $15 (mother-in-law treated)
Dinner of Pizza: $16
Dinner of Chinese: $23.10
Dinner at Restaurant (just myself and husband): $29
Dinner for kids of pizza: $8 (my parents treated)
Lunch at Pancake Place: $30 (mother-in-law treated)
Daughter’s dinner while we barbequed: $4.27
Dinner at McDonald’s on ride home: $13
Total: $138.37

Souvenirs/Gifts:
We bought some taffy and fish magnets for my husband’s coworkers for a total of $10
We bought taffy and muffin mix for a couple of friends: $11.40
I bought a few things for our house: $6.76
I bought myself a shirt: $6
My husband bought a couple of t-shirts for his sisters: $8
We bought postcards: $3.50
My daughter bought a necklace for her friend: $2
Total: $47.66

Entertainment: We spent most days at the beach or the pool and went on a few bike rides with bikes we brought from home. At night we generally walked around the pedestrian shopping mall or around the town. For a few nights we treated the kids to some fun:

1 night of Miniature Golf: $12
2 nights at the Arcade: $10
2 nights of Ice Cream: $7.50
Total: $29.50

Gasoline and tolls: We had a full tank of gas before we left. We filled up once on the way, once on the way home and then topped it off at home to get an accurate total of dollars spent on gasoline. Our tolls come out of our EZ Pass account, but I think these are accurate.

Fill-up 1: $17 (MIL treated)
Fill-up 2: $24 (MIL treated)
Fill-up 3: $13
Tolls: $11
Total: $65

Chambermaid Tips:
We left $2 per night for the chambermaid. (Is that too low?)
Total: $12

Adding up all of the expenses, our total came to $1212.03. Our parents treated us to $94 of that, so we spent $1118.03. All in all, we were pretty accurate with our vacation expenses, and we will keep the budget the same for next year’s trip.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – I did a big WalMart shopping trip this week. I spent $31 for portraits for my daughter’s 4th birthday and another $35 stocking up on things we need around the house and some food, all of which are much cheaper at WalMart than stores I usually shop at. My husband went to some yard sales! I wasn’t in the mood this week. He spent $10 (or so he says). I went to three supermarkets this week and spent about $50 (I think).

I spent $50 on gift cards for teachers and $5 for a potted flowering plant for my daughter who had her piano recital on Sunday. We went out to dinner afterwards and spent about $20 (with coupon!).

Deals – As we were leaving my daughter’s piano recital, another family invited us to go to dinner with them. Being I didn’t have any plans for dinner (it was a crazy, running around day, we said yes). We were lucky that when we got in the car out Entertainment Book had a coupon for this restaurant. It only saved us about $5, but it was something.

Income – I finally put some things up on eBay. I have bids on 3 items that will end next week.

Investments – I have $2,000 I need to invest before the end of June but I’m not sure it will happen. We go on our yearly beach vacation in June and we will have some unexpected expenses from my husband’s car accident. So I will probably get behind investing. As long as I get it all in by the deadline, I don’t really care. Also, we found out my husband will be getting a higher paycheck at the end of the year because he has contributed too much to his 401(k).

Giving – Other than throwing some money in a tin can outside the supermarket, I don’t think I did any giving this week.

Our Family's Finance's - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – First, I will say I have given up keeping track of my husband’s expenses. He likes to go in and out of stores on his way to work, during lunch, on his way home, etc. He stops at Home Depot, Aldi, Wal-Mart, and who knows where else? I do keep track of his Costco trips, though. I never did a big food shopping trip this week. My husband went to Costo ($13) and to an Asian grocery store ($22). I also went to the mall, which is about an every 2-3 month trip for me. I spent $15 on a haircut for my baby (I cannot cut boys’ hair). I also bought – with a gift card – a $25 muffin tin from Bloomingdale’s. No, I don’t usually shop there and I would never, ever spend that much on a tin, but I’ve been carrying around this gift card for almost 2 years and it was set to expire on June 30. I was in need of a new muffin tin so I bought it.

Now that it’s spring, the expenses are coming in fast and furious! I bought Dunkin’ Donuts as a treat for my daughter who had a friend sleep over for the night ($7). We went strawberry picking and bought 9 ½ pounds of strawberries at $2 per pound for a total of $19! We went to our Memorial Day festival in town and spent $35 for rides, games, food, etc. I went to two thrift stores and spent $15. I registered for preschool for next year ($50) and paid for “lunch bunch” for two days for my daughter ($8). I spent $65 for year-end costs related to dancing school – DVDs, recital fee, and trophies. Phew, I think that’s it.

Deals – I used a coupon for my son’s haircut so I saved a few dollars there. My husband had some gift tickets from a fair that his company sponsors so we were able to use those to get some free rides in, which is great since one ride costs $3 or more! While $2 per pound of strawberries may not be the best price ever for strawberries, there is nothing like fresh picked-from-the-plant strawberries. The ones at the market I get for $1.50 per pound sometimes don’t even come close. And I looked into different pick-your-own farms nearby, and some were charging as much as $3.99 per pound, so we got a good deal, I believe. I froze some for the winter and made jelly with some of them.

Income – I sold absolutely nothing. I have been very lazy about listing on eBay, but I do expect to do more in the coming week.

Investments – I invested $2,000 in my son’s ESA into a nice balance mutual fund! That’s half of what we need to do this quarter. To date, we’ve invested $6,000 of the $16,000 that we plan to invest this year in retirement and education savings.

Giving – I volunteered at my daughter’s school to set up for a tea that the first-grade class was having. I also made dinner for a friend of mine who sprained her ankle and watched her daughter one afternoon.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses - I did two big shopping trips – one at Trader Joe’s ($53). I try to go there only once per month because it’s a bit farther from me than other grocery stores (it’s only 5 miles away, but I have 4 grocery stores within 1 mile of my house!), but I screwed up and forgot to buy some things that I normally buy, so I’ll have to go back before the month’s up. And I went to Giant ($31), stocking up on many loss leaders and using several coupons. I also went to a nearby store for last-minute things and spent $11. My husband spent $20 trying to improve the door in the basement so we don't have future floods. If it works, then it will be much better than the thousands we estimate we'd have to spend to fix the design of our basement entryway.

More year-end costs - $8 for a t-shirt for my daughter’s school. I signed my son up for a class for the summer for $53. I also went to a community-wide yard sale and spent $5 including some items that I hope to resell for more.

Deals – I used a great number of coupons at Giant, buying cereal for $1.20, barbeque sauce for 30 cents, grapes for $1 per pound, several pounds of bananas at 33 cents per pound and BOGO Breyer’s ice cream (my favorite!). I got such good deals that I think the food I bought this week will last us more than a week. I got $10 off the class for signing up early.

Income – I sold something on eBay for $25. I sold something on Amazon, netting me only $2. Blah! And something on Craigslist for $15 (cost $2.50). I have a lot more planned for eBay for next week.

Investments – I still haven’t invested any of the $4,000 that I need to invest in education and retirement this quarter. Again, I have until the end of June to do so.

Giving – I volunteered to be my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop leader for next year. I had wanted to do it in the past, but their meetings were during the day and it would have been hard with a very wild, toddler boy in tow. Now, their meetings are after dinner so I think I can swing it.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses - This was such a crazy week. We had guests in town, a Bat Mitzvah, Mother’s Day, a call from the school nurse, a baby who keeps climbing out of his crib, and a flood in our basement. And the requests for money are starting to come in for year-end events. We pretty much did two big grocery trips this past week – one at Costco ($35) and one at Whole Foods ($55). We paid $12 for a field trip for our daughter’s school and $2 for a wand for a year-end show. There was a Bingo Night at the school that my husband and girls went to. I think they spent about $15 or so, but came home with a couple of cakes they won at a raffle. Soon we’ll be paying recital fees, year-end gifts for teachers, bus drivers, and the remainder of our summer activity fees. I’m gearing up for this deluge. It seems like the beginning and end of the school-year are awfully expensive!

We gave a $136 gift for the Bat-Mitzvah that we went to, although we got off cheap for Mother’s Day, with me making a brunch at home of homemade waffles, maple syrup, fresh strawberry sauce, yogurt, homemade lemonade, and fresh fruit. All of it was part of our grocery budget. I paid $20 to a neighbor girl to help watch our kids while we were at the Bat Mitzvah. My mother in law was there, but I figured she could use the help. The flood in our basement was a result of a bad drain problem that we’ve had since we moved in here. We’re hoping we can resolve it without shelling out thousands of dollars in the near future, but we may not be able to.

Deals –I don’t think I did any bargain shopping this week – just stocked up on foods we eat and things we use on a regular basis.

Income – I sold three items on eBay this week for a total of $40. I plan to put up more after the Memorial Day Holiday.

Investments – I am finally starting to think about investing the $4,000 that I need to invest in education and retirement this quarter. I have until the end of June to do so. Hopefully, I will get moving on that soon. This blog is helping to keep me accountable!

Giving – I don’t think I gave anything this week other than the Mother’s Day Brunch for my mom, mother-in-law, and the family. I was on the receiving end of some very nice gifts of time from friends who helped watch my children while I cleaned up a very wet basement while my husband was at work. Friends are great! Have a wonderful week.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – I went to several grocery stores stocking up for food for our family and for my daughter’s birthday party. There is a local chain near us that is pretty inexpensive in the produce department. I spent $12 there and got lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I also spent $15 at Giant, $22 at Safeway, and $22 at Whole Foods. My husband went to Costco and Wal-mart and spent $14 and $16, respectively for a total cost of $101 for food this week and seemed to cover every supermarket in the metro area. I went to Michael’s and got the rest of the crafts and things for my daughter’s party ($10). And we spent $46 on pizza for the party and for friends and family who came over afterwards. Lastly, I signed up my younger daughter for camp and activities at the local community center for the summer. I spent $225, which will keep her in gymnastics one day a week for 6 weeks, a week-long afternoon camp, and two 3-day morning camps. I went to a few yardsales and bought some great things including some American Girl items and some depression glass. I only spent $12 total!

Deals –I bought the crafts and goody bags at Michael’s using two coupons and snagged a deal at Safeway on strawberries getting 4 pounds for $4 using coupons and specials as well as some cereal for $1 or $1.50, again using coupons and specials.

Income – I sold a few items on eBay this week for a total of $86 and a few things on Craigslist for a total of $97. And I got a $3.50 rebate in the mail. I have a few things up on eBay, but need to put up some more.

Investments – I finally invested the last $2,000 from the first quarter. I put $2,000 into a mutual fund account for my second child’s Education Savings Account. After analyzing the investments I have for my children’s education, I realize that I am too conservative, with most of it in CDs earning 4-5%, so this will balance it out more to the stock side. Now I am ready to invest $4,000 for the second quarter of the year.

Giving – Umm, I don’t think I gave anything this week other than the birthday party which was a big success.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – I didn’t do too much food shopping this week. I did two small shopping trips at Giant, spending $32 total, I think. (I didn’t write it down.) We are gearing up for my daughter’s birthday party next week so I made a third trip to Giant for ice cream ($11) after realizing it was on a good sale. We got takeout from a local burrito place for $12. I also made a trip to Michael’s ($3) and CVS ($4) which are in the same shopping center. I spent $30 in gas and $5 for my daughter’s teacher for Teacher Appreciation Day. I went to a yardsale that advertised American Girl things. I spent $83 there – yikes. We also had a $95 vet bill, which I will talk about more in another post this week. I realize that these expenses that I write down each week are not really reflective of everything we spend. My husband buys gas and who knows what else when he is at work. Plus we pay all of our utility bills that I don’t write up here. The food is pretty accurate, though since I do most of the food shopping other than Costco which is near my husband's job. I’m going to try to keep better track of everything including what my husband spends. I know it sounds like we don’t spend much each week, but in reality we paid for a lot of the activities at the beginning of the year that my kids do each week - two dance classes, piano lessons, Girl Scouts, gymnastics, and Hebrew School.

Deals – I did great at CVS using $5 compensation I got for completing a survey for them and by rolling some Extra Care Bucks into the deals. I bought some crafts at Michael’s using a coupon and will go back next week to get more things for the party with another coupon. For my daughter’s party we are doing “make your own ice cream sundaes. So I made an extra trip to the supermarket to buy Breyer’s ice cream, which was Buy One Get One Free. We used a coupon from the Entertainment Book for our "night out" at the burrito restaurant. I did okay at the yardsale. The prices were certainly below retail for the American Girl items, but there were a lot of people there who wanted to buy the doll stuffs, so I just bought a few things – and not necessarily the best things. I will keep some of it for my daughter and sell what we decide we don’t want, although I probably won’t get much more than I paid.

Income – I was back on track with eBay this week. After going slowly for a couple of weeks, they had a 15 cent listing fee one day that motivated me to put up more things. I sold over $125 worth of merchandise, although not everyone has paid me yet. I have even put up some more things as well as some stuff on Craigslist. No surprise checks or surveys this week.

Investments – I still have $2,000 that I need to put in our retirement or education fund from the first quarter of this year. And I was absolutely going to do invest it this past week, and I never got around to it. It is definitely going in next week so I can get started on the second quarter which is now 1/3 done!

Giving – I gave my change to some people who were collecting outside Giant this week. That’s it.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – I spent $8 at Whole Foods – still using a gift card that I received. I did my monthly shopping at Trader Joe’s and spent $53. I spent $24 at Safeway and my husband spent $17 at Costco. So we spent $94 for food this week plus the gift card. I spent $12 at a used book sale at our local library. I also spent $11 at a thrift store for more books and an American Girl nightstand. So I spent a total of $23 at thrift stores, mostly for resale and a few things to keep.

Deals – I bought great books at the book sale – 25 cents for children’s paperbacks and 50 cents for hardbacks. I am building up a lot of books for various popular series to sell on eBay. The bigger the lot, the more per book you usually get. I got such good supermarket deals at Safeway. I read about them on several different blogs. Basically, if you spent $30 on certain items, you got $10 back for a future purchase. And you could use coupons to bring the $30 price even lower, which I did. In total I spent $24 and stocked up on cereal, toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, baby wipes, laundry detergent, juice, peanut butter and a few other things.

Income – It was a slow week income wise. I received a check in the mail for $10 for some surveys that I completed and $3 in PayPal for another survey. I only sold one item on eBay for $9, but put a whole bunch more up there for next week.

Investments – I put in $1,000 into a mutual fund for my daughter’s education fund. So now I have $2,000 down for the first quarter of the year and $2,000 more to go. That part is definitely going in next week. I am a bit behind on this since this should have been done by the end of March.

Giving – I generally think of giving as donations to charities, but giving to friends and families are just as important if not more important. To that end, I gave a bit of my time this past week. Carpooling helps everyone, and in the past I have relied on people to give my daughter rides to activities while my younger children are napping. My parents were visiting this week and while they watch my other children, I was able to give back to others by driving their kids around as a “payback”. A friend also asked me if I could watch her daughter after school one day this week and next. This is the best type of giving at this stage of my life. When my children are older, I hope to do more direct giving – volunteering of time to those less fortunate. We also gave a bag of donations to Purple Heart. I know we have more around here that I can donate; I just need to take the time to gather the things up! Oh and we gave some homemade chocolate chip cookies to a girl in the neighborhood for her birthday. She’s always so sweet and plays with my children.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – Since I’ve been doing these weekly wrap-ups over the past four weeks, I realize that I really don’t spend very much money on a daily basis. Generally, I go food shopping to a few grocery stores each week and I might hit a thrift store or a couple of yard sales but that’s it. I don’t normally spring for extras during the week. My kids are signed up for many activities that are already paid for and we take advantage of free activities like the library and playgrounds. Other than that, I see why I am a good saver – I don’t spend much money. Pretty simple. Anyway, on to my expenses this week – I spent $25 at Giant, $33 at Safeway, and $10 at Costco for a grand total of $68 for food this week. My husband went out of town this week for work, so that probably accounts for why we didn’t need much – he is by far the biggest eater in this household. I’m sure my husband racked up many expenses on his boondoggle, I mean important business trip to Scottsdale and the added leg to visit his sister in California. But I am unaware of such expenses yet (and I probably won’t be privy to some of them ever).

Deals – Let me let you in on a little secret. If you ever want to get a deal on something, bring a couple of screaming kids with you to the market and let them handle the products. I usually like to shop by myself but since husband was out of town this week I had no choice. Anyway, I went to Giant and picked up some butter, which I thought was on sale for $1.99. I ran it through the self-checkout and it rang up at $4.47. It turns out it was a 3-day sale earlier this week, but the circular was unclear. Problem is, my 21-month old son opened the butter, pulled out a stick, unwrapped it and was holding the naked stick in his grubby, little hand. Oops. The guy helping at the self-checkout said, “I’ll just give that to you for the sale price.” “Thanks,” I replied. “I don’t think anyone else will want to buy this one.” Besides that screaming good deal (literally), I got several pounds of grapes for 99 cents and 12-packs of Thomas’ English muffins for $2. Other than those, I don’t remember any phenomenal deals. I didn’t study the circulars too well this week since I was flying solo.

Investments – I haven’t done a darn thing in this area. I know I still have $3000 I need to invest for the first quarter of this year. I am hoping to put in at least $2,000 of it by next week.

Income – I only sold a couple of things on eBay this week for a grand total of about $25 but my husband sold something for $40. I haven’t done much else in the area of income. I need to work on listing some more of my items. I have a couple up there now, but no bids yet.

Giving – It seems like the supermarkets have become the place for collecting for every cause lately. This week it was Knights of Columbus at Safeway. I put in my spare change, and that’s it. I also started a new bag of unwanted things to give away. As I find more stuff we don’t need, I add it to the bag.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

Expenses – I do not budget to the dollar. I just know that in general we spend about $400 per month in groceries – some weeks more and some less. I spent about $60 at Safeway plus another $10 at Giant and $10 at Whole Foods (on my gift card). My husband spent about $30 at Costco for food. So we spent a little over our approximate $100 budget for groceries. We didn’t eat out this week and being that it’s Passover, we won’t be until next week. I didn’t do any other shopping this week. The kids were on spring break, but all of our activities involved playdates with other children, riding bikes, and going to playgrounds so no extra costs were involved at all. My husband bought a sports jacket for half-price for $50 that he needs for a work trip.

Deals – Our grocery stores are fighting each other for our business these days. When I first moved to the DC area, there was Giant and a couple of Safeways, with a few Magruder’s scattered about, but that was it. Giant was by far the biggest and the most expensive market. Now there is also Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter plus the warehouse chains. And they are getting competitive. Many are running loss leaders, triple coupons, $5 off $50 on a weekly basis. Anyway, this week I bought 8 pounds of strawberries at $1.50 per pound. And I bought 3 ½ pounds of 90% lean ground beef at $1.99 per pound. Great deals! Some of the meat and the strawberries are already frozen for future use.

Income – I participated in a focus group on Monday night, which paid $100! They called me out of the blue. It lasted two hours and they fed us dinner. It was a lot of fun. I am now on their list, so I hope to get called again. I got a quarterly dividend check from my mutual fund – also about $100 and listed a few things on eBay – not much since it’s the holidays and spring vacation. I also sold a child’s bike seat on Craigslist for $10 that we aren’t using any more. I’ve taken pictures and hope to get more things up on eBay in the coming week.

Investments – I finally took the $1,000 from last week and put it into my oldest child’s Education Savings Account (ESA). I decided on putting it into a mutual fund that we already own with Vanguard. They have low fees and it is a relatively low-risk stock fund. I’ve been pretty conservative with my kids’ college funds – most are invested in CDs at 4-5%. But I know I should take advantage of the 10+ years I have until my oldest goes to college and put more into stock mutual funds, so I am trying to rebalance a bit. And I’m hopefully taking advantage of some cheap stock prices. I need to invest the other $3,000 for the first quarter of the year. (Our new budget is that we need to invest $4,000 each quarter to fulfill our Roth IRAs and ESAs for our children. We’re a bit behind on this since this plan just went into effect on April 1st when my husband’s company got taken over officially and his salary changed.)

Giving – My giving is usually in the form of a lump sum dollar amount to a few different charities throughout the year – often when they call me to remind me. I also do many donations of clothing and household items throughout the year that we don’t use or I don’t sell. So my giving week to week isn’t very much and is very random. Anyway, on that note, for this week, I donated my change from my groceries to a fund at Safeway and $1 for Kids with cancer at Giant.

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap Up

Expenses – I went to a consignment sale and used book sale over the weekend. I spent $21 at the consignment sale and $6 at the book sale. Most of the things were clothes for my children – not much for resale, so I probably will only make a few dollars of it back. The books are for our use and for gifts. I did very well food shopping. I spent about $75 for food for the week. (We have $100 budgeted.) We didn’t eat out at all this week, but I did host a Moms Night Out at my house one evening for eight moms. I made food from ingredients I had on hand and bought some fruits, veggies, and drinks in my grocery shopping this past week. Each mom brought something as well.

Deals - I bought a couple of books/DVDs at the book sale for my husband for Father’s Day. He loves national parks and other historic sites. One is a DVD about the Wright Brothers. The other is a book on North Carolina trivia (he used to live in North Carolina). Total spent for Father’s Day gift - $3! I also bought my mom a gift of a book on tape. She likes those for when they drive to Florida - $1. I got a vintage tin dollhouse with furniture for $5 at the consignment sale. I’m debating keeping it or selling it on eBay/Craigslist. Oh and one of my mom friends brought over some clothes for my son that her son outgrew.

I got great deals food shopping. Harris Teeter had triple coupons plus I had a coupon in the mail for $10 off a purchase of $40! So with those deals combined, I did very well. I spent $36 after all was said and done and got lots of yogurts, cheeses, veggies, cereal, noodles, among other things. Giant also had a coupon in their circular for $5 off a purchase of $30. And they had some great loss leaders - grapes for 99 cents a pound, Breyers ice cream for $1.99, and turkey breast for $4.99 per pound. My last deal was a free roll of paper towels at CVS from a coupon I had received in my inbox. And I sent my mother-in-law a Hallmark card for free.

Investments/Savings – My husband received a $1,000 check from work that is going to be put toward our retirement for this year. I haven’t decided where it is going yet, so it is still in my wallet. I hope to invest this by next week. We should be putting $4000 per quarter into retirement ($5,000 Roth IRA for each of us) and college savings ($2000 Education Savings Account – ESA for each of our children). But we are new to doing this quarterly. So we need to catch up for the first quarter.

Income – I’ve continued to do well on income. My goal for my income is to make $400 per month, which is what I would have brought home if I worked part-time at my old company and paid for child-care. I sold $55 worth of dollhouse furniture on eBay (cost was essentially $0 since I sold the dollhouse for $20 the previous week, which is what I paid). One item didn’t sell so I will list it again. I only have a few things up there now, but hope to get more up after Easter. And my husband sold an old cell phone of his for $50. Sweet! On other fronts, I keep “earning” money in other ways. Little things here and there that add up nicely. A friend of mine gave me a gift card for $50 for doing baking classes with her two daughters for a few weeks in February. That was a very nice surprise! And another friend brought over a big loaf of wheat bread from a great bakery in town as a thank-you for helping her sell some items on Craigslist. I have nice friends! I received a couple of checks in the mail for doing surveys on the computer – one for $10 and one for $5. I “found” a check on my bedside table for $100 – it had been a present from my parents back in October – whoops! I did an online survey for CVS and got $5 put into my account there. They are small things for sure, but every bit helps while I stay at home with my children.

Giving (This is a new category I have added to our family’s weekly finances) – I made a donation of three bags of clothes and toys that we no longer use to the National Children’s Center. I gave $1 at the grocery store to a work program for the underprivileged. I passed along some outgrown boys’ clothes to a friend of mine whose son is 9 months younger than mine. And I invited a friend and her daughter over for lunch the day after my Moms party to enjoy some of our leftovers.

How was your week financially?

Our Family's Finances - Weekly Wrap-Up

I thought it would be fun to do a post each weekend to highlight what our family did in the past week in four different areas of our finances – Expenses, Deals, Income, and Saving/Investing. If anyone wants to join me in doing a weekly financial wrap-up, please do so in the comments! Here are mine:

Expenses - Our week was pretty typical. We budget for one dinner out per week, and we kept to this schedule. Our one night out this week out was paid for from a gift card! (I did weekly baking sessions with my daughter and some of her friends every Saturday in February, and one of the moms gave me a gift card as a thank you – wasn’t that nice!) All of the activities I did with my children this week were free or in the house – playground, walks, etc. - so no extra expenses there. Who knows what my husband spent money on – he likes to keep his little purchases secret from me. I didn’t notice any glaring new electronics purchases on his bedside table, at least. :-) For me, I went to a couple of consignment sales and yard sales over the weekend and spent $40 – some items for my children and some for resale.

This week I also used up a gift card that I have been carrying around for almost two years – no lie! It was to a baby store and since my baby is my third child, there are very little baby things I need. Anyway, it was driving me crazy, and I wanted to use it before I started getting a finance charge or the store went under. I bought a few necessary things – like a bathing suit for the baby and some small containers for lunches. Then I bought a big box of disposable diapers for when we travel – I use cloth 90% of the time, but it’s too hard when we go on vacation. And we have two vacations coming up this summer, so these will be for then. With the remainder of the money, I bought a gift card for my husband’s cousin who is having a baby this summer. I just could not find anything else we really needed. Does anyone else have a hard time using gift cards sometimes?

Deals – I spent $8.50 in clothes for my son for this spring/summer including a pair of shorts, 3 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, and a one-piece shortall at above-mentioned consignment sales and yard sale. I didn’t even go grocery shopping except for some milk, so no bargains there.

Income – I started back with selling on eBay. I had been pretty lax in this area since the holidays. I bought things the previous week at a consignment sale for $50 and hoped to make back the same amount on eBay by selling some of the things and keeping the rest. I ended up getting $100 for the items I sold! I love when eBay works that way, and it motivates me to put up more. I also sold two things on Craigslist that I found at this week’s consignment sale and believe it or not, in someone’s trash pile (no I’m not above that!) for an additional $40. The rest of the items from this week’s consignment sale are now up on eBay. My husband also listed some old cell phones, which now have a few bids. Yay! Lastly, and probably most importantly, my husband negotiated with his company to get a “raise.” It’s not really extra income for us, though. His company got bought out and the new company does not give year-end bonuses like his old company did. So my husband negotiated it into his salary. I told him not to ask for too much since with the economy, I figured he’d negotiate his income so high that they’d have to fire him, but he didn’t listen to me. Thanks goodness. They gave him what he asked for, and now it’s a permanent part of his salary!

Saving/Investing – We put the last part of the 2008 contribution into my husband’s Roth IRA. Unfortunately, I screwed it up while doing it online and signed him up for a traditional IRA instead. This wouldn’t have been the worst thing except that I already did our 2008 taxes and I don’t feel like redoing them. Fortunately, our credit union was sympathetic and put it in what I originally intended. Figuring out where to invest was difficult, so I took the wimpy way out, and bought a 6-month CD at an annual rate of 2.75%, hoping that we’ll know better in 6 months which direction the economy is going.

Those are all things financial for our family this week. What did you do?