Ok, I’m not even crawling yet. What do you call it when a baby can’t get up on all fours yet, but lies on his stomach waving arms and legs wildly hoping to propel himself forward? That’s where I am.

I’m *almost* caught up entering expenses into Money. Keeping on top of that always motivates me. I got the paperwork to transfer my other 401K into a rollover IRA. We closed on our refinance last night and as soon as it is available online I’m going to sign up for biweekly payments. Now I just need to open 529 accts for my boys. Slowly but surely I’m making progress.

In other news my baby will be 6 months on Saturday. How did that happen? I bought a sweet potato and I’m going to start him on solids this weekend. Maybe it will help him sleep through the night. I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up.

I can’t find my Microsoft Money disk anywhere. I want to load it on my laptop since that is what I use all the time now. DH is all geekified into World of Warcraft (insert HUGE eyeroll here) and I’m tired of fighting with him for the desktop.

I have searched high and low for that disk, and even opened all the other disks to make sure it didn’t get stashed in the wrong cover. I haven’t seen it in years but I haven’t needed it and figured it was with all our other disks. What a PITA.

Do I make the $10 investment to put it on my laptop? I think I will since it will allow me to stay on top of things easier.

I have some cash stashed for the $20 challenge but I haven’t counted it yet. I really need to make a trip to the credit union.

A few things that made me happy this past week: the grocery store had a great deal and I now have 12 boxes of cereal and 12 boxes of fruit snacks for very little OOP (I think around $8) and I still have a few $3 off register rewards. I used my $10 JCPenney coupon for nearly free underwear. My favorite hand soap was on sale for less than half price. Things are slowly getting back on track.

Now if I could just get my receipts entered into Money I could see how bad the damage is so I can make corrections. I bet the disk is with the $1 off Peter Pan coupon I lost and they are laughing at me.

Or, a good swift kick in the butt. It’s been a crazy week and I’m exhausted. When I get overtired I get lazy and when I get lazy money tends to flow more freely. I know I get the same 24 hours in a day that everyone else does, but how do you balance everything?

I get up between 5:15-5:30am (an EVIL time of the day!) and start my day. Shower, get ready for work, pump, get bottles ready, get kids ready, bring kids to school, etc. No matter how much stuff I get done the night before, it always seems to be a marathon in the morning. It’s easier if DS2 would just sleep in until 6:15 or so, but he’s been up with the roosters lately. Then I go to ‘work’ all day. Pick up the kids (if my day) and start my ‘real’ job. Laundry, pick up, quality time with kids, make dinner on the nights DH is not home, baths and on and on. And DS2 doesn’t sleep through the night so I’m up several times with him. He doesn’t care for the bottles (of pumped breastmilk) so most days he ‘reverse cycles’ and eats at night. I know it won’t last forever so I’m ok with it. But, I’m tired. I’m EXHAUSTED. Last night I went to bed after 11 and it seems like I got nothing done.

I had car troubles yesterday that (thankfully) was just a battery problem and easily remedied. But the coordination of schedules to get my car from work and fix it throws everything else off.

Anyway, all of this leads to me not having as much energy to stay on top of things. We ate out 2 days this week and I didn’t have time to make lunch this morning as we barely got out the door on time. I just HAVE to get myself more organized! If I were more organized little things wouldn’t throw everything off so much. But, when do I have time to get everything in order?

Tonight I have to make brownies for the boys to bring in to their teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week and have DS1 sit down and make a card. I’m behind on laundry (I may never win that battle!) And I know I have at least 1 bill to pay. Oh and I need to call the mortgage company to schedule the closing for our refi. DS1 needs a haircut sooo badly, but it’s just going to have to wait for this weekend. He looks like I fished him out of the dumpster, but I don’t think I can handle another chore/errand right now.

I need to stop the bleeding now before it really gets out of control. How do you do it? I can’t seem to get myself together.


And I have some money to add to my challenge but I haven't counted it yet. Sigh.

Ok, after all the discussion on potlucks a few days ago I need an EASY breakfast recipe. I just found out we are having a breakfast potluck next Monday and someone else already called 'dibs' on donuts, juice, fruit tray and paper goods. So, I need something I can make the night before, can be heated up in a microwave (if reheating is necessary) and is EASY EASY EASY to make (I don't cook). I do have access to a refrigerator but since it's for breakfast that probably won't be necessary. All you frugal cooks out there, any ideas? Thanks!!

Nah, I’m not talking about a dime-bag.

I went to get some allergy medicine because the alternative was to just chop off my head. Since that didn’t sound like the best solution, I went to the store to get something that would stop my nose faucet. A 20 pack of Claritin was on sale for $16.99. Right next to the Claritin was the store brand version (same active ingredient) on sale 10 for $3.35. I picked up both packages and examined them closely. Besides the name brand and the prettier packaging, I saw no difference. So of course I bought the generic version. It got me thinking – who in their right mind would pay more than twice the cost for the name brand? That is a HUGE difference in price. I walked out of there feeling so smart that I left without cough drops. Sigh.

Well, we’re almost done with week 3 of our new budget. Looks like this week the gas line is under control. Neither one of us has filled up our tanks so the big overspend last week will be offset by being underspent this week. Fortunately, it looks like a timing thing. The other good news is that DH will be off for the summer at the end of May and won’t have that horrendous commute for a couple of months. That will definitely help the bottom line.

I will bring my $20 challenge money to the credit union this weekend and then transfer it to my shiny new ING account. On to a new month!!