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Jun 1, 2014    |       12 comments

Can We Tawk?

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There’s something that’s been bothering me a little bit and I think I may have found a solution.  Y’all, this format has been hard for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I like that there are several of us bloggers.  It enables me to be a blogger and get advice but also to be a reader and see three points of view that are pretty different from mine.

The problem that I’m having is that sometimes during the week something will happen that I really want to talk to y’all about but it’s not on a Thursday and it feels, I don’t know, phony somehow to schedule it for 3  days after it happens.  Then, when Thursday comes the aggravation or whatever other emotion I’m feeling has passed and I’ve got informative posts that need to go out.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that I feel like I’m not able to get personal everyday stuff across because I have to dedicate Thursdays to “serious business”.  I also have trouble with posting things on a day that someone else has something scheduled.  If someone has something go up I want y’all to be able to focus on just them.

Friday and Saturday seem to be heavy posting days for the others so what I’m thinking is that on Sundays I will do a “stream of consciousness” post that talks about my previous week and any financial successes or downfalls we have had. I plan on starting this next Sunday so please let me know if y’all think this would be something that would work and if there are any other suggestions, I am all ears!

May 31, 2014    |       5 comments

Home Sweet Home, Trip Complete – Hope

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We will arrive home today. We’ve been on the road for exactly two weeks. On my last travel update we had just arrived at the Lakehouse where we would stay til the end.

I don’t have all the exact numbers put together yet, but here’s how it went in general to give you an overview:

  • Gas – 6 tanks of gas at approx $80 a piece = $480 (includes 3 trips to TN and 2 to GA due to the camps)
  • Hotel – 3 nights = $300 (had only budgeted for 2 so this put me over a bit)
  • Groceries – $65 (additional $55 gift card spent that I had been saving for this occasion)

Total cost of two week vacation = $845

I can write off some of this as it would have fallen into my regular budget $300 for two weeks of groceries and $160 for weekly gas money.  So with that in mind, the cost of this trip was around $385 over our normal budget.

I look at that number with my debt payoff in mind and think would be a nice payment towards debt, but then I think about all the intrinsic payoffs:

  1. Two of the boys got to attend specialty camps that they are committed to pursuing at this time. (I didn’t count this in the expense for the vacation because 1) it comes out of a monthly budget line item and 2) was paid for in previous months.)
  2. We got a nice long relaxing visit with my parents who visited the Lakehouse at the same time from TX.
  3. It’s just relaxing to be away from home and not have your day to day to do lists hanging over your head.
  4. The kids had some quality time together away from distractions from the world.

For the next two weeks no one has any extraneous activities and then we will start additional summer activities which will carry us through August, more on those later, but for now I am satisfied that this money was well spent and the memories made will last a lifetime!

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