I am super exicited to watch the wedding festivities tomorrow! I am an American who is semi-obsessed with the British Royalty, especially Diana and her boys and now Kate! Apparently tomorrow and Monday have been declared as 'bank' holidays for the UK so people are off!! Must be nice -- I am definitiely envious! While I get 'tired head' when I think of the crowds that will be swarming London, I just MIGHT be tempted to join them to try & get a glimpse of someTHING or someONE royal. Good luck to those of you who will be in the crowds but more importantly, good luck to the young couple William & Kate...may your union be blessed by God Almighty :-)

Good night everyone, I have more to say on "good news & bad news" but I'm too tired tonight. Here's a hint: the good news is my budget is working, the bad news is my budget is working. more to come on that later.

My sweet baby kitty is still missing. I'm beginning to doubt he will return home to us :-( We did post several MISSING signs around our small town with his cute little pic...but no one has called us. I just hope someone has decided to keep him rather than something bad happening to him. He's so dang cute and sweet, I would probably keep him too.

Moving on but not forgetting....evertything else is very busy this time of year. For some reason I didn't budget for easter goodies for the kiddos....I don't know why. I don't usualy spend a lot but it just sort of slipped my mind this year. So I had to dip into other budgeted items to cover the 'stuff' I picked up for the kids. We also have a lot of other expenses to cover this time of year...we find our selves in need of lots of dresses! We are a family of mostly girls but hardly any of us dress up on a regular basis so when we need something nice, we don't have a dress or shoes. So we needed something for easter that we could also wear to the sports banquet, something for the graduation 'Tea Party' my mother-in-law is hosting for my daughter and we also need something for the actual graduation. You might be asking, can't 1 dress cover all that...no, it can't. We shopped around, found some good deals and cute stuff they could use again. I'm fine with spending the money if it is good quality and can be versitile and used for other things. So not only do we have all these dress needs, we are also trying to prepare for 2 proms this year. The oldest DD has her high school prom and her boyfriend's prom who lives in another town. So we bought her dress for her HS prom but she borrowed a dress for the boyfriend's prom. Worked out pretty good and she's happy with both dresses...and I'm happy b/c I didn't have to refinance my house LOL.

Just kidding - I don't go nuts on stuff like this. I don't go 'cheap' either so I am all about shopping around & finding good deals online. I also don't mind spending the money on these dresses b/c I have 2 other daughters who may find they need a fancy dress some day....hopefully they will still be in style.

We are also in full 'getting ready for college' mode too -- or atleast I am. The DD is lucky enough to have a scholarshop to an awesome college but obviously there will still be some expenses to cover. According to my budget, I should be able to cashflow those expenses but we went ahead & filled out the FAFSA application to see if she could qualify for any other monies. Haven't heard anything back on that yet -- anyone out there have experience with FAFSA? Just curious how it will be handled...?

I'm off to bed now - hope you guys & gals have a good week :-)

My youngest daughter got a pair new kittens for christmas and one of them has turned up missing today. She got a boy & girl - the boy is an orange tabby and the girl has the mixed pattern of a tabby and a tortoise so they called her a tabby-tort or a torty-tab. Anyway, it is the little boy who is missing. He was here this morning and no one has seen him since then. I've checked every room of the house, closets, under the house, etc. I've looked in the bushes, trees, ditches, creeks, neighbor's bushes/trees/ditches, fields, the side of the road, no sign at all. He is the sweeter of the two, very loving, cuddly, chubby and so cute. His personality is so laid back - you just want to snuggle with him all the time. I'm actually quite heart broken he is missing but I'm not letting my daughter know! My husband is going to check the animal shelter tomorrow but I would be shocked if he turns up there -- he is so small and I doubt someone would have called the pound on him. They barely even go outside muchless wonder out of our yard which is quite large. Anyway, I hope he's ok but I can't help but fear the worst.

please come home - we miss you fat kitty :-(

On the financial side of things -- I'm feeling 'plateau-ed'. At this point we just have the cars to pay off and instead of me sending the extra cash as a payment every month, I'm putting it all in savings to pay off when I get enough saved up. Kinda takes the momentum out of my sails a little bit...not sure if this is the right thing to do or not? I really wish I hadn't been such a moron with money in my 20's.

Not my typical topic but I am 'down and out' today. While my life isn't perfect it is pretty good so I really can't put my finger on exactly what is dragging me down. I'm sure it is a combination of things and they all sort of culminated today...making me want to bury my head in the sand and stay there for a while.

My middle child is giving me stress too...she has failed her spanish class and is now ineligible for the rest of the highschool softball season. AND did I mention they are going into the playoffs next week? Softball is not the important issue of course but it is a BIG factor since my husband (her step dad) is the coach!! I've been all over her like a cheap suit over this grade and she adamantly reassured me she 'has it covered.' Not so much.

She is also in trouble for cussing at me so getting the news she has failed a class on top of this issue has compounded the situation. She sounds like an "out-of-control, her parents are losers" kid but she's not.

Anyway, little bit of a rough week and now with this latest stuff with my daughter just kinda 'hit' me today. AND, I caught the extreme couponing show on TLC, that was a little depressing to watch. So much money saved using those coupons but those ladies spend more time strategizing and planning than I'm AWAKE every day. Super impressive for them but kinda crazy...how can they really use that much stuff and store it? Some of those families had food in every room of their house. I can see going on a "shopping with coupons bonanza" every month or so but not multiple times a week. Overwhelming and I would be so nervous about stuff expiring!!

I'm off to bed now. Looking forward to tomorrow being a better day :-)

hello, i've been away for a bit but i thought I would drop a quick note.

The good: The new $0 budget thing is working out pretty good - very easy to relax and not worry about my bank account or any transactions that my husband may have made but forgot to mention. We basically don't use the debit card at all now. The bills are paid using the BoA online payment feature (the only redeeming quality BoA has to offer) and I draw out cash for everything else, putting it in the envelops for the various expenses. TOTALLY helps me to spend less for sure b/c I'm more reluctant to let go of cash...which is weird b/c the money is coming out of the same place anyway. O-well, I've just noticed I'm less inclined to spend a few dollars here & there when you SEE the CASH DWINDLE...very good system for me. Glad I found it.

The bad: The lawn mower deck broke this weekend so we will have to spend so money to get it fixed. Why you say? b/c we have over 3 acres that we have to mow...can't just let it go crazy. Not really sure how much this will cost - the husband isn't sure if he can fix it himself either so we may be out parts + labor or at the minimum, just parts. who knows.

The ugly: I'm going to try & NOT paint my toe nails this summer. For some reason, my right big toe nail HATES toe nail polish and throws a big hissy fit every year. So this year I'm going to try & lay off the toe nail polish and that leaves me with ugly, boring toes. I'm not looking forward to you...and you shouldn't either. In fact, if any of you have any suggestions on "toe friendldy" or "sensitive toe" nail polish, I would pay some good money to hear it right about now....sooooo, speak up!!

have a good week everyone!! :-)