Fell Off the Wagon!

Well, it was a rough weekend for a few different reasons.  2 of my 3 kids got sick on Thanksgiving.  We still managed to spend it with family but it lead into a weekend full of sleepless nights and coughing, doctor's appts, and prescriptions.  This blew my budget on a couple different levels.  I had managed to save $350 to this point by doing some side work for a friend.  Well, I agreed with my husband to spend some of it on continuing swim lessons for my 2 sons.  This ended up being $90.  This left me with $260. 

On Black Friday, my husband & I agreed to get my middle son a bike for Christmas.  Well, sometimes my in-laws will offer to make these larger purchases which I gladly accept to try to keep our own expenses down.  However, after talking to my husband, he said he didn't want to ask and they had not offered.  Well, luckily, black friday brought a sale of $35 for a bike that was perfect for my son.  So I went out Black Friday & spent money on that as well as a few other purchases:

• Food storage containers ($6.88 x 2 plus tax)
• Cars 2 Movie ($13.99)
• Bambi ($10)
• Race track for bathtub ($10)
• 2 snuggies (2 for $10)
• 2 transformers ($14.99)
• Mickey singing Christmas Doll (19.99)
• Minnie Singing Christmas Doll (19.99)
• Barbie Head (12.99)
• iPod speakers ($5)
• lunch & small gift for friend ($25)

There might be a few other things that I'm missing but as you can see, I didn't spend a lot.  However, it adds up to be more then the budget I had.  I know this isn't a lot to some people, but keep in mind I bought the beads for jewelry last week which also cost me $160 for all the materials.  I need to get at least 15 necklaces out of that, but I'm hoping for a few more than that.  With the $260 left after taking out the money for swim lessons, I'm down to roughly $20 after taxes & miscellaneous items.

This was not the way it was planned in my head.   On top of this, I spent all this money before I ended up taking my kids to the doctor's on Saturday for their coughs & fevers, which ended up being $100 between the doctor visit & prescriptions.  This money was put on credit card!  I'm very disappointed in myself that I didn't avoid the credit card.  However, the doctor visit was necessary & I had already spent my spare cash.

To top off my weekend, last night while paying bills & reconciling my bank a/c, I realized that I missed my car payment last month, making it DOUBLE this month.  This blows my budget for this month & I have to spend the next couple days figuring out how to bring it all back in line!  I'm not going to let all of this deter me.  I know that I sort of 'fell off the wagon' this weekend, but I'm going to get back on & make this work.

Looking at my big expenses above, it might be on the Christmas Dolls that cost me over $40 after taxes.  That's a big chunk of money that could be used in other areas.  I'll keep you posted on my next steps!