Well, our economic stimulus check arrived on about June 8th. I quickly deposited it and $815.00 of it was spent on the first month's rent and deposit for the new house we rented close to my work. (See my last blog for more about this.) Part of the remaining $400 will be spent on renting a moving truck and other expenses with moving. We have asked one neighbor to help out and will probably ask a couple of relatives. To say thank you to all of them, we plan to provide a cooler full of ice water, bottled Pepsi, and probably pizzas or sandwiches. Anyone have any other ideas on good ways to say thank you for helping with moving?

Well, my picture above doesn't have anything to do with my blog, but I love it. It is not a picture of one of my furballs, though.

Well, here I am again. Another payday. More debt paid off and more money saved. Investments for retirement have gone up. Progress is being made, a little more slowly than I would like.

My other bit of success is that my hubby and I found another house to rent that is much nicer than where we are living and only a 5 minute walk away from work. Yes, I did say (or rather write) walk to work! It is very close and solves multiple problems, such as:

1) less money spent on gas

2) easier to get to work on extreme cold weather days when I can't get my car or truck to thaw out

3) I also think I will be less tempted to spend money on snacks and other things at convenience stores. The route I will have to walk to get to work does not go near a convenience store, so I will have to "rough it" with pre-packed snacks from home and whatever I can get from a vending machine.

Also, I will be getting a 3.5% raise in my salary beginning in July. I will not be spending my new-found loot on televisions and Coca-Cola. I will be paying twice as much as I am currently paying on hospital bill #2. I will also put twice as much into my savings as I am currently.

Wow. I feel very accomplished.

I thought I would give everyone an update on a weekly basis how I am doing with the 3x5 Account. See my earlier blog at

http://crazyliblady.savingadvice.com/2008/06/01/the-3x5-savi... for the details. It's really weird how having to write down every single purchase makes you really think about it and say to yourself "Do I need this?" and "What am I going to use it for?" Believe it or not, I think I have actually decreased my spending as a result of having to be conscious of it. I highly recommend doing this.



6/1 3 gallons of gas $10.11 on debit card
6/1 24 oz. iced tea and candy $1.09 cash
6/1 payment to credit card with lottery ticket winnings
6/2 20 oz soda and nuts $1.91 cash
6/2 snickers bars and 12 oz soda $1.10 cash
6/3 bottled iced tea $1.81 cash
6/3 32 oz soda and cookies $2.02 cash
6/4 20 oz coke and crackers $2.02 cash
6/4 cookies $.50 cash
6/4 took $60 out of checking to give my dh to buy a new shower head (we have separate checking accounts), but it turned out landlord had old, working shower head which was way better than what we had. And I got my $60 back!
6/5 32 oz iced tea $1.06 cash
6/5 12 oz soda and candy bar $1.10 cash
6/5 trip to Home Depot for weed killer $21.95 Debit
6/6 24 oz iced tea $1.17 cash
6/6 shipping supplies for bookmooch books $2.98 cash
6/6 shipping bookmooch books $5.16 cash

Since much of my expenditures are for iced tea or other drinks, I think I would like to get a big thermos to make iced tea and take that to work. That should cut down a lot on my trips to convenience stores on work days just for iced tea. I think I will also buy some bulk packages of crackers to take to work for munching. Much cheaper. Hmmm... Starting to think about things logically... Scary...

Well, last Friday was another payday. I have more debt paid off, more savings accumulated, and more retirement money invested.

We bought a lottery ticket about 2 weeks ago. My dh finally got around to checking it and it is a $3 winner. He gave it to me to do something with it. I cashed it in and promptly deposited it for sending to the cc. I guess $3 is not much, but it is something.

Another payday and I am more prosperous!

In an email newsletter I get, the author mentioned this news article from yahoo about the 3x5 savings account.

http://biz.yahoo.com/wallstreet/080601/sb121226759448935495_...

The gist is, in order to more effectively be aware of your money and eventually save money, to keep track of your income and expenditures for awhile on a 3x5 card. I think I will do this this month. Would anyone like to start a 3x5 Savings Challenge with me?