Weekend update

I am going to try to start doing an end of the week update. I think being held accountable by the blog will keep me in check. I am going to base the updates on my Personal Improvement Projects (PIPs).

Cleaning & Organizing
I am really happy about this. I am following my daily routine as well as my monthly calendar. My calendar might need to be reworked a little but having it written down is so helpful. There are so many things I would not have gotten done this week unless it was written down, I just didn't feel like it. I have done zero of my February jobs. I will have to focus on those this week.

Time
I have been doing really well with this. I've been getting us out of the house on time and in plenty of time. I still need to work on leaving a little wiggle room so I don't get so frustrated or rush the kids. Today, I sent the kids home with my husband after church while I ran a couple errands before heading to a birthday party. I shouldn't have tried to squeeze those errands in. When I got home I had to rush my daughter a little. She needs a lot of time to get out of the house and we barely made it in time.

Family
We had a lot of family time this week. There were three snow days. My husband is a teacher so he was home with us. We watched movies, I made sure I spent time with my son some during the school day afternoons and I ice skated with my daughter today at the birthday party. I worked with the kids on picking their stuff up around the house and cleaning their rooms.

Food
Did well with food this week. I kept with the meal plan except on left overs night we had cereal, that's a little embarrassing.

Being Green
I found a blog on living simply. Zero Waste Home. She goes a little to far for me but the tips are useful.

Money
This is an area I am struggling with. We are on a very tight budget here. Very tight. We didn't even realize how tight until I really looked at our finances a couple months ago. Basically, until I go back to work, we each get a little bit of spending money and should buy nothing else. I created a binder for our finances. One of the sections is a spending log. This week I wrote down every penny I spent. That, in addition to this blog is really going to help me. Coupons, sales, and clearance items are difficult for me. I went to Target this week (for my binder!) and saw some storage bins at 50% off. There were these bins in red & blue and pink & purple, perfect for the kids rooms. I know I spent money that I didn't need to spend. This is how it breaks down:
purse (Valentine's present for daughter) $5
bins (2 small & 2 big for girl, 1 small & 2 big for boy) $50 (good prices but unnecessary)
throws (3) $15 (to cover furniture)
photo album refill pages (3 packs) $15
bulletin board (for daughter's birthday 45% off coupon) $9
lamp (for boys room @ 50% off at Target) $12.50
The purse and bulletin board, I am ok with, maybe even the lamp, because he needs it. It's the other stuff that I feel bad about. That's $92 in one week. That cannot happen, especially this week. We have Valentine's Day coming up which brings with it some extra expenses. I will have to use my spending money to pay the Target bill and that's ok.

I tend to hassle my husband for his unnecessary spending. This shows it's not all him. Even though mine is on the house and kids, it's still unnecessary.

Over all, I think it was a pretty good week. Money was my biggest challenge but now I know what I need to do.