An entire weekend with no money spent...

I have just had the best weekend and it didn't cost a dime! I came home from work on Friday and ad the most relaxing evening, I sat on my deck and had a nice glass of wine and read my book. Saturday I slept in and it felt wonderful!!! I never do that, so it was very indulgent! I made cookies for my neighbor for his birthday and delivered those, then back out to the deck with my book. I started my laundry and enjoyed the quiet day of reading in the sun and lounging. Today, I finished my book which was a goal for the weekend, now I can go see the Harry Potter movie next weekend, yay! I've spent the rest of my day relaxing and watching movies, although I did tackle a huge stack of ironing that has been staring at me for a long, long time. Feels like I have a closet full of new clothes now. ;) I went to bed early every night and slept in both days, it was heavenly! I haven't driven anywhere or spent any money. Not all weekends can be like this or life would be extremely boring, but every once in a while it feels great! I hope you have all had a great weekend too! Enjoy!

I'm a little bit envious...

yesterday I went to my Mom's retirement party where she worked for just over 20 years. They had a lovely reception in her honor and it was so nice to see so many people turn out to wish her well on this new journey. I was amazed to hear so many people say they didn't think they would ever be able to retire as they knew they wouldn't be able to afford it. It got me thinking about my own retirement and how I am doing with it. I know I am nowhere near where I should be in terms of saving and need to get better about it. But I also reminded myself that I do have a pension that I can start drawing when I am 55, that I do not include in my current net worth. I hide this money from myself so it will be a little like finding money in a coat pocket when I don't expect it.

Anyway, I am so happy for my mom and I know she is in a great position to retire and not have money issues for the rest of her life. No wonder she looked so darn happy yesterday! She has worked very hard over the years and planned well and now will reap the benefits of that hard work. It was pure motivation for me to get my own butt in gear and follow in her footsteps. I came in to work this morning and increased my retirement savings by 2%. :) Happy saving everyone!

Update on the goal

So, it looks like I will have no trouble at all reaching my goal of $20,000 by Aug. 31, so I am increasing that goal to $21,000 by that same date. When I chose that first goal, I really thought it was going to be a struggle to reach it, but it proved to be much easier than I thought. If the same is true again, I will continue to increase it. I'll keep you posted on how it is going. Keep checking back to watch the ticker above move along. :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer....

Merging our finances...

The other day my fiance and I went to the bank and opened up a joint checking/savings account. I think, keyword there is think, we have the same style of handling our money, but this will be a real test to see if we do. I know I am more of a saver than he is, but then I am more of a saver than a lot of people, so this comes as no surprise to me. But, I think we are both pretty good about spending within our means and not spending carelessly. Neither one of us carries any debt other than my mortgage for me and a car payment for him. We are still house hunting too, so most of our extra money has been going in to savings for the down payment. We will be keeping our own checking accounts for now and may continue to do so even after we are married. I guess we'll have to see how it goes with our spending between now and the wedding. We plan on using the new account for anything that comes up that is a wedding related expense or anything out of the ordinary. I don't have much to say yet about the account since we just opened it on Monday, but as we start using it and seeing how we both handle money, I'll keep you posted on our progress. Does anyone have any helpful advice on how to handle this new process for us? Wish us luck!

I couldn't help myself...

I transferred a little bit more money into savings today. I rounded down in my checking account to make the balance at an even hundred, so I took the difference and added to my savings account. This brings the total savings balance up to $19,083.72. I still have 2 full months in order to reach my goal of $20,000, me thinks I'm gonna make it. No problem! :) Perhaps I should increase my goal or shorten the amount of time to reach it. Definitely something to think about. What would you do?

Got in a little overtime

We are having an audit at work this week, so we have been busy getting all of the requested paperwork together. Last night I ended up staying until 10:30 working on this stuff, so yesterday was a long 14.5 hour day. This will definitely put me over for hours this week resulting in some overtime pay! Yay! Bet you can't guess what I am going to do with the extra money.... LOL! :)

Added more to savings...

Today when I got to work I found out what my paycheck will be this Friday, it was more than I thought, yay! So, I added another $127.15 to my savings account. This will get me through the next 2 weeks with $800 in my checking account and no bills to pay. I know this is more than enough to get me through, so I will undoubtedly be able to add more to my savings when the next payroll rolls around, but for now I am just going to leave it as is and will wait until next payday to transfer some more money. This coming Thursday is my 8 year anniversary at my job and will result in a raise, probably smaller than usual this year due to the economy, but every bit helps and this raise will go directly into my savings account as well.

I'm planning on today and tomorrow being no spend days....other than that, not too much going on around here these days. Just looking for any way I can to add money to my savings and get that balance up to over $20,000 by the end of August. At the rate I am going, this should be no problem at all. I have a stack of survey check payments at home that I just need to take to the bank, they add up to another $116, which will also be added to savings when I finally get around to going to the bank. Oh how I love to watch the savings account continue to grow, so much fun!

Continuing to add to savings...

Nothing new to report, just adding to my savings and trying to reach my goal of having $20,000 by the end of August. I have had the past 4 days off and have been really good about not spending much money. Today I added another $100 to the savings and tomorrow I will know what my paycheck is going to be this Friday, most of this one will go to the mortgage, but all of the other bills are paid, so I will hopefully be able to add more to the savings account then. I have a very mellow week coming up, not much spending going on at all. Hoping to have several no spend days again....

Anyone else trying to put money away in savings? And if so, what are you saving for?

It's Friday for me, yay!!

so, it has been another no spend day, making that 5 in a row!!! The streak will end tomorrow though, I have to go buy a few groceries, gas for the car and a father's day present for my step dad. Oh well, it was great while it lasted. I'll see next week how many more days I can go without spending. I noticed on my budget that last year I had 16 no spend days in June, this year I only have 8 so far. It's gonna be tough to beat last year, not sure, but you can bet I'm going to try. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Get out and enjoy!!

No money spent

Another day with no money leaving my wallet! Ah, glorious day! ;) This makes 4 no spend days in a row....think I can go for 5???