Preparing for my trip a bit. (Though not much really to do).

I got all my ROTH stuff in the mail. What a LOAD off. Here's to a good few years of contributing a little here and there. No more of this application, transferring, ROTH conversion blahblahblah. This stuff has eaten up a lot of my cash, along with estate planning and stuff. So it is good for my overall cash flow to move past this. (But is certainly great to be on the ball with all this).

I went through and paid most my bills for October. Easy since most everything is fixed. Paid all the credit cards and everything time sensitive so it won't be a worry. (Well, set it to pay while I am gone).

I also went shopping. I only had ONE pair of jeans that fit. Since I generally work 5 days a week, what does it matter. But figured I would like a second pair for my trip. So I can wear one and wash another.

I probably spent more than I should have. But I have a couple of shirts to return.

My budget looks dismal this month. I feel like when we feel like we are doing good we spend way too much. I paid all the bills and spent most of the $1k cushion in my checking. I think mostly the $500+ to tires and the fact it was a BIG preschool month ($600). I think, oh it will even out next month as I only pay $300 next month (& she already offered to take the kids a few extra days since they will miss so much between our vacation, their vacation and holidays. Certainly will get our money's worth). But then I wonder how much we'll really spend on all these trips and then I remember thanksgiving and christmas are coming up. Pricey holidays. I put $200 in the bank and earned $100 Cookie LEe and all that and I Really thought that would help offset the tires as well.

Then again I Can't get TOO down on myself. We have been investing a lot.

On the flip side I expect a slew of cash come Christmas. I just will be dissapointed if it all goes to bills.

I am also second guessing putting the $25/month to kids' college. As long as we have this 2 in preschool thing I think it is something we should forego. I already mostly made 2007 contributions. I am thinking of suspending "college" contributions in 2008 and then just starting them again when BM graduates into Kinder - next September. Then again with the whole preschool paid for thing I feel somewhat obligated to just make it work.

I am aiming to put $400/month to retirement next year and $200/month in addition once BM starts kindergarten (diverted from preschool). All I Would need is a $200/month raise in 2009 to feasibly be on the path to maxing out our IRAs. Very feasible. I should probably take my own advice and go with that. Retirement before college. I think on the flip side I figure we would want to allocate some of that preschool money to extra-cirriculars and orthodontia and the like. Then again we will have the efund in place for the dental side of things, and maybe the extra-cirriculars could wait until they are both in public school. Would only be another couple of years before another $300/month is freed up.

I honestly feel like by the time the kids are both in school that we will see little point in dh vying for full-time employment. Or any employment.

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Oh yes, we took the kids to Fairytale Town yesterday as it was the last weekend before our membership expired. I already renewd it but had been wanting to take the kids for weeks and had been too busy.

For one we ran into a neighbor which was just bizarre. In a city of like 1 million how do we always run into our neighbors???

Anyway, dh recalled there was some event (Which sometimes they charge members for) so we decided if so we would just go across the street to the zoo (We have membership there as well - often hitting both up on a lazy summer day. THough I mostly loathe our zoo - it sucks and always seem to see some pretty horrid conditions for some of the animals. Just night and day from some of the beautiful/spacious Bay Area zoos). Anyway, to our surprise admission was completely FREE and it wasn't particularly crowded. They had a bunch of costumed characters and the kids had a BLAST. They had a bunch of wonderful Childrens' authors there to read their books and sign autographs, etc. For example, BM's favorite book of all time is "The Best Mouse Cookie" and I guess the author lives in San FRancisco. The kids were totally bored by her, unfortunately (end of a long day). Will keep my eye out for next year and bring some books to be signed! There is also a local kids' music performer who performs at bookstores free on a monthly basis and BM was never paricularly interested. LM was LOVING her and so I told dh he should try to catch some of her free things which are always so abundant in the area. Something to mix it up a bit with all the free storytimes they try to hit during the week. They also had bands, a magician, and some other entertainment. The kids don't need all that to have a good time there, but was certainly a nice surprise.

Dh annoyed me though because I bought a kids' meal and some nachos for around $7. I was just starving as was LM, so we chowed down while BM and dh played. Dh came over and said he wanted to leave because food was so expensive. Couldn't exactly argue as he was talking about taco BEll or something on the way home. Doesn't really get cheaper than than. So instead we stop at this deli and I am thinking to myself, is this really cheaper? But whatever. So $14 later we had 3 sandwhiches, 3 waters, a milk and a cookie. I asked dh as we left how much it had been (I didn't realize). HE said $14. LOL. I am like, um, and that was cheaper? HE said of course not; he just didn't realize how pricey the place was. We should have just walked out. Oh well. The kids had fun. Oh, just something to tease him about. Since he kept going on and on about my spendthrift nacho ways. I told him to shut up and take it out of my allowance - gah. Yes I am a nacho fiend. I actually ended up with a kids' meal though along with that because it was much more bang for the buck and we were rather hungry. HEy, I know what I Am doing sometimes!