I think this month will get by without having to dip into savings, just by the skin of our teeth. (Really not bad considering the $250 or so vacation expenses that I figured would have to dip into savings for).

Right now I am projecting a -$182 balance as of 11/30, in my checking. (If worse came to worse I'd just transfer that from savings and put it back when I got paid on the first).

BUT I will probably receive a $60 check for jewelry sold this month (score). I paid $33 or so for it but that is on the card. I also have a $10 rebate to deposit.

Leaves me about $112 short. Dh got a $15 focus group this weekend. Woohoo.

Puts my negative balance under $100 at least.

I wouldn't be surprised if my mom gives me $50 for Thanksgiving dinner. She usually does. For the rest, will have to hope for another big focus group this month. It's really all we are short.

I also have a lot of stuff to sell and would be nice to clean out some stuff before Thanksgiving. I have been really lazy. But between this and being SO CLOSE on the $20 challenge to reaching my $10k goal, maybe I should get on it. I could probably come up with $100 if I really tried. It's also a much slower month (phew) than the last few, and so maybe I could pen some articles.

Well, lots of options.

In October I transferred over $100 for a couple of days and then put it right back. Hopefully will get past that come January. Seems to be becoming a trend. Then again this is a high spend time for us. It gets so crazy busy at work Jan - April that we don't seem to spend much money (plus no birthdays or holidays. Certainly no vacations. LOL. It just gets real quiet here).

I have been going over our budget in my head, thinking ahead to 2008. It's probably a little premature since I have no idea where our health insurance premiums will land.

I think preschool is more of a monster than I imagined. Particularly since we really want to put them both in full days during tax season, which will bump up an average month to $650 or so. Yikes!!! On the flip side I will be able to squeeze out more overtime with them going full days. Dh usually picks up LM at lunch and is quite a drive for him so it is hard for him to help me in morning and evening. We we want to do full days. He can pick them up so I can work late, etc. The cost is more, but we will save so much in gas and it will interfere so much less with work, will have to look at the big picture. I guess it will cost about $100 extra a month.

I wanted to set aside $100/month for car purchase/house maintenance and $50/month for the kids. But am thinking of holding that off one year. I will have a good $3500 for the car/house fund regardless with overtime and interest. So I am thinking that is miles ahead where we are today and we can add that extra $100/month in 2009. I have been pondering that as part of the $100/month was I wanted to take care of some smaller stuff around the house now as we built it up. But it can wait. Certainly it can wait.

Kids certainly can wait. They each get $1k a year regardless and are invested in the market. I think preschool is a more important investment for them today and that will be over soon enough. We can catch up even, much more easily, when they are done. I can't believe just one more year for BM.

So I am thinking of trying to squeeze $200/month out of the budget to retirement next year. Unless I get a raise and can squeeze more. I think considering health care and such, $200 will be reasonable. It's probably around 3% of my income. In the grand scheme of things not completely grand. But I expect even at that rate that we will hit six figures in our retirement in the next couple of years. So I am not too worried to have one lax year. I guess the point is it is only one lax year. & considering where we have been, it will probably be a bit more than we have been doing anyway.

I am thinking when BM gets out of preschool I will have another $200/month easy. Just assuming I will need the other $125 of his monthly preschool tuition for school supplies and uniforms and such. We may be able to save much more of that, but want to be realistic all the same. When we are no longer paying for preschool he may want to go back into karate, etc.

Which means by the end of the year we'll be on track to max out dh's traditional IRA easy. With a raise next year we'll be well on our way to funding 1/2 my IRA as well, and that will be complete when LM gets out of preschool. Plus we'll have a little money to spare for his schooling expenses and extra-curriculars.

I guess that's pretty much our 2-3 year plan. I just eye that $650/month to preschool and know that will go a long way, if we can swing it, to savings down the road. I am just not 1000% we can stay on top of that for now. But we'll sure try. I have the money in savings that MIL gave me for school, to fall back on. & a good $3k-$5k to IRAs would not be a bad addition next year.

The other thing I have been thinking about this year is that we had a good year and I earmarked a lot of extra money for "fun" stuff. Next year will be harder to balance that out. On one hand, it will be BM's last year (or 9 months anyway) of freedom before the rigors & schedules of public school. So there is a lot we want to do with that freedom. Then again, with this whole preschool thing it is going to be one tight year. I can already tell it is going to be a hard year to find the right balance. How do we enjoy without going too overboard? At what point do we say, this is just one year. Hopefully the last tight year of our one-income years. Should we not enjoy it though our budget will be $325/month looser by October? Should I be fretting about retirement though it should hit six figures regardless? How many people my age have six figures in their retirement? Without a capable spouse working? Sometimes I wonder why I worry about it. We may be saving $20k/year with little effort when LM hits school and dh returns to work. ??? I certainly am not relying on that 1000% but sometimes I do wonder why I stress so much. I do stress way too much.