Man, I am whipped.

I did all my Thank-You cards yesterday. I should be thankful there were so many, but I wasn't. LOL. Seemed like an all day project.

Anyway, I did enjoy the morning. I'll give you that. Then I worked all afternoon. Then at 5:00 I did paperwork for various things (rebates, contests) and all the Thank-Yous. I still have to dig out addresses for most of them. I just don't keep addresses. I am terrible that way. As organized as I am. Of course I have a lot memorized which is my thing. & phone #s are in the cell phone. I just never really saved addresses anywhere. Maybe I should make that my goal. Need to look some up on the web and call our moms for the rest. Isn't that terrible? LOL. I guess with the internet age I don't need addresses for any other reason.

Then dinner and gave the kids a bath. & then pretty much crashed. I fell asleep at 9 which is even a little early for me. But I did sleep well...

This week will be no better. On go go go mode.

Then again January is about 1/2 over, which means tax season is about 1/8 over. It will FLY! At this rate it will be over in a blink. That's the upside I guess. This time of year always fly with the hecticness and then I can slow down and enjoy the rest of the year.

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Well, I cleaned up Quicken a bit yesterday. I added a category for gym/fitness. & differentiating 2007/2008 IRA contributions. Stuff like that.

I also looked long and hard at "miscellaneous." For budgeting purposes I don't want to spend a lot of time breaking down every little category. There is a time tradeoff there.

For example, on groceries. Everything we buy at the grocery store I just put in groceries. I know all we buy is groceries, personal care products, cat food/cat litter, etc. Everything we buy at the grocery store though is pretty basic. The basic needs.

For a while I was breaking out how much we spent on milk, bread, meat, etc. Just out of curiosity. But that, like the price book, was just way too impractical and time consuming. Just not my thing. So I am happy to leave groceries as is. There isn't any fat to cut there anyway, so why bother. (Not now that dh lowered our bills like 20%). !!

Miscellaneous is much the same. I don't want to budget every item to the penny. Plus I like some flexibility. So I always had a round $150/month in my head towards miscellaneous. Usually for stuff like going to the zoo, to concerts, small car repairs, excess medical expenses, or whatever. If it was a slow month and nothing came up, we'd enjoy it. But if we had car repairs and too many trips to the doctor, we would apply it for that stuff and splurge less. Same when we just needed stuff around the house.

I decided this is still very fine for budgeting purposes. I really like this part of the budget because it is so flexible. Just makes it easier.

But when it came to year-end and comparisons to prior year, lord know what that big blob of miscellaneous was. LOL.

So I looked at it closer and broke it down to about 10 sub categories. Might matter less to me throughout the year, but at year-end it will be nice for the big picture, to know how much we spent on this and that.

I already had categories for dh, me, and the kids. So will leave those. (For birthday presents and just misc. things that don't fit anywhere else).

I then added the following categories:

**Household (just stuff around the house. I put the thank you cards here. From last year I saw stuff like mattress pads, beard trimmers, table clothe, towels, etc.)

**Electronics

**Furniture

**Entertainment (I have a separate category for our blockbuster online service, but it is outside of the misc. budget. All the rest of our entertainment out goes to misc. So figured I'd add it here too).

**Family Activities (This is what we used misc. the most for, anyway)

**Books/CDs/Software

**Holidays (easter egg decorating, halloween costumes, anything and everything holiday. Except I have a separate category for Christmas, already, as that is the pricier holiday).

Anyway, looking at last year, that was the best way to break down the misc. items. So we'll see how that goes. It's a work in progress... I think I will appreciate this for year to year comparisons. & seeing where our money really went. I am just going to reclass last years' numbers, monthly, as we go along. So that I will have useful comparative reports throughout the year.

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Yesterday I was perusing the paper and found a $1 off coupon for my deoderant. So I think I will pick some up. I am particular about my shampoo and deoderant, though particular about little else.

I also saw $1 off for Cover girl. I could kick myself for not looking through those before buying make up last week. I mentioned I only buy like once every 5 years. So I just have to put that somewhere in my brain for next time.

Dh is usually good with the coupons, and stocking up on the regulars on sale. But these are the things he didn't think of. Too girly. LOL. So I have to remember to peruse the adds and stock up when I see coupons.

P.S. We sign up Big Money for kindergarten tomorrow. !!!!!! I think I am going to cry. It doesn't help that a relative said that now he will be an adult in a blink. Once they start school it is over... (Not what I want to hear).

Well I still have Little Monkey. For now... He's still a little snuggle bug. I will really miss this age/stage when it passes.

I never even wanted kids and now I think I am a baby addict. LOL. Figures. Well maybe I will have grandchildren someday. I know I don't want more kids. I really don't. But there is a lot I will miss about the baby/toddler age.

I guess good thing for nieces and nephews!!!