**I don't know if this is a sign that my luck is turning. But, my Zappos credit has still never materialized. I decided to get a few things done today and did an online chat to resolve. I just want my refund, but they were very apologetic and sent me a $35-off coupon. Woohoo! Now I am GLAD it got lost. Heck, I hope they lose my credit again.

I had been waiting for a credit card reward to buy some replacement tennis shoes. Not in sore need for them, but just thinking ahead. My shoes are 3 years old and starting to fall apart a bit. Showing signs of wear, anyway, though I think they have some life left. So, I just bought a replacement pair. $15 out of pocket. I am thrilled with that purchase.

**I got a free offer for a canvas print - Walgreens. I had a few gifts in mind, though I'd have to pay for shipping. Decided to do a print for Grandma - some pictures my dad took of the family a couple of months ago. Was intended to be a gift for her, but not sure if anyone made prints for her. If I ever get another similar offer (who knows) then I have an idea for my Dad. I'd have done an England trip picture, but they didn't really have a good photograph for that. It would have been a nice keepsake if that had a great picture. So yes, I had a LOT of ideas...

**We finally did a belated last minute birthday thing for BM. Spent about $50 for his favorite play place and tried a new Mongolian BBQ place - both about 25 miles away. Dinner was only $5 for the kids - always a steal for us at "All You can Eat" - with the way our kids eat.

So, I can cross that off the list.

**I did not really do a lot this week, but with all the errands and birthday stuff and yadda yadda, it was kind of exhausting. I find work to be way less exhausting, I guess. I thrive on a schedule, so always seem to flounder when I don't have a set schedule.

Today I am trying to be productive. Cleaned up a bit, am making dinner, stuff like that.

**I actually had $130 in returns this week, so might have spent less than I returned. Phew! We spent about $15 on cat stuff, $30 on lunch out (just dh and I), $50 on birthday stuff. $8 (with tip) on haircut for older child. This basically means that I paid for all this stuff last month. The returns will offset the costs this month. I had returned another pair of shoes at Payless, and a garden hose at Home Depot (dh had bought a shorter hose when we had no water, but decided against using it for whatever reason).

I think we are going for a pretty low spend month the rest of the month. Splurged a wee bit on our Staycation. We are actually eating a lot of rice and lentils, for sure.

Oh - and I had one more cost to offset the returns - to make it even steven. Our water bill was +$25. We lost 20,000 gallons with our water leak - is that right? Glad to close that chapter. & relieved it wasn't like $200 or something. !! You hear of that happening with less obvious leaks. It helps to live in a water wasting city - they don't really reward you for conserving or penalize you for tons of waste. So, "phew" for this month?

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I am feeling very relaxed and blase about money stuff these days.

I think two reasons:

1 - We did a "save for one thing at a time" approach, which is helpful when you have $6,000 in entirely unexpected home repairs in the course of a couple of weeks. WE may delay funding ROTHs until April, so we don't have to dip into our cash. (I have until August 31st to pay off the plumbing bill - charged on credit - and will get two more paychecks before then).

Anyway, in this situation, just glad to be saving everything to cash right now. This does not mean our ROTH is a secondary goal by *any* means. Is definitely the primary goal. It's just, if we can wait until April without slowing down any other goals, then that makes us happy. Win-win.

2 - With the markets doing so well these days, and considering the big picture, it's hard to sweat the small stuff. Net worth is up six figures, year-to-date. All in all, not much to complain about.