Jan. 30 - $25.00 Another Tire
Jan. 29 - $22.00 Gas
Week 4 total: $140.00
Week 3 total: $330.48
Week 2 total: $278.05
Week 1 total: $374.24

**5 no spend days**

Items bought new in 2007:
Nintendo DS accessories (2) (dh)
Underwear(dh)
Packing Tape (for ebay selling)
Bubble envelope (for ebay selling)
Shipping Labels (for ebay selling)
Tire Pressure Guage
Pin-wheel
Toy Bird
Professional Pants (5)
Professional shirts (7)
Professional Blazer
Knee-his (for work)
Panty hose (ebay)

Items bought used in 2007:
Tires for Car (2)
Used books for kids (6)

Items free in 2007:
Old cell phones for kids to play with
Toddler's First Library Card!

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Ah, no no-spend days this weekend because I asked dh grabbed to grab some salmon at the store for my salmon patty craving - saturday. YEsterday I Was in quite a mood and was REALLY craving sweets - sent dh for ice cream. So $30 between sat & sun - he stocked up on milk and yogurt as well, maybe other things.

I think beyond stressed I Was also exhausted. I love to take naps on the weekends and got a lovely 2-hour nap Sunday. Then I could not keep my eyes open past 8:00 and slept like an absolute log - hardly stirring all night. It was nice. No wonder I Was in such a funk - exhaustion I guess. BAby has been sleeping rather well too - we both took an hour or so on the floor one night and since then he will wake up, cry for 5 minutes, and go back to sleep. HE is a drooling fool so no doubt teething or something. But just those nasty molars left, might be a LONG few months, but at least he has not been up EVERY night.

Oh well, today is not the frugalest of days. BM has to be picked up from preschool by 5, over by my work (sort of) a good 20 minutes from home. I am working on cranking out my last set of W-2s. Phew!!!! But asked dh to pick up BM. There is not way I will be done at 4:45. So a lot of wasted gas today. THere will be a lot more days like this in the spring months. Offset by lots of overtime pay I guess...

I don't like to do things last minute but if I think about it, it is truly a miracle I am not further behind considering I Was IT specialist week 1 of January and dh was out of commission about a whole week, week 2. So I have had 2 weeks about to do a month's work. Hopefully I will be all caught up tomorrow and no more Sundays working. But I wouldn't count on it. Just stuff piling up that I didn't have time to do this month, and then the tax appointments start - I have one this week and one next week already. Oy vey.

I am still waiting on my 1099s and stuff but I Want to file for my refund already - LOL.

In the meantime I may be almost done with my client's W-2s, but I have a big pile of 1099s to work on too. Hopefully those will ALL be out of my hair Jan. 31. Almost there!!!! All this stuff makes January about the worst time of year for us. December is pretty bad, so is JAnuary. I am sure I will saying Feb & March are the WORST too when my days are filled with tax returns, and no time to do our regular accounting. & then April is really really really bad because we are so behind AND we have April 15th as well as April 30th quarterly payroll filings. So yeah, I will be saying every month is the worst until May. & then I will say I will have so much time to catch up. But then someone will quit or go on maternity leave or something. LOL. I just notice with time I get gradually more and more busy, even during "slow" months. I've tried to resist too much work and responsibility, but there is only so much you can do - I think with my longevity I am a little too heavily relied on. Feel like the place would fall apart without me lately. We need a new manager. That is what we really need. I think this comes at a good time though. Concerned about money, a little more willing to take on more and work more. I still have it pretty good overall. Lots of flexibility.

That reminds me, I keep trying to think of other ways to make money. I just remembered my boss offered a bonus for us to recruit people. I don't remember how much, a couple thousand perhaps. You will appreciate this though. What was SO crazy at my first CPA firm job was there was a huge shortage of staff from 2-5 years or so experience. The reason, well they paid crap and worked you to death, but you had to do CPA firm audits to get your license - for 2 years. Anyone who stayed longer was on partner track pretty much. OTherwise there would be NO Reason to stay really. At my first job I Was making about $30k/year and they offered us a $10k bonus to recruit someone in the 2-5 year range. $10k. You know how many people got that bonus? 0. Was impossible. Just impossible!!! Of course whenever I got together with my college friends we would spend the whole time trying to recruit each other, each with dollar signs in our eyes - LOL. No way no how.

Anyway, well, I will keep it in front of mind for once things settle down after April. I Will have to really think hard and see if I can find anyone. LOL. IT's pretty much an impossible task, but wouldn't hurt to try I guess. Today there is no 2-year audit rule so basically it is impossible to find anyone, experience or not. I think as long as I work here I won't get worked to death at least. So far it's been okay. But you know if one more person leaves, I don't know. I might even ask my boss if his reward applies to new-college grads. IF so I wouldn't mind getting involved in college recruitment. We got to spur some interest in our little firm. Something to think about when it is not so BUSY.