Day	Amount	Place	Category
Tuesday	$     3.52	Cafeteria	Allowance
	$     9.28	Safeway	Groceries
Wednesday	$   10.00	Dentist	Medical
	$   23.07	Qdoba	Eating Out
Friday	$   42.48	Gas	Car
Saturday	$   60.00	Saffron	Eating Out
Sunday	$ 107.66	CostCo	Groceries
	$   23.76	Target	House

Under $300 this week, which isn’t bad. I now have some file boxes that will help me sort paperwork tomorrow when I spend some quality time working on de-cluttering our office (and perhaps even try to make some progress de-cluttering the bookshelf in our bedroom). I know it’s an exciting way to spend my holiday, but it’s needed. C will be doing homework, and J doesn’t have the day off.

Big news this week was that on Wednesday I got my braces off! I do have to wear nighttime retainers for the rest of my life, but it feels so nice not to have the braces. My teeth are still adjusting, though it’s nothing like when I first got them on and I was on a semi-liquid diet for about 3 months.

Also big news this weekend, you may remember me writing about my brother’s new venture, well, tomorrow is their official opening date. (Here’s their hostels.com page.) Though apparently, they did have some Brazilian students show up on Friday night (they found the place via their smart phones) to find out if they were open early. They went ahead and checked the kids in, though they apparently had to help carry their own mattresses upstairs to the newly renovated bedroom.

I have six goals for 2012. As part of the Sunday evening posts, I am tracking those goals, kind of like I do for spending, in order to hold myself accountable.

1)      Be paid for publishing one piece of fiction

Submissions so far: 2

Responses: 1 rejection (this was for a contest. Almost 240 entries, only 10 chosen)

In big news, my book finally earned enough money that they send me a check! I’ve made back slightly less than 25% of what I paid to publish it. I know it’s not much, but it’s still exciting to me. Another 10 years or so, and the book might actually make a profit.

2)      Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

The artist I plan to be working with has been really swamped with her new job. I saw her for about 2 minutes earlier this week. Once her schedule gets settled, we can sit down and discuss the book.

As for using my dog park pictures for a dog park/Live by Pets version, I need to go through my pictures and make sure I have enough that are decent enough quality, and then work to get a web page for them put up.

3)      Attend FinCon12. Pay for the trip with money from allowance/side projects saved/earned BEFORE the conference starts. Goal: $600

My current balance is ($144.50), however, I’ve already bought the FinCon12 ticket, so I only need to save $500 more. That number also doesn’t count the check I got for the book on Friday, which will take my balance to ($122). (I told you the check wasn’t very big.)

C and I have also decided that we will each get $250 from our tax refund toward our allowances. That will put me in the positive numbers again. Not only weren’t we expecting a refund this year, we certainly weren’t expecting one as big as we’re getting. A substantial amount will still be added to savings to help pay for home improvement goals.

4)      Become a member of Yakezie (6 month anniversary is Jan 21)

It was announced this week that the Epsilon class application will go up in August. I plan to be a member of that class. I do need to make sure I’m still connecting with new challengers, though, because a lot of the challengers on my list this last time will be Yakezie Delta class members.

My current Alexa rating is 135,805.

5)      Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $18.55 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100)

6)      Be healthier

We went to the dog park once, and that was today. We hope to make it again tomorrow.

We ate pretty healthy. C made lemon rosemary chicken for a couple nights, and the night I made my turkey penne casserole, I used diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce and added a whole green pepper (it’s vegetable).

We did go out for Indian food on Saturday to celebrate me getting my braces off. I’m pretty certain my mango curry and bottomless chai were not super healthy, but they were incredibly yummy.