Day	Amount	Place	Category
Tuesday	$    6.50	Cafeteria	Allowance
Thursday	$  10.50	McDonalds	Eating Out
Friday	$  13.50	Subway	Eating Out
	$  51.00	Gas	Car
Saturday	$  70.00	Saffron	Eating Out
Sunday	$  55.00	CostCo	Groceries

Just over $200 this week. Considering that we got back $230+ from CostCo, returning things we had bought for the MIL, we’re actually at a net positive for the week on this kind of spending.

Obviously the big news of the week is the MIL’s passing early Friday morning. But besides that, (focusing on the positives), we completed the first aid/CPR class necessary for our foster care license (so much more to do for that, but one thing down), and made some progress toward getting our house more organized. I did a lot of shredding.

Saturday night was Indian food with my cousin. She’s 20. We paid for her.

 

Bloggers Give Back Update

I should have done this last week, but I forgot. Most days in February I clicked on all the sites at The Greater Good Network, and I answered the trivia questions at Free Kibble and Free Kibble Kat. I did not do any volunteer work via Sparked.

We did, however, take in our foster dog Howie, who comes to us via Old Dog Haven.

We also started the adoption process for a child, and Jana (of Daily Money $hot) tells me that counts toward Giving Back, too.

 

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 1 acceptance

2)      Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

This is on hold for now.

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 $45. I have already bought the ticket to FinCon12.

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

I plan to be a member of Epsilon class when the application goes up in August. 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.

5)      Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $18 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100)

6)      Be healthier

Obviously eating McDonald’s on Thursday night wasn’t healthy, but I don’t care. We’d just come from seeing the MIL for the last time and saying goodbye. If C had wanted to buy out a Baskin Robbins, I would have let him. A bacon cheeseburger wasn’t a big deal.

Sunday and Wednesday, we had curried ground turkey. Monday we had spinach and cheese raviolis (from CostCo). Tuesday and Thursday, I made pasta with a roasted red pepper sauce. I was quite happy with how it turned out taste wise. Picture wise, though, the camera just didn’t focus, so no pictures of that.

Friday, however, J continued being the best roommate in the world and made stuffed bell peppers.

Saturday, actually made meatloaf for himself and a friend, so tonight we get leftover meatloaf (made with ground turkey). And tomorrow will probably be the left over bell peppers.

We also took the dogs on two short walks this weekend. Hopefully with DST now being in effect, we will be able to walk or get them to the dog park more often on weekdays.