Day	Amount	Place	Category
Monday	$23.25	Safeway	Groceries
	$7.00	Cigarettes	Allowance
Wednesday	$125.31	Poppy	Eating Out
	$105.30	Concert	Allowance
Thursday	$11.00	Subway	Eating Out
Friday	$172.10	CostCo	Groceries
	$8.75	Half Price Books	School
Saturday	$14.00	Remedy Tea	Allowance
	$31.00	Gas	Car
Sunday	$67.53	Lowes	House
	$21.78	PetCo	Pets

Wednesday we hit one of the restaurants for Seattle Restaurant week. The total represents paying for J, as well, and he’ll pay us back.

We got called on Wednesday to find out if we wanted to attend an adoption training on Thursday night- it had been full, but they had some people cancel, so went ahead and did that, though it did cause us to eat out again. In fact, we’ve got another training tomorrow (they run 5-8pm), so we’ll likely grab something out again, then, too. Oh well, I knew this month would get us on the eating out.

Wednesday I also bought us tickets for a concert this summer. It’s at a venue we really like and are looking forward to it.

The cigarettes, in case you’re wondering, are C’s. He knows I don’t like him smoking, but it’s a stress reliever for him, and since his mother died just over a month ago, I’m not saying anything yet. We did, however, finally engage a lawyer (a friend) to start the probate process. Yay for one less thing I still have to think about.

Also on the good news front, we expected the MIL’s life insurance to only pay out on her two small policies. However, we sent in all three policy numbers, just in case. They paid out on the big policy, too- so we got a check on Friday for over twice what we were expecting from the life insurance. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s enough that we should pretty much have all out of pocket adoption expenses covered. I am certain that this would make the MIL very happy, and again, it is one less thing we have to think about.

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

I need to get back to searching for markets for my already completed pieces.

2)      Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

This is on hold for now. I did, however, start a new website called The Prose Passage, which is focused on writing and critique. As of now, I haven’t added an AdSense to it, but I probably will.

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.

Our credit card points were being doubled or something for February and March. If we have another month or two like those, I will be able to pay for my entire plane ticket with credit card points. As it stands, right now I could buy a ticket with points and only $70 out of pocket.

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: $20.42 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100)

6)      Be healthier

Monday-Wednesday, I took salad to work for lunch. (I left early Thursday and Friday.) I don’t know that anything else we ate this week qualified as healthy, though the mango curry with chicken we had on Monday and the Hungarian style paprika chicken we had last night wasn’t too bad. And, thinking about it, our chicken and mozzarella raviolis in a pesto sauce on Friday were also probably on the healthier side.

I walked Monday-Wednesday at lunch, too. It felt really nice to get out of my office and not be sitting in a chair. The walks took maybe 15 minutes each, but it’s better than nothing.

I mowed the front yard on Saturday and the back yard on Sunday. Plus we went to the dog park Friday and Sunday.