Day	Amount	Place	Category
Tuesday	$3.28	Safeway	Groceries
Wednesday	$4.23	Cafeteria	Allowance
Friday	$163.36	CostCo	Groceries
	$5.90	Post Office	MIL
	$62.08	Safeway	Groceries
Saturday	$7.98	IGA	Groceries
Sunday	$5.00	Internet	Allowance
	$61.00	Lowes	House

Felt much more in control this week. There were two days where we didn’t spend any money at all. Tuesday and Wednesday were small amounts (though one was lunch out for me). We also got everything mailed off to do probate in NV, where the MIL’s property is, so hopefully that will be done soon.

In addition, we got another life insurance check for the MIL, again, bigger than we expected it to be. When we found the policy, it was so small that when we called them, they just called the funeral home and told us- we’ll pay. They didn’t require any other paperwork. When we got the check, it was so much bigger than we expected (we are not talking huge amounts here, just a few thousand, but a few thousand has an impact) we had to figure out why. Apparently, they found she had a second policy with them, about 2x as big as the first, and paid that, too.

On Wednesday, we took a whole bunch of books to Half Price Books and got some money back from them. And then donated a few things toValueVillage.

Saturday morning, we got some basement cleaning done and more bins in the attic. Then I went off on my writers’ retreat with my writing group. (I had to pay for internet on Sunday because all of my writing is kept “in the cloud”.) C and J did more work in the house over the weekend, including finally making it so our dryer vents to the outside world instead of into our garage- this included running ducting along the roof of our garage to the outside wall. This coming weekend should see the dump run.

So, feeling in control and making progress. It was a good week, capped off with an excellent 32 hours spent with my writing group. I’m calling it a win.

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 am getting very excited about the anthology I’m going to be published in.Readingthe galleys has just amped that up.

2)      Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

This is on hold for now. I’m hoping to get back to it in June.

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 in the negatives- by a lot. I have already bought the ticket to FinCon12.

I’m holding off on buying a plane ticket for now. I do believe I’ll end up with enough credit card points to get one without spending any money 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.

In order to develop relationships with new challengers, I have decided that each edition of What I’m Reading on Saturdays will now include a new challenger.

5)      Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $21.94 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100)

6)      Be healthier

Monday I brought a salad to work for lunch and took a nice walk. Beyond that, on Friday we went to the dog park, and on Saturday I took a stroll along the beach. But not much exercising. We did not eat to unhealthily, but also didn’t make any extra effort to make healthy foods.

Goals for this week include more Dance Central on the Kinnect and more walking.