September Challenge

 Tyler's first day of school went great, he was ready to have a go at it again this morning. Hubby and I just barely made it back to the bus stop in the afternoon, wheee. DD#1 survived her first born going off to school, her two little ones help fill that long first day. :)

 I worked on a few Halloween pinwheels after dinner last night. Here is a tip if you are playing along. Keep a sample of a completed block nearby to follow otherwise you may have to do some seam ripping!

 Much better.

I have a nice stack of pinwheel blocks stared as well as the rest cut out and ready to complete. I hope to finish my blocks up over the weekend so I can move on to the sashing next week.

Check out Carla's blog for a financial challenge in September. I am SOO in on this one. Over the summer we have been sloppy with our spending and savings. I hope this challenge will get us back on track. My goal for the month is to bump up our savings an additional $500.00 to add too our Vacation/Christmas account. Hubby added an additional trip in October for us to attend his class reunion, I need to get the extra $$ put back to cover the costs for motels, gas, food and extras that are sure to come up. I went ahead and sent the check for our dinner and dance out today from the vacation/Christmas account and will be checking our motel points to see how many free days we have coming LOVE those points!

Here are the obstacles I will need to overcome this month

DD#1 has a birthday coming up. I do have the fabric for her Birthday quilt on hand but we will be including a card with a GC or cash along with the quilt. Added to that is dinner out for the entire family. Sometimes the adult kiddo's want dinner at home which would help me reach my goals much better.

I have a Dr appointment coming up in September for my feet that will run about $200.00 (please no more) While I could use our HSA to pay for the visit we consider that account as another tool for our retirement health care cost so we don't use it.

Our 37th Anniversary trip is also in September. I have already pre paid for the cabin and will receive part of the $$ back from the others who will be joining us. I cook the majority of our meals in the cabin and pack lunches on the bikes so we can stop and eat whenever the mood strikes us. I don't really expect that we will spend much more than that but you never know when I might run into a book from the area that I can't pass up!!

I will stick to my $200.00 weekly spending cash for groceries, gas and odds and ends around the house, whatever I can save from that will help me reach the goal. The rest I will need to squeeze from our regular paychecks. We made a HUGE change to our budget this week that will save us a TON of money in the long run but for now our monthly expenses have gone up. ( a separate post is coming on the increase)  It's gonna be tight but I am determined to get back on track. Make sure and link up with Carla if you would like to join in!! The more the merrier.