Wax on. Wax off.

In an attempt to save money and test my ability to inflict pain on myself I waxed my eyebrow. Thankfully I ended up with 2 eyebrows in the end and managed to do a fairly good job. I don't quite have the same perfect arch that I tend to have after visiting a salon, but not too bad if I do say so myself. Ellie watched me in disgust as I gooped the hot magma wax on my brow, then declared that she needed to do this too. Maybe someday you can have mommy's caterpillars over your eyebulbs, but not yet. I'm sure your time will come.

And now to get back on topic, the budget results for January are in.

In the core categories that I'm tracking:

Other Household: $91.55 ($60 UNDER budget)

Clothing: $74 (this is $24 over our budget)

Entertainment: $191.42 (this is $66 over budget because of an eBay payment leftover from December's sellathon -- should have pre-paid that in December so it wouldn't count.)

Misc: $0.00 ($50 UNDER budget)

Darren did the math last night and overall we were $250 over budget, but that doesn't take into consideration the money we will get back from daycare reimbursement or medical reimbursement ($800 in January). So that will put us at $550 under budget. Yea us! Plus it looks like Darren's first estimate of what we owe in taxes was overestimated by several thousand. So, we should have that money saved up that much sooner now. High fives and Wii's all around!

Footin' Qtip Using Husband

As a former audiologist I have preached about the evils of using Qtips to anyone I know and love (screw the people I hate. they get everything they deserve by using the white ear dildos of death). Despite this Darren continues to use them in my home. Ok, whatev. Just don't do it in my presence and don't let the kids see you using them. I was awaken (awoken?) to the following:

D: I'm going to go work out. Can you get up with the kids?

Me: grunt

D: Oh, and can you get a piece of broken Qtip out of my ear?

Me: No.

D: What? Why not? (acting as though getting a Qtip out of his ear is the most natural thing in the world to ask his Qtip hatin' ex-audiologist of a wife)

Me: No, you need to have the shame of going to Urgent Care to get it unlodged. Plus (as I might have mentioned) this is against everything I stand for.

D: There's no way in hell I will ever go to Urgent Care to get this out. It will live in my ear until it disintegrates or grows an ear scented candle.

Me: Fine, but I'm not using the needle nose plyers you have in your hand.

D: I couldn't find the tweezers.

Me: I'll get them, and you're paying me a co-pay (rat-bastard).

FYI: The procedure was a success and I'm pretending he learned his lesson.

Ho'nesty is the Best Policy

I went to Target for non-need related purchases. Gosh that feels better. Ok not really. It doesn't. I managed to get away with only spending $19.50 (it would have been over $20 if I had not neglected to tell the 97 year old Target checkeroutergrandma at the EXPRESS lane that she didn't untangle the gloves from the hat that I was buying thus only charging me for the gloves. Score! I know, I know, Target karma can be a bitch. But I figured she wasted an extra 30-90 seconds of my life by being a slow EXPRESS checker outer.) Did I mention she was slow...and did I mention she was the checker for the EXPRESS lane?

I will say that there were many, many, many things that I had held in my grubby hands that we dying to make an appearance in my home (yea, I'm talking to you 75% off wire and wood drawer type item for $9.99 and 90% off wire decorative bowl for $6.39) But alas, it just wasn't to be. What I did buy was: a workout dvd (Get in Shape, Giiiirl!), a 75% off hat and mitten set and a necklace in varying shades of brown.

Now because I'm having some problems just talking on and on about what I can't buy I need to veer off topic.

1. I love the movie Juno and I love the soundtrack even harder.

2. I just found out at work that I'm now a SENIOR data analyst. WTF? By senior do they mean 18 months of experience in TOTAL of even knowing what the heck a data analyst does? At this rate I'm going to be CIO by May. Anyone else hear "I Believe I Can Fly" in the background?

3. My 3 year old daughter can toot on demand and does so often. But, she wants to be a princess when she grows up so I might need to send her to charm school before she meets her prince. Is there such thing as charm school anymore?

4. My new favorite blog is www.jennsylvania.com . This girl cracks my shit up. She has 2 books out and I swear to baby Jesus they remind me of my friend Barb and if I didn't know better I would think Jen and Barb are one and the same.

5. I didn't give anything away last week because I was out of town. I went to Dallas to visit my brother et al and several friends. A good time was had by me.

Target 0 Bridgette 1

I stepped into Target yesterday to test myself. Well actually I had to pick up a prescription. I left with only the prescription. How awesome am I? I even perused the toy aisle to maybe pick up my niece and nephew their birthday presents, but resisted even when I saw I was hitting the very tail end of the 75% off toy extravaganza that I would have whipped out my debit card faster than you can say LeadLoadedToys last year. I will admit that I got a little nervous when I walked in and smelled that familiar Target smell. What is that smell anyway? It's kind of plastic-ey, but somehow distinctly Target. And no, I'm not pronouncing it Tar-gheeetttte in some weirdass Frenchy accent just because it seems fitting of a perfume or something.

My 7 Things: Week 2

3 pairs of my old glasses that I still have around for no particular reason

4 coffee mugs

Ok, so I get it, the coffee mugs aren’t that big of a deal, but hey, the glasses are! Actually the mugs are a probably a bigger deal to Darren than me. I seem to keep accumulating mugs in the cabinet and they take up valuable space in our rinky-dink kitchen. I actually haven’t donated any of these things yet but they are in my car. I had an extraordinarily busy weekend with Jack’s birthday party (how is it possible that I have a 5 year old?!) on Saturday and then friends over for dinner on Sunday. That’s a lot of houseguests for us.

For my 7 things I’m trying to find more creative places to donate to then just Goodwill. I’m ok with that being my old stand by but if there’s something group specific and they need it I’m going to try to donate there. The glasses I will give to my eye-geek sister who volunteers at a free eye clinic in St. Paul They're always looking for these. The mugs are just going to old reliable.

Look for this exciting topic this week: Overdoing it on party favors

Long Term Goals

Clearly by looking on the side at the amount of money we have spent on crap this year and what our budget is allowing for this year you can see that barring any emergency need for funds, we'll have a lot more to do something with. Because of that I think I need to make some long term goals on what can be done with some or all of the "extra" money. Assuming we hit our budget marks we will have saved a whopping $14,250 in a year. Man alive, just seeing that number bugs my eyes out. So what productive things can we do with that money?

Long term goals:
1. Pay off my student loan in December 2008. This will be a HUUUUGE burden lifted!
2. Add extra money to the kids' eTrade accounts for college
3. Pay down an equal amount on both cars.
4. Vacation to Europe in 2009.

In that order. I can't even tell you how happy I will be when that last loan payment will be sent off. I don't even use this degree anymore, I sure as hell don't want to be still paying for it.

And here's a 1 week post No Target update: 7 days Target-free.
I have a prescription that I have at Target to refill. I have 2 options: have Darren pick it up for me or transfer it to Walgreen's. I think I better transfer it. Now that's dedication to the cause! I could have gone there (or somewhere) to buy Jack's birthday present, but I had Darren do that too. It's too soon to have free access to shopping.

My 7 things: Week 1

My 7 things for this week in addition to the Christmas stuff I donated are:
5 bridesmaid dresses
2 of my sister's prom dresses that she wanted me to try to sell for her last year but they didn't sell.

I donated the dresses to ARC and the prom dresses I gave to Ever After Gowns. I would have given them my old bridesmaid dresses, but let's be honest, these girls want to look like they are going to a 2008 prom not like they're getting ready to bust out The Chicken Dance or I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll with her Aunt Martha.

I didn't manage to get my basement bedroom cleaned out like I had hoped to this week. Instead, I laid around on the couch coughing up my SARS all over the place. I think I'm on the mend so I'm hoping to get back down there and finish up tomorrow.