WaWa NoNo.

My Mint budget program has revealed that we spend too much moola at WaWa. Morning coffee, sandwiches, drinks, and quick dinner runs after late baseball/softball games. The good thing about WaWa is they offer a wide variety of foods so healthy alternatives are always available.

The bad thing is we've grown so accustomed to going that it's become second nature to run to WaWa to supplement our meals. I'll challenge myself to stay away from WaWa for seven days and not use WaWa as a crutch for our meals, snacks and weekend breakfasts. I'll just have to plan ahead and prepare meals in advance.

Day 1 morning - so far, so good. Oops, forgot to tell Busy Hubby the plan, hopefully he didn't make a WaWa run before hitting the turnpike!

Mint anyone?

I just have to share this new discovery. Busy Hubby (BH) and myself are constantly looking for ways to create a household budget. Between recreational activity fees, school fundraisers and household expenses (not to mention gas and tolls for BH- creating a budget is a necessity. The first step in creating a budget is to track your spending, not as easy as it sounds. Well while reading the latest issue of Essence Mag, there was yet another article about budget how-to's, "5 Money Tools to Make Your Life Easier". The first tool was www.mint.com, a free money management program. So simple! All you do is create an account and enter your bank, debit and credit card information. The website provides you with an overview of your finances in one location. What makes this program so different is, it actually identifies and records what you are spending on groceries, gas, shopping, eating out, even atm fees! What I've learned is we spend too much money on atm fees, eating out (with all the after school activities, cooking is touch and go), and morning coffee runs.

I love this program!!!! You can also separate work and personal expenses and it keeps track of what credit you have available on your cards as well as if you go over your limit. I haven't had a chance to really play around with it as I'd like. I'm sure there are more benefits that I haven't mentioned.

Wire Transfer Update: Checked account, still no moola.

Hello Old Friend!

Wow, it's been two months since I've blogged. So much to catch up on.

Well, I held an intro to web design class a few weeks ago to a group of children ages 5 - 11. It went very well and they were so receptive to learning, very encouraging! It was intended to be a one time intro class, but the parents and children are interested in learning more in future classes, so we'll see.

The softball and baseball season has officially begun. Busy girls travel softball tournaments begin this weekend. She's already had a couple of scrimmages-they won! So I need to pull out my big game bag and stock it with sunscreen, paper towels, antibacterial wipes, snacks, water, beach towel, visor and my binoculars. I'm all set!

Work has been steady and continuous - good thing. I have a new client that can only pay me via wire transfer. The corporate office is based in Denmark. Well, it's been over two months since I've completed the assignment and every week I keep hearing the same thing, "Our records show the transfer was done on Monday." - this has been told to me for two weeks straight...I don't understand it.