Infected

Samantha and I both went to the doctor on Friday. I have a sinus infection and she has an ear infection. That same day, Ron got this little lump removed from his ankle. So after all of the co-pays for the visits to the doctors, we still had to pay $88.68 in copays for all of our medications.

Samantha and I went shopping on Saturday for my cousin's wife's baby shower gift. We ended up spending $96.83. I forgot to budget for this.

Also, I am about to go over my grocery budget for the month.

Hmmmm.

So I think what I am going to do is pay us back next month, for the overages this month. In other words leave the money in checking to cover these expenses as if they were bills.

I'm going to bulk up the amount we keep in cash for co-pays to $120.00. I'm also going to make a cash gift fund of $100.00 to cover irregular gifts like the shower gift. I also need to keep my eye on the amount that we spend on groceries and make sure that the $200.00 per week that I budget is enough. I have a huge order on the way from Safeway.com so that should help.

Robby has decided to take this year off from school. His original idea was to just take the quarter off so he could work more hours and pay for hockey. Ron and I then suggested that he take off a whole year, save some money and get his feet underneath him. Perhaps then he will feel more ready to tackle college. The plan right now is for him to get a "real" full time job (probably working in a warehouse). Then he will pay all of his expenses, plus he will pay us rent. We will take this rent and put it away for him, thereby forcing him to be working on a nest egg of sorts. At the end of the year he should have a nice chunk of change put away and maybe be done with hockey. Then he can go from there. I'm pretty satisfied with the plan. I just hope it gets rolling soon. We're going to make his first month's rent due December first to "encourage" him to get started on a job hunt.