The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - January 9, 2011

I got out of the habit of doing theses posts, but I am trying to revive them.  It gives me an opportunity to look back on a short period of time and assess....folds into the whole "transparency" thing I have going on......plus, I like reading yours!
 

The Good:  For only being one week into the new year, we are doing ok.  Lots of things to put in this category.

• Mortgage Refi.  So far, so good.  We had our appraisal yesterday, and the report should be ready in a day or two.  There is a chance we may be able to close at the end of the week!!!  But most likely it will be early next week. 

•  Cash for Groceries.  Instead of going gangbusters a-la Gail Vaz-Oxlade or Dave Ramsey and try and live off of cash 100%, we chose to start with one area:  Groceries.  This area is our biggest budget buster.  We are taking $100 every Wednesday (because we have some sort of paycheck every Wednesday) and putting it in there.  As of right now, we have $50 left for the "week."

• Allowance.  This is going to be its own post later, but our big allowance system rolls out today.

• New ING accounts.  Christmas savings account and "party" account (for G-man's birthday in November) have been started.  Tomorrow will be the first official deposit, but the accounts are open and ready to go.

The Bad:  Since these categories are so subjective, my "Bad" might night be yours.  And honestly, one of these things really isn't THAT bad....just that it isn't good, and it isn't ugly.....so it defaults here.

• No-Eating Out Challenge.  I had a "oops" slip up at work.  My boss originally offered to buy lunch, and I said ok.  However, he is getting over Bronchitis.  And by the time it was time to pick up lunch, he was in the middle of a coughing fit and just looked horrible.  I couldn't let him go out and get lunch.  So I picked it up, to the tune of $18 for the two of us.  

• Bookfair.  I posted here about co-chairing bookfair.  I really do love doing it.  However, I have a feeling that I might be putting out a few dollars here and there to make this work.  One area I already know about, and agreed to, is our committee meetings.  My co-chair and I will be having a "craft" night for one meeting, to work on decorations, and we are going to make it appetizers and such....more of a Mom's Night Out.  So I need to put aside a few bucks to cover food and drink for that (she and I are sharing the cost).

• Side Hustle.  I mentioned that I am now a ChaCha guide.  It actually is fun.  I stink at researching the sports questions.  But the variety of questions is wide, so there really are no two questions that are alike.  However, more research into the payment process led me to decide to go the "traditional" route of 2 cents a question (and no payment if you send it on for further research).  I chose the monthly payment option, which only cashes out if you are at $150 by the 14th of the month.  Obviously, January won't happen.  But in order to earn $150 a month, it averages out to 250 questions a day.  I am finding that right now, that will take ALOT of time.  I am sure I will get faster at this.  But right now I don't have that many hours to dedicate to it.  I am hoping to have $150 by Feb 14 though!

The Ugly:  I really don't think we have any "ugly" to report this week!!!  I would say if we had to pick something, it would be our main bathroom project that is getting ready to commence.  Part of our tax return will go towards this, and it is sooooo tempting to just go buy it all now.  But since we don't even know what our return will be yet, it isn't smart to do this.  Plus, we need to wait until we have the money!  The floor was ordered, but that money came from LAST year's return.

So let's hear it.......what were your GBUs for the week?