Money and other Matters

I hope everyone had a good weekend. We did. Friday I went to a baby shower for lady in our church which was fun. Saturday I cleaned house and then my dear friend JoAnna and her husband and baby came to visit. JoAnna and I took baby Jed on a long walk and played lots of peekaboo. Sunday was our friend Beth's birthday and so we make a birthday dinner for her after church and had a lovely afternoon.

I mentioned a while back on here that my hours were cut down so I now work 32 hours a week instead of full time. In a lot of ways the cut is a blessing because I was working well over 40 hours before and things were rather crazy. Now I always have Fridays off and the three day weekend makes a huge difference. However the pay check that comes along with the cut is not so great. A 20% cut in time equals a 20% cut in pay. Ouch! Theoretically we can live off of my reduced pay checks no problem. But lately I've been going over the budget. I think the problem has been that I'm used to my old salary and I kinda knew how much I could spend here or there and keep everything within the budget. While my salary has changed my spending hasn't quite adjusted itself yet. This is most evident when it comes to grocery's. So last week I decided we needed a new system. Instead of simply assigning a budget line to groceries to stick to I took out cash for groceries and misc. items. I allotted x amount of cash for each week then when I went to the grocery store I wrote down prices on my list as I shopped, adding up as I went along to make sure I stayed within the allotted cash amount. I'm happy to report that the system worked beautifully. Not only did I stay within my budget but I ended the week with a surplus! I'm excited to see how much money I can save throughout the whole month.

Did you all watch the Oscars? I did not. I know, craziness right? But the truth is I never watch the Oscars. I do check the paper to see what movies were nominated and then I make a vague effort to see them. Then I check the paper to see what movie won and if I haven't seen it I make another vague effort. That is all. My Mom said that Hurt Locker won best picture. I did see this and I was shocked to hear it won best picture. Granted I'm no movie buff, but I did not care for that movie at all. Although to be fair I didn't watch all of it. I watched the first half and then I went in the other room and read while Mr. P finished it. He didn't care for it either. Did you watch the Oscars? Did you watch any of the movies? Any must see?