This past weekend I spent a good number of hours packing my place. I think I made pretty good progress. Dad is responsible for packing the kitchen/pantry by this weekend, then I'll be finishing up the rest. Sunday is the big move day. I can hardly wait! I'm a little bit worried about the amount of helpers I'm going to have - it may just be my dad, me, and the friend who recc'd me for this job. Oh well, it will at least get done.

Saturday night dad and I went out to eat at Denny's - we had a Boca Burger and an order of pancakes - which we split in half cuz' we both were in the mood for "breakfast" but also for the BB. Then we saw "Date Movie." That was a very corny, gross in some parts, yet very funny movie.

Sunday night I got to my mom's place and had it to myself for a little while. Once mom got there I asked her if she'd like for me to help her on her budget. She agreed. When I put the acutal numbers on the spreadsheet, she was a little depressed (I would be too if my rent and car payment equalled nearly 65%!!! of my take home pay!!) When I found out how much she was paying for her phone services, I asked her if she'd be willing to cut back any. She was more than willing. So I told her exactly what she needed to say to the phone company to get what she wanted - she called the phone company on Monday and cut over $100/mo from her bill! She also had a checking account she was paying fees for - I suggested (strongly) that she think about getting rid of that account -- which she also did! I also suggested that she put a certain amount every month in a "No Touch Fund" -- she set that up to be automatically done!! For her, the more simple the plan the better - so I divided the money left after the non-negotiable bills between groceries, giving, Blow (hair, clothes, nails, extra coke, etc), and the No Touch Fund. She wasn't too excited about the amount of "blow" money, but I pointed out to her that there wasn't really too much left after bills TO divide between the other categories. She seemed to accept that. Only time will tell how much this will help her. --- Oh, another thing. She's going on a cruise next week that a friend of her's paid for and is taking along a certian amount of money for spending. I suggested to her that she make a game out of seeing how little of that money she spends. Then when she gets back, put half of what's left in her blow fund, and the other half in her "one month ahead" fund. She was getting pretty sleepy by then, but I think she was ammenable to the idea.

I am just so proud of her for taking care of the phone and the bank! That right there will help her tremendously! Today she's supposed to call a couple places to give her new address and get W-2's from, as well as health-savings account claim forms. She told me that if I'll file her taxes, she'll come to my new place and help get things organized (we'd both do it for each other anyway - but, oh well.)

My new job is going well. I've been on my own now for two days. Get to have a LOT of time for surfing on the net - not an entirely bad thing, but I do hope I get some other things to do so I feel more useful.

KIF,
Laura