So ... as I look at my spending and at where I'm spending, I've come to the realization that I'm stressing myself out trying to make sure I don't overspend in any one particular category. Namely, groceries, but there are other places too. It may be going down a dangerous road here, but I've decided to change up my budget strategy. From this point forward I'm going to put into certain categories the amount that I'd like to shoot for (i.e. groceries), and then of course the fixed categories would have the exact amount. Most other categories will be left empty. Money not allocated to fixed categories or categories such as groceries will go into a general savings fund. I've decided to stop distinguishing my savings categories, and lump them all into one pile. So, that means all my rainy day savings as well as other savings will go into the same pot. At the end of the month if there's anything left in the categories that I put in a "target" amount of funds, that money will be swept into the general savings fund.

I'll still record what I actually spend in multiple categories, I just won't have a specific amount of funds allocated to all of them.

This weekend I spent nearly $500 on books for school/library. I bought 6 sets of 6 books for the summer school kids to use in novel studies, a bunch of space related books/activity guides, some professional resources to help with Common Core, and 36 Hi/Lo books. The Hi/Lo books probably could have (should have) waited, but the others I felt I needed to go ahead with ordering. The average cost of the books is about $8 (mainly thanks to one $26 book, otherwise the average would've been closer to $7 per book.) Oh, this was after the $25 in AGC's. The Hi/Lo books all were part of the 4-3 promotion, so I actually got 6 of them for free (I thought I was going to get 8 free ... not sure why I didn't.) So, generally speaking I got around $650 worth of books for less than $500 (after 4-3 promotion, AGC's, buying good condition used copies ..)

I sometimes wonder if my overarching need to buy books for the library is partly a backlash from the years and years and years where I bought only one or two books a year for myself. Now I have a good excuse to buy books - right?

Part of these thoughts stem from my dad asking me yesterday how much I had saved for my car - and I had to tell him "~$500" and he laughed at me. So I amended what I said to say that altogether in savings I have a good bit more - just not called car savings. Truth be told though, if I needed to replace my car next week, I'd be scraping money together from every piggy hole and couch cushion that wasn't allocated for mandatory expenses ...

So between how much I've been stressing out about my spending, and my realization that no matter what I may call my various savings categories, they all would be spent for one thing if necessary ... I came up with this idea. I figure I'll try it for a few months and see if it helps me to curb my spending better, or if it makes it worse. I can always go back to my other way of doing it if it makes it worse.

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Today I wasn't quite dressed for outside viewing when someone knocked on my door. It was my neighbors - they'd found a medium sized white dog wandering the neighborhood and thought they recognized it - they just weren't sure who's it was. I knew it immediately - our nurse's dog. So after identifying it (I was in bare feet and holey shorts) I went inside and put some jeans on and called our nurse. No answer. I tried a couple other numbers and couldn't get in touch with her. So finally I decided to chance taking the dog inside with Kari. At first Kari was all bushy tailed and hackles, but then she realized that the dog wasn't going to hurt her and became somewhat comfortable and curious. Finally our nurse saw she had missed calls from a TX number and figured it was me, then came and got her dog.

This gives me hope that Kari will do okay, and possibly even do well, with our Title 1 teachers cat this summer. We'll see I guess.