Feeling broke...

I know as I write this things are not as dire as I might feel right now. Penny, just ignore this because this is NOTHING like you're going through and I apologize for writing this. However, I've got to vent before I go completely nuts.

I feel like we're hemorrhaging money right now. We've done a lot this year - almost completely redone the apartment (bathrooms, decorating, living room) which wasn't cheap and while we've not had a vacation yet we have organized ourselves a week in Jamaica (where we went last year) as it was the cheapest place I can find and we know what we're going to get. In addition to that I've bought several flights this year to the UK and elsewhere for ourselves and also over the past few weeks sorted the kids out for the holidays. We're off to Vegas with Tim, Atlantic City with Jenny and Frankie and who knows what else. We've also had medical bills from Peter's surgery last May......tuition fees, and oh yeah a wedding. It's totally nuts. All of it we deemed necessary.....

I guess I'm freaking out more than usual because we also took a big income dip with Trev's job move. I'm so happy he's finally happy in his job and it's definitely worth it....but it just seems that no matter what we plan our savings are getting depleted. I guess I'm used to being able to plan stuff and also be able to save without a lot of effort. Not working right now.....

Now.... I say this knowing that a) I have a personal trainer and so does Trev b) I pay someone to clean my apartment c) Trev has his work shirts laundered d) I get a massage relatively frequently. I really have nothing to complain about at all....and given that Penny is going through the toughest time I feel so guilty even writing this.

Things I'm doing to cut costs
- I take lunch to work every day (saves at least $7/day)
- I don't buy coffee out at all (I use the free stuff at work)
- I never buy magazines or newpapers out (I can use the online websites)
- I don't eat out during the week, we have food at home, we eat that (no matter how tempting the pizza at the end of the street is)

I started to use Quicken.com - and Trev agrees. That way we can at least understand where all the cash is going. Hopefully that'll help us get back on track. I'm definitely creating a budget, and starting today we're keeping to it.

With any luck, Trev will get great bonuses and I won't have to worry like I am right now.