The "C" word.........

The "C" word is not well received this time of the year.  Let me give you a hint what the "C" word is:

There are only 133 days until the "C" word.

I know who really wants to know this in the middle of a stinking heatwave???

However it will be upon us before we know it.  Already the nights are starting to draw in.  It's now dark until after 6 am.  Despite this stinking heat the nights are a little cooler.  So it is on the horizon.

This year though I am no where near as organized as I normally am, basically because our son is getting married the beginning of January, so it will be a low key Christmas, as we are all travelling to the Bahamas for his wedding.

As most of you know I put money in pots each week for various things.  Been doing this for years now.  I have three pots; a birthday pot, a Christmas pot and a "other thing" pot.  I have a healthy $620 sitting in the Christmas pot.  So will keep adding too it weekly and it should cover everything.  

The "other thing" pot will be saved towards spending money and payment towards our vacation/wedding.  I put a deposit down with the travel agent the other day so that $300 will come out of that pot.  The rest of the money in that pot will be saved and converted into US $.

The birthday pot will take a big hit in September as it's Sammy's, son-in-law's and dh's birthdays.  The good thing though is I know I have enough money to cover everything,  It's a lifesaver those pots.

Back to the "C" word though; a lot of thought is going to have to be put into this, this year as I seriously want to cut back, plus we have two new members in our family..........

Have you thought about the "C" word yet?  Have you made plans for it?

How far do you think ahead?

I guess it all boils down to how organized you are, right?

I put away $20 a week in a pot for birthday's faithfully.  This year is proving a little hard on the pot as we have three big birthday's this year, so the poor pot is taking a beating.  I am working on September's birthday's now.  Got August all wound up and ready to go.

I also put $20 a week in a pot for Christmas.  I have made a start on Christmas shopping; have you?

Do you have a system when it comes to birthday's and holiday's?

It was a big weekend for Our Little Munchkin, as she went from her crib to her toddler bed:

 Her crib/cot goes from a crib to a toddler bed to a full sized bed.  She sucks her thumb when she is tired and is ready to sleep.

It went smoothly as she sleeps on a "camp-type" cot at daycare, so she is used to having no bars on the side etc.

Next big step in her life is potty training!!!

Money Challenges.....

At the beginning of the year I started the 52 Week Savings Challenge, this is my sheet so far:

Hopefully you can see; if not I have been concentrating on the lower amount weeks.  I also seem to be ahead of the game for some reason?  I have crossed off 16 weeks and from what I can see we have only gone through 11 weeks of the year so far?  So I may use the next three weeks to put together the $52 and cross that week off.  Once we have paid off the mortgage it will be easier to pay off the larger weeks.  We are down to week 23 this coming Friday until we pay off the mortgage.

I am still doing the sealed pot challenge.  I only put 5, 10 and 25 cents in my pot, but it's feeling a bit heavier than it was at the beginning of the year.  I am dying to open it to count the money; don't worry I won't spend it if I do!!

My Christmas pot is looking healthy; if you remember I put $20 in there a week and already have $260 saved up.  My birthday pot fluctuates but have $140 in there and my "other" pot has $400 in there.  I am currently saving up that money for the wood for the Fall/Winter of 2013/14.  I did just take $150 out of there to pay for the tickets to the Art Gallery Fund raiser we always go to, and I took $20 out of the birthday pot as well to go towards paying for them.

All in all though I am keeping up with the challenges which is a blessing.

I have also brought in $1,100 for the bringing in an extra $2,013 into the household this year.  That includes working and earning money from surveys etc.  So well on my way to completing that challenge as well.

My Amazon account is also up to $125 all due to Swagbucks, so that too is looking healthy.  My goal for the year was $250 in there, so already half way there with that.

Are you participating in any money  saving challenges?