Chores I want/need to do soon:

• Get rid of my graveyard of magazines in the bedroom
• organize/catalogue what’s in the pantry
• go through stuff in the office for potential yard sale in September
• vacuum
• fold laundry

Habits I’d like to foster:

• planning out a week’s worth of meals in advance
• Getting back to doing Tae Bo
• Reading rather than watching TV

A period of extreme frugality is coming again soon…we’re going to have two sets of tuition in January, and I am also taking a class this semester with Wendee Holtcamp. I think we’ll be fine, but we’ve definitely allowed ourselves to get comfortable with eating out a few times a week and going and doing what we want. We’re going to try to make August a Consumer Diet month; we won’t buy anything new except for toiletries and food. I may still do thrift stores, maybe not. Surely, I could hold off for a month, eh? Oh, and I’m thinking that I need to refrain from buying any new yarn for the rest of the year. I’m going to focus exclusively on “rescuing” thrift stores sweaters to get my yarn. I did get a little birthday money tonight, though, so I’ll probably buy some more needles!

I’m actually excited about the impending extreme frugality again…I think that we probably needed a little time off to see that we don’t need to completely deprive ourselves at all times, so that we would appreciate our approach toward money more. Whatever the reason, I’m excited to get back to basics and make the best decisions possible.

On the AC front, there is a possibility that the slats in the vent are just too bent for the unit to cool itself off, so Joey’s going to work on straightening those back out tomorrow morning. His mom gave us a big box fan to put in our bedroom window to suck out some of the hot air, and the house isn’t as bad tonight as it was yesterday. There’s still the possibility that we’re low on freon, but we really can’t fix it right now, so we’ll probably try to limp it along through the rest of this summer and then save our money so that we can get it tuned up next spring.

When I was a kid, I used to LOVE summer; I loved the lazy days and swimming and hanging out with friends and my mom. Now that I have a normal job, every day is pretty much the same, and I’ve come to appreciate much more the fall and winter. I am anticipating fall with such great joy, especially now that I’ve taken to making clothes…I can’t wait to have things that I’m proud to wear:).

ok….that’s really all I’ve got for now.