I can't believe the month went quickly. I'm glad because we were able to saved $1025 towards our EF. We're way ahead of our schedule our goal, but i hope we can continue savings at this rate...$12K here we go

May was a good month but it was very expensive as well...i bought my wife her mother's day gift (new Coach handbag) that she always wanted. This week my wife took me shopping early for Father's Day my advance gift. We ate out more times this month compared to previous month. However, the good news we still were able extra $$. It really pays to socked those money away first before it goes out again More importantly, my wife finally took her "Oath" taking to becoming a full fledge US Citizen. I admit, I shed some happy tears for her during the oath taking. It was a culmination of all her hard work and many visits to INS. But at the end, it finally paid off. It was a very special day for our family to say the least

I decided to stay extra day from work today. My wife decided to take me early shopping ahead of "fathers day" since I was home plus I needed new working clothes anyway. I didn't want to go at first, but knowing I haven't really shop for new clothes in the past year and my DW is treating me for it, it was hard to say No! Shopping on a week day is rare for us by the way. We ended checking out the local mall. When we got there, there very few shoppers. We ended up going to my favorite store at all places "Eddie Bauer" which I must say, had some pretty good sales and discounts. I picked up few khaki pants and shirts, a new sunglasses. I was able to pick up a pair of Nike shock running shoes, and casual dress shoes from Walking Company. I never ever bought a pair of shoes that cost $175. Father's Day bill was $872 bucks for today (mine alone came to $537). That total bill included a new $40 ergonomic headphone for DW's ipod and few discounted shirts from AF for our son. DW also bought few items from Victoria's Secret and pair of running shoes. Hers totaled around $200.00 plus $71.00 gas, and Costco $70.

I must say this happens once every few years. I hate shopping but it was actually fun today We didn't have to fight over other shoppers and the service were excellent. The good news, we didn't have to charge any of it. We used our debit cards and still under budget for the month of May.

In preparing for our trip to San Diego this July, I decided to take our 06 Honda Odyssey for tire rotations. Hold and behold, the guy came back and told me "by law they can't rotate the tires, because the rear tires are really bad". So I was pretty shocked because it only had 43K miles on it. These tires are rated around 60K miles. But admittedly though, I haven't really maintained the tires properly (i.e., not rotating every 7500 miles) like I'm suppose to. So i guess, I deserved it. Anyway, they give me an estimate cost of around $655.00 with lifetime free tire rotations. It was a bit high, so I went to Costco and their estimate was $30.00 lower $626.00 this includes $60 discounts.

So my wife and I discussed it on how to pay for it. We had few important parameters.

First, we didn't want to use our CC to pay for it.

Secondly, we didn't want to use our EF either to make up the difference since vacation is not considered emergency.

Thirdly, if we go over the our budget we pay using our Debit cards ONLY.

Fourthly, we didn't want to spend more than $1800 for the whole trip.

Finally, we'll pay using our $1800 stimulus check.

Knowing this, it will take some compromising, nice hotels and all the amenities, perhaps eliminating our trip to Santa Barbara altogether. I already cancelled our original hotel reservations booked online which cost around $700.00. We booked instead something more affordable and to stay within budget. That saved us few hundred bucks. Here's the new breakdown of our budget:

$1800.00 Stimulus check
- $ 588.00 Hotels/San Diego/Santa Barbara
- $ 242.00 Gas (based on total 1150 miles)
- $ 626.00 New tires
- $ 344.00 Entrance fee SeaWorld/Zoo/food/gift
--------
0
My Union is giving us discounts for SeaWorld and Zoo tickets @ $35.00 per ticket X 8 = $280.00 which gives us $64.00 remaining for food. I don't think that will work for us. We'll probably will be eliminating our two nights stay in Santa Barbara which we'll save us $208.00. We might end up stopping by instead for a day.

We think this is workable. What do you guys think?

Wow! I couldn't believe it. Well partly, I'd been on this diet for past 8 days and has saved tons of money between DW and I. But I also been bringing in my lunch to work. I still have $160 remaining budget invelope and the month is almost over

We just sock another $956 towards our EF. And we are still just half way till the end of May. This is so much fun...We're just taking names and kickin ass folks!

My mom bought this diet powder (chocolate and vanilla) for me to try; 1 for breakfast and dinner. I tried it this morning and it taste awful. At least I can eat anything I want at lunchtime. It's almost 11 am and I just want to gobble a burger or something. The urge is just killing me....Now I have a headache so bad. Thinking happy thoughts....happy thoughts....imagining losing 30 pounds by July....happy thoughts

It was nice to see the checking account was a bit bigger today $1800. I can now booked our family vacation down to San Diego in July. At least San Diego's economy will be boomin while we're there lol

That's right folks! I can't believe it either. I hope to do this more often and be able increase our saving rate. Now if I only also correlate this with losing weight, I'd be a kid in a candy store. SorryI digress. Anyway, I still have $290.00 on my envelope budget for the month and were already one-third away. Outta the way folks! cuz' the train is rollin'.

At the end of April we were able to save $1275 from our disposable income which brings our total to $8225.00 EF. We didn't have any big expenses in April. Just plugging away!