Back at it

This month has been going SO well! I've dutifully tracked every single purchase, and immediately updated my budget spreadsheet as well as my checking register. Every time! Such a nice change from the last two months of not doing it. Mostly though, I think I was avoiding it because I was not staying on budget at ALL, and I was embarrassed/mad at myself.

Not to say I've been perfect. We've gone out to eat for diner more times than I care to admit. But I think it's been balancing out with the number of times I've eaten cereal for dinner. And I always have good, cheap lunches. Still, I HAVE to put a stop to it!! It's amazing how expensive it is, even if we just get a 5 dollar sub! Menu planning really DOES work. However, it's been harder and harder to stick to, with boyfriend having to skip out on dinner because a last minute work thing comes up, or having friends over makes it hard (because if I only plan a meal for two, three or more isn't going to work) and it's so much easier to order a pizza for everybody. And then we never end up cooking what I'd planned and it will go to waste. Bad. Hopefully we can sit down tonight and figure out something that will work better. Probably, I should only plan for meals on 4 days instead of 5. Something to think about.

I've also come to the conclusion that I need a new job. Not because I don't love the people I work with and the company I work for, but because I feel very stifled. With the workload not being the type I'm best at and LOVE (due to the crap economy), I find myself really hating what I am doing a lot of the time. Not hating like I'd hate my job if I had to work at McDonalds. Hating… like feeling like my entire time college (and grad school!) and all my talent are going to waste! And I really hate feeling like that. I know I need a job where I can do what I'm good at, and excel at it. So… I've started the long arduous process of getting my stuff together to begin that search. Oh. Joy. I know the economy is not great… especially for my industry, but I really feel that I need to do this. I'm not going to devote long hours to it like I would if I was out of a job, but I am going to spend weekends at least working on this. First up? A website. What I have in mind is very simple and I have it all designed in my head. I just need to do the legwork, which is really, a very time consuming process. So there's that.

Boyfriend has had a very amazing work opportunity come up. It's not completely finalized yet so I don't want to jinx it (and I hesitate to even mention this much…) but I'll definitely fill you in when it is! It means wonderful things for the both of us!!!