1. It has been extremely cold here the last several days, the kids have been out of school due to the weather for the entire week. Last night the pipes to our bathroom froze, luckily they did not burst but this will be a major headache to repair in the spring. I expect our electric and water bill to be much higher than normal. Matt called someone to come look at our heat pump next week because it simply is not keeping the house warm. We woke up to a temperature of 60 this morning. NO FUN!

2. We anticipate small repairs on our vehicles because they are older: however this month we have spent over $100 on parts for these small repairs. I am thankful that Matt is doing all the labor but I had hoped to be able to save some of our gas budget this month, instead it is going into parts.

3. We have received both our tax returns now. I am thankful that this extra income has been able to help us reserve our rooms at Disney World. I am planning a full post on the cost associated with this trip and ways we are saving for it very soon. tomorrow.

4. I should be able to control the grocery budget this month and keep it below our $600. Currently, it has $94 left in it with one week left in the month. I know that I will be shopping at CVS on Sunday but otherwise I hope to avoid any other purchases. This past week I have made several trips to CVS and ending up spending $50 on soda and another $10 on make up but this should not be the case for next week. It was fun to see a couple of receipts that showed 100% savings.

5. Because of the weather, my work hours have been crazy. I will admit to enjoying not going into work on Tuesday or Wednesday until 10 am and getting off prior to 3pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was a rare treat. I ended up working only 23 hours so between the past two week I have taken 14 hours of vacation time. I try to save these hours for the summer or events that I need to attend with the kids.