All the festivities of the past month really got me out of the practice of my new spending routines. Jim and I had talked about our anticipated increase in spending during this busy time and I think that it helped to have that reminder in the back of our heads that we have a goal that we're working on. That being said, we still wanted to take advantage of the time we had to spend together so we diligently used coupons and asked about daily specials when we did dine out.

As Jim mentioned, we're setting a goal for savings going forward. Up until now, we've really been focusing on how to pay off our existing debt. But part of being financially fit and part of our initial goal starting this competition is to have money set away - a safety net, if you will. Rather than just saving to save, we've set an actual dollar amount to work towards. I think having this goal will make it easier for us to monitor our progress. We've done pretty well at cutting our debt, so I think if we view this savings as money we "owe" ourselves, we'll be more likely to make sure the money gets put away each month.

Coming home for a little while brings a nice chance to relax, see some friends, catch up on sleep, and more importantly meet up with Bridgid, Charlie, and Leslie in person to see how we are doing so far. I think we're all pretty happy with our progress, but there are still some things that we decided need work which we are going to focus on for the remainder of the competition. One of these is setting a goal amount to have in savings within the next five months, so I'm excited to get things going to that end. Being home also posed some challenges for us in that there were a few events that we attended, i.e. friends in town, a wedding, etc, and none of these things lend themselves to "saving" so much as they do to "spending". I think we made it through relatively unscathed, but Bridgid and I decided that we really need to tie things off for the remainder of the month in order to try and compensate for what we spent. 

I just got back from my sister's wedding in Rhode Island. It was a beautiful wedding on the beach with so many friends and family attending. It was so nice to spend time with my parents and sisters, who I don't get to see very often! It's during times like this that spending seems to get out of control... wedding, traveling, dining out, etc. Luckily, most of the big expenses were paid in advance (dress, shoes, flight), but it's still so easy to lose track. Jim is coming back on vacation for a few weeks (YAY!) and we have another wedding to attend in Kansas City. We're planning on meeting with our coaches while Jim is in town. The two of us also plan on sitting down to set a budget for the next few weeks. I've gotten used to having smaller expenditures for grocery shopping and things like that, so I don't want it to be a shock at the end of the month after shopping for two.