Staying dedicated to saving has been tough. Its hard to balance everything. School needs, work needs, marriage needs, house needs.

For example... probably our biggest setback is, our couch is falling apart. We've had it for 7 years and the quality is not that good. I weigh 140 lbs on my heaviest day and when I sit on it, I sink to the bottom.

We also don't have a dining room where everyone can eat at the table like a family. The kids eat at our smaller table while DH and I eat in the living room. Its made dinner time "play time" for the kids cause we can't be in the same room with them and their table manners are horrible.

So, we splurged. For $3K on a 0% interest credit card we purchased a sofa & loveseat that can fit our entire family without them practically laying on top of one another and a dining set with 8 chairs.

I'm excited about the furniture and have a plan to pay it off but in reality I know we probably should have waited.

I also had to pay my Fall tuition. $1944 for TWO classes. I was originally only going to take 1, but DH didn't make Chief so if he makes it next year it will be harder for me to attend classes, he'll be on trips or what not - just seemed more like I have the opportunity to take it now, its in my town this year, next year the class will be offered at the other site. So now just seemed better. So I'll be taking global accounting and tax strategies for business decisions.

I just finished up my operational auditing class and I got a 106 on my final exam so if I don't get an A, I'll be shocked.

The $1944 on tuition, $65 on a parking pass, and $100 on books was a lot this month though.

ON TOP of that, our baby is crawling around. We have a grate in front of our fireplace but its very heavy and would be really bad if it fell on her. So we wanted to put glass doors on the fireplace. We went out to one place that wanted $1000, then searched and searched. There was NO WAY glass DOORS on a fireplace could cost that much. So we found a company in Michigan that we gave the model number and all for our fireplace and for $400, we can get doors that we don't have to worry will fall on our baby. They already fell on our puppy but its a good thing he's a big dog.

Just seems like a lot has been hitting at once. I don't really feel like we're any better off than we were in May when I started cause I keep falling off the wagon. So what did I spend this month? $400 on glass doors, $3000 on a living room and dining room set, $2100 or so on tuition and stuff related to my master's degree.

All that said, I know in October $3000 of that will get paid off with DH's bonus and still leave $1000 for us to fix up DH's car. And because I'm taking this extra class this semester, then at least this means I can graduate in Fall 2009 instead of Spring 2010.

I don't know. If our tax return is what I think it should be next year, the 2 credits cards should be paid off in February and DH's car not long after that. If I can accomplish that for 2009, that would be great.

I came home from class yesterday and DH was looking at motorcycles. I'll give him this, before this year he would never consider a USED motorcycle. He'd always say "For $2K more I could just buy a new one"

But I've really changed my strategy when he approaches me like that. Last night I said "How would we even pay for it, even if it was $4K? We don't even have your bonus, our TV is quitting, I have an ER bill I need to pay, and if you make Chief then we have to buy your uniforms, and we need to use some of your bonus money to do the needed maintenance on your car in October"

So instead of focusing on the "Its at such a good price" we are focusing on "We have other things to worry about right now"

Our son also needs surgery. Its been a long road of seeing an endocrinologist, hematologist, and ENT. The whole process has been around a year and the final diagnosis is that his anemia and nosebleeds are not related. His anemia is on the low end of normal and docs say "He just didn't read the textbooks as to what his levels should be"

But his adenoids are enlarged so they need to be removed. We've scheduled surgery for mid-Sept. Thank god our health insurance should cover everything 100% and DH will likely be there.

I feel like I've sort of fallen off the band wagon with saving. We're working on it though and I'm hoping he picks up Chief, that would be a $400/mo raise between the increase in rank and the BAH. We should find out within the week, but I need to remind myself that just cause we are making more doesn't mean we can spend more... we still have CC debt, preschool, and car repairs coming up.