Randomly

So, I don't think I mentioned that we were recently interviewed by a national financial magazine whose name rhymes with Sunny. Eventually the article will come out and I may or may not direct you to it, but the gist of it is that we got to have a free meeting with a financial planner and we had to take a very honest look at our finances, and it was overall a very good thing.

We've implemented a few changes here chez WG as a direct result, the most noticeable being that we now pay cash for groceries and use coupons and get a lot of stuff for free at CVS and Walgreens and transfer prescriptions as frequently as possible in exchange for gift cards.

Surprisingly, this makes a significant difference in the grocery budget. Significant to the point where I'm paying off and closing two credit cards this month.

The other major change is Mr. WG's re-involvement in family finances and his willingness to see reason. We sat down and defined "emergencies" as:

1. Someone's health is in danger.
2. The house or car is broken and needs repairs.
3. Family tragedies.

These are reasons to dip into our emergency funds. Things that are not emergencies include:

1. Family celebrations.
2. I want that cool thing/there is a great deal/how cool is that?

I think there are a few other things on both lists, but we wrote them down, signed it, and stuck it in the freezer where we keep all our significant agreements. (Yes, really.) So this is good.

Less good is the fact that Mr. WG's company cut salaries and commissions, but I think we will be OK. I really do.

We leave for Israel for FIVE WEEKS on TUESDAY, and I have done nothing to prepare for this.

D's IEP meeting is today. Mr. WG cannot attend. And I have done nothing to prepare.

I have about 457 other things on my to-do list for today, so I have to start doing them. Happy Thursday, y'all.