I sold an old dog training apron on eBay yesterday, so I'm adding $4.25 to my challenge money. The new total is $10,922.86.

I only posted two things on eBay last week and one didn't sell. I'm taking this week off since I think a lot of people will be on vacation. In fact, I'm thinking of taking all of July off and starting back on eBay again in August when people will be home and gearing up for the start of school.

I've been hoarding a movie gift certificate since my birthday in March. Today I'm going to use it to take the Midge to see Wall E. She's been walking around for the last few months doing the robot's voice, so I figure it's time to take her to the actual movie.

I hit Walgreens yesterday for some detergent and also picked up two kinds of candy to sneak into the theater. (I used a gift card I got from Walgreens' rebates on my purchases so I actually paid nothing out of pocket for the candy or detergent.)

After we buy the movie tickets, we should still have money left on the gift card for popcorn and drinks as well so with any luck today's outing should cost me very little -- if anything.

Today is a free day at our local nature and science museum. I had planned on taking the Midge, but after spending yesterday driving 50 miles to the hairdresser's, tennis, the store, etc., I decided the round-trip to the museum (about 30 miles) is just too far to venture out for when you consider the cost of gas. Instead, after the Midge's art class, which is about 1 mile away from our house, we're headed to the pool (another mile from our house) and then karate lessons this afternoon (less than a mile from our house).

The high-cost of gas is definitely making me rethink our daily outings....

In the rush to get bills paid and get out of town last month, I forgot to record a couple debt payments. When we got home, I put some more money toward one particular debt and was anticipating having to put a big chunk of change toward it to pay it off this month. However, it occurred to me a couple weeks ago that something was amiss so I started re-tracing my steps and thought that maybe I had paid the debt off early. I wasn't sure, though, so I waited until all the payments from the last month posted and checked the account yesterday. The balance owed is down to $10.90. I don't think this will be a problem to pay off....

I finally eeked out a no-spend day. With my daughter out of school, it seems like I'm always on the go and at some point handing over money for some activity or another.

Since we had money leftover from our vacation a few weeks ago, my husband and I bought a tandem bicycle over the weekend from a couple who had bought it a few years ago and rode it all of 70 miles. (Not kidding.... The bike's computer still has details of their one and only ride.....)

The bike is in perfect condition (looks brand new) and we paid $650 for it (the original cost was close to $2,000). My husband's an avid cyclist so he's excited that I'm going to join him.

The tandem couple also sold us a year-old tagalong bike for $75. We have another tagalong, but the new one has gears and is perfect for my daughter to learn how to shift. Since we were given the first tagalong for free by some friends whose son had outgrown it, we're going to give it away to the family behind us.

The same family is also in the market for a Burley to haul their daughter in. We have one of those too and I think we're going to sell it to them for $75, which will cover the cost of the new tagalong.

Tomorrow is going to be a spendy day since both my daughter and I have hair appointments, plus I need to pick up some dog food and a few other things. Doubt I'll be seeing another no-spend day this week.....

A check for the booming business came in. After I socked some away off the top for taxes, I have $538 to add to the challenge, which brings my new total to $10,918.61.

Since I spent most of yesterday being Cinderella with ratty clothes and a broom, I ended up with a no-drive day. The Midget and I did ride our bikes to the nearby McDonald's for lunch, though, so it wasn't a no-spend day as well.

The Midget still requires training wheels on her own personal bike, but she is very comfortable on the tagalong bike so I pulled her up the hill and around the golf course yesterday on it. Trying to control my bike and the tagalong was treacherous. I'm sure the neighbors thought at least one of us was under the influence as we swerved all over the road.

I figure a few more tagalong outings with me leading the way will inspire the Midget to ditch the training wheels on her big-girl bike....

Some of you may recall that back when I was working the "office" job and building up the booming side business I had the good fortune of employing Hazel the Housekeeper for biweekly visits.

Now that I'm only working on the booming business -- and I'm technically "home" all day -- I feel like I should be able to clean my own house again. So today is the first day that I will attempt to pick up where Hazel left off. I am enlisting the help of the Midget to help with at least cleaning her room, but I'm back to "doing it myself" for the most part.

Did I mention that I hate cleaning the house?

OK, maybe not the whole house, but I do hate cleaning the bathrooms. And the windows. And the floors.

But, I don't mind saving the money I would have paid Hazel to clean my house for me. $180 a month buys a lot of lattes....

I'm going to keep telling myself this as I go to scrub the toilets now.

Now that my daughter is home all day -- and I'm officially working full time on the booming business -- I've had to juggle some things around and my routines are a bit off. I'm slowly getting the hang of this full-time mommy/full-time business owner gig, but things are definitely slipping through the cracks here (i.e. I still have luggage to unpack from our vacation....).

One thing I do want to try to get done this week, which seems to keep getting pushed to the bottom of my to-do list each day, is to post more items on eBay. I was on a roll there for a while, but took most of May off from selling because I was sick and too busy with end-of-school/end-of-job/pre-vacation stuff. However, I have a nice pile of stuff lined up in the basement all ready to go.

We're also cleaning our garage out this weekend, so who knows what treasures I'll find in there to unload....

I managed to spend nothing today -- our first real day of summer vacation at home.

We made use of our pool and ate lunch at home.

I also waded through all the mail from the last two weeks and found some checks for the booming business. After I made my spending plan minimums on payroll and taxes, I had $77.58 left to put toward the challenge, so the new total is $10,380.61.

Also in the mail was the statement from my one and only personal credit card. I was thrilled to see the balance was 0. I don't think it's ever been 0. I might just have to frame the statement for future inspiration.

Despite all attempts to stay at the beach, I have returned.

We had a lovely time here:



We did a lot of this:



And saw a lot of these:



And ate a lot of these:



And I am proud to say the trip was paid for entirely in cash and I actually came home with money leftover, which I put back into our vacation fund for our next adventure.