March was a pretty good month for me. I managed to put a big dent into my debt with the help of a portion of our federal tax refund. For the month of March I paid $1554.53 towards debt That includes paying off all my store cards. Now I can concentrate exclusively on Mr Visa and Mrs Care Credit (dental card). I am up for the challenge!

Going through the numbers for March I can see that I am still challenged in a number of areas...

Groceries-$261.30 How do I get a family of 4 to eat on less than that? I am hoping the cooking I did for the freezer this week will help as we have several meals in there. I will cut down on the quick stops to the grocery store and try to stick to my once/twice a week shopping.

Eating Out (including coffee and lunch at work, dinner with girlfriends, dinner with family) $220.14 Ugh! I am embarassed to admit I spent that much this month. Thinking back I know I spent about $50 taking my best friend to dinner for her birthday. I also had my niece spend the night and we had gone to dinner and then lunch the next day. Have to stop that! My $50 eating out challenge for the month will be just that-a challenge!

Entertainment-$29.24 Not bad. Took the family to see Horton and also rented a few movies from Red Box

Gas-$192.63 I am trying to cut down on the errands or run them all at once.

Car-$300 car payment;$16.17 for oil change;$587.86 for desperately needed new tires which I was able to pay cash for!!!

Savings account-$187.50 Yeah me!

Other shopping-$597.23 what a waste!!! I am not even sure what I bought. I do know that I am paying cash for a lot more and not charging so that is why this category is so high. Still I think it is unacceptable that I can't remember what I bought.

Note to self-STOP SHOPPING!

So, that's that. Looking forward to making April a better month despite the fact that it is DD's birthday month and her 1st Communion is in the beginning of May so I'll have to shell out some cash to get ready for that.