Thank you for all your responses! It seems as though I am on target in this category when compared to you guys. I guess I was thinking that this was one area where I could cut down in order to come up with some additional funds to apply towards my debt. I am still going to attempt it.

My plan so far is to gather up my families favorite dinner recipes and make a list. I will rotate through these depending on what is on sale.

I will shop either on Saturday or Sunday with no family members.

I will base my menu for the week on what is on sale. I will try to do this for 2 weeks at a time since that is when I get paid.

I will use more coupons.

I won't buy cookies, brownies or cake at the store. I will make them at home. Each Sunday I will try to make something to enjoy throughout the week. Probably is my DH usually eats whatever dessert I make all in one day. I will have to get after him about that.

With the kids and DH off of school for the summer they will be able to help with getting dinner ready BEFORE I get home if I have all the ingredients ready ahead of time. At least this is my wish. Also with them home that should cut down on eating out which we don't do that much anyways.

I am going to make my lunch the night before which should be easier now that I don't have 2 kids that have to be washed and in bed by 8pm. There is more flexibilty now that summer is here!

I think the key for me will be sticking to the menu/shopping plan and getting my lunch ready the night before. If I can stick with these 2 goals I should be OK.

Coming up next...my love of shopping. Shopping for clothes, deals, bargains, anything and everything.

I know there are certain areas of my "budget" that can be improved upon but besides having a lobotomy I am not sure how I am ever going to change.

I just looked over some numbers from both April and May of this year. While some areas I did great in others didn't fare so well. Categories like my car and utilities don't change too much from month to month unless we are in the dead of winter.

Take for instance the amount of money I spend on food. Crazy! I'll admit that I don't do a menu plan every week and that maybe contributing to my dilema. More than that I think I just like to eat

Food totals for April- 519.63. We are a family of 4 people, not 40! Does this seem like a lot? I know we had company during the month and it was DD birthday. Out of that 519, 467.42 was spent at the grocery store and 52.21 was spent on things like coffee and donuts and lunch when I didn't bring something with me to work.

Food totals for May-much better coming in at 243.91. 191.22 spent at the grocery store, 33.20 on coffee and donuts, 19.49 taking the fam out to McDonalds.

I have to put an end to this craziness! I am toying with the idea of using envelopes for food money. When I get paid tomorrow I am going to take $150 out in cash. $20 will be left in my desk drawer at work for 2 weeks and $130 will be my grocery money. When the envelope is empty that's it. Now this is where the lobotomy may come in handy. How I keep myself to this routine and not use my debit card for additional purchases is beyond me. I think I may leave the card at home so I am not tempted.

There are a few more categories that I have to discuss with myself but that will have to wait. I have to go eat my lunch

This morning as we were getting ready for work DH gathered up his guitar and amp along with a few other big things to take to school with him. It seems the kids are done with school and the teachers and staff were going to have lunch after which my DH and another person were going to play and sing. I offered to let him drive my car (SUV)so he didn't have to try to cram everything into his little Mustang. What I forgot until he was long gone was that my wallet was under the passenger seat of my car in a drawer. I had put it in there during the soccer game last night where I had full view of the car, I just didn't want to have to carry my wallet and risk loosing it. Once I realized that I left it there I called DH at work and left a VM asking him to :
a)make sure it was still there
b)make sure the doors are locked and
c)to please call me when this is done so I don't have to worry all day.

Keep in mind that this VM was left at 8:30 am. I get to work worried that I am going to be pulled over and I don't have my wallet and all that lives in it. Get to work and don't hear from DH. Thinking if it wasn't in the car it would be best to know earlier rather than later so I could start cancelling and closing stuff. 2:00 comes and I call again getting his VM. Leave message asking that he call me back so I don't have to worry. Nothing.

Forward to 5:00 pm and finally a phone call. He reassured me that the doors were locked all day but he hadn't even looked to see if my wallet was there!ARGH!!!!!!

He looked while I was on the phone and said it was there thankfully but it would have been nice to have known that at oh say 9:00am!! It would have saved me some stomach lining!!!!!

It seems like it has been ages since I last posted. I am going to try to get back on track starting today. Financially I have been doing better. I am paying more attention to what I spend my money on and am trying my hardest to pay $500 a month towards my debt. That hasn't been so easy but I find if I pay my credit cards the day I get paid rather than waiting for the day they are due I don't have the money there to spend. My job has put me on call so the week days I am on call I make an additional $12 and on weekends an additional $24 per shift. It's not a ton but I banked my first on call pay which turned out to be about $80. I found put yesterday that I am getting a 3.2% raise next month. Not great with math but it should be about $200 a month. Back to clipping coupons and limiting the shopping trips. Searching each week for the lowest price gas station. Thinking about trying to do some more on line surveys to make some more cash. Also will be having a garage sale this summer once I get it organized. I can't wait to get rid of some of our stuff!