I just finished doing my weekly finance chores and it looks like the month of May was pretty flat for me. The stock market pretty much wiped out my earnings for the month. I'll see the total picture at the end of the month but it doesn't seem as bad as I was thinking it was.

Well ,feeling sorry for myself, I went shopping. I didn't need anything but bought away. I lost a good chunk in my 401K and other investment accounts this past week. My savings, coin jar for the moment seemed useless, dust in the wind. So I bought so I could feel something for my money. I will use what I had gotten..but.....restrant on my part maybe would have been better. My dear little budget reminders I have on in my budget program are screaming at me. There is nothing like having your computer say to you what you are already telling yourself.

I have only spent 5.37 this week so far and that will be refunded to me. I have found no new money and have lost much in my 401K. I was really looking forward to retire early too! Alas I must work a few more years to make up for the loss in the market this week. A good thing I didn't run out and spend feverishly last weekend with the big market gain. Other than my 401, I've stayed on track, saving as much as I can, spending as little. Thank heaven for a well rounded portfolio. (I think we should have sold the house to get as much out of the housing bubble as we could have)

And one step back. All that I have gained in the last month and a half is melting away with the fall of the market. As of today I'm back to April 1st. Although, with my son going to Washington DC on a trip and the cash I did spent on that, and his gratuation expense so far(all unplanned for expenses), I guess I'm doing pretty good. Lesson learned here is that both things I knew were coming up and I did not have a saving plan for those. I have since made a budget and have an account for such things coming up in my future. Still, it is a bit of a disappointment and discouragement to see no headway. My first knee jerk reaction is to say "this doesn't work, all my frugality is all for nothing." A lot of self talk here going on, to hang in there. :-)

The total of the coin jar is 94.77. For One Month! It's going into the American Dream Account.
I had a copy of MSMoney I found. I think we recieved it from when we got our new computer a while back.
I have set it up. I can't quite coordinate it with my bank yet, although my bank will download into it. I'll figure it out I'm sure.

My April figures aren't as bad as I thought. I was doing a bit of spending so my son could go to Washington DC on a school trip. But I still came up in the positive, little though it be. I can only guess what I could do without those unexpected expenses. I have not cashed the coin jar in yet but a quick count put it near $100. I have developed a personal budget for this month to see how well I can do. I found an old copy of Money sitting in my CD bin. I set that up. (I do everything on my PDA and it nearly ran out of battery power, yikes)I also set up some rules for myself. Don't we love rules. My son wants to do this all as well. So I'm bringing him onboard.