Yesterday was my first day back to full-time hours along with the part-time hours. It's a little misleading to say that, as my full-time job is actually only 35 hours a week and the part-time job is just 10 hours a week. It still makes a busy day for me, but it's doable for this program. Plus I still get my weekends off.

I've talked the kids into selling the items of higher value through Craigslist instead of a yard sale. I admit we have enough on our plate right now and don't need to add another activity.

We all have off on Monday so we plan on grilling and may invite some friends over for that. I guess that all depends on the weather.

I already purchased DW's Christmas present. It is a maple coin rack with her branch of service and name engraved on it. I pick it up sometime this week, then I just have to keep it hidden.

I have some Christmas ideas for the kids that are brewing in my head...

Next Saturday our family will be having a yard sale, the kids are very excited. We usually just donate our unwanted items, but the kids enjoy earning money and were excited about the idea of a yard sale.

We have been setting aside items we don't want all summer. This weekend we will go through the attic and decide what will stay and what will go. We don't have tons of stuff, we are very good about decluttering throughout the year, but we will give it a go anyway. I will schedule a donation pick up for that afternoon to take away any thing that was not sold. This will free up quite a bit of room in the basement, where we are storing all of the goods right now.

As for this weekend, a few easy errands this afternoon, and date night that we are both really looking forward to! Tomorrow is an October Fest with the family. It is free entrance but of course you have to pay for food and rides. I don't do rides but I do enjoy the German food! These purchases will come out of my cash allowance.

Since I will be starting full-time practicum hours soon I need to tweak my savings goals and decide how to divide the full-time paycheck. My part-time paycheck is already taken care of. It will only be about 6 hours or so a week, so I figured all of it could go to savings. It is set up to be directly deposited into my online savings account.

The household bills, groceries and gas are currently being covered through our joint account. Kid expenses are also covered through this account, plus child support.

Additional expenses that will be coming out of my full-time paycheck:

-I will start before school care again for my youngest, that will be $300 a month.
-Tuition expenses will be approximately $12,000 this year (spring and summer). I'd also want to set aside the money for my final fall and spring semesters, that will be an additional $8,000 to save this school year. so that's a total of $20,000. I am waiting to see what financial aid I qualify for, but for now I am assuming that I will cash flow this.
-I plan on contributing to one of my employer-sponsored retirement plans such as a 457(b).

So there probably won't be a whole lot left over from the paycheck once I take care of these expenses. But it will pay for my education, which will get me a much higher paying job, and allow me to earn the mandatory supervision hours, and keep me contributing to retirement. And a little bit left over for some fun for the family!