Early risin'.

It's 10:31 am and I've already woken up, crawled out of bed, made myself breakfast, showered, dressed, styled my hair and watched an hour of television....whew! Big day so far!

I have decided to get into the habit of getting up earlier in the morning. Once I'm in school, I will have to be up and ready to go by 8 in the morning, so it's probably a good idea to get into the habit now. Plus, I think I'm starting to grow out of that "sleep in 'til noon" phase of my life, and I've discovered that I actually really enjoy my mornings. I like the sun filtering in through my blinds, making myself a healthy breakfast, and actually making use of my day. It feels really good and I'm going to start doing it more often.

Here are my focuses (foci?) for the week:

1) SAVE MONEY! Stupid federal government took money out of my account to pay off my student loans and I was short on my rent. Luckily, my boyfriend is awesome and has agreed to help me out a little bit with money. But, I have some huge expense to deal with in the next week, so the theme for this week is money saving strategies!

I have always had trouble saving money, mostly because I have always been a server and just got used to always having cash on hand. It's a blessing AND a curse, since I now have a horrible tendency to spend money that I don't really have to spend.... uughh! Bless my parents, they are wonderful people, but they never really taught us how to save, spend, and budget our money. I'm trying to figure all these things out for myself, but it's definitely a struggle. And I know that I'm not alone.

So, let's see how I can do this week! My goal is to not spend ANY money (besides necessities, like food and bus fare) and save $200 in tips by the end of next week. I think I can do it!

I will touch base on my money situation in a few days. Tonight, I have choir practice and then karaoke with my brother, his wife, my sister, and a few friends. This weekend will be very busy! We have bridesmaid dress shopping for Sarah's wedding tomorrow and then a BBQ at my place in the evening. Zosia's 1st birthday party is on Saturday, so I need to buy her a gift. And then on Sunday, I am singing a solo in church, so most of my family is coming out to hear me sing :) I might even try to drag Mark out to church too... he could use a little evolutionary Christian spirituality...haha

- Heather