I feel like I'm in the same boat with a few of you who seem to be leaking more money than usual this summer.

We had a party a couple weeks ago. It actually wasn't that expensive. We made our own food (tons of it) and bought some wine and beer, but other people brought wine and beer too, as we knew they would. We probably spent about $30 or $40 for alcohol and $20 or $30 for food ingredients (total guess).

We've also had a couple of babysitters this summer, at $40 a pop. I was just kind of cashflowing it in the budget, but we can't keep doing that, so the next one we're going to have to pay for with our spending money.

We rented a car and spent last weekend at some friends' vacation. With gas and insurance, less than $200.

Then AS needed money put aside for her dreadlock maintenance: $120. She only gets it about once a year, so it's not that big a deal. Besides, we're paying for it with freelance income of hers, which she typically just donates to the common good. She deserves to use some of it for herself once in a while. I also bought 3 dresses for her with part of the money, because I knew she needed dresses and would never get around to getting them for herself: about $80 total.

NT also wanted us to donate to Pakistan flood relief, so we sent $100 to UNICEF.

On the other side of the equation, I have a furlough day coming up, but NT's job has started paying OT because they can't afford to give him comp time anymore (plus I think it's illegal for an hourly employee...though he didn't mind getting time off instead of money). And AS has been getting some freelance work as well. So we're doing OK on the income side despite my stupid job. (I'm kind of over my job right now, because since my boss left I have twice the work with absolutely no reward. Add in the furloughs, the fact I haven't had a raise in three years, and the ever-rising cost of my health insurance plans, and I'm really getting diminishing returns for harder and more intense work. Bleh.)

I think that's about it...we're pretty behind in our grocery budget (meaning I keep taking money from the next month's line item to pay for this month's) but I think that'll be pretty easy to rectify this winter. We've been buying tons of fresh greens and fruits and lots of ice cream; winter comfort-food meals are actually a lot cheaper than summery cooking for us.