One of AS's student loans hit. $122 went to principal, so that means we've paid off $1788 of debt, exceeding the $1700 goal. She has one more student loan payment that will probably hit before the end of the month.

I forgot how fast and hectic summer feels! In the dead of winter, I imagine long slow hot days lazing and reading and getting slurpees, like summer vacations in Virginia were when I was a kid. The reality is that Minnesota summers are so short, there's a sort of frantic feeling of wanting to pack in as many outdoor activities, later-evening (before days get shorter) events and socializing as possible. It's fun, but definitely not as leisurely as I think it's going to be.

As a result, I've jettisoned the logging of our grocery lists and figuring what each meal costs. It's just not a good use of summer time! We're once again struggling to catch up on our grocery budget after a couple of busy weeks where we didn't take the time to sit down and figure out a budget-conscious use of our grocery money. We also had some daycare-related purchases that came out of grocery/household, which set us further back. But I'm confident we can buckle down and get on track over the next few weeks, especially with our CSA farm shares coming in, getting more bountiful as the summer progresses.

Now that I'm done complaining, I have to say that so far this has been a FABULOUS summer.
* We've been to my college reunion in NY, had my family in town for a weekend, and attended the Pride parade Sunday and THREE parties (AA came with us to all!) on Saturday.
* AA is absolutely blossoming with help from the new daycare, and it's so much fun to be part of that.
* AS is making great strides at her job; the first book she acquired is getting great advance buzz, and she's successfully acquired a second book as well as convincing her boss to acquire some reprints that she thinks are going to do great. (And the reprints are of UK books, so she's building her presence abroad -- great news for emigration planning!) My work still isn't perfect, but it's gotten a lot more manageable so I'm not miserable here anymore.
* We've been branching out and having fun in our cooking: I made a Vietnamese BBQ mock duck and tofu spring rolls that were big hits; AS got a Kitchenaid mixer with an ice-cream maker attachment and has been whipping up gourmet vegan treats; NT invented a Cuban-style dinner of avocado-mango salad, plantains and black beans that was out of this world. I think the warm weather and fresh produce has us all feeling inspired.

I wish I could get more motivated to lose weight, but at least I'm trying to walk more and eat loads of fresh fruit and veggies, so I'm not being unhealthy, even if I've plateaued weightwise. Other than a quibble or two like that, I'm loving this summer.

I noticed mention of SA on a Yahoo story about stores cracking down on extreme coupon methods. Unfortunately, they spelled the site name wrong (savingsadvice.com) though the link was correct. Here's the article:
http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-113020-10125-1-how-to-get-the-most-from-coupons?ywaad=ad0035&nc