Wow, It's Hot Here

It was 102 on the way home yesterday. I wanted so badly to turn on the air conditioner but toughed it out all the way home. Instead, as soon as I got home, I grabbed Mary and our swim suits and headed for the recreation department indoor pool. The water was FREEZING and extremely refreshing. 40 minutes and a bunch of laps later we were both really tired but refreshed. Which brings me to the challenges of doing this spending fast with a 10 year old. Mary is completely on board and I really want her to have a real-life lesson in money management but I don't want her to zone out in front of the TV either. Fitness is a big priority in our house and we are always on the look-out for cheap fitness.

We are not members of a fitness club but we are extremely fortunate to have one of the recreation departments complexes in our subdivision. This includes tennis, soccer and baseball fields, track, indoor basketball courts and indoor pool. The pool costs 2.00 each time but well worth the expense. This is another area that I thought was important enough to keep in the budget. As I'm going through this process there seems to be some gray areas I'm going to have to address and balance.

Here is the one I'm facing this week: Visit from youngest son. I haven't seen Nathan in a year as he lives 950 miles away. While he's not big on me spending a lot of money, his visit this week will cost me more in food and at least one evening out. On the upside, this was the first year I asked him to pay for his plane ticket himself. I hated to do that but I really felt I needed to find a good balance between his visit and my spending. Last year I not only bought his ticket but his girlfriends also. Unfortunately, they broke up so Nate is buy for one. I did find free bowling passes so we'll do bowling one night. I'm also trying to score some baseball tickets - they're not to expensive but still it will cost money if I can't find someone who's willing to just give me some for cheap. It's also Nate's birthday tomorrow. I have already told him that gifts will be out of the question this year for both birthday and Christmas so the time we spend together next week has to have some thought put into it.  Any suggestions???