I've been staring at the money situation lately and I can't find a solution. I plan on taking 3 months maternity leave and then working 6 months part-time before heading back to work full-time and the money we'll need to float this endeavor is way more than I had anticipated. With Xmas ($700), oil ($1200), T's school ($800), and a christening ($500) on top of the regular bills, we're going to need about $6,800 to get by with almost no emergency fund left once I start back full time. I was hoping to have at least $7,500 to have a little bit of a cushion but I don't see any way of that happening now.

I've been trying to come up with some odd jobs that might make us a little bit of money. I started creating onesies (the link is in my sidebar) but I have no idea how to promote it and with each day I'm getting more frustrated.

The past 2 years we've dug our way out of a lot of debt and I think I was just too ambitious with paying things off instead of holding onto enough money to get us by with my maternity leave. Why didn't I think things through?! Rawr.

So there's my rant for the day. I'm sure all my crazy hormones aren't helping any. I'll post later when I'm feeling more chipper and hopefully I come up with a solution to this problem!

T is going to kill me! The Home Equity Line of Credit that we have out on our rental property is supposed to be a variable (currently 3.74%??) interest rate. Because a variable rate would keep me up at night, I opted for a fixed rate. In the beginning the payment was so high that we had to do a fixed Interest Only rate (Dumb, I know. But at the time we thought real estate was a win-win situation and that the value would forever be increasing and never going down. Hah!) As the rates have come down, it became affordable enough for us to do a fixed Principal and Interest payment. Each time we "fix" the rate, we need to "unfix" what it was previously and pay a $100 dollar fee before we can lock it in again. This is now probably the 4th time I am looking to lock in at a new lower rate and each time I promise T it's the very last time! Of course the rates keep going lower and it just makes sense to pay that $100 because we make it back so quickly. So yes, here we are for the umpteenth time trying to fix the rate to 4.7%. We have to wait til the next billing cycle before we can lock in, so when Sept 10th rolls around interest rates better not have risen an inch!!

The ceilings been painted. Walls are painted. Hardwood is refinished. New base and cove are installed. AND HERE COMES THE FURNITURE!!!

Ok, ok, so I'm a little excited. The in-laws showed up yesterday with the free furniture they had gotten and T put it together and set it up in the room. I'm going to try and post some photos. Here goes..







Yah, so we still have some more cleaning to do. And I still need to figure out how I'm decorating (I'm thinking sea life/ocean/beachy?) but we are getting there little by little. Woo hoo!

Does anyone know of a free or close to free web hosting service? I'm trying to get my onesie business up and moving (etsy.com/shop/vkoenigk) but I really need a website first that I can start promoting/advertising. Just wondering if any of you have your own website or know of any good web hosting services and what their fees are???

Thanks in advance!!!

Savings just doesn't want to budget after two paychecks and it's starting to really worry me..

Travis' school, car problems and more car problems, unforeseen house repairs, and everything else seems to be eating up any money we had planned to put to savings. I guess it's my fault. Just a few weeks ago I said to T, "Isn't it funny, when we had credit card debt it seemed like there were unforeseen expenses all the time. Since we've been free of credit card debt (1.5 years now) it seems like our budget is always under control and we never have any of those extra expenses." Me and my big mouth...

So after much searching I've decided if I want goofy, wacky onesies I'm just going to have to start making them myself! There are a few novelty stores online, but the prices they charge are insane. I bought some t-shirt transfers and some white Gerber onesies and I started this past weekend!

After making a few I've come up with some more ideas I can make for family, friends, etc. but there are some that maybe moms in general would want. I signed up on www dot etsy dot com/shop/vkoenigk (Not sure if you're allowed to post links here??) and I've already posted my first four. I'm so excited!!

I'm not much of an artist, but I'm trying to think of a few cute designs. I love my little pea in give PEAS a chance (that's basically the extent of my artistry haha)

I still need to make my Who's the Boss? Tony Danza shirt (for the baby of course...long story haha) and a couple other off the wall shirts. The more I make the more ideas I'm coming up with. Who thought this would be so fun?!??

On the money front, I'll post later. I think this weekend was a bit more spendy than I anticipated...

Trying to declutter the house is hard to do with a baby on the way. It seems for every piece of houseware/clothing I donate or trash, there's at least 2 more coming in!

T and I have already taken home a couple of bouncers/swings, a diaper genie, HUGE bag of new clothes, bag of infant toys, pack 'n play, and the in-laws still have the crib, dresser, and changing table to bring when they next visit. So much stuff I'm trying to figure out where to put it all! I don't think I'm going to use all of the bouncers and swings, but I took it all and I'll just sell whatever we don't use for baby. I just can't pass up free stuff. Especially when it's in as good condition as all of this is.

Money is sort of at a standstill at the moment. We had a car issue that ate up $200 and it looks like T is registering for his calc class this pay period instead of next, so right now our savings is sitting around 2100 instead of the 2700 I had anticipated. Next Friday we should break $3,000 which I'll be pleased with and make sure to post if we've hit the mark! Only a few more paychecks until I start thinking about maternity leave, so we need to conserve as much as we can!

SIL works as a nanny for a family who evidently doesn't know that once their children outgrow items they can sell and make some money back. They told SIL who told MIL whoever wants their stuff can have it. MIL jumped in and claimed a whole bunch of stuff for me and T (and the baby)! Evidently they have a cherry (not a big fan of cherry, but hey, it's FREE) convertible crib, changing table, and dresser ready for us to take. Plus MIL got a whole bunch of their swings/bouncers/etc (including a Graco SweetPeace?? MIL was saying how it's really cool...I'm still not sure I know what it is, but has anyone out there used one with their baby?) I told her to take anything that wasn't nailed down because even if we don't use it, we'll sell it to a consignment shop or at a yard sale. T and I might go up to the in-laws this weekend and see what else they've taken for us so far...I'm so excited!!

On the cleaning front, things are inching on. T finished painting the babies room and the ceiling, so now he has to do one final sanding of the floor before he does the first coat of stain. It's so exciting to see everything coming together. The whole moving thing is seeming more like a dream now than anything, but I'd still be interested in putting up the house for sale just to see if there's anyone out there interested. We still need to get some more things in order, so maybe we'll just ride it out with the pregnancy and finish up the odds and ends and then in April list it?? I dont know..it seems things change around here minute to minute!