December 2008 expenses

I also had to spend $400 on new tires for my car and $200 for a combination of new battery, oil change, rear differential change, and just plain routine service such as new wiper blades for two vehicles.

Spending $400 for tires was expensive but I could feel my tires starting to spin and the car starting to slide in wet weather. It's less money to buy tires than it is to pay a deductible and rent a car while your car is being repaired - I went through that last year. Not going to make that mistake again this year. I still need rear tires but that's going to have to wait.

For Christmas we spent $340 - still owe $190 but plan to pay that off on Jan. 15th with funds from paycheck.

Also had eight birthdays in December that we budgeted for $200.

And my son's 21st birthday was in December so we celebrated with a restaurant dinner.

I'm very proud of my son. He worked and saved his own money and bought a new (used) car for himself back in November. We sold his old car for $1350 so that helped with the budget.