April Savings Update (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

You may remember me saying that April was going to get the "crap saved out of it," and well, it did - kind of? Allow me to 'splain.

The Good
First of all, we were able to put $1,000 in the old savings account again for April (woot!). That seems to be a recurring theme for us the past couple of months, which I think is good. But I know we can do better. Another good thing - we bought our plane tickets to Europe! We are super excited and can't wait. Especially to see my baby brother school those Germans in some American Football!

The Bad
The bad news is that while we saved $1,000 this month, our credit card bill went up by triple that (probably more) due to birthdays/Mother's day/Europe plane tickets(!). So while we "saved" $1,000, we really didn't save $1,000. But that's OK. Part of what we were saving for was our Europe trip, so it's nice to finally put our hard earned cash to use! (Side note: Why are we using our credit card at all? Well, the plane tickets are self explanatory, but for gifts we buy online to send to family we usually use the old plastic just because it's online and it makes us feel better/safer. Plus we get cash back with our Costco AMEX card!).

The Ugly
Speaking of using our hard earned cash... the real ugly part to all this was realizing a couple days after we bought our Europe tickets (to the tune of $3,000 - YIKES!), I learned that I could have bought the tickets flying though a different (and closer) airport for $400 less (cue sad Charlie Brown music here). :( I was pretty mad/disappointed/sick to my stomach when I figured that one out. But, live and learn, right? We tried calling to get it changed, but it was already too late and the change fees wouldn't have been worth it. I was mostly frustrated because we have been working so hard to save, and there went $400 down the drain... The husband keeps reminding me that nothing can be changed, what's done is done, and we are still going to Europe(!). But it still makes me a little sick when I think about it...

One thing I'm struggling with on our Spending Diet is when it comes to gifts. I like to go all out, make people feel special, and spend a little more than I should because it is their special day. But, this is not good for the spending diet. Like Anna, I am hoping to find a way to make some more homemade gifts, or find unique ways to spend less money, but still give gifts. Some how I don't think the macaroni necklace is still going to cut it for Mother's Day... (Any ideas???)

So there you have it. Another month of savings in the books! Here's to May!