We will be going to Columbus over the long weekend. Plans to go to the zoo/aquarium, conservatory and children's museum. In preparation for our trip, I purchased an annual pass to our local children's museum because it gives us free admission to COSI as well the Toronto Science Centre that we plan to visit next month. I also bought an annual pass to the Toledo Zoo which gives us 50% discounts in Columbus and Toronto too. I booked us at a hotel with a full kitchen, free breakfast, free parking, a pool and near lots of restaurants. We are taking along food to make sandwiches for packed lunches and pasta to make dinner one of the nights. Planning to eat out two of the other nights.
Bird sitter expenses need to be paid as well, but overall it should be a reasonably affordable mini-break. I am excited.
And I also bought tickets for Disney on Ice in December. We will get home from WDW on a Thursday and then have the show on Sunday, so it will be a very Disney filled week. I was excited to see that Moana and Coco will be featured this year.
And the reason that I can't buy myself a Mickey waffle maker is because I have borrowed forward several months on my allowance and am trying to be really strict with regards to not going more in debt to myself. DH has also borrowed several months ahead as well because he bought himself a new bike. If I stay on budget, I should be paid off and have access to my full allowance just in time for our October WDW trip.
Other than that, we have been doing pretty well on the budget. We went over a bit on the gas budget and hit the limit on our grocery budget as well. I plan to make up the difference with some per diem money from some work travel that I have coming up. The trailer loan is now down to $10,800. I still have about $200 pending from Swagbucks and I anticipate having about $1k in extra per diem money over the next 3 months that I plan to put towards the trailer, so we should be well below $10k by the end of the summer.
The basement is getting closer to completion. We are waiting on the countertop for the wet bar and then the builder will be able to tile the backsplash in the kitchen and wet bar. Then we will just need to have the flooring installed, install the closet organizers and move everything back into place. I can't wait to finally have a place to sew again. It has felt really hard not having access to my hobby. I ordered a bunch of cute knits for sewing up some matching summer family pajamas as well as shirts, leggings, and dresses for DD.