Weekend Watch

I'm having company this weekend. My cousin and her two daughters -- ages 12 and 13 -- are coming up for a long weekend, tomorrow night through Tuesday morning.

I don't have any big plans, but we do plan to visit the Spy Museum. I bought the tickets a couple weeks ago, and yes, I charged them. She will be paying me back for their portion, so it's not too bad. My plan is to set up a payment to my charge card as soon as she pays me.

Otherwise, I'm hoping to keep spending at a minimum. I'm not the kind of person who feels the need to pay for everyone's meals, souvenirs, and the like, so no worries about that. I realize it may sound selfish or cheap, but I have to watch my bottom line. Spending money I don't have and incurring more debt just to impress people isn't on the agenda. If I didn't have debt, things might be different. But I do, so here we are. I mean, I may pay for the pizza one evening, but that's where I draw the line.

There will be some opportunities to spend, and that does concern me a little. For one, we're going to the flea market on Sunday and I'm a sucker in those situations. I'm going to have to think twice -- heck, three times -- before I buy anything.

The fact is that I've been very good and I want to keep up my good work. I'm still saving, and I'm working so hard on paying down the debt. I don't want to hit the slippery slope.

One other thing, I've decided to cash out all overtime pay from my paycheck. I'm putting it away in an envelope. The plan is to save it as a clothing allowance for now and maybe a regular allowance down the line. I plan to do it at least until July. That's at least six more paychecks. And if I get a raise in April, I plan to use the current salary base amount and put any raise and overtime income in the allowance. Let's see how much I can save.

OK, that's it. I'll check in next week and let you know how well I did over the weekend. Stay tuned...