Done!

I got a BIG job accomplished today and I am feeling great!

I finally got Beanie's college fund started - yay! A year later than I had hoped but at least its done and now every month a small amount will go into it.

I have also been wanting to get with my financial planner to go over my overall portfolio to see where I was in terms of retirement savings and next steps. Better to do that now than later, so in case drastic changes were needed we could make them. Its been so difficult just getting the time to do it and the poor guy has been on my case for a year.

 I finally decided to stop procrastinating, got an appt, spent two hours with him and we got through it all. The idea was to try to consolidate and gauge where I am.  Overall, there were no red flags and it felt good to have a professional validate it.

He, of course, has been wanting to get my business for years, so was chomping at the bit! He had a few good suggestions that I need to mull over and get back to him. Otherwise his advice was to continue what I am doing in terms of savings, living well within my means and no wasteful spending which I don't do anyways. Of course my expenses now with a toddler and full-time daycare have doubled so the potential for savings is much less than it used to be, but if I am careful I could still sock away some each month.

Next week I will open a savings account for Beanie since she has been getting gift checks and I want her to have her own account.

In other news, Beanie is being weaned to whole milk and a sippy cup. The sippy cup part is not going too well. The first few times she drank from the sippy, now she wants nothing to do with it. I am excited about moving to whole milk though.  Organic milk though still expensive is cheaper than formula! She has made progress food wise and is eating Mum Mums and Ger.ber Puffs, but still not into diced veggies or fruit. She chews on it and spits it out - sigh!

Oh and one of the best decisions I made was to get a GAP Vi.sa card. I use it now for all my purchases and am getting reward dollars back each month which I can use to buy clothes for Beanie.  And by shopping at the clearance rack, I get really good deals! This weekend we may go to the consignment shop to see if they have anything nice since she needs a summer wardrobe.

So yeah, I am getting frugal and even using coupons when I remember.

As they say a penny saved is a penny earned!