This weekend (Sunday) we took the kids to Hershey Park for the day. We have been doing this for the past 4 years. My DH has a cousin that lives about as far as we do from there and his son is great friends with my oldest daughter so we try to meet up there once each summer. We also invite DH's niece so it is a nice time for the cousins to get together. In the past years we have been going on Labor Day. The only problem was my kids usually had school the next day so we always had to leave by about 6:00. I lobbied for Sunday this year so we could stay til the park closed. Well, we did just that and I am definitely getting too old for that. All day yesterday I felt like I was hung over. Without the benefit of any alchohol! I guess it was the combination of too much sun, not enough water to drink and too much walking. I woke up with a headache and by the time it went away (late afternoon) my stomach was bothering me! No fair!

Anyway, we did have a great time and even better, it was budgeted for so when the CC bill comes rolling in, I already have most of the money put away to cover it. I spent a bit more on food than planned so I will have to make that up out of the next paychecks but the tickets etc. were bought with my credit card and I already have the money set aside to pay for them. I have been trying to use my CC to make purchases only when I already have the money set aside. I just make a note in my checkbook, instead of writing a check number, I just note CC and the amount and subtract it. This way, I can still use the card to get reward points but I know that I already have the money set aside to pay when the bill comes in. My next step is to open up an ING or other on-line checking account to earn interest. This way, while the money is sitting in the account, I will at least be earning interest on it.