Here is what I spent this past week:

Church $12.50
Gas $75.00
Living $175.31
Misc $10.48
Gifts $40.00
Clothing $26.91
Kids $25.06
Entertaining $45.00

TOTAL $410.26

How I covered these expenses:
CASH ($115.58)
GIFT CARDS ($235.68) Purchased $125
thru church
CHECKING ($59.00) (Plus $125)

Incoming Extraneous Income

Cash from laundry machines $58.00
Unexpected gift card DH $30.00
Gift (check from Gma) $100.00
Gift (cash from Mom) $10.00

TOTAL $198.00

Thoughts on this:

It has been hard, but I am abandoning the use of the credit card to cover expenses. I loved the thrill of point accmlation. I am opting for trying to cover things with cash and gift cards. DH pays for some things and doesn't access the "envelopes" so I need to work on that - and check payable to church for tax records won't change.

Gas/groceries were higher than had hoped - on las day of spending period had to put gas in car $20 additional and we hosted a several-friend slumber party which caused a second shopping trip when I spent more than planned and at least $12.00 was on ice cream/toppings/soda - all buy ones get ones - I didn't know that Beyers has gone up to $6.49 a tub! Yikes!

Gifts - Father's Day - paid cash and used gift card for Barnes & Noble from perk point cash-in bonanza.

Clothing - I am reducing the $200 BTS shopping by this $26 shoe purchase. I returned one item for $14 from last week (shorts that didn't quite fit one of my monkeys) I plan on spending across the summer months to plan for BTS.

Entertainment was spur of the moment outing with DH's thank you gift card for $30. Had to pay $8 over $30 for meal plus 20% tip of $7. Meal $38+$7 tip = $45 less $30 gift card = $15 OOP - fun, spontaneous, great plan, and you can't beat deep dish Chicago style pizza!

Kids category - covered tax on their PS 2 Karaoke game and $21 for the blow-up pool. Not unrealistic - well spent already provided hours of fun this week alone.

Still hopeful that I can reduce these categories significantly. Better planning I suppose.