I think I can post now that I've calmed down. :) I got all giddy and giggly when I saw that Gail had left a comment.*

I unfortunately did not get anything a) finance related or b) blog related or c) craft related done this week as Andrew has pneumonia. He was starting to feel sick last Friday but I thought it was just a cold. I should have known something was very wrong when I took the Christmas Tree down on Saturday and all he did was lay on the couch and not 'help' in any way. Things got worse Sunday night and by Monday hubby decided to take him to the doctors. They took a chest x-ray and confirmed it was pneumonia, gave us antibiotics and sent us home. He started to do better by Wednesday and now today he seems in tip-top shape. He had pneumonia last year and it was way worse last year. I think it's because we got the very early diagnosis, last year we waited about a week before we took him to the doctors.

Today I had a great day at work. I took the time to make a spreadsheet so I can better manage one of the ordering tasks that I have to do on a regular basis. The computer program will spit out a silly report showing when the particular items need to be ordered for individuals, but I don't find the report user friendly at all. I can't manipulate the report in any way, so I have to print it and then I make my scribbly notes on it and then when I set to work ordering the item I have more scribbly notes on other papers and I end up getting all confused. Now I hope my problems are solved. I can sort the spreadsheet, I can easily see upcoming items that need ordering, I've colour coded certain aspects, added comments, and I can track my progress with ease. I just have to remember to keep it updated...because as all my dear readers know that while I am obsessed with lists, I am not so good at keeping up with them. & a spreadsheet is really just a giant list...**

It has been quite cold here (in the minus 30's-40's with the windchill), so it's hard to get motivated to do anything. I get home and I just want to curl up with a blankie and stay warm. I cannot wait for warmer weather. I'm dreaming of a day when it will be minus 10! lol.

On the mini holiday front I have this to report. I have been diligently having money transferred every week from our PC checking account into our credit union LOC. From there I have been transferring it into our credit union savings account because the PC account and the Credit Union savings account aren't linked online, but the LOC is (for payment purposes). Sadly, there appears to be service charges surrounding e-transferring money from the LOC to the savings account. There was a glitch on the credit unions side and the charges were never being applied, but I guess they've realized their mistake. Thankfully, they are not applying the previous charges but they have sent us a letter and it clearly says that they will starting applying the service charges (but they conveniently don't tell us how much these charges will be). I have just cancelled those automatic transfers and set up automatic transfers to go into our EF. I guess I will just need to be diligent in tracking how much money is in the Mini Holiday fund vs the EF.***

I also want to report that I've increased our EF saving and planned spending saving (which at this point is the mini holiday fund). We were saving $17 a week into the EF and I've upped that to $20 (I was going to do $19, but then I figured why not just make it a nice round number) and i've increased the planned spending saving from $8 a week to $10 (this is not including the $40/month that comes off my pay and is in a payroll savings bond). At this point, I think those will be our saving figures for the next little while. I am very proud of myself because we went form saving zip, zero, zilch, nada, nothing to $10 a week, then $12 a week, and upwards in increments to now $40 a week (including the payroll savings). That means that we are now saving $140 a month! It was a slow process. I started with $10 a week in May and I am very pleased to say that we have continued EF saving even though we have been going through a very tough time financially.

I've updated my side bars too.

I think after this very long and rambly post I am ready to hit publish and wish everyone a wonderful weekend! Relax and stay warm everyone.

*Hi Gail! (if you've popped in again)

**I'm being intentionally vague on purpose here, seeing as how this is work related.

***I just realized that this paragraph sounds vague as well, but really it is not vague on purpose. I think I am just bad at explaining things.