What a day. Ds2 was up several times last night sick. I took him to the doctor today because I thought he had an ear infection (that's the only time he ever wakes up in the night), but he just has a sore throat and a 103 temperature! if he's not sleeping better tomorrow, we may have to take him back because he could still develop an ear infection. Poor little guy. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, though - he's still happy as ever. I have never seen a happier baby So my only expense today was the co-pay, although I was able to pay that out of a balance that I had at the office due to an overpayment, so it wasn't really money out of my pocket today. I had to add in a few more expenses below that I forgot.
My babysitter (girl next door) brought over a friend last night to get to know the kids in case she ever can't babysit for them - she wants me to have a back-up. I still paid her the regular amount ($15 for 3 hours) b/c I didn't ask her to bring this girl. Now I am wondering if I should have paid them more? I just paid my sitter and figured she might give some to her friend for helping. Hmmm...I hope I didn't short them, but I am still only getting three hours of babysitting, so I didn't really feel justified in giving more.

New expenses: $6.72 from lunch on Friday - I went out with a client. I forgot to add this in earlier.
$3.72 buying fish last night for dinner tonight - I had to break a twenty for the babysitter, so I figured I might as well get dinner.
$15.00 co-pay for doctor's visit
November expenses: $928.77
November income: $4400.00 (I thought I was going to be able to add in a sizeable rebate from DH's laptop, but when I opened the letter today from Best Buy it said they needed more information to process the rebate...grrr)

Stupidest way I saved money today: Trying to squeeze in a doctor's visit with the time that was already on the meter where I parked (31 minutes) instead of dropping in another quarter. I would have made it to, if I didn't have to stop at my doctor's office in the same building. What should have been a two minute visit turned into nearly 15 as I had to wait for the nurse to get off the phone. I was about 10 minutes late getting back to the meter, but luckily did not get caught by the meter reader.
Other ways I saved money today: Brought my lunch to work, drank water at work.
Potential money saver: I called to find out if the local BOCES (vocational school) can fix the dent on DH's car. They are sending me an application - I would needs to pay for parts only, but if they can bang the dent out, they should not need to replace anything. I am not getting my hopes up though, because there is a really long waiting list and the repair needs to fit into their class needs. But it would be nice...I also looked around on the internet for a local massage school. I found one about 40 minutes away that does 50 minutes massages for $30. I may just have to treat myself! The last one I got (nearly 2 years ago, only the second one in my life) costs $25 for 30 minutes, and that is relatively cheap around here. When I lived in the city, I used to get my hair cut at the hairstyling school for $4. I always got a decent cut (but my hairstyle is not hard). They have great services like cuts, colors, manicures and pedicures, etc. for at least half the price. So the schools are definitely worth checking out if you want to save some bucks. Just passing that along...