Weekly spending roundup (12/12-12/18/16)

As I think about a much harder blog post to write (my 2017 goals!), I thought I would stick to the basics today, and review my weekly spending. You can see that I wasn't entirely successful on my avoidance of end of the year deals & discounts, despite my best effort. ;-)

Here goes!

• Monday (12/12)- no spend day
• Tuesday (12/13) - 
• $29.35 - dinner out for four. Crazy, crazy work day followed by school activities in the evening. This was all I could manage.
• Wednesday (12/14) - no spend day
• Thursday (12/15):
• $350 - nanny
• Friday (12/16) -
• $40 - for $50 worth of Panera gift cards (Amazon discount)
• $24.89 - coffee at Costco (on sale)
• $12.22 - oxiclean 
• $2.03 - some sort of car charger that M ordered.

• Saturday (12/17):
• $83.98 - $100 worth of gift cards, on sale. These will be used for gifts in 2017
• $22.62 - a weather station for our vacation house. Our last one blew away in the hurricane!
• $19.95 - an unexpected gift for Santa to deliver to the boys. It's a board game that they can share. My uncle (aka Santa) said he wasn't ready for all four of the boys (Nick is the youngest) to be done with Santa yet, and he wanted one encore performance so he could say goodbye. It was so cute that he's enjoyed it over the past 13 or so years. My sister got the other two boys a puzzle to open. It appears that it will be extremely cold and/or snowing at my parents house, so the traditional mountain biking/bike park adventures may not work out. If we have four boys trapped inside for a couple of days, interesting games & activities will be critical to all of our sanity. ;-) 
• $400 - deposit for spring soccer (for two boys)
• $20 - hair cuts for the boys
• $55 - sitter for our December date night
• $91.35 - dinner out. This included two entrees, an appetizer & one dessert. We brought our own wine. We would have made at least two more meals out of the leftovers, but M forgot the takeout box. :-( 
• $113.28 - Costco, groceries
• $84.75 - Costco, wine
• $102.25 - gifts for our white elephant, and a splurge sweater for the holidays that M bought me. It's pretty nice, but I may return it. It's not a "need", of course. 
• Sunday (12/18):
• $5.10 - lettuce, tomatoes & mini cucumbers at the produce stand
• Peppermint hot cocoa & a cookie for the kids, while looking at Christmas lights. No out of pocket spending, as I used a Starbucks gift card. (I count this as spending in the month I buy the gift card).
• $20.95 - two puzzles. What can I say - with the lack of sports (woohoo!), we're on a bit of a puzzle high at the house.
• $6.99 - a thermal shirt for M for running.
• $22.63 - more Costco groceries. They didn't have grapes on Saturday & M wanted to pick up a few soups.
• $39.52 - gas for one car
• $49.99 - gas for the other car

Total spent = $1596.85. Oh my! $750 of that was on kid stuff (soccer + nanny), but the rest was on shopping & dining out. Time to tighten the purse strings & get serious! How did you do with your weekly spending? Any hits or misses?