Get a FREE 8x10 Photo Book ($19.99 value)

I was browsing today, and came across a coupon code for a free 8.5x11 Classic Photo book from Walgreens.  They have a bunch of different designs and a lot of different layouts as well.  The coupon code is CREATEBOOK.  If you live in the Las Vegas or New Orleans area, you can pick it up in store for even more savings.  Otherwise, shipping is $6.99.

I don't have any personal experience with this particular photo book, but the smaller, cheaper ones, I've ordered in the past have been nice, and they always do a good job on pictures as well, so I imagine these books would be high quality as well!

But hurry!  The code is only good through midnight tonight, July 9th!

Halfway Through the Year, How's the Debt?

I know I didn't go over a total amount of debt at the beginning of the year, but I have all the numbers saved on my computer.  At the beginning of the year, we had $75,769.96 in debt, including our house, our 2008 Uplander, student loans, and  credit card debt.  Now that the year is half over, we've actually added a little bit to our debt, and now stand at $77,942.00. The reason for that is that we built up our savings account a little bit to give us an emergency fund, and then we bought a second car (2005 Impala) since we're going to be needing it when Elliott starts school in the fall, since I plan on driving him every day.  We had planned on saving for a second car, and buying one that we could pay cash for, but we ultimately decided that since winter is COLD here, and I will be driving 17 miles each way twice a day, and my husband drives 20 miles each way to work, we should get one a little more reliable.  So we just put $2000 down on the Impala and financed the rest. 

Getting Back To Normal

Well, the worst of the flooding in Minot is over now, and there's a second route between north and south Minot.  We still have a really long road to recovery, but we're moving in the right direction now.

The city of Minot is under a boil order and conservation mandate, but they still have running water, which is pretty major, all things considered.  We've been extra busy at our house because we still have clean tap water, so I've done some children's laundry for friends that aren't so lucky.  Minot actually supplies the water to a pretty big part of north central North Dakota, so there are a lot of people with dirty water, but as far as I know, everyone does have water now.