I am blessed to travel to Marytown, the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, founder of the Militia Immaculata.

This weekend is the National Convention for all of the Knights of the Immaculata to attend.

I am so excited and blessed to be going! Please say a prayer for me in my travels and growth in faith.

God bless.

So, as many of you know, I LOVE using my own little forced savings practice. As a reminder, this is where I round my checks and deposits. If I write a check for $46.00, I make my registry entry for $50.00. If I deposit $200.00, I make my registry entry for $150.00.

As of last week, and as I reported on my blog, I "saved" over $2500.00 thus far this year.

Well, another thing I do is save all of my spare change, including the change I am constantly picking up off the ground/floor wherever I go. Tonight I exchanged them and to my pleasant surprise, saved $93.76!

Now, what to do with the money? I think the girls and I will take a trip to the store and use it for the local food pantry. Ironically enough, in the bulletine at Mass tonight they listed some needed items for the pantry being Jell-O, Peanut Butter, Soup, etc.

PS - My mortgage pre-payment plan is moving along nicely. How about yours?

Although it has been a long time since I have blogged, the time has come to rejoin my SA friends. Great to see all of your efforts and stories.

My spare change container is full. Before the weekend is out, I am going to take it and the girls to the store to have them counted and turned to paper money. At that point, I think this time around we will use it to purchase some non-parishable items for the local food pantry.

Also, as you know I am a HUGE proponent of forced savings via my checkbook. To date, by recording a check written for a greater amount and by reducing the actual amount of my deposits in my register, I have saved over $2,000.00 in ten months! This is going into my cash reserves, although, a nice mortgage pre-payment may also ensue.

God bless and again, it's great to be back!