DW bought a new lap top computer yesterday. A Christmas present for the whole family.

The total was right around $475. No new borrowing, we had the money in checking. But I always get edgy when big purchases are made, especially with so much month left.

But, as I've mentioned in prevoius posts, debt repayment has been slowed a bit to brace for Christmas spending.

We needed a new computer. The old one began crashing and slowing down, and all in all has been becoming annoying. We switched to a lap top to facilitate the use by our daughters (ages 9 and 5). Our old desk top was housed in the office, not exactly a kid friendly environment.

Will be interesting having a "family" computer now. Especially have to think more about parental controls - if anyone has any advice, let me know.

We cleaned our carpets last night. Our girls are at their aunt's house for a couple days, and we arranged to have my mom watch the boys for a few hours, so we took advantage of the situation.

We've been in the house for two years now, and haven't steam cleaned them since we moved in. We rented the steam cleaner for $39. $10 of that is a deposit that will be returned when we bring the cleaner back. The detergent cost $23, and it was nearly used up, so good thing I bought the big bottle. So, for $52, and some elbow grease, we have bright shiny carpets and upholtery again. Oh, yeah, that big stain in the living room is gone, too!