One of my friend is having a spa party/cookie swap in three weeks, so I’m planning on doing some test baking today. I actually like cooking and baking, though I can say there’s a whole lot that I’m particularly good at (hence the testing).  I saw two really interesting sounding recipes — both of which used a box mix. That’s just cheating. I’m all about that when it comes to brownies and muffins — I guess I just have higher standards for online recipes.

I’m officially $200+ over budget for the month, with at least $50 more to spend in groceries (including our post-Thanksgiving turkey).  I feel like I’ve said this repeatedly, but I cannot WAIT for bonus/tax return time.

My inability to spend less than I earn (after designated savings) has been getting pretty disheartening, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about where my monetary priorities are.  My mortgage is now the highest interest rate I’m paying (very high for a mortgage these days), so maybe that should be my priority to pay down, so I can refinance.  But will I be able to do this while rates are still low?  Would I be way more likely to accomplish that (or my debt payoff goals generally) if I just don’t have a wedding, or have just a small thing?  The way I see it, it ‘s going to be 25 people, or 125 people — I can cut it down to immediately family and best friends, not do a wedding party, just do a dinner, but then I’ll miss out on the dancing and sharing the time with a lot of my other friends. But if I do something larger, it’s really hard to make the determination of who I want to invite and who I don’t.  Or more accurately “If I invite X, I should also invite Y” and “Well she invited me to her wedding five years ago, but we don’t really talk much now…but I wish we did, and I want her to know that.”  My wonderful man, god bless him, says “I’ll just invite less people, so you can invite more.”  Which is incredibly sweet, but I know I should be making some cuts on the amorphous guest  list in my head.

There will be some decisions ahead to be made.  But for today at least I will limit my decision making to: Caramel Pecan Snickerdoodle OR Red Velvet Cheesecake?  OR Oatmeal Chocolate Chip OR S’mores Cookie Bars.  OR ALL OF THEM?

* I feel like a lot of my posts are negative lately.  So I figured I’d share something happy.  I’ve paid $735 in student loan principal this month!  And in 2015, I’m hopeful that we can put another $500 or so a month to either loans or the mortgage (or the wedding), depending on what we decide.