Well, I had to bite the bullet and take some money out of savings. We're still doing well on our 2010 savings goal, but this will slow progress a bit.

I decided to just go for it and take out about $2400 for our new backyard patio. It was either that, or wait three or four months until we could pay for it out of cash flow. By then it will be fall and we will have missed out on another summer with a nice big backyard patio. And, I wouldn't have a safe, car-free and worry-free place for my 2 year old to ride his tricycle. After some thought, we just decided it was worth getting it done now.

We're just tired of waiting. We have lived here 4 years and spent the first three doing all the unfun but necessary things to the house. New roof, new furnace, new windows, etc. to the tune of about $30,000 (total). We're finally getting to the more tangible, quality of life things on the list.

$2400 out of savings for a patio we can enjoy that we will buy eventually seemed like a reasonable move.

We are also buying the boys a wooden swing set this weekend. I have shopped around for MONTHS!! There are so many combinations and levels of quality that it is overwhelming. I was not going to pay $1000 or more, but I didn't want a $300 one that wouldn't last, either.

I finally decided on the Hawk's Nest model from Home Depot. It will cost a little less than $600 when all is said and done. I am going to pick up the slide and kit tonight (about $500 total), and we are borrowing a friend's truck to get the lumber next week. (About $80 for lumber) On Sat. the 22, we're having a swing set raising party, and some people are coming over to help us do the structural beam parts.

The patio and the swingset are the last of the big projects for the year. Okay, one left: $850 to redo our electrical box, but that's no fun!

And, I do still have to lay some landscape fabric, put out a ton of mulch, and maybe buy some landscape stones, but I can easily do all of that as we have extra money. These, individually won't cost so much that they qualify as a big project.

Once the patio and swing set are in we will have pretty much blown our $10,000 home improvement budget for the year. The kitchen cost $6200, $2680 for the patio, and about $600 for the swing set. That's about $9500. Add in the new electrical box and we'll be just over the limit for the year. Oh well, it could be worse! We could be way over budget!