We went to Catalina. Its so beautiful I feel like it was a dream of blue clean water, tropical fish, friendly people and beauty.

We went on a glass bottom boat. I got tickets for both of us, so I spent $37 (senior discount) on that, and $5.00 on fish food. If my photos turn out I'll try to post them, because it was totally wonderful. We fed fish in the water and they stared at us and followed the boat. The fish were utterly beautiful. I felt like the ocean there is full of rich life and thought sadly of the people near the oil spill and the devastation on animals and fish and the economy.

We didn't do much more than the one tour, we sat on benches and listened to street players and enjoyed the clean cool air. We ate at a restaurant. I spent $9 on a photo and $3 on a refrigerator magnet (I have a collection of them for new places I visit). Socorro paid for the meal and later paid for the utterly illegal home-made chocolate creme pie and coconut cream pie we had.

We went there on a fast boat and dolphins raced by us once. All in all it was a glorious adventure and I stayed within budget.

I gave the bus driver a $1 tip, which is customary. He got us home safe.

I'm going to keep doing stuff like this, especially since I can save up for specific tours in our area, or plan trips to sites I'd like to see.

I feel rich in experience today, and it didn't cost that much.

Earlier this year when I got a lot of overtime, I purchased 4 day tours, one for each month, so I could take a day off and have fun. This Sunday I'm going to Catalina Island for the day. I'm taking Monday off to sleep, cause I know I'll be wiped when I return.

I've never been on Catalina Island and I want to travel and have fun. My roomie Socorro is coming with me. Since we are both older broads, we'll walk slow, sit down alot and enjoy ourselves.

The trip is $117 - they bus you there, take you over on a ferry and let you run loose until its time to catch the ferry back. Its pretty and cool. I plan on buying at least one expensive meal and taking lots of photos with my digital camera.

The whole trip is budgeted, although I assume I'll do something stupid and buy something I don't need.

I loaned my roomie money so she can go, and I am not worried about it. I'm excited at doing something for me that is fun and refreshing.

WOOHOO

I'm wondering how everyone tracks their daily expenses or weekly expenses.

I have been writing them down in my check register, as either credit card expenses (which actually come out of the balance in the checkbook), on line bill pay items or cash.

I worry about the cash, because I forget to write down when I buy gasoline, and some items, but I'm trying.

So my question is, how do you track expenses during the day? Do you have a note pad? How often do you put them into your Quicken or spreadsheet or whatever program you use to track budget?