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Archive for October, 2007

Not Much Going On

October 22nd, 2007 at 04:43 am

I'm trying to get back into the habit of daily blogging again but when you stay home all day and spend nothing, there's not much to talk about, now is there?

DH wants to save part of the raise towards vacations instead of all of it towards that credit card. My view is that we are saving $100 a month right now for vacations. I think I'll give in a bit on this one, though and start saving $150 a month for vacations and then the rest of it can go to the card.

I know its not the practical or logical thing to do financially, but I also know it promotes marital harmony which actually is the practical and logical thing to do there. So I suppose it all evens out in having a smoother running life.

I find it to be a bit weird not having to have the belt so tight these days. I got rather used to it and I really have to fight hard about letting my guard down completely. Because I want to, but I know that's no way to get out of debt. So I guess this daily blogging thing needs to remain in the forefront of my brain, lest I forget that rather important fact, hmm?

DH Got Another Raise

October 20th, 2007 at 01:30 pm

Some of the folks in the engineering department where DH works have jumped ship and his bosses decided to give him a pre-emptive raise in the hopes that he won't do the same thing.

Since he's got no intention of leaving anyway, it was a nice surprise. Especially since it's only been a couple months. It works out to $500 gross every 4 weeks. He hasn't run the numbers yet to see what it'll be after taxes, but I'm assuming it will add an additional $300 every 4 weeks into our budget.

That means we should be able to pay that remaining credit card down even faster, so I'm quite happy with that. DH still wants to go to Disneyland next year, but I'm holding out for 2009. Though I'd much rather go to London. Not with the kids though. Anyway, that's a pipe dream right now. I have a feeling London will be closer to 2019. But that's fine at this point in time.

Not really much going on. We're all sick still but DH and not spending much money.

Safety Net

October 19th, 2007 at 04:00 am

I deposited the rolled coin into the safety net today, bringing the total in the safety net to just over $500.

So new EF amount is:

$2039.87 Old EF amount
23.00 Deposit to safety net
--------
$2062.87 New EF Amount

For those who don't know, my safety net is money I keep in a local account for quick access in case of an emergency. The rest of it is in ING. I figure $500 will do me fine until I can get more from ING if necessary. So getting the safety net up to $500 was my goal for it, which I hit today. Happy on that score.

EF and 401K Update

October 18th, 2007 at 05:02 pm

I transferred $20 (two weekly auto deposits) to ING this morning and an additional $15 in ones I had in the coin jar from earlier in the week.

$2004.87 Old Balance in EF
+ 35.00 Deposit
---------
$2039.87 New Balance in EF

I'll be depositing $23 in rolled coin into the safety net, hopefully today, as well, but I'll add that in after I do it.

I also got the 401K statement yesterday and since July 17 it has increased by $2455.58, bringing it to $50,250.89. I am quite happy that we have finally hit and gone over the $50K mark. That feels good. Obviously we still have a long way to go until retirement but this is a major milestone for us.

I've Been Sick

October 18th, 2007 at 06:09 am

Well, really I still am sick. Really sick. Just this side of pneumonia sick. One big plus of this is that I have not been spending much in the way of money, because I haven't gone out any more than I've had to.

For some reason life just seems to carry right on whether I feel like getting out of bed or not. I'll have to spend tomorrow because I'll be out of cold medicine and needing a refill on my prescription by the afternoon. And well, DH comes home so I'll have to drive in to town to pick him up, too. Then he can drive for the rest of my life as far as I'm concerned. Or at least until it doesn't feel as if my entire head is made up of gunk.

I didn't even bother to do any surveys for like two weeks now, I didn't transfer money to ING last week so I'll wait until tomorrow and do both Thursday deposits then.

Basketball sign up happened yesterday so I did write a $25 check for that. One of the cheapest sports available, soccer is like $70 now but they aren't playing that anymore apparently.

I feel like I've been living on caffeine and cold pills, not a very good combination at all, but what else can you do? Moms don't really get to be sick, we just blunder on.

Anyway, I really need to do better on keeping up with my blog. My focus is way off on financial stuff lately and I'm pretty sure that's from not writing on here. Let's hope I can get my act together again, 'cause I sorely need to.

Trader Joe's

October 7th, 2007 at 01:59 am

I made it to the new Trader Joe's yesterday. It was nice to have so many choices in healthier foods, though I was kind of surprised how much they had in the way of junk food. So many cookies and candies and chocolate covered nuts, and candied dried fruit dipped in sugar. Organic junk food is still junk food and at least it wasn't made with corn syrup.

Still I managed to find $55.61 worth of stuff that we could eat. I tried their store brand milk and it's decent tasting, though I will probably stick with Organic Valley and buying it from Fred Meyer since its a dollar cheaper there.

Never made it to Costco, just didn't feel good enough. Mom took the kids for the weekend, I get them back Sunday noontime. I am spending a lot of time sleeping and a lot of time reading over at Teaspoon and writing some. I've told myself that if I write a chapter on something over there, I've got to come and write at least one blog entry on that same day.

Yesterday was payday so I sent $100 to ING. That brings my EF to $2004.87 and my goal of $2000 is now achieved. I need $600 more to meet my goal of 2 weeks wages. That will take a couple of months.

I've been ignoring my surveys lately, just haven't felt in the mood to answer a bunch of repetive questions. I suppose I should get back to it, as it does help the EF to grow bit by bit. Just kind of apathetic about it.

Part of the apathy has been being sick and part of it has been the onset of SADS with the fall overcast. Time to dig out my light box and start light therapy again. It always hits me very hard in the fall, but it seems like it always a couple weeks in before the light bulb clicks on and I realize what it is I need. I think there was a bad pun in there somewhere.

I need to sit down and do bills still today. I am just in a lazy lay around do absolutely nothing physical mood today. Other than emptying the dishwasher and doing a load of towels, that is. I suppose I ought to do more. The laundry won't take care of itself no matter how hard I wish for it.

Emergency Fund Update

October 5th, 2007 at 06:47 am

I have a really bad chest cold, so my idea of getting my act together and blogging as usual have just really not been top of the priority list.

But today was the auto deposit of $10 into savings, which I then took and transferred to ING. I also remembered to check last month's interest while I was there. It was $3.54.

$1891.33 Old EF Balance
10.00 Weekly Deposit
+ 3.54 September Interest
---------
$1904.87 New EF Balance