At least I'm pretty sure it was Saving Advice that ate it and not the internets in general. It was a long and detailed post, too, and I do not have the energy to redo it. So, the highlights:

1. Got a ten dollar rebate on some Brita stuff I'll be sending in.

2. Can get a $2 off coupon if I sign up at Brita for filter refills.

3. Got a $3 catalina coupon for health and beauty products at Kmart today when I bought a swimsuit ($20 cheaper than the one I was going to order online).

4. Found a $2 coupon for Afrin nasal spray in a box when I was doing the recycling.

5. Dinner was delicious, but there were no leftover meatballs to make meatball sandwiches tomorrow.

6. I did my meal planning for tomorrow but do not want to retype it right now. It came to $14.65 for the day. I know because I didn't close the computer's calculator yet. I will enter it tomorrow.

7. I made more dough for making bread tomorrow. DH has been snacking on it and the peanut butter without telling me so I can adjust the food calculations. *sigh*

8. Got a gallon of milk for 99 cents today because it had a sell by date of tomorrow. Got my son's special milk for $5.29 a gallon (2 of them) which is usually $5.99. Has a sell by date of 3/23 so it will be good for a while.

9. Spent $14.92 for two prescriptions.

Today was a really long day, but I feel like I got a lot accomplished. And dinner was fantastic. It has been an age since I've made my garlic cheese meatballs. Usually when I make the fancy sauce from scratch I just don't bother with adding protein to the meal because it is a pretty hearty sauce, but we had a pound of hamburger thawed out leftover from making cheeseburgers last night and the kids had been asking for these so I did, with the idea that there would be leftovers for tomorrow night to make meatball sandwiches with. Umm...I'd forgoten how good they are. Suffice it to say there was exactly two meatballs leftover which is not going to make anyone a sandwich, but at least can be crumbled up and thrown on pizza when I make it this week.

DH and I went jeans shopping for him. Unfortunately we only found one pair that fit him right. There were four pairs in his size, but only one brand fit him right. I kind of wish clothing manufacturers woiuld be more standard. So we might have to wait until next month to buy him the other two pairs, but we will check back next week in case new stock came in.

While we were there, totally unexpectedly, I found the perfect swimsuit for me. I was going to order one off a website, but was hesitating because of the price. The suit I found at the store was $20 less. It was just what I wanted, in that it had thick shoulder straps instead of tying behind the neck, a good built-in bra that doesn't show off more than I'm comfortable having the world see, and a skirt that wasn't so long it gets in my way when I do the crawl stroke, but was long enough to cover what I wanted covered. We got a $3 catalina coupon for health and beauty that is good until mid-April at the check-out.

The suit is a little...loud, but not garishly so and most swimsuits are these days. Just more than I would normally wear. Looks like confetti all over a black background. I will have to cut these goofy bows off that serve no purpose and then I will be completely happy. I've been making do with a suit that's too big for a while now, (wore it when pregnant with my almost eleven year old) so I'm glad I'll have something that fits better now that I swim so much more than I used to. I'm going to start swimming again tomorrow. I hate to see what kind of shape I'm in. I was doing 40 laps when I got sick and quit. I think I'll be lucky if I can do 10.

We went to Lowe's and bought replacement filters for our Brita faucet filter and my mom had us pick up a filter for her, too. They had a $10 rebate for if you bought a replacement 2 pack and a filter. Mom doesn't rebate so I got it and I will send it off tomorrow. It also came with a thing that if you sign up at Brita for reminder emails for replacement filters they will send you a $2 coupon.

We got a gallon of Darigold milk today that was marked down to 99 cents because it's sell by date was tomorrow. My son's special milk was on special for $5.29 a gallon (usually $5.99) with a sell by date of March 23 so we got two of those. I also got some bananas that were 48 cents a pound. Normally the best I can get them for is 59 cents a pound, so yay.

We went to the pharmacy and got 2 prescriptions for $14.92. I was afraid that the drug part of our medical plan had changed, but it hasn't. Very happy about that. I am still waiting on the one doctor to call in another RX. I will have to call tomorrow. I called on Monday and they said they'd call it in but haven't. I only have 2 samples left so they better get a move on.

I'm going to have to make more bread tomorrow. I usually only do it twice a week, but we seem to be eating more than previously. Or maybe my mother is filching more than she used to. She does like fresh bread. DH is probably snacking on it without telling me. I've noticed a big dip in the peanut butter jar, too. I'll have to ask him as I'll want to account for it in my meal planning if he is.

Meal Planning for tomorrow:

Breakfast:
French toast with powdered sugar ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $2.50

Lunch:
2 kids--
PB and Honey sandwich (.50)
Turkey ham and roast beef sandwich ($1)
banana (.20)
apple (.50)
hard pretzels (.25)

2 adults--
All meat chili ($3)
Cornbread (.30)
bananas (.40)

Total: $6.15

Dinner:
Chicken legs ($3)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (.50)
Broccoli ($1)
Cauliflower ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $7

Total for day: $15.65

The buns I made turned out beautifully, but my bread fell. My mother was up there banging around, slamming cupboard doors, so of course it fell. She's worse than my ten year old sometimes. It's still edible, tastes good in fact, but it's just a lot shorter than I was expecting it to be. Oh, well. I'll try to bake it when she's out of the house from now on. She wasn't even mad or anything she's just a slammer and a stomper by nature. Some people sound like a herd of elephants walking down the stairs. She's one of those.

If it hadn't have been good I'd have just used it to make bread stuffing or French toast or something other than for sandwiches. I would not throw it out even though it's only 50 cents to make it. The good bread (the kind without corn syrup or raisin juice for sweetening) is just too expensive at $4.50 a loaf. Even on a really good sale it's 2/$5.

Prices have taken a big jump this week, I noticed. I'm sure it has to do with gas prices skyrocketing. I'm glad we have plenty of potatoes, onions, carrots, apples, and oranges right now. We do have to pick up bananas tomorrow but they are still (fortunately) on sale. We may have to cut our milk consumption back to once a day if the milk gets too much higher. I've got a lot of cheese stockpiled so I'm not too worried about calcium.

I'm also glad we have plenty of chicken, hamburger, fish and pot roast in the freezer and lots of canned goods in the cupboard. I don't have to buy any of that at least until April. I will definitely really be keeping an eye on the leftovers and meal planning with the best of them. I do need to buy flour though and soon.

Tomorrow's meals:

Breakfast:
Blueberry muffins (.79)
Eggs (free from chickens)
Milk ($2)

Total: $2.79

Lunch:
2 kids--
1 PB and Honey sandwich (.50)
1 turkey ham and pastrami sandwich ($1)
1 orange (.50)
1 apple (.50)
goldfish crackers (.50)

2 adults
DH--
Egg salad sandwiches (.50)
banana (.25)

Me--
1/2 can leftover TJ's chicken noodle soup
orange (.50)
1 PB and homemade blackberry jelly sandwich (.50)

Total: $4.75

Dinner:
Spaghetti with homemade sauce--
--1 pound spaghetti (.99)
--2 tomatoes (.97)
--2 cans tomato sauce ($2)
--2 small cans tomato paste ($1)
--1 cup onions, diced (.25)
--1 tbsp garlic, minced (.25)
--herbs (.25)
Meatballs:
--hamburger (1.73)
--1 tbsp garlic, minced (.25)
--1/3 cup cheddar (.75)
--1/3 cup parmesan ($1)
--1/3 cup romano ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total: $12.44

Total for day: $19.98. A litle high but there will be at least two days worth of spaghetti leftovers for lunches for me and DH and there will be leftover sauce and meatballs for making meatball sandwiches for dinner one night.

I guess the 18 months same as cash deal for the laptop comes with a credit card, not just a line of credit, because I got a Best Buy Credit Card in the mail today. I immediately put it into the drawer with all the other unused credit cards. I have no intention of using it. I'll make my first payment on Friday, $75 more than the minimum payment of $25 a month. $100 a month is a much better number for getting it paid off well before the 18 months are up.

Costoco AMEX sent me out a new card. I'm not sure why since the one I have doesn't expire until 7/14. It's got the same number on it. Maybe it's because we bumped up to the executive level at Costco being as we've already earned enough this year to pay for it and then some when rewards time comes around. I guess I can thank high gas prices for that. I'm a little miffed as I finally just got around to having my photo put on the old AMEX and now I'll have to do it again. *sighs*

I had physical therapy today but had to cut out early. I started getting really queasy about ten minutes before the end and ended up throwing up in a garbage can. That was fun. I don't even know where it came from. One minute I was fine, the next, blech. Anyway PT cost $90.

DH spent $21.37 picking up milk and yogurt with live cultures (we've all been on too many antibiotics lately). He also spent $8.73 for two big rolls of packing tape with a dispenser, 2 permanent black markers and a box cutter. It came in a kit and was cheaper than buying it all seperately.

There was no school today so all meals are at home. I forgot to send in my meal planning yesterday but I did do it.

Breakfast:
Pancakes with the last of the huckleberry jam we bought on vacation in July ($1.50)
Eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk: ($2)

Total: $3.50

Lunch:
Chicken noodle soup ($2)
Tuna sandwiches ($2)
2 bananas (.50)
2 oranges ($1)

Total: $5.50

Dinner:
Hamburgers ($1.73)
Homemade buns ($.25)
Cheese slices (.50)
tomato (.50)
lettuce (.25)
condiments (.25)
diced onion (.25)
French Fries ($1)
1 can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total: $7.73

Total for day $16.73

We're doing much better than all those $20-$22 days now. I'm glad I did most of the baking and the dough making this morning before PT because I wouldn't feel like doing it now. I made one batch of hamburger/hotdog buns, a loaf of bread, 1 batch of biscuits, 1 pan of corn bread and a batch of blueberry muffins. The buns and bread have finished rising and have just gone in the oven, but everything else was baked earlier. I may have DD put in the ingredients for pizza dough into the bread machine for making pizza later in the week (after my stomach settles down).

I need to remember to call two of my doctors today for medication refills and see what is going on with the referral to Virginia Mason. It's been 3 weeks and I haven't heard anything yet.

Every time we bring stuff to storage I always think there is never going to be enough room for everything and then we reorganize everything and voila, there's more room. Today was the third time we reorganized it and this time boxes go all the way up the ceiling. We will have absolutely no problem getting the rest of the stuff from the house and shed in there and also the stuff we have temporarily stored in Mom's garage (which will make her jump up and down to be rid of it.

I am hoping that we will be able to get it all cleared by the end of next weekend and then all we need to worry about is moving the piano, cleaning, finishing the shower, ripping out carpet, replacing 4 interior doors and frames, replacing one pane of window glass and painting inside and out. New floors of some sort will have to go down, too. We will do most of it ourselves but we are going to hire a guy who used to work construction to do some of it. He's been laid off for a while (so went back to school) and he needs the money. He knows his stuff.

I found out about a product called Gripper which is a primer that works on vinyl wallboard which is what the house has (never again!) and then you can paint over it with regular paint with no problems. We're going to take all the battens off and tape and mud them. Battens are ugly and just make the place look less attractive than plain painted walls.

Once everything in the house is done then we will likely hire a landscaper to fix up the yard and garden. Or another handyman type, I'm not sure. Since I can't get down on my knees anymore since the surgery there's not too much I can do in the yard at a ground level. I really need to start saving up for all this. I don't think we're going to be ready to put it on the market by summer. I was hoping so, but I don't think so now.

DH and I stopped at an open house today for model homes that will be being built in the next three years, just to see what they had. We're not ready yet and we made that quite clear, but I liked seeing the plans for the ones that will be ready in 2012 and 2013. The price ranges were perfect.

The one we looked at was fairly nice, but the Master Bedroom is on the 2nd floor and I don't want that. And though it was a 2 and a half bathroom house, there were no bathrooms on the main floor. The half bath was located up off the first landing of the stairs. I don't want to climb stairs every time I need to use the bathroom because of my bad knee, so that would definitely be a no go. But otherwise I really liked it. The master bath had a sit down shower, no tub, which would be nice with my knee when it acts up, but there is a tub in the main bath for a nice soak if wanted.

They are building single level homes in the next couple of years so it works with our time frame. The only thing is it's in a different school district from the middle school my son will be attending next year. Same high school, though. It's something to think about, anyway.

I did absolutely nothing financial today. No money in, no money out. Didn't leave the house and didn't even think about finances. Just a lazy day spent reading and playing on the computer. Well, and doing five loads of laundry.

Tomorrow DH and I are going to our storage facility to rearrange things and repack some smaller boxes into larger ones for better stackability. We've still got to fit about three truckloads in there to finish emptying the house and the shed. There's room, but only if we move things around. Speaking of storage, that goes up by $11 next month. *sighs*

Menu planning for tomorrow:

Breakfast:

Pancakes ($1)
Homemade brown sugar syrup (.25)
Boiled eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk ($2)

Total: $3.25

Lunch:
2 kids eating at grandma's house (free)

2 adults (leftover pizza from tonight (free)
oranges ($1)

Total: $1

Dinner:
Pot roast ($5.89)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (.50)
Can of green beans ($1)
Homemade cheddar garlic biscuits (.50)

Total: $7.89

Total for the day: $12.14 A nice low day after some spendy ones and there will be leftover beef and potatoes and gravy for lunch on Monday. I don't know if it'll be enough for all four of us, though. The kids have the day off for a teacher work day or something so they will be home.

All right, so I've balanced the checkbook (to the penny, I might add) and I've stuck the $3000 into the holding tank portion of my savings. $1500 will be held to go to BoA VISA, $1009.25 will be held to go to BoA Master Card, and $490.75 will be held to go to the car payment.

That leaves us with $282 until next payday. $90 of that will pay for my physical therapy on Monday, $70 for DH for work jeans, $60 for my son's birthday present and $90 for food (though I don't think we'll need it all since I have plenty of produce and protein on hand, so probably just buy milk and any extra will be saved for later groceries). Oh, and I took money out earlier before I balanced the checkbook so I also have $40 in cash for anything unexpected.

The small paycheck next Friday (with just two days worth of wages on it will cover the cell phone bill, food for two weeks, old house phone, internet, two weeks of physical therapy, and garbage. I should have just under half of it left over, and when the first paycheck of the new cycle arrives, anything I have left over will go to the Master Card.

DH and I had a finance meeting tonight so I could explain where everything stands and so we are on the same page. He finds it boring, but he agrees that he doesn't want to be one of those clueless spouses who just hands over the paycheck and doesn't know where everything goes. We've decided to do this once every six weeks.

Now, on to meal planning.

Breakfast:
Chicken sausages ($3)
Blueberry muffins (.79)
Milk ($2)

Total: $5.79

Lunch:
Leftover ribeye steaks (free, already calculated)
Salad ($1)
Bananas ($1)
Homemade garlic and cheddar biscuits (.50)

Total: $2.50

Dinner:
Homemade pizza
--dough ($.50)
--leftover spaghetti sauce (free)
--leftover meatballs, crumbled (free)
--pepperoni ($1)
--proscuttio ($2)
--mozzarella cheese ($2)
Can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total $8.50

Total for day: $16.79

Today is payday. I'm still figuring stuff out as far as the bills go. We went to Costco and bought $45.14 worth of food and a case of toilet paper. We don't need to do any major shopping this week at all. We will have to pick up milk, de-icer spray for the car windows, and jeans for DH, but that should be it.

I have to set money aside for the cell phone due on the 12th, the VISA due on the 21st, the MC due on the 17nth, and the car payment due on the 19th. Ticket prices have gone up on airfare and DH had to buy one this time around for a total of $950. Ouch. That's about $250 higher than usual. I'm sure that's due to gas and oil prices going up so high right now. Add that to the $70 for the hotel and the $40 for travel food, plus the interest for the month and that VISA is basically going to just be standing still this month. I am glad I already made an extra $1000 payment to it last week.

I was going to make an extra payment to the AMEX but I think I will hold off on that until the 1st and just make an extra large payment then instead. It's not due until April 3 anyway. The extra will go to the Master Card instead. For now I will transfer $3000 to the holding tank and then pay those bills closer to when they are due. Two weeks of interest isn't much, but it's something.

I added 34 cents to the change jar and $85 to the laptop fund.

$475.44 beginning laptop fund balance
$+85.00 amount added
-----------
$560.44 ending laptop fund balance

I got the statement from Best Buy for the laptop in the mail today. They only require a $25 payment. Sheesh. I'll be sending them $100 a month. Even though I have 18 months to pay it off without interest, I am not even going to come close to not paying it off in time. It's due on the 22nd, so I'll take $100 out of the laptop fund to pay it, and continue adding what I can to the fund as I go.

Breakfast:
Bacon ($2)
Homemade biscuits (.50)
Eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk ($2)
Total: $4.50

Lunch:
2 kids
PB and H sandiwch (.50)
PB and J sandwich (.50)
bananas (.50)
goldfish crackers (.50)

2 adults
1 can cream of mushroom soup (.79 + .50 for the milk to make it)
1 can Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle soup ($1)
1 can tuna fish ($1)
salad dressing (.25)
Lettuce (.50)

Total $6.04

Dinner:
Ribeye steaks (were on sale for $3.99/lb during superbowl week and will be leftovers for Saturday's lunch) $5.99
Baked potatoes (.50)
Can of green beans ($1)
Oranges ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total: $10.49

Total for day: $21.02

Not much going on here today. We went to Kmart as DD needed poster board for a school project. While we were there we got some tree sap remover and a microfiber cloth to get some gunge off the car before it wrecks the paint. It's supposed to remove tree sap, bug gunge, and bird droppings, all of which seem to have attacked our poor car lately. So we spent $6.80.

We also paid our monthly chiropractor bill of $215 for the upcoming month. Our chiropractor has a family plan where you can have as many visits as you want for every member of the family for a month for $215. Since one visit for one person would cost a $20 co-pay plus 20% of an $80 visit, and all four of us go two to three times a week, it is much cheaper for us to do it this way. We all have certain spinal issues so cutting back on visits isn't an option.

I am ridiculously anxious for Friday to get here so I can pay off more debt. It's almost silly how much I am looking forward to seeing those balances drop. Meanwhile, trying to get those grocery costs to stay under control, so here's the plan for tomorrow.

Breakfast:
French Toast with real maple syrup ($2.50)
Homemade beef sausage ($1.73)
Milk ($2)

Total $6.23

Lunch:
2 kids
PB& Honey sandwich (.50)
Turkey ham sandwich ($1)
Apple (.50)
Orange (.50)
baggy potato chips (.50)
baggy natural Cheetos (.50)
water

2 adults
Leftover spaghetti (free)
bananas (.50)
water

Total $4


Dinner:
Homemade meatball sandwiches
--Homemade French Bread ($1)
--Pound of hamburger ($1.73)
--Cheddar, parmesan, romano cheeses ($2)
--Garlic (.25)
--leftover spaghetti sauce (free)
Milk ($2)

Total $6.98

Food for the day: $17.22

It's going to be a lot harder to keep the costs down while DH is home. We tend to have more protein then. Still if I can keep it under $20 a day when he's here, that's still pretty good.

DH is safely home from Alaska. The plane had to circle the runway for an hour though on account of the wind gusting up to 72 miles per hour today. (The wind is just ridiculous. There are branches everywhere. Our basketball hoop fell over.) They were afraid they were going to have to go back to Seattle to land. I'm glad they didn't because then who knows how long it would have taken him to get home.

Food expenses will go up now that he's home, as we'll be feeding one more person, so I really need to keep an eye on that and make sure it doesn't get out of control. I also need to stand firm on not eating out much, because it is very easy to do that when he is at home. We have a lot of meat and cheese in the freezer and plenty of starch (pasta, rice, potatoes, bread) so I really just need to worry about fruit, veg, and milk.

He is going to need some jeans for work so I'll need to budget three pairs into next payday's expenses. I'm really glad that Kmart has a big and tall section now. He's got really long legs. It used to cost us $35 per pair of his jeans because he'd have to get them at Carharts (usually by special order). But now he can usually get 3 good pairs for around $50. That's the only unforeseen expense going into this paycheck, thankfully.

We spent $37.03 at the grocery store today. We bought milk, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, lemons, bananas, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen peaches, and apples, so we should be set for the next seven days or so.

I use a credit monitoring service for various reasons (not the least of which is that I had my wallet stolen in the early 90's and so I'm a trifle paranoid about keeping an eye on things). Anyway, the new monthly report came out and my credit score has gone up 12 points! From 780 to 792! Finally, things are shaking out from the big payoffs we've done so far this year.

I was a little worried that taking on the 18 months same as cash financing for the laptop would muck things up, but it appears to have actually helped. Or else they've just finally caught up with everything that's been paid off.

My goal is to get it back up over 800 (it's been at 803 in the past so I know it's possible), by the time we are ready to purchase a new (to us) car and a new house. Seeing something positive like this is renewing my determination to get this debt gone by year's end. And to stop looking at and being tempted by pretty Siennas.

I've noticed that since I started slacking off on posting my meal planning that I've also been slacking off on keeping the meals economical. Part of this has been due to illness, but part of it has been due to laziness as well, so I'm going to go back to posting the meals and relative prices, or otherwise I'm going to go so far off track that I won't even be able to see the train. DH gets home tomorrow morning so he'll be accounted for in these meals.

So for tomorrow:

Breakfast:
Pancakes ($1)
Real Maple Syrup ($1)
Scrambled Eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk ($2)

Total: $4

Lunch:
2 kids
Organic Deli meat sandwiches on homemade rolls ($3.25)
Orange (.50)
Banana (.25)
Baked goldfish crackers (.50)
water
$4.50

2 adults
Chicken and vegetable soup ($2)
Grilled ham and cheese ($2)
Bananas (.50)
water
$4.50

Total: $9

Dinner:
Spaghetti ($1)
Homemade Sauce:
Onion (.40)
2 cans tomato sauce ($2)
2 small cans tomato paste ($1)
2 large tomatoes($1)
Garlic (.25)
Basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper (.50)
Milk ($2)
Total: $8.15

Total for day: $21.15

It's a little high, I usually try to keep it closer to $13 to $15 a day, but there will be enough spaghetti for leftovers for a few days for me and DH for lunches, so that will bring lunch costs down this week and it will all even out. There should be extra sauce beyond what is used on the leftover spaghetti so I will likely make a ravioli, sauce, and cheese bake with some leftover frozen ravioli I have.

I added yesterday's change to the coin jar, a whopping 90 cents.

I added $10 to the laptop fund.

$475.44 beginning laptop fund
$+10.00 amount added.
--------------
$485.44 ending laptop fund

I paid out $2 to my son who lost a tooth

My monthly ING interest came through so I added that $5.07 to the EF.

$7468.65 beginning EF fund
$+005.07 ING interest
---------------
$7473.72 total EF

It appears that we're going to have to pay $800 less in taxes than previously thought. DH had forgotten about the Making Work Pay tax credit. That will make things a little easier.