On Sunday I transferred $1515.40 out of my holding tank at ING. This was money I set aside for the first half of the month bills (I still have a bit in there for a bill that doesn't come due until the 12th as well as my short term bigger bills like dues and property tax).

So anyway that money showed up yesterday and so yesterday and today I paid the following bills:

$375.86 Old house mortgage
$500.00 Amex
$_83.98 Car Insurance
$_41.25 Old house insurance
$300.00 Mom for Utilities
$_37.61 DH Life Insurance
$_32.70 Me Life Insurance
+144.00 Storage
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$1515.40 Total bills paid

I have over $600 in checking and I am going to try to only spend half of that over the next two weeks so that I can put an extra $300 on the credit cards. I don't know if it will happen or not, especially since school photos are coming up. That is if there is school. We got the news today that our teachers are striking.

I guess there was a 1.9% cut across the state or something. Our district told our teachers they would eat it so that their pay wouldn't go down. They are still striking. I don't know if it is in solidarity or what. I just really get annoyed about these things. Pay the teachers what they are worth and be done with it, you know? But also, don't hold our schools hostage and make our kids go to school through half the summer at the same time because you mess up start dates with striking.

I'm sure there is more to it than what is being talked about though but the benefits being offered look reasonable to me. They are better than my husband's benefits. And in this day and age when the economy sucks it seems to me people are taking a huge risk to strike, especially when there are about three times as many qualified teachers as there are teaching positions thanks to the fact that we have a teacher's college here. Desperate times call for desperate measures and I know more than a few out of work teachers who would actually scab to put food on the table. I hope it doesn't come to that and that the negotiations go smoothly and school opens on Tuesday without any problems and with both happy students and teachers.