Tonight the house was too hot to turn on the oven or the range so instead I decided it was leftover night. There were some leftover chicken legs, some leftover tuna fish, and some leftover pulled pork. We all chose one and ate it cold. We also had cucumbers and watermelon and milk. Very simple and no adding to the major heatwave going on right now.

Tomorrow starts my diet and I will be using my new baby George grill. It was $19.99 plus tax. That won't heat up the house much, fortunately. I am roasting a whole chicken tomorrow, hot day or not so I can have a bunch of cooked protein on hand. Or maybe I'll put it in the crock pot and set it on the back porch.

As I've mentioned we had a ridiculously cool summer while everyone else was going through a heatwave. Now when summer is almost gone we finally get hot days in the low 80's. It's scheduled to be around that for the next ten days or so. I think we are in for an Indian Summer. We will definitely be using the pool as much as possible.

I forgot to mention that I added $1.55 in coins to the coin jar yesterday from DH cleaning out his wallet. Today I added $3.73 from my purse. I didn't make it over to the CU yet to deposit the money into the safety net. I forgot both yesterday and today. I will try to remember to make the deposit tomorrow after I take DS to school.

Today after swimming we went to two grocery stores. I bought a beautiful allotment of organic produce and proteins. I spent about $100. I misplaced the receipt (it's probably out in the van) but I know it was just a couple dollars more than $100. This way of eating is a bit more expensive, but in the past it has worked well for me so I know it will again.

I got marked down Dover sole, marked down red snapper, thin cut breakfast pork chops, a marked down t-bone, a marked down rib-eye, and three whole chickens over five pounds each (they were my best deal because they were already cheap and each one was marked down $1.50 making each one less than $3 a chicken). I repackaged everything up to freeze. I think I got enough protein for myself for two weeks plus several helpings for the kids.

I also peeled and sliced up some low glycemic veggies so they would be ready to grab. In the past preparation or lack thereof has always been my bugaboo. Most of them can be eaten raw and a few will have to be cooked (can't stand raw broccoli).

I have to be more careful than most people doing a low carb diet because of past kidney damage (from the tumors). I can't do Atkin's because I can't risk ketosis. So I'm settling more on the Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program. It's geared more toward people with high blood pressure like me or a history of heart disease in the family (also like me). And I know it works because I've done (an albeit looser version of) it before.

It's been a few years and about 3 surgeries since I've done a controlled carb diet so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things pretty easily. I'd like to lose about 30 pounds before my next surgery. I think it would make recovery just so much easier.

My planned start day is Wednesday when the kids start school. It is much easier to get started when they are not in the house and also when DH is gone. I'm not going to have a big carb fest tomorrow or anything, but I'm not trying to do it on a day I have to run all over the place either.

In the long run I think I will actually save money eating this way because of the health benefits brought by losing weight.

I'm getting my exercise into gear before starting though. Started today with the swimming. I did 15 laps. 13 is 1/4 mile. It's nowhere near the 45 I was doing before reinjuring my knee last year, but I don't want to push too hard when both my back and my knee are not doing great. I wore my knee brace in the water and I did slow, careful strokes. I spent 25 minutes doing the laps and then played with the kids for another half hour and then the hot tub for a few minutes. The swimming did help loosen up my back which was good.

I feel like I have been spending money left and right this last week. I know it was all budgeted for and all things that were necessary (school supplies, school clothes, medications, groceries, and gas). It just felt expensive. Gas jumped 25 cents this week at the cheapest station and more at the pricier ones. I'm not sure why as I'm not aware of anything blowing up but then I've not been following the news this week either. OH, wait, it's a holiday weekend. Duh. Hopefully it'll drop back down again tomorrow. I have half a tank though so should be okay for a few days. I have to go out to the house on Tuesday though which will use 1/5 of a tank.

The kids and I are taking DH to the airport in a little bit and then we are going to go swimming and grocery shopping. It's been in the 80's all weekend. Now that summer is practically over it decides to arrive.

Last night after working at the house all day I seriously did not think I was going to be able to walk today. I took one of my heavy duty painkillers and got slathered in Mineral Ice and I was achy but able to move okay this morning. I am hoping if I start swimming again it will help my back muscles feel better. Not sure anything will ever make my knees feel better.

I've been Mrs. Crankypants around here for the last couple of days. Today it was nice to wake up with a smile and not a fever (though I am still really stuffy). We're going out to work on the house today. MIL said she would watch the kids. DH is going to mow while I use the weed eater on the flower bed and then dig out the roots of some plants, then we will put the chairs down in the back of the van and load a bunch of boxes into it to take to storage. House is almost empty now so hopefully we can fit it all in the van. We have a lot of newspaper and cardboard to recycle. DH has to check with a neighbor to see if they want any kindling. We have given away all of our big pieces of wood, but we've got boxes of super dry kindling that need to go as well.

It's going to be a long day of working hard but I think we can get a lot done. We will pick up school supplies for DS on the way out to MIL's house. DD won't actually get what she needs because each teacher gives her an individual list (joy) so first day she just needs a notepad and pencil. Which means shopping again on Wednesday night.

We have a lot of moss on our roof this year from a very wet winter and a cool summer with lots of rain. Does anyone know of a nontoxic or less toxic way of getting rid of it than what the stores generally sell? I seem to remember reading many years ago about some kind of detergent you would scatter on the roof and then a few weeks later spray it off and the moss would be dead, but I don't remember where I saw it or what kind of detergent. It might have even been vinegar.

If I have to use a toxic method does anyone recommend anything? Preferably not too expensive. I really only want to have to do this once.

So the teacher's struck on Friday while the negotiations were in progress. Apparently things got settled so school will start almost on time. Wednesday instead of Tuesday and this is because all the stuff they were supposed to be doing on Friday did not get done so now they have to use Tuesday to do it. Honestly, I am a little irritated over it.

I know that I should not be irritated over one day, especially since they got what they wanted and needed (and I support that part), but I selfishly am. It throws off my entire week's schedule. I have appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday and I will have to do some rearranging because of this. I can't call my Tuesday appointment on Monday because of the holiday and she is out of town for it. So I may get charged for changing that appointment because I can't call in 24 hours in advance.

We still need to buy school supplies, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. I am so tired. We spent the day filing and sorting through paperwork and shredding and shredding and shredding and shredding. Honestly how much paper is wasted in this world? I shredded 12 Chase Freedom and 10 Chase Slate offers alone. That's not to mention all the Citi, BoA and Discover card offers. DH and I swore we would never do business with Chase again, but seeing all those offers for free cash makes it hard. Still, Chase royally screwed us over and we refuse to be tempted into it.

I've got my new HSA Medical file set up and found most of the medical bill statements that I've already paid, though I accidentally shredded the big one as I was on a shredding roll. I think I can go to the office and get a copy of it though.

Tomorrow we are going to go out and work at the house. That front flower bed needs to be tackled. I think I am just going to have us dig out several of the plants and throw them away. I can't maintain it or water it and having ratty perrenials coming up makes it look bad. I'll leave in the lilac bush and the lilies but pull out the rest of it. Then we'll put down black plastic so it doesn't grow over with weeds. I just hope my back can deal with it. And my knees.

Today was a no spend day at least. And the kids cleaned their rooms. They sort of had to as I said no TV, no video games, no computers and no reading until they were clean. They could choose not to clean, but they couldn't do anything fun until they did. So they did.

I want to go swimming right now. Maybe tomorrow after the house.

I spent about five minutes going through my grandma's button box (Mom inherited it) finding something to match a button that had come off a shirt and gotten lost. I found a close match, you really can't tell which one is different, and sewed it on. I also sewed up a ripped underarm seam in a t-shirt and closed a hole in the toe of a sock. So a few minutes of time hand-sewing and I restored 3 items of clothing from the can't wear pile to the wear pile. (Or the dresser and closet since I don't actually have a wear "pile."

I put new insoles into my shoes because I can't for the life of me find new casual shoes that I like and that fit my foot properly. I'm thinking about getting them resoled at this point, though I am going to look online and see if I can't find that exact pair somewhere. I've bought this pair of shoes 3 times over the past fifteen years so it is possible. Just haven't found a new set in since I got these ones 8 years ago. I think it may take me as long to find new shoes as it did to find a workable purse, bu I hope not.

Interest hit my ING account today. It was $2.56. This is the most I've gotten in interest from ING in months, since April when we had a lot more money in there but then had to pay taxes. I know it's not a lot of money, but last month the interest didn't even hit the $2 mark, so I can be a little bit giddy that it's over two and a half. Keeping the extra $1500 in there for two weeks until it was time to pay this week's bills did make a difference after all. I thought it would be piddly, but it's a bit bigger than piddly. *laughs*

Anyway, I added it to my emergency fund so:

$2048.05 Beginning EF Balance
+___2.56 Interest Added
-------------
$2050.61 Ending EF Balance

I also added $5 in ones to the coin jar. My husband, however, used $1.10 in coins from the coin jar for parking money when he took my daughter to Mind Port, an interactive art museum yesterday. That's not where he's supposed to take it from, but he didn't feel like getting change elsewhere, so it is what it is.

I have eleven ones and a roll of quarters in the coin jar, so I will probably try to get over to CU#2 tomorrow to deposit that $21 into the EF. My goal for the month of September is to get the EF to $2250. One hundred of that is a regular deposit, and the rest comes from coin and dollar bill scrapings and any spare money leftover in the grocery budget. I like the challenge of squeezing out the extra wherever I might.

Edited to add: DH went to the store. While there I called him to pick up some milk for Mom. It was $2.99 so she gave us $3. I added the $3 to the coin jar. I also had .54 in my coin purse I forgot I had, so that got thrown in, too. So that will be at least $24 for the Safety Net if I deposit it tomorrow.

DH spent exactly $42 on groceries, saving $16.08 on sale items.

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
-----------------
$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.

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday as we got so busy, so this is technically yesterday's post. We finally found sweat pants for DS that fit. We had to go to an athletic store to get them. They are long, but they have elastic ankles so they stay up above his shoes. He has room to grow three to four inches without these being too small, so I am hopeful they will make it through the whole school year.

We bought him six pairs of sweatpants. Nothing from last year fits without showing several inches of ankle. We bought him dark green gym shorts and a dark green gym shirt and had his last name put on the back in white letters. We got him dark green gym socks and a dark green sweatshirt with his name on the back in white letters so he is all set for PE and school spirit (school colors are dark green and white). We also got DD a bright blue sweatshirt with her last name on the back in white. We spent a total of $209.54. He needs a couple more t-shirts and he is set for school clothes. DD is set now completely. Well, actually they both need socks. But other than that we are good to go.

DS has to grow seven inches before he will be back into a size that actually exists in the stores. Then maybe we can get back to less expensive clothing. OH, well, this stuff is warmer and sturdier than any Kmart special, that's for sure.