DH took a preliminary run at our taxes. He is only waiting for the interest from one account. He will call on Monday to get it, but since that account never has more than $500 in it at any one time, it won't be very much. Right now it looks like we will be getting back $8500. That's a couple hundred less than last year, but DH had a bigger income last year because of a higher bonus.

Now before someone says anything about adjusting our withholding so we don't get so much back and have more during the year, we can't. DH already takes the legal number of withholdings. It is not like in the old days when you could claim 47 deductions. The laws are very strict now. And also, $6150 of what we are getting back is due to maxing out and using the full amount of the HSA this year. Without that it would be $2350.

Anyway, so I need to figure out what we will do with that money besides paying off the Chase card. Chase will be at $4900 by the time we get our refund back. So that will leave us with $3600. $1000 of that will go to purchase DD a MacBook, since I wiped out the MacBook fund to pay off debt. So that just leaves $2600.

I think I will let that money sit for a while in case we go over budget while at Disneyland. I don't know if we will or not, but I don't want to have new debt built up on one of the cards. So if we use it, we'll pay it off. Mostly I'd like to put $2000 in the EF. I am aiming towards getting it to $18,000, and then more slowly to $32,000, which will take a few years, especially with college coming up.

DD has agreed to doing her first two years at the local community college and then most likely doing 2 years in the Peace Corp before coming back to do a couple more years at the local university. The community college does offer Japanese. She'll be talking her 3rd year of high school Japanese next year, so college Japanese would help to reinforce that.

I just wish they taught Mandarin. They do offer it at WWU. Actually China is one of the countries that the Peace Corp works in, and the language training is pretty intensive before they send you in. Something like 5 hours a day for three months, if I remember right. But she isn't sure about China. She's thinking more about one of the islands or Africa. I don't want to push her in any one direction, because it's her life and her choice, but learning Mandarin would pretty much guarantee her a well-paying job in certain fields.

I just worry about the future of my kids. I want them to be able to get jobs they can support themselves on in a faltering economy. I can lead them to the proper areas based on their interests, but I can't push them in. It has be something they are interested in, otherwise it is a waste of both time and money.

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I added $10 to the EF, bringing the total to $1725.35. Just $174.65 left to meet my February goal of $1900.

This week should be another week of not needing to pick up anything else at the grocery store.

Monday:
Wild caught sockeye salmon
Broccoli and cauliflower
Oranges

Tuesday:
Fried chicken
Fried potatoes
Fried salad (no, not really, just checking to see if anyone is paying attention!)
Canned pineapple

Wednesday:
Pork chops
Homemade pear sauce
Green beans

Thursday:
Tropical chicken stir-fry
Pineapple
Coleslaw

Friday:
Homemade fish and chips
Cole slaw
Bananas

Saturday:
Homemade pizza (ham, onions, bell pepper strips)
Cole slaw
Oranges

Sunday:
Beef chuck pot roast
Baked sweet potatoes
Cole slaw
Drop biscuits with choice of homemade jam

Lunches this week will be meatloaf and coleslaw or leftover chicken salads or quesadillas.

Breakfasts this week will be sausage and eggs or bacon and eggs, with pancakes for DS and cucumber slices for all of us.

It is sunny and bright outside today and almost warm at 47 degrees F. It's the sort of day that fools you into thinking spring is just around the corner and that it's time to start planting. Of course it's not. I have to wait until mid-April for most of that, though snow peas will be going in during March and a pot full of lettuce greens and maybe one of spinach will have a place on the deck and be brought in if frost threatens.

The seed catalogs are here and they bring these dreams of eating summer produce with them. I've been plotting out my garden space for a couple of weeks now. I've definitely got the green thumb fever.

The chickens are enjoying their new pasture, though I'm not sure much will be left of the grass. One thing less to mow, I suppose. And they are determined to dig into the compost bins from the bottom. Silly chickens. Of course they know there are all kinds of yummy things in there for them to eat. Since expanding their area to range in, they haven't tried hopping the fence at all. Which is nice, since there are no unexpected surprises being found in the driveway.

They will help to double our garden space though, so I can't complain too much. Chickens are very good preparers of the soil. It's keeping them out afterwards that can present a challenge. I like to fence the garden off for a good six weeks to let plants get established. After that they don't do too much harm.

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I couldn't get into the blogs last night to report this, but I spent $44 on prescriptions yesterday. The lower dose BP med that the doctor wanted me to try is $40. The one that I was on before was $80 so if this one works for me, then that will be a nice change. We pay for all prescriptions at full price until the $2500 family deductible has been met.

I also spent $60 on food. DD has decided to do a new exercise and diet regime so she asked for me to buy some foods for her to implement that. I will be glad when I can grow baby spinach, because it costs an arm and a leg practically. At least cabbage is always cheap. I also picked up some salmon. They had wild caught sockeye for $5.99 per pound if you bought the whole fish.

Well, this is not the paycheck they took medical out of, so it's the larger amount for the 2 day paycheck. I'm glad because I hate it when they take medical out of this one. The 5 day or the 7 day paychecks absorb it much easier. and the higher amount means I can pay off my crown today instead of next Friday. My goal was to get it paid off by the time they start work on the next one on the 23rd. I had $120 left in checking from last payday, too.

Anyway, here's what I paid out today:

$350.00 Dentist to payoff my crown
_300.00 To Mom for her utilities
__28.93 Electricity Old House
__39.53 DH Life Insurance
__32.70 Me Life Insurance
__59.89 Car Insurance
__45.63 Old House Insurance
__41.16 ADT Security Old House
_153.00 Storage
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1004.21

I have $354.40 left in checking. I will have physical therapy next week so that will be $90. I also need to take out $25 for the kids' allowances. Other than that, I'll need to buy some vegetables this week and maybe some milk. So I'm good. It's nice to have everything done for the budget this early in the day.

I am always glad to get into the month of February, not just because it is my birthday month, but because February feels like a fresh slate this year. January was for paying off BoA, December was for paying off AMEX, and now I can relax a little. Not relax so much that I let things go, but it's sort of like breathing a sigh of relief.

It's like a really bad storm. First you are anticipating it, then you are riding through it and just hoping to hold on and that your entire house doesn't flood away or blow away, and then you are coming out the other side and all that's left to do is pick up the branches and unboard the windows. That's where it feels like I am now.

I have to wait until 8 o'clock to see what the paycheck is today. It's the small one. But the amount varies based on whether they take medical out or not. I can never remember if it is that they take out medical on the 1st paycheck of the month or the first paycheck earned in the new month.

I was trying to check ING last night to get the amount of interest for the year to send to DH so he can finish the taxes and it was down. I figured they were changing over to Capital One 360 and I was right as it's all blue and red today instead of orange. I preferred the orange, but then I don't like change. Change on the internet tends to come with glitches. Feels like the end of an era. Plus .75% is barely worth keeping money there anymore. Might as well just leave it in one of the local credit unions at this rate. I'd transfer it elsewhere if I could find an interest rate that is worth it. Still can't get in to TIAA Cref.

Anyway, my amount of interest from ING earned this year is $20.92. January's interest is a whopping 85 cents. I added that to the Emergency Fund bringing the new balance in it to $1715.35. Just $184.65 left to go to meet my EF goal for the month of February.

Every time I use a punctuation mark like an apostrophe, or a comma, or quotation marks, it is surrounded with back slashes. It is not just me either. I've seen it on the blogs of everyone today too. Is this just a glitch in the system?

The new chicken fencing is up so the chickens have a whole new "pasture" to range in that is all grass and no mud. A good time was had by all. However, they are trying to get into the compost bins. My opinion is let them. They'll scratch it up and turn it over and then we can shovel it back into the bins and close them back up.

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We got everything in under the wire for homeschooling this month. I was a little worried since both DS and I had the flu virus for a good ten days this month. But we did get caught up. Now I just need to worry about getting him through his regular lessons tomorrow and then the weekend is here and I am going to sleep.

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I met with the new doctor today and I have to say I like him a good bit. He listens well. Didn't have the physical today as he wanted to talk about some of the other problems I've been having, the dizziness, the tremors, the tingling, the dizziness, the exhaustion, the insomnia, the dizziness...

And he wants me to go for a sleep study, because he is expecting that my chronic exhaustion/insomnia situation may actually be sleep apnea. Oh, joy. So I have to call them tommorrow and make an appointment.

I also was given a mammagram paper and I need to call and set that up. I've never had one. I should have had one at 35 since my mother is a breast cancer survivor, but I had so much else going on in my health the past seven to eight year it never happened.

I also have to go over to the lab who did the blood work for my last doctor and get a copy of it sent to my new doctor, since that lab is not part of their computerized sharing system.

He also wants me to order a device for taking blood pressure at home. Fun. It's going to be an expensive next couple of months, I can tell.

Anyway, so new doctor man wants to get to the root of most of these things before I come back in 2 weeks.

So in writing down my surgeries, it came out to 11, 7 of which have been in the last decade. Geesh. No wonder I can't get well. My body is determined to kill me.

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Anyway, there was no money out today though my kids were despereate for me to get burgers, or Hawaiian Barbecue, or KFC and I totally would not. I came home and I made spaghetti and meatballs, which I think was technically tomorrow's meal, but close enough.

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I still have $120 left in my checkbook and payday is tomorrow, albeit the two day paycheck.