So, it's been a little over two months since I last posted an entry. Things have really changed so much for us in that time period. DH was given yet another raise of $50 per day with the new contract. This puts our income at a level I never thought I'd see while we were still in our 30's.

The raise did not go into effect until this month, so we won't hit $117,000 for a yearly income this year, but that's what it'll be next year. I cannot even fathom this amount of money. I know there is a huge chunk of that going for taxes, but our liveable income has gone up so far in the last 8 months it's almost ridiculous.

The first thing we did was raise our 401K by 1%. I'd like to do more but we have to buy a new car and until I know what the payments will be I don't want to do anything more.

If all goes well, by the end of the week we will be the proud new owners of a fully loaded 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid with 21,000 miles on it. We have $2000 for a down payment and will be financing the rest.

I'm currently using my mother's car because I'm afraid to drive mine. Especially after an $805 car repair to my '92 Crown Vic that still didn't fix it all the way, I'm not putting anymore money into that car. And Blazer needs the transmission fixed and I just don't want to spend that kind of money on a '96.

We've made some large purchases so far this year. The first was a new couch that seats six and came with an ottoman for $1387.94 which included delivery. The old one has been moved into the playroom which never had one before and is horribly broken down and offers no support at all. It took us several months to save up for that.

Then last month we bought a new TV with my husband's yearly safety bonus. We spent a lot of money on that, but I figure it's a long-term investment for us since we don't go to movies or out to do anything much (besides eat) entertainmentwise. We just watch movies from Netflix. So we got a big screen HD plasma from Costco and it's fabulous. 50 inches. $1300.07.

Our entire tax return of just over $3600 went to pay down debt, which we still have far too much of. I'm currently working on making up a new budget to reflect the new income.

We will qualify for the entire tax refund coming out in May for two adults filing jointly with two children and when that check comes it's going straight into the emergency fund.

I really wish we had not gotten so far into debt in the past. I know that it was mostly medical debt but when I think that we'd have over $2000 a month from this point on now that wasn't allocated to something if we didn't have debt, it would be amazing. That's $24,000 of net income that could be going into retirement and stocks and vacation planning. Oh, how I wish.

I'm going to try to keep this blog going better now. I need to stay on top of the budget now with the new numbers and a new payment that will be coming into the mix. Other things, our 401K is still above $50,000 and our mortgage is almost down to $30,000, so progress is being made. Always a good thing.

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?

I got shanghied by another website www.whofic.com called A Teaspoon and an Open Mind and have been off playing with them all week, since I had a cold and didn't want to think about reality. But reality is back and 20,263 words of fanfic later, and an empty spot in my head where a story used to be, I'm back to reality and blogging again.

Oh, I'll still play over there, but it won't be as time consuming. Anyone into Doctor Who and Firefly there is an amazing crossover story called Out of Joint. I usually don't like fanfic crossovers but this one is just done so amazingly well. Especially River and the Doctor, though there was a good bit between mechanic Kaylee and the Doctor's TARDIS. But I digress.

So, bills so far this week:

$1000.00 to medical debt
$1000.00 to Chase (last card)
$ 129.50 to BoA (leftover interest, but now its clear)
$ 9.58 to Citi (leftover interest, now clear)
$ 100.00 to the gas card
$ 200.00 to groceries and toiletries
--------
$2439.08

Otherwise its been a pretty low spend, low key week. We haven't done much since I was getting over the cold.

DH comes home tomorrow, finally. I haven't seen him in a month. There will be some spending as we are going out to eat at a nearby restaurant while we get a new car stereo installed.

I am starting to settle in to this new payraise DH has and I feel so much better about everything. Life has gotten a whole lot easier in the financial ring, but I really want to make sure we maintain our focus on getting out of debt and building up the EF. I am so close to $2000 and then after that I want to build it up to $2600 and that will be half a month's wages saved.

I haven't done much in the survey area this week. Too much time spent writing and reading instead. But I'm pretty close to cashing out again with Global Test Market for a $50 check. I think I need just 50 points to do so. So time to refocus and get on with it.

I've missed being around here and now I need to go and get caught up with you folks!

I haven't spent money in awhile. I never went in and got the new car stereo, I was so tired from fighting of my kids' colds. Sometimes I hate the germ factory (school) and dream of homeschooling again, but I don't have the patience with the younger one and the older one doesn't want to.

Yesterday was payday and $1000 of this check goes to the remaining credit card and $1000 goes to the medical debt. Next week's check will mostly go the remaining credit card.

Well, we've done it. We have transferred all of our Bank of America credit card balances and our Citi credit card onto the debt consolidation loan and they are now reading with a balance of zero. We have one credit card left with a balance on it and it is at 1.99% until October of 2008.

We are going to aggressively pay this credit card down now. DH and I decided we will not start saving seriously for a new car until after this card is gone. We think we can have it paid off by March or April if we throw everything at it as hard as we can.

As soon as it is paid off we will start saving for that car. We will be putting enough aside though to get our current primary vehicle in tip top shape so it will last another two years. And we will do some repairs to the Blazer and try to sell it. I don't know if anyone in their right mind would buy a vehicle that gets an average 16 mpg. It is a luxury version (and no we didn't buy it new) so its possible some dumb 16 year old out to buy his first vehicle might plunk down a few thousand for it cause its pretty and status-y.

Over all it is in decent shape, but the air conditioner needs to be refilled and the 4 wheel drive needs $200 in repairs and I think a new serpentine belt soon.

The only reason we bought a 4 wheel drive was to get out of the mountains when it snows bad, but we've come to the conclusion over the years that when it snows bad it is better to stay put until you absolutely must go out and by then the roads are plowed and the regular car is fine. So it really isn't needed.

I don't even remember why I ever thought it was so urgent to get out of the driveway and out of the mountains to begin with. I don't have an outside job and DH works in Alaska. There really is no real reason to leave during bad weather as we have a good store of food laid up especially in winter time.

Anyway, so if we can get two or three thousand for the Blazer and drop it from our insurance we can throw that money at the last credit card as well. And that is also where our income tax return will go.

It will be nice to get down to medical debt, mortgage, and debt consolidation loan.

It looks like DH will be coming home for the full shift this time after all, but that when he goes back he will work 3 weeks on, 1 week off, 3 weeks on again. Which means we will wind up with a total of 2 weeks of extra pay instead of one. That's a whole month's wages in our case. That should definitely pay off what is left on the last credit card after the loan comes through and we pay everything off that we can.

Of course, nothing is ever set in stone and everything is subject to change, but it sure would be nice. Then we'd just have to worry about the loan and the mortgages and regular bills. And saving for the new car would begin right away.

I'd like to save $10,000 for a downpayment on a hybrid. And I'm hoping that by the time I have it saved up that Toyota will have put out the Sienna Hybrid minivan. That should leave well under $20,000 to finance and make monthly payments decent.

It would be nice if it all turns out this way at work. Then he'd be home for the back to school shopping. It goes so much faster when he's trying clothes on Tobias and I'm trying them on Rose.

We got the debt consolidation loan we applied for. The money will be deposited into our account in 7 to 10 business days. We got the lowest interest rate they offered, 8.99%. Monthly payments will be $937. We can pay extra whenever we want to with no penalty, but only the $937 will be automatically deducted each month. Turns out the lowest term they would give on this one was 72 months instead of 60. But since we can pay extra that's not a problem.

We won't have to make any payments for about two months, so I am going to take all that money and put it on what is left of the credit card debt, which should be about $3000.00. Should be able to have that last card gone by end of November, then all we have to worry about is the paying down the loan as fast as we can. It will be very nice to wave bye-bye to the higher interest rates once and for all. 16% was not helping at all.

If I wait to start the new car fund, I will have it paid off by the end of October. Hmm. I'll have to think on that one. Our cars are getting quite old at 15 years and 11 years old. But neither has hit 150,000 miles yet. Still, they both need repairs, the 11 year old one much more so than the 15 year old one. So who knows? Oh, well, I'll get it figured out.

I'm still walking on the railroad tracks and the light is still pretty bright but at least I'm out of the tunnel.

So, DH and I had a long chat last night. And here is what we decided. We're going to take everything on all of the BoA/MBNA cards and put them onto the Clean Sweep program. That's roughly $33,000, but we'll have to take $35,000 it looks like, just for the way it is set up at increments of $10,000, $25,000, $35,000 or $50,000. We can, of course, immediately pay the extra back.

We will not put all of the CC debt on there though. The one BoA card that is nearly maxed out has an offer on it of 0% until June of 2008. So after we clear everything off the BoA/MBNA cards with the Clean Sweep, we will transfer what is on the Citi and Chase cards onto the BoA card. It will be nowhere near maxed out and it will give us a chance to really plow a lot of money into paying down the Clean Sweep as fast as possible.

We are hoping that we can get the Clean Sweep for less time than 60 months. We can pay it at least $1000 a month which would pay it off in less than 48 months. But again, I don't know if that option is something they will allow.

DH is going to call them when he gets a chance. Of course, the offer is in his name so he has to do it. But he's in the middle of training his replacement and working the new job he was promoted into, so things are a little crazy. Hopefully he can get to it soon, though.

My job is to take all the automatic payments that we have going to the BoA card off of it. There are only 2 things, one is my Curves membership and the other is something I didn't even realize we were still being charged for that needs to be cancelled completely. So I will transfer Curves to another card, the one card we manage to pay off monthly.

Some of you may wonder why I keep the Curves membership. It is extremely important for me to keep my health up and the resistance training there helps me to bolster my immune system. Almost dying a few years back has made this a priority for me. And it helps with my stress levels, also. Which can get very high with DH gone as much as he is. So it keeps me healthier and saves my sanity.

Now, I am just waiting for DH to shoot me the final net numbers on the new job so I can make up our new budget. When he gets some time to do it.

I've received three offers in the mail over the last two weeks to do a debt consolidation. My choices are Clean Sweep through BoA, Chase, or some company I've never heard of.

It's easy enough to eliminate the company I've never heard of. I've gone through the other two and am having a little trouble making up my mind. On the one hand, I've done a Clean Sweep before with BoA and know how it works. On the other hand, the Chase offer is one percent cheaper on the interest rate. But it is also Chase and sometimes they are difficult to deal with.

The majority of my credit card debt is currently with BoA, mostly because they bought out MBNA some time back. BoA is not taking much risk transferring my debt from their cards to their loan. I also have a long history with BoA and even though some of their policies bug me, I more or less trust them.

Chase doesn't hold that much of my debt at the moment, I'm not sure that they would transfer the full amount offered like BoA would, and I don't want half the debt on a loan and half the debt on cards. I want it all in one place with one reasonable interest rate. Plus, some of their policies really bug me.

So I think I'm leaning more towards the BoA one. It's a known quantity.

I am finally getting around to posting the bills I paid from last week's paycheck.

$910.37 Medical Mortgage
$400.00 House Mortgage
$282.22 Propane
$201.89 Comcast (installation charges on top of cable/phone/internet)
$ 44.58 Garbage (2 months)
$ 71.36 Cell phone
$ 84.00 Herald
$445.00 MBNA MC#1
$110.00 Power
$ 50.00 Physical Therapy
$185.50 Car insurance (3 months)

A fair chunk of change going out, there. Tomorrow is payday again, but not like this one. This is the big one for the month and has a full seven days of wages on it. Tomorrow's pay usually only has one and a half days on it. This time it will be two and a half days on it with the new schedule change, and it will be like that from now on. The first payday will have 4.5 days on it instead of 5.5 days, so the difference is at both ends of the cycle. Then we have one week where he doesn't get paid at all, out of every four.

I'm glad the vacation money is taken care of now. And the association dues, which I thought were due at the end of June are actually due at the end of July, so that makes me happy.

Yesterday was payday. Bills paid were:

$820.00 to BoA Visa
$372.00 to Water/Sewer
$ 88.90 to Citi MC
$ 34.00 to Security system
$ 93.00 to Puget Sound Energy
$ 30.57 to Life Insurance
$ 60.00 to Medical
$100.00 to Gas Card
$ 76.83 to Costco groceries and toilitries
$105.89 to Haggen groceries
$ 72.00 to Cell phone

So quite a bit of money out yesterday. Water/sewer is 6 months. They've switched over to a new computer system and have their elbows up their noses when it comes to billing. Fortunately I've just been keeping the money in account until they got around to billing. It's supposed to be $104 every two months.

Next week will be a rather large payout as well, as propane goes out, garbage, medical and house mortgages go out, homeowner's association dues, car insurance and $200 to Comcast for hooking up the new digital phone, putting in a new cable system for the internet and moving an existing cable to a new location for the telly.

I'm still not a huge fan of having cable telly again. But I absolutely adore cable internet. Makes me happy. I also like having caller ID for the first time. It's not an extra with the new system, it comes standard. I ignore call waiting. I think its rude and always have and I will not use it. Well, unless its DH. That could be an emergency. So I would then. Just have to figure out how.

The PC went belly up this week. I'm not sure if I said that before or not. When DH comes home he will do some tinkering and if that doesn't work we will take it in to 3-D, the local computer fixer people and see if anything can be done. We'll at least retrieve the photos off the hard drive. Then we will be looking at saving up for a little Compaq desktop. Doesn't have to be anything grand or expensive.

Oh, gas prices have dropped again, here. I filled up at Costco yesterday at $2.99 a gallon. It didn't even cost $45 for just under 15 gallons. Last time it was $52! So that's nice. It's also nice to still have over $50 on the gas card.

I need to remember to call and make an appointment to have the steering fluid flushed in the car. It's in serious need and I will try to schedule for next Friday as I will be in town doing all the banking for next payday then. I have a couple more repairs to schedule as well. It seems it's always something, but I suppose when your car is 15 years old, you do what needs doing to keep it on the road. The repairs still aren't more than half a car payment averaged throughout the year, so I think we're still doing good there.

Not much else going on. Oh, I was able to watch Doctor Who Utopia today. Took a good bit of hunting to find a working download, but I finally did. It only aired on Friday in the UK. It'll start airing in the states on July 6. Not sure when the DVD will be out, but definitely not until after it finishes its run on Scifi channel. I'll need to start saving up for that, too.

I found out Torchwood starts airing on BBCAmerica in September. Not sure if SciFi will do the spinoff or not. Well, I've watched them all online anyway. No info on when the DVD of that comes out either, but it'll probably be just as pricey as DW, so I should probably just double the amount I'm putting away for DW.

I think that's about it then, for today. No money spent at all today.

I transferred $16,000 of credit card debt from one of my MBNA cards to my Chase card. It's going from 12.9% to 1.9% until February. There is still almost $3000 left on that card. I have over $2000 worth of room on my Citi card that I can get transferred at 6.9%, which will stay at that rate until November of 2008.

That will leave me about $1000 on the MBNA card, which will easily be paid off before February. Round about the time Chase goes up, I imagine MBNA will be offering me a better rate. That tends to be the way it goes.

Well, today was payday and a lot of money went out today, but bills must be paid and life rolls on.

$1300.00 to Bank of America CC (they own my life)
$ 42.00 to 3 month newspaper subscription
$ 42.01 to phone bill
$ 64.54 to cell phone bill
$ 233.40 to Costco
$ 63.27 WalMart
$ 17.46 Haggen
---------
$1762.78 Total spent

$100 of the Costco money went on the cash card to use for buying gas so that is not really as horrible as it seems. I stocked up a lot of canned goods I am low on and cheeses, part of which I froze.

WalMart was relatively healthy snack foods for the kids, medicine, a reinforced set of garden gloves that will allow me to pull out the trailing sticker plant that is invading my yard from the neighbor's house (their motto: yard, what yard?) a small handheld ratchet pruner and the bigger one you need for pruning limbs on trees and one music CD I had planned for.

I usually get one music CD a month, if I get more in a month its because I lose my discipline and impulse buy more. I did that two months ago, so I am trying to keep a leash on it, even though there are two more CD's I want to get. They'll just have to wait their turns. Music has a relatively important place in my life, having learned to play violin, viola, flute, and piano in my lifetime and having sung in Concert Choir in high school. Music is just that important to me.

Another payday gone and another paycheck spent. Next week is mortgage and more CC payments. Lovely. Ah, well, life goes on.

I sent $10 off to ING today to add to the EF. It's now at a whopping $52.58. We decided to use the $600 to pay on a credit card, instead of putting it back into the EF. I'm just so tired of the debt. Every payment I make comes just one step closer to bringing down the evil empire.

And if push comes to shove the CC can act as an emergency fund. Though my mother said anything up to $500 she could lend us if it was a minor emergency, with no interest so that is why I feel better about putting that $600 against debt.

I will still continue to send the $10 a week to the EF and any survey money will go there, too.

Today was kind of crazy, but it was the last banking day before my trip. I leave Sunday. So today I paid:

$335.29 Property Tax half year
$910.37 Medical Mortgage
$400.00 House Mortgage
$100.52 Citi Master Card
$400.00 BOA Master Card

And I got $1000 in traveler's checks and $70 in cash. I will be taking along a roll of quarters and a roll of pennies from my change jar. My cheapy souveniers are those flattened pennies you get with a design etched onto them. They have quite a few scattered about Disneyland and I try to get different ones each time I go. I have quite the collection.

I am going to try to keep my expenses down to $1400. I am allowing $330 to go on credit card but that will be paid off once the bill comes in. There are some places that will not take traveler's checks even though they are supposed to. I don't know why but they don't. Fortunately the park does and the hotels do. I am hoping not to use the CC at all. With splitting so many costs with my friend it is possible to achieve this. Probable is another story.

I also got out $100 for DH to use the week I am gone. He shouldn't need to use it all but I'm not counting on there being any when I get back. It should cover the two fast food meals a week for t-ball nights, adding money to their lunch accounts and replacement of milk, bread, eggs, etc. if needed. I tried to shop ahead so they won't have to buy much of anything.

Then we got our wifi network system and DH is going to try to get that installed and up and running tomorrow. Lots of money out but all of it planned and saved for so I don't feel bad about it. Maybe a little.

DH's check was supposed to have his raise on it but guess what? It was on the paper statement but not on the electronic deposit. What the H E DOUBLE HOCKEYSTICKS good does that do us, I ask you? Anyway, the extra will be added to next week's paycheck, which means a smaller tax bite out of it since next week's is the two day check. I am so over this company. REALLY BIG SIGH.

So that's me today. I'll try to do one more blog tomorrow before I pack. We'll see. If not, I'll blog you when I get back.

The kidlets have happily convinced Grandma to have an overnight so I am completely free to do what I want tonight. Which means dishes and laundry then at least one episode of 24 and some writing.

I took a $1 survey today and am slowly getting caught up on my backlog of MyPoints.

I paid $1065.95 on one of the credit cards today. Drove to the little branch in the border town 10 miles from my house so I could get them in today. The new road is open now, so crossing back towards the highway is much easier now and takes about 15 minutes less time, going round the closer end of the foothill instead of the farther one. I could have paid them online but I had to stop by the post office there anyway and the BoA website is slow as dirt.

I filled up with gas after dropping the kids off with Mom, since I was in town. I wasn't happy with the price. $2.69 a gallon at the cheap station. I didn't want to go all the way to Costco today so I just went to the Arco. I won't make that mistake again.

I got really irritated at the cashier, who also happens to be the owner or one of the owners. I paid with a $50 bill, you have to pay ahead there, and when I came back in to get my change, he told me I didn't have any. It had only come to $36.95.

This is not the first time he has done this, it has happened a couple of times over the last year and it is always the same man. Last time he said he was trying to be "funny" or at least that was his excuse. It isn't always easy to tell, with his accent. But his accent always gets much thicker when he tries to pull this. I've heard him speaking perfectly good English with a much lighter Indian accent.

I think he was trying to rip me off. I just told him "What are you talking about? I can't understand you. I need change on pump 8." And just repeated myself until he gave me my change, the right amount, too. Don't tell me I don't have change and then give me the correct amount and expect me to think you don't know better. I will no longer be buying my gas there. I wonder how many folks have taken him seriously?

I am tempted to report it but don't have a clue as to who to report it to. The only reason I even went there was I had forgotten he had done this before until he was doing it. What is with people? As if the gas industry isn't trying to rip us off enough as it is, the owners are trying to get in on it now? Not with my money.

I don't usually do this because I like to be a bit more vague over where I live. I am going to this time, since it is not in the city I live in, just the one I was born in. This was the ARCO AM/PM on the corner of Bakerview/Airport Way and Bennet Drive in Bellingham, WA 98225.

It does not pay to make a blogger mad!

Our tax return showed up in our bank account today. This is the fastest we've ever gotten it. Just 3.5 weeks.

I haven't done anything with it yet, but the plan is:

$2000.00 to a credit card
$1000.00 to Vacation fund (but will send to ING until needed)
$ 458.13 to education fund (but will send to ING until needed)

Might as well earn some good interest on those last two things. I am setting up a spreadsheet to keep track of what's in the ING account so nothing ends up in the wrong place.

Well, I added up the numbers today. The real numbers, not just what I think they are from memory. Having that one card at such a high interest rate for so long really hurt us. I am glad it is under that now, down to 6.9%, but wow did it mess us up while it was high.

Credit card totals:

$19,458.14 Bank of America Visa
18,666.97 BoA/MBNA Master Card
+ 5,940.00 Citi Master Card
-------------
$44,065.11 Total Credit Card Debt

I thought it was a lot lower than that, but nope, its not.

$44,065.11 Total CC debt
35,251.24 House Mortgage
-----------
$79,316.35
147,354.13 Medical Debt (Mortgage on parent's house at 5.75%
-----------
226,670.48 Total Debt

Scary number isn't it? But we started 2005 with $250,000 worth of debt, so we have made progress. And we will be knocking off $2000 more when we get our tax return.

And our 401K is at $42,314.20 and we have a meager amount in savings, so even though our net worth is totally in the red, we are doing okay in the retirement department. Thank goodness.

Facing the numbers was really helpful to me. It has shifted my mindset over one more degree. We really have to crack down on the things that waste money. Like eating out, which we still do too much of even though we have cut way back. This is our Latte Factor (even though I don't drink coffee and DH barely does and when he does he makes it himself, and its espresso).

On Monday I am going to the library and finding a good Mexican cookbook and a good Chinese food cookbook. And I am going to figure out how to make our favorite eating out foods at home.

I finished re-reading The Automatic Millionaire last night and tonight while Rose is at basketball and Tobias is doing his Headsprout lesson for reading practice, I will start working through the workbook.

Once I do that, I will probably buy the Finish Rich Workbook, too, but I may not be quite ready for that. I think that one is more into teaching about buying stocks and bonds and IRA set ups and all that while the workbook that I bought is about getting out of debt.

Chase (a card I have now with no balance) has offered me a 4.9 percent interest rate for the life of the loan which I am thinking about taking. I have one card that is at 6.9 percent until March of 2008 and another card that is at 15.9 percent which is a fixed rate air miles card. The 6.9 card loses its rate in March and goes up to 17 percent.

So I think I will use Chase to transfer the balance on the card that is going to go up to 17% and then focus on aggressively paying down the air miles card. The balance on the 17% card is almost $19,000 and the limit on the Chase card is $16,700. We will be taking $2000 of our tax return to pay on that card and with the two payments I have to make between now and then, the balance should be under $16,700, so that card will be empty and then we will cancel it.

I have been wanting to cancel it as it was an MBNA but got bought out by BOA and now I have three cards owned by BOA, which I don't like to have so many from one company. Once it is cancelled I will have one BOA VISA air miles card, one MBNA/BOA Master Card, one Chase VISA card and one Citi Master Card. The Citi card is the one at 6.9% and still has $2000 worth of credit line I can access at that same precentage, so if I need to I will transfer around a bit so I can stay with only 3 cards with a balance on them.

So for now, that is my plan.

One of our oldest credit cards just raised our credit limit by $5000. So now instead of it having a limit of $20,000 it has a limit of $25,000. Are these people nuts? Who in their right mind allows someone to borrow that much money without it being secured? Oh, that's right, Bank of America.

Our other two cards with them, which used to be MBNA, have also raised significantly since BOA took over. One has a limit of $19,000 and the other of $16,000. Ridiculous. They really, really want to lure people into debt.

I think the reason they are so high is that we are finally starting to make headway in getting our debt down and they want to tempt us back into spending to get out balances up higher and making more profit for them. Greedy.

3rd Entry for today

I found a penny on top of the microwave (?) today so added it to my coin jar. Just five to go and I can do a roll.

And Autovantage still sucks, in case you missed my rant 2 entries ago.

2nd Entry for today.

Today was the automatic deposit of $10 to savings. I think I'm going to hold off on sending anymore moeny to ING until payday. As it would take 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back it would be awfully hard to tap it if needed before payday. I really don't want to need it.

And AutoVantage still bites, sucks, and has the rudest customer non-service trolls on the planet. Just thought I'd repeat that if you didn't catch it in my last entry.

Okay, so I posted how I had to cancel several of those programs on the 19th. Well, what do you suppose AutoVantage does? Charges me on the 21st after telling me there would be no further charges. So I called them up for the 3rd time. This time instead of LaTosha, I got Lilia or Lilian, not really sure as her English was not that great and the boiler room she was in was very loud.

Her line, "Our records show that you are still an active member." Snarky voice.

Me: "That's funny because I cancelled on the 19th and you charged me on the 21st."

Her: We have no record of that.

Me: I have a confirmation number and the name of the person I talked to.

Her: Oh. (Pause). Okay, give me the number, then the name. (I do.) Oh, here it is. You're right, it didn't get into the computer. (Switched from Snarky voice to Dumb Blonde voice).

Me: Oh, really? Then what are you looking it up on? (Silence) This charge better be removed from my credit card within the week or I am contacting the BBB and I will be disputing this with my credit card and blocking your charges.

Her: It'll be taken care of. (Back to Snarky voice)

Me: That's what they said the last two times I've called.

Her: I said, It'll be taken care of. (Nasty voice now) Thank you for using AutoVantage. (And she hung up on me).

Me: Screw you, you rude little troll and the horse you rode in on.

I will never ever do business with any company owned by Trilegeant again. If any of you feel like doing a trial membership with AutoVantage, DON'T. It's nothing but grief. They should have cancelled back in June!

Things I have done that needed doing:

Cancelled (again) AutoVantage
Cancelled (again) Tickle.com
Cancelled (again) Preferred Home Network
Cancelled Onlingo
Cancelled Video Professor

I don't know if I will get any money back from the companies that I had already cancelled months ago and they failed to stop charging my credit card or not, but I did lodge complaints about AutoVantage and PHN, with BBB. They were very rude to me on the phone about it, even though I had confirmation numbers and names of people I had spoken too. Tickle was very nice to me and promised they would look into it and refund any money that was due back. Notice how they didn't get reported to the BBB. If any of them try to charge me again we'll go the route of disputing with the credit card and seeing if we can't block charges from those companies.

I finished knitting one hat for Dad and worked some more on Rose's scarf.

I went to the bookstore and bought my Christmas presents from Mom which I will give her tomorrow to wrap and give back to me on Christmas Eve. It seems silly to do it that way and a waste of wrapping paper, but its what she wants to do, so okay. The books I got were by David Bach, both that I have read before and wanted my own copies of, The Automatic Millionaire and Smart Couples Finish Rich. I had $3.65 left over out of the money she gave me for my present. I think I may break my no sugar rule and get a gelato for myself with it! But not until I'm alone after the kids have gone back to school and DH is up in Alaska again.

Today was the day of the automatic deposit of $10 to savings so I sent that off to ING.

I went to Costco and got all the fixings for my Christmas Lasagnas, except noodles, they didn't have there and I forgot to get them when we were at Fred Meyer later so I'll have to get them tomorrow. We have to go back to town tomorrow because our front door knob will not open from the inside anymore. It just stopped working and DH is unable to fix it with his usual tinkering. We could just go out the back door but its not in the best location what with all the extension cords for the Christmas lights. It's also quite a ways from the alarm system, which gives you 30 seconds to get out the door before it goes off. Which is fine if it is just you and not two little kids you are trying to rush out the door. So we will be buying a door knob and lasagna noodles.

I picked up a copy of The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto at the library today. Reading it on the net was just getting to my eyes and really, I just prefer reading books on the printed page.

My day in a nutshell.

Not too much to report on today. I did finally get my antibiotics so maybe I can put this sinus infection to rest. That would be good. Prescription cost $25.

I also spent $23.17 at the grocery store buying organic meat.

DH took the kids to the Santa Train. I decided that I would just make myself sicker if I went, so I didn't. They had a good time, and had a great photo taken with Santa.

I did drive down Starry Road tonight to see some of the lights. They have some amazing houses out that way, storybook beautiful, so I at least saw a little without being exposed to the cold air.

DH found my notebook tonight of all the trial offer membership numbers and when stuff was cancelled, confirmation numbers and the name of the person I spoke to. Now I can go to town on the companies that did not cancel my memberships when they said they would and have continued to charge me. And I will take no prisoners.

Lisa in WA

I cashed out $3 at ReadRevenue last night. When that shows up it will go to the CC payoff account. All these amounts sometimes seem so tiny against the bigness of the debt it has to go against, but even little dents mean something.

Today was also the day of the weekly automatic deposit of $10 to savings, so that will be transferred to ING eventually.

Rose stayed home from school today. Her stomach is still sore but no more barfing since last night, so yay. I think she will be able to go to school tomorrow. No basketball practice tonight though.

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday I wrote each child a $20 check to fund their hot lunch accounts, so that was $40 more out then was listed.

Did my big Costco run today. I went in with a list, I came out with 3 items that were not on my list. Sigh. We go in with such big expectations sometimes. But the three things I did buy that were not on the list were okay.

Blackberries
Blueberries
A Duracel charger pack with 6 rechargeable batteries ($30)

The fruit was a complete and total impulse buy. It looked very, very good and I rarely buy Costco fruit but these just jumped into my cart of their own accord, so what can you do?

The charger pack was so I could have my own charger that DH doesn't know where its at so that he can't put it somewhere that I can't find it. Oh, he claims its in the room with the books, but um...can't prove it by me. This way I'll also have a set of rechargeables for the digital camera and a set for each of the childrens' Christmas presents charged and ready to go. I was planning on this purchase anyway, just not today.

I put $40 on the gas card while I was there. But I spent more than I planned and this is the first time I've gone over $100 (not counting the gas) in months. I had to buy Ziploc baggies and T.P. though and that does get pricey. It should last quite awhile, though. I also bought slipper socks, 10 pounds of chicken and 10 pounds of beef, pot pies, eggs, cheese, lettuce and yogurt. I am restocking a bit after the loss of the big freezer last week. So I guess the higher amount is to be expected. Didn't over do it because everything must fit into the half size chest freezer. Ended up with a total bill of $187.33 (including the $40 onto the gas card). I would have made it under $100 without the impulse buys and before the cost of gas. So I still feel I did okay.

Anyway, at check out I asked for boxes and they packed the one ridiculously full. It had all 20 pounds of meat in it, plus 4 pounds of cheese and the package of pot pies. We're coming up on 35 pounds of food. I just looked at the guy and I said in a good-natured tone, "Tell me something. Do I look like SheRa: Princess of Power to you?"

He gave me a blank look and I said, "It's too heavy, I can't lift that into my car."

Then he laughed, I guess he finally got it, said "Oh, nope, not really, I'll repack it." He didn't look older than me, he should have grown up with the same cartoons, should have been a little faster on the uptake. But oh, well. He did repack it so I could then lift it easier. At least, I didn't have to rescue my Omega-3 eggs from this one.

After that I got gas. The machine kept shutting off, even though I know it should have gone to 15.5 gallons as I had just over 2 gallons in the tank and its an 18 gallon tank. That gas gauge is computerized so I don't have to guess. I finally gave up at 12 point something gallons, so not a full tank but close enough to end up with 15 gallons in there. Spent just over $30 and have enough left on the card for another full fill up.

I spent $15 (including tip) for lunch at the Mexican place, had beef fajitas without the tortillas, about half a cup of the rice, no beans (they gave me lettuce instead), lettuce, and some chips and salsa. Ended up bringing half of it home for a whole other meal.

Deposited $15.50 in rolled coin at the bank with the CC payoff account, but forgot to deposit the $5 check from Your2Cents.

Went to Haggen and bought bananas, organic milk, shrimp, hamburger, Isernio's mild Italian chicken sausage (Fern, they have a website if you were interested in these nitrate/nitrite free and sulfate/sulfite free suasages, www.isernio.com, its a Seattle based company), 100% apple juice, 100% whole wheat hamburger and hotdog buns, a magazine for me and some Ocean nasal spray for Rose. Spent $73.29 there.

Then I went and picked up the kids and came home. The roads were really good. The highway is completely bare and the main roads in town were a lot better. Mom's street is still bad and my own street is still bad, but things are melting and it got up to a balmy 41 degrees F today, so all's good here on the weather front.

More people have put up Christmas lights now that they don't have to freeze to do it. We even had two new houses on our street put up lights so the kids were excited. I suppose I'll have to go work on finishing our display. For normal people, we'd be done with what is already up, but we aren't normal people. We get our address submitted to the paper of lights to go see in the county, though after last year I may request they not print it since we had $90 worth of lights stolen. We budget twice as much for electricity for the month of December. You can see where I'm going with this. I'm not much of an indoor decorator, though we do put up a tree and a little village, but we all love the outdoor Christmas stuff and the neighborhood kids adore it. One kid asked at Halloween when we were going to set it up.

I think I've covered everything for the day now.

3rd entry today.

Today I went ahead and activated my Citi MC that has been sitting in the credit card box since February and transferred the 22% MBNA mastercard balance onto it. It is now at 6.99% until March of 2008.

Another thing I will have to do is call up Auto Advantage, Preferred Home Network, Bargain Auto Network and a couple of others that I did as trial offers months ago and cancelled, mind you within the 30 day trial periods, so I never should have been charged more than $1 for any of these things. Well, they've been charging the card. I thought DH was watching that one and he thought I was and we didn't catch it. Well, I'm going to get on the phone tomorrow and raise high holy hell with these folks. Just as soon as I find my notebook with the confirmation numbers and names of the people I talked to when I cancelled.

DH is also taking care of disputing the charges. As soon as we are credited back with all that they owe us than that MBNA card will be cancelled.

I guess I won't be doing business with TriAlegant ever again. Their the parent company that is currently ripping me off by not following through on cancelling all those things. Very irritating.

I also have a few other things to cancel that need cancelling, so have to get my papers together for those as well.

Well, Yummy's Kmart rant reminded me that I haven't updated on the Suncoast rant so here goes. Five days after I emailed them I got a nice form letter that basically said "Your correspondence is very important to us and will be answered in the order of which it was received. If you want to speak to an actual human good luck, because we don't actually have any here, though you may be able to coax out a customer non-service troll if you hop up your front steps on one leg backwards while whistling Dixie and rotating a hula hoop around your hips. You must submit the digital recording of this via our email which we probably still won't answer." Or something to that effect and meaning, but not quite in those words. 2 weeks from the date of the complaint and nothing further has been received from them.

I sent off the payment to my MBNA master card of $1200. This should bring the balance down to right around $5300. I am hoping to have this paid off by the end of April. It has the highest interest rate and lowest balance. I like it when it matches up that way, as it means I can get rid of the smallest balance first without feeling like I should be paying the higher rate cards first. It seems more motivational to know I can pay this off in a few months than it does to think of how much longer it would take to pay off one of the higher balance cards.

I need to find out about transferring the balance to a lower rate card. Originally the interest on this one was 6.9 percent for the last year, but now its jumped up to 22% and that is not acceptable to me. Maybe it won't matter that much if I can't if I can pay it off in 5 months, but it is the principle of the thing.