So here I go making a commitment to start blogging again and then I spend a day not actually doing anything. Well, I didn't spend money on my day of not actually doing anything, so I suppose that's something.

I have a cold, with a nasty throbbing stuffed up head, which curtailed me driving anywhere but to the school and back today. I had planned on going to the bank and getting money for the kids allowances, going to the chiropractor and paying for a month in advance on the family plan, maybe stopping by the grocery store, but that didn't work out at all. So, no spend day.

I transferred the $2000 from ING to my local credit union for the car payment and it should show up by Thursday which is when DH gets home and we go look at the Escape one more time. I think it's pretty much a given that we will buy it, but we didn't want to rush the decision.

DH is sending me the revised figures of the new take home pay so I can finish the budget and the new 401K access info. Our 401K changed from Vanguard to something else a few months ago. I wasn't happy with that. I like Vanguard. I trust Vanguard. I know nothing about this other group. But the fees are supposed to be lower which meant the company was willing to match an additional 1% at 50% on the dollar, so I can't complain too much. As long as it does a decent job. Just don't know yet.

First I had to find the swing before I could make the attempt to get back into the swing of things. I pulled my CU statement off the internet today and balanced my checkbook for the month of December, so that's a positive step in the pay attention to my finances category!

Tomorrow's big step will be sitting down with the bill box and paying bills. Okay, more than that because I've been paying bills all along, but getting that aspect of my life organized. I'm going to be getting this nifty organizer thing from Lillian Vernon for my birthday in February. It's a box that has slots for every day of the month that you organize your bills into and then a couple little drawers for miscellaneous bill paying items like envelopes or stamps or whatnot. Always have a hard time keeping track of my whatnots, after all! But it should come in quite handy.

I'm working on my 2008 Budget Spreadsheet, too. Now I know that medical has not gone up for the first year in forever and that car insurance has actually gone down ('bout time, DH hasn't had an accident since '94 and I've not had one since '88 when I was 18 and that was only a parallel parking mishap!), and they've finally gotten the clue we're safe drivers! Security system monitoring has gone up by a buck a month.

Lots of little things. Property taxes should go down a bit this year as a levy came off.

Tomorrow I'll be making a trip to Costco and getting gas. Don't think I'll buy anything else there, except produce if it looks good. I've got plenty of canned goods and meat in the freezer. Well, maybe eggs, milk, and cheese. And dishwasher tablets. I think I'll make a list before I go. Since things seem to be magically popping into my head at the moment.

Just wanted to say thanks again for the warm welcome back. It was lovely.

Some of the folks in the engineering department where DH works have jumped ship and his bosses decided to give him a pre-emptive raise in the hopes that he won't do the same thing.

Since he's got no intention of leaving anyway, it was a nice surprise. Especially since it's only been a couple months. It works out to $500 gross every 4 weeks. He hasn't run the numbers yet to see what it'll be after taxes, but I'm assuming it will add an additional $300 every 4 weeks into our budget.

That means we should be able to pay that remaining credit card down even faster, so I'm quite happy with that. DH still wants to go to Disneyland next year, but I'm holding out for 2009. Though I'd much rather go to London. Not with the kids though. Anyway, that's a pipe dream right now. I have a feeling London will be closer to 2019. But that's fine at this point in time.

Not really much going on. We're all sick still but DH and not spending much money.

Okay, so my major goals for today were to:

1. Create a new budget spreadsheet with the new net amount for September on
2. Create a new temporary savings account spreedsheet for short term saving up
3. Balance my checkbook (yes, the one I was supposed to balance 3 or 4 days ago, can you say procrastinate)

So the good news is that I managed to do all three things today. I like making my own spreadsheets because no software company makes anything that comes near to what I want to have. They are either too complicated, have the most bizarre or stupid categories, or simply the wrong ones, or they just don't do what I want them to. Plus, why spend the money on it when I have the skills to create exactly what I want? Seems silly.

My new budget had 30 items on it and I'm pretty sure I didn't forget anything. I think I also overtargeted for a few items, but that leaves wiggle room and I like wiggle room, you know?

When all is said and sifted, I have a budget surplus of about $300 a month. Clothing and other miscellaneous items will come from out of this surplus. Everything else gets its own category.

The temp savings spreadsheet is for keeping track of things that don't have monthly due dates, like medical, property tax, dues, insurance, propane, water/sewer, etc. I divided my yearly amounts by 12 and then each month I will put that amount away in the temp savings fund, so that when it comes due that money is sitting in savings waiting to be paid out.

I used to do this all the time before the old medical crisis that screwed my life over. I had forgotten how secure having everything laid out before me, little numbers in little rows and columns, made me feel. Instead of being afraid to face the numbers, I now know where each thing belongs. In a way it makes the power of debt not quite so overwhelming.

Of course, it helps when it is all clearly laid out and there is enough money to work with to not be in the red. It helps a lot.

Today I added $4 in ones and $1.20 in change to my change jar. I don't have enough coins to roll any one type just yet, but I do have $24 in ones now, so I will deposit that on Monday along with my two checks and send them off to ING to the EF. That will give me a deposit of $72.22, which will bring my balance in ING to $853.27. Just $146.73 to go to hit $1000.

Starting in September we will be contributing the $10 per week I've been doing all along to the EF, $100 every 4 weeks, and all survey money to the EF.

We will be starting a new car fund and contributing $500 a month.

And we will be paying an extra $1000 towards debt. That should still leave enough of the raise left to raise our food budget by $100, pay for the kids activities and get the current vehicles into shape by the time we are ready to buy our new vehicle. And we will be raising our 401K contribution by 1%.

There is a large rumor that Toyota will be releasing a Hybrid Sienna mini-van in 2008 and that is what we have wanted all along since they started introducing hybrids. It may not be until 2009, and who knows, Ford may beat them to it at the rate it is chugging along pushing out hybrids.

But that is what we are aiming for and I'd like to have somewhere between $5000 and $10,000 saved up for a downpayment just so our payments are reasonable. Any bonus money that comes along will go to the new car fund.

The only way I will consider buying a new car is buying a hybrid. Otherwise we would go used. And there just isn't a huge used hybrid market. And there are no mini-vans yet.

We have talked Prius as well, but that is only good for the four of us. If we ever want to take the kids places with their friends, its impossible with our current vehicles. T has to be in a car seat until age 8 by Washington state law and it is impossible to have two adults, two car seats and two ten/eleven year olds in either of our vehicles.

Now, why start in September instead of August? Well, August won't have a full paycycle at the new raise. We'll only have an extra $1000 this first paycycle and I'll be using it to fund some accounts. I used to have a budget that took so much for each item and saved it up until that item was due, but its been a long time since I actually followed that kind of budget.

Well, I want to again. So each month I will set aside money for medical, auto and house insurances, property tax, auto repair, house repair, and propane. There may be more, I'm not sure at the moment. Maybe an activities and vacation fund as well.

I'll divide the bi-yearly amounts up into monthly amounts and deposit those into a savings account for common expenses, and will have a spreadsheet to track what goes in which category. So that is where that first $1000 will go, seed money for some of these categories. It will get this plan up and rolling again and hopefully allow us to stay on top of the budget instead of swimming with our heads barely above water.

The only thing left for me to do now is to make the new budget spreadsheet and the new maintenance fund spreadsheet. That's easy enough.

DH and I have settled on places to visit on our trip to the island. All prices are admission for 2 adults and 2 children.

Hatley Castle--Home of Lex Luthor on Smallville and Dr Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in X-Men, has 3 large gardens as well (one is Japanese, one is Italian, don't remember what the 3rd is) $52.00 About a four hour visit

B.C. Royal Museum currently showing the Titanic exhibit, plus standard exhibits
$68.50 Half day visit

Butchart Gardens with fireworks and laser show $56.00 Full day visit

Centre of the Universe--Planetarium and Observatory with interactive exhibits and shows $23 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Craigdarroch Castle--Just a local castle DH wants to see, had 39 rooms $31 1-2 hours

Total $230.50 Canadian
Or $220 American

That's what is on the agenda so far. We also plan a visit to the Undersea Garden and a carriage ride, but don't have prices on those as of yet.

Today was my first no spend day in forever, it seems. I've found myself relaxing far too much lately now that the money noose is no longer closed tightly around our necks. In fact, its more of a lasso than a noose now and the cowboy's aim is off a bit, too.

So I've decided I really need to get back in it and stop letting money piddle away left and right. I am also making up a budget for my vacation. I already know what hotel fees and taxes are going to be and I'm hoping to figure out how much money for food I will need. My souvinier budget is pretty strict, I get one lapel pin and one t-shirt or sweatshirt. I will be buying a gift for my parents-in-law there for their 40th, glass blown wine glasses with their names and wedding date etched on.

My friend and I are planning out our restaurants in advance, we have menus and pricing as well, so it shouldn't be too difficult. We also may split some meals, too. At some places portions are just huge and can easily be halved, even if you have to pay a $1.00 extra plate fee charge.

I have to go and buy a swimsuit tomorrow. My old one is so worn out that I think I might be committing a crime if I were to wear it in public. Now that our development's pool is repaired and back in operation I'd be needing one anyway, so this purchase is not simply for the trip. I found out they offer free water aerobics on W and F to homeowners here, so after I get back and have my operation and my recovery time, I will start doing that, I think.

I am going to try very hard to not waste money just because we have it. We still have debt. A lot of debt.

I was playing with Lau's template again today (not really Lau's, just that's where I got the link) and figuring out what I could do to pay off the debt once the promotion goes through and the higher paychecks start coming in. If we buckle down and really go at it, only leaving out enough for a car payment, it looks like we can pay off our credit card debt in three and a half years. Just by upping payments $500 a month. That would still leave us with $100 to put in the EF and $300 to make a car payment.

Plus that doesn't include slapping the tax refunds on it each year, either. We'll always have one with this job, just no way around it.

I don't know if we'll want to go at it full force, I know DH wants to take another larger Disney type vacation around 2008 or 2009. But its nice to know what we could do!

Of course, that doesn't include any money I generate through surveys, click-thrus, product trials, PTR's and hopefully getting my book published when I'm done writing it. The first four things go to the EF. I haven't thought much about the other as it still seems a dream that I might end up getting paid for what I love to do most. So intangible still, though and not at all to be relied upon.

I just finished reading an article comparing our nation's spending to people who spend without a thought to the future. It was very insightful.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/StateOfTheNationBroke.aspx

I'm not sure how to post it as an actual link. I'm supposed to be able to, but it doesn't. I suppose there is a trick to it, but oh, well. Copy and paste. It's worth the read.

Today has been a pretty long day. I had to take DH to the airport today so he could fly back to Alaska. He left early as he is covering a few days for his alternate so she can go on vacation with her husband for a little more than 2 weeks. He'll be a couple days late coming home, too. It'll mean extra money in his paychecks, which I'll probably use to rebuild the Emergency Fund, which got pretty decimated.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home as I had some rebate coupons that expire on the 27th. One was $4 off any purchase of $5 or more and the other was $2 off any purchase from the meat department. Total spent was $29.16. I went a bit over my grocery budget. My normal grocery budget is $250 and I was trying to make it be $200 for a four week period. I think I've gone over by about $20, I'll check on it later. I did buy some staples this month that needed replacing and that may be why I couldn't quite do it. I'll try again next cycle. The next four week pay cycle starts on the 26th, so I'll be able to use up the rest of my rebate coupons then, unless I have to buy milk between now and then.

I did put $250 aside for groceries regardless, so I'm not taking money from elsewhere. It just may end up that I can't get it under $200 with so many organic purchases. If so, so be it.

We had to be very careful when we left the Fred Meyer parking lot. A couple of cars weren't and they were slipping and sliding around on the ice. One did spin. It reminded me of a figure-skating spin. Fortunately they were perfectly clear when it happened and finally pulled out okay. Its okay to laugh since no one got hurt. Just because the main roads are clear and bare, people assume that parking lots are just as safe to drive on, despite the layer of thick ice. I don't get folks sometimes.

I will only be driving to town once this week, and once halfway in to the game on Saturday, and maybe to Curves, which is 12 miles from my house, 3X per week. So I may possibly be able to knock down my gas budget anyhow, even if I can't do the grocery one. We'll see.

It was bright and sunny today and got up to 30 degrees F, which was better than yesterdays 20 (-7 to the Celsius people). The combination padlock on our shed is frozen and won't turn so we couldn't bring in the ornament boxes to take down the tree before DH left. It is supposed to get up to 40 sometime this week so hopefully I can get it open then. I'd like to get that tree down. Soon.

I put together a new budget for the new year. It is pre-raise as the January raises obviously have not come through yet. DH is "supposed" to get a big one this year but it was "supposed" to come last summer and just keeps getting put off, so I'll change the new budget if and when it happens.

So far, it looks like we have $100 worth of wiggle room. Not exactly great but we'll manage. I want to try to split that $100 each month between raising the EF back up and saving for vacation.