Well, I dropped off the face of the Earth for a couple of weeks. I'm getting over walking pneumonia. Isn't that lovely? But I am feeling like a human again and starting to resume living.

We finally got all of our books for the virtual school week before last and are plowing full speed ahead with the homeschooling. The kids seem to be thriving and we are falling into a routine now.

The bathtub/shower remodel is almost done. It's done enough to use the bathtub anyway and I had my first long soak in three months last night! It was wonderful. I won't be able to use the shower part of it until DH comes back again and finishes securing it and then it needs to be caulked and then we still need to put the back wall on and paint it, but at least it's useable and there is still the other shower so it's not like we have nothing but a tub.

Okay, what else? Oh, I sent money to savings, to the EF fund.

$1211.96 old balance
150.00 deposit
+ 2.79 October interest
---------
$1365.75 new balance

And I transferred the $40 from the October coin jar savings to the Vacation Fund. It's moving along nicely.

$536.46 old balance
+ 40.00 deposit
--------
$576.46 new balance

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.

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.

I'm having one of those days where its hard really to know what to post. I suppose I should get around to posting what I did with Friday's paycheck, but I'm not really in the mood and I'm not quite done paying all the bills anyway. I'm doing one tomorrow in person than I'll be done.

I'm going to go in tomorrow and see about getting the car stereo replaced also. I have the money for it and for the sake of family harmony it really needs to be done. I figure I can get it installed well before school is out. And since it is in a shopping district I can wander around a bit.

Macy's home store is right next door to the place I'm going so I can go and try out furniture. I'm not ready to buy anything but we are looking at getting a recliner soon and the couch is on its last legs so maybe in a year or so for it. I would never buy anything at Macy's anyway as it is even more overpriced now than it was when it was the Bon Marche home store before the buy out. But I can see what is out there and look for similar styles later at more affordable furniture stores.

Bed, Bath and Beyond is right there as well and I want to see if they have couch covers, I forget what they call them, but its a fabric sort of blanket that is fitted and gives the couch a new look. Ours is so faded and stained and it would be nice to spruce it up a bit.

I can also wander around Office Depot, Costco or head down to Michael's craft store. Not to buy, just to waste time. Hopefully it won't take a lot of time. I'm not much of a shopper generally, I like to go in, get what I need and get out ASAP. But if I'm actually looking for something its not too bad.

I do want to check out the schedule of classes at the craft store, though. I'm thinking of taking some acryllic painting classes again. It's been years but I have all the supplies and I'd love to get back into it. Landscapes were always my favorite.

Or take an intermediate knitting class. Or maybe learn how to make beaded jewelry. I have had an interest in making jewelry for awhile now, I have a good eye for color and design, and I might even be able to generate a little side business. I'm particularly interested in necklaces and bracelets. I suppose it could become a pricey hobby, though.

Oh, I'll have to think on it once I see the class schedule and fees.

As some of you know, I make my kids save part of their allowance. They are paid every four weeks. Of their allowances, they must allocate 20% to long term savings. This works out to $4 for Rose and $3 for Tobias.

Of the amount they put into long term savings, I will match them 25%. If they want to put in more than 20% of their allowance I will continue to match them up to $8 (so I'd put in 25 cents for every dollar saved up to $8, the most they can get each month from matching is $2).

I have done this so that they have an idea right from the start of their earnings what a 401K does and how it works and to get them used to always contributing to one. I've explained a bit how it works in the real world and that Daddy's work has a 401K that matches 50 percent up to 6%. The only comment I got on that was could I match theirs up to 50 percent. Umm...no. Why not? Because in the real world the employer makes that decision, they don't. They seemed okay with that awnser.

Rose does not save anymore than the $4 that I make her save. Tobias saves the $3 I make him save plus $1 more so that his savings account can be equal to his sister's.

So far neither of them has wanted to save more than $4 despite the Mommy Match. They are not yet ready to max out. It has been fun watching them accumulate the extra money, but neither one of them have cottoned on to the fact that they could be earning more by saving more. Or else they aren't willing to give up any more of their spendable income to their Kiddie 401K program.

Sounds like some grown-ups I know, LOL. It is certainly a fun experiment. This savings account is untouchable until they are 18. They can then use it to pay towards college or a wedding or a car or a house downpayment or maybe open a retirement account when they are working a real job. So its not necessarily a true retirement account, it just works like one until they can access it.

Not much in it yet, it's only been half a year or so they've been getting an allowance but its the lesson, and the principle of it that I want them to learn.

And then think how scary it would be if it actually came true.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29758

Yesterday was a no spend day. And I had lunch over at the neighbor's, so free food I didn't have to cook, too. They had a barbecue for their daughter's birthday.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned the new neighbors yet. They moved into the house next door that the creepy neighbor used to live in. They have a seven year old granddaughter that lives with them and a 14 year old son of their own. The little girl gets along great with both my kids.

The boy seems to have taken a shine to Rose. I'll have to watch that as she's only eleven but is tall, a pretty blue-eyed blond and chesty for her age. And has hips. Already the hour glass figure. Not sure I want a fourteen year old boy sniffing around her. We are always very careful with Rose as she acts very mature for her age. She got hit on for the first time when she was 9 by a fifteen year old boy who had no idea she was that young. He did it front of me and DH, too. Needless to say he apologized profusely when I told him her age! LOL So this sort of thing happens to her quite a bit and so we are just extra careful.

I spent the rest of yesterday watching bad SF movies on sci-fi channel. I like bad SF movies, though. Although Mansquito was a bit much. Liked A.I. Assault and Android Apocolypse quite a bit though.

Anyway, today is a no spend day also. Not going anywhere or doing anything.

The interest for the month of August was available from ING, though it won't post until tomorrow, I don't think. It was $2.63. But since I won't be looking there again until next Thursday I'll add it in now.

$1098.31 Old Balance
+ 2.63 Interest added
--------
$1100.94 New Balance

I don't have all of my ING in EF or the interest would be higher, but I like to have some money available locally in case of some emergency where I need to get at it quickly.

Does anyone keep any money on hand at home for emergencies? I am thinking of putting $200 in a little firesafe combination lock box to hide in my house in case an emergency happens on the weekend. Although maybe not, if it were a true emergency I could use a credit card and just pay if from the EF on Monday. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable having that much money in the house with DH coming and going like he does, even in a safe and with a home security system. I just don't like the idea of using a credit card like that.

My third entry for today.

I stopped at Freddy's today to get organic milk and use my coupon. So I got another gallon of organic milk for $3.58 a gallon. And guess what printed out at the cash register? Yet another coupon for $3.00 off 2 half gallons of Organic Valley milk.

They also had turkey legs on sale for 79 cents per pound so I got two packages. I ended up with 9 very large turkey legs. My daughter is an extreme turkey lover so this works out well. It's been a while since I've seen them for 79 cents a pound. They are usually 99 cents a pound now.

I also took Rose for a haircut today. We had the girl wash it, too, which I usually don't do, but Rose's ears still hurt from being pierced and she bumps them so much when she washes it herself, we decided it would be worth the $3 extra to have someone else do it for her. So it ended up costing $16. Now that she is eleven she no longer qualifies for the children's haircut, even though all they did was give her bangs, trim the ends and put a little layering around the face. Took all of ten minutes, if that to do the actual cut. It wasn't some fancy adult style or anything. Of course, I forgot my $2 off coupon for them, too.

Five more days until school starts and it can come none too soon for me. The kids were picking at each other for most of the day. But they managed to finagle a two night stay at the lovely Casa Grandma so I get some time to destress.

I think I might go to a matinee movie tomorrow if Hairspray is still here. It is tonight, but they change out on Friday mornings and I have a feeling it will be gone. That's okay if it is, I'll just stay home and watch a movie I taped instead. As long as I get to unwind. Then I'm going to get started on The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. Starts out set on the Australian planet Kookaburra. Should be interesting. Plus its military sci-fi, which I love. Looks like she may be as good as Elizabeth Moon at that if it is even possible.

Today was a bit of a boring day, really. I bought an 18 pack of organic eggs and put $100 on my Costco card for gas, and filled up the tank.

I took DH to the airport. I wrote 3 pages on my book. I received the earrings that I ordered in the mail, and that's it, really.

Now I'm just waiting for Eureka to come on the telly.

My day was long. We did clothes shopping for Tobias, and Rose got a pair of dress shoes, so we are now all finished with back to school shopping. Great big Hooray! Spent $137, $14.08 was for Rose's shoes. Didn't have to spend nearly as much on T for school clothes as I did for Rose.

My massage therapist called in sick today so I did not get my appointment. I was not very happy but since quite frankly I believe she caught the cold from me in the first place, I guess I can't complain. That real nasty one I caught in Victoria. Hopefully I can get in before school starts, because that is eight days away, but who knows with Mom's schedule if she can watch the kids right now. And
DH leaves tomorrow so I have to have someone.

I've been going to the chiropractor 3 times per week since my hip went wonky and it doesn't seem to help for more than a couple of hours. Now the other hip is starting to hurt, maybe overcompensating. Oh, well. I did spend a lot of time walking around today, so that may be part of it.

The kids started back at tae kwon do today. They have been out of it for almost a year and a half. They seemed to do okay. Rose got right back in the swing of things and Tobias started over at the
beginning, since he's now in the older class. Since he was only in the Little Tiger class before he only ever learned the kicks and punches and basic hand techniques, how to say yes, sir, no, sir, and not any of the poomses or older skill level things. They gave us free uniforms, too, which I wasn't expecting. It was nice since they cost $50 and they've both outgrown their old ones, but Tobias hasn't grown into the one Rose started with yet.

We also spent a couple of hours out at DH's Mom's house. His great granddad was over, too and his sister and her girls. We did a birthday cake for DH with our meal from Wendy's.

Yeah, bad habits rearing their ugly heads. The frosty has corn syrup in it. Not high fructose but still corn syrup and that was enough to set off my system, so no, won't be doing that again.

DH's birthday isn't until the 30th but since he leaves tomorrow we celebrated it early. I gave him the DVD's Blood and Chocolate and the latest James Bond movie. That's what he wanted.

And we also stopped by Mom's and I sat in the massage chair for 15 minutes and then she ran one of those hand held massage thingies that does the kneading motions over my sore lower back and hips for 30
minutes, which gave me some relief. I am so tired of hurting but I don't want to be taking pain pills. I had to do that in the beginning of this and it threw me for a loop. Or it made me loopy, not quite sure. Maybe both. Generic percocet will do that.

I am glad to be home now and about to go to sleep on my wonderful new bed.

Can anyone explain to me exactly how I make the vB Code work? With short sentences. And little words. Please?

I read a good article today about NOT bailing out the mortgage lending mess here:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChr...

And here is an excellent to the point explanation on just why it is happening. This one's a short video.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/Money.htm?g=b2476c2e-2bad-4b43-99f...

I finally got a Pinecone Survey today. It's been close to 2 months! So that $5 should show up in my paypal account tomorrow or Monday. After a very slow week with GTM I got 8 surveys from them today. I qualified for a 35 and a 50 pointer and then got 5 points on 5 and the other one was already closed. So 110 points from them today. And 10 points from NFO. I missed a Survey Savvy because I forgot to do it yesterday. It was a $2 one, too. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some, and apparently you ignore some.

Hopefully tomorrow is a slow survey invite day for me, as we are going to the county fair up in Lynden. Mucho dinero, but it's once a year. Looking forward to the funnel cake with powdered sugar, whipped cream and strawberries. We split it between the four of us. I can't even imagine trying to eat one of those things on my own. Maybe one that was just powdered sugar, but definitely not a loaded one.

I just have to restrain myself from buying any of the nifty do-dads they always have in the commercial building...it slices, it dices, it curls your hair and folds your laundry... Hmm...actually...LOL

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.

Read this article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20039819/

I thought it explained the connection between what is going on with the sub-prime mortgage field and how it is affecting the regular Joe in the stock market quite well.

Fortunately for me the real estate mess has not clobbered my 401K but I know it has gotten to a lot of people's 401Ks.

Read this article last night:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20070704_credit_cards_fat_a1.asp

I thought it was quite interesting, despite its rather cheesy headline. It makes a certain amount of sense to me. Basically it says that if you use credit cards at fast food places, you tend to order more food than you would have if you only had cash.

But I think that's true with anything. Clothes, CD's, DVD's, software, accessories. If I'm not writing the check out or handing over the cash myself, I get careless with amounts. Or at least I used to.

I've only ever once used a credit card at a fast food place and only because I'd forgotten to go to the bank to get cash first. But it felt so awful doing it, I think I'd rather pull out of line and not buy it, then ever do that again.

Of course, one of my rules is to try never to use credit cards for food purchases anyway, unless on vacation. We did that far too much the three years I was so sick and in and out of the hospital all the time and it really added up. It's been a hard and fast rule since then. Except that once.

Today is a no spend day. I didn't even use gas today as we went nowhere. I like days like this, just laze around and do nothing days...okay, I did do dishes and cooked three meals, well, 2 since we warmed up fish and veggies leftover from lunch for dinner, and I pulled some weeds. But other than that...LOL

I forgot, I did do some laundry today as well, but most of the day was spent reading, writing, and I'll watch the two shows I taped Monday and Tuesday as well tonight while I fold laundry. Kyle XY and Eureka. I don't watch much, just that, Doctor Who and Torchwood, but the stuff I do watch I am fanatical about. Well, not fanatical really. Except for Doctor Who. But anyway...

I wrote eleven pages on my book today so I am happy and the next portion is clearly plotted out so I ought to be able to pound out a whole chapter or two this week.

My cold is still bothering me a bit, I am still getting dizzy if I move too fast or bend down to pick something up off the floor. The cough is mostly gone though. Still running a bit of a fever though and have the joint pain still, which seems to have settled in the inside of my hip sockets and behind my left knee, weird place for it. Well, compared to this time last week, its not much of anything, but its not feel good plow ahead conquer the world which is how I'd much rather be feeling at the moment. August is normally my best month of the year. But it is getting better and that is what I focus on.

I am putting off balancing my checkbook. That's the reason for the overly chatty moment here. Sigh. It's not that bad, I just really dislike doing it. Well, I suppose I best get to it.

I read this article today:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/BrokenChinaADysfunctionalNation.aspx

If you think business practices in the states are corrupt and stupid and that our economic system is broken, this article about China might have you thanking your lucky stars that at least we are decades away from the sort of thing going on there.

It's a long article, but very good and well worth the read.

I transferred the weekly $10 to ING this morning, bringing the total in the EF to $760.51. I peaked at how much interest I have earned so far this month and it was at $1.46.

I read this article and thought it was interesting, though not really something I didn't already know, it validated what I did know and echoed my experience here at savingadvice.com:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/HowToSaveTwoHundredThousandInSixMonths.aspx


Added 37 cents to the change jar today.
Spent $10 on gas and $12.63 on dinner for me and the two kids.

Yesterday the temperature here got to 105 by five o'clock. It took until 3 a.m. just to get my room cooled off enough to sleep. Fortunately today it was "only" 82 at its worst and there was a nice breeze. Still have a hot house but not a baking hot house.

The kids are spending the night with my mother and I will pick them up tomorrow at four. Tomorrow is also payday so there will be a good bit of money going out to credit card debt.

I am currently watching 3 different shows on the internet that I either missed when we didn't have cable or are from the U.K. One is Kyle XY which can be watched directly from the network website, one is The 4400 which I am watching season 3 of off of youtube and the third is a supernatural one called HEX which is very, very weird and dark, and definately British.

I finished watching Mansfield Park last week and loved it. Of course, it's Billie Piper so what's not to love? Watched the British miniseries of Casanova and Blackpool, both with David Tennant, again what's not to love? Okay, they were both a bit weird and they allow far more things on their television shows than we do even on HBO it seems.

I'm looking forward to watching The Ruby in the Smoke when I get through the current ones. And yes, I am watching a lot of tv but it has been far too hot to do anything else! In a week I probably will go for two weeks without watching any because we will be on vacation and then I'll be reading Harry Potter which always takes me at least a week.

I think that covers everything.

Wasn't there a boy band called that about ten years ago or so? That's how hot it is right now. 96 degrees, and today there is no wind at all. The only way the kids are allowed to play outside is if they stay under the trees, at least until the sun moves to the other side of them and then the horseshoe will be in the shade and they can play there.

I think they are nuts. The house is still plenty cool enough to be mostly comfortable. But it was not cold this morning despite running the fans in all the windows all night. It was just cool.

I hope this heat wave breaks soon. It's tempting me to buy a single room air conditioner or something. I've always said I'd never need an AC in the house since we only have 2 hot months. But after last summer and now this, I'm sorely tempted.

Today is shaping up to be a no spend day. So was yesterday. The kids were begging to go out to eat or to go down to the gas station for junk food, but I have held firm. We just don't need to make any trips when we will be going to town tomorrow, and they don't need junk food anyway. They just want it.

I wrote 12 pages yesterday, so I am quite proud of myself. Getting back into the flow of things again was not as hard as I expected once that pesky writer's block broke.

I received the final final bill for my surgery and I owe $1097 for my portion. The last so-called final bill was off by $10. Not in my favor. Ah, well. Life goes on and I go with it, so I'll deal. As ever.

I had to harvest more broccoli this morning and pick more strawberries. The garden is going like gangbusters and the zucchini, cucumbers and squash are still in the flowering stage, so I imagine in a couple more weeks they will take off like crazy. Hopefully they will wait until we get back from our vacation.

We are trying to decide what we will do on the island. Butchart Gardens of course, with the fireworks and light show, and we plan on going to The Center of the Universe, but after that, it's pretty much open. There is a Native American exhibit that we wanted to see last time we were there.

I'd like to go inside the parliament building as it was closed last time we went for Canada Day. And I'd like to go whale watching and take the carriage ride through downtown Victoria. We took the carriage ride through old Victoria last time we went.

The kids want to see the Undersea Garden again, which is amazing. It's built right on the floor of the bay and you can look right into the underwater habitat. It also has stuff like in an aquarium. And maybe we'll go see Miniature World and the Butterfly Garden again. We have seven days up there and some things only take half days. But we don't want to run every single day. We'd like to just hang by the pool a couple times.

At least lodging isn't costing us anything. We're going through my parents' travel program. They had a bunch of points about to expire so they booked a condo for us to use. It has a full kitchen, so we will be taking some food across the border with us. I still have to check on exactly what can cross the border. But we know where the organic grocer is up there and there's always the QFC if we need it.

Aside from the Undersea Garden, when I ask my kids what they want to do up there they say they want to go to the Spaghetti Factory! And the ice cream place with 97 flavors. DH is just as bad, he wants to go back to "that little Italian place" and the ABC breakfast restuarant. Which we will, but of all the things they remember, they remember the restaurants the most vividly.

I guess I shouldn't throw stones. When I went to Disneyland last I was looking forward to the Blue Bayou restaurant an awful lot. Just have to remember this isn't a food vacation. We're only planning on one meal out a day anyway, since we can cook breakfast and one other meal at the condo, except the day we go to the one restaurant.

Not much going on today. Laundry and dishes and minor house pick up to do. And a nice day to hang clothes on the line. The weather report for this week scares me. It's going to be back in the mid to high 80's and one day at 90. Well, that will dry a lot of clothes, won't it?

...looking at cars online. Sigh. I saw something that looks just like what we need. It's a gorgeous well-maintained Ford mini-van with leather seats, 1995, 110K miles, in excellent repair, for $3200.

I am seriously thinking of scheduling a test drive on it. Of trading in the Blazer on it. We can definitely swing it. But do I want to exchange a 1996 for a 1995? Well, it's got 45,000 fewer miles on it than the Blazer does. And it is in working condition, whereas the Blazer needs the air conditioner and some other under the hood type thing fixed. We can do the payments no problem.

And the other thing is, its a Ford. We've had excellent luck with Fords. This Chevy has been nothing but a drain on us since the day we bought it. Not that I'm anti-chevy. My first car was a Chevy Nova (1976) that I got in 1988 and it is still out on the road today, I still see it going strong. But, it seems the old Chevy was a lot better than anything circa 1990's.

But, but, but, we think we can manage to wait another year before buying any replacement vehicles. So why do I go looking for these things when I know better?

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 read a very good article this week entitled "When Banks Turn Evil." I thought I'd pass it along. It is quite enlightening.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/WhenBanksTurnEvil.aspx

Curious to hear what others think on this one.

Jiminy, yesterday was a busy day. We are spending the holiday weekend (no school on Friday so a four day one for us) doing intensive spring cleaning. We got so much done. All of my recycle bins are full of paper, plus two paper bags full of shredded documents. Of course, recycling doesn't come for 10 days and we very well may have more to add to it by then.

We're being brutal in what we get rid of and what we are keeping. Sometimes I think its not brutal enough but there will be a chance for that again in future.

We borrowed DH's dad's truck yesterday in exchange for putting 3 gallons of gas in it and we got to leave the kidlets with his mom all day, so we got alot more done than we otherwise might have. We took a full truckload to storage. The house is beginning to notice the impact of less stuff.

You know how sometimes when you really get into it, it seems like you totally have to trash the house while you're cleaning and sorting to get to anything and while you're doing it it looks worse than when you started, even though you know in your head you've accomplished something? Well, we're past that stage now and into the it looks so much better stage.

The cable people are coming on Tuesday and I actually think the house is going to be presentable by then. It is going to be really odd to have cable again and it is going to be really wonderful to have cable internet for the first time ever. We've been tootling along with a 56K modem since we first went online.

We are getting the bundle package for one year, so it will be $100 for tv, internet, and phone service. Currently we are paying $62 a month for two phone lines and internet service, so this will be adding $38 to the total. We will only have one phone line but long-distance in the U.S. will be free, so I won't have to buy the calling cards from Costco anymore to talk to DH when he's in Alaska. Since we are downgrading to trac phones on our cells next month, the difference there will more than cover it.

We still won't watch much in the way of TV though. We have gotten out of the habit and I like that. But we did want Sci-fi channel back and we will be getting BBC America and the one children's network that we want, as well as History channel and Discovery channel and that's pretty much what our TV watching will be confined to.

We are also insituting limits on the kids on how much they can watch daily (like 30 minutes on week days) and all homework and chores have to be done first. There will be no mindless watching. It'll be turned on only for programs, not to "see if something" is on to keep us company. It may be a challenge to see if this will last but DH and I are both pretty determined. As for me, I will probably only have the TV on Fridays and Saturdays. And that's the way I like it.

Okay, enough ingnoring of the cleaning, sorting, trashing and storing. Back to it.

This is ridiculous. Hello, PNW? Hello, Mountains? Hello, rain? Where'd you go. What the heck is with the heat all of a sudden?

I watered my veggie starts extra well today. I don't want them dying from lack of moisture. That would defeat the purpose of growing veggies to save money at the grocery store.

I was able to do a little weeding when the sun passed behind the big cedar tree and the area went into shade. I'll do a little more in about an hour when it sinks enough to be behind the fir and pine copse. I am taking it very slow and easy. I don't want to overdo it.

Oops, I just remembered I need to go hang up a load of towels on the clothesline. I have to take advantage of this while it lasts for something.

I think I got twelve hours of sleep from when I went to bed last night until I got up today. Of course, I had to get up twice during the night to take medication, but went right back to sleep. My body must have really needed it.

I think I may go sit out on Mom's front porch/deck for awhile and watch the flowers. It's windy so they dance a bit when it is. Nice and relaxing. It is a warm wind, which is nice.

She needs to put her porch swing up on the deck, that would make it even better, she just never got around to it last fall when the new deck was put in. Maybe when DH comes home again he can help her do it with my nephew-in-law.

Today is definitely a no spend day. Nowhere to go, nothing to buy.

Today is my blogoversary. I had written this wonderful wildly witty entry and it disappeared into the ether, and I don't have the energy, the memory, or the desire to recreate it, but you all would have been very entertained and it would have offered you a life changing moment. No, not a life changing moment in your life, just one in mine.

Which is what this year has been like for me, one life changing moment after the other. Some were so little I barely noticed them until they built upon each other and suddenly I had some really big things going on in my life. The biggest one of all? Living within our means. Where did that come from? How did we do that? Where did this amazing thing come from? It would have been a thrill ride to read about it. But oops, its gone. So...that was our big life changing moment. Hope you were along to see it as it happened and if not, go back and see how it did. I think there's a time machine around here somewhere...

I guess I'll just write about my day today instead. I went to the doctor, my blood pressure is happy on the cut from 40mg to 20mg on my meds for the last two weeks, so I get to continue on that for a while and come back in July for another check. One more step in my plan to get off it for good.

I also got my flu shot booster and don't need to worry about that again until October. Thyroid meds are doing a good job so I'll stay on that as well.

Other things done today, a trip to storage, a visit to the chiropractor, and driving DH to the airport. Then a wedding shower. It went okay. I had very mixed feelings about going to it. I'm happy for the people getting married, they are both great people.

But the husband is, or rather was, the spouse of a very close friend who died way too young and way too unexpectedly and it feels wrong to think of him as married (or about to be) to another woman. My friend's twin daughters were there and they are very happy and get along well with what will be their new siblings. I was very happy for everyone, but looking at the girls was eerie. They look so much like my friend did as a girl. Still, the two merging families are all so overjoyed. It has been good on both sides for everyone.

I think mostly it just has made me miss my friend. I will visit her grave tomorrow and then I think I will be okay about everything. She was the kind of person who would want everyone to be happy after she was gone and going there and reminding myself of that will help me to stop being a silly goose about it.

Anyway, that was my day.

In addition to the $13 in rolled coin and $10 survey check that I deposited yesterday, I also had $25 in ones. So that was a total of $48 to the vacation fund. The new total in the vacation fund is $134.47.

Today was the day of the weekly auto deposit to savings of $10. I also had an additional $30 to add, so that is $40 that is being sent off to ING for the EF. That brings the new total in that account to $578.95.

We rented a storage unit this week and have started moving stuff into it, not much yet as its just whatever fits in the trunk on a day we are going there anyway. I think we may get a U-haul for one serious trip, though. But first we will try to borrow FIL's truck.

I had my carnial sacral therapy this morning and it went well. I am starting to see a bit more improvement.

DH came home yesterday so I drove to the airport to get him and we filled the car up with gas @ $2.95 a gallon. Ick.

Rose went to a birthday party last night and while we were out in that area we drove around looking at the houses there. They were gorgeous. This one for sale had a magnificent view of Mt. Baker and it was for sale so we grabbed the flyer. It was really an amazing house, 3000 square feet, tons of windows, custom built log cabin house with dark green trim, 3 bd, 2 ba, lots or room, granite countertops in the kitchen, huge decks, a loft, tile floor in the kitchen, hardwood floors in the other rooms on an acre of wooded land, jetted bath tubs and an outdoor hot tub. The roof was aluminum though and I don't like that. I like shingles. But it was still lovely.

The cost, though? Woo Hoo. $950,000! Holy guacamole. But I think for what it was that was a fair price, just not for us. I don't think I'd ever be willing to spend that much money on a house.

DH has been told that his contract for the new job will be given to him to sign on April 10th and that the job will start on April 17th. I still don't know if I'll believe it until his signature is on the dotted line. Seems to me like so much could happen in the next 17 days.

I am trying to keep an upbeat and positive attitude about all this but I do not want to be disappointed. I guess I'm trying to keep a lid on my expectations, even as the light at the end of the tunnel gets ever brighter. I want to be happy and excited, but its more like I'm just starting to bubble over a bit. Holding everything in check until it is 100% in place.

I want this so badly because it means finally crawling out of this debt hole dug by so many medical bills. I want to be free of that burden and this is a means to accelerate that. Just the thought that in a few years time we will be out of debt instead of in years and years, makes me want to believe in the company. But I don't. Not yet.