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The More They Stay the Same

November 16th, 2012 at 12:52 am

I think someone looked down on me and said, "Well, she's done with those hurdles, let's throw some even bigger ones at her and see how she does."

So FIL may also have something wrong with his kidney. At least something showed up on his MRI. We knew this could happen, they told him so after his last surgery, but all seemed to be going well. So on top of more heart surgery, he may end up losing a kidney. So he's going to the doctor again for his heart tomorrow and a different doctor on Monday for his kidney.

If that weren't enough, my mother got back her MRI results as she's been having severe headaches. (Is there anyone not getting an MRI lately? It seems the thing to do.) She has had two mini-strokes since the last MRI six months ago. And she doesn't tell me this. I was teasing her about forgetting to put soap in the dishwasher (she teases me for similar things) and she says, "Well, maybe it's because I had two mini-strokes." I mean, come on, that is not the way you tell someone you've had a stroke, mini or not.

They were relatively minor, but I had noticed one side of her face was a little slacker than the other, but she still had control of it. And I have noticed her being slower on the uptake. I suppose I watch for these things because her mother had Alzheimers and my father did, so I've seen it up close and personal. It didn't seem like Alzheimers in her, just...something not quite right.

So I don't really know what that means for her health. She doesn't seem worried about it. She's 73, but I always figured she'd outlive me out of sheer stubborness. Now maybe it's going to happen sooner than I thought. At least I have her living will, her regular will, her pre-paid funeral stuff, and medical power of attorney.

We are prepared (well, maybe not mentally) and have been for a couple of years, but I still don't want to even think about it. In a couple of days I'm going to sit down with her and go through everything again. We haven't looked at it together since Dad died and she made a couple changes to reflect that.

At least WA state law does not require filial support to pay for long term care. 29 states legally can make you pay for your parents' care (though many don't enforce these laws). I can't even fathom what that would do to DH and I if we had to pay for long-term nursing home care for either of his parents or my mother. We've spent so much time paying off our own catastrophic medical debt. To have to start all over again would be so destructive to our lives.

I don't even know what any of this means to our future plans. We've been talking about buying a smaller house, but now I'm wondering about whether or not we will have to take in MIL or my mother at some point and if we did that, we'd need the space. I know from us living with my mother that lots of space is a very good thing. I am pretty sure either way it would fall on us. DH's sister couldn't afford it and I don't think my middle sister would allow the world to stop revolving around her long enough to take care of someone else. My eldest sister, much less the ice queen since she became a grandmother, might move in with my mom so long as Mom was still able, but I don't think she'd care for her if her mind started to go.

Can I be an ostrich just for a day or two? Because I'd really like to stick my head in the sand now.

I've Been Thinking About Survival

November 1st, 2012 at 07:52 pm

I've been reading a survival blog for about a week or so. It's by one of those people who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. It's been interesting reading, especially in light of what has happened on the East Coast this week. I imagine in some places it really has become the end of their individual worlds, especially for those who were not prepared for the wrath of Sandy.

It's definitely made me think about how prepared I would be to handle a similar emergency. Although we don't get hurricanes here, there is always the chance of one of the volcanos blowing again. Depending on the wind, we could get hit by ash from Mt. Saint Helens. Mt. Baker is a constant steamer, if it ever woke up we could get hit by more than ash. And of course there are always earthquakes living here in the ring of fire. Though we are most likely to be stuck at home due to a Nor'easter blizzard than anything else.

I think the longest I've ever gone without power was five days. But we had the wood stove and we had water and ice and a good store of canned goods. We had kerosene lamps and candles and I could charge my laptop off the car battery.

I decided to inventory what we do have if the power fails. We have enough canned goods to get through about a week. More if you count all the jam and tomatoes, but I'm talking more canned meats and vegetables. I think that is something I should probably rectify. I have plenty of food in the freezer but that does not help me much if the power fails.

I also need to set in a store of water. I mean we have the rain barrels, three of them, but any water from them would have to be boiled, so I think I should get in several gallons of drinking water. I also need to work on canned meat and canned fruit and a bit more canned veg. Pineapple is my number one priority for fruit as it would hold off things like scurvy or vitamin C deficiency. But we should have more green beans on hand. I'd like to keep a fairly balanced diet and that would help.

I have been watching videos on how to can your own beef, chicken, or venison, so as I get a surplus going I may do that. I'd rather know where my meat is coming from and can it myself, but meanwhile I have 12 cans of beef, 2 cans of chicken, and four cans of tuna.

I'd really prefer to be able to survive more than a week without a grocery store. In the case of a disaster it could be several weeks before we got our infrastructure back.

How about you guys? How long could you survive without power?

Chickens Don't Care if You Get the Flu...

October 9th, 2012 at 04:23 am

...or five prescriptions later... Well, okay probably not the actual flu, just Super Bad Sinues: The Sequel. And one of the meds is for sleep, because with the super cough (codeine cough syrup, I love you) I haven't been doing much of that. At least everything was generic and I only shelled out $17.81 for all five. Nice.

As for the chickens, well, we have had several escape artists as of late. They are determined to be free range all of the time, and not just part-time. But holes have now been patched in the fence, the gate has been fixed, and wire has been placed higher. Only two of them, Curious and Georgie, got out today. They are the lightest, smallest birds. They fly the easiest and the furthest and we will likely never be able to keep them in. Despite Georgie getting her tail feathers clipped by the neighbor's dog not too long ago, she is still determined to range, though she is sticking to the yard.

I suppose I won't complain too much about Curious and Georgie, since they are the two best egg layers in the bunch. Still, it's not like they have a small enclosure. I have seen yards that are not as big as their huge pen. But the grass is always greener and the bugs are always bigger and the slugs are always...sluggier on the other side of the fence. Well, thank goodness for patient neighbors who are charmed by them and like the free eggs they get slipped now and then.

We have been letting the ducks out a little bit to free range during the day when doing garden work, but they don't really seem to like being out. They like the fenced area and they like their miniature pond and they absolutely do not like the neighbor's dogs. They are too fat to fly and never try to escape, although Lady Henry Inigo Montoya does go off away from the other three quite a bit. She has very little tolerance for Patches and his romantic overtures.

Egg production is starting to slow down as the days get shorter. Well, the 3 female ducks are still laying pretty consistently, but we are only getting about five chicken eggs a day from twelve hens. We are thinking about putting in a light, but 8 eggs a day is fine for our needs and we will probably only do so if it slacks off to a lot less than that.

The garden is still plugging along, but the days are getting cooler. The forecast is looking in the lower 60's for the rest of the week, with rain on Friday. I can't remember the last time it really rained, June maybe, and we are in for a stormy weekend. The nights are still staying above 50 so the tomatoes are still going. Not sure how much longer I can expect that. There are tons of green ones just starting to turn color. I guess if I need to I can pick them and wrap them in newspaper and let them ripen inside. Not a big fan of green tomatoes or I'd just dehydrate them.

I have five ripe tomatoes sitting on my table that I need to figure out something to do with. Maybe I'll make chili this week. In the crockpot so I don't have to put out any effort. Or I suppose I could can a single pint. Just in a smaller pan, not my full-size canner.

I did up what I think is the last of the prunes and they are on a tray in the freezer. There might be a few more, but I'll need DH at the top of a ladder to tell me if there are anymore on the tree and he won't be home until Wednesday. I am too short to reach, but I think I still see a few up there. I was right and ended up with about 8 quart bags full (or will do when the rest of these get packed into the last bag).

I'm still getting a couple handfuls of green beans every three days or so. There are a couple of yellow zucchini struggling along and I may get two more cucumbers before the weather turns. I should be able to harvest another broccoli by week's end.

I really need to do up a meal plan for the week. I am kind of doing the whatever is easiest route right now, but that way leads to overspending. Dinner tonight was scrambled egg sandwiches and stir-fried green beans. Simple, easy, not too much effort.

DD is going to try to go to school tomorrow after being out sick for a while. Ugh. 7 a.m. Even the chickens don't get up that early right now. DS felt good enough to do all of his lessons today, though he is still feeling yucky. The nice thing about homeschooling is he is able to sleep in when he doesn't feel well and it's okay if we don't finish lessons until 7 p.m. I am not, nor ever will be a fan of Algebra, but it's really not fun when your brain feels like it is full of snot. Still, we beat it (the algebra, not the snot).

Still Dragging

September 7th, 2012 at 03:53 am

I am still really wiped out today. I am not sure why as I feel like I got enough sleep, but I just feel like a zombie.

My nephews are driving me crazy. Well, the younger one is the worst. He's being extremely disrespectful to my daughter. He also brought some video games with him that are rated M and are basically those games where you just murder people, including hookers and drug dealers. I told my son he couldn't be up there with them while they were playing those games. I am shocked that my sister is letting her kids even play those games considering how conservative she is about things.

My nephews also decided it would be fun to go lay down in the middle of the street after dark last night. It was still early, just dark. My son's no longer allowed to go outside with them unless my daughter or an adult is there. My son was pretty much freaking out when they did this last night, but he didn't tell me last night. He told me today. I kind of thought my twelve-year-old would be safe with them since they are 15 and 18, but clearly he is not.

I knew that my mother was going to invite them down and then basically ignore what they were doing and all this was going to fall on me to take care of them and my kids to entertain them. It's what she always does. I really did not want them here during the first week of school as it would make things really hard on us. I told her she should have invited them in the summer and when DH was home to help, but of course that would have inconvenienced my sister (who is supposed to be homeschooling the youngest right now). And heaven forbid we ever inconvenience my sister.

Well, I'm not taking up the slack this time. I am too tired and sick to deal with them so basically my kids and I are staying in our wing of the house and leaving them to their own devices. When they came down here whining about being hungry I told them to go tell their grandmother as she's in charge of them, not me. Or to *gasp* make their own food. They're certainly old enough. And Mom bought them enough junk food to feed an army, including a bunch of stuff that my son likes but is allergic to.

I will be so glad when they go home. It's times like this that I hate living here. Most of the time I'm okay with it, but right now it's all just making me so irritable. I am so glad that our house will be done in about two more weekends and then we can put the thing on the market and hopefully it will sell and we can buy a new house and get the heck out of here.

Plastic Bag Ban--Inconvenience Means Buying Less Stuff

August 30th, 2012 at 02:15 am



Bit of a rant, sorry. On August 1st my city enacted a plastic bag ban, where you either need to bring your own bags to the stores or pay 5 cents for a paper bag. At first I thought it was just for the grocery stores. This pretty much did not concern me as I have been using reusable canvas or burlap bags for some time.

I also use reusable produce bags when I remember to grab them.



The stores still have plastic bags for produce, meat products, bulk bin items, and bakery or deli items, and they sell things like garbage bags and ziptop bags, so it's not a full on ban.

The thing that I did not realize at first was that it was for all stores in the city, including department and clothing stores. Now this I did find to be inconvenient when we were shopping for back to school clothes and school supplies. Most department stores have rules about bringing bags in. So do most mall stores. They are so worried about shop lifting they don't like you to bring any bags in. So if you have a cart that's not bad, but if you're hitting up a bunch of the regular stores and buying any amount of small things it starts to get difficult. And I don't like going back to my car after every purchase.

I do not like being forced into buying a bag, even if it's "only" 5 cents. You know my thoughts on "it's only" thinking. I don't like being nickled and dimed. It's the principle of the thing. I have a lot of mixed feelings here, because even though I don't much like plastic bags and will use totes when I can, I was always careful to reuse plastic bags when I got them. The big ones (which I rarely ever had, mostly at Christmas time) went in place of my kitchen trash bags and the small ones went as liners for garbage in the bathrooms or bedrooms. Now I have to buy them for the small cans and I'm frugal enough to resent buying new plastic as opposed to reusing plastic. At least this is making my actually recyle my toilet paper tubes and put the hair from the hairbrush in the compost bin. I am making every inch of my plastic bags count now.

It is a major hassle to come out of a store with a big pile of clothes and no bags. It is a major hassle to come out of a store with three pairs of shoes and no bag. It is a really, really major hassle to come out of a store with a year's supply of school supplies and no bags. I did put them in my reusable totes once I got them to the car, but I was frustrated with it. I mean, what happens when it is pouring down rain in another month and I need to make some purchases of things I don't want getting wet?

I think that I will end up buying less things in my city because of this. I am not an impulse shopper anyway, but I will rethink every purchase because of the inconvenience factor. This is a good thing as it will cut down on spending. I will likely do future larger shopping trips in the next county when we are down there for other reasons, which will mean thinking things through a bit more because I won't want to waste trips.

If this bag ban is making me buy more outside of my county, I wonder what it is doing to other shoppers. My county is highly retail oriented since shooting itself in the tax base and driving out the living wage industrial jobs about a decade back. It is a border county so it relies a lot on Canadians coming across and shopping here. But if I were doing that, I'd take the extra 30 minutes to go to the next county which also has a lot of retail. I think we're going to see a drop in the county's sales because of this. Even though intuitively it makes more sense to pay for the paper bags (at the stores that even have them, many do not) then to pay for the gas, the inconvenience factor and the "must pay for it" factor on the bags will cause a stubborn resistance.

I am trying to get over this stubborness, because I do know it is better for the environment. I just really don't like being told what to do. I came to my use of reusable totes at the grocery store on my own. I'd like the choice to do that otherwise. Or else the big stores need to get over their fears of shop lifting and let me bring my totes in. I guess my feelings on this are a...mixed bag. *snorts*

On Kids' Allowances

August 24th, 2012 at 09:18 pm

Ceejay74 posted a link to an article on kids' allowances today found here:

Text is http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/survey-kids-65-month-allowance-too-high-just-165600768.html and Link is
http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/survey-kids-65-month-allow... and after reading it, I have to say, it annoyed me that it drew some of the conclusions it did. It was assuming that children get their allowances on top of their parents buying everything else for them as well. Umm...in what universe? "Some experts say." What experts? They don't even say who says it. Hand-wavy journalism, I see you.

In the real world, the one I live in, parents don't buy their children everything else they want because parents live on a budget. In fact most parents won't even let children by everything they want with their own money. As in my family, children are expected to save up their money to get what they want and what they want still must be on the parental approval list.

They are assuming children do chores for about one hour a week to earn their allowances, though "some" parents require up to six.

I laughed at this. One hour of chores for $15 a week? No, I don't think so. Now, my daughter does earn $15 a week in allowance, a recent raise from $12, but she is 16. My son, who is 12, earns $10 a week. For their money they:

Take out the garbage (including to and from the curb on garbage day) (DD)
Take out the compost (DS)
Take out the recycling (including to and from the curb on recycling days)
Set the table (Both)
Clear the table (and wash it) (Both)
Load and unload the dishwasher (Both)
Scrub pots and pans (DD)
Clean off the surface of the stove when it gets messy (DD)
Clean out the refrigerator and scrub it or at least help (DD)
Clean the tub and shower stall (DS)
Clean the toilet (DS)
Clean the sink (DD)
Water the garden (DS)
Help with weeding (Both)
Sweep and vacuum floors (DD)
Keep rooms neat (Both)
Fold towels (DD)
Help with washing and drying clothes (Both)
Help harvest food from the garden (Both)
Help with canning (both)
Cooking meals at least once a week (DD)
Helping with meals a few times a week (Both)
Help with making bread or rolls (DS)
Makes all cakes, cookies, or other goodies (DD)
Cleans out the inside of the van (Both, their portions)
Helps with washing the van (Both)

In addition they both do chores for their grandmother (DS does yard work, mostly mowing and DD does housework) for an additional $5 a week. And DS collects aluminum cans from neighbors and in the park to earn additional money.

I seldom buy my children things other than nice clothing and a book or two. We do buy them events or experiences, like a trip to the zoo or the King Tut exhibit. On vacation they get a souvenir or two, but it's usually a t-shirt or sweatshirt or something practical like a book mark or necklace.

But for stuff? They've saved up for almost every big purchase they've wanted. If it's near their birthdays or Christmas I might go in halfsies with them as long as it doesn't go over their allotted amount.

I don't give my children music CD's or let them download whatever they want on my dime. They can pay for those themsevles and I have approval of artist. I might download a book if the whole family will read it. I don't pay for them to go to the movies unless it is a family thing. We go to the movies maybe once a year. We went to The Hunger Games together. It was a family outing. They don't go to see movies with their friends, but that has to do with approving content. If I approved content and they wanted to go then they'd certainly use their own allowances to pay for it.

Is it really that common for parents to buy them all this stuff above and beyond allowances? It wasn't when I was growing up and we were firmly in the working middle class. And I don't know any parents that do it now. Most of the parents I know can't even afford to give their kids allowances at all despite being firmly in the working middle class. They must not be getting their info from the middle or lower classes.

I don't think I'd have a different opinion if we weren't working so hard to get out of medical debt and had a ton of disposable income. I just don't see the point in giving children everything they want. I don't get everything I want even when we do have the money for it. I do see the point in having them earn it and save up for it. Maybe this is because I worked all through my childhood, every summer picking berries, and then when I was old enough, baby-sitting, and then regular jobs.

I do agree with the article that parents should talk to their kids about saving and about money. Do people really not do this in this day and age? I mean, I hear my kids' friends saying things like, we'll have to go to the park because we can't afford bowling or the movies. Or things like "My mom is broke this week because we bought school clothes, let's just go up to the lake." So it's clear they understand there is no money at the moment. And I hear them talking about saving up for stuff, too. I don't know.

Sometimes I think it's me with the disconnect, but most of the time I think it is the writer's of these articles using outdated information from when the economy was booming. But even then, I still didn't give my kids what they wanted. In fact back then they didn't even get allowances at all.

DEC and Remodel Whining

April 9th, 2012 at 04:00 am

Yesterday's expenses:

$49.06 @ Costco

Today's Expenses:

$10 for DD to turn in for art supplies at school tomorrow for art class.

Really got irritated at the workmen today. They left their equipment in the house, blocking the hallway and access to the kids' bedrooms when they left. Including a power saw that was plugged in. Dangerous and careless. And Mom didn't understand why I was upset by that. It's not like her life is being disrupted by the remodel at all, other than she has to park her car in a different spot in the driveway. She's in a different wing of the house. But this was dangerous and she shouldn't have acted like it was harmless. I will be so glad when they are done. I will be even more glad when we can get out of here.

Mom had one of her nasty moments today where she was blaming us for the mold in the bathroom again, even though the workmen said it was caused by the leak in the roof which had nothing to do with us. This went into a woe is me fit which she does about every six months. She refuses to go out and do activities where she can meet people and then complains about how she has no friends because Dad never wanted to socialize. I keep encouraging her to do so now, but then she snaps at me about it saying I just want her out of the house (which isn't true, I want me out of the house). I hope I'm not seeing the early onset of anything. But she's always kind of been like this, it just wasn't as extreme when Dad was alive and still had his mind.

I just do not have the energy or the stamina for this when I am running a 101 degree fever and trying to cough my lungs out through my windpipe. I didn't snap at her, but it was close. I just keep telling myself she is my mother and I love her even when she goes a little nuts.

Near Miss...

December 4th, 2011 at 12:54 am

...or near hit if you want to be technically accurate, since it nearly hit our wallet, or actually missed it, not nearly missed it, but if you go by how people actually use the phrase... It's a lot like thaw and dethaw. People mean thaw, but when they say dethaw it would actually mean to freeze. But I digress.

We rented a movie from one of those boxes at the store for $1 and DH couldn't find it today. Turns out he left it in the shopping cart last night and the employees set it aside so when he called it was there. Yay. That could have been a $25 mistake, which is the replacement value of the DVD. Or what they charge anyway. In reality it'd cost more like $15, but whatever. Point is we didn't have to pay it and if it isn't too long a movie we might even get it watched before 7. Still if we have to pay $2, it isn't $25.

What is Wrong with These Companies?

August 25th, 2011 at 12:13 am

Frit-o-lay (TM) has decided in its infinite wisdom (insert massive amounts of sarcasm here) that it will no longer cooperate with the Feingold Association in figuring out if their products are safe to eat for those chidren with food and chemical allergies who must follow the Feingold diet. All this requires from the company is for one person to fill out a couple of forms on a limited number of products, and after years of cooperation they no longer want to do it. Or maybe can't be bothered to make sure a few hundred thousand children don't have bad reactions to their food.

It makes me think they are wanting to hide something, or that they are about to make a massive switch in food ingredients that they don't want to admit to. This is of course simply my opinion, but if they don't have something they want to hide why have they suddenly quit cooperating?

Smuckers did the same thing earlier this year. I guess these companies don't get it that not only will we stop buying their products for our children, but that we won't buy them for the non-affected members of our families either. So bye-bye Frit-o-lay. You've just lost two adult customers who has been using your products for at least 36 years, and a couple of kids who will finish growing up without your products.

I've already switched to organic jams and jellies that use lemon pectin and are made locally or by family. Now it's time to let go of the plain potato chips, plain tortilla chips, and all natural Cheetos for the other safe and cooperative brands we've found. It'll be a little more to our bottom line around here, but I hope it also affects these companies bottom lines if enough Feingold families stop buying.

Sometimes Funerals are Extra Complicated

July 2nd, 2011 at 02:30 am

This week has just really seemed to drag on for me. I miss school. It really makes the days go faster. I've had some kind of stomach thing going on for two days running and I wish it would go away. I made a big pot of chicken soup because at least it's as easy coming back up as it is going down and it's a cheap thing to not feel too bad about losing.

This morning we went to the kids' great grandmother's funeral (DH's paternal grandmother). She died last Friday, so it was a closed casket thing. It wasn't too long, though it felt like it. I don't know, I always get squirmy at funerals, especially when the person wasn't particularly nice and everyone is saying all these sweet things about them.

This woman never accepted a single person who married into the family as no one was good enough (though this did not apply to the children born because they had her blood). I hated the way she treated my mother-in-law. She wasn't nice to me or my SIL's husband (now ex) either, and forget her accepting her granddaughter's wife.

She also took her daughter's side when her daughter's husband physically abused my son at a family picnic when he was little and got really mad at me (who wasn't even there) because my husband filed a police report. I'm sorry, but when you choke a four year old child around the neck and have to be peeled off it is not "playing" and he did so "mean it."

But I didn't particularly care what her opinion was about me and after her husband died (who was a wonderful man), I stopped visiting them and just sent DH and the kids). She treated my kids all right and that was enough for me.

Anyway, I only went to support my FIL and because the kids wanted to go. If DH had been home, it would have been for him, too. He loved his grandmother even if he hated her behavior, but quite frankly I think he was glad not to have to go. If he'd come home we would have lost $4000 between lost wages and a last minute airline ticket. We can't afford that with a surgery coming up and FIL was fine with him not going. We'll visit the gravesite when DH gets home.

We didn't go to the family thing afterwards, one because of my stomach, and two because without DH there it is too hard to be constantly vigilant that DH's nasty uncle doesn't get anywhere near my kids.

I guess funerals bring up a lot of emotions in me, too. Hopefully there won't be anymore for a long time.

Is That a Troll Under that Bridge?

June 12th, 2011 at 08:22 pm

I really dislike trolls in the forums. It's worse than spam in the blogs, I think. Especially when they go on and on defending their position which is clearly not one that belongs in a money saving forum. And then degenerate into namecalling when no one else supports their statements. Misspelled namecalling and very bad grammer.

Access Isn't Always as Good as it Should Be

June 2nd, 2011 at 10:52 pm

We went to the courthouse today to get tabs for the older car (which we are in the process of getting going again). I'm not particularly fond of the way the courthouse is set up. The handicapped access is on the far end from where the most commonly done things are, licensing and tax assessor offices, as well as where you need to go through the metal dectector to get to the second floor for jury duty. So if you don't want to deal with their stairs or if you don't have a wheelchair that can attach to the chair lift, you have to walk the entire length of the courthouse and back from the handicapped parking.

I got my permit right before we went to Virginia Mason, but the more I've used it, the more I've noticed just how inconvenient it can be for people who have difficulty walking but aren't in wheel chairs. Like at rest areas. I've always had a pet peeve with rest areas anyway, because for some unknown reason the women's bathroom is always on the side where the truckers park (who are typically made up of 90% men) and the men's bathroom is on the side where the cars park. Cars that generally have women and children who go into the bathrooms with women.

I do not get the sense of this. Never have. Well, the handicapped parking spots are even further from the women's restroom than parking in a regular spot. So while you can get in and out of your car easily and up the ramp to the sidewalk, it is an even longer walk to the bathroom than it should be. And if you don't want to walk through the cloud of smokers you have to go even further out of your way.

Oh, well. End rant.

Anyway the tabs cost us $43.75. When DH gets back from picking DD up at school we are going to put the older car on the battery charger and get it charged up, then take it to the car wash if there is still time. So that will be around $13.

Little Bit of a Personal Responsibility Rant

April 20th, 2011 at 01:40 am

I don't know. Sometimes I have a hard time dealing with people who aren't willing to take responsibiliy for their own actions. As someone who accrued a lot of debt (most of it for medical, but some of it not), I know and my husband knows, that we are responsible for paying off that debt because we incurred it. Yes, I may hate the evil credit card companies, but I don't blame them for the fact that we chose to use them. I don't blame them for the fact that we are in debt. I don't blame them for our decisions. We made them. We live with them. It is not their fault we are in the debt we are in. It is clearly ours.

I guess what is getting to me is that there was a post in the forums today. Someone wrote in about how they had been late paying their credit card a few times and eventually their credit card got closed by their credit union. Because of this their credit union "messed up" their credit. This really irked me. Umm...no, their failure to pay their credit card on time more than once messed up their credit. It doesn't matter if they were never more than 30 days late on a payment (justification), late is late is late. Why is any of this the credit union's fault? It's not. They did it all on their own. Take some responsibility. Own your choices. Don't blame your situation on others.

End Rant.

Lenscrafters Tried to Pull a Fast One

April 12th, 2011 at 05:30 am

I forgot to put this in my other post, but less than a month ago we bought glasses for my son at Lenscrafters. Today at school the lenses popped out. We took them in to have them fixed and the girl there tried saying they couldn't fix them. She said that wherever we had got them at they hadn't done something right and there was no way to fix them.

When I told her we had gotten them there less than a month ago and that we had bought the antibreakage package as well, she suddenly changed her tune and could fix them. Needless to say I wasn't very happy with her original lie.

We'll see if the repair holds. If not I am not above throwing a fit. Those glasses and frames cost $200. I don't care if insurance covered most of it. Glasses that expensive should not fall apart that quickly and if they did something wrong then someone in their glasses making department needs lessons on how to do it right. And their front counter people need lessons on telling the truth.

Bad Customer Service

April 1st, 2011 at 12:01 am

Just had a really bad encounter with a cashier at Kmart. She was a real snot and refused to take my $3 off catalina coupon. Her computer wouldn't take it and I know there is a way to override it but she wouldn't do it. It hadn't expired, I had qualifying purchases, and it came from that very Kmart. She was acting like I was the one with the problem because it was "only" $3.

She didn't get her supervisor for me because customer service was backed up. It took me 25 minutes to get through her line with only one person in front of me. I had too many people in line behind me to get out and switch lanes, was sort of trapped there because of how their aisles are. In the amount of time she served one person the only other line that they had just opened up served seven people. She was super slow and just didn't seem to care how long it took her to do stuff. It took us less time to shop than to check out and that was with my daughter trying on 3 different bathing suits.

I just filled out the survey at

Text is www.kmartfeedback.com and Link is
www.kmartfeedback.com and left contact info so maybe I'll hear something from them, but I won't hold my breath. Oh, and she was really super snotty when 2 more catalina coupons printed out and she handed them to me. And I'm thinking, "Great, two more coupons I won't be able to use." I am thinking about calling the store manager as well and complaining or maybe writing a letter. I just don't like being treated like this.

Oh, and this woman was older than me, I reckon around 45 to 50, so she certainly should have known better than to be so rude. I've actually never had a young person treat me badly at Kmart. They all seem to care about their jobs. It felt like this woman felt she was too good for her job, like she was just putting in her time. That should never be so obvious to a customer.

End rant.

Comcast is on My List Again

February 25th, 2011 at 03:10 am

Comcast needs to get it's act together. I paid for both the phone for the old house and the internet for where we are living now on the 17th. The checks have still not been cashed. Seriously, Comcast, it takes you more than a week to cash a check now? As greedy and as grasping of an entity as you are and you haven't deposited the money yet?

It's annoying. I want my checkbook to be up to date and these two checks are the only things I am waiting on. They better cash them before the end of the month. I hate carrying stuff over from month to month (and generally avoid writing checks the last week of the month so I don't have to and everything will have cleared). I took them there in person so they couldn't have gotten lost in the mail. I should dig up my statements and at least make sure they were credited to my accounts. If they try to pull late fee garbage over this I am going to go down there and make a scene.

In other news, I spent $35.92 for $11.022 gallons of gas. It's at $3.25 a gallon at the cheapest place. It's better than in some states, but it still is a ridiculous amount to be paying.

I also spent $5 on soup for my poor sick kiddo (because I'm too sick to make another batch myself). They were on sale and of course I grabbed the cans right over the sign that said Chicken and Stars. And then of course I get home and see that they are Chicken with Rice, which nobody likes. Why can't they put the sale sign with the proper item? Most of the time I check, but I wasn't feeling good and from a distance it looked like the right kind. They were on sale, too, so I should just be able to exchange them. I'll do it tomorrow. Kiddo will just have to deal.

Sometimes I Really Hate Comcast

February 15th, 2011 at 10:52 pm

Comcast has a monopoly on phone service in the part of the county my old house is located in. Because we have an alarm system on the house (which has protected us three times from break-ins in the past six months), we have to have a phone hookup, because the alarm system has to be able to dial out to the monitoring company if someone trips it. That is the only thing we have a phone line there for. No one ever calls it, no one ever calls out from it. We don't even have a physical phone hooked up in the house, just the alarm system hooked into the phone line.

Well, it was bad enough when it cost $45 just for that most basic service, but the bill I just got today raised it to $51.91. $7 more! And it doesn't even say why. Are you kidding me? I am going to go over there Friday and complain yet again about the fact that it costs so much for basically no real service at all. I have to pay the same amount as people with caller ID, call waiting, and long distance. They keep telling me they don't have anything cheaper, but I just have such a hard time believing them when other companies can offer it for so much less in other parts of the county.

The phone service my mother has here in town costs less than $30 a month. It's a different company because there's actually competition in town. This company just drives me crazy when it comes to phone service. I like their internet, more or less, though it gets boggy from time to time, but when we buy our new house in town, we will definitely not be going with them for phone service (and we don't have cable television (an arm and a leg!) and won't get it or any other kind of television then, either).

Luxury or Money Saver?

February 13th, 2011 at 04:14 am

I am seriously debating spending $63 on a gallon of shampoo. Shipping would be free. I have seriously oily hair. Seriously. It only turned that way about a year ago. It used to be frizzy and dry. Hormones are weird. Anyway, I finally found this incredibly awesome stuff, that is pretty expensive in the small bottle form, $13.99 plus tax for 10.14 fluid ounces. This is $63 for 128 fluid ounces.

This is such good shampoo that I use about 1/4 of an ounce per shampoo even though my hair is well past my shoulders, and I only need to shampoo once. It lathers like crazy, you just have to work it a little longer than normal to get it to that point. Anyway, my usage works out to about 12 cents per use if I get the gallon. The smaller bottle works out to about .75 an ounce, or 18 cents a use.

It's only a savings of 6 cents a use, but I'd not have to buy it for a long, long, long time. I've never seen a coupon for this brand so I doubt I could lower the cost that way. The only place that sells it is a twenty minute drive away, so I'd use at least a gallon of gas round trip, and it is not a store I frequent at all. In fact I've gone there once (just a couple weeks ago) in the five years it has been open in our area and that was because I had a free $40 gift card. It is an overpriced store so I was really not liking the idea of having to make a special trip there just for the shampoo, even if I think the shampoo is worth it. If I had known it would be so good I'd have bought several bottles at the time.

I think I'm just balking at the idea of paying $63 for shampoo, even though it works out to over a year's supply. I'm the sort of person who gets professional haircuts twice a year and cuts my own bangs the rest of the time. I got by for years on shampoo that was usually 99 cents a bottle after coupons or on sale. It really works. It is the only stuff that does now. It shouldn't be this hard to part with my money!

Another Year Older but Far Less in Debt

February 13th, 2011 at 01:22 am

Well, turning 41 doesn't really feel all that different from turning 40. But then I guess most birthdays for the last decade or so have really just been marking off another year more than anything else. Another year with less debt under our belts, so it's all good. I keep having that old, old song Sixteen Tons going through my head. The one that goes, "You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another year older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store." Only we have less debt after another year, but I still sometimes feel like I owe my soul to the company store (i.e. credit card companies). Just less of it now, you know? And less every month.

DD made me brownies because I didn't want birthday cake. A small batch of brownies doesn't linger in the house for a week tempting me to eat it. The kids made me a joint card, let me sleep in late, and cleaned up the house, and there has been no squabbling. That's the perfect present for me, really. Later we are going to play scrabble.

DH called and we got to talk for fifteen minutes. It's rare for him to be able to call during the work day so it was nice. He told me that he might have to temporarily start working 3 and 2's instead of 3 and 3's, so less time home and an extra $3500 or so net per pay cycle, and it would then be a five week pay cycle instead of a six week one. That would mean only one week with no pay check out of five weeks instead of two weeks with no paycheck out of six weeks. Part of me is not thrilled that he'd be home less, but the other part is going "WooHoo," because we'd be able to pay our debt down that much faster. But it's still up in the air right now. They are just swamped with work.

There is also a possibility of his day rate going up in April. That's the six month mark in this new job. I think I'd find it rather astounding if it did. Not because he doesn't deserve it, because he does, but he's already making money hand over fist. If we weren't in so much debt from all the medical spending over the last eight years, if we were completely out of debt, we'd be able to live on 25% of his current income and save the rest. At least right now 50% is finally going to debt repayment and the other 25% is going to maintain our old house and to savings. Once we are out of debt I am going to feel rich! Even though technically we will qualify as being middle class. To me, middle class without debt and living below your means is rich. Especially if you have the savings to back it up.

I am going to save as much as possible then. I never want to live in fear of what happens if layoffs loom on the horizon again. I want enough money to live on for a couple of years if it takes that long. I also want to have plenty set aside for college. Our local state university is running about $7500 a year with books if you live at home and don't live on campus. I never want my kids to have student loan debt. It'll probably go up before my fourteen year old and ten year old are ready to go, but I want to be as prepared for it as I can be. Fortunately I shouldn't have two kids in college at the same time. Because of how their birthdays fall, my son will start college the fall after my daughter graduates.

Bit of a Rant at the Commercialism of Valentine's Day

February 5th, 2011 at 12:15 am

So I just read another blog urging me not to forget to buy stuff for Valentine's Day for my sweetie and my first thought was, "Umm...no." In my mind, this holiday is just a major waste of money, not just that of the lovebirds but of all the companies who are advertising. It goes into high gear right now. And I don't say this as someone who is down on love, but as someone who has been firmly in a committed relationship for twenty years.

I don't feel like I have to prove my love by buying overpriced waxy chocolates, overpriced out of season roses, eight dollar fancy singing cards encrusted with enough glitter to keep a classroom of six year olds supplied for a year, or expensive gadgets, nor do I expect $1000 jewel encrusted bracelets or necklaces and cutesy stuffed animals in return.

DH will get a free e-card. I will get one from him. We will try to out cute each other and be the sappiest. Since he will be away that day we will talk on the phone. If he were home we'd probably shunt the kids off somewhere and have a cozy dinner at home that we prepare together, followed by a snuggle in front of a romantic DVD.

The best way I've ever found of telling someone you love them isn't buying them something, it's saying the words, "I love you," and showing it in your daily behavior. What more do you really need?



Passive Savings

March 12th, 2010 at 09:57 am

Today I was trying to think about all the things that I do to save money that require little to no effort on my part. Of course the things I do to actively save all quickly spring to mind, but what about the little things? What about the things that have become so automatic in me that I do them most of the time without thinking at all.

Well, since I was in the shower at the time, I started there. With hair as long and as thick as mine I can't exactly skimp on the shampoo or conditioner, but I know how much I need and I am very careful to not let it come pouring out at a fast rate of speed. Accidentally ending up with a huge handful of shampoo doesn't do my hair or my budget any good.

All of my bottles are kept upside down. Shampoo. Conditioner. Shower gel. Gravity is always right there, helping me get as much as possible out of the bottles. And when gravity is done doing it's part, of course I fill the bottles a quarter of the way full with water, swish them around, and use them once or twice more if the stuff clings to get out the final drops.

I go further with the shower gel, starting from the beginning of the bottle. For the price of a 50 cent shower pouf, I can make a dime size drop of gel lather into enough for a full body wash. Try doing that while putting the soap directly into your hand. Doesn't work, does it? A 16 ounce bottle of gel that could easily be gone through in a few weeks in a nondiscriminate manner, lasts me and my family of four (we all have our own poufs) a couple of months.

Gravity again does it's job in the kitchen. At any one time you can open up the fridge and find upside down bottles of mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and chocolate sauce. Things that can't be put upside down without getting stuck in the lid get the spatula treatment. This generally falls into the category of round bottled condiments like mayo, salad dressings, jelly and peanut butter. The spatula also works well on scraping out the last bits of tomato sauce or paste, chili, stew, anything that sticks to the side of a tin can.

Probably the only thing that a spatula doesn't work well on is that poorly shaped mega bottle of Kraft Miracle Whip my husband insists on eating. Square containers with indentations? Really, Kraft? Who ever thought that was a good idea? I prefer to buy the larger product because at cost value it is cheaper, but at actual value when so much of it stuck in those stupid indentations? I'm not so sure. Really, Kraft, go back to the cylindrical containers. Your customers will appreciate it in this economy. (End mini-rant).

I'll let the last drops of olive oil in the bottle drip out onto a salad for ten minutes. I've contrived a contraption for holding the bottles up out of one of those aluminum can crushers mounted sideways. Just tie the thing shut and the bottle stays in place. Then you don't have to hold it, but you can be sure of getting it all out.

My thoughts moved on to wash cloths. I haven't bought wash cloths in years. We use towels to the point of making threadbare spots, so when the time comes that a good 1/4 of it is no longer effective, I simply cut them up, hem them quickly, and I've got a new supply ready to replace the ones that I've worn down.

I had to think about whether or not I consider composting to be a passive activity. On the one hand it involves the effort of taking the fruit and veggie scraps and egg shells out to the compost pile, but on the other hand my other two choices would be running the water and the electric to put them in a disposal or taking them out to the trash. And since I don't bother to turn my compost pile and just let time and the worms do all the work and maybe once a year fork off the top layer to start a new pile and get to the good stuff, I think I can pretty much consider the making of compost passive savings, especially when it is passed along to the garden later in the year.

I keep things unplugged that do not get active use, and if it's easy to get to the outlet, things that do get heavy use, like the toaster and the microwave. Most of our clocks are small battery operated wall clocks. The digital electric alarm clock only gets plugged in and set on the nights we have to wake up at a certain time the next morning. Computers, monitors, printers, and laptops are kept off when not in use and their power strips are turned off. Same with the TV. Since we no longer have a VCR we don't have to worry about resetting it every time it gets turned off.

I'm sure there are more things that I do passively that save me money but for the moment that's all I can think of. So I'm curious. What does everyone else do automatically and with minimal effort to save on the little things?

How I Can Get My Head Back in the Finance Game

November 2nd, 2007 at 03:57 am

So, how to get my head back into the game of finances? It was easy enough when money was tight and we had to stretch everything just to meet our bills. Now, with things being so very much easier, and a second raise following the one of three months ago for DH, I find it is becoming easier to not pay attention and to let some of the new money fritter away.

I really don't think that is at all a productive thing for me to do. Yet, the desire to ease up has been so overwhelming and the idea that if I don't look at what I'm doing, then I'm not really doing it, is kind of looming large. I don't want to be an ostrich with my head in the sand and yet at the same time I don't want to think, either.

Dangerous, that. Not thinking. Gets you into all sorts of trouble. And out of trouble has been the goal for years now, and it really does need to continue being the goal. Just because we have breathing room does not mean that we don't still have massive debt hanging over our heads. That medical debt is not going to go away of its own accord.

So, what to do? Well, first of all I need to stay out of restaurants and start cooking again. There are a lot of reasons for this, but first and foremost it's because my food is healthier as I know where it comes from. It's either organic, or at the very least, free range, hormone free, and steroid free. Second, it tastes better than any restaurant food. One of the benefits of being a fine cook, if I may be allowed to toot my own horn.

And third, it's also much more frugal to buy my own food and cook it. Even with organic food it is still cheaper to make a meal than it is to do a drive thru run, even off the dollar menu. I know this, I've done the math before. You know this really shouldn't be reason number three. It should be reason number one. This just goes to show how very far my mind is away from where it needs to be, doesn't it?

So all of that requires planning because we are going to be busy. Two days a week at tae kwon do, two days a week at basketball practice and Saturdays are game days. That means menu planning and crockpotting and making lists of the pantry and freezer again. And not wasting food by letting it rot in the veggie bins because I was too lazy to prep and cook when it's so much easier to eat out. Such a vicious circle, that, isn't it?

So obviously step one here is organization. That's not the only thing that could use some organization. I want to get a real bill box. One of those letter box things like Lillian Vernon sells that has a slot for each day of the month, plus big slots for miscellaneous bills.

My method of two little cardboard boxes is not cutting it and every so often a corner tears out. The wooden box would go a long way to curb the frustration, plus I would be able to tell at a glance what bills need to be paid when because they'd be in their corresponding cubby. And stuff would go in there promptly upon opening it. No more little piles and oops the power bill slid under the bed and suddenly you realize oops, I forgot to pay it last month. How lame is that? At least I stay on top of the interest bearing debt. But I need to stay on top of everything, so bill box gets to join spreadsheet in my list of tools to get my head back in the finance game.

We've been careless with gas, too. More than one trip to town in a day, not grouping errands into a single trip, not making sure everything is in the car that needs to be before we leave so that we don't have to go back home after five miles to retrieve something we need. Like say the tae kwon do uniforms. So, I need to concentrate on that, too.

One other thing is that I've let the surveys slide. It's been weeks since I've been serious about them, so I need to get on the ball, go clean out my survey email account and start doing them again. I know it wasn't much but it did help to build up my EF account and that is still one of my top goals here. Get it fully funded. Though just one month's worth would be nice, and I would feel so much more secure.

Daily blogging always helped tremendously in the past, so I should really wrap my head around that. Keeps me accountable, keeps me from hiding and gives me a place to vent if I do something stupid with money or celebrate if I do something brilliant with it. And reading the blogs again, at least some of them, on a daily basis too, because they inspire, instruct and make me realize that I am not alone in this.

So it really comes down to three things in the end, doesn't it? Planning, organization, and follow through. And I think if I follow those three steps I really and truly can get my head back in the financial game.

Glad This Day is Over--Major Whine

September 11th, 2007 at 03:44 am

There was no school today. It's beyond me why the school district thinks there needs to be a day off when there have only been 4 days in the school year for us so far. I understand having teacher work days in any of the other months, except December. They had two weeks before school started to do their planning, so why so soon? Seems silly.

All this to say that I am glad there is school tomorrow so my two little sniping, picking, poking, annoy each other to death children are away from each other. It's like someone turned a switch and turned them into brats overnight.

We went to the chiropractor and to tae kwon do so we did get out of the house some today. Nothing financial today other than I mailed out some of the bills that I should have mailed on Friday. Well, nothing will even be close to being late, so it doesn't matter that I didn't get them off sooner.

I am so tired. Barking dogs last night interfered with my sleep. If I had a dog and it was barking its fool head off all night long, I'd be out there seeing what they heck he was yowling for after about ten minutes. And telling him to knock it off. I wouldn't let it go on and on all night.

Neighbors got an earfull when they got home from work today. I was cranky and not really in the mood to be nice about it either, but I held it in and was polite. Their excuse? I didn't realize anyone else could hear them. Umm, hello? And also, DUH! Everyone else can hear them. My point was proven by another set of neighbors coming by to complain about the dogs as well.

Supposedly they will keep the dogs in the house tonight. We'll see if they really do. This house is clear across the street from me, but closest to my bedroom window. Those dogs are loud. I hope they do what they said, because I don't take well to irresponsible pet owners.

There are steps I can take if I have to. First with the homeowner's board, because it is against CC&R's to let dogs bark all night and they can be fined. Then with SSC which is animal control, that also has the power to fine nuisance dog owners. And if neither of those work than with the sheriff as they are violating the county noise ordinance.

Hopefully it won't come to any of that. Especially since the board isn't too swift on cracking down on the roaming dogs, which are also not allowed. We have a leash ordinance in our CC&R's and a leash law in our county, but dogs are always roaming around sans owners out here trying to get hit by cars and using your lawn or flowerbeds like they were their own personal litter box. Most of the board are dog owners and one of them has a roaming dog. Sigh.

Dogs have their place and it isn't in my yard. If I wanted a dog in my yard I'd own one. And some day I even may have one. But it will be trained, fixed and not allowed to run all over tarnation.

End Rant.

School Starts Tomorrow

September 4th, 2007 at 06:40 am

Well, I am looking forward to school staring tomorrow. They posted the monthly lunch menu on the school site today so we went through it and it looks like there will only be two days this month they don't want hot lunch.

Hot lunch prices have risen from $1.90 to $2.00 and milk costs 50 cents now instead of 40 cents. But milk comes with the lunch price, its only if you buy it for your own sack lunch that it costs. 85% of their school is on the free or reduced price food program. Not us, we certainly don't qualify.

Considering the cost of cold lunches, though it is not that bad of a deal. We've got a really good lunch program that is high on nutrition. It was devised by the university food science department and everything is made on site and without the usual additives and preservatives, which is pretty cool. They get to play with our elementary school because it is the poorest county school in the poorest county school district and there is a huge effort to help the poverty stricken with proper food nutrition.

This is great, really, because the lunches are wonderful. My favorite is the roasted chicken leg, blue potatoes, glorius greens (mixed green salad), and apples. If a parent wants to go down and eat lunch with their child they can. An adult lunch is $2.50. A lot of the food in the food program is grown in county and much of it is donated from one of the organic farms in our school district.

The kids have bowls of fruits and vegetables in their classrooms for anytime snacking as well. It amazes me just how much this little public school does for these kids and how much community support it gets.

Over half the students in this school speak English as a second language. About 50 percent are Russian or Ukranian immigrants, 1 percent German immigrants, 10 percent are from our closest native tribe, 10 percent are from our originally migrant Spanish population who end up sticking around and working the dairy farms in the non-summer season because the kids are all back at school. 1% are East Indian and run most of the gas stations out here that the tribe doesn't (not the poor part of the population), 3 percent children of the kids I went to school with that came over with the vietnamese boat people in the 70's, and the rest are regularly born American kids. All that diversity and there's only 3 black kids, though. I guess they are still mostly up in Seattle. I only had 5 in my high school and that was in the biggest city of my county.

The school offers free language classes at night to parents who don't speak English as a first language. This is also a university program. So far they have always been able to get someone out for whatever language they need.

I love what the community has done for this little school. It is one of the nicest elementary schools I've seen, they got some nice grants for equipment from certain WA state foundations. And these kids are really getting a leg up. It shows in our test scores, too, the older the kids get the better their scores, to the point where the high school just got 97% on the reading part of the WASL and 93% on the writing part in 10th grade. Not bad for kids who so many of did not learn English first.

Math's at 73 but that is still a big improvement from past years. Things are working here.

Sorry, guess I went off on a tangent, but I love our school district and our school. One of the reasons I feel comfortable not homeschooling. This was supposed to be an entry about how much I was going to have to shell out tomorrow for the lunch program. $40 buck each for the month this month anyway. But considering cold lunches are made with organic bread, organic turkey deli meat, organic fruit and usually cucumber slices, it is probably a difference of $30 a month from what I'd buy. Not so awful and I seldom will have to stress about making lunches.

Which is good because school starts a half hour earlier this year, though it doesn't get out any earlier, and bus pick up will be at 8:46 instead of 9:19. Oh, well, at least the closest bus stop is our driveway, because I'm one of the moms who can monitor it.

That Homeschool Thing

September 1st, 2007 at 12:49 am

I was also reading in the forums about the homeschool thread and all I can say is that there are a lot of generalizations going on there. I've homeschooled and I've had kids in public schools and some of the stuff about public schools being said is wrong, some of it is right.

But really it is the parent that makes the children social, polite, involved in the community, regardless of whether or not they are in public school or homeschooled. I can take my kids to the grocery store and teach them how to pick out produce and how to use coupons and how to calculate a unit price, and in fact, I do. I can teach my kids about saving money, writing a check, balancing a check book, and the proper and improper use of credit. It has nothing to do with their schooling, it has to do with my parenting. And I think that is what so many homeschooling parents forget, that sometimes public school kids learn just as much as homeschooled kids do because their parents make sure they do. I was a public school kid who learned because I wanted to.

Homeschooled kids aren't better than public school kids, they are simply luckier than public school kids because they have one parent who is able to be more involved in their schooling. And that is what makes a better kid, an involved parent. As a SAHM, I am able to be as involved in my children's public school education as I want to be. If I don't like what I see I would not hesitate to pull them out, or talk to the teacher or principal.

And just as an aside, I have seen so many posts on homeschooling forums and sometimes this one, even in this latest thread, by homeschooling mothers who spell or use so many words incorrectly it makes me cringe and it scares me. Spelling is huge in how you present yourself to the world and if yew kan't speel proporly howse ya gunna teech yer kidz two dew it? Or tell the difference between there and their, bear and bare, accept and except, effect and affect, to, too, and two? There certainly should not be an arrogance about homeschooling in the same paragraph as words that are spelled or used wrong, because it completely undermines the point. Not that there should be arrogance anyway in regards to homeschooling.

The whole thing reminds me of the blown out of proportion SAHM/WAHM debate. It doesn't matter whether you work or don't work, it matters how you parent your child.

Wasted Effort Bugs Me

August 30th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

I am so glad I am not out in the workforce. I don't think I'd ever be able to hold my tongue if some of the things that happen to DH happened to me. Well, this one didn't really happen to DH, but he is the one most affected by it.

The guy he spent nearly 3 weeks training to cover his old position quit. I know this work isn't for everyone but you ought to know going in what you're getting into. It's not like they don't tell you that you work so many days straight and you work 12 hour days.

So now DH is having to cover the old job and his own job. Sorry, two 12 hour a day jobs add up to 24 hours and that doesn't work. Fortunately he is paid at the higher rate for both jobs. But now the company they subscontract for is getting all snippy, thinking the job should be three weeks ahead of where it is. If it hadn't been for this other company, this position would have been filled months ago and with a different person.

Anyway, they've put up another JVA (job vacancy announcement) for the position. The woman they hired to be the first guy's alternate does not start working up there for 2 more weeks. Meanwhile they look for yet another alternate. DH does not get paid extra for training, either.

I told him to be careful and not allow them to overwork him. He needs to make sure he gets enough sleep for his health and is able to eat right and get into the exercise room before it is closed up.

Of course, we may end up with scads of extra weeks worked during this time period which means the remaining credit card will be paid off that much faster. The only possible silver lining in all of this. Only any extra work weeks means time he won't be at home with me and the kids. Trade offs suck sometimes. At least school starts in five more days. That will help immensely.

I'm so glad we have free long distance. We're going to be using it a lot.

Can You Stand Another Tipping Entry?

August 16th, 2007 at 05:52 am

We will be going out for Mexican food for lunch tomorrow. It'll probably be about $40 plus an $8 tip. One thing about this restaurant is the service is never, ever bad, its always above and beyond, so I always plan the tip in ahead of time. I've stopped going to places that have bad service consistently, so pretty much of the time I've got the amount of the tip planned out ahead of time.

I know I am anti-tip, or rather anti-expected tip a lot of the time, but I do tip well. I came out of the service industry, I know both sides of it. To me a tip is a gift. And well earned. Many things go into it, including the friendliness of the waitstaff, the number of times she (or he) comes back to the table (too many is just as bad as not enough), how busy the restaurant is and how many tables I see her serving (if she's covering the whole floor, she gets a lot more leeway in my book!), if the order is right, etc. But friendliness and order right is my biggest thing.

The attitude I am seeing lately tells me too many people have forgotten this. It's like the kid who gets $20 from grandma in their birthday card every year and if one year grandma only sends a card and the kid calls up and says where is my money? They've come to expect it, forgetting it is a gift. I guess that is my thing with tipping. It should never be taken for granted. But I live in a state where restaurants must pay minimum wage before tips and if I didn't I think my views would be different on that score.

I saw a tip container on Baskin Robbins counter today. I was walking by on the way to the store and I always look at all the little shops as I go. I'm sorry, this one just got to me. It is your job to scoop ice cream and put it on a cone or in a bowl. How the heck does that qualify as a tippable service? That's the whole job.

Okay, I know they now have some pretty fancy ice cream coffee drink thingies, which I don't order when I do go in, but I'm sorry, those are not that hard to run, anymore than an espresso machine is. I've run a high quality restaurant espresso machine. It's not rocket science though places like *$ would like to make you think it is. I'd love to tell one of those baristas to try running a restaurant kitchen through a $5000 lunch rush, with only 3 other employees in the kitchen and then they could whine to me about how hard it is to steam milk and squirt chocolate and dump flavoring in a shot glass and mix the drink just so. I mean come on. Only I can't do that in a *$ because I don't drink coffee.

Maybe they should just change the word. Change it from tip to gift or server bonus or something. I'd be much happier giving a good waitress a bonus or gift then an expected tip, that's for certain.

Don't Change the Price...

August 5th, 2007 at 07:56 am

...Just change the size.

I hate when places do this sort of thing. My current rant is against Little Caesar's pizza restaurant. About six months ago or so, they started putting less sauce in the little containers of Crazy Sauce. Used to be one container of sauce was needed to get through one container of Crazy Bread. Now, it's not. Not if you are a real dipper like the people in my family. It annoyed me, though not nearly as much as the change to the smaller container did 3 or 4 years ago.

Then around the same time they did that, they dropped the number of wings in the small size from ten to eight. Again there was no change in price, but definitely a change in what you got.

Well, yesterday when we ordered our bread, and we got 3 packs because we go through a lot of it, it was all very much shorter than its ever been. Usually you get five or six long pieces and 2 shorter ones. Well, all the bread we got yesterday was a good 3 to 4 inches shorter than what its ever been before, and all the pieces were more uniform in length. I might have thought it was a mutant loaf if it hadn't been that all three of them were like that. No change in price, though.

I like my stuff in the quantities I'm used to. I understand if they have to raise their prices on occassion. But this kind of backwards sizing really annoys me. I feel like they are cheating me through deception and I do not like it.

The only reason I go there is for the wings and breadsticks. It's not for the pizza, that's for sure.

DH and His Job

July 15th, 2007 at 12:22 am

Strange things are afoot at DH's work. The Bugaboo has been transferred South. Not just from where DH is to further South in the state, but the other end of the U.S. diagonally. You can't get any further away than that. Guess too many other people found him to be gumming up the works and messing things up for everyone.

An alternate has finally been hired for DH's job and DH will start training him when he goes back after our vacation. Once there is someone else who can do DH's job, DH won't have to pull double duty of doing his own job and doing someone else's job.

But strange things...The guy who has been trying to get DH into the higher job for the last year is leaving the company. He got hired on at a different field. And once he gets there he wants to see if there is a position for DH as well. Since they are gearing up it is highly likely. He asked DH if he would be willing to go. Since it would be a net raise of $24K a year (don't remember what the gross raise was) DH said of course he would consider it.

So DH's two immediate bosses all of a sudden come to him and ask him to please hold on, everything should be sorted by the end of the year and the position they want him in will be available. That's a song and dance he's heard before.

DH is a little torn on what to do if the situation arises. We are doing okay right now. Not winning any races, but okay. I think he is leaning towards staying at his current company. The idea of changing companies is a little scary to both us. We have decent medical insurance and a very good 401K and if he jumps ship it'll mean 3 months paying a COBRA and a year with no 401K, plus all the hassle of a roll over.

Last time we rolled over a 401K they screwed it up and issued us a check instead, which of course, they'd already sent the tax part to the government. There was no way to get it back or fix it so we spent what was left on debt. Now that was over a decade ago and it was a different company, but I've been wary of roll overs ever since then. Or maybe paranoid. But when I think of what that money could have become in retirement. The check we got was for $25,000 after the penalty, and that was 12 years ago. Scares me to think how much the 401K would be if it hadn't happened like that.

I think DH plans to stay. He hasn't said as much but I think he does. He's got the training now for the other job and half the time he is doing the other job as needed. If everything falls into place like it should he will get it. But from past experience I know that you can't depend on anything to ever fall into place as it should.

Mostly I am trying not to think about it. Whatever will be, will be. But until it happens, I try to be satisfied with where I am. I refuse to ever get my hopes up again based on anything that is said by his work.

If I allow myself to think about it my mind races ahead and starts making plans. One of the first things being that DH will go back to school, correspondence style and get his next degree, which is reimbursed by work 100% for A grades, which is what DH always gets.

The second thing of course being rapid debt reduction. Which is something I want so badly that if I allow myself to think about his too much, and it doesn't happen, I know I will be bitterly disappointed. So, for now, I just have to breathe deep and let it go. Life will happen and I will have no control over it whether I stress about it or not. So I choose not.

I Don't Get How they Get Away with It

July 5th, 2007 at 02:14 am

Last night when I dropped my DH off at the airport, I drove by the cheap gas station, an ARCO. I didn't need gas, but as usual I noted the price of gas there. It was at $2.75. Then after dropping off my kids, I saw a different gas station, a Chevron that was selling gas at $3.21 a gallon. Same grade. Same town. I expect to see a 20 cent gas difference between Arco and everyone else, as they have a local refinery here.

Now I know Chevron has the highest gas around, with Exxon and Shell running a close second, but a difference of 46 cents a gallon is ridiculous. Even the Valero out here in the county is only at $3.05, and county stations are often quite a bit higher than town ones.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that this Chevron is price gouging. It is right off the freeway, with a back route from the McDonald's parking lot into its lot as well, and easy to get in and out of from the street, but no way is the convenience factor worth 46 cents a gallon.

Even other Chevron's in town are in the mid to low teens. This one actually went up two cents from last weekend whilst everyone else's prices dropped. No excuse for this. It's on the corner of Iowa and King in Bellingham, in case there's anyone local reading this. They certainly won't get my business. I'm surprised they are getting anyone's.


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