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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, bills so far this week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, I finally got everything entered into my spreadsheets of what was paid out of Friday's paycheck. Balanced the checkbook, too. Anyway, here's what went out.

$ 20.00 Garbage
56.00 Water/Sewer
100.00 Medical
61.00 Auto Insurance
37.50 House Insurance
150.00 Tae Kwon Do
87.50 Property Tax/Dues
25.00 Athletic Fees
100.00 Vacation Fund
100.00 Education Fund for DH
36.00 Netflix
109.00 Storage
110.00 Power
120.00 Cable/Phone/Internet
50.60 Propane
72.00 Cell Phones
100.00 Emergency Fund
50.00 Water Delivery (2 months)
30.57 Life Insurance DH
400.00
+ 34.00 Security System
---------
$1819.17

That leaves me with $222 which will be split between groceries and gas.

$867 of the above went into my temporary savings accounts for things that aren't paid monthly or things that get lumped together when the payment is actually made.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bills paid so far today:

$400.00 MC credit card
$400.00 House mortgage
$ 93.00 Power bill
$ 72.00 Cell phone
--------
$965.00 total

I still have to round up some other bills and deduct the upcoming auto payments for Life Insurance and the security system.

Not really much to talk of today. The doctor did start me on thyroid medication, so we'll see how that goes for the next six weeks. Well, I hope. I'm tired of being exhausted so much of the time. That was $21.99 for the new prescription.

I am going to the doctor this morning for a blood pressure check, so that will $15 out for a co-pay. He may or may not change my medication and if he does, he may or may not give me samples to try it first. If not, that will be a prescription co-pay.

I am also going to buy a couple of shirts today if I can find some that I like, so I can retire some old ones that have seen much better days. And one CD that I have been saving up for with the recyling money. I think that will be about $30 dollars between the shirts and the CD.

I hope to make it over to the storage place to rent a unit but that may not happen until Wednesday when DH is home.

And I need to buy gas but that's on the pre-paid Costco cash card that I loaded, so no money out there.

I also need to pay the medical mortgage, the phone bill, and the water delivery bill. So that'll be about $1100.

I was thinking about dropping the water delivery again but we had a test result come through on the tap water reservoir Saturday with e.coli again, so nope. I'd rather pay out for it than risk our health.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It does not pay to make a blogger mad!

Okay, I'm finally getting the bills posted that I paid off Friday's paycheck.

$910.37 Medical Mortgage
$124.00 Water/Sewer (2 months)
$100.00 MBNA MC
$ 90.00 Road Assessment Fee (Year)
$ 41.82 Phone (Home)
$185.50 Car Insurance (3 months)
$ 20.00 Rose's School Lunch Account
$ 67.42 SFBC
----------------
1539.11 Total Bills

Both kids seem better today. Tobias woke up feeling pretty good, even ate a little something and was not running a fever so he decided to go to school with the injunction to call me to come get him if he started feeling poorly. Rose seems 100% now, so that is nice.

It's a gorgeous day here today. It's only 42 but the sun is out and its very clear. Both google weather and msn weather say it was supposed to snow. It did yesterday but it was too wet and did not stick except on the shoulders of the foothills. And there are no clouds in the sky, just a very pretty shade of winter blue. I thought about hanging laundry out, but I wasn't sure if it would dry with it being this cold and no wind. It tends to dry faster in the house unless its at least 55 degrees outside.

I spent a little money today at the gas station. Got a large pepperoni pizza and a bag of chips. So totally not a necessary purchase, but I'm still in a very anti-cooking mood right now. I think a couple more good nights of sleeping will help with that immensely.

I wrote 2 pages last night. That puts me to 108, I think. I'll have to go back and check. 14 more pages to go and I am 1/3 of the way to my goal.

I've been working my way through the commentaries of the second season of the new Doctor Who while doing my PTR emails. Lots of interesting info and it gives me something to listen to while I do the mind-numbing pointing and clicking. Last night I was able to cash out $5 with a new one and $3 with an old one. So I should see that show up in my paypal account on Friday at the latest. I'm very close to cashing out on another $5 one and another $3 one. I still have never heard back from ReadRevenue about that lost payment 1/13/07. It's probably a lost cause. I did send them another email about it last night.

I paid my car insurance online today, 3 months @ $185.50. $5 of which was because I split it in two payments instead of paying it in full in December.

DH ordered a pair of size 16W shoes online and spent $40 plus shipping. He put it on the credit card so we will add that amount to our regular payment. DH has a very hard time finding shoes that fit his foot and neither one of us can stand the service at the local Foot Locker. Which is really too bad. The local Lady Foot Locker has excellent service and the guys need to take a lesson from them. And I've told management so after the last time.

Okay, I think that covers all the spending for today.

Bills paid today:

$700.00 BoA Visa
$ 74.46 MBNA MC (in full)
$ 38.54 Water Delivery
$ 72.10 Cell Phones

Which reminds me that I need to get on the ball again and get those trac phones purchased this month and cancel our Cingular as our contract ended in October.

My propane bill came yesterday. I was really afraid to open it up, but I finally did it and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it would be sky high, but it was only $320. For six months, as the last time it was filled was in August. I have been putting aside $50 a month for this expense, so I only need to come up with an additional $20. Not bad at all. I swear, I thought it would be closer to $500, we have been using it so much. I'm just really glad it wasn't.

Today is payday. So far today I have paid:

$910.37 for Medical Mortgage
$400.00 for House Mortgage
$125.00 for Homeowner's Association half year dues

Some of this money is from last payday, too, I just didn't get around to writing out those bills earlier as they weren't needing to be done until today.

I still have to do some more bills but probably won't until Monday.

Today, well technically yesterday, was payday. It was such a relief to finally have money again. I really hate paycheck to paycheck and I swear some day I will be free of that leash. It may take 10 years but I will be free of it!

I am so exhausted all the time right now. I wish I knew what was wrong with my system. Is it possible to get mono more than once in your life? Because I had that in 8th grade and that is the closest thing to how I feel right now. All I want to do is sleep. After the kids went to school today I went back to sleep and did not get up again until it was time to go out and meet the school bus. This was on top of a full night's sleep.

The kids wanted to go out and play and since it was sunny and reasonably warm out at 47 degrees I let them go until 5, which is when it gets on towards dark. So while they were gone I managed to pull myself together long enough to check online to see what the amount of the direct deposit was and to write out some bills.

$42.92--Homeowner's Insurance
$41.73--Phone
$70.94--Cell Phone
$93.74--Citi MC
$93.00--Puget Sound Energy
$35.00--MB Youth Baseball--T-ball (Tobias)
$45.00--MB Youth Softball--Fastpitch (Rose)
$100.00-Cash out for gas
$312.00-MBNA MC

I still have to pay the house mortgage ($400), the 1/2 year dues for the homeowner's association ($125), set aside money for 1/2 the water bill due at Feb's end ($56), 1/2 for garbage ($25), put aside $50 for propane (still haven't been billed yet) and $100 for property tax savings out of this check.

Mortgage and Homeowner's dues are due on the 1st. I would have paid the mortgage today but we didn't make it into town before the CU closed. The drive-thru is open until 7 but they won't take mortgage payments, so I just could get the cash out for gas. And there is no one in the office on Fridays to accept the dues, either. So I will do those most likely on Monday.

Oh, I went to two grocery stores and spent $37.16 at one and $86.44 at the other one. I did make one wasteful food purchase. They had Marie Calendar TV dinners on sale 4/$10 so I bought four spaghetti dinners. To me, that is the ultimate in wasteful food spending because it is the absolute easiest, cheapest meal to make from scratch. But I am sick and I wanted my comfort sghetti, so I did it.

Usually when I buy something from Marie Calendar it is just something I don't normally make myself or if I do, it involves a tremendous amount of effort, like pot pies or beef stew. And if I hadn't been limited by the amount of freezer space I knew I had left, I might have bought more. I guess I need to add don't go food shopping sick to the list of don't go food shopping hungry or with the children. I did all three tonight. My bad.

My oh-so-wonderful mother is going to take the kids home with her after Rose's basketball games to spend the night. I love my Mommy. She took one look at me tonight and offered. I am very glad because I am just not operating on all 8 cylinders. Actually I'm not sure I'm operating on all of 1 cylinder at the moment. Took my temperature: 100.5. Oh, joy. I hope this isn't the start of walking pnuemonia, come to think of it. That I don't want to deal with. At all.

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

Credit card totals:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today was payday so of course, I paid some bills and we went grocery shopping.

Bills paid:

$260.00 Medical
$ 20.00 Rose's Lunch Account
$ 20.00 Tobias' Lunch Account
$ 93.00 Puget Sound Energy
$400.00 House Mortgage
--------
$793.00 Bills Paid

Groceries bought:

@ Terra Organica:

$ 7.98 2 5 lb bags of organic 100% whole wheat bread flour
$ 3.38 2 packages of organic 100%whole wheat tortillas
$ 3.39 1 box of Wheatines organic crackers
$ 5.09 1 jar of Spectrum Omega-3 Flaxseed Oil Mayonnaise
-------
$19.84 Total at Terra Organica

@ Fred Meyer:

$12.40 for 7.2 pounds leanest hamburger
$11.98 2 packages organic uncured ham
$ 2.10 for 5.53 pounds navel oranges
$ 1.99 1 gallon 2% milk
$ 4.99 1 gallon organic non-fat milk
$ 3.29 Organic Yogi Ginger Tea
-------
$36.75

$56.59 Total grocery spending

@ Fred Meyer non-grocery spending

$ 1.98 2 packs key sorters
$ 3.29 bottle of Rolaids
$12.98 2 bottles Vicks Sinex nasal spray
-------
$18.25
$ 1.87 sales tax
-------
$20.12 Total non-grocery spending

Meal Out for 2 at Cinco de Mayo

$21.13 cost of meal
$ 1.96 sales tax
-------
$23.09
$ 5.00 tip
-------
$28.09

$897.80 Total spending today

I still have some bills to pay and $300 or so to do it with but have will not sit down and do those until this weekend.

The hamburger was the leanest they make and was all in the reduced bin so it went straight into the freezer when we got home.

The oranges were on sale for 38 cents a pound, really great price.

----------
Edited to add:

I forgot we got $20 worth of gas today, too.

$897.80
+ 20.00
--------
$917.80 Total payday spending.

Today has been a good day. I got all of my errands accomplished, though I think I must have hit the slowest drive-thru bank tellers in the history of the universe. And all I was doing was making a deposit! I didn't even need cash back. The easiest task for them to perform and despite being there first (it was a 3 lane drive thru) I was fifth out of six cars served because I chose the lane with the drawer and not the ones with the tubes. So I had to wait for the girl to press the button to open the door for me to get my deposit slip and check in it, despite having pressed the teller call button twice. Which she might have done earlier if she hadn't run off three times. The other teller seemed preoccupied with filling up the candy basket. Hello, last banking night before a big holiday weekend, get your act together. End rant.

But I got all the various monies transferred to my checking account and I mailed off the check for the Medical Mortgage. This is the first time ever that I have not paid extra towards the principle. I hate that, but this month couldn't be helped. When I pay the house mortgage next week it'll be the same thing. Ugh. But after that it'll go back to normal.

I was going to drop off my house insurance payment at the local office today, but the lazy bums closed at four instead of five today for the holiday weekend, so I had to mail it. I'm not happy about that, I prefer to do as many bills in person as possible but oh, well, what can you do?

I received a check from Your2Cents and deposited that into the vacation savings account, along with the ones and rolled coin. So the total deposit was $41.50, bringing the amount in that account to $61.50.

I can't remember if I wrote about his before or not. I have the opportunity to go to a convention for my support group for my disease in May and it is a tight knit group so it is going to be fun. Some of us will be arriving a day early to go to Disneyland for one day and I am hoping to be one of them.

I do not have to pay for airfare as DH has plenty of miles, so I just have to come up with the hotel fee and the park pass money. I can have a roommate to cut the costs and I may do so. DH's schedule works out so that he will be home to watch the kids. So if I can get the money saved it will all fall into place.

I didn't get a chance to come on again last night and blog the boring stuff so here goes.

$800.00 Bank of America Visa
$165.00 MBNA MC
$ 70.94 Cell
$ 41.64 Phone
$ 38.67 Water Delivery
$ 37.36 Garbage (2 months)
$180.50 Car Insurance (3 months)
$ 43.75 Vehicle Registration Tabs
$100.00 Propane (into savings for now)
$ 34.00 Security System Monitoring
$ 29.29 Life Insurance on DH
$ 50.00 Costco Cash Card for Gas
$100.00 Christmas presents

Today is payday. So far I have paid:

$1000 Medical Mortgage
$400 House Mortgage

I'm on my way to Costco to pick up a few things and to get gas, so I will update with the rest of my spending tonight. I don't reckon there will be too much as I only need a few things. I have gotten better and better about not buying extra "stuff" at Costco just because it is there, but going in with a list and sticking with what I need instead. It used to be I couldn't leave Costco without spending at least $100 in groceries and maybe a book or movie. Now if I spend $100 there it is because I am putting money on my gas card.

Today is payday. Bills paid today are:

Bank of America Visa--$800
Water Delivery--$23.79
MBNA MC #1--$150
Comast (phone)--$41.64
Dentist--$22.60
Docor--$15.00
MBNA MC #2--$500

I have to go grocery shopping and get gas, too. I will put $100 on the Costco cash card for gas. I will try to keep groceries at $75.

After I got the kids on the bus this morning, I wanted in the absolute worst way to drive the five minutes down the highway to this really terrific diner in Maple Falls. I had such a hankering for their home fries and pancakes this morning. And they make everything from scratch there, so I don't even have to worry about nasties in the food, except maybe nitrates in sausage or bacon.

But pancakes there are definitely not made with whole wheat flour and I don't know what kind of oil they use to cook the home fries and as I am trying to avoid transfats, well that wouldn't do at all.

But how hard could it be to make home fries? I mean, all it is is diced potatoes, bell pepper and onion. So I made them myself in olive oil, along with some nice nitrate/nitrite free, sulphate/sulfite free, sugar free all natural sausage and throughly enjoyed my homemade "diner" style breakfast. Didn't even miss the pancake that I had wanted earlier. Also saved myself about $10 including tip. They aren't horribly expensive there and I would have had a full breakfast if I had gone, rather than two items and the portions would have been a lot larger, too.

It was nice to not spend the money and stick to my new dietary habits.

I did, however spend some money tonight. We went to the chiropractor and then to Kmart to buy gloves and hats for the kids and gloves for me. The kids have scarves, but gloves and hats always seem to get lost or outgrown really fast. My gloves get lost because I let the kids wear them when they lose theirs.

I'm going to get some chenille yarn next payday and knit myself a hat and scarf to match my new jacket I bought a few weeks back. I'm not a great knitter but I can do hats and scarves that look good. I just can't do anything else. I'm starting to think the jacket may not be warm enough after all. It was 25 degrees this morning waiting for the school bus. But its hard to find anything really, really warm that isn't made of wool or lined with down. I'm not a masochist, I like to breathe and I can't do that with wool or down, so no go.

Oh, when we were at Kmart I looked at all the Christmas stuff. I love penguins, in fact I've collected penguins for 16 years and they had some really cute ones. But there is something that really, really annoys me to no end about Christmas and penguins. Penguins do not exist at the North Pole. They are native to Antarctica, as in the South Pole. And penguins and polar bears do not exist together as polar bears are native to the upper wilds of Canada and Alaska. And yet every year, there they are, cavorting together. Sigh. Just a really big pet peeve. Silly, I know, but it bugs me.

Nothing really jumped out at me to add to my collection of lights for our huge light display. Nothing I've seen at WalMart yet has impressed me either. Or Costco. I know its still early yet. I will be putting aside an extra hundred dollars to pay for the bump in our electric bill that we get after the holiday, due to all the lights. But it is a big deal for us and we wouldn't give it up, the kids just adore it and so does the neighborhood. I wish I'd bought the rope light nativity they had 3 years ago.

Oh, I should probably budget another $100 to buy cable to run through all the standees and hook around the trees so people can't steal from us this year. They didn't get much last year because DH surprised them in the act, but I'm not going to lose something we've paid hard-earned money for again. We also bought motion detectors last year so we will have to get those installed around the most expensive things.

Okay, this is more of a ramble than anything to do with finances so I think I'll wrap it up. Oh, I was able to cash out at TinklyCash this morning. $5 on its way to paypal. Oh, also wrote a check for $10 to fund Matt's hot lunch account at school. Which reminds me, I need to order checks.

Rose had to go to the orthodontist today. They took out her U wire and replaced it with a W wire. This one is pushing a bit more than the last one did and is really bugging her. Not as much as the first appliance that took up the entire roof of her mouth, though.

That's two visits this month, so there should be a nice sized rebate coming from the doc's soon once they run through the insurance. For those new to my blog, we paid the entire amount in advance last year and then 6 months later our health insurance upgraded and gave us both orthodontics and vision that we didn't have previously. So the doc runs it through the insurance and then we get cut a check.

Didn't do much else. Oh, spent $9.98 for 2 gallons of organic milk.

As for the new eating update:

Breakfast:
Omega 3 organic eggs
100% whole wheat toast
organic banana
2 stalks of celery
organic milk

Lunch:
100% whole wheat bread sandwich with organic peanut butter and organic jelly
organic milk

Dinner:
Tacos made with either organic 100% whole wheat soft tortillas or organic corn taco shells
organic lettuce
organic cheese
hamburger
taco seasoning without trans-fats or hydrogentated fats
nectarines
organic milk

I have $2 to add to the $30 I will be depositing in savings tomorrow. With the auto deposit, that's a total of $42 going in tomorrow.

Oh, I almost forgot, I wrote a check to the chiropractic yesterday for $175. This covers three visits per week for the 4 of us, though we seldom go more than twice a week. That still works out to 9 visits a month X 4 people, so 36 visits, averages to $4.86 per person per visit. Not too bad. If we went through insurance we'd have to pay $15 co-pay for each of us, plus 20%. DH and I both have mild scoliosis and have both visited a chiro since we were young teens. Our kids have always gone. No one wants to end up with the hump DH's grandma had or the one his mother is starting to develop.

I guess that is all for today.

Out of Friday's paycheck:

Bank of America Visa--$800
MBNA MasterCard--$145
ADT Security--$34
Life Insurance on DH--$29.29
Cash for Gas--$50
Phone Bill--$41.64
Cell Phone--$71.15
2 month Garbage Bill--$44.70
Homeowner's Insurance--$100

I am saving what is leftover until this Friday's paycheck to pay the remainder of the bills then.

When I get a chance to get to the CU again, I now have the original $16 in rolled coin, an additional $10 in rolled coin, and the $4 to pay back an impulse purchase. So a total of $30 to savings.

I'm going through major caffeine withdrawal right now, so hopefully my post will be coherant. Also going through sugar withdrawal, flour withdrawal, and high fructose corn syrup withdrawal. Life is fun.

I do think the new family diet is going to be a good thing, though, both to the budget and to how we all feel.

I was going to log the food on the blog, but I don't think I will, its not terribly interesting, though very yummy. Who knew real food could taste so good?

Today was payday. Only paid one bill so far today, $800 to Bank of America Visa. Will write the rest of the bills tomorrow.

As planned, I deposited the $65 that used to pay the cable bill into savings. I forgot the $16 in rolled coin at home so I decided to just deposit $16 anyway into that account, and then decided to add an extra $5 in as well, for a total deposit of $86, bringing the total in savings to $1096.

Bills paid today:
House mortgage: $374.86 plus an additional $24.14 to principal, total payment of $400
Property taxes: $364.69
School fees: $40 to the lunch program for both kids (really need to cut this out when I am well again) and $6.90 to the book program for Tobias
Water Delivery: $66.57 for 2 months water delivery (this is a necessary expense for us as our local water district has e.coli in the water too many times a year for us to feel safe drinking it)
Basketball fee: $25
Groceries: $46.96
Gas money: $80
Misc.: $24 (will be used at soccer game tomorrow and for a meal for 3 of us)

I have $375 left which will go towards the medical mortgage next payday, along with the $625 from that week's pay

DH will be working 3 weeks instead of 2 in December and will be home for Christmas, leaving back for work on the 26th. So that will be an extra $1950 or so that can go straight to savings. And there should be an extra thousand to $1950 in November when DH will get an extra pay period (he gets 2 extra checks a year depending on how the calandar falls. Combine that with the five extra days he is working for his alternate next year and our tax return and we should just be able to swing a new (to us) car.

I have my eye on a vehicle that has been sitting on the lot for a bit. If it is still there when we are ready to buy and if it is mechanically sound, we should be able to drive a good bargain for it. I know it may be gone by then but its already sat on the lot for 3 months and if its still there come April, I think they'll be dying to get rid of it. I'll definitely run the VIN first though. If not, well, we've waited this long, we can wait longer if need be.

Or to those of you who aren't sick...a cold in the nose, well in the whole sinusy section of the face. Rose has successfully passed it onto me, oh, joy. I am actually functioning pretty well, though as I went back to sleep after the kidlets got on the school bus, and didn't wake up again until 12:39. My taste buds are off, so food doesn't taste that good, I hate that.

I had enough points to cash out at NFO MySurvey today, so will be receiving a $10 check from them within 3 to 6 weeks.

Today was the auto deposit of $10 into savings, bringing the total of that savings account up to $1010. I rolled coin today and will be depositing that money tomorrow, $16, bringing savings to $1026, and then also depositing the $65 that used to go for cable, bringing the total to $1091.

I am awaiting account verification from paypal off a new account and as soon as that is received and activated, I will have $70 more to add into savings. This account is going to be used for selling on ebay and half once we are set up.

I have started reading Tax Loopholes for Ebay Sellers. I haven't gotten very far yet, but from reading the index I think it will cover all the information I need to know for how to set up an ebay business and how to handle taxes. It isn't about avoiding taxes, really, just how not to pay more than you have to and how to pay them and that kind of info. I think it will offer a lot of insight into this next phase of our adventure to make more money so we can use it to get out of debt and start saving more money. Plus declutter.

I bought this book about six months ago, just before I joined this site. I think I would buy it now anyway, because I will be referring to it often. It looks to be an excellent resource. Most of the time I check stuff out now, but I think buying the stuff you will really use can be an acceptable purchase when trying to avoid unnecssary ones.

Today I paid the water/sewer bill for 4 months (new system switch over, I just wanted to be ahead) of $256 and the power bill of $93. I also had lunch out (unnecessary expense, but I felt unable to cook and I really didn't want to) which came to $12.25 plus a $3.00 tip. I know that's over 20% but this is the usual girl, she never screws up anything, she's working her way through college, and as a former restaurant employee I believe in tipping well for good service. Not that I'm justifying, just explaining.

Dinner was much cheaper, just a can of chicken and stars ($1.09 at Kmart, cheapest I've found it here) and a glass of Pepsi (about .30). The caffeine helps with the sinus headache. I probably should have done this for lunch, too since I really am trying to cut way back on eating out. Maybe I'll have to do what Amber does and every time I eat out, put an equal amount of money into savings. That would pinch but might help me to alter my behavior.

Tonight I wrote out a check for basketball. It is only $25 this year instead of $30 as the sponsors are kicking in more. That was nice. Now I just have to remember to mail it tomorrow.

I got two samples in the mail today. Degree clear from Degree itself, and Olay Definity from WalMart. The Olay sample was really tiny, just like the one from Target. I've come to expect much more from the WalMart samples so I was really disappointed in the size. On the bright side, between the two of them there should just be enough to use on my whole face.

Not too much excitement today. The autotdeposit was today so savings is $10 richer, putting me at $947.

We loaded $100 onto our Costco cash card and then used it to put $30.19 worth of gas into the car 2 today @ $2.58 a gallon, 4 cents less than a few days ago. It is weird seeing the gas tank on F, or even on the right side of the halfway point, really.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so $15 co-pay and $10 perscription. My kidney infection came back or else its a new one, so I'll be on antibiotics 3X a day for the next 14 days. Oh, joy. Big old capsules, too. Bought organic milk at the store my pharmacy is in so $5.29 for that.

I pulled all the meat off the rest of the turkey bones and seperated it into packages and froze it. I then threw all the bones and skin into the crockpot with 6 quarts of water, a head of crushed garlic, a chopped onion and salt and pepper and am making broth. I will have it going all night and it should be good and rich in the morning when I'll pour it through a seive and then I will make turkey noodle soup to have with supper tomorrow.

I am really into having soup right now. It is very comforting The weather turned on us this last week or so, went from mid to high 70's to wet, rainy, mid 50's to low 60's, and one night got down to 33! Yikes. It hasn't been that cold again, but we really have to drain the pool tomorrow before it happens again.

As for the soup, twice this week we've had homemade chicken noodle at dinner and tonight we had golden potato (DH's great grandmother's recipe), very rich and good, very satisfying and I notice it cuts my appetite for the heavier protein that follows. I still eat the same large amount of veggies as usual, though. But they are cheaper than protein, usually.

I may make a nice onion soup, possibly French onion, but I really don't know if I have the patience to be finicky. I like the ease of crockpot soup. It allows for a large degree of laziness. Which the lousy weather is encouraging. Just want to curl up with a good book under the covers. The current good book I am reading is "Smart Couples Finish Rich," by David Bach. It is very good and I am learning a lot. I had no idea the limits on spousal IRA's for a non-working spouse (when the working spouse has a 401K) had risen so much. Last time I checked, it was a lot lower. This book was written in 2001 and it was $2000 then, so it might be more now, even.

I will have to look into that. I'm not sure when I might be able to fund one, but I want something in my name for my own personal security. My DH is a solid man who I don't think would ever leave me for any reason and seems to think the sun rises and sets on me for some reason and I see no reason I would ever leave him, he is kind, good and a wonderful spouse and father and I kind of think the sun rises and sets on him also. But I still want something in my name. Security is my biggest issue. I want it no matter what else happens. The idea feels right.

Not much else today. Oh, DH took Tobias to soccer and they are having team pictures so that was $8. School photos were yesterday and today so that was $16 for both kids. We only get the 8X10 and scan it to make copies on the school ones, and the 5X7 team photo with the individual shot in the same photo for sports photos. Rose will have her team photo tomorrow, another $8. I wish these weren't all in the same week, but I guess this is a good week for it if it has to be all at once.

Okay, I think that's it then for today. Got in a very talky mood, I guess.

Today I deposited the former amount of our cable bill, $65, into savings, bringing the total in that account to $885. I need to deposit just $25 more to hit my monthly goal of $100 saved, and just $115 to hit my next goal of $1000 saved. I am so psyched to see those numbers keep on going up.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my first blog entry here. I've been blogging 5 months. Wow. I sure have come a long way from only having about $150 in savings (only cause I hadn't spent it yet!) and being sure it was impossible to save anything with all of our debt, to managing to save at least $100 a month and still put a little extra towards paying off debt. It amazes me to think what just a few months of hanging around the people on this forum has done to me. It has totally altered my thinking.

DH called today and the man who injured his knee up at work may not be back in time to cover one week of his shift, so if that is the case, DH will go back up a week early next time he's home and do that job for a week. It will get him a bit of experience in a field engineer's job and he will be able to see whether he likes the work in that position or not. But if the guy's knee is okay, then it won't happen. So no counting chickens yet.

The extra week would be $1900 that could go straight onto one of the credit cards. I would really like that. Unless they paid him at the field engineer's rate (which I doubt since its temp) then it would be closer to $2400, which would go even further. But again, no chicken counting. I refuse to do that until I hear them clucking. LOL

DH said that the new guy is needing a lot of hand holding and it is irritating his bosses, so maybe if knee guy stays healthy, new guy will tank. Oh, isn't that awful of me? I shouldn't even be halfway wishing that, its so mean. But I am.

Our freezer quit working in a quite spectacular fashion. Combine this with the door being left open a couple inches and it was not a pretty site that greeted me. Since it is older than I am by a few years, I guess I'm surprised it lasted this long.

There is no fix to it, it won't turn on anymore and there were sparks involved and a rather obnoxious noise when it quit. So we had a nice 2 inch layer of water/ice cream/stickiness of unknown origin to deal with on the laundry room floor. Okay, well it is mostly cleaned up now, though there is still a high level of stickiness. But I am soaking that up with wet towels and hopefully by morning it will just wipe up. One can hope.

We probably lost about $300 worth of food since we had a lot of beef, chicken, and fish and shellfish in it. Very little was salvageable. Pretty much just the butter and some bricks of cheese and frozen berries that were in the back behind everything else and were still frozen solid.

Well, today was payday and we did have the $65 that we normally used for the cable bill when we still had cable that was going to go into savings and I was ahead on the house insurance payment, so the extra money I was sending there I combined with the old cable money and we bought a half size chest freezer at Sears for $189 with tax. At least the door to this one can't be left open. Well, it could, but people would notice.

Fortunately it only took the freezer 4 hours to get cold. We did a big Costco run today, $145, and were able to cage freezer space from a neighbor until it was cold, but we would have just used our ice chests if we couldn't have.

Obviously savings did not get as big a boost today as planned, but I did put in the $50 I owed it, so it is now at $779.85, so I have passed my goal of $750 and am on my way to my next goal of $1000. Just $221.15 to go. I'm a little irritated when I think it should be $844.85, but for the freezer debacle and then I'd only have $155.15 to go. I need to look on the bright side and consider that at least I had the money available to replace the freezer without putting it on a credit card. That is always a blessing.

This purachase wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that DH's birthday is on the 30th and he wants a weight bench. Well, that will have to wait until next month. My mother's birthday is on the 28th and I have to figure out what I will do for that. I have to drive DH to the airport that same day. My sister and her family will be at my mom's for dinner so we will make it back in time to go there, also.

Today I also stopped at a farm stand and spent $10 on fresh fruit and some sweet corn.

Bills paid were the power bill, internet bill, propane tank rental bill, and phone bill. I also have to pay the mortgage out of this paycheck and the medical mortgage, but haven't made it into those banks yet. Will probably do so on Monday.

Also spent $55 to get a new tire for my ten-speed and had them put it on the wheel. It is made for bumpy roads or it would have been $15 cheaper for the tire. We have very bumpy roads out here, so felt the expense was justified. DH will put the wheel back on my bike in the morning and he has already put on the new, cushy gel seat and then he has to put the new pedals on his bike and we need to finish teaching Tobias how to ride without the training wheels, he's about five minutes from it so should be good by the end of the day tomorrow. Then we can start riding again, this time as a family.

Samples in the mail today were Degree anti-perspirant, biore face wash (2) and pore strip (1), and miessences body wash. I just sent for that last one this week, so it came super fast.

Paid fines at the library today (not my fines, DH, the kids, which is DH's responsibility as well, and one lost book of T's) and picked up my hold, which is a book on CD as the library didn't have the book at all. It is The Automatic Millionaire. Should be interesting.

I have to write a balance transfer check out and mail it off tomorrow. It will pay off the Chase card and then everything will be combined onto the other card, so we will be down to just two credit cards with balances on them. This one is at 6.99% until April. Two payments will be a lot easier to manage and keep track of.

I think that pretty much covers everything that we did today.