DH lost his cell phone today. He dropped it in the parking lot at Lowe's when he was buying a new dryer vent flap to replace the one that melted when the old dryer was not shutting off and ran all night one time.

Fortunately someone found it and turned it into Lowe's. They started calling the names in it and got ahold of DH's mom, who then called my mom, who lives 6 blocks from Lowe's and she went and fetched it. So all's well that ends well and thank goodness for good Samaritans. See, this is what happens when you find a wallet with $500 cash in it at WalMart and call the very relieved person on the driver's license in it. Karma comes back around to you, or your guardian angel is watching your back, or you're just plain lucky. I like to think of it as all three.

Today was the weekly autodeposit of $10 to savings. I sent that off to ING for a new total of $347.53 when it arrives. Slowly but surely it is building back up again.

Today I deposited to the vacation fund:

$10.00 roll of quarters
$ 0.50 roll of pennies
$ 4.00 in ones
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$14.50 subtotal
$71.97 vacation fund balance
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$86.47 new total

After my various errands today I came home with $5 in ones and DH had $3 in ones bfrom his own errands that I will deposit next time I go to town. I am saving all change and all ones for my trip and probably will divert all survey earnings into there as well until I go.

I posted this in response to Lux's blog but thought I'd put it here, also. TinklyCash is not paying out right now, especially not in the less than 72 hours that they promise. I'm 438th in the payout queue and no payments have been made in weeks.

Now, I was a big supporter of them because they always paid out quickly last year but ever since the big earthquake in Taiwan they have not been paying out. It supposedly damaged undersea cables that were used for international banking.

Doing PTR's is incredibly time consuming, which is fine if you are doing something else while doing them, but doing them and not getting paid? That's just irritating. If and when I ever get paid from them again I'll post it here for those interested in doing it, but until they are back on their feet, I don't think you should waste your time on them.

Over in the forums under General Discussion, the Pinecone survey post, there is an active link for the U.S. banner ad. It was active as of 11:00 p.m. PST 3/6/07. I just signed up. I am so excited. I don't know if I will qualify but just having the chance to finally sign up has me through the roof.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

Did I mention in my last post what a lovely day today was? It got up to 72 degrees in town, and 68 at home and it was bright and sunny. Last week at this time it was snowing. Go figure. MSN weather said it was going to rain all day and be 50 degrees. Guess you can see why I use google weather most.

Anyway, it was finally a nice enough day for a long enough time when DH was actually home, that we took down the outdoor Christmas lights. I bet I made the neighbors happy. Not that I really care what they think anyway if I have a few light up deer and some other standees in my yard when their idea of lawn ornamentation is white trash junk yard deals and six cars in various states of do they run or not. Well, or what the other neighbors think either. We're quiet, good neighbors, pay our association dues on time every year and keep the weeds mowed. I figure if it bugs them they can tell me and no one ever has.

But I am glad to have them down because it means I can now get to weeding flowerbeds and garden beds if the weather stays clear. I am so ready for spring. Today was a gorgeous taste of it and I want more.

I did some poking around and I have crocus, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths all coming up, which usually doesn't happen up here in the mountains until April. I may have blooms in 3 weeks instead of the end of April. Oh, and my primroses are blooming, very pretty. Of course, I found my first slug today, too. Ick. Still pretty small though, less than an inch long. I hope they aren't bad this year and that all the cold killed the eggs, but I fear they may be nasty.

I am raring to go on veggies, but from past experience I don't dare plant until April and even then sparingly. We've had a hard frost as late as April 15th and I don't fancy losing seedlings. But I can at least plant snow peas on the 1st.

We're going to have to do some serious fence repair or replacement this summer. The old fence is just rotting and it was so poorly installed by the previous owners. I'm surprised its lasted eight years as it is. Just another thing to put on the list. We have a wants list and a needs list, and fence goes on the needs list because we live off the highway and I don't need my kids wandering out of the backyard and up there and getting themselves run down, especially as we are on a dead man's curve sort of area.

I really hope they hurry up and get the funding for that project at DH's work because I have so many things that need doing and we can't start until it comes through.

Spent $422.65 on a new dryer today. The dryer itself was only $299 (on clearance, marked down from $459). The rest is 8.4% sales tax, delivery (we live in the boonies) and installation fee, and removal fee for the old dryer. I did not get the 5 year maintenance plan. It does have a one year warranty. It will fit very nicely in the alloted space as it is 1.5 inches less wide, but it also has a greater capacity, which will make doing comforters much easier.

It is very pretty. It is white, but the control panel across the top is stainless steel. It does not have a ton of bells and whistles, which I am happy about. I just want to be able to dry my clothes on a few different heat settings, not compute the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything (42!).

We decided to use part of DH's bonus check now to pay for it, and then repay the $422.65 to savings out of the income tax return. I know my mother was going to loan us the money until we got our tax return back, but I just feel better doing it this way. He's pretty much decided to wait until he has the new job under his belt for a few months before signing up for more schooling anyway. Tax return should come sometime in the next couple of weeks, definitely before month's end.

They are delivering it tomorrow. I was surprised they could do it that fast when we just bought it today, but tomorrow is their day for delivering to this section of the county. See, that's why there is Lucky in my name. Things like this have a way of working out for us. DH will be home and I won't have to worry about letting a stranger into the house by myself. I know they are bonded, but I would just as soon not take that chance, you know?

DH put his second set of upgrades on ebay last night. They are now up to $102.50 and the auction doesn't end until Saturday. Doing pretty good.

I suppose I could have done the last several posts in one big one, but I keep forgetting to add one more thing, so it just works out this way today. I think this is my fifth.

I took a survey with Your2Cents today and have a $6 check coming from them in the next 3 to 5 weeks.

The one that arrived today took the whole 5 weeks, though it is generally closer to 3 in the past. It will go in the vacation fund when it arrives.

The mortgage numbers posted today. New total left on our house mortgage: $34,773.29. Slightly less than 122 payments to go. That works out to 10 years and just under 2 months.

DH's bonus check came in the mail today. DH says they made a big error in how much they took out in taxes, they took out 10 times the amount they should have. They did it to everyone, so there will be another check issued for the additional amount probably with the next payroll. So for the time being we have $600 check that will go to savings, but is earmarked for DH's continuing education. The company does reimburse for tuition but not until the end of semester when grades are issued. They reimburse 100% for A's and 90% for B's. But we still have to come up with the initial amount to get started.

DH isn't sure when he will get started. He wants to make sure things get rolling with the promotion and his new job responsibilities before he takes on more school work. He'll be doing it correspondence again with an accredited school. So the money will stay in savings for awhile earning interest.

Our 401K statement came in the mail today. The new balance is $44,231. This is an increase of $1918.80 since end of December's statement. Of course, statement ending date was February 26 and we all know what happened after that. We are buy and hold so I don't know if there is much point to going online to look and see what kind of a hit we took. Probably just depress me. Plus, we recovered well the last time this happened in the first quarter of 2006. I really just prefer the long-term approach.

I deposited:

$ 8.00 check from ACOP survey
$ 5.00 check from Your2Cents survey
$ 5.00 roll of dimes
$ 0.50 roll of pennies
$ 1.00 Sacajawea dollar
------
$19.50 total

Into the vacation fund today.
New total in fund:

$71.97

Not much but it will get $1000 from the tax return.

Today has just gone by very slowly. It is a no spend day, which is always good. DH let me sleep in so I didn't eat breakfast. Lunch was cheap and easy, homemade 100% whole wheat and egg spaghetti noodles, sauce, and cheap ground beef from a 98 cents a pound sale (first one in ages that was that low). We have a tub of garlic butter in the fridge so we use it on toast to make our own garlic bread. Added a salad of lettuce, cukes, and kohlrabi. Yummy, yummy. I love my pasta maker.

Dinner is very light tonight after that heavy of a lunch. Just canned tuna, a hard boiled egg, mayo mixed together and stuffed in celery. Repeat 3 times for four people.

Tomorrow while the kids are at school we are going to go look at dryers. I won't do it with them, they'd drive me crazy when I was trying to read the info on each machine. They are both going through an annoyance phase. As in lets see what we can do to annoy each other the most so that Mom and Dad get mad. Hope it passes soon. Oh, and Rose has picked up the lovely habit of rolling her eyes. I'm considering charging her 25 cents from her allowance each time she does it.

Not much going on. Kind of a boring day.

Venting. Big Time. Here, so I don't do it over there. I have to play nice in public. Here, a little less than nice when frustrated.

Well, she's back. That woman who drove me crazy because she asked for advice and then came up with every single excuse in the book, and some that weren't, not to take any of the advice offered her from anyone. And of course, there are a few newer people who don't know her M.O. who are still trying to help her. Though there are some people that have been around at least as long as me or longer who should know better by now...All they'll get is a throbbing headache from banging their heads against the wall. Yes, she asks for help, but...SHE DOESN'T REALLY WANT IT. (Caps for emphasis, not shouting, I still can't get italics to work).

I really had to bite my tongue not to post on her thread, but I won't do it. I do have to admit to being fascinated how anyone can bury her head so deeply in the sand. It's like watching a train wreck, you simply can't look away. And I know better than to even click on her threads.

She's still up to my favorite one, accusing you of giving her parenting advice instead of financial advice, doesn't have a clue that sometimes your financial decisions are caused by your parenting ones or vice versa. Just refuses to see it. Or anything that doesn't fit her unpaid for rose colored glasses version of the world.

Someone suggested her child get a babysititng job. Last time around I suggested that and oh, you would have thought I was talking about selling her daughter to a sweatshop, "my daughter will never work to pay the bills," (which wasn't even what I said, BTW) Now, its basically my daughter won't work to pay for her own college education. Please. Well, she didn't blow up about that advice this time. Yet, anyway. But I'm waiting. She's like old faithful, never quite know when she'll blow but it'll be in approximately 55 to 65 minutes.

I won't even go into the withholding debacle she refuses to fix. Like I said, she doesn't actually want a way out.

It's more of the same. Thanks for the vent.

Bills paid today:

$ 400.00 House Mortgage ($375.86 + $23.14 extra to principle payment)
$ 130.00 Chiro Family Plan
$ 100.00 Bank of America MC
$ 320.48 Propane (6 months)
$ 37.36 Garbage (2 months)
$ 50.00 Costco Membership Renewal
$ 50.00 Costco Gas Card Loaded
$ 154.63 Costco groceries, Kleenex and Charmin
$ 20.00 Rose's monthly allowance
$ 15.00 Tobias' monthly allowance
$ 15.00 Doctor bill
$ 100.00 Citi MC
-----------------
$1392.47 Total Bills Paid

I am also setting aside $500 to be used along with some money from next week's check to pay BoA Visa, and took out $100 cash for miscellaneous expenses.

Isn't that just the way? My membership expired yesterday and today I find the card. Well, we do plan on renewing tomorrow anyway, we did make the decision to do that, just never got around to it. We decided between the gas, sea food, produce, toilet paper, Kleenex tissues, butter, cheese and kosher beef hotdogs that the membership did end up paying for itself.

Tomorrow is payday so we will go then. Just getting the basics though. Go in with a list and no huge overspend.

I had my second cranial sacral therapy session today. It was more intensive than the first one. My mother is paying for me to have six sessions in the hope that it will fix me. Apparently I'm broken. Well, my immune system is not the best, never has been and I've had all sorts of soft tissue damage in my life.

I didn't realize it until the therapist asked today, but my arm, the one that I tore all the tendons in between the wrist and elbow in a horrific accident about 12 years ago hasn't hurt since the first session. And I have been doing A LOT of typing in the last two weeks, which always makes my wrist and elbow and hand hurt and it isn't. So I guess there is something to this voodoo that he do so well. Ouch, that was a bit of language slaughter, wasn't it?

Oh, well, whatever happens happens. And the price is right so bring it on, I guess. Though I wouldn't mind going for a massage sometime soon. Ah, just dreaming. Not going to pony up $50 any time soon for that. But DH is home so maybe I'll have him do it, he's pretty good at making the muscles feel better.

So, I picked up DH yesterday at the airport. It was early release day at school so I took the kids and then we went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Which turned out to be quite expensive for the four of us, but gave everyone 2 meals worth of food. $45 for the meal, $9 for the tip. We tend to go here once a month on the day DH arrives home. Usually it doesn't coincide with early release so it is just the two us and comes to around $25 plus $5 tip. Big difference.

I am hoping this will be the only time we eat out for the rest of this paycycle. We really don't budget more than $60 a month for eating out. Probably shouldn't budget that much either, its not like its healthy.

Ah, well, can't change it now. So DH is home, which means I didn't get any writing done last night, but I did get two pages done before I went to pick him up. I don't know if I'll get anything done to night at all. I think DH is going to read the first 8 chapters tonight.

He is a very good sounding board for me, helps me when I get blocked and knows when I'm using filler. Doesn't happen often that I use filler, but it does tend to crop up when I'm just putting in chair time and not really in the flow of writing. Actually, I shouldn't call it chair time as I do my writing on my laptop, sitting on my bed, which is more comfortable for my posture than the computer chair and the PC keyboard.

I have been reading a writing book right now also. I'm not sure I agree with some of the things advised in it, as it was written in the early 1990's and I've seen plenty of good books out there since then that do the opposite of what they are advising here.

I think it best to probably go with my instincts on this, at least at this point in time. I know when my stuff isn't working, I know when its garbage, I know when its passable, and I know when its good. Which is a big reason why I have not attempted to try to publish the last book I wrote. I am not happy with parts of it and I figure working on this and letting the old stuff just kind of roam around in the back of my head for awhile may bring me around again to where I can fix the other book. We'll see, I suppose.

Today was the day of the auto deposit to savings of $10. I transferred that to ING and that brings the total there to $337.53.

I earned $1.00 in interest for the month of February and a total of $2.50 interest YTD. Combined with last years $38.53, total interest since opening my ING account last October is $41.03 (includes bonus and referral money).

I love ING. Anyone out there who is interested in opening an ING savings account and earning 4.5% interest, I still have invites I can send and all you need to do to earn a $25 bonus is open the account from the invite with $250, and I will get a $10 referral bonus. (Just my usual ING pitch, LOL).