My power bill came. It was $22.75. No that is not a typo. I had a credit of $70.25 and my new budget amount is $93. It was at $110, but the just refigured it. They do this quarterly on the budget plan. My actual usage would have cost $64.96. They may adjust it downward more, but who knows at this point. I'm just happy to free up $17 a month.

My KWH usage for the Apr-May period was 967. For the same period last year it was 2668 KWH.

The changes I have made are to avoid the dryer as much as I can. I have a five load bearing clothesline, 2 drying racks and 2 shower rods that I can hang clothes on from hangers to dry that way.

I have unplugged everything that does not need to be plugged in unless the outlet is too awkward to get to or it is like the TV or VCR/DVD player where you have to reset it each time you unplug it.

I am vigilant about turning the fans off when we are not needing them.

I make sure my son turns his CD player off every morning and unplugs it. He sleeps with it playing music all night. I'm trying to convince him that he should just let it play through once but he still thinks it needs to be repeating the CD all night long.

I am vigilant about lights not being left on when someone is out of that room.

We are turning our computers off at night.

I am using the microwave more often. When I do use the oven I try to bake more than one thing at a time and in large quantities so they can be divided up and frozen and then later thawed and cooked in the microwave. I am unplugging the microwave when not in use. Resetting it is easy.

So one big thing and lots of little things. It really does add up.

A little flyer that came in my bill is offering a handmade copper and brass coffee scoop and two bags of organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee from Grounds for Change (local to the PNW, uses 100% of its energy from the green power program) if you sign up for Puget Sound Energy's Green Power Program. This program charges at the minimum a $4 a month surcharge on your power bill that goes to support the development of renewable energy resources in the PNW. You can also contribute more to this program in increments of $2. So $4, $6, $8 and so on.

I am going to think about it for awhile. It's good until October 15. If I am saving $17 on my power bill now by reducing use, $4 might be worthwhile to me. That would only be a savings of $13 then, but I do strongly believe in the development of non-oil based or polluting energy sources. I think it is a necessity and when we can afford it we will get a hybrid car.

The thing I must ask myself is, if I put that $4 in the bank to go towards the car (which is what my long term savings account is for, if I hadn't mentioned it) will it make a bigger difference in the long run of getting the car earlier and polluting less that way? Or will supporting the development of resources now make a bigger difference. Like I said, I will have to think on it.

It used to be I could never leave Costco under $100, usually $150 but that was with a case of diapers or pull-ups and wipes. Then after we didn't buy those anymore, I still couldn't get under $100 for a long time. Last time I went I came out of there having spent $48. And this was after a month long challenge to not go there at all. I was so proud of myself.

I write a list and stick to it now. I do not go through the toys, dvds, cds and books at all. I avoid the office supply section like the plague. I wouldn't go by the bakery at all if you didn't have to to get to the walk-in refrigerator. Well, I could go the long way around, but the bakery doesn't tempt me now that I bake from scratch. Just not as good as what I can do.

I have to go tomorrow, just for a few things (cheese, milk, eggs and veggies, maybe fruit if the price is good). I found out you can buy a Costco cash card and then use it at their gas station. It won't take cash, which I hate, but of course will take credit and debit. So I don't buy it there up to now. Last time I went it was at $3.11 a gallon, which is 2 cents cheaper than the cheapest Arco, the average is still running right at $3.29. Since I will be there anyway, I will try this. I am saving my gas cards for when things are tighter. Usually that is the one week each month we don't get a paycheck at all.

Since it is coming up on summer we won't be driving as much. No dance, no sports except one or two week long sports clinics, and only swim lessons twice a week in town. I will try to bundle everything that is needed in town into those two days. Less driving equals less gas consumed equals smaller amounts of money going into the gas tank.

I used to save my MyPoints points for Christmas time and get Toys R Us gift certificates, but the one in our town went out of business, and though I could order from them online, when I do my Christmas shopping I like to really see the toys up close and personal.

Anyway, I decided to cash out my points for gas cards instead, so I should be receiving 4 $10 gas cards from Shell. There's one halfway between here and town and its right off the highway, so easier for me to get to than the Exxon that is by the airport or the Exxon in the IGA parking lot, which can be very hard to get back on the highway from, even turning right.

So those should show anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks, but I usually get them in about 10 days. With this and the 2 Exxon cards I have in my purse from one of my trial offers, I'll save $60 off my gas budget.

I did four surveys today. Only one of them paid in money, the other 3 were all points, though one was a lot of points. I got my first survey invitation from ACOP today, that was the one that paid $4. Not bad for 15 minutes of pointing and clicking and about 50 words typed in.

Now that I have been paid by both the trial offer/survey places that I had made it to the cash in amount on and know that it is legitimate, I will go ahead and do some more offers.

I have to call two places tomorrow to cancel trial offers on their face creams. One made my skin red. The other was nice, but at $89 for a one month supply, I'm not switching to that after the trial is up.

I also need to cancel a couple of other autoships that I never got to when I first started blogging almost two months ago and went through my big cancellation frenzy, Feature Films for Families and Lifescript personalized vitamins.

Both kids are in school tomorrow so I can spend some uninterupted time on the phone.

My other plans for tomorrow are to do a ton of laundry if it is sunny (it cleared up this afternoon and was really nice for Rose's soccer clinic). It is supposed to be nice tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it. And maybe get some weeding done in the garden if my back will put up with it.

I got my first check from Send Earnings in the mail today. $49.82. This is so cool. So far this month I have been paid $99.82. For surveys and trial offers. Who knew? I will deposit the money in long term savings on Wednesday when I go in for my next massage therapy appointment. I had one today, too and am feeling a lot better so hopefully the next one will have me back to moving normally again.

The sun is finally out today so I can hang laundry again. We actually had to dry a load in the dryer last night. But now I can hang some out today. Last month we had to dry clothes in the dryer four times, so my goal for this month is four times or less. It should be less. It is June. June should not be as rainy as May, but the PNW never goes in much for what the weather "should" do. If I can keep cutting back on dryer useage, I should really start seeing it on the electric bill. I am also limiting how long the kids can stay in the shower, so that should help, too.

Today I put the wheels in motion to refinance the house. We want to put the current mortgage of $37,500 and our credit card debt of around $32,000 all into a new mortgage on our house. We will change it from a 15 year fixed loan to a 30 year fixed loan. By doing this, it will free up $200 a month for us to start saving for a new car. Because I don't know how much longer we can limp along with the two we have. I'm hoping a year or two, so we can save up as much as possible. One of the vehicles will go as a trade in, probably the Blazer as I don't think anyone in there right minds would buy it if we did a FSBO. It just costs too much in gas right now. Hopefully, we could get $2000 as a trade in. Its in great shape inside and decent shape outside.

Then we could keep the car as our back-up car. Although we went for a long time with only having one car and we did okay with it. So maybe we will sell it, too. I'm just not sure at this point. We have to be able to refinance first, which I don't think should be a problem, as we have a great FICO and no one knows about the mortgage on my parent's house they took to pay my medical bills, as its in their name. According to all of our stuff, we should have an extra $1000 of disposable income. Obviously, we don't as we pay that each month on that mortgage, but it doesn't really matter. We still would be fine.

I hope this is a quick and painless process, as I've never really dealt with internet mortgages before. But the guy I talked to seemed pretty straight-forward. I should have a quote by no later than Tuesday. Possibly by Friday, but I won't count on that, and wouldn't be around to get that call anyhow.

Doing this would make things so much easier, so I hope it all pans out.

Today was payday and I didn't have as much time as I normally do since I started off the morning with that massage. She even gave me an extra 20 minutes over the hour (free) because we were having such a good conversation that she lost track of time and realized when the hour was up she hadn't gotten done all that she wanted. Gotta love that. She said I was in pretty bad shape and should probably come in again next week. I'll see how this plays out first.

I went to the CU that I keep my freezer money account in and made a $25 deposit, bringing that up to $138.58, must have earned some interest on that odd change. I had already paid back the money that I'd borrowed for gas the one week. I still managed to not only forget to grab the aluminum cans to cash in, but the rolled coin as well. I swear, I don't think straight in the mornings. I'll have to take them out to the car the night before I go in next.

Then I went to the CU that has my long-term savings and deposited the $10 that I had set aside previously and an additional $15, total deposit of $25. That account is up to $240.52, so all I need is $15 more and I can open an ING account. I have to leave $5 in the account to keep it open.

After that I went to the cheap gas station, since it is near the CU and topped off the tank. It was at $3.19 as compared to $3.29 everywhere else in the county. Gas costs more here than it does in Seattle. It's because of all the border traffic, we get a lot of Canadian shoppers, so they up the cost to sell to us. It annoys me, because the refinery is in our county so shipping costs are virtually nothing and yet they squeeze us. But that is a rant for another day.

Then went grocery shopping at Fred Meyer. They had beef ribs on sale for .98/lb and Alaska king crab for $6.99/lb, so I got some to freeze. I know I'm not supposed to be buying meat right now, but all we have left in the freezer is chicken, beef steaks, and some seafood. We do like a little more variety. Did not buy any produce but did get milk as they had the Organic Valley milk on for $4.29/gallon, which is over $1 off, so I got two.

I had been hoping to get to Costco today but ran out of time and had to get back for the bus. Of course, I'd been hoping to get there in that sort of I really don't want to go there but need to go there type way. But I always overspend there. I've done better the last few times I've gone and I only need 3 things when I do go, but still the temptations there can be overwhelming.

I'll think about going tomorrow. Rose is going to an all day birthday party/barbecue at one of her best friend's houses tomorrow so it would be a good day for just me and Tobias to go in. Rose always hates that she can't have the samples because she has so many food allergies it isn't worth it for her to try their samples. But they always look so good to her. I can take them or leave them, and usually leave them. My son, however, can make it into lunch time. He'll eat anything, my little bottomless pit. I don't know where he puts it, that kid has a racing metabolism.

Power bill came. Those extra hot steamy showers my son was having when he was so ill and couldn't breathe gave us a hit. But it was still lower than before we started conserving. The next one should be lower again. I'm thinking about getting a water heater timer and we will be getting a water heater blanket as soon as DH comes home this time. We want to keep that power bill down as low as we can.

I just hope the last few days of super heat from the sun that made us have several fans on full time isn't too expensive. At least the weather broke. We had a little rain today but mostly its been a humid, overcast 63 F. So not too much going on on the fan front. Still I shouldn't complain, at least we don't have to worry about A.C. around here. That can get really pricey.

Today my mailbox was full of good stuff. I got the Head and Shoulders sample shampoo and the John Freida Sheer blond samples, both for Rose and my 2 $10 gas cards from Great Fun. Cool. Of course, it won't even fill up half a gas tank anymore, but its something to help cut the cost of running a car right now, which is much needed.

It's not quite as hot today, its at 80 but there is a breeze. I have to go mow the lawn, but most of it is now in shade, so it won't be too hot for me. The grass is growing like weeds. And the weeds are growing like weeds, too. I have to get out the weedeater, too. I think I have to replace the string, but I got a big old roll, so that means handrolling, but it is so much cheaper than getting the prepared stuff.

Have to get the rest of the wash hung up, also. Right now stuff is drying at about 3 hours time, so I should be able to get 3 more loads up tonight.

Today I recieved my Fred Meyer spring rewards coupons and rebates. I'm actually quite happy with the offerings this time. Not that I wasn't happy with the winter ones, but there were 2 I couldn't use. This time around I can use everything.

I got a $2 off coupon for any meat purchase totalling $5 or more, $2 off any produce totalling $5 or more, 10% off any patio set or accessories (need a new replacement cushion) with no minimum purchase, and 20% off any men's apparal (DH needs new heavy duty t-shirts to wear under his coveralls and parka gear when he's out in the field up to his knees in snow, which it is still doing up there), so that is good timing.

They also sent a $3 rebate off any purchase, minimum $3 spent, and the same for $2.50 and $1.50. Can only use one rebate at a time but the coupons can all be used in one go along with one rebate.

I am very happy with meat and produce coupons, as they are so hard to come by.

DH and I had a long phone conversation tonight and we have decided to cut cable. All cable. Not just down to the most basic package of all, but completely gone.

I forget who, but earlier on today (or technically yesterday as it is after midnight as I type) calculated everything the spent on technology and I thought what a good idea. Well, coming close to $2500 was not a nice feeling.

So I broached the subject to DH who has been kind of noncommittal about it up to now. Then I laid it on him, we were paying $780 a year, give or take some cents, for cable tv. And we don't watch all that much of it anymore. The kids don't watch much at all, just videos or dvds from the library.

And even though we both feel very weird about taking this step, not because we can't do it, but because it just seems so bizarre that we would want to, we are going to. It's been such a large part of our lives, our upbringings and all. When we first got cable when I was ten, it was like a whole new world opened up. But these days, that world isn't such a great place to visit and so many shows just aren't age appropriate and yet are billed as shows for kids.

Any series we want to see will eventually be out on dvd and any series that doesn't last long enough for dvd isn't worth getting invested in. We've had too many shows we liked yanked off tv over the years, so not much point in watching something, sometimes.

So we're taking the plunge. As soon as this season of Dr.Who is over, we are cutting the cord. As of June 1st, no more. Wow. This feels huge. But it feels very right.

I forgot to put dinner away tonight before we left for Rose's dance class. I hate when that happens. It means I wasted two pieces of chicken, 3 servings of potatoes, 1/2 can of green beans and a big bowlful of what was probably the best gravy I have made all year. Darn it. Hard to cut the grocery budget if I end up being so fluffy headed I forget to wrap up the leftovers.

Not much else today. Oh, spending journal. $2.00 for two bottled waters at the dance studio.

As a way of cutting my grocery budget, I have been trying to eat down my stores in the cupboards and freezer this month and have been pretty successful with it.

Tonight I cooked the last of the $0.79 per pound turkey legs (purchased after Christmas) and one of the many packages of organic mashed potatoes, adding a salad. Very good. Roasted the turkey so no oil on that but did have some macadamia nut oil (from the scratch and dent) on the salad.

I still have a huge amount of the $0.29 per pound chicken and quite a few steaks, possibly another roast, hamburger, ribs, and various seafood. So still a lot of protein to go. The cupboards are beginning to show empty spots.

I really don't like leftovers, but had them anyway. Lunch was leftover taco meat salad with some cheese (still from my stash) and I skipped breakfast this morning. Okay, well I slept through it. After getting the kids on the bus, I went back to bed, just exhausted. I had food poisoning a month ago and sometimes I still get exhausted, doctor says it just lingers sometimes. So no guilt over the sleep-in.

Mowed the front ditches and the side lawn today. Still have to do the front patch by the propane tank and the whole back yard. I don't want to do that back yard at all. But DH won't be home most likely for 3 weeks so I will have to do it. Wish I could afford to hire it out. I'm allergic to grass as it is, cutting it just goes after my breathing and leaves me all itchy.

Hung a load of laundry and have come to the conclusion that I should never do just a load of socks and unders again. Or at least the socks. I ran out of clothes pins! Ended up hanging the longest ones over the line and a few towels also. I'll wash the socks with the regular clothes from now on. Live and learn.

Today I got a $10 Lowe's gift card in the mail, and not one I sent for, either. They send me ones a couple of times a year, probably because I spend so much money in their garden department. Or at least, that I used to.

I also got my sample of Olay Regenerist Serum that I will try out tonight.

We used the $10 Exxon card we got last week on the way to drop DH off at the airport. It coverd just a smidge over 3 gallons. Horrible. But it is free and is a little over the amount of a round trip from our house to town and back. I am glad to have had it.

I just wish I could have used it at the Arco, because they are still $3.13, not $3.29. But I shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth by complaining about where I can use the free card. I should just be grateful to be cutting my gas expense down a bit in the first place.

I know this, but I still constantly misplace things. Yesterday I bought new bean seeds and guess what I found today when we were cleaning the living room? Of course, the bean seeds.

Slowly, slowly since the beginning of the year we have been making progress in the direction of being organized people, and in some areas I have gotten much better. But I hate buying stuff because I can't find the stuff I originally bought. It wastes money and causes no end of irritation.

We have been throwing out a lot of stuff that we shouldn't have been keeping, recycled what we could, shredded and burned in our woodstove what wasn't safe to recycle, and given away a lot of outgrown kids clothes on freecycle.

Back in December I paid for a year's subscription to out local newspaper. I have been so busy lately that I haven't been reading the paper very much (i.e. just the comics, opinion page, and advice column. Which 2 our of 3 I can access online.

When we aren't using the woodstove much now that it's spring, it doesn't even get another use. So tomorrow I am going to call them and drop down to Sunday and holiday paper delivery. And then walk down to the gas station and get the Tuesday paper that has the grocery fliers in it after putting the kids on the bus. That will help so much with the clutter problem.

I may even cut out the Sunday paper and get a seven month refund. I only get it for the ads really, and my mother usually has those at her house. Or maybe they have them on-line. I will have to check into that.

Today was a no spend day. We made tacos without lettuce today because we were out. Nobody complained though. Had everything else on hand and it still tasted good. It's probably going to be about 2 to 3 weeks before I can start picking lettuce leaves out of the garden.

DH and I had a long talk and we have decided to try to sell the Blazer. I say try because I don't know if there is anyone out there who is willing to pay for a vehicle that averages 16 mpg during this current gas crisis. Under the cheaper gas days we probably could have seen $4000 for it, but now, who knows?

It is a luxury model we bought used and is in excellent shape and has been well-maintained but I think at this point we'd only get $2000 for it. But even with that, it would cut our insurance in half almost. And it would give us a start to our new (to us) car fund.

DH is in Alaska so much of the time that it is silly to try to keep and maintain two vehicles. We will keep the better car and use it as our trade in when we do purchase a new one in a few years. It gets just over 20 mpg and is more comfortable and easier to drive anyway.

Today is the day of my electronic funds transfer, so there is now $10 more in long term savings, bringing my total to $195. $60 more until I can open an ING account and get the $25 bonus. I have to keep a minimum of $5 in this CU savings account to keep it open, so that's why it is $60 more instead of $55.

So I have six more weeks to go, although I may add another $5 tomorrow (payday) if there is anything left after the credit card payment and our own mortgage payment, and all the utilities.

I got our propane bill yesterday in the mail. It dropped from $262 to $167 and of course will drop much more this next time since the furnace is off now.

Not this time, but next time DH comes home we are going to start bringing in wood. We have to figure out who we need to get the permit from, but we are going to go out on one of the gravel bars by the river and cut up dead wood that has washed on shore during flood season. Just have to avoid salmon season.

I saw an ad for an online Citi savings account offering 4.5% interest. That might break my 15 year resolve of never doing any business with Citi. Hmm, I'll have to think on it.

It's another gorgeous day here in the foothills and windy, so I'm off to hang towels on the clothesline. Laundry never ends, does it?

Deposited $11 worth of rolled coin to my freezer money account. Of course, I forgot the envelope with the bills in it at home. I took it out of my purse so I wasn't carrying it around and then forgot I didn't have it. Oh, well, it will keep until Friday when more banking stuff needs to be done.

I still need to take the aluminum cans in, but can do that Friday when I make my next trip to town. I just need to remember to do it.

Signed up for 3 trial offers today:
Great Fun for $1 for 30 days, $8 signup payment with a $20 gas card.
Buyer's Edge, free 30 days, $4 signup.
And Red Blossom, free 2 weeks, $17 signup.
Total $29.

I haven't had a chance to look through the freebies for yesterday or today yet. I have laundry hanging on the clothesline.

I took a good look at my dishwasher and it has 3 settings, heavy duty wash, normal wash, and short wash. Since I pre-rinse everything there is not reason for me to be doing the first two, so I am trying it on short wash. The dishes looked clean. I also have never used heat dry, and when it finishes the wash cycle I am turning it off. It would go for another ten minutes or so if I didn't and it basically does nothing since heat dry isn't on.

I don't know how much more we can decrease our electric bill, but I'd like to find out! Once I get that expense cut down as low as possible, than I'll pick a new thing to cut down on and see where that goes.

It is so nice out today. It's not quite as hot as yesterday, but there is a bigger breeze so the laundry is drying just as fast. I am starting to think I will get through this huge backlog of laundry without having to use the dryer once, and thus cut that expense out of our electric bill altogether.

Just a general recommendation, don't have all four family members down with food poisoning the same week or you will be doing laundry for the rest of the month. Looking on the bright side of things, if it hadn't been for the food poisoning, I never would have been laying in bed surfing the net and found this site and started getting our finances back on track, so silver lining time.

I was hoping for a no spend day today, but ended up spending $5.00, ($1.99 for milk, the rest for a fifteen pound bag of potatoes and a 62 cent bag of chic-o-stik candies, sigh). It would have been $5.02 but the girl at the convenience store didn't want to give me 98 cents in change, so she took the 2 cents out of the need a penny, leave a penny container on the counter. This brings my running total to 87 cents this week. 13 more to go and I will have a dollar I did not have to earn in any way, shape, or form. Q: What's a few pennies here and there? A: A dollar. I wonder if anyone would just hand me a dollar with the same attitude? Well, a few somebodies have almost gotten me that dollar. And as soon as it is a dollar, I will add a dollar to my change jar.

I spent an hour doing surveys this morning and earned $6 at one site and $3.50 at another. I sure had to wade through a lot of dogs to get to some decent survey companies, and of course, the balance has to be a certain amount in each account before they mail a check out, but $8.50 isn't a bad hourly wage for pointing and clicking.

I was bummed last night when I missed out on a $5 survey invitation that had filled up by the time I tried it. This kind of makes up for that.

Our power bill came last night and I just went over it. We are on the budget plan and do not use electricity to heat. Our usage for the month of February was at an average of 52 KWH per day and our usage for the month of March was at an average of 32 KWH per day. Our usage for the February-March period this year from last year was a change of 30, that's 30 less than last year.

We did start making some changes in March, like making sure that the lights were always off when not in use, and we replaced the last incandescent light bulb left in the house with a compact fluorescent bulb. That's all we did for March.

Our actual usage was $62.12 and our budget amount is $110. We have caught up and passed our actual usage and now have a credit of $24.50 with the power company. That usually doesn't happen until June.

I am now really looking forward to the next bill. Because the changes we have made for April have been much more extensive. We wash everything in cold water now except germy kitchen towels and wash cloths, and bedding which I still wash in hot. I have used the dryer twice, once when the kids ran out of underwear and it had to be ready for the next morning and once when Tobias barfed on a bedspread and it needed to be dry for bedtime a few hours later.

The furnace has been off almost every day so that the pilot light has not had to remain at the ready. I unplugged all of the kitchen appliances I usually keep plugged in. I started turning my laptop off when not in use. And the big one is turning off the fans during the day. We all use fans at night to circulate the air and to help block the highway sounds. My son also plays music all night. The kids had a habit of not turning off the fans or the CD player in the morning that I have now broken them of and I have started turning my fan off too, which I also left on. I also turned off the ceiling fan except when it was needed.

I'm sure the next bill won't be as low as it could be. My son had a bad bout of illness that lasted two weeks (and he never gets sick) and the thing that helped him the most was steamy showers, so he was taking 5 or 6 five minute showers a day to help his breathing. I have finally for the last week gotten him down to one shower a day again.

I hope they will change my budget amount soon. They usually reevaluate it every quarter. Winter would'nt even be so bad if it weren't for December. Since we don't do much inside the house besides a tree, we go all out on the Christmas lights. We do have them on a timer but we had them coming on at 3:30 so the kids coming home on the bus could see them lit, and they went off at midnight. So there was a lot of usage, even if most of the lights drew very little. When you have as much stuff as we do, it still sucks it up.

This is one thing we don't want to give up, so we have decided that next year the lights will not come on until 6 and that they will go off at 10. The bill will still be higher but it will be less than this year. I'd sure love it if I could get it to $80 year round for the budget amount.

It is a gorgeous day here, and 68 degrees F with a light breeze. Perfect clothes line weather. Speaking of which, the washer just finished its second spin, so I'm off to hang another load of towels.

Well, gas prices have hit over $3.00 a gallon here so I will not be making any extra trips to town. I wanted to go in today, but I cannot justify it when I have to make a half trip today for soccer practice, a trip tomorrow and one on Saturday. Used to be I would make two runs on the first Friday of DH's pay cycle, one in the morning to do all the banking and a Costco run while the kids are in school, and then back in again in the evening for Rose's dance class.

I have set up an automatic funds transfer to send $10 to my long term savings account every Thursday, so that brings that account up to $125 as of today. I will have to pick the kids up from school tomorrow instead of waiting for the school bus to come so I can get into town early enough to do the banking. So I won't be able to deposit the $50 in my wallet into long term savings until tomorrow, or the $19 into the freezer money until Monday. These credit unions are on opposite sides of town and both close at 5. I can only get there as soon as 4:30. At least my checking account CU has a drive-thru that stays open until 7, so no worries there.

Fortunately the school is on the route between my house and town so there is no backtracking or wasting of gas. And on Monday the freezer money CU is on the way to Tobias's dance class, so again, no backtracking or wasting of gas.

I will save my Costco run for Saturday after the soccer games. I hate, hate, hate going to Costco on Saturday. On Friday I can do all my shopping, wait in line, and get out to the parking lot in the same amount of time it takes me just to wait in line for the cash register on Saturday.

Come to think of it, though, I'm not really out of anything I need from Costco. Maybe I can just skip the run this month. I think it has just gotten to be a habit to go once a month. My freezer is full, now that the produce market is open it beats Costco prices, and I'm trying to eat down my pantry, and I still have plenty of Omega 3 eggs, Kleenex tissue or T.P., so there isn't a real reason for me to go, other than entertainment value (which can get expensive).

Hmm, maybe I should challenge myself to get through this pay cycle without going to Costco at all. That could definitely save me some money. Okay, so that will be my goal for this pay cycle, along with cutting out extra town runs to save gas.

Today I rolled up the change in my change jar and deposited it in credit union #3. It came to $33.50 and it goes into my new freezer fund, bringing my total to $54.50. Goodness, it is ridiculous how utterly thrilled with myself I am about saving money. It used to be more thrilling to spend it. I still have to make my $10 deposit to credit union #2 this week, but won't do that until Thursday.

I transplanted my snow peas, spinach, chard (bright lights), lettuce and garlic and I have homemade cloches (okay, they are green Sprite bottles with the bottoms cut off and the lids left off, but they work) available if the weather swings too cold again. Today is a balmy 55 degrees F, so I hope this cold business is over now.

I'll wait until the beginning of May to plant my green beans. I don't have enough cloches for those since I try to plant enough green beans to can for at least a six month supply and to eat fresh all summer. I lost some once by planting to soon in April before and then getting hit with a hard freeze. I do learn from my mistakes. I'll plant kohlrabi seeds in another week as they can stand a bit of cold. I adore them and they are so incredibly expensive in the grocery. And they taste much better from my organic garden.

I try to keep my produce budget as low as possible once my garden is producing. I have strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, bush cherries, sweet tree cherries, an apple tree, 2 pear trees and an Italian plum tree, so something is usually bearing fruit all summer and I freeze the excess. Veggies vary yearly, based on what I learned from the year before. It helps a lot, but I am going to be even more aggressive this year and see if I can't can or freeze enough for a whole year. I don't like being at the mercy of store prices.

I signed up for my first trial membership today through MyPoints and should get $40 in gas gift certificates. Gas is my biggest non-fixed expense so this should help a great deal. I've been a member of MyPoints for years, back when it was Bonus Mail and you got 50 points for each offer instead of 5. But I've never worked it the way you folks do around here, so this should be an interesting adventure.

My goal for my MyPoints points (ugh, that's a mouthful) is to get enough saved up to eventually be able to get gift cards to Office Depot to use to buy a new laptop. Mine is falling apart on the outside and I feel like its held together with rubberbands and bubble gum.

I was able to get into the toothpaste freebies last night, yay! And signed up for a couple more today.

Woke up to more snow but its gone now. Went to Rose's soccer game and very unfrugally purchased 2 hot chocolates for a total of $3.00. Justified it because it was 39 degrees and I needed it to warm my hands up, and so did Rose. Tobias didn't play in his game today as he decided this morning was a good time to upchuck all over the back of the car, so he got dropped off with grandma. Thankfully I had plenty of time to clean up the car and get Rose to her game on time.

My mother decided to have both kids spend the night so I am getting some much needed rest, not having slept well two nights running. Of course, if I didn't stay up late reading old blogs...

Oh, I finished knitting my Dad a chenille scarf that he wanted for his birthday and gave it to him this morning and this afternoon picked up some new Chenille yarn (on coupon) in a rust/orange (more rust than orange) and then some black with multi-colored flecks. So far I only know how to make scarves and hats, but I enjoy that. It is very soothing after a stressful day. It's either that or play solitaire and at least knitting has a useful end product.

I went shopping today after leaving the kids off. I went to Terra Organica, our local organic food store and bought veggies (but not the horribly overpriced ones), sliced turkey breast ($10), honey spelt bread loaf ($5) for Rose's school lunch (I bake for everyone else, Rose has allergies) and chicken broth. I spent a total of $30.98 there, but had two full bags of veggies.

Then I went to a covered farm stand. Or open air produce market? It's state products only and tends to be cheaper than the grocery store. It's only been open for a week or so, it closes down right after Christmas. So I picked up the rest of the veggies I wouldn't pay for at the organic foods store. Spent $14.12 there, but $1.29 of that was for a pineapple sage start for my garden. It smells wonderful. Then I stopped at the fish shop (pescaderio? I think, it's Spanish) and got some salmon, so spent $8.02 there. I won't go shopping again for at least a week.

I made out 2 weeks of menu plans to use the veggies I got and the fruit I had on hand and the meat I have in the freezer. So all should turn out pretty well this week. Grocery budget is on track. Budget is $70 and that puts me around $56, so there is wiggle room if we run out of milk.

I guess that's about it for today.