The interest from my C1-360 account hit. It is $6.25. I added it to the Emergency Fund.

$7518.61 Beginning Balance
+___6.25 Amount Added
$7524.86 Ending Balance

$195.14 to go to meet my November goal.

I set a goal for myself for the month of October of getting the Emergency Fund to $7510. Today's weekly auto deposit of $10 from savings put me over that range.

$7508.61 Beginning EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount Added
------------
$7518.61 New EF Amount

My goals for November are twofold. One is to get the EF to $7565.91, which is the one month's expenses milestone, which I am pretty darn close to.

And because I need a higher goal to shoot for during the month of November than $47.30, my primary goal for the month is to get the EF to $7720. That will be a total of $203.39, $140 of which will be provided by the 4 $10 weekly deposits of the month, and my usual $100 monthly transfer to the EF, and leaving me to come up with $61.39 from other areas of the budget.

Today is the weekly auto transfer of $10 to savings. I moved it to the Emergency Fund.

$7498.61 Beginning EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount Added
-----------
$7508.61 Ending EF Amount

I have $1.39 to go to meet my October goal of $7510.

After trying to fend off a cold for weeks, I am down. I am just exhausted even after sleeping for 12 hours. Well, there was a break in there to get up and feed the rabbits and let out the chickens and call my daughter in sick to school. But then I went back to sleep. I think it might be the flu. Everything aches, I have a headache, constant post nasal drip, coughing, and bad headache. I was doing okay yesterday, did all that canning and everything, but I feel like a truck ran me over today.

Both kids are sick, too, but they have a stomach virus. One kid is puking and the other kid has the other end of the issue. I do not want either of those things. I had a stomach virus in September and really don't want to go through that again anytime soon. I do have an appetite, though it is small. So far today I have eaten a can of soup. Neither kid is eating much of anything.

Today is a no spend day because of not feeling good enough to go anywhere. I also cleaned out my purse and added $1.76 to the coin jar.

I was able to count kits last night. Sweetie Belle had nine and Piper had seven, 16 altogether. That brings the rabbit population in our rabbitry to 44. The mother's are both doing well with their kits.

So far there are no freezes in the night time forecasts. Hopefully it will stay that way for a while. I am worried about water bottles freezing over night. I may end up putting a small heater out there at night to keep that from happening. Or possibly I can insulate the water bottles. They have that thick foam that goes over pipes. I wonder if they have some big enough to go around a 3 inch diameter water bottle? Hmm...I'll have to investigate that.

Today is the first payday of the cycle, so I sent $100 to Emergency Fund at C1-360.

$7398.61 Beginning EF Amount
+_100.00 Monthly EF Deposit
----------
$7498.61 New EF Amount

I am $11.39 away from making my October goal of $7510.

I had $5.61 left in cash from the last paycheck. I added it to the coin jar.

I have also made the decision to continue to fund my funds for now instead of diverting them to January money. Instead of making extra large principal payments on the mortgage, I will save $500 of that for January money and then go back to making the extra large payments in February. I will still be making a payment big enough to pay off $500 in principal each month, just not $1000.

And come January I can always dip into other funds if necessary, particularly the vacation fund or the appliance fund. But I don't think it will be necessary, since we are getting more money each month through year's end due to having hit the amount for the year of that one tax they can take out. With this plan, I should be able to put $500 a month into the January Money Fund, which will bring the total there to $2203.25. I should also be able to scrape up another $1300 between now and year's end. That should be plenty to take care of the unpaid time off.

Today is the day of the auto deposit of $10 to savings. I transferred it to the Emergency Fund.

$7388.61 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Amount Added
-----------
$7388.61 Ending EF Balance

$111.39 to go to hit my October goal of $7510. Since there are two more Thursdays this month and I will be making my $100 monthly deposit tomorrow, I don't foresee anything getting in the way of reaching my goal.

I didn't make it to the CU where I keep the safety net portion of my Emergency Fund to deposit money yesterday, but made it today. I also got the statement for the quarter yesterday and earned a whopping 54 cents in that account.

$7335.51 Beginning EF Amount
___52.56 Coin Jar Savings Added
_____.54 Interest Added
-----------
$7388.61 New EF Amount

$121.39 to go to hit my October goal of $7510.

I also finally got that account set up so I can access it online. And I added that account to my online C1-360 account so I can now transfer money from the safety net to the main EF. Since the original plan was to only have $1000 in the safety net account I've got quite a bit I can transfer. They will make test deposits in a couple of business days, which with the holiday Monday likely means on Wednesday.

I can also now wet up this CU account to receive paypal deposits. DH already has our main account hooked up to the allotted number of email accounts. Now I can have my own paypal hooked up to an account. This last month I did the 5 $5 gift cards from Amazon and then the $25 gift card instead of getting a $25 cash check just because I couldn't hook up my email to our main account and I didn't have the routing information on the other bank.

This month after I get the 5 Amazon cards, I will go for the $25 cash. Then I can get it dumped into the CU account and from there grab it from the C1-360 account. It's a few extra steps, but I don't have a checking account with C1-360, just savings, and at least when I first set it up when it was ING, you couldn't paypal to a savings account. Now I just need to go set up the paypal account with my email and then set it up with the safety net CU checking account. As long as I can get the money to where I want it to go eventually, then I'm happy.

Today is the day of the $10 deposit to savings, so I transferred that to the EF.

$7325.51 Beginning EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount Added
------------
$7325.41 Ending EF Amount

I'll also be depositing my coin jar money later today and I will be even closer to hitting my October goal of $7510 in the EF by the end of the month.

The $10 auto deposit went to savings today. I transferred it as always to the EF.

$7315.51 Beginning EF
+__10.00 Amount Added
----------
$7525.51 New EF Amonunt

$184.49 to go to meet my October goal of $7510.

My monthly interest for my C1-360 savings account showed up today. $5.51. I added it to the Emergency Fund.

$7310.00 Old EF Amount
+___5.51 Interest Added
------------
$7315.51 New EF Amount

$194.49 to go to hit my October goal.

Yesterday as the weekly deposit of $10 to savings, which always goes to the EF. I forgot about it, though, and so I transferred $35.20 to the EF to meet my Septembers goal of $7300, when all I really needed to do was transfer $25.20. Oh, well, so I passed the goal a bit.

The new balance of the EF is $7310.

The goal for October was going to be $7500, but now is $7510.

After making a larger than usual mortgage payment today, we are now under $9K! Estimated balance is $8937.89. It will likely be $1 or $2 less than that when it actually posts. I used last month's interest to calculate it and I paid it 3 days earlier this month so it will definitely be a bit less. Wasn't due until the 1st. I forgot to reorder checks while I was there making the payment, darn it. Got to remember to do that Monday.

I added $4.85 to the coin jar today.

Today is payday. Not a lot of bills went out today, but large amounts of money did.

$1500.00 BoA VISA
_1075.86 Mortgage payment
__100.00 Cash for the Week
___40.00 Allowances
__202.00 Medical
__100.00 Emergency Fund
-------------
$3017.86 Total Money Out

I am also setting aside $600 of this paycheck to go towards a medical bill that I won't be able to pay in full until next Friday. It is $923.54 and is the result of my medical insurance (worst) company (in the US) Premera "we suck eggs" Blue Cross trying to get out of paying for, oh, just about anything EVER. Not that I'm ticked off or anything.

And we haven't even got the hospital bill for DD's emergency middle of the night visit at the start of the month yet. I don't even want to think about what that will be. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd actually miss Aetna. Mind you, I only miss them a little bit, but still.

I went to the local CU we have a portion of our EF in to deposit the Allstate refund check, the school refund check, and the $11 in ones I had in the coin jar today. It was a total of $39.48. I also transferred $100 to my main EF at C1-360. So a total of $139.48 to the EF.

The CU messed up and put the $39.48 into the dormant checking account instead of the savings account. I specifically said savings and even gave the specific numbers for savings. Unfortunately they are in the middle of a remodel and name change and they had taken out the area where they keep the deposit slips so I couldn't fill one out. Since the savings and checking deposit slips are uniquely different colors it seldom happens that they put it in the wrong account, but without those slips they do. A lot. and I didn't think to double check it until I got home.

So I will have to call them on Monday and have them fix it. They are in the process of changing their internet stuff, too, or I'd just go in and transfer it myself.

Anyway:

$7125.32 Beginning EF Amount
__100.00 Deposit to Main EF
+__39.48 Deposit to Local EF
-------------
$7264.80 New EF Amount

I need to scrape up $35.20 more to hit my September EF goal. I think I can manage.

This was totally unexpected, but at the beginning of the school year my daughter rented a special calculator from the school for her math class. It was $10 for the year and since the special calculator would cost close to $100, we felt renting it was the wiser option. Well, we just got a refund check in the mail for that $10. The note enclosed said, "Do to the Districts desire to reduce/eliminate all course fees, we are refunding your students $10 calculator rental fee. If lost, the replacement fee is $100."

After I finished laughing over the school district's inability to spell or punctuate correctly, I was quite pleased. But they really should have people proofread their documents before they mail them out. Spellcheck will not notice if you use "do" or "due" incorrectly, but I certainly will. And I will also notice when you write students, but mean student's and Districts when you mean District's. Also, district's should not be capitalized. It is not listing a specific district. Honestly, four errors in a two sentence note?

Since it is signed by the principal, I am thinking about correcting the note in red felt tip pen and mailing it back to him. Okay, he probably never saw it at all, but seriously, what a bad example that sets. It's almost worth the cost of the stamp to do so. Almost. Maybe I'll email.

It does mildly irritate me that the check is made out to my husband. Since I am the one who wrote out and signed the original check it should have been refunded in my name, not his. Not that it matters in my case, I can deposit it without his signature into our account, but what if they had sent the refund to the wrong parent when the parents don't live together? Not a smart move.

The $10 will be headed to the Emergency Fund tomorrow when I deposit the Allstate refund and the coin jar money.

I balanced the checkbook today. I've been letting it go since I knew there was plenty of money in the account and I felt to cruddy to do math even with the help of a calculator. Still feeling cruddy, but I figured since tomorrow is payday I should get it taken care of. Balanced it to the penny, so go me.

I also sent $1000 off to the BoA Visa. I will be paying an additional $1500 on Friday. We went a little overboard on the spending with the Visa again, mostly on things to get the rabbitry off the ground, and airfare went up in the spring. Nothing that we can't take care of in a short amount of time, but I'm not too thrilled that we backslid. I know it happens. But now that I have gotten the EF to a level I am far more comfortable at, the focus will be again on that card for a few months. Can't let the evil empire get the upper hand again. Not to say I won't still set EF goals, as I will.

There should be about $500 a month more now that DH has hit the limit on the SSI tax being taken out. He won't make enough for them to start taking it out again this year, so we will have that money back until the end of the year.

Today was also the day of the auto deposit of $10 to savings so that went to the Emergency Fund.

$7115.32 Old EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount of Deposit
------------
$7125.32 New EF Amount

$174.68 to go to hit my September goal of $7300.

I received my safe driver check from Allstate. It's a partial refund of payments for not getting into any accidents. It's not much, just $16.48, but it's something. It will be headed for the Emergency Fund.

I also cleaned out my purse and added $3.87 to the coin jar.

I cleaned out my purse tonight and had a lot of ones. I added $11.25 to the coin jar.

DH's overtime pay hit the account this morning. I transferred $1000 to the Emergency Fund. Usually I nickel and dime my way along, so it was nice to be able to put a large chunk in for a change.

$6115.32 Beginning EF Balance
+1000.00 Amount Added
-------------
$7115.32 Ending EF Balance

$186.68 to go to meet my September goal. My October goal is $7500, which is a month's net earnings. I can't believe I am so close now.

The other bit of big news is that DH has hit the income point for the year when they stop taking out social security. It was actually met on August 30th. So for the last four months of the year we will have bigger paychecks. That will really help with my savings goals.

Projected earnings are $173K unless he gets more overtime this year and of course the Christmas Bonus total will be added to that. If Christmas Bonuses are 10% this year, he will get a check for $17,300 minus taxes. If it is 5%, he will get a check for $8,650 minus taxes. Either way, DD's first year of college will be paid for and we'll be able to use next year's tax refund for something other than saving for college. If something goes wrong with the bonus, the tax refund will still be enough to pay for her first year of college at the local community college.

Big long entry disappeared into outer space despite copy/save. ARGH.

Instead you now get just the EF update.

$6105.32 Beginning Balance
+--10.00 Amount Added
------------
$6115.32 Ending Balance

The Thursday $10 deposit to savings was added to the EF. Slowly but surely.

$6095.32 Old EF Balance
+__10.00 Deposit
-------------
$6105.32 New EF Balance

I deposited $35.43 to the Emergency Fund from the coin jar yesterday.

$6059.89 Old EF Balance
+__35.43 Deposit Added
-----------
$6095.32 New EF Balance

I got an email notice that Best Buy had shipped my computer to Seattle for repair, but they never called when they finished transferring all my documents to the portable hard drive we had bought like they were supposed to. No one wanted to spend an hour on hold trying to talk to a human, though it was tried, but the automated system kept messing up. So DH is going to run over there today and pick it up as we are assuming they finished doing that like they were supposed to before the sent it off.

We are pretty sure I have a mild concussion so I won't be driving this week at all. The first time I tried showed me I should not make the attempt again any time soon.

I cleaned out my purse and swept DH's wallet for ones and coins and added $9.63 to the coin jar today. It was left over from some weekend spending we did.

I got my Capitol One 360 interest today of $4.97. I added that to my Emergency Fund.

$6054.92 Old EF Balance
+___4.97 Interest Added
-----------
$6059.89 New EF Balance

Today was the $10 auto deposit to the EF.

$6044.92 Old Balance of EF
+__10.00 Amount Added
-----------
$6054.92 New Balance of EF

I've been paying things in dribs and drabs this week, but thought I should do a full accounting.

$700.00 Mortgage
__90.00 Physical Therapy
_100.00 Emergency Fund
_100.00 Moving Fund
_100.00 Laptop Fund
_100.00 Christmas Fund
_144.00 Water/sewer Old House
__49.91 Propane
__28.52 Medical
_175.00 Medical
_853.09 AMEX
__40.00 Allowances
_200.00 Cash (groceries, OTC meds)
---------
2680.52 Total Out

I added $100 to the Emergency Fund so it is now at $6044.92, so I have met my goal of $6000 in the EF by the end of August.

New Fund Totals:

$565.61 January Money Fund
$505.21 Appliance Fund
1800.00 Laptop Fund
$600.00 College Fund
$500.00 Hawaii 2018 Fund
$400.00 Property Tax Fund
$500.00 Christmas Fund
$100.00 Moving Fund
$000.00 Propane Fund

I had the money set aside for half the water/sewer bill and the propane bill, but I paid them directly out of this paycheck. Then I transferred what I had set aside to the January Money Fund. That was $121.91.

And I think that covers it.

Tonight I added $10.34 to the coin jar. $9 of that was in ones.

I also went to the grocery store and bought Gatorade, pudding, cold medicine, soup, ice cream and Jello gelatin for my daughter, who has managed to catch a late summer cold that makes her throat violently sore, probably at the slumber party she went to on the weekend. I spent $71.35 on that. Crazy how expensive cold medicine has gotten this year. At least the pudding and Jello were on sale.

It is official. After today's payment, the mortgage is now under $10K. Boo yah!

Today was payday, but other than making a mortgage payment and going grocery shopping, I have not done anything about it. This is because I am still procrastinating rebuilding my spreadsheet. Well, I did make some progress. I loaded Office. Now I just need to build the spreadsheet, which I will do tomorrow since I have nothing else on the agenda, except maybe making more pickles.

I made and canned 6 pints of pickles yesterday:



I put my coin jar money into the Emergency Fund today.

$5912.45 Beginning EF Balance
+__32.50 Amount Added
-----------
$5944.95 New EF Balance

I went to the food co-op after the credit union because of locations, so the dividend check from the food co-op of $7.43 was not cashed until I'd already deposited the coin jar money. So that $7.43 is now in the coin jar for my next deposit. I also added $4.40 in change and ones to the coin jar left from my purchases today. I did have a bit left in checking so that will be transferred to the EF when I make the monthly $100 deposit as well. I will hit my $6000 goal without problems.

DH will be bringing work home with him next week. He'll have a week's worth of work to do during his two weeks off, so we'll get an extra paycheck (or two halves of one) next month, on top of the extra one we're getting because of the number of Fridays this month. Some of it will go to the January Money Fund, some to the Laptop Fund, and some to the Emergency Fund.

The $10 auto deposit went into savings today.

$5902.45 Starting EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount of Deposit
-----------
$5912.45 New Amount of EF

I have $87.55 to go to hit my August goal for the EF of $6000.

It turns out what I thought was a check from the food co-op for $7.43 can't be cashed anywhere but at the food co-op, so I haven't redeemed that yet. I don't want to make a special trip and will be shopping there this weekend so that money hasn't gone in yet.

I have been procrastinating like mad on recreating my budget and holding tank spreadsheets. I should be able to do it easily enough between my blog entries and my 2012 spreadsheet and my checking account. I need to do that tonight since it is payday tomorrow.

I need to pop over to the dentist and bring them the check from the insurance company. I've tried a couple of times and they were closed even though it was normal hours. They might have been on vacation. I don't know. I will try again today and if no one is there I will just mail it to them.

My daughter, son, and I made Korean pork dumplings (Mandu) today for the first time. It took all three of us as it is time intensive but less so with all of us working, (one person to separate the wrappers, one person to put the scoop of filling on the wrapper, and one person to seal the dumplings shut with egg white), but they were fantastic and well worth it. And it's a nicely balanced little meal with pork, mirin, dark sesame oil, bean sprouts, scallions, ginger, garlic, egg, and cabbage in a goyza wrapper. Protein, veggies, and carb in one neat little package. It should have had tofu, too, but I didn't want to dry tofu, so I left it out. I should have taken pictures. Ah, well, next time I make them I will take photos and post the recipe.

I liked them even better than the ones from the Korean restaurant in our town or the Hawaiian Barbecue franchise. I can make 100 dumplings for $10 (less if I'd not used free range organic pork from the ranch). They sell for $6 for 10, so quite the cost savings there.

I received a check from the food co-op, dividends for the year of $7.43 (I think) so I will deposit that into the Emergency Fund along with all the ones I have saved tomorrow.

I am hoping I can recreate my budget spreadsheets. I don't have a current copy saved outside my other computer, but I do have my 2012 budget and should be able to extrapolate from there. I think I can figure out what money was in which category of the Holding Tank from previous blog posts, too. From now on I am seriously backing up my spreadsheets onto a flash drive every week. I feel stupid for not doing that.

I think I can get through until payday Friday with only spending $30 on food. That should leave me with a bit of money to shunt into the Emergency Fund.

I've been having troubles with Swagbucks surveys. I get all the way to the end, hit submit, and then it goes Oops, we had a problem and it's lost along with all my time and points. Very irritating. I did get Swagbucks to credit me the 150 points for the one, but they said they'd only do it the once and only because I'd spent so much time on it. The survey companies they do business with really need to get their acts together. Fortunately I was able to make the daily goal without any surveys today. I didn't need the frustration.

It's Thursday so the $10 auto transfer to savings happened.

$5892.45 Old EF Amount
+__10.00 Deposit
------------
$5902.45 New EF Amount

$97.55 to go to hit my August goal of $6000.