I added $7.30 to the coin jar today.

I also spent $19.20 at the grocery store.

One of my friends told me today that she is getting a divorce. It is sad and I feel really bad for her. I don't know her husband that well, I only ever see her, but they have been together for fifteen years (only married for the last few). It sounds like it's a bad situation and I just wish there was something I could do for her. They don't have kids, so at least there's that.

I went to the doctor this afternoon and he wrapped my knee and said he will write the paper excusing me from jury duty, so that's one less thing for me to stress over. He really did not like seeing how swollen it was. I go back on Friday so I can get it then.

I spent money on perscriptions today, $71.51. I also got lunch at DQ, spending $6.40. I just got a meal, though, no ice cream. My resistance was down because I was in pain. That is something I am really going to have to guard against since I will likely be in pain a lot for the next two months and I can't buy a dinner everytime I hurt or I will go broke.

I added $7.64 to the coin jar (.01 of which I found on the ground).

The chickens are going gangbusters on the egg laying front now that we've put a light in the coop overnight. They need so many hours of light a day to lay consistently and in the winter time they don't get it without assistance. We are getting 3 to 4 a day now. We have to check both morning and night though because temps are freezing and if we let them sit out all day or all night the eggs will freeze.

Mom says to go ahead and suspend payments to her for the next couple of months so we can save that money for the weirdness in DH's upcoming schedule, so yet another thing to not have to stress over. Won't have to make them again until February, though we will still be paying the gas/electric/garbage/internet bills.

I need to remember to call Virginia Mason and reschedule that surgical follow-up appointment, as that is the day I need to see the knee surgeon. I keep forgetting.

My son has his first crush and it is rather adorable. And the girl likes him, too. Aw.

I still need to do my entry on Friday's spending, but I'm definitely in the "I don't wanna," phase. I did enter it all on the spreadsheet, so I'm not slacking that much, but I do like to enter it here for accountability.

...but here I am awake anyway. Woke up at 7, just like every morning. Fortunately the kids did not and are sound asleep and I just might be able to snooze for a little while anyway. Last night I was so tired I basically just waited up for Fringe (not that much emotional satisfaction after waiting 2 weeks without it for some resolution that should have happened in this episode, but didn't) and then fell face first into the pillow and zonked out.

I only got halfway through paying the bills yesterday, just stuff that either needed to be mailed off or electronically paid to hit due dates. Today I will be doing the ones that aren't due until mid-month and hopefully squeezing out at least $1000 to send to the January/future medical fund.

Next week I hope to bank almost 2/3 of the entire paycheck. I've got to make the car payment and send an additional bit to the credit card, but that should still leave me around $2500 to $3000 to put in the bank at ING.

Mom paid me back the $2 she owed me for picking up bread and I had .57 in the bottom of my purse so I put that in the coin jar.

I also got gas yesterday and forgot to mention it. It was $57.59 to fill it. It has dropped to $3.59 a gallon, which was nice to see. Last time I filled up it was $63 something for the same amount of fuel.

Going shopping today at Costco (I wish they would open early so I could go now while the kids are asleep) to do some stocking up. I need the organic mashed potato flakes like yesterday. Been out for a month and am getting really tired of peeling potatoes almost every night. I also want to pick up some more of their black pepper chicken kits. The ingredients list is safe for my son's dietary issues, it is so fast to make (15 minutes start to finish) and is delicious and way cheaper than grabbing takeaway. I also need some fresh fruit and veg and some flour and sugar.

Mom wants help today expanding the chicken yard. They keep getting out so she wants to give them more space so maybe they won't be so tempted. I hope it doesn't take long because I have a lot of stuff on my to do list today that requires not being at home. It does need to be done though as I am getting sick of chasing down escaped chickens. All four of them are laying now. The banty started on Wednesday. Her eggs are about 2/3 the size of the regular chicken eggs and will probably take two to make up for the difference in size when eating.

I will try to be back later with an accounting of all bills paid from this paycheck.

I think I forgot to mention it, but I added $1.57 to the coin jar yesterday and $3.95 today. Because I was going right by CU#2 today I grabbed the bills out, which was $10 and I had another $10 left from last payday's money, so I added that for an even $20.

This brings the Safety Net to $637.53 and the total EF to $2,541.35.

I earned $2.87 interest on my ING account so added that to my emergency fund.

$1900.95 Beginning ING Balance
+___2.87 Interest Added
______________
$1903.82 Ending ING Balance

I deposited the $16.50 from the coin jar into the Safety Net.

$601.03 Beginning Safety Net
+_16.50 Amount Added
________________
$617.53 Total Safety Net

$1903.82 ING Portion of EF
+_617.53 Safety Net Portion of EF
_________________
$2521.35 Total Emergency Fund

Last night I added $4.16 to the coin jar after buying milk and some bread (just not up to the effort of making bread lately). I also found a roll of dimes and pennies that had gotten shoved to the back of the sock drawer (where I keep them after they've been rolled), so right now I have $16.50 ready to deposit to the Safety Net portion of the Emergency Fund. I usually wait until I have over $30 to make a deposit, but since I will be going over that way today I will just make the deposit today.

I deposited my coin jar savings to my Safety Net at CU#2.

$559.53 Beginning Safety Net
+_41.50 Amount Added
____________
$601.03 Total Safety Net

I also sent $100 to the less accessible portion of my Emergency Fund.

$1800.95 Beginning EF at ING
+_100.00 Amount Added
_____________
$1900.95 Ending EF at ING

$1900.95 at ING
+_601.03 SN at CU#2
______________
$2501.98 Total EF

So I've met my goal of getting the EF to $2500 by the end of the month. My next goal for the EF is to hit $3000 by the end of the year.

After all of my shopping today I also added $10.27 to the coin jar, so already started on that next goal.

Have I really not posted since Wednesday? I guess part of that is that there just is not that much for me to do financially until this coming Friday and the other part of that is that I have been chain-reading the Vatta's War series by Elizabeth Moon (lighting one book from the previous book, sort of thing, badly mixing metaphors). I had forgotten how intriguing her writing can be and how hard and fast it sucks you in.

I did fill up the gas tank on Friday at $63.28 for 16.969 gallons.

I added $5.82 to the coin jar so will definitely hit my EF goals for the month. I have no cash left, but I have $23.96 left in checking. $15 of that will go to DS hot lunch costs this week and that leaves enough to buy a gallon of milk if I need it, but I bought two on the weekend that were marked $2 off each (which is awesome for organic milk) and they should make it until Friday.

I have plenty of fruit and veg and frozen meat, so I'm good on groceries otherwise. I am going to need to find a major sale on green beans, though. Since Costco stopped carrying the S&W brand and I hate their Kirkland brand (which surprised me, because usually Kirkland is decent on most things) I have had to be buying it when it goes on a good sale.

I am a little picky on green beans since we eat them almost every day. S&W, the generic Haggen store brand, or Trader Joe brand are my preferences. I prefer the first two since they go on sale on occasion, but TJ's at least tastes good. I can't stand other store brands or Del Monte (which again I don't get, because I like other Del Monte products, just not the green beans). I used to love Western Family, too, but I haven't seen those around in ages. They used to have great case sales, too.

I had my MRI on my knee on Friday. I will hopefully know something mid-week. I'm mixed on what I want. If they find something it means it can be fixed and maybe I'll have a chance at not being in pain, but it also means more surgery. If they don't find something it means there is nothing to fix and I get to have chronic knee pain, difficulty walking, and random swelling for no apparent reason for the rest of my life, but no surgery. *sighs* It's never an easy choice, is it?

I have physical therapy tomorrow and have the $60 set aside for that (wasn't including it in the other money I had left since it is earmarked). It's the only thing that keeps me walking these days, I honestly do believe.

The diet has gotten a little bit...squidgy the last few days. Working on getting it back in top form again. Didn't gain any weight from it, but not for lack of trying. *snorts*

I rolled coins last night. I had enough to roll quarters, nickels, and pennies, which means I just need to come up with $2.50, plus the planned deposit of $100 on the 28th, to hit my EF goal of $2500 by the end of the month, which is great.

DS's school is offering 13 sessions of Japanese lessons for $75, after school twice a week, so he'd stay until five on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Only thing is they sent home the notice yesterday and they expect the money in by the 21st. Really not that much notice. It would have been better if we could have it in by the 28th, which is payday. I will have to borrow the money from the holding tank savings and pay it back on payday.

I hate to do it that way, but otherwise he will miss out on this opportunity. His sister is in her second year of Japanese at the high school, and so he already knows a few words and is really interested in learning more. Maybe my daughter (who is also teaching herself Korean) won't be the only one to go to an Asian country for a few years to teach English.

My son's homework last night was really interesting. It was on the Mono Lake ecosystem in California. It's a saline lake. I had always thought that the Great Salt Lake was the only saline lake in America, so you learn something new every day. He brought home a DVD from class (he has issues sometimes focusing in class when other kids are being rowdy, so the teacher let him check it out) and I watched it with him.

He was able to answer the first four questions pretty easily, though I had to have him look up the word abiotic because neither of us knew what it meant (absence of life). The last question was hard and not answered in the movie so we looked it up first on wiki, then on fossweb. Fossweb sounded nearly word for word like the film but had an extra bit that neatly answered the last question so DS figured out how to put it in his own words and got that one done. I hope it was right anyway. Middle school homework seems harder than high school homework, but he is really learning so generally doesn't mind the difficulty.

DD is staying after school today so I only need to make one trip to pick both kids up instead of two, saving on gas. DH did not fill up before he left and there is about 1/4 tank left. I was planning to take it over to Costco after I dropped DS off at school, but I was too exhausted from two nights of not enough sleep. I came home and went to bed instead and slept until 12:30. I feel much better, sleep wise, but my throat is still bugging me every time I swallow.

I did see the doctor yesterday and I have to pick up a new packet of antibiotics tomorrow which is on the way back from Costco so I can make that in one trip, too. I also have an MRI scheduled on Friday for my knee. I hope they find something this time, something fixable. It is hurting all the time now.

I added $13.27 to the coin jar today. I may have enough to roll coins today, but even if I don't I have enough for a deposit Friday because I have $24 in bills alone. I don't tend to think it's worth the bother to go to that CU unless I have at least $20 to deposit to the Emergency Fund and then I'll combine it with a trip to Trader Joe's. It's not like either one is really out of the way that much, it's just that that CU is really awkward to get in and out of and there is horrible, nasty traffic at that intersection.

I'm trying really hard to make it to $2500 by the end of the month. I do have $100 scheduled to go into the EF on the October 28th payday, but that still leaves me with around $15 to scrape up. I think I can do that. I may have already if I have enough coins to roll.

ING will have at least $3 in interest this time on my savings account, though I'd like to use that for November's goals if I can, which is to get the EF to $2750 and of course December's goal is to get it to $3000. Since I only allot $100 to the EF each month, any other money I deposit is generally a savings from somewhere else, like groceries or gas or because some bill was unexpectedly lower than it was supposed to be. And of course I save all one dollar bills and change. Most months I make my goal if I push hard enough, which is nice.

I added $6.29 to the coin jar today after clearing out DH's wallet of ones and coins. I was able to roll one roll of dimes and one roll of pennies. I am really close on nickels and quarters, too, but not there yet. I have $16.50 ready to be deposited in the Safety Net portion of the EF fund, so hopefully on Tuesday I will remember to do that as the CU is closed tomorrow for Columbus Day.

I added 3 dollar bills to the coin jar today. I might have more later today as well, but so far just $3 in. I should check and see if I have enough coins to roll any yet. After I balance the checkbook, which I have been putting off all week. And doing the budget for both last week and this week since today is payday again.

We've had some takeout this week because I was so sick (pizza and McD's), but I am now back on the no eating out challenge. I am feeling a little bit better, but still a little out of it. Still, I can cook now. I am trying to do a little extra when I do. This morning I cooked 4 chicken sausages and put three away in the fridge so that I can just warm one up each morning. That sort of thing, just so I'm not repeating effort. We have a lot of leftover pizza so I don't have to cook for a couple nights unless I am able.

DD has gone back to school today and DS is home for his second day. DH seems to be doing pretty well though he's still sniffly. Mom has not caught the cold so that is good. She is progressing nicely with her healing, but she really does not want to do her physical therapy exercises, so I have to do a lot of cajoling to get them done twice a day.

I cleaned out my purse last night and I had $6.14 to go into the coin jar. I still haven't balanced the checkbook.

I am doing well on my controlled carb diet. I have now lost a total of 41 pounds since my surgery July 15th, 14 of those since starting the diet. I may have to invest in some new clothes. At least jeans. I can get by for a while with baggier shirts, but I also have some that were too small and are now fitting nicely so maybe not.

I picked up two prescriptions today for a total of $29.27 and went to the doctor.

I earned $1.86 in interest this month from my savings account at ING. I added it to the Emergency Fund.

$2360.48 Starting EF
+___1.86 Interest added
___________________
$2362.34 Ending EF

I did clean out my purse today and had $1.81 in change to that went into the change jar. I gave my daughter a $5 this morning so she could buy lunch. She doesn't eat peanut butter and I had to throw out the lunch meat (despite ordering it by the slice, they didn't eat as much as they said they would) as it had gone off.

DH is home. Yay! It will be good to have him home for a while now.

Mom's class on what to expect when you go home from the hospital was long, almost 2 hours when it was supposed to only be 1.5 hours. Those chairs are rough to sit in for that long with a bad back and knee. I go back tomorrow at 9 for another one of her physical therapy classes and then some time in the afternoon she'll be released to come home.

My aunt and uncle who I have not seen since my daughter was 3 and I was pregnant with my son, stopped by to see my mother. They had no idea she was in the hospital. Gee, Mom, and I thought I didn't talk to my sisters much. They were on their way up to Canada to visit their daughter so they stopped here. I gave them Mom's room number and they said they'd stop by and see her, but whether they will or not is anybody's guess.

Tomorrow is payday. I'll be glad to see it.

Today was payday so I did bills and then ran around doing errands this morning. I had an irritating time at the CU (see previous post), but otherwise everything went smoothly. I will be glad when DH gets home Wednesday so we can take care of the irritating things.

$1000.00 to savings (possible Jan. extra week off)
___17.00 HoA dues savings
__100.00 Property tax savings
__100.00 Propane tank savings
__100.00 Emergency Fund
___37.68 Garbage
__215.00 Chiropractor
__754.24 set aside for HSA
___33.00 DS's school photos
$1000.00 Loan payback to Mom
___13.56 Electricity old house
+_183.91 Master Card (paid in full and put away)
_______________
$3554.39

I have about $400 leftover. I took out $50 in cash and will pay $60 on Monday for physical therapy which leaves me about $290. $100 of that DH will get for his allowance. I am buying a new bread machine which will be less than my allowance, but not by much. That leaves $90 for food, but I think we can get by with only buying deli meat for next week's lunches and some milk, especially since we are still on the no eating out challenge. Whatever is left will go into the EF.

Speaking of the EF:

$2223.18 Starting Amount
+_100.00 Deposit
_________
$2323.18 New EF Amount

$2323.18 EF Amount
+__37.30 Coin Jar savings
__________
$2360.48 Total EF

So I've met my goal of $2250 in the EF. Next goal is $2500.

I am doing fine on day...whatever it is of the No Eating Out Challenge Starfishy and I are doing. Today was a nice use up all the leftovers day.

I spent $1.09 on a packet of highlighers for the kids for school. I gave the chiropractor a check for $215, but he's holding it until tomorrow. He'd rather I do that than pay with a CC as he has to pay a fee every time someone charges their visits. I don't want to pay with CC anyway, not even the one I pay off in full every month.

Tomorrow is payday. I have budgeted this one pretty tightly as well, but there will be a bit more breathing room. I just really want to have that money to set aside in case DH has to take an extra week off in January. It's worth it to pinch now so we don't get overwhelmed later or have to touch our meager emergency fund. So far the kids are being very good about it.

I paid $1 to rent Hanna out of the DVD Express box. it was excellent. I'm not sure what I was expecting from it, but about half of it was different from those expectations. Still, it was very interesting. I liked the alternate ending better than the original. The original one just sort of...ended without coming to a real conclusion. The alternate one seemed to go full circle.

I added .59 to the change jar. I had $1.25 more, but DS needed that to buy a graph composition book for his science class tomorrow so it never made it to the change jar. They have to purchase them in class as they are a special order thing. I think that's it for today.

The refund from the oral surgeon was $151.02. That was quite a bit bigger than I was expecting. I thought maybe $50 or less. So what I did was I deposited $101.20 into the Safety Net portion of the EF, and kept $50 which will go into the HSA when I go to the other CU. It'll cover the smaller bill from Virginia Mason I got the other day. I thought that the Allstate bill and my dollars were in my purse, but I guess I took them out so I wouldn't be carrying them around all weekend. So that didn't get deposited yet.

$421.03 Beginning Safety Net
+101.20 Deposit Amount
-----------
$522.23 Ending Safety Net Balance

$1,700.95 ING EF Amount
+__522.23 Safety Net Amount
------------
$2,223.18 Total EF Amount

I have hit my goal of getting the Safety Net to $500. My next goal for the Safety Net is to have $1000. I think that is a good amount to have ready locally to get through an emergency with the rest on tap within 3 business days from ING. It would cover a few nights in a hotel, gas and meals.

My next goal for the EF itself is to hit a total of $2500.

I had to buy a music book for DS's orchestra class, so that was $9.32. I had .68 in change from that and put it in the coin jar. That leaves me with $5 in cash for the rest of the week.

I bought my produce yesterday and the deli meat for the kids lunches. I have $10 left in checking for the week after I pay the PT today and the tournament fee tonight. That's okay. I have a full tank of gas and I don't need to buy anything else before Friday. DD will need $5 to buy a ticket to the homecoming dance and DS has pictures next week so I need to budget a bit for school fees next week.

I am happy not having the money because it will help me stay on my no eating out challenge and my eat from the pantry/freezer challenge. I know it seems tight, but it was the way I could send the most money possible to the credit card Friday.

I've been on my controlled carb diet for 13 days now and so far have lost 9 pounds. And that is 35 pounds lost since the surgery. If I stick with this, it's interesting to think that this time next year not only will my finances be in order (no CC debt), but so will my body. I do need to start swimming again, though. I've been lazy about exercising and I know my immune system could use the boost as I am still stuffy from the cold last week.

DH ran the numbers on what our tax refund will be next year. We're looking at around $3500, depending on how much we can deduct for the HSA (I think we may actually hit the full amount). We'll only be able to deduct $600 for our kids though. This is the second year he's made enough that they don't let us deduct the full amount for our kids. But the $3500 will definitely put the final nail in the coffin of the Evil Empire (BoA) so that is good.

DD and I went to see a movie today. We saw Contagion. It was very well done, very believable. We both liked it a lot. It was solid and very good. I wasn't blown away or thinking, hey, I need to see that again right now, but it was definitely worth the money ($16.50 for the two of us to see a matinee). It was nice to have a girls' day out with her. We don't really get that much anymore now that she's 15. I used part of my allowance money to pay for it.

DS went to a decoy show with my mother. They were selling some of Dad's collection. They made $1220. After paying for the table space and the hotel overnight, the profit was $1020. Mom had promised DS 10% for his help. So he earned $102. He's really excited. Right now he has $148 in his possession ($10 from last pay cycle, plus the $36 allowance for the last six weeks).

Mom is taking him to buy a couple used video games tomorrow and the rest he wants to put in his bank account to save. He, at least, is getting the concept of saving. I told DD she has to start saving at least $10 out of her allowance every six weeks regardless of what she wants to buy. I just want her to get into the savings habit. She's never really been one for saving, but I think it is a skill she really needs to have by the time she gets out of high school.

Anyway, I cleaned out my purse tonight and had $4.50 for the coin jar. I still have $15 in cash and plenty in checking for what needs to be purchased this week. Tomorrow I have to buy a music book for DS's orchestra. It costs less than $10, though.

So another bill from Virginia Mason came, but this one is only $45.07 and is for a couple of the follow up appointments.

But the good news was Allstate sent us our Safe Driver Refund. If you go your six months without an accident they give you a partial refund. It's just $20.30 but it's something. It was too late to go deposit it when I received the mail so I will do that on Monday along with the $13 in the coin jar. It will go into the Safety Net portion of the Emergency Fund at local CU#2. Step by step, bit by bit.

It's Thursday, the day before payday, and I don't need to buy anything, so I cleaned out my purse and my wallet. I had $3 in ones and 23 cents in change so added that to the coin jar. Don't know if I will make a deposit tomorrow or not. I don't have enough coins to roll anything and only have $13 (I think) in bills. I usually wait until I have around $30 to make a deposit, but then again, it's not earning any interest just sitting there on my dresser. Not that it's earning that much more in that particular CU.

I'm making pizza for dinner tonight. We have half a can of tomato sauce (which I'll add Italian herbs to), some leftover ground beef and leftover ham that needs using up. We also have cheese that's been open for a while that needs using up. I'll add pepperoni, onion, and some sweet bell peppers to that. I just need to remember to put the ingredients into the bread machine around three so it has time to rise before dinner.

DS is going away with his grandma this weekend, so I will have to take care of the chickens. Fortunately they come in on there own at night so all I have do is shut up the coop behind them and let them out the next morning, making sure they have water and a bit of feed. They scratch for most of their food.

It'll be nice to have a day off from both DS and Mom, to be honest. They will spend Friday night in a hotel and then participate in a decoy show on Saturday. Mom has done this a few times now as she sells off Dad's extensive decoy selection. DS makes 10% of the total profit for helping her (after she takes out the fee for the table rental and the hotel). Last time she made a profit after fees of $800 and he got $80.

He loves to go to these things and would do it for free, but he works hard for her and it's one of his few ways to earn money, besides his little aluminum can collecting business, and his allowance. He makes almost as much in a year at eleven as I did at 12 with all my babysitting (though not with the berry picking thrown in).

He's good with his money, too, saving up for things. He saved up for about half a year to get his 3DS. Now he wants to buy some software that will make his portable DVD drive run on his Netbook. He's patient with saving money which is good, because some of the things he wants take quite a bit of time to save for.

I wish DD was a bit more like that. I'm going to require her to start putting $10 in the bank every allowance day starting tomorrow. She's agreed, though grudgingly, to do so.

Despite the fact that I slept from ten to seven, I am totally wiped out from the trip to Seattle yesterday. I could seriously take about a three hour nap right now and just might once the youngest is off to school.

The trip to Virginia Mason went well. My healing is coming along on schedule and I won't need to have the other surgery in November. He's not saying I won't ever need it, but now he's saying maybe five or ten years down the road and possibly not at all. That would be wonderful. My next follow up is in December.

Not having that surgery means that $1700 I was going to set aside for medical can go elsewhere. Not sure where yet. Maybe to build up next year's $2500 deductible or maybe to debt repayment. Maybe I'll split it in half and do a little of both, or maybe I'll throw it at the mortgage and bring that down to $17,000 left. I'll have to think about it.

I found 33 cents at the hospital yesterday. As I told Baselle, I think people in Seattle just throw their change away. It went in my coin jar. FIL had to borrow a ten off me yesterday and when we got back to town he paid me back in five ones and a fiver. I put the ones in the coin jar. I am going to try to hold on to the fiver until payday and if I don't spend it, it will go in the coin jar, too. I have $15 left in checking, a fully stocked fridge, and no reason to spend any money. Aw, heck, I'll just put it in there now.

I had enough in checking to cover the ADT auto pay so I took the money I set aside for it that was in my holding tank and stuck it into the EF. I added my last $5 to the coin jar money and then deposited it, a total of $32, into the Safety Net.

$2050.61 Beginning EF
---39.77 To ING EF
+--32.00 To Safety Net EF
-------------
$2121.98 Total EF

The Safety Net portion of the EF is now up to $421.03 and the ING portion of the EF is now up to $1700.95. My goal for the month is to bring the total of the EF to $2250. That leaves me needing $128.02. There will be the regular $100 transfer of planned money so I just need to scrape up an additional $28.02. Shouldn't be too hard. I would really like to have the total EF up to $3000 by year's end.

Tonight the house was too hot to turn on the oven or the range so instead I decided it was leftover night. There were some leftover chicken legs, some leftover tuna fish, and some leftover pulled pork. We all chose one and ate it cold. We also had cucumbers and watermelon and milk. Very simple and no adding to the major heatwave going on right now.

Tomorrow starts my diet and I will be using my new baby George grill. It was $19.99 plus tax. That won't heat up the house much, fortunately. I am roasting a whole chicken tomorrow, hot day or not so I can have a bunch of cooked protein on hand. Or maybe I'll put it in the crock pot and set it on the back porch.

As I've mentioned we had a ridiculously cool summer while everyone else was going through a heatwave. Now when summer is almost gone we finally get hot days in the low 80's. It's scheduled to be around that for the next ten days or so. I think we are in for an Indian Summer. We will definitely be using the pool as much as possible.

I forgot to mention that I added $1.55 in coins to the coin jar yesterday from DH cleaning out his wallet. Today I added $3.73 from my purse. I didn't make it over to the CU yet to deposit the money into the safety net. I forgot both yesterday and today. I will try to remember to make the deposit tomorrow after I take DS to school.

Interest hit my ING account today. It was $2.56. This is the most I've gotten in interest from ING in months, since April when we had a lot more money in there but then had to pay taxes. I know it's not a lot of money, but last month the interest didn't even hit the $2 mark, so I can be a little bit giddy that it's over two and a half. Keeping the extra $1500 in there for two weeks until it was time to pay this week's bills did make a difference after all. I thought it would be piddly, but it's a bit bigger than piddly. *laughs*

Anyway, I added it to my emergency fund so:

$2048.05 Beginning EF Balance
+___2.56 Interest Added
-------------
$2050.61 Ending EF Balance

I also added $5 in ones to the coin jar. My husband, however, used $1.10 in coins from the coin jar for parking money when he took my daughter to Mind Port, an interactive art museum yesterday. That's not where he's supposed to take it from, but he didn't feel like getting change elsewhere, so it is what it is.

I have eleven ones and a roll of quarters in the coin jar, so I will probably try to get over to CU#2 tomorrow to deposit that $21 into the EF. My goal for the month of September is to get the EF to $2250. One hundred of that is a regular deposit, and the rest comes from coin and dollar bill scrapings and any spare money leftover in the grocery budget. I like the challenge of squeezing out the extra wherever I might.

Edited to add: DH went to the store. While there I called him to pick up some milk for Mom. It was $2.99 so she gave us $3. I added the $3 to the coin jar. I also had .54 in my coin purse I forgot I had, so that got thrown in, too. So that will be at least $24 for the Safety Net if I deposit it tomorrow.

DH spent exactly $42 on groceries, saving $16.08 on sale items.

Yesterday was payday. This is the small check and it can vary anywhere from $1000 to $1300 give or take a couple dollars and depending on when medical gets taken out. There was no medical taken out of this one so it came in at $1322.42. I sent $586.82 off to the credit card, but $500 of that was left from last week and I just never got around to sending it because we were so busy and I'd already made one payment so it wasn't due or anything.

We still have to do some back to school clothes shopping today before I determine what happens to the rest of this check. Probably some will go to medical and some will go to credit card and I'll save out $200 for groceries. DH has to take DD out to a movie and out to dinner as part of her birthday present (since he wasn't here on her birthday and she wants father daughter alone time), so I'm not sure how much that will be. Less than $100, more than $50 probably.

And I desperately want to go on a date alone with my husband at some point before he goes back. There is a movie I want to see (and I never go to the theater) and a steakhouse I want to go to. DH and I are coming up on our 21st anniversary of being together (half our lives) next month but he won't be home for it so I want to celebrate now.

We didn't get to last year on the big 20th at all. Mainly because my mother was busy with getting my father put into the nursing home and my in-laws were meeting my SIL's boyfriend's parents for the first time (2 weeks later SIL and boyfriend broke up because he was getting too serious. Yeah, that was an important meeting, if you didn't want to get serious why'd you do the whole parents meeting parents thing?). This year instead of an overnight somewhere without the kids we're just trying for a night out, but who knows if it will happen. DD is old enough to babysit DS, but she gets tired of him a lot these days.

I overestimated on a few categories in my holding tank so had some extra money there. I swept that into the emergency fund. It was $47.09.

$2000.96 Beginning EF
+__47.09 Amount Added
--------------------
$2048.05 Ending EF

I had to loan DH $5 out of the coin jar so that will have to be paid back. We forgot to get money out on Friday for the dump runs we needed to do today (DH and Mom are out at the house working) so we scrabbled together all the cash in the house and that $5 was part of it. I'll make sure to replace it on Monday.

Yesterday was payday. This is the small check and it can vary anywhere from $1000 to $1300 give or take a couple dollars and depending on when medical gets taken out. There was no medical taken out of this one so it came in at $1322.42. I sent $586.82 off to the credit card, but $500 of that was left from last week and I just never got around to sending it because we were so busy and I'd already made one payment so it wasn't due or anything.

We still have to do some back to school clothes shopping today before I determine what happens to the rest of this check. Probably some will go to medical and some will go to credit card and I'll save out $200 for groceries. DH has to take DD out to a movie and out to dinner as part of her birthday present (since he wasn't here on her birthday and she wants father daughter alone time), so I'm not sure how much that will be. Less than $100, more than $50 probably.

And I desperately want to go on a date alone with my husband at some point before he goes back. There is a movie I want to see (and I never go to the theater) and a steakhouse I want to go to. DH and I are coming up on our 21st anniversary of being together (half our lives) next month but he won't be home for it so I want to celebrate now.

We didn't get to last year on the big 20th at all. Mainly because my mother was busy with getting my father put into the nursing home and my in-laws were meeting my SIL's boyfriend's parents for the first time (2 weeks later SIL and boyfriend broke up because he was getting too serious. Yeah, that was an important meeting, if you didn't want to get serious why'd you do the whole parents meeting parents thing?). This year instead of an overnight somewhere without the kids we're just trying for a night out, but who knows if it will happen. DD is old enough to babysit DS, but she gets tired of him a lot these days.

I overestimated on a few categories in my holding tank so had some extra money there. I swept that into the emergency fund. It was $47.09.

$2000.96 Beginning EF
+__47.09 Amount Added
--------------------
$2048.05 Ending EF

I had to loan DH $5 out of the coin jar so that will have to be paid back. We forgot to get money out on Friday for the dump runs we needed to do today (DH and Mom are out at the house working) so we scrabbled together all the cash in the house and that $5 was part of it. I'll make sure to replace it on Monday.

Today I added $116 to the Emergency Fund. I added it to the ING portion and not the Safety Net portion. I have now met my August goal of $2000 in the EF by the end of the month.

$1884.96 Total EF
+_116.00 Amount Added
__________
$2000.96 Total EF

I added $5 in ones to the coin jar today. That is what I had left from my Fair budget. DH still has some money left from it, too, but I didn't get it before he headed out to the house today to do some yard work.

I put $1600 in the holding tank for the bills that come due in the first two weeks of September (it's a few dollars more than needed, but thought a cushion was a good idea0 and transferred the medical money (or $1750 of it) into regular savings that will go into the HSA as soon as we open it on Monday.

I just need to pay the water bill and take care of the allowances and DH's birthday money and then set aside a bit for groceries and some for physical therapy (I paid the chiropractor already $215) and then I will know how much extra I can send to debt repayment.

The HoA got really snippy and sent out a note that basically said I know you are dealing with ongoing medical problems, and we don't want to make things worse, but get your butt out here and mow your lawn. Yes, HoA, I love you, too. I know they have a point since it has been seven weeks, but they knew we were going to not be able to go out there for a while (and one of the neighbors had volunteered to mow it at least once every two weeks, but apparently didn't) and this is the first weekend since DH got home so we were planning to go out there anyway. Or at least he was.

One of the neighbors complained and I am sure I know which one, too, he is such a busy body and always has been. Of course he also lets his dog run wild and doesn't clean up after her when he takes her for walks, but since he has always been on the board complaining about it never helped anyone. (He does keep his lawn impeccably mowed). The thing is, 90 percent of the people out there do not mow their lawns during the summer. And 50% of the people out there do not pay their dues. We have always paid our dues on time and they waited to send out their note until after we had paid them (so it couldn't have been that urgent).

When I was healthy, of course I would keep it mowed, but they knew I was having surgery and they knew DH wouldn't be able to leave me right after and that he also would be gone an additonal 3 weeks in Alaska, and they said it was okay. Guess it was only okay until someone whined about it. I swear we will never own a home in an HoA again. I still remember when they got after a cancer patient who was undergoing chemo for not keeping her lawn mowed. Sometimes I really dislike the people on the board. They irritate the "heck" out of me.

At least DH will be able to go out every Saturday for a couple weeks and then I should be strong enough to mow the lawn again and it will be September so the grass will start going into its dormant cycle by the end of the month probably unless we have an Indian Summer. I have a little push mower that is very light that I can use once the tall grass has been chopped and it won't hurt to push around at all. Or if it does, it's light enough for the kids to use.

I ran the numbers and figured out how much money I need to set aside for the first two weeks of September when there is no paycheck coming in to meet the bills that come due then. $1574.77, so I'll just round that to $1600. I also need $722 to meet this week's needs and wants (allowances for me and DH, a trip the fair, DH's b'day presents, water/sewer at the old house, and groceries). That'll leave about $1000 to send to debt. I will pay off the MC (again) that we put some money on while we were on vacation and the rest will go to the VISA. I had hoped for $2000 but I always forget things when I try to figure

The next paycheck will be the little one that is usually around $1200 for two days (might be a bit higher with the raise). I think we will likely spend about $500 on school clothes and I need new shoes, too. I've figured out what the kids have outgrown and what they need. I am pretty sure we won't spend all $500, but I'd rather overbudget for it than not.

Out of that $1200 I will send $116 to the EF to hit my goal of $2000 by month's end. I will probably keep out $200 for random expenses (prescriptions, groceries, b'day dinner, one movie, ASB cards, yearbook ($40 now or $60 in June). That should leave an additional $500 leftover to send to the VISA. So a total of $1500 extra this month to debt repayment.

It may not look as good as it actually is since the cost of airline tickets has gone up and we have to absorb that, but we still should have this all paid off by year's end.

Oh, shoot, I always forget something. I left out chiropractor and physical therapy. So...$400 or so for that. Only $1100 extra. Bummer. But still good.