I did the major Costco run and now my pantry and toiletries are fully stocked again. I should be able to go a month without going there again, and then only for toilet paper and lemons (we go through a lot of these to make DS's lemonade). It is nice to see the shelves full. The only thing I did not get was potatoes because they only had the 20 pound bags and they looked like they were starting to sprout. We might be at the point where we can start digging up potatoes, but I still have 1/3 of a 5 pound bag left and several packets of organic potato flakes so it's not the end of the world and I can pick some up (hopefully on sale) at one of the grocery stores soon. I did impulse buy a package of English cucumbers ($3.39), but everything else I bought was on my list.

I also paid bills today. The majority went to BoA. We used our MC on vacation and to pay for the Inn at Virginia Mason which is why I'm listing it again when it was paid off before. This doesn't pay it off, but I will be putting more on it next Friday with that as my intention. I will also be putting more on the VISA.

$1862.10 BoA VISA
$_500.00 BoA MC
$_757.82 BoA car payment ($250 extra to principal)
$__10.56 Medical
$__43.70 Garbage (old house)
$__65.56 Internet
$__44.89 Phone (old house)
---------------
$3284.33

I spent the rest of the grocery budget and close to $100 for toiletries and the megapack of paper towels (18 rolls, I think).

I decided to keep the $40 I still had in my wallet from last pay period and not get anymore cash out for this week and see if I can get by on it.

I did roll a thing of pennies and I had $25 in ones and two fives that I'd squirreled away in the coin jar so I went to CU#2 and added $25.50 to the safety net portion of the EF. That brings the safety net to $389.03 and the total EF to $1884.96. That leaves me $115.04 to scrounge up by month's end to hit my goal of $2000 in the EF.

My first goal for the safety net (which is my easily accessible portion of the EF) is to hit $500 and my second goal is to hit $1000. I figure I probably would not have an emergency bigger than that, and if I did that would give me the time for the transfer from ING back to a local account. I don't have four wheel drive anymore so if I blow a tire I'd only have to replace one, not all four. That was my biggest foreseeable expense before we got this vehicle.

Oh, I bought a Christmas present for DS while I was at Costco today. It seems too early to be buying presents, I usually don't start until October, but this was a good price and something he has wanted for months so I was happy to see it and it can sit in my closet for the next four months. I really should finish knitting his scarf as well.

I did the major Costco run and now my pantry and toiletries are fully stocked again. I should be able to go a month without going there again, and then only for toilet paper and lemons (we go through a lot of these to make DS's lemonade). It is nice to see the shelves full. The only thing I did not get was potatoes because they only had the 20 pound bags and they looked like they were starting to sprout. We might be at the point where we can start digging up potatoes, but I still have 1/3 of a 5 pound bag left and several packets of organic potato flakes so it's not the end of the world and I can pick some up (hopefully on sale) at one of the grocery stores soon. I did impulse buy a package of English cucumbers ($3.39), but everything else I bought was on my list.

I also paid bills today. The majority went to BoA. We used our MC on vacation and to pay for the Inn at Virginia Mason which is why I'm listing it again when it was paid off before. This doesn't pay it off, but I will be putting more on it next Friday with that as my intention. I will also be putting more on the VISA.

$1862.10 BoA VISA
$_500.00 BoA MC
$_757.82 BoA car payment ($250 extra to principal)
$__10.56 Medical
$__43.70 Garbage (old house)
$__65.56 Internet
$__44.89 Phone (old house)
---------------
$3284.33

I spent the rest of the grocery budget and close to $100 for toiletries and the megapack of paper towels (18 rolls, I think).

I decided to keep the $40 I still had in my wallet from last pay period and not get anymore cash out for this week and see if I can get by on it.

I did roll a thing of pennies and I had $25 in ones and two fives that I'd squirreled away in the coin jar so I went to CU#2 and added $25.50 to the safety net portion of the EF. That brings the safety net to $389.03 and the total EF to $1884.96. That leaves me $115.04 to scrounge up by month's end to hit my goal of $2000 in the EF.

My first goal for the safety net (which is my easily accessible portion of the EF) is to hit $500 and my second goal is to hit $1000. I figure I probably would not have an emergency bigger than that, and if I did that would give me the time for the transfer from ING back to a local account. I don't have four wheel drive anymore so if I blow a tire I'd only have to replace one, not all four. That was my biggest foreseeable expense before we got this vehicle.

Oh, I bought a Christmas present for DS while I was at Costco today. It seems too early to be buying presents, I usually don't start until October, but this was a good price and something he has wanted for months so I was happy to see it and it can sit in my closet for the next four months. I really should finish knitting his scarf as well.

I just added $7.45 to the coin jar. The cherry lady was there when I drove by today so I stopped and got six pounds of cherries for $12. I'm glad I did as she said this was the last day she was going to be there as the season was over. Then I paid .55 at the library for parking since the two handicapped slots were taken and so was the 5 minute drop off slot. Since I had to pay I figured we'd spend a little more time there so spent a little more on parking to do so. So the $7.45 was the change from the $20 I used for all that.

Mom is picking me up milk on the way home from DS's tae kwon do class. I gave her a $20 for that so whatever is left from that I will put in the coin jar as well and then make my deposit tomorrow. I still have $40 in my wallet and am debating dumping that in as well since tomorrow is payday.

I am going to Costco tomorrow. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that (and really hope they have a ride on cart) but I need to buy TP, paper towels, butter, unsalted butter for baking, lemons, potatoes, peanut butter, sugar, flour, cocoa (if they have it), tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, e.v. olive oil, crackers, cashews, and a couple of other items that are cheaper at Costco than anywhere else. My stores have not been this low in ages. I am so used to having a fully stocked pantry that I've had to be a bit more creative than usual this week with meals.

I cleaned the fridge today in preparation. I am really pleased at how little I had to throw out. I am getting a lot more skilled at leftover management and not letting veggies go to waste than I used to be.

Starting on the first paycheck in September DH will have hit the point where they stop taking out social security for the year. That should give us an additional net of $650 a pay cycle. This on top of the raise which gives us an additional $550 a pay cycle means we'll have an extra $1200 every six weeks to pay on either consumer debt or medical debt until January. I am really, really hopeful that means we will be out of credit card debt by the end of the year like our original plan before my medical issues raised their ugly heads again.

I haven't gotten any bills yet from Virginia Mason. I am really wishing that I would start seeing some so I would know how to plan. I get anxious when things are unknown or up in the air. I started going down there in May so I feel like I should have gotten something unless there is going to be some sort of lump sum at the end. But I don't know if this last visit yesterday qualifies as the end or the follow up in a month does. So far I have $2000 set aside for it, but I really want to know what it is going to be.

I actually had them double check that they had my address right in the computer when I was there yesterday. They do. I should have DH check with the online insurance page to see if they've received anything yet. That might give us a ball park.

Today was my daughter's 15th birthday. She wanted pizza so we got a Hot and Ready 3 meat pizza and a few bags of breadsticks and red sauce from Little Caesar's. It was $19.52. The .48 in change was added to the coin jar. My mother made the chocolate cake and frosting off the Hershey's cocoa can. It was very rich. I only had a small piece. It was nicely moist but I can't handle too much chocolate. Everyone else devoured it, but there is still over half a cake left. I've had enough sweets for the week.

I'm still quite exhausted. The trip to Seattle really wore me out yesterday and I've not quite bounced back yet. I hope another good night's sleep will help with that.

The kids walked down to the store to buy some Udon because I got the wrong flavor the other day. We will still use it eventually, I froze it, but we won't put in the flavor packet, we'll use chicken flavored powder from TJ's or maybe just dump tomato sauce on it for poor man's spaghetti. I know people say not to freeze noodles, but I've done it before, just had to make sure the container was completely air tight. It's not exactly the same when thawed but it still is relatively good, IMO.

They also got a bag of chocolate chips for making cookies. I sent them with a twenty and they came back with $12.23. I added $2.33 to the coin jar and put the ten back in my wallet. I've already got $10 in ones in my envelope since Friday, which probably means I've been spending too much. Well, not really because I am within my grocery budget just fine, but it feels like a lot, simply because we went to many different stores.

Anyway, I think I'm going to meet my August goal of pushing the EF up to $2000 by month's end without too much of a struggle.

I went to the final grocery store today and got the few processed food items that I buy that are additive and preservative free, two pot roasts and a pack of chuck steak for making beef with broccoli. I spent a little over $40. I left the receipt in the van so I don't remember the exact amount. I was able to walk it today, but when I came home I had to lie down for an hour.

I also bought two bottles of nasal spray as my allergies are bad right now and a container of Tums. Some of the medication I am on (the antibiotic) gives me stomach trouble, hence the Tums. That was around $27 with tax. I had them ring the meds up separately from the groceries because they come from a separate budget. I am definitely seeing a price increase in OTC meds.

The store was out of Motrin. I have about 20 pills left. That will hopefully last another week and then maybe I will have the strength to go to Costco and get the mega bottle.

We ordered a pizza today. I could have cooked (and actually will for dinner) but I do like to get a Round Table Pizza once a month so that was $27.18.

Oh, I sent some money with my daughter to the mall. Mom is taking her birthday shopping and I wanted her to pick up some Paul Mitchell Special Tea Tree shampoo. I sent her with $40. It's usually around $32 for the 32 ounce bottle.

I know it's pricey but it is the only thing I have found that can control the oil slick that is my hair. And it lasts about 3 months. I have tried virtually every shampoo on the market. Most of them are volumizing and moisturizing, two things that I definitely do not need. My hair is thick enough it could have it's own zip code.

Drove by a house today that I viewed a virtual tour of online. It is behind the grocery store we went to. It's really gorgeous on the outside, too. And it is a second house that would really fit all our needs. Enough bedrooms, enough bathrooms, in the right school district, close to my favorite grocery store and within walking distance of two of our favorite restaurants and the library.

It showed me that I didn't have to fall in love with the first house just because it was perfect. That there are other houses and will be other houses when we are ready that will fit our needs. I really am leaning towards the Craftsman style if we get a two story. I'd prefer a one story just because stairs are not my friend, but if there is a master bedroom on the ground level I am fine with that.

Of course I also, and this is more critical than most things, want whatever house we end up with to have an easily adaptable bathroom so we can make it handicapped accessible. Oh, and a big, pretty, bright kitchen. Okay, I guess that is enough rambling from me today.

OH, yeah, and I added $7.07 to the coin jar today.

Somehow or other I messed up on the math on my EF. I'm not sure how, but I ended up with $54.64 more than I thought I had in my Emergency Fund. Maybe I forgot to record a transfer at some point. Still, better I have more than I thought than less than I thought, but I'll try to watch my math better in future.

Anyway, I added $56.50 to the Safety Net portion of the EF. That was the money from the coin jar, plus the money I did not spend in my wallet that I had leftover from the last pay period. That brings the amount at CU#2 to $363.53. I added $100.46 to the EF at ING, bringing the amount there to $1,495.93.

$1495.93 ING EF
+_363.53 Safety Net EF
-------------
$1,859.46 Total EF

I think I will make it my goal to squeeze out enough money somewhere to get the EF to $2000 by the end of the month. I added $2.71 to the coin jar today after grocery shopping, so I'm on my way, bit by bit, step by step.

To my holding tank I added $1000 for medical. I also added $100 there for property tax and $17 for dues.

Bills paid out of this paycheck:

$300.00 utilities to Mom
___9.00 owed son to reimburse for vacation trinket
__36.00 son's 6 week allowance
__65.00 daughter's 6 week allowance
_100.00 cash
_500.00 mortgage on old house
__39.37 security system on old house
_144.00 storage
__41.25 old house insurance
__83.98 car insurance
__37.61 life insurance DH
__32.70 life insurance me
__49.91 propane tank rental old house
_330.57 Laptop (18 months same as cash)
-------------------------
$1769.39

I've got a little over $400 left in checking. Really starting to feel like I'm pulling ahead of the whole paycheck to paycheck thing. It is a good feeling. No credit card payments this time, but almost the whole of next week's paycheck will go to that (and the car payment), so it's all good.

Oh, I paid extra on the mortgage. Like $124 extra to principle. This was because I was so close to being under $20,000 I couldn't stand to not pay the extra to make that first digit a 1.

Six hours in the car is a long time, even if it is divided by three hours of appointments plus lunch in the cafeteria. I had my follow up appointment at VM today. It was a very long and spendy day and I almost fainted twice at the hospital. They made me use a wheelchair, which was just as well, as I exhausted myself walking from registration to the cafeteria. Things are going pretty well with the healing. Did have a small skin infection around the drainage tube so got a topical and an antibiotic for that. I go back in a week to get this last tube out.

I picked up my blood pressure meds while I was at the pharmacy getting the other two meds and had them order the other med I have to take and am almost out of but they don't keep in stock. I spent $65 on prescriptions today.

I had to fill up the van to the tune of $61.89 for 17 gallons. Normally a gas tank lasts four weeks, but not with a round trip to Seattle. And I'll have to do another one this month so gas is going to be much higher than the usual expenditure.

We ate out three meals today. I probably could have planned it better, but I didn't. Spent around $50 for that. I paid for Mom since she was doing the driving.

I ended up with a ton of ones and change, $15.35 worth, that went into the coin jar for the EF. I have $25 left, but $20 of that will go for my last prescription. Hopefully that other $5 will go to the EF if nothing comes up.

I really wish the glitch that keeps logging me out here at SA would get fixed. There is not much point of having a remember me box to check if the site won't remember me. What's really annoying is I'll log in, write a blog entry, and then by the time I'm done writing it, I've been logged out and lose the entry. This one was just small and easily redoable. Anything longer I know to click control C on, but it still is very annoying. I used to be able to stay logged in for a month. Now I'm lucky if I can stay logged in for twenty minutes.

Anyway...the interest hit my savings account today. It was $1.86. I added it to the EF.

$1535.41 Beginning EF
+___1.86 Interest added
--------------
$1537.27 Ending EF

In looking over my notes I realized I had forgotten to add the 2nd quarter interest at CU#1 to my EF. It hit July 1st and was .46. I will send it to ING on Friday when I send the monthly $100. Not much point in making two transfers, especially for such a tiny amount.

The July interest at my ING account was $1.86. I added that to my Emergency Fund.

$1535.41 Beginning EF
+---1.86 Interest Added
_________
$1537.27 Ending EF

Looking through my notes, I realized I forgot to add the quarterly interest at the start of July in one of my CU savings accounts. That was .46. I will send it to ING when I send in the $100 to the EF on Friday.

I added $3.40, the change from the $5 I gave the kids to buy corn, to the coin jar. I might actually have enough to make a deposit by week's end after all. My little EF is growing.

Part of why I overdid it yesterday was that I did have to go to the store. I needed cloth medical tape and it has to be a specific kind or I will have an allergic reaction (though even this kind itches a little). I thought I was doing okay enough that I could walk all the way to the back of the store as long as I was leaning on a grocery cart. Well, by the time that I did that and got back out to the car (Mom was driving me) I thought I was going to be sick. It passed, but I definitely should have ridden the little scooter around the store.

Anyway, I needed the cloth tape to hold on the gauze for wound care. Still had plenty of guaze, just been going through the tape like crazy, so I did end up with some money for the coin jar after all, $1.22.

I thought my follow up appointment was on Monday, but they just called to confirm and it's on Tuesday. Fortunately that works with my mother's schedule, but it also means I have to wait an extra day longer than I thought to get this drainage tube out and it itches!

I am fighting a very strong craving to order a pizza delivered, but I won't do it. I won't spend the $27.18 for that. Not this week anyway. I am going to go and have my daughter put the dough ingredients in the bread machine right now and we can have homemade pizza with leftover ham, leftover ground beef, onions, tomatoes, two kinds of cheese, and chicken sausage for dinner tonight. Which will taste even better than Round Table. It always does. Oh, and we had the ham and tater tot casserole for lunch instead of dinner. There is some leftover for tomorrow, too.

I got a bill from the place I went to have an EKG before surgery. For some reason they billed it to my old insurance instead of to the insurance card I gave them, so I had to spend a few minutes on the phone today listening to Muzak (really loud Muzak) before I could get that mess straightened out. Fortunately I could give the lady all the information over the phone and didn't have to go down in person to sort it out. She's going to rebill it and hopefully they'll do it right and then I'll only have to pay 10% of $97.60. I am glad that I have been really paying attention to my bills lately. This is the second error I've caught this year.

Before DH left to fly up to work yesterday he emptied his wallet of all his coins, so I had another $1.55 to add to the coin jar. That will be the last coin jar addition at least until after I go back to Virginia Mason next Monday to have my follow up appointment. We shopped in such a way so that I wouldn't have to buy anything or spend any money between now and then. I'd make it an official no spend challenge week, except for the fact that it's not really a challenge for me. It's just the way it is this week. I can't drive myself anywhere until I have the okay from the doctor and I don't need to pay any bills until next week. No challenge in that at all.

Still, there won't be any fast food or restaurant food picked up at the last minute. There won't be any impulse purchases or decisions to replace worn out flip flops or new goggles for the pool. So that's at least good for the bottom line. No money out means no money into the coin jar though, so I think I will set aside a few dollars for it anyway. I usually scrape together about $15 a week for that, so that would be a nice amount to add to it when I do start driving again.

I transferred the money from ING to pay the AMEX. It won't be here until Thursday and the bill won't be paid until Monday, but I wanted to make sure it was in the account well before the day I made the electronic payment, even if means sacrificing a couple of days worth of interest.

DH and I had a long talk about what to do with the extra money from his raise. One of the things we gave up for the kids when we had to do major belt-tightening was lessons. Tae kwon do and dance. We decided to put our son back into Tae kwon do and our daughter back into dance. She will take two classes in the fall for $105 a month and he will have three lessons a week for $90 a month. Actually DS already started yesterday, but DD won't start until September when school starts.

I particulary wanted DD in something because she does not have PE for her sophomore year and she tends to put on weight if she is not excercising at least every other day. Also her nutritionist for her pre-diabetes counseling recommends she exercise to help keep that in check. She will still have to do something else, like swimming though because she chose classes on Monday and Tuesday and the exercise needs to be more spread out than that.

I don't know when I'll be able to get back into the pool, but it will definitely be by September. I'd say mid August but they close the pool down for two weeks then to drain and clean it. Why in August I will never understand. December makes more sense to me to close a pool down, but the Y and the aquatic center both do it in August as well. Maybe because that is when the lakes are all the warmest.

The other part of the raise will be tacked on to debt repayment or new medical bills, which should start coming in shortly. I wish they'd just send them already. I want to know how much it is going to be so I can plan out the budget for the next several months.

Other tweaks to the budget will be increasing the amount to the Best Buy 18 months same as cash to pay off the laptop. That will go from $125 a month to $200 so it will be paid off by year's end. I know I could take several more months with no interest, but I'd just like to do it and get it over with. Then when it is done I will start contributing that money to a new laptop fund so that next time one breaks irrepairably I can just buy a new one without financing it.

Another tweak is that our homeowner's insurance on the old house will be going up. Right now it is $41 a month. Starting next month it is $41.25. Next year if we still own that house I will try to pay it all in advance.

Oh, I sent the HoA dues off. It was actually only $100, not $102. I had forgotten that I had divided $100 by 6 months and it came out as $16.666666666, so I just put $17 in each month instead so of course it was a little over. That money will stay in the holding tank for the next dues payment at the end of January.

Before DH left to fly up to work yesterday he emptied his wallet of all his coins, so I had another $1.55 to add to the coin jar. That will be the last coin jar addition at least until after I go back to Virginia Mason next Monday to have my follow up appointment next Monday. We shopped in such a way so that I wouldn't have to buy anything or spend any money between now and then. I'd make it an official no spend challenge week, except for the fact that it's not really a challenge for me. It's just the way it is this week. I can't drive myself anywhere until I have the okay from the doctor and I don't need to pay any bills until next week. No challenge in that at all.

Still, there won't be any fast food or restaurant food picked up at the last minute. There won't be any impulse purchases or decisions to replace worn out flip flops or new goggles for the pool. So that's at least good for the bottom line. No money out means no money into the coin jar though, so I think I will set aside a few dollars for it anyway. I usually scrape together about $15 a week for that, so that would be a nice amount to add to it when I do start driving again.

I transferred the money from ING to pay the AMEX. It won't be here until Thursday and the bill won't be paid until Monday, but I wanted to make sure it was in the account well before the day I made the electronic payment, even if means sacrificing a couple of days worth of interest.

DH and I had a long talk about what to do with the extra money from his raise. One of the things we gave up for the kids when we had to do major belt-tightening was lessons. Tae kwon do and dance. We decided to put our son back into Tae kwon do and our daughter back into dance. She will take two classes in the fall for $105 a month and he will have three lessons a week for $90 a month. Actually DS already started yesterday, but DD won't start until September when school starts.

I particulary wanted DD in something because she does not have PE for her sophomore year and she tends to put on weight if she is not excercising at least every other day. Also her nutritionist for her pre-diabetes counseling recommends she exercise to help keep that in check. She will still have to do something else, like swimming though because she chose classes on Monday and Tuesday and the exercise needs to be more spread out than that.

I don't know when I'll be able to get back into the pool, but it will definitely be by September. I'd say mid August but they close the pool down for two weeks then to drain and clean it. Why in August I will never understand. December makes more sense to me to close a pool down, but the Y and the aquatic center both do it in August as well. Maybe because that is when the lakes are all the warmest.

The other part of the raise will be tacked on to debt repayment or new medical bills, which should start coming in shortly. I wish they'd just send them already. I want to know how much it is going to be so I can plan out the budget for the next several months.

Other tweaks to the budget will be increasing the amount to the Best Buy 18 months same as cash to pay off the laptop. That will go from $125 a month to $200 so it will be paid off by year's end. I know I could take several more months with no interest, but I'd just like to do it and get it over with. Then when it is done I will start contributing that money to a new laptop fund so that next time one breaks irrepairably I can just buy a new one without financing it.

Another tweak is that our homeowner's insurance on the old house will be going up. Right now it is $41 a month. Starting next month it is $41.25. Next year if we still own that house I will try to pay it all in advance.

Oh, I sent the HoA dues off. It was actually only $100, not $102. I had forgotten that I had divided $100 by 6 months and it came out as $16.666666666, so I just put $17 in each month instead so of course it was a little over. That money will stay in the holding tank for the next dues payment at the end of January.

There's never much to do with finances during the two weeks out of six that DH doesn't get a paycheck. It's always the lull before the storm of payments. Or maybe the one after. But he did have another pile of coins that he left on his dresser to add to the coin jar, so $1.55 went in today. I also rolled coins, one roll of quarters, one of dimes, and one of pennies, so that will be ready to deposit to the Emergency Fund (Safety Net portion) whenever I manage to get to that CU.

The safety net is at $307.03. My goal is to slowly get that portion of the EF up to $500 and then eventually $1000, just with coin jar savings. Of course the bulk of the EF is at ING and gets more regular feedings of larger amounts of money, each month. At least $100 and any more I can scrounge up.

When this new round of medical bills comes through and the last credit card is paid off (hopefully within the next six months), I will be happy to jump our EF savings up to $1000 a month until it gets to where it needs to be. I would ultimately like it at one year's worth of income (not expenses, but income). Once the debt of the credit card is gone, one year's income would be enough to live on for 2 years if something were to happen to DH's job. I don't think it will (or if it did, he'd just move companies again like all slope workers eventually do), but I just want to have it. Having several months of uncertainty last year made me feel like this would be the best course.

I think it would take several years to get it to that point, but like I said it is my ultimate goal, not my immediate one. My immediate goal after everything is paid off is to build the EF to $10,000 and start saving for the new house downpayment. We still have to sell the old house, too. And at the rate we are going fixing it up it won't even be on the market until next summer. Not that I am in that much of a rush. Even with what we might get for it, we will still have to save money for about a year to get the downpayment we want to make.

We probably won't get anything near what the bank ($110,000) or the tax assessor ($115,000) says it is worth. But I would honestly be happy getting what we paid for it back in '98, which was $69,500. That would give us enough money to pay the realtor, pay off the mortgage, and have $40,000 to $45,000 for the downpayment. I honestly just want it to be gone. If someone walked up to me today and offered me $50,000 in cash for it as is with no repair demands, I'd probably take it.

Combined with our mortgage, all the bills related to that house roughly come out to $1000 a month that could be used for other things. Storage, water/sewer, power, phone, security system, insurance, HoA dues, time for maintaining the yard...it could all be used for better things. I know technically I would at least have to pay storage anyway until we move, but I still consider it part of the overall expense of not having our stuff in a house.

Sometimes I wish I had a financial fairy godmother who could come down, wave her magic wand, and everything that needed to be done would be done with no effort on my part. But no one ever gave a beggar a free horse ride, so...bit by bit, step by step, pulling up my own bootstraps and getting us where we need to be is my job. And I'll do it. I will get us there. Eventually.

I balanced the checkbook. Apparently my brain is working enough to do that. It has about $40 left in it after the check I just wrote clears. I don't need to write any other checks this month, so that is just fine.

The aforementioned check written was to my daughter's pre-diabetes nutrtion counselor for our last visit, $11.57 for our share.

I have $700 in savings for all bills that will arise between 8/1 and 8/4. Our next payday is 8/5. I will likely use less than $100 of that for groceries between now and then, as well. Since I'm not up for any shopping right now, I will mostly try to use stuff from the freezer and pantry between now and then anyway. On Monday, I will need to transfer $500 from ING back into checking that I set aside to pay the AMEX bill. We need to pay the dues to our HoA out at the old house, too. I forget how much it is. I know it works out to saving $17 a month so I just need to add up six months worth and then pull it from the holding tank where I have been saving it. Did the math, it's $102.

I will have to pick up my prescription sleeping pill though. At least to use when DH is home. Apparently if I can't take the painkillers (which I've stopped because of how sick they made me), I don't pass out enough to sleep through his snoring. *sighs* He leaves on Monday though, so I will try to not take them at all while he is gone. Then I can stretch them twice as long.

I emptied DH's wallet of all his coins. There was $4.83. I added it to the coin jar. I know there are enough quarters for a roll and probably enough dimes and pennies, but I will do that tomorrow.

...and waiting for the painkillers to kick in, I did a minor bit of money housekeeping. The checkbook is now completely balanced to the penny. It helps to have been away from it for a week and to have had everything clear in that amount of time. It was off by just under $4 and I easily found the mistake this time (not in our favor).

I cleaned out my purse of all change and added $2.91 to the coin jar. I set aside all of our receipts from the trip to go over tomorrow and see how much the final damage is, though I don't think we spent over $1000 all told and most of that was for food and lodging. Only filled the gas tank 3 times and one of those time was considered a regular fill up for the rest of the month so came out of regular gas money, not trip gas money.

I still need to go through DH's wallet and collect his spare change and his loose bills. He took all my loose bills when I went into the hospital and I didn't get them back. I think there is around $20 there which will go into the coin jar.

Friday was payday. It was shorter than usual by about $200. I think they may be reallocating how they take out medical. Chris got his check stub in the mail so he is going to go over it with the other ones for the month and see if he can catch what is going on.

Anyway, I set aside $700 into temporary savings at CU#1, $350.29 of which is to pay for the bills that come due August 1 through 4, our next payday being the 5th. The rest is for medical savings. Then I have $200 for groceries until the 5th and DH is getting his $100 allowance for the next six weeks.

I also set up the August Budget template. I am going to have to split the Amex bill this month and pay $350 when it is due on the 4th (minimum payment is $61) and the rest of it on the 5th as it has a bit of extra vacation spending. The $350 will cover the part that is affected by interest, the rest would be on the next billing cycle anyway so will not have interest charged on it by not paying it before the 5th, but I like to start the month with it totally paid off and so that no interest accrues on that card.

Well, seems like the meds are starting to kick in so I'm off the try to get some more sleep. Hopefully everything all came out coherently. It is sometimes hard to tell when I am this zoned out.

I made my coin jar deposit at CU#2 into the safety net portion of the Emergency Fund. The exchange rate was excellent as between my $41 in American and $20 in Canadian, I had a deposit of $60.62. That's almost at par! Anyway that brings the safety net up to $307.03. I also transferred $100 to ING into the Emergency Fund there so my total EF between the two is now $1545.51, so I have hit my goal of $1500 in the EF by the end of August, and a whole month early. My next goal is to hit $2000.

I also paid bills today for the rest of the month. There is nothing else due between now and the 1st.

$__33.08 (4 prescriptions, medical)
$__90.00 (physical therapy, medical)
$___9.38 (walk in clinic, medical)
$_100.00 Cash Out
$__44.89 (phone, old house)
$__37.68 (garbage, new house)
$_125.00 (laptop, 18 months same as cash)
$__65.56 (internet)
$_100.00 Emergency Fund
$1000.00 Holding Tank for Medical
$_757.82 Car payment with an extra $250 to principal)
$_500.00 Holding Tank First week of August bills
------------
$2863.41

The remaining amount of this paycheck will be spent on our road trip for hotels and food and $100 to clothes and toiletries. $1000 of next week's paycheck will be set aside for medical and $200 for groceries.

I'm really starting to feel like we are getting ahead of the game, paying bills early and setting aside money for future expenses. We are still a bit paycheck to paycheck, but I think we're pulling ahead now by a couple of weeks worth of expenses.

Tomorrow is payday and I still had $5 left in my wallet so I put it in my coin jar. I never got around to making a deposit this week, things got a little crazy, so my total deposit tomorrow will be $41, plus whatever the exchange rate is on the two Canadian tens, if they will take them. That will put me right around $1400 in the Emergency Fund. I am going to try to eek out another $100 between now and the end of the month to hit my next goal of $1500.

I can't remember the last time I was this tired. At least DH is home now so I can sleep in tomorrow morning. I'm afraid I might have the warning signs of a migraine coming on. I hope it is just a simple headache, I only get migraines when I eat something with MSG or other nasties in it and I didn't do that. It has been so long since I've had one (about a year) that I've forgotten what the start of one feels like, but I full well remember what a raging one is like and I don't have the time for it right now.

I added $2.17 to the coin jar today. I bought more milk, since DH won't drink non-fat like the rest of us, he likes 2% and I also got some nectarines that were actually ripe. I can't take my vitamin supplements right now because they are blood thinners, so for two weeks before the surgery I am not supposed to have them. But there is vitamin C in nectarines and they are in season so there you go.

I am trying to get in fifteen minutes of sunshine for vitamin D. Now that summer has finally arrived and is cooperating a little too much (in the 80's) that isn't much of a problem. Not sure what to do about the loss of fish oil and vitamin E, though.

So I didn't make it to CU#2 to make a deposit today. I totally spaced it. I had to have a fasting blood draw today and I had to wait a half an hour after I got there because it was busy. I was starving by the time I got in the back. No up front money there, but insurance never covers 100% of labwork so there will be a bill sent.

Then I went to physical therapy so $90 there. I was able to walk up the entire flight of stairs and back down again with only one foot per step instead of two, which is major as I haven't been able to do both in a long time. Maybe there is hope for this knee yet.

We are going through the homemade lemonade like crazy because it has been so hot, so I bought more lemons and sugar today and ended up with money for the coin jar, $4.18.

I had to get gas today as the little warning light had come on, so I didn't quite make it until DH came home, although I could have. I had more gas than I thought because when I filled the 20.9 gallon tank it only did 16.812 gallons. It was $3.479 a gallon so I paid $58.49 for that. Not bad for 3 weeks (DH filled it up on a Monday so technically 22 days).

I got a bill in the mail today for a medical thing I have already paid. They cashed my check two days before they sent the second bill out. Um...way to be on the ball people, does your accounts receivable not talk to your accounts payable?

I was quite annoyed by this bill because they wrote across it in all capital letters about how it was past due and were all vaguely threatening and used exclamation points. They mailed this bill on the 27th (supposedly) but it didn't even arrive until today and the place is in town, so it's not like it was coming from California or Texas or Virginia or something. Mail turn around is no more than 2 days if it is a local mailing.

I paid that bill two weeks after I recieved it. There is certainly no need for antics like this. If it had been 30 days or something I could see them getting a bit antsy, but it was sent and cashed well before the due date listed (which was actually the 30th so they sent out the past due bill before it was due) so I do not get this. I am going to call them tomorrow and tell them what I think of it, though. I don't appreciate this sort of thing at all.

I added $2.91 to the coin jar after buying a lighter at the store for fireworks. Then I decided to see if I had enough coins to roll anything. I had just enough to do nickels. Tomorrow I will make a deposit of $30 into the safety net portion of the Emergency Fund at CU#2. If I keep going at this rate I am going to have $1500 (my next goal) in the EF by the end of August.

Don't let anyone ever tell you that a few dollars here and a few coins there don't matter. They add up and every little bit truly does help.

I have had two Canadian $10 bills sitting in my coin jar for about 5 years now. At the time the Canadian dollar had practically flat lined so we never bothered to exchange it back after our vacation. We figured that we'd go back to Canada some time soon, as we usually went up once a year, and could just use it then. Well, it's been five years and we haven't gone back. Border crossing strictures changed and because we are now living in a residence that we don't own and have no utilities in our name, we cannot get a special border crossing license or a passport. (If we really wanted to we could put one of Mom's utility bills in our name but it costs money to switch it over and it'd cost to eventually switch it back again and we don't feel like paying the extra).

So we'll just wait to go to Canada again until after we buy our next house and the utilities are in our name again. Meanwhile the Canadian dollar is worth a lot more than it was back then and I'm thinking I might as well exchange it and throw it in the savings account. First I will make sure they take it though before bothering with it. I think there might be some looneys ($1 coin has a loon on it) and tooneys ($2 coin) in there as well. It's not much, but again, every little bit counts.

I added $6.09 to the coin jar. That was the amount leftover from the 20 dollar bill I gave the kids yesterday for dinner on the way back from my sister's house.

I gave the chickens an ear of corn I found in the back of the fridge. It wasn't moldy, you don't want to give chicken's moldy food, but it was less than fresh and had likely all turned to starch. I split it in half so they could each have one to themselves.

The chicks are still on mash, so I only worried about the grown ones. Those two love me because I generally bring them a treat of corn or melon seeds. Cantaloupe is their favorite and they also like the rinds. I love the fact that these two are so friendly now. They used to run away from me all the time like the little ones do. They'll even sit on my lap.

They are back to laying daily. For a while they were only laying every other day. I sure miss the days of a flock of six. Even when the chicks are grown there will only be four altogether, and we aren't entirely sure both of the new ones are female. They haven't grown up enough yet to devolop a rooster's comb. I really hope they are both girls though. Can I say again how much I hate racoons?

I finished reading my book last night, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It's like 1984 by George Orwell but for the digital future. And also not boring. It's really very current while maintaining a near future edge. It was definitely a hard book to put down.

Not much going on here. I've spent most of the day doing laundry and writing. I've got a lovely roast in the crockpot for dinner and no desire in the world to eat out. I've got four potatoes that need using up so will fry those up to have with the roast and probably add a can of green beans.

DH comes home on Wednesday. It can't be soon enough.

I put 28 cents into the coin jar today. I also added the interest from my ING account to the Emergency Fund, which was $1.02.

$1245.47 Starting EF
+___1.02 Interest added
---------------
$1246.49 New balance

Then I sent $100 to ING for the EF

$1246.49 Starting EF
+_100.00 Amount Added
-----------------
$1346.49 New EF Balance

$1500 (my next goal) here I come.

I had my pre-op appointment this morning and everything went well. I still have to get a fasting blood lab done (maybe tomorrow morning, maybe Tuesday) and an EKG preformed Wednesday, which no one told me about and my doctor only happened to notice on the form he had to fill out. *sighs*

I went ahead and added the $15 I had left in my wallet to the coin jar. Payday is tomorrow and I have $16 left in checking which is enough to cover the milk and lemons I need to buy at the store today. That way I won't be tempted to buy more than I've determined I need to get. I wouldn't even get the lemons but DS is begging me for lemonade and because of his allergies it has to be made from scratch. Since he can't have apple or grape juice, lemonade is one of the few drinks he can have that isn't milk or OJ.

I am back on track with the no restaurant eating. The kids really want pizza this weekend so I said I would make one on Saturday. I'll have to buy cheese and pepperoni, but that still comes out far cheaper than the same amount of pizza from anywhere (except maybe Little Caesar's Hot 'N Ready) and it tastes better, too. I have some leftover onions, tomatoes, peppers, ham and chicken sausage I can put on it, as well. We like our pizzas loaded.

I put $1.27 in the coin jar today. I've got $15 left in cash until Friday and if I don't spend it between now and then it goes into the coin jar, too. I can't forsee spending it at the moment. I've still got $16 in the checkbook which is enough to buy milk, which is the only thing we are low on.

The payment I made yesterday to BoA credit card posted. After I make the next payments on Friday I will officially have the credit card debt under $20,000. Even though it seems like I've made little progress the last two months, we have made some and that is a good thing.

I can't believe I forgot to post yesterday. I am like Posty McPosterson of the Clan McPostsalot and I totally spaced. Anyway, yesterday was day eight of no eating out challenge. Unfortunately today was not day nine. I don't actually feel bad about it though. I got the manager's special from KFC, which was seven pieces of dark meat chicken, 2 large sides, 3 biscuits, and a mini chocolate chip cake for $15.85 (that's the with tax price).

That was actually enough food for two meals so we had it for lunch and for supper. I added a can of green beans to dinner for veg. The biscuits we are saving for breakfast tomorrow and half the cake for another day. I don't feel too bad about this as breakfast was free today. So $15.85 for the day plus food leftover seemed like a good choice when I woke up with a head full of congestion. I am so sick of allergies right now.

I am going to try to finish out the next week without anymore eating out though. Just because I gave in one day does not mean I need to give in every day.

Meanwhile, I balanced the checkbook on Friday and then sent out the bills.

$522.90 Anesthesiologist
$172.37 to ENT Doctor
$144.00 Water/Sewer Old House
$100.00 6 weeks allowances (plus extra jobs money)
$100.00 propane holding tank (ING)
$100.00 property tax holding tank (ING)
$_17.00 HOA dues holding tank (ING)
$100.00 Emergency Fund (ING)
$250.00 Groceries
+_90.00 Fringe
-----------------
1596.27

I have $986 left. I was planning to put $900 onto the credit card, but the stupid BoA website has not been working all day. I just keep getting Out of Memory at line 612, which is usually code for update your fricking flash player, but since I just updated my flash player I doubt very much that that is it. I will try again tomorrow and if it isn't working than I will go down to BoA in person. Nothing is due before the 4th and this was just an extra payment anyway, but I really wanted to make it and I'm bummed.

As for allowances, DD got her $60. That's $10 a week for her and she has to make it last for the next six weeks. DS got his allowance of $36 or $6 per week, plus $2 in tooth fairy money and $2 in extra jobs money. He picked up 200 pinecones and he gets a penny a pinecone, so a total of $40 for him which we promplty went and deposited into his bank account. He's now got $220 saved up for the 3DS he wants to buy.

My allowance was buying seasons one and two of Fringe (which was $90). DH will get his the payday after he comes home. He gets $100 for six weeks.

I got back four ones and 15 cents in change from KFC so that is going into the coin jar for the EF. I am hoping to go out to the house tomorrow and mow the lawn and weedeat. Hopefully DS will gather up all of the aluminum cans and bag them up. We had a bin in the shed that was full of them but something or someone got into it and now they're all over the floor. I told him if he does it he can have the money for recycling them.

And of course anymore pinecones he picks up at a penny a pinecone. He really wants to buy the 3DS before we go on vacation on the 11th but he doesn't quite have enough without doing extra jobs. And I've already told him we won't loan him money again. It's not that he doesn't pay it back, because he does. But we are trying to teach him that sometimes you just don't qualify for a loan, not even from Bank of Mom and Dad. Sometimes you just have to save up the whole amount on your own.

He seems to really get it. DD, not so much. She's already spent $15 on makeup and is planning out the rest of her purchases. I suggested, like I do every payday, that she at least put $10 into her savings account. I may have to make it more than a suggestion. She's almost 15 and resistant to saving in a big way. But she also thinks that credit card debt is stupid, so at least she's got that going for her.

I made my deposit of coin jar money today at CU#2. I added $3 before I made the deposit, bringing the amount deposited to $31.50. I also added .96 to the coin jar tonight. I also sent $100 to ING.

$828.06 ING EF
+100.00 deposit
--------
$928.06 Total ING EF

$285.91 CU#2 EF
+_31.50 deposit
---------
$317.41 total CU#2 EF

$928.06 ING
+317.41 CU#2
---------
1245.47 Total EF