Well, I bit the bullet and listed some books on half.com today. 13 books. And I have a big box of other books still to list. I don't have high hopes for anything except maybe the home school books that we never wrote in. Still, one has to try.

I will be going through my movies, too. I have some VHS ones that I'm not interested in keeping, and some DVDs, also. I think we even may have some old video games and I know we have a bunch of preschool computer games the kids have outgrown.

DH is going to list his first class upgrades on E-bay tonight. They tend to go at $200 per pair. You can only list those once a month, so he is listing a pair this month and then one next month. So hopefully we'll bring in close to $400 for each sale. He only gets four paper upgrades a year, the rest our electronic and cannot be transferable. I wish they had more paper ones like they used to, but having any to sell at all I am grateful for.

Everything helps. We really need to go through a lot of our stuff and see what we can sell. I'd like to get rid of our clutter and get some money from the process.

I also have some things I am going to put on our local Craig's list now that we have one. But I will wait until March when it is more spring-like. Some outdoor toddler equipment like a castle slide, a car that you sit in and push with your feet, a climb through tunnel and an aluminum swingset now that we have the big wooden play structure. We also have a table that turns into an easle and some v-tech toddler toys and an Intellitable. Things I just don't want to mail or give away. I suppose I can list the v-tech stuff now, though.

I recieved an $8 check today from ACOP for the online family food diary I kept for them. I am still waiting to hear if I qualify for a product trial or not. It only pays $5, but the use of the product is at least a $5 value.

I sent ReadRevenue an email Friday as the $3 payout has still not shown up. It isn't there today, either. I wonder what's up with them, they are ususally so prompt and I have never had a problem with them before. I cashed out on 1/13, so its long past time when it should have been here. If it doesn't show up by tomorrow, I will send them another email.

Well, I checked out the requirements to donate plasma and I can be on blood pressure medication and still donate blood as long as my blood pressure is no higher than 160/90. Since with the meds it runs at 120/80 or thereabouts I am fine. And I can be taking HRT, too, that's not a problem. And the anti-D that I take on occassion for sleep (low dose for sleep, quadruple the dose if taking as an anti-D) is also allowed.

Now I just need to finish up this course of anti-biotics that I am on, wait 72 hours and I can donate. I will call them next week to see about setting stuff up. They require a medical screening and physical exam before they okay you. Since I have never been to a country that's disallowed, never been promiscuous or used drugs, and have never had an STD or transfusion, I should be good to go.

I hope so. Even if I can't max out at $200 a month, even half that would be helpful. And DH should qualify as well and he could donate when he is at home, so that would bring in a little extra.

Today school was delayed an hour because of the snow and then the kids had early release 2.5 hours early. I don't have a clue why. They usually have early release on the last Wednesday of the month, which this is not. I hope they aren't still going to do it that day, too.

We went into my mother's house to do some laundry. When I was there she told me she had closed out an old joint bank account we had that I had forgotten about. It was mine, but her name was on it as she used to make deposits for me when I worked nights and slept days. Anyway, it had $85.75.

Oh, I also spent $36.06 filling up the car with gas. I thought I'd be under my gas budget this month, but I just met it. Darn. Oh, well.

I spent under $12.95 and $16.95 on books, plus $2.34 sales tax for a total of $32.24. I bought Smart Couples Finish Rich, which I have read previously and The Automatic Millionaire Workbook, which supplements another one of David Bach's books, both in paperback. I feel like I am ready to face working through the workbook now and getting all my ducks in a row.

The rest of the money I have set aside until 1-26 and I won't make any decisions on where to put it until then. I am tentatively thinking about putting it in the vacation fund. My trip to California is coming up in May and the convention for my disease lasts 2.5 days and then some of us are going to Disneyland for 2, possibly 3 days.

My airfare is free through DH's miles and I will have a roommate both at the convention and at Disney. So I'm trying to save $1000 to cover hotel and food. I'm not interested in souveniers other than my one lapel pin that I get no matter where I go. So far I have $116 saved up. I will have $500 from the tax return that I get to use. Well, technically its $800, but I want to push to save as much as I can and only use $500 from the tax return, so I can use most of it to pay debt.

So I have $116 saved, and $500 dedicated, which means a total of $616 and I need to come up with $484 in 3.5 months. Without dipping into the $10 a week that goes to the EF no matter what.

I saw an ad for donating plasma in the paper today. They are claiming up to $200 a month. I don't know if I can donate or not. I have high blood pressure but it is completely controlled with medication, diet and exercise. I will have to look into the requirements. If I could do that and max it out, I could earn $600 in the next 3 months. Oh, plus a $10 bonus if I bring in the advertisement.

...a $3 payout from ReadRevenue for PTR's. I cashed out on Wednesday at 1 a.m., well technically that is Thursday and it is still not at paypal. They are usually pretty good about 24 to 48 hours, so even with the holiday (and they are Asian based, so come on, they don't celebrate MLK) this is slow for them. If it isn't there tomorrow I will pursue it. They have a 72 hour minimum they claim and it has never been this late before from them.

And an $8 payout should come in the next four weeks from ACOP for doing an online 4 day food journal for my family. I love ACOP. I get the occassional $5 surveys from them but its the free product trials that pay. The last one I did paid $15.

I'm close to cashing out at GTM. MySurvey is taking forever to build up. I know Ima has had good luck with them, but I've been signed up since April and have only cashed out a $10 check once. Lightspeed is slow right now, too. Ironically.

Today has been a good day. I got all of my errands accomplished, though I think I must have hit the slowest drive-thru bank tellers in the history of the universe. And all I was doing was making a deposit! I didn't even need cash back. The easiest task for them to perform and despite being there first (it was a 3 lane drive thru) I was fifth out of six cars served because I chose the lane with the drawer and not the ones with the tubes. So I had to wait for the girl to press the button to open the door for me to get my deposit slip and check in it, despite having pressed the teller call button twice. Which she might have done earlier if she hadn't run off three times. The other teller seemed preoccupied with filling up the candy basket. Hello, last banking night before a big holiday weekend, get your act together. End rant.

But I got all the various monies transferred to my checking account and I mailed off the check for the Medical Mortgage. This is the first time ever that I have not paid extra towards the principle. I hate that, but this month couldn't be helped. When I pay the house mortgage next week it'll be the same thing. Ugh. But after that it'll go back to normal.

I was going to drop off my house insurance payment at the local office today, but the lazy bums closed at four instead of five today for the holiday weekend, so I had to mail it. I'm not happy about that, I prefer to do as many bills in person as possible but oh, well, what can you do?

I received a check from Your2Cents and deposited that into the vacation savings account, along with the ones and rolled coin. So the total deposit was $41.50, bringing the amount in that account to $61.50.

I can't remember if I wrote about his before or not. I have the opportunity to go to a convention for my support group for my disease in May and it is a tight knit group so it is going to be fun. Some of us will be arriving a day early to go to Disneyland for one day and I am hoping to be one of them.

I do not have to pay for airfare as DH has plenty of miles, so I just have to come up with the hotel fee and the park pass money. I can have a roommate to cut the costs and I may do so. DH's schedule works out so that he will be home to watch the kids. So if I can get the money saved it will all fall into place.

Okay, I'm being a little hokey with that title. First issue, the power, is back on. In fact it woke me up and I can't get back to sleep so I decided to come here and write a bit.

Second issue, one. Or rather ones. I have decided to not just save my coins, but to throw in any one dollar bills I get. I've seen a couple people here doing it and well, I decided to jump off that bridge because Tina did it first. No, I've been thinking about it for awhile. Resisting it really. But I keep circling back around to the idea. So I decided to go for it.

So tonight when I emptied the coins out of my purse I also took out the ones. I had $6 in ones. So into the change jar they go. My change jar is an old Miracle Whip jar, by the way. It serves its purpose well. I used to keep it in a Litehouse 1000 Island dressing bottle but at one point there was too much change in it and the bottom of the jar came off with the weight when I picked it up. Miracle Whip seems a bit sturdier so far.

I have not been getting the rush I was getting before when everything extra was going into building up savings. Sending extra off to the credit cards just does not give me that same thrill. So, I think that I will go back to putting all my little bits and pieces into savings and take the bigger hunks that I have carved out of the budget, like the money we used to pay for cable, and use that for the extra on the credit cards. Otherwise I just lose the motivation, I think.

But I am also going to work hard to keep all expenses down so I can still send extra to the cards. I think that is a good trade off. I can still see my savings grow to a level I feel safer at. Right now the level I want to reach is $2000. Beyond that, $4000 or one month's pay. I just feel the need to have that for peace of mind. I mean sure, six month's living expenses would be grand (majorly grand, like 24 grand), but that could take ages. So one month's pay is the long term goal for now and half that is the short term goal. I am $399.02 away from the short term goal.

My $5 cashout from TinklyCash arrived at paypal today (24 hours, yay!) and so I transferred that to my CU and when it shows up I will send it off to ING along with the next $10 weekly deposit. It should show up the same day so that will make it pretty easy to do all at once.

All right, I'm getting sleepy again, so that's enough for now.

Today, well technically yesterday as its after midnight, was a no spend day. We didn't go anywhere so that makes it pretty easy to achieve.

I cashed out a PTR today, $5 from TinklyCash. They generally have 24 hour payout, but after that last time with the owner gone on a trip it took a couple weeks, so who knows?

I was able to put up a few more light displays, a nutcracker and a penguin on tree stumps in the garden, and the seal that spins a package on its nose I decided to try to put up on top of the arbor. It was a little difficult to hoist it up there, but I got it up there and cabled it to the arbor and it looks great. I like having...I guess I'd call it texture in my display. So stuff isn't all just flat and at one height.

I'll have to wait until DH comes home to do the train. It is just too heavy for me to lift with one hand and where it goes, I have to climb a ladder to get it up there. Fortunately he will flies home on Wednesday morning.

I wanted to go out to eat today but told myself no and we had a smorgasboard of leftovers. They need to be eaten and money certainly didn't need to be spent. I really didn't want to cook and I think that is why I was wanting to go out, but I really only had to warm stuff up in the micro so its not like I had to cook.

I am planning on going to town tomorrow as soon as the kids get on the school bus. I have a few groceries I want to pick up and I need to deposit a check that came in the mail yesterday. Depending on my energy levels I may pick up the gifts for MIL and FIL and my mother. I hope to be back home in time for lunch. If I eat a good breakfast before I leave I don't think I will be tempted to go out for lunch, but if I leave the house without eating, which I am prone to do, I will have no resistance at all. Now is not the time to be wasting money. Especially with a fridge full of homecooked leftovers.

I cashed out $3 at ReadRevenue last night. When that shows up it will go to the CC payoff account. All these amounts sometimes seem so tiny against the bigness of the debt it has to go against, but even little dents mean something.

Today was also the day of the weekly automatic deposit of $10 to savings, so that will be transferred to ING eventually.

Rose stayed home from school today. Her stomach is still sore but no more barfing since last night, so yay. I think she will be able to go to school tomorrow. No basketball practice tonight though.

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday I wrote each child a $20 check to fund their hot lunch accounts, so that was $40 more out then was listed.

Today was a very lazy day for me. I read a little, did dishes, and cooked a bit. Spent $10.60 on food, so an almost no spend day. Yesterday was a no spend day.

The $3 from Paypal was deposited today so that will go to the CC payoff account.

Tomorrow I am going to go to town and try to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done. I know what I am getting for FIL and MIL, I have one neice left to shop for but I'm pretty sure I know what I am getting there, also. The nephews just get a $5 gift certificate for McD's, so I need to pick up 3 of those. I don't buy for my sister or her husband we just do the kids 18 and under.

I need to pick up the ingredients for making lasagna pretty soon. I am making two pans for SIL and BIL to have as their present, they love it so much. Then I have to make a pan for Christmas Even and a pan for Christmas Day.

Plus I need to knit 6 square potholders and finish Rose's scarf. That shouldn't take too long, I just need to find the time to do it. If I hadn't been so lazy today I probably could have finished the scarf.

The ReadRevenue money showed up in Paypal last night. They are getting fast. I used to have to wait 3 days until it showed up at Paypal, the last two times have been within 24 hours. I went ahead and transferred that to CU#3.

Did a $3 survey today. Can't get the money until I build up to $5 in the account though. I dislike that, but its one of the better sites for payout, so can't begrude it too much.

Kind of a slow day today.

Had the auto deposit of $10 to savings.

Cashed out $3 at ReadRevenue.

Discovered all of my five gallon water jugs that I keep on the porch had burst out the bottoms, so that's four @ $7 each. $28 down the drain and they just delivered Monday of last week, so I have just under one bottle's worth to get me through 3 weeks. Very frustrating.

I've been keeping them on my porch for 3 years and this didn't happen 2 years ago when the weather dropped to 9 degrees, so I didn't really think about it when it dropped to 8. They were fine even this morning, but now that it has warmed up to 39 degrees they exploded. Big sigh. I know that this can happen, but since it hadn't under similar situations in the past, didn't do anything. Plus they weigh 40 pounds so if I don't have to lift them, I don't.

The good news is that it didn't snow more than one inch today and then it warmed up. Things are starting to melt. I hope this is a warming trend that will continue. Still no school tomorrow, even though the roads are pretty good, mostly bare on the highway. Still people don't know how to drive on the ice. They don't slow down for the bad patches, just assume they're as good as the bare ones. Saw a nasty accident tonight, truck was off the road on its side down in a ravine. Emergency vehicles were just responding so I didn't stop.

I went in to Mom's today to do some laundry and the kids finagled an overnight invitation, so I'm kid free, which after being cooped up with them with no school all week, and too cold to play outside the last few days, I am sorely in need of. I love my kids a lot, I do, but right now they are just getting on my last nerve and on each others.

Tomorrow is payday and I know I am not officially through the no eating out 2 weeks, but I don't care. that was more about being lazy and not cooking. I'm taking myself out to lunch tomorrow and I'm going to enjoy it. This is about nurturing my spirit before I turn into a raving nutter.

I'm currently taking a break from the book I was reading, too much gratuitous swearing and that grates after awhile, I can handle it if it has a point, but when they use it as an adjective the same way you might use really or very, it is so not necessary to the plot.

So now I am reading the 23rd annual collection of The Year's Best Science Fiction. So far I have read The Little Goddess by Ian McDonald, bizarre but good, The Calorie Man by Paolo Bacigalupi, a future we might actually be seeing some day if we're not careful and not a good one, and Beyond the Aquila Rift by Alastair Reynolds, kind of interesting plot twist near the end but mostly...eh.

Received the transfer from paypal for ReadRevenue on Friday, $3 and will transfer that to the payoff account next time I go to town.

The auto transfer to savings of $10 happened on Friday as well, since banks were closed Thursday. I will be sending that off to ING.

The owner of TinklyCash must have finally gotten back from his trip as that $5 showed up in paypal yesterday so I transferred that to my CU. It will go to the payoff account, too.

I should have enough to cash out at ReadRevenue again in 2 days and DaysLook in 4 days ($5) if they keep up the same level of emails that they are currently sending.

TinklyCash stopped sending more than 2 out a day and so did CashOrigin, so hopefully those will reset soon. I do them when I'm watching a movie or even reading a book, I know PTRs can be so mindless, otherwise. I just wish I could figure out a way to knit and do PTR's at the same time, while watching a movie. Now that would be efficient use of my time.

Gosh, this is entry 4 for today, already. Some days I guess I have a lot to write about

I received a $5 survey check in the mail today from Your2Cents. That will go into the credit card payoff account.

I also rolled coin today so I have a total of $15.50 of rolled coin to deposit.

I saw the most interesting toy at the store. It is called Pig E. Bank and is an interactive purple piggy bank. It isn't even that expensive, but it teaches you about saving money and stuff. It comes with some toy money, also but its a real piggy bank. It was less than $10. This might be a real teaching tool for someone who wants their kids to start saving money.

I have insomnia and so am up late reading blogs and thought to check with paypal since it is officially tomorrow and yes, the money did come through from ReadRevenue, so I transferred that to the CU. Probably won't see it until Monday because of the holiday. Anyway, when it comes in it will be added to the account we are using for paying off MC card 2. I know $3 won't make much of a difference but its something.

Still waiting for the owner of TinklyCash to get back from his business trip. I've moved up the waiting list to only being second in line so obviously some stuff has been processed as I was 8th before. That'll be $5 more to the credit card if it ever shows up. I'm already halfway to another payout with them, if I ever get this one. He's supposed to be back the 25th, but who knows?

I know they pay out, they have before it is just annoying having to wait so long, they ought to have a backup system.

Dayslook has started sending me emails again, so I guess they've got the kinks worked out. Or judging from their new website page, maybe they added kinks. I'm pretty sure I won't stick with them once I hit payout. Some of their content has gotten a bit...ahem...adult in theme. But I have enough money in that account to not want to just abandon it. I can put up with it for a little while.

CashOrigin seems to have shut itself off again after a five day run of emails. Sigh. They have more problems, or at least I have more problems getting consistent email flow with them.

Okay, I am starting to bore myself, so I'll just send this off now and try again to sleep.

I couldn't get into this site all morning and just about had a conniption. I like reading the blogs in the morning, its a habit now, so to not be able to get in drove me right up the wall.

At least its working again, so yay. I am feeling a bit better today. I took a 2 hour nap and I really think the extra sleep is helping. I hope. So far, every time I've thought I was getting over this cold, I'd backslide.

The kids got out of school early today as conferences have started. I got their report cards yesterday and they are both doing really well. Rose is still having problems with spelling but that is to be expected. I still think there's something more to it, she has an aunt and an uncle who are dyslexic and her paternal grandmother and father have difficulty spelling. But so far, the school says no, she's not dyslexic.

My conferences are tomorrow and I will ask about having her tested again.

I am trying to make this a no spend day, there is no reason to go anywhere except to basketball practice tonight. Rose says Miss Bullypants has started being nice to her, so the session with the counselor seems to have worked for now.

Not too much coming up on the financial horizon. DH comes home tomorrow and we always spend more money when he is here than when he is up on the slope. Not necessarily his fault though, it just seems to happen.

Oh, wait this can't be a no spend day as I wrote a check this morning to fund Tobias' lunch account at school. And tomorrow won't be either because Rose needs one, too. Sigh. Oh, well.

I am close to cashing out at ReadRevenue, so that will be $3, and I am still waiting on TinklyCash, as the owner went on a business trip to somewhere in Asia so things are processed a lot slower when that happens. I've moved up from 8th on the waiting list to be paid to 2nd, so hopefully that $5 will come through soon. CashOrigin has finally started sending emails out again, so hopefully that one will be soon, too, I was pretty close before, I think.

Entry 2 today.

I took a $3 survey today and that gave me enough in my account to cash out for a $5 check. I like this company a lot, Your2Cents. I have now earned $21 with them in about six months time. They always say 6 to 8 weeks for a check to come but it has so far shown up about 3 weeks after a cash out, each time. The surveys are not hard, they don't take a long time to load each page, and it doesn't glitch out on the last page the way Lightspeed does sometimes.

2nd entry for today.

After I did my stint as a Looky Lou at the river I went ahead and drove to town to deposit those two checks into savings. I only had one way to go to town as the other two SR's are partially underwater. But the way I went is the way I normally go, so no big deal. If I could have I just would have gone to Everson, but of course main street is under water, well, not under water, but full of standing water so that branch didn't open. It's only a fifteen minute drive there. No, I went to Bellingham and deposited the $119 into savings.

So that brings the total in all my savings accounts to $1573.21. So I have achieved my two month goal of depositing $500 into savings by November's end, and my $1500 goal saved. This month will see an additional $1105 deposited for sure and I'm hoping to scrape up another $100 as well at the very least. So for sure $2678.21 by this month's end, hopefully $2778.21. I would like to reach $3000 saved by the end of December. Not bad for a girl who had $105 in savings in April and didn't know where she was even going to find $10 a week to save!

After I got the kids on the bus this morning, I wanted in the absolute worst way to drive the five minutes down the highway to this really terrific diner in Maple Falls. I had such a hankering for their home fries and pancakes this morning. And they make everything from scratch there, so I don't even have to worry about nasties in the food, except maybe nitrates in sausage or bacon.

But pancakes there are definitely not made with whole wheat flour and I don't know what kind of oil they use to cook the home fries and as I am trying to avoid transfats, well that wouldn't do at all.

But how hard could it be to make home fries? I mean, all it is is diced potatoes, bell pepper and onion. So I made them myself in olive oil, along with some nice nitrate/nitrite free, sulphate/sulfite free, sugar free all natural sausage and throughly enjoyed my homemade "diner" style breakfast. Didn't even miss the pancake that I had wanted earlier. Also saved myself about $10 including tip. They aren't horribly expensive there and I would have had a full breakfast if I had gone, rather than two items and the portions would have been a lot larger, too.

It was nice to not spend the money and stick to my new dietary habits.

I did, however spend some money tonight. We went to the chiropractor and then to Kmart to buy gloves and hats for the kids and gloves for me. The kids have scarves, but gloves and hats always seem to get lost or outgrown really fast. My gloves get lost because I let the kids wear them when they lose theirs.

I'm going to get some chenille yarn next payday and knit myself a hat and scarf to match my new jacket I bought a few weeks back. I'm not a great knitter but I can do hats and scarves that look good. I just can't do anything else. I'm starting to think the jacket may not be warm enough after all. It was 25 degrees this morning waiting for the school bus. But its hard to find anything really, really warm that isn't made of wool or lined with down. I'm not a masochist, I like to breathe and I can't do that with wool or down, so no go.

Oh, when we were at Kmart I looked at all the Christmas stuff. I love penguins, in fact I've collected penguins for 16 years and they had some really cute ones. But there is something that really, really annoys me to no end about Christmas and penguins. Penguins do not exist at the North Pole. They are native to Antarctica, as in the South Pole. And penguins and polar bears do not exist together as polar bears are native to the upper wilds of Canada and Alaska. And yet every year, there they are, cavorting together. Sigh. Just a really big pet peeve. Silly, I know, but it bugs me.

Nothing really jumped out at me to add to my collection of lights for our huge light display. Nothing I've seen at WalMart yet has impressed me either. Or Costco. I know its still early yet. I will be putting aside an extra hundred dollars to pay for the bump in our electric bill that we get after the holiday, due to all the lights. But it is a big deal for us and we wouldn't give it up, the kids just adore it and so does the neighborhood. I wish I'd bought the rope light nativity they had 3 years ago.

Oh, I should probably budget another $100 to buy cable to run through all the standees and hook around the trees so people can't steal from us this year. They didn't get much last year because DH surprised them in the act, but I'm not going to lose something we've paid hard-earned money for again. We also bought motion detectors last year so we will have to get those installed around the most expensive things.

Okay, this is more of a ramble than anything to do with finances so I think I'll wrap it up. Oh, I was able to cash out at TinklyCash this morning. $5 on its way to paypal. Oh, also wrote a check for $10 to fund Matt's hot lunch account at school. Which reminds me, I need to order checks.

I absolutely cannot believe it but it snowed today! It never snows before the middle of November here and usually not until after Thanksgiving. I am just grateful it did not stick down in the valley, where I live. The foothills are dusted pretty heavily from the halfway point on up.

It was very surreal driving today because there was a windstorm on top of the snow and there were tons of big yellow leaves falling between snowflakes along the highway. The trees have only lost about half of their leaves, it was all just very strange.

I wouldn't have gone out in it but the kidlets spent the night with Mom to give me a break. I got the tummy bug and really needed the rest. Feel mostly better today but like someone parked a well-packed rock into my stomach and my ribs feel bruised. Not fun.

Of course, the first half of the drive to town was abysmal but when I crossed the river and went up the hill it was like driving into another world as the sun was out and everything abrubtly stopped. There's this one road that DH and I refer to as the Bermuda Triangle Road because the weather changes on a dime there and of course, that was right where the change was.

Didn't buy anything today. I made turkey legs for dinner and took all the meat off the bones and threw the bones in the crockpot with water, onions, parsely, carrots, and celery to make broth. Tomorrow I will use it to make Turkey noodle soup with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. I could really use some good bone-warming soup as it is really cold despite a roaring fire.

I tried to cash out at TinklyCash today but the redemption button won't show up, despite the fact that I have $5 in my account. I will give it until tomorrow and then email them.

I finally made it to town and deposited money to savings and today was also the auto deposit so:

$10.00 auto deposit
$10.00 cash
$ 2.50 rolled coin
$ 5.00 surveyspot check
$36.50 refund for x-ray

Total depsoit: $64.00
New balance in savings: $1299.01

I have blown past my goal of saving $250 by the end of November by $49.01 already. I wonder if its possible for me to double my goal and save a total of $500 by the end of November instead? I'd have to come up with $200.99. I'll have $105 more just through normal savings next month. No wait, there are 5 Thursdays next month so that's five auto deposits, which is $50 plus the $65 we used to pay for cable, which is $115, so I'd only have to scrape up $85.99.

Of course, this is beyond the $1000 I will save next month because DH is working an extra week. I'm still waiting on a check from ACOP for $15 and I think I've got another one coming from another survey company, still. Hmm. I can definitely count on the ACOP, it should show up any day now, so that's just $70.99 to come up with. That is totally doable.

So come the end of November I should have a total $2500 in savings! Woohoo! With our tax refund and DH's bonus plus what I am regularly able to save $7800 by the end of April. With our trade-in we should easily be able to purchase a good used car with that. Especially if the one we want is still sitting on the lot by then. It'll have been there for at least 8 months at that point. I'm sure they'll want to move it.

Although, if we can save that much in one year, maybe we ought to try to hold out another year and double that amount and get a two year old car instead of a five year old one. I don't know. Still, the older car would mean I could start putting my savings skills to work again sooner and start paying down debt with a vengeance. I'll have to really think about that. Our car is 14 years old and still runs okay most of the time. The SUV is 10 years old and would be the trade-in for obvious gas guzzling reasons.

Too much to decide on today, but for now I think I'll stick with the first goal of buying a five year old car and we can decide for sure in April when we have the money in the bank.

We received our 401K statement today for period 07-01-06 to 09-30-06.

Beginning balance--$36,377.74
Employee contribution--$499.18
Employer contribution--$395.89
Market Gain--$1,291.57
Other transactions--$138.95
Fees--(-)$41.42
Ending Balance $38,661.91

Changes from beginning of year: +$5,710.12

It has recovered nicely from the second quarter dive.

I opened my ING account today and sent $250.00 off to that, to qualify for the $25 bonus (thanks, Baselle for the referral link). Once everything is up and running I will most likely also open an Emigrant account. This was a very big step for me and I want to settle with it first, though.

Didn't make it to town today with enough time to deposit money as we had to go to the chiropractor and then drop DH off at the airport.

I will deposit it soon though, $10 cash, $5 surveyspot check, and the roll of nickels and roll of pennies I rolled today, $2.50, total deposit of $17.50.

I woke up with a major sugar hangover today and that was enough to convince me to stick to our new eating habits like glue from now on. Yuck.

Yesterday was soccer day plus it was the celebration for FIL's 60th birthday. I skipped going to Tobias' soccer game so I could cook and assemble the requested from scratch lasagna and from scratch birthday cake with from scratch frosting.

Got everything done and over to IL's house and made it to Rose's game. Her team won. First by forfeit, since only seven girls showed up on the other team and you have to have nine to play. Well, we decided to give them two members from our team so the girls could at least play a game. One of them was one of our best players, too. And they played hard for the other team, but we still ended up winning. 5 to 3. And this is the best team in the league. They trounced us last time we played. If we win next weeks game, we'll have one half of ten games played. Pretty good, considering last season they lost every game they played and were 2nd division instead of 1st like now. Skills are coming along.

Afterwards we went to the IL's for the celebration and stupidly, I ate cake. It was good, of course, my cooking is always excellent, but it was so not worth this horrible sugar hangover today.

Today has gone pretty well, but it would have gone better if I hadn't been dragging myself around recovering from a carb coma. We finally removed the old kitchen range hood and installed the new one. This is eight years I've been waiting for it, nagging for it, and finally today for no apparent reason, DH decided to put it up.

FIL came out with a load of wood, also so we unloaded the truck and got that all set up. I am thinking of getting 6 cords of mill ends delivered. They are kiln-dried and it would cost $250 for spruce or $350 for a mix of hemlock and fir.

DH got called to work an extra week, so his next hitch will be a 3 and 1. With the extra pay I will put $1000 into savings and purchase the wood, and put some aside for Christmas shopping. It will be a lean Christmas this year as we are saving up for that car. It's still sitting on the lot, so hopefully no one will have an interest in it until we can buy it.

I got a check in the mail from surveyspot for $5, so will deposit that tomorrow. Oh, and DH filled the car up yesterday for $40 or so. That's it for today.

Okay, let's get the savings update out of the way. Yesterday was the auto-transfer of $10 to savings. The CU also put in their teeny tiny amount of dividends for the interest of $0.43. Total in this savings account is now $1116.43. That 43 cents is probably going to drive me crazy for a bit until I can add 57 cents to make it even again. I hate odd money amounts, I will always even it up when I can.

I received a check from NFO surveys of $10 yesterday and along with $25.50 in rolled coin, deposited it today into CU#2. Bringing the total in that account to $118.58. Oh, I don't think I mentioned that I had gotten a $70 medical refund last week to start this account.

So total savings right now is $1235.01. I also have an additional $10 that I will deposit on Monday. With that deposit I will only need $5 more to hit my goal of adding $250 to savings by the end of November. I'll meet that next Thursday with the auto deposit! I'll have saved $250 in one month instead of two.

Now I just need to get on the ball and open an ING account. Anyone have a referral they can send me? Baselle, do you have any? That would be appropriate since it was reading her blog that got me started on the whole ING thing.

Anyway, since it was payday I paid the last two bills that needed paying for this pay cycle, more to MBNA MC and my life insurance.

Then I went shopping. I spent $12.08 at the organic food store for 2 packages of organic 100% whole wheat tortillas, 6 pluots, and a jar of Spectrum mayonaise with omega-3 and flax seed oil.

Then I went to the farm stand and paid $5.97 for one large white onion, 6 ears of corn, 6 bananas, a big bunch of red flame grapes and two yellow summer squash.

From there I went to WalMart and spent $14.46 for a white twin sheet, package of 40 bandages with a free Neosporin sample, and a bottle of Ultrafine Mist Vick's nasal spray. Had to go to the pharmacy and pay $7.33 for a 48 pack of Sudafed and while there got a free sample of Pepcid AC.

Then I went over to Costco and bought 2 chuck roasts and a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 2 18 packs of brown Omega-3 organic eggs, and a container of Electrasol dishwashing tablets. I also added $80 to my cash card while I was at the check out for their gas station (which I didn't fill up today). Total was $139.08. We will fill up tomorrow after the soccer game. I really don't like to do it there so if DH is home, I'll wait until he can unless I am running on fumes.

Then it was to the Franz bakery outlet store where I got $9 worth of 100% whole wheat flour bread and from the free rack a package of eight 100% whole wheat hamburger buns. Of course, there's no way to coupon with this sort of shopping, but that's the trade off for healthier eating. I did get a milk coupon from Organic Valley though, so I am happy about that and will use it the next time I get milk.

I have started reading the Schwarzbein Principle which I think will go hand in hand with my husband's Ultra Metabolism book, only geared more for women. It's interesting so far.

I'm not sure if I ever said, I finished the book on CD "Start Late, Finish Rich," by David Bach. Really interesting, has some good ideas, but the more of his stuff I read the less I feel like we started late. We have a good chunk in the 401K and have a lot of equity in our house, almost 2/3 of its value is paid for. I have put "The Automatic Millionaire: Real Estate" on hold. I've read or listened to everything else the library has by this author and have really enjoyed it. He gives a lot of solid information in a simple, understandable way. I highly recommend his books.

Food today:

Breakfast:
Cascadia Farms Organic O's cereal
organic milk
organic omega-3 eggs
organic apple

Lunch:
carrots
pineapple
wild salmon patty (made with scallions, organic omega-3 egg, garlic, and real parmesan)
salad with grapeseed oil
water

Dinner:
chuck roast
corn
potatoes
banana
green beans
organic milk

And that's all she wrote.

Or to those of you who aren't sick...a cold in the nose, well in the whole sinusy section of the face. Rose has successfully passed it onto me, oh, joy. I am actually functioning pretty well, though as I went back to sleep after the kidlets got on the school bus, and didn't wake up again until 12:39. My taste buds are off, so food doesn't taste that good, I hate that.

I had enough points to cash out at NFO MySurvey today, so will be receiving a $10 check from them within 3 to 6 weeks.

Today was the auto deposit of $10 into savings, bringing the total of that savings account up to $1010. I rolled coin today and will be depositing that money tomorrow, $16, bringing savings to $1026, and then also depositing the $65 that used to go for cable, bringing the total to $1091.

I am awaiting account verification from paypal off a new account and as soon as that is received and activated, I will have $70 more to add into savings. This account is going to be used for selling on ebay and half once we are set up.

I have started reading Tax Loopholes for Ebay Sellers. I haven't gotten very far yet, but from reading the index I think it will cover all the information I need to know for how to set up an ebay business and how to handle taxes. It isn't about avoiding taxes, really, just how not to pay more than you have to and how to pay them and that kind of info. I think it will offer a lot of insight into this next phase of our adventure to make more money so we can use it to get out of debt and start saving more money. Plus declutter.

I bought this book about six months ago, just before I joined this site. I think I would buy it now anyway, because I will be referring to it often. It looks to be an excellent resource. Most of the time I check stuff out now, but I think buying the stuff you will really use can be an acceptable purchase when trying to avoid unnecssary ones.

Today I paid the water/sewer bill for 4 months (new system switch over, I just wanted to be ahead) of $256 and the power bill of $93. I also had lunch out (unnecessary expense, but I felt unable to cook and I really didn't want to) which came to $12.25 plus a $3.00 tip. I know that's over 20% but this is the usual girl, she never screws up anything, she's working her way through college, and as a former restaurant employee I believe in tipping well for good service. Not that I'm justifying, just explaining.

Dinner was much cheaper, just a can of chicken and stars ($1.09 at Kmart, cheapest I've found it here) and a glass of Pepsi (about .30). The caffeine helps with the sinus headache. I probably should have done this for lunch, too since I really am trying to cut way back on eating out. Maybe I'll have to do what Amber does and every time I eat out, put an equal amount of money into savings. That would pinch but might help me to alter my behavior.

Tonight I wrote out a check for basketball. It is only $25 this year instead of $30 as the sponsors are kicking in more. That was nice. Now I just have to remember to mail it tomorrow.

I got two samples in the mail today. Degree clear from Degree itself, and Olay Definity from WalMart. The Olay sample was really tiny, just like the one from Target. I've come to expect much more from the WalMart samples so I was really disappointed in the size. On the bright side, between the two of them there should just be enough to use on my whole face.

Today was a no spend day by virtue of the fact that I stayed home all day. I finished reading Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach. It was good as far as it went, but I much prefer Smart Couples Finish Rich over it, even if you aren't part of a couple at the moment or ever plan to be. I just found it a better read all the way around.

I took some surveys today, redeemed $5 from Your2Cents, which says 6 to 8 weeks for the check to arrive but in practice is closer to 3 to 5 weeks.

I spent most of the day reading and finishing Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. It was interesting, I suppose, but kind of self-righteous. Not as self-righteous as Not Buying It and I certainly believe that this author actually went through hardship while working undercover below the poverty level, she sure whined. A lot. Though again, not as much as the author of Not Buying It. I think all in all it was worth reading and at least it was a fairly fast read, or maybe it just felt that way because I had checked out the large print edition so I could read in the tub without my glasses. It ended kind of abruptly though.

Tomorrow I can take the follow-up survey on the product I tested and ship it back to them in its SASE for the lovely $15 check they promised.

I'm also taking Rose to the orthodontist in the morning, so I should be receiving a refund check from them this month. That's because we paid for all the orthodontic work upfront and then six months later our insurance upgraded and covered orthodontists, so he just bills them and refunds me the amount. I'm all for that. Though I wish he would have refunded me the full amount, billed the insurance and then us for the difference, but oh, well. It takes longer this way but we'll get a fair amount of it back.

I need to make several phone calls tomorrow to cancel things and to get the form to sign Rose up for basketball, which I can pick up when I drop her off at school after the orthodontist appointment. Can't believe it is almost that time of year already. Seems like soccer just started. That'll be $30 unless it has gone up.

Oh, forgot to mention, Tobias lost that tooth on Sunday. Poor, overworked tooth fairy. Still have some wigglies in both kids' mouths but nothing close to coming out. I think that's it.

I am so excited. It took me 5.5 months of cutting expenses and scrimping, but I have managed to save $1000. Wow. This is so doable. Next up, $1250. Goal is to add that $250 by the end of November. I know I can do it now.

I sent for a check from surveyspot this week of $5. I tested a product on the 27th that will net me $15. I'm hopefully about to qualify for another product test for an additional $15 and I should be cashing out on a couple of PTR's within the next week to ten days, as well. All of it is earmarked for savings.

Both kids were home sick today. We went into my mother's house to be sick there for the day. The kids were happy to camp out in front of satellite TV. I did go out for a couple of hours, Mom was happy to watch them and give me a break.

I went to Walmart to buy cheap chicken soup, real sudafed (only have to sign over your first born to purchase it there, not also and arm and leg), grass seed to reseed the lawn where the pool was, a small space heater (my room is furthest away from the wood stove and also is on the windiest, coldest side of the house so there are some nights during winter when I need it) since the old one died last winter. Oh, also got a little decorative scarecrow that I attatched to my front door for fall decoration.

I like to change my front door with the seasons, so this little 89 cent scarecrow was a cheap way to do it. I also have a red bell wreath for winter time, a pretty rainbow pastel colored bow for spring and crossed American flags summer. Fall was the only season I didn't have anything for and seeing that silly thing grinning at me did wonders for my spirit when I put it up tonight.

I also looked through the Christmas stuff. They have a revolving light lighthouse and a revolving train train station that I want to get for my Christmas village set. But I refuse to buy them in September. The lighthouse will actually go with the stuff I already have as its mostly a fishing village. I buy one thing a year, generally, so probably will not get the train station unless I get it as a gift for my train crazy son for Christmas.

Afterwards at my mother's we finally had a chance to look through all her end of life paperwork. I am durable power of attorney in both health and finances and have copies of the medical directives on both parents. She gave me a copy of the list of assets, banks and bank accounts, the lawyer's address and phone number, and showed me where she is keeping the will as I will be executor. The lawyer also has a copy in her office. We discussed what to do if she goes before dad, who to call to get him set up in a local nursing home, the name and number of his neurologist, and both of their wishes regarding disposal of remains (cremation, scatter ashes, no funerals).

She also has explained how the mortgage debt will be settled if she goes first, if dad goes first, or if they go together. And I will have custodial access to a money account to pay for all the expenses that may come up before the will can be carried out. So that won't have to come out of pocket and be reimbursed by the estate upon distribution. That is also a relief.

I have been after my mother for five years to get this stuff taken care of and am so glad she has everything in order now. It is one less worry for me to have everything clearly spelled out. I watched her go through not having any of this stuff taken care of with Grandma and her Alzheimer's disease and I did not want to be doing that myself one day.

Now I just need to do all the will stuff for DH and myself.

I finally hung curtains and a valance in the kitchen today. It is so nice to be able to walk in there in my nightgown and not worry about the neighbors. They are very pretty, white with cherries embroidered on them in blue and a little eyelet lace.

My kitchen looks so nice now, between the pretty pine table and chairs, the new curtains and the matching dishes. Never thought I'd get to this point. Next project in there is to change the surface of the counters and backsplash. We will be using linoleum tiles to cover the surface in a pretty blue print that just happens to match the color of the cherries on the curtains.

So what does my kitchen have to do with saving money? Well, the nicer it looks the more time I want to spend in it cooking and if I am cooking we are not eating out, hence we are saving money. Always a good thing.

Money from ReadRevenue showed up at paypal today so I transferred that to my CU, should show up by Friday.

I cashed out a $3 PTR at ReadRevenue yesterday. I qualified for a $15 market research study, where the product should be arriving this week for me to test. This is the first one that has no strings attatched. They send me the product, I test it, take a survey, I ship it back in the postage paid packaging and take another survey a week later. I'm excited.

I also filled out a qualification survey for another market research company with the same survey company that I'm doing the other one for so I am hopeful this may become a thing. I've been filling out surveys with this company for several months now before I got to this level. They do have paid surveys about every six weeks or so where I'll get a $4 or $5 check, so I know they pay out. Like that in a company.

I received a $25 Shell gas card in the mail today from MyPoints, so I am going to take $25 out of my gas fund and put it in savings this week. I'll make that $1000 one way or another.

Yesterday was soccer and the kids played pretty well. Tobias has the four mini-games and they tied two and lost one 2 to 1 and one 2 to 0. Rose's team lost 5 to 6, it would have been 7 to 6 but two goals were disqualified for offsides. Yet, the other team was frequently offsides and the ref never seemed to see that. Or the pushing. Although he did call the kicking and deliberate tripping. But I digress.

It was a good game and the other team only got their last two goals in the last 8 minutes of the game, usually they were trailing. It was exciting and fun to watch and our girls felt really good about it, considering they all thought if the ref had been calling the plays right on both sides, they would have won. Problem with a twelve year old ref, I suppose, but the soccer club takes what it can get.

We ended up spending $31.89 for dinner out at Round Table Pizza for the four of us. We go there even though it is a little pricier because they don't use MSG in making their pizzas, which Rose is very allergic to and I don't react well to, either. We have got our eating out down to 1 time a week and I am hoping to get it down to twice a week, which is hard during soccer season, with the ultimate goal being one time out a month.

I am doing more cooking ahead and that helps, but when you have to spend all day at the soccer park and keep a cooler in a boiling hot vehicle, I still worry about food safety. Food poisoning is never fun and I've had it often enough in my life that I just prefer to avoid the whole issue. And I don't want to be dragging a cooler around the fields, either. I already have enough to carry.

Still, there has to be some compromise that won't be so pricey each week. I suppose the dollar menu at McD's maybe, but that's less healthy than pizza (at least the way we order pizza). Maybe the grocery store deli might be an option. Well, cheaper but not necessarily healthy either. I'll have to think on it some more.

Finished reading "Smart Couples Finish Rich," by David Bach yesterday. Very good information and I highly reccommend it for both members of a married couple or for anyone living as a married couple with combined finances. I didn't agree with everything he said, but I'd say about 90 percent of it can be applied to my life. DH is going to read it next.

I have learned a lot about how to invest with retirement money and how to invest beyond retirement money. I'm surprised at how clueless I really was before reading this book. Now I think I have a good foundation on which to build.

I started reading "Smart Women Finish Rich," same author, just to see where the books vary and if there might not be something even more specific to me as a woman than me as part of a couple.

Can't remember if I mentioned that we paid out $32 this week for school pictures and sports pictures, for 2 kids, each package being the cheapest at $8 a piece.

I also have to write a check to fund Tobias's lunch account tomorrow, so that will be another $30. It just makes me life easier when he has hot lunch. I know it is an expense I should cut out, but right now, I'm not quite willing.