Not really too much to report this week. DS has been sick with a nasty stomach bug and missed three days of school this week. I don't think this child has ever had such a sick year before. I really wish that parents would keep their kids home when they are sick. I am really getting sick of my child constantly being contaminated because other parents don't have a back up system in place if they are unable to stay home from work with their child. Plus these kids are 12, 13, 14. They legally and safely should be able to stay home alone if necessary. It's irresponsible to send them and I'm tired of my kid paying the price for other parents. He's always been so healthy and the last 12 to 15 months it's been one thing after another, poor guy. Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant.

I cleaned out my purse and added $11.14 to the coin jar. I took $19 for allowances and divided them into the kid's envelopes. I also added the last $15 of DS's birthday money into his envelope. I really need to take him to the credit union as he's got quite a wad of birthday cash and saved allowances.

I've got the replacement all set up now except for installing Office, which I will do today and then I can enter in all the information into Excel for the past 3 weeks. I've kept track on paper, but it is not the same, especially since I've managed to lose and find the paper three times. I am definitely going to keep contributing to the laptop fund. It is well worth it.

I also need to update the HSA tracking spreadsheet and the EF tracking spreadsheet and the Holding Tank spreadsheet.

I am close to being ready to cash out my first $5 gift card for Amazon at Swagbucks. If I leave the SBTV player going to the side of the screen for the next couple hour or two, I should hit it, but I don't know if I want to make that kind of effort in one go, so it might take all weekend. I still haven't signed up for that other one that Laura (Keeping it Frugal) has where you watch the videos. I need to try to remember to do that.

I did another survey last night for GTM. They aren't as good as they used to be. Survey values have dropped from 50 to 35 and screeners are only worth 1 point or a drawing entry instead of 5 points for every screener. I think once I hit my 1000 points I may be done with them. They used to be so good and I could easily make money with them, but that was three years ago. Now that I'm getting back into it again, wasting my times with small payoffs is annoying.

I may have qualified for a market study at another company. If so it'll be worth $8. I hope I get that one. I won't know for a week and a half if I did. I wish they would tell you if you do. If you end up qualifying they send you the product. If you don't, you never hear about it again. But I made it all the way through the first screener and the second screener, so I think chances are good.

I have to go to the store today because DH finished off the ketchup (left the bottle in the fridge, but it was empty) and I didn't discover this until yesterday when I had already been to the grocery store. But I have to take Footloose and Puss in Boots back to the DVDExpress booth anyway, so I can pick up some ketchup then and some crackers and some more soup. They have a sale on right now of 2 cans for $1 and since soup is about all DS can eat until this virus finishes running it's course (no fruit, no veg, no dairy), I want to take advantage of the sale.

I'm also hoping to find some unflavored pedialyte since it doesn't have dyes or fruit juice or artificial sweetners. Even though he is drinking lots of water, he's really at risk of dehydration. I did put him on Imodium on the doctor's rec. It seems to be helping.

So my bid to eat mostly from the pantry or freezer, supplementing with fresh greens/veg and fruit for the next month or so is going well so far.

Yesterday I used one of my Rustic Crusts to make a pizza. Not quite as good as a homemade crust, but about ten times better than anything else out there and certainly better than that other really well known pre-made crust in a plastic wrapper. It was a parmesan herb crust which I like even better than the plain one.

I made my own sauce by adding basil, oregano, thyme, and marjoram to a cup of tomato sauce. I have plenty of cheese on hand so used 2 cups of shredded mozzarella and a sprinkling of extra sharp cheeddar. We had some Canadian Bacon in the freezer so I thawed that out the night before. I ate the leftover slice for lunch today and the kids ate leftover baked potato soup.

For dinner tonight I thawed out a pot roast and threw it in the crockpot. It'll be done at 6:00. When it is around 4:30 I will throw a couple of potatos and a sweet potato into the oven to bake. Then about ten minutes before the roast is done I will make the broccoli. I'll slice up a couple of oranges for the table and that should round it out nicely. There will be leftover potroast for lunch tomorrow.

I am hoping to only have to use half of my grocery budget this month by relying mostly on what's on hand. If I didn't want fresh veg and fruit and milk I could do better than that. We just really don't care much for frozen veg (other than frozen corn on the cob or frozen potatos) and the only canned veg we like is green beans. I do have some canned pineapple and pears that will get used up during this month, though.

I do need to go buy some brown sugar and peanut butter though. I forgot to get them both and they are pretty necessary to our monthly cooking/eating habits. I will buy some tomorrow when I pick up milk for the week and hopefully I will be able to keep it to that until next week.

I am just glad we don't have to buy eggs. The chickens keep us well supplied and homemade pancakes and eggs or toast and eggs or muffins and eggs never seems to get boring. I do need to sit down and figure out meals for the rest of the week. DH comes home on Wednesday so amounts will have to go up. I'll probably do one spaghetti with my special homemade sauce and my special meatballs and then I can do meatball sandwiches on the next day with the leftovers. I'll have to make homemade buns, though.

I'm going to make blueberry cornbread muffins this afternoon. The house will smell so wonderful and make staying in on this cold, snowy day so much nicer.

Why is it just when you finally get one kid well enough to be back in school for a day or two, the next kid in line thinks it's time for them to be sick, too? All I really want is one day to myself right now. One day. Really. Is that so much to ask. One day where maybe I can sleep and get well and not be running around with a low grade case of the yucks? Or even, you know, one night of uninterupted sleep?

I am very glad payday is here. Not for any specific reason other than that it means another step forward on my march towards financial freedom. I have the propane bill to pay, but most of the money for that has been set aside already. The water bill for the old house is due I wish they would switch to metered already, they said they would five years ago when they installed the fancy new meters we had to pay extra for and we are still on a straight rate out there. Since no one is out there more than once a month or so the water almost never gets used. I'll turn it off as soon as we're done cleaning out there.

All of the autopays will come out the first few days of the month, the insurances, storage, and security system. I'll pay the AMEX and the mortgage. And I'll see what I can squeeze out for medical.

I need to do a minor grocery run for things like milk, brown sugar, yeast, potatoes and some fruit (still have most of a case of oranges from the last trip to Costco). Also a quick run to Trader Joe's for dried mango slices, additive free bacon, and additive free all beef hot dogs. I am well stocked on fresh veggies (red and green cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, broccoli, onions, scallions, celery). My freezer is doing great on protein. I am well stocked on chicken. I am well stocked on hamburger. I have one beef pot roast and some stew meat (for either stir-fries or chili). I have a couple of game hens.

I would like to get some codfish since they are having a major seafood sale for whatever that thing is that the Catholics do right now where they give stuff up (a lot of times beef, apparently) for a month. I was hoping for a good beef sale, but that's not in the cards right now. Maybe there will be a marked down for quick sale steak or two, but otherwise my grocery dollars are going to be as stingy as I can make them the next four weeks.

I think I will make baked potato soup today. I have all the ingredients and it is such a feel good food for such a nasty, rainy day with under the weather children. Either that or my all meat chili. Another feel good food for a day like today. If I make the potato soup today I will at least char the peppers as well for the chili.

I started my quest to eat mostly from the freezer/pantry right now last night. I made two Cornish game hens. We cut them in half and everyone ate half of one. We also had canned corn and canned green beans to round it out and an orange.

Friday we went shopping at Costco. I picked up a few items for my mother while we were there. It cost $67.11 and she paid me back today. I kept the $65 in my purse, but added the $2.11 to the coin jar.

We spent a good $230 at Costco ourselves, mostly because I did not want to go back there again any time soon. I may be walking almost normally now, but after a trip there I was limping and had to ice for several hours afterwards. It is just too big a place to try to manuever through when you are disabled.

So I doublestocked on some stuff, toilet paper, Ziploc bags, medicines, etc. Most of the cost was that, though I did get a big bag of precut broccoli, some hamburger patties, pancake mix, a case of oranges (after opening the box and checking every single orange for mold), and some chicken thighs as they were .99/lb. Since they come prepackaged in family sized servings, I prefer to buy them at Costco if the cost is low enough, so I don't have to do any extra work. It had been running $1.59 for the last year or so, so it had been cheaper for me to buy it elsewhere in bulk at .98/lb and package it myself.

I wish I had realized we were nearly out of brown sugar though or I would have bought some there. I have about a half cup left after making the marinade today. Now I'll need to wait for a sale and it's not really baking season so I may have to pay a higher price. We use it too much to go too long without it. I should root around and make sure I don't have any in the cupboards. I had quite the stockpile at one time.

DH had to run DS's viola down to the school as he forgot it today and then he is to swing over to the one CU and get the amount of last year's interest for our taxes. He needs to get those done this week so we can get them sent in before he leaves on Monday.

The closing date on DH's grandparents' house was moved from January 30th to February 20th. Even though the people had put in an offer and had the inspection done, they then had to have the bank approve and do it's own inspection, which is taking a while. They were preapproved before the offer and figured that was enough, hence the earlier closing date. First time homebuyers.

Hopefully it will actually close on the 20th. I don't know how long it will be from that point until DH gets his share of the inheritance. Not too long, I hope. No one has contested the will and it was divided fairly with 5% going to each of four grandchildren, and 40% going to each of two children. The family is more or less amicable.

I got the book I put on hold from the library today, The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather that someone here on the blogs had gotten not too long ago. I am really looking forward to reading it. The author lived on $40 a week for food after her husband divorced her and she lost her job. That's about $160 a week for a family of four if I extrapolated it out. We spend about $150 a week for the four of us, so it's pretty close and I thought maybe I could find some actual useful ideas in this one. So far I'm liking it, but haven't got too far yet.

All right, I've procrastinated my bills long enough. Time to grab the bull by the horns.

I cleaned out my purse today and added $11.37 to the coin jar. I think I have enough quarters now to roll them, but don't feel like checking right now. If not it is pretty close.

I spent $90 today to get a therapuetic massage (1.5 hours) as I had some pretty severe muscle spasms over the weekend to the point where even the super powerful muscle relaxant didn't work.

I also spent $31.68 at the grocery store buying 2 kinds of milk, oranges, bananas, lettuce and some salmon.

DH came home this morning. It is really nice to have him here again.

I haven't sat down and done all the bills yet. Physical therapy really wiped me out today and then I had to go to Walgreens and two different grocery stores, so I mailed off the one bill due on the 31st (just going to elsewhere in the county so will get there in plenty of time). That was the $100 for half year dues for the HoA of our old house's development.

I did have enough coins in the coin jar to roll both nickels and pennies, and I had another $1 in my purse, so with that I ended up depositing $35.50 into the Safety Net portion of the Emergency Fund.

$708.63 Beginning Safety Net Amount
+_35.50 Amount of Deposit
--------------------
$744.13 Ending Safety Net Amount

That brings the total EF to $3895.78, which means I only need to transfer $104.22 to ING to hit $4000 and not the few dollars more I thought it would be. I will figure out the ING money tomorrow as I have to put some other amounts in from what needs to go into the holding tank.

I also paid out the kids allowances today. DS got $7 and DD got $36 (I was a bit behind on hers and had to fill her envelope for 3 weeks worth of allowance). I also gave her $10 as she is spending the day at the mall tomorrow with her friends and will need to buy something to eat. She likes to go to one of the stir-fry places where they actually have real food, but they are a bit more expensive than the rest of the food court.

I also bought an extra large specialty pizza tonight for $28.17. I was in the mood for a bit of a splurge. And I spent $2.16 on a prescription. And $169 and some odd cents on groceries and OTC meds as well, refilling my cold medicine stockpile for DS (the dye free stuff he needs to have because of his allergies). I think that's it for today.

The weather warmed up a trifle today and we had a tiny amount of rain, so the white stuff thawed a little. We're in for a bunch of rain over the next five days so hopefully that'll take care of it and we'll be snow free again soon.

I spent $3.35 on a perscription today, one I've had to do without since Monday. Mostly because I ended up not sleeping for 56 hours and that was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. My brain just would not shut down. I was so glad the doctor was finally in today.

We did end up getting out to the chiropractor yesterday, and then stopped by the grocery store. It is nice to have oranges, apples, bananas, and green stuff again, as well as bread and milk. I don't think my fridge had ever been this empty before. We ate up everything that was in there and some stuff from the freezer. So this is what a no leftovers left behind week looks like.

I bought some vitamins as well which made things pricey and I walked out of the store having spent $186.42. But I was getting some staples as well, since I really wan't trusting the weather forecast at that point. I will have to go to TJ's on Sunday, but other than that I should not have to grocery shop again until February.

Happy New Year, everybody. The kiddos insisted on staying up until midnight and then of course it was well past my bedtime and I couldn't sleep until around two a.m. They, of course, passed right out at 12:05ish. I've barely got my eyes open, but I am happy it is a new year and I hope this one will be healthier and less injury prone.

I am anxious for Tuesday to come so we can do the big financial stuff that I've been anticipating for the past month or so. I wish the banks were open tomorrow.

I sent DH down to the store last night to buy bread so he spent $4.79. It took him a while to find it. We like Big Horn Valley by Franz because it's whole wheat bread made without corn syrup or raisin juice. Well, we haven't been able to find it for a week or so, and yesterday we had our last slice.

He did finally find it. They made that type organic so it was in a different section of the bread shelf. Fortunately it was the same ingredients, only organic. Same price (way too high) as before as well. I really need to start using the bread machine again. I've gotten really lazy about that.

Today should be a no spend day for us, though DD is going to buy something with her Christmas money.

When I am a little more awake I will calculate what we have spent on debt payoff in 2011 and how much we still have to go.

I added $4.10 to the coin jar today.

I put $5 in a Salvation Army kettle.

I spent $10.90 at the grocery store.

I got gas today. It was $3.249 per gallon and I put in 16.213 gallons @ $52.68.

I am out of cash until Friday, but I have $67 in the checking account.

The bonus check did not come today. I thought it had, but it was only DH's paystub from Friday arriving in the mail (as we have direct deposit). Way to get my hopes up and watch them fall. DH will probably be home (Wednesday) before it shows up, but I live in hope.

I am mostly over my cold, just still have the cough lingering. My knee feels better but my hip hurts like blazes. These new physical therapy exercises are hard on it, but do seem to be strengthening my knee.

I really, really hate to do it, but I am going to have to raise my grocery budget. I spent so much time getting it down from $800 a month to $500 a month, so to raise it just feels like I'm taking a step backward. I know that I'm not. I know that it is that prices on real food are rising and that real food seldom has coupons. But it just annoys me so much.

It's like the year I spent getting my electric bill down by doing things like line and rack drying my clothes, cooking more than one thing in the oven at a time, replacing all the light bulbs in the house with CF ones and making sure lights weren't left on all night or radios, TVs, and fans weren't left on all day. I got my bill down to $90 and then a few months later they raised the rates and it was right back up to $109 again. It was so frustrating.

I know it's not me or my shopping habits. It's simply that the cost of food is going up and there just isn't really any other option (for now) but to pay higher prices or go back to eating manufactured foods. Well, I won't do the latter. We have too many allergies.

I've been keeping track of prices the last few months just to make sure that what I've been seeing is real, and I haven't just been hitting a high price week at the stores. But it is. Milk has gone up 50 cents a gallon. Chicken has gone up 30 cents a pound. Beef has gone up $2 a pound (except hamburger which has gone up $1 a pound). The all beef hotdogs I buy at TJ's have gone up 50 cents. Pork has gone up 20 cents a pound. Turkey is up 50 cents a pound (not counting the on sale for the holidays whole ones). I'm assuming eggs are up, too, but we have chickens so I don't pay attention to that much. Butter is up by $1 a pound. So are most of the cheeses (though they do still go on sale). Yogurt is up from $1 to $1.25. Ice cream is about $1 more per container. The fish counter scares me. It's not worth buying fish anymore unless you buy the whole fish and have it filleted in the store (much cheaper and they let you take the backbone, head and tail for making chowder since you've paid for the whole fish).

It's not just meat and dairy prices, either. Canned goods have risen anywhere from 20 cents to $1 more per can. Frozen foods are up about $1 a box or bag. Fresh produce, well, you can still get cheap bananas, oranges, onions and cabbage, but forget cheap potatoes or apples. They don't exist anymore, not even in this prime apple growing state. Most apples are $1.29 a pound and the specialty apples are closer to $1.79. I can still remember when you could get a couple kinds of apples for 29 cents a pound. And it wasn't my childhood. It was only ten years ago.

Even broccoli and cauliflower, which should be low right now are over $1.50 a pound. Although the $2 lettuce seems to be a thing of the past (mostly because people wouldn't pay it) I am keeping a sharp eye on it. I am eyeing unfamiliar vegetables like mustard greens, kale, and chard simply because the prices are lower. I will be looking up recipes to see if there is anything I might like with these veggies. I am making sweet potatoes more often because regular potatoes have gotten so high.

But even so, I have decided I will have to raise my grocery budget from $500 a month to $600 a month. Hopefully that will be enough to make up for the rising prices. And hopefully the prices will hold steady for a while. Because I'm tired of the only beef we ever eat anymore being hamburger or pot roast.

Next fall I hope to order half a beef and maybe a lamb. At least I'll be able to get some decent prices then. For now, meal planning will get more strict, I'll have to make more stews, chilis and stir-fries and less of the traditional big chunks of protein with two sides meals. Hopefully I can keep it to $600.

I spent $17.70 at Fred Meyer today. DS got his pillow and DD got her box of hair dye. Had a coupon for the hair dye. Then we stopped at Trader Joe's and got their nitrate/nitrite free pastrami, black forest ham, and roasted turkey for school lunches. The regular roast beef looked weird (kind of shiny and scaled) so we got the pastrami instead. I still have plenty of tortillas and baby spinach for wraps which is what they like in their lunches these days.

We also got a bag of peppermint taffy (no artificial ingredients or food dyes). All of the other kids have been bringing in Christmas candy and DS wanted something he could have that he's not allergic to so he doesn't feel so left out. This fit the bill. I spent a total of $15.56 there.

Has anyone else noticed that often cashier's fail to give you your total at the end of checking your groceries these days? It happened at both FM and TJ's today and I have noticed this more and more of late. Only one of these had a easily viewable screen for me to see the total on. The girl finishes checking and then starts wiping her stuff down without ever telling me the total. I don't like that type of customer service. Maybe they are so used to people just swiping their cards, but what about those of us who still use cash or write checks? It's not as bad as the checkers that talk to each other over your head and never greet you, but close.

I should be able to stay out of the stores until Friday now. That is the plan anyway, though I might have to buy bread. Or just download the manual for the bread machine Mom gave me and make some.

I made broccoli and beef stir-fry for dinner. It was the last of the bagged kits. I'll be making them from scratch from now on, but I am going to make my own kits, because it's really the prep work that takes the time. If I pre-do all the prep work then I will still be able to have dinner on the table in 15 minutes, which is quicker than driving to pick up a pizza or burgers and much, much healthier. I've got some time tonight so I will make up some of my own kits. I will let you know how that goes.

Stopped to buy milk this morning. I had my coupon from the Organic Valley website (they let you print two a month) so didn't have to pay full price. $5.32. I put the change, $4.68 into the coin jar. I will definitely be making a deposit today. My envelope is so fat with ones I can barely get it closed. I'm starting to think my goal of $3500 in the EF by year's end is going to be too easy to hit. Well, if I do, I guess I'll rethink it.

I guess the sweaters were a good investment, because I've at least not felt chilled to the bone since I started wearing them. I still don't feel completely warm and I'm keeping my bedroom heater on 72, but I did have it up to a ridiculous 76 before, so it's an improvement. We had a very hard frost last night. It looked like it had snowed, it was so thick. Guess I'm lucky not to have woken up feeling frozen over myself.

I'm sick again which may be why my internal thermostat seems so wonky right now. I think it's just a cold though and not an infection. At least I hope so. I've got too much to do this month to be sick on top of it all.

DS is going to his first dance today after school. He is "meeting a girl" by their lockers and they are going to "hang out" together at the dance. I don't even know what that means. He's only 11 so it can't mean too much, right? They seem to have become best friends this year. I don't know if it's more than that. He's excited though. And according to the girl's mother, so is she. The dance starts right after school so I packed him an extra half a sandwich in his lunch box. With his allergies he may not be able to eat the provided refreshments.

DH is on a plane to San Francisco today. He'll be back around 8:30 p.m., though. It's going to be a long day without him here.

I've got bills to pay today. So far I have dealt with deducting the autopays of life insurance, car insurance, house insurance, storage, and the security system from the checkbook. I've paid the electric and I need to do AMEX and the mortgage on the old house. I believe that is all until the 16th. I'll have to double check my spreadsheet after I pay those two things.

Oh, yesterday we wrote a $35 check for DS's next belt test at tae kwon do which is next Thursday. I also spent $65.32 at the grocery store. They had turkey thighs and necks pretty cheap so I stocked up. Beef prices are so ridiculous and nothing was marked down for quick sale. We're going to be eating a lot of chicken and turkey until the prices decide to get reasonable again. I also bought milk, oranges, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I also picked up a copy of Clean Eating Magazine and have already found a couple of recipes I want to try this month.

Well, DH went back to the pharmacy to pick up the other prescription the pharmacist didn't see on the shelf last night and it was free, too. This one is normally $40, so we have definitely hit some sort of cap. Of course, I can't find our medical benefits file. DH had it when we opened the HSA and didn't put it back and doesn't know where he put it. Of course I can find the one from 2010, but that changed so radically this year that I'm not sure it's comparable. Still it did have an out of pocket limit so I'm assuming this one does, too.

DH is trying to find something on the insurance website, but good luck with that. Basically every time he signs into the insurance website, the website waggles its fingers in its ears, sticks out its tongue, and blows us a raspberry. Quite possibly it flips us off and flips us the bird simultaneously as well. Okay, okay, its just very user unfriendly and likes to crash like a toddler learning to ice skate (frequently and without any grace). If it weren't such a good insurance I would be far more cranky about that than I am.

If I could end up having that knee surgery this year, though, that would mean nothing out of pocket and that would be incredibly amazing. I am going to ask them to please find me any time or date before year's end. I will go in on Christmas if I have to, to not have to pay anything for it.

I went to Trader Joe's today and spent $95.44 on groceries and my cart was packed. I haven't done that at any other store in a while. Usually it's half a cart for twice as much money. That left me with $4.56 to put into the coin jar. My end of the year EF goal is definitely in sight.

I am exhausted, but I have been running all day. I had two medical appointments today, one at 11:00 and one at 2:15. And DS had early release at 12:15. DH had an appointment at 1:00 so he dropped me off at my first appointment, picked DS up after school, then we switched and I took DS and the car, ran home for a quick lunch and DS stayed with my mother while I ran to my doctor's appointment at 2:15. DD got out of school at 2:15 so DH walked from his appointment to the high school (six blocks), then he and DD walked from the high school to my second doctor's appointment (eight blocks), and then we all went home together.

Life with one car can be a little tricky sometimes. Well, technically we have two cars, but the battery is dead in the Crown Victoria and it needs new brakes, so...eh. One car. We'll charge the battery when we are ready to get the brakes fixed. But that's $700 I just don't see spending right now. We may end up trading it in at some point on a small, more gas efficient used car before getting it fixed, but not until our credit card debt is paid off and we can pay for it in cash.

Most of the time we really can get by with one, but DD will be 16 in August and it'll be a little more complicated with 3 drivers in the family. DD has more and more activities and I really am getting tired of playing chauffeur all the time and it's only going to get worse. I think we'll go as long as we can stand it though and then shell out for something in the $5000 range.

DH's family has put his grandparents' place on the market for $189,000. It's a fairly big house on a half acre with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an old fashioned parlor, living room, decent sized kitchen with pretty modern appliances (less than five years old), a garage, and a double carport. I think it's a steal at that price, but they are pricing it to sell. Apparently the state won't get any of it, since the rental on it paid for the nursing home care. So whatever it sells for, DH will inherit 5%. If it sells for the $189,000 it'll be around $9000 after the realtor's fee is taken out. Not a bad little windfall. It's in a prime neighborhood, but the market is bad all over the county, so who knows when it'll sell?

I added $3.67 to the coin jar today. 11 cents was found money. The rest was change from buying bread and milk at the grocery store. I've really got to download the manual to my mom's bread machine so I can go back to not buying bread.

DH picked up two prescriptions today. It was supposed to be 3 but DH didn't know that and it had been called in on Friday so it was in a separate bag on the shelf and the pharmacist didn't see it. So we'll have to go back. I guess maybe we'll to WalMart tomorrow since we have to go back that way and I need to buy at least 2 pairs of smaller jeans.

Anyway, the one prescription was $10 and for some reason the other one was free when it's usually $2.99. I am wondering if we've hit some kind of cap for the year? We've certainly spent enough on medical (probably just around $10,000 for our portion) and I know there's a cap somewhere, but I was thinking it was $12,000. Although it's entirely possible we've hit that amount out of pocket, too. I did accidentally shred some statements before we set up the HSA and I know at least one of them was for around $1000 and the other close to $600. I'll have DH look it up.

...to spend one $40 gift card? Seriously, DH and I picked up the organic free range turkey today at Safeway and we got an 18 pounder. It was marked as $37.21 and the milk we got was $3.09. So we whip out that gift card and then hand over our store card and...$9 off! So, yeah, we still have $9 and some change left on the gift card. Neither one of us wanted to try to use it up today. I did look around while we were there for anything else, because we just rarely drive out there, but I was not going to pay $7 for 10 pounds of potatoes (can you say price gouging?) or any of the other ridiculous produce prices there. Especially when we stopped at a different store on the way home and they had 15 pound bags of potatoes for $3. Seriously, these things are supposed to go on sale for the holidays, Safeway. Get with the program. And also another reason why I rarely shop there aside from the distance, it is just far, far, far too expensive.

I added $7.30 to the coin jar today.

I also spent $19.20 at the grocery store.

Because I have been sort of avoiding a lot of stuff this month (not the bills, just the rest of the minutiae that goes along with recording things), I am finally getting around to listing what went out the payday before this one. I am trying to get back on the ball again.

$1180.00 to BoA CC
___14.08 Electricity Old House
___44.89 Phone Old House
___65.56 Internet
___39.37 Security System Old House
__500.00 Extra AMEX payment (to catch up)
__385.76 Mortgage Old House
__200.00 Laptop Fund
___55.00 Dance Class
__232.42 Medical Bills
__350.00 Grocery Staples Stock UP
--------------
$3067.08

We also spent about $250 on meals out that week and $61 for the stupid PTSA magazine drive for DS's middle school (I bought two kitchen gadgets and Fine Cooking magazine, which I buy anyway). The rest is still in checking.

I am slowly catching up on all the stuff I have been ignoring this week. I think mostly I've just been exhausted and pushing myself too hard on not enough sleep. I still don't quite feel like I've caught up on sleep even though I slept nine hours Thursday night and eight hours last night. I kept waking up and then going back to sleep. I'm not supposed to have this kind of night restlessness on the medication I'm taking. It's supposed to knock me out cold. Still, I got more sleep in the last two nights than in the rest of the week combined so there is a bit of a difference.

I'm still fighting some kind of ick. Or a new ick that ran across the end of the old ick. Feels like I've been sick with something or other since September and I am tired of it. I can't remember the last time I actually felt like myself.

I have to go grocery shopping today. I have no appetite so that should make it easier. No picking up impulse items just because they look good. I've done pretty well with meals the last couple of days and today is leftover clean up day.

I've got leftover taco meat, cheese, and lettuce for making taco salads. I've got leftover chicken and noodles. I've got half of a very large pork chop and some cooked broccoli. And I've got half a tray of homemade enchiladas, so we are pretty set for the day. It's nice to not have the pressure on there of what to come up with and not be inclined to hit some pizza place or drive-thru.

We actually got paid on Thursday this week because of the holiday and I didn't really notice. Just went on as usual on Friday than saw the date and went, "Oh." I have worked up the budget and just need to write out a couple of checks and mail them off. These are places that don't take online payment and it would waste more gas to drive to them to pay than it would use a stamp.

Once I figure out how much is left I will send it to ING. I think it's going to be right around $3000 or so. This is mostly January/Future HSA money.

We had a hail storm last night. Actually we had two, or at least we had hail a couple of hours apart. They were the size of peas. Really weird weather around here lately.

I need to finish up laundry. I have three full baskets to put away and another load to wash. Wonder if I can get the kids to clean the bathroom? And all the sheets need to be changed. It never ends.

First off I paid the property tax today of $518.07 for the half year. That's not part of the payday spending, but I don't need to make 3 posts today, just to say that.

Now for the regular payments:

$1000.00 to Mom (loan payback)
___37.61 DH Life Insurance
___32.70 Me Life Insurance
___86.30 Car Insurance
___41.25 Old House Insurance
__142.00 Storage
__180.00 Tae kwon do (2 months)
___65.21 Virginia Mason
__144.00 Water/Sewer Old House (2 months)
__261.60 Dental
___82.57 Clothes Shopping
__106.00 Kids' Allowances (6 weeks)
__217.62 Grocery

I will also be paying the AMEX and the Mortgage on the 1st, but will post that when I do it. I will also pay for physical therapy and dance class for DD next week.

We went to Kmart today and I got each kid a fleece-lined sweatshirt for the colder weather. I also got them each an umbrella. I got myself 4 pairs of the super fuzzy warm slipper socks. I looked for pants but didn't see anything I liked. I've lost so much weight I am constantly tugging my jeans up and it is annoying.

DS needs a winter jacket, but I couldn't find any boys' coats, just women's and grown men's. I may have to order him something from Land's End, but we will check Penney's first. I was hoping he could wear his sister's old coat (it was a boy's coat from Land's End because she had such a long torso she couldn't wear girl's coats then) but his shoulders are too broad. Otherwise it would fit him perfectly, but he finds it really uncomfortable. He was bummed because he always liked the coat. DD wore it for three years though, so I guess that's okay.

I really need a new parka but I am hoping to limp along with my ski jacket because by winter of 2012/2013 I hope to be down to the weight I will stay at and don't want to buy an expensive coat I will only be able to wear for one year. I will probably keep a lap blanket in the car though. At least our fancy shmancy Sienna has seat warmers (which seem like such a luxury, but I love them) and that makes a big difference because they warm up before the heater does.

I went to my favorite grocery store this morning because they were having a one day sale on produce, things like cucumbers 4/$1, celery for .39/lb, sweet potatoes $1/lb, lettuce .79/head, radishes .50/bunch, bananas for .59/lb, beefsteak tomoatoes that were really red for .50/lb and corn for 3/$1. The salad dressing I like was also on sale so I picked up another 1000 Island and a chunky blue cheese for $3 a piece (preservative free). I picked up a new brand of Dijon mustard that had no additives or preservatives that was on sale.

They also had some meat marked down and I know I said I wasn't going to buy any meat right now since I have so much in the freezer, but it was ribeye marked down for quick sale (use or freeze by today) and I ended up with two steaks for $4. They are big enough that each one is two portions, so I'll get four servings from it. Also Isernio's all natural mild Italian chicken sausage was marked down for quick sale. This is the kind in the chub and not the kind that comes in links, so I will form some of it into patties and some of it into crumbles for a homemade pizza topping and freeze it.

I did refrain from buying a lot of unnecessary items though and am well under the grocery budget. I spent $54.49.

I am still going strong on the no eating out challenge, though today was, well, a challenge, as I totally forgot to put a roast in the crockpot. We almost always have roast on Sundays and I didn't even think about it today until 3:30. And the kids were wanting McDonalds and I was very tempted because of the buy one get one free quarter pounders. But I did not give in to this.

Instead I looked in my freezer and saw some beef ribs. It took about 15 minutes to thaw them and a little over an hour to cook them. Dinner was still on the table by 5. The nectarines have been lovely right now so we had those and I had a salad and the kids had green beans. They are not really lettuce eaters, though DD will have it in tacos or on a cheeseburger. DS hates lettuce, but will eat baby spinach and cabbage, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't give in. I'd really like to make it to the end of the month without eating out at all. Starfishy, are you going to join me for another week? Or anyone else, if you want to. It's nice to have at least one other person doing it with me.

We went to The Market to buy the additive free deli meat for lunches. I actually did it by the slice this time. This is such expensive meat and I am tired of having it get to Thursday and having to throw a little bit out because there are no preservatives and it goes off. So I asked the kids exactly how many slices they use per sandwich and then added it up and had the deli girl slice me exactly that much. The girl laughed at my specific requests but cheerfully did it, commenting that a lot of people aren't that smart about it. I wish I had been sooner. I also got milk while I was there.

Tomorrow I have physical therapy, so that will be $60 out. Then I should not have to spend any more money until Friday.

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

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

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

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

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

I talked to DH last night and we figured out what was going on with the paycheck. They took the full amount of medical out of it instead of just half. It has to do with how his funky 3 on/3 off work schedule falls during a month. But the next paycheck will be higher since there will be no medical taken out at all and there will be no Social Security taken out because he hit the cap this week. We'll have an extra $1000 coming to us this cycle which will go directly to Virginia Mason, really. But having it for medical bills is great because it means we don't have to divert it from somewhere else.

He did say there might be an extra week off around the Christmas holidays as things slow down. I hope not. I don't think we can slide things for 3 weeks with no paycheck without wiping out our entire emergency fund. He doesn't get any kind of paid vacation or paid time off, so there's nothing that would cover it. He could get unemployment for that time period, but I feel like that would be abusing the system and also it wouldn't be very much, especially since he'd have to do it based on Alaska and not based on Washington even though he'd file through Washington. It in no way would come close to matching the lost income.

At least he gave me a few months' warning that it might happen (he just found out and so far it's only a maybe). I will try to channel at least another $1000, two if I can swing it, into the EF between now and the end of the year. It'll be tough but if I stick to my goals of no eating out for health and weight loss, I think I could manage.

Maybe on top of my No Eating Out Challenge, I should add an Eat from the Pantry Challenge where (with the exception of milk and produce and salad dressing) I buy nothing else this pay cycle and we just eat up what is in the cupboards and freezer. I could probably save an additional $300 doing that. I would have to go and get the kids' additive free lunch meats though and freeze them because I'm not going to feed my son something he is allergic to just for a challenge. I'll have to reinventory stuff and see where it all stands and think about it a bit before deciding.

DS is willing to take peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and honey sandwiches twice a week and only have meat sandwiches three times a week. That would cut things down a bit as the additive free stuff is pricey, as well. DD said she'll take leftover cold homemade pizza or if I get her a soup thermos, leftover stews or soups or whatever. DS piped up that he'd take chili if he had a soup thermos. So maybe I'll pick up a couple soup thermoses if I can find then now that rush for back to school is over. I think Freddy's carries them year round.

This weekend has been very busy for me. We went down to the creek today and waded around in it. It was so hot, but the creek is nicely shaded by trees and it is free entertainment. It is a lot lower than I am used to seeing it. Maybe down by 2/3rds. It wasn't as cold as I'm used to it being either, but it was cold enough to be refreshing. I was almost tempted to take the kids to a movie today because of the heat, but the creek (and my trying to be frugal) won out.

We went to the grocery store and did the shopping for the week. I spent $85.42 and found 2 cents in the parking lot so that went into the coin jar. I found two of the pot roasts that were cut right and were on special marked down so snapped them up. We'll have them the next two Sundays. I made the one I found last week today in the crockpot. It was nice not to heat up the house. I made corn on the cob and potatoes and green beans all in the microwave.

I bought several cucumbers and deli meat. When I got home divided up the deli meat and froze part of it for later in the week. It doesn't keep for more than 3 days since it has no preservatives or additives. I peeled the cukes and sliced them up. My diet requires a lot of low glycemic veggies per meal so it is so much easier to grab out several slices and add it to whatever protein I am eating at that meal. Without the prep I might be tempted to ignore the veggies. At least I never seem to get tired of cukes.

The diet is going well. I'm down 4.4 pounds just since starting it. That makes 31 or so since the surgery. I've got a ton more energy since starting it, too. Exercise was a bit lax this week, other than swimming on Monday and walking a bit today. This week will hopefully go better.

The painters finished the house today and the painted the front and back doors (which look gorgeous). They still need to do the back deck, but then they will be gone. I will be glad to see them go. They smoked a lot and the kids couldn't really go outside without having coughing fits.

I taught myself some more html coding today. I got the hang of most of it, but one more thing I need to work on before I move on with the lessons. I had to learn it since LJ's rich text editor has not worked correctly since the last "upgrade" a month ago. I prefer to edit my stuff there if I later see a mistake and RTE isn't making that possible.

Not too much on the financial horizon. I will have physical therapy tomorrow so $60 for that, $55 for DD's musical theater class on Tuesday, money for parking at Virginia Mason on Tuesday and a little extra "just in case" money. There shouldn't be anymore money out until payday Friday.

Today after swimming we went to two grocery stores. I bought a beautiful allotment of organic produce and proteins. I spent about $100. I misplaced the receipt (it's probably out in the van) but I know it was just a couple dollars more than $100. This way of eating is a bit more expensive, but in the past it has worked well for me so I know it will again.

I got marked down Dover sole, marked down red snapper, thin cut breakfast pork chops, a marked down t-bone, a marked down rib-eye, and three whole chickens over five pounds each (they were my best deal because they were already cheap and each one was marked down $1.50 making each one less than $3 a chicken). I repackaged everything up to freeze. I think I got enough protein for myself for two weeks plus several helpings for the kids.

I also peeled and sliced up some low glycemic veggies so they would be ready to grab. In the past preparation or lack thereof has always been my bugaboo. Most of them can be eaten raw and a few will have to be cooked (can't stand raw broccoli).

I have to be more careful than most people doing a low carb diet because of past kidney damage (from the tumors). I can't do Atkin's because I can't risk ketosis. So I'm settling more on the Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program. It's geared more toward people with high blood pressure like me or a history of heart disease in the family (also like me). And I know it works because I've done (an albeit looser version of) it before.

It's been a few years and about 3 surgeries since I've done a controlled carb diet so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things pretty easily. I'd like to lose about 30 pounds before my next surgery. I think it would make recovery just so much easier.

My planned start day is Wednesday when the kids start school. It is much easier to get started when they are not in the house and also when DH is gone. I'm not going to have a big carb fest tomorrow or anything, but I'm not trying to do it on a day I have to run all over the place either.

In the long run I think I will actually save money eating this way because of the health benefits brought by losing weight.

I'm getting my exercise into gear before starting though. Started today with the swimming. I did 15 laps. 13 is 1/4 mile. It's nowhere near the 45 I was doing before reinjuring my knee last year, but I don't want to push too hard when both my back and my knee are not doing great. I wore my knee brace in the water and I did slow, careful strokes. I spent 25 minutes doing the laps and then played with the kids for another half hour and then the hot tub for a few minutes. The swimming did help loosen up my back which was good.

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

Anyway, I added it to my emergency fund so:

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

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

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

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

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

I picked up DH from the airport this morning and then we came back home and went to sleep. I was exhausted as I've been running on about 3 night's worth of insomnia. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, but we napped from 9:30 to 1:30 which made a huge difference in how I felt, though I'm afraid it might keep me awake tonight.

We stopped at the store before coming home and picked up a half case of Pepsi Throwback (DH wanted it), 3 gallons of milk, non-fat organic for me and the kids, regular 2% for DH, and whole milk for baked potato soup. We spent $18.98 which leaves me with a little over $7 in checking and $10 in cash to spend until Friday. No worries.

Last night I threw some extra potatoes in the oven to bake alongside the ribs. DD has been wanting to make the soup for a while, so today she did. I had planned on making my spaghetti with its special homemade sauce, but she really wanted to make the other so we did. I can make the spaghetti tomorrow. I'll be using canned tomatoes instead of fresh since we don't have any.

Anyway it turned out pretty good, but I am pretty sure the salt and pepper ratio in the recipe is off. It has 1 tsp of each and I think it needs 2 tsp of each. We all added it rather librally to our bowls. We had leftover chicken for protein (well, everyone but me as I got full from the one bowl of soup (and it does have sour cream, cheese, and bacon in it for a bit of protein). No fruit or green veg, but if the kids get hungry later they can have some berries or cucumbers or both.

I still don't have my appetite back. I've lost 18 pounds since surgery. Which is okay, I had it to lose. It's just kind of weird. I've been dieting and exercising to the best of my ability for years. Now when I can't exercise much yet and I'm just not eating much it falls off without effort. Kind of annoying, but I will still take it.

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.