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

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

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

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

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

Bills paid out of this paycheck:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've been quiet for a few days. Had a little bit of a setback with my recovery from surgery, in that no food was staying down for a few days. Left me drained and weak as a kitten (and definitely unable to formulate real blog posts). I am 27 hours into keeping my food down on a mostly liquid diet (do peas and carrots in soup count as non-liquid when they are tiny?). So mostly soup, a bit of pudding or Jello and water. I am off the narcotics completely, they were making me too ill. I am using ice packs and Ibuprofen for pain. It isn't much, but it's enough for me to get through the day with food digesting so that is what I am doing.

I need to have DH balance the checkbook and see where we are. I probably need to transfer some money out of savings into checking. I know the CU will do it automatically but they charge $1 every time they do it on their own and that's a bad habit to get into. I need to make an ING transfer as well to get the money for the first week of the month bills into the account. I figure two weeks at 1% interest is something, anyway, even if I am transferring stuff around a lot. The budget is basically on autopilot right now, otherwise.

I am tired. I want to sleep all the time, except night time, apparently. Then I'm wide awake staring at the ceiling or the laptop screen. I am forcing myself to stay awake today so that maybe tonight I can sleep. I am off caffeine and off sleeping medicine (both good things if I can stay that way, since they will be less output of money for things I shouldn't really need to buy).

I go back to the doctor on August 2 for a test and follow up and then am supposed to have a check up at 3 weeks as well. But since the two week check up is happening 3 days later than 2 weeks because the doctor isn't working on that Friday, it will probably put the second follow up at 3 and a half weeks to 4 weeks. DH won't be home for either of them so Mom will be driving me down. That should be an experience. At least I shouldn't have to do any over nights in Seattle again so that should keep the expense down.

After that it's just healing until November and then deciding if the second surgery is necessary or not. If so I want to get it done before years end, otherwise we'll have to face the $2500 deductible all over again. UGH.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, today was payday and I did some major debt repayment as well as taking care of quite a few of the regular bills. The MC's are all paid off again and the VISA is firmly under $20,000. I feel completely back in control again, both with the credit cards and with the no eating out. Day 4 on that challenge is going well.

I went to the grocery store and picked up a few items. One of them was gnocchi. One of the things my son really misses about going out to eat is going to olive garden and getting chicken and gnocchi soup so I got him a package of gnocchi and a box of organic free range chicken broth. We still have a couple of leftover pieces of chicken so tomorrow I will make him some chicken and gnocchi soup. My chicken soup is almost gone so I don't mind making another soup so soon.

Okay, so bills paid are below:

$1457.40 BoA credit cards
__500.00 Amex
__300.00 Mom's utilities
__100.00 Emergency Fund at ING
___16.70 Electric Bill Old House
___37.61 DH Life Insurance
___32.20 Me Life Insurance
___41.00 Old House Insurance
___83.98 Car Insurance
___39.37 Security System Old House
__155.00 Storage
__375.86 Old House Mortgage
__200.00 Cash
__100.00 groceries
__193.20 Dentist
__106.94 Medical


Car insurance has gone down with the Sienna by $11.63 a month or $69.78 for a six month term.

Of the cash $90 is to pay for physical therapy on Tuesday and $100 is for fireworks. Not sure what that extra $10 is for but it will likely end up in the coin jar. I have $62 left in checking if I need to buy milk or anything else this week, but since I already went grocery shopping I don't think I'll need anything besides milk. Maybe some hot dog buns if we decide to have a cookout on Monday and I am too lazy to bake some myself.

Bills left this month (other than the first new car payment) are pretty minor. There is just phone for the old house, internet, and garbage for the current house. Everything else is paid. That leaves almost $3000. So the majority of the next paycheck and the one after that will go to pay first week of August bills, to savings for upcoming medical, and to pay for our little trip around the Olympic Peninsula before we go to Virginia Mason for my surgery.

I am trying to make the gas left in the Sienna last until Wednesday when DH gets home. I have about 1/8th of a tank, but only have 3 minor driving excursions between now and when DH comes home. I sort of hate pumping gas with a passion. Well, it's more waiting in the long gas lines at Costco, but close enough. There is half a tank in the Crown Victoria so if I need to use that car one day instead I will.

Since the BoA website was still being stupid today--I could get in a bit further but I still couldn't make a payment--I went down to the actual brick and mortar bank and made a payment of $900. That makes a total of $1500 so far this month and I will have another $1900 at least to put on debt next week. Not all of it goes on the VISA. We did use the MC to pay for our stay at the Inn at Virginia Mason because it gets extra points for hotels, so that one is getting paid off in full. Amex is also getting paid off in full as it is each month, around $500. Also $500 will be set aside for our trip back to Virginia Mason for the surgery to pay for the hotel.

Then the following week I should be able to set aside $1000 as temporary holding money for the end of the paycycle when DH makes no money for two weeks, and put $2000 aside for medical, using the remainder for the few bills left for this month, including the car payment. The paycheck after that will go in with the temporary holding money. Anything left over after all payments are made in that two week cycle will be put in the Emergency Fund, with the idea that if I need it for medical I can use it. I am hoping $2000 will cover the cost of my portion of the surgery, but it's possible August money will have to be set aside as well.

It is complicated but I forsee us getting back on track with debt repayment by September.

DS went out to the house today with my mother and they collected all the aluminum cans. Between what was there and what was here they had 87 pounds, so DS got $28.50. He has enough now to pay for the 3DS except for sales tax, which will add an additional $24 that he still needs. He says he will work extra jobs to try to earn it before we leave for our trip, and I've agreed to let him try, but he really will have to work for it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So I emptied out my purse of all the money that was left and added $13.26 (over $3 of it was coins) to my coin jar. Then I rolled dimes and pennies. With my ones and a five I'll have a deposit of $28.50 to go into the local part of the EF (my safety net) at CU#2 tomorrow.

I received the bill from the dietician yesterday so that will be 3 medical bills to pay tomorrow. Not bad. We may have one more bill coming from them (less than $25), and one bill from the local walk in clinic (I forgot to ask DH if he paid up front when he took DD there for her ear infection, but it would only be 10%). Feels like we're getting our heads above water now in the medical game again. So, yay.

I balanced the checkbook. I was supposed to do that last weekend, but I procrastinated a lot. I have nothing left in the attached savings account (which isn't part of the EF) of the money I set aside for medical, but I used it for the oral surgery Wednesday, so that is okay. That was what it was put there for. So I'm right where I am supposed to be, on budget. I just wish I could eek out a little more to go to the EF. Oh, I know I'll send $100 sometime this pay cycle. Just not sure when.

Sometimes I skate the line pretty closely, but this time I had $300 left in checking. Of course, it's earmarked for debt repayment or medical, but the point is it's there.

I added $200 to my Emergency Fund today, bringing the new total to $1042.27. $827.36 is at ING and $214.91 is at local CU#2. I will be adding my coin jar savings tomorrow at CU#2 since I didn't make it over there before we went to Seattle. I've figured out the budget through June 24th and balanced the checkbook. I have $500 in savings for medical bills as they come in. I will be able to set aside $1000 next payday for that as well. I sent $500 to AMEX today and set aside $100 for property tax and $17 for dues.

Since I've budgeted very carefully we won't have to skip a car payment in June unless the medical bills are just ridiculous. We are still two months ahead and I'd like to save those two chances for a time when I might need them more.

My mother has said we can suspend all further payments to her until all of our medical bills are paid (originally she just said two months) since there will be one more surgery than was expected, so long as we keep doing the $300 worth of utilities and pay the garbage. That will help a whole lot. I wish all these surgeries could have waited until 2012 when our last credit card would be paid off. I'm still trying to be optimistic that we'll get it paid off this year.

The kids want to take a road trip instead of going to camp this year. That will save us quite a bit of money. Three days driving around the Olympic Rain Forest and touring the capitol (overnighting with family) and then we'll end up in Seattle at the Inn at Virginia Mason the night before my surgery, stay there for two days and then come home. I have to overnight in the hospital one night so after I come safely out of surgery they will go and do some stuff in the city center, since I'll just be asleep anyway.

Mom will drive me down for my follow up three weeks later since DH will be back in Alaska then. I won't be allowed to drive myself yet and anyway, Seattle traffic scares the heck out of me. While I am at VM Mom will visit my dad in his nursing home in Issaquah. I'm not sure whether we'll take the kids or not.

I'm hoping MIL will take them overnight which she almost never does. I can count on one hand how many times they've stayed overnight there and they are 14 and 11, so it probably won't happen. SIL would likely do it, but she has to work. They are old enough to stay by themselves during the day, just not at night. If they have to come, they have to come, but Mom will keep them with her. It'll all work out one way or another.

Another day without much happening. Sometimes I get so bored between paydays. It's like I get a little lift on Friday when I can watch my debt go down, down, down, but then there's nothing intresting with money the rest of the week. And then when Friday comes again, I get excited, because that's one more nail in the coffin of the Evil Empire. If it's like this now, I wonder what it's going to be like when we pay off this last credit card? Of course there will still be the car to finish paying off, and then totally building the EF and short term savings as well.

It's hard for me to keep my enthusiasm high. It's like we created this budget and we're just sticking to it, and everything is planned and set and...I don't know. I don't like being so indifferent between paydays. I suppose it's natural as we've settled into a pattern, but I kind of miss that excitement I started this year with.

I spent $1.95 today so I have $3.05 to add to the coin jar.

Another day without much happening. Sometimes I get so bored between paydays. It's like I get a little lift on Friday when I can watch my debt go down, down, down, but then there's nothing intresting with money the rest of the week. And then when Friday comes again, I get excited, because that's one more nail in the coffin of the Evil Empire. If it's like this now, I wonder what it's going to be like when we pay off this last credit card? Of course there will still be the car to finish paying off, and then totally building the EF and short term savings as well.

It's hard for me to keep my enthusiasm high. It's like we created this budget and we're just sticking to it, and everything is planned and set and...I don't know. I don't like being so indifferent between paydays. I suppose it's natural as we've settled into a pattern, but I kind of miss that excitement I started this year with.

I spent $1.95 today so I have $3.05 to add to the coin jar.

Well, I didn't stay out of the grocery store for the whole week. We ran out of ketchup last night so I was just going to go in for that. We've had a stockpile for a long time and I kept thinking we had some. Anyway, it was on sale 2/$5 for the store brand organic non-corn syrup variety. Then I saw a diabetic cooking magazine and remembered my daughter was out of the organic cheese popcorn she has been using for her 15g carb snack. And they had corn on the cob on sale and it actually looked good.

So I ended up spending most of the $35 I had left for this week. I ended up with $6.87 left so that went into the coin jar for the EF.

I broke a carafe this morning. While I was picking up the little pieces and putting them in the big part, I leaned down too far while holding it. I ended up slicing my neck against it. It is just a surface scratch but I freaked myself out pretty bad because it wasn't that far from the carotid artery. Like maybe 1/8 of an inch. And if I'd pressed any deeper, well, it might not have turned out so well. As it is I don't think it's deep enough to leave a scar.

I didn't sleep well last night, only got three hours of sleep and so I think that's why I didn't think it through. Oh, well. All's well that ends well, though I will have to replace the carafe.

I'm going to have to buy DS some new trousers or swishies. I noticed that his current ones have become high waters. Normally by this time of year he could wear shorts to school, and his shorts are all basketball style so I don't have to worry about them being too short. But this spring has been unseasonably cold and where it might be okay in the afternoons to wear shorts, it's still too cold in the mornings. His t-shirts are also starting to get shorter. Fortunately they were extra long to begin with and I think we'll be okay until summer.

I need to remember to budget for DH to get 2 pairs of jeans. Or possibly 3, I think he ripped one up last time he was home. *sighs* And I need some new t-shirts as my old ones are swimming on me. I will try to find two. I bought two last weekend and I think I can get by on a total of four because I have lots of tank tops that fit okay.

I also need to remember to budget for hotel and food and gas for our trip to Virginia Mason next week. Probably $400. That's a little more than I think we will need, but I'd rather have too much than not enough.

So here's the money out for this payday:

$1,102.89 BoA Master Card pay off
---800.00 BoA VISA
---250.00 Emergency Fund
----44.92 Phone for old house
----65.55 Internet
---144.00 Water/Sewer for old house (2 months)
----42.78 Garbage old house
---100.00 Propane holding tank
---100.00 Property Tax holding tank
----17.00 HoA Dues holding tank
---250.00 Medical holding tank
----69.97 Medical payment
----32.34 Lenscrafters
---100.00 Computer
----------------
$3119.45

We sent the taxes off today with the check for $5,506.03. I added $250 to the emergency fund.

$277.36 old EF Balance
+250.00 added
---------
$527.36 new EF Balance

I've got $120 cash for the week and $291 in the checkbook.

I have $475.72 in the holding tank now for future bills.

The amount of credit card debt left on the BoA VISA is $19,566.94. DH still has to buy his next plane ticket so that will bounce it back up above $20,000, but starting next month it gets $3000 a month so we'll start making serious progress paying it down once that starts.

Tomorrow I have an eye appointment and will get new glasses. That will be covered by insurance. DD is getting a haircut which will come out of my $120 cash.

So far our budget has been working perfectly. Here's hoping it continues.

Today is payday and I made a payment of $2500 to the BoA Master Card. That leaves me with $887.89 to pay off next week and then that puppy is done. (Well, there will probably be an interest fee that comes in as soon as it is paid off but I'll pay that right away, too). I need to move the two autopays off that card and on to another one so there is absolutely nothing left on it. It comes to $133.43 each month (so that is why the numbers are a bit off down below).

I am so excited because that will leave us with only one credit card left with a balance on it. Evil Empire, your hold on me and mine is getting looser and looser!

So anyway, money out today:

$2500.00 BoA MC
--300.00 to Mom for utilities
---39.37 for security system at old house
--100.00 to the Emergency Fund
--141.96 to Verizon
---84.62 major toiletries stock up
--100.00 Cash
---55.00 Entertainment
------------
$3320.95

I have $286 left in the checkbook and will probably spend about $50 of that on food this week, but the rest will go into next week's bills.

I had $40 leftover from last week's cash so I put that in the laptop fund. I had $1.17 in coins that I put into the coin jar.

I added $100 to the emergency fund. Taxes have been removed from my calculations now so that brings the new EF total to $377.36. It feels weird to be starting almost all the way over again with the EF. In May I'll be able to make a much larger contribution.

New credit card debt totals:

$20,157.03 BoA VISA
+---887.89 BoA MC
-----------
$21,044.92 Total owed to the Evil Empire

$22.947.81 Previous credit card balance owed
-21,044.93 Amount Left on credit cards
------------
$--1903.01 Amount of change on balance

I finally got correspondence from the courthouse today. 4 days before the date of service. Not the greatest way to operate, county of mine. My jury duty has been deferred to 11/28. The heart of cold and flu season. Ah, well. Hopefully by then everything will be resolved with the surgery and if I push vitamins and get plenty of sleep next November I'll actually be well and in the right place in my healing to do it this time. At least DS will be in middle school then and DD can walk over there after the high school lets out and walk him home (or hop on the city bus) if DH is in Alaska then or Mom can't pick them up.

My flu is finally going away. I woke up today feeling about 80% decent. Still a ton of congestion and drainage, but no brain fog at all, no joint or muscle aches, no chills, no headache. Still have a fever of 99.5 and still pretty tired (but more of a general tired than the I need to sleep for a week and that still might not be enough tired), but feeling much more capable of actually living my life.

I went to the dentist today, another finally. I haven't been since 2008. Which was incredibly stupid but it was impossible almost when I was still homeschooling and living in the county to go. I should have at least got in there in September when the kids started school. Better late than never I suppose. Unfortunately I have 2 cavities. I haven't had a cavity in about 15 years. Darn it.

Anyway, they are going to do some major cleaning and fill the cavities in three weeks, both while under ansethetic because a couple of teeth in the back have some serious issues. Nothing that can't be fixed, but it will be painful without anesthetic so the dentist figured he could kill two birds with one stone. I really like him. This is my first time with him though DH and the kids have been going to him and his wife for a couple of years now.

They gave me an estimate of my portion of the dental bill for when I have that done. It'll be just shy of $367. Well. I'm definitely going to have to hold back some of the money I was planning to send to Master Card after all. So be it. At least I will have the money to pay it and not have to charge it. Or maybe part of the VISA payment. Yeah, actually, that's a better idea. DH only made minimal charges on the VISA this month. If I pay what he charged plus the interest, plus $100 extra to principle, I should have about $500 (out of the normal $1000 paymetn) I can spend on medical/dental instead.

Why didn't I think of that before? Then I can go ahead and pay off the Master Card in April just like I planned. Then things should really ease up. We'll have debt left only on the VISA.

I'm making spaghetti tonight with my special homemade sauce. Mom's providing hamburger, though probably just the kids and her will eat that. I tend to get pretty filled up on my spaghetti sauce and noodles without protein. I generally don't like to eat such a carb heavy meal without protein to balance it, but I had a very protein heavy brunch today and I'm not sure I could face a hunk of meat tonight to be honest.

I'll try to get back to meal planning for real this weekend. Since I'm squeezing an extra $100 out of the grocery budget to set aside for medical, I really need to be on the ball with it this month.

I went over to the CU that has the kids' accounts today and deposited $5 in each of their accounts. My daughter's account was in danger of becoming dormant and being closed and sent to the state so I needed to put something in it to make it active. I put an equal amount in my son's account to be fair. He's the saver of the two kids so his account was still active. He's saving up for the new Nintendo 3DS. All of his allowance and most of his recycling money.

That's also where the laptop fund is so I added the shampoo rebate check and the propane rebate check to that account. I also got it set up again so I can do it online. That way when it comes time to make a payment on the laptop I can just go online and transfer the money from savings to checking.

I finally found where DH put the packaging for the Brita stuff and got the two UPC codes so I can send in that $10 rebate tomorrow. That will eventually go to the laptop fund, too.

Payday tomorrow. I need to finish setting up this month's budget spreadsheet. It'll be nice to actually start paying on some stuff again after this two week pause. Geesh, I never thought I'd be excited to pay bills, but this is a big month for us.

Today is payday and I’m really happy with how things shaped up.

$1000 to BoA VISA. This is the second payment this month and this one goes completely to principle since the one I made last week was to cover all of DH’s work travel expenses and the monthly interest charge.

$1000 to Mom’s 0% interest loan, dropping the amount we now owe her to $91,000.00. We have 7 years and 8 months’ worth of payments to go. We have paid off $19,000.00 so far. This was originally all medical debt.

$300 to Mom to help her with utilities.

$34 to the EF and $1 to the holding tank since the electric bill for the old house was $1 less than I’d budgeted for. That brings the holding tank to $204.30 and the EF to $7468.65, with $1000 of that in the safety net at the local CU and the rest in ING.

$20 for the electric bill at the old house

$212.66 for term life insurance for me and DH, house insurance on old house, and car insurance

$39.37 security system on old house

$131 to storage

$200 to AMEX

$375.86 to mortgage on old house

$407.75 on propane

I have a couple hundred left for groceries and miscellaneous items for the week. I doubt I will spend it all. Any extra will go to the laptop fund. I did spend $60.11 on Chinese food from the no MSG place. I got enough to have several meals out of it so I don’t have to cook while I am still so sick. I really wish this cold would leave. I am just too out of it to cook like normal. I hate spending that much money but it’s good food with lots of veg so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Out of next week’s payday I will pay an additional $500 to AMEX, $500 to the holding tank for medical, $124 to renew AAA, $1000 to the EF and $1000 to the holding tank for the two week period of no paycheck. There should be about $600 left and $300 of that will go to the property tax portion of the holding tank, $100 to the laptop fund, $100 for groceries and $100 for miscellaneous. If there is anything beyond that it will go to the laptop fund. The payday after that, which is only two and a half day’s pay will also be for stretching across the two week period of no paycheck.

I took back the 3 cans of chicken and rice soup I bought on Tuesday by accident and got 3 cans of chicken and stars soup in exchange. The price had dropped 10 cents a can on the new sale week, so I got 30 cents back in change. Also at the Chinese place the lady didn’t want to use so many pennies by giving me back the 14 cents she owed me so she gave me 15 cents instead, so that’s a total of 45 cents to the coin jar today. I also grabbed some penny wrappers while I was at the CU paying the mortgage, so I can roll coins today and add that to next week’s laptop fund deposit.

All in all a satisfying payday and I can’t wait until next week when everything posts and I can update my numbers again and see some real progress this time.

Oh, and DH has heard from three different people, one his direct supervisor that he’ll be getting a raise in April at the six month mark. It will add $525 to his gross income for a six week pay cycle if the amount he was told is correct, so I’m thinking we will at least get $400 of it and that can go to debt repayment probably. If I’ve done the numbers right, with that extra amount we should hit the end of the year no problem with having BoA paid off completely. I’m not counting it yet, though, in my budget. It’s one of those things where I’ll believe it when I see it.

The BoA VISA should now have a little over $3000 between what we owe and what the limit is on it, so with that cushion there I am going to now switch to paying only $1500 on the BoA VISA each month (expenses, plus interest, plus about $100 to principle) and take the extra $1000 and add it to the $400 payment we make on the BoA Master Card. That will pay it off by the end of May and then we’ll be able to pay $2900 to the VISA each month until it is paid off. I may try to scrape up an extra $100 each time to make it $3000. We’ll see what’s available.

Once that is done the money will then go to finish paying off the car, unless DH talks me into trading in the Matrix for a Sienna sooner than we planned.
If we stick to the plan, we should be out of debt, except what we owe to Mom, by the middle of 2012, possibly sooner if he gets the raise.

Mom doesn’t want us paying her back any faster than $1000 a month because she is using that to supplement her income from social security (and saving as much of it as she can for the future). She likes having it come in steadily and our system seems to be working for everyone.

Edited to add: I was cleaning out an old purse and found $1.95 in coins. I then rolled coins and I have $7.50 to add to the laptop fund.

$467.94 beginning laptop fund balance
$=07.50 amount added
---------------
$475.44 ending laptop fund balance

I love it when the first payday of the pay cycle gets here and I still have money left in the account. That isn't always easy because that final paycheck of the cycle stretches across three weeks instead of the normal one. I had $100 left so I transferred that to ING to be added to the Emergency Fund. That makes $6,231.35 in the EF at ING. I also transferred some money to be held there that isn't part of the EF. It's part of what I call my holding tank.

The holding tank is for short term savings. I just started it. It will have things in there that are paid bimonthly or every six months. I transferred $100 in there for property tax. I'm not sure what my property tax for the year on the old house is, because they still haven't sent out the paper work, but last year it was just over $1000, so I decided to go with $1200 and put $100 a month aside. I didn't do it in January, but I'm not worried about it. We'll catch it up one way or the other. Maybe from the safety net if we have to. That's what it is there for. But more likely we'll just pay less on the VISA in April.

Also in the holding tank is $6.30 for garbage (I budget $50 a month and the bill is bimonthly and was less than that, but I pay garbage pick up for the old house (that will end soon) as well as garbage pickup here. So I'll save the extra and add it to when the bill for here comes due. Any extra will carry over and just build a cushion for garbage when we have to make dump runs from the old house.

I also put $80 in the holding tank for water/sewer at the old house. It's paid bimonthly and I think it's only $72 per month, but I can't remember, it might be $76 so I built in some cushion. And I put in $17 to go towards the HOA dues that will be due in July. So altogether the ING holding tank has $203.30 in it and the total amount of money in ING is $6,434.65.

As for the safety net, it has $1,068.65 in it. We used $1000 of it to pay some medical bills off.

Other than all that out of today's paycheck I paid:

$1500.00 to the BoA VISA (will pay more next week)

$400.00 to put back in the safety net that I used yesterday to pay on the Master Card

$51.91 for phone out at the old house (still hating on Comcast for that amount)

$65.55 for cable internet

$43.70 for garbage

$490.75 for the car payment

$60 for DD six week allowance ($10 a week)

$36 for DS six week allowance ($6 a week)

$100 for groceries

I will pay out $90 for physical therapy Monday and that will leave me with $116.56 in the checking account until next payday.

Other than that I added $2 to the laptop fund and $1.06 to the coin jar.

$430.94 beginning laptop fund balance
+002.00 amount added
--------------
$432.94 ending laptop fund balance

I finished reading America's Cheapest Family by Annette and Steve Economides. It was interesing enough, but the book is pretty dated at this point and a lot of the ideas won't work for our particular situation. A few of them will, so I walked away with something. I think for the beginner, new to trying to be frugal it would be a good book to read. (Not as fun or entertaining as Amy Dacyzn's Tightwad Gazette, though). I also started and finished reading Live Well for Less than You Think by Fred Brock. It was okay. Again, for anyone living the frugal lifestyle for a while it didn't really have all that much to offer, but it was a bit more current than the other book. And the newly frugal would learn a lot for it.

I'm about a third of the way through Jean Chaztky's From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day: Pay it Down. This one is a bit more relevant to me, but even so, it's got several things I've heard before. Still, I really like the writing style and the way she presents things, so I think I'll definitley get something out of this book by the time I am finished.

I went up to Walgreen's after school with DD to see if they had that Organix Renpure shampoo that some of you were talking about that was buy one, get one with a rebate attached. My daughter was out of shampoo and she can't use mine because it is for oily hair only (and I'm very possessive of it, because it is super hard to find unless I order it online and incur shipping costs). Her dad's shampoo is too harsh for her hair and smells very masculine, and her brother's special chemical free, fragrant free, allergen free stuff is too expensive for anyone else to use.

She's good about using whatever I buy, but it has to be available. Usually I just get the 99 cent bottle of VO5 in strawberry, but this works, too. Two bottles of shampoo for the eventual cost of just a stamp, envelope, and sales tax sounds good to me.

I ended up spending a total of $38.12 there, $6.99 of which will be reimbursed. They had the VO5 conditioner on for 79 cents on sale in Freesia, which she likes the smell of. Also got cheap hairspray, a package of headbands for DD because her head is too big for the ones she's had for years, 100 count Excedrin PM, and a thing of Vick's Sinex because I ran out. That nasal spray is expensive and I never see coupons for it. The register printed out a coupon for a free bottle of Afrin nasal spray or up to $7 off, so I will use that the next time I go. I prefer Sinex, but Afrin is one of the few other types that works on me.

I set up a spreadsheet when we got home to track rebates and filled out the form and got it ready in an envelope to send off tomorrow. Rebating only works if you remember to do it! I'm not sure that I'll get into it too much, but doing it once in a while when I find out about it and it takes no effort on my part, then I will.

DD and I also had a talk about why we are pinching so tight right now in some areas, like eating out, so we can finish getting out of debt and save up for a new house. I find it helps to talk to her periodically about it, because sometimes she forgets and thinks she can't have anything she wants so doesn't ask for it at all. She does get what I think is a quite adequate allowance of $10 a week so she has plenty of her own spending money. She does a lot for it, including making dinner a couple nights a week on her own, and helps me almost every other night unless she has a ton of homework.

And if she babysits her brother for any serious length of time (more than an hour) she gets paid for that, too. There was nothing my sisters resented more when I was growing up than being forced to babysit me for free when they could have been babysitting the neighbor kids for a profit. It isn't much, just $3 an hour, and it's pretty rare, maybe once a month that it happens.

I found a recipe online today for pita bread. I looked through several until I found one that looked easy and still made pockets. Most of the easy ones were flat and didn't puff. It is more simple than making English muffins which I've done before. We're getting bored with buns all the time for sandwiches so I thought I'd change it up. It'll be cheaper than the bun recipe to make, even accounting for the fact that it only makes 8 servings, so I'd have to make two batches in a week. If it works well I will post the recipe.

I called the old homeowner's association to make sure that they received the dues since they still haven't cashed the check we left on 1/31 or sent out a receipt. The girl at the desk said that yes, they'd received it, so now I just have to wait for them to deposit it.

I paid the mortgage payment today of $386.14.

The propane bill for the old house came today and ouch. It was just over $400. This is the first fill up we've done since July. I'm going out to the house Sunday to finish packing up the laundry room and the one kitchen cupboard, maybe finish the living room, and put out the rubbish bin. We've been keeping the temp at 60 so the pipes don't freeze, but it's been around 45 outside for the past month, with no snow since mid-January, so I am going to drop it down to 50. The house is pretty energy efficient and the thermostat may not even kick on unless it drops below freezing outside. Come the end of March we can turn it off altogether.

I haven't been setting money aside for propane but that will change with the next paycycle. I'll start putting aside $80 a month. We may not need to use it but at least it will be set aside. I used to do that, budget for bills that weren't monthly, but I got out of the habit. I've set up a new spreadsheet for the budget that goes into effect on the 18th. It has categories for these non-monthly payments.

Okay, now food today:

Breakfast:
Eggs (free from chickens)
Hashbrowns ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Total: $2.50)

Lunch:
2 kids
Orangic deli meat sandwiches on homemade buns ($3.25)
orange (.50)
apple (.50)
baggies of plain potato chips (.50)
water

Me
Leftover bowl of TJ's chicken noodle soup (free)
Chicken leg (.50)
salad (.25)
water
Total: $5.50

Dinner:
Homemade pizza:
dough ($1)
cheese ($2)
sauce (leftover from homemade spaghetti sauce, so free)
herbs (.25)
2 ounces pepperoni (.75)
2 ounces salami (.75)
4 ounces ground beef with sausage seasoning (.60)
1/4 chopped yellow onion (.15)
Homemade breadsticks:
Dough ($1)
Parmesan cheese (.25)
Can of Pineapple ($1)
Can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Total: $10.25

There will be an extra ball of dough for a future pizza out of this as well as leftover pizza and breadsticks so that will make a future meal or two this week, especially with DH gone and not eating it. With that in mind the $10.25 is not as expensive as it first appears.

Total $18.25 for the day, so under the goal of $20 a day.

The wind is blowing like crazy today so I made sure we had our flashlights located and found a supply of fresh batteries I knew we had in case of power failure tonight. We've also got those rechargable things that plug into outlets and when it gets dark or there is a power failure they come on, so we are set.

Added $1.91 in coins to the change jar.

So here I go making a commitment to start blogging again and then I spend a day not actually doing anything. Well, I didn't spend money on my day of not actually doing anything, so I suppose that's something.

I have a cold, with a nasty throbbing stuffed up head, which curtailed me driving anywhere but to the school and back today. I had planned on going to the bank and getting money for the kids allowances, going to the chiropractor and paying for a month in advance on the family plan, maybe stopping by the grocery store, but that didn't work out at all. So, no spend day.

I transferred the $2000 from ING to my local credit union for the car payment and it should show up by Thursday which is when DH gets home and we go look at the Escape one more time. I think it's pretty much a given that we will buy it, but we didn't want to rush the decision.

DH is sending me the revised figures of the new take home pay so I can finish the budget and the new 401K access info. Our 401K changed from Vanguard to something else a few months ago. I wasn't happy with that. I like Vanguard. I trust Vanguard. I know nothing about this other group. But the fees are supposed to be lower which meant the company was willing to match an additional 1% at 50% on the dollar, so I can't complain too much. As long as it does a decent job. Just don't know yet.

First I had to find the swing before I could make the attempt to get back into the swing of things. I pulled my CU statement off the internet today and balanced my checkbook for the month of December, so that's a positive step in the pay attention to my finances category!

Tomorrow's big step will be sitting down with the bill box and paying bills. Okay, more than that because I've been paying bills all along, but getting that aspect of my life organized. I'm going to be getting this nifty organizer thing from Lillian Vernon for my birthday in February. It's a box that has slots for every day of the month that you organize your bills into and then a couple little drawers for miscellaneous bill paying items like envelopes or stamps or whatnot. Always have a hard time keeping track of my whatnots, after all! But it should come in quite handy.

I'm working on my 2008 Budget Spreadsheet, too. Now I know that medical has not gone up for the first year in forever and that car insurance has actually gone down ('bout time, DH hasn't had an accident since '94 and I've not had one since '88 when I was 18 and that was only a parallel parking mishap!), and they've finally gotten the clue we're safe drivers! Security system monitoring has gone up by a buck a month.

Lots of little things. Property taxes should go down a bit this year as a levy came off.

Tomorrow I'll be making a trip to Costco and getting gas. Don't think I'll buy anything else there, except produce if it looks good. I've got plenty of canned goods and meat in the freezer. Well, maybe eggs, milk, and cheese. And dishwasher tablets. I think I'll make a list before I go. Since things seem to be magically popping into my head at the moment.

Just wanted to say thanks again for the warm welcome back. It was lovely.

Some of the folks in the engineering department where DH works have jumped ship and his bosses decided to give him a pre-emptive raise in the hopes that he won't do the same thing.

Since he's got no intention of leaving anyway, it was a nice surprise. Especially since it's only been a couple months. It works out to $500 gross every 4 weeks. He hasn't run the numbers yet to see what it'll be after taxes, but I'm assuming it will add an additional $300 every 4 weeks into our budget.

That means we should be able to pay that remaining credit card down even faster, so I'm quite happy with that. DH still wants to go to Disneyland next year, but I'm holding out for 2009. Though I'd much rather go to London. Not with the kids though. Anyway, that's a pipe dream right now. I have a feeling London will be closer to 2019. But that's fine at this point in time.

Not really much going on. We're all sick still but DH and not spending much money.

Okay, so my major goals for today were to:

1. Create a new budget spreadsheet with the new net amount for September on
2. Create a new temporary savings account spreedsheet for short term saving up
3. Balance my checkbook (yes, the one I was supposed to balance 3 or 4 days ago, can you say procrastinate)

So the good news is that I managed to do all three things today. I like making my own spreadsheets because no software company makes anything that comes near to what I want to have. They are either too complicated, have the most bizarre or stupid categories, or simply the wrong ones, or they just don't do what I want them to. Plus, why spend the money on it when I have the skills to create exactly what I want? Seems silly.

My new budget had 30 items on it and I'm pretty sure I didn't forget anything. I think I also overtargeted for a few items, but that leaves wiggle room and I like wiggle room, you know?

When all is said and sifted, I have a budget surplus of about $300 a month. Clothing and other miscellaneous items will come from out of this surplus. Everything else gets its own category.

The temp savings spreadsheet is for keeping track of things that don't have monthly due dates, like medical, property tax, dues, insurance, propane, water/sewer, etc. I divided my yearly amounts by 12 and then each month I will put that amount away in the temp savings fund, so that when it comes due that money is sitting in savings waiting to be paid out.

I used to do this all the time before the old medical crisis that screwed my life over. I had forgotten how secure having everything laid out before me, little numbers in little rows and columns, made me feel. Instead of being afraid to face the numbers, I now know where each thing belongs. In a way it makes the power of debt not quite so overwhelming.

Of course, it helps when it is all clearly laid out and there is enough money to work with to not be in the red. It helps a lot.

Today I added $4 in ones and $1.20 in change to my change jar. I don't have enough coins to roll any one type just yet, but I do have $24 in ones now, so I will deposit that on Monday along with my two checks and send them off to ING to the EF. That will give me a deposit of $72.22, which will bring my balance in ING to $853.27. Just $146.73 to go to hit $1000.

Starting in September we will be contributing the $10 per week I've been doing all along to the EF, $100 every 4 weeks, and all survey money to the EF.

We will be starting a new car fund and contributing $500 a month.

And we will be paying an extra $1000 towards debt. That should still leave enough of the raise left to raise our food budget by $100, pay for the kids activities and get the current vehicles into shape by the time we are ready to buy our new vehicle. And we will be raising our 401K contribution by 1%.

There is a large rumor that Toyota will be releasing a Hybrid Sienna mini-van in 2008 and that is what we have wanted all along since they started introducing hybrids. It may not be until 2009, and who knows, Ford may beat them to it at the rate it is chugging along pushing out hybrids.

But that is what we are aiming for and I'd like to have somewhere between $5000 and $10,000 saved up for a downpayment just so our payments are reasonable. Any bonus money that comes along will go to the new car fund.

The only way I will consider buying a new car is buying a hybrid. Otherwise we would go used. And there just isn't a huge used hybrid market. And there are no mini-vans yet.

We have talked Prius as well, but that is only good for the four of us. If we ever want to take the kids places with their friends, its impossible with our current vehicles. T has to be in a car seat until age 8 by Washington state law and it is impossible to have two adults, two car seats and two ten/eleven year olds in either of our vehicles.

Now, why start in September instead of August? Well, August won't have a full paycycle at the new raise. We'll only have an extra $1000 this first paycycle and I'll be using it to fund some accounts. I used to have a budget that took so much for each item and saved it up until that item was due, but its been a long time since I actually followed that kind of budget.

Well, I want to again. So each month I will set aside money for medical, auto and house insurances, property tax, auto repair, house repair, and propane. There may be more, I'm not sure at the moment. Maybe an activities and vacation fund as well.

I'll divide the bi-yearly amounts up into monthly amounts and deposit those into a savings account for common expenses, and will have a spreadsheet to track what goes in which category. So that is where that first $1000 will go, seed money for some of these categories. It will get this plan up and rolling again and hopefully allow us to stay on top of the budget instead of swimming with our heads barely above water.

The only thing left for me to do now is to make the new budget spreadsheet and the new maintenance fund spreadsheet. That's easy enough.

DH and I have settled on places to visit on our trip to the island. All prices are admission for 2 adults and 2 children.

Hatley Castle--Home of Lex Luthor on Smallville and Dr Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in X-Men, has 3 large gardens as well (one is Japanese, one is Italian, don't remember what the 3rd is) $52.00 About a four hour visit

B.C. Royal Museum currently showing the Titanic exhibit, plus standard exhibits
$68.50 Half day visit

Butchart Gardens with fireworks and laser show $56.00 Full day visit

Centre of the Universe--Planetarium and Observatory with interactive exhibits and shows $23 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Craigdarroch Castle--Just a local castle DH wants to see, had 39 rooms $31 1-2 hours

Total $230.50 Canadian
Or $220 American

That's what is on the agenda so far. We also plan a visit to the Undersea Garden and a carriage ride, but don't have prices on those as of yet.

Today was my first no spend day in forever, it seems. I've found myself relaxing far too much lately now that the money noose is no longer closed tightly around our necks. In fact, its more of a lasso than a noose now and the cowboy's aim is off a bit, too.

So I've decided I really need to get back in it and stop letting money piddle away left and right. I am also making up a budget for my vacation. I already know what hotel fees and taxes are going to be and I'm hoping to figure out how much money for food I will need. My souvinier budget is pretty strict, I get one lapel pin and one t-shirt or sweatshirt. I will be buying a gift for my parents-in-law there for their 40th, glass blown wine glasses with their names and wedding date etched on.

My friend and I are planning out our restaurants in advance, we have menus and pricing as well, so it shouldn't be too difficult. We also may split some meals, too. At some places portions are just huge and can easily be halved, even if you have to pay a $1.00 extra plate fee charge.

I have to go and buy a swimsuit tomorrow. My old one is so worn out that I think I might be committing a crime if I were to wear it in public. Now that our development's pool is repaired and back in operation I'd be needing one anyway, so this purchase is not simply for the trip. I found out they offer free water aerobics on W and F to homeowners here, so after I get back and have my operation and my recovery time, I will start doing that, I think.

I am going to try very hard to not waste money just because we have it. We still have debt. A lot of debt.

I was playing with Lau's template again today (not really Lau's, just that's where I got the link) and figuring out what I could do to pay off the debt once the promotion goes through and the higher paychecks start coming in. If we buckle down and really go at it, only leaving out enough for a car payment, it looks like we can pay off our credit card debt in three and a half years. Just by upping payments $500 a month. That would still leave us with $100 to put in the EF and $300 to make a car payment.

Plus that doesn't include slapping the tax refunds on it each year, either. We'll always have one with this job, just no way around it.

I don't know if we'll want to go at it full force, I know DH wants to take another larger Disney type vacation around 2008 or 2009. But its nice to know what we could do!

Of course, that doesn't include any money I generate through surveys, click-thrus, product trials, PTR's and hopefully getting my book published when I'm done writing it. The first four things go to the EF. I haven't thought much about the other as it still seems a dream that I might end up getting paid for what I love to do most. So intangible still, though and not at all to be relied upon.

I just finished reading an article comparing our nation's spending to people who spend without a thought to the future. It was very insightful.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/StateOfTheNationBroke.aspx

I'm not sure how to post it as an actual link. I'm supposed to be able to, but it doesn't. I suppose there is a trick to it, but oh, well. Copy and paste. It's worth the read.

Today has been a pretty long day. I had to take DH to the airport today so he could fly back to Alaska. He left early as he is covering a few days for his alternate so she can go on vacation with her husband for a little more than 2 weeks. He'll be a couple days late coming home, too. It'll mean extra money in his paychecks, which I'll probably use to rebuild the Emergency Fund, which got pretty decimated.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home as I had some rebate coupons that expire on the 27th. One was $4 off any purchase of $5 or more and the other was $2 off any purchase from the meat department. Total spent was $29.16. I went a bit over my grocery budget. My normal grocery budget is $250 and I was trying to make it be $200 for a four week period. I think I've gone over by about $20, I'll check on it later. I did buy some staples this month that needed replacing and that may be why I couldn't quite do it. I'll try again next cycle. The next four week pay cycle starts on the 26th, so I'll be able to use up the rest of my rebate coupons then, unless I have to buy milk between now and then.

I did put $250 aside for groceries regardless, so I'm not taking money from elsewhere. It just may end up that I can't get it under $200 with so many organic purchases. If so, so be it.

We had to be very careful when we left the Fred Meyer parking lot. A couple of cars weren't and they were slipping and sliding around on the ice. One did spin. It reminded me of a figure-skating spin. Fortunately they were perfectly clear when it happened and finally pulled out okay. Its okay to laugh since no one got hurt. Just because the main roads are clear and bare, people assume that parking lots are just as safe to drive on, despite the layer of thick ice. I don't get folks sometimes.

I will only be driving to town once this week, and once halfway in to the game on Saturday, and maybe to Curves, which is 12 miles from my house, 3X per week. So I may possibly be able to knock down my gas budget anyhow, even if I can't do the grocery one. We'll see.

It was bright and sunny today and got up to 30 degrees F, which was better than yesterdays 20 (-7 to the Celsius people). The combination padlock on our shed is frozen and won't turn so we couldn't bring in the ornament boxes to take down the tree before DH left. It is supposed to get up to 40 sometime this week so hopefully I can get it open then. I'd like to get that tree down. Soon.