Today felt really long. Probably because we spent 1.5 hours at the doctor's office. DD had her physical today and even though she was still sick on the tail end of the flu they wanted me to bring her in anyway, because at this point if we wait for her to be well it's going to be 2015 or something. Since it was a physical there was no co-pay. I think we'll end up paying for part of the vaccines though eventually. She had three, meningitis, varicella, and the one to help prevent cervical cancer.

She also had an x-ray taken of her sinuses so that will be an eventual expense, too. They are finally clear of infection so even though she's still being attacked by the killer snot monster from outer space, it's definitely all viral and no bacteria.

Silly (the duck) is still missing. Neighbor said he saw an eagle circling yesterday when he had his dogs out in his yard. There is a nest by the lake behind the hospital (one block away) so we're thinking that's more likely than the racoons, since the racoons always leave a big mess, but an eagle can just swoop down and carry it away. Tiny (the remaining duck) keeps looking around for Silly. He definitely knows Silly is gone. DS seems to be taking it a lot better than the last two times. Maybe he's getting jaded, I don't know.

I again resisted the urge to get takeaway. We had chicken for dinner again with leftover green beans and leftover potatoes. DD was a little, "Chicken again?" whiney, but she certainly ate enough of it that I don't really think she minded all that much. DS could eat chicken every night of the week without making a fuss.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. Only one more day of getting up early and then I get two days to sleep in. I hate that DD's high school starts so early in the morning. Haven't they read the studies that say teenagers function best later in the day? *sighs*

One of the ducks has gone missing. He was there this morning, but there's no sign of him now. There's also no sign of an animal attack of any sort, no remains like we've found in the past. One of the neighbors reported seeing a racoon so it's possible that's what happened. Hopefully he's just out wandering the neighborhood and will show up again soon. If not, well, that leaves us with one duck and seven chickens. And I suppose if we had to lose an animal it's better to lose a boy duck than a laying hen. I feel sorry for the last duck though. He's going to be lonely.

Today was a no spend day though I was still sorely tempted to get a pizza. What's up with me wanting to buy pizza when I am sick? I made one for dinner instead because even though I didn't want to put in the effort I figured that at least it would kill the desire to buy one. It's in the oven right now.

There's not much going on financially. I've no money coming in and no bills due until the first of April and those are on autopay, so I guess it's mostly the same old same old treading water and trying to get through until then without spending an exorbitant amount on groceries or anything else. I've got one fill up budgeted for gas between now and then and still have over half a tank so I may not even need it. I've got $200 to get through the next 8 days and I can't see spending more than $30 on groceries between now and then. Everything is just more or less set on autopilot.

Today is a slight improvement in how I am feeling. I got seven hours of sleep last night and then a 2.5 hour nap while the kids were in school. My brain fog is lessening. Still have dry mouth, slight cough, lots of drainage, low level headache, and fever. Everything exhausts me. I unloaded the dishwasher today and refilled it and then I had to go and lay down because I was short of breath. I hope that goes away soon as I want to get back to my old self again.

Today was gorgeous, though it started out at 32 degrees with frozen over car windows, it ended up in the low 60's. The sort of day where you want to go out for a walk and look at all the beautiful blooming trees and shrubs, but just making it to the end of the driveway is a chore. I really want my strength back. Will this flu ever leave?

I think the very worst part of the flu is over. My throat isn't sore anymore and I'm not coughing very much. Joint aches are gone. But there is still so much drainage going on, I still have the headache, and I'm completely exhausted. And for some reason my mouth is very dry and has a weird aftertaste at the back of my throat.

I'm not sleeping very well, despite being so tired. And despite having several hours to nap today I don't think I got more than 10 minutes at a stretch. Last night I only slept about 1.5 hours at a stretch, despite having taken a prescription sleeping pill that usually leaves me dead to the world. Not good as I need real sleep to kick this thing to the curb.

DD went back to school today though she was not happy about it. But if she doesn't want to lose her semester she has to be there. I think it sucks that the school is all, "Don't come to school if you are sick," but then if you keep your kid home for too long they are all, "If you don't come to school you're going to lose your semester." I mean, the flu can last for a long time and it's super contagious the first week or so. But apparently they'd rather have an epidemic than let you keep your kids home long enough to be truly well. Stupid double standard. Days like this I miss homeschooling.

I took her medicine to her on her lunch break. I really don't like the school's policy on medication. They can't take a simple cold pill or Tylenol on their own. You either have to come down and give it to your child or you have to have a note from the doctor to give to the nurse so that they can give the kid medicine. For OTC meds. I feel bad for the girls on their periods who can't take a painkiller without it being a production. It was never like that when I was in school.

I have to go to the store today and pick up some of the special rice bars my son eats. They also have chicken on sale so I am going to get some of that. I am craving chicken and pizza and I know that pizza is too expensive at this end of the pay cycle unless I make it myself and I don't want to put out the effort of making one from scratch. So chicken it is. I also need to pick up some more Sudafed and jump through all the accompanying hoops that go with that. I'll probably spend about $30 altogether.

Well, DH picked up a flyer from that house that we've been eyeing up and it still looks very nice. It went into a lot more detail than most flyers. He was going to go by himself to the open house but they had just closed it when he got there so he just got the flyer. And apparently the house across the street and one house down is going to be put on the market in another week and it is also a good option, plus has a garage and is not on a corner so lower taxes, but still...we are not ready.

I do not think house number one is going to sell, though. Anyone with half a mind for research could find out that it was sold in April of last year for $178,000. They flipped it, which is obvious from all the changes that were made, but they were asking $479,000 for it when they first put it back on the market in August. Where it has sat doing nothing. They finally reduced the price to $419,000 a few months ago, but still nothing.

I doubt very much that they made $241,000 worth of changes. Maybe they made $50,000. And in a neighborhood where the median house sells for $150,000 to $200,000 and has a garage (which this one does not), they aren't going to get that price. I think it will just sit and sit and sit because of the greediness of the asking price. Which is okay with me. If it is still for sale in a year we might consider making an offer. But nowhere near that asking price.

My mother's house is six blocks away in a slightly more upscale and desireable area with much larger lots and her house is probably 1500 square feet larger, plus has a garage and is only valued at around $350,000 so they are definitely grasping. They are probably not local owners who thought they could make a fast buck, but not in this economy. I can be patient. Have to be anyway.

DH finished our taxes today. I will not mail them in until the 14th of April so that the money can collect what little interest there is as long as possible. We owe $5506.03. It is the first year we have ever owed money. That is because of the lump sum contract buyout of the company that laid him off. We paid quite a bit in taxes at that time but we knew there might be more coming so we set aside $6000. That money has been doubling as our emergency fund and will be all but decimated. The rest of the money will go to pay property taxes April 30th and then we'll start rebuilding the EF. Well, I'll start rebuilding it sooner than that, but it won't be super fast because of our high amount of debt repayment.

Edited to add: I noticed that several of my comments made on different threads in the forums are missing today. There's still a few there, but almost everything I've posted this month is gone. Weird. I wonder what is up with that?

Every time we bring stuff to storage I always think there is never going to be enough room for everything and then we reorganize everything and voila, there's more room. Today was the third time we reorganized it and this time boxes go all the way up the ceiling. We will have absolutely no problem getting the rest of the stuff from the house and shed in there and also the stuff we have temporarily stored in Mom's garage (which will make her jump up and down to be rid of it.

I am hoping that we will be able to get it all cleared by the end of next weekend and then all we need to worry about is moving the piano, cleaning, finishing the shower, ripping out carpet, replacing 4 interior doors and frames, replacing one pane of window glass and painting inside and out. New floors of some sort will have to go down, too. We will do most of it ourselves but we are going to hire a guy who used to work construction to do some of it. He's been laid off for a while (so went back to school) and he needs the money. He knows his stuff.

I found out about a product called Gripper which is a primer that works on vinyl wallboard which is what the house has (never again!) and then you can paint over it with regular paint with no problems. We're going to take all the battens off and tape and mud them. Battens are ugly and just make the place look less attractive than plain painted walls.

Once everything in the house is done then we will likely hire a landscaper to fix up the yard and garden. Or another handyman type, I'm not sure. Since I can't get down on my knees anymore since the surgery there's not too much I can do in the yard at a ground level. I really need to start saving up for all this. I don't think we're going to be ready to put it on the market by summer. I was hoping so, but I don't think so now.

DH and I stopped at an open house today for model homes that will be being built in the next three years, just to see what they had. We're not ready yet and we made that quite clear, but I liked seeing the plans for the ones that will be ready in 2012 and 2013. The price ranges were perfect.

The one we looked at was fairly nice, but the Master Bedroom is on the 2nd floor and I don't want that. And though it was a 2 and a half bathroom house, there were no bathrooms on the main floor. The half bath was located up off the first landing of the stairs. I don't want to climb stairs every time I need to use the bathroom because of my bad knee, so that would definitely be a no go. But otherwise I really liked it. The master bath had a sit down shower, no tub, which would be nice with my knee when it acts up, but there is a tub in the main bath for a nice soak if wanted.

They are building single level homes in the next couple of years so it works with our time frame. The only thing is it's in a different school district from the middle school my son will be attending next year. Same high school, though. It's something to think about, anyway.

I did absolutely nothing financial today. No money in, no money out. Didn't leave the house and didn't even think about finances. Just a lazy day spent reading and playing on the computer. Well, and doing five loads of laundry.

Tomorrow DH and I are going to our storage facility to rearrange things and repack some smaller boxes into larger ones for better stackability. We've still got to fit about three truckloads in there to finish emptying the house and the shed. There's room, but only if we move things around. Speaking of storage, that goes up by $11 next month. *sighs*

Menu planning for tomorrow:

Breakfast:

Pancakes ($1)
Homemade brown sugar syrup (.25)
Boiled eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk ($2)

Total: $3.25

Lunch:
2 kids eating at grandma's house (free)

2 adults (leftover pizza from tonight (free)
oranges ($1)

Total: $1

Dinner:
Pot roast ($5.89)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (.50)
Can of green beans ($1)
Homemade cheddar garlic biscuits (.50)

Total: $7.89

Total for the day: $12.14 A nice low day after some spendy ones and there will be leftover beef and potatoes and gravy for lunch on Monday. I don't know if it'll be enough for all four of us, though. The kids have the day off for a teacher work day or something so they will be home.

All right, so I've balanced the checkbook (to the penny, I might add) and I've stuck the $3000 into the holding tank portion of my savings. $1500 will be held to go to BoA VISA, $1009.25 will be held to go to BoA Master Card, and $490.75 will be held to go to the car payment.

That leaves us with $282 until next payday. $90 of that will pay for my physical therapy on Monday, $70 for DH for work jeans, $60 for my son's birthday present and $90 for food (though I don't think we'll need it all since I have plenty of produce and protein on hand, so probably just buy milk and any extra will be saved for later groceries). Oh, and I took money out earlier before I balanced the checkbook so I also have $40 in cash for anything unexpected.

The small paycheck next Friday (with just two days worth of wages on it will cover the cell phone bill, food for two weeks, old house phone, internet, two weeks of physical therapy, and garbage. I should have just under half of it left over, and when the first paycheck of the new cycle arrives, anything I have left over will go to the Master Card.

DH and I had a finance meeting tonight so I could explain where everything stands and so we are on the same page. He finds it boring, but he agrees that he doesn't want to be one of those clueless spouses who just hands over the paycheck and doesn't know where everything goes. We've decided to do this once every six weeks.

Now, on to meal planning.

Breakfast:
Chicken sausages ($3)
Blueberry muffins (.79)
Milk ($2)

Total: $5.79

Lunch:
Leftover ribeye steaks (free, already calculated)
Salad ($1)
Bananas ($1)
Homemade garlic and cheddar biscuits (.50)

Total: $2.50

Dinner:
Homemade pizza
--dough ($.50)
--leftover spaghetti sauce (free)
--leftover meatballs, crumbled (free)
--pepperoni ($1)
--proscuttio ($2)
--mozzarella cheese ($2)
Can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total $8.50

Total for day: $16.79

The mortgage payment posted to my account. Last month's balance was $22,053.10. This month's balance is $21778.32. Our payments are now over 2/3 to principle and less than 1/3 to interest. I like being at this end of the mortgage where progress is made so visibly with each payment. I just wish it were going to a new house and not the old one.

We should be able to finish up the last few loads of stuff and move the piano out of the old house when DH comes home this time. Then we can get it cleaned from top to bottom. There's a lot that needs to be done. The carpets have to come out and be replaced by something. The walls need to be painted. The toilets need to be replaced. The shower needs to finish being put together in the master bathroom. Four bedroom/bathroom doors need to be replaced, including new frames.

The yard needs to be cleaned up and a few loads hauled to the dump. When the weather is warm enough there are a few spots that need paint touch ups on the outside of the house and the trim needs to be painted. We need to replace part of the guttering and bring in a new load of gravel for the driveway. We might even need to put a new front porch on.

After that, the house will be sold "as is." I'm not going to put anymore effort into it than that. We will be happy if we get enough to finish paying off the mortgage, $50,000 for a downpayment on a new house, and enough to cover closing costs. Yes, I'd love it to be more, but we only paid $65,000 for it and though it is supposedly worth $110,000 now according to the tax assessors, I don't really care. We are just so tired of it all and $75,000 would cover our needs. We will likely price it at $100,000 and then will entertain any offers.

It's a big, single floor house, 1800 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, great room, huge kitchen, laundry room. It's got a large side yard with a garden, and large backyard that is fenced and has fruit trees, a tiny front yard, a shed and a carport. If it weren't for the location we would have likely stayed in it forever, but I hated being so far from the city and I needed to be closer to my mother after she fell.

We are not going to be like the idiots in the neighborhood who are still trying to get the prices they were told it was worth at the height of the bubble (which were much higher than when we moved there, and they were honestly never worth that much, but people refinanced anyway.) There are houses that have sat there for years trying to get prices that you would have trouble getting in town right now. I just want it gone.

I have been driving by this beautiful old house about once a week on the way to the chiropractor. It's been completely remodeled and rewired and it has everything we could want in a house. The kitchen (according to the flyers and website virtual tour) is gorgeous. It makes me covetous. For me a kitchen will make or break a house when it is time for us to actually start looking.

It's way overpriced for the neighborhood. They're asking $419,000 (and this is a new price, not their original asking price). The median house price for that neighborhood is $250,000. This house is bigger, but not by too much, is on a corner lot, and has a smaller yard than other houses on the block. We don't want a big yard to maintain. I think it will have to come down in price before it will sell and I kind of hope it sits on the market for a year until we are ready to start looking. It would need to come down $75,000 to even put it in the top of the price range we are willing to pay.

It's in our school district and about six or seven blocks from my mother's house. It's on a bus route. It's five blocks from the hospital. It would be perfect if we were ready now. We're not and we won't even go look insdie because of that. We don't want to get caught up in some frenzy to buy before we are ready and have BoA paid off, but it's nice to dream. And I know that when we are ready there will be a perfect house for us out there somewhere.

I spent a good portion of the day looking at houses online yesterday. We're a good two years from being able to buy, but I wanted to get an idea of what was out there in our price range. I was kind of flabbergasted by the number of short sales and foreclosures I kept finding though. Our price range is going to be a maximum of $350,000. We plan to have a downpayment of at least $100,000 so we won't be crippled by the mortgage.

But just because $350,000 is our max (not the max which the bank would loan us, which is closer to $600,000), doesn't mean I want to have to spend that much. So I was looking at houses under $300,000 to see what was out there. We want 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, or 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and an office or extra great room or a dining room that can be converted to an office if the kitchen table can fit in the kitchen. And we want at least 1800 square feet.

I was shocked at what was available. I thought it would be a really impossible ask. But I was finding houses under $200,000 with hardwood floors and new roofs and remodeled kitchens in nice, if older, neighborhoods. One place I found was just gorgeous. It had everything I wanted except for just having one bathroom and it was $175,000. For that price we could add a second bathroom.

I don't know what the market will be like in two more years, but it was encouraging to see that there are good possibilities in decent neighborhoods.

I blue booked our 1992 Ford Crown Victoria, which is in really good condition, and has around 132,000 miles I think, just to see what the growing rate is for it. It's almost $2,000 for good condition. I kind of fell over. I figured it was only worth about $500 or something. It might be worth a little bit more because we put in a nice digital MP3/CD player (it originally came with a casette deck). Anyway, it's definitely worth getting it detailed and trying to sell it. It needs some cleaning work. Normally I'd clean it myself but since the knee surgery I can't get down on my knees and get to all those hard to reach places and I've been waiting at least a year for DH to do it.

We had been talking about just taking it to salvage, but I hated to do that considering the fact that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. We just don't drive it anymore and my mother is getting sick of seeing it parked in her driveway when no one uses it. It's such a good, safe reliable car, it would make a great first car for a high school kid. I keep thinking, too, about the fact that in 18 months my daughter will be sixteen and then we might actually want to have two cars. I'm not a big fan of driving her to school at 7 a.m.

Still, if we did sell it, that $2000 could go on the car loan and we'd be one step closer to having it paid off. I really wish we'd traded it in when we got the Toyota. I can't even remember why we didn't do that. Probably because we didn't think it was worth anything. If we do sell it then we will probably end up keeping the Matrix (which will be paid off) when we buy the Sienna. It would be good for DD to drive, but it's just gotten uncomfortably small for our growing children to be in back on long trips.

Part of me just says trade in the Matrix. The Sienna is going to be expensive even if we'll be getting a 2011 in 2013 so it'll be used and not quite so much as a new one. We can always find a second much more inexpensive car for DD to use. Or a Vespa or iScooter. I'm probably overthinking it. I tend to do that.

The house smells delicious right now. I've got a picnic ham in the crockpot and it's almost done. And I've got a nice recipe via Tightwad Kitty for making soup with the ham bone tomorrow and I'll make a breakfast casserole and be able to make sandwiches off the leftover meat. An $18 ham is not as economical to stretch as a $5 chicken, but it's still going to go a long ways.

Thanks to Laura I learned about a food program that amazon.com has for shipping you food and if you take out a subscription for it, you get 15% off the purchase price. And if you buy more than $25 worth you can get the free shipping. Of course they then wanted me to apply for their credit card and get $30 off as well, but I'm not at the point in my life where I have any intention of adding another credit card into the mix.

Anyway the choices of subscribing had a six month option and could be cancelled at any time so I went ahead and clicked the six month option. I will be getting 12 boxes of a gluten-free, organic, hamburger helper type (but healthier) lasanga dinner. They stopped carrying this particular brand around here. I figure if we go through it faster than six months we can switch to three months and if we don't go through it as fast as I think we will, I can just drop the subscription.

Anyway, I paid $34 for it, which is $2.83 a box. This stuff cost $4 a box when the stores around here still carried it. So, add in the cost of a pound of hamburger (2.29 usually here on sale) and I've got a filling dinner for 4 for $5.12. Add a veg and it goes up a buck. Not bad for something super fast and easy to make. It's good to have back up items like this when I don't feel like making a real effort to cook.

I also ordered a cookbook as a birthday present for me. B&N didn't have it when I went in there before my birthday. Just as well. The price from amazon was $18.79. When I bought it at Christmas as a gift for my neice it was $30. It would have been worth paying that, though. It's a really excellent book that tells all about the ingredients and covers dozens of proteins and hundreds of fruits and veg, as well as having recipes for the items. It's a real learning tool for a cook and the pictures are amazing. I got free shipping on that as well.

Then I ordered a replacement copy of a novel of mine that DH took on an airplane two years ago and left behind. It's out of print now, but I was able to find it new on half.com for $9 plus $3.99 shipping from someone with 100% positive feedback. I'm considering that my b'day present, too, even though it's technically not.

I'll need to set aside the extra money for the AMEX when it comes due. I put a notation in the budget. I've been working slowly to get the budget set up so that it covers extras like this, and put on two columns as holding tank in and holding tank out, to keep track of any extra money in each category and when it's paid out. The holding tank will be saved in the same savings account as the safety net. For now, anyway. I may switch it over to the laptop fund account once I reach my goal there, just to keep it away from the easily accessible portion of our EF money.

I was running numbers last night and once the credit card debt is gone, we will have $4000 a month just to put to saving up for a downpayment on a house. That's $96,000 after two years, assuming all goes well. Add that to whatever we sell the house for and we'll have a pretty substantial downpayment. As much as I'm going to want to rush to get out of here once the debt is gone, after running the numbers it makes so much more finanacial sense to wait two more years. We're probably looking in a price range of $350,000 max and I'd like to not carry more than a $150,000 mortgage. I know it might be closer to $200,000, but hopefully we'll find something closer to the lower end of our price range and not the higher one.

We also want to buy a mini-van in 2013. Hopefully a 2011 Toyota Sienna because they meet all of our needs and are so nice. They are too expensive brand new, but the price drops substantially on two year old vehicles. We definitely want the new redesign though, so a 2011 car in 2013 will be just right. We'll have $10,000 saved by then for a downpayment and we'll have a decent trade in and we're used to paying almost $500 a month on the car anyway, so if we can get around that on financing the rest (probably 15 to 20,000 depending on mileage), we'll be in a good place for it. By then our FICO should be back over 800, which makes low interest rates our friend.

After that there will be at least $2000 a month going into a college fund. Her school of choice is the local U and it, at the moment, costs about $7000 a year (including books and fees) for a local student living at home. After a year of saving we'll have $24,000 set aside right as our daughter is starting college. I'll keep adding to it. Fortunately our children are four grades apart so she will graduate college in the summer that my son will start in the fall. Hopefully they can both get scholarships, too. DD is on honor role as a freshman and DS is testing well above fifth grade level despite his behavioral issues. So it's a possibility. I want nothing to do with student loans or having my kids start out their lives with the debt they cause.

Well, turning 41 doesn't really feel all that different from turning 40. But then I guess most birthdays for the last decade or so have really just been marking off another year more than anything else. Another year with less debt under our belts, so it's all good. I keep having that old, old song Sixteen Tons going through my head. The one that goes, "You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another year older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store." Only we have less debt after another year, but I still sometimes feel like I owe my soul to the company store (i.e. credit card companies). Just less of it now, you know? And less every month.

DD made me brownies because I didn't want birthday cake. A small batch of brownies doesn't linger in the house for a week tempting me to eat it. The kids made me a joint card, let me sleep in late, and cleaned up the house, and there has been no squabbling. That's the perfect present for me, really. Later we are going to play scrabble.

DH called and we got to talk for fifteen minutes. It's rare for him to be able to call during the work day so it was nice. He told me that he might have to temporarily start working 3 and 2's instead of 3 and 3's, so less time home and an extra $3500 or so net per pay cycle, and it would then be a five week pay cycle instead of a six week one. That would mean only one week with no pay check out of five weeks instead of two weeks with no paycheck out of six weeks. Part of me is not thrilled that he'd be home less, but the other part is going "WooHoo," because we'd be able to pay our debt down that much faster. But it's still up in the air right now. They are just swamped with work.

There is also a possibility of his day rate going up in April. That's the six month mark in this new job. I think I'd find it rather astounding if it did. Not because he doesn't deserve it, because he does, but he's already making money hand over fist. If we weren't in so much debt from all the medical spending over the last eight years, if we were completely out of debt, we'd be able to live on 25% of his current income and save the rest. At least right now 50% is finally going to debt repayment and the other 25% is going to maintain our old house and to savings. Once we are out of debt I am going to feel rich! Even though technically we will qualify as being middle class. To me, middle class without debt and living below your means is rich. Especially if you have the savings to back it up.

I am going to save as much as possible then. I never want to live in fear of what happens if layoffs loom on the horizon again. I want enough money to live on for a couple of years if it takes that long. I also want to have plenty set aside for college. Our local state university is running about $7500 a year with books if you live at home and don't live on campus. I never want my kids to have student loan debt. It'll probably go up before my fourteen year old and ten year old are ready to go, but I want to be as prepared for it as I can be. Fortunately I shouldn't have two kids in college at the same time. Because of how their birthdays fall, my son will start college the fall after my daughter graduates.

So I just read another blog urging me not to forget to buy stuff for Valentine's Day for my sweetie and my first thought was, "Umm...no." In my mind, this holiday is just a major waste of money, not just that of the lovebirds but of all the companies who are advertising. It goes into high gear right now. And I don't say this as someone who is down on love, but as someone who has been firmly in a committed relationship for twenty years.

I don't feel like I have to prove my love by buying overpriced waxy chocolates, overpriced out of season roses, eight dollar fancy singing cards encrusted with enough glitter to keep a classroom of six year olds supplied for a year, or expensive gadgets, nor do I expect $1000 jewel encrusted bracelets or necklaces and cutesy stuffed animals in return.

DH will get a free e-card. I will get one from him. We will try to out cute each other and be the sappiest. Since he will be away that day we will talk on the phone. If he were home we'd probably shunt the kids off somewhere and have a cozy dinner at home that we prepare together, followed by a snuggle in front of a romantic DVD.

The best way I've ever found of telling someone you love them isn't buying them something, it's saying the words, "I love you," and showing it in your daily behavior. What more do you really need?

I had planned on coming back on here to blog last night but never got around to it. After I went to the doctor ($20.00 co-pay), I was diagnosed with a kidney infection, which explains a lot of why I've been so tired and draggy lately. I had to go to the pharmacy and pick up a prescription ($11.81) and while I was there I also got a frozen pizza for dinner. Lovely health benefits in those frozen pizzas. *snerks* So paid $3.99 for that. At least I didn't give in to the lure of the drive-thru. My mom's making dinner tonight since she's eaten with us three times this week, so I don't have to cook. It'll be ribs and potatoes and some veg or other. I know I have some leftover broccoli that needs to be eaten up.

I finished reading through the book The Healthy Family and while I do like a lot of the recipes and think some of them would be cheap to make, I'm still bothered by the reliance on cream of something soups. So I'll have to be very picky on what I make from there.

I got a call from the library's computer yesterday saying I had another hold in, so I picked that up yesterday since my daughter's high school is only a few blocks away. I combined it with picking her up. So that was another 25 cents for the parking meter since not only were both of the five minute drop off slots full again, a specialized transportation bus was double parked behind them letting off someone in a wheel chair, since all the handicapped slots were filled, too. So even if the drop off slots had been empty I would never have gotten near them.

Anyway, I spent last night reading the book I checked out which is called $3 Meals by Ellen Brown. It would be more appropriately titled $3 per Serving Meals, but otherwise I really liked what she had to say. She shares my opinion about cream of something soups, too. Even calls it the same thing.

It's divided up by categories like shopping (peruse your own pantry before shopping to see what you have so you don't buy duplicates, telling you the cheapest cuts of meat to look for and how to shop the store against its set up) and cooking strategies, the basics of making your own stocks, sauces, dressings (not just the easy vinegar and oil ones, but things like 1000 Island and peanut sauce) and such, soups, fish, poultry, meat, vegetarian, and baking. It was a breath of fresh air not to see another cookbook that could supposedly save you money and then all they serve is lentils and beans.

My only real complaint is my usual one with most cookbooks, the reliance on vinegar (my son is allergic to grapes and apples, so no wine based vinegar or apple cider vinegar) and mushrooms which I am allergic to. It is easy enough to leave mushrooms out, but it is harder to leave out the vinegars and I'm not sure what I'd replace them with. Wine I always replace with broth, but vinegar is an acid. I'd think lemon juice maybe, but the amount couldn't possibly be the same.

Aside from that there were plenty of inexpensive recipes I can try for keeping the grocery budget down. I think I might be able to trim at least $50 a month using some of her ideas. Maybe more, but I'm keeping my estimate conservative for now. Definitely a book well worth the read.

Other money spent yesterday was a check I wrote for $300 to help my mother with her utilities. I still have a few bills to write out but probably won't do that until tomorrow. I added $100 to the EF fund and emptied all the ones in my wallet into the coin jar. They will go to the computer fund. I also paid the kids six weeks worth of allowance (we are on a six week pay cycle), so that was $60 for my daughter who makes $10 a week and $30 for my son who makes $5 a week.

They both do a significant amount of chores. They both help with meal prep including dividing up meat for the freezer, chopping veggies for the week, peeling potatoes or carrots for dinner, making the salad (or when we make homemade fish or homemade cheese sticks breading the fish or cheese. My daughter even does the cooking twice a week on her own, now she's fourteen. I've even found her putting the ingredients for bread dough into the bread machine before she leaves for school if she has extra time in the morning without being asked.

Both kids make their own lunches for school and keep their rooms clean. My daughter does laundry and my son helps fold. Daughter takes out the trash and my son is in charge of the recycling. My son vacuums the floors and scrubs the bathtub while my daughter scrubs the shower stall and higher parts. I still can't convince either one of them to scrub the toilet though!

They both also help my mother with whatever she needs done in the house and in the chicken yard. Usually that means mucking out the coop and replacing it with fresh hay.

And my daughter babysits her brother at least two hours a week when otherwise I would have to hire someone, so I won't skimp on allowance when we have the money to afford it. They also know not to ask me for anything. Whatever they want (that isn't a basic) has to come out of their allowance. My son bought his own DSI this way, even though it took him several months. He treats it better having earned it himself. Sometimes I think I don't give them enough, but my mother thinks I give them too much, so...eh. It's probably just right.

My son has his own recycling business as well. He goes around to all the neighbor houses with my mom for company and collects their aluminum cans once a week. He can usually earn about $20 to $30 every six weeks or so doing this and he only has thirty houses on his route. People use a lot of soda pop and beer around here. He wants to expand his route this summer to add another block but he would need a cart of something to do it. I'll be on the lookout come spring for one at a garage sale.

I want a new laptop computer. I sort of think I need a new computer, but the truth is really that I want one. And I know it. The one I am using is still perfectly serviceable...for a while. Yes, I've worn all the lettering off most of the keys, but I've got the keyboard memorized. It's not like I need them.

Yes, the screen does have some colored, verticle lines running down it, but it usually doesn't interfere with anything I'm doing. It's on the side of the screen where all the ads usually go on websties so it doesn't really interfere with my reading blogs or articles or whatever I'm doing. It doesn't even really affect my word processing (which I do a lot of) because the closest line to the document is right at the right hand margin. I've been putting up with that for almost a year, but they are gradually creeping further to the left. It's annoying, mostly when I watch DVD's on it.

And yes, I had to superglue parts of it together when it was only six months old, because the frame was falling apart on me. It's actually held up really well since I did that. And yes, I've had to replace the power cord twice, but the battery still holds almost a full charge (which lasts 3.5 hours on powersaving mode).

It's also very heavy. Which is hard on my hands when I carry it anywhere with me. I really want a lightweight one. Something I can easily transport when DH isn't around to be my beast of burden. The one I want is about two to three pounds. It feels like a feather in comparison. And it comes in hot pink, purple, green and red. *sighs*

It'll be two years old in February and really...I just don't need a new one. Not yet. However, I think I am going to start putting money aside for one, because obviously this one is falling apart and there is going to come a time when it moves firmly into the need (as much as a computer can be a need) column.

I've got this little savings account that I call my WANTS account. It's got a grand total of $47.37 in it at the moment. So I think I'm going to find ways to add to that. I think that since I am regularly contributing to the EF with regular deposits, I am going to take any found money, all of my coin jar savings, and any little thing I do to save myself money that I normally would have spent it on, into that account. So today I cut my bangs myself. Even at the cheapest place in town that would cost me $7. So I will $7 to my WANTS account for that.

It rained really hard this afternoon and all of the snow melted. It's 47 degrees at current. Hard to believe it was a snow day! We ended up going to the library because some of our requests came in. I spent a quarter today for the parking meter. The stupid, newfangled metering system no longer has fifteen free minutes on it. It no longer has the option of using a nickle or a dime, either, and the quarter only buys you 20 minutes. And the five minute drop off slots were all full. I miss having a library with free parking. We only needed five minutes tops to pick up our holds. Holds are self serve and so is checkout. It takes hardly any time at all.

Anyway one of the cookbooks I put on hold last night was in. It's called The Healthy Family by Sandi Richard and has a lot of easy to prepare, quick to make recipes in it. It was rec'ced over at Get Rich Slowly so I thought I'd check it out. The kids were reading it over my shoulder and it looks like they will actually like at least half the recipes. That's a first. Mostly they looked pretty good to me.

I was a little disappointed in some of the recipes ingredients though because they called for things like "cream of" soups. I've never found a healthy "cream of" soup. They are all loaded with sodium, MSG, and other chemicals that I don't really think should be anywhere near a "healthy" cookbook. Those tended to be the ones the kids turned their noses up at though.

And there was almost an abuse of white rice. I mean, I know if you are going for time saving then brown rice isn't your first option, but white rice probably shouldn't be either if you're going for healthy. And with brown rice you could do up a big batch on the weekend for use throughout the week and still save time. But lot of the other recipes seem okay. Especially the Asian style ones. We'll see how they taste and I'll try to follow up if I remember. They do call for a lot of sauces and again that generally means a lot of sodium.

Well, I dropped off the face of the Earth for a couple of weeks. I'm getting over walking pneumonia. Isn't that lovely? But I am feeling like a human again and starting to resume living.

We finally got all of our books for the virtual school week before last and are plowing full speed ahead with the homeschooling. The kids seem to be thriving and we are falling into a routine now.

The bathtub/shower remodel is almost done. It's done enough to use the bathtub anyway and I had my first long soak in three months last night! It was wonderful. I won't be able to use the shower part of it until DH comes back again and finishes securing it and then it needs to be caulked and then we still need to put the back wall on and paint it, but at least it's useable and there is still the other shower so it's not like we have nothing but a tub.

Okay, what else? Oh, I sent money to savings, to the EF fund.

$1211.96 old balance
150.00 deposit
+ 2.79 October interest
---------
$1365.75 new balance

And I transferred the $40 from the October coin jar savings to the Vacation Fund. It's moving along nicely.

$536.46 old balance
+ 40.00 deposit
--------
$576.46 new balance

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.

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.

I'm having one of those days where its hard really to know what to post. I suppose I should get around to posting what I did with Friday's paycheck, but I'm not really in the mood and I'm not quite done paying all the bills anyway. I'm doing one tomorrow in person than I'll be done.

I'm going to go in tomorrow and see about getting the car stereo replaced also. I have the money for it and for the sake of family harmony it really needs to be done. I figure I can get it installed well before school is out. And since it is in a shopping district I can wander around a bit.

Macy's home store is right next door to the place I'm going so I can go and try out furniture. I'm not ready to buy anything but we are looking at getting a recliner soon and the couch is on its last legs so maybe in a year or so for it. I would never buy anything at Macy's anyway as it is even more overpriced now than it was when it was the Bon Marche home store before the buy out. But I can see what is out there and look for similar styles later at more affordable furniture stores.

Bed, Bath and Beyond is right there as well and I want to see if they have couch covers, I forget what they call them, but its a fabric sort of blanket that is fitted and gives the couch a new look. Ours is so faded and stained and it would be nice to spruce it up a bit.

I can also wander around Office Depot, Costco or head down to Michael's craft store. Not to buy, just to waste time. Hopefully it won't take a lot of time. I'm not much of a shopper generally, I like to go in, get what I need and get out ASAP. But if I'm actually looking for something its not too bad.

I do want to check out the schedule of classes at the craft store, though. I'm thinking of taking some acryllic painting classes again. It's been years but I have all the supplies and I'd love to get back into it. Landscapes were always my favorite.

Or take an intermediate knitting class. Or maybe learn how to make beaded jewelry. I have had an interest in making jewelry for awhile now, I have a good eye for color and design, and I might even be able to generate a little side business. I'm particularly interested in necklaces and bracelets. I suppose it could become a pricey hobby, though.

Oh, I'll have to think on it once I see the class schedule and fees.

As some of you know, I make my kids save part of their allowance. They are paid every four weeks. Of their allowances, they must allocate 20% to long term savings. This works out to $4 for Rose and $3 for Tobias.

Of the amount they put into long term savings, I will match them 25%. If they want to put in more than 20% of their allowance I will continue to match them up to $8 (so I'd put in 25 cents for every dollar saved up to $8, the most they can get each month from matching is $2).

I have done this so that they have an idea right from the start of their earnings what a 401K does and how it works and to get them used to always contributing to one. I've explained a bit how it works in the real world and that Daddy's work has a 401K that matches 50 percent up to 6%. The only comment I got on that was could I match theirs up to 50 percent. Umm...no. Why not? Because in the real world the employer makes that decision, they don't. They seemed okay with that awnser.

Rose does not save anymore than the $4 that I make her save. Tobias saves the $3 I make him save plus $1 more so that his savings account can be equal to his sister's.

So far neither of them has wanted to save more than $4 despite the Mommy Match. They are not yet ready to max out. It has been fun watching them accumulate the extra money, but neither one of them have cottoned on to the fact that they could be earning more by saving more. Or else they aren't willing to give up any more of their spendable income to their Kiddie 401K program.

Sounds like some grown-ups I know, LOL. It is certainly a fun experiment. This savings account is untouchable until they are 18. They can then use it to pay towards college or a wedding or a car or a house downpayment or maybe open a retirement account when they are working a real job. So its not necessarily a true retirement account, it just works like one until they can access it.

Not much in it yet, it's only been half a year or so they've been getting an allowance but its the lesson, and the principle of it that I want them to learn.

And then think how scary it would be if it actually came true.

Yesterday was a no spend day. And I had lunch over at the neighbor's, so free food I didn't have to cook, too. They had a barbecue for their daughter's birthday.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned the new neighbors yet. They moved into the house next door that the creepy neighbor used to live in. They have a seven year old granddaughter that lives with them and a 14 year old son of their own. The little girl gets along great with both my kids.

The boy seems to have taken a shine to Rose. I'll have to watch that as she's only eleven but is tall, a pretty blue-eyed blond and chesty for her age. And has hips. Already the hour glass figure. Not sure I want a fourteen year old boy sniffing around her. We are always very careful with Rose as she acts very mature for her age. She got hit on for the first time when she was 9 by a fifteen year old boy who had no idea she was that young. He did it front of me and DH, too. Needless to say he apologized profusely when I told him her age! LOL So this sort of thing happens to her quite a bit and so we are just extra careful.

I spent the rest of yesterday watching bad SF movies on sci-fi channel. I like bad SF movies, though. Although Mansquito was a bit much. Liked A.I. Assault and Android Apocolypse quite a bit though.

Anyway, today is a no spend day also. Not going anywhere or doing anything.

The interest for the month of August was available from ING, though it won't post until tomorrow, I don't think. It was $2.63. But since I won't be looking there again until next Thursday I'll add it in now.

$1098.31 Old Balance
+ 2.63 Interest added
--------
$1100.94 New Balance

I don't have all of my ING in EF or the interest would be higher, but I like to have some money available locally in case of some emergency where I need to get at it quickly.

Does anyone keep any money on hand at home for emergencies? I am thinking of putting $200 in a little firesafe combination lock box to hide in my house in case an emergency happens on the weekend. Although maybe not, if it were a true emergency I could use a credit card and just pay if from the EF on Monday. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable having that much money in the house with DH coming and going like he does, even in a safe and with a home security system. I just don't like the idea of using a credit card like that.

My third entry for today.

I stopped at Freddy's today to get organic milk and use my coupon. So I got another gallon of organic milk for $3.58 a gallon. And guess what printed out at the cash register? Yet another coupon for $3.00 off 2 half gallons of Organic Valley milk.

They also had turkey legs on sale for 79 cents per pound so I got two packages. I ended up with 9 very large turkey legs. My daughter is an extreme turkey lover so this works out well. It's been a while since I've seen them for 79 cents a pound. They are usually 99 cents a pound now.

I also took Rose for a haircut today. We had the girl wash it, too, which I usually don't do, but Rose's ears still hurt from being pierced and she bumps them so much when she washes it herself, we decided it would be worth the $3 extra to have someone else do it for her. So it ended up costing $16. Now that she is eleven she no longer qualifies for the children's haircut, even though all they did was give her bangs, trim the ends and put a little layering around the face. Took all of ten minutes, if that to do the actual cut. It wasn't some fancy adult style or anything. Of course, I forgot my $2 off coupon for them, too.

Five more days until school starts and it can come none too soon for me. The kids were picking at each other for most of the day. But they managed to finagle a two night stay at the lovely Casa Grandma so I get some time to destress.

I think I might go to a matinee movie tomorrow if Hairspray is still here. It is tonight, but they change out on Friday mornings and I have a feeling it will be gone. That's okay if it is, I'll just stay home and watch a movie I taped instead. As long as I get to unwind. Then I'm going to get started on The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. Starts out set on the Australian planet Kookaburra. Should be interesting. Plus its military sci-fi, which I love. Looks like she may be as good as Elizabeth Moon at that if it is even possible.

Today was a bit of a boring day, really. I bought an 18 pack of organic eggs and put $100 on my Costco card for gas, and filled up the tank.

I took DH to the airport. I wrote 3 pages on my book. I received the earrings that I ordered in the mail, and that's it, really.

Now I'm just waiting for Eureka to come on the telly.

My day was long. We did clothes shopping for Tobias, and Rose got a pair of dress shoes, so we are now all finished with back to school shopping. Great big Hooray! Spent $137, $14.08 was for Rose's shoes. Didn't have to spend nearly as much on T for school clothes as I did for Rose.

My massage therapist called in sick today so I did not get my appointment. I was not very happy but since quite frankly I believe she caught the cold from me in the first place, I guess I can't complain. That real nasty one I caught in Victoria. Hopefully I can get in before school starts, because that is eight days away, but who knows with Mom's schedule if she can watch the kids right now. And
DH leaves tomorrow so I have to have someone.

I've been going to the chiropractor 3 times per week since my hip went wonky and it doesn't seem to help for more than a couple of hours. Now the other hip is starting to hurt, maybe overcompensating. Oh, well. I did spend a lot of time walking around today, so that may be part of it.

The kids started back at tae kwon do today. They have been out of it for almost a year and a half. They seemed to do okay. Rose got right back in the swing of things and Tobias started over at the
beginning, since he's now in the older class. Since he was only in the Little Tiger class before he only ever learned the kicks and punches and basic hand techniques, how to say yes, sir, no, sir, and not any of the poomses or older skill level things. They gave us free uniforms, too, which I wasn't expecting. It was nice since they cost $50 and they've both outgrown their old ones, but Tobias hasn't grown into the one Rose started with yet.

We also spent a couple of hours out at DH's Mom's house. His great granddad was over, too and his sister and her girls. We did a birthday cake for DH with our meal from Wendy's.

Yeah, bad habits rearing their ugly heads. The frosty has corn syrup in it. Not high fructose but still corn syrup and that was enough to set off my system, so no, won't be doing that again.

DH's birthday isn't until the 30th but since he leaves tomorrow we celebrated it early. I gave him the DVD's Blood and Chocolate and the latest James Bond movie. That's what he wanted.

And we also stopped by Mom's and I sat in the massage chair for 15 minutes and then she ran one of those hand held massage thingies that does the kneading motions over my sore lower back and hips for 30
minutes, which gave me some relief. I am so tired of hurting but I don't want to be taking pain pills. I had to do that in the beginning of this and it threw me for a loop. Or it made me loopy, not quite sure. Maybe both. Generic percocet will do that.

I am glad to be home now and about to go to sleep on my wonderful new bed.

Can anyone explain to me exactly how I make the vB Code work? With short sentences. And little words. Please?

I read a good article today about NOT bailing out the mortgage lending mess here:

I finally got a Pinecone Survey today. It's been close to 2 months! So that $5 should show up in my paypal account tomorrow or Monday. After a very slow week with GTM I got 8 surveys from them today. I qualified for a 35 and a 50 pointer and then got 5 points on 5 and the other one was already closed. So 110 points from them today. And 10 points from NFO. I missed a Survey Savvy because I forgot to do it yesterday. It was a $2 one, too. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some, and apparently you ignore some.

Hopefully tomorrow is a slow survey invite day for me, as we are going to the county fair up in Lynden. Mucho dinero, but it's once a year. Looking forward to the funnel cake with powdered sugar, whipped cream and strawberries. We split it between the four of us. I can't even imagine trying to eat one of those things on my own. Maybe one that was just powdered sugar, but definitely not a loaded one.

I just have to restrain myself from buying any of the nifty do-dads they always have in the commercial building...it slices, it dices, it curls your hair and folds your laundry... Hmm...actually...LOL

It looks like DH will be coming home for the full shift this time after all, but that when he goes back he will work 3 weeks on, 1 week off, 3 weeks on again. Which means we will wind up with a total of 2 weeks of extra pay instead of one. That's a whole month's wages in our case. That should definitely pay off what is left on the last credit card after the loan comes through and we pay everything off that we can.

Of course, nothing is ever set in stone and everything is subject to change, but it sure would be nice. Then we'd just have to worry about the loan and the mortgages and regular bills. And saving for the new car would begin right away.

I'd like to save $10,000 for a downpayment on a hybrid. And I'm hoping that by the time I have it saved up that Toyota will have put out the Sienna Hybrid minivan. That should leave well under $20,000 to finance and make monthly payments decent.

It would be nice if it all turns out this way at work. Then he'd be home for the back to school shopping. It goes so much faster when he's trying clothes on Tobias and I'm trying them on Rose.

Read this article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20039819/

I thought it explained the connection between what is going on with the sub-prime mortgage field and how it is affecting the regular Joe in the stock market quite well.

Fortunately for me the real estate mess has not clobbered my 401K but I know it has gotten to a lot of people's 401Ks.

Read this article last night:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20070704_credit_cards_fat_a1.asp

I thought it was quite interesting, despite its rather cheesy headline. It makes a certain amount of sense to me. Basically it says that if you use credit cards at fast food places, you tend to order more food than you would have if you only had cash.

But I think that's true with anything. Clothes, CD's, DVD's, software, accessories. If I'm not writing the check out or handing over the cash myself, I get careless with amounts. Or at least I used to.

I've only ever once used a credit card at a fast food place and only because I'd forgotten to go to the bank to get cash first. But it felt so awful doing it, I think I'd rather pull out of line and not buy it, then ever do that again.

Of course, one of my rules is to try never to use credit cards for food purchases anyway, unless on vacation. We did that far too much the three years I was so sick and in and out of the hospital all the time and it really added up. It's been a hard and fast rule since then. Except that once.