I was cleaning out my dresser tonight as I have two drawers in it that I've been using as a temporary filing cabinet until I got around to actually filing or shredding some papers and when I got to the bottom of one, I found a stash of loose change. It was mostly pennies, but it amounted to $1.82 so I tossed that in the coin jar (after rolling up 2 rolls of pennies). I had totally forgot it was there, but once I saw it I had a perfect memory of scraping a bunch of change into a drawer before we moved here from the old house, so it's just been sitting in there since January of 2010.

Since DS wants to go to "his" CU tomorrow to deposit his allowance (he's saving up for a Nintendo 3DS), I figured I may as well make a deposit myself into the laptop fund since it's in the same CU. With the two rolls of pennies, a 50 cent piece, and all the ones I have in the coin jar, it will come to $12.50.

Not too bad. Sometimes I feel a little silly for making such little deposits, but then I remind myself that little deposits add up and if I end up paying for my laptop with pennies and ones than so be it. I've been managing to scrape up about $100 a month doing this, rebating, and adding what is leftover in my purse each week. At least it will be paid for with no interest due.

Here is today's menu planning which I tried to post last night, but the internet ate it:

Breakfast:
pancakes (.50)
eggs (free from chickens)
homemade brown sugar syrup (.20)
Milk (1.50)
Total $2.20

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Fruit smoothies ($2)
Total $2

Dinner:
Homemade pizza
--dough (.50)
--leftover homemade spaghetti sauce
--pepperoni ($2)
--Canadian bacon ($2)
--mozarella cheese ($2)
Milk (1.50)
Total $8

Total for day: $12.20

Tomorrow

Breakfast:
Blueberry muffins (.50)
Bacon ($2)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $4

Lunch:
Leftover pizza (free)
oranges ($1.50)
Total $1.50

Dinner:
Beef pot roast ($9.89)
Broccoli ($1)
Cauliflower ($1)
Can of corn ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $14.39

Total for day: $19.89

There will be leftover pot roast and possibly leftover broccoli and cauliflower as well for another meal, so even though Wednesday's food is higher in price it will reduce the price of one of Thursday's meals.

Today is a no spend day. I cleaned out my purse and found $2.12 to put in the coin jar. That will go into the laptop fund eventually when there are enough coins in there to roll them. I also added $11 in ones.

Tonight I will sit down and balance the checkbook and then finish doing the rest of this week's bills. I did about half of them on Friday, so need to stop procrastinating and do the rest of them. I will do that after we get back from the pool and have had supper.

I really need to start posting my meal planning again. I won't do today's since it was all leftovers except about $4 worth of milk. But I need to plan out tomorrow's food. It'll be less than usual as DD is spending the day with one of her friends. It's spring break. So she will eat lunch and dinner there.

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.

I received a check today from our propane company for $10.53. It's a farmer's co-op so every year we get a little bit back for being members. It's never very much, but I always figure every little bit counts. So that will go into the laptop fund.

I've been fiddling with the budget while setting up the spreadsheet for April. I think I can manage to set aside an extra $300 for medical expenses without dipping into how much I want to send to debt repayment. It would mean no money added to the EF this month, but I'd rather have it around for the incoming medical bills.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. I'm afraid it's going to hurt. I bit my tongue really hard on Monday and I figured it would be healed by now, but it still hurts. But I don't want to reschedule again. I already did when I had the flu for several weeks. Since most of my symptoms are gone now (just have the congestion and tiredness), I'd really like to just get it over with.

I still have not received a release from the courthouse for jury duty or a statement saying I have to report in despite the doctor's note excusing me. I'm really starting to get annoyed. Monday is not that far away. They really are not on the ball at all about this. Since I have to be notified "in writing" for it to be official they need to get moving. I will call them tomorrow if there is nothing in the mail.

I also still have not been called back by the doctor about being referred to Virginia Mason. Not like I can make an appointment until after I know what's going on with jury duty, but the lack of professionalism is really starting to grate on me. How hard is it to return a phone call and do your job?

I picked up 8 temporary checks from the Credit Union today so I could write out the rest of my bills. They were:

Garbage for this house--$50.65
HSBC/Best Buy for laptop (took out of laptop fund)--$100.00
Comcast Phone for old house--$44.92 (complaining did me some good!)
Comcast internet for this house--$65.55
AAA Yearly Renewl Fee--$121
Car Tabs--$75.77

I also had physical therapy today so $90 for that. I was able to walk down the stairs today one foot per stair instead of two feet per stair. I'm starting to see some actual progress on my knee.

Then the car payment is due on the 19th which is a Saturday, so that won't come out until the 21st. I've the money set aside for that and will transfer it on Friday the 18th.

I found $1 in change on the floor of the old house while we were cleaning today so that went into the coin jar. Tomorrow we are going to go do some more work out at the house and make a dump run so we will be borrowing FIL's truck which means putting at least 3 gallons of gas in when we are done. So that'll be $10.40 or so.

Wednesday we might go out again, but will have to be back before six at night for DS's science fair. I hope it's one of those things where only a brief appearance is needed. I'm still feeling under the weather and DD is quite ill. If I can pop my head in and oo and aw over things and then leave DH to hang around and do the parental thing, that would be nice.

We have to go to the court house in the morning to pay for car tabs and find out why we haven't been mailed our propterty tax bill yet, since it's due April 30 and they usually send them out in February. They might still have the wrong address. I need to see about getting my temporary disabled parking permit. Should only need it for six months if all goes well surgically.

I need to fill out my juror's questionaire and then enclose the doctor's note with it excusing me and mail that in.

We might go out on Thursday as well. I have to do a lot of sitting down and supervising DH, but I do what I can. And it keeps him company. We won't go out on Friday because that is our 16th wedding anniversary and we're going to a nice steakhouse for dinner. We had talked about a movie but it's really hard on my bad knee to be straight down on the groung like that. It needs to be elevated after about an hour to an hour and half and most movies today are far longer than that. So maybe we'll just watch a DVD together when we get home.

I have a feeling it's going to be long week.

Well, I just went through my wallet and DH's to retrieve one dollar bills like I do at least once a week and I found $4 between us. I also emptied both of spare change and had $1.72 for the coin jar. It looked like I had enough quarters for a roll and I did, and I thought I'd count pennies as well and had exactly 50, so that's another $10.50, so altogether I have $14.50 to add to the laptop fund. Doesn't make up for the $50 I had to take out for DH's carelessness, but it's a start.

Tomorrow's meal planning:

Breakfast:
Pancakes with real maple syrup ($2)
Eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk ($2)

Total: $4

Lunch:
DS--
PB and H sandwich (.50)
orange (.50)
rice cereal bar (.50)
water

2 adults, plus DD (too sick to go to school)
Chicken noodle soup ($1.39)
Chili (.79)
Grilled cheese sandwiches with ham ($3)
1 can pineapple ($1)
yogurt ($2)
water

Total: $9.68

Dinner:
Tacos
--lettuce (.50)
--cheese ($2)
--hamburger ($1.73)
--taco shells ($1.39)
--homemade seasoning (.50)
Milk ($2)

Total: $8.12

Total for day: $21.80

Today is payday. I'm still figuring stuff out as far as the bills go. We went to Costco and bought $45.14 worth of food and a case of toilet paper. We don't need to do any major shopping this week at all. We will have to pick up milk, de-icer spray for the car windows, and jeans for DH, but that should be it.

I have to set money aside for the cell phone due on the 12th, the VISA due on the 21st, the MC due on the 17nth, and the car payment due on the 19th. Ticket prices have gone up on airfare and DH had to buy one this time around for a total of $950. Ouch. That's about $250 higher than usual. I'm sure that's due to gas and oil prices going up so high right now. Add that to the $70 for the hotel and the $40 for travel food, plus the interest for the month and that VISA is basically going to just be standing still this month. I am glad I already made an extra $1000 payment to it last week.

I was going to make an extra payment to the AMEX but I think I will hold off on that until the 1st and just make an extra large payment then instead. It's not due until April 3 anyway. The extra will go to the Master Card instead. For now I will transfer $3000 to the holding tank and then pay those bills closer to when they are due. Two weeks of interest isn't much, but it's something.

I added 34 cents to the change jar and $85 to the laptop fund.

$475.44 beginning laptop fund balance
$+85.00 amount added
-----------
$560.44 ending laptop fund balance

I got the statement from Best Buy for the laptop in the mail today. They only require a $25 payment. Sheesh. I'll be sending them $100 a month. Even though I have 18 months to pay it off without interest, I am not even going to come close to not paying it off in time. It's due on the 22nd, so I'll take $100 out of the laptop fund to pay it, and continue adding what I can to the fund as I go.

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 am getting so frustrated with my blog entries disappearing into cyberspace. This will be my fourth attempt. I made two last night and one this morning before giving up and banging my head against the wall. But I am writing this one in Word and will try to copy it into the box and hopefully this time it will work.

I’ve got new numbers after all of last week’s payments finally posted to their accounts after the holiday.

$20895.77 New amount owed to BoA VISA.
$4342.92 New amount owed to BoA MC
----------------
$25,238.69 Total still owed to the Evil Empire

This is only a small change of $322.95, despite paying $1500 between the two. The VISA (which is an air miles reward card) has over $400 of interest each month because the balance is so high. DH spends about $1000 each month on that card for travel expenses to and from work (airline ticket, hotel overnight, food), so most of that payment is used up between interest and travel. However the $1000 payment I will be making tomorrow will more or less all go towards principle so after it posts we will see actual progress there.

The mortgage is down to $21,778.32 after the last payment posted and the car loan is down to $16,236.70.

My computer pretty much completely died on me. Or maybe it’s more like it went into a coma. It’s still alive but doesn’t respond to any outside stimuli. I was able to get off all my documents, videos and music before it did that, but not all of my pictures. I have copies of all the family photos and vacation photos on my portable hard drive and DH has them on his computer, too. But all of my fandom photos and icons that weren’t saved in other places are still on there, along with all my favorite wallpapers for the desktop. It’s not the end of the world, but I still hate to lose them. I am hoping DH can manage to get them off for me by taking out the hard drive and using a portable hard drive adapter to transfer it off.

Anyway, so even though I hadn’t saved up the full replacement cost of a new computer I bought one yesterday anyway. It was almost like the one I had been planning on, but it has a number keypad and was $81 less. It’s black, but I can get a skin for it if I get tired of black for just a little bit of money. Anyway, they had 18 months same as cash and I qualified for it based on household income even though I don’t have my own outside the house job.

Regardless I am going to continue adding to my computer fund. When the first payment is due I will subtract it from the fund and continue saving money towards it. That way I can earn my paltry 1% interest. I will do that until I have the full payoff amount saved and then just pay the rest of it off well before the 18 months no interest are up. And yes, I will be sure to check my statements each month and make sure they aren’t playing games with the minimum amount owed, like others have caught them doing. I’ll pay over that amount anyway each month. To that end I added $9 to the laptop fund and 46 cents to the coin jar.

$458.94 Beginning laptop fund balance
$+09.00 Amount added
-----------------
$467.94 Ending laptop fund balance

I am glad payday is tomorrow. I have $17 left in checking which I will add to the EF safety net tomorrow since I don’t need to buy anything today.

My laptop has about had it. I was hoping to wait until after April to get a new one, but now I'm not so sure it's going to make it. The last couple of times I've shut it down, it's taken numerous restarts to get it past the opening sign-in page. The desktop simply doesn't appear. All I get is the black screen of death. If it was a screen problem I wouldn't be getting the opening sign on screen. So it's got to be a glitch somewhere internally.

I am in the process of transferring everything important off it and onto my portable hard drive, but it is long and tedious work.

I know what computer I want to get next. It's a Sony Vaio. Of the laptops I've had before this one, it was the only one that never broke down. If it weren't so obsolete I could still be using it, but it's Windows 3.1 and has no CD/DVD drive and has very little memory, most of which was taken up by Office and IE. It also only has a phone modem in it and I don't think it even has a slot for plugging in a network card. Still, it was the best computer of any I've owned.

I did like the first Toshiba I had, but not the second, and I will never buy an HP laptop again (that's what this one is, but they are far better on desktops than laptops). The Sony Vaio that I want is $799.99 and with tax will come to $868. With the service contract, which I only ever buy for computers and failed to do last time in the mistaken thought it wasn't worth the money, will probably bring it to $1000 or a little over. I've kicked myself countless times for not getting it with all the problems I've had these last two years with the HP.

I've tried the keyboard out several times over the past few months and it's really comfortable and easy to type quickly on and the keys aren't annyoingly loud. That may seem like a silly thing to some of you, but I type about four hours a day most days and if it isn't a good fit under my fingers I will be miserable. It tends to be my first priority, finding a keyboard that works best for me and then out of those that do, finding one that fits all my other needs.

I am almost to the halfway mark of saving up that $1000. I really want to get there before this laptop fails me but I am afraid that won't happen. They do have 90 days same as cash and 18 months same as cash available though. I just hate to finance anything that isn't a car or a house. Even with 0% interest, it is the principle of the thing. Though I imagine I'd get over that pretty fast if this laptop dies completely before I'm ready to buy.

I added $23 to the laptop fund today and $0.36 to the coin jar.

$435.94 beginning laptop fund balance
$+23.00 amounted added
---------------
$458.94 ending laptop fund balance

I forgot to mention that the $218.18 refund finally showed up from BoA yesterday. It was part of the payment I made to the VISA yesterday of $1500. I can't wait until next Friday when I can send them an additional $1000. I wish they'd hurry up and post the payment I made at the bank yesterday. It probably won't post until Monday. It was after 3 p.m. when I paid it and if it's after 3 p.m. they don't post it that day, though they do credit it that day. With everything online, I don't get why they don't, same as I don't get why online banks really "need" that three day transfer between banks. It disappears from your account right away and then it's just in limbo. I think it's just an excuse to get out of paying a few days' worth of interest. They can certainly accept and add to your account a credit card purchase instantly. To me it should all be the same thing.

I went grocery shopping today and bought milk and produce. I also got a pound of sundrops. They are like M&M's only made without artifical ingredients or food dyes. They are colored naturally. My son was happy. I was happy to find them. They have them in the bulk bins at Fred Meyer. That pound should last a few months.

I spent $19.41 at one store and got a reciept that had a coupon for $4 off a car wash. It's normally a ten dollar car wash so that is a good price. I also could have my choice of very cheap pizzas, half off at the pita place, and half off at the pho place. Not that I'd use any of those, but I'll use the car wash coupon. In warm weather we wash the car ourselves but it's been in the thirties with whipping wind for months and the car is filthy so I'll definitely take it in. I'll probably wait until DH comes home. I really hate matching up the tires with those automated tracks.

I went to a second store and paid $18.43 for a large picnic ham. Does anyone have a good soup recipe made with a ham bone? I don't want anything with beans, though. My kids have textural issues and I don't like them. Pretty much any veg except parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas are a go, though. I'd like to be able to stretch the ham as far as I did the chicken. I know I can use diced ham in omelettes or breakfast casserole and the kids will eat it in sandwiches, too, but soup goes over really well here when it's this cold.

I can't find what I did with the receipt, I might have dropped it, to the other store, but it was $21 and something. I bought cans of organic chili and beef stew there. Everyone is feeling under the weather. I have plenty of food made/planned for the next two days for dinners. But if the kids get sick of them they'll have another option and I can freeze the other stuff for next week sometime.

I added $3 in ones to the laptop fund today and $2.16 in change to the coin jar. I found a quarter on the floor at the check out of one of the stores.

$432.94 beginning laptop fund balance
$+03.00 amount added
-----------
$435.94 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 found a dollar bill and a penny in the high school parking lot today. This is the third time I've found money in the school parking lot this month. What do these kids do, just throw it around? The dollar I added to the laptop fund and the penny went into the coin jar.

$429.94 laptop fund beginning balance
$+01.00 found money
------------
$430.94 laptop fund ending balance

I will take my envelope of money for that fund over to the CU tomorrow. It's payday so I will be banking anyway and that CU is near my regular one. I usually just slip ones into the envelope as I accumulate them, so it's not like there is a hefty amount sitting in it or anything, but I'm not going to run over there every time I accumulate a dollar or two. It's a waste of gas.

I need to remember to get coin wrappers as well. I've got over 200 pennies that need rolling and nothing to roll them in. Hmm...if I get the wrappers at CU#1 and roll them in the car I can deposit them to the laptop fund at CU#2. It's only a couple of dollars, but I think I am proving that a few dollars here and a few dollars there is adding up quite rapidly.

Monday of last week DH called BoA about getting a refund on the amount we overpaid when paying off the loan balance of our Gold Star Option loan (which happened, mind you, because of an error on their part). They said it would be in our account no later than Friday. Friday came and went and nothing. Today there is still nothing.

I called DH at work, which I hate to do because his office is always so ridiculously noisy and he is always so busy. He's going to call them again. I can't do it because my name is not on the loan and they won't talk to me. They'll probably say another five business days and then it will probably still not be there. This is making me grumbly because I wanted to use that money on the MC bill that is due on Thursday. Now I won't be able to add that in. Oh, I can do it when it finally shows up, but I wanted to do it on this one.

I wish we could fine the credit card companies when they are late doing something like they do when people are late making payments. A lovely $15 to $30 surcharge every time they didn't follow through on their commitments would be nice. Or charge them the same amount of interest they charged on the loan (6.9% in this case) compounded daily. Might make them less tight-fisted when paying back the people they owe. Or at least get them to do it when they say they will.

I paid out $90 to the physical therapist today. My session went really well and I am almost walking normally again.

I noticed that Verizon did not take out the autopay today. It is supposed to come out on the 12th but when it falls on a weekend it usually comes out the following Monday. If it still hasn't come out by tomorrow that'll be another call for DH to make. He needs to put me on the Verizon account.

I have to go to the store for milk and DD is going to need cough drops, too, (I'll spend around $15 instead of the planned $12) so a bit of that $103 reserve is going to have to be used for that. Not too much of it, though. I should have at least $99 or $100 leftover still by payday Friday for savings.

I added $0.78 to the coin jar today and have five ones to add to the laptop fund.

$424.94 laptop fund beginning balance
$+05.00 amount added
---------------
$429.94 ending laptop fund balance

I broke my no eating out rule today. I made it 15 days, so not too bad. I got a double cheeseburger and drink from DQ for $4.71. It was actually very good. I was afraid I'd be disappointed because usually when I stay away from fast food for a long time it doesn't taste that great, but this did. Not great enough that I'll be tempted back into eating fast food several times a week, though. I'm probaly good for another couple weeks.

So far this month my ING savings account has made $2.37 in interest. I don't add that in of course until the end of the month when they actually add it to the bank account, but I like watching it accumulate, so I tend to check it once a week. I'm not sure what the interest rate is there right now, somewhere just under 1% I think, but it's a heck of a lot better than any of the CU's I bank at which are .4 to .1 percent.

The wind is blowing hard today. I've got flashlights located and lots of blankets ready in case of a power failure tonight. The temp is 45 degrees outside right now. Not too bad, but still, the house will get cold after a couple hours if it does go out, so best to be prepared.