I forgot to put this in my other post, but less than a month ago we bought glasses for my son at Lenscrafters. Today at school the lenses popped out. We took them in to have them fixed and the girl there tried saying they couldn't fix them. She said that wherever we had got them at they hadn't done something right and there was no way to fix them.

When I told her we had gotten them there less than a month ago and that we had bought the antibreakage package as well, she suddenly changed her tune and could fix them. Needless to say I wasn't very happy with her original lie.

We'll see if the repair holds. If not I am not above throwing a fit. Those glasses and frames cost $200. I don't care if insurance covered most of it. Glasses that expensive should not fall apart that quickly and if they did something wrong then someone in their glasses making department needs lessons on how to do it right. And their front counter people need lessons on telling the truth.

My daughter's blood test results came back today and she doesn't have diabetes...yet. Her fasting insulin levels were far higher than they like to see though, she's definitely pre-diabetic and insulin resistant. We meet with a nutritionist/dietician on May 3. I think in a lot of ways this is a good thing. I've been trying to keep the sweets out of the house for a long time, but my husband is of the mindset that there should always be dessert every single day and so of course the kids have picked up on that. Whereas I think once a week or on special occasions is fine.

Now that DD is in serious jeopardy I'll be able to force the issue. I don't buy sweets often, but my mother does so they are always in the house. It's an uphill battle. Plus a box of cookies is like $4 or $5. Just ridiculous to the budget.

I think I will go to the library tomorrow or the next day and get some books out on diabetes or prediabetes and read up on it some before the meeting. I think it's going to be more an issue of adjusting portions and limiting carbohydrates to the healthier veggies, grains and fruits. We barely ever eat processed foods so it won't change too much there. Probably will have to cut back on some of the cheaper veggies like potatoes, though. I'm sure glad gardening season is coming up.

Just received a bill in the mail from my son's eye doctor visit. Insurance covered the visit and the frames and lenses, but it did not cover the 1 year anti-breakage insurance, so that will be $32.54. He's eleven and tends to be careless. The anti-breakage insurance will more than pay for itself.

I need to make eye appointments for my daughter and myself as we both need new glasses badly. Neither of us need the anti-breakage insurance because we are very careful with our glasses. DH on the other hand always gets it because he does stupid things like sit on his glasses (or step on them).

Took my daughter in for her fasting blood draw this morning. They are testing her for diabetes and for a malfunctioning thyroid. Made an appointment with a dietician for May 3. We will be talking to her whether or not DD is diabetic or not. She is insulin resistant so changing her diet is a necessity either way.

I still need to set up a therapist appointment for my son. I still haven't heard from my own specialist about going to Virginia Mason. Sometimes I feel like everything is converging on me all at once and I just wish it was easier to sort things out. I tell my husband all the time that what I need is a wife. *laughs* Or a personal assistant.

Payday is tomorrow. It will be nice to make some progress on paying down debt.

No money spent today.

Meal planning for today:

Breakfast:
Fruit smoothies ($2)

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Leftover chili (free)
Milk ($1.50)

Dinner:
Leftover pot roast (free)
Leftover broccoli (free)
Leftover cauliflower (free)
Baked sweet potatoes ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total for day: $6

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.

So I've been thinking. My plan for April was to pay off the second Master Card, but now I'm starting to get concerned about the medical bills I know are coming soon. I haven't gotten any yet, but with a $1250 deductible per person and several visits to the doctor this month and last, I'm afraid what's going to happen is that I'll pay off the MC and then all the doctor's bills will come in. They will likely come in the first week of April, after being processed on the 31st. I am wondering if I shouldn't hold some money back that I had planned to send to debt repayment.

Maybe I'm just being a little paranoid. My budget calls for me to set aside $500 each month for medical expenses which will probably be enough. I just want to get ahead on saving for the medical expenses since I know that I'll have to pay a good chunk of the upcoming surgery and if all of April's money goes to regular doctor's visits and prescriptions, there won't be anything to save for the future. On the other hand, none of the doctor's charge interest until you are 90 days past due. So I could use my $500 to pay as much as possible and then wait until May to pay off the rest.

Also the pediatrician wants DS to have his tonsils taken out because they are so big they are blocking a significant portion of his throat even when he's well and she is afraid it is causing sleep apnea. He doesn't get very restful sleep so this is possible. Not to mention that the school counselor wants him to have a few sessions of therapy with a psychologist before starting middle school next year, to give him coping methods for his OCD and help him to learn some of the social cues he's missing.

Pediatrician also wants us to meet with a dietician for DD who is borderline diabetic and might actually be, but we won't do the bloodwork until Saturday to find out. Even if she's not diabetic she will benefit from a lower carb diet. Seems like it is just one expense after the other.

But despite all that I still have this whiney little voice inside me saying, "But I want to pay off the Master Card and be done with it." It is also stomping its foot. I don't know, maybe I can squeeze some other money out of the budget. MC isn't due until 4/17 so it's possible.

I found a package of ham in the freezer last night so I did not have to drive across town to get the special deli meat for lunches. I ended up not making the pizza yesterday, but am making it tonight instead. We'll have leftovers for a couple of days from it.

I am feeling a little better today. I'm still very much congested but the brain fog is definitely lifting. I feel much more a part of the human race. I really hope that means the last of this flu is on the way out. I think it is the worst one I have ever had.

Another no spend day with nothing much going on, besides laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. I still have half a tank of gas to get through until Friday. Should make that no problem. DD is well enough now I won't need to be taking medicine down to her on her lunch hour, which is a good thing as I have physical therapy tomorrow. That'll be $90 out. I think starting in April I will be dropping my sessions down to one hour a week instead of one and a half hours, which will bring the cost down to $60. Now that I can walk up and down stairs properly again, I think I will be okay with that. The PT thinks I shoud be fine with that, but wants at least that each week.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the jury duty place. The doctor has excused me, but until I get official notice I still may have to report. They are really cutting it close. The date of service is April 4-15. I really don't like waiting on pins and needles like this. I also don't like it because that first week is spring break so the kids will be home. DD is old enough to babysit her brother, but I really don't want her to have to.

On top of my ongoing medical condition and my knee issues (completely stopping PT for two weeks is not a good idea), I still have the flu. Hopefully it would be gone by then, but who really knows? At least I woke up feeling a bit better today than I have been. Still awfully congested but I can feel that slight bit of improvement.

I also have to pay out $125 for this...thing my son's school is doing. The fifth graders are going to this three day mountain camp deal. I'm not very happy about it, because I don't know what the food situation will be. I've called three times and my husband has called once and they never return our messages. With DS's allergies, who knows what might happen. If the stupid chef would call me back I could have some idea of what to go on and maybe I could send his own bread and his own cereal at the very least. The milk is what I am most concerned about. They put additives into all milk that isn't whole to help suspend the vitamin D supplement they stick in there and he's allergic to that.

I will try calling again tomorrow. And I will call the doctor's office again. They still have not gotten back to me on the Virginia Mason referral. It's ridiculous. It's been six weeks since my appointment. How they stay in business like this I will never know. Maybe I need to go see a different doctor here and get a second opinion. I'm tired of the runaround.

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.

I had to go to the grocery store because grocery shopping and DH by himself do not mix well, especially if a checkbook is involved. He comes home with too much junk, only half of what I asked for, and has used up the entire month's grocery budget in one trip. So no. However I am now as weak as the proverbial newborn kitten, just from walking around the store. We disinfected the grocery cart handle after we were done. I didn't want to infect anyone with this flu. I don't think I am going to move from this bed again until Monday, except to go to the bathroom. DH can bring me food. I am so dizzy it's ridiculous.

DS had his physical on Thursday and his eyes were 20/50 and 20/100. That's a drastic change from two and a half years ago when they said he barely needed them. He's going to have to wear glasses all the time now. So we made an appointment which was for today. DH took DS to his eye appointment on his own. They had to pick out new frames so he kept texting me with pictures of T wearing glasses until I approved of one. Our vision insurance covered everything but the one year warranty against breakage, which cost $32. DS is hard on things so I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

I have to make an appointment for me soon. I haven't gotten new glasses in three years and I know my prescription has changed. I can feel it as eyestrain. I will probably keep my current frames as I like them a lot. I just have to get over the flu first.

Sixteen years ago today DH and I got married. Wow, that seems like a long time. We've been together over 20 years, half my life. It's been a good marriage and I consider myself very fortunate to have found such a good partner in this world. We've had to cancel our plans due to my having the flu though. We were going to go out to a nice steakhouse for dinner. DH is almost never in the same state as me for our anniversary, so having the chance to actually go out on this date was really nice. Oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be this year. It saves us around $60 to just stay in though.

We got a refund check from Allstate today. If you go so long without accidents they refund you part of your payment for that six month period. So we got back $26.41. We've been with them for two years now and we've gotten a check each renewal period. Also they have a deductible reduction for each year you don't get into an accident. So our original $500 deductible has now dropped to $300 with no increase in how much we pay for insurance.

In fact it's gone down about $9 a month. (Because we have it automatically taken out of our checking each month we don't have to pay a monthly fee for installments, otherwise we'd pay it in a chunk every six months). I have to say that getting money back and them lowering our deductible are very nice perks for safe drivers like myself and DH.

DH got gas last night for $38.71. The tank was running on fumes, I think. Costco price was $3.51 per gallon.

With the doctor's permission, I decided to try splitting my 10mg pills in half (the ones that cost $125 for 30 with the coupon) and see if I did okay on 5mg, but it's a noticable difference in symptoms after two days so I won't be able to save that way after all. I guess we just have to absorb the costs.

It probably means cutting my physical therapy sessions down to an hour a week instead of an hour and a half to have that extra money. I am starting to walk normally now so maybe it's time anyway. I'd rather do that than take it away from debt repayment. We are so close to paying off the second Master Card I can taste it.

DH went down to the courthouse to pay the car license tabs today. I had written the check out on the 15th, but got too sick to run my own errands. Fortunately I was not too sick to notice that they had very sneakily put on a state parks "donation" that you had to opt out of not to pay. I saved myself five dollars on it. I wonder how many people never pay any attention to that, just look at the total line and end up "donating" when they never had any intention of doing so?

Don't get me wrong, I think supporting the parks is a good thing, but I want to do it on my own terms. Like when we go use one there is always a donation box and I'll likely slip a five in there then. But don't try to sneak it past me. Charity should not be something you are tricked into. Bad state of Washington. Bad.

Anyway, the damage was $75.75 instead of $80.75. We have vanity plates which is why it is so high. And yeah, I know I could get rid of them and only be paying around $35 a year, but we get a lot of enjoyment out of it and we've had fans of our favorite fandom (which the plate is related to) come up to us all over the place and start talking to us about Doctor Who. It's always fun to meet other Whovians. Yes, nerdy fangirl here, I freely admit it.

While he was there he also picked up a print out on our property tax form. We forgot to change our address with that part of the courthouse. I kind of assumed that since we'd changed the one for licensing and for voting that it was all one system and it would get changed over, but it didn't. Anyway, we never got the statement from them (and it didn't get forwarded from the old place) and since it is due on April 30th I wanted to have the amount on hand.

It only went up about $20 for the year. Total is $1,036.24. The amount due April 30th is $518.17. I've got $400 set aside so far so just need to come up with $118.07. I have a line for it in the budget already though, since I knew it would be around $500. So that is $100 a month. I'll just have to come up with the extra $18.07.

I'm running a fever today of 101. All I want to do still is sleep, but I had a very restless night. Just coughing a lot. I want this flu to be over. I hear it's a long and lingering one, though. I cancelled my dentist appointment and rescheduled it for two weeks from now. Well, actually DH did it since I have lost my voice. I am really glad we have unlimited texting. It is coming in handy right now.

DH took DS in for his physical before school today. There has been quite a change in his vision on one eye so he needs to go get new glasses. At least our vision insurance is better than our medical. It has no deductible, pays for the entire office visit and up to $200 on the glasses. I need to go in and get new glasses, too, but not until I am well.

DH is going to have to go pick up that expensive prescription today. Even with the $25 off coupon it will still be $125. Ouch.

My daughter has been diagnosed with an actual case of influenza. Since I have all of her symptoms, only to a lesser degree (I can still semi-function), I suspect I have it, too. I got that stupid flu shot in October for H1N1 and I honestly feel like I've been nothing but sick since I got it. Now I get the flu, too? I don't think it was worth the co-pay. I've never had such a sick fall/winter season before.

What I really hate is how hard it is to be frugal when I am sick. I have to fight really hard not to order takeaway. I no longer have the urge to swing by McDonald's as I have lost my taste for it altogether (never thought that would happen, but I would just about do anything for egg flower soup that I didn't have to make myself.

What I did do was have DH pick up a rotisserie chicken for $7.99 and I will give him the directions on how to make chicken noodle soup out of the carcass when we are done with it. Unless I can convince him to do egg drop soup (which he finds too complicated). He also got 6 bottles of Gatorade for DD as they were on 2/$1 limit of 6. I hate the stuff and prefer straight up water, but she likes it and we're supposed to push fluids hard. And then $7 for two 1/2 gallons of ice cream. That's about all DD wants to eat. My throat is getting to that point.

I will have to reschedule my dentist appointment again. Even though they wear masks and gloves, this flu is highly contagious.

I just found out that on this new insurance they don't pay anything on prescriptions until you have met the deductible. That sucks. Why did they have to change their insurance? The one we had when DH hired on in October was good. This new one bites. I think I may need to start looking into private insurance after my surgery. One that covers prescriptions. I can handle a high dedcutible but I am on too many medications to not have them covered for several months of the year. I just have no clue where to even start.

It's hard for me to focus on finances right now. All updates from my friend's family have her still listed as missing. I did find her facebook page (didn't think she had one), but no news yet and google's people finder has her listed as missing. But I do know that I can't allow myself to slip up on finances even though there is a giant knot in my stomach.

So...turns out that new prescription isn't covered by my insurance. They didn't deny it, they just don't cover it. Weird. But it's very expensive. $150 for 30 pills. I do have a $25 off coupon, but still. Ouch. And I can sign up to receive more coupons from the company, but still that only brings it down to $125. I am hoping I won't have to be on it very long and can stop taking it after the surgery and also that I can get samples of it from my regular physician since it is so pricey. The pharmacy doesn't even have it. They will have to order it. I'm glad I have samples.

The payment I made to BoA VISA posted this morning and it's back under $20,000 at $19,687.44. So there was a bit of progress made there. I made a payment of $1300 to the BoA Master Card today which will bring it down quite a bit. $84.23 went to interest so subtracting that out should bring the balance to $3260.27.

$24,238.69 previous BoA credit card balances
-22,947.81 new BoA credit card balances
------------
$1290.88 went to Bringing Down the Evil Empire

From now on there will be a lot more progress made each month, though. I thought I would have to wait until May to pay off the MC but I'll be able to get it paid off in April, so only one more month. Yay! Then the whole amount can go to the VISA from May on. That means I should have it paid off in November and not December like I thought. Although I don't know what the surgery is going to cost, but it's probably at least the amount of one VISA payment. So maybe I should stick with December.

I still need to do the rest of the bills for this paycheck, and will probably get that done tomorrow.

Money spent on prescriptions today was $60.25. We got a XL pizza from Round Table for $27.11. DH picked up DS's big b'day present for $65.43. I think that's it.

I am worried about my friend Katie in Japan. She's been teaching English there for the last couple of years and she was just getting ready to come home this month. I haven't heard from her since before the last tsunami and earthquake. She was fine after the first earthquake, but no one has heard from her since the second and it was really close to where her apartment is. I really hope she is okay.

I did finally hear from the doctor's office at 4:55 yesterday. I got an excuse to get jury duty deferred until after surgery which I have to go pick up today. They called in the prescription. Now I just have to wait on the Virginia Mason stuff, which will supposedly be taken care of on Monday.

Made an appointment for my daughter at the doctor's office. Pediatrics was full up even though we called right at 8, so she'll be seeing a physician's assistant. We think she has strep throat and an ear infection. I swear this kid has been sick since October. She's so miserable. And I just got on antibiotics for the sinus thing again two days ago and I woke up with a miserable sore throat. I so do not want strep throat. I can feel one of my ears starting to ache just a little.

I'll be picking up three prescriptions of my own today for my lovely medical cocktail and then if they give something for DD those, as well. I'm not sure how much that is going to cost, but one of them is pretty pricey so I doubt I'll walk away for much under $60. Plus the $20 co-pay for DD at the doctor's office.

I've got to sit down and figure out today's paycheck and get everything going where it needs to go so I can do the BoA Master Card payment. And we need to get gas. Costco is on the way back from the doctor's offices so we can just stop and do that then. That'll probably be around $38.

Have you ever walked into the store for one thing and then walked out again with everything but that thing? *sighs* I did that today. Okay, I had planned on picking up other things, but the main idea was to get the heartburn medicine which was on sale and I had a good coupon for. DH will pick it up later when he goes out to gas up the car. One of the side effects of my current medical cocktail is heartburn and I'm out of them.

I am slightly annoyed that the Jiffy mixes (the only boxed mix besides Krusteaz that doesn't have allergens in it so it's safe for my son) are no longer all .79. I've finally wiped out my stash this morning so I went to pick up two blueberry muffin and two cornbread mixes. Blueberry muffin mix is now 99 cents a box. On the bright side Cornbread mix has dropped to .59. Technically it's a wash. I paid the same amount overall for four boxes of mix that I used to, but it still rankled a little bit. It is probably the cost of blueberries. I live in blueberry country and last season was erratic to say the least.

I went and parked myself at the doctor's office today. Since they don't feel like returning my phone calls, I decided to go be difficult in person since I was out of medication and they did not call in my prescription on Monday like they were supposed to. Being out was not fun. My body immediately reverted to how it was before I started the med. Anyway, they gave me two weeks worth of samples and supposedly are calling it in. There still has been no word on an appointment with the specialist at Virginia Mason. I don't even think they've called them.

They were supposed to have put that in motion when I had my appointment on the 15th of February and he decided I needed to see a surgeon who specialized in operating on scar tissue at previous surgical sites. I really think that 23 days is well and truly enough time for them to get their act together and do what they are supposed to so I can move on with my life, please, 'kay, thanks. I hate being in limbo.

I also made sure they were going to ask the doctor about a deferral on my jury duty. With what is going on with me I'm simply not going to be capable of serving. I need this surgery first and to heal or it will simply be unbearable. The official resummons came in the mail yesterday and I am running out of time. April 4th will be here before I know it. If I have to go sit in their office every day until I hear from them I will.

I had to cancel my dentist appointment this morning because my symptoms were so bad without the one med. I've rescheduled for next Thursday. I am glad they were able to get me in so soon. At my old dentist if you had to cancel it could be months before you got back in.

I went ahead and paid $1500 on the BoA VISA today. We were going by the bank anyway. Even though we will have to go back tomorrow to pay the Master Card with the extra money from payday and I could have just waited, I figured if we did it today it might actually post by tomorrow and I'd get to see that balance go back down below $20,000. It is a psychological thing. Fortunately the bank is by the high school so it is not out of the way to go there. I will have to wait until Monday though for the MC to post. *pouts* Don't know why they can't do same day posting when you do it in the morning. They used to.

Okay, I feel like I am doing a disproportinate amount of whining today so I will stop now.

Meal planning for today was:

Breakfast:
Cornbread Muffins (79)
Eggs (free from chickens)
Milk ($2)

Total: $2.79

Lunch:
2 kids--
PB and H sandwich (.50)
Turkey ham and roast beef sandwich ($1)
plain potato chips (.50)
banana (.20)
orange (.50)

2 adults--
leftover spaghetti (free)
yogurt ($2)
orange (.50)
apple (.30)

Total: $5.50

Dinner:
Salmon (free, from Mom)
fried potatoes (.25)
broccoli/cauliflower leftovers (free)
Milk ($2)
Biscuits (.50)

Total: $2.75

Total for day: $11.04 Woo hoo!

At least I'm pretty sure it was Saving Advice that ate it and not the internets in general. It was a long and detailed post, too, and I do not have the energy to redo it. So, the highlights:

1. Got a ten dollar rebate on some Brita stuff I'll be sending in.

2. Can get a $2 off coupon if I sign up at Brita for filter refills.

3. Got a $3 catalina coupon for health and beauty products at Kmart today when I bought a swimsuit ($20 cheaper than the one I was going to order online).

4. Found a $2 coupon for Afrin nasal spray in a box when I was doing the recycling.

5. Dinner was delicious, but there were no leftover meatballs to make meatball sandwiches tomorrow.

6. I did my meal planning for tomorrow but do not want to retype it right now. It came to $14.65 for the day. I know because I didn't close the computer's calculator yet. I will enter it tomorrow.

7. I made more dough for making bread tomorrow. DH has been snacking on it and the peanut butter without telling me so I can adjust the food calculations. *sigh*

8. Got a gallon of milk for 99 cents today because it had a sell by date of tomorrow. Got my son's special milk for $5.29 a gallon (2 of them) which is usually $5.99. Has a sell by date of 3/23 so it will be good for a while.

9. Spent $14.92 for two prescriptions.

Today was a really long day, but I feel like I got a lot accomplished. And dinner was fantastic. It has been an age since I've made my garlic cheese meatballs. Usually when I make the fancy sauce from scratch I just don't bother with adding protein to the meal because it is a pretty hearty sauce, but we had a pound of hamburger thawed out leftover from making cheeseburgers last night and the kids had been asking for these so I did, with the idea that there would be leftovers for tomorrow night to make meatball sandwiches with. Umm...I'd forgoten how good they are. Suffice it to say there was exactly two meatballs leftover which is not going to make anyone a sandwich, but at least can be crumbled up and thrown on pizza when I make it this week.

DH and I went jeans shopping for him. Unfortunately we only found one pair that fit him right. There were four pairs in his size, but only one brand fit him right. I kind of wish clothing manufacturers woiuld be more standard. So we might have to wait until next month to buy him the other two pairs, but we will check back next week in case new stock came in.

While we were there, totally unexpectedly, I found the perfect swimsuit for me. I was going to order one off a website, but was hesitating because of the price. The suit I found at the store was $20 less. It was just what I wanted, in that it had thick shoulder straps instead of tying behind the neck, a good built-in bra that doesn't show off more than I'm comfortable having the world see, and a skirt that wasn't so long it gets in my way when I do the crawl stroke, but was long enough to cover what I wanted covered. We got a $3 catalina coupon for health and beauty that is good until mid-April at the check-out.

The suit is a little...loud, but not garishly so and most swimsuits are these days. Just more than I would normally wear. Looks like confetti all over a black background. I will have to cut these goofy bows off that serve no purpose and then I will be completely happy. I've been making do with a suit that's too big for a while now, (wore it when pregnant with my almost eleven year old) so I'm glad I'll have something that fits better now that I swim so much more than I used to. I'm going to start swimming again tomorrow. I hate to see what kind of shape I'm in. I was doing 40 laps when I got sick and quit. I think I'll be lucky if I can do 10.

We went to Lowe's and bought replacement filters for our Brita faucet filter and my mom had us pick up a filter for her, too. They had a $10 rebate for if you bought a replacement 2 pack and a filter. Mom doesn't rebate so I got it and I will send it off tomorrow. It also came with a thing that if you sign up at Brita for reminder emails for replacement filters they will send you a $2 coupon.

We got a gallon of Darigold milk today that was marked down to 99 cents because it's sell by date was tomorrow. My son's special milk was on special for $5.29 a gallon (usually $5.99) with a sell by date of March 23 so we got two of those. I also got some bananas that were 48 cents a pound. Normally the best I can get them for is 59 cents a pound, so yay.

We went to the pharmacy and got 2 prescriptions for $14.92. I was afraid that the drug part of our medical plan had changed, but it hasn't. Very happy about that. I am still waiting on the one doctor to call in another RX. I will have to call tomorrow. I called on Monday and they said they'd call it in but haven't. I only have 2 samples left so they better get a move on.

I'm going to have to make more bread tomorrow. I usually only do it twice a week, but we seem to be eating more than previously. Or maybe my mother is filching more than she used to. She does like fresh bread. DH is probably snacking on it without telling me. I've noticed a big dip in the peanut butter jar, too. I'll have to ask him as I'll want to account for it in my meal planning if he is.

Meal Planning for tomorrow:

Breakfast:
French toast with powdered sugar ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $2.50

Lunch:
2 kids--
PB and Honey sandwich (.50)
Turkey ham and roast beef sandwich ($1)
banana (.20)
apple (.50)
hard pretzels (.25)

2 adults--
All meat chili ($3)
Cornbread (.30)
bananas (.40)

Total: $6.15

Dinner:
Chicken legs ($3)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (.50)
Broccoli ($1)
Cauliflower ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $7

Total for day: $15.65

I guess the 18 months same as cash deal for the laptop comes with a credit card, not just a line of credit, because I got a Best Buy Credit Card in the mail today. I immediately put it into the drawer with all the other unused credit cards. I have no intention of using it. I'll make my first payment on Friday, $75 more than the minimum payment of $25 a month. $100 a month is a much better number for getting it paid off well before the 18 months are up.

Costoco AMEX sent me out a new card. I'm not sure why since the one I have doesn't expire until 7/14. It's got the same number on it. Maybe it's because we bumped up to the executive level at Costco being as we've already earned enough this year to pay for it and then some when rewards time comes around. I guess I can thank high gas prices for that. I'm a little miffed as I finally just got around to having my photo put on the old AMEX and now I'll have to do it again. *sighs*

I had physical therapy today but had to cut out early. I started getting really queasy about ten minutes before the end and ended up throwing up in a garbage can. That was fun. I don't even know where it came from. One minute I was fine, the next, blech. Anyway PT cost $90.

DH spent $21.37 picking up milk and yogurt with live cultures (we've all been on too many antibiotics lately). He also spent $8.73 for two big rolls of packing tape with a dispenser, 2 permanent black markers and a box cutter. It came in a kit and was cheaper than buying it all seperately.

There was no school today so all meals are at home. I forgot to send in my meal planning yesterday but I did do it.

Breakfast:
Pancakes with the last of the huckleberry jam we bought on vacation in July ($1.50)
Eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk: ($2)

Total: $3.50

Lunch:
Chicken noodle soup ($2)
Tuna sandwiches ($2)
2 bananas (.50)
2 oranges ($1)

Total: $5.50

Dinner:
Hamburgers ($1.73)
Homemade buns ($.25)
Cheese slices (.50)
tomato (.50)
lettuce (.25)
condiments (.25)
diced onion (.25)
French Fries ($1)
1 can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total: $7.73

Total for day $16.73

We're doing much better than all those $20-$22 days now. I'm glad I did most of the baking and the dough making this morning before PT because I wouldn't feel like doing it now. I made one batch of hamburger/hotdog buns, a loaf of bread, 1 batch of biscuits, 1 pan of corn bread and a batch of blueberry muffins. The buns and bread have finished rising and have just gone in the oven, but everything else was baked earlier. I may have DD put in the ingredients for pizza dough into the bread machine for making pizza later in the week (after my stomach settles down).

I need to remember to call two of my doctors today for medication refills and see what is going on with the referral to Virginia Mason. It's been 3 weeks and I haven't heard anything yet.

Not much going on here today. We went to Kmart as DD needed poster board for a school project. While we were there we got some tree sap remover and a microfiber cloth to get some gunge off the car before it wrecks the paint. It's supposed to remove tree sap, bug gunge, and bird droppings, all of which seem to have attacked our poor car lately. So we spent $6.80.

We also paid our monthly chiropractor bill of $215 for the upcoming month. Our chiropractor has a family plan where you can have as many visits as you want for every member of the family for a month for $215. Since one visit for one person would cost a $20 co-pay plus 20% of an $80 visit, and all four of us go two to three times a week, it is much cheaper for us to do it this way. We all have certain spinal issues so cutting back on visits isn't an option.

I really don't know why BoA takes forever to post payments. They didn't used to, but the last few months have been a lot longer than in the past.

Regardless, it finally shows the amount and so I can put up new numbers. The whole payment went to principle this time so actual noticable progress was made.

$20,895.77 BoA VISA starting amount
$-1.000.00 Payment
------------------
$19,895.77 BoA VISA ending amount


$19,895.77 BoA VISA
$+4,342.92 BoA MC
---------------
$24,238.69 Total still owed to the Evil Empire

Slowly but surely we are paying it down.

My physical therapist rescheduled for tomorrow, because she said she had so much snow where she lives she couldn't get out of her driveway. That really surprised me since it is 45 degrees and sunny here and she only lives 30 minutes south of me. This is the third appointment in a row she has cancelled. I'm starting to think about finding a new one, one who actually lives here in town and doesn't just work here. But I really like her. We're rescheduled for tomorrow. I hope she can make it. My leg is seriously starting to ache.

I slept seven hours straight last night. I haven't done that since October. It was nice not to wake myself up hacking. Now if I can shake off the rest of this I'll be a happy camper. I'm still tired though. I can't make up for weeks of not sleeping well in one night, though.

I'll be picking up prescriptions today so not sure how much will go out on that. Probably around $20 since they are both generics. I have my physical therapy today, so that will be $90. She cancelled on me twice last week, once when her truck broke down and then again when it snowed really bad. So it's been two weeks since I've gone and I am really feeling it.

Both kids are back in school today, albeit the younger one with a pocketful of cough drops and a note saying he is not to go outside for recess or PE this week because it's too cold and I don't want him getting a relapse when he's still not 100%. He's just not contagious anymore.

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.

DH finally called BoA again tonight and they had no record of the previous phone call asking for the refund. Yes, BoA, your customer service leaves a lot to be desired. This time he wrote down the name of the person he was dealing with so we know who to complain about if the refund isn't actually processed this time around either. Supposedly it will be here in 2 to 5 buisness days, but I am so not holding my breath. It should not be this hard to get my own money back.

He also looked up the names of therapists on our medical plan. There are quite a few, thankfully, and one of them seems quite specifically tailored to my son's problems and he is within walking distance of where we live. Of course we will wait and see what the pediatrician has to say, but he won't be seeing her until March 17 because he also needs to get his shots for turning 11 which he doesn't do until the 13th and we didn't want to do two medical appointments.

I really don't much care for the new insurance program we have. When DH started this job it was a $500 deductible per person and $1500 per family. Now starting in March it's $1250 per person and $2500 for family. That's a lot of appointments before they even kick in anything. Even if I do end up having to get that surgery this year, I doubt we'll have enough in medical expenses to itemize. We'll certainly hit the deductible, but we won't get the 7.5 percent.

And I'm pretty sure that the deductible we've been paying since he started working there is going to start over in March with the new health plan and not put in anything we've paid up to then, which really bothers me. It's going to put our debt repayment back by months. I wonder if it's too late to do the COBRA plan from his job that ended in October. It's actually be cheaper and cover more.

My mother says if necessary we can stop paying her the $1000 a month we are repaying her on our loan to her, and just do the $300 a month we give her for utilities if we need to to pay our medical. That's the last thing I want to do, but I guess it's a good thing to at least have it as an option.

I took my daughter to the library after picking her up from school and we checked out some books today. I got the one mjrube94 was talking about yesterday by Jean Chatzky about paying your debt down $10 a day and another one by her, America's Cheapest Family and Live Well on Less Than You Think. These are for what I call "furthering my financial education." I also picked up a couple of novels. I rarely read novels anymore unless I steal them from daughter's library pile (the last few have been werewolf and zombie books for some reason, but turned out to be excellent).

This time I got a future apocalypse set in 2017 London and what I'm suspecting is a vampire book (rare blood disorder, yeah, right). They're both teen books, but I find I can usually avoid all the hard swearing in adult books and still read a good yarn that way, so I don't mind. Plus they stick all the adult paperbacks in with the adult hardbacks on the shelves and in the teen section the books are displayed so you can see the covers. I know they say don't judge a book by its cover but I always do. If I can't even see the cover and be grabbed by it I probably won't bother pulling it from the shelf unless I'm in a specific area like cookbooks or finance. I'm certainly not going to do it in fiction.

Anyway I'm halfway through America's Cheapest Family. It's not as good as Tightwad Gazette but so far it's at least interesting. Not particularly practical in my living situation at the moment, but will be someday when we're in our own house again.

I scheduled a payment last night of $400 to the BoA Master Card for today. I had to take the money out of savings, but I will replace it on Friday, which is payday. It was due tomorrow and I wanted to send a decent chunk, not just the little scrapings that were left in checking. It didn't come out of the EF, it came out of the money we set aside for property tax, so that has to be replaced no matter what. If the due date had fallen one day later I just would have gone to the bank on Friday and paid it in person, but this way works, even if I am temporarily juggling a bit of money.

My husband and I decided we were actually going to be more aggressive on the BoA VISA for the next few months instead of paying off the MC. The BoA VISA is an airmiles reward card and it's only got about $1000 of available credit left. We need to get it down so that there is about $3000 worth of available credit so it's further away from that upper wall. We've never gone overlimit, but I would just have more peace of mind this way. This is because this is the card DH uses to pay for his airfare to work and back every six weeks.

Once we get some breathing room, then we will take the extra money and get that MC paid off. We will also then be able to move the last autopay off the MC and onto the VISA. The goal for the VISA will then be to pay the autopay, the airfare, and the interest and about $50 more than that each month, while we throw the rest of our debt repayment money at the MC. The MC should then be paid off in three months time. The interest rates are the same so it doesn't matter too much how we do it, except once the MC is paid off it'll be one less payment and one bigger snowball.

Actually I should check with the health club. If we can take the monthly fee out of checking instead of having it on a card, then I wouldn't have to worry about moving it from MC to VISA. Most of our autopays are out of checking, but I have Netflix on the AMEX, because that is paid off without fail every month. We usually only buy gas on that one. Health club might do AMEX. I'll have to check. I don't want to be charging anything on the the VISA or MC that I don't have to, since the goal there is to pay them off, cancel that MC as it's the non-rewards one, and then only use the airmiles VISA for DH's work travel expenses.

I met with my son's school counselor today. We talked for over an hour. She wants to Vanderbuilt him. I called the doctor today and they'll be sending out the paperwork for that. I don't think he's ADHD, but I know he's OCD and there's other things the evaluation looks for. Bi-polar runs in the family on both sides and though I haven't really seen signs of depression in him, I've definitely seen signs of mania. Combined with his food allergies and his difficulties with peers, she thinks he probably needs therapy regardless of what the test says. I agree. I've suspected for a long time that this is the road we were headed down with him. I put a call into DH to see what our new medical insurance covers in the form of counseling. I can't find where he put the medical booklet.

The local grocery store had whole chickens on sale so I went ahead and picked one up today. It cost $5.15 and is between five and six pounds. We will roast it tonight, make chicken quesadillas and chicken fried rice with the leftover meat, and make soup stock with the carcass. I love getting 3 or 4 meals out of one base item. It's a pretty large chicken. Without DH here, I might have enough leftover meat to make enchiladas or Tex-Mex chicken and rice as well.

I love making roast chicken. I have a very simple recipe for it. Rub it with extra virgin olive oil, then sprinkle it heavily with basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Simple, but so good! For variation I will rub it with crushed garlic before rubbing it with olive oil, but I only do that when I'm not planning on making Mexican based dishes off the leftovers. I don't like the way garlic clashes with Mexican spices.

The good news is I really, really liked this doctor. Great bedside manner, mild-mannered, funny and attentive. I was instantly at ease with him. The bad news is he wants to send me to another doctor at Virginia Mason in Seattle. Because of all the scar tissue from the two previous surgeries he wants to send me to a lady who specializes in this type of surgery when there is scar tissue. He doesn't think there's anyone closer who is good enough. He said she's who he'd send his own wife to if she needed the same thing.

He did give me three weeks worth of free samples of three different medications that might help manage some of the symptoms, but not all of them, and definitely won't make them go away, just improve them hopefully. At this point any improvement is something I'll take.

I was pretty sure surgery was going to be the outcome of this, but I was really hoping I wouldn't need it. I never dreamed I might have to go outside my own city for it, though. The expense of going to Seattle, at least three times, once for initial consult and testing, once for surgery and once for follow up (unless that can be done here) is going to add an extra $120 in gas from the three round trips. Then there will likely be food eaten out, probably two meals. Can you get reimbursed from an HSA for travel expenses to and from a doctor's appointment?

I better start setting money aside in the budget for surgery. Seriously, I'm about to change my user name to SurgeryRobin instead of LuckyRobin. This will be my seventh surgery since 2003. I'm really tired of it. I keep telling myself that I am alive and happy and that nothing has ever been cancerous even if a couple things were still life-threatening because of locations and size of tumors. And this isn't even a case of tumorous growths, it's a case of scar tissue interfering with stuff.

And the last surgery wasn't even related to all this, it was knee surgery for a torn miniscus (and even though I'm still going through PT to walk right, I'm almost there.) So really, I am lucky. But I'm also just so tired of my medical issues getting in the way of me having a real life and being so expensive. At least this time around the insurance is decent. I have to count myself lucky there as well.

I'm going to see the specialist today and I'm feeling sort of nervous. I get like this with doctors I've never met before. It usually goes away within the first few seconds of meeting the doctor (unless he's a jerk with no bedside manner). From all accounts this is one of the good doctors, but still I'm nervous.

Money out will be a $20 co-pay right off the bat, and then eventually I'll be charged for the whole visit since I'm still meeting my deductible. Best case scenario is that this is a problem that can be managed with medication that hopefully isn't too expensive. Worst case scenario is that it is a problem that can't be managed at all and I'll just have to live with it for the rest of my life. Somewhere in the middle is the prospect of more surgery and at least $2000 spent out of pocket to pay for it. I'm really hoping there is an inexpensive prescription option and I can just add it to the list of daily meds.

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.

Last night when I was trying to figure out what to do about the taxes, whether to take it out of debt repayment or the EF, I went over the budget again. I was letting myself get a little panicky. I kept looking and looking for places to cut and then I realized I'd allocated $1000 for savings each month. I thought I'd allocated $100 for savings each month.

I am not used to this new pay grade yet and in my head I'd fixated on $100, but obviously when I set the budget up with the actual numbers, I'd put in what we could scrape up each month. So I'll have $2000 from that before the April 15th deadline and can take the rest ($4000) out of the EF and then immediately pay back $1000 of it to the EF at the end of April when there is a payday. Then I'll only have $3000 to payback to the EF, and with an allocation of $1000 to put in each month it'll be back up to where it is now pretty soon.

Although I didn't sleep great last night it was better than the night before and I think I have definitely turned the corner on this cold. Of course DS decided to come down with it instead. He's all fever, snot, and cough and walking around like a zombie. I've covered him with Vick's vaporub and have the vaporizer going with the inhalant poured into the litte cup thingy and he's taken two steamy showers this morning to help him breathe. Poor boy. So no school today for him.

Mom is going to watch him while I go to the produce sale later and I will pick up some saline mist for his nose. He won't use regular nasal spray or I'd be able to clear him right up. Fortunately I still have plenty of the dye free cold and allergy medicine. Walgreen's has their own house brand and even though it is dye free it cost less than non-generic cold and allergy medicine. But I stocked up on it several months ago and have a couple bottles of each on hand.

As for meal planning:

Breakfast for 3:
Soft-boiled eggs (free from chickens)
Toast and free jelly from aunt (.50)
Milk ($1.50)
$2
Total Breakfast: $4

Lunch for DD
Leftover slice of pizza (so free, accounted for cost last night)
baggy potato chips (.50)
orange (.50)
water

Lunch for Me and DS
TJ's chicken noodle soup ($1.29)
Crackers for DS (.20)
Grilled ham and cheese sandwich (split between us) ($2)
Oranges ($1)
$4.49

Total Lunch: $5.40

Dinner for 4 (Mom is eating with us):
Whole Roasted chicken (free, bought with gift card)
Olive oil and herbs (.50)
Baked potatoes (with the sale price this will be about .13 for a pound) so (.20)
Butter (.50)
Green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)
Total dinner: $4.20

Total daily food: $13.60

I hate it when I don't sleep well at night. It just throws me off for the whole day. Especially when I have a cold. I was just starting to feel halfway decent and today I've been sneezing and having a runny nose like I was three days ago. I'm taking something to make sure I sleep tonight so that I don't go back downhill. I really don't want to have to buy another box of cold medicine to manage my symptoms. It is getting expensive to buy and I don't have any coupons.

Today was a busy day. I had my physical therapy appointment today so that was $90. I will be so glad when my deductible kicks in, but they raised it this year to a ridiculously high $1,250 per person or $2500 per family. Well, I'll definitely make up the bulk of that. The kids have each been to the doctor once this year, but probably won't need to go again this cold season. They will have to get physicals before camp. But mostly it's going to be me.

They did start an HSA though so DH is going to start having them take out $300 a month pretax for that since we easily spend that much on my medical alone and I am likely going to have to have another surgery in the next couple of months. I see a specialist on the 15th. Our out of pocket for the surgery, if I need it, will be about $2000, since it's just a laproscopy and will be done in office as an outpatient. Glad I decided to keep a decent sized EF. We'll try to swing it without touching it, but it's nice to know it's there.

Just once I'd like to go more than a year and a half without a visit to the slice and dice boys. My last surgery was 12/07/09. This has been going on more or less since I was 33. I'm turning 41. That is a lot of surgeries to have. On the bright side I might get my jury duty postponed again, which would be nice, as it's scheduled for a time when DH is supposed be gone for most of it. If I could postpone it for two weeks it would be perfect since he doesn't work when he is home.

We got gas for the car, so that was $38.02. It was running on fumes. It's a twelve gallon tank and it took 11.89 gallons so definitely don't want to cut it so close again. DH has been doing a lot of running around without me this week so I hadn't kept as close of an eye on it as usual and DH doesn't pay much attention to it.

I paid $4.46 on BoA MC #1, the one we paid off, but the last bit of interest came through. I also transferred off the autopayment for our credit monitoring service to the other card so nothing more will be put on that card. It has been put away. Once the second MC is paid off we will cancel it entirely.

DH called today to get a refund of the $218.18 we overpaid on the Gold Star Loan that we paid off last month. They said it will be in our bank account by Friday and to call them back when we get it and they will officially close out that line of credit and will report to the credit bureaus that it has been paid in full and the account closed by us.

I'm trying to get our available lines of credit down lower well before we are ready to buy a new house. Our credit score is at 780, but it says because we have so much available credit it will not go above 800 until we get rid of some of it. I know it'll take a dip first, closing accounts always does, but that is why we are doing it so far in advance of buying a house, to give it time to bounce back up again. The loan line of credit is $41,000 available and the MC is $3000. I think I might have them lower my AMEX limit, too, since it is $15,000 and we never use more than $2000 at a given time with it and we pay it off in full each month. So maybe get them to lower it to $7000 or something.

I spent $35.79 at the grocery store today on organic milk and orange juice (very much a luxury but I like it when I am sick), veggies, some organic deli meat, and the giant jar of peanut butter that's the size of a tub of Crisco.

I took DH to the airport as he flies back to Alaska for work. I won't see him again until the 2nd or 3rd, I believe. I don't remember if he comes home on Tuesdays or Wednesday now. Which means he misses my birthday on Saturday, but then he usually does. He will be home on both my son's birthday and our 16th wedding anniversary in March so that is much more important to me. I will go this week and pick up my two birthday presents on my own, a giant coffee table sized cook book (that I got my niece for Christmas and coveted greatly) from B&N and season 4 of Lost. I have the money set aside. At first I was tempted to just add it to my laptop fund, but decided I really want to have something this year.

Meal planning for today:

Breakfast:
TJ's Crisped Rice cereal ($1)
Milk ($2)
Bacon ($2)
Total: $5

Lunch:
2 Kids
PB&J sandwich (.50) (free homemade jelly from aunt)
PB&H sandwich (.50) (free honey from Mom's bees)
apple (.50)
banana (.25)
hard pretzles (.50)
water
$2.50

DH
Leftover pot roast (free)
Leftover potatoes and gravy (free)
Leftover green beans

Me
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Orange juice ($1)

Total: $3.50

Dinner:
Me and kids
1 can of TJ's chili ($1.50)
1 can of TJ's chicken noodle soup ($1.29)
Can of Green beans ($1)
Oranges ($1.50)
Milk ($1.50)
Homemade cookies ($1)
Total: $8.79

DH will eat at the airport. That is part of his work travelling budget and does not come out of the grocery budget.

$14.29 for the day and there is a bowl of leftover chicken noodle soup so I will have that tomorrow for part of my lunch. With DH gone and work providing all of his meals for the the next 22 days, our meals should cost much less. We should easily be able to hit the goal of keeping it under $20 a day. Probably under $15.