I paid Mom $1000 on the medical loan I took from her today. I paid off the AMEX today ($1000 out of the paycheck and $500 out of the EF, leaving EF at $7,600) and the last bit of interest on the loan I paid off earlier this month hit our account so that was $218.18, which I also went ahead and paid so we should now be able to close that account down and have it marked as closed and current on our credit report. Yay.

That leaves us with $21,021.22 on the VISA and $4540.42 on the MC and that's it for our unsecured interesting bearing debt. That's a total of $25,561.64 left to pay. If we can manage $2500 a month in payments (which should be no problem) we can have it paid off by the end of the year. I think the MC will be paid off by the end of April. Wow, that light at the end of the tunnel just keeps getting brighter and brighter.

So this leaves us at:

$92,000.00 (no interest loan to Mom)
$25,561.64 (VISA 11.4% and MC 12%)
$22,053.10 (Mortgage 5.5%)
-----------
$139,614.74 Total

I looked up how much was left on the car after Wednesday's payment went through and it is $16,640.84. At the current rate of payments it'll be paid off 7/21/14, but once we get the credit cards paid off we will be doubling the car payments so I'm thinking more towards the end of 2012, probably.

I didn't make it to the pharmacy before it closed yesterday, so went today and paid $19.59 for 2 RX and then we went to WalMart to get non-prescription meds at $56.68. 4 boxes of nasal spray, 2 big bottles of antacids, and 2 mega packs of Dayquil/Nyquil gelcaps. Hopefully that will get us through the rest of the winter. I'll have to pick up more Sudafed at some point, but that can't be bought in bulk without a doctor's note so that comes a bit at a time.

DD is home from school and the first thing out of her mouth was, "Can we go out to eat?" *sighs* I told her no and she was all, "But we always go out to eat when Dad comes home." My response was not anymore. I think I'll have to sit down with her and talk about it and explain why. That we are pushing hard to get out of debt and then to save up a downpayment for a new house to add to whatever we get for the old house. And that the sooner we get the money saved the sooner we'll be out of here. She really doesn't like living here very much and now that Mom needs minimal attention on a daily basis we don't technically need to still be living in the same house with her, so the sooner we are in a position to really save, the better. She loves her grandma, but they are too alike to get along very well and really, a house nearby is much better than sharing living quarters, even in a house this large. Buying a new house before the old one sells just isn't an option, though.

We are going to go down to the Science Center some time in the next three weeks (we are members), so we will pack a lunch and snacks, but we will have one planned dinner out and it will be our only fancy restaurant meal this pay cycle. Well, I say fancy. I mean Red Lobster. *laughs* We'll stick with our water only drinking rule and no desserts. And since we will have the cooler with us it will be easy to take all the leftovers home for additional meals. We can usually get 3 meals each out of one of their feast type meals. Well, DH gets two, but the rest of us can get three.

I went to the doctor today and am still infected, so $20 copay, 2 new prescriptions, and a referral to a specialist, oh, joy. I've an appointment with the specialist on 2/15, soonest I can get in. Bummer. I hope this doesn't mean yet another surgery. I am sick to death of being cut open, thank you very much. Plus it'll be another $2000 or so out of pocket and put debt repayment back a couple of months. Still I can't go on like this. I have jury duty in April so I would have to plan around that or at least defer it. I've already deferred it once when recovering from knee surgery/issues so I don't know how cooperative they will be at the court house if I try to do it again.

I haven't gone to pick up the medications yet, so will probably just come back and edit this post later with those expenses. They are both generics, so it shouldn't be too bad. While I was at the doctor DH went around the corner to make a payment at the dentist office. $182.60. Ouch. Our medical may be good, but our dental sucks.

I keep going back and forth on whether or not I should take some money out of the EF and pay off the AMEX card or not. It's currently got a balance on it of $1,475.68 and the EF is at $8,100, so if I did, that would drop the EF to $6624.32. The EF is only earning 1.1% or whatever ING is at the moment and the credit card is at 15.24%.

In the past the interest rate never mattered because I never had a balance on it. We only used it for gas at Costco and paid it in full each month. When DH got laid off and then hired by another company, we had to go several weeks without a paycheck (even though we knew one was coming and we'd be okay in the long run) so we put about $2000 worth of expenses on it. We've been carrying a balance on it since November and it's been driving me crazy.

I think the problem with taking money out of the EF for me is that it finally has one month's income in it. I don't ever think I've had it at one month's income before. (This is not, by the way, the same as one month's expenses). That was something I tried so hard for in the past, but something always came up. And logically, I know we'll have the AMEX paid off by the end of March without dipping into the EF, but my brain keeps going pay it off, pay it off, pay it off NOW.

Conversely, I know that if I do pay off the AMEX now, we can get the EF back up to $8,100 by the end of March and save ourselves two month's worth of interest payments. This really should be a no brainer. If I do it, we'd be down to only having two credit cards left to pay off and it would make payments and budgeting a lot easier come next month. It would leave us with one card to aggressively pay down and one card that was slowly going down until the other was paid off.

I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round.

Bills paid today:

Water bill (4 months)--$302
Physical Therapy--Medical--$90

Was very tempted to pick up a double cheeseburger after PT today. I did not, though it was touch and go there for a bit. It helps that they've changed the road there so you can't easily get to the McD's without making a huge, inconvenient loop several blocks out of your way. We ate up all our leftovers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today, as planned. I need to sit down and figure out what dinner is going to be tomorrow. Maybe chicken.

I just signed in, spent almost half an hour composing a long and detailed blog entry, went to post it and got a notice saying I am already signed in as me. Yeah, duh, I know, what's your point? Give me back my entry. Of course it's gone into the ether. Between that and having to sign in every single time I come here this week instead of it saving it like it's supposed to when you hit remember me, it's getting really frustrating. I don't even have the energy now to recompose the whole thing. Too bad, for it was light and witty and would have changed your world. *snerks*

So the basics for yesterday:

Medical--$20 co-pay doctor visit
Medical--$11.81 prescription for kidney infection
Allowance (six weeks) kid #1--$60 @ $10 per week
Allowance (six weeks) kid #2--$30 @ $5 per week
Utilities for my mother--$300
EF deposit--$100, bringing total to $8,100.00
Parking meter at library--$0.25

Added all the ones in my purse to the coin jar for the computer fund and dumped out all my change save a quarter for the meter.

Got another hold from the library yesterday. This one is significantly more useful. It's called $3 Meals by Ellen Brown. A more appropriate title would be $3 per serving Meals, but otherwise I'm quite happy with it. I think I might be able to cut out about $50 a month from my grocery budget using her strategies. It was published 2009, too, so it's not terribly outmoded when it comes to how much stuff actually costs. I just wish it didn't rely so much on some of the things we're allergic to here like vinegar (allergic to grapes and apples so wine and cider based vinegars are out) and mushrooms. Still it's not all beans, rice and lentils. It actually has meat, poultry, and fish, so yay. We'll see how it goes.

I have more bills to pay out of this paycheck but will do that tomorrow or Monday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So I sent off $1,438.00 electronically to pay off Master Card #1 in full. I also paid $300 on Master Card #2. I set it up last night so that it would come out today and I'm glad I did now since the BoA website seems to be down but good. It's payday so I will be paying some other bills today, but that will be later after I go to the doctor ($20 co-pay). For now I'm just excited to have a card paid off.

$144,460.08 Debt
-001,438.00 MC#1 payoff
-----------
$143,022.08 Debt Left

I won't adjust for the other credit card or the mortgage I paid a couple days ago until new totals have been posted to those accounts.

...but since I'm trying to make daily blogging a habit again, here I am.

I paid out $46.27 for perscriptions today. Two generics and one pricey brand name that is unfortunately the only med that works for me. At least the insurance with DH's new job is good. The pricey one is $40. The other two were cheaper than our insurance so bought those outright.

I also paid $5.99 for milk while I was there because we are supposed to get socked with a snowstorm overnight and if we do I didn't want to run out of the one thing I can't make from scratch in a pinch. (No, I won't drink dried milk, I've tried it every way they've suggested to make it taste better, but just ew). Part of me hopes it snows so bad the schools shut down. The other part of me doesn't want to be stuck in the house with the kids all day and really wants what is currently on the ground to melt instead and for winter to be a distant memory.

Well, I did it. I went down and paid off the Gold Star loan in full at Bank of America. They were kind of impressed. The teller was like, "Wish I could do that," grumble, grumble, sigh. I messed up my numbers the other day and had to go back and correct them.

$182,783.95 total starting debt (minus car)
- 38,323.87 payoff amount
-----------
$144,460.08 total ending debt (minus car)

Take that Evil Empire of Creditors! It feels marvelous to see such a huge drop like that!
That leaves just $29,133.45 of interest bearing unsecured debt left and I really do think we can pay that off this year if we are careful with the budget. 18 months tops if we leave a little more wiggle room. On Friday I get to pay off Master Card #1 in full. Yay! Then the money that has been going to pay that will go to the next credit card we will pay off.

On my quest to not eat out I had leftover potroast/sweet potato hash in a tortilla and for dinner tonight I am making salmon patties from canned salmon in the pantry (just egg, green onions, garlic, salmon and a bit of salt and pepper). Easy peasy. I'll probably open a can of green beans and a can of corn as well.

I found 2 more pennies in the snow in the parking lot at the physical therapist's office. That makes $5.05 this month.

Wrote a check to the physical therapist for $90 as well. That is the only money I will spend today.

Edited to add: I forgot about the fact that I paid the mortgage today as well, so $375.86 was also spent for that.

Not too much going on around here this week. I sent off $2600 to credit card debt, paid off my surgery debt of $863, and paid the phone bill for the old house (have to keep the line for the security system).

The most excitement I had was chasing three ducklings and one chick who refused to go back into the chicken coop after their airing. It took three of us to catch them all. It's a far sight harder catching those ducks now they weigh two pounds then it was when they could fit in the palm of your hand and only had a bathtub to race around instead of a yard.

I've finally gotten a medication that seems to be killing this sinus infection I've had forever and am feeling a little better. At least I'm able to breathe through my nose again which does wonders for my ability to sleep through the night. I have been eating out too much though this last week when I was feeling miserable. I was getting the cheapy fast food meals which was better for my wallet, but not great for my health. I did eat up the pre-cooked frozen meals first though at least.

Because of the eating out I had $8.46 in change to add to my change jar. No, I still haven't gotten around to taking it into the bank.

$79.84 starting amount
+ 8.46 amount added
-------
$87.94 ending amount

I think tomorrow I will feel good enough to start cooking again so my goal is no more meals out for the rest of the week. One of the nice things about being so sick was that I did manage to get off Pepsi. My soda habit was getting expensive again and even if I was drinking the Throwback instead of the stuff with high fructose corn syrup, pop is just never healthy. I can already see improvements in my sleep pattern and in my skin tone, both of which always suffer from the combination of caffeine and that much sugar. I think I will start adding the $15 a week I was spending on soda to my EF. And that's about it.

I think we did fairly well this week. We went to Trader Joe's and to the local grocery store that has the cheapest price on organic milk and potatoes. We spent $45.82 at TJ's and $15.95 at the other store.

I ended up with one loaf of bread, 2 heads of cabbage (one purple, one green), 3 pounds of broccoli, one pound of asparagus, one head of cauliflower, a head of lettuce, 2.17 pounds of roast beef, a 15 pound bag of potatoes, 1 bunch of radishes, 1 large family bag of plain potato chips, 2 gallons of milk, 2 pounds of carrots, 4 large onions, and a head of garlic for roasting.

We also went to Costco for the big monthly stock up. It came in at $140.92. There we got 3 18 packs of organic eggs, large tub of pre-minced garlic, a 3 pack of English cucumbers, 5 pounds of pork chops, 6 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs, a case of oranges, a case of green beans, a case of pineapple, 4 pounds of butter, 4 pounds of unsalted butter for baking, 25 pound bag of flour (yay! I can make bread again), 10 pound bag of sugar, big package of all beef hot dogs, and a case of toilet paper.

We didn't buy any beef because I still have 8 pounds of hamburger and 2 large pot roasts in the freezer. Ditto canned salmon or tuna because we have a little over half a case of both. And I still have plenty of frozen salmon from that big fish I bought last month.

For the rest of the month I should only need to buy milk, fresh veggies, and possibly bananas if they start looking fit for human consumption again. I still have about 4 or 5 apples left from last month. They aren't really a favorite around here and Tobias is allergic to them so we don't go through a lot unless it's honeycrisp season.

Between the three stores we went to I ended up with some ones and some change to add to the coin jar.

$43.73 beginning balance
+ 6.84 amount added
-------
$50.57 ending balance

Tasks for tonight are to sit down and balance the checkbook for the week and to make up the menu plan for the next week. Our menu planning runs Saturday through Friday, usually

I also need to bake tomorrow, hamburger and hot dog buns and cloverleaf rolls (recipe was posted earlier this week) and bread, and Rose wants to do a batch of her famous sugar cookies.

I might make brownies, too, since I have been craving chocolate this week, but none of us can have store bought because of the vanillin or yellow #5. Doesn't take all that long to make them from scratch and they always taste much better. Now I just need to decide if I want to use cocoa or baker's chocolate since I have both on hand for a change. And I need to make a cake and frosting from scratch for T's birthday. He turns 10 on the 13th (my baby is ten!), but his dad goes back to Alaska on the 9th so we are celebrating early.

Which reminds me we still have to go up to the used video game store and do his birthday present shopping. He prefers used games because he can get more games that way than if he got new. He's really starting to get it about value for money. It started with his own allowance that he would do it, but it's carried over now since he knows he only gets a limited dollar amount for his birthday, too. Now that his reading has started to take off we might just take him down to the used bookstore and let him get a few books from the children's room there.

We also paid the chiropractor today. $215. They've raised their rates from $195 for the one month plan. It's still a good deal (up to 3 visits a week per family member for the four of us), and he hasn't raised the rates in five years. The difference is, as he put it, one less meal out at McDonalds per month, which no one really needs to eat at anyway. Of course, we're not really going there that much anymore and when we do we order off the dollar menu so it's closer to two visits cost for us, but still, I like his thinking.

Okay, I think that about catches us up on the last few days.

A couple of you requested my hamburger and hot dog buns recipe so here you go.

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 C. warm water
3/8 C. butter, soft or melted
1/4 C. sugar
1 egg, beaten well
4 1/4 C. flour
1 1/4 tsp salt

Add water and yeast into bread machine, let sit five minutes, add in egg and butter, then salt, sugar and flour. Set for dough feature of your bread machine.

When done remove from bread machine, punch down dough, and on a large greased cookie sheet shape into circles (for hamburger buns) half the size of what you want it to end up as, or oblongs for hotdogs (again half the size). Cover with a towel and let rise for an hour in a warm place. Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees F. Brush tops with butter if desired on removal.

For cloverleaf rolls use the same dough, grease a muffin tin and into each muffin cup drop three equally sized balls. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes. Brush tops with butter if desired on removal.

Dough will keep about 3 to 4 days covered tightly in the fridge if you don't have time to make it and bake it on the same day.

***

We spent a good amount of time out at the house today packing, cleaning, and shredding old paperwork. I think I shredded for a solid hour. Fortunately we have two shredders so when one started heating up too much I'd switch to the other and give the first one a rest. And you know what? As much as we did, it still looks like we've barely even scratched the surface. Ugh. Packrattery is not something I would ever recommend.

I found $9.64 in change and ones laying around the house so brought that home and added it the change jar. I'm pretty sure there are still a lot of coins somewhere as well, because I haven't located one of the old change jars yet.

$34.09 beginning balance
+ 9.64 money added
-------
$43.73 ending balance

***

Things are going well here living with Mom. Chris and Mom get along very well so there are not really any problems adapting. Hopefully that will continue. I think if Mom is going to get on anyone's nerves it will be mine and since I've got a really high tolerance for Mom nonsense it'll probably not be too bad. Mom and I are very close and yeah, she drives me a little crazy, but I think every parent does that to their kids. I don't take it personally.

Yesterday was payday, but because of how it falls we won't actually use most of this money until next week's bills except the autopays that come out the first of the month, a medical bill, and the $1000 for Mom. The rest will sit in savings for a week.

***

I had knee surgery on December 7 for a torn miniscus and a loose floating cyst thing under the same knee cap. The final bills after insurance have now come in. I owe the doctor $266.85 and the surgery center $892.80. I'll write a check for the doctor tomorrow.

The other one will have to wait for the income tax refund. It should come in about 1 to 3 more weeks. We sent it off at the end of January. It usually only takes 5 weeks or so before it is deposited in our account when we send it in so early. If it hasn't come by then, I'll just take the money back out of the emergency fund and the safety net and pay for it. But the bill is not due until the last week of March so I'm not too worried about it.

I think that about covers the last few days.

I can't believe it's been over a year since I've made an entry here. I used to be so good at this. Well, it's not because I've been piling on more debt. Quite the contrary. When I first started this blog we were $250,000 in debt due to medical bills (which was $150,000 of the total), mortgage, and credit card debt from all the money spent on meals out when I was far too ill to cook (which believe me, really adds up over the course of three years in and out of the hospital).

Where we stand today?

$103,000.00 left of the medical debt
$ 25,254.32 left on the mortgage
$ 70,000.59 credit card debt
-------------
$198,254.91 total debt

$51,745.09 is how much we have paid off since April of 2006. The $103,000 is a no interest loan from my mother. The mortgage is at 5.5% and the credit card debt varies from 12% to 18%.

Because that debt mountain is still so very high and because things have changed dramatically in the last year, we have decided to sell our house. My father went into a nursing home earlier this year and my mother, who is 70, simply can't get on like she used to. My oldest sister had been living with her for a couple of years but had finally gotten back on her feet again and moved out earlier this year. This left my mom alone in a seven bedroom house, and since she had fallen twice this year, I did not like that.

So we all sat down and talked about it and we decided we'd move in with my mother and take over making sure everything got taken care of. So, we'll be paying all the day to day living expenses for everyone (electric, gas, water/sewer, garbage, groceries, phone, etc.), but no rent. We'll be saving on gas because we won't be driving 50 miles every time we need to do something in town. And I'll have peace of mind.

When we sell the house, we're going to wipe out our debt with it. It may be a while though, because we have to repair a lot things and repaint and replace the carpets. And the market isn't great, but we're not looking to make some big profit off it. Right now I'd be happy to walk away with enough to pay off the mortgage and all the credit card debt, even though it's worth more than that. I just want a clean slate, and the only person I owe anything to to be Mom.

So that's where I sit at the moment. I'd really like to get back into the habit of blogging again, because that saving mindset comes into my thought process much more rapidly when writing about it is a priority to me. Besides that my goal for the month of February is going to be to start building up my Emergency Fund/Safety Net once again. It's been sorely neglected.

Well, techinically it's on Vision, but that falls in the medical category to me.

I took the kids to the eye doctor and they both got glasses, the younger one for the first time, so anyway...the costs of that were:

$204.97 glasses and frames for kid 1
$279.97 glasses and frames for kid 2
--------
$484.94 subtotal for glasses
$103.00 doctor fee kid 1
$103.00 doctor fee kid 2
--------
$690.94 total vision expense

I paid cash. The majority of this should be reimbursed by insurance in about 2 or 3 months time. I need to go soon. My glasses are about 3 years old the prescription isn't good anymore, so hopefully I can get in soon. I'll keep my own frames. I like them and they are in good shape still.

If my daughter's head had not gotten so much bigger that she'd outgrown her old frames I would have made her keep them another year. Both kids are really happy with their glasses.

Rose went into the hospital last night with a fever of 104.1 and they couldn't get it to go down. Her pulse was really fast and her blood pressure was too low. Scared the living daylights out of us. They gave her a narcotic, Ibuprofen AND Tylenol, and an antibiotic for a severe bacterial infection. Not pneumonia and not strep, but they couldn't give us a name for it. Finally, after a couple of hours it started going down but it was scary while it lasted.

She's home now and safely asleep in bed and I'm wired on too much caffeine to sleep. And now that the danger has passed my mind automatically ticks over to thinking about the insurance deductible, the hospital and doctor's fees and the cost of a chest x-ray. Well, that's what my safety net is for. The small touchable part of my EF that is used for small emergencies. If I can't scrape enough out of the regular medical portion of the budget I'll have it covered with the safety net.

I am grateful we have the money there if we need it. That I didn't have to be one of those people debating whether or not to take my kid to the ER because we couldn't afford it. That we do have insuarnce that will cover part of this. But mostly that my daughter is going to be okay after some further treatment with medication.

Well, really I still am sick. Really sick. Just this side of pneumonia sick. One big plus of this is that I have not been spending much in the way of money, because I haven't gone out any more than I've had to.

For some reason life just seems to carry right on whether I feel like getting out of bed or not. I'll have to spend tomorrow because I'll be out of cold medicine and needing a refill on my prescription by the afternoon. And well, DH comes home so I'll have to drive in to town to pick him up, too. Then he can drive for the rest of my life as far as I'm concerned. Or at least until it doesn't feel as if my entire head is made up of gunk.

I didn't even bother to do any surveys for like two weeks now, I didn't transfer money to ING last week so I'll wait until tomorrow and do both Thursday deposits then.

Basketball sign up happened yesterday so I did write a $25 check for that. One of the cheapest sports available, soccer is like $70 now but they aren't playing that anymore apparently.

I feel like I've been living on caffeine and cold pills, not a very good combination at all, but what else can you do? Moms don't really get to be sick, we just blunder on.

Anyway, I really need to do better on keeping up with my blog. My focus is way off on financial stuff lately and I'm pretty sure that's from not writing on here. Let's hope I can get my act together again, 'cause I sorely need to.

I made it to the new Trader Joe's yesterday. It was nice to have so many choices in healthier foods, though I was kind of surprised how much they had in the way of junk food. So many cookies and candies and chocolate covered nuts, and candied dried fruit dipped in sugar. Organic junk food is still junk food and at least it wasn't made with corn syrup.

Still I managed to find $55.61 worth of stuff that we could eat. I tried their store brand milk and it's decent tasting, though I will probably stick with Organic Valley and buying it from Fred Meyer since its a dollar cheaper there.

Never made it to Costco, just didn't feel good enough. Mom took the kids for the weekend, I get them back Sunday noontime. I am spending a lot of time sleeping and a lot of time reading over at Teaspoon and writing some. I've told myself that if I write a chapter on something over there, I've got to come and write at least one blog entry on that same day.

Yesterday was payday so I sent $100 to ING. That brings my EF to $2004.87 and my goal of $2000 is now achieved. I need $600 more to meet my goal of 2 weeks wages. That will take a couple of months.

I've been ignoring my surveys lately, just haven't felt in the mood to answer a bunch of repetive questions. I suppose I should get back to it, as it does help the EF to grow bit by bit. Just kind of apathetic about it.

Part of the apathy has been being sick and part of it has been the onset of SADS with the fall overcast. Time to dig out my light box and start light therapy again. It always hits me very hard in the fall, but it seems like it always a couple weeks in before the light bulb clicks on and I realize what it is I need. I think there was a bad pun in there somewhere.

I need to sit down and do bills still today. I am just in a lazy lay around do absolutely nothing physical mood today. Other than emptying the dishwasher and doing a load of towels, that is. I suppose I ought to do more. The laundry won't take care of itself no matter how hard I wish for it.

I'm doing pretty good for the month of September so far. That makes 3 no spend days.

I used the pre-paid cash card to buy gas today, but that was paid for last week so I don't count that. as spending. Filled up the tank for just under $40. Costco gas is still at $2.559 a gallon while everyone else but one ARCO is upwards of $2.799. I know Costco can buy wholesale and get a better deal, but that much better just seems suspicious to me. The other places have to be doing some gouging.

The wait in line for gas today was ridiculous, though. I didn't even go at a busy time. I suppose it was the after holiday fill up.

School went great for the kids today. I am always happy to hear that. They also did tae kwon do class today. Tuesdays aren't a normal class day for us but the dojang was closed yesterday so we made up that class today. Rose doesn't want to do tae kwon do on Tuesdays and Thursdays because she has 72 minute long P.E. classes those days. Can't say I blame her!

We came home to another crockpot beef roast, tender and delicous. Both kids were whining about wanting nuggets on the way home. Tough. I'm not taking them out to eat for a good while, and especially not when there is a meal waiting for them at home.

Tomorrow will be a spend day as I have a 1.5 hour physical therapy appointment. $75 for that. My hip is pretty much back to normal so this will most likely be my last visit. I'll see what the girl has to say, but I think she'll agree with me.

My appointment is at 10:30 and the school bus leaves at 8:46, which means I could get to Curves by 9:00, workout, and still get to my appointment on time. I think my hip is well enough now to do that. Though maybe I should wait until I see what the girl says about it. Oh, who knows?

Mom gave me 20 pounds of red potatoes from her garden so I'm going to have to start working those into meal plans along with all the green beans and blueberries. They are a very good tasting potato so it shouldn't be a problem.

Added 70 cents to the change jar today. I spent $4.31, but they gave me back the extra penny's worth, since they were low on pennies.

I plan to spend $10 at the cherry stand this afternoon, maybe more if they have any Raniers.

I'll have a $15 co-pay for my doctor's appointment today. It's just a blood pressure check. I'll also get written prescriptions to send into the mail order place for the two new meds he put me on 3 months ago, one for thyroid and one was a lower dose bp med. It's too expensive month to month to keep doing it that way now that I know they work.

No eating out today and I don't think there will be anything else to buy, either.

As much as it pained me to do it, I transferred the $700 of vacation money out of ING and back to my CU. It will arrive on Thursday and we leave on Friday so that works out well. I left it in until the last possible minute so that I could earn as much interest as possible on it.

I spent $60 on prescriptions today and $22 on pizza dinner for the three of us. I'm trying not to cook too much before we leave as the fridge is pretty empty and I don't want to fill it with leftovers we won't eat before we leave.

I've got to get caught up on laundry so I can start packing for everyone. Why is it the mom/wife always ends up doing all the packing? How come everyone else seems to get all clueless when it comes time to nicely roll up their clothes and stick them in a suitcase but instead fill them up with dolls or trains?

Oh, well, I'll survive. I always do.

We spent a lot of money today. Well, for us its a lot of money. We bought a new desktop computer with flat panel monitor for $745. We'll get back a rebate of $150 on the computer and $50 on the monitor. So all told it will come out to $545.

There was no real fix to the old one. We could have replaced the power supply thingy that was fried and the motherboard that went with it for about half the cost we paid for the new one. We decided we'd just rather put that money into a new one instead. But the hard drive is okay and DH will be able to hook it up to the new one so we can retrieve all of our photos and the few documents and spreadsheets that were stored there.

I have been looking for awhile but was hoping to put it off longer, but then the PC went belly up and it really couldn't be postponed too much longer. And DH really wanted to just go ahead and get a new one and not try to fix or replace bits anymore on the old one.

So I decided not to stress about it and I'm happy with the result and so is DH and so will the kids be when we pick them up tomorrow night from my mother's house.

I got the final bill (at least I hope it is the final bill) from my surgery in May and I owe $1187.60 now that insurance has paid its portion. I'll call them on Monday and see if I can set up a payment plan of $200 a month. Or even $250. I wish it didn't have to be so darn expensive to have medically necessary services in this country. But that's another rant for a different day.

DH and I are going down to Burlington tomorrow to buy shoes for Mr. Bigfoot. He's a size 16 and it is hard to find them in our county, but there is an outlet mall that has a Van's store in Burlington that carries 16's.

We are also going to see a movie (Silver Surfer) and have a little date. We only see 2 to 3 movies a year in the theater, ususally some kind of sci-fi thing because they're always better on the big screen. Our other two movies this year will be Transformers and Harry Potter. DH really wants to see Transformers on the big screen. I wasn't that keen on it until I saw Josh Duhamel was in it, then I was okay. I did watch the cartoon as a child, but still...

But I really like Josh Duhamel. I was in the audience of a talk show when he visited the PNW a few years ago, back when he was still on All My Children, which I didn't watch, but I was really impressed with his manners and how respectful he was to the hosts and to the fans afterwards. So I followed his career after that and its nice to see him in a big movie. Plus, eye candy.

On the gardening front, I've got two heads of broccoli that are close to ready to harvest. I can't wait. There's nothing like going from garden to pot to table in less than an hour.

Today was payday, but I'm not going to get around to doing bills until Sunday I don't think. And that's about it from my little corner of the universe.

I decided to make a proper entry in answer to some comments left on my last post about my medical debt, because it just got too long to be a comment.

No, the hospital will not negotiate any further. As it is, my parents put their house up for collateral against this debt because mine wasn't worth that amount of money. If I fail to pay on the debt my parents would have to so it is something I have to be very conscientious about.

I have never been one to walk away from my debt, no matter how tempting or how much easier it would have made my life to do so. And it will get paid, either over the course of the next twenty odd years or when my parents die and I inherit the house and sell it. Even if the house is sold for medical care the mortgage would be paid off first as the oldest debt and then I'd just pay back the surviving parent free of interest. It is more likely they will die before I can pay it off since Dad is 72 or 73 (can't ever remember if he's 5.5 years older than Mom or 4.5) and Mom is nearly 68. But that's obviously not the option I prefer! I want my folks around as long as possible.

My parents wanted to cash out their IRA and pay it and just have me pay them $1000 a month interest free until the remainder of the debt was paid down, since they have enough in CD's to live off the interest plus the thousand, but since their IRA was made from a never taxed pension the penalty would have been enormous. So that didn't happen.

Mom says that when Dad dies she can then cash out the IRA without penalty and pay it off and then me pay her the rest of what is owed interest free. Another route I don't really want to go.

Well, it'll get paid and I'm feeling better today about it. Yesterday was just really hard.

I received the statement for my medical debt balance today. I am now at $146,322.80 left to pay off from a beginning balance of $155,000. Out of the last payment $702.13 went to interest and $208.24 went to principal. Well, at least principal has finally hit the $200 point. It seemed like that day would never come. I am grateful this debt is at 5.75% and that at least progress is being made now, no matter how little. Of course, when I see that YTD interest has been $4227.57 it makes me feel awful.

I know this debt was a necessary debt. I know that I am lucky to be alive today. I am grateful that the insurance did cover some of the three and a half year ordeal and that the hospital cut the remaining $310,000 in half. But some days when I see that balance and how much is wasted on interest it makes me want to cry. It is hard. I get so angry at my body for betraying me the way it did, for not staying healthy and strong.

It is overwhelming. It makes me want to scream. Or punch my hand through the wall. Or some other destructive thing like go on a shopping spree with a credit card. I won't do that. But the fact that I want to is a major red flag.

I try very hard to maintain a positive outlook in my life. Some days it is obviously easier to do so. This isn't one of them.

Well, so far so good. I have managed to use up two boxes of fish, one filets and one sticks and one box of chicken nuggets from the freezer. They were all taking up a lot of space and were only partial boxes. Now lest you think my shopping habits have been really bad, these were all homemade versions of fast food items that were in big Tupperware freezer containers.

I have also managed to use up half a head of cabbage close to the edge and a head of lettuce rapidly approaching the point of no return. I didn't make it to the farm today to buy the strawberries but I will have to buy milk and bread tomorrow so will buy the flat of berries then. I think I have enough eggs to make it to next Friday as well without buying anymore from the farm.

Oh, wait, you know I am getting lazy again and forgetting. I am going to start a loaf of bread going in the bread machine tomorrow before I head to town. I don't need to buy bread, I have just gotten into that mindset again.

I will be helping my mother out a bit. She still has walking pnuemonia and needs me to go grocery shopping for her, otherwise I wouldn't be going to town. And since I will be in town I will gas up at Costco, pick up my refill on my thyroid medication, and purchase my monthly CD. No not that kind of CD, I wish! That would be my monthly music CD. Rose has put in a request for something by Rihanna, so I'll get the one with Unfaithful on it. That song is so pretty even if it is pretty sad. I think it has S.O.S on it, too, which is quite upbeat.

I don't care that much this month, but next month, July's purchase will be one I've been waiting for, the new Kelly Clarkson. Yes, I am hopelessly a pop junkie. But I watched her new single Never Again on youtube and she is just getting better and better. The trick is going to be waiting until July 1st when she comes out the last week of June. But my limit is one CD a month., so I'll do it. That's my piddly small allowance, but its what I want and does not take up a ton of room so that's okay.

A bit of money out this weekend. On Friday we had the oil change for 47.56, plus a few other minor maintenance jobbies thrown in. Got an estimate on what needs to be done before we go to Victoria at the end of July and it will cost $246 or so. Oh, joy.

I had a P.T. appointment for my shoulder and that was $50 out of pocket with another appointment scheduled for next Wednesday.

And the jamboree for the t-ball season was also Friday, and it went pretty well. Tobias started batting left 3 games ago and he could really whack it out of there. We never thought to check him for batting left. Rose bats better left, too, but it just never occurred. Neither child has a dominant left hand, they both write naturally with their right hands, but my dad's a lefty and I do a ton of stuff with my left hand even though I write with my right. I always have done so much with the left. I always thought it was my strings training that made it so dextrous, but its genetic as well.

Yesterday was more cleaning and organizing and sorting and storing and on and on ad infinitum. Or so it seems. You can definitely tell stuff is gone now. Whole rooms look almost sparse and I am liking it. The recycle guys are going to love us come Tuesday morning.

Today has been yard work on top of yard work on top of yard work and it isn't done. So I suppose I should get back off the computer and back to work.

So, I was supposed to have a dentist's appointment on Tuesday but they cancelled it. Only they didn't call to cancel it until after I'd already left for town. Ten dollars down the drain in gas. Never let them give you an appointment following a major spring holiday or long weekend. Apparently there are a lot of idiots out there who lose teeth on long weekends and must come in for emergency repairs. I wasn't happy but I made the best of it and did some grocery shopping since I was in town and without DH and the kids who tend to make the spending go up.

When I got home the cable people had finished and gone and we now have cable internet, TV again, and a digital phone with free long distance, all for the cost of the internet and digital phone. I like cable internet. I'm going to come down firmly on the side of saying that. 56K is becoming a fading memory.

Of course, I wasted a ton of time on Tuesday afternoon and evening and yesterday, finding places online to watch the first seven episodes plus the Christmas special of series 3 of Doctor Who, which doesn't start airing in America until July and hasn't even finished airing in the UK yet. That was fun. Also found the first episode of Torchwood, which is definitely not for children! Even if it is a Doctor Who spin-off. I am impatiently waiting for the next episode of DW to go up as it aired last week. My little obsession.

But hey, I wasn't out spending money. Anywho, today was my rescheduled dentist appointment was today. My jaw still aches. Top eight words I do not want to hear from my dentist. Go on now, take a guess. Okay, I'll tell you. "I think we can do this without anesthetic." Oh, really? Do I get an opinion on that?

Turns out I didn't need it, though so that is less money out. I had ground down the area around a couple of fillings and they had to build it up and sand and resurface and fix a small chip. But still, not words I ever like to hear. I don't like going to the dentist, it always makes me quite tense. And my jaw just aches from being open for two hours. But it could be worse. It could always be worse.

After the dentist I stopped at WalMart to get engine oil and some more Rubbermaid bins to put more stuff in to take to storage so spent about $40.

Tomorrow will be a spend day as well. We are getting the oil changed in the Crown Vic and then I will be seeing the P.T. for my shoulder, which got wrenched. Old injuries reasserting themselves. I dislike when that happens. But its not horrible and Ibuprofen cuts it down to bearable levels.

It has been wicked hot here this week. To make up for it, they claim it will rain all next week. I'm not against that at this point. But I'm not sure I believe it, either. I'd like some days were it just sits at 70 with a light breeze so I can get the yard and garden back in order. Here's hoping.

I sent the $10 weekly deposit off to ING today, making the amount in there a whopping $72.58. Well, slow and steady.

All right, I better go and fold the mountain of clean laundry I've been ignoring since coming home.

I forgot to post yesterday that we spent $55 on Chinese food. Part of that was two gallons of egg flower soup, for the two of us who cannot keep much down but soup. We like the egg flower soup because it is high in protein without being chewy soup, and also because this restaurant uses no MSG. Most store bought soups use MSG and we are allergic, it causes extreme stomach problems and when you are already having extreme stomach problems from a virus, MSG is not your friend. Not that MSG is ever your friend.

There was also other food bought so there will be leftovers for a couple of days. So DH doesn't have to cook much. I decided not to cook until this virus is gone as I am afraid I will pass it on to DH if I do. It's highly contagious. Tobias had it first.

I also wrote a $30 check to fund Tobias' hot lunch account at school yesterday. This should be the last one of the school year.

This morning DH took Tobias to the chiropractor before school and bought him a McDonald's breakfast. I'm not sure how much was spent but I gave him a $10 so it was under that. The rest of us went after picking DH up from the airport while T was in school. Since he had a t-ball game last night and has another one tonight, going in right after school didn't work and he hadn't been in since before my surgery.

We have the kids seen regularly as both DH and myself have mild forms of scoliosis. Mine has been corrected by chiropractic treatments. DH's is a little worse and his family has the the tendancy to go towards the hunchback osteoporosis hump. His grandmother had it horribly and his mother is starting. DH seems to have corrected against it since he's been seen for years, but we won't know until he's older. He has a high calcium intake as well, so the doc thinks he may not have this problem.

Tomorrow I go the surgeon for my follow-up appointment. I am not sure if that will be a co-pay or not, since surgery appointments are different from diagnostic appointments. It may be part of the surgery package. If it is not it will be a $15 co-pay. I will also be paying a $107 bill there, my share of the diagnostic appointments after insurance. I have not been billed for surgery yet. Tomorrow is payday as well, so there will be other bills and the mortgage stuff paid then, too. Lot of money going out tomorrow.

Okay, I think I am just going to stop eating until this thing passes. At the rate I'm going there isn't much point to putting food in my stomach because it won't stay there. Yuck. It's not even that I'm hungry, I just get the "think I should eat" thing going on because its that time of day. But maybe I'll just ignore it until this goes away. On the bright side, I've lost a pound today.

I hate wasting food anyway. Wasting food is wasting money. Barfing isn't frugal! Plus, I think I've gone through 1/4 of a bottle of Rolaids. That's kinda pricey.

I spent $6.46 to buy more electrolyte solution and a gallon of milk. Still feeling a little disconnected. Rose did decide to share her virus. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately considering what she's been going through, mine is at the throwing up end of things. I hate not keeping my food down. Right now I'm sipping on organic chicken boullion. After what happened to breakfast this morning, this seems like my best option for lunch.

Well, I have to say being sick like this definitely reconnects me to my life. Ugh.

My surgery this morning went really well. I'm not in any pain and its been six hours since I took pain meds, so yay! I like this minimally invasive stuff soooooo much better than the "gut you like a fish and then staplegun you shut" type of surgery.

I can't drive until tomorrow but I should be able to resume most normal activities by Sunday, like cooking, dishes, laundry, and even pulling weeds if I get motivated. But only easy to pull weeds. Anything tougher than a dandelion can stay in, like burdock root. No lawn mowing or weed whacking though. Which is why I got that done the last three days. I should be able to do those by next weekend, though.

I did get my red cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli planted in the brassica bed (which I rotate each year) and my French Crisp leaf lettuce planted in a ten gallon tub yesterday afternoon. I still have peas, kohlrabi, summer squash and green beans to plant. I need to find some cucumber starts and some well grown tomato plants. Though I don't know why I bother with tomatoes...they are cheap here and don't like mountain growing seasons.

My asparagus is showing, the most advanced is about 4 inches above the surface so should be ready to cut by Monday or Tuesday. My cherry bushes have bloomed, my strawberries are just starting to flower and I've got a bunch of new raspberry canes coming up where I transplanted them to last year. Also, I have a bunch in the original position that I think I will try to move to the better location. If they do, its no big deal as the other ones are thriving and will take over the new area soon enough.

Today is a spend day. I had to get a broad spectrum antibiotic, $10, that should have been called in last night with the pain pills but wasn't. Last night's med was also $10, plus I had to renew my potassium prescription at $10, too. Glad it wasn't $40 like my BP med earlier this week!

Oh, the doc was able to do the surgery with a sedative and local anesthetic instead of putting me under general anesthetic. I was still asleep. I don't like not being under local if I'm awake, but thankfully I was out cold. That will be much cheaper, not only in the cost of the drug but in the cost of the time the anesthesiologist had to sit with me. Not as long in the recovery area either as I woke up much faster.

That about wraps it up for me for today.

Today started off with a visit to the physical therapist, so that was $50 right out of the gate. After that I picked up DH from the airport and then we went to get gas at $3.10 a gallon. The other stations are at $3.25. We filled it up but we used the Costco cash card so I'm not sure how much it was off of that. Probably $45 as its an 18 gallon tank and only had 1.5 gallons in it at fill-up time.

Then we went to LensCrafters to pick up my year supply of contact lenses and to have both my regular glasses and my prescription sunglasses adjusted. No money out there as I'd already paid for the contacts.

After that we went to WalMart and bought more Rubbermaid tubs for moving stuff to storage and also items I'll need for my trip. I got a small First Aid Kit, bottle of Rolaids, nasal spray, sunblock, and vitamin C. I tried on swimsuits but none of them provided enough support on top, or enough material for that matter. When did one piece bathing suits get so low cut? If I wanted a flimsy bikini top I wouldn't be looking at a one piece to begin with. Sigh.

Then we went to Arby's for lunch. Just too much money out today, but I guess all of it but Arby's was necessary spending.

I wanted to take the car to the car wash but it is still closed. I am hoping it will reopen soon. My punch card is full and they owe me a free wash and wax and I'm getting annoyed waiting. I hope they aren't broken down. I know there are other carwashes in town but I've got a free one coming and I want it by golly!