Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

DH's auction ended with a bid of $180.38! That's about $20 or $25 higher than last time. I think we will definitely be using Saturday evenings as an ending time for auctions in the future.

Not bad for something free to us. The money is already in paypal. It will go into savings. I'm not sure if it will be for EF or Schooling, but it can sit in ING until I figure it out.

DH's auction for 2 first class Alaska Airlines upgrades has 2 hours and 18 minutes left. It is up to $154.25 and has 20 watchers. I am hoping for a last minute bidding war. If not, this is pretty close to the amount the last ones went for.

We did make some changes this time. We made the auction for more days than just a week. We made it end on a Saturday when more people are home to be watching it, and we have it ending in the evening at a time that would be after people should be done eating dinner but before they've gone to bed at night.

Those were some tips we had picked up from DH's alternate's husband, who also e-bays. It allows for a bit more exposure.

DH got a call from his alternate this morning. She's the one who works his job on his two weeks off. She just got a job offer with another company up there. Same position, wage range starts $12 an hour higher than what DH is making now, and ends $15 more per hour than what DH is making now.

Well, his company told them that the only way to increase their wage range was to find out what other companies were paying for the same position. And the only way to do that was to apply to other companies and get salary ranges. I guess they can't gripe about it when an employee finds out they are being massively underpaid and decides to go with the company that pays better.

There is no way his company can match that. At best they might, if they tried real hard, allow the range to go up another $9 an hour. But I don't think they would.

Anyway, she's taking the job and leaving. So now what? That's all I keep thinking. Does DH get stuck there because they don't have an alternate for him and there's no one at all to do his job when he is promoted? I don't trust the company not to pull a fast one. I just don't. Not one little bit.

DH says if they do that, and don't promote him in May like they promised, he's out of there. He'll be able to hire on with one of the other companies at or above (most likely above) what he is making now. Because they need people and will be hiring through the end of summer.

DH is perfectly willing to train someone to do the current job. He's trained every one of his alternates (at no additional pay, I might add), so that's no big deal. He can walk anyone through it while he's doing the new job, too. But I don't know. I just have no faith in his company right now.

They have been good to us for years but this last one, not so much. It's a struggle because DH really, really, really likes his job, likes his company, likes the people he works with and that all is worth a lot. But being taken advantage of, not high on my list of good qualities for a job to have. Or his.

Meanwhile, he may end up working extra weeks, which will mean more pay but way less time at home. The last time he lost an alternate he was doing 3 weeks on and 1 week off for 8 months. Not easy on the kids at all. I'm used to it but they never do get used to it.

I just really, really hope that his company doesn't pull the rug out from under us. They promise so much. I am so not fond of their backpedalling when it happens. It frustrates me no end. One could go crazy thinking about this, but I'm no Scarlett, I can't think about it tomorrow because I'm thinking about it now. Argh! One could go mad thinking in circles like this. Hopefully sending it off into cyberspace like this will give me peace of mind. For a while anyway.

I had my appointment with the specialist today and had an ultrasound done. He decided to sign me up for another test, so I will go back on March 27 for some kind of scope thingy. It is out-patient and doesn't require drugs. $15 co-pay for that.

Spent $10 to buy a small pizza and a soda from Round Table. I ordered it in the parking lot of the doctor's office, swung by the credit union, and it was ready by the time I got there. It cost $10.23 but for some reason the employee gave me $10.25 back from my twenty dollar bill. I didn't notice this until I got back home and looked at the receipt. I do remember him taking some coins out of the take a penny, leave a penny container. Maybe he didn't want to give me all the ones that $9.77 in change would give me?

Oh, well, so not only did I save 23 cents, I earned 25 cents on top of that. I did call them up and they said not to worry about it. I wasn't worried, but I remember what it was like to have a till off when I was a college student so, I guess that is why I called.

I ate the pizza on the way back home and arrived at the school in time for Tobias' parent/teacher conference. Did that, then went to Rose's. I'm glad that's over for another while.

Now I feel all stone in the stomach though, from eating white flour and drinking white sugar. Bad choice, I know but I haven't had good pizza in so long and I had to grab something or I'd be really hungry as I couldn't eat before the ultrasound. I should have got tacos, at least they are marginally healthy, especially if you get them in the whole wheat tortilla like at Taco Time.

DH finished the pizza off when we got home from conferences. I had eggs and no-sugar bacon and a kohlrabi for dinner. The kids had leftovers of theirs.

I haven't been doing a running log of my novel writing since DH came home. Mostly its because I have less time to myself to write when he's home. But I'm up to page 72 in the story and have 105 pages of other stuff to work in and around the main plot line. And some of it is for the second book, not this one anyhow. But it is coming along.

I got accepted at PineCone and am now just waiting for the surveys to start coming in.

I cashed out at NFO MySurvey today after doing a 200 point survey that put me over the limit, so will have $10 coming in the next 3 to 5 weeks. And still have 150 points in my account. Only 850 more to go to cash out again, LOL.

Still no news from ReadRevenue, TinklyCash or Dayslook on payments.

DH is taking the kids to his mother's house tomorrow. I am not going. I love his parents but they have a cat that is all over the furniture, which is bad enough, because I clog up and have a hard time breathing, but if they run the air cleaner and I sit next to it, I do okay. But his sister will also be there with her kids and their dog, and I'm more allergic to dogs than I am to cats. Badly allergic. And the in-laws let that animal run around inside the house.

Which I would never allow myself, I get irritated with people that think it is okay just to bring the dog in because it is their dog and they don't ask permission, they just do it. (Worse at the grocery store when someone brings in a puppy in a purse which is illegal in a grocery store! Service dogs are of course not the issue at all, they go where they need to.) Which is what SIL did the first time and now they can't say no because they already did it. And I'm "Hello, its your house, of course you can say no to your spoiled youngest child." Sigh.

This is, by the way, the pedigree puppy that was bought when SIL and BIL had had their phone turned off, their gas turned off, their cable turned off, their mortgage behind, their car payments behind, and were about to have their electricity shut off and to lose their cell serivce if they didn't come up with a $400 payment. And they can't declare bankruptcy as its only been five years or so since they did that last time. So, I'm also not fond of the dog for that reason, but really it is secondary to my need to breathe.

Plus MIL's cat is scared to death of the dog. I don't want to come across as an animal hater, because I'm not. I love cats, but I just can't have them around much. Not terribly fond of dogs but don't hate them if they are properly mannered and on a leash. I have real issues with ones that are allowed to run around free all day as we have a county leash law as well as it being in our CC&R's for our housing development. A couple of the roamers have attacked children. So, in that respect I am anti-dog. Well, maybe more anti-bad-dog-owner, as dogs, like children, only do what they are allowed to do or have been taught.

So anyway, being in that house tomorrow would mean I would probably end up having to use my inhaler and it wouldn't be enough and I'd end up visiting the ER. So not how I want to spend my Saturday. Instead, I will stay home and do some writing and get caught up on laundry with my lovely new dryer.

I guess if MIL wants me to come to their house she's going to have to make a choice between standing up to her daughter about the dog, or me. And I'm okay if its the dog, I'm perfectly content to have a phone call once a week with her that lasts an hour.

Turned into a bit of a rant there, sorry.

Our tax return showed up in our bank account today. This is the fastest we've ever gotten it. Just 3.5 weeks.

I haven't done anything with it yet, but the plan is:

$2000.00 to a credit card
$1000.00 to Vacation fund (but will send to ING until needed)
$ 458.13 to education fund (but will send to ING until needed)

Might as well earn some good interest on those last two things. I am setting up a spreadsheet to keep track of what's in the ING account so nothing ends up in the wrong place.

I am quite posty today, I know. This makes five, I think. Possibly six. But anyway...

I wish I could do more right now than just add $10 a week to savings. And I know I will again after my trip.

It feels weird to be taking money for just myself right now, but this trip is about learning more information about my disease and being with others who have to live with it as well and listening to lectures and speakers and blah, diddy, blah, blah, blah.

Plus, there's a side trip to Disneyland, but that's just gravy. I don't have to pay for my plane ticket, that's just miles cashed in (DH is a frequent flyer due to work) and since it is first class there will be a meal both directions (and they are good up in first class, not bad like in coach), so two less to buy total.

And DH gave me his guest pass for the Boardroom, which is a private waiting lounge at SeaTac and I can eat a meal in there as well, they usually have soup, veggies, cheese, other finger foods, fruit and beverages all for free.

I'm having a roommate to split hotel costs. I'm doing it as frugally as I know how (even the side trip I am splitting costs with a close friend who also has this disease). And we used Mouseplanet to look up all the restaurants in the park and their menus and prices so we could plan all of our meals and which ones we might split the cost of there as well. I also got information on surrounding restaurants and their menus and prices. Isn't the internet grand?

DH says I don't have to justify it, but I'm not trying to justify it to him, I'm trying to justify it to me. Why is it so hard for us as women to spend money on ourselves on something just for us? Especially when it is mostly health related? And one could also argue that going to Disneyland is good for mental health also. Okay, see? Justification again.

Here I am, almost having died a few years ago, having to turn my life completely upside down, having to deal with other health issues that I need to learn more about to stay healthy and I feel bad because I'm going to take a bit of time to have some fun in there, too. Okay, when I put it like that, I don't feel bad about it anymore. But I will still be glad when I can contribute the change jar and the surveys back into savings again. Building savings makes me happy.

DH lost his cell phone today. He dropped it in the parking lot at Lowe's when he was buying a new dryer vent flap to replace the one that melted when the old dryer was not shutting off and ran all night one time.

Fortunately someone found it and turned it into Lowe's. They started calling the names in it and got ahold of DH's mom, who then called my mom, who lives 6 blocks from Lowe's and she went and fetched it. So all's well that ends well and thank goodness for good Samaritans. See, this is what happens when you find a wallet with $500 cash in it at WalMart and call the very relieved person on the driver's license in it. Karma comes back around to you, or your guardian angel is watching your back, or you're just plain lucky. I like to think of it as all three.

Today was the weekly autodeposit of $10 to savings. I sent that off to ING for a new total of $347.53 when it arrives. Slowly but surely it is building back up again.

Today I deposited to the vacation fund:

$10.00 roll of quarters
$ 0.50 roll of pennies
$ 4.00 in ones
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$14.50 subtotal
$71.97 vacation fund balance
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$86.47 new total

After my various errands today I came home with $5 in ones and DH had $3 in ones bfrom his own errands that I will deposit next time I go to town. I am saving all change and all ones for my trip and probably will divert all survey earnings into there as well until I go.

I posted this in response to Lux's blog but thought I'd put it here, also. TinklyCash is not paying out right now, especially not in the less than 72 hours that they promise. I'm 438th in the payout queue and no payments have been made in weeks.

Now, I was a big supporter of them because they always paid out quickly last year but ever since the big earthquake in Taiwan they have not been paying out. It supposedly damaged undersea cables that were used for international banking.

Doing PTR's is incredibly time consuming, which is fine if you are doing something else while doing them, but doing them and not getting paid? That's just irritating. If and when I ever get paid from them again I'll post it here for those interested in doing it, but until they are back on their feet, I don't think you should waste your time on them.

Over in the forums under General Discussion, the Pinecone survey post, there is an active link for the U.S. banner ad. It was active as of 11:00 p.m. PST 3/6/07. I just signed up. I am so excited. I don't know if I will qualify but just having the chance to finally sign up has me through the roof.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

Did I mention in my last post what a lovely day today was? It got up to 72 degrees in town, and 68 at home and it was bright and sunny. Last week at this time it was snowing. Go figure. MSN weather said it was going to rain all day and be 50 degrees. Guess you can see why I use google weather most.

Anyway, it was finally a nice enough day for a long enough time when DH was actually home, that we took down the outdoor Christmas lights. I bet I made the neighbors happy. Not that I really care what they think anyway if I have a few light up deer and some other standees in my yard when their idea of lawn ornamentation is white trash junk yard deals and six cars in various states of do they run or not. Well, or what the other neighbors think either. We're quiet, good neighbors, pay our association dues on time every year and keep the weeds mowed. I figure if it bugs them they can tell me and no one ever has.

But I am glad to have them down because it means I can now get to weeding flowerbeds and garden beds if the weather stays clear. I am so ready for spring. Today was a gorgeous taste of it and I want more.

I did some poking around and I have crocus, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths all coming up, which usually doesn't happen up here in the mountains until April. I may have blooms in 3 weeks instead of the end of April. Oh, and my primroses are blooming, very pretty. Of course, I found my first slug today, too. Ick. Still pretty small though, less than an inch long. I hope they aren't bad this year and that all the cold killed the eggs, but I fear they may be nasty.

I am raring to go on veggies, but from past experience I don't dare plant until April and even then sparingly. We've had a hard frost as late as April 15th and I don't fancy losing seedlings. But I can at least plant snow peas on the 1st.

We're going to have to do some serious fence repair or replacement this summer. The old fence is just rotting and it was so poorly installed by the previous owners. I'm surprised its lasted eight years as it is. Just another thing to put on the list. We have a wants list and a needs list, and fence goes on the needs list because we live off the highway and I don't need my kids wandering out of the backyard and up there and getting themselves run down, especially as we are on a dead man's curve sort of area.

I really hope they hurry up and get the funding for that project at DH's work because I have so many things that need doing and we can't start until it comes through.

Spent $422.65 on a new dryer today. The dryer itself was only $299 (on clearance, marked down from $459). The rest is 8.4% sales tax, delivery (we live in the boonies) and installation fee, and removal fee for the old dryer. I did not get the 5 year maintenance plan. It does have a one year warranty. It will fit very nicely in the alloted space as it is 1.5 inches less wide, but it also has a greater capacity, which will make doing comforters much easier.

It is very pretty. It is white, but the control panel across the top is stainless steel. It does not have a ton of bells and whistles, which I am happy about. I just want to be able to dry my clothes on a few different heat settings, not compute the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything (42!).

We decided to use part of DH's bonus check now to pay for it, and then repay the $422.65 to savings out of the income tax return. I know my mother was going to loan us the money until we got our tax return back, but I just feel better doing it this way. He's pretty much decided to wait until he has the new job under his belt for a few months before signing up for more schooling anyway. Tax return should come sometime in the next couple of weeks, definitely before month's end.

They are delivering it tomorrow. I was surprised they could do it that fast when we just bought it today, but tomorrow is their day for delivering to this section of the county. See, that's why there is Lucky in my name. Things like this have a way of working out for us. DH will be home and I won't have to worry about letting a stranger into the house by myself. I know they are bonded, but I would just as soon not take that chance, you know?

DH put his second set of upgrades on ebay last night. They are now up to $102.50 and the auction doesn't end until Saturday. Doing pretty good.

I suppose I could have done the last several posts in one big one, but I keep forgetting to add one more thing, so it just works out this way today. I think this is my fifth.

I took a survey with Your2Cents today and have a $6 check coming from them in the next 3 to 5 weeks.

The one that arrived today took the whole 5 weeks, though it is generally closer to 3 in the past. It will go in the vacation fund when it arrives.

The mortgage numbers posted today. New total left on our house mortgage: $34,773.29. Slightly less than 122 payments to go. That works out to 10 years and just under 2 months.

DH's bonus check came in the mail today. DH says they made a big error in how much they took out in taxes, they took out 10 times the amount they should have. They did it to everyone, so there will be another check issued for the additional amount probably with the next payroll. So for the time being we have $600 check that will go to savings, but is earmarked for DH's continuing education. The company does reimburse for tuition but not until the end of semester when grades are issued. They reimburse 100% for A's and 90% for B's. But we still have to come up with the initial amount to get started.

DH isn't sure when he will get started. He wants to make sure things get rolling with the promotion and his new job responsibilities before he takes on more school work. He'll be doing it correspondence again with an accredited school. So the money will stay in savings for awhile earning interest.

Our 401K statement came in the mail today. The new balance is $44,231. This is an increase of $1918.80 since end of December's statement. Of course, statement ending date was February 26 and we all know what happened after that. We are buy and hold so I don't know if there is much point to going online to look and see what kind of a hit we took. Probably just depress me. Plus, we recovered well the last time this happened in the first quarter of 2006. I really just prefer the long-term approach.

I deposited:

$ 8.00 check from ACOP survey
$ 5.00 check from Your2Cents survey
$ 5.00 roll of dimes
$ 0.50 roll of pennies
$ 1.00 Sacajawea dollar
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$19.50 total

Into the vacation fund today.
New total in fund:

$71.97

Not much but it will get $1000 from the tax return.

Today has just gone by very slowly. It is a no spend day, which is always good. DH let me sleep in so I didn't eat breakfast. Lunch was cheap and easy, homemade 100% whole wheat and egg spaghetti noodles, sauce, and cheap ground beef from a 98 cents a pound sale (first one in ages that was that low). We have a tub of garlic butter in the fridge so we use it on toast to make our own garlic bread. Added a salad of lettuce, cukes, and kohlrabi. Yummy, yummy. I love my pasta maker.

Dinner is very light tonight after that heavy of a lunch. Just canned tuna, a hard boiled egg, mayo mixed together and stuffed in celery. Repeat 3 times for four people.

Tomorrow while the kids are at school we are going to go look at dryers. I won't do it with them, they'd drive me crazy when I was trying to read the info on each machine. They are both going through an annoyance phase. As in lets see what we can do to annoy each other the most so that Mom and Dad get mad. Hope it passes soon. Oh, and Rose has picked up the lovely habit of rolling her eyes. I'm considering charging her 25 cents from her allowance each time she does it.

Not much going on. Kind of a boring day.

Venting. Big Time. Here, so I don't do it over there. I have to play nice in public. Here, a little less than nice when frustrated.

Well, she's back. That woman who drove me crazy because she asked for advice and then came up with every single excuse in the book, and some that weren't, not to take any of the advice offered her from anyone. And of course, there are a few newer people who don't know her M.O. who are still trying to help her. Though there are some people that have been around at least as long as me or longer who should know better by now...All they'll get is a throbbing headache from banging their heads against the wall. Yes, she asks for help, but...SHE DOESN'T REALLY WANT IT. (Caps for emphasis, not shouting, I still can't get italics to work).

I really had to bite my tongue not to post on her thread, but I won't do it. I do have to admit to being fascinated how anyone can bury her head so deeply in the sand. It's like watching a train wreck, you simply can't look away. And I know better than to even click on her threads.

She's still up to my favorite one, accusing you of giving her parenting advice instead of financial advice, doesn't have a clue that sometimes your financial decisions are caused by your parenting ones or vice versa. Just refuses to see it. Or anything that doesn't fit her unpaid for rose colored glasses version of the world.

Someone suggested her child get a babysititng job. Last time around I suggested that and oh, you would have thought I was talking about selling her daughter to a sweatshop, "my daughter will never work to pay the bills," (which wasn't even what I said, BTW) Now, its basically my daughter won't work to pay for her own college education. Please. Well, she didn't blow up about that advice this time. Yet, anyway. But I'm waiting. She's like old faithful, never quite know when she'll blow but it'll be in approximately 55 to 65 minutes.

I won't even go into the withholding debacle she refuses to fix. Like I said, she doesn't actually want a way out.

It's more of the same. Thanks for the vent.

Bills paid today:

$ 400.00 House Mortgage ($375.86 + $23.14 extra to principle payment)
$ 130.00 Chiro Family Plan
$ 100.00 Bank of America MC
$ 320.48 Propane (6 months)
$ 37.36 Garbage (2 months)
$ 50.00 Costco Membership Renewal
$ 50.00 Costco Gas Card Loaded
$ 154.63 Costco groceries, Kleenex and Charmin
$ 20.00 Rose's monthly allowance
$ 15.00 Tobias' monthly allowance
$ 15.00 Doctor bill
$ 100.00 Citi MC
-----------------
$1392.47 Total Bills Paid

I am also setting aside $500 to be used along with some money from next week's check to pay BoA Visa, and took out $100 cash for miscellaneous expenses.

Isn't that just the way? My membership expired yesterday and today I find the card. Well, we do plan on renewing tomorrow anyway, we did make the decision to do that, just never got around to it. We decided between the gas, sea food, produce, toilet paper, Kleenex tissues, butter, cheese and kosher beef hotdogs that the membership did end up paying for itself.

Tomorrow is payday so we will go then. Just getting the basics though. Go in with a list and no huge overspend.

I had my second cranial sacral therapy session today. It was more intensive than the first one. My mother is paying for me to have six sessions in the hope that it will fix me. Apparently I'm broken. Well, my immune system is not the best, never has been and I've had all sorts of soft tissue damage in my life.

I didn't realize it until the therapist asked today, but my arm, the one that I tore all the tendons in between the wrist and elbow in a horrific accident about 12 years ago hasn't hurt since the first session. And I have been doing A LOT of typing in the last two weeks, which always makes my wrist and elbow and hand hurt and it isn't. So I guess there is something to this voodoo that he do so well. Ouch, that was a bit of language slaughter, wasn't it?

Oh, well, whatever happens happens. And the price is right so bring it on, I guess. Though I wouldn't mind going for a massage sometime soon. Ah, just dreaming. Not going to pony up $50 any time soon for that. But DH is home so maybe I'll have him do it, he's pretty good at making the muscles feel better.

So, I picked up DH yesterday at the airport. It was early release day at school so I took the kids and then we went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Which turned out to be quite expensive for the four of us, but gave everyone 2 meals worth of food. $45 for the meal, $9 for the tip. We tend to go here once a month on the day DH arrives home. Usually it doesn't coincide with early release so it is just the two us and comes to around $25 plus $5 tip. Big difference.

I am hoping this will be the only time we eat out for the rest of this paycycle. We really don't budget more than $60 a month for eating out. Probably shouldn't budget that much either, its not like its healthy.

Ah, well, can't change it now. So DH is home, which means I didn't get any writing done last night, but I did get two pages done before I went to pick him up. I don't know if I'll get anything done to night at all. I think DH is going to read the first 8 chapters tonight.

He is a very good sounding board for me, helps me when I get blocked and knows when I'm using filler. Doesn't happen often that I use filler, but it does tend to crop up when I'm just putting in chair time and not really in the flow of writing. Actually, I shouldn't call it chair time as I do my writing on my laptop, sitting on my bed, which is more comfortable for my posture than the computer chair and the PC keyboard.

I have been reading a writing book right now also. I'm not sure I agree with some of the things advised in it, as it was written in the early 1990's and I've seen plenty of good books out there since then that do the opposite of what they are advising here.

I think it best to probably go with my instincts on this, at least at this point in time. I know when my stuff isn't working, I know when its garbage, I know when its passable, and I know when its good. Which is a big reason why I have not attempted to try to publish the last book I wrote. I am not happy with parts of it and I figure working on this and letting the old stuff just kind of roam around in the back of my head for awhile may bring me around again to where I can fix the other book. We'll see, I suppose.

Today was the day of the auto deposit to savings of $10. I transferred that to ING and that brings the total there to $337.53.

I earned $1.00 in interest for the month of February and a total of $2.50 interest YTD. Combined with last years $38.53, total interest since opening my ING account last October is $41.03 (includes bonus and referral money).

I love ING. Anyone out there who is interested in opening an ING savings account and earning 4.5% interest, I still have invites I can send and all you need to do to earn a $25 bonus is open the account from the invite with $250, and I will get a $10 referral bonus. (Just my usual ING pitch, LOL).

Okay, I'm finally getting the bills posted that I paid off Friday's paycheck.

$910.37 Medical Mortgage
$124.00 Water/Sewer (2 months)
$100.00 MBNA MC
$ 90.00 Road Assessment Fee (Year)
$ 41.82 Phone (Home)
$185.50 Car Insurance (3 months)
$ 20.00 Rose's School Lunch Account
$ 67.42 SFBC
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1539.11 Total Bills

We had a gorgeous sunny day today. Almost all of the snow has melted, it is down to maybe 1 inch to 1/2 inch in places. It would have been a great day for hanging laundry if I hadn't already spread it over the drying racks to dry inside last night. Oh, well.

Today was a no spend day. I did a load of dishes and vacuumed the living room. Then I wrote for 6 pages.

I wrote 8 pages last night and 2 the night before, if I remember correctly. It might have been 3. I need to go back and count everything up again, I've lost track. I think its in the 170's. I now have 8 chapters written in order and then a ton of out of order "scenes" that will get worked in as I go. Some of the "scenes" are 1 or 2 pages and some are closer to 10. I never could completely write something in order, always get flash forwards, as I call them.

The more I write, the more I am thinking this may need to break down into four books, one per year that covers the story. Otherwise its going to be way too long. I don't want to be Harry Turtledove or J.K. Rowling and cause carpal tunnel syndrome to my readers from holding heavy books if my books ever do end up getting published.

Still no news on the PTR payments. I think I am going to quit them all. Now that I am writing so much I'd rather use that time on it. Much more productive and a possible much larger payoff in the end.

I guess I got the posting bug today. Anyhow, today is technically a no spend day, even though I am writing out bills, I won't mail them until tomorrow. Did not go anywhere, did not spend anything. I'll post later on what bills I paid and how much.

I have been cooking a potroast in the crock pot today, just seasoned with Lawry's seasoned salt. Just now I added some cut up baby red potatoes, carrots, a parsnip, a turnip, and some acorn squash chunks and will let it cook an hour or so longer, checking for tenderness to see if they are done after an hour or so. I love slow cooked beef with winter vegetables. Yummy. And there is plenty extra for freezing for future use.