Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

Well, DH did not get the new job...but they are going to install the new software on his computer anyway so he can master it and they are going to start grooming him for that position for the intended opening of a new project in 12 to 18 months. So, better than what it he might have been left with which would be nothing. And the new guy could still go kaplooey.

Although, I suppose its not nice to actually wish for that, but so many of the new hires can't hack the work conditions, especially come winter. I mean, arctic circle people. It's gonna be dark most of the time. And cold. And then there's the family seperation, which some people are not suited for. I do okay, as I'm a loner and DH does okay though not as well as me, he's less of a loner. The kids are who its the hardest on. So maybe he'll have twelve kids and they won't be able to stand it. Though come to think of it, having twelve kids might make him want to stay up there, LOL.

Okay, so no bad wishing they go kaplooey, but we will be happy if they have to leave due to circumstances beyond their ability to cope. >;o}

Well, DH will be able to pick up an extra week in December and some extra days in January when his alternate goes on vacation. If we are careful and don't let it slip through our fingers, we should be able to bank about $2500 into the new car fund just from that. Here's hoping anyway.

I cashed out a $3 click-thru this morning. I am still trying to track down the missing payment of $5 from another one at the beginning of August. Still waiting on an $11 survey check.

Back on the 4th of July I had problems with a new scripto lighter not working, which really put a damper on our fireworks while we ran around trying to find some place open to buy a new one.

I wrote to the company, they sent me packaging to send it back in and I did. Well, yesterday I got two new better model lighters from them and they both lit right up so I'm happy with that result.

I won't have to buy any lighters for the woodstove this winter at all.

I also received a sample of dandruff shampoo from WalMart.

I sent in registration forms for Rose and Tobais for fall soccer along with the athletic fees of $52.50 per kid for a total of $105. Ouch. But considering that last year I was paying $85 a month for dance fees and nearly $140 a month for tae kwon do tuition, $105 for 8 weeks for 2 kids is pretty small and they get 4 hours of exercise each a week for that.

I've been saving Shell cards as I get them from My Points so that I will have the gas for all the extra running around, 12 miles one way to the practice field 3 to 4 times per week depending on whether the kids turn out on the same days or not, plus the 25 miles one way to the Saturday gamesplex fields. Hopefully by the time spring soccer season rolls around we'll have the hybrid and it won't be so bad.

Did okay on grocery shopping. Some stuff was on sale, mostly all of it. Had coupons for ketchup and it was on sale, so ended up getting two 36 ounce bottles of Heinz for $1.75 each. There are only 3 things in this world that I have brand loyalty, too. Heinz ketchup, Miracle Whip salad dressing, and French's mustard. Well, the last one is DH, who barely eats mustard but must have that brand for when he makes deviled eggs. But I now have a good stash of the brandies to hold us off for awhile and can go back to my no name store brand stuff for everything else.

Spent a few cents under $100 for 2 weeks worth of groceries. Was restocking some staples on sale or would have only spent $70. Haven't made it to Costco yet this paycycle and hoping to avoid it until the September paycycle begins.

Also went to WalMart to buy a birthday present for my neice's party today. While there I picked up the cheap meds, vitamin C, nasal spray, Rolaids. I was given a free sample of Oxy Clear acne wash or something like that. Well, maybe Rose can use it in a few years but so far puberty has brought no zits. Spent less than $30 total there.

I got my Garden Botanika catalogue today. I forgot it was coming with a sample, and the sample was on the inside, the Prickly Pear Jojoba Advanced Renewal Hand Treatment. This came fast, within just a couple weeks.

Well, Rose finally learned how to ride her bike today. Not just the riding, but the starting and stopping by herself part as well. It's been a long time coming but I am just so happy and she's through the roof.

Now we can work on teaching Tobias to ride without training wheels. I am sure he will pick it up about ten times faster than Rose did. But he's fearless.

Now we will have to get our bikes down out of the rafter's of Mom's garage. I need a new seat put on mine as I don't do that type of bike seat anymore. Mine will cost $20. The tires are still in good shape, just need air, and the chain is okay, just needs to be greased.

DH needs a new pedal and a new bike seat. This could get a little costly, but the return in family fun and exercise will be worthwhile. I just hope this old body will react okay with riding. I haven't ridden a bike since 1994, when I was 24. I've been pregnant or recovering from pregnancy or miscarriage, or having abdominal surgery or recovering from having abdominal surgery for the past 12 years. That makes bike riding hard.

But I seem to be past all that now, can't get pregnant anymore without those bits or get endometriosis or PCOS without those bits, don't have a gall bladder or an appendix, don't have much left they could take out, well maybe a kidney, my spleen, or another tumor, but let's hope not, LOL. So I think the bout of abdominal surgeries is well and truly over. And I can ride again. Well, we'll see. That could be an adventure.

Oh, that does sound melodramatic, doesn't it? Well, its not all that drama laden, but sometimes those titles are a bit hard to come up with.

Anyway, ride bracelets were more expensive this year. $20 each, so $40 total for 2 kids. Each kid got a $12 souvinier each.

Foods purchased:
2 kids cones with hard packed ice cream made on site--$5.00
2 adult cones, same--$6.00
2 rainbow snocones--$3.50
2 single flavor snocones--2.50
1 corn dog--$2.00
1 plateful of spatezle, hungarian goulash, carmlized onions and sour kraut--$9.00
large Pepsi--$4.00
3 20 ounce bottles of soda (grape, root beer, Pepsi)--$6.00
1 deluxe funnel cake with powdered sugar, about 2 cups of sugared strawberries and about a cup of whipped cream on top--$7.50
1 bag of cotton candy--$2.00

Total spent on fair food: $45.50. It looks awful but when you consider that is about how much it costs us as a family of four to eat out in a Mexican restaurant with tip, it doesn't seem quite so bad.

We did leave the fair grounds at 7 p.m. and walk the 8 blocks to McDonalds and had double cheese burgers and dollar fries there with waters. Then walked back. We spent about $10 there.

DH lost the reciept for the adult tickets we bought so I'm not sure on that. All in all we spent the $100 planned for the fair.

The ten bucks at McD's came out of the gas money, but I will replace it out of the grocery budget.

Oh, yeah, I did make a purchase of $4.50 to buy a bottle of organic honey mustard (they had samples, DH liked it and he doesn't like mustard usually) that was really good. But I took that out of the gas money, too but will replace it from my grocery budget.

Other loot we came home with for free:
several penicils
2 rulers
2 frisbees
2 can holders
1 yoyo
1 mini flashlight
1 glasses clip for clipping glasses to a sunvisor
a dozen stickers
2 Canadian maple leaf lapel pins from the Canadian border guard booth
2 coloring books
1 highlighter pen
1 antenna ball
1 jar opener that will also work as a coaster in a pinch from the US Customs/Border booth
2 buttons
several recipe pamphlets

I think there is more stuff, but the kids absconded with some of it before I woke up this morning and I didn't really get to go through it all

I'm glad the fair only comes once a year, though. I think we walked about 7 miles if I go based on what it said on Rose's pedometer. It was really hot, so I was glad there were several places we could find shade. Still got overheated though and I don't like that. I spent some time just sitting in the shade while DH herded the kids through the animal barns. That helped. Took me a few hours after the sun went down to completely recover. Feel okay today, just really sore from all the walking and I have a blister between two toes. Not too bad though.

I feel it was a succesful day and the kids know there won't be any more eating out this month and well into next month.

Infusium 23 shampoo and conditioner samples (my 2nd set, I think from a different promotion).

$4 off coupon for Opticleanse contact lens solution. I am going to be switching back to contacts in the near future, I think, and the coupon does not expire for some time.

Sigh. We blew a tire on the way into town tonight. This is one that has already been repaired 3 times so I knew there was no fix to it and I was right. Fortunately DH did not lose control of the car and we were able to pull off to the side of the road within 1/10 of a mile on a nice wide piece of shoulder. And it was a good place to pull off, too, which was a relief because of course it was on the driver's side, closest to the highway traffic.

I am so grateful DH was home. Two days ago I would have been trying to figure out how to change it by myself. I learned many years ago but that was on my old Nova. Even DH had to look in the owner's manual to figure out where the jack went. I'm just really glad I had the locking nuts removed the last time we bought new tires. Had to have them cut off at the time as the tool got tossed out accidently years ago.

Our spare went on as easy as can be but the tire pressure was different between the two front tires and that pulled the alignment out worse than it was already. We decided to go ahead and get two new tires as the tire place had a sale on right now, instead of just one. The other tire was still okay but the wear pattern was a little off and I prefer not to mess around with stuff like that too much when DH is gone so often.

So we bought the two tires that were on sale but ended up getting a free upgrade when they couldn't find the sale tires, even though the computer said they had them. We went ahead and had it realigned since it was so badly out of whack. I had planned on getting it realigned next week anyway when we got the oil change done, so I did have the money for that set aside. It was the tires and their installation money I didn't have.

Well, we charged the extra and we will pay that off next month. It means less eating out again, but we are getting used to that. We were lucky in that we got to the tire shop at 6:10 and they closed at 6:30. The only tire shop in the area that is open past 6:00. And we have bought tires there before and like the shop, too.

We are also lucky this did not happen tomorrow when we were on the way to the fair. I would have hated to have spoiled our day that we have been planning.

If an incident like this has to happen, it happened under all the best possible circumstances. I feel watched over today.

A refund check from the cable company finally came today. $8.29. That will go into savings but not until Monday.

A sample of Lysol Sanitizing Wipes in Citrus scent. It came with two individually wrapped wipe samples.

Tommorrow we are going to the Northwest Washington Fair or as we call it, just the Lynden Fair, because it is in Lynden and is faster to say.

My sister gave me two free children's tickets that her kids won at a homeschool thing they do. But since they are in the process of moving to Mount Lake Terrace they aren't going this year. The value of the tickets is $3 each, so we'll be saving $6 for the kids.

I Believe adult fair is $6 each and then we have to get ride bracelets for the kids. They are now old enough that we don't have to get ride bracelets to go on with them now. Still they cost about $15 to $18 depending on the day. I think it's more expensive tomorrow but it was the only day we can go.

We are planning for one meal there and our other meal we are packing. We usually eat in the 4-H food building so can get quite a good deal on food over buying it at all the little stalls. And good food, too like chicken, fresh sweet corn, and potatoes. Not corn dogs or sausages on a stick or Bavarian doughnut balls or squirrely fries (which the latter has always been just an invitation to food poisoning for DH and me anyway).

Though we will get a funnel cake for the 4 of us to split and we will get a bag of cotton candy to take home for the next day, as eating both part of a funnel cake and half a bag of cotton candy in one day would make Rose's blood sugar go ballistic and we won't even say what that would do to Tobias and his temper. Too much sugar and he is monstrous in attitude.

Each child can have one souvenier that we will buy and if they want to use their own money they can get something more. We usually let them each get one face painting but I am going to try to avoid that this year and remind them firmly of how much their faces itched last time and how it was so hot they sweat the design off within a few hours anyway.

I have budgeted $100 for this day trip, so hopefully I can keep it under that and not right up to it. I will only have that much in my wallet so that it can't go over it. It seems very extravagant for me to spend $100 for one day, but as we are not having a vacation this year at all, one day isn't too bad for our biggest thing of summer.

Today was the day of the automatic weekly deposit of $10 to savings, bringing the total in there to $705.56. $44.44 to go to hit my next goal.

Well, we have a chance to refinance the $149,000 that is left of the mortgage my parents took out on their house to pay my medical bills. The interest rate is a lot lower, the payments would be $300 a month less than what we are making. And it would get paid off ten years sooner.

They are checking with one other company first, but it looks like it will be a go. She didn't want to say anything to me until she knew that everything checked out. So with that $300 a month we could make a car payment. By April we will have $5000 saved up for a down payment. Maybe more, depending on whether or not we can sell the Blazer.

So, this means that even if my husband does not get the better new job with his current company, we will still be able to get the sorely needed new vehicle.

The job closes tomorrow and then it is a waiting game. His boss really wants him to move into this new job, and he (the boss) has some say but not final say. But...there are 6 other people who have applied for it. One has a bachelor's degree who has been out of the industry for 4 years working as a carpenter. One is just finishing up his master's degree and has absolutely no real life job experience. 2 DH works with and and one has no drafting background which has been part of the problem with people in this position before not working out. The other is close to retirement wage and already makes more than the new job pays, which he didn't realize when he applied. So that leaves 2 wild cards we know nothing about.

I am hoping they are the flaky type they've had in the past. Where they ask for petrochemical experience and get a resume from someone who has pumped gas for the last 20 years. But I doubt it. I know that we are probably taken care of now on the needing to get a new car issue.

But I still want this for DH and I know how badly DH wants it, too. He wants to do this before his degree gets rusty. And I want it for our finances. To be able to throw $1000 extra at our debt each month would mean so much towards getting out from under all this massive debt.

Aside from the medical mortgage we still have about roughly $74,000 between the mortgage on our own house and what we have left on our credit cards. $223,000 total. I want it gone. Some days I wish we had declared medical bankruptcy instead of trying to pay this all off ourselves. I don't know where we would be if the hospital hadn't cut our bill in half and we hadn't had medical insurance at all.

DH is a hard worker and a good worker and he really deserves this. I so hope it happens. It would be the answer to so much. I don't have my hopes up though. I'm afraid to because I just don't want to be disappointed.

And to think I didn't think I had anything to blog about tonight and almost skipped. LOL Guess I was wrong.

Okay, let's see how I did, today.

Organic milk (gal.)--normally $5.49 on sale for $4.99
Regular milk (gal.)--normally $3.49 on sale for $1.99
Iceberg lettuce--normally (in summer) .99 on sale for .49
Green grapes--normally (in summer) $1.69 lb for total of $2.64 on sale for .98 lb--$1.52
32 ounce Heinz ketchup--normally $2.39 with .50 coupon $1.89
1 container Pilsburry milk chocolate frosting--normally $1.99 with .40 off coupon $1.49
4 jars Miracle Whip--normally $3.19 per jar, on sale 2 for $3.00 limit 4
2 packages Dannon Danimals drinkable yogurt--normally $3.19 a pack on sale for $2.99 plus $1.00 coupon if you buy 2
Kroger 2 lb cheddar cheese--normally $5.99--on sale for $4.99 with $1.00 coupon was $3.99
20 cans 8 ounce FMV tomatoe sauce--normally .33 each for total of $6.60 on sale for .19 each for total of $3.80

not on sale
2 nectarines @ $2.49 lb was $2.04
Vicks Sinex 12 hour ultra fine mist nasal spray $6.49

Fred Meyer Reward rebate coupon of $3.00 off any purchase

Total regular price: $50.62
Actual price paid: $37.32
Money Saved: $13.30


But I would never buy some of the stuff at the non-sale prices to begin with. The Miracle Whip and Heinz ketchup or the brick cheese for example would be cheaper at Costco in the big bottles or brick but with the sale and the coupons the weren't. So I don't know how true my actual money savings is. My total in non store coupons was $4.40 and with my rebate coupon of $3 I know for sure I saved $7.40 over what I would have normally spent.

So for me True savings was: $7.40. But it was still fun to calculate it all out.

Now if we turn my receipt over we have 1/2 off a second sandwich if you buy a sandwich meal at Port of Subs

$2.00 off any hair cut at Great Clips

$5.00 off two dinner entrees at On Rice Thai Cusine

$18.99 for an oil change and filter at Expert Tire

And a couple other coupons I wouldn't use.

We will for sure use the Great Clips coupon though. Both DH and Tobias need hair cuts and they like Great Clips.

With that coupon, I'd say true savings is $9.40 and if we use the oil change one its about $6 off the regular price around here.

$2 from paypal came through to my checking account this morning so I transferred that to savings, bringing the total to $695.56.

I don't think I'm obsessively worrying about whether or not DH will get this new job with his current company during the day but at night time it seems to be the only thing on my mind.

There is nothing wrong with his current job, it pays well enough to get us by. Maybe it is just that I am so tired of "just" getting by. And that this other job is such a large step up the pay scale.

I want breathing room. More than breathing room, really. I want to be able to buy a new car and not have to keep babying along the '92 and the '96. I feel like I just keep throwing good money after bad with those money pits. Its getting close to the point of not having much choice and if I can only keep one of them going until April when we get back our tax return we should have enough to get something better than what we have.

With the new job though, we would be able to get something really good. Something that isn't too old and gets excellent gas mileage and is reliable enough so we can go back to just having one car again. Maybe even a brand new car. I've never owned a brand new car. I'm not sure if I ever will, but I want to be able to have it as a choice that I could buy one.

So we are saving for it. That is what our long-term savings is planned for. That is what I so obssessively add money to and update on my blog each time I do. And then...I see other people doing stupid things that they shouldn't be doing and getting yet another vehicle they can't really afford. When they didn't need it. They just wanted it.

Other people being SIL and BIL. Again. I have deep running issues with the way SIL and BIL are about money. Mostly because they don't have it but still spend it like the do have it and this is after claiming bankruptcy 5 years ago. No, this actually goes back further than this. But I don't suppose I'll get into it tonight. Much.

Its just hard to watch people get handed things over and over and over again. And we are doing everything we can to sacrifice right now so we can get what we need and pay the hospital debt we owe. A debt we couldn't help. Not a debt we could help or a debt we walked away from. Sometimes I wish we had, but I don't think I was raised to believe it was an option.

There are so many issues that darn new truck of theirs brings up with me. I hate feeling like this. I feel petty and childish and surly. I know their lives have not been a cakewalk but it has been charmed at times beyond their fair share, you know? Stupid, jealous green-eyed monster has ahold of me.

My daughter is forever saying "Life isn't fair!" To which I reply, "Whoever said it was supposed to be?" Dang it, I wish it was supposed to be.

Did I mention that SIL and BIL have digital cable and digital internet? Okay, stop it. You are not a Jones. Quit trying to covet like one!

We'll get there. I know we will. Eventually. But that new job would really, really help. It would improve my attitude markedly as well. I like being positive. So negativity begone. Thanks for the rant.

I got a good freebie in the mail today. A six ounce bottle of Motions CPR Protein Reconstructor, which is a fancy way of saying heavy duty leave in for 5 minutes conditioner. It also has an option of sitting under a hair dryer for 10 additional minutes before rinsing it out. I think I'll try heating a towel in the micro and wrapping it around my head instead.

This should help repair some of the damage I did to my hair a few months ago. Well, not really repair, but improve the appearance of the fried bits until they grow out a bit more and I can snip them off. I am normally a dark reddish auborn haired person with medium curly hair. I got it into my head awhile back to try to go blond. My daughter is blond after all and her complexion is really similar to mine, so I thought it would be okay. Well, three bottles of hair dye later I was back to red hair again, but it was very brittle. Now its almost grown out but the ends are nasty. So hopefully this will help.

Received the new click-thru deposit to paypal today. So I transferred that $2 to the CU. That makes 4 confirmed 1 cent paid to reads that payout. I am going to discontinue the lesser amount PTRs as I hit payout and stick with these.

I had a nice little break from doing them, though and am not going to spend quite so much time on them. I do them around blog readings as the pages load or while watching a DVD or listening to a book on tape, but no just sitting and doing them.

I am still waiting for the payment from Classical Mails. They take forever. It says 3 to 15 days but last time they took the full 15 and they seem to be taking it this time, too. I don't understand why it takes so long when they are the same company that runs one of the one cent ones I do that pays out in 48 to 72 hours. I want my $5. Sigh.

My MIL gave me $100 today. She had spent that much on her daughter's family and she likes to keep things even with us, too.

I also paid back savings $6. I still owe it $50, but that will have to wait until next payday. DH's check was short by about $60 due to a delay with the charter plane that goes from Anchorage to Kuparuk, so he got into work a couple hours late his first day up and didn't get started as soon as usual. Sigh.

So total added to savings was $106 today. Not as good as $156, but much better than I thought it would be. I'm happy. I breezed right by the $600 mark and the $650 mark and landed at a total of $$693.56. Forgot to add the 44 cents to even it up, but I can live with that. I'm just $6.44 from $700 and just $56.44 from my next goal of $750 and I will hit both of those goals this month. Then onwards to my fourth goal of $1000. Wow. This savings thing is really starting to get fun!

I don't think I've ever had this much money in savings except when I've had a tax return back. Nice.

This is fairly new, but something I've started so I'll use my blog to plan. This is for family meals so I won't state quantities. We have a higher protein content due to Rose's prediabetes and the rest of us eat pretty much the same as she does and we eat our largest meal of the day at lunch. I can plan to use up leftovers and know what items I need to make larger batches of by writing it out. That's all this post is about so if you aren't interested, skip on.

Day One

Breakfast
organic O's cereal with milk
blueberries
cucumber slices
eggs

Lunch
small salad
corn on the cob
chicken
green beans
milk
homemade strawberry frozen fruit bar

Dinner
chicken quesadilla
broccoli/cauliflower

Day Two

Breakfast

turkey ham
cantaloupe
whole grain toast with blackberry preserves
milk

Lunch

Spaghetti noodles with homemade sauce of tomatoes, garlic, scallions, oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, red bell pepper
3 cheese garlic meatballs
Homemade French bread with homemade garlic/parsley butter
kohlrabi
milk

Dinner
Meatball sandwiches made with the lunch leftovers of sauce and bread
broccoli/cauliflower
apple juice

Day 3
Blueberry Muffin
Frittata (eggs, turkey ham, cheese, chopped broccoli/cauliflower) topped with a bit of leftover sauce from previous day
milk

Lunch
tacos (meat, lettuce, cheese, shell)
blueberries stirred into vanilla yogurt
carrots
ice cream
orange juice

Dinner
taco salads made with leftovers from lunch
milk

Day Four

Breakfast

Homemade beef sausage patties
organic O's cereal with milk and blueberries

Lunch
big beef pot roast
mashed potatoes (make big pot, save out half before mashing) with homemade beef gravy
cucumber slices
big batch broccoli/cauliflower
milk

Dinner
small salad
roast beef hash made with leftover potroast and leftover potatoes
nectarines
carrot/apple juice (freshly juiced)
blueberry muffin

Day Five

Breakfast

Hashbrowns (from saved out potatoes and 1/4 of an onion)
Egg scramble with cheese, low-sodium no sugar bacon, little chunks of broccoli and cauliflower, and onion
pineapple juice

Lunch

Homemade pizzas made with leftover beef sausage, pepperoni, ham, green peppers, onion and pineapple (pineapple only for DH's portion)
rest of pineapple (the rest of us will eat it raw only, not cooked)
milk

Dinner
Last of held out potatoes, pan fried, with salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano
canned salmon over lettuce

Day Six

Breakfast

whole grain toast with blackberry preserves
canned salmon omlette with cheese
milk

Lunch

Cod fish nuggets (homemade, just chunks of cod dipped in milk then in parmesan cheese
Baked potato with cheese and broccoli
vanilla yogurt with blueberries stirred in

Dinner

Meatloaf: dice up and throw in whatever veggies need to be used up as well as eggs, crumbs, cheese and a bit of tomato sauce into a ground beef/ground turkey base

Day Seven

Breakfast

Turkey ham
organic 0's cereal with milk
plums

Lunch

whole roasted chicken
roasted carrots and potatoes
green beans
cucumber slices
cherries
milk

Dinner

Leftover meatloaf sandwiches
cantaloupe
chocolate brownies
milk


For snacks it will vary between peanut butter celery or cream cheese celery, crackers with either cheddar or mozzarella, sunflower seeds and almonds with carrot sticks, air popped popcorn (2 cups at a time) and a bag of Bugles (to be eaten in one cup portions) with a small protein choice, usually nuts, and the bad one, Cheez Whiz on whole grain toast. I allow for a bit of junkiness in the kids's diets, but not much.

And that's all she wrote.

Didn't quite get this in under the wire so it will post as Friday but its Thursday's stuff.

First savings: Today was the day of the weekly auto transfer of $10 to savings, bringing that account to $587.56. Just $12.44 shy of $600, which I'll go over tomorrow when I deposit the $56.44 I owe to that account. We'll see if there is any more left after paying the bills that can be squeezed out for savings.

Today (8/10) was Rose's 10th birthday. It was a relatively good day. She got 2 Mermaidia Barbie dolls, a magnetic tin with magnetic car games like tic tac toe, checkers, pyramid solataire and lots of writing paper in it for hangman or other games, and a basketball. She also got 4 books, 2 of them Judy Blume ones that I read as a kid.

When her dad gets back he is going to take her to get a used Game Cube. She is paying half with birthday money she got from the grandparents. My parents also gave her a rabbit she made with my mother at the Build a Bear Workshop. Not sure what the other set of grandparents will do. They bought my son a bigger bike as he had grown two sizes from the one he had, but they did that in June and his birthday was in March.

Rose does not need a new bike. Though by the time they get around to buying one for her, she might. They are notoriously late, though generous. I'm still waiting for what I asked for when she asked me what I wanted for my birthday in February which was a hard anodized caphalon 12 inch skillet. Not a whole set or anything, just the one pan. It'll come, though. Some day. LOL

Tomorrow is payday and grocery day. I will be making a smaller Costco run as I only need a few items, but I really NEED the few items that I need. Definitely under $100 there. Probably closer to $50. I also have to go to Fred Meyer and Haggen. Maybe Cost Cutter, too, I haven't had a chance to look over their flyer. Fortunately, I can do a loop route as they are all within a three mile circle. I'm only buying loss leaders and sale items at the 3 regular grocery stores.

I hope to hit the farm stand on my way home and get more cherries. And possibly go to one of the farms where they grow kohlrabi. My second planting of it got wiped out by the 90 to 100 degree heatwave last month. Hopefully, their's didn't. I love kohlrabi. It is my favorite vegetable. And very low on the glycemic index, too. Have to watch stuff like that as Rose is prediabetic. She loves kohlrabi, too. Maybe I should try one more planting. If September stays hot...they could make it and if not, they're only seeds.

I picked 2 gallons of blueberries from one of my mother's trees (yes, trees, I call them, they are 6 feet tall). I only managed to clear about 2/3 of the one tree. I hope to pick more tomorrow. The other tree is heavily loaded, too but I don't know if I'll be able to get to it before the birds, do.

I did pick a quart size baggy for my dad. He can't see well enough to go out and pick some each morning for his cereal like he used to. He's not blind, but his brain no longer processes images properly so he doesn't see what is right in front of him. It's been bad as he can no longer read and if you knew my dad, well...that is heart-breaking. Add that to the mid-level dementia that is creeping forward. Well, a few berries seems like not enough to do for him. I do read to him when I can. And Rose has started to, also.

Wow, I got chatty tonight. And way off the point of blogs. Well, the berries are free food, so that is saving money, right?

Cashed out a new click-thru tonight for $2.

Still have one $5 payment pending. I wish they'd light a fire under themselves and start moving.

I know because I counted. 27 days until school starts. Why did I count? Because if I didn't know better, if I didn't know that normally my kids are sweet, loving, good to each other children, I'd be thinking I'd given birth to demon spawn. I can survive for 27 more days. And hopefully the kids won't actually kill each other.

I do not know what has gotten into them. I had to threaten Rose that if she slammed her bedroom door one more time today I was going to take it off its hinges and she wouldn't have one. I know how to do it, too, and I will so its not an empty threat. Rose had already broken Tobias' door when she kicked it open so hard and it pushed the door stop right through the wall when she body slammed it after getting it open, so now T has a hole in his wall. That's going to cost money to fix. Plus, we will have to rehang his door and fix the latch.

I am at my wit's end. Rose never loses her temper. T can be a pain and get angry on occassion, but not Rose. Hormones, I think. I hate puberty.

Okay, got that out of my system for now. Thanks for the vent. It stopped raining (rained all day yesterday) and the sun is out now, but it isn't too hot. I have laundry to hang. And getting fresh air will restore my lightness of spirit for the next go-round. Back to the trenches.

The paypal transfer of the $1.71 from cashforaction showed up in my bank account today, so I transferred that to savings, bringing my total in savings to $577.56. When I add the $56 in on Friday I will also add an additional $0.44, as I really don't like non-rounded amounts. I have a bit of a compulsion about numbers. I like them even numbers and whole numbers. I'll take the $0.44 from my change jar. Fortunately, this only rears its head in regards to money with my savings account. My checking account can have odd numbers in it, just fine.

DH and I had a long phone conversation last night. His company has an opening for a higher position and it looks like he may have a shot at getting it. He's been with the company for 10 years and has a very good reputation as a hard working, detail-oriented person. When he got his second degree 4 years ago it was for what this position does.

I am so hoping he gets it. If he does the starting scale is $1000 net per month more than what he makes now. Net. Not gross. $12,000 a year more take home pay. When I think where we could use that much money...Of course, he would no longer be on a 2 and 2, he'd be on a 3 and 3. That would be hard. Especially for the kids. But he'd be home for a longer stretch of time when he was home.

And instead of having to buy 12 plane tickets a year, he'd only have to buy 9, which is a savings of from $1500 to $2000 a year. It would also mean 3 less hotel bills for a total of $300. So ultimately closer to $14,000 more net a year.

Because it is in the same company there would be no changes in his medical, dental or vision benefits.

And that is just the starting wage. The position tops out at $575 a day. This would be the answer to just so many of our problems. To not have to pinch quite so tightly on everything. We could get the credit cards paid off, then the house mortgage, then the medical mortgage on Mom's house. And buy the car we need to get soon. It would make all of our goals reachable in ten years time.

I'm afraid to hope for it. I don't want to start counting any chickens either. But if...if, if, if...it would be pretty wonderful. And I'd still use everything that I have learned in the past 4 months here at this site. I'm not about to let go again and go wild with money. I'll still do my surveys and my click-thrus and my product evaluations. But maybe I'd be able to use them to open my own IRA instead of for a down payment on a car.

The last time I prayed this hard was when I was trying to carry a pregnancy to term the last time. I eventually got that 2nd surviving child, albeit with a boatload of medical bills between the two. Not to mention all the ones that came afterwards. (At least I never had to pay for infertility stuff. Getting pregnant was never the problem. Staying that way was.) Now with this, we would finally be able to put a dent in those bills.

I really, really want this. Almost as much as I wanted my kids. Is it wrong to want something this much?

Okay, I got the $15 in rolled coin deposited today and I cashed the check from SendEarnings. I put $2.85 of that check into savings and kept $50. I will pay that $50 and an additional $6 back to savings on Friday. Total in savings now is $575.85.

I also went to the doctor today. He doesn't charge me my copay, he just charges the insurance company what they pay. I love my doctor. He delivered me so I have known him all my life! He is a very good man and he always makes sure I can afford whatever medications I need.

Well, today I had a raging kidney infection. He does the lab work right there in the office and he says its the worst he's seen me have. I do get them a couple times a year, and this one did feel worse. The onset was very fast, too. Anyway, I ended up with only having to pay a total of $20 for 2 prescriptions, both generic at my insurances $10 copay for each.

Had a nice chat with the pharmacist. Love my pharmacist, too. I've known him since I was a kid. He always makes sure I know what I need to know about new meds and how the will or will not interact with any other meds I'm on. So basically, no interactions, take with food, stay out of the sun. The last of which I am only too happy to oblige right now. I just don't like 80 degree weather.

So all I spent today was that $20. I had a free dinner at my mother's house. Two double cheeseburgers from McD's. She buys them 20 at a time and has them on hand for Dad or when the grandkids stop by. Big meal for me but I didn't eat lunch. Then I went out back and picked some blueberries for dessert. Took a quart size Ziploc full home with me. I'll pick a bunch more on Thursday when we go in again. There's at least 10 gallons worth ripe on the trees right now.

$10 from paypal came through to my credit union so I transferred that to my savings account. That total is now at $558. I will deposit $15 in rolled coin today. I ended up using the Sacajewea dollar to pay a fine of my husband's at the library. But I will replace that dollar along with the $5 I found in the McD's parking lot that I ended up using for gas (because I'd left my Shell cards at home) on Friday when we get paid.

I forgot about an auto payment that will come due one day before payday so I will put the check from SendEarnings in my regular account and then move that amount to my savings CU on Friday also.

I took the weekend off from doing click-thrus so I won't be cashing anything out this week, I don't think.

Oh, the $1.71 from cashforaction finally showed up in my paypal account today so I transferred that to my CU. I am still waiting for the $5 from the other one to show up at paypal.

The big check came today, $52.85. Of course, it came on a day I can't deposit it! One of the new click-thrus, the one I cashed out last night, showed up in paypal today. I am still waiting on the $5 one that was supposed to have a 72 hour turn around. I cashed it out on Tuesday so I guess they are not legitimate or they are really, really slow. If it hasn't shown up by Monday, I'll send them a query.

I haven't been able to get into my online banking today to see if any of the paypal transfers came through there. They are doing maintenance. Gee, why can't they do it in the middle of the night like everyone else does?

It's way too hot again today. 82. We are going back out to the pool now.

I found $5 in the parking lot at McDonald's today. So not only did I not have to pay for our meals because of the gift certificates I found earlier, but I came home $5 richer. And quite a bit saner after the kids played in playland for 3 hours. The change of scenery was just what they needed to stop their fighting. The rest of the day has gone smoothly. I meant to mow the lawn but I just kind of didn't do it. LOL At least I added chemicals to the pool so it can be used tomorrow. It's getting hot again and we will want to get in tomorrow, I'm sure.

I will add the $5 to the $16 of rolled coin so one of these days will be adding in $21 to my savings account. Which will bring my total to $569. I'm not sure I'll get there before next Friday at the rate I'm going, and by then some click-thrus will have been deposited and I may have the big check, and of course the next $10 auto deposit. I'll hit well over $600 soon.

I cashed out a click-thru today for $2. Seems so piddly, these little amounts but they add up. So far August is shaping up nicely.