Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

I signed up for the six paid to read email sites that comparerewards listed in her blog and have already started making money. Sure, its peanuts, or pennies, but its still something. It definitely falls under the something for nothing category, although technically, its something for almost nothing.

In my pursuit of the penny, with the subject of people keep giving me money heading, I was given yet another cent extra in change because the store did not want to give me four pennies. They gave me a nickle instead. This brings my total of free money up to $0.94. When I reach one dollar I'll have to go back and see what day I began tracking on. I think its only been about 2 weeks.

Well, today was payday so I had to spend money. After the kids got off to school we drove to town and paid:

1. Mortgage on our house, $400, payment amount is $375.86, regular payment and $24.14 to extra principal.
2. Bank of America Visa, $850.
3. Power bill, $110 (this will change either June or July, as they readjust for the budget program.
4. Lunch out at the appropriately titled Cinco de Mayo, $38 for the two of us, plus take home for the kids, and enough leftovers for 2 more meals for me and DH.
5. Costco (I kept my resolve of not shopping at Costco for a whole month) for just a few items we were completely out of, chili, cheese, 10 pound bag of fries, pepperoni (for homemade pizza), hoagie rolls, 50 pound bag of bread flour, and crackers, came to $70. I never walk out of Costco under $100, so I was thrilled.

Then we had to go back home and to the elementary school to watch the egg drop the fourth graders were doing. Each child had to come up with packaging that would protect an egg from cracking if it were dropped from 25 feet. Rose's worked and the egg didn't crack. There were 80 kids and approximately half of them broke. It was fun watching, but in the back of my head I kept thinking how far all those eggs would go to feed people. I didn't like the idea of that kind of waste, even for a science/physics lesson that was pretty cool.

After school we had to come back to town (ouch, that's $18 in gas just today). We also filled up at the Arco, which was running at $3.13 a gallon, everywhere else is $3.27 except Costco. So that was $40 into the gas tank.

We still have to buy printer ink. Oh, and Rose is having dance pictures with her class tonight in her recital costume, so that's another $14.

Believe it or not we still have nearly $300 left to pay for upcoming bills. Next payday will only have 4.5 hours on it, so I had to hold some cash back. The only bills coming due next week are cell phone and water delivery (some might call this a luxury, but we've had e.coli in our tap water too many times due to problems at the water district, so its not, and its cheaper than buying bottled water).

So that's where things stand today.

I've been really thinking about what I can do to get the savings ball rolling a little faster, but I'm kind of hiding from it at this point. I will be able to figure this out after keeping the spending journal all month. I see a little bit in just the four days I have tracked and its all in the areas I figured it would be in. This is of course, eating out. This is going to be the hardest thing for me.

I am a right fine cook but there are days when I just don't wanna (insert pentulent toddler's whine here). Even though I have everything prepped and ready to go and can be done in the kitchen in less than 15 minutes, I still go up against this resistance some days. I am a lazy cook, that is my biggest road block. I may be good at it, but that has been more by accident and good training than by any real effort on my part.

We have planned one meal out this week and that is an 11:00 lunch tomorrow at our favorite Mexican place. We are going early because it is Cinco de Mayo and because lunch portions are cheaper than dinner portions and to avoid the crowds. It will be just DH and me as the kids are in school all day, so it won't be quite as expensive.

This one meal out was the only one we had planned for this two week period and we went out yesterday when we shouldn't have because we both had a case of lazy cook's disease. And DS was not in school yesterday so he came, too, which was more expensive.

I've got to keep this under control, so I am making a goal that after tomorrow there will be no more unplanned restaurant meals. I am going to do my level best to stick to that and report in on how I did with this goal every day.

Well, technically one more sample came in the mail today but it is a really good one. I got the Glad Force Flex garbage bag. I only signed up for this on the 12th of April and it came in 22 days, even though it sad 4 to 6 weeks. Nice turn around time there.

I also signed up for four more freebies today. Nice little freebie flurry after the drought.

I don't know what has gotten into me today. I'm not usually this chatty. Or maybe I am and it just usually comes out in one long burst.

It's been a few days since I've updated this, but I now have been given a grand total of $0.93 by people who did not want to make proper change. I know this is very silly to keep track of, but I also get a kick out of it, so there you go.

DH and I had a long talk and we have decided to try to sell the Blazer. I say try because I don't know if there is anyone out there who is willing to pay for a vehicle that averages 16 mpg during this current gas crisis. Under the cheaper gas days we probably could have seen $4000 for it, but now, who knows?

It is a luxury model we bought used and is in excellent shape and has been well-maintained but I think at this point we'd only get $2000 for it. But even with that, it would cut our insurance in half almost. And it would give us a start to our new (to us) car fund.

DH is in Alaska so much of the time that it is silly to try to keep and maintain two vehicles. We will keep the better car and use it as our trade in when we do purchase a new one in a few years. It gets just over 20 mpg and is more comfortable and easier to drive anyway.

Today is the day of my electronic funds transfer, so there is now $10 more in long term savings, bringing my total to $195. $60 more until I can open an ING account and get the $25 bonus. I have to keep a minimum of $5 in this CU savings account to keep it open, so that's why it is $60 more instead of $55.

So I have six more weeks to go, although I may add another $5 tomorrow (payday) if there is anything left after the credit card payment and our own mortgage payment, and all the utilities.

I got our propane bill yesterday in the mail. It dropped from $262 to $167 and of course will drop much more this next time since the furnace is off now.

Not this time, but next time DH comes home we are going to start bringing in wood. We have to figure out who we need to get the permit from, but we are going to go out on one of the gravel bars by the river and cut up dead wood that has washed on shore during flood season. Just have to avoid salmon season.

I saw an ad for an online Citi savings account offering 4.5% interest. That might break my 15 year resolve of never doing any business with Citi. Hmm, I'll have to think on it.

It's another gorgeous day here in the foothills and windy, so I'm off to hang towels on the clothesline. Laundry never ends, does it?

I signed up for 2 more things tonight, 1 a trail offer for a product evaluation worth $18, but had to pay S&H of $6.95, which will be reimbursed if I choose not to keep it, which I will choose, even though I plan on evalutating the software properly. I had this offer available through 3 different companies and went with the one with the biggest payoff.

Then I signed up for Eversave for $1.50 signup. I could have signed up for it with MyPoints but the points offered were so piddly, I'd rather have the cash, even though it will be July for this current batch of signups to pay up.

I also signed up for 2 freebies, after not having any I thought I'd use since the 29th.

I did a long survey today, they said 20 minutes but it was closer to 30, that I got 100 points for at NFO. Their surveys are usually only 10 points. I'm not sure how many points it takes to get anything from them, things are starting to get blurry, though I do have it all written down in my notebook. Can't be disorganized on this stuff.

Gas prices were at $3.27 on the border town near us. It's still less at the Arco, but I don't know for how much longer. We have to fill up on Friday and I am not looking forward to that.

I got my first real sample in the mail today. I don't count the DVD for RVing, because it is not really something that I will be able to use for anything in my real life. At least not right now.

I got the Reach flosser, a pretty blue one. I am really looking forward to using this tonight as my back teeth are tightly packed and it can be hard to get back there with floss. My dental hygeniest used one on me once and I loved it. Of course, I managed to lose that one before I could ever used it. I used to be very disorganized. Not anymore, so I'll keep track of this one! It's already in my toothbrush holder.

I found an old coin jar that went missing about 2 years ago and it had enough dimes and quarters to roll up one each, so I will have $15 more to add to the freezer money account. Cool. That will go in on Friday.

Deposited $11 worth of rolled coin to my freezer money account. Of course, I forgot the envelope with the bills in it at home. I took it out of my purse so I wasn't carrying it around and then forgot I didn't have it. Oh, well, it will keep until Friday when more banking stuff needs to be done.

I still need to take the aluminum cans in, but can do that Friday when I make my next trip to town. I just need to remember to do it.

Signed up for 3 trial offers today:
Great Fun for $1 for 30 days, $8 signup payment with a $20 gas card.
Buyer's Edge, free 30 days, $4 signup.
And Red Blossom, free 2 weeks, $17 signup.
Total $29.

I haven't had a chance to look through the freebies for yesterday or today yet. I have laundry hanging on the clothesline.

I took a good look at my dishwasher and it has 3 settings, heavy duty wash, normal wash, and short wash. Since I pre-rinse everything there is not reason for me to be doing the first two, so I am trying it on short wash. The dishes looked clean. I also have never used heat dry, and when it finishes the wash cycle I am turning it off. It would go for another ten minutes or so if I didn't and it basically does nothing since heat dry isn't on.

I don't know how much more we can decrease our electric bill, but I'd like to find out! Once I get that expense cut down as low as possible, than I'll pick a new thing to cut down on and see where that goes.

I didn't go through yesterday's mail until I got offline last night. I got 2 Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards from Every Day Values, total of $20! Yippee! $1 out and $19 in. Not bad for a few minutes of filling in forms. Now I just have to remember to cancel it before the 30 days are up.

DH has been wanting to get a digital food scale to help him on his diet, so I'll have to go see what they have there and how much it costs.

As I mentioned previously, DH comes home tomorrow. So far this new saving thing has gone fairly well. With DH stuck up in the arctic circle in barracks with no access to a place to spend money, its been up to me. With him home, I'm not sure it will remain easy. He has always been the main spender in the relationship. Well, maybe that isn't true. He's always been the first spender. I've always been the rebound spender. As in, DH just spent all this money on himself, what do I get?

That sort of thinking has been curtailed somewhat over the last couple of years, but I'm just so unsure of what is going to happen with him actually home. We have talked about it and agreed what we are going to do, but will he keep up his end or will he not, and then the two of us fall back into old destructive spending habits?

He will only be home for one week this hitch and that will help with lessening urges to spend, but it isn't easy on the family when he doesn't come home for the full two weeks. And it looks like he may be working more 3 and 1's instead of 2 and 2's for awhile. Financially, I can't complain. Each extra week means a very tidy sum of money, and an extra large credit card payment for that month. Emotionally, its really tough on the kids. I don't like it either, but I'm a loner, always have been so I cope better than most would, I think.

I guess I'll talk to him about all this. No use in keeping it to myself. It feels good to have gotten it out there in cyberspace, so I'm not obsessing on it all night and can sleep peacefully.

I really dislike school fundraisers. I didn't like doing them when I was in school and I don't like doing them as a parent either. I feel like if it isn't one thing it is another with that school. I miss homeschooling and not having to feel like I should be paying extra for stuff, but it was Rose's choice to go back to school at the start of 4th grade and I never had any intention of homeschooling Tobias, he wears me out too fast.

Anyway, this week the school is having the scholastic book fair. Unlike when I was a kid, it isn't just books they sell now. They have all kinds of trinkets and other garbage. I made Rose use her own money for trinkets and the diary she wanted. I did buy a couple of books for the kids, though.

They are also selling tickets for the school carnival right now which is Saturday. DH will be home and he can take the kids. I don't do crowded places, I'm not exactly claustrophobic, more like crowd phobic, it just really raises my anxiety levels.

I wasted a little money today on a meal out, I knew I was dealing with stress by eating fast food and that it wasn't wise, either healthwise or moneywise, but I did it anyway. Spent almost nine dollars, it was so unnecessary, but it did help with the stress so there you go.

We had a hail storm this morning (hello, Mother Nature? It's May!), and there was a threat of freezing tonight, so I took the shelves out of my portable greenhouse and stuck it over my two tomato plants. I really do not want to lose those. Now I'm glad I couldn't find the bean seeds because a freeze would keep them from sprouting.

I hung two loads of laundry today. I keep thinking I'm going to catch up, but then it rains. We are supposed to have yet another weather swing tomorrow and it will be at a high of 70. I don't know that I particularly believe them anymore, but we shall see.

I haven't signed up for any freebies or trial offers today. My laptop is making an atrocious noise. The fan keeps trying to commit suicide but so far hasn't succeeded. I am going to find out if I can get the fan replaced or not. I can't afford a new laptop yet, that is what all my survey money and mypoints g.c.'s will go for.

I don't particularly like using the desktop PC. The screen is too big and too close (can't adjust it further back or it will fall off the desk) and the chair is not comfortable, so hopefully the other is a fast fix. DH just had to have the mondo sized computer screen. The only thing I like about the PC is the ergonomic keyboard. Okay, I'm whining now, so enough of that.

I'm going to go wander through one of the survey sites and see if there isn't anything I can sign up for.

So April is over and I finally feel like I am one step beyond chaos. I started this blog on April 9th with $105 in my long term savings account, and today there is $185 in it. My only goal was to add $10 a week to it, but somewhere along the way I put in $50 that I didn't need. Maybe that won't happen every month, but I at least know that its a possibility. It all seems very strange.

I feel like the dream of finacial stability is reachable. Seems odd with such a small amount in savings, but it will get better and I will get better at putting money in. I don't feel helpless. I know its still a pretty steep hill I'm climbing, but at least I'm climbing.

I had to talk to my daughter tonight about using electricity. She had got it into her head that she couldn't turn the lights on at all, so she and her brother were sitting in the dark playing games from the light of the tv. I told her that we were trying to turn lights off in rooms we weren't using, not the ones we were in and that they didn't have to sit in the dark. I think she understands now. At least she turned on the light.

Maybe I've been a little overzealous about saving money, but I don't think I ever said she coudn't turn the lights on in a room she was in. Well, we'll see how it goes now that she understands the difference between wasting electricity and using electricity.

Frugal things I did today:
Hung 2 loads of laundry on the clothesline.
Baked a loaf of bread while the potroast was in the oven.
Cooked from my pantry and freezer.
Earned $8 for signing up for a free trial with gamefly, and 50 cents for signing up for another survey company, this one supposedly pays a minimum of $4 per survey, but we will see.

I did turn down one survey invitation today. It was paying $34.95 to evaluate and survey a dating site. Now I filled out a big profile on this survey site and one of the things it asks is marital status, so I don't know why the heck they are sending that offer to a married woman. I talked to DH about it and he said sign up for it, you don't have to do anything about it, but I just don't think it is ethical to do that. So I didn't. Sure wish I could have done it if I'd been single, though.

I've been thinking about what kind of goals I should have for May. Not quite sure exactly, but I probably should try to keep a complete accounting of all spending for a month. I have a pretty good idea of where we waste money, but I'm sure there are things that just slip by, as well. So I'll keep a little notebook in my purse and jot down everything I spend and for what and see where I might improve things.

Tomorrow I will have to buy some pole bean seeds. I don't know where they got to, and I know I had 2 packages of them but they aren't with my other seeds, so bummer. I did manage to weed the strawberry bed and cut down and weed half the herb bed. Managed to dig up a few starts of oregano, it likes to make babies in the walkways so I always dig them out and offer them on freecycle. We are going to have a garage sale this summer though, so maybe I'll sell them for a quarter each. Way cheaper than at a nursery, and not too expensive for garage sale pricing.

Gambling scares the living daylights out of me. I think if I were ever to start I'd never find my way back out again. I don't even like stopping at the reservation casino to use the facilities when the kids can't make it all the way home. I see all these people that seem like they are chained to slot machines and card tables. I don't even buy lotto tickets. Never have in my life.

DH has bought lotto tickets a couple of times but he pretty much avoids it, too. Well, today in the newspaper they had a coupon page for 2 free scratch tickets and 2 free lotto tickets, no strings attatched, unless you count the possibility of a gambling addiction rearing its ugly head.

Okay, maybe I am a little overboard about this whole fear of gambling, but I'm not even sure if I shoud try to use these tickets. It seems irrational not to use free coupons for free tickets. Then again, since my uncle was shot to death for cheating in a poker game when I was 3, maybe its just as well that I am irrational about it. I suppose I can just hand them to DH and have him decide what to do with them when he gets home, take the whole thing out of my hands.

My alarm clock did not go off this morning. I have no idea why. It is still set properly and was on, it just didn't go. I suppose I may have to get a new one. This one is 15 years old, and it is just possible that it is not working. Anyway, we all slept through Tobias's soccer game. He never sleeps in, he is usually up before everyone else, but today he did. He must have needed it. I know I did.

I suppose it is just as well that we didn't go to the game because it was raining something awful. Watching soccer in the rain is not my favorite pasttime, and either I or Rose come down with a cold if we do.

So we stayed home today. The kids have cabin fever, though and are picking at each other. I considered at one point going out to eat with them, but I didn't really want to inflict them on anybody else, and that would be spending money that was unplanned and waste gas.

Later on I considered going to the grocery store, just to get out of the house, but again, I don't really need anything at the closest grocery store and even that is 10 miles away. My car averages 20.1 MPG, so that is a whole gallon of gas just to drive the round trip. I chose not to do that.

Then I wanted to go down to the little convenience store a mile away and buy ice cream, as we are out of ice cream. I really had to talk myself out of that one. I didn't need to waste the gas, I was going to be near the store that had ice cream on sale on Monday, I didn't need the ice cream, I just wanted it so I could stress eat, because the kids were driving me batty.

The rain finally stopped and the sun is out, so I could walk it, but the ice cream would be all melted by the time I got home with it. But no. So no wasted gas and no money spent.

We are going to make brownies tonight from stuff on hand and maybe that will get rid of my sweet tooth without me driving down to get ice cream, that I just want and certainly don't need.

I'm a little stir crazy, too. DH gets back Monday at midnight, so I can relax a bit then and get away from the kids a little. They are great kids but there are days when I just really want them to go be great kids at someone else's house.

Today I paid the mortgage my parents took out on their house to pay my medical bills. It is $935 a month and I paid $1000. Then I went to the courthouse and paid the property tax, $364.69. I'm just glad I don't have to pay my parents property tax. Even with their senior exemption, its a few thousand dollars, ouch. One of the benefits of living in the boonies on a 1/3 of an acre piece of land.

I went to the grocery store and bought milk, tomato plants and tidal wave and easy wave petunias, a planned purchase. I didn't make it over to the credit union to deposit the freezer money, but I've put it in a sealed envelope so I have to tear it open to spend it. The extra step will make it easier to not just blindly grab it, I think. Also, I forgot to grab the aluminum cans this morning so didn't do that either. Well, maybe on Monday.

Filled up the car, at $3.05 per gallon, coming to $43, in an 18 gallon tank that had 3 to start with. Still an ouch. I've set aside an extra $10 to put into long-term savings, also.

I cashed out my first survey check, so that will be issued June 1 and will be $49.84. So cool, for just a few hours work. It's all good. Now I best get those tomato plants into the ground and hang some more laundry. It is 75 degrees right now and I can probably dry another load by tonight, maybe two.

I forgot to mention I also did an evaluation survey this morning and earned $15.

Or more accurately had her finger broken by a boy at school. Not on purpose or anything, just horseplay at recess. We were able to get a late night appointment at the after hours pediatric clinic her pediatrician's group has, and the x-rays confirm it is broken. She has to keep a splint on it for two weeks and can't play soccer during those two weeks, and then has to have it checked and if it has healed well can play in the last game. And no P.E., either so she is really bummed.

She's worried that she won't be able to do her school work, she's in the middle of what the kids call W-Awful testing, which is actually WASL testing, our state's No Child Left Behind thing. Next week is the third and final week, and I don't know how she is going to write properly with her hand all splinted and wrapped. I suppose I shouldn't worry too much, she's only in 4th grade.

So, anyway, had to make 2 trips to town today, once for Tobias to work with his dance instructor for his recital solo and then again to the doctor's office. Had to make a co-pay of $15 and did end up having to use my roll of quarters to put gas in the gas tank, for the unexpected trip, but I am putting ten dollars in to the freezer money account tomorrow to replace it. I think I will take my aluminum cans in tomorrow when I do my banking and shopping, so I can deposit that money, too.

Tomorrow is payday and it can't come too soon for me. Today was the electronic funds transfer of $10 into long term savings, bringing that to the $185 I mentioned last night.

I am going to be able to send for a survey check tomorrow, too as everything I've done so far has now come through and I have hit the $40 mark it requires for a check. If I read their thing right, it should come the first week of June.

Today was 60, not much wind, but I hung a load of laundry anyway and the towels that were in the rain yesterday where almost dry by night. I think they ended up wetter then when I hung them up in the first place. But tomorrow is supposed to be like today so I can hang more.

I signed up for a freebie today and that is about it on the frugal zone.

I like these no spend days. Not that I wasn't challenged to spend. The kids had early dismissal from school and of course, they wanted to go somewhere and do something. Not going to happen. I have exactly 2 gallons of gas in the car and $12 to buy gas until Friday and I have to go to town tomorrow so Tobias can meet with his dance teacher, he has a solo in the recital and she wants some extra time with him, and then soccer practice tomorrow night. I will have enough gas for the trip, the half trip and then to get to town on Friday which is payday and I can fill it up again.

I do have a roll of quarters for back up but I do not want to touch that, its supposed to go into my freezer money account on Friday. But I will have it just in case. I already owe the freezer money account the $35 I was supposed to put in and ended up using for gas money. I've tweaked my budget around again so I don't think I'll run out of gas money next time.

I have to pay property tax on Friday, yuck. It is so inconvenient right now to go to the courthouse, there is a big case and there is no parking, but at least I'll be making a town run anyway, so it won't be extra gas wasted.

Last night the weatherman claimed it would just be overcast until early afternoon and then there would be sun, so I hung laundry out this morning and of course, it rained. So I had stuff on my drying rack, stuff on hangers hanging from my shower curtain rod, stuff hanging from the treadmill, stuff on the gazelle and shirts on the backs of all the kitchen chairs. Well, it is drying. I got spoiled by 3 beautiful, sunny days. There's actually still a load of towels hanging on the clothesline but since there is nowhere to dry them, they are staying there until tomorrow and then I will spin them in the washer and hang them in the house. My goal of not using the dryer for the rest of the month has almost made it and I don't want to give in on it yet.

Tomorrow there will be an electronic funds transfer to my long-term savings account of $10, bringing my total to $185. $65 more to go and I can open an ING account and get the free $25 for doing so. I know it seems like such a small amount compared to what some people are saving, but this is still so new for me, and I am proud of myself for doing this much.

I earned $2 for a survey I took today. I am going to sign up for a couple more trial offers tonight after the kids have gone to sleep. One pays $20 and the other $10, so my nice little balance is growing and I will be able to request a check once it hits $40. Unfortunatey its a net30 payoff, so I'll have to wait a bit over a month to get it, but that's okay, it'll be coming and when it does it goes straight into short term savings, which I haven't created yet, but will.

I am actually starting to enjoy this whole saving money thing. I feel like I've gone from passive acceptance to proactive fighting to save and get out of debt.

It is so nice out today. It's not quite as hot as yesterday, but there is a bigger breeze so the laundry is drying just as fast. I am starting to think I will get through this huge backlog of laundry without having to use the dryer once, and thus cut that expense out of our electric bill altogether.

Just a general recommendation, don't have all four family members down with food poisoning the same week or you will be doing laundry for the rest of the month. Looking on the bright side of things, if it hadn't been for the food poisoning, I never would have been laying in bed surfing the net and found this site and started getting our finances back on track, so silver lining time.

I was hoping for a no spend day today, but ended up spending $5.00, ($1.99 for milk, the rest for a fifteen pound bag of potatoes and a 62 cent bag of chic-o-stik candies, sigh). It would have been $5.02 but the girl at the convenience store didn't want to give me 98 cents in change, so she took the 2 cents out of the need a penny, leave a penny container on the counter. This brings my running total to 87 cents this week. 13 more to go and I will have a dollar I did not have to earn in any way, shape, or form. Q: What's a few pennies here and there? A: A dollar. I wonder if anyone would just hand me a dollar with the same attitude? Well, a few somebodies have almost gotten me that dollar. And as soon as it is a dollar, I will add a dollar to my change jar.

I spent an hour doing surveys this morning and earned $6 at one site and $3.50 at another. I sure had to wade through a lot of dogs to get to some decent survey companies, and of course, the balance has to be a certain amount in each account before they mail a check out, but $8.50 isn't a bad hourly wage for pointing and clicking.

I was bummed last night when I missed out on a $5 survey invitation that had filled up by the time I tried it. This kind of makes up for that.

I almost forgot. I was in town this morning because of Tobias's dance class and I ran over to Penney's to buy a new purse because the strap on my old one, which I have mended several times, broke again and is now completely unfixable, plus there was a bad spot in the leather. I was very upset that I could not fix this purse again as I love this purse. It is perfect, because it is part organizer and it has the slots for all my cards (insurance, library cards for me and both kids, Costco, license, etc.) so I didn't have to have a wallet, too.

I knew I'd have to buy a wallet because there was no way I was ever going to find a purse this good again. I thought I'd try Penney's anyway because that is where I bought the purse 4 years ago. You can imagine my delight when I found the exact same purse. Well, instead of burgandy it was red, but other than that it was identical. They also had brown, black, blue, and white but the red was prettiest. I wish they'd had turquoise, I would have really gone for that. But I was very happy to get this same purse and I will use it until it falls apart.

Oh, and it was on sale, too. Normally $26, it was marked down to something that was $18.32 with the tax. Interesting that my two main purchases today were identical amounts.

I also spent $1.25 for the five red romaine starts from the organic place and $3.83 to get deli ham for Rose's sandwiches for school lunches (also from the organic place).

Okay, I think that's really it this time.

I spent money today: $18.00. Well, it would have been $18.32, but I was dealing with my mother who thought it was easier to give me $2.00 back from my $20 bill, than $1.68 (I said people keep giving me money, this brings it to $0.85 this week). She went to the organic supply place and picked up a truckload of compost for my garden. Much more frugal than the $5 bags of compost that you'd need a ton of to do the same job.

I only had enough of my own homemade compost to add to one garden bed and one flower bed, so I needed the extra, especially since a couple of my beds have dropped about 4 inches over the last two years. With what she brought out I built up the 3 most depleted garden beds and have enough to do about 36 X 1 feet of flowerbeds. Once I finish spreading it around she will bring me out another load which should cover the remaining 36 X 1.5 foot driveway flowerbed and the 36 X 4 foot roadside flowerbed. Yes, I have a lot of flowerbeds.

Last year we tore down the old ramshackle green house (well it was made with that heavy duty plastic) that was on the property when we moved here and was rotting badly. But that has expanded the food garden space significantly. I doubt I will use it this year, I need to tack down a tarp and kill off all the weeds that are there. But if I get ambitious I might weed it. There is just so much else I need to do first, like get to all the dandelions before they turn into seed heads and my kids are tempted to make wishing stars by blowing them all over the place.

I planted some more lettuce and put up my eight bean teepees and will plant green bean seeds tomorrow. We are well past the date of last frost and it was 76 today! Very breezy, too. The laundry dried fast. I dried four loads today. But I digress. I will be planting kohlrabi and radish seeds tomorrow and maybe more if I don't get lazy. Both kids are in school tomorrow and DH is in Alaska, so I have the option of being lazy. Though I seldom am. I like being in the garden too much to stay inside for long on a beautiful day.

Anyway, spending money on the compost will pay off substantially this summer as we eat all of our organic produce. Things grow better with good compost. And a little fish emulsion doesn't hurt either. I may even trek to the bay this year and get a couple garbage bags full of seaweed to add to my own compost. Nature's perfect fertilizer. Although, I should probably find out if there are any regulations on that. There didn't used to be, but better safe than sorry.

Goodness, that got rambly. Oh, well. It's no surprise by now that I tend to write a good bit, is it?

This weekend has been very interesting in regards to people giving me money. It is tiny little amounts but over the course of 2 days I have been given inexact change 3 times. In one instance I was given a dime in change instead of the six cents I was owed because they were out of nickles and were running low on pennies. I was only owed 4 cents. Then I was given a nickle instead of 4 cents, so I was up one more penny. Then a lady asked me if I had change for a dollar. I only had 90 cents in change on me and she said that was okay and gave me a dollar for my 90 cents. So all in all I was up 17 cents and I count it as extra income that will eventually end up in my freezer money account. I know it isn't much, but its free money.

It seems so odd to me why people are not concerned with the little amounts. I always pick up a penny if I see it on the ground, but I have seen people drop quarters and not retrieve them because its "just a little" change. I pick them up because that one penny may be the difference between being able to roll up a packet of pennies this week or waiting until next week to do it. I think that kind of mentality must come into play on the bigger amounts too, if you get in the habit of throwing your money away because it isn't that much.

I feel like I've been guilty of this a little bit. I kind of had the thinking of why save $10 a week, it won't add up to much, but I'm over it. As I watch it start adding up, I get such a feeling of glee. It feels like I am accomplishing something, making steps forward to free myself from the tyranny of debt and no emergency backup savings.

Anyway, the extra money went into my coin jar, including the dollar bill I got for 90 cents. That's ten percent interest. Wow. I wonder if anyone would give me $100 in exchange for change of $90. I don't think so. I think they would think it was ridiculous. But I bet they would think the .90 cents for 1.00 was nothing.

Our power bill came last night and I just went over it. We are on the budget plan and do not use electricity to heat. Our usage for the month of February was at an average of 52 KWH per day and our usage for the month of March was at an average of 32 KWH per day. Our usage for the February-March period this year from last year was a change of 30, that's 30 less than last year.

We did start making some changes in March, like making sure that the lights were always off when not in use, and we replaced the last incandescent light bulb left in the house with a compact fluorescent bulb. That's all we did for March.

Our actual usage was $62.12 and our budget amount is $110. We have caught up and passed our actual usage and now have a credit of $24.50 with the power company. That usually doesn't happen until June.

I am now really looking forward to the next bill. Because the changes we have made for April have been much more extensive. We wash everything in cold water now except germy kitchen towels and wash cloths, and bedding which I still wash in hot. I have used the dryer twice, once when the kids ran out of underwear and it had to be ready for the next morning and once when Tobias barfed on a bedspread and it needed to be dry for bedtime a few hours later.

The furnace has been off almost every day so that the pilot light has not had to remain at the ready. I unplugged all of the kitchen appliances I usually keep plugged in. I started turning my laptop off when not in use. And the big one is turning off the fans during the day. We all use fans at night to circulate the air and to help block the highway sounds. My son also plays music all night. The kids had a habit of not turning off the fans or the CD player in the morning that I have now broken them of and I have started turning my fan off too, which I also left on. I also turned off the ceiling fan except when it was needed.

I'm sure the next bill won't be as low as it could be. My son had a bad bout of illness that lasted two weeks (and he never gets sick) and the thing that helped him the most was steamy showers, so he was taking 5 or 6 five minute showers a day to help his breathing. I have finally for the last week gotten him down to one shower a day again.

I hope they will change my budget amount soon. They usually reevaluate it every quarter. Winter would'nt even be so bad if it weren't for December. Since we don't do much inside the house besides a tree, we go all out on the Christmas lights. We do have them on a timer but we had them coming on at 3:30 so the kids coming home on the bus could see them lit, and they went off at midnight. So there was a lot of usage, even if most of the lights drew very little. When you have as much stuff as we do, it still sucks it up.

This is one thing we don't want to give up, so we have decided that next year the lights will not come on until 6 and that they will go off at 10. The bill will still be higher but it will be less than this year. I'd sure love it if I could get it to $80 year round for the budget amount.

It is a gorgeous day here, and 68 degrees F with a light breeze. Perfect clothes line weather. Speaking of which, the washer just finished its second spin, so I'm off to hang another load of towels.

Some Saturdays it feels like we live at the soccer park, this one wasn't too bad. Had a mid-morning game for Rose so spent .50 for popcorn and $1.00 for hot chocolate for my son and $1.50 for an Aquafina for me. It is very cold there and windy in the mornings, so I usually get Tobias a hot chocolate and it will keep his hands warm during his sister's game. He's a slow drinker.

After the game we went to Round Table and got takeout pizza, spent $22.47 after the $3.00 coupon and there is enough left over for 2 more meals. We took it over to my mother's house and she had plenty of stuff to drink, so no cost on that.

Then after lunch it was time to go back to the soccer park for Tobias's game and I bought 2 more Aquafinas at $3.00. Sigh. I really need to start pitching water into a cooler first thing in the morning on game days. My daughter always remembers to grab her water bottle, but I never do. So total spent was $28.47.

My goal for next Saturday is to remember to bring water bottles from home and to see if I can find my thermos so I can fill it with hot chocolate. I don't mind the .50 for popcorn, its a really big bag and keeps Tobias from getting totally bored. If I do that I will save $6.00. We don't do pizza every week either, but that was a planned expense.

My first freebie came in the mail today. It was just the RV travel DVD I sent for, not anything I can really use, except for information. But it was neat to have something show up already. That means the good stuff should start showing up soon.

It's very windy and sunny and 62 degrees F, so I should go hang another load on the clothesline, it might actually get dry or most of the way dry by tonight. Then I have to do some more garden work. I bought some herbs yesterday, strawberries, and blackberries that I want to get planted. There's a good 3 to 4 hours of sun left today so I should be able to get a lot done. Especially since my mother borrowed my kids for overnight, so they won't be in the way and asking for stuff every five minutes.

Well, I took care of the Allstate problem and the credit union took their check and then they cashed it into my account. I was under the impression that they were just going to refund my money and keep the Allstate check. They said no, because they were at fault for letting the insurance take the automatic payment too early and since this is not the first time I've talked to the CU about it, and since it is flagged on my account to not let that happen, they were going to give me the $14 for my troubles. This is why I love this place. I wish it had been this easy for the other poster who has been trying to get their money from a bank error.

Anyway, I put the $50 from earlier in this week into long term savings at CU #2, which brings the total there up to $175. I didn't deposit the $19 into the freezer money account yet, since it was on a different side of town and I'll be over there on Monday. I am also going to take the $14 and add it, along with $2 more to deposit a total of $35 into the freezer money account at CU #3.

I did the rest of my usual payday stuff, including fill up the gas tank. I still had 4 gallons left, so filling it the remaining 14 gallons took $40. Almost all the stations are at or above $3.00 a gallon, but I checked that gas buddy website someone posted the other day and there was one just a mile from the CU I was at, that had it for $2.83 a gallon, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been but it was still completely awful.

I went to sprawlmart, and bought 30 strawberry plants (they were $2.42 for ten) in 3 different varieties and 2 thornless blackberry plants ($4.95 each), some more lettuce and about $30 worth of flowers (one being a dark purple rhodie that I have wanted for 3 years and had finally budgeted for a small one at $10.94. I could have gotten two smaller ones for $9, but the larger plants don't take as long to establish themselves and the spread on these things is pretty large, I'm not sure what I'd do with two.

All but one of the flowers I got are perrenials, the other one is an annual but it spreads like crazy. I will be getting wave petunias next payday. They are usually the only annuals I ever bother with, as the payoff is big. Well, and lobelia and allysum, but I plant those from seed.

Then I stopped and bought some more chenille yarn for knitting, making scarves for possible future income. I had a bit of insomnia last night so I stayed up watching court tv and knitting and I'm over halfway through with the new scarf.

It was raining all morning but the sun is out now and it is beautiful so I finally get to hang laundry outside today, instead of inside. Oh, shoot, I knew I forgot something. I was going to get another drying rack for inside. Well, maybe while Rose is at dance and Tobias is at my mother's I can zip over to Kmart and get one. Then we will stop at the grocery on the way home and get a gallon of organic milk.

The only spending I will do the rest of the weekend is a pizza after soccer since I promised the kids we would do that once a month and this is the week they have chosen. I have a coupon though and its even to the place that doesn't use stuff that Rose is allergic to, so that works out.

I am very annoyed with my term life insurance company right now. They are supposed to take an automatic payment out of my checking account on the 24th of the month. If the payment day falls on a weekend they can take it the preceding Friday. Which would be today. If it fell on the weekend. Last time I checked the 24th was on Monday. I always make sure there is money in there on the 21st though, because they have been known to do this before. Only this time they took it on the 19th!

So I called them up and yelled at my agent. Long story short, they are reimbursing me for the $14 overdraft fee, but only if I come in to the office today and pick up the check. Thank heavens my CU is reasonable, too. They agreed to not list the overdraft on my record and as long as I brought in the check from Allstate today, they'd put the amount they charged me back into my account and keep the money from Allstate. So I do have to go to town twice today after all. An extra nine bucks in gas, but I'll do some things in town that I have been putting off because I don't want to do them when I have the kids with me.

I wouldn't be so upset if this were the first time Allstate had pulled a fast one. It happens at least twice a year. It just is really annoying. I have worked hard to retain a good credit report and I don't need to have these things messing stuff up. We want our credit in tip top shape so that we can buy a new (to us) car in 3 years and not get taken on the interest rate.

Two days in a row without spending anything, that is pretty good. Things I did today to be frugal:
1. Hung a load of clothes inside the house as it still is randomly sprinkling outside.
2. Finished knitting a scarf I hope to be able to sell (probably not until fall, though).
3. Sent for a freebie.
4. Decided that earning a few cents for taking a survey that never ends is not worth my time or sanity and is time better spent knitting.
5. Baked a loaf of bread and a batch of pretzels (at the same time).
6. Baked 3 meatloaves (2 for the freezer), and a crustless quiche for quick breakfasts so am not tempted to get takeout breakfast this weekend.

Baby steps.