Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

$11,738.26 Beginning EF Balance
+__,100.00 Monthly Deposit
+__,_21.02 Remainder of Propane Fund
+__,__2.72 Remainder in checking from last payday
----------------
$11,852.00 New EF Balance

$148 to go to hit my mini-goal of $12K. $3,148 to go to his my big goal for the year of $15K.

I got what will be our final bill for the propane tank and there was still plenty of propane in there so nothing was charged. We still have a $49.50 credit that we will end up getting back. So I disbursed the propane fund, putting $300 into the College Fund and $21.02 into the EF. I had $2.72 left in checking from last payday, so I transferred that along with the regular monthly deposit of $2.72.

Even if stuff with the house falls through, I will be able to hit $12K by early in March, between the $10 weekly deposits and next month's monthly deposit. I am feeling pretty good about that.

$11,728.26 Beginning EF
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
---------------
$11,738.26 New EF Total

$11,586.76 Beginning EF Balance
+__,141.50 Deposit
---------------
$11,728.26 New EF Balance

$271.74 to go to hit my first mini-goal of the year of $12K. $3,271.74 to go to hit my main goal of $15K for the year.

This is money from my Costco refund of $47.26, a $50 check from my in-laws because they didn't spend as much on me at Christmas as everybody else so were trying to even it out, and the rest was from the coin jar. I couldn't really think of anything I wanted other than to get the EF to $12K so I put it in there.

So yesterday I sent for 2 more $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks. I can order the last $5 one today. Then in a few days I should have enough to get a $25 gift card. So that will give me $50 total at Amazon. I am going to use it to buy a case of the olive oil based Miracle Whip that has no high fructose corn syrup in it. All of the stores around here quit carrying it and I won't go back to regular.

A case of 12 is $95 on Amazon, with no shipping fees. That works out to almost $8 a jar. So with $50 in Amazon gift cards I can get it for $45, which works out to a more reasonable $4 per jar. 12 jars should last me 2 to 3 years. I only eat it with tuna fish, which I don't eat terribly frequently.

Pinecone sent a letter that isn't even accurate to how much money you can cash out at now. They were all, you can just cash out with the $3 option and then add the quantity multiple times so we only have to send one check. But there is no $3 option anymore. I had sent for a $15 check and a $5 check. Now I know that means that I could have cashed out the $5 choice 4 times, but I wasn't even thinking about that at the time.

But considering how I feel about the changes, I probably would have cashed out $5 four different times a few days apart. So they got off lucky with me cashing out for 2 checks instead of 4. They will probably just send the $15 and $5 cash outs in one check. The letter didn't say that, but I'm assuming. It won't matter in the future. I will cash out every time I have at least $5 in the account from now on.

We've completed all the extra stuff on the house to bring it up to code. The wood stove fix was $567. The hot water tank replacement and install was $800. The cost to bring the outlet valve up to code and install earthquake/tornado belts on the hot water tank, also to bring it up to code, was an additional $326. He worked on it for 6 hours. His company is one of the very few who will install hot water heaters into this type of home. And the cost to take off the front porch, pour a concrete pad underneath it, and put the porch back on was $400. $1000 of that will be refunded to us by the buyers on closing.

L&I has signed off on what it needed to sign off on. So their bank will come out sometime in the next two weeks and if they find all to be well and find it appraises properly, then we are good to go for signing. We are hoping to sign by the 24th, though the official closing date is on or before the 26th. DH will only be home from the 12th to the 24th. It would be easier to do it in person than for him to have to find a notary up there at work. Though they did say he might be able to sign in advance.

Then we have to deal with the fact that the female half of the couple is pregnant and due in six weeks, but has already had to go to the hospital once to have early labor stopped. So that may upset the apple cart as well. It does make them more apt to want to sign early if possible, though. They really would like to be settled before the baby comes.

Anyway, I am counting down the next 3.5 weeks. I am finally starting to believe this is really going to happen. And getting a little excited about it, but not too much because the bank could still decide the house isn't worth that much, though it appraises $17K above what they are paying.

I want that check in my hot little hands so badly. I want to pay off the remodeler and the van, bring my EF to $15K and then dump the rest into savings for a down payment. I just want to be there with no more consumer debt hanging over us.

I have a doctor's appointment today. My cholesterol numbers were so good at my blood test that I am going to ask him about either stopping the medication or reducing it. I'd like to get off it. I want to see if I can try going without it for a month and then have another blood test to see if the levels are doing okay. Crestor is expensive and I've changed my eating habits enough now that I may no longer have issues with it. Or to get a cheaper medication. Another option would be to get the 40mg pill and cut it in half. It would be cheaper in the long run.

My insurance has decided it is going to cover my blood pressure medicine 100%. I was in shock the other day when I picked it up. Last year it was $40. That is so helpful to the budget. That is $480 a year I can put towards the farm down payment savings.

My ultimate goal is to get off the BP meds, too. But I think it will take me at least a year of weight loss to be at that point. And weight loss may not be enough. High BP runs in my family. We tried reducing them once from 40mg to 20mg and I felt awful, so definitely need to lose the weight before trying that again.

And if I lose enough weight, I can have a new sleep study done and I might no longer need the sleep apnea machine. I don't have too many breathing incidents, so this might really be achievable. Then I wouldn't have to buy filters, hoses, masks, etc., as they wear out.

Speaking of weight loss I am now 14 pounds down. I think finding dietbet was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I cashed out 2 $5 gift cards for Amazon at Swagbucks today. I also sent for a $20 check from Pinecone, though if it were on the old system it would have been $21. My reaction to Pinecone switching from being able to cash out in increments of $3 to now having to wait until $5, when each survey only pays $3, is to have them send me a paper check every time I hit $5. So if they thought it would help them save on paperwork and maybe postage, they thought wrong. Before I'd wait until I had a higher balance. Now it'll be every time I can. Slightly vindictive, but the surveys have gotten more and more tedious and less and less frequent, so it balances out in my opinion.

I went ahead and joined a new dietbet, the six month one I was talking about. I did get the $30 back from my first game, but all but 2 of the people in that bet hit goal, so no extra back. This one has way more players, so if I hit goals I actually have a chance to win something besides my money back. I paid all six months up front. They do have a month to month option, but if you pay up front, you only have to pay for five months total. And since it was a $150 total bet and I had my $30 on account, with the discount, that brought me down to $95. Pretty reasonable for six months of online diet support.

I know others are considering doing another dietbet or starting one, so if anyone else is thinking of doing a longer dietbet this seems like a good one to join. It starts in a couple of days. Here is my invite link if you want to join:

Monday:
Garlic Butter Chicken
Broccoli
Biscuits with choice of homemade jam
Oranges

Tuesday:
Beef stir-fry with broccoli, cauliflower, onions, carrots, peppers
Apples

Wednesday:
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Applesauce
Green beans

Thursday:
Braided chili loaf
Corn
Green beans
Strawberries (from our freezer stash)

Friday:
Rabbit stew
Coleslaw
Oranges

Saturday:
Duck burgers
Fried potatoes
Coleslaw
Pineapple (canned)

Sunday:
Southern fried rabbit
Baked potatoes
Green Beans (home canned)
Nectarines (home canned)

This last Friday is not a payday, but of course I always save money over from previous paydays for the one Friday that has no paycheck each month. So these are the bills that went out today.

$250.00 AMEX
_186.00 Storage
__44.66 Life Insurance (Me)
__45.30 Life Insurance (DH)
__74.41 Car Insurance
__48.75 House Insurance
_120.00 Physical Therapy
-------------------
$769.12 Total Money Out

I need to sign up for a new bank savings account tomorrow, the one Julie posted about today. It will be with a bank that has 1.05% interest. That is .30% higher than what I am getting now. I could be earning $11.50 on my EF each month instead of $7.21. It doesn't seem like much but over a year that is $138 or $86.52, a difference of $51.48. And of course it'll be far more than that once the house sells and there is more money in the bank.

I think I'll probably end up completely closing out the Capitol One 360 account. I've been holding on to it due to old ING loyalty, which is silly because they aren't ING and they have never been as good as ING was. They've had plenty of time to match the other couple of online banks that are giving higher interest rates and they haven't done it, so it is time to say good-bye to them. But I will keep it open until we are done with taxes, probably just with $5 in it.

And some days you are just lucky to get dinner on the table. Despite having a meal plan, despite being well prepared, some days just throw you for a loop. My mother decided to tie up the entire oven for hours, so there was no way to cook anything I had planned. Of course, she did not tell me she was doing this. I didn't expect her to cook as she has been mooching off of us for the past five days straight and I'd assumed she would again today since she liked what I was making, so it didn't even occur to me that she would cook.

She knew what I was going to make tonight, too, and when. But tying both ovens and the entire stove top up between 3 and 8 when she knows I have kids to feed, and that there are blood sugar issues, irritates me. I just don't even... I will be glad when we can move out. I am so tired of sharing a kitchen.

I was tempted to eat out, but I figured I could scrounge up something, and I did. I ended up making toasted waffles (from the last batch cooking session I did), microwaved ham, strawberries, and coleslaw. Yeah, it was a weird dinner, but it was good and it hit fruit, veg, starch, and protein.

I am too frustrated to make up a menu for the week tonight. I'll do it tomorrow or it'll end up being chocolate everything.

$11,569.55 Beginning EF Total
___,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
+__,__7.21 C1-360 Interest
-------------------
$11,586.76 New EF Total

413.24 to go to hit my mini-goal of $12K and $3,412,24 to go to hit my next big goal of $15K.

I won my dietbet. And I lost 13 pounds since December 31st. I don't know that I'll get much more back than the $30 I started with. It was a small group of 19 and 15 of us have hit our goals, and the other 4 still have a little over 24 hours to submit their final weigh ins.

I am thinking about doing it again, but I think I may wait a week, and join a larger group. Although there is a six month dietbet that I am thinking of doing. It's $25 into the pot each month for 6 months and the goal is to lose 10% of your body weight, which I need to do, and I think I can do. They take half the pot and it goes for the end, but each month you can win as well if you hit the goals, so there is monthly motivation as well.

I found it to be pretty supportive and better than paying for Weight Watchers or the like. With WW there is no getting your money back.

I am, however, thinking about going back to Curves. Our insurance will pay for the sign up fee. The only thing is that I don't really know if I can do it. My physical therapist says the only way I will know is if I try and see how my knees handle it. I may have to avoid a machine or two or I might not be able to do it at all because of my knee. I know they used to do a 2 week free thing many years ago, but I don't know if they do that any more.

The other thing I am thinking about is rejoining the gym, but with just me, not the whole family. Then I can swim, which is always easy on my knee, not to mention the rest of my body. It costs about the same as a Curves membership. But I really like the hydraulic equipment at Curves as there is no fiddling with it. And I don't really like the equipment at the gym because you have to reset it for each person.

I don't really want to sign a two year contract either as we would likely move before it is up, and that is what Curves used to require. I don't know if they still do. They gym just requires one year and then goes month to month.

I'd check out the YMCA and see what they have, but it's a 4 or 5 story building with elevators nowhere near the changing rooms so a long walk on a bad knee and both the pool and the gym are on different floors from the changing rooms. I wonder if we still have a YWCA. We did 20 years ago. I'll have to investigate that.

I forgot to post my meal plan on Sunday night. I am going to go ahead and post the meals I've already made this week anyway as I like going back and reviewing what I've made in the past when I am stuck for ideas.

Monday:
Beef stew
Green beans
Strawberries

Tuesday:
Chicken stir-fry
Strawberries

Wednesday:
Homemade pizza with onions, bell peppers, pepperoni and homemade rabbit sausage
Cole slaw
Strawberries

Thursday:
Garlic Butter Roasted Chicken
Baked sweet meat squash
Broccoli

Friday:
Pork chops
Broccoli
Pineapple

Saturday:
Sloppy Hoppies
Cole slaw
Oranges

Sunday:
Fried rabbit
Fried potatoes
Broccoli
Pineapple

I was reconciling my accounts today and realized I forgot to add some interest into the EF at some point. It was 35 cents. New balance is:

$11,569.55

$11,549.20 Beginning EF Balance
___,_20.00 Last week's and this week's auto deposits
----------------
$11,569.20 New EF Balance

I have done some figuring and we might be able to get around using the EF for house stuff by using money in the other funds instead.

$500.00 from Propane Fund
$300.00 from Property Tax Fund
$800.00 from School Fund
$200.00 from January 2016 Money Fund
+_70.00 from Dues Fund Excess
--------------
1870.00 Total

That would leave us with $200 in the Propane Fund and $200 in the School Fund. Property Tax is paid in full through April and with the house closing at the end of February we would not need to use that money to pay PT. However that is the last place I will take it from just in case the sale falls through. I would draw it from the other funds first.

There really hasn't been all that much to write about this week. I've lost 9 pounds since December 31st, so my diet is going pretty well. We haven't spent much money this week.

We may have some house expenses coming up. Apparently there has to be an inspection of the foundation and we will have to pay for that. I'm not sure why the sellers have to pay it, though. It seems like the buyers should have to pay for all inspections, but I guess not in this case. I swear, I never want to deal with this type of house again in my life.

So, so far, it looks like we're going to have to pay $1000 between the wood stove fix and the foundation inspection. So I probably will end up taking money out of the EF. Since DH also is having dental work done tomorrow and just had a second sleep study done and will have to buy a B-PAP machine, which is more expensive than a normal C-PAP machine, and since our deductible started over insurance won't cover much if any of it, we may really be seeing a dent in the EF.

DH says I can take most of his school money ($800 of the $1000 we set aside) since he doesn't think he'll be ready to do that until after the income tax refund comes back anyway. I hate to do that, though. Of course I hate depleting the EF even more, but we'll see.

Our real estate agents (husband/wife team) wants to sit down and discuss our looking at houses as soon as the sale closes. I don't want to and don't like the pressure. I think we will need to save for an additional year before we are ready to buy a house, possibly longer. I just want a bigger EF and a bigger down payment so our mortgage payment doesn't cost an arm and a leg every month. I just don't think I am ready to go through the stress of looking at houses. DH is probably going to have to tell them to back off.

Plus I want to enjoy being totally debt free for a while (except the loan from Mom), which we will be once we pay the guy who did the house repairs and pay off the van. I just want to have all that stress free time to save like maniacs. Of course that is assuming we can put up with Mom's particular brand of crazy for another year. At the very least we want to finish off the school year, here, though.

Also DD is talking about moving in with two of her friends in the summer of 2016 and if that is the case we can actually look at some smaller houses. She wants to find a job after graduation and work for a year, saving as much money as she can, before getting an apartment. We will try to pay for one class a semester at the community college for her. She'll have one credit when she graduates because her Psychology class counts as a college level credit.

The ducks laid two eggs today. We haven't gotten 2 eggs in a day from them since December, so either they are starting to gear back up again due to the longer days or one of the 2 new ducks has relaxed enough to start laying. Wade has been mating both of them so that might have kicked one of them into gear. Both ducks have been completely accepted into the flock now.

Nothing else really going on around here. Sticking to the meal plan and not going out to eat.

I need a new blender. The motor on my blender burned up right when I was in the middle of making homemade mayo for the first time. So of course we couldn't get it to emulsify and ended up wasting a cup of oil and a duck egg. Or well, we would have, but I threw some honey into it and a little store bought mayo and am using it as the dressing on coleslaw. I will try again in the future, but obviously not until we get a new blender.

So, this is the second Oster I've had that has had the motor burn up after using it for less than a year. And this one was maybe used 20 times. That's all. So no more Oster for me. Can anyone recommend a good blender that lasts and doesn't try to catch the house on fire? I'm just looking for a place to start my research.

I am baking my first loaf of bread in the new bread machine today. I gave my mother hers back. I love the new one so far. It is so much easier to put the parts together and use. I loathed my mother's machine, and only ever used it to mix dough and would bake in the oven instead. Hers had a round loaf pan which is just all sorts of impractical. The one I got for Christmas has a rectangular loaf pan with 2 paddles so the bread will come out looking like a normal loaf and not something that won't fit well in a sandwich baggy.

Hopefully it turns out well. I used all purpose flour and not bread flour. I hate using bread flour as it has all kinds of additives in it. But I was assured on the bread machine forum that it was fine to use in this particular machine. I am looking forward to having fresh bread in the house again. It has been a while, but is something I definitely want to get back into.

Anyway here is my menu plan for the week.

Monday:
Teriyaki Chicken
Baked potatoes
Green beans
Fresh bread

Tuesday:
Braided Chili Loaf
Baked Broccoli and Cauliflower
Oranges

Wednesday:
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Garlic bread
Leftover Broccoli and Cauliflower

Thursday:
Meatball Sandwiches made using leftover meatballs, leftover sauce, cheese, and leftover garlic bread
Cole slaw

Friday:
Rabbit Stew (rabbit, potatoes, carrots)
Fresh baked bread
Green Beans

Saturday:
Chicken stir-fry (with broccoli, carrots, celery, snow peas, water chestnuts, onions, bell peppers)
Egg fried rice

Sunday:
Beef pot roast
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Homemade biscuits with choice of homemade jam
Green Beans

We went to Costco today and spent $211. I stocked up on toilet paper, bought some tikka masala spices, vitamins, fuzzy socks(!), and of course groceries. We also got gas. It was $1.84 a gallon and we got just over 11 gallons. We paid just a smidgeon above $20. I can't even remember the last time that happened.

The house contract was signed Monday night by all parties. They have scheduled their inspection. We have to do $500 worth of work on the wood stove to bring it up to code. I think we will be able to swing that without touching the Emergency Fund. Since I have $700 in the propane fund (and still have $50 of credit with the co-op) and still haven't had to fill the tank, I can take most of it from there, and I also have an extra $70 in the dues fund. I am trying not to get excited about the house sale happening because it fell through last time, but I am a little bit.

I have now lost 8 pounds since starting my diet December 31st. I hope that continues to go well. I still need to lose a few more pounds to win my dietbet. I think I am going to make it. I've got 15 days left. Even if I don't win, the support of the group has been wonderful and it is worth that for $30. But I want to win.

I have managed to keep my calorie intake in my goal range every day but one. I went over by 15 calories that day, so I still consider it a win.

Tomorrow I have someone dropping off a baby aloe plant for me and another person buying 2 dozen duck eggs for $10. That will bring farm sales for the month to $37.50.

I received my Costco bonus check for $46.27 today. Of course I didn't open the mail until after we'd come back from our shopping trip to Costco. Wish I had because that check can only be cashed at Costco. DH will have to run in there on Sunday. We'll be going past it on the way to visit his parents so we won't have to make a special trip.

I think that about covers everything.

$1700.00 Bank of America
$1000.00 Loan to Mom
__225.00 Chiropractor
__103.00 Medical
___90.00 Physical Therapy
___42.88 Prescription
___50.00 Allowances
___20.11 Gas($1.84 a gallon!)
__100.00 Cash for Week
---------------
$3330.99 Total Money Out

We were given two ducks today, both females, from someone who was having predator problems and they had wiped out her flock except for these two. We have named them Bluebell (she's a Blue Swedish) and Daisy (she's a Khaki Campbell).

Integration was interesting. I think it is all going to be okay, though. It isn't like with chickens where the birds can be downright nasty to newcomers. They are very well taken care of, healthy animals. I wasn't planning to add any more ducks to the flock, but it is hard to say no to free, especially after losing Lemon.

I did a short little vid if anyone is interested.

After receiving a revised offer from the first set of buyers, we have decided to go with the offer from the second set of buyers. While the revised offer was $6K above asking price, with the amount of closing costs they still wanted us to cover and all the fees we would have to pay dealing with a VA loan, it still came out to $500 less than the offer from the 2nd set of buyers.

If they'd been willing to go up $1K higher or reduce the amount of closing costs they wanted us to cover, which they wouldn't, it would have been worth it, but all things being almost equal, we decided it was better to go with the people who were straight-forward and had less hoops we'd have to jump through, and who didn't try to majorly lowball us on their first offer. The first folks gambled. They tried to play hardball instead of making a fair first offer. They lost.

So the realtors will fax the paperwork to DH to sign and then once they've got it back, they will come over here for me to sign it this afternoon and we will be under contract again. Hopefully this time all will work out, but with the letter from the bank in hand, it seems like it should.

We got the second offer on the house and it is full asking price, except they want us to pay 3% of their closing costs, which I consider reasonable. My realtor has told the other realtor from the first offer that there has been a second, better offer, so they are going to revise their offer. But I doubt it will be better, and I'm more inclined to go with the folks that didn't try to lowball us in the first place.

I'd also rather our realtors got the full commission based on how much they have done as opposed to splitting it with the other realtor who basically showed the house twice and has come in at zero hour and also wrote an offer that was kind of insulting.

I know a lot can go wrong between now and then. A lot. And I know that accepting an offer and going under contract doesn't mean anything. But I am a little hopeful, finally, that something might actually come of all of this. Just even coming close to getting full asking price is remarkable. I'd be very happy with that.

The second set of buyers got their financing and are currently having their offer written up by our realtors. The first set is being super impatient about getting an answer to their offer, even though they only made it on Saturday afternoon. But they can be impatient. This is a big decision to make and I am not going to rush it without having the other offer in hand. Plus they didn't put a time limit on how long we have to consider it.

I mean we will make the decision tonight, I am sure, but we won't before we have all the information in place. Waiting a few days is not going to be the end of the world for these people. I know it is hard to wait in this day and age of everything being fast, fast, fast, but some things still take time.

I kind of think they thought we would snap up their offer immediately because of the length of time the house has been on the market. But the thing is, we don't NEED to sell it. Yeah, it would be nice to have it gone and the money in the bank and it would make life easier. But we are not desperate enough to just take anything. It wouldn't hurt if they were a little worried now about the tightness of their offer and were second guessing themselves.

I don't want to be greedy. I just want to be reasonable and have the offers be reasonable, too.

I have almost everything on hand that I need for dinners this week. I do need to pick up some cabbage for cole slaw and some broccoli and cauliflower, but other than that I am good to go.

Monday:
Crockpot BBQ Ribs
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans
Cherries

Tuesday:
Teriyaki Flank Steak
Fried Potatoes
Roasted Broccoli/Cauliflower
Strawberries (from my frozen summer stash)

Wednesday:
Bacon Cheeseburgers
Cole slaw
Oranges

Thursday:
Beef stir-fry with carrots, celery, onions, snow peas, broccoli, and cauliflower
Pineapple

Friday:
Fried Rabbit
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans

Saturday:
Homemade Pizza with rabbit sausage, ham, onions, and bell peppers
Cole slaw

Sunday:
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Garlic Bread
Cole slaw

So it looks like we might get two offers on the house this week. One person is preparing an offer right now that I am a little meh about. The VA offers we have received have always lowballed us and this one is worse than the last two who never made it official. The other will know if they got their financing tomorrow and then will make an offer that I hope is better than the other one. But if the second one doesn't materialize, we will probably accept the other just to be done with it.

I am getting annoyed with people who don't want to pay their own closing costs. We paid ours and the market was much more favorable to buyers then so we could have probably gotten them to do it, but we felt like it was being cheap to try, especially since they'd come down $20K in asking price. I am starting to think it is just the thing to do for people to get the sellers to pay the closing costs, whether the market validates it or not.

$11,371.20 Beginning EF Balance
+__,178.00 Monthly Deposit (plus)
------------------
$11,549.20 New EF Balance

$3450.80 to go to hit my $15K goal and $450.80 to go to hit my mini-goal of $12K.

It was good to finally get to payday. This year I am going to start much earlier on saving for the shut down that occurs every December at DH's work. As in, this paycheck. And in April when things cycle around so that we'll have an extra paycheck, I will put a good chunk of it into that fund as well. It was nice to be able to get through that time period without touching the Emergency Fund and I am glad we did not rely on the Christmas Bonus as that went to pay for the car roof repair and Christmas. There was nothing of it left for living expenses.

The paycheck is about $100 less for this pay period than it has been due to the new 401K withdrawal. Not too big of an amount to absorb easily. We'll see how it goes for the whole month before we decide to up it a percent, though.

Payday Report:

$800.00 to Van Loan (including extra)
_400.00 to Mom's utilities
__24.28 Electricity (old house)
__75.65 Internet
__48.60 Phone (old house)
__46.00 Security Monitoring (old house)
__41.94 Garbage (two months)
__13.75 Medical
__29.85 Medical
__66.61 Medical
_100.00 Allowances (two weeks, 2 kids)
_100.00 Cash for Week
_178.00 Emergency Fund
_100.00 Property Tax Fund
_100.00 December Money Fund
_100.00 Propane Fund (old house)
---------------
2224.68

The Propane Fund now sits at $700. The December Money Fund is at $233.55.

$11,047.70 Beginning Balance
+__,323.50 Deposit Added
---------------
$11,371.20 New Balance

This is survey money, egg and rabbit sales, and coin jar money. I decided to wait on buying stock so that money is going into the EF instead. I really want to get the EF to $15K this year. I would just feel more secure with that amount in the bank.

$3,628.80 left to go to hit $15K and $628.80 to hit my first mini-goal of the year. Tomorrow is payday and I have $78 even left in the checking account and that will get sent to the EF tomorrow. Not sure yet if I'll have the monthly $100 deposit out of tomorrow's payday or next weeks, though. We have some medical bills to pay so we'll have to see how that changes things first.

This is the first paycheck with the 401K, also, so I don't yet know how much of a difference that will be in planning my budget.

$11,037.70 Beginning Balance
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
----------------
$11,047.70 New Balance

We've got some people who are close to making an offer on the house. I am not holding my breath, but it would be really nice if this time it panned out. We've had five showings since Christmas. Only 1 out of 5 has the credit scores necessary to buy, though, but that couple has really good credit. Why do people look at houses if they don't have their stuff worked out for buying? I am tired of Looky-Lous. At least it is not our agents showing it to those types, but others.

Gas prices are making folks think that living out there won't be too hard on the commute if they work in town. I hope someone buys before gas prices rise again!

Again, I am not holding my breath. This has been a long process. We are prepared to drop the price yet again, but are hoping that won't be necessary. There were a couple comps that sold for more than that recently (and our house is in better shape), so there is hope. But like I said, I am not holding my breath. If it happens, it happens. I am not prepared to think about it too much until a contract materializes, and even then, after what happened last time, not going to get excited until I know the financing is set.