Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

This was totally unexpected, but at the beginning of the school year my daughter rented a special calculator from the school for her math class. It was $10 for the year and since the special calculator would cost close to $100, we felt renting it was the wiser option. Well, we just got a refund check in the mail for that $10. The note enclosed said, "Do to the Districts desire to reduce/eliminate all course fees, we are refunding your students $10 calculator rental fee. If lost, the replacement fee is $100."

After I finished laughing over the school district's inability to spell or punctuate correctly, I was quite pleased. But they really should have people proofread their documents before they mail them out. Spellcheck will not notice if you use "do" or "due" incorrectly, but I certainly will. And I will also notice when you write students, but mean student's and Districts when you mean District's. Also, district's should not be capitalized. It is not listing a specific district. Honestly, four errors in a two sentence note?

Since it is signed by the principal, I am thinking about correcting the note in red felt tip pen and mailing it back to him. Okay, he probably never saw it at all, but seriously, what a bad example that sets. It's almost worth the cost of the stamp to do so. Almost. Maybe I'll email.

It does mildly irritate me that the check is made out to my husband. Since I am the one who wrote out and signed the original check it should have been refunded in my name, not his. Not that it matters in my case, I can deposit it without his signature into our account, but what if they had sent the refund to the wrong parent when the parents don't live together? Not a smart move.

The $10 will be headed to the Emergency Fund tomorrow when I deposit the Allstate refund and the coin jar money.

I balanced the checkbook today. I've been letting it go since I knew there was plenty of money in the account and I felt to cruddy to do math even with the help of a calculator. Still feeling cruddy, but I figured since tomorrow is payday I should get it taken care of. Balanced it to the penny, so go me.

I also sent $1000 off to the BoA Visa. I will be paying an additional $1500 on Friday. We went a little overboard on the spending with the Visa again, mostly on things to get the rabbitry off the ground, and airfare went up in the spring. Nothing that we can't take care of in a short amount of time, but I'm not too thrilled that we backslid. I know it happens. But now that I have gotten the EF to a level I am far more comfortable at, the focus will be again on that card for a few months. Can't let the evil empire get the upper hand again. Not to say I won't still set EF goals, as I will.

There should be about $500 a month more now that DH has hit the limit on the SSI tax being taken out. He won't make enough for them to start taking it out again this year, so we will have that money back until the end of the year.

Today was also the day of the auto deposit of $10 to savings so that went to the Emergency Fund.

$7115.32 Old EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount of Deposit
------------
$7125.32 New EF Amount

$174.68 to go to hit my September goal of $7300.

I received my safe driver check from Allstate. It's a partial refund of payments for not getting into any accidents. It's not much, just $16.48, but it's something. It will be headed for the Emergency Fund.

I also cleaned out my purse and added $3.87 to the coin jar.

Are they ever going to fix the posting problem here? You should be able to spend more than 3 minutes typing a post without it disappearing into the ether the moment you post it. It feels like it's been going on for over a year now. Frustrating. /rant

I know I am usually good at making everything from scratch, but today I was just exhausted. I think I'm on the cusp of a cold. I really, really wanted to get Round Table Pizza, but I managed to resist. I did have to go to the store to get milk and produce and while there I noticed they had some cheap cheese pizzas on sale with a sell by date of today. This is the type the store makes in-house, not the kind in the freezer section.

So I bought a couple of cheap cheese pizzas and then once home I doctored them up with pepperoni, onions, and bell pepper strips. It's not RT and it's not homemade, but spending six bucks on the pizzas and adding toppings I already had at home gave me an easy pizza that I didn't have to put much time or effort into. With the toppings I used I probably spent a grand total of $8. And one of those pizzas I put in the freezer for another day. So $4 spent for dinner for 3 of us. Not too shabby.

Because I am feeling under the weather or like I am about to be, I am planning a mostly crockpot and soup pot week. I figure if I have easy crockpot dinners planned, I won't be tempted to do takeout.

Monday:
Crockpot Chicken stew (boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into one inch pieces, carrots cut into one inch pieces, potatoes, cut into one inch pieces, green beans snapped into one inch pieces, a can of corn, one pint of rabbit stock, and I will mix in some leftover rabbit gravy at the end to thicken it)
Salad

Tuesday:
Crockpot Beef pot roast
Microwave Baked potatoes
Nectarines
Coleslaw

Wednesday:
Baked potato soup
Coleslaw
Italian prunes

Thursday:
Leftovers

Friday:
Crockpot chicken (whole)
Microwave baked potatoes
Green beans

Saturday:
Chicken and noodles
Salad
Nectarines

Sunday:
Tacos
Pears

I know I am usually good at making everything from scratch, but today I was just exhausted. I think I'm on the cusp of a cold. I really, really wanted to get Round Table Pizza, but I managed to resist. I did have to go to the store to get milk and produce and while there I noticed they had some cheap cheese pizzas on sale with a sell by date of today. This is the type the store makes in-house, not the kind in the freezer section.

So I bought a couple of cheap cheese pizzas and then once home I doctored them up with pepperoni, onions, and bell pepper strips. It's not RT and it's not homemade, but spending six bucks on the pizzas and adding toppings I already had at home gave me an easy pizza that I didn't have to put much time or effort into. With the toppings I used I probably spent a grand total of $8. And one of those pizzas I put in the freezer for another day. So $4 spent for dinner for 3 of us. Not too shabby.

Because I am feeling under the weather or like I am about to be, I am planning a mostly crockpot and soup pot week. I figure if I have easy crockpot dinners planned, I won't be tempted to do takeout.

Monday:
Crockpot Chicken stew (boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into one inch pieces, carrots cut into one inch pieces, potatoes, cut into one inch pieces, green beans snapped into one inch pieces, a can of corn, one pint of rabbit stock, and I will mix in some leftover rabbit gravy at the end to thicken it)
Salad

Tuesday:
Crockpot Beef pot roast
Microwave Baked potatoes
Nectarines
Coleslaw

Wednesday:
Baked potato soup
Coleslaw
Italian prunes

Thursday:
Leftovers

Friday:
Crockpot chicken (whole)
Microwave baked potatoes
Green beans

Saturday:
Chicken and noodles
Salad
Nectarines

Sunday:
Tacos
Pears

I cleaned out my purse tonight and had a lot of ones. I added $11.25 to the coin jar.

DH's overtime pay hit the account this morning. I transferred $1000 to the Emergency Fund. Usually I nickel and dime my way along, so it was nice to be able to put a large chunk in for a change.

$6115.32 Beginning EF Balance
+1000.00 Amount Added
-------------
$7115.32 Ending EF Balance

$186.68 to go to meet my September goal. My October goal is $7500, which is a month's net earnings. I can't believe I am so close now.

The other bit of big news is that DH has hit the income point for the year when they stop taking out social security. It was actually met on August 30th. So for the last four months of the year we will have bigger paychecks. That will really help with my savings goals.

Projected earnings are $173K unless he gets more overtime this year and of course the Christmas Bonus total will be added to that. If Christmas Bonuses are 10% this year, he will get a check for $17,300 minus taxes. If it is 5%, he will get a check for $8,650 minus taxes. Either way, DD's first year of college will be paid for and we'll be able to use next year's tax refund for something other than saving for college. If something goes wrong with the bonus, the tax refund will still be enough to pay for her first year of college at the local community college.

Big long entry disappeared into outer space despite copy/save. ARGH.

Instead you now get just the EF update.

$6105.32 Beginning Balance
+--10.00 Amount Added
------------
$6115.32 Ending Balance

I am not including fruit on the dinner menu this week, because we are trying to stick to one high carb at dinner starting Tuesday. But the Italian prunes are almost ripe, so we may switch out a high carb for it later in the week.

I managed to gain back all the weight I lost before plus ten pounds, and DD is carrying too much extra weight as well. DS could stand to lose about ten pounds around the belly. He has been running on the treadmill which has helped him lose 5 pounds and the moobs he was starting to get that were embarrassing him, but he'd like to lose a bit more. I'll watch his diet carefully because at 13 he still needs to eat a lot of calories. We'll just be careful about where those calories are coming from.

We are also going to make more of an effort to get to the gym and not just for swimming.

Sunday:
Beef pot roast
Corn on the cob
Coleslaw

Monday:
Pizza (homemade sauce, bell pepper strips, onions, pepperoni, Canadian bacon)
Cole slaw

Tuesday:
Oven Baked Chicken
Baked potatoes
Green beans

Wednesday:
Baked potato soup
Leftover chicken
Green beans

Thursday:
Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches (on homemade bread)
Salad (lettuce, cheese, sunflower seeds, dressing)

Friday:
Meatloaf
Fried potatoes
Broccoli/cauliflower

Saturday:
Pork chops
Applesauce (homemade)
Leftover broccoli/cauliflower

Today was payday. Everything has been paid. Nothing is due until the 21st and after that nothing will be do until the 1st. DH ended up doing all his overtime work in five days time, so it won't be a full week of overtime, but five days is still pretty nice. I'll be able to put $1000 to the EF next week, but will have to rethink the other things I was thinking of distributing the extra money to.

We've gotten a lot of food this week. Not take out, but prepared food from the store deli. I've been out of it with my constant headache and mild nausea. Getting hit in the head with that pitchfork handle on Monday morning did me no favors. I have had no inclination to cook and with DH doing the overtime work at home, neither did he.

I'll try to get my act together this weekend. DH leaves on Monday and I can't keep letting the money fritter away when I could be cooking.

Anyway, the distribution of things today comes from a combination of this payday and last and is as follows:

$757.82 Van loan (plus extra)
__90.00 Physical Therapy
__58.00 School photos
_168.00 Storage
1000.00 Loan to Mom
_400.00 Utilities to Mom
__41.88 Life Insurance Me
__45.30 Life Insurance DH
__47.17 House Insurance (Old House)
__66.65 Car Insurance
__27.28 Electric (Old House)
__72.56 Internet
__50.22 Phone (Old House)
__55.25 Garbage
__19.00 Dues (Old House)
_225.00 Chiropractic Monthly Family Plan
_227.66 Laptop Payoff (from Laptop Fund)
_100.00 Property Tax Fund
_100.00 Vacation Fund
_100.00 Appliance Fund
_100.00 College Fund
__41.16 Security System (Old House)
-------------
$3792.95 Paid Out

We also bought gas and groceries and spent around $500. We are all stocked up on staples and aside from some vegetables and lids for canning and some milk I shouldn't need to go to the store or a farm again for a week.

The Thursday $10 deposit to savings was added to the EF. Slowly but surely.

$6095.32 Old EF Balance
+__10.00 Deposit
-------------
$6105.32 New EF Balance

I deposited $35.43 to the Emergency Fund from the coin jar yesterday.

$6059.89 Old EF Balance
+__35.43 Deposit Added
-----------
$6095.32 New EF Balance

I got an email notice that Best Buy had shipped my computer to Seattle for repair, but they never called when they finished transferring all my documents to the portable hard drive we had bought like they were supposed to. No one wanted to spend an hour on hold trying to talk to a human, though it was tried, but the automated system kept messing up. So DH is going to run over there today and pick it up as we are assuming they finished doing that like they were supposed to before the sent it off.

We are pretty sure I have a mild concussion so I won't be driving this week at all. The first time I tried showed me I should not make the attempt again any time soon.

...just how much money I can save when I go shopping at Trader Joe's. I walked out of there with 4 bags of groceries (large canvas totes), 2 bags of chips, and a gallon of milk for less than $95. The same stuff at the regular grocery store would have cost me twice that.

It's been a long time since I have gone there simply because the parking situation is atrocious. But at 7:30 tonight it crossed my mind that the parking lot should have some spaces at that time and I really wanted to get some canned corn. They have the best tasting canned corn, hands down. It tastes fresh and sweet and it is canned in BPA free cans. I got 20 cans. I would have gotten more, but I wanted to leave some on the shelf for others. Corn is one of the things that is very labor intensive to home can so I don't bother.

I was excited to see they now have both a Funyun and a Dorito replacement. We can't eat the originals because of allergies to about 5 ingredients in each. The onion ones were better than the originals and the nacho cheese ones were the closest thing I've found. DS was a happy camper.

Shredded cabbage had gone up in price. It used to be a $1.29 for a 16 oz bag and now it is a 10 oz bag for the same price. I know I should always shred my own cabbage, then it is .39 a pound, but I do get tempted by these bags because it makes it so fast and easy to make coleslaw. I mean, it takes all of 5 minutes to shred up a cabbage. LOL I try not to be that lazy often. But the big box of not Cheerio's is still $1.99 a pound so you win some, you lose some.

I picked up a pound of frozen bell pepper strips (yellow, red, orange, and green) for $1.69. Single bell peppers are running $2 right now. So I will have my strips for pizzas and can dice them smaller for omelets. It should last a few months.

I feel like I have been spending money right and left this week, but our stock of so much had been used up. My cupboards were not bare, but they were getting there. I still have to do a Costco run, ugh. Just a few things from there that I can't get good prices on elsewhere, like butter, the right kind of tomato sauce, and the type of toilet paper that my son is not allergic to.

We also need to buy rabbit feed. I am thinking about getting 250 pounds this time. That is five bags and will cost $93.50 with tax. I wish tax wasn't on animal feed. We don't have tax on people food in this state, and since it is food, you'd think they'd give it a pass, but no. We have 3.5 litters growing out at present and those guys eat. Feed costs are worth it in the amount of meat we get out of it, but I am tired of going to the store so often for it, so hopefully this will be enough for a month.

On the 19th Sweetie Belle and Serenity will be old enough to be bred and then we'll have five does in various stages of pregnancy or raising litters. Wonder how much feed they will go through then? We are at the point where we are eating rabbit almost once a week now, but there is no surplus to build up our freezer stock with (or to be canned). Since I don't want to have litters born during the coldest months of January and February, I will do my last breeding in early November and not breed again until mid-February. So I want to have enough meat put up to get through those months of no production.

Although Andromeda will be old enough to be bred in December I will not breed her until mid-February. A first time mother does not need to have her first litter in the freezing cold. I have been fortunate with both Phoebe and Lola on their first litters. First time rabbit mothers can often lose their entire first litter. I'd like to keep that track record up.

I took DD shopping for back to school clothes. Fortunately she had a lot of t-shirts she got as presents for her birthday last month, including one that will work for PE, so we didn't even have to look at those. I hate shopping for clothes. I'd sooner go to the dentist and you all know how much I hate going to the dentist. But except for a pair of dress flats we are done. She will have to purchase her own accessories, scarves, and hats this year (I am not talking about scarves and hats for winter, but the fun kind).

The damage was $322.75. For that we purchased:

2 pairs of men's boxers (she wears under her skirts)
2 sports bras for PE
2 pairs of trousers
2 pairs of sweats (1 for PE)
8 pairs of underwear
1 sweater (light weight, fall type, 3/4 sleeves)
2 pairs of boot cut jeans
2 sweatshirts
1 denim vest
2 skirts
1 pair of tennis shoes for PE
12 pairs of socks (2 pairs for PE)
3 long-sleeved button down shirts

She has several dressy blouses from last year and the year before that are still in nice shape, 3 skirts, 1 dress, 2 pairs of boots (one faux leather, one faux suede), and 2 pairs of pants.

I am glad DS doesn't need to go shopping for new clothes. He doesn't care much since we are homeschooling anyway. He will be happy in his silky basketball shorts, t-shirts and polo shirts until late November and then we will get him some sweats and jeans and socks. He won't wear them before it gets cold. Currently his tennis shoes from last spring still fit, but who knows for how much longer as he has grown so fast.

I cleaned out my purse and swept DH's wallet for ones and coins and added $9.63 to the coin jar today. It was left over from some weekend spending we did.

I have done great on Swagbucks this month already without hardly trying. Today there is a swag code until 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET. It is prosperity and worth 7 points.

Meal planning this week is again trying to get in some of end of summer vegetables and fruits.

Monday:
Beef chuck pot roast
Baked potatoes
Romano broad beans
Watermelon

Tuesday:
Spaghetti
Homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, minced garlic from the jar, fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh thyme, a pinch of dried rosemary, freshly ground sea salt and freshly ground pepper and some tomato paste)
Meatballs (ground beef, Italian bead crumbs, parmesan, romano, egg)
Cole slaw

Wednesday:
Meatball sandwiches
Leftover cole slaw
Fried potatoes made with leftover baked potatoes
Nectarines

Thursday:
Fried rabbit
Corn on the cob
Broccoli/cauliflower
Cantaloupe

Friday:
Homemade pizza made with leftover spaghetti sauce (onion, bell pepper strips, ham, pepperoni)
Kohlrabi

Saturday:
Bacon cheeseburgers with homemade buns
Fried potatoes
Salad
Watermelon

I got my Capitol One 360 interest today of $4.97. I added that to my Emergency Fund.

$6054.92 Old EF Balance
+___4.97 Interest Added
-----------
$6059.89 New EF Balance

My husband went out to see his parents last night and he came home with two checks for the kids of $250 each. Apparently they have been spending a ton of money on his sister's kids lately and they wanted to make it even. We have told them before that they do not need to do this as SIL lives below the poverty level and we are doing very well right now. But they want to be fair, so the kids got the money.

I have told each child that they must put $30 each into their savings account. That is 12% of the total. I've also told them that they have to start saving at least 1/4 of their allowances every week. I want them to get into a savings habit.

The big box store guys were able to access both my hard drive and my desktop, so they are copying all of my files off it to a portable hard drive. So by Sunday I should have all of my spreadsheets, photos, music files, and documents back. Then they will shoot it off to Seattle for repairs. If they can fix it in Seattle they will ship it direct to my home. If they can't, then the big box store will give me a voucher to purchase a new one.

I really hope they can fix it. I really like the keyboard and with the amount of writing I do, a keyboard that is easy to type on is one of the most important things I look for in a laptop. Since I didn't bust the screen this time, it should be cheaper to fix it than to replace it. And I want my Windows 7, though I am grudgingly getting used to Windows 8, but I still don't like it.

Lola had her first litter of kits on Thursday, six healthy, strong ones. She is far more protective of them than Phoebe or Piper are of theirs. She takes bribing with a carrot and some subterfuge on our part to get a look at them, but we mostly will just leave her be since she is so protective until they are older. I'm not very hands on until they are ten days to two weeks old anyway, but I do have to check to make sure none have died every so often.

Our current rabbit count is at 33, with 4 litters being raised. We will be sending 5 to freezer camp this weekend and then we'll be down to 28 rabbits and 3 litters (9 weeks old, 4 weeks old, and 2 days old).

We bred Phoebe on Sunday and she will be due on the 26th of September. At the rate we are going we will likely be processing a litter every 4 weeks. I want to get to the point where we have enough in the freezer to eat it once a week and have some leftover to can.

Serenity, Sweetie Belle, and Starbuck will all be old enough to breed on the 19th, so we will breed Piper to Starbuck when she's ready in a little less than 4 weeks. And we will breed Serenity and Sweetie Belle to Leo. Andromeda won't be old enough to breed until December, but I likely won't breed her until February so she has her kits in March when it is not as cold. I really don't want kits being born in January or February as it can be bitter then.

It is nice to see all the work and money I have put into raising these rabbits starting to come to fruition. A couple more litters processed and they will be paying for themselves.

Today was the $10 auto deposit to the EF.

$6044.92 Old Balance of EF
+__10.00 Amount Added
-----------
$6054.92 New Balance of EF

I've been thinking about what I want to do for September, since we'll have the extra paycheck.

I've decided to try to get the Emergency Fund to $7300, which would be $1000 from the extra paycheck, $100 for the regular monthly deposit, $40 from the four $10 Thursday deposits, and then scraping up the rest, $115.08, throughout the month. I want to get the January Money Fund to $1500. And I'd like to have at least $500 in the Moving Fund.

The mortgage is at $9965.09, so I'll likely try to get that below $9K as well. I had thought about throwing the whole extra paycheck at the mortgage, but decided I'd rather build up the other funds first. I just feel better with a more substantial EF. Once I get it to $10K I will feel a lot more secure about focusing on other things.

Not 100% sure what we'll do with the OT paycheck at this point, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It would be nice to save the whole thing in the EF, but I don't think that is practical.

On the laptop front, I have $1800 in the laptop fund. We have actually purchased the laptops for the kids using the 18 months same as cash feature and I will be paying it as it goes along, even though I have the money in the bank. I figure I might as well collect the paltry interest. And I can always pay it off free and clear if the need arises. We won't take the full 18 months to pay it off, though.

DH is continuing to baby along his laptop. If it comes time for him to get a new one, I will pay off the kids' right away.

I've been paying things in dribs and drabs this week, but thought I should do a full accounting.

$700.00 Mortgage
__90.00 Physical Therapy
_100.00 Emergency Fund
_100.00 Moving Fund
_100.00 Laptop Fund
_100.00 Christmas Fund
_144.00 Water/sewer Old House
__49.91 Propane
__28.52 Medical
_175.00 Medical
_853.09 AMEX
__40.00 Allowances
_200.00 Cash (groceries, OTC meds)
---------
2680.52 Total Out

I added $100 to the Emergency Fund so it is now at $6044.92, so I have met my goal of $6000 in the EF by the end of August.

New Fund Totals:

$565.61 January Money Fund
$505.21 Appliance Fund
1800.00 Laptop Fund
$600.00 College Fund
$500.00 Hawaii 2018 Fund
$400.00 Property Tax Fund
$500.00 Christmas Fund
$100.00 Moving Fund
$000.00 Propane Fund

I had the money set aside for half the water/sewer bill and the propane bill, but I paid them directly out of this paycheck. Then I transferred what I had set aside to the January Money Fund. That was $121.91.

And I think that covers it.

Tonight I added $10.34 to the coin jar. $9 of that was in ones.

I also went to the grocery store and bought Gatorade, pudding, cold medicine, soup, ice cream and Jello gelatin for my daughter, who has managed to catch a late summer cold that makes her throat violently sore, probably at the slumber party she went to on the weekend. I spent $71.35 on that. Crazy how expensive cold medicine has gotten this year. At least the pudding and Jello were on sale.

I have spent a lot on produce this weekend. I guess I am feeling nutrient starved or something (could have something to do with all the potato chips I've been eating this month). Or maybe I'm just holding onto that last gasp of summer fruits and veggies. Anyway, I am planning very carefully to not let any of it spoil.

I've been investigating some new recipes as well and will try out two this week.

Sunday:
Chorizo con huevoes
Brown rice
Nectarines
Steamed Zucchini

Monday:
Baked chicken
Corn on the cob
Strawberries
Steamed yellow summer squash

Tuesday:
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Cherries
Green beans

Wednesday:
Black pepper chicken stir-fry (has lots of fresh veggies)
Watermelon
Drop biscuits with choice of homemade jams

Thursday:
Fried rabbit
Baked potatoes
Watermelon
Broccoli/cauliflower

Friday:
Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ham, yellow onions, and bell pepper strips
Cole slaw
Watermelon

Saturday:
Bacon cheeseburgers on homemade buns
Cole slaw
WAtermelon

I managed to recreate my budget spreadsheet and hopefully I've got everything on it. It's a good thing I almost always post everything to this blog or I'd have spent a lot more time on it than I did. I'm still recreating the Holding Tank spreadsheet, but I've got most of it done. I need to find one receipt and then I should have all the information I need.

Tomorrow I will actually pay bills and allocate money to funds. I have created a new fund, called the Moving Fund. We'll have to rent U-hauls when we move so I'd like to start preparing for that well before we need it.

I still don't know when the house will be completely done. It feels like it will never happen. We sprayed the mason bees tonight at dusk when they are supposed to be least active, but if the spray doesn't work we may have to hire an exterminator. Who knows how much that is going to cost? They are only in one small area, but just getting an exterminator to go out there is more expensive than a city call.

I just want to be done with it. It is such a money pit. I want to move on and start the future, but that house is holding us back. And may do so for some time yet. Even when it is done and can be put on the market it still has to sell. And having completely missed the summer season, we'll have it on the market at the worst possible time of year, the rainy and snowy season. Not too many want to house hunt in a foot or two of snow.

I am trying not to be discouraged about it and trying to keep a positive attitude. This month has been a hard one for me to keep a positive attitude in, though. We have accomplished so much this year and last, so why does it feel like we're completely standing still?

It is official. After today's payment, the mortgage is now under $10K. Boo yah!

Today was payday, but other than making a mortgage payment and going grocery shopping, I have not done anything about it. This is because I am still procrastinating rebuilding my spreadsheet. Well, I did make some progress. I loaded Office. Now I just need to build the spreadsheet, which I will do tomorrow since I have nothing else on the agenda, except maybe making more pickles.

I made and canned 6 pints of pickles yesterday:



I put my coin jar money into the Emergency Fund today.

$5912.45 Beginning EF Balance
+__32.50 Amount Added
-----------
$5944.95 New EF Balance

I went to the food co-op after the credit union because of locations, so the dividend check from the food co-op of $7.43 was not cashed until I'd already deposited the coin jar money. So that $7.43 is now in the coin jar for my next deposit. I also added $4.40 in change and ones to the coin jar left from my purchases today. I did have a bit left in checking so that will be transferred to the EF when I make the monthly $100 deposit as well. I will hit my $6000 goal without problems.

DH will be bringing work home with him next week. He'll have a week's worth of work to do during his two weeks off, so we'll get an extra paycheck (or two halves of one) next month, on top of the extra one we're getting because of the number of Fridays this month. Some of it will go to the January Money Fund, some to the Laptop Fund, and some to the Emergency Fund.

The $10 auto deposit went into savings today.

$5902.45 Starting EF Amount
+__10.00 Amount of Deposit
-----------
$5912.45 New Amount of EF

I have $87.55 to go to hit my August goal for the EF of $6000.

It turns out what I thought was a check from the food co-op for $7.43 can't be cashed anywhere but at the food co-op, so I haven't redeemed that yet. I don't want to make a special trip and will be shopping there this weekend so that money hasn't gone in yet.

I have been procrastinating like mad on recreating my budget and holding tank spreadsheets. I should be able to do it easily enough between my blog entries and my 2012 spreadsheet and my checking account. I need to do that tonight since it is payday tomorrow.

I need to pop over to the dentist and bring them the check from the insurance company. I've tried a couple of times and they were closed even though it was normal hours. They might have been on vacation. I don't know. I will try again today and if no one is there I will just mail it to them.

Do you ever have one of those months that it just feels like things are cosmically aligned to be out to get you? *sighs* August is one of those months for me.

The latest bit of news is that my pharmacy is closing. This is one of the last locally owned places in town, but the entire store and its sister store are going out of business. Mostly, though, I am upset because I am losing my pharmacist, who was awesome and went above and beyond the call of duty on numerous occasions.

Also they transferred all of my medication
information to Walgreens. I don't really think that's legal to do without patient permission because of medical privacy laws. I know doctor's can't release records without the patient signing something, so I can't see why they would do that.

I don't even know if Walgreens will accept my insurance, so now I have to have DH get on that. And have him check out the grocery store near our home, too. If Walgreens will take it I'd have to have them transfer it to the closer one to us, not the closest one to the old pharmacy, which is what they did.

I don't think the generic blood pressure medication is working. I have felt like crap since going off it. Headache with lots of pressure, average reading has been 130/90 and tonight's was one 140/95, and I feel swollen. And I'm getting dizzy the last few days as the readings have trended up. I'll call my doctor tomorrow and see about trying something else or upping the dose. They gave me a 90 day supply (do not know why because I was only supposed to be trying it for a month to see if it worked). Also my hands and feet have been very, very cold today. I'm not sure if that is a sign of hypertension or not, but it's not normal for me.

And to top it all off, Sweetie Belle bit me. We were doing so well with the behavior modification, too. She didn't break the skin, but it did hurt for a few minutes. I gave her a sharp no, because in my surprise I totally forgot I am supposed to let out a high pitched squeal like a rabbit does when it is hurt to let her know she hurt me. Don't know what I am going to do about her. If she continues to bite, she's out the door after she gives me one good litter. Maybe one of her babies will be nice like our bucks and not crazy like their mother.

She's purebred and pedigreed so I should be able to get a reasonable amount for her. I'd like to at least recoup the feed I've put into her. Despite her being insane, I can't see sending her to freezer camp. She has good bloodlines and will breed well and maybe someone with more patience and no kids would be a better owner for her.

If my spouse were to max out his 401K and he grosses around $175K this year with overtime and bonuses, can he take out an IRA as well? Does his income have any bearing on whether or not I can take out a spousal IRA? His company does not contribute anything at all to the 401K so it won't grow as fast as someone whose company contributes on the first 6%, so I think we'll kind of need to make up for that somehow. We plan to do the catch up when DH turns 50, but that's a little over 6 years away.

My daughter, son, and I made Korean pork dumplings (Mandu) today for the first time. It took all three of us as it is time intensive but less so with all of us working, (one person to separate the wrappers, one person to put the scoop of filling on the wrapper, and one person to seal the dumplings shut with egg white), but they were fantastic and well worth it. And it's a nicely balanced little meal with pork, mirin, dark sesame oil, bean sprouts, scallions, ginger, garlic, egg, and cabbage in a goyza wrapper. Protein, veggies, and carb in one neat little package. It should have had tofu, too, but I didn't want to dry tofu, so I left it out. I should have taken pictures. Ah, well, next time I make them I will take photos and post the recipe.

I liked them even better than the ones from the Korean restaurant in our town or the Hawaiian Barbecue franchise. I can make 100 dumplings for $10 (less if I'd not used free range organic pork from the ranch). They sell for $6 for 10, so quite the cost savings there.

I received a check from the food co-op, dividends for the year of $7.43 (I think) so I will deposit that into the Emergency Fund along with all the ones I have saved tomorrow.

I am hoping I can recreate my budget spreadsheets. I don't have a current copy saved outside my other computer, but I do have my 2012 budget and should be able to extrapolate from there. I think I can figure out what money was in which category of the Holding Tank from previous blog posts, too. From now on I am seriously backing up my spreadsheets onto a flash drive every week. I feel stupid for not doing that.

I think I can get through until payday Friday with only spending $30 on food. That should leave me with a bit of money to shunt into the Emergency Fund.

I've been having troubles with Swagbucks surveys. I get all the way to the end, hit submit, and then it goes Oops, we had a problem and it's lost along with all my time and points. Very irritating. I did get Swagbucks to credit me the 150 points for the one, but they said they'd only do it the once and only because I'd spent so much time on it. The survey companies they do business with really need to get their acts together. Fortunately I was able to make the daily goal without any surveys today. I didn't need the frustration.