Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

So if you efile your taxes how is the question of signatures handled? DH didn't get the taxes done so he is thinking of just doing them while up at work and efiling even if we have to pay a bit to efile. I'm assuming you don't need a signature with efiling? Is that so? Because he wouldn't have mine for the return obviously if he is doing it from Alaska.

I've been walking around in a fog for the last few days. A few nights of insomnia will do that to you. I finally slept last night and have my head on straight again to think about finances. It's not like I was going out and spending or anything, I just wasn't focusing enough to write too much.

My birthday present came and my husband, forgetting that it was my birthday present, opened it and started using it before I even had the chance to see it. Now I won't have anything to open on my birthday. I was more than a little annoyed with him. Okay, he would have had to set it up for me anyway, but I could have at least opened the box.

In the old, old, old days I would have used this as an excuse to go out and buy myself something else. I am glad I don't have that mindset anymore, but the thought did cross my mind. What's up with that?

MIL agreed to watch DS and DD will be going to a birthday party so that DH and I can go out to eat for my birthday. Well, the day before my birthday, as I want to spend the actual day with the kids, too. We will be going to Burlington. Maybe I'll have us stop by Krispy Kreme while we are there. That's a rare treat. Just a doughnut though, not a dozen! Don't need them in the house.

I need to make a bill paying post and update a few other things, too, when I get the chance.

Friday we went shopping at Costco. I picked up a few items for my mother while we were there. It cost $67.11 and she paid me back today. I kept the $65 in my purse, but added the $2.11 to the coin jar.

We spent a good $230 at Costco ourselves, mostly because I did not want to go back there again any time soon. I may be walking almost normally now, but after a trip there I was limping and had to ice for several hours afterwards. It is just too big a place to try to manuever through when you are disabled.

So I doublestocked on some stuff, toilet paper, Ziploc bags, medicines, etc. Most of the cost was that, though I did get a big bag of precut broccoli, some hamburger patties, pancake mix, a case of oranges (after opening the box and checking every single orange for mold), and some chicken thighs as they were .99/lb. Since they come prepackaged in family sized servings, I prefer to buy them at Costco if the cost is low enough, so I don't have to do any extra work. It had been running $1.59 for the last year or so, so it had been cheaper for me to buy it elsewhere in bulk at .98/lb and package it myself.

I wish I had realized we were nearly out of brown sugar though or I would have bought some there. I have about a half cup left after making the marinade today. Now I'll need to wait for a sale and it's not really baking season so I may have to pay a higher price. We use it too much to go too long without it. I should root around and make sure I don't have any in the cupboards. I had quite the stockpile at one time.

DH had to run DS's viola down to the school as he forgot it today and then he is to swing over to the one CU and get the amount of last year's interest for our taxes. He needs to get those done this week so we can get them sent in before he leaves on Monday.

The closing date on DH's grandparents' house was moved from January 30th to February 20th. Even though the people had put in an offer and had the inspection done, they then had to have the bank approve and do it's own inspection, which is taking a while. They were preapproved before the offer and figured that was enough, hence the earlier closing date. First time homebuyers.

Hopefully it will actually close on the 20th. I don't know how long it will be from that point until DH gets his share of the inheritance. Not too long, I hope. No one has contested the will and it was divided fairly with 5% going to each of four grandchildren, and 40% going to each of two children. The family is more or less amicable.

I got the book I put on hold from the library today, The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather that someone here on the blogs had gotten not too long ago. I am really looking forward to reading it. The author lived on $40 a week for food after her husband divorced her and she lost her job. That's about $160 a week for a family of four if I extrapolated it out. We spend about $150 a week for the four of us, so it's pretty close and I thought maybe I could find some actual useful ideas in this one. So far I'm liking it, but haven't got too far yet.

All right, I've procrastinated my bills long enough. Time to grab the bull by the horns.

DH has really been a dear with helping me with meal planning since he got home. It is so much easier when I've got support in place and someone to do half the work. Tonight's dinner is teriyaki beef skewers with leftover stir-fry vegetables and various other leftovers. I have some corn and some potatoes and some broccoli that all need using up so they'll go on the table as well. DH cut up the flank steak while I mixed the marinade and inventoried the fridge for leftovers.

I've got some milk that is about to hit the sell-by date and there is no way we will drink it in time, and some sour cream that has, so tomorrow we will be making baked potato soup for dinner. I have all the ingredients for it, so not even a last minute run to the store. And chicken and a new batch of cole slaw will round it out.

Then I think chicken enchiladas and rice on Wednesday to use up the leftover chicken. I'll add some sort of green vegetable. Maybe green beans.

Thursday I am not sure about. Maybe pork chops and fried potatoes and salad. The pork chops are getting close to when they don't want to keep in the freezer any longer, so that would be a good thing to use up.

I'm thinking about potroast for Friday since I am going to be busy during our usual meal prep time. If DH will remember to put them in since I'll be away from the house, we can have baked sweet potatoes, too. And then finish off the cole slaw.

Saturday I am hoping to slip away for the afternoon with DH so we can go out to dinner alone as a birthday present to me. My birthday isn't until the 12th, but he leaves that evening. We'll celebrate with the kids on Sunday, but I'd just like it to be me and DH on Saturday. I have $45 worth of Outback gift cards from Christmas time, which should cover things or most of things. I usually only eat an appetizer (kookaburra wings and celery sticks) there as my meal and add a baked potato and side of mixed veggies.

It is nice having the whole week planned out in advance so that I don't have to worry about what we are going to do at the last mintue.

We went to look at a couple of houses today. Still not ready to buy by a long shot, but really just wanting to get a look at some of the houses that are out there.

I really liked the first one, except for the fact that the Master bedroom is on the second floor. There is a bedroom on the first floor, but it is small and the bathroom is only a shower stall and it's off the kitchen, which is not anywhere near the bedroom, but about as far as you could get. But it was beautiful.

I really wish it had been laid out differently, but I know that what I want in a house is a master bed on the first floor. I'd prefer no second floor at all, but that's not always easy to find.

It's in the perfect location. It's one block from our favorite grocery store, one block from our main credit union branch, two blocks from our favorite restaurant, within walking distance of my daughter's best friend's house, and it is in the same school district and they'd be going to the exact same schools.

After that we went to a new housing development on the outskirts of town. We really liked one of the model homes and it's under $300,000. It had the kind of open floor plan we like where the living room flows into the dining room flows into the kitchen. The yard is small enough to maintain easily (with a push mower even), but big enough to feel like a yard.

The Master Bedroom is sizable and on the first floor, the master bathroom is sizable. No tub, but doublewide shower stall with built in chairs, dual shower heads and totally handicapped accessible. There is a second bedroom/office on the first floor as well, that would be perfect to put the piano in and the treadmill and the desktop computer. There was an alcove for a washer and dryer and a two car garage.

Upstairs it had two decent-sized bedrooms, a bathroom with a tub, and a large alcove area between the bedrooms that would have been big enough to fit a double bed in or a couple of desks.

It was really, really nice and would have met all of our needs...except it's not in the same school district, since it's technically outside the city limits. I'm not even talking about the two schools they go to, but the entire district. And let's just say that the Meridian school district is not known for it's high educational standards.

I'm a little bummed as they will be building houses there for the next few years so in a year or so when we are ready there would be something available in the floor plan we want. But I can't see ripping my son away from his best friend. He needs her too much and she really needs him, too. They've both been bullied so much in the past so finding each other and being a support to each other this year has made a world of difference for both children.

Oh, well. We'll find something, eventually, in the area that we want. It'll be the right house at the right time. I'm sure of that.

My mortgage payment hit, too. $84.99 went to interest. $290.87 went to principal. The remaining balance is $18,253.41. The next payment will put me under $18K.

I keep thinking about how the next time we have a mortgage things are going to change so dramatically. Having bought a house in 1998 when prices were low has meant a small and easily manageable mortgage payment for years. The very idea of having a mortgage of $1500 seems staggering in comparison.

Part of me thinks maybe we should just save longer for a downpayment. Although our current living situation can sometimes be annoying, it is doable for as long as we want to stay here. We could stay an extra year and save even more money for a down payment. Even when we do put our house on the market (hopefully this summer), there is no guarantee it will sell quickly or at all, so an extra year of saving may well be worth it. DH and I are beginning to talk about it. I guess we will see what happens.

Why is it the simplest of homemade things can often taste the best? Tonight's meal was an example of that. For dinner I pan-fried some wild Alaskan true cod in just a little bit of e.v. olive oil, lightly seasoned with fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and Lawry's seasoning. Along with that we had some Trader Joe's corn, some boiled broccoli, and my homemade cole slaw. Milk was the beverage of choice and the four of us split an heirloom navel orange. It was mostly mine (I had half), but everyone wanted a wedge or two because when I peeled it the aroma it produced was staggering.

My cole slaw is incredibly simple. It takes me a minute and a half to make. Three minutes if I have to shred the cabbage myself, but I generally get the 1 pound bag of pre-shredded from Trader Joe's for $1.29. My dressing is easy, 1/4 cup of organic Canola mayonnaise, 1/4 cup of canola oil (olive oil flavors it too intensely) and 2 tbsp of honey. Stir with a whisk until blended and dump into the cabbage. Mix. Done.

From start to finish dinner took 15 minutes to make and everything was fresh and easy. I love that in a dinner. It was fast because I was organized. First I put on the pan to boil water for the broccoli, then I started the fish cooking. I cut up the broccoli and washed it and dumped the cabbage into a bowl. Then it was time to flip the fish and by then the water was boiling so I put the broccoli on to steam. I turned down the heat on the fish, covered it and mixed up the dressing. I put the corn in a bowl with some butter and salt and put it in the micro for two minutes. I dumped the dressing on the cole slaw, pulled the fish off the heat, returned to the slaw to mix it, then pulled the broccoli. By then the corn was done. Presto chango, dinner in 15.

Faster than driving to get fast food and 100 times healthier. It was about $12 for the whole meal and McDonalds would have been about $25 to feed us. So all around a much more convenient use of time and a better use of money.

Well, it's been a couple of days since the stomach virus ended the worst of its activities and today I decided that it was time to start eating well again. I watched that documentary Forks Over Knives last night, and though I will never give up meat or animal products, I think there was some decent information there.

I've tried to eat vegetarian in the past and was always starving. I hate beans and soy products and I dislike lentils. That pretty much screws up the idea of any kind of healthy vegetarianism.

I am going to lean towards more vegetables, though. My go to veggies tend to be green beans and organic instant potatoes. It isn't because I don't like other vegetables. I do. It's just always been easiest to open a can of green beans and nuke them for 2 minutes and instant spuds are self-explanatory. But it's probably the least healthy option, what with them lining cans today and plastic packaging.

To that end we bought lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, broccoli, radishes, green cabbage, purple cabbage, scallions, onions, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, oranges, pears, and strawberries. We got some dried mango and dried bing cherries and some raw almonds.

My goal for dinners is going to be a plate that is half lower glycemic vegetables, 1/8 other type of vegetable like corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, or carrots. 1/8 fruit, and 1/4 animal protein from as natural a source as I can find. If I have room at that point I might add 1/4 cup of oat cereal. I'm not particularly worried about whole grains and bread for the most part. Hopefully it won't get too expensive and I won't get too lazy to actually cook.

I am so tired, but last time I let this slide I didn't even end up posting it at all, so these are the bills I paid out of the most recent paycheck.

$600.00 AMEX
$375.86 Mortgage Old House
$261.00 Dental
___7.28 Doctor
$142.00 Storage
__32.70 Life Insurance Me
__37.61 Life Insurance DH
__41.25 Insurance for Old House
__83.98 Car Insurance
__39.37 Security System Old House
$104.22 Emergency Fund
$180.00 2 months of tae kwon do lessons
------------------
1905.27

I have spent about $200 on groceries (did some stocking up on canned goods) and also did allowances to the kids. I have about $70 left until Friday.

I cleaned out my purse today and added $11.37 to the coin jar. I think I have enough quarters now to roll them, but don't feel like checking right now. If not it is pretty close.

I spent $90 today to get a therapuetic massage (1.5 hours) as I had some pretty severe muscle spasms over the weekend to the point where even the super powerful muscle relaxant didn't work.

I also spent $31.68 at the grocery store buying 2 kinds of milk, oranges, bananas, lettuce and some salmon.

DH came home this morning. It is really nice to have him here again.

I transferred the $104.22 to the ING portion of my Emergency Fund. I also added January's interest which now brings the total EF to $4004.47. So that's one big goal met for January.

I did the bills and go the checkbook balanced, but now I need to go to sleep and I'll record te bills tomorrow. Or actually later today since it is 2 a.m.

DH wants to buy tax software because this year is going to have the most complicated return we've ever had and he wants to make sure he doesn't miss anything. It's not really complicated enough to take to a tax professional, but he feels some kind of software might be necessary. He has always done our taxes by hand and then gone through it step by step with me so I would know how to do them, too if I ever had to. (I used to do my own when I was single).

So I've heard of TurboTax and Quicken, but which is better, more user friendly? I am also curious as to whether there was anything else out there. Possibly something that didn't cost anything at all? From what I understand you have to buy new software every year with the two name brands, you can't just update it. Is that true?

As I often do on Saturdays, I spent a good portion of the day looking for frugal blogs to read. And I keep running up against things that seem frugal until you actually read the blogs. Like people who are only spending $50 a week on their groceries, but then when you actually read it, it's $50 per person in their household (less for non-teenage eaters, though my eleven-year-old frequently out eats me on a daily basis and has done for a couple of years so I don't consider that very realistic). Well, if I go based on their numbers, I'd be spending $180 to $200 a week on groceries or about $750 to $800 a month for a family of four. And this is supposed to be frugal? In what universe?

I easily keep my grocery budget to $600 a month and if I wanted to give up meat, which I don't, I'd probably drop off another $150. If I wanted to buy cheap processed foods, which I don't, I could probably drop it another $100. But I like my meat and my healthy, unprocessed foods, so $600 it is.

I guess I just don't get why these people seem to think they are doing something spectacular. They aren't. Maybe amongst their friends and families, if they are spending $1000 on groceries beforehand, but in the real world? No.

Now if they were feeding a family of four decently for $50 a week total, that would be something spectacular. That would be something I would love to read. Wish I could find something like that.

I haven't sat down and done all the bills yet. Physical therapy really wiped me out today and then I had to go to Walgreens and two different grocery stores, so I mailed off the one bill due on the 31st (just going to elsewhere in the county so will get there in plenty of time). That was the $100 for half year dues for the HoA of our old house's development.

I did have enough coins in the coin jar to roll both nickels and pennies, and I had another $1 in my purse, so with that I ended up depositing $35.50 into the Safety Net portion of the Emergency Fund.

$708.63 Beginning Safety Net Amount
+_35.50 Amount of Deposit
--------------------
$744.13 Ending Safety Net Amount

That brings the total EF to $3895.78, which means I only need to transfer $104.22 to ING to hit $4000 and not the few dollars more I thought it would be. I will figure out the ING money tomorrow as I have to put some other amounts in from what needs to go into the holding tank.

I also paid out the kids allowances today. DS got $7 and DD got $36 (I was a bit behind on hers and had to fill her envelope for 3 weeks worth of allowance). I also gave her $10 as she is spending the day at the mall tomorrow with her friends and will need to buy something to eat. She likes to go to one of the stir-fry places where they actually have real food, but they are a bit more expensive than the rest of the food court.

I also bought an extra large specialty pizza tonight for $28.17. I was in the mood for a bit of a splurge. And I spent $2.16 on a prescription. And $169 and some odd cents on groceries and OTC meds as well, refilling my cold medicine stockpile for DS (the dye free stuff he needs to have because of his allergies). I think that's it for today.

Okay, so I had $2306.05 left over from the money that I saved up to cover the 4 week period with no paycheck in January. I finally decided what to do with it today.

I set $1000 aside for future medical expenses. I will use $1000 of it to go towards debt repayment. $23.05 went into the propane portion of the holding tank, and I added the final $283 to the Emergency Fund. I also added 10 cents in interest from the Safety Net account at the CU, that I forgot to add at the end of the year.

So that brings the grand total of the Emergency Fund to $3860.28. My goal for the EF was to hit $4000 by the end of March. I think I will revise that goal to hitting it by the end of February. Actually I might have to revise it more, since I will be depositing $31 to the Safety Net and $100 to the EF at ING out of the paycheck.

Oh, wait. I just did the math on that. I only need an additional $8.72 to hit $4000 then. Umm...okay, I'll deposit $108.72 tomorrow instead of $100 to ING. So that's that goal met. Okay, then. Let's see if I can hit $4250 by the end of February then.

I finished writing my February Budget Spreadsheet and updated my January one. Everything should be pretty straight-forward now, so long as I can keep my head on straight.

I added $4.28 to the coin jar, which is what was left in my purse at the end of the day. I also found a $10 bill in my sock drawer, so I added that to the coin jar as well. I have $31 in bills so I will make a deposit in to the EF tomorrow. I just need to count up my coins and see if I have enough to roll anything. I'll probably have at least one roll of pennies and I think I was getting pretty close on nickels last time I counted them, so maybe those as well.

This is the first time I've added to the EF in quite some time. I should be able to send at least $100 out of tomorrow's paycheck as well.

I need to sit down and figure out how much of the leftover money I saved for the four weeks no paycheck time period should still be allocated for medical and how much should go to either debt repayment or the EF. Today's the first day I've even felt like looking at my spreadsheets so I should probably take advantage of that as who knows how I will be feeling tomorrow, especially after physical therapy.

I will make up the February Budget spreadsheet as well, and finish recording the Januray one.

Is it normal to feel exhausted after losing a parent? I am barely doing anything. Just the bare minimum to keep the kids going to school and fed and throwing in a batch of laundry. Otherwise all I really want to do is sleep. I am getting plenty of sleep, but I still just feel like I need more. I'm not even particularly sad anymore the majority of the time, just sort of bland. I have to force myself to eat, because it'll be two in the afternoon and I'll realize I've not eaten anything all day.

I was never like this when my grandparents died. I was sad, but I wasn't useless. Dad and I weren't even that close for most of my life. I feel like I should be bouncing back faster than I am. Grief can be so strange. My mother seems to be handling things so much better than me and they were married for 54 years. She always has been very strong.

My son has his first orchestra concert tonight so I have to force myself to go out and be the proud mother. I would never disappoint him by not going. Maybe being around other people, happy people, will help.

I am so glad finances are on autopilot right now. I will have to do some stuff on payday Friday (or at least on Monday), and I think I can pull out of my funk long enough to do so. Life goes on and bills must be paid.

I keep telling myself life goes on and I have to go with it. And that I can't let the finances slide just because I'm stuck in this feeling of unreality. So I balanced the checkbook. I have $34 left until Friday, which is payday. I made it without spending even half of the money that I saved for the four weeks no paycheck period.

I emptied my coin purse into the coin jar. It had $1.54. I haven't done too much shopping lately, first because of being snowed in for a week and then just being generally lethargic and not wanting to go out anymore than necessary.

The gas tank on the van is still almost full and we've got what we need in groceries to get through the week. And part of next week because I bought a lot of oranges and apples and carrots and celery. I did not like going down to empty on my produce during the snow. I may have canned pineapple and pears, but believe me, there is only so much of that you can take.

There are no bills coming due until the first of the month and those are on autopay, so I don't have to worry about anything until the 3rd. That gives me a bit more time of walking around in this fog without worrying I'm going to miss paying something.

DH will be home in another week and that will help me settle and start feeling normal again.

Last night at midnight my father died. Even though my head knows it is for the best, he had Alzheimer's, MS, was blind, and was mostly deaf, it still hurts. We knew it was coming. We weren't blind-sided. I was prepared for it. But it still hurts.

A foot of snow melted overnight. It's hard to believe it could be gone so fast. There has been some flooding, but surprisingly nothing major. There are a few wet basements being pumped out and some creeks that went over their banks, but the rivers seem to be holding it in.

I never thought 45 degrees F would feel warm! But it does. I hope this is the last of the winter stuff. I could easily go without anymore snow this year.

Of course, my biggest impulse right now is to go and get takeout after more or less being trapped for so many days. I'm not going to, but why is that my biggest impulse? Why is my head screaming pizza, or burgers, or Mexican food? I've gone longer than a week without getting takeout before. Why is it such a big deal to me now? I don't think I'll ever understand how my mind works.

Anyway, we are having breakfast for dinner. Pancakes and and ham, with green beans on the side. Fast and easy and no need to spend money at all.

The weather warmed up a trifle today and we had a tiny amount of rain, so the white stuff thawed a little. We're in for a bunch of rain over the next five days so hopefully that'll take care of it and we'll be snow free again soon.

I spent $3.35 on a perscription today, one I've had to do without since Monday. Mostly because I ended up not sleeping for 56 hours and that was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. My brain just would not shut down. I was so glad the doctor was finally in today.

We did end up getting out to the chiropractor yesterday, and then stopped by the grocery store. It is nice to have oranges, apples, bananas, and green stuff again, as well as bread and milk. I don't think my fridge had ever been this empty before. We ate up everything that was in there and some stuff from the freezer. So this is what a no leftovers left behind week looks like.

I bought some vitamins as well which made things pricey and I walked out of the store having spent $186.42. But I was getting some staples as well, since I really wan't trusting the weather forecast at that point. I will have to go to TJ's on Sunday, but other than that I should not have to grocery shop again until February.

At least the snow has stopped falling. That doesn't do anything to get rid of the heaps of snow already on the ground but at least it isn't being added to. Today is another snow day from school, the third one this week, and of course, the fourth day off from school since Monday was a holiday. The kids are bouncing off the walls. They did make snow ice cream, but that took all of five minutes.

In case anyone wants to know how to make snow ice cream, take eight cups of clean snow, and mix it with one can of sweetened condensed milk and some pure vanilla extract. The recipe called for a tbsp, but that was too much. I think a teaspoon or even 1/2 a teaspoon would suffice. Tastes a bit like and has the consistency of the ice milk they used to have when I was kid.

I do want to try to get to the store today. We are almost out of bread and milk. I suppose I could make bread if I had to, but I'm really not up for it. Mostly, I'd just like to see a new set of human beings. They've plowed the roads, so it's just a question of driving very carefully on the ice that's left.

Weather enforced frugality is not nearly as much fun as frugality by choice, I'm noticing. We haven't had mail delivery for a few days either so no enticing seed catalogues to look through while I dream of spring. Oh, well, we have power and plenty to read or watch as long as Netflix streaming doesn't go down.

I imagine there is going to be massive flooding again this year when the rain comes and this stuff begins to melt off. At least we are uphill from any bodies of water near us, though I imagine the basement pump is going to be running non-stop anyway.

The snow is great for my finances. It's really hard to spend money if you can't even get out of the driveway! Not impossible, of course, there is always the internet, but I am well-disciplined when it comes to internet shopping and never shop just to shop.

I am so sick of the snow already and there is just no sign of it stopping. Last night they said we were supposed to get 15 more inches and it is well on it's way there.

There probably will be no school at all this week. This is the second snow day, and it's been really nice to lounge around in pajamas all week and not even worry about getting up, shoveling off the car, clearing the driveway and trying to drive on snow with ice underneath it.

Speaking of pajamas, I am so glad I made the investment in three pairs of full length PJs. They have made such a difference this winter in helping me to stay warm without having to turn the bedroom space heater on much.

I probably won't get to have any physical therapy this week. I've already had one session cancelled and I doubt very much that my next scheduled one will happen since the weather has only gotten worse. In fact, I may cancel it if they don't.

I did slack off on my exercises on Monday, but I did them all yesterday and then I went on the internet and found a couple of stretches for the psoas muscle, because I have suspected for a few weeks that it might be part of the problem. There were two I could do that didn't involve getting on the floor or on my knee. After I did them, I felt so much better! I've been in misery for weeks and these simple stretches relieved so much pain. All I can say is God bless the people who put stuff up on youtube and here's hoping SOPA and PIPA don't pass on the 24th and censor the heck out of it.

I am getting bored with my usual repertoire of recipes and though I have spent a couple hours searching for cheap meals that include meat, I still keep running up against a lot of vegetarian recipes. It's like the search engine has been programmed by the beans and lentils industry. Which is fine when that's what you want to eat (or you like them, which I don't), but not so much when you want your beef, pork, eggs, cheese, poultry or fish. So I thought I'd ask, what are your go to and preferrably flavorful recipes that include meat but are also low cost?

DH left a pile of coins on the dresser when he left. I just counted them and added them to the coin jar.

$2.40.

The snow is just not stopping. My physical therapist called this morning to say she could not get out of her driveway so therapy was cancelled. Then my daughter's dentist called to say they couldn't get in. In a half an hour I will call to see if the chiropractor made it in today or not. I really need an adjustment, I slept funky on my neck. I hope he did, but am not holding my breath as he lives clear out on Sandy Point and probably got slammed harder than we did with the snow.

I still need to call the pharmacy about that medicine. I hope they got a hold of the doctor, but I'm thinking the doctor probably did not make it in today either so may not have been available to be gotten ahold of. If it is there, though, I want to go and get it sooner rather than later as it is supposed to snow tomorrow as well and I can't see things getting any better. At least the pharmacy is off a main road.

If it is called in I will spend around $5 today. If not, then it will be a no spend day.

I have to say this is quite a relief as even though the kids are on the upswing, an extra day to rest before going back to school is a good thing, as neither of them is 100% over the virus. No longer contagious, but still feeling kind of run down. And snuggling back under the covers was a great feeling. I'm just so glad DH got out last night, because the overnight snow fall was pretty serious. I hope I can still make it to physical therapy, but that is going to depend on the roads they plow.

I finally got the checkbook up to date and balanced. I entered about half of it into my budget spreadsheet last night and will do the other half today and then hopefully update my blog with the numbers as well. I've just been so out of it this past week. Thankfully I have no more bills to pay, though I should have another prescription to pick up, since it wasn't there last night. I have one left of it, so hopefully the doctor will renew it. I'm not sure why he didn't when he renewed the other one and they work together. I certainly don't want to try to go without it. At least it is a cheap generic.

Other than that it should be a no spend day. Oh, DH filled up the vehicle yesterday, but never gave me the gas receipt so I'll have to wait on recording that until I hear from him again. He usually calls or texts when he arrives safely on the North Slope.

It started snowing last night and it has continued to come down all day with very few breaks. I'm not a big fan of snow, especially snow that sticks around. I mean, it's pretty and all, but it's a bear to drive in and right now we don't know what the status of DH's flight is going to be. Sometimes they have problems with keeping the runways cleared and the plane de-icers going.

I suppose it is better to go today though, than tomorrow when the chances that stuff will partially melt then refreeze and turn into an icy mess or that the planes will freeze to the runway like they did a few years back.

I just really hope he can get up there, because it's already going to be four weeks without a paycheck. I still have money in savings in medical and there is the emergency fund of course, but I would hate to touch either of those things. I have about $500 that isn't allocated to anything else for use between now and the 27th that I was hoping not to touch at all.

At least I am feeling a lot better today. Still have a stuffy head, but the stomach stuff is gone, the sore throat is gone. Still coughing a bit, but with cough syrup that is under control. I think I might be capable of driving soon, though Mom has volunteered to take the kids to and from school this week and take DS to tae kwon do. I do have physical therapy tomorrow and that is up at the top of a pretty substantial hill so I hope they clear the roads.

My sinus/respiratory infection hasn't really made much progress in going away, probably because I also caught DH's stomach virus and was throwing up for two days. That kind of acid in the throat and nose does nothing to help. DD got it even worse than I did. So far DS seems to skipping the stomach virus. Anyway, I've kept my food down since about 7 p.m. last night, though my stomach still hurts.

I've done absolutely nothing productive these last couple of days. Well, except make sure the bills that needed to get paid, got paid. I need to do a post on that but I have been procrastinating. I also need to balance the checkbook.

I skipped exercising yesterday because of my stomach, but hope to do the physical therapy today.

I am so tired, though. Even though my stomach is better, there's still a lot of acid so it woke me up every couple of hours last night.

I am not sure how I am going to get through this week once DH goes back to work Monday evening. I am having a difficult time driving because of the pain in my hip. It is not my driving leg, but it is distracting. I can't take the heavy duty painkiller or the muscle relaxant in the morning if I am driving. I also couldn't take them (or even ibuprofen) for the last two days so a lot of pain is going on. I am so ready for this to be over.

I need especially to try to slow down on the muscle relaxant anyway. They cost about $100 for 30 pills and since the deductible started over again at the start of the year, I have to pay all prescription costs until it is met. Ugh.

...or should I say the cost of it? We finally got the piano moved from the old house to this house. It cost $220 to have professionals transport it 25 miles. There was snow out at the old house, but not enough to hinder moving it.

Now we have to let it set for at least six weeks before we tune it. One of the black keys broke off, but I think it can be glued back on or replaced. One of the white keys doesn't strike the string anymore so that will have to be fixed as well. I'm not sure what that will run, but it'll likely be around $100.

It's not too badly out of tune, but it definitely needs to be tuned. It's been a few years. My son has happily been picking away at it all afternoon. He has missed it a lot. So have I for that matter. I love our piano. It was made in 1912, so it's 100 years old now, but is still plays beautifully. And it was free from a family member, so we've only ever put moving costs and tuning costs into it. It's definitely a good investment for all the joy it brings.