Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

So yesterday Mary Ann invited us all to do an exercise challenge with her, sort of based on Denise's quitting smoking challenge. Basically every time we exercise for 20 minutes we put a penny in a jar. Yesterday, I did my physical therapy exercises twice, which takes a little over 20 minutes each time, so I now have two shiny pennies in my jar. For me each penny will represent a dollar and at the end of each month I will take that money and set it aside in savings.

I haven't decided what for, though. I'm leaning toward Christmas. I spent about $500 on Christmas this year. If I manage to keep up with the challenge I should be able to save around $600 in ten months.

Since for me, doing these exercises is more about rehabilitation and being able to walk normally again, rather than just getting fit, I think I already will have the incentive to do this, but adding in the pennies is a nice extra nudge in the direction of not being lazy and skipping a day or only doing them once a day.

Okay, so when I restarted blogging consistently in January last year we owed $67,457.32 in unsecured credit card debt. We now owe $20,228.79.

$67,457.32 Original amount owed
-20,228.79 Amount left on credit card debt
-------------
$47,228.53 Amount paid off in 2011

We really busted tail this year to pay off that much debt and before the surgery in July I was sure we could have paid off the whole thing by the end of the year. Well, life happened of course, and medical is expensive. But we made a lot more progress than I actually thought we had.

As for the mortgage, we started the year at $22,326.63, but it now sits at 18,544.28.

$22,326.63 Beginning amount
-18,544.28 Ending amount
--------------
$_3,782.35 Amount paid off in 2011

Then finally is the loan from my mother who originally covered over $100,000 in hospital debt for us with a 0% loan. At the beginning of the year we owed her $93,000. We now owe her $87,000.

$93,000 Starting 2011
-87,000 Amount left
-----------------
$_6,000 Amount paid off

So all told we have paid off $57,010.88 of debt this last year. Sometimes I really feel like we are getting nowhere, but to see it all added up like that, I know we are getting somewhere and the credit card debt, at least, should be paid off by summer.

We'll have around $8000 coming back to us in taxes, mostly because of our HSA, and we will get 5% of whatever DH's grandparents' house sells for, which should be around $7500, but we don't know when that will be. The buyers are negotiating at the moment and if that falls through there is another interested party waiting. All of that money is earmarked for debt payoff.

There is no rush on paying my mother back. She prefers to get $1000 a month and no more when we can manage the payments (we've skipped a few because of all the medical this year, with her blessing). That gives her a stipend to live on besides social security. If she dies before we pay it all back it is forgiven in the will and not owed to the estate.

So we are getting there. Faster than I thought, even.

I've been a little lax on recording this, even though everything has been paid on time. Still, I want a good record of things this year, so this is a bit of a catch up post for bills that have gone out since the 1st.

$__41.25 Old house insurance
___86.30 Car insurance
___37.61 DH Life insurance
___32.70 Me Life insurance
_1000.00 AMEX
_3600.00 Bank of America (The Evil Empire)
__375.86 Mortgage on old house
__142.00 Storage
___15.98 Electricity old house
___39.37 Alarm system old house
___90.00 Tae kwon do lessons
----------------------
$2221.07 Spent so far

I still have to do mid-month bills like internet, phone for the old house, car payment, as well as set money aside for dues, laptop fund, garbage, water/sewer, and propane. I also have the Fashion Bug card to pay off. That one will never have interest charged on it and will always be paid in full.

I have $1400 left of the December money. I may have to dip into some of the money I set aside for January, but I am going to try to cut it as close as possible, so I can save that money instead.

Today I decided to tackle my mending pile. So far I have sewn up a pocket that had ripped in one pair of sweatpants, closed the holes in two fuzzy slipper socks, sewed the underarm seam back up on one of DH's t-shirts and am trying to locate the right size button for DD's jeans. She somehow managed to lose the button, and it's one of those big, flat round ones. Time to go hunting through grandma's button box. If that doesn't work I'll try a trip to JoAnn's but I'd sure prefer to not have to buy one. Still, a few dollars to save a good pair of jeans is not too high a price.

I like the idea of restoring the usability of things with just a little bit of effort on my part. What do you do when you rip your clothes or lose buttons? Fix it, find someone else to fix it for you, or throw it out?

The mortgage posted to my account. The new mortgage balance is now at $18,544.28.

I added $6.70 to the coin jar.

We filled up the gas tank on the van for $53.84.

We paid $4.74 for a prescription.

I need to pick up psuedophederine, a NyQuil/DayQuil pack, and potassium today, so that will likely be a little pricey.

I have sent a total of $4600 to credit card debt.

DH had to pay $900 for a round trip ticket to work and back. He waited too long and the return part was twice as high as it should have been. *sighs*

I am trying to determine what to make for dinner tonight. Maybe pizza. I still have one of those Rustic Crusts, leftover spaghetti sauce, and some mozzarella cheese. There are a few meatballs left from last night's meatballs so I could crumble them on top of the pizza. I also have yellow onions so could dice some, saute them for a couple minutes, and throw them on as well. Oh, I think there's a ham end as well I could dice up. That sounds good. Not too much work and we can have a laid-back Friday night.

The new mattress is great to sleep on. I've now had two really good sleeps on it.

The PA took x-rays of my hip on Thursday. There is nothing wrong with the bones, so he thinks it is either muscular or nerves. He changed my physical therapy orders to lower stress therapy. If I am still in pain in 2 to 4 weeks he wants to send me to a neurologist, and possibly get an MRI of the area. I really don't want to pay for an MRI right now as we have started our deductible all over again. Oh, I know I have the $2500 set aside already, but I hate to blow through it this soon in the year.

We did run $2500 through the HSA though, just in case.

I'm still behind on reading the blogs, but I've caught up to where everyone is talking about meatballs and it gave me a craving so I decided to make up meatball sandwiches tonight, since I had some hotdog buns that were needing to be used up, some leftover homemade spaghetti sauce, and a lot of cheese that has just been sitting there for a while. It's an easy enough recipe to make (and I need easy things right now due to pain). The meatballs themselves are low carb if you want to eat them on their own. I've posted a picture of these before, but realized I never shared the recipe.



Meatballs

1 pound ground beef (or half pound beef and one half pound ground pork)
1/4 cup shredded romano
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1/4 cup shredded cheddar
2 Tbsp minced garlic

Mix together and make into 1.5 inch diameter meatballs. Cook on high in microwave for five minutes. I use the stack cooker by Tupperware to make these. It's the one with the strainer holes so the fat can drip down beneath, but in a pinch they can go on a bacon cooker.

Warm up your leftover spaghetti sauce (or from a jar) and toast your hot dog buns (just on a hot frying pan is fine, don't try to stick them in a toaster). Spread sauce on each hotdog bun half and then place three meatballs on top. Easy peasy. (I usually make a double batch because DH eats a lot, but I am personally satisfied with one sandwich half and a salad). These meatballs are great with spaghetti or by themselves as well.

Doing a bunch of the little financial housekeeping stuff today that I've been ignoring the past few days due to pain. Interest was added to my ING account so I've added that to the Emergency Fund.

$3571.61 Starting EF
+___5.57 Interest Added
------------------
$3577.18 Ending EF

$422.82 to go to hit my next big goal of $4000 for the EF. I'm not sure if I'll make it this month to the $3750 mark. Usually I can manage about $250 in savings each month, but with DH having 4 weeks off unpaid and the next paycheck not coming until January 27th, I'm not sure we'll manage the full amount. I'll be able to make up for it by the end of March, probably, though.

So you all, by now, know that I save all my dollar bills and all my coins that I receive in change from purchases. I've been keeping track and in 2011 I saved $429.73 just from that. Not bad for using the nickel and dime method, is it? Also, I collected an additional $31.52 in found money. I lucked out a couple of times. Once I found a $20 bill and another time I found a wad of 5 $1 dollar bills, but the rest was all coins. Mostly pennies and dimes, but a few quarters here and there.

I'm a few days behind on reading, but I noticed a few people were going to start a similar challenge of saving all your ones. I heartily encourage you to do so, and will be rooting for you, too!

We ended up buying the first bed we looked at. Isn't it funny how that happens sometimes? But after seven furniture stores, there just wasn't one that we liked better. So yesterday we went back to the first store and laid on the bed again for 15-20 minutes, giving it a good, solid test drive.

We ended up spending $1890.15 for a new King mattress, box springs, and a Hollywood frame (at cost). Delivery was added free as well as hauling away the mattress and box springs. We got the iComfort Insight by Serta. It's like Tempurpedic (TM), but less expensive and to my back, more comfortable. DH liked it best, too.

We got it in flat, but you can get it with an adjustable frame that goes up and down like a hospital bed and also vibrates. The frame would have cost an additional $2600 plus tax. But you can buy the frame seperately, so we are thinking in a year or so about maybe doing that. Just not until we are out of credit card debt. We needed the bed now, not the luxury part of it.

We ended up paying cash (which knocked $200 off the price we were given). But it means I will only be sending $3100 to debt repayment instead of $5000. Still, I really couldn't see financing a bed right now. It's being delivered in a couple of hours. I am really looking forward to sleeping on it tonight. It relieves so much of the pressue on my back and hip.

I had physical therapy yesterday and it ended up making it hurt worse afterwards. It always does, just in the hip, not in the knee. I see the physician's assistant today about all the pain in my hip the PT has been causing. I am hoping they will take x-rays because it's just so bad. If it is just muscular, I guess it's time that will heal it, but if it is something more than that, I want it taken care of.

DH and I went to some more mattress stores today and it is looking like the first store is still the least expensive so far. The other local store had a bed for twice as much as the the first one. Exact same bed. We did go to JR's, which is where we bought our wonderful sectional four years ago. They had a Beautyrest that was a combination of coils and memory foam that would do if we didn't like the other bed so much. And the guy (actual store owner) was willing to give us $300 off, as well as eat the sales tax and give us free delivery and mattress recycling. It was a really good offer, but in the end it's $400 more for a mattress that is five times better, so...worth the difference to me.

We still have three stores to check, but are leaning heavily in the direction of the first store. Especially since they have two kings in stock of the type we want so we can basically pick it up and go, not have to order it and wait a couple of weeks.

I really doubt Macy's Furniture is going to be cheaper. And the two out in Ferndale are notoriously expensive so unless they are having some kind of blow out sale, it's probably going to be the first store. Plus, the first store had the nicest and most attentive salesman. Good customer service counts for an awful lot in this day and age.

I saw some pretty purple sofas at two of the stores. It got me to thinking. Our sectional is lovely, with it's deep chocolate, light brown, and burgandy pillows, but we might like to update it by trading out the burgandy for purple. So we will be pricing pillows in a couple of months to see what's out there. Or, hmm...I could sew some slip covers in purple if I could find the right fabric. I've done pillowcases and cloth diapers. Slip covers can't be too difficult, right? It's just a straight hem.

DH and I started bed shopping today. I have a feeling it is going to be pretty slow going for me as I can only walk so much without my hip catching on fire. But we started at one of the long-standing family run companies in town and were taken care of by a nice young Indian man (from India, not Native American). I made sure we got his business card because when we come back to buy, he's the one who put the time in and we want to make sure he'll be there to get the commission.

I was hoping to get more out of this mattress, but it has pot holes in it and they are messing up the way we sleep. Also one of the coils came through the fabric and I've scraped my leg on it more than once.

So now the question becomes, where do we get the money for it? We could buy it outright with $1850 from DH's bonus money and dropping debt pay back to $3150. I could take it from my meager emergency fund. I could take it from the money allocated for the HSA. Or we could buy it 12 months/ same as cash for $155 a month. A nice, no interest way to pay for something that is quickly becoming a necessity.

The one we like so far, when I laid down on it, all the painful spots on my body went away. My hip suddenly didn't hurt, my knee, my elbow, my low back were all good until I stood up again. Chris felt it, too. We both really like it. It'll cost around $1850 with tax. It was not the most expensive one in the shop, and there were some doozies.

We are going to look around some more, this is not the only family owned furniture store in our county. We might even look in at the franchises, though I prefer to spend the money with the locals. Still if it's less expensive enough, I'll consider the franchises.

Anything over $2000 right now is out of our price range. By my calculations we have three family run furniture stores to check out before we look at Macy's Furniture, JR Furniture, and Sleep Country, USA. It's going to be a long day looking as just the one trip wore me out something fierce.

Happy New Year, everybody. The kiddos insisted on staying up until midnight and then of course it was well past my bedtime and I couldn't sleep until around two a.m. They, of course, passed right out at 12:05ish. I've barely got my eyes open, but I am happy it is a new year and I hope this one will be healthier and less injury prone.

I am anxious for Tuesday to come so we can do the big financial stuff that I've been anticipating for the past month or so. I wish the banks were open tomorrow.

I sent DH down to the store last night to buy bread so he spent $4.79. It took him a while to find it. We like Big Horn Valley by Franz because it's whole wheat bread made without corn syrup or raisin juice. Well, we haven't been able to find it for a week or so, and yesterday we had our last slice.

He did finally find it. They made that type organic so it was in a different section of the bread shelf. Fortunately it was the same ingredients, only organic. Same price (way too high) as before as well. I really need to start using the bread machine again. I've gotten really lazy about that.

Today should be a no spend day for us, though DD is going to buy something with her Christmas money.

When I am a little more awake I will calculate what we have spent on debt payoff in 2011 and how much we still have to go.

An offer was put in on DH's grandparents' house pending inspection. The inspection has been finished and they are now at the talking stages. The house is free and clear. We had thought maybe they'd have to pay the government back some money from when the grandparents were in the nursing home, but I guess between rental from the house and social security, it covered their nursing home bill as they went.

Anyway, the will stipulates that each of the grandchildren will get 5% of the estate. The house is the only thing left of the estate so if it does sell, DH will be looking at about $7000 to $8000 in inheritance. So will his sister, which will help her immeasurably right now.

It's been a long time since they died, but the house has only been on the market since October. There is a second offer on the table if the first one falls through. I like those odds. The house is move-in ready so closing would be as long or as short as the new owners want. A fast closing would be great, but I'm certainly not going to count any chickens before they hatch.

I'm not sure what we'd spend it on. I guess it depends on how much is left on the credit card after we pay the bonus money and the tax return money to it. I would like to put in new carpets and doors out at the house and do a little touch up painting so we can get the dang thing on the market finally.

I still haven't heard whether or not the HOA was dissolved or not. I've been setting the money aside each month for dues. Normally half year dues are due at the end of January. I haven't gotten any bill yet and it usually comes around Christmas time. We'll have to ask the neighbors next time we go out. It's not much, $100 every six months, but if we don't have to pay it, it can go elsewhere.

On Tuesday we are going to run $2500 through the HSA account and then we will pay $5000 to BoA VISA. It will be nice to see that number drop so substantially. I'll also be making a mortgage payment, paying the AMEX, the electric for the old house, and the tae kwon do payment. I've got a couple smaller medical bills to pay as well. I need to balance the checkbook first though and see exactly where we stand right now.

First the financial stuff. I added $2.33 to the coin jar today. I paid the water/sewer bill for the old house ($144 for two months, set fee, really wish they'd go on metered) and the propane bill for the old house ($116.25). We finally turned the furnace on about a month ago out there. It is on 55 to keep the pipes from freezing.

I paid $90 for a deep tissue massage today and the monthly family chiropractic plan of $215. It wasn't due until January 3, but he is raising it $10 as of the first, so if we paid early we could get one more month in at the old amount. I'm not upset at him raising it. It's been $215 for the last five years.

I think there is going to be quite a bit of medical expense next month. Fortunately I have the full amount of the deductible ($2500) saved up already. I wasn't wanting to spend it that soon, of course, but I have it set aside, and that is what matters. It won't break us and it won't wipe out our emergency fund.

I am still having a lot of pain right now, hence my quietness the last few days on here. There has been some improvement. The low back isn't as bad and the right side has let up, but the left hip is killing me, along with the piriformis in particular, the psoas muscle, the IT band, the quads, the hamstring and the calf muscles. I am learning far more about the anatomy of the hip and thigh than I ever really wanted to know.

Of course the knee is it's usual self but the rest is actually far, far worse right now. The physical therapist thinks we just went too far too fast and that the hip issues may have been causing all of my knee problems for the last year. I am torn between wanting it to "just" be muscle strain or something serious that can be fixed with more than time and rest.

I will be seeing a PA at my orthopedic doctor's office on January 4th to rule out anything more than muscle problems in the hip. Not my own doctor, or even my doctor's PA, which annoys me, but I would have had to wait until January 30th to see mine, even with such severe pain. My opinion on that is pretty...colorful.

Fortunately my general practitioner will prescribe the needed medications. He knows how much I hate narcotics and will avoid them until I absolutely can't. I've done pretty well with ibuprofen and ice during the day, but unfortunately I need the stronger stuff at night or I won't sleep (fortunately only the 375/5 mg, not the 750/7.5 mg which leaves me looped out of my head), and an 800 mg muscle relaxant. Either way, I'm not driving anywhere.

I'd really like this to be over now. I am so tired of being in pain. I miss my active lifestyle.

/whine

I haven't actually spent any money since Friday to have any change to put in the coin jar since I've been pretty much flat on my back in bed or on a recliner until today, but DH has so I raided his wallet (with permission, of course!) and took all his ones and all but two quarters of his change (for parking meters). I ended up with $11.18 to put in the coin jar.

I also transferred $100 to the emergency fund at ING, bringing it to $2863.08 and the total EF to $3571.61, so I have hit my end of the year/December goal of getting the EF to $3500. Yay. Next short term goal is to hit $4000.

I've already earned $4.50 in interest this month according to ING's daily running thingy, so I'm pretty sure I'll get at least five bucks to add to the EF from that by the end of the month.

Some people make fun of nickeling and diming your way to savings, but it certainly works for me.

First off a Merry Christmas to all my celebrating SA friends and a lovely 25th of December to the rest of you.

I think we had the best Christmas ever with the in-laws this year. We went there yesterday and it was just so wonderful. It was the first Christmas without yelling. Usually SIL and ex-BIL or ex-BIL and eldest neice or SIL and eldest neice would get into and pretty much ruin the day for everyone else. SIL's boyfriend is a very nice man. I hope they make it work.

This is our fourth Christmas post ex-BIL and the first Christmas the SIL and neice did not have a big blow up. There were a couple of potential blow outs that could have happened, but either my daughter or I recognized the signs and acted accordingly.

Youngest neice was teasing eldest neice about being held back a year and not being as smart as her and I jumped in and put a stop to that. The year before eldest neice was held back was the toughest of her life with the divorce and being severely bullied at school. Youngest neice hadn't known about the bullying (she was too young then) and it made an abrupt about face in her behavior. Other than that everyone was happy. It was so nice.

Christmas at home has been nice, too. And the list of loot makes me quite happy, too, because no money was wasted this year on things people had no use for or didn't want.

I personally walked away with a new crockpot to replace the one that cooks everything on high regardless of the low setting, an LED candle, a music CD I wanted, an Alaskan Ulu knife (should make chopping onions so much easier) and a Belgian waffle maker. Then in my non-practical presents (that I still wanted) I got series six of the new Doctor Who and two collectible action figures (yes, I'm a nerd). I got Amy Pond and the Eleventh Doctor in his cowboy hat. They still haven't made a Rory doll, but if they ever do, I want one.

The kids were all happy with what they got, though a couple things haven't arrived in the mail yet. DH was happy to, though again, he is waiting on one thing that had to be special ordered. But we are all so happy that there was no fighting this year, we could have received no gifts and it wouldn't have mattered. It was just a good family time. And that's the best present of all.

Well, we came up with the perfect gift for DH's eldest neice who is impossible to shop for (at least in the amount we are willing to spend on her). It's not one she asked for, but it's something she is dying for. And it's in our price range. Right now, neither of her parents can afford the extra cost for her to take her driving test and then pay for her license if she passes. So I made up a little card saying that we would pay for her first driving test and her license.

I put first in there just in case she doesn't pass the first time, though that's more to tease her than anything else, because by all accounts she is a cautious, careful driver. I talked to her parents first, to make sure it was only money and not them not wanting her to take it yet and using money as an excuse (though I thought that unlikely). She is already on their car insurances so it isn't an issue of that, either. So DH will go with SIL and neice to the DMV the day of the test and pay for it. We won't give the money directly.

Younger neice was easier to shop for (a couple of DVD's and a CD she wanted). We settled on a Target gift card for SIL. She wanted shoes for work and a new top and pants for work. She also needs things like shampoo, toothpaste and general toiletries. Things food stamps don't pay for. So we put on enough for the clothes and the other and anything left over she might use either on food or some other thing she needs or even just wants.

SIL is doing much better. She sounds like she's back to normal over the phone and she was out Christmas shopping today with FIL so she must be worlds better. Hard to believe she was just in the hospital.

I am not doing quite so good. Today during physical therapy my legs just collapsed on me. I was in the pool and it was only 3 feet deep, so not too bad a deal. I've got severe pain in my low back and both hips and then it radiates down the quads and the IT bands on the sides of the thighs (knees are fine, surprisgingly). I got them back under me again and managed to get out of the pool. PT got a walker and I used it to go and change which was horrifically painful.

PT decided to call the session quits and did an ultrasound treatment and then some soft tissue massage and then put a ginormous ice pack on me for ten minutes. I had to use one of the hospital walkers to get out to the car. I am really, really hoping it is just a pinched nerve and nothing horrible like a slipped or ruptured disk.

I made it into the house okay between DH and my cane (though it was pretty excruciating) and put ice on again and didn't move until 3 hours later. We managed to get me to the chiropractor and I had an adjustment (hurt like blazes) and it was really out, but after an hour the pain eased up a little, from like a ten to an eight. My regular doctor called in a muscle relaxant for me and I took that with my hydrocodone. That is helping a little, but not so much as one would think it should. I'm down to about a seven on the pain scale.

I put a call into the specialist who prescribed the physical therapy for my knee, whose nurse was supposed to call me back. I called at one and it is now nine, so I'm thinking I won't hear anything until Monday. *grumble grumble* Physical therapist said to either lay flat or all the way back in a recliner for the next two days. Oh, this will be a fun holiday. I was going to make my Christmas lasagna tonight, but that ain't happening. Oh, well. In-laws will have turkey.

Fortunately the front seat in the van reclines almost fully. DD will have to sit in the third row, but oh, well. At least we can transport me in less discomfort than upright. And then I will go straight to one of the in-laws' recliners. I am taking my icebag with me. It'll be kind of nice to be waited on hand and foot instead of in the kitchen all afternoon, but I would trade it for mobility and no pain any day.

Oh, well. I will still try to have the best time I can. And if I don't get on again between now and Christmas, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and happy celebratory season to those who don't.

I took the money from the coin jar and deposited it into the safety net portion of the EF that is kept at a local CU. It was $35.50.

$3426.11 Total Emergency Fund
+__35.50 Deposit to SN
--------------------
$3461.61 Total EF

The safety net is now at $708.53. I will stop building it at $1000, so I still need to come up with $291.47 to get that where I want it to be, but this is an open ended goal and I am happy with the slow build up using coin jar money or the occasional rebate check.

Really, I just want enough in the safety net to be able to survive a few days at a hotel if the house burned down or a tree fell on it, or something. Or if I had all four tires slashed or something. After a few days any transfer from the main account would arrive, so $1000 feels like a good number to have locally.

I need to still come up with $38.39 to meet my December/end of the year goal of getting the EF to $3500. I still have $67.35 in my unallocated funds portion of the Holding Tank so I may use that if I need to.

After not sleeping for 48 hours I got about 9 hours of sleep. I still feel quite tired, but much more alert than yesterday. DH's sister was allowed to go home, even though she looked like death warmed over. I haven't seen that kind of pain on her face before, and I was there when she was in heavy, unproductive labor with her first child, so that is saying something.

According to all the tests her heart is healthy and she didn't have a heart attack. And they don't know what she did have. It was possible there was a blood clot and they just couldn't find it. A lot of other things are possible, too. I really am kind of annoyed at the hospital for sending her home without finding what caused enough pain for them to give her four doses of morphine in 18 hours time.

I had physical therapy in the pool yesterday morning. It seems to be improving my knee, but it is killing my low back and left hip. I've been alternating heat and cold on it, but the muscles will not relax. I think I'm going to call the doctor when he gets back from his lunch break and ask him about a muscle relaxant, because this hurts far more than I want to cope with and the hydrocodone makes me sick to my stomach and it's not a medicine I want to take very often, especially when it was prescribed for my knee pain, not my new sudden back pain, which started with the first pool therapy session and has not stopped.

DH finally got home late yesterday morning and then we spent a fair amount of time at the hospital to see his sister. After that we did some banking. The bonus check had fingerprint security requested so it didn't get deposited until yesterday after all. But they said there was no hold on it, as they've been taking that company's direct deposits for a year with no worries.

I am tempted to send $5000 to ING to sit in that account for the twenty days earning interest before transferring it back to pay on the debt it is earmarked for, since that bill doesn't come due until the 21st of January.

It's like a roller coaster around here. Up and down, good news, bad news. I could really use a level playing field right about now. I never really believed that old saw about bad things happening in threes, but this is the third time this has happened to someone in the family in two years.

My sister-in-law was admitted to the hospital last night. Mother-in-law called at ten last night. So far today they've run three MRIs, an EKG, and something else...CaT scan, maybe. I don't know for sure. They might be looking for blood clots. I got it second hand from DH who talked to his mother right before he called me. They gave her nitroglycerine.

I feel so bad for SIL's kids. Their father is the one who had two heart attacks last month. Now their mother goes in to the hospital for chest pains? Everyone was hoping it was just an anxiety attack, but underneath it, we all know that FIL had a myocardial infarction just two years ago (which burst, fortunately, while he was in surgery or he'd be dead) and heart problems can be genetic. So we are all pretty freaked out. But what are the odds? FIL, Ex-BIL, and now SIL? I know they say bad things happen in threes, but seriously?

I do not know how SIL is going to afford all this. She has no insurance. She barely makes above minimum wage and of course has no sick pay. She's already not getting child support this month and last because ex-BIL can't return to work until January. We've been helping where we can, but we can't give her that much money. A couple spare hundred dollars helps with groceries and elecric bills, not major tests in a hospital. She may lose her house (which is a subsidized mortgage and in-laws were already helping pay the mortgage) and have to move in with her parents.

DH is going down to the insurance office when he gets home and taking out both short-term and long-term disability insurance. I've had it with all this business. Life insurance is not enough anymore for me to feel secure. Not with those genetics. I'm hedging our bets right now. And darn it, but he is going on a diet and starting an exercise program whether he wants to or not. He's already got high BP. I am not going to lose him to a heart attack.

Also, DH's plane from Seattle to home has been cancelled, because the weather here is bad. *looks out window* No, it's not. Something about a low cloud ceiling and the plane from Hawaii circling the runway and not being able to land, so the plane from Seattle isn't even going to take off and try. It's mildly overcast. Come on, planes, this is why you have technology. So you can land even when you can't see the runway. Urgh. They are offering them ground transportation, which means, traffic permitting, he should arrive here right around the time I am starting physical therapy. I guess he can sit at the airport for an extra hour. They have wifi, so he'll be fine, so long as his sister doesn't up and die while he's sitting there.

Okay, so the bonus check came and though it's not as high as rumored (which was 10% of yearly income), it's still pretty high at 5% of yearly income.

Before taxes the bonus was $7203. After taxes it was $5297.81. And we should get most of what was taxed back with our federal tax return since DH has already hit the cap on income tax withholding for the year in early November.

Our tax return is going to be huge between this and our medical stuff. And all of that will go to debt repayment, just like almost all of this.

DH gets home tomorrow, but I will deposit the check without his signature. They will let me do that if I don't try to withdraw money right away. I'm sure the CU will want to hold it for a few days anyway to make sure it clears, so the sooner it's in, the sooner it clears. Also, I don't like keeping anything of value at home as it is always at risk for a break in.

Okay, so, as I've mentioned before I've been saving for this patch where DH will be off work for 4 weeks. So far I have saved $4,483. After running the numbers and setting up the January budget, It looks like we might be able to get by almost completely on the next two paychecks for the majority of the bills between now and the first January paycheck which will be on the 26th. We need a total of $5,200 to meet bills, plus the amount of debt repayment needed.

The next two paychecks should provide between $4800 and $5,100 depending on what they take out for medical. And I know that first January paycheck will have the full medical deduction taken out of it, so need to plan accordingly for that throwing things off.

So my plan for the $4,483 tentatively is to use $2500 for the HSA, which is the amount of our deductible. That will leave us with $1983. If all goes well, during those four weeks and nothing unexpected crops up, I will then put $1000 of the remainder into the Emergency Fund and then when I am sure of where things shake out, I'll add whatever is left to debt repayment. We've had to skimp a bit on debt repayment while saving up the $4,483 so I'd like some of it to go back towards it.

And I've managed to procrastinate it all the way until Tuesday, but here are the bills I paid from the most recent paycheck.

$1300.00 to BoA
__300.00 to Mom for utilities
___44.89 landline at old house
___65.56 internet
__757.82 car payment (plus extra to principal)
__243.46 Laptop Fund
__115.25 Medical
__150.00 Groceries
___12.00 DD allowance
____7.00 DS allowance
--------------------------
$2995.28
-_100.00 to the Emergency Fund
---------------------------
$3095.98

I added $4.10 to the coin jar today.

I put $5 in a Salvation Army kettle.

I spent $10.90 at the grocery store.

I got gas today. It was $3.249 per gallon and I put in 16.213 gallons @ $52.68.

I am out of cash until Friday, but I have $67 in the checking account.

The bonus check did not come today. I thought it had, but it was only DH's paystub from Friday arriving in the mail (as we have direct deposit). Way to get my hopes up and watch them fall. DH will probably be home (Wednesday) before it shows up, but I live in hope.

I am mostly over my cold, just still have the cough lingering. My knee feels better but my hip hurts like blazes. These new physical therapy exercises are hard on it, but do seem to be strengthening my knee.

I spent a nice leisurely morning on the internet and bought presents for both of my children and my husband. I did well and stayed within our Christmas budget. While I was at it, I ordered two things for my birthday in February that had no chance of shipping in time for Christmas. DH has one thing he wants to get at a local gaming shop in town so he will go down there and pick that up in person when he gets back, but for immediate family, I'm done. We also have his parents done. Since I don't exchange with any of my birth family (a decision made long ago), I only need to buy stuff for destitute SIL and her two children.

I know that the youngest wants a Green Day CD, but not which one. The oldest wants everything that is expensive (like an I-pod), but doesn't mind used. Normally I just buy her jewelry. Once DH is home we may scour the pawn shops in the hopes of finding an inexpensive used ipod that works. These girls won't get much this Christmas as their mom is barely making it and their dad just had those heart attacks and can't work again until some time in January. So not only no income from Dad, but no child support from the dad this month, which makes things even tighter on the mom.

I am wondering if maybe we should go a little expensive for the girls this year. It's not like we couldn't swing a couple of dream gifts for them. I know younger neice would like a used DSi. Normally we only spend about $25 to $30 each on them, but considering it is such a bad year for them and we are in such a good place...I don't know. I'll have to talk to DH about it and then talk to SIL about it, because I don't want to damage her pride. Yet, she was willing to take money from us when we offered it, so maybe she would be okay about it.

I'd also like to get another $100 to SIL next payday to help with her bills. As for a gift for her, I don't know. I'd really like to get her something helpful, but all I can think of that is helpful is more money or grocery store gift cards. Maybe a Target or WalMart gift card (since both of them are now remodeled to be grocerers as well). That way if she needs something specific, like an appliance, she can pick one out and if not, she can still use it to buy groceries, toiletries, or needed clothing.

I really, really hate to do it, but I am going to have to raise my grocery budget. I spent so much time getting it down from $800 a month to $500 a month, so to raise it just feels like I'm taking a step backward. I know that I'm not. I know that it is that prices on real food are rising and that real food seldom has coupons. But it just annoys me so much.

It's like the year I spent getting my electric bill down by doing things like line and rack drying my clothes, cooking more than one thing in the oven at a time, replacing all the light bulbs in the house with CF ones and making sure lights weren't left on all night or radios, TVs, and fans weren't left on all day. I got my bill down to $90 and then a few months later they raised the rates and it was right back up to $109 again. It was so frustrating.

I know it's not me or my shopping habits. It's simply that the cost of food is going up and there just isn't really any other option (for now) but to pay higher prices or go back to eating manufactured foods. Well, I won't do the latter. We have too many allergies.

I've been keeping track of prices the last few months just to make sure that what I've been seeing is real, and I haven't just been hitting a high price week at the stores. But it is. Milk has gone up 50 cents a gallon. Chicken has gone up 30 cents a pound. Beef has gone up $2 a pound (except hamburger which has gone up $1 a pound). The all beef hotdogs I buy at TJ's have gone up 50 cents. Pork has gone up 20 cents a pound. Turkey is up 50 cents a pound (not counting the on sale for the holidays whole ones). I'm assuming eggs are up, too, but we have chickens so I don't pay attention to that much. Butter is up by $1 a pound. So are most of the cheeses (though they do still go on sale). Yogurt is up from $1 to $1.25. Ice cream is about $1 more per container. The fish counter scares me. It's not worth buying fish anymore unless you buy the whole fish and have it filleted in the store (much cheaper and they let you take the backbone, head and tail for making chowder since you've paid for the whole fish).

It's not just meat and dairy prices, either. Canned goods have risen anywhere from 20 cents to $1 more per can. Frozen foods are up about $1 a box or bag. Fresh produce, well, you can still get cheap bananas, oranges, onions and cabbage, but forget cheap potatoes or apples. They don't exist anymore, not even in this prime apple growing state. Most apples are $1.29 a pound and the specialty apples are closer to $1.79. I can still remember when you could get a couple kinds of apples for 29 cents a pound. And it wasn't my childhood. It was only ten years ago.

Even broccoli and cauliflower, which should be low right now are over $1.50 a pound. Although the $2 lettuce seems to be a thing of the past (mostly because people wouldn't pay it) I am keeping a sharp eye on it. I am eyeing unfamiliar vegetables like mustard greens, kale, and chard simply because the prices are lower. I will be looking up recipes to see if there is anything I might like with these veggies. I am making sweet potatoes more often because regular potatoes have gotten so high.

But even so, I have decided I will have to raise my grocery budget from $500 a month to $600 a month. Hopefully that will be enough to make up for the rising prices. And hopefully the prices will hold steady for a while. Because I'm tired of the only beef we ever eat anymore being hamburger or pot roast.

Next fall I hope to order half a beef and maybe a lamb. At least I'll be able to get some decent prices then. For now, meal planning will get more strict, I'll have to make more stews, chilis and stir-fries and less of the traditional big chunks of protein with two sides meals. Hopefully I can keep it to $600.

I transferred $100.00 to ING today to the Emergency Fund.

$3326.11 Starting EF
+_100.00 Deposit
-------------
$3426.11 Total EF

I need to come up with $73.89 to hit my December/end of the year EF goal of $3500.

I also added $12.87 to the coin jar, which was what was left of my cash from the first half of December. There is probably enough in the coin jar to make a deposit to the Safety Net portion of the EF, but I won't be going by there until Monday, so no point in counting it up right now.

Today is payday so I will do my usual payday post either tonight or tomorrow. All the bills have been paid or mailed and entered into the budget spreadsheet, but my hip is bugging me a lot after physical therapy so I don't feel like typing it up at the moment.

Bonuses were mailed today. Now it's just a waiting game.

Do you ever feel like you're just marking time, waiting for something to happen? Right now I've been feeling that a lot lately. Like I've been marking time, waiting for payday to come this week, so I can get on with things. Even though we are not living quite paycheck to paycheck anymore, with money in the bank, I still have to wait on some things for payday. Like debt repayment. And tomorrow I get to make some.

This week has dragged by, not helped by the fact that DS was sick all week. He went to school today for the first time on the condition that he call me if he starts feeling yucky and needs to come home. I excused him from PE today so he can just sit it out and be a zombie all day if he needs to be.

Of course, I also feel like I am marking time, waiting for the yearly bonus to arrive. Checks are to be mailed on the 16th. In the past when they've mailed a check it's arrived on the day that it was supposed to be mailed on, so a part of me can't help hoping it will show up on Saturday, though the more practical part of me knows it may be a few days longer. I just want to know the amount so I can plan how much debt gets paid off from it.

I'm also marking time until DH comes home, which is Wednesday. And of course marking time until Christmas. I'd kind of like to get this mentality out of my head and just enjoy the next few weeks.

I added $5.43 to the coin jar this morning. I have $44.49 left in checking and $15 in cash until tomorrow. That gives me enough to go ahead and buy the pure maple syrup for DS that we ran out of. I hadn't balanced the check book yet this week and didn't realize there was still that much in there.

Syrup is about $18 or $19 a jug for the kind he uses. He'll be happy to have pancakes again tomorrow morning. I was going to make some homemade syrup but then I got sick and didn't. He's been eating toast with his egg the last three mornings, but he much prefers pancakes and being as I've been buying bread instead of baking it lately, pancakes are much cheaper to make as well, even with the cost of syrup since he doesn't use that much, and the cost of his special bread is $5 a loaf.

*yawns* Okay, I'm going back to bed. Maybe a nap will help fight off this lovely cold DS was so kind to share with me.

I found a quarter this morning and added it to the coin jar.

I checked my interest at ING for the month so far and based on that I should earn $5 in interest. Maybe a bit more as I intend to send some money there on Friday and on the 23rd as well. Won't be to much more, though.

Has anyone heard from ThriftyRay lately? Feels like it's been a while and she was really sad last time she posted.

I had my first physical therapy appointment with the new place on Monday. It went well. We will be doing pool therapy for the next 3 sessions, then after that we'll be back on dry land again. I like the therapist. He's an older man, probably in his mid to late 60's. His hair is pure white. It's the color I want my hair to be when I am a little old lady.

Last night I assembled some homemade stir-fry kits. These are similar to what you can buy in the store, generally in the Asian section of the freezer aisle, but of course I get to choose the ingredients and make sure that everything is just to my liking.

Because I happened to have 5.5 pound bag of stir-fry veggies on hand I used that, but any fresh veggies cut into strips or any pre-frozen veggies will do. First I will show you how I made my kits and then I will add some recipes for making them from scratch.

First I started with 3.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs (after shrinkage this will make 3 packets). You can choose white meat if you prefer it. We like dark.



Grill chicken pieces or cook in a pan. I used a George Foreman grill. I seasoned with salt and pepper only, however much you'd normally put on. Then I cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.



Once the chicken has cooled, place approximately 1 pound in a baggy. You can use a freezer baggy, but I used sandwich ones because they will be placed in a larger freezer baggy at the end of assembly.



Put two cups of your vegetables into a baggy.



Put one baggy of chicken and one baggy of veggies into a gallon size freezer bag.



For your sauce you have a couple of choices. For a dark sauce combine 1 cup of soy sauce (I use a gluten free, low sodium, no preservatives type), 1/4 cup of honey (or 1/4 cup brown sugar), 1 inch of fresh ginger peeled and grated (or 1/4 cup ground ginger), and 2 large cloves of garlic peeled and minced (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder or 1/2 tsp dried garlic). I usually use fresh on the garlic and ginger, but I was out of fresh ginger. I had some leftover sesame seeds from the last time we got takeout so I dumped a tablespoon of those in, too. For a light sauce use chicken broth instead of soy sauce.



Combine ingredients for sauce in a bowl and whisk together. Whisk the sauce for each packet by itself. If you combine it all together you may not have an even distribution of ingredients as the honey can make things sluggish. You can either dump this into a baggy or pour into a 1.5 cup plastic container. Freeze the sauce upright before placing in the gallon size Ziploc with chicken and veggies. Your kit is complete. I don't have a photo of this final step as my camera batteries died.

When you are ready to make this, first take out the sauce and put it in a hot water bath to thaw. It probably won't be completely frozen if you use honey. Heat oil in a wok or deep saute pan on medium high heat. I use peanut oil or olive oil depending on what I have. When oil is hot add the frozen chicken packet and stir for 3 to 5 minutes until chicken is thawed and hot. Add frozen veggie packet and stir for about 3 to 5 minutes until veggies are thawed and hot. Your sauce should now be thawed. Dump into pan and stir for one minute. (If you want a thicker sauce you can add a tbsp of corn starch now, but I don't bother). Turn heat down to low and cover, simmering for 2 minutes. It's done.

For my family one of these stir-fry kits would be enough to feed me, my 15 year old daughter, and my 11 year old son. If DH is home I would make 2 packets and there might be a little left over for his lunch the next day.


Other recipes to prepare the same way:

Pork Stir Fry

1 pound cheap pork loin or boneless chops, grilled (s&p) and cut into bite sized pieces
4 green onions
6 ounces snow peas
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut thin on the diagonal
8 ounces fresh or canned bamboo shoots

Sauce:
1 cup low sodium, gluten free soy sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes


Beef and Peppers Stir-Fry Kit.

1 pound chuck steak, grilled (s&p) and cut into bite sized pieces
1 white onion cut into strips
2 cups of bell pepper strips (red, yellow, orange)

Sauce:
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 cup low sodium, gluten free soy sauce
¼ cup honey
2 tbsp sesame seeds


Chicken and Vegetables Stir-Fry Kit

1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, grilled (s&p) and cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups mixed vegetables (snow peas, carrots cut on the diagonal, broccoli, cauliflower, celery cut on the diagonal, 1 can water chestnuts)
1 regular yellow onion cut into strips

Sauce:
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 large clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup low sodium, gluten free soy sauce
¼ cup honey