Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

Starting on the first paycheck in September DH will have hit the point where they stop taking out social security for the year. That should give us an additional net of $650 a pay cycle. This on top of the raise which gives us an additional $550 a pay cycle means we'll have an extra $1200 every six weeks to pay on either consumer debt or medical debt until January. I am really, really hopeful that means we will be out of credit card debt by the end of the year like our original plan before my medical issues raised their ugly heads again.

I haven't gotten any bills yet from Virginia Mason. I am really wishing that I would start seeing some so I would know how to plan. I get anxious when things are unknown or up in the air. I started going down there in May so I feel like I should have gotten something unless there is going to be some sort of lump sum at the end. But I don't know if this last visit yesterday qualifies as the end or the follow up in a month does. So far I have $2000 set aside for it, but I really want to know what it is going to be.

I actually had them double check that they had my address right in the computer when I was there yesterday. They do. I should have DH check with the online insurance page to see if they've received anything yet. That might give us a ball park.

Today was my daughter's 15th birthday. She wanted pizza so we got a Hot and Ready 3 meat pizza and a few bags of breadsticks and red sauce from Little Caesar's. It was $19.52. The .48 in change was added to the coin jar. My mother made the chocolate cake and frosting off the Hershey's cocoa can. It was very rich. I only had a small piece. It was nicely moist but I can't handle too much chocolate. Everyone else devoured it, but there is still over half a cake left. I've had enough sweets for the week.

I'm still quite exhausted. The trip to Seattle really wore me out yesterday and I've not quite bounced back yet. I hope another good night's sleep will help with that.

Our mortgage payment finally posted today and we are officially under $20K left to pay it off! Woohoo!

Also the follow up at Virginia Mason went very well, things are healing as they should be, and I need to go back in a month to make sure everything is on the right track. I also still have half a tank of gas left so no fill ups for a while.

I spent $8 on parking today and just under $17 on food. Far less than the $50 I budgeted. DS and I split an order of fish and chips at the hospital, which believe me, was more than enough food for both of us.

I'm leaving in about an hour to head back to Virginia Mason for my final post-op appointment, presuming all goes well. Then I shouldn't have to go back again until November or so for the second surgery.

I'm taking $50. That should cover the parking garage and one meal. We will probably have to gas up on the way home, but I use my AMEX for gas.

I hope traffic is less crazy this time, but I'm afraid it will be worse since my appointment isn't until three and we will be leaving to come back home at rush hour.

Today I made up a huge batch of homemade cole slaw. Well, I call it cole slaw. I don't like the traditional kind with carrots in it, so I just do an all cabbage version. I had a head of green and a head of purple cabbage so I cut them up. Usually I am Mrs. Lazypants and buy the pre-shredded cabbage from Trader Joe's when I want to make cole slaw, but I had some on hand because my daughter likes to just cut a wedge out and eat it straight.

This was technically the first time I cut up a cabbage. DH has done it in the past, but I had a real hankering and didn't feel like waiting another week or so for him to come and cut them up. It took me a bit to get the hang of it. I was cutting the strips too wide, but about halfway through the first cabbage I got it right. Wider strips still taste the same, though.

My dressing is super simple. For two heads of cabbage I use one cup of canola oil (corn oil, saffola oil, soybean oil, or plain vegetable oil is fine, too). (Olive oil or any of the fancier oils will overpower the flavors). One cup of TJ's organic mayo (but any brand will do), and 2 TBSP of honey. Whisk or stir well and dump on cabbage, mixing in until absorbed. It's easily cut in half if you only use one cabbage.

It's so simple and so good and so cheap, really, even with the cost of the mayo. I spent about $4 all told for a gallon of cole slaw. Not bad for a side dish that I will get a few days use from (though I tend to eat it as a snack because it is so tasty). A quart of cole slaw from the store is about that same price, so I'm pretty pleased. Plus I saved by not using pre-shredded cabbage.

I have good workout shoes, and good flip flops, but my halfway dressy/halfway casual shoes that I wear all the time have about had it. I have a wide foot and I usually end up with something by Dr. Scholl's. This particular pair I've had about eight years. I just kept replacing the insoles, but now the outer soles are breaking down and the rubber is starting to get gouges in it.

I am really resistant to getting a new pair, because I love these ones and am not sure I would be able to find something similar. They also look fine cosmetically, which is part of why I've kept them so long, that and comfort, but I've rolled my ankles a couple times because of the bad outer soles, so I know I need to do something.

I don't like buying shoes in summer, because it's harder to find black shoes and I really don't want white shoes or colored shoes. I like black because it goes with everything I own. I also don't like going to WalMart which is the only place that carries the Dr. Scholl's shoe around here. I won't buy shoes online. I have to try them on and make sure they fit and I don't want the hassle of mailing something back if it doesn't fit. In person you can tell they fit right away.

I'm not up for a WalMart trip just yet. The shoe department is all the way at the back of the store and it is a long walk and all the ride on carts are usually taken. Maybe in a couple of weeks when DH is home again. I'll set some money aside for them and go when I am stronger.

The kids walked down to the store to buy some Udon because I got the wrong flavor the other day. We will still use it eventually, I froze it, but we won't put in the flavor packet, we'll use chicken flavored powder from TJ's or maybe just dump tomato sauce on it for poor man's spaghetti. I know people say not to freeze noodles, but I've done it before, just had to make sure the container was completely air tight. It's not exactly the same when thawed but it still is relatively good, IMO.

They also got a bag of chocolate chips for making cookies. I sent them with a twenty and they came back with $12.23. I added $2.33 to the coin jar and put the ten back in my wallet. I've already got $10 in ones in my envelope since Friday, which probably means I've been spending too much. Well, not really because I am within my grocery budget just fine, but it feels like a lot, simply because we went to many different stores.

Anyway, I think I'm going to meet my August goal of pushing the EF up to $2000 by month's end without too much of a struggle.

I went to the final grocery store today and got the few processed food items that I buy that are additive and preservative free, two pot roasts and a pack of chuck steak for making beef with broccoli. I spent a little over $40. I left the receipt in the van so I don't remember the exact amount. I was able to walk it today, but when I came home I had to lie down for an hour.

I also bought two bottles of nasal spray as my allergies are bad right now and a container of Tums. Some of the medication I am on (the antibiotic) gives me stomach trouble, hence the Tums. That was around $27 with tax. I had them ring the meds up separately from the groceries because they come from a separate budget. I am definitely seeing a price increase in OTC meds.

The store was out of Motrin. I have about 20 pills left. That will hopefully last another week and then maybe I will have the strength to go to Costco and get the mega bottle.

We ordered a pizza today. I could have cooked (and actually will for dinner) but I do like to get a Round Table Pizza once a month so that was $27.18.

Oh, I sent some money with my daughter to the mall. Mom is taking her birthday shopping and I wanted her to pick up some Paul Mitchell Special Tea Tree shampoo. I sent her with $40. It's usually around $32 for the 32 ounce bottle.

I know it's pricey but it is the only thing I have found that can control the oil slick that is my hair. And it lasts about 3 months. I have tried virtually every shampoo on the market. Most of them are volumizing and moisturizing, two things that I definitely do not need. My hair is thick enough it could have it's own zip code.

Drove by a house today that I viewed a virtual tour of online. It is behind the grocery store we went to. It's really gorgeous on the outside, too. And it is a second house that would really fit all our needs. Enough bedrooms, enough bathrooms, in the right school district, close to my favorite grocery store and within walking distance of two of our favorite restaurants and the library.

It showed me that I didn't have to fall in love with the first house just because it was perfect. That there are other houses and will be other houses when we are ready that will fit our needs. I really am leaning towards the Craftsman style if we get a two story. I'd prefer a one story just because stairs are not my friend, but if there is a master bedroom on the ground level I am fine with that.

Of course I also, and this is more critical than most things, want whatever house we end up with to have an easily adaptable bathroom so we can make it handicapped accessible. Oh, and a big, pretty, bright kitchen. Okay, I guess that is enough rambling from me today.

OH, yeah, and I added $7.07 to the coin jar today.

Somehow or other I messed up on the math on my EF. I'm not sure how, but I ended up with $54.64 more than I thought I had in my Emergency Fund. Maybe I forgot to record a transfer at some point. Still, better I have more than I thought than less than I thought, but I'll try to watch my math better in future.

Anyway, I added $56.50 to the Safety Net portion of the EF. That was the money from the coin jar, plus the money I did not spend in my wallet that I had leftover from the last pay period. That brings the amount at CU#2 to $363.53. I added $100.46 to the EF at ING, bringing the amount there to $1,495.93.

$1495.93 ING EF
+_363.53 Safety Net EF
-------------
$1,859.46 Total EF

I think I will make it my goal to squeeze out enough money somewhere to get the EF to $2000 by the end of the month. I added $2.71 to the coin jar today after grocery shopping, so I'm on my way, bit by bit, step by step.

To my holding tank I added $1000 for medical. I also added $100 there for property tax and $17 for dues.

Bills paid out of this paycheck:

$300.00 utilities to Mom
___9.00 owed son to reimburse for vacation trinket
__36.00 son's 6 week allowance
__65.00 daughter's 6 week allowance
_100.00 cash
_500.00 mortgage on old house
__39.37 security system on old house
_144.00 storage
__41.25 old house insurance
__83.98 car insurance
__37.61 life insurance DH
__32.70 life insurance me
__49.91 propane tank rental old house
_330.57 Laptop (18 months same as cash)
-------------------------
$1769.39

I've got a little over $400 left in checking. Really starting to feel like I'm pulling ahead of the whole paycheck to paycheck thing. It is a good feeling. No credit card payments this time, but almost the whole of next week's paycheck will go to that (and the car payment), so it's all good.

Oh, I paid extra on the mortgage. Like $124 extra to principle. This was because I was so close to being under $20,000 I couldn't stand to not pay the extra to make that first digit a 1.

What a day! I got two phone calls today. Well, one text and one call. The massage therapist texted me to say that her car wouldn't start so that massage I was looking forward to all week was cancelled. My body is pretty sore from all the bedrest and the massage helps with circulation and working some of the stiffness out of the muscles. The doctor's office called to see how I was doing and I asked about driving and they said I could as long as I had another adult with me in the car to take over if need be. So I drove today and I did really well. I am beat, though. Not from the driving, but from the grocery shopping.

First we went across town to The Market which is the only place that carries the additive free, preservative free, gluten free Boar's Head deli meat. It is expensive, but when you are dealing with allergies, sometimes it is worth it. I got a couple pounds of that and will freeze some of it. I want to pack sandwiches on Tuesday when we go back to Virginia Mason, but if I don't freeze some of it, it will go off by then.

I spent a total of $78.53 there and saved $10.15 with coupons and sale prices. I stocked up on Tostitos and Pirate's Booty as they had them on a good sale. I got organic milk and organic parmesan. I also got both Rainer and Bing cherries as they were on a good sale (though not as good as the cherry lady, but she wasn't there today). I also bought a book of stamps and impulse bought a bottle of Pepsi Throwback. I haven't had soda in ages, so I don't feel too bad about that (or bad at all, really).

After that we stopped by Joe's Garden since it was on the way to where we are going next and my mother got some veggie plugs. They were 25 cents each. She got lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower. They had a produce market there as well and they had some gorgeous looking food (organic). I ended up spending $12.29 on 2 of the most beautiful looking bright yellow summer squash, 6 kohlrabi (YUM), 2 fresh garlic bulbs with stalks on still, a pint of strawberry jam (a bit pricey but it was made with citrus pectin instead of apple pectin), and a gorgeous, deep burgandy romaine lettuce.

After that we drove to Trader Joe's and paid $39.99 for 2 boxes of Joe's O's cereal, a 4pk of no caffiene, no corn syrup soda (for the kids), sweet potato fries, chicken fried rice, beef and broccoli, graham crackers, 4 pounds of spaghetti, 4 pounds of hamburger and a one gallon pot of basil (that was about a foot high and smelled amazing!) to plant.

Then we went to Cost Cutter and paid $52.97, saving $10.37 between coupons and sales. I got 20 pounds of chicken at .68 a pound and 10 pounds of beef ribs at $1.78 a pound (I hope they go back to .99 a pound when summer barbecuing season is over but that was the best price I've seen since winter). I got a gallon of OJ, a bag of Maui onion chips, 4 lemons, 6 nectarines, 10 ears of corn, and a bunch of green onions.

Altogether I spent $183.78 on groceries. I still need to go to one more store, but don't think I will spend more than $40 or $50 there. I shouldn't have to shop again for two weeks after that except for milk and OJ, which put me right on track for $500 a month grocery budget (Yay!). Even when I do shop, I shouldn't have to buy meat (though I might get a pot roast). I am really glad that all of these places, except the garden market, had ride on carts. I needed them. I am exhausted but I am not hurting, which is great. We got everything divided up (except the chicken which is still partly frozen and needs to thaw some more to separate it) and put away before I lost the last of my energy.

Dinner tonight is ribs, corn on the cob, and watermelon (Mom's contribution). I am so looking forward to that.

I went for my daily walk around the yard today and I didn't feel faint at all, so maybe that has passed. I hope so. Then I sat in the yard in the sun for about five minutes next to the blackberries and plucked off about 2 cups worth of fat, ripe, juicy, dark berries (and there are plenty more coming on) and then moved over to the bench beside one of the blueberry bushes for another five minutes and got about 2 cups worth of luscious ripe little blueberries. My son was with me, making sure I didn't get dizzy and helping to pick. The blueberry bushes are loaded. I told mom she needs to get out there tonight when it is cooler or she is going to lose them to the birds. DS and DD will help her pick. I've exerted myself to the limit allowed for the day. Free is my favorite price for organic food. Maybe I will just go with the Jiffy cornbread and add blueberries in.

I asked someone on the blogs about a recipe they made, cornbread with fresh blueberries added and I completely forgot who it was who made it so I can't figure out whose blog to check to see if they answered me. I do have a box of Jiffy cornbread mix I could pour some blueberries into, but I do not think it would be quite as delicious. Still might be pretty good though.

I am glad payday is almost here. Not because I need it, I still have money left, but because it means I can send a payment to debt and some money (at least $100) to the EF. It also means I'll get a look at what the new raise will look like and adjust my budget accordingly. Some of the bills I was hoping would arrive before payday have not arrived yet. Like the car payment, which is due on the 19th.

When we had Toyota as the owner of the loan we got our bills a whole month in advance. BoA, not so much. It wouldn't come out of this check anyway, it would come out of the next one, but I like to have them ahead of time. I am always afraid they will get lost in the mail and then I'll forget about them. Although I can pay it online or in person so I guess I'm just splitting hairs, really.

I may have to go pick up meds at the pharmacy. Seems like all the antibiotics (I've been on them about six weeks straight for different things pre and post surgery) are causing a yeast infection, even though I'm taking acidophilous bifidus and eating live cultures yogurt. What a pain. Like I needed another thing right now. Oh, well, despite everything I am starting to feel better. Far less faint when I'm on my feet for longer periods, so I think I'm starting to get my strength back a little. Still going to be spending most of my day resting. I am so glad someone created laptops. It makes partial bedrest so much easier.

I need to figure out what is for supper. Maybe spaghetti tonight. I can sit at the table and chop an onion and the kids will cut up the tomatoes so we can make the good sauce. DD knows how to do it, she just won't chop the onion. A couple of the tomatoes need to be used up badly so I think this is a good plan.

After lunch I sat down with the grocery ads today and I have to say there wasn't much in them that I would consider a sale. I dutifully pulled out coupons for Nally chili .77/limit 4 and Buddig chipped beef 2/$1 for my mother as she loves those. I found one coupon for Organic Valley Milk 1/2 gal, 2/$5/limit 2 for me. Since a whole gallon is anywhere from $5.69 to $5.99 this is a good deal, but only if I was going to this store anyway. I was planning to go there on Friday to get some of the preservative free, gluten free Boar's Head deli meats so we could have sandwiches on those more lazy days.

That reminds me, it is a new month so I can go to the Organic Valley Website and print out new coupons. They let you do it twice a month. I usually only do the milk coupons, but sometimes I will do the parmesan or sour cream if I am going to be making something using those that month.

One store has chicken hindquarters on for .68 a pound, no limit. That will be a major score. I haven't found chicken (or any meat) for less than .98/lb in months. Yeah, I'll have to cut them up, but that's not too hard when you have very good knives. Other than that the only decent price I saw was corn on the cob for .37 each, and even that's not as good as the 4/$1 we should be seeing soon.

All in all there is not too much that makes me want to head out the door, or shop outside a list. And I have enough produce to get through another week or two, thanks to the fact that cabbage, stone fruit, and cukes keep for a fair amount of time. I should be able to go in, grab the loss leaders and get out fairly quickly. Just need to remember to ride on the scooter carts and not try to walk yet.

We haven't had much of a summer this summer, but this week has been pretty nice. Today it's downright hot out, but there is a good breeze blowing. I am on the side of the house where the sun is not (it rises on this side but quickly moves over) so it is a bit more comfortable here than in other parts of the house. Enough to stay cool with fans, which is good, since this house has no AC.

My neighbor out at the old house (the one that keeps an eye on the place for us) called wanting to know what we wanted to do with our old metal swing set. The type that's good until the kids are about six or seven and then they outgrow it. He has some friends who have toddlers. I said they could have it. I know I might have been able to get money for it (maybe $20), but if someone had been able to give us one for free when we had young kids and no money I would have really appreciated it.

We never set it into the ground with concrete so it's easy enough to move. Two strong guys or a strong guy and a strong woman could just pick it up and very awkwardly move it down the street. We were planning to put it at the curb with a free sign the next time DH came home and we could spend some time out there, so that's one more thing crossed off the list of stuff to get rid of from out there and now we don't have to mow around it.

My mother taught my son how to use a lawn mower today. I gave permission first. He's eleven, but he's clever with mechanical things. So maybe he'll be able to help with that chore when we go out to the house. I can do all sorts of supervising, but no pushing with my ab muscles for several weeks yet.

That house we like is still for sale but now they've put up a for rent sign as well. I don't like that idea. I really wanted it to languish on the market for another year and a half so we could make a nice low ball offer. Renters would make things a hassle. They don't tend to treat homes well (in my experience, I did some cleaning for a service that did that after people moved out of apartments) and I dont like the idea of that happening to that house. I know it's ridiculous to even think it will still be on the market when we are ready for it, but they have gotten no offers at all. If they get renters in there though, they would likely have a lease so even if we could buy it in the future we would have to wait on a lease to be up to move in. Oh, well. I can't be possessive of it, no matter how much I like it. It's not ours!

Six hours in the car is a long time, even if it is divided by three hours of appointments plus lunch in the cafeteria. I had my follow up appointment at VM today. It was a very long and spendy day and I almost fainted twice at the hospital. They made me use a wheelchair, which was just as well, as I exhausted myself walking from registration to the cafeteria. Things are going pretty well with the healing. Did have a small skin infection around the drainage tube so got a topical and an antibiotic for that. I go back in a week to get this last tube out.

I picked up my blood pressure meds while I was at the pharmacy getting the other two meds and had them order the other med I have to take and am almost out of but they don't keep in stock. I spent $65 on prescriptions today.

I had to fill up the van to the tune of $61.89 for 17 gallons. Normally a gas tank lasts four weeks, but not with a round trip to Seattle. And I'll have to do another one this month so gas is going to be much higher than the usual expenditure.

We ate out three meals today. I probably could have planned it better, but I didn't. Spent around $50 for that. I paid for Mom since she was doing the driving.

I ended up with a ton of ones and change, $15.35 worth, that went into the coin jar for the EF. I have $25 left, but $20 of that will go for my last prescription. Hopefully that other $5 will go to the EF if nothing comes up.

I really wish the glitch that keeps logging me out here at SA would get fixed. There is not much point of having a remember me box to check if the site won't remember me. What's really annoying is I'll log in, write a blog entry, and then by the time I'm done writing it, I've been logged out and lose the entry. This one was just small and easily redoable. Anything longer I know to click control C on, but it still is very annoying. I used to be able to stay logged in for a month. Now I'm lucky if I can stay logged in for twenty minutes.

Anyway...the interest hit my savings account today. It was $1.86. I added it to the EF.

$1535.41 Beginning EF
+___1.86 Interest added
--------------
$1537.27 Ending EF

In looking over my notes I realized I had forgotten to add the 2nd quarter interest at CU#1 to my EF. It hit July 1st and was .46. I will send it to ING on Friday when I send the monthly $100. Not much point in making two transfers, especially for such a tiny amount.

The July interest at my ING account was $1.86. I added that to my Emergency Fund.

$1535.41 Beginning EF
+---1.86 Interest Added
_________
$1537.27 Ending EF

Looking through my notes, I realized I forgot to add the quarterly interest at the start of July in one of my CU savings accounts. That was .46. I will send it to ING when I send in the $100 to the EF on Friday.

My mom has been a member of a travel club for about 20 years now. I guess some people might call it a time share, but instead of it being one condo and a week of the year that is fixed in stone, it's a choice between any of about 200 condos scattered across the U.S. (including Hawaii and Alaska), B.C. and Mexico. They also have a couple in Austrailia. It's completely paid for and has dues of $500 a year which gives you enough credits for five days a year. You can borrow from the past year if you didn't use them and the next year. So if you wanted two weeks somewhere you could use three years worth of credits to get 15 days.

She asked me if we would like her to put it in our names. She had planned to leave it to us in her will since my eldest sister does not want it and my older sister already bought one. But she doesn't forsee anymore travelling at age (almost) 72 and we are wanting to take a road trip every summer now that we have a comfortable travel vehicle.

When I consider how much it cost us to spend the night in hotels on our last vacation, $500 a year maintenance dues is about half of that. Because we have both a boy and a girl that are older, we needed to have at least three beds. Pull out beds are very uncomfortable and lead to very whiney kids and we actually stayed in a hotel that did not have rollaway beds. I have never heard of a hotel that did not have rollaway beds.

The condos have the options of two (twin beds in the second room) or three bedrooms, full kitchens, and two bathrooms. They have washers, dryers, and dishwashers and provide the detergent. They have pools and hot tubs and game rooms (with pool tables and ping pong tables, as well as a few video games). One of the ones we stayed in even had a Pizza Hut Express on the 7th flood. At least with the condos there is at least some privacy for me and my husband. And even if the kids had to share a room, at least they are separate beds.

We have used the condos over the years (for free, Mom gave us the credits when she didn't use them) to stay in Anaheim, CA, Victoria, B.C., and Birch Bay, WA. They are goregeous, clean, and well-maintained properties.

We are strongly considering taking her up on this offer. Since we spend at least double on hotel rooms for the same amount of days it feels like a bargain to take it over. Not until we are out of credit card debt next year, though. Mom is in no hurry so we have plenty of time to think about it.

Tomorrow cannot come soon enough. Even though it will be spendy (2 meals out and $20 for parking in the garage next to the hospital), it means I'll have some more freedom afterwards. At least if all goes well. I'll be glad to be able to hang my dresses back up and get into trousers and shorts again, that's for sure. They will still have to be loose fitting, don't want anything tight against the insicion site, but still. I should be okayed to drive. Then I'll only have to come back one week later and have the lost follow up and then I'll be done until November.

My first appointment is with radiology and is at 1. It shouldn't take more than 45 minutes. My second appointment is at 2:15 with the doctor who will read the results of the test and then do an exam and make sure everything is healing. I hope it doesn't take more than an hour because then we can get out of there before rush hour hits Seattle.

The cafeteria food at the hospital is quite good and reasonably priced so one of our meals will be there. We will also be filling up the gas tank on the way down. It is half full right now, but I never like to risk anything but a full tank in Seattle traffic. The kids will be taking plenty to do with them since they are going to be sitting in the waiting room with my mother for a fair bit of the day. I have a book I have just started so I should be fine with just that.

I added $3.40, the change from the $5 I gave the kids to buy corn, to the coin jar. I might actually have enough to make a deposit by week's end after all. My little EF is growing.

Normally boredom leads to spending money, but since I can't drive myself anywhere yet, not so much. The kids went out for a walk and I sent them with a $5 bill so they could swing by the grocery store and get some corn on the cob for dinner tonight. I love it when it's in season like right now and relatively inexpensive. Not great, it's still 2/$1, and I know if I could drive out to the country farms I could get it at least 8/$1 or even 10/$1.

This is not strictly a necessary purchase as we do have canned corn in the cupboard, but some days you just want what you want and so you give in to that want. A few bucks for corn is better than giving in to the want for Round Table I had the other day (which I did not do) or the desire to send my mother to hit the McD's drive-thru. And the chickens will eat off the cobs when we are done with them. They love empty cobs, because to them they are not quite as empty as they appear. I'm still way under budget for groceries so I'm not really going to freak out about it.

Two more days until my follow up appointment. It cannot come soon enough.

I have a big roast in the crockpot for dinner. I didn't realize it was as large as it was. 4 pounds. I do have Yankee Noodles planned for leftovers and maybe roast beef hash, but I'm going to need a few other recipes for leftover potroast. Anyone got any ideas besides sandwiches?

Not too much going on in the financial arena today. I sent off the HoA half year dues for the old house, $100. It's due the 31st and I spaced out mailing it yesterday, so it went out in today's mail. I'm not that worried about it. The HoA people only work on Tuesdays and Fridays and it'll be there by Monday. In the past on the occasion that I was actually a day or two late, they never charged me the $5 late fee, because I was one of the people that actually consistently paid the dues year after year without them having to go knocking on my door to collect like they do with so many people.

I went ahead and paid my AMEX bill, $500 as well. It's not due until the third and I was going to just set it to pay that day, but then I was like, what does it matter, I'll just set it to pay today and be done with it and not have to worry about anything until next Friday. The autopays come out the 1st through the 4th and there's plenty of money in the account for that.

We are still working on that leftover ham. If DH had been home it would be long gone by now. The kids had ham and gnochhi soup and I had a warm ham sandwich. I haven't had a warm ham sandwich in a long time, maybe not since I was a kid. All I did was cut a piece of bread in half, butter it, put a nice thick slice of ham and thin slice of Swiss cheese in it and warm it up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. It was delicious. I don't really care for mayo on its own or I might have used that instead of butter. I could have used Dijon mustard, too, but didn't think about it. Besides I used butter as a child so that's what I thought of.

I bet it would taste even better on one of my homemade rolls. Right now we have actual store bought bread (Big Horn Valley) because I am not really doing extra baking yet. I thought about making drop biscuits today because they aren't that much effort, but DD said she wanted to make cookies instead and I wasn't going to argue with that. Maybe I can get her to throw in a pan of cornbread, too.

Dinner tonight is chicken, mostly because if I serve ham one more time this week I might have a revolt on my hands. I think I will do a package of wings and some thighs. We've diced up what is left, about a sandwich baggy full and thrown it in the freezer for a future pizza topping. So tonight is chicken (barbecue sauce on mine), mashed potatoes from scratch because they need using up, and broccoli because it needs using up. Also milk and cookies.

Then Sunday I will make a potroast in the crockpot for dinner. Monday will be Yankee Noodles, a recipe I found on

www.livingonadime.com, only instead of using ground beef I will use leftover potroast. I will also use some of the leftover meat in sandwiches for our trip back to Virginia Mason for my follow up appointment. Did I mention I had the day wrong? The appointment is on Tuesday not Monday. I was really frustrated by that because I want to be done with this part of things, but at least it doesn't interfere with my mother's schedule (because she is driving).

Not really much else going on today. The kids picked enough blueberries and blackberries last night for today so we will have the rest of those for dessert tonight. I know I haven't posted my food costs much lately, but I am keeping track of them. On big meat nights I'm averaging around $20 a day, but on leftover meat nights my costs are down around $12 a day. Not too shabby.

It is nice to not be spending money on frivilous things this week. No extras from the grocery store. No wasted gas. No DVD rentals from the cheap box (no excuse for this when I have Netflix). No fast food. No slow food from restaurants either. The kids are pretty happy with the food they've been eating and haven't asked to eat out this week, which is nice.

Just thought I'd share a couple photos of my yummy, made from scratch pizza and free dessert from the back yard. Can't beat free in keeping those food costs down.

Before cooking:



After cooking:



Fresh blueberries and blackberries:

Part of why I overdid it yesterday was that I did have to go to the store. I needed cloth medical tape and it has to be a specific kind or I will have an allergic reaction (though even this kind itches a little). I thought I was doing okay enough that I could walk all the way to the back of the store as long as I was leaning on a grocery cart. Well, by the time that I did that and got back out to the car (Mom was driving me) I thought I was going to be sick. It passed, but I definitely should have ridden the little scooter around the store.

Anyway, I needed the cloth tape to hold on the gauze for wound care. Still had plenty of guaze, just been going through the tape like crazy, so I did end up with some money for the coin jar after all, $1.22.

I thought my follow up appointment was on Monday, but they just called to confirm and it's on Tuesday. Fortunately that works with my mother's schedule, but it also means I have to wait an extra day longer than I thought to get this drainage tube out and it itches!

I am fighting a very strong craving to order a pizza delivered, but I won't do it. I won't spend the $27.18 for that. Not this week anyway. I am going to go and have my daughter put the dough ingredients in the bread machine right now and we can have homemade pizza with leftover ham, leftover ground beef, onions, tomatoes, two kinds of cheese, and chicken sausage for dinner tonight. Which will taste even better than Round Table. It always does. Oh, and we had the ham and tater tot casserole for lunch instead of dinner. There is some leftover for tomorrow, too.

I got a bill from the place I went to have an EKG before surgery. For some reason they billed it to my old insurance instead of to the insurance card I gave them, so I had to spend a few minutes on the phone today listening to Muzak (really loud Muzak) before I could get that mess straightened out. Fortunately I could give the lady all the information over the phone and didn't have to go down in person to sort it out. She's going to rebill it and hopefully they'll do it right and then I'll only have to pay 10% of $97.60. I am glad that I have been really paying attention to my bills lately. This is the second error I've caught this year.

Today was a long day and I completely overdid it and was useless from six o'clock on. But in the meanwhile, I did have enough ham broth to make both egg noodles (with ham and peas) and ham and gnocchi soup and the kids were doing cartwheels over the taste, so yay. A few weeks ago one of our stores started carrying inexpensive shelf stable gnocchi in the pasta section, and none of the stabliziers were ones my son is allergic to. I don't score that very often so I bought some. The original plan was to find a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's chicken and gnocchi soup, but this worked out just as well. There's enough soup left over for two more meals. The noodles vanished completely.

And there is still about a pound and a half of ham left. DD is going to make a pound of it into a tater tot casserole for tomorrow's dinner. I've cut up some for putting into eggs and onto pizza and the rest for sandwiches. I am really proud of how much we got out of this ham. When all is said and done it will be at least six family size meals, as well as ingredients in a couple others. Plus I've got a couple of recipes to try next time I make one, which won't be for a while. The next big crockpot meat will be a potroast on Sunday so now I need to come up with ideas for the leftovers besides hash. Meanwhile good old cheap chicken and a homemade pizza will be the order of tomorrow's day.

Back in April, before Easter, there was a massive sale on picnic hams. They were $1.29 a pound and I bought a lot of them, fifteen or twenty, I'm not sure exactly, but anyway, they were really cheap. I currently have one in the crockpot for tonight's dinner. It is just over six pounds.

So tonight we will have ham with potatoes and green beans, then I will pick all the meat off the bones and put the bone back in the crockpot all night with plenty of water to make stock. Tomorrow we will have ham sandwiches (or in my son's case ham rolled up in tortillas) for lunch and then I will dice up the ham that is left.

I will add some diced ham into the eggs (possibly omelets) in the morning for breakfast. I will make egg noodles with the ham broth and we will have ham and noddles for dinner. No one here cares for ham and bean soup so that's not an option. I might make pizza on Friday with diced ham as a topping.

Anyone have any other ways to use up ham? I mean these are probably sufficient for a six pounder, but for future reference? If anyone has a good strata or fritatta recipe, I'll take it. I really want to see how many meals I can get out of an $8 ham.

Before DH left to fly up to work yesterday he emptied his wallet of all his coins, so I had another $1.55 to add to the coin jar. That will be the last coin jar addition at least until after I go back to Virginia Mason next Monday to have my follow up appointment. We shopped in such a way so that I wouldn't have to buy anything or spend any money between now and then. I'd make it an official no spend challenge week, except for the fact that it's not really a challenge for me. It's just the way it is this week. I can't drive myself anywhere until I have the okay from the doctor and I don't need to pay any bills until next week. No challenge in that at all.

Still, there won't be any fast food or restaurant food picked up at the last minute. There won't be any impulse purchases or decisions to replace worn out flip flops or new goggles for the pool. So that's at least good for the bottom line. No money out means no money into the coin jar though, so I think I will set aside a few dollars for it anyway. I usually scrape together about $15 a week for that, so that would be a nice amount to add to it when I do start driving again.

I transferred the money from ING to pay the AMEX. It won't be here until Thursday and the bill won't be paid until Monday, but I wanted to make sure it was in the account well before the day I made the electronic payment, even if means sacrificing a couple of days worth of interest.

DH and I had a long talk about what to do with the extra money from his raise. One of the things we gave up for the kids when we had to do major belt-tightening was lessons. Tae kwon do and dance. We decided to put our son back into Tae kwon do and our daughter back into dance. She will take two classes in the fall for $105 a month and he will have three lessons a week for $90 a month. Actually DS already started yesterday, but DD won't start until September when school starts.

I particulary wanted DD in something because she does not have PE for her sophomore year and she tends to put on weight if she is not excercising at least every other day. Also her nutritionist for her pre-diabetes counseling recommends she exercise to help keep that in check. She will still have to do something else, like swimming though because she chose classes on Monday and Tuesday and the exercise needs to be more spread out than that.

I don't know when I'll be able to get back into the pool, but it will definitely be by September. I'd say mid August but they close the pool down for two weeks then to drain and clean it. Why in August I will never understand. December makes more sense to me to close a pool down, but the Y and the aquatic center both do it in August as well. Maybe because that is when the lakes are all the warmest.

The other part of the raise will be tacked on to debt repayment or new medical bills, which should start coming in shortly. I wish they'd just send them already. I want to know how much it is going to be so I can plan out the budget for the next several months.

Other tweaks to the budget will be increasing the amount to the Best Buy 18 months same as cash to pay off the laptop. That will go from $125 a month to $200 so it will be paid off by year's end. I know I could take several more months with no interest, but I'd just like to do it and get it over with. Then when it is done I will start contributing that money to a new laptop fund so that next time one breaks irrepairably I can just buy a new one without financing it.

Another tweak is that our homeowner's insurance on the old house will be going up. Right now it is $41 a month. Starting next month it is $41.25. Next year if we still own that house I will try to pay it all in advance.

Oh, I sent the HoA dues off. It was actually only $100, not $102. I had forgotten that I had divided $100 by 6 months and it came out as $16.666666666, so I just put $17 in each month instead so of course it was a little over. That money will stay in the holding tank for the next dues payment at the end of January.

Before DH left to fly up to work yesterday he emptied his wallet of all his coins, so I had another $1.55 to add to the coin jar. That will be the last coin jar addition at least until after I go back to Virginia Mason next Monday to have my follow up appointment next Monday. We shopped in such a way so that I wouldn't have to buy anything or spend any money between now and then. I'd make it an official no spend challenge week, except for the fact that it's not really a challenge for me. It's just the way it is this week. I can't drive myself anywhere until I have the okay from the doctor and I don't need to pay any bills until next week. No challenge in that at all.

Still, there won't be any fast food or restaurant food picked up at the last minute. There won't be any impulse purchases or decisions to replace worn out flip flops or new goggles for the pool. So that's at least good for the bottom line. No money out means no money into the coin jar though, so I think I will set aside a few dollars for it anyway. I usually scrape together about $15 a week for that, so that would be a nice amount to add to it when I do start driving again.

I transferred the money from ING to pay the AMEX. It won't be here until Thursday and the bill won't be paid until Monday, but I wanted to make sure it was in the account well before the day I made the electronic payment, even if means sacrificing a couple of days worth of interest.

DH and I had a long talk about what to do with the extra money from his raise. One of the things we gave up for the kids when we had to do major belt-tightening was lessons. Tae kwon do and dance. We decided to put our son back into Tae kwon do and our daughter back into dance. She will take two classes in the fall for $105 a month and he will have three lessons a week for $90 a month. Actually DS already started yesterday, but DD won't start until September when school starts.

I particulary wanted DD in something because she does not have PE for her sophomore year and she tends to put on weight if she is not excercising at least every other day. Also her nutritionist for her pre-diabetes counseling recommends she exercise to help keep that in check. She will still have to do something else, like swimming though because she chose classes on Monday and Tuesday and the exercise needs to be more spread out than that.

I don't know when I'll be able to get back into the pool, but it will definitely be by September. I'd say mid August but they close the pool down for two weeks then to drain and clean it. Why in August I will never understand. December makes more sense to me to close a pool down, but the Y and the aquatic center both do it in August as well. Maybe because that is when the lakes are all the warmest.

The other part of the raise will be tacked on to debt repayment or new medical bills, which should start coming in shortly. I wish they'd just send them already. I want to know how much it is going to be so I can plan out the budget for the next several months.

Other tweaks to the budget will be increasing the amount to the Best Buy 18 months same as cash to pay off the laptop. That will go from $125 a month to $200 so it will be paid off by year's end. I know I could take several more months with no interest, but I'd just like to do it and get it over with. Then when it is done I will start contributing that money to a new laptop fund so that next time one breaks irrepairably I can just buy a new one without financing it.

Another tweak is that our homeowner's insurance on the old house will be going up. Right now it is $41 a month. Starting next month it is $41.25. Next year if we still own that house I will try to pay it all in advance.

Oh, I sent the HoA dues off. It was actually only $100, not $102. I had forgotten that I had divided $100 by 6 months and it came out as $16.666666666, so I just put $17 in each month instead so of course it was a little over. That money will stay in the holding tank for the next dues payment at the end of January.

Since we had used up virtually everything in the refrigerator yesterday, leaving us with pretty much just condiments, butter, cheese, carrots, potatoes, and apples and Chris was leaving today to head back to work, I decided to do a last minute shopping expedition and get everything I should need until payday. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it because I was only 11 days post op yesterday, but I had my handicapped parking pass and the stores have those scooters to ride around on with the baskets on front so I figured I'd be fine.

The first thing I did was sit down with the grocery ads of the four of the five main grocery stores. (Freddy's doesn't come for free, you have to buy a Sunday paper for their ads, so I didn't consider them). I found the store with the top deals and then the store with the second best deals in case the first store was out of what we wanted.

Cost Cutter was having a major produce sale and since my produce bins were virtually empty, I decided to stock up on a variety of shorter-lived and longer-lived produce. We'll eat the shorter-lived stuff this week and the longer-lived stuff next week. They also had chicken legs and chicken thighs on for .98/lb and full chicken wings for .99/lb.

I ended up with 4 white onions (the sale made them cheaper than yellow ones for a change), 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 6 nectarines, 2 lbs of strawberries, 1 head of iceberg lettuce (I know, not the best nutrition in the lettuce bunch but it was .98 instead of $1.79 like the leaf lettuces), 1 head of green cabbage, 2 canteloupes, 1.4 pounds of red grapes, and 2.17 pounds of broccoli. They had some lovely cherries for a very good sale price, but my mother had brought back some bing cherries from a family reunion in Eastern Washington, so free trumps very good price.

I also got a large Alaskan Wild Coho Salmon fillet that was marked down as it needed to be made that day. It was $8.99 for 1.57 pounds, which is unheard of outside of buying an entire fish. I got ten pounds of chicken thighs, ten pounds of chicken legs, and three pounds of chicken wings. Then I bought two bags of organic white cheddar popcorn (one for each week).

I don't get the fancy deals like some folks manage but I did get $41.62 off my order between coupons and sale prices.

After that I felt okay enough to go to a second store so we went to Haggen, because I didn't like any of the beef prices at Cost Cutter, or the cuts on their pot roast. I found a nice big pot roast at Haggen, a lovely chuck and it wasn't in the despised cuts of cross rib or bottom round, neither of which will get tender the way I like them in a crockpot. Suddenly that's about all that the stores are carrying and I just don't like them. I like it when there's enough fat in the cut that they fall apart when you try to lift them out of the crockpot. I shouldn't have to cut them with a knife.

I also got 10 pounds of flour and 8 pounds of sugar, 8 lemons (for making homemade lemonade), 3 gallons of milk, 2 gallons of orange juice, 2 12 packs of Charmin at $6.99 with two $1 off coupons, so $5.99 each) since I knew I'd not be making it to Costco any time soon to buy the huge package. I got two family size cans of both Dinty Moore beef stew and Chef Boyardee mini ravioli (it comes without MSG now and no preservatives!), and four cans of no beans steak house chili from Stagg (not on sale, not even close), a package of hot dog buns (.25), and both a Fine Cooking and a Clean Eating magazine. Between coupons and sale prices I saved $32.45.

I went through both magazines last night. I like both of these magazines because they have well explained recipes and they also teach you cooking techniques (like how to cut up an artichoke for example, which hardly seems worth the effort, frankly). I also like them because they don't use ingredients like "cream of something soup" or empty five cans into the crockpot with your meat. I don't have anything against recipes like that but we can't use them with DS's allergies. And I prefer as close to natural and organic as possible just because I've had so many health problems and need the best nutrition I can give my body. (Not that that stops me from craving a quarter pounder from time to time).

I found ten recipes in one and three in the other. I was happy. I've come to think a magazine is worth it if I just get one great recipe out of it, and I feel like I hit the jackpot with these two, especially Fine Cooking. Then I looked up a recipe online for Chinese beef and broccoli which I hope to have the energy to make later this week. The kids had some at the City Center when they went to the Pacific Science Center Saturday and have wanted it since. The only places around here that make it all use MSG, so I'll have to do it myself. Fortunately the place there made it without any MSG.

I'm pretty excited to be meal planning this week because I have so many fresh ingredients and so many different colors of food, the plates will look great.

Oh, we've also got fresh blackberries and raspberries right now as the canes in the back yard are producing overtime. I can't wait for the blueberries to be ready. The bushes are loaded and blueberries are just so good and so good for you with all their anti-oxidants and stuff. I love the taste of summer!

Today is definitely a use it up sort of day. I'm a firm believer in shampoo is shampoo (except for my shampoo, of course!) and so when I saw several bottles that all had about an inch left in them, I set them up one at a time with a funnel and put them all into one bottle. Presto, a new bottle of shampoo. Now these are all the same type of shampoo, moisturizing, so it's not like we'd have dry hair clashing with oily or color-treated. But we will have purple clashing with green or pink. My daughter and husband don't really care much. I've done it before and only gotten one comment about the multiple layers of different colors. I also got half a bottle of conditioner this way, but it is all white.

I've got a ketchup bottle upside down on the counter draining into another ketchup bottle. Ditto the last of one syrup bottle into another. I shredded up two bread heals and put them into a baggy and froze them for future meatloaf.

There are leftovers in the fridge being eaten up today as well. Leftover spaghetti with leftover sauce. Leftover pancakes. Leftover chili with leftover hamburger combined to make a sort of sloppy joe thing on a leftover bun. DD is going to make milk that has hit its sell by date into pudding and the rest of it into a homemade cream of chicken soup she found which will also use up our leftover chicken.

She wants to make a tatertot casserole recipe this week and needs cream of chicken soup to do it, but with DS's allergies we can't use standard soup. Thankfully TJ's has a clean cream of mushroom soup, because I can't find an easy recipe for that. Hard ones, yes. I found a very simple cream of chicken soup recipe online so if it is good I will let you know as I know a few of you also have to deal with food allergies or like to cook as naturally as possible.

There's never much to do with finances during the two weeks out of six that DH doesn't get a paycheck. It's always the lull before the storm of payments. Or maybe the one after. But he did have another pile of coins that he left on his dresser to add to the coin jar, so $1.55 went in today. I also rolled coins, one roll of quarters, one of dimes, and one of pennies, so that will be ready to deposit to the Emergency Fund (Safety Net portion) whenever I manage to get to that CU.

The safety net is at $307.03. My goal is to slowly get that portion of the EF up to $500 and then eventually $1000, just with coin jar savings. Of course the bulk of the EF is at ING and gets more regular feedings of larger amounts of money, each month. At least $100 and any more I can scrounge up.

When this new round of medical bills comes through and the last credit card is paid off (hopefully within the next six months), I will be happy to jump our EF savings up to $1000 a month until it gets to where it needs to be. I would ultimately like it at one year's worth of income (not expenses, but income). Once the debt of the credit card is gone, one year's income would be enough to live on for 2 years if something were to happen to DH's job. I don't think it will (or if it did, he'd just move companies again like all slope workers eventually do), but I just want to have it. Having several months of uncertainty last year made me feel like this would be the best course.

I think it would take several years to get it to that point, but like I said it is my ultimate goal, not my immediate one. My immediate goal after everything is paid off is to build the EF to $10,000 and start saving for the new house downpayment. We still have to sell the old house, too. And at the rate we are going fixing it up it won't even be on the market until next summer. Not that I am in that much of a rush. Even with what we might get for it, we will still have to save money for about a year to get the downpayment we want to make.

We probably won't get anything near what the bank ($110,000) or the tax assessor ($115,000) says it is worth. But I would honestly be happy getting what we paid for it back in '98, which was $69,500. That would give us enough money to pay the realtor, pay off the mortgage, and have $40,000 to $45,000 for the downpayment. I honestly just want it to be gone. If someone walked up to me today and offered me $50,000 in cash for it as is with no repair demands, I'd probably take it.

Combined with our mortgage, all the bills related to that house roughly come out to $1000 a month that could be used for other things. Storage, water/sewer, power, phone, security system, insurance, HoA dues, time for maintaining the yard...it could all be used for better things. I know technically I would at least have to pay storage anyway until we move, but I still consider it part of the overall expense of not having our stuff in a house.

Sometimes I wish I had a financial fairy godmother who could come down, wave her magic wand, and everything that needed to be done would be done with no effort on my part. But no one ever gave a beggar a free horse ride, so...bit by bit, step by step, pulling up my own bootstraps and getting us where we need to be is my job. And I'll do it. I will get us there. Eventually.