Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

Just received a bill in the mail from my son's eye doctor visit. Insurance covered the visit and the frames and lenses, but it did not cover the 1 year anti-breakage insurance, so that will be $32.54. He's eleven and tends to be careless. The anti-breakage insurance will more than pay for itself.

I need to make eye appointments for my daughter and myself as we both need new glasses badly. Neither of us need the anti-breakage insurance because we are very careful with our glasses. DH on the other hand always gets it because he does stupid things like sit on his glasses (or step on them).

Took my daughter in for her fasting blood draw this morning. They are testing her for diabetes and for a malfunctioning thyroid. Made an appointment with a dietician for May 3. We will be talking to her whether or not DD is diabetic or not. She is insulin resistant so changing her diet is a necessity either way.

I still need to set up a therapist appointment for my son. I still haven't heard from my own specialist about going to Virginia Mason. Sometimes I feel like everything is converging on me all at once and I just wish it was easier to sort things out. I tell my husband all the time that what I need is a wife. *laughs* Or a personal assistant.

Payday is tomorrow. It will be nice to make some progress on paying down debt.

No money spent today.

Meal planning for today:

Breakfast:
Fruit smoothies ($2)

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Leftover chili (free)
Milk ($1.50)

Dinner:
Leftover pot roast (free)
Leftover broccoli (free)
Leftover cauliflower (free)
Baked sweet potatoes ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total for day: $6

Not much to report today. I spent $2 to rent two movies out of one of those vending machine boxes in the grocery store that rent movies. Tron Legacy and Skyline. Watched the first one with the kids and will watch the second one on my own (not sure that it won't have too much violence or swearing for them to see it).

We went to the health club and swam today. The pool was very crowded, surprisingly. A lot of really little kids, but it did thin out enough by 4:30 for me to get fifteen laps in. DS swam alongside me and managed to do thirteen laps. He's a good little swimmer.

I also spent $15 on paper plates, bowls, plasticware and plastic cups. The basement flooded and the hot water tank for the end of the house with the dishwasher in it had the pilot light put out by the water. Until it goes down it can't be relit. It'll probably take a couple days to pump it all out, and since I am not wanting to wash dishes by hand in my end of the house I decided to waste the $15.

So all in all, $17 spent today, none of it what I would call necessary spending, but it will make my life easier.

I was cleaning out my dresser tonight as I have two drawers in it that I've been using as a temporary filing cabinet until I got around to actually filing or shredding some papers and when I got to the bottom of one, I found a stash of loose change. It was mostly pennies, but it amounted to $1.82 so I tossed that in the coin jar (after rolling up 2 rolls of pennies). I had totally forgot it was there, but once I saw it I had a perfect memory of scraping a bunch of change into a drawer before we moved here from the old house, so it's just been sitting in there since January of 2010.

Since DS wants to go to "his" CU tomorrow to deposit his allowance (he's saving up for a Nintendo 3DS), I figured I may as well make a deposit myself into the laptop fund since it's in the same CU. With the two rolls of pennies, a 50 cent piece, and all the ones I have in the coin jar, it will come to $12.50.

Not too bad. Sometimes I feel a little silly for making such little deposits, but then I remind myself that little deposits add up and if I end up paying for my laptop with pennies and ones than so be it. I've been managing to scrape up about $100 a month doing this, rebating, and adding what is leftover in my purse each week. At least it will be paid for with no interest due.

Here is today's menu planning which I tried to post last night, but the internet ate it:

Breakfast:
pancakes (.50)
eggs (free from chickens)
homemade brown sugar syrup (.20)
Milk (1.50)
Total $2.20

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Fruit smoothies ($2)
Total $2

Dinner:
Homemade pizza
--dough (.50)
--leftover homemade spaghetti sauce
--pepperoni ($2)
--Canadian bacon ($2)
--mozarella cheese ($2)
Milk (1.50)
Total $8

Total for day: $12.20

Tomorrow

Breakfast:
Blueberry muffins (.50)
Bacon ($2)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $4

Lunch:
Leftover pizza (free)
oranges ($1.50)
Total $1.50

Dinner:
Beef pot roast ($9.89)
Broccoli ($1)
Cauliflower ($1)
Can of corn ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $14.39

Total for day: $19.89

There will be leftover pot roast and possibly leftover broccoli and cauliflower as well for another meal, so even though Wednesday's food is higher in price it will reduce the price of one of Thursday's meals.

The mortgage payment hit today leaving me with a mortgage balance of $21,224.97. Slowly but surely it's disappearing. $277.31 of the payment went to principle and $98.55 went to interest. So well over 3/4 is going to principle now. Really, really like being on this end of a mortgage.

I forgot to update the car amount when it went through a couple of weeks ago, so the amount still owed on the car loan is $15,839.43. We are definitely keeping this car for several years after it is paid off. Which on our current debt repayment schedule should put us at April of 2011. After December of this year, all debt money will be thrown at the car loan.

The $142 autopay for storage also came out today. So down to $64 in checking until Friday.

I am getting really antsy for Friday to get here. I should just be relaxing and enjoying a week of sleeping in and not having to transport the kids to and from school. Spring Break is a lovely time of year. But I want payday to get here so I can send a huge chunk of money to the Master Card. And then I'm sure I'll want the next one to get here as well so I can finish paying it off. I just want it gone so badly. I want to be down to paying off only one card and seeing that progress every single month, the only balance getting lower and lower. It's extremely psychological at this point.

There is nothing more annoying than being signed in when you start a blog entry, but when you go to post it ten minutes later, SA has logged you out. AGAIN. For the fifteenth time today. And of course I didn't highlight and save first. It wouldn't be quite so irritating if Facebook and Live Journal weren't also playing this game today. *growls at the internet*

Anyway, highlights were I found 38 cents in the car when I cleaned it out and I forgot that storage autopay comes out this week, so I don't have $204 left, it's more like $64 left in checking until Friday. And $49 cash so it's all good.

I don't feel like writing out the meal planning again. Will do it tomorrow morning when I'm not so growly.

We cleaned out the car (all but the trunk, because it started to rain) today and I found 38 cents so that went into the coin jar, allocated to the laptop fund. Hopefully the weather will break tomorrow so we can finish it. I've been waiting for a clear, sunny day so that I can use the tree sap remover to take some sap off the car. It's bugging me, but not enough to stand in the rain and chill while taking it off.

I forgot that the storage autopay comes out this week when I did all the bills earlier, so that $204 I had left is going to be more like $64, plus the $49 in cash until Friday. That's okay, though, I don't foresee me buying anything but milk until Friday anyway, and maybe not even that. What I have might last.

Okay, so with the grocery budget tight this month so that I can pay off the MC and still have the money needed for medical, I have got to stick to my meal plans. I've made them up for tomorrow and Wednesday.

Tuesday Breakfast:
Pancakes (.50)
Eggs (free from chickens)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $2

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Leftover chicken (free)
Leftover chili (free)
Fruit smoothies made with strawberries, bananas, and blueberries ($3)
Total $3

Dinner:
Homemade pizza (using leftover spaghetti sauce)
--dough (.50)
--mozzarella cheese ($2)
--salami ($2)
--pepperoni ($1)
--onions and peppers (.50)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $7.50

Total for day: $14.50

Wednesday Breakfast:
Homemade Blueberry Muffins (.50)
Bacon ($2)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $4

Lunch:
Homemade corn dogs
--batter ($1)
--hot dogs ($2)
Fried potatoes (.50)
Oranges ($1.50)
Total $5

Dinner:
Pot roast ($8.59)
Broccoli ($1)
Cauliflower ($1)
Can of corn (.79)
Milk ($1.50)
Total $12.88

Total for day: $21.88

There will be leftover potroast, it's quite sizable.

Well, I finally got off the procrastination train and finished paying bills for Friday's paycheck and then I balanced the checkbook.

Money out:

$1000.00 to medical loan from Mom
$--19.07 Electric for old house
$--35.90 Life Insurance DH
$--32.70 Life Insurance Me
$--95.59 Car Insurance
$--41.00 House insurance for old house
$-500.00 Amex
$-300.00 Groceries
$--90.00 Medical
$-375.86 Mortgage on old house
$--96.00 Six weeks allowance for 2 kids
$---2.00 Tooth Fairy money
$--78.68 Clothing and shoes for DS
$-100.00 Cash for me
-------------
$2766.80 Total Spent


$91,000.00 Medical debt payback to Mom
$-1,000.00 Amount paid
-----------
$90,000.00 Amount still owed to Mom

So we have officially paid back $20,000 and we have 90 payments left to make. 7 years and 7 months to go.

The majority of next week's check will go to the Master Card and some of the following one, too. So it should be completely paid off by the 15th as long as nothing unforeseen arises.

I still have $204 left in the checkbook and $49 in cash. I doubt I will use what is in the checkbook and will just add that to what I pay on the MC on Friday.

Today is a no spend day. I cleaned out my purse and found $2.12 to put in the coin jar. That will go into the laptop fund eventually when there are enough coins in there to roll them. I also added $11 in ones.

Tonight I will sit down and balance the checkbook and then finish doing the rest of this week's bills. I did about half of them on Friday, so need to stop procrastinating and do the rest of them. I will do that after we get back from the pool and have had supper.

I really need to start posting my meal planning again. I won't do today's since it was all leftovers except about $4 worth of milk. But I need to plan out tomorrow's food. It'll be less than usual as DD is spending the day with one of her friends. It's spring break. So she will eat lunch and dinner there.

I did a major shopping run today. I was going to go to Costco, too, but after waiting in the gas line for eight songs and seeing how crazy the parking lot was, I skipped it. Maybe I'll go on Monday. I don't think shopping there the first weekend after the first is a good idea. I don't need much from there anyway, just four items, so I can hold off for a few days. Gas was $3.67 a gallon. I ended up spending $41.05 for 11.159 gallons of gas.

We went to WalMart, too, as DS had outgrown his bathing suit. He wore regular shorts yesterday when we went swimming. So he got two swimtrunks and my daughter got a pair of swimshorts (so she now has two full swim outfits). We also got him a pair of waterproof shoes that are a kind of combination hiking boot/tennis shoe. So I spent $78.68 there. Everything I bought there was half price, so that was nice. DD spent $40 of her allowance there to get five shirts.

We went to two different Haggens and I did some mega stocking up. I spent $101.84 at the one and $70.93 at the other. That is $172.77, leaving $327.23 in the grocery budget for the month. I'l probably spend about $60 when I do go to Costco (excluding the amount for toilet paper, since that comes out of a different part of the budget and is not groceries). But after that we should be pretty good with just needing to buy milk for the next two weeks. That should keep us pretty much on track for the month.

I finally sat down and quit procrastinating and ran the numbers on my EF. After I take the money out for income tax and property tax I will have $277.36 left in my emergency fund. I will also have $204.30 in my holding tank (where I am now setting aside money for bills that are not monthly.) So it's definitely a major hit, but I think we can recover from it okay.

As eager as I am to pay off our debt, after we pay off the Master Card this month, I am going to take enough from what we would be paying to the VISA in the future to build the account back up to $1000 and then I'll add whatever I can to it. I would just feel better with at least $1000 in the bank quickly and then work on building it back up to $8000. Eventually higher, but I will feel a lot more secure with at least the $8000. We will still be able to pay the VISA off by the end of the year, it would just be December and not November.

Well, the cost of my favorite pizza, the Montague's All Meat Marvel from Round Table has gone up from $27.11 to $27.16 for an extra large. 5 cents isn't too bad. Some of the prices have gone up higher because there is a produce shortage on some of their toppings. We get one about once a month and it's been a long time since the cost has gone up. The XL is big enough to provide 3 meals for the 3 of us (DH is away), so it breaks down to $9.04 per meal. Not too bad. Not as good as my homemade one which costs around $10 and also lasts for three meals. Obviously we did pizza tonight.

Today was the first day since October that all three of us were well enough to go the gym. Basically DH was the only one making use of our gym membership. But we went back today and used the pool. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to swim 13 laps, which is 1/4 mile. I had gotten up to 40 laps (a touch above 3/4 mile) before we started getting hit with all these cold and flu germs. I felt pretty decent at the 13 lap mark, like I could go for longer, but I didn't want to overdo it my first day back. Right now there is a pleasant achiness in my arm muscles, but if I'd pushed it I doubt it would be a pleasant one. I didn't time myself on the laps. I used to, but since I'm so out of shape from not exercising, I figured it was more important to swim than to see how fast I could do it.

Going to the gym a few times a week should cut down on the gas usage (gas dryer and hot water tank), since we will be showering there and using their towels so won't need to wash as many loads here. It pretty much cut it in half before.

I need to get gas. The little light came on telling me there are only two gallons left. It's in the $3.60's. That's likely going to be over $45. Good thing I only fill up about once every three weeks. I'll do it tomorrow when I make my Costco run. I'm out of oranges so want to buy a case and also get some toilet paper and olive oil. Maybe a couple of other things. I have to go through the cupboards tonight and check my inventory. I'm pretty sure I'm out of tomato paste. And I need more flour.

I got a whopping $5.42 in interest from ING for the month of March. It is going to the emergency fund. I need to sit down and do the numbers and find out just how much is going to be left in the EF after we pay our tax bill and our property tax. It won't be much, I know, and there's not terribly much I will be able to do about that at the moment. Just build it back up bit by bit.

I have now started saving a monthly portion for property tax so when the next bill hits us in October we will have it and not have to dip into any other form of savings. I really wish our income tax bill was not so high, but we knew that would happen with the lump sum contract buyout. At least the money is there. That is the important thing. We'll only get about ten days worth of interest on the total amount this month before I have to transfer most of it out to pay income tax. After this year we hopefully won't have this problem again.

DH wants to take a mini-vacation this year. I told him it would have to wait until summer's end, we just can't afford it until then. Well, I say can't. I mean, we can't without holding money back from debt repayment. We agreed that this year would be all about debt repayment and that we'd hit it hard. But he's getting a little antsy about that.

We still have no confirmation on whether or not he will be getting the raise he was told he would get in April. The man who told him he would be getting it has been fired for failing a drug test so he doesn't have anyone to ask about it, either. If it does happen though, I could save that new money half for vacation and half for the EF. But I'm not counting on it.

We will be going to Seattle this month again though to the Pacific Science Center. They are having a Star Wars exhibit there and the Millenium Falcon will be on display. We will likely do an overnight there as last time driving down and back seriously borked my knee. Having a night to elevate it between drives will be better. So we'll stay in a relatively inexpensive hotel. A small cost, but maybe that'll help him get the mini-vacation feeling without a true three or four day trip.

Most of my flu symptoms are gone now, just congested and really, really tired all the time. No fever today. Progress.

Just had a really bad encounter with a cashier at Kmart. She was a real snot and refused to take my $3 off catalina coupon. Her computer wouldn't take it and I know there is a way to override it but she wouldn't do it. It hadn't expired, I had qualifying purchases, and it came from that very Kmart. She was acting like I was the one with the problem because it was "only" $3.

She didn't get her supervisor for me because customer service was backed up. It took me 25 minutes to get through her line with only one person in front of me. I had too many people in line behind me to get out and switch lanes, was sort of trapped there because of how their aisles are. In the amount of time she served one person the only other line that they had just opened up served seven people. She was super slow and just didn't seem to care how long it took her to do stuff. It took us less time to shop than to check out and that was with my daughter trying on 3 different bathing suits.

I just filled out the survey at

www.kmartfeedback.com and left contact info so maybe I'll hear something from them, but I won't hold my breath. Oh, and she was really super snotty when 2 more catalina coupons printed out and she handed them to me. And I'm thinking, "Great, two more coupons I won't be able to use." I am thinking about calling the store manager as well and complaining or maybe writing a letter. I just don't like being treated like this.

Oh, and this woman was older than me, I reckon around 45 to 50, so she certainly should have known better than to be so rude. I've actually never had a young person treat me badly at Kmart. They all seem to care about their jobs. It felt like this woman felt she was too good for her job, like she was just putting in her time. That should never be so obvious to a customer.

End rant.

I finally got correspondence from the courthouse today. 4 days before the date of service. Not the greatest way to operate, county of mine. My jury duty has been deferred to 11/28. The heart of cold and flu season. Ah, well. Hopefully by then everything will be resolved with the surgery and if I push vitamins and get plenty of sleep next November I'll actually be well and in the right place in my healing to do it this time. At least DS will be in middle school then and DD can walk over there after the high school lets out and walk him home (or hop on the city bus) if DH is in Alaska then or Mom can't pick them up.

My flu is finally going away. I woke up today feeling about 80% decent. Still a ton of congestion and drainage, but no brain fog at all, no joint or muscle aches, no chills, no headache. Still have a fever of 99.5 and still pretty tired (but more of a general tired than the I need to sleep for a week and that still might not be enough tired), but feeling much more capable of actually living my life.

I went to the dentist today, another finally. I haven't been since 2008. Which was incredibly stupid but it was impossible almost when I was still homeschooling and living in the county to go. I should have at least got in there in September when the kids started school. Better late than never I suppose. Unfortunately I have 2 cavities. I haven't had a cavity in about 15 years. Darn it.

Anyway, they are going to do some major cleaning and fill the cavities in three weeks, both while under ansethetic because a couple of teeth in the back have some serious issues. Nothing that can't be fixed, but it will be painful without anesthetic so the dentist figured he could kill two birds with one stone. I really like him. This is my first time with him though DH and the kids have been going to him and his wife for a couple of years now.

They gave me an estimate of my portion of the dental bill for when I have that done. It'll be just shy of $367. Well. I'm definitely going to have to hold back some of the money I was planning to send to Master Card after all. So be it. At least I will have the money to pay it and not have to charge it. Or maybe part of the VISA payment. Yeah, actually, that's a better idea. DH only made minimal charges on the VISA this month. If I pay what he charged plus the interest, plus $100 extra to principle, I should have about $500 (out of the normal $1000 paymetn) I can spend on medical/dental instead.

Why didn't I think of that before? Then I can go ahead and pay off the Master Card in April just like I planned. Then things should really ease up. We'll have debt left only on the VISA.

I'm making spaghetti tonight with my special homemade sauce. Mom's providing hamburger, though probably just the kids and her will eat that. I tend to get pretty filled up on my spaghetti sauce and noodles without protein. I generally don't like to eat such a carb heavy meal without protein to balance it, but I had a very protein heavy brunch today and I'm not sure I could face a hunk of meat tonight to be honest.

I'll try to get back to meal planning for real this weekend. Since I'm squeezing an extra $100 out of the grocery budget to set aside for medical, I really need to be on the ball with it this month.

I went over to the CU that has the kids' accounts today and deposited $5 in each of their accounts. My daughter's account was in danger of becoming dormant and being closed and sent to the state so I needed to put something in it to make it active. I put an equal amount in my son's account to be fair. He's the saver of the two kids so his account was still active. He's saving up for the new Nintendo 3DS. All of his allowance and most of his recycling money.

That's also where the laptop fund is so I added the shampoo rebate check and the propane rebate check to that account. I also got it set up again so I can do it online. That way when it comes time to make a payment on the laptop I can just go online and transfer the money from savings to checking.

I finally found where DH put the packaging for the Brita stuff and got the two UPC codes so I can send in that $10 rebate tomorrow. That will eventually go to the laptop fund, too.

Payday tomorrow. I need to finish setting up this month's budget spreadsheet. It'll be nice to actually start paying on some stuff again after this two week pause. Geesh, I never thought I'd be excited to pay bills, but this is a big month for us.

I received a check today from our propane company for $10.53. It's a farmer's co-op so every year we get a little bit back for being members. It's never very much, but I always figure every little bit counts. So that will go into the laptop fund.

I've been fiddling with the budget while setting up the spreadsheet for April. I think I can manage to set aside an extra $300 for medical expenses without dipping into how much I want to send to debt repayment. It would mean no money added to the EF this month, but I'd rather have it around for the incoming medical bills.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. I'm afraid it's going to hurt. I bit my tongue really hard on Monday and I figured it would be healed by now, but it still hurts. But I don't want to reschedule again. I already did when I had the flu for several weeks. Since most of my symptoms are gone now (just have the congestion and tiredness), I'd really like to just get it over with.

I still have not received a release from the courthouse for jury duty or a statement saying I have to report in despite the doctor's note excusing me. I'm really starting to get annoyed. Monday is not that far away. They really are not on the ball at all about this. Since I have to be notified "in writing" for it to be official they need to get moving. I will call them tomorrow if there is nothing in the mail.

I also still have not been called back by the doctor about being referred to Virginia Mason. Not like I can make an appointment until after I know what's going on with jury duty, but the lack of professionalism is really starting to grate on me. How hard is it to return a phone call and do your job?

On my way back in from dropping off my daughter at high school this morning, Mom stopped me to tell me she was redoing her will. She's needed to do this for a while. Ever since she drained the IRA and put Dad in the nursing home. She still wants me to be executor (which, ugh, but I agreed to it, with my older sister as back up if I can't).

Anyway, she said that if she dies before I am done paying back the money I owe her for the medical debt, that the debt is free and clear. Before it was expected that I would either continue making payments to my sisters for their part of the inheritence (which I don't think could be legally enforced as I never signed anything, but I still would have done it) or give up my third of the house. But since I've been here taking care of her since the fall she's decided to just make the loan void on her death.

Quite frankly I don't think she'll be dead before we finish paying her off. She's in pretty good health. But it's nice to know that if she were to go unexpectedly, that that financial burden would be lifted.

Now DH and I just need to get around to making our own will. We've been putting it off for too many years. Even if we just do one of those form letter ones and take it down to the CU to have it notarized, that's better than what we have now, which is pretty much nothing.

So I've been thinking. My plan for April was to pay off the second Master Card, but now I'm starting to get concerned about the medical bills I know are coming soon. I haven't gotten any yet, but with a $1250 deductible per person and several visits to the doctor this month and last, I'm afraid what's going to happen is that I'll pay off the MC and then all the doctor's bills will come in. They will likely come in the first week of April, after being processed on the 31st. I am wondering if I shouldn't hold some money back that I had planned to send to debt repayment.

Maybe I'm just being a little paranoid. My budget calls for me to set aside $500 each month for medical expenses which will probably be enough. I just want to get ahead on saving for the medical expenses since I know that I'll have to pay a good chunk of the upcoming surgery and if all of April's money goes to regular doctor's visits and prescriptions, there won't be anything to save for the future. On the other hand, none of the doctor's charge interest until you are 90 days past due. So I could use my $500 to pay as much as possible and then wait until May to pay off the rest.

Also the pediatrician wants DS to have his tonsils taken out because they are so big they are blocking a significant portion of his throat even when he's well and she is afraid it is causing sleep apnea. He doesn't get very restful sleep so this is possible. Not to mention that the school counselor wants him to have a few sessions of therapy with a psychologist before starting middle school next year, to give him coping methods for his OCD and help him to learn some of the social cues he's missing.

Pediatrician also wants us to meet with a dietician for DD who is borderline diabetic and might actually be, but we won't do the bloodwork until Saturday to find out. Even if she's not diabetic she will benefit from a lower carb diet. Seems like it is just one expense after the other.

But despite all that I still have this whiney little voice inside me saying, "But I want to pay off the Master Card and be done with it." It is also stomping its foot. I don't know, maybe I can squeeze some other money out of the budget. MC isn't due until 4/17 so it's possible.

I found a package of ham in the freezer last night so I did not have to drive across town to get the special deli meat for lunches. I ended up not making the pizza yesterday, but am making it tonight instead. We'll have leftovers for a couple of days from it.

I am feeling a little better today. I'm still very much congested but the brain fog is definitely lifting. I feel much more a part of the human race. I really hope that means the last of this flu is on the way out. I think it is the worst one I have ever had.

Another no spend day with nothing much going on, besides laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. I still have half a tank of gas to get through until Friday. Should make that no problem. DD is well enough now I won't need to be taking medicine down to her on her lunch hour, which is a good thing as I have physical therapy tomorrow. That'll be $90 out. I think starting in April I will be dropping my sessions down to one hour a week instead of one and a half hours, which will bring the cost down to $60. Now that I can walk up and down stairs properly again, I think I will be okay with that. The PT thinks I shoud be fine with that, but wants at least that each week.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the jury duty place. The doctor has excused me, but until I get official notice I still may have to report. They are really cutting it close. The date of service is April 4-15. I really don't like waiting on pins and needles like this. I also don't like it because that first week is spring break so the kids will be home. DD is old enough to babysit her brother, but I really don't want her to have to.

On top of my ongoing medical condition and my knee issues (completely stopping PT for two weeks is not a good idea), I still have the flu. Hopefully it would be gone by then, but who really knows? At least I woke up feeling a bit better today than I have been. Still awfully congested but I can feel that slight bit of improvement.

I also have to pay out $125 for this...thing my son's school is doing. The fifth graders are going to this three day mountain camp deal. I'm not very happy about it, because I don't know what the food situation will be. I've called three times and my husband has called once and they never return our messages. With DS's allergies, who knows what might happen. If the stupid chef would call me back I could have some idea of what to go on and maybe I could send his own bread and his own cereal at the very least. The milk is what I am most concerned about. They put additives into all milk that isn't whole to help suspend the vitamin D supplement they stick in there and he's allergic to that.

I will try calling again tomorrow. And I will call the doctor's office again. They still have not gotten back to me on the Virginia Mason referral. It's ridiculous. It's been six weeks since my appointment. How they stay in business like this I will never know. Maybe I need to go see a different doctor here and get a second opinion. I'm tired of the runaround.

I received the Renpure Organics Shampoo rebate in the mail today. It was a postcard that is also a check. It's been a long time since I've done a rebate and I've never had one like that before, but it makes sense for them to be cutting back on envelopes and stuff. Anyway it was for $6.99. That will go into the laptop fund.

I actually forgot to send for the Brita rebate. It's good until December though. I have the two receipts but I'm not sure what my husband did with the packaging and I need the UPC codes. He said he didn't throw them away, that he put them someplace "safe." So I'll have to look all over for them, but hopefully I can still find them. I know we would have bought the stuff anyway, but $10 is $10.

My mom took DS today so that DD and I could both sleep in. It was lovely to not wake up at 7 a.m. although I feel a touch guilty for sleeping in until noon! Obviously my body needed it. This flu is hanging on forever which makes it hard to be on Mommy duty. And they had a good day. They took care of the chickens and the duck and went for a walk and went to the library and the grocery store and he read to her and then she read to him. They both really enjoyed themselves.

I went to the grocery store tonight and bought some vegetables. They were a little pricey, unfortunately. I can see the cost of gas creeping into the produce prices. Lettuce which is generally $1.29 is $1.79 and iceberg was $2 a head. Even cabbage which was generally around .39 a pound was .79 a pound. I will be glad when we can start the garden in another 20 days or so and then we should be able to start cutting lettuce leaves about four weeks after that.

Anyway, I bought radishes, broccoli, celery, cabbage, carrots, strawberries (a splurge, but they were a gorgeous deep red and smelled really good), a red bell pepper, cauliflower, and milk. I still have plenty of onions, oranges, apples, lemons, and potatoes. I'm trying to up the veggie content of our meals a bit more.

I think I should be good until payday now, except I need to buy some deli meat for school lunch sandwiches, which means a trip across town to get the no additive or preservative stuff. I'm not sure I'm up for it. It's one thing to drive the six blocks to the nearby store or the twelve blocks to the high school, but it's another thing entirely to drive on the freeway or to go through the busy heart of downtown when my head is so foggy. Maybe Mom can drive me. Or maybe the kids will have to put up with PB&J and PB&H sandwiches until the brain fog clears out.

Or maybe I can make pizza tomorrow and they can take the leftovers in their lunch. That might be a better option. I'm pretty sure I've got Canadian bacon in the freezer, so that, ground beef, chicken sausage, onions, a little of the bell pepper on my part, maybe some shredded up bacon and some canned, diced tomatoes and mozza cheese will make a great pizza. Yeah, I'll do that for lunch. And Mom has invited us to a pot roast dinner so I won't have to cook for that at all.

I cleaned out my purse and put $2.22 into the coin jar.

I gave in to an impulse buy today when I went to the grocery store for milk and popcorn. I bought a big, prepared sandwich for $5.99. As impulse buys go it's not too bad. The sandwich is a huge panini, made on foccacia bread with roast beef, lettuce, tomato, and red onions. It is four servings for me, so that breaks down to about $1.50 per meal. Not as inexpensive as a cheapy double cheeseburger, but healthier and more filling.

The last couple of days I haven't been eating except for dinner, because I haven't wanted to make the effort to cook three times a day. The kids have been eating cereal for breakfast or those no gluten boxed waffles, and taking sandwiches for lunch. I figured having the sandwich would at least give me some nutrition without any effort on my part.

Eating is somewhat of a chore. It just takes so much work when I'm this exhausted. I know healing takes nutrition, but all I've been wanting to do is go back to bed and nap while the kids are at school, so I've been gulping a glass of milk and doing just that.

The kids have been wanting to snack lately so I bought a two pound bag of popcorn kernels for 99 cents. It should last quite some time. We have an air popper and the kids don't like it with much butter put on, just a touch and some salt, really, so it's a pretty cheap snack.

No other financial stuff going on right now. I still have $190 until next payday and half a tank of gas.

Today felt really long. Probably because we spent 1.5 hours at the doctor's office. DD had her physical today and even though she was still sick on the tail end of the flu they wanted me to bring her in anyway, because at this point if we wait for her to be well it's going to be 2015 or something. Since it was a physical there was no co-pay. I think we'll end up paying for part of the vaccines though eventually. She had three, meningitis, varicella, and the one to help prevent cervical cancer.

She also had an x-ray taken of her sinuses so that will be an eventual expense, too. They are finally clear of infection so even though she's still being attacked by the killer snot monster from outer space, it's definitely all viral and no bacteria.

Silly (the duck) is still missing. Neighbor said he saw an eagle circling yesterday when he had his dogs out in his yard. There is a nest by the lake behind the hospital (one block away) so we're thinking that's more likely than the racoons, since the racoons always leave a big mess, but an eagle can just swoop down and carry it away. Tiny (the remaining duck) keeps looking around for Silly. He definitely knows Silly is gone. DS seems to be taking it a lot better than the last two times. Maybe he's getting jaded, I don't know.

I again resisted the urge to get takeaway. We had chicken for dinner again with leftover green beans and leftover potatoes. DD was a little, "Chicken again?" whiney, but she certainly ate enough of it that I don't really think she minded all that much. DS could eat chicken every night of the week without making a fuss.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. Only one more day of getting up early and then I get two days to sleep in. I hate that DD's high school starts so early in the morning. Haven't they read the studies that say teenagers function best later in the day? *sighs*

One of the ducks has gone missing. He was there this morning, but there's no sign of him now. There's also no sign of an animal attack of any sort, no remains like we've found in the past. One of the neighbors reported seeing a racoon so it's possible that's what happened. Hopefully he's just out wandering the neighborhood and will show up again soon. If not, well, that leaves us with one duck and seven chickens. And I suppose if we had to lose an animal it's better to lose a boy duck than a laying hen. I feel sorry for the last duck though. He's going to be lonely.

Today was a no spend day though I was still sorely tempted to get a pizza. What's up with me wanting to buy pizza when I am sick? I made one for dinner instead because even though I didn't want to put in the effort I figured that at least it would kill the desire to buy one. It's in the oven right now.

There's not much going on financially. I've no money coming in and no bills due until the first of April and those are on autopay, so I guess it's mostly the same old same old treading water and trying to get through until then without spending an exorbitant amount on groceries or anything else. I've got one fill up budgeted for gas between now and then and still have over half a tank so I may not even need it. I've got $200 to get through the next 8 days and I can't see spending more than $30 on groceries between now and then. Everything is just more or less set on autopilot.

Today is a slight improvement in how I am feeling. I got seven hours of sleep last night and then a 2.5 hour nap while the kids were in school. My brain fog is lessening. Still have dry mouth, slight cough, lots of drainage, low level headache, and fever. Everything exhausts me. I unloaded the dishwasher today and refilled it and then I had to go and lay down because I was short of breath. I hope that goes away soon as I want to get back to my old self again.

Today was gorgeous, though it started out at 32 degrees with frozen over car windows, it ended up in the low 60's. The sort of day where you want to go out for a walk and look at all the beautiful blooming trees and shrubs, but just making it to the end of the driveway is a chore. I really want my strength back. Will this flu ever leave?

I think the very worst part of the flu is over. My throat isn't sore anymore and I'm not coughing very much. Joint aches are gone. But there is still so much drainage going on, I still have the headache, and I'm completely exhausted. And for some reason my mouth is very dry and has a weird aftertaste at the back of my throat.

I'm not sleeping very well, despite being so tired. And despite having several hours to nap today I don't think I got more than 10 minutes at a stretch. Last night I only slept about 1.5 hours at a stretch, despite having taken a prescription sleeping pill that usually leaves me dead to the world. Not good as I need real sleep to kick this thing to the curb.

DD went back to school today though she was not happy about it. But if she doesn't want to lose her semester she has to be there. I think it sucks that the school is all, "Don't come to school if you are sick," but then if you keep your kid home for too long they are all, "If you don't come to school you're going to lose your semester." I mean, the flu can last for a long time and it's super contagious the first week or so. But apparently they'd rather have an epidemic than let you keep your kids home long enough to be truly well. Stupid double standard. Days like this I miss homeschooling.

I took her medicine to her on her lunch break. I really don't like the school's policy on medication. They can't take a simple cold pill or Tylenol on their own. You either have to come down and give it to your child or you have to have a note from the doctor to give to the nurse so that they can give the kid medicine. For OTC meds. I feel bad for the girls on their periods who can't take a painkiller without it being a production. It was never like that when I was in school.

I have to go to the store today and pick up some of the special rice bars my son eats. They also have chicken on sale so I am going to get some of that. I am craving chicken and pizza and I know that pizza is too expensive at this end of the pay cycle unless I make it myself and I don't want to put out the effort of making one from scratch. So chicken it is. I also need to pick up some more Sudafed and jump through all the accompanying hoops that go with that. I'll probably spend about $30 altogether.

Well, DH picked up a flyer from that house that we've been eyeing up and it still looks very nice. It went into a lot more detail than most flyers. He was going to go by himself to the open house but they had just closed it when he got there so he just got the flyer. And apparently the house across the street and one house down is going to be put on the market in another week and it is also a good option, plus has a garage and is not on a corner so lower taxes, but still...we are not ready.

I do not think house number one is going to sell, though. Anyone with half a mind for research could find out that it was sold in April of last year for $178,000. They flipped it, which is obvious from all the changes that were made, but they were asking $479,000 for it when they first put it back on the market in August. Where it has sat doing nothing. They finally reduced the price to $419,000 a few months ago, but still nothing.

I doubt very much that they made $241,000 worth of changes. Maybe they made $50,000. And in a neighborhood where the median house sells for $150,000 to $200,000 and has a garage (which this one does not), they aren't going to get that price. I think it will just sit and sit and sit because of the greediness of the asking price. Which is okay with me. If it is still for sale in a year we might consider making an offer. But nowhere near that asking price.

My mother's house is six blocks away in a slightly more upscale and desireable area with much larger lots and her house is probably 1500 square feet larger, plus has a garage and is only valued at around $350,000 so they are definitely grasping. They are probably not local owners who thought they could make a fast buck, but not in this economy. I can be patient. Have to be anyway.

DH finished our taxes today. I will not mail them in until the 14th of April so that the money can collect what little interest there is as long as possible. We owe $5506.03. It is the first year we have ever owed money. That is because of the lump sum contract buyout of the company that laid him off. We paid quite a bit in taxes at that time but we knew there might be more coming so we set aside $6000. That money has been doubling as our emergency fund and will be all but decimated. The rest of the money will go to pay property taxes April 30th and then we'll start rebuilding the EF. Well, I'll start rebuilding it sooner than that, but it won't be super fast because of our high amount of debt repayment.

Edited to add: I noticed that several of my comments made on different threads in the forums are missing today. There's still a few there, but almost everything I've posted this month is gone. Weird. I wonder what is up with that?

Not much going on here. I was hoping DH and I could go out tonight to celebrate our anniversary but I still don't feel well enough so I guess maybe next month we'll go. I don't know. Probably by then I won't really care about celebrating. It's not like we do so normally anyway.

The house that we really like had an open house today and DH wanted to go, but I didn't see the point in it. We can't buy right now anyway. I don't mind looking at model homes, but going to a house someone is actually trying to sell right now when you have no intention of buying just doesn't feel right to me. Besides, if I'm not well enough to sit up in a restaurant for an hour and a half, I'm certainly not well enough to walk around a house or climb stairs. I get too dizzy. This flu can be gone anytime now, please.

I have to remember to transfer money from the holding tank portion of savings to checking, as the car payment comes out on autopay tomorrow. Plus a bit for groceries, too for this coming week.

DH has taken over the cooking right now. Not sure what I'll do when he leaves on Monday night. DD is almost well so maybe she can take over the cooking for the rest of the week and then hopefully I will be on my feet again.

DH actually made up his own meal plan for today last night with a few grunts of acknowledgment from me.

Breakfast:
French toast with powdered sugar ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total $3

Lunch:
One package of Trader Joe's hotdogs ($3.99)
Homemade buns (.50)
Oranges ($2)
Chili ($2)

Total $8.49

Dinner:
Leftover chicken (free)
Leftover pot roast (free)
Leftover mashed potatoes and gravy (free)
Leftover broccoli (free)
Milk ($2)

Total $2

Total for day $13.49

I had to go to the grocery store because grocery shopping and DH by himself do not mix well, especially if a checkbook is involved. He comes home with too much junk, only half of what I asked for, and has used up the entire month's grocery budget in one trip. So no. However I am now as weak as the proverbial newborn kitten, just from walking around the store. We disinfected the grocery cart handle after we were done. I didn't want to infect anyone with this flu. I don't think I am going to move from this bed again until Monday, except to go to the bathroom. DH can bring me food. I am so dizzy it's ridiculous.

DS had his physical on Thursday and his eyes were 20/50 and 20/100. That's a drastic change from two and a half years ago when they said he barely needed them. He's going to have to wear glasses all the time now. So we made an appointment which was for today. DH took DS to his eye appointment on his own. They had to pick out new frames so he kept texting me with pictures of T wearing glasses until I approved of one. Our vision insurance covered everything but the one year warranty against breakage, which cost $32. DS is hard on things so I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

I have to make an appointment for me soon. I haven't gotten new glasses in three years and I know my prescription has changed. I can feel it as eyestrain. I will probably keep my current frames as I like them a lot. I just have to get over the flu first.

Sixteen years ago today DH and I got married. Wow, that seems like a long time. We've been together over 20 years, half my life. It's been a good marriage and I consider myself very fortunate to have found such a good partner in this world. We've had to cancel our plans due to my having the flu though. We were going to go out to a nice steakhouse for dinner. DH is almost never in the same state as me for our anniversary, so having the chance to actually go out on this date was really nice. Oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be this year. It saves us around $60 to just stay in though.

We got a refund check from Allstate today. If you go so long without accidents they refund you part of your payment for that six month period. So we got back $26.41. We've been with them for two years now and we've gotten a check each renewal period. Also they have a deductible reduction for each year you don't get into an accident. So our original $500 deductible has now dropped to $300 with no increase in how much we pay for insurance.

In fact it's gone down about $9 a month. (Because we have it automatically taken out of our checking each month we don't have to pay a monthly fee for installments, otherwise we'd pay it in a chunk every six months). I have to say that getting money back and them lowering our deductible are very nice perks for safe drivers like myself and DH.

DH got gas last night for $38.71. The tank was running on fumes, I think. Costco price was $3.51 per gallon.

With the doctor's permission, I decided to try splitting my 10mg pills in half (the ones that cost $125 for 30 with the coupon) and see if I did okay on 5mg, but it's a noticable difference in symptoms after two days so I won't be able to save that way after all. I guess we just have to absorb the costs.

It probably means cutting my physical therapy sessions down to an hour a week instead of an hour and a half to have that extra money. I am starting to walk normally now so maybe it's time anyway. I'd rather do that than take it away from debt repayment. We are so close to paying off the second Master Card I can taste it.

DH went down to the courthouse to pay the car license tabs today. I had written the check out on the 15th, but got too sick to run my own errands. Fortunately I was not too sick to notice that they had very sneakily put on a state parks "donation" that you had to opt out of not to pay. I saved myself five dollars on it. I wonder how many people never pay any attention to that, just look at the total line and end up "donating" when they never had any intention of doing so?

Don't get me wrong, I think supporting the parks is a good thing, but I want to do it on my own terms. Like when we go use one there is always a donation box and I'll likely slip a five in there then. But don't try to sneak it past me. Charity should not be something you are tricked into. Bad state of Washington. Bad.

Anyway, the damage was $75.75 instead of $80.75. We have vanity plates which is why it is so high. And yeah, I know I could get rid of them and only be paying around $35 a year, but we get a lot of enjoyment out of it and we've had fans of our favorite fandom (which the plate is related to) come up to us all over the place and start talking to us about Doctor Who. It's always fun to meet other Whovians. Yes, nerdy fangirl here, I freely admit it.

While he was there he also picked up a print out on our property tax form. We forgot to change our address with that part of the courthouse. I kind of assumed that since we'd changed the one for licensing and for voting that it was all one system and it would get changed over, but it didn't. Anyway, we never got the statement from them (and it didn't get forwarded from the old place) and since it is due on April 30th I wanted to have the amount on hand.

It only went up about $20 for the year. Total is $1,036.24. The amount due April 30th is $518.17. I've got $400 set aside so far so just need to come up with $118.07. I have a line for it in the budget already though, since I knew it would be around $500. So that is $100 a month. I'll just have to come up with the extra $18.07.

I'm running a fever today of 101. All I want to do still is sleep, but I had a very restless night. Just coughing a lot. I want this flu to be over. I hear it's a long and lingering one, though. I cancelled my dentist appointment and rescheduled it for two weeks from now. Well, actually DH did it since I have lost my voice. I am really glad we have unlimited texting. It is coming in handy right now.

DH took DS in for his physical before school today. There has been quite a change in his vision on one eye so he needs to go get new glasses. At least our vision insurance is better than our medical. It has no deductible, pays for the entire office visit and up to $200 on the glasses. I need to go in and get new glasses, too, but not until I am well.

DH is going to have to go pick up that expensive prescription today. Even with the $25 off coupon it will still be $125. Ouch.

My daughter has been diagnosed with an actual case of influenza. Since I have all of her symptoms, only to a lesser degree (I can still semi-function), I suspect I have it, too. I got that stupid flu shot in October for H1N1 and I honestly feel like I've been nothing but sick since I got it. Now I get the flu, too? I don't think it was worth the co-pay. I've never had such a sick fall/winter season before.

What I really hate is how hard it is to be frugal when I am sick. I have to fight really hard not to order takeaway. I no longer have the urge to swing by McDonald's as I have lost my taste for it altogether (never thought that would happen, but I would just about do anything for egg flower soup that I didn't have to make myself.

What I did do was have DH pick up a rotisserie chicken for $7.99 and I will give him the directions on how to make chicken noodle soup out of the carcass when we are done with it. Unless I can convince him to do egg drop soup (which he finds too complicated). He also got 6 bottles of Gatorade for DD as they were on 2/$1 limit of 6. I hate the stuff and prefer straight up water, but she likes it and we're supposed to push fluids hard. And then $7 for two 1/2 gallons of ice cream. That's about all DD wants to eat. My throat is getting to that point.

I will have to reschedule my dentist appointment again. Even though they wear masks and gloves, this flu is highly contagious.

I just found out that on this new insurance they don't pay anything on prescriptions until you have met the deductible. That sucks. Why did they have to change their insurance? The one we had when DH hired on in October was good. This new one bites. I think I may need to start looking into private insurance after my surgery. One that covers prescriptions. I can handle a high dedcutible but I am on too many medications to not have them covered for several months of the year. I just have no clue where to even start.

I am so tired right now. I haven't been sleeping well and I've been doing a lot more physically than normal so everything aches. Mineral Ice is my friend. Today and yesterday DH and I spent working out at the house. We did a dump run today. It was nice to finally get rid of the big pile of stuff that's been sitting in the middle of the backyard under a tarp. It cost us $20.63 to dispose of things, including 2 old microwaves. We put 3.5 gallons of gas in FIL's truck, since we borrowed it and that's how much we used.

I didn't feel like cooking dinner and neither did DH, but we didn't want to spend the money on takeaway, so we got a lasanga at the grocery store (I wanted rotisserie chicken because it was cheaper and better for us but they were out at 6 p.m.) and also bought milk, bread, soup, and (quite unnecessarily) a bag of Bugles. Everything tastes off to me so I wanted something strongly flavored. Normally I don't give in to tha sort of thing, but this time I did. My resistance goes down when I don't feel well. Spent $37.11.

My daughter has the flu (the real flu) and I think I may be catching it. Working outside in rainy weather for two days probably didn't help. I just want to sleep for a week. We won't go out tomorrow because of DS's science fair. We are planning on Thursday, but not if I get any worse. DH might go out by himself.