I'm going through major caffeine withdrawal right now, so hopefully my post will be coherant. Also going through sugar withdrawal, flour withdrawal, and high fructose corn syrup withdrawal. Life is fun.

I do think the new family diet is going to be a good thing, though, both to the budget and to how we all feel.

I was going to log the food on the blog, but I don't think I will, its not terribly interesting, though very yummy. Who knew real food could taste so good?

Today was payday. Only paid one bill so far today, $800 to Bank of America Visa. Will write the rest of the bills tomorrow.

As planned, I deposited the $65 that used to pay the cable bill into savings. I forgot the $16 in rolled coin at home so I decided to just deposit $16 anyway into that account, and then decided to add an extra $5 in as well, for a total deposit of $86, bringing the total in savings to $1096.

Bills paid today:
House mortgage: $374.86 plus an additional $24.14 to principal, total payment of $400
Property taxes: $364.69
School fees: $40 to the lunch program for both kids (really need to cut this out when I am well again) and $6.90 to the book program for Tobias
Water Delivery: $66.57 for 2 months water delivery (this is a necessary expense for us as our local water district has e.coli in the water too many times a year for us to feel safe drinking it)
Basketball fee: $25
Groceries: $46.96
Gas money: $80
Misc.: $24 (will be used at soccer game tomorrow and for a meal for 3 of us)

I have $375 left which will go towards the medical mortgage next payday, along with the $625 from that week's pay

DH will be working 3 weeks instead of 2 in December and will be home for Christmas, leaving back for work on the 26th. So that will be an extra $1950 or so that can go straight to savings. And there should be an extra thousand to $1950 in November when DH will get an extra pay period (he gets 2 extra checks a year depending on how the calandar falls. Combine that with the five extra days he is working for his alternate next year and our tax return and we should just be able to swing a new (to us) car.

I have my eye on a vehicle that has been sitting on the lot for a bit. If it is still there when we are ready to buy and if it is mechanically sound, we should be able to drive a good bargain for it. I know it may be gone by then but its already sat on the lot for 3 months and if its still there come April, I think they'll be dying to get rid of it. I'll definitely run the VIN first though. If not, well, we've waited this long, we can wait longer if need be.

Or to those of you who aren't sick...a cold in the nose, well in the whole sinusy section of the face. Rose has successfully passed it onto me, oh, joy. I am actually functioning pretty well, though as I went back to sleep after the kidlets got on the school bus, and didn't wake up again until 12:39. My taste buds are off, so food doesn't taste that good, I hate that.

I had enough points to cash out at NFO MySurvey today, so will be receiving a $10 check from them within 3 to 6 weeks.

Today was the auto deposit of $10 into savings, bringing the total of that savings account up to $1010. I rolled coin today and will be depositing that money tomorrow, $16, bringing savings to $1026, and then also depositing the $65 that used to go for cable, bringing the total to $1091.

I am awaiting account verification from paypal off a new account and as soon as that is received and activated, I will have $70 more to add into savings. This account is going to be used for selling on ebay and half once we are set up.

I have started reading Tax Loopholes for Ebay Sellers. I haven't gotten very far yet, but from reading the index I think it will cover all the information I need to know for how to set up an ebay business and how to handle taxes. It isn't about avoiding taxes, really, just how not to pay more than you have to and how to pay them and that kind of info. I think it will offer a lot of insight into this next phase of our adventure to make more money so we can use it to get out of debt and start saving more money. Plus declutter.

I bought this book about six months ago, just before I joined this site. I think I would buy it now anyway, because I will be referring to it often. It looks to be an excellent resource. Most of the time I check stuff out now, but I think buying the stuff you will really use can be an acceptable purchase when trying to avoid unnecssary ones.

Today I paid the water/sewer bill for 4 months (new system switch over, I just wanted to be ahead) of $256 and the power bill of $93. I also had lunch out (unnecessary expense, but I felt unable to cook and I really didn't want to) which came to $12.25 plus a $3.00 tip. I know that's over 20% but this is the usual girl, she never screws up anything, she's working her way through college, and as a former restaurant employee I believe in tipping well for good service. Not that I'm justifying, just explaining.

Dinner was much cheaper, just a can of chicken and stars ($1.09 at Kmart, cheapest I've found it here) and a glass of Pepsi (about .30). The caffeine helps with the sinus headache. I probably should have done this for lunch, too since I really am trying to cut way back on eating out. Maybe I'll have to do what Amber does and every time I eat out, put an equal amount of money into savings. That would pinch but might help me to alter my behavior.

Tonight I wrote out a check for basketball. It is only $25 this year instead of $30 as the sponsors are kicking in more. That was nice. Now I just have to remember to mail it tomorrow.

I got two samples in the mail today. Degree clear from Degree itself, and Olay Definity from WalMart. The Olay sample was really tiny, just like the one from Target. I've come to expect much more from the WalMart samples so I was really disappointed in the size. On the bright side, between the two of them there should just be enough to use on my whole face.

Not too much excitement today. The autotdeposit was today so savings is $10 richer, putting me at $947.

We loaded $100 onto our Costco cash card and then used it to put $30.19 worth of gas into the car 2 today @ $2.58 a gallon, 4 cents less than a few days ago. It is weird seeing the gas tank on F, or even on the right side of the halfway point, really.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so $15 co-pay and $10 perscription. My kidney infection came back or else its a new one, so I'll be on antibiotics 3X a day for the next 14 days. Oh, joy. Big old capsules, too. Bought organic milk at the store my pharmacy is in so $5.29 for that.

I pulled all the meat off the rest of the turkey bones and seperated it into packages and froze it. I then threw all the bones and skin into the crockpot with 6 quarts of water, a head of crushed garlic, a chopped onion and salt and pepper and am making broth. I will have it going all night and it should be good and rich in the morning when I'll pour it through a seive and then I will make turkey noodle soup to have with supper tomorrow.

I am really into having soup right now. It is very comforting The weather turned on us this last week or so, went from mid to high 70's to wet, rainy, mid 50's to low 60's, and one night got down to 33! Yikes. It hasn't been that cold again, but we really have to drain the pool tomorrow before it happens again.

As for the soup, twice this week we've had homemade chicken noodle at dinner and tonight we had golden potato (DH's great grandmother's recipe), very rich and good, very satisfying and I notice it cuts my appetite for the heavier protein that follows. I still eat the same large amount of veggies as usual, though. But they are cheaper than protein, usually.

I may make a nice onion soup, possibly French onion, but I really don't know if I have the patience to be finicky. I like the ease of crockpot soup. It allows for a large degree of laziness. Which the lousy weather is encouraging. Just want to curl up with a good book under the covers. The current good book I am reading is "Smart Couples Finish Rich," by David Bach. It is very good and I am learning a lot. I had no idea the limits on spousal IRA's for a non-working spouse (when the working spouse has a 401K) had risen so much. Last time I checked, it was a lot lower. This book was written in 2001 and it was $2000 then, so it might be more now, even.

I will have to look into that. I'm not sure when I might be able to fund one, but I want something in my name for my own personal security. My DH is a solid man who I don't think would ever leave me for any reason and seems to think the sun rises and sets on me for some reason and I see no reason I would ever leave him, he is kind, good and a wonderful spouse and father and I kind of think the sun rises and sets on him also. But I still want something in my name. Security is my biggest issue. I want it no matter what else happens. The idea feels right.

Not much else today. Oh, DH took Tobias to soccer and they are having team pictures so that was $8. School photos were yesterday and today so that was $16 for both kids. We only get the 8X10 and scan it to make copies on the school ones, and the 5X7 team photo with the individual shot in the same photo for sports photos. Rose will have her team photo tomorrow, another $8. I wish these weren't all in the same week, but I guess this is a good week for it if it has to be all at once.

Okay, I think that's it then for today. Got in a very talky mood, I guess.

Today I deposited the former amount of our cable bill, $65, into savings, bringing the total in that account to $885. I need to deposit just $25 more to hit my monthly goal of $100 saved, and just $115 to hit my next goal of $1000 saved. I am so psyched to see those numbers keep on going up.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my first blog entry here. I've been blogging 5 months. Wow. I sure have come a long way from only having about $150 in savings (only cause I hadn't spent it yet!) and being sure it was impossible to save anything with all of our debt, to managing to save at least $100 a month and still put a little extra towards paying off debt. It amazes me to think what just a few months of hanging around the people on this forum has done to me. It has totally altered my thinking.

DH called today and the man who injured his knee up at work may not be back in time to cover one week of his shift, so if that is the case, DH will go back up a week early next time he's home and do that job for a week. It will get him a bit of experience in a field engineer's job and he will be able to see whether he likes the work in that position or not. But if the guy's knee is okay, then it won't happen. So no counting chickens yet.

The extra week would be $1900 that could go straight onto one of the credit cards. I would really like that. Unless they paid him at the field engineer's rate (which I doubt since its temp) then it would be closer to $2400, which would go even further. But again, no chicken counting. I refuse to do that until I hear them clucking. LOL

DH said that the new guy is needing a lot of hand holding and it is irritating his bosses, so maybe if knee guy stays healthy, new guy will tank. Oh, isn't that awful of me? I shouldn't even be halfway wishing that, its so mean. But I am.

Our freezer quit working in a quite spectacular fashion. Combine this with the door being left open a couple inches and it was not a pretty site that greeted me. Since it is older than I am by a few years, I guess I'm surprised it lasted this long.

There is no fix to it, it won't turn on anymore and there were sparks involved and a rather obnoxious noise when it quit. So we had a nice 2 inch layer of water/ice cream/stickiness of unknown origin to deal with on the laundry room floor. Okay, well it is mostly cleaned up now, though there is still a high level of stickiness. But I am soaking that up with wet towels and hopefully by morning it will just wipe up. One can hope.

We probably lost about $300 worth of food since we had a lot of beef, chicken, and fish and shellfish in it. Very little was salvageable. Pretty much just the butter and some bricks of cheese and frozen berries that were in the back behind everything else and were still frozen solid.

Well, today was payday and we did have the $65 that we normally used for the cable bill when we still had cable that was going to go into savings and I was ahead on the house insurance payment, so the extra money I was sending there I combined with the old cable money and we bought a half size chest freezer at Sears for $189 with tax. At least the door to this one can't be left open. Well, it could, but people would notice.

Fortunately it only took the freezer 4 hours to get cold. We did a big Costco run today, $145, and were able to cage freezer space from a neighbor until it was cold, but we would have just used our ice chests if we couldn't have.

Obviously savings did not get as big a boost today as planned, but I did put in the $50 I owed it, so it is now at $779.85, so I have passed my goal of $750 and am on my way to my next goal of $1000. Just $221.15 to go. I'm a little irritated when I think it should be $844.85, but for the freezer debacle and then I'd only have $155.15 to go. I need to look on the bright side and consider that at least I had the money available to replace the freezer without putting it on a credit card. That is always a blessing.

This purachase wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that DH's birthday is on the 30th and he wants a weight bench. Well, that will have to wait until next month. My mother's birthday is on the 28th and I have to figure out what I will do for that. I have to drive DH to the airport that same day. My sister and her family will be at my mom's for dinner so we will make it back in time to go there, also.

Today I also stopped at a farm stand and spent $10 on fresh fruit and some sweet corn.

Bills paid were the power bill, internet bill, propane tank rental bill, and phone bill. I also have to pay the mortgage out of this paycheck and the medical mortgage, but haven't made it into those banks yet. Will probably do so on Monday.

Also spent $55 to get a new tire for my ten-speed and had them put it on the wheel. It is made for bumpy roads or it would have been $15 cheaper for the tire. We have very bumpy roads out here, so felt the expense was justified. DH will put the wheel back on my bike in the morning and he has already put on the new, cushy gel seat and then he has to put the new pedals on his bike and we need to finish teaching Tobias how to ride without the training wheels, he's about five minutes from it so should be good by the end of the day tomorrow. Then we can start riding again, this time as a family.

Samples in the mail today were Degree anti-perspirant, biore face wash (2) and pore strip (1), and miessences body wash. I just sent for that last one this week, so it came super fast.

Paid fines at the library today (not my fines, DH, the kids, which is DH's responsibility as well, and one lost book of T's) and picked up my hold, which is a book on CD as the library didn't have the book at all. It is The Automatic Millionaire. Should be interesting.

I have to write a balance transfer check out and mail it off tomorrow. It will pay off the Chase card and then everything will be combined onto the other card, so we will be down to just two credit cards with balances on them. This one is at 6.99% until April. Two payments will be a lot easier to manage and keep track of.

I think that pretty much covers everything that we did today.

Today I deposited 2 rolls of pennies, one Sacajawea dollar, and the $9 the neighbor owed me into my savings account, that $11 brought my total in savings to $533.

I had another $3 payment show up in paypal.

I paid out today:

$400 to the house mortgage--$375.86 regular payment plus $24.14 extra to principal
$250 to Chase Visa
$30 to MBNA Master Card # 2
$124 for our 2 month water/sewer bill
$125 half year dues to our homeowner's association
$100 to Allstate for house insurance
$50 withdrawn for gas money

The homeowner's association finally has gotten the pool fixed and now are just waiting for permission from the health department to reopen it. Hope its soon, although it did finally cool off today. Only 71 degrees F, just the way I like it. I feel like I'm living in NW Washington again. I knew the weather was going to change. I started getting a weather headache yesterday morning and that always happens with barometric pressure changes this severe. Fortunately, it was not a weather migraine this time. It is starting to go away now.

Spent the rest of the day cleaning up the playroom. We are converting it into an exercise room. It will have our treadmill, gazelle, weights, bands, exercise balls and a tv/vcr/dvd for our Zoomba, tai chi and aerobics programs. Or to watch a movie on the treadmill.

We have moved the children's desks and their computers into their rooms. They aren't online, they have to come out to the living room for that. But having those out of there gives us so much space for things. Of course, this is where the wood stove is also, so come winter, I'm not sure how much exercise will get done. I guess I can put a fan in there, too.

I am determined to be as healthy as I can be. Four surgeries in three years did not do kind things to my body, even if it did remove many of the health problems I had. Hopefully, I will continue to get better as I have over this past year, as my strength rebuilds from the assaults those surgeries inflicted on me. Maybe I'll be healthy by the time I pay off the medical mortgage. Hopefully, way before then. Being sick is expensive.

I cashed out on another click-thru, this one $3 and did another survey for $2, yesterday and Thursday. Didn't qualify for a $5 survey. >{

Yesterday was Friday and payday, so we paid the medical mortgage, $1000. We also did a small grocery run for fresh produce and they had some chicken on sale cheap and some London Broil on sale cheap, so we had chicken tacos today and we will be making beef fajitas tomorrow. I also picked up milk on sale. $2 a gallon. Not quite as good as Costco but I spend more when I go to Costco so it evens out.

Spent some time yesterday at Mom's and a lot of time in our pool. It was 99 degrees in the shade on our porch thermometer yesterday. It's only (ha, only) 89 today.

I have to sit down tonight and pay the rest of the bills. It is too hot to think and do math right now.

I'm in the middle of trying to plan a last minute vacation to Victoria. We can usually get a good hotel deal at the last minute and going to Vancouver Island is one of our favorite trips to do. The kids love the ferry ride and the city seems so much older than some of the cities in WA, even though it isn't. But the culture and the look of it, we enjoy.

Haven't done much else. They finally shut the cable off Thursday morning. So we ended up with 20 days free. Not bad.

I guess that is it.

Today I paid a few bills.

$700 to Bank of America Visa
$60 to MBNA MC # 1

I know something else needs to be paid, I'll have to look through my bill box. I think it is water delivery.

I made one frivilous purchase today but it was a planned expense. The 1st season of the New Doctor is now out on DVD so I bought that.

Went to Lane Bryant and they've discontinued the perfect, most comfortable bras in the universe and I am so mad. No other store makes them like this, anywhere. I'm writing corporate. The stupid things they replaced them with are awful.

Did my shopping at Costco and got out of there right in the low $70's. Went to WalMart, bought a few things that I needed, but kept that total down way low, nowhere near $100. Bought produce and some yogurt (Toobular, a knock off of gogurt) for the kids and also organic milk.

Oh, I did have one more frivilous expense. I bought a large Pepsi from a drive-thru restaurant. I only got 3 hour of sleep last night as Rose was up all night with stomach cramps after having eating a food she was allergic to. She finally fell asleep at 6 and then my son woke up at 6:40. I hadn't even managed to sleep yet. But he did go back to bed and they both slept in until ten so I got 3 hours before having to get up. Definitely felt like I needed the caffeine to make the drive home and I don't do coffee.

My kids are staying over with my mother again, until Sunday morning, so I should be able to get stuff done tomorrow that needs doing. Especially the part of the lawn by the road. The taller but smaller yellow flowered weeds that look like dandelions are up right now and I want to mow them down before they turn into wishing stars (as my kids call them) or seed pods. And also before the association gets snippy. And add chemicals to the pool and weed the garden some.

Today was payday so we did some spending.

$400 house mortgage--$375.86 + $24.14 extra to principle
$27.92 power bill
$175 medical bills
$15 for $15 pounds of bing cherries at farmstand
Grocery Store--$71
Took out cash for fireworks--$100
Took out cash for berries--$15

With today's auto deposit into savings of $10, my new long term account total is $330.52. I have not gotten around to opening an ING account. I have been waiting for the checks to come in on my new checking account first. They have finally arrived and I will pick them up tomorrow, which is payday. The CU said it didn't have the routing number until the checks came. I don't know if that is true or not, but I certainly didn't have it until they came.

I'm so far behind in so many things right now, due to my back being wonky. But it is finally feeling better so I am getting caught up. Or starting to. Yesterday I was able to tackle about a third of the weeds in the garden. Six kitchen garbage bags full, which my neighbor hauled to the green drop off in town. It takes garden waste and composts it ($2 a truckload, neighbor was going anyway) at very high temperatures and then uses the compost in the parks and gardens and roadside plantings throughout the city.

Last year was the first year they had to charge for it, but its still a great way to get rid of stuff for cheap and know that it is going to be used to good purpose. Normally I will compost it myself but this stuff had seed heads and tap roots and an annoying pernicious local fern that can propagate itself from the smallest piece of root left over, and my compost pile does not get hot enough to kill off the seed heads, I am a slow composter (or a lazy one) and only turn my pile a couple times a year. It still turns out okay, just takes longer.

I am also getting caught up on dishes again. I could not stand for long at the sink without putting strain on the tweaked muscles and as it was the kids had to put stuff in the bottom for me and hand stuff up to me when it was time to empty the dishwasher. Now I can do it myself. We've been eating a lot of the stockpile of TV dinners so that I didn't get overwhelmed with new dirty dishes while tackling the old.

Yesterday I made the decision that I could not wait any longer for it to stop raining so I used my dryer for what couldn't fit on the two shower curtain rods in the bathrooms. Still have so much to do. 3 weeks with a bad back and DH in Alaska for all but 5 days of it, does not a tidy household make. And he will not be back for another 6 to 8 days. Sigh. Its a good job and it pays well, but sometimes I hate it.

Not much else going on. Tomorrow is payday, so I will deposit at least $10 into the freezer account and mabye $20 or $30 into long term savings, we'll see after I pay that set of bills.

I'm going to wait until the absolute last minute before I pay the homeowner's association dues, which is due the last day of July. It looks like the association is going to fall apart, the golf course was sold awhile ago and they've closed the pool due to the roof falling in and mold, so there seems no further purpose to paying dues. They don't maintain the greenways or the roads like they are supposed to and I don't want them to go belly-up with my half year dues in their account. So I will play it by ear.

We still want to refinance the house so we will probably pay the dues anyway if they haven't fallen apart, because if we don't they can put on lien on our property. Can't refinance with a lien. Plus we have always kept current with our dues, though it seems no one else has. Probably why the pool problem hasn't been fixed. Whatever happens, happens. I'll have the money set aside whatever the course.

I decided to figure out exactly where I am on my house mortgage and I have exactly 11 years (minus 1/2 a month's payment). Each payment I try to make a little extra. Usually it is $24.14 but if I have it, I will try to make it $124.14 extra. We have had it for what will be 3 years in October, so we've managed to knock off over a year already. It doesn't seem like it makes that much difference as we go along, but obviously it does. Total balance left on the mortgage is $36,890.07.

Just a little spending this payday, its just the little one with 2 days on it. So $48 in groceries, mostly produce but $18 on turkey for lunches and turkey ham for breakfast, $15 for allergy meds, $9.21 for lunch at my favorite Mexican place with a $3 tip and enough leftovers for one more meal for me, and enough rice for both kids to have a serving, also. $44.01 for gas and the tank actually had an F on it, that's been awhile. Was over on the right side of town so went to the cheapest Arco at $3.13 a gallon.

On the way home I stopped by the berry farm which started selling strawberries yesterday and got a full flat for $15. The same amount in town at the store from the same farm would cost $32. I'll keep a couple boxes in the fridge for eating fresh and then cut up the rest and sugar them. I'll freeze a couple of Ziploc quart bags full for later use.

I had the massage therapy appointment this morning so that was $50 and I have one more appointment for Wednesday and that will be another $50 and then I should be okay and not need anymore physical therapy, here's hoping.

I still have to pay the cable bill, most likely the last one, depending on when I can get the tech out to pull the box. Other than that no other bills until next payday.

Okay, maybe it was a spendy day after all, LOL. But it was small amounts spendy, not big amounts spendy.

I did a product evaluation this morning, well it is in two parts, I did the first part, and have to wait for the product to arrive before I can do the second part. It pays $23 but part of that covers S and H, so really it is a net of $13.50. It's already in my account. I have had a lot of luck with product evaluations, more so than with trial offers. This one is for something that if it works I would actually buy it.

I also found $2.19 when I cleaned off my computer desk. Courtesy of DH, who likes to plop his change in various nooks and crannies around the house, even though he knows full well where the change jar is located. Sigh. Oh, well, it makes for nice little surprises from time to time. Better a surprise like that then the ones my kids like to leave me (half eaten hot dog behind the couch that has mummified, for example).

I had my massage therapy appointment this morning and feel so much better. I have one more on Friday and then I think I can put this muscle strain behind me. I can walk without pain and I can sit without pain, but the getting up from lying down and the getting up from sitting and the trying to bend down still is painful, though not the excruciating pain of when I first did this. So the total hit of all four appointments is $200. Insurance will reimburse half if they decide it was justified. I'm not holding my breath.

I was able to hang laundry. Yesterday it hurt a little to do it, today it wasn't that bad. I did five loads, as that is all my clothesline will hold. We are still behind badly from all the rain. It's a good thing we have so many clothes, although it takes forever to get them all clean and then I feel like we have too many. Admittedly, I'm also washing all the spare bed linen as I just put fresh on everyone's beds and washing the winter blankets so I can put them away until October.

Put $20 worth of gas in the car when I was in town. I went to the Arco closest to where my appointment was, which was $3.15 a gallon. The cheapest Arco is $3.13 a gallon, but since I was only getting $20, I would have spent more than the amount I saved, driving the five extra miles. At least its not $3.29 like the vast majority of stations around here, though the Citgo is at $3.21.

What I would really like to see is a 2 for that first number. Wildest fantasy would have a 1. My parents talk about when candy bars were a nickel or a dime and buying their two story house and 1/2 acre property for $23,000. I wonder if I'll be telling my grandchildren (not yet born, oldest is only 9) someday about when you could use a 20 dollar bill to fill an 18 gallon tank and get change back and when a starter home could still be bought for under $100,000.

Okay, that got tangential (and that probably isn't actually a word).

Today was payday. Payments made today:

$800 Bank of America Visa
$400 House Mortgage ($375.86 + $24.14 extra principal)
$104 2 month water/sewer
$175 Medical
$50 Physical Therapy (with an additional $50 PT on Monday)
$115 Eye Doctor (DH), but most will be reimbursed through insurance
$34.67 Oil change and maintenance check on the Blazer
$12.45 Library Fines (need to keep a closer eye on this, utterly unnecessary expense)