It is really nice to know that no more bills are due until April 1st. I have paid everything. It is such a good feeling to know that there is nothing to stress about until then. I had one medical bill come in today for $105.62 and I was able to sit down and write it out on the spot. It feels good to do that. The budget is sure running smoothly right now.

We are having a small, very small, birthday party for my son tomorrow. He turns 12 on the 13th, but his father leaves for work on Monday so we are doing it early. We are taking him and his best/sort of girl friend bowling. My daughter will be taking one friend as well. It is very low key, although it's during cosmic bowling so it'll be glow in the dark. Best/sort of girl friend's mother will be there, too. (I say sort of girl friend because at 12, they are too young to do anything like date, but they are sure sweet on each other to my discerning eye).

We won't be bringing in a cake because DS's friend is allergic to dairy/gluten and he is allergic to a couple of the ingredients in the gluten free/dairy free cake mixes and I am not a "good enough" mother to try to attempt an allergen free enough cake that will meet both their requirements, though I did find one online. Maybe next year. He'll have a homemade cake on his birthday and that will be that. They seem okay with it. They just want to hang out and bowl. I think it will be fun all around.

Why is it just when you finally get one kid well enough to be back in school for a day or two, the next kid in line thinks it's time for them to be sick, too? All I really want is one day to myself right now. One day. Really. Is that so much to ask. One day where maybe I can sleep and get well and not be running around with a low grade case of the yucks? Or even, you know, one night of uninterupted sleep?

I am very glad payday is here. Not for any specific reason other than that it means another step forward on my march towards financial freedom. I have the propane bill to pay, but most of the money for that has been set aside already. The water bill for the old house is due I wish they would switch to metered already, they said they would five years ago when they installed the fancy new meters we had to pay extra for and we are still on a straight rate out there. Since no one is out there more than once a month or so the water almost never gets used. I'll turn it off as soon as we're done cleaning out there.

All of the autopays will come out the first few days of the month, the insurances, storage, and security system. I'll pay the AMEX and the mortgage. And I'll see what I can squeeze out for medical.

I need to do a minor grocery run for things like milk, brown sugar, yeast, potatoes and some fruit (still have most of a case of oranges from the last trip to Costco). Also a quick run to Trader Joe's for dried mango slices, additive free bacon, and additive free all beef hot dogs. I am well stocked on fresh veggies (red and green cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, broccoli, onions, scallions, celery). My freezer is doing great on protein. I am well stocked on chicken. I am well stocked on hamburger. I have one beef pot roast and some stew meat (for either stir-fries or chili). I have a couple of game hens.

I would like to get some codfish since they are having a major seafood sale for whatever that thing is that the Catholics do right now where they give stuff up (a lot of times beef, apparently) for a month. I was hoping for a good beef sale, but that's not in the cards right now. Maybe there will be a marked down for quick sale steak or two, but otherwise my grocery dollars are going to be as stingy as I can make them the next four weeks.

I think I will make baked potato soup today. I have all the ingredients and it is such a feel good food for such a nasty, rainy day with under the weather children. Either that or my all meat chili. Another feel good food for a day like today. If I make the potato soup today I will at least char the peppers as well for the chili.

I started my quest to eat mostly from the freezer/pantry right now last night. I made two Cornish game hens. We cut them in half and everyone ate half of one. We also had canned corn and canned green beans to round it out and an orange.

I added $8.94 in ones and coins to the coin jar after cleaning out my purse from this week's spending.

I got all the bills mailed off that needed to be mailed and went through the drive-thrus of the places I needed to pay bills in person yesterday, so that's all caught up. I do need to make a payment on Tuesday to one more place, but that's it.

I have been procrastinating something fierce this last week, but finally sat down tonight and did the bills. I should have done them on Friday. It's not like anything was due before the 17nth and those are all bills I can walk in or drive-thru for. But I'm not usually this far behind. I feel like a ditz.

Okay, some of it has been severe stomach upset since Sunday night, but that doesn't account for not doing it on Friday or Saturday. I think it's time I go see a gastroenterologist because this has been happening too often to be just a virus or food poisoning. Maybe it's an ulcer or something else along those lines. I did have one when I was 20, I just don't remember throwing up all the time, just tons heartburn. This time I've got both and it's been pretty steady since the beginning of December. Maybe I can get something stronger than OTC fake Zantac. I'm really tired of barfing. And no, I'm not pregnant.

I hope this isn't going to be another expensive medical year. I'm so tired of medical. I had to get a prescription today and it's gone up $12 from last month. $106.05. Hopefully this will be the last month I need this one. I will be so glad when I hit my deductible again.

Anyway, I have balanced my checkbook and entered everything into the spreadsheet, so I shouldn't have to worry about anything financial again until the next payday on the 24th. Which is a good thing the way my brain feels.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I can't believe how cold it got last night. It was 26 degrees F, but the wind was blowing hard, so the wind chill factor made it much colder. It's been so warm through December and the first part of January that I've been fine without the space heater in my bedroom for a while, but last night I had to turn it on around 2 a.m., because it was freezing. I definitely won't be beating the cold this week.

The wind comes down the side of the house my room is on and it actually whistles sometimes. Last night it was just roaring. It sounded like a train coming at the house or something.

It is supposed to snow this weekend. It hasn't snowed all winter (we had a few random flakes in late fall, but nothing real). We had one hailstorm in November. Otherwise nothing.

I hope it doesn't affect DH flying back to work on Monday. Four weeks without a paycheck is enough, thank you.

I have some more bills to do today and I need to catch the blog up on the ones I've done earlier this week.

I added $6 to the coin jar. Unexpected medical came up so I transferred $500 from the medical holding tank. I'll specify that out in another post though.

I added 38 cents to the coin jar, but I am too tired to list the bills that were paid Tuesday so I'll do it tomorrow with the bills that will get paid tomorrow. (Or technically later today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/whine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had a medical bill come in today so I paid that, $215.00. Ugh. I sent $500 to AMEX and paid the mortgage, $375.86. The mortgage is now officially under $19K now. I won't know the actual number until the payment is reported in the next day or two, but it should be around $18,900 or so, give or take a few dollars.

Interest hit the ING account today, so I added that $3.89 to my Emergency Fund. That brings the total EF to $2809.73. After looking at how much extra I had, I decided to go ahead and put some of it into the Emergency Fund, too. It was $480.88 extra, so that brings the total EF to $3290.61.

My goal for the month of December was originally to hit $3000, so I've blown past that. So I am making a new goal of getting the EF to $3500 by the end of the year. $100 of that will be the monthly deposit so I need to scrape up $109.39 extra to hit that goal. I think I should be fine to do that.

I had originally thought I'd put the money into the January/HSA money fund, but I can hit my goal for that without it, so the EF made the most sense.

I guess the sweaters were a good investment, because I've at least not felt chilled to the bone since I started wearing them. I still don't feel completely warm and I'm keeping my bedroom heater on 72, but I did have it up to a ridiculous 76 before, so it's an improvement. We had a very hard frost last night. It looked like it had snowed, it was so thick. Guess I'm lucky not to have woken up feeling frozen over myself.

I'm sick again which may be why my internal thermostat seems so wonky right now. I think it's just a cold though and not an infection. At least I hope so. I've got too much to do this month to be sick on top of it all.

DS is going to his first dance today after school. He is "meeting a girl" by their lockers and they are going to "hang out" together at the dance. I don't even know what that means. He's only 11 so it can't mean too much, right? They seem to have become best friends this year. I don't know if it's more than that. He's excited though. And according to the girl's mother, so is she. The dance starts right after school so I packed him an extra half a sandwich in his lunch box. With his allergies he may not be able to eat the provided refreshments.

DH is on a plane to San Francisco today. He'll be back around 8:30 p.m., though. It's going to be a long day without him here.

I've got bills to pay today. So far I have dealt with deducting the autopays of life insurance, car insurance, house insurance, storage, and the security system from the checkbook. I've paid the electric and I need to do AMEX and the mortgage on the old house. I believe that is all until the 16th. I'll have to double check my spreadsheet after I pay those two things.

Oh, yesterday we wrote a $35 check for DS's next belt test at tae kwon do which is next Thursday. I also spent $65.32 at the grocery store. They had turkey thighs and necks pretty cheap so I stocked up. Beef prices are so ridiculous and nothing was marked down for quick sale. We're going to be eating a lot of chicken and turkey until the prices decide to get reasonable again. I also bought milk, oranges, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I also picked up a copy of Clean Eating Magazine and have already found a couple of recipes I want to try this month.

Okay, this might be my last post for a while. I am taking my computer in to be fixed and I don't know how long it is going to take. Or how willing DH or DS will be to give up their laptop or netbook respectively to let me go online a bit. It's almost worth getting another netbook at this point, as one or the other machine is always a problem and it would be nice to have a cheap spare for backup.

Before I take it in though, I did all the payday financial stuff. I sent $2900 to ING. Of that money $1770.09 is to be set aside for first of December bills. $129.91 goes to the Emergency Fund. $1000 goes to January/HSA money fund.

January/HSA fund money is now at $4483. The goal I've set for that is $6000 so another $1517 to hit that goal. I should be able to do that by the end of the year with no problem.

I added the $129.91 to the EF and also took the coin jar money (added $3 more yesterday) which is $34 and deposited it into CU#2, the Safety Net.

$2134.31 EF at ING
$+671.53 Safety Net at CU#2
---------------
$2805.04 Total EF

I swept past my goal of hitting $2750 by the end of the month and am well on my way toward my goal of $3000 by year's end.

Next week's paycheck will be more than enough to get through the two following weeks with no pay and hopefully half of it will go into the January/HSA money, but I'm not relying on it. It is the small check so usually only between $800 and $1200 depending on if they are taking out medical that week or not. They shouldn't be, but sometimes they take out weird things.

DH said that bonuses will be mailed out after the 15 of December, so we could have it within a week of that. We still have no idea how much it will be, though. And I still kind of half believe it's a fairytale. Oh, well. If it comes it will be a nice surprise.

All right, I'm off to get the computer fixed and stop by the court house to get my temporary disabled parking pass renewed. I can't believe it has been six months already. The doctor has okayed it for another six months. Then maybe by the time it's up, my knee will have completely healed and I won't need it anymore.

I just finished doing the last of this month's bills and balancing the checkbook. Nothing else is due until the 1st of December. I have $85.29 in checking and $45 in cash. That should make it through until Friday just fine. I've already bought a gallon of milk for DH who comes home on Wednesday (he drinks 2%, everyone else drinks non-fat) and that should do him until Friday.

So bills paid today:

$300.00 to Mom for utilities
__49.65 Garbage
_757.82 Car payment (plus extra to principle)
__10.56 Medical DD
__10.56 Medical DS
_500.00 BoA CC
---------------
$1628.59

I also transferred $2800.58 to ING

$100.58 to Emergency Fund
$100.00 for Propane to Holding Tank
$100.00 for Property Tax to Holding Tank
+_17.00 for HoA dues to Holding Tank
____________
$317.58

So $2483 goes to the Holding Tank for January/possible HSA.

This brings the portion of the EF at ING to $2003.82 and the total EF to $2641.93. I need to come up with $108.07 to hit my November EF goal of $2750. I think that will be easy to accomplish.

This brings the total in the Holding Tank to $3923.70.

Items in Holding Tank:

$3483.00 Total January/HSA money
___51.00 HoA Dues
__100.00 Property Tax
__289.70 for Propane
------------
$3923.70 Total Holding Tank

Propane money is for the old house. I haven't had to fill the tank since the end of spring as the furnace has not been on and used any propane since then. We are starting to get frosty at night though, so when DH comes home I will have him go out to the old house and turn the furnace on to 55 so that the pipes don't freeze over the winter. I am hoping to get by with the full tank and possibly one more fill up around January or February.

We should be able to save a good portion of the next paycheck for January/HSA money. I think at least half, with the other one going to cover the first week of December bills. Then the next paycheck will be the little one and that one should get us through until the next paycheck in mid-December. We will go a couple weeks without a paycheck because of DH's screwy work schedule, but I don't foresee it being a problem as long as we don't go nuts over Christmas or eat out too much. And if he gets the bonus, then that'll just be gravy.

Because I have been sort of avoiding a lot of stuff this month (not the bills, just the rest of the minutiae that goes along with recording things), I am finally getting around to listing what went out the payday before this one. I am trying to get back on the ball again.

$1180.00 to BoA CC
___14.08 Electricity Old House
___44.89 Phone Old House
___65.56 Internet
___39.37 Security System Old House
__500.00 Extra AMEX payment (to catch up)
__385.76 Mortgage Old House
__200.00 Laptop Fund
___55.00 Dance Class
__232.42 Medical Bills
__350.00 Grocery Staples Stock UP
--------------
$3067.08

We also spent about $250 on meals out that week and $61 for the stupid PTSA magazine drive for DS's middle school (I bought two kitchen gadgets and Fine Cooking magazine, which I buy anyway). The rest is still in checking.

First off I paid the property tax today of $518.07 for the half year. That's not part of the payday spending, but I don't need to make 3 posts today, just to say that.

Now for the regular payments:

$1000.00 to Mom (loan payback)
___37.61 DH Life Insurance
___32.70 Me Life Insurance
___86.30 Car Insurance
___41.25 Old House Insurance
__142.00 Storage
__180.00 Tae kwon do (2 months)
___65.21 Virginia Mason
__144.00 Water/Sewer Old House (2 months)
__261.60 Dental
___82.57 Clothes Shopping
__106.00 Kids' Allowances (6 weeks)
__217.62 Grocery

I will also be paying the AMEX and the Mortgage on the 1st, but will post that when I do it. I will also pay for physical therapy and dance class for DD next week.

We went to Kmart today and I got each kid a fleece-lined sweatshirt for the colder weather. I also got them each an umbrella. I got myself 4 pairs of the super fuzzy warm slipper socks. I looked for pants but didn't see anything I liked. I've lost so much weight I am constantly tugging my jeans up and it is annoying.

DS needs a winter jacket, but I couldn't find any boys' coats, just women's and grown men's. I may have to order him something from Land's End, but we will check Penney's first. I was hoping he could wear his sister's old coat (it was a boy's coat from Land's End because she had such a long torso she couldn't wear girl's coats then) but his shoulders are too broad. Otherwise it would fit him perfectly, but he finds it really uncomfortable. He was bummed because he always liked the coat. DD wore it for three years though, so I guess that's okay.

I really need a new parka but I am hoping to limp along with my ski jacket because by winter of 2012/2013 I hope to be down to the weight I will stay at and don't want to buy an expensive coat I will only be able to wear for one year. I will probably keep a lap blanket in the car though. At least our fancy shmancy Sienna has seat warmers (which seem like such a luxury, but I love them) and that makes a big difference because they warm up before the heater does.

After my doctor's appointment I went through the post office drive-thru drop off and mailed 4 bills. Then I went to the Bank of America drive-thru and paid $1000 on the credit card and made the car payment. I don't have to worry about anymore bills now until the first of the month. Hmm...may have a hard time figuring out what to blog about. Maybe I'll go back to making meal planning posts as I haven't calculated daily food costs in a while.

I need to go to the store to pick up more pseudoephedrine and nasal spray and also stamps. I never buy stamps at the post office as the lines are too long and they have taken out the vending machine due to vandalism.

I am trying to figure out dinner tonight. Maybe I can make a picnic ham in the crock pot. Then there would be protein to gnaw on for the rest of the week. Oh, my diet is still going well. I have not cheated once in 35 days, so yay, me. I did my measurements and I have lost 11.5 inches, so that's nice. I knew I had to be because my clothes are getting so baggy and I've had to switch to some smaller sizes in the closet. Weight loss is setting at 42 pounds. The cortisone shots do make the weight loss slow or halt, but it will wear off in a couple days and resume losing again so long as I don't go on a carb binge or anything.

So I sat down with my stack-o-bills and wrote out checks for everything. I won't have to pay anymore bills until the 28th. I have two bills that are due on the 31st, but they are local so if I mail them on the 28th, they will get there in plenty of time. Otherwise there are no other bills due this month, though all the autopays save one come out the first week of November. Nothing is due before the 17th and we will take that one and a couple others in in person anyway, since the BoA drive-thru is very close to the high school.

It will be nice not to worry about any bills for the next 19 days. I did a major grocery run today and I now have $282 to get through until the 28th. That should do me just fine. $120 of that will go to physical therapy, but all I should have to buy between now and then is milk and some produce. The gas tank is almost full. I do, of course, have money in savings I have set aside in case DH has to take an extra week off at Christmas, but if I had to, I could tap it. I don't think I will have to. We won't be eating out at all between now and the end of the month anyway.

Tuesday we will run money through our HSA and then dump it back in our checking account. We will do this before mailing any bills. We are definitely maxing out this year. We've actually spent more on medical bills this year than the max for the HSA but not enough to be over 7.5 percent of DH's income. But we can still deduct the entire $6,150 and our property tax without having to itemize and it would still be a bigger tax return than itemizing.

We will have quite a hefty return because of the HSA and I am hoping that it will wipe out our CC debt once and for all, though that depends on what is going on with my knee right now and whether or not I have to get it fixed. I'd like to do it this year if I have to since we have already far surpassed our deductible.

The only thing left for me to do now for finances is figure out the new budget for 2 weeks on/2 weeks off as opposed to 3 weeks on/3 weeks off. It's been so long since I've had a budget for the 2/2 that it's going to be a little weird. But I'll get it figured out and then I'll figure things out for the rest of the year. I have to go through and remark my calendar since the paydays won't be quite the same as before. It's a pain, but 2/2 is well worth it.

After 3 weeks of fighting this thing on and off I've finally succumbed to it and so have the kids. DS was okay enough to go to school today, but wanted a doctor's appointment after school. DD was too sick for school. We are taking them both in to the doctor at 4. My doctor prescribed Biaxin for me for sinus/bronchials.

I managed to do the first round of physical therapy exercises with Mom this morning before my appointment. The chickens got out though so I had to chase them down and put them back in their pen so was a little late getting there.

The in home physical therapist is here right now, and she will do the second round of exercises with Mom so I don't have to do them. I don't have the energy so it's just as well.

DH will have to take the kids in to the doctor as Mom shouldn't be left alone just yet. He's not so good at stuff like that, but I don't think I can drive again today. Not sure I should have done it earlier. I have another appt tomorrow. This one for my knee. It's swollen and full of fluid and needs to be drained.

I haven't done the budget yet for Friday. I haven't really had time or the ability to focus that well with my head so full and achy. I did send $600 to the AMEX and I know the insurance autopays will come out today, tomorrow, and the next day. And storage. Nothing else is due until the 17th so I can take a couple more days before dealing with the budget if I need to.

I am going to put the no eating out challenge on a bit of a hiatus. I want egg flower soup from my favorite place and might as well get protein and veggies there, too since I probably shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a hot stove at this point. I also want ice cream so I can freeze my throat, but that's probably not a good idea for my diet. I can balance Chinese food. I don't think I can balance ice cream. *sighs*

I hope I get better soon. Too many people need me right now for me to be this sick.

Today was payday so I did bills and then ran around doing errands this morning. I had an irritating time at the CU (see previous post), but otherwise everything went smoothly. I will be glad when DH gets home Wednesday so we can take care of the irritating things.

$1000.00 to savings (possible Jan. extra week off)
___17.00 HoA dues savings
__100.00 Property tax savings
__100.00 Propane tank savings
__100.00 Emergency Fund
___37.68 Garbage
__215.00 Chiropractor
__754.24 set aside for HSA
___33.00 DS's school photos
$1000.00 Loan payback to Mom
___13.56 Electricity old house
+_183.91 Master Card (paid in full and put away)
_______________
$3554.39

I have about $400 leftover. I took out $50 in cash and will pay $60 on Monday for physical therapy which leaves me about $290. $100 of that DH will get for his allowance. I am buying a new bread machine which will be less than my allowance, but not by much. That leaves $90 for food, but I think we can get by with only buying deli meat for next week's lunches and some milk, especially since we are still on the no eating out challenge. Whatever is left will go into the EF.

Speaking of the EF:

$2223.18 Starting Amount
+_100.00 Deposit
_________
$2323.18 New EF Amount

$2323.18 EF Amount
+__37.30 Coin Jar savings
__________
$2360.48 Total EF

So I've met my goal of $2250 in the EF. Next goal is $2500.

I was surprised to find the paycheck about $300 less than it should have been. They took medical out, but it was still $300 short of what it usually is when they take medical out. I'll have to try to talk to DH about it tonight if I can get a hold of him. He's been very busy up there lately. The only thing I can think of is maybe the 401K deductions have started. They weren't supposed to start until October, but maybe they approved him short of a year on the job or something. It wouldn't be the first time. We got medical benefits after one month instead of three, so it's possible.

It's just a little frustrating because it meant I could only send $1700 to the VISA instead of the full $2000 I had intended to send. Two steps forward, one step back is what it feels like. I also sent $100 to the one MC. It's minimum payment was $31, but I couldn't do that. I know that other $69 could have gone to the VISA, but it just felt wrong to make such a tiny payment on the MC. I guess this was a kind of compromise.

I had to go to BoA in person today because I could not find my car loan statement. And they don't let you pay it online like you can the credit cards. I could set up an auto pay but I think DH has to sign the paperwork as well as me as the loan is in both our names, and he's not here. I had the number so they looked it up and applied it to the right thing, and I have a receipt to prove it if something goes awry.

I stopped at the BoA over by the gas station since I was over there, but they weren't open. At 9:30! Whatever happened to banker's hours? Maybe they are like one of my credit union branches that is open 11 to 7 instead. Anyway, I had to drive all the way down town to pay it.

I filled up the gas tank on the van. I was running on fumes (as in the display said I could drive for 12 more miles before I ran out of gas). It cost $61.82. I'd say ouch, but that's a pretty normal price for a full tank these days.

I paid for internet and the phone bill for the old house, got the amount of kids' allowances out from the CU, and sent $200 to the 18 months same as cash for the laptop (which brings the total down to $600). I've set aside $60 for physical therapy on Monday and $65 for DS's tae kwon do tornament fee. I took out $40 for me to take DD to go see a movie tomorrow and for incidentals this week.

I have $100 left in the checkbook for groceries. I decided it was okay to go close to the wire. If I hadn't I'd have only been able to send $1600 to the VISA. Since we are not eating out for the rest of the month I think we'll get by just fine with that amount. Anything left over at the end of the week will go to the coin jar and eventually the EF. This should be an easy grocery week since DD is spending the night at a friends and DS is going off with Mom to the decoy show. They tend to eat a lot more on weekends, so they will be doing that on someone else's dime which is nice.

On Sunday I transferred $1515.40 out of my holding tank at ING. This was money I set aside for the first half of the month bills (I still have a bit in there for a bill that doesn't come due until the 12th as well as my short term bigger bills like dues and property tax).

So anyway that money showed up yesterday and so yesterday and today I paid the following bills:

$375.86 Old house mortgage
$500.00 Amex
$_83.98 Car Insurance
$_41.25 Old house insurance
$300.00 Mom for Utilities
$_37.61 DH Life Insurance
$_32.70 Me Life Insurance
+144.00 Storage
-----------------
$1515.40 Total bills paid

I have over $600 in checking and I am going to try to only spend half of that over the next two weeks so that I can put an extra $300 on the credit cards. I don't know if it will happen or not, especially since school photos are coming up. That is if there is school. We got the news today that our teachers are striking.

I guess there was a 1.9% cut across the state or something. Our district told our teachers they would eat it so that their pay wouldn't go down. They are still striking. I don't know if it is in solidarity or what. I just really get annoyed about these things. Pay the teachers what they are worth and be done with it, you know? But also, don't hold our schools hostage and make our kids go to school through half the summer at the same time because you mess up start dates with striking.

I'm sure there is more to it than what is being talked about though but the benefits being offered look reasonable to me. They are better than my husband's benefits. And in this day and age when the economy sucks it seems to me people are taking a huge risk to strike, especially when there are about three times as many qualified teachers as there are teaching positions thanks to the fact that we have a teacher's college here. Desperate times call for desperate measures and I know more than a few out of work teachers who would actually scab to put food on the table. I hope it doesn't come to that and that the negotiations go smoothly and school opens on Tuesday without any problems and with both happy students and teachers.

Yesterday was payday. This is the small check and it can vary anywhere from $1000 to $1300 give or take a couple dollars and depending on when medical gets taken out. There was no medical taken out of this one so it came in at $1322.42. I sent $586.82 off to the credit card, but $500 of that was left from last week and I just never got around to sending it because we were so busy and I'd already made one payment so it wasn't due or anything.

We still have to do some back to school clothes shopping today before I determine what happens to the rest of this check. Probably some will go to medical and some will go to credit card and I'll save out $200 for groceries. DH has to take DD out to a movie and out to dinner as part of her birthday present (since he wasn't here on her birthday and she wants father daughter alone time), so I'm not sure how much that will be. Less than $100, more than $50 probably.

And I desperately want to go on a date alone with my husband at some point before he goes back. There is a movie I want to see (and I never go to the theater) and a steakhouse I want to go to. DH and I are coming up on our 21st anniversary of being together (half our lives) next month but he won't be home for it so I want to celebrate now.

We didn't get to last year on the big 20th at all. Mainly because my mother was busy with getting my father put into the nursing home and my in-laws were meeting my SIL's boyfriend's parents for the first time (2 weeks later SIL and boyfriend broke up because he was getting too serious. Yeah, that was an important meeting, if you didn't want to get serious why'd you do the whole parents meeting parents thing?). This year instead of an overnight somewhere without the kids we're just trying for a night out, but who knows if it will happen. DD is old enough to babysit DS, but she gets tired of him a lot these days.

I overestimated on a few categories in my holding tank so had some extra money there. I swept that into the emergency fund. It was $47.09.

$2000.96 Beginning EF
+__47.09 Amount Added
--------------------
$2048.05 Ending EF

I had to loan DH $5 out of the coin jar so that will have to be paid back. We forgot to get money out on Friday for the dump runs we needed to do today (DH and Mom are out at the house working) so we scrabbled together all the cash in the house and that $5 was part of it. I'll make sure to replace it on Monday.

Yesterday was payday. This is the small check and it can vary anywhere from $1000 to $1300 give or take a couple dollars and depending on when medical gets taken out. There was no medical taken out of this one so it came in at $1322.42. I sent $586.82 off to the credit card, but $500 of that was left from last week and I just never got around to sending it because we were so busy and I'd already made one payment so it wasn't due or anything.

We still have to do some back to school clothes shopping today before I determine what happens to the rest of this check. Probably some will go to medical and some will go to credit card and I'll save out $200 for groceries. DH has to take DD out to a movie and out to dinner as part of her birthday present (since he wasn't here on her birthday and she wants father daughter alone time), so I'm not sure how much that will be. Less than $100, more than $50 probably.

And I desperately want to go on a date alone with my husband at some point before he goes back. There is a movie I want to see (and I never go to the theater) and a steakhouse I want to go to. DH and I are coming up on our 21st anniversary of being together (half our lives) next month but he won't be home for it so I want to celebrate now.

We didn't get to last year on the big 20th at all. Mainly because my mother was busy with getting my father put into the nursing home and my in-laws were meeting my SIL's boyfriend's parents for the first time (2 weeks later SIL and boyfriend broke up because he was getting too serious. Yeah, that was an important meeting, if you didn't want to get serious why'd you do the whole parents meeting parents thing?). This year instead of an overnight somewhere without the kids we're just trying for a night out, but who knows if it will happen. DD is old enough to babysit DS, but she gets tired of him a lot these days.

I overestimated on a few categories in my holding tank so had some extra money there. I swept that into the emergency fund. It was $47.09.

$2000.96 Beginning EF
+__47.09 Amount Added
--------------------
$2048.05 Ending EF

I had to loan DH $5 out of the coin jar so that will have to be paid back. We forgot to get money out on Friday for the dump runs we needed to do today (DH and Mom are out at the house working) so we scrabbled together all the cash in the house and that $5 was part of it. I'll make sure to replace it on Monday.

I did the major Costco run and now my pantry and toiletries are fully stocked again. I should be able to go a month without going there again, and then only for toilet paper and lemons (we go through a lot of these to make DS's lemonade). It is nice to see the shelves full. The only thing I did not get was potatoes because they only had the 20 pound bags and they looked like they were starting to sprout. We might be at the point where we can start digging up potatoes, but I still have 1/3 of a 5 pound bag left and several packets of organic potato flakes so it's not the end of the world and I can pick some up (hopefully on sale) at one of the grocery stores soon. I did impulse buy a package of English cucumbers ($3.39), but everything else I bought was on my list.

I also paid bills today. The majority went to BoA. We used our MC on vacation and to pay for the Inn at Virginia Mason which is why I'm listing it again when it was paid off before. This doesn't pay it off, but I will be putting more on it next Friday with that as my intention. I will also be putting more on the VISA.

$1862.10 BoA VISA
$_500.00 BoA MC
$_757.82 BoA car payment ($250 extra to principal)
$__10.56 Medical
$__43.70 Garbage (old house)
$__65.56 Internet
$__44.89 Phone (old house)
---------------
$3284.33

I spent the rest of the grocery budget and close to $100 for toiletries and the megapack of paper towels (18 rolls, I think).

I decided to keep the $40 I still had in my wallet from last pay period and not get anymore cash out for this week and see if I can get by on it.

I did roll a thing of pennies and I had $25 in ones and two fives that I'd squirreled away in the coin jar so I went to CU#2 and added $25.50 to the safety net portion of the EF. That brings the safety net to $389.03 and the total EF to $1884.96. That leaves me $115.04 to scrounge up by month's end to hit my goal of $2000 in the EF.

My first goal for the safety net (which is my easily accessible portion of the EF) is to hit $500 and my second goal is to hit $1000. I figure I probably would not have an emergency bigger than that, and if I did that would give me the time for the transfer from ING back to a local account. I don't have four wheel drive anymore so if I blow a tire I'd only have to replace one, not all four. That was my biggest foreseeable expense before we got this vehicle.

Oh, I bought a Christmas present for DS while I was at Costco today. It seems too early to be buying presents, I usually don't start until October, but this was a good price and something he has wanted for months so I was happy to see it and it can sit in my closet for the next four months. I really should finish knitting his scarf as well.

I did the major Costco run and now my pantry and toiletries are fully stocked again. I should be able to go a month without going there again, and then only for toilet paper and lemons (we go through a lot of these to make DS's lemonade). It is nice to see the shelves full. The only thing I did not get was potatoes because they only had the 20 pound bags and they looked like they were starting to sprout. We might be at the point where we can start digging up potatoes, but I still have 1/3 of a 5 pound bag left and several packets of organic potato flakes so it's not the end of the world and I can pick some up (hopefully on sale) at one of the grocery stores soon. I did impulse buy a package of English cucumbers ($3.39), but everything else I bought was on my list.

I also paid bills today. The majority went to BoA. We used our MC on vacation and to pay for the Inn at Virginia Mason which is why I'm listing it again when it was paid off before. This doesn't pay it off, but I will be putting more on it next Friday with that as my intention. I will also be putting more on the VISA.

$1862.10 BoA VISA
$_500.00 BoA MC
$_757.82 BoA car payment ($250 extra to principal)
$__10.56 Medical
$__43.70 Garbage (old house)
$__65.56 Internet
$__44.89 Phone (old house)
---------------
$3284.33

I spent the rest of the grocery budget and close to $100 for toiletries and the megapack of paper towels (18 rolls, I think).

I decided to keep the $40 I still had in my wallet from last pay period and not get anymore cash out for this week and see if I can get by on it.

I did roll a thing of pennies and I had $25 in ones and two fives that I'd squirreled away in the coin jar so I went to CU#2 and added $25.50 to the safety net portion of the EF. That brings the safety net to $389.03 and the total EF to $1884.96. That leaves me $115.04 to scrounge up by month's end to hit my goal of $2000 in the EF.

My first goal for the safety net (which is my easily accessible portion of the EF) is to hit $500 and my second goal is to hit $1000. I figure I probably would not have an emergency bigger than that, and if I did that would give me the time for the transfer from ING back to a local account. I don't have four wheel drive anymore so if I blow a tire I'd only have to replace one, not all four. That was my biggest foreseeable expense before we got this vehicle.

Oh, I bought a Christmas present for DS while I was at Costco today. It seems too early to be buying presents, I usually don't start until October, but this was a good price and something he has wanted for months so I was happy to see it and it can sit in my closet for the next four months. I really should finish knitting his scarf as well.

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.

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.