A few months ago I upped my grocery budget to $800. I figured that switching over completely to pasture-raised, organic protein and sustainably raised organic produce was going to really hit us hard and that there was no way I could manage at $600 a month. Well, guess what? I just added up all my grocery receipts for the month. I am under the original $600 budget!

$269.44 on beef, chicken, and pork (including duck)
__40.92 on organic milk
___7.00 on organic peanut butter
__15.96 on organic cheese
__21.95 on organic pizza toppings
__80.42 on organic vegetables
__12.73 on organic flour
__42.49 on organic fruit
__20.00 on organic, pasture-raised duck/chicken eggs
+_37.00 on organic butter (bought in bulk)
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$595.83

Okay, it's only $4.17 under, but I was struggling to hit that before switching. I think it helps that I am no longer buying any bread products, but making all of our bread. It also helps that the meat we are getting is much more filling so we are eating less of it. Actually that's true for the fruits and vegetables as well and the homemade bread, so everything lasts longer.

Another thing that helps is the meal planning, of course. Even if I don't stick to it every day, I have a list of pinch hitter meals. What are pinch hitter meals? Something I can get on the table fast when the other meal plan falls through.

Things that fall into the pinch hitter category:

Angel hair pasta in tomato sauce, ground beef, green beans from a can, fruit.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs cooked on the George Foreman grill, leftover vegetables or quickly boiled broccoli/cauliflower (only if it's been pre-cut up on another day), canned corn, bread.

Chili or soup (previously homemade or canned), club sandwiches, fruit.

Fish and chips in the deep fat fryer (not the best for health, but once in a while is fine). I do keep a box of codfish filets (with the fewest additives I can find) and a couple bags of Alexias organic French fries or sweet potato fries in the freezer. When I have time I will make fish and chips from scratch, but this is for a time crunch day. I'll usually skip the veg on this day because it is filling.

So it definitely helps to have the meal plan, but it also helps to have a backup meal plan list as well of things that are on hand. And of course, leftover management. That is always key.

I think I will leave the $800 budget in place for now. This month could have been a fluke. But any extra money will go first into the freezer fund and then into the beef fund. Well, first to the $300 deposit we need to put down to claim a half a beef for later slaughter, and then to the freezer fund.

DH and I drove down to Burlington today. Our main purpose was to go the ranch and get sustainable, pasture-raised organic beef, pork, and chicken. And that was accomplished nicely. I set aside $300 and I actually came back with $30.56, so spent $269.44. I could have bought a bit more, but I thought this would fill our available freezer space nicely and it certainly seems like a month's worth of meat (if not more). The leftover $30.56 will go to our freezer fund.

Surprisingly, as expensive as this meat is, I think our grocery bill is actually going down. This meat is much more filling because our bodies recognize it as being more nutritionally sound, so we are eating much smaller portions of it at meal time, probably by half. And it tastes so much better and is much more satisfying. Flavor can be so key. I also love, love, love the fact that there is so much less packaging. It is wonderful not to have all those polystyrene meat trays to throw out all the time. I noticed it took longer to fill the garbage bin this month.

I ended up with 3 whole chickens (between 3 and 4 pounds each), 6 packages of bacon (about 8 pounds), one package of sweet breakfast sausage links (1.5 pounds), 8 pork chops, 4 beef chuck roasts (2.5 pounds each), and 8 pounds of hamburger. I forgot to ask them about a ham, doggone it!

We do still have some meat left from last month's purchase as well. 2 packs of hamburger, an entire flank steak (about the size of a good London Broil), 1 New York strip steak and 4 ribeyes (they did not get made this week after all because LIFE HAPPENED). Plus we didn't end up ever making the duck, it's still in the freezer. I just got really sick the one day and went down for about 24 hours and then was fine again. Oh, yes, and while rearranging the freezer I found some Cornish game hens, as well, so those need to get made.

I asked them about Thanksgiving turkeys and they do have them. They start accepting orders in July so I will need to remember that so I can get my order in. They range in size from 12 pounds to 22 pounds, so basically you order a small, a medium or a large and get something in that range. We will order a small, which is the 12 to 15 pound range.

I also asked them about the pork family boxes and we can order one of those soon if we decide we like the pork. We already know we like the bacon and the polish sausage. We got the pork chops to try. I also asked them if they make anything similar to a hot dog and they usually do come summer time so I will ask again the next time we go down.

A pork family box costs $300 and contains 35 pounds of meat. That works out to over $8 a pound though. Yes, it's organic and pasture-raised and sustainable, and that is super hard to find, but about the only thing I usually pay that much for is wild caught Pacific salmon and usually I can get that for $5.99 a pound if I buy the whole fish. They don't sell a whole pig, unfortunately, the box is the best you can get. I may just stick with individually buying their bacon and sausage and the occasional pork chops and not bother with the other things. We'll just see how good those chops are, first.

I'm pretty much set for meat this month, but I will need to go to the Food Co-op to pick up some more turkey hot dogs so I can make DS up a big batch of corn dogs at the Food Co-op, some roast beef, ham, and turkey slices from the deli for school lunches, and some duck eggs if they have them as they are so good for baking.

I also will need to buy flour soon. While we were in Burlington we found the organic flour mill where you can buy the 25 or 50 pound bags of flour or you can buy the 25 or 50 pound bags of wheat berries. I do eventually want to get my own little flour grinder, but that's way down the road after the beef purchase. Unfortunately the flour mill is not open to the public on Saturdays (or maybe at all on the weekend), which is the only time the farm store is open, so we can't make just one trip to get what we want.

I am about to open a five pound bag of their flour that I got at the store so I will see how long it lasts us and then calculate what our flour needs will be. It might be worth it to get 100 pounds when we go and store them in the new chest freezer when we get it. I wish I could find it sold locally in the 25 pound bag. I am going to ask at the Food Co-op, since I know they let you buy cases of stuff at discount if you are a member. So maybe they have the big bags available in the back or something. If it will save us a trip it might be worthwhile.

I think we are going to switch back to the Organic Valley Milk but in the cartons, not the plastic jugs, unless we can find the other organic milk in glass bottles. The type in glass bottles that we are drinking now is not homogenized and I really just can't handle the cream separating. We've tried shaking it to death but sometimes there are still lumps, and it's just texturally weird and visually unappealing. If it was just me I'd cope, but everyone wants us to at least have homogenized milk. I will buy the other for making yogurt though if my first experiment with making it tomorrow goes well.

While we were down in Burlington we stopped by the Corningware Outlet Store and bought an 18-piece set of Pyrex storage containers at a good discount. These are glass containers with BPA-free plastic lids. We got 20% off. They also had some lids you could buy individually for some containers we already had at home that came without lids. They were $1.49 each and if we'd ordered them direct from Pyrex they'd have been 3X that much with shipping. I also picked up a new set of measuring cups and spoons (the sort that have six different sizes on each). I'm not sure what we did with the receipt, but we spent around $54 there.

We also got gas today, $66.90.

And I think that's it. Tomorrow should be a restful day. DH is taking the kids to his mother's after lunch. I will be making yogurt and baking bread, but that is all that is on my agenda. I will probably finish reading a book and do some writing and maybe even watch the other half of the movie I started on Wednesday. And take an uninterupted bath. Ah, bliss!

Today is payday, the small one, but they didn't take medical out and I had $1200 left over from last week, so I got to send a whole $800 extra to the BoA Visa. This isn't the regular monthly payment, it's all to principal, yay!

Payments made today:

$800.00 BoA VISA
__84.72 Car Insurance
__41.25 Old House Insurance
__37.61 Life Insurance DH
__32.70 Life Insurance Me
_154.00 Storage
__41.16 ADT Security on Old House
_100.00 Freezer Fund
_100.00 Mac Book Fund
+455.86 Mortgage (plus $80 extra)
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1847.30 Amount paid out today

Oh, we have to go pay car tabs, too, which is around $90. I don't remember for sure, but will edit this after we pay it. And I'll have to write a check next week for hot lunch money for DS. That will be for $9 for the rest of the school year. And I have to contribute allowances, $19 today and $19 next Friday.

That leaves me with $400 for the next two weeks, but no bills to pay before the 15th, which is our next payday. Plus I have $1000 in savings that is earmarked for old house stuff, but could be dipped into in a pinch and replaced on the 15th. And I also have the $300 from last week that is set aside to buy organic, pasture-raised, sustainable meat tomorrow. So mostly these next two weeks I'll just be buying milk and produce and some bulk spices.

It feels good to have everything squared away and to not have to think about finances really for the next 2 weeks. I mean I will think about them, obviously, when you blog this much about money, you do think about them. But not in a "what should I be doing now?" way.

Oh, and the Mac Book Fund and Freezer Fund are both new items on the budget. The freezer we are saving up for will be around $600. We need to buy that before we can buy half a beef, which I will start saving up for as soon as the freezer is paid for.

The Mac Book fund is for my daughter. She has waited patiently while everyone has gotten new computers in the last few years while she limps along on an old PC and she is next on the list. She wants a Mac Book for video editing and for college, so even though it will likely take me a year to save up for it, I thought I'd start now. She's just finishing her sophomore year of high school, so she probably won't get it until towards the end of junior year, but she's just happy to be getting one eventually. She's easy like that.

ETA: Tabs were $85.74.

I went back to Goodwill today to buy canning jars. They were 20 cents a piece and I ended up with twelve really good quart size jars and three really pretty pint size jars. Last time I went I got 12, a mix of both. And I have a dozen new ones that I got a while back in an unopened box at a garage sale. I have both Ball and Kerr jars. I don't think it makes much difference as long as it is one of those two brands. So I think I am set for a while. New, this many jars would have cost me a fortune. I was lucky I got there when I did. After I picked out the jars I wanted a lady came through behind me and cleaned out the rest.

I also popped over to Kmart to buy lids and rings. Some, but not many, of the Goodwill bottles had rings (2 were rusty and had to be thrown out), but of course you don't know if the lids were used or not and since I mostly want to can with these, I need good lids.

I filled up the entire dish washer with all of my jars and rings and gave them a heavy duty wash. Tomorrow I hope to make grape jelly using this recipe I found at Owl Haven:

http://www.owlhaven.net/2009/08/25/video-how-to-make-grape-j.... I can never find grape jelly without junk in it in the store. I can find literally every other kind of jelly known to man that is just fruit spread, or is just fruit, sugar, and pectin, but for grapes it's just impossible. With this recipe I can use pure organic grape juice and end up with exactly what I want in my jelly.

I am also going to attempt to make homemade yogurt following this method I found at The Frugal Girl: http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2009/10/how-to-make-homemade-yo.... I don't know if I will do that tomorrow or not, but I'd like to do it this week. I was actually looking into yogurt makers, but you still have to do all of the work involved with the process before putting it in there and then it just keeps it at the right temp. But this method uses stuff I already have, a cooler and hot water at 120 degrees. So why pay $25 to $50 for a machine that basically keeps the water warm and then beeps at you when it's done? And makes tiny little six ounce jars. I mean, one of the points of making your own yogurt is to have some fairly good sized jars of it to spoon out of and not to have a ton of little bottles to constantly wash out.

When I make it I am going to just do a half batch. I want to make sure my family will eat it, so using a half gallon instead of a whole gallon of milk makes more sense at the moment. If they don't particularly care for it I can use it up in fruit smoothies or try freezing it. It should be an interesting experience.

Mom gave me a space to use that gets a lot of heavy sun so I am going to pick up some more tomato plants. I really want to can tomatoes and tomato puree (for making sauce) this summer. Canned organic tomatoes are one of our biggest expenses and I want to see if I can cut that down by canning. Also with glass jars I can be assured of no BPA in the can liners.

I might even try my hand at canning some beef. There used to be a little old lady at the church I went to as a kid who canned beef and it was the tastiest stuff. I'd love to do that because sometimes it would be nice to just open a jar and heat and serve pot roast that way. On days when I am just far too tired to cook or something.

I am also thinking about canning green beans. I've not really liked green beans in canning jars in the past, but I think this might be because the beans were too mature, so if I pick them young it might make a difference. Also I may just attempt to freeze young green beans as they are great for stir-fry.

This June I will be going out to get a bunch of organic strawbrerries for freezing and jelly and then of course I will pick our own raspberries in July for jam, and our own blueberries in August for making blueberry jelly and frozen blueberries (we are still eating some from last summer!), and if we get enough blackberries, maybe I'll do jam for those, too. The brambles were pretty small last year, but they are over a bigger area this year, so I might have enough. Mom is also hoping her grapevines are old enough now to produce grapes. I'd love to have some frozen ones on hand, though I'd prefer not to make jelly from grapes, though we could juice them and make the jelly from the juice.

I am also considering making pickles. I've been wanting to grow cucumbers anyhow. At the very least I can make the ones you don't pressure can, but just keep in the fridge up to a month. I won't even get into how much junk is in commercial pickles. Yellow #5 is enough to turn me right away from them. If I want yellow pickles I can use tumeric, but I don't see the point in my pickles not being greenish white like the actual food it comes from.

I might not have enough jars for all I want to do! But then my mother has several jars herself and she seldom does much more than make freezer jam anymore. And she has the canner so I don't have to buy one, though they had those at Goodwill, too.

It's been a really long day, but here, as promised, is a photo of the ducks.



You can really see how much they have grown here. They tower over the chicks and they are not even fully grown, though they will be soon. They are so beautiful. It is hard to do them justice in photograph, because they don't let you get too close, but they are not just black. They have glittering dark green feathers mixed in.

We did not make it down to the farm store at Skagit River Ranch so that will go on the agenda for next Saturday. I've set the money aside. We did go to the Food Co-op and we became members. It costs $90 to buy a share (you can only buy one share) and that makes you a member. It is then $5 a year to keep your membership current. They do have a special program for senior citizens though where you can buy in at $3 a month until it is paid for. I thought that was great for people living on a fixed income. You can buy without a membership but it costs more.

We spent $156 on groceries there, but I should not have to buy too much else for the next while. Just milk and produce as needed. I bought a frozen duck. I've never made (or eaten) duck before, but I've been reading the Cook's Illustrated Poultry book (that's not quite the title), and it's got some great recipes in it so I will try it like one of those. It was a five pound duck for $20, free range, pasture-raised, and organic. So $4 a pound. Not bad. We also bought a locally produced chuck roast for dinner tomorrow. It was much less than the ones at the farm, so if it is really good we may just buy our roasts here and just get the other meats there. We'll see.

They also had ground elk, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $12 on one pound. I decided I didn't want to cultivate a taste for something that expensive. Though I was very curious to try it. If I knew someone who hunted it'd be on my list for sure.

I ground my own peanut butter. It was fun! Just peanuts and nothing else. I've never been someplace before that had a machine that wasn't broken. It smells so good and I love knowing exactly went into it. I will be making more peanut butter cookies with it this week.

I checked out all the flours and rices and many other things I didn't get to look at so closely when I went with the children. DH rapidly became a big fan of the place.

I need to plan my menu for this week still. It's half planned in my head, at least the protein dishes, but I still need to figure out the rest.

I spent a good part of the day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen, but it's not done. It's not even that big a space, but there is a lot to do.

I need to bake tomorrow. I need to make hotdog and hamburger buns and also regular bread. DS uses the hotdog buns for his sandwiches to school. He likes them better than anything else. I also want to do another batch of peanut butter cookies and maybe some blueberry corn bread muffins. I found some great reusable BPA free bread bags at the store the other day and I think I will fill them all up with my baking this week. I want to make French bread mid-week for garlic bread, too. Busy busy I will be.

I haven't been feeling great the last couple of days. Not sick, really, just...yucky. Today I didn't stick to my meal plan. I cooked, it's just that the idea of doing a complicated new recipe did not appeal. Plus, I realized I was out of soy sauce, so I couldn't really make the marinade. I ended up just doing bacon cheese burgers, corn on the cob, and nectarines. It worked well. We picked up soy sauce so we can make the Tropical Chicken Stir-fry tomorrow and bump the ribeye meal to next week. They are frozen so it's not that big a deal. Plus DS is doing a make up tae kwon do class tomorrow for when he was so sick, which means a stir-fry will just be easier than the other.

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I found this interesting booklet on meal planning:

http://nchstd.documents.s3.amazonaws.com/More%20Month%20than.... It's kind of a crash course for people who don't really know what they are doing. It wasn't exactly news to me, but I think it would be very helpful for someone who hasn't tried meal planning before and wants to dive in. It does require time though. I think this is more for families with a stay at home parent (and not of very young children, but at least preschool age and up, because some of it would just be hard to do with a toddler clinging to your leg or wearing a baby) or maybe one parent who is only working part time. I'd find it hard if I was working full time. Not that it's not doable, but it's probably not practicle in that situation. Also didn't really care for the breakfasts, because I don't like oatmeal (unless it's in cookies or bread or granola or Joe's O's), but it's not hard to plan breakfasts. And I liked the shopping lists. It's a good teaching tool really.

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I added $6.98 cents to the coin jar. I picked up a prescription for $25. We filled up the gas tank on the van, $57.16. We did a major stock up run to Costco so I shouldn't have to go there for a couple of months, and picked up six LED lightbulbs there, batteries, toilet paper, and of course groceries.

I got really annoyed at a lady there. She was trying to squeeze between me and the shelves instead of going around DH and I. There was not room to do this and she was practically shoving her cart into me. I was probably less than gracious about it because I was having a bad pain day in my leg which always makes me walk slower. I walked even slower at that point. I get cranky when I hurt. She huffed loudly and finally just went around us. I wanted to tell her off, but I bit my tongue. People are rude enough at Costco without me adding to it.

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Spent $10 on two foam swords for the kids. I probably played with one of them more than was seemly for an adult, but it was fun to whack something today. Very stress relieving. This was actually an expense for school.

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Here, have a photo of the half grown chickens roosting in the coop. I will try to get a photo of the ducks up soon.



Oh, and here's a photo of the damage my mother "didn't" do to our older car. The suction cup dent remover does not work to pull it out, either. It cost $5.

I deposited my coin jar money into the safety net bank account. I added $61.55. This brought the total there to $1052.43. The grand total of the EF is now at $1097.53. It is weird building it back up again from a small amount, but worth it.

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I did a screener survey for ACOP today and got 25 points for 5 minutes. It was a qualifier for a 15 minute video watch and I tend to get those, so hopefully I'll hear later this week that I did. It's a 400 point survey with a 400 point follow up. It's a penny a point so that's a total of $8.00 which is a good one.

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I mostly stuck to my meal plan, but a small deviation was necessary. We had bacon cheeseburgers but not fried potatoes. Yesterday when I told DD to boil six potatoes I did not remember to tell her to take half of them out before mashing to save for tonight for frying. Leftover mashed potatoes just didn't seem to go with burgers so we will have them with our potroast on Sunday. I ended up making fresh corn on the cob instead. And also I had a bit of a craving so I made the easiest peanut butter cookies I have ever made. 3 ingredients (no flour) and about 3 minutes of hands on time. And they were delicious (or at least my cookie was).

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I paid $2000 to the Bank of America VISA and paid the car payment. I have a few other bills to do so I can mail them out tomorrow, but I am feeling like I've been put through the ringer today. I did do a bit of grocery shopping, but nothing to justify the way that I feel. It might be allergies partly as I am very stuffy. I remembered to take my bags into the two stores I visited today, so only one plastic bag came home with me and that was the produce bag wrapped around the green onions.

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I wish I could find local organic milk in glass bottles. We do have a dairy that does milk in returnable glass bottles, but they are not organic and they do add the vitamin D to all their milk but whole milk and along with that vitamin D is the stuff used to suspend it in the milk that my son is allergic to. The kids only like non-fat milk and though I like the taste of whole, I can't handle that much lactose on a consistent basis. I will continue to look though. I know that milk jugs can be recycled, but I'd still rather have it in glass. One, things just taste better in glass, and two, I'd rather have a reusable container to return than recycle a container that cannot be reused. I will keep looking. With all the dairy farms in this county there must be someone who does.

I found a source of food dyes derived from natural sources, as well as colored sugars also colored from natural sources, things like beet powder and pomegranate. This means that I can once again make colored frosting for birthday cakes and decorate Christmas cookies with sugar sprinkles. This may seem like not much of a big deal for some of you, but we've had nothing but homemade chocolate cocoa frosting or homemade vanilla frosting on our homemade cakes for the last 4 years due to allergies to chemical tar-based food dyes, which is what things are normally colored with in the food industry.

I love the idea of having sprinkles and blue or yellow frosting and not having to worry about my child breaking out into hives. And I can make colored play clay again, which my kids (now 12 and 15) still love to play with. I could also, if I so chose, color a pitcher of homemade lemonade pink because there are some days when you just want pink lemonade. I can make green mashed potatoes on St. Patrick's Day!

It's just nice, when you are confined to making almost everything from scratch to have fun decorating opportunities again. The set was a bit pricy, for three primary color dyes and six colored sugars it was $54 plus shipping, but like all food dyes a little goes a long way and it should last for years. And sometimes it is worthwhile to spend a little bit more for a product that will enhance your life even if just in small ways.

The brand is called India Tree for anyone who might want to try it. I'll do another post about it once I've received it and used it, but I found very, very positive reviews for it.

My check from American Opinion Consumer Panel came today. It was $20.05. It will go into emergency fund.

DH cleaned out his wallet as he flies out today and so I had $10.32 to put into the coin jar.

No money was spent today, but I gave DD $5 to pay for her field trip tomorrow.

Today was a very boring day.

I can't believe it is May already. This year is just whizzing by. Yesterday was very busy. I had an appointment in the morning, $90. DD had a dentist appointment, which will be billed to insurance and be fully covered because it is the first of the year.

We paid the property taxes yesterday for the half year on the old house, $524.75. DH took the two new toilets out to the old house. His father will help him install them on Wednesday. While out there he dropped off the water bill and saved a stamp, $144.

The money from ING showed up yesterday but we didn't have time to go over and make a payment at BoA. I am hoping we will today, but if not then that will get paid tomorrow.

We finally took the kids to The Hunger Games movie last night. We went to the 6:30 showing so we could get out and be home at a decent hour since it was a school night. I would have preferred to go to the 4:00 one, but DS doesn't even get out of school until 3:45. I was really well pleased with the movie. I felt it stayed true to the book on almost everything and only missed one tiny little scene not being included, the district 11 sending the bread scene. It should have been there as it was such a pivotal moment, but oh, well. You can't have everything in a screen adaptation, but this was pretty close.

Still it cost us $40 for the four of us to go. This is why we seldom see movies in the theater. $9.50 per student and $10.50 per adult. Even matinee prices would not have been that good. It's not like they are half price anymore. They are just a buck or two off per ticket to go at a less convenient time. I think it was worth it this time, but I miss the days of $5 movies. Heck, I miss the days of $1 movies.

So far today I have paid $700 to BoA VISA, $600 to AMEX, and $265.86 to Costco. We bought two new high pressure, low flow toilets for the old house, plus selected organic groceries there (and some raw sheep's cheese imported from France that they were sampling, so good, and we usually get some kind of expensive cheese when we go there). The toilets were $79.99 each plus sales tax of 8.9%. They are one piece models where the tank is part of the toilet unit, so very easy to install. We also bought gas while we were there, filling the tank for $59.56.

I figured out the budget for this week and next week's pay, and then figured out that since the car payment isn't due until 5/19 and we get paid on 5/18, I could actually skip making a car payment out of next week's check and make it on the 18th in person instead. I could then take the $800 (payment + additional principal that I always make) and put it on the BoA VISA instead. It's cutting it close, but I do still have enough money in the EF to cover the car payment if needed.

That should still have us on track to have the VISA paid off by the end of May or at the very latest the middle of June. I wasn't expecting to have to buy a new bed for DS this month, but sometimes things happen. Maybe we won't have to use the full $1000 I've set aside to have the whole house professionally cleaned. We are going to email about setting up an estimate. Then we can make an appointment to have it done. Then the only thing left to do will be to change out the toilets, get an estimate on fixing the window, and then scheduling an appointment to actually fix the window.

And then we will have to make a decision on replacing all of the interior doors and frames, or letting the house go As IS/Where IS without fixing those things. I don't think we are going to paint. I might get an estimate to see if it is worth it, but...I don't really want to put that much more money into it. I just want it clean, on the market, and not have to worry about it anymore. At least the roof is sound. We are twelve years into a thirty year roof warranty come July, and it was an excellent roof we put on.

The lawn will have to be mowed this weekend though. And probably at least every weekend from this point on, at least in the front where it shows from the road.. *sighs* It won't be too bad. We'll need the gas mower this first time, but after that I can use the push mower. And I can save the back yard for DH when he's home and he can use the gas mower for that.

I have some other bills to pay and set money aside for but I'll probably do that tomorrow. I did make a deposit to the Safety Net of $122.30.

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I forgot to post this before I left, so we took the kids clothing and bathing suit shopping after school, a planned expense, and got spring wardrobes for them (shorts and t-shirts for DS, Capri pants and t-shirts for dear daughter. They each got a bathing suit and I got one, too, though I am annoyed about it. The one I really wanted and liked the colors in various shades of green and blue of the most showed way, way, way too much cleavage even for me, and I'm pretty comfortable with that sort of thing, but dang, I would have had to pin this to feel comfortable in public. It fit so well, too, otherwise. It was an older ladies swimsuit, too. Why do they think we want to show off that much over age 40? It's like the toddler booty shorts. I mean, why? It'd be one thing if I was buying a bikini, but this was a swimdress style suit.

The one I ended up buying was various shades of pink (one of them hot pink, which I do like, but most pastels, which I don't) and brown. I am not really a pink person, but due to things that often tend to be out of my control, I have far too much pink in my wardrobe already. Usually because I just want to be clothed and the only thing left in the styles I like and my size by the time I get to shopping is the pink ones.

But it fits perfectly and supports perfectly. The skirt is a little too long for my preference, but hopefully it won't get in my way when I do the crawl stroke. I used to have one that was so long my hands would tangle in it when I swam laps. This one isn't billowy though at all. So I bought it. One nice surprise is I was able to buy it a size smaller than my other swimsuit. (I like to have two because I swim almost every day mid-spring through mid-fall, and the older one invariably falls apart from all the chlorine mid-season.

I mean, if I wanted to spend over $100 for a suit, I would order one online and get the colors I really wanted, but I don't, and a $33 suit with proper support and coverage, even if it isn't the greatest colors, is fine with me. And DH likes it regardless and says it looks good. It's just my dislike of pink, not reality. Sometimes we have to make compromises in life. This isn't a big one.

We also picked up some school supplies to replace what was worn out or used up, and some OTC medications to replace the stock used up when ill. The last thing I want to do when I am sick is go shopping for medications, so I really like to have enough on hand to treat 3 of us if we go down at the same time (DH is seldom sick).

We went to two stores and spent $73 at one (after $8 off from our loyalty card and were given a $5 gift card because we qualified for having spent over $50). At the other, where we did the bulk of our shopping we spent $265.56 (almost the exact amount we spent at Costco, interesting).

I was so tired by the time we were done, I decided to get takeout pizza instead of making some. *sighs* Willpower, thy name is not LuckyRobin. So that was $27.18. And after a quick run to the store tonight for milk and crackers I am not going to spend any money (except to write out bills) for the rest of the weekend. I hope.

I cashed out at American Consumer Opinion Panel for $20.05. I do kind of roll my eyes a little, because you can't cash out until you have $10, and it takes 10 days for whatever you do to even hit the account and then when you cash out it takes 1-2 weeks for them to process it, so they really make you wait for it, but then it does come through eventually and they do pay really well and have some very interesting surveys and product tests, so I guess it is all worth it even if I do roll my eyes. I just always figure payment will be a month later. They are better than many I have tried and I have been signed up with them for six years, so they are definitely tried and true.

I spent $3.38 at Youngstock's today. It is an outdoor produce and flower stand. Then I spent $72.50 at Haggen. DH is home, but we kept to the list pretty darn well. We are just a little over the amount for the week by about $5. Not bad for almost everything we bought being organic.

It was nice to wake up this morning to the smell of chicken stock simmering away in the crockpot. You know what I like about making stock over making soup? When you make stock you don't have to peel anything, you just have to wash it. And you don't have to dice it, you just have to rough cut it. It was so nice to just cut the onion into 12 pieces and throw it in. So nice not to have to peel the carrots, too!

I will have to peel and dice for the fresh veg I put in after I strain it, but that's not a big deal. I am going to put more diced celery than usual in, though, because it's starting to look a little sad, and DS is going to take one cut up stalk with peanut butter in his lunches for the next couple of days.

I was looking at enchilda sauce recipes on the internet last night and then I thought, well this is basically the ingredients in my big bottle of McCorkmick taco seasoning with tomato sauce, green chiles and garlic added, so that is what I'm going to do. If it tastes weird, I can adjust it with chili powder and cumin, but I'm sure it will be fine. And I will add a bit of cocoa powder if I don't like the color. Cocoa powder makes it more brown and less tomato sauce color.

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Yesterday for the DEC challenge, I spent $14 on a haircut for DD. That was the only spending.

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I added $1.14 in change to the coin jar.

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I am getting a massage today as my hip and knee and low back got majorly tweaked last week, so I will spend $90 on that.

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I'll be making blueberry cornbread muffins and a loaf of bread today in the bread machine Mom loaned me. I haven't used it for more than dough before so hopefully it will turn out. It's a fancy machine, way more bells and whistles than my old one had, and I'll have to recheck the manual online to make sure I do it right, since she can't find her manual.

---------------------------

I got to cuddle a duck last night. It just lay there in my arms and put it's neck right over my shoulder. So cute and sweet. Unfortunately I managed to slice my hand open on a metal screen. I am going to call the doctor because it looks pretty bad this morning and I want to make sure it's not infected. I cleaned it immediately and put antibiotic ointment on it, but it still looks nasty. It's in one of the worst places, too, on my right hand just beneath the webbing between thumb and first finger. Basically wherever you need to grip to open a jar, it's in the way and it hurts.

I never ended up getting a tetanus shot for the staple I stepped on. The doctor said since it was a clean, unused staple with no rust I was fine, and I have been, but this time I know there was rust on the screen so I guess I am destined to get that shot after all. If I had got it last week I wouldn't have to worry now, but oh, well. I'm sure it won't be completely covered, most vaccines are not unless you are a child. Stupid, but it's the way things go, sort of like how insurance doesn't want to pay for orthodontia in adults. I find it very short-sighted.

All right, I almost made it through the stores with only the things on my lists. I bought chocolate at TJ's and I bought 2 English cucumbers (on sale for $1 each) and 2 six packs of lettuce starts (romaine and red leaf) at Haggen. Not too bad. I would not have bought the chocolate if I hadn't taken the kids with me, as I would not have even thought about it. But I still would have gotten the cucumbers and the lettuce starts.

They had other veggie starts, but the ground is not prepared for them. The lettuce will go in window boxes up on the porch rail, because if we plant them within reach of the chickens they will eat them and I want to be the one eating them, thank you very much.

I ended up spending $52.18 at TJ's and $21.20 at Haggen, well within the budgeted amount for the week. I imagine it will be more difficult when I have to start buying more organic meat, but maybe I'll be so good at this by the time I run out of frozen meat that it won't be too much of a challenge. I allot $600 a month for food, so I think I will be able to manage.

Today was payday, so I made a payment to the BoA VISA of $1800. It didn't drop the balance much since all of the autopays went through since the last payment, the interest charges hit, and DH bought his next round trip plane ticket. New balance on the account is $6574.60. But we will make another payment next week of $500 (maybe more, I'm hoping to squeeze an extra $200 out of the budget) and all of that will go to make a good drop.

I know I said I was going to use most of the emergency fund to drop the balance, but I haven't brought myself to do it yet. I feel very unsure about it. Maybe I would feel better if I just dropped it to $2000 in the EF instead of $1000. Part of me just gets really insecure when that EF goes down. Which means not getting the BoA paid off until June, but if I worry less, that's a good thing. I know it's stupid to keep paying the interest, but it's a psychological thing. Security is very important to me.

I also spent $5.49 on a gallon of Organic Valley milk. It was on sale for 50 cents off, so that made me happy.

I also set aside $1000 for either cleaning/repairs at the old house, or to give to Mom, since she has been vacillating on weather or not she wants our monthly payment to be on hold or to use it to get the house more ready to put on the market. I think she's worried that the remodel on the bathroom is going to overrun her ability to pay it. She is going to have to make up her mind soon, though, because if it goes to repairs, cleaning, etc., we want to be able to use it when DH comes home next week.

We will be spending an additional $225 on the alarm system (we paid half in deposit at the estimate and will pay the other half next Thursday when all the work is done. I am going to have DH take the really good vacuum out that day and vacuum all the floors at the very least so they'll be ready to be shampooed.

Oh, I paid out 3 weeks worth of allowances to both kids (I was behind, so that was $36.00 and $21.00 respectively). My kids have higher allowances than some here might expect because they do a lot of work with the chickens and ducks as well as household chores. They probably put in five hours a week on poultry care alone.

I also took out DH's monthly allowance and mine, which is $100 each. This is our walking around money and our frittering away money and our don't feel guilty about spending it money and our we don't have to check with each other before spending it money, although DH usually does out of habit, since we've only been drawing an allowance the last little while and we've always discussed any expense over $50. This is the first that we've really been able to not keep such a tight lid on our money and it seems to be a sufficient amount so far.

Okay, I think that covers everything I've done so far. I might have a bit more out of this paycheck, but I need to set up the May budget before I know for sure. I'll do that tomorrow.

I ended up spending $14.52 yesterday after tae kwon do testing. DS was so tired and I was ridiculously exhausted at that point and so sore from sitting on those benches that I knew I wasn't going to want to stand and make something on the stove and it was already 8 p.m., so I gave in to temptation and took us through the McD's drivethrough and got a couple of combo meals. I can't believe how expensive they have gotten. You used to be able to get two full meals for $10 and now it's almost $15.

The thing is, it's been a while since I didn't just grab a bag of double cheeseburgers and a couple small fries and the free cups of water, so not only was there price shock, but there was flavor shock, too. I'm not sure what it is, but the taste of the bigger burgers was just really off to me. DS thought so too. Maybe we are losing our taste for it or maybe the smaller meat is different than the bigger meat patties. Anyway, I don't think I'll be buying combo meals there any time soon. Plus I think they charge more for the bottled water than for the sodas, even though they are supposed to substitute directly.

It was just a big disappointment. I think we'll stick with Boomers Drive-In for bigger burgers in the future. It might take longer, but the quality is so much better. Lesson learned, I guess.

I am feeling a bit better today than yesterday, but I am still going to take a nap today. I want to continue in this direction.

Oh, I also picked up a prescription last night so that was $3.35.

No spending to report today for the daily expenses challenge. One of the few positives about being so sick is that it really limits the appeal of going anywhere to spend money.

I need to figure out what to do about dinner though, because I forgot to put the roast in the crockpot. Maybe soup and toasted cheese sandwiches. I think I can about handle that. Or maybe DD will cook. She's feeling way better than me.

I changed which credit card the last autopay I hadn't transferred yet goes on, so that it won't go on the paid off card anymore. It is so nice to only have the one CC to worry about now. Well, we also have the AMEX, but that doesn't typically carry a balance as we just use it for gas, meals out, on vacation and the occasional times when I forget the checkbook, so I don't count it the same was as the BoA VISA. I am so looking forward to having the VISA paid off soon. Just a couple more payments.

I'm still not quite myself. I am just so tired, still feeling blechy even if I am on the mend. I think I've lost all sense of ambition. I guess if I am going to be sick it is good to be sick in that long interval of not having to pay any bills until the 20th because I am not very on top of the finance thing right now.

I went nowhere yesterday and thus spent no money. Almost the whole family descended yesterday and it was long and exhausting though nice to visit. Although I still want to know why I am the only person in my family (besides my kids, and DH when he's home) that help my mother when everyone comes over.

I know that my older sister has always held the attitude that she is a "guest" and therefore does not have to help out. Where she got that attitude from I do not know because it is not the way Mom raised us. My eldest sister, who had just got done telling me all of the changing she had noticed in Mom and how much she was slowing down, sat there and watched me (sick, coughing me) clear the table and put everything in the dishwasher and did not budge an inch. *sighs* My thirty year old neice was there, too. Nothing.

My mom is 72, she had knee replacement in September, and she is not as strong as she used to be. My kids did a lot of work helping her get ready and I helped with the cleanup (i.e. did most of it). I am the least able of us three girls despite being the youngest, but I would not dream of leaving her to do it all alone.

I go through this every holiday and get together. I am always so stunned by the fact that they still won't lift a finger. I have asked before in the past and have pretty much given up asking them, but it still annoys me. My daughter did ask one of them if they were going to help and got the response, "Oh, I'm too tired." ????? Ooookay. My family.

Anyway, today is a spend day. The kids walked down to Trader Joe's and bought a big jug of pure maple syrup and additive free lunch meat for DS's school lunches, spending $21.78. I will be running down to Haggen after dinner to pick up some organic milk and 1/4 pound of deli ham for DD's school lunches. It'll come to under $10, so I'm counting that as close enough for recording purposes.

I feel like all I have done for the past four days is sleep. My fever finally broke yesterday. A week at 101 is hard, but yesterday it was 99 and today it was 97.6 (my normal). I am still coughing a lot, but it's way up towards the base of my throat. I can read again (have several days worth of blogs to catch up on now!) for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

I have spent around $40 on Dayquil, Nyquil, and psuedophederine this week. They at least helped manage the symptoms. Until today that is all I spent in the last few days (for the daily expenses challenge). Today I ordered a XL pizza from Round Table which was $27.18. I'm still not much up for cooking. I managed a chicken stir-fry from one of my homemade kits in the freezer yesterday, but that about did me in. Mostly it's been soup and sandwiches around here, or anything that comes out of a can but doesn't have additives.

Hopefully I will feel good enough on Sunday to make a big batch of pancakes for the freezer. That would have come in handy this week as it only takes 30 seconds in the microwave to warm one up from frozen. Maybe I'll make a batch of blueberry cornbread muffins, too. That's real simple and fast and involves hardly any work on my part.

Mom is having a big get together on Saturday. Everyone will be here except my husband. My eldest sister, her son and his wife and their son, my older sister, her spouse and her four boys, me and my two kids. I don't know how much time I'll spend there, though. I can't be around my nephew's wife much as she is pregnant and I don't want to expose her to this. I'll probably hang around for an hour or two and then go back to bed.

Mom wants DD to make cookies. DD is probably still contagious with this same thing I'm getting over. I don't think that's a smart idea at all, and DD doesn't want to, but once Mom gets a thing in her head you never hear the end of it until it gets done. Of course if the whole family then gets sick it will be DD's fault. *sighs*

I filled out my jury question form and sent it in today. I listed all of my physical limitations and disabilities, as well as a list of the medications I am on that may cloud my thinking. I will probably still have to serve, but whatever. They can't say I didn't warn them.

Yesterday's expenses:

$49.06 @ Costco

Today's Expenses:

$10 for DD to turn in for art supplies at school tomorrow for art class.

Really got irritated at the workmen today. They left their equipment in the house, blocking the hallway and access to the kids' bedrooms when they left. Including a power saw that was plugged in. Dangerous and careless. And Mom didn't understand why I was upset by that. It's not like her life is being disrupted by the remodel at all, other than she has to park her car in a different spot in the driveway. She's in a different wing of the house. But this was dangerous and she shouldn't have acted like it was harmless. I will be so glad when they are done. I will be even more glad when we can get out of here.

Mom had one of her nasty moments today where she was blaming us for the mold in the bathroom again, even though the workmen said it was caused by the leak in the roof which had nothing to do with us. This went into a woe is me fit which she does about every six months. She refuses to go out and do activities where she can meet people and then complains about how she has no friends because Dad never wanted to socialize. I keep encouraging her to do so now, but then she snaps at me about it saying I just want her out of the house (which isn't true, I want me out of the house). I hope I'm not seeing the early onset of anything. But she's always kind of been like this, it just wasn't as extreme when Dad was alive and still had his mind.

I just do not have the energy or the stamina for this when I am running a 101 degree fever and trying to cough my lungs out through my windpipe. I didn't snap at her, but it was close. I just keep telling myself she is my mother and I love her even when she goes a little nuts.

I am so sick it's ridiculous. Thank goodness the workmen were working outside so that I could sleep in. I went to bed at 9:30 last night and slept pretty well, but woke up every four hours or so coughing. Which is what the cough syrup dosage was for, every four hours. But fortunately I did get back to sleep. My skin hurts, my joints ache, and I am running a fever of 100.3 and can't get warm.

I went to the doctor this afternoon. DH had to drive me because I couldn't focus at all. It's not the flu which I feared, but borderline walking pneumonia. My bronchials and windpipe ache beyond belief right now. I ended up with four prescriptions, $25, $15, $15, and $7.55. My breathing was so bad he gave me an inhaler of albuterol, which I haven't needed in a couple years, and a nasal spray. I've also got an antibiotic (one that won't make me sick to my stomach this time) and the really good cough syrup which is helping already. I am so wiped out though. I have dozed off and on all day, I can't read a book, though I can read the computer a bit, and I can watch television for about 20 minutes before I doze again. I don't rember the last time I was this tired.

Let's see, other expenses have been 3/4 tank of gas for $63.73, $1.51 for a McDonald's double cheeseburger, and $25.71 for groceries. Also DH had to pay a deposit on the security system upgrade that we will be doing when he comes back home next time of $225. That's half up front, half the day of. DH also treated his dad to dinner yesterday at Subway spending $12.37, after he helped DH put up the drywall in the bathroom. I think that is everything.

I added .74 to the coin jar today.

I spent .50 on parking meters.

I spent $37.50 today, $30 for three types of the Boar's Head deli meats that we will divide up and freeze for DS's lunches for the next month and $7.50 for a bagel sandwich, small chips, and pickle spear for DS's lunch today as we were completely out of everything that he isn't allergic to and I was really, really behind on everything this morning and I had to pick DH up at the airport.

I went to the dentist at 11:30 to have some chips repaired and my portion was $68, so paid that, too.

I've run a bunch of small errands this morning and in keeping with my method of never spending ones or change, ended up with $9.10 to add to the coin jar.

I filled up the gas tank at $4.06 a gallon, paying a total of $67.56 for 16.6 gallons. Ouch. It is cheaper over at Costco, at $3.99 a gallon, but it was not worth driving across town and waiting in the line there for a half an hour to get slightly cheaper gas.

I also picked up baking powder and cocoa for making DS's birthday cake which I will do right after I pick up his sister from school and make a deposit of all that coin jar money, finally, at the CU. And I got some OTC cold medicine. I am still fighting this dang cough and I'm tired of the constant tickle so cough syrup it is.

Did a survey this morning. I now have $8.15 in my account, but can't cash out until it hits $10. And of course it takes them two weeks to credit anything to the account before you can cash it out, which is ridiculous, but what are you going to do?

So, I had to get a new driver's license this year. DMV is still the oh-so-enjoyable experience it ever has been. $25 for that and now they make you take your glasses off to have your photo taken. Something to do with facial recognition software. If I had known that I would have at least put concealer on under my eyes. Glasses really hide the dark circles. Still this picture is 50 times better than the last one.

While at the DMV I suddenly realized that DD turned 15 and a half on the tenth, which means she can now test for her learner's permit. Oh, my is that going to be an interesting experience. She downloaded the .pdf file for the book and has been studying it all weekend.

So the time has come to start saving up for a brake job for the Crown Victoria. We've just been letting it set, because we rarely need two cars, but it needs $800 worth of work. We figure she can use it when she gets her license to drive herself to school and back. We haven't wanted to sell it since there are a few rare occasions when it is nice to have it and we knew there'd soon be another driver in the household.

It's also probably better to learn to drive in it before she learns to drive the van. It's a nice, safe car that is easy to drive and easier to park than the van. Once she has experience with it, we will let her learn to use the van. So we decided we'd take the money for the brake job either from the inheritance or the tax return, whatever comes in first. That and her driver's ed class will be the only non-debt repayment that we've allowed for out of either of those sources of money.

$800 seems a relative bargain to get our 20 year old (in otherwise excellent shape) car drivable again.

As for me, I turned 42 today and it has been a great day. My husband bought me a lovely glass rose tea light candle holder (and some books off half.com that should be here sometime soon) as well as the talking scale I wanted (but that he opened last week, forgetting it was my gift). DD made me a calighraphy water color of a sea horse. And my mother and son deep-cleaned the living room so DH could bring the treadmill in from the garage so I can walk on days the weather is cruddy.

The grocery store bakery happened to have a set of white cupcakes with white frosting that they hadn't gotten around to putting sprinkles on so we got that for my cake. And we're having my favorite tacos for dinner (that I didn't have to cook).

Last night was great, too. DH and I went to Outback for a pre-Birthday dinner. I had $42.05 worth of gift cards. Dinner cost $47.55 and we left a $10 tip because the kid was amazing. I had Kookabura wings (mild), celery with bleu cheese, a side of mixed vegetables (they have the best mixed veggies!), a bowl of baked potato soup (I meant to get a cup but said bowl, so DH and I split it instead) and a glass of Strawberry Lemonade. Oh, and maybe 1/3 of the rye bread. Delicious. I brought home half the Kookaburra wings and celery with their scrumptious blue cheese, which I will use up on extra celery I have here.

I cleaned out my purse today and added $11.37 to the coin jar. I think I have enough quarters now to roll them, but don't feel like checking right now. If not it is pretty close.

I spent $90 today to get a therapuetic massage (1.5 hours) as I had some pretty severe muscle spasms over the weekend to the point where even the super powerful muscle relaxant didn't work.

I also spent $31.68 at the grocery store buying 2 kinds of milk, oranges, bananas, lettuce and some salmon.

DH came home this morning. It is really nice to have him here again.

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
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$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.

...or should I say the cost of it? We finally got the piano moved from the old house to this house. It cost $220 to have professionals transport it 25 miles. There was snow out at the old house, but not enough to hinder moving it.

Now we have to let it set for at least six weeks before we tune it. One of the black keys broke off, but I think it can be glued back on or replaced. One of the white keys doesn't strike the string anymore so that will have to be fixed as well. I'm not sure what that will run, but it'll likely be around $100.

It's not too badly out of tune, but it definitely needs to be tuned. It's been a few years. My son has happily been picking away at it all afternoon. He has missed it a lot. So have I for that matter. I love our piano. It was made in 1912, so it's 100 years old now, but is still plays beautifully. And it was free from a family member, so we've only ever put moving costs and tuning costs into it. It's definitely a good investment for all the joy it brings.

So DH whined and wheedled (actually not that bad, I'm exaggerating) until he talked me into letting him buy The Hunger Games trilogy in hard back. I am very adverse to buying things that take up space right now and I would have been perfectly content to wait for them from the library and buy them later when they were all out in paperback and we had a new house with space for them. But he had got the first book on Playaway and he absolutely thought he was going to die if he could not immediately read the second book the minute he finished it.

He spent $65 on the set. Ouch, hard backs are expensive. But honestly I don't really begrudge this. We are both supposed to get $100 spending money every six weeks anyway, but we've just been kind of lax about actually taking that much. Too focused on debt reduction most of the time. But he pointed out that all four of us would read the trilogy and likely reread it in the future, so I decided I would clear some of my meager shelf space for them.

I have some magazines that I am only keeping for the recipes so I will copy them into a Word file and then take the magazines down to the library and drop them in the free magazine bins in the basement. That should clear enough shelf space to give the books a home.

My copy that I put on hold of the first book just came in to the library. I was 148 on the list when I signed up. I will still get it because DD has already absconded with the first boughten book. She loved the same author's Gregor the Overlander books.

I finally finished reading The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen. I had it on hold for 3 months before it became available. It was pretty good. A little less suspenseful than her previous Rizzoli and Isles books, but full of interesting Chinese folklore about the Monkey King. I also noticed a lot less swearing (thankfully) in it than is the norm for her books. It was weird going back to a book after having watched the first two seasons of the TV series, where the characters all have the same names but many aspects of them are vastly different.

Now I'm back to reading Elizabeth Moon again. I've started the second Esmay Suiza book. I find I'm doing a lot more reading these days than I used to, but since it's all from the library it's free entertainment.

So DH's grandparents' house will be closing at the end of the month. The buyers ended up getting the in-laws to come down to $172,000. I'm not sure what the realtor's commission is, but I ran the numbers with both 5 and 6% which seems to be standard around here. That means DH's 5% inheritance should come out to right around $8000 give or take a couple hundred. That will take a big bite out of what's left on the credit card.

The exercise challenge is going well. I've done 20 minutes twice a day for the past two days and then physical therapy today was 45 minutes. So that's six popcorn kernals. Yeah, I ran out of pennies so I switched to popcorn kernals. But they represent dollars anyway.

I really need to get a handle on my food again. I've been eating more carbs than I want to be because they are easy and I hurt and I'm tired and I'm sick again or possibly still. I've been getting really dizzy for the past two weeks. At first I thought it was just a side effect of the muscle relaxant, but I think it's actually the sinus stuff. DS is sick again, too, poor baby.

I transferred $1000 from ING to my regular checking account today. That along with what is left in the checking account should cover everything between now and the next time DH gets paid which will be on the 27th.

I think that is it for today.

I got a prescription for sinus infection/bronchitis. It cost $26.20.

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
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$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.