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Just Sort of Rambling Aimlessly

May 11th, 2011 at 06:21 am

Not really much to check in on. I had physical therapy today so that's $90 out. I didn't even make it one day on my no takeaway. I had a regular sized cheeseburger and small soda. I haven't had soda with high fructose corn syrup in it for so long and my resistance was just down so low I didn't even care. Ugh. I can definitely feel it in my system and my body is not happy with me.

I am just exhausted. It is hard taking care of someone who is recovering from surgery. Especially when it affects my sleep. I wish the kiddo could make it through the night with no painkiller, but he just can't yet, poor baby.

Friday is payday and I will be glad to see it here so I can start paying off some of these medical bills and make a debt payment. Of course, this is the one that doesn't do much of anything but hold us even. The payday after that is the one that makes progress. Some days I feel like I live paycheck to paycheck. And not in the traditional sense, but in the sense of anticipating the next check so I can work my debt snowball, and possibly having no life.

I need to get back out there in the world again, but until DS goes back to school next week that's not really an option. I'm actually anticipating my dentist appointment tomorrow, even though I really don't want to deal with a numb face again, as I will have adults to talk to, or at least who will be talking to me. Two more cavities to fill and have them fix the tooth they filled before that still hurts every time I bite down on something medium to hard. I have at least kept up on my flossing every day.

I've been reading Tess Gerritson novels that I checked out from the library lately. Read Vanish last week and am part way through The Mephisto Club. I really like her books. They are mysteries usually, although she has this fantastic sci-fi one called Gravity. I read a few of them several years ago, but I really don't remember so much swearing in them. Could be faulty memory or could be she's changed with the times. But it is so unnecessary for the plot. It's getting harder and harder to find writer's who don't gratuitously drop the F-bomb all the time. *sighs*

No More Eating out for May

May 10th, 2011 at 04:28 am

I spent $42.21 on takeaway today. Doggone it, the eating out has gotten out of hand again. So as of right now no more takeaway or restaurant meals for the rest of the month. I seriously need to get my act back together.

I think I am just exhausted taking care of DS, waking up to give him medicine in the middle of the night. He's so lethargic and helpless from the painkillers. And of course every time he sneezes or yawns or eats, it just hurts him so much. Part of why I got takeaway today. He wanted egg flower soup and I figured it'd be a way to get protein into him. That and my resistance was just way down.

Dealing with DS recovering from surgery and DD on her new pre-diabetes diet has just been stressful. But I can't let my way of dealing with stress mean reaching for the wallet and buying things. That's a surefire way of spending more than I intend to and losing focus on what I need to stay focused on.

Oddz and Endz

May 3rd, 2011 at 03:50 am

Very little going on today. Car insurance of $95.61 and house insurance of $41.00 came out on autopay today. Tomorrow or the next day life insurance will come out for both DH and myself. On the 5th storage autopay will come out, and then nothing until the 12th.

I will mail off the electric bill tomorrow and pay the AMEX online.

I paid out $90 for physical therapy today. DH gassed up the car before I took him to the airport. It was $3.99 per gallon at Costco and he got 8 gallons for $31.92. We also put a smidgeon over 4 gallons in his dad's truck last night, but that was at $4.03 a gallon and was $16.20.

I went to the grocery store and got milk, strawberries, and medication from the pharmacy. Altogether it was $71.17.

We are making up strawberry/banana/orange/pineapple smoothies and freezing them in rocket shaped Popsicle™ molds so that DS will have some dye free, artificial ingredient free, homemade Popsicles™ after his tonsilectomy. Mom is also going to make some homemade ice cream for him to have.

The new chicks are growing so fast. They already have distinct personalities. The cuteness factor is off the charts.

Property Tax, Tonsilectomy Scheduled, and Lunch Out

April 27th, 2011 at 06:18 pm

I transferred the money out of ING for property tax this morning and sent it to my local credit union. It's due on Friday, which is the day it will arrive in my account. I still think it's ridiculous that money transfers take that long when it's you doing it, but when it's them taking the money out for payments and stuff it's so much faster. I want that three days' worth of interest, as miniscule as it is. Anyway way, that's $518.17 for half the year.

The ENT scheduling nurse called this morning and we scheduled DS's tonsilectomy for May 6 at ten with a check in time of nine. I was surprised they had an opening so soon. It's right in the middle of the yearly testing (that used to be the WASL but is some new test now that has an abbreviation that sounds like a sneeze). So he'll miss some of that, but he's only grade 5 so I don't particularly care too much. I'd rather he miss testing than miss real school lessons, you know? He'll be out of school most of the next week, maybe all week if the recovery is slow enough.

DH and I are going out to lunch today for Mexican food. DD doesn't care much for it, it upsets her stomach, and DS's throat is still too sore for spicy, so we're going without them. We will probably spend about $20.

Happy Easter

April 24th, 2011 at 10:49 pm

Not much to blog about yesterday so I didn't. First day I missed in a long time. DH went out to the house with his dad to work on the shower stall. He ended up having to come back into town for parts and then go back out again, so he used 4 gallons of gas instead of 2. That'll throw things off a little bit. Glad we aren't making a trip to Seattle this month after all.

DD went to a birthday party. I gave her a twenty so she could buy a present and the change she brought back was $3.25, all in quarters, so it went into the change jar.

The people that fixed the plumbing on Friday came back to take away the broken up blacktop from the part of the driveway they dug up to get to the pipes. The backhoe is still here and will likely remain here until Monday.

My mother decided not to repave that part of the driveway and brought some good dirt/compost in and is going to plant potatoes there. The sewer and gas pipes are eight feet down so the plants shouldn't interfere with them like the honeysuckle roots did. 3 feet of pipe was just jamemed with honeysuckle roots almost in a solid mass.

I'm not crazy about the idea of her planting veggies there because the part of the ground where the overflow pipe comes out spewed sewer water for three days. That can't be healthy. Hopefully she'll just avoid that area, since they actually dug up thirty feet and there is plenty of ground that didn't get contaminated.

As for today my daughter is making the entire dinner. I said I didn't want to do anything, didn't want to be involved in making an elaborate meal and was happy with spaghetti, but she wanted to do something so I told her to go ahead.

We had a turkey at Christmas that we didn't use. We had ended up celebrating Thanksgiving a couple weeks late since DH was in Alaska on the actual holiday, and so nobody was in the mood for making another turkey so soon. So it sat in the freezer since Christmas, but it looked good when we thawed it out this week. So basically we are having Christmas dinner for Easter. She gets to turn it in as a missed lab in her home ec class, too.

I didn't see a price on the turkey so I can't really do a breakdown, but I'm sure it was close to $30 since it was a free range organic bird. Only a 12 pounder, though. And we'll be eating off it all week so that definitely brings the price down on everything.

Dentist, New Glasses, and Calling Doctors' Offices

April 22nd, 2011 at 01:02 am

It's going to cost my mom $4000 to get the plumbing fixed. And they are going to have to dig up part of the driveway to do it. She planted hyacinth vines about five years ago and the roots are growing through the pipes. This is why you never plant exuberant, fast growing vines anywhere near a foundation or where there are water/sewer or gas pipes. At our old house the hyacinth and clematis are well away from anything like that. And when we do get a new house we will definitely locate all our pipes before we plant anything.

Speaking of houses...that one we really like about six blocks from here that has way, way overpriced itself has dropped in price again, down to $400,000. It is still way overpriced for everything (neighborhood, value of home, amount of remodel, amount of purchase price a year ago), but if it keeps falling like this and no one buys, maybe by next year it'll be down around the $300,000 mark (which is probably still too high, but is much more reasonable and affordable), we'd actually consider giving it a go. Of course we still have to sell our old house first. Who knows? Right now it's just a pipe dream anyway.

I went to the dentist today at 11. It is almost 5 and my mouth still hasn't thawed out from the novacaine completely. Half my lower lip looks like someone gave me a fat lip and it's darker than the rest of my lips. I have to go back in on the 29th. And maybe again in another week. Yeah, word to the wise, don't go three years between cleanings. Even if you don't have dental find a way to pay up front and at least get your cleanings done.

My glasses came in at Lenscrafters. They are going to take a bit to get used to since they are progressive lenses. I can read a lot more clearly now, even teeny tiny print. Figuring out how far away from the computer screen I need to be is the difficult part. I haven't tried driving yet. I want to wait a few days until I get used to the trifocal aspect of things. My clip on sunglass lenses fit just fine on these frames so I won't have to buy new ones, which is nice. But these frames are pretty similar to the old ones so I sort of thought they would.

I made an appointment to get my son in to see an ENT about getting his tonsils removed. I had to wait on hold for fifteen minutes. I listened to their darn stupid speel all the way around six times. I wish they'd just play music instead because I really don't care about plastic surgery or laser hair removal or acne treatments or anything the other partners in their thing do. I just wanted to make an appointment. Frown *sighs*

I called back my specialist yet again (going on 2 months and one week now) about the Virginia Mason thing and this time they said they had faxed them a couple weeks ago and all they got back was "Recieved." Umm...yes, and...? What does that mean? I mean, seriously, Miss Receptionist, could you be any less helpful? So she said she'd fax them again and call me tomorrow. (I won't hold my breath). I mean, give me the name of the stupid specialist at Virginia Mason and I will call myself and schedule an appointment. (Oh, no, they don't do it that way.)

I'm about to start all over. I'd have to go to Mt. Vernon to do it since this practice is the only urology office in my county. I am just so frustrated with them. Why is this so darn difficult for everyone to just do their jobs?

Okay, okay, I'll calm down now.

Picked up four more hams at the grocery store today. We spend $21.64 for 16.8 pounds of meat. I am making one tonight in the crockpot.

Medical, it's Always Medical These Days

April 18th, 2011 at 11:25 pm

I finally received a bill from the specialist that I saw on February 15. I don't think I've ever dealt with such a slow to bill doctor's office before. It's $148. It would have been $168, but at that time we were on the medical that had a $20 co-pay. Anyway, the $148 will all go to the deductible. I am debating whether or not to pay it now or wait until the end of the month. It doesn't have a due date on it.

I am still not getting the information I need from them regarding Virginia Mason and the referral which is more than ticking me off a little. I will call again tomorrow. I should not have to call them once a week. This runaround is terrible. I am tempted to withhold payment until they've done what they were supposed to do. I mean that is supposedly part of what I'll be paying for, right?

I am tempted to go see a new specialist from scratch and start over. It might well be worth it, especially if this one doesn't see a need for me to go all the way to Seattle for a surgery. Of course that would mean a new patient fee all over again (that's why the other bill is so high).

DS is sick right now. His tonsils are swollen up and bright red and covered with pus, so majorly infected. Plus there is blood when he coughs up phlegm (which might be from a broken blood vessel from blowing his nose too hard). We are taking him in to see the on call doc in a little bit. I've got to get going on finding an ENT because they want to take his tonsils out and I think it's time to schedule a surgery.

My allergies are driving me crazy, but at least I am over my cold.

Spent $30 on ice cream and egg flower soup for DS. It hurts him to eat anything else right now.



Back from the Mall

April 17th, 2011 at 12:11 am

Oh, I really don't like going there. It's always so hot inside the building. But DD needed her hair cut. She got about five inches off and a fun, cute, easy to manage style. It just touches the nape of her neck now. So that came to $30 with the tip.

After I had my eye appointment at Lenscrafters and oh, boy has my perscription changed. Not only has my distance vision gotten worse, but my near vision has gotten bad enough that I had to get bifocals. Progressive ones so no line, but man it was so nice to at least temporarily be able to see clearly through the machine.

Unfortunately they had to order the right type of lenses so it could be up to ten days before I get them and they can't even order them until Monday morning. The insurance covered $200 of the lenses and frames, but we still had to cover $247 ourselves. That is how bad my eyes are that I can't use normal lenses anymore. We put it on our Lenscrafters account, which is three months to pay off with no interest. I will, however, pay it off next month when the bill comes.

DD still needs to get an eye exam and new glasses. I will put that in the budget for May as well. She's only got one thing wrong with her eyes, thank goodness.

We ate lunch at the food court. DH and I split a fish and chips from Ivar's that came with a clam chowder and soda. DH had the clam chowder and soda. I got a water bottle and had one piece of fish and half the fries. It cost $12. The kids split a meatball marinara footlong sandwich from Subway, a bag of chips and each got a rootbeer for $8. So $20 for lunch out.

Dinner tonight is homemade tacos. Yummy. DH and I are sitting down tonight and doing a full week's worth of meal planning.

Snow

April 14th, 2011 at 09:14 pm

I cannot believe it, but I guess all that white stuff on the ground is proof. It snowed overnight last night. It was 60 degrees and gorgeous yesterday. What happened to spring? Ah, well, maybe it'll kill off some of these buds that are spreading their pollen around and causing my allergies to act up. I don't think we've ever had snow in April here before in my lifetime. Usually the middle of March is the absolute latest.

The money for taxes that I transferred from ING showed up in my CU account so I'll fill out the check and we will mail that off tonight.

Tomorrow is payday and we will be able to pay off another credit card. I am excited about that.

Not really a lot going on otherwise. I'll have to buy some medicine tonight. $3.13 for one prescription and $10 for an over the counter decongestant.

DH is home. So far no spending frenzy temptations. He did spend $17 at the airport to get a neck pillow for the airplane. His old one started losing all it's polystyrene beads so he tossed it. And he rented a digi player on the plane (which I told him he could do if he wanted to) for $6.

It feels really strange to have DS gone on his class trip. The house is so quiet. It's kind of nice to have the break, to be honest, even though I miss him. He's a high energy child and I am a low energy parent. He'll be back Friday afternoon.

I think that about covers everything.

BoA Master Card #2 Almost Gone

April 9th, 2011 at 01:17 am

Today is payday and I made a payment of $2500 to the BoA Master Card. That leaves me with $887.89 to pay off next week and then that puppy is done. (Well, there will probably be an interest fee that comes in as soon as it is paid off but I'll pay that right away, too). I need to move the two autopays off that card and on to another one so there is absolutely nothing left on it. It comes to $133.43 each month (so that is why the numbers are a bit off down below).

Big Grin I am so excited because that will leave us with only one credit card left with a balance on it. Evil Empire, your hold on me and mine is getting looser and looser!

So anyway, money out today:

$2500.00 BoA MC
--300.00 to Mom for utilities
---39.37 for security system at old house
--100.00 to the Emergency Fund
--141.96 to Verizon
---84.62 major toiletries stock up
--100.00 Cash
---55.00 Entertainment
------------
$3320.95

I have $286 left in the checkbook and will probably spend about $50 of that on food this week, but the rest will go into next week's bills.

I had $40 leftover from last week's cash so I put that in the laptop fund. I had $1.17 in coins that I put into the coin jar.

I added $100 to the emergency fund. Taxes have been removed from my calculations now so that brings the new EF total to $377.36. It feels weird to be starting almost all the way over again with the EF. In May I'll be able to make a much larger contribution.

New credit card debt totals:

$20,157.03 BoA VISA
+---887.89 BoA MC
-----------
$21,044.92 Total owed to the Evil Empire

$22.947.81 Previous credit card balance owed
-21,044.93 Amount Left on credit cards
------------
$--1903.01 Amount of change on balance

Prices Going Up

April 2nd, 2011 at 02:30 am

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

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

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

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

New Glasses for DS

March 19th, 2011 at 09:41 pm

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

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

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

Wedding Anniversary and Insurance

March 18th, 2011 at 10:20 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vehicle Tax and Property Tax

March 17th, 2011 at 09:42 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dump Run and House Stuff

March 16th, 2011 at 03:36 am

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

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

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

Last Bills from this Paycheck

March 15th, 2011 at 07:48 am

I picked up 8 temporary checks from the Credit Union today so I could write out the rest of my bills. They were:

Garbage for this house--$50.65
HSBC/Best Buy for laptop (took out of laptop fund)--$100.00
Comcast Phone for old house--$44.92 (complaining did me some good!)
Comcast internet for this house--$65.55
AAA Yearly Renewl Fee--$121
Car Tabs--$75.77

I also had physical therapy today so $90 for that. I was able to walk down the stairs today one foot per stair instead of two feet per stair. I'm starting to see some actual progress on my knee.

Then the car payment is due on the 19th which is a Saturday, so that won't come out until the 21st. I've the money set aside for that and will transfer it on Friday the 18th.

I found $1 in change on the floor of the old house while we were cleaning today so that went into the coin jar. Tomorrow we are going to go do some more work out at the house and make a dump run so we will be borrowing FIL's truck which means putting at least 3 gallons of gas in when we are done. So that'll be $10.40 or so.

Wednesday we might go out again, but will have to be back before six at night for DS's science fair. I hope it's one of those things where only a brief appearance is needed. I'm still feeling under the weather and DD is quite ill. If I can pop my head in and oo and aw over things and then leave DH to hang around and do the parental thing, that would be nice.

We have to go to the court house in the morning to pay for car tabs and find out why we haven't been mailed our propterty tax bill yet, since it's due April 30 and they usually send them out in February. They might still have the wrong address. I need to see about getting my temporary disabled parking permit. Should only need it for six months if all goes well surgically.

I need to fill out my juror's questionaire and then enclose the doctor's note with it excusing me and mail that in.

We might go out on Thursday as well. I have to do a lot of sitting down and supervising DH, but I do what I can. And it keeps him company. We won't go out on Friday because that is our 16th wedding anniversary and we're going to a nice steakhouse for dinner. We had talked about a movie but it's really hard on my bad knee to be straight down on the groung like that. It needs to be elevated after about an hour to an hour and half and most movies today are far longer than that. So maybe we'll just watch a DVD together when we get home.

I have a feeling it's going to be long week.

DS's Birthday Today

March 14th, 2011 at 03:41 am

Eleven years ago today I gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Today he's still bouncing, though it tends to be off the walls, off the ceiling, off the bed. My husband managed to lose one of his presents last night. He only bought it on Friday, it shouldn't be that hard to remember what he did with it. Wouldn't have been that big of a deal if we had gotten more than two things. It was a used video game that DS wanted desperately, so it was one of those tiny ones for the Nintendo DSI.

So DH made an unexpected trip down to Burlington to a Game Stop there and picked up another one. The first one cost $22. The second one cost $43. Both were used. Needless to say I am slightly annoyed with DH. I took the money out of my laptop fund, because we'd already used up all the birthday money I'd budgeted. Then DH decided it was okay to use the leftover money from the $50 I gave him to buy modeling glue! So I didn't end up with any of the money back.

DS and my mother made cupcakes tonight to take to class tomorrow. A lovely homemade chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting made from cocoa. I was jealous, but we'd already had homemade yellow cake with homemade white frosting for his birthday. Anyway the ingredients for the cupcakes were $2.

Tomorrow is going to be a difficult day to get things down to the school. 28 cupcakes and a science fair project. Oh, well, we'll manage.

No News Yet and BoA Payment Made

March 12th, 2011 at 02:16 am

It's hard for me to focus on finances right now. All updates from my friend's family have her still listed as missing. I did find her facebook page (didn't think she had one), but no news yet and google's people finder has her listed as missing. But I do know that I can't allow myself to slip up on finances even though there is a giant knot in my stomach.

So...turns out that new prescription isn't covered by my insurance. They didn't deny it, they just don't cover it. Weird. But it's very expensive. $150 for 30 pills. I do have a $25 off coupon, but still. Ouch. And I can sign up to receive more coupons from the company, but still that only brings it down to $125. I am hoping I won't have to be on it very long and can stop taking it after the surgery and also that I can get samples of it from my regular physician since it is so pricey. The pharmacy doesn't even have it. They will have to order it. I'm glad I have samples.

The payment I made to BoA VISA posted this morning and it's back under $20,000 at $19,687.44. So there was a bit of progress made there. I made a payment of $1300 to the BoA Master Card today which will bring it down quite a bit. $84.23 went to interest so subtracting that out should bring the balance to $3260.27.

$24,238.69 previous BoA credit card balances
-22,947.81 new BoA credit card balances
------------
$1290.88 went to Bringing Down the Evil Empire

From now on there will be a lot more progress made each month, though. I thought I would have to wait until May to pay off the MC but I'll be able to get it paid off in April, so only one more month. Yay! Then the whole amount can go to the VISA from May on. That means I should have it paid off in November and not December like I thought. Although I don't know what the surgery is going to cost, but it's probably at least the amount of one VISA payment. So maybe I should stick with December.

I still need to do the rest of the bills for this paycheck, and will probably get that done tomorrow.

Money spent on prescriptions today was $60.25. We got a XL pizza from Round Table for $27.11. DH picked up DS's big b'day present for $65.43. I think that's it.

Shopping and Meal Planning for Tomorrow

March 9th, 2011 at 04:38 am

Today was a really long day, but I feel like I got a lot accomplished. And dinner was fantastic. It has been an age since I've made my garlic cheese meatballs. Usually when I make the fancy sauce from scratch I just don't bother with adding protein to the meal because it is a pretty hearty sauce, but we had a pound of hamburger thawed out leftover from making cheeseburgers last night and the kids had been asking for these so I did, with the idea that there would be leftovers for tomorrow night to make meatball sandwiches with. Umm...I'd forgoten how good they are. Suffice it to say there was exactly two meatballs leftover which is not going to make anyone a sandwich, but at least can be crumbled up and thrown on pizza when I make it this week.

DH and I went jeans shopping for him. Unfortunately we only found one pair that fit him right. There were four pairs in his size, but only one brand fit him right. I kind of wish clothing manufacturers woiuld be more standard. So we might have to wait until next month to buy him the other two pairs, but we will check back next week in case new stock came in.

While we were there, totally unexpectedly, I found the perfect swimsuit for me. I was going to order one off a website, but was hesitating because of the price. The suit I found at the store was $20 less. It was just what I wanted, in that it had thick shoulder straps instead of tying behind the neck, a good built-in bra that doesn't show off more than I'm comfortable having the world see, and a skirt that wasn't so long it gets in my way when I do the crawl stroke, but was long enough to cover what I wanted covered. We got a $3 catalina coupon for health and beauty that is good until mid-April at the check-out.

The suit is a little...loud, but not garishly so and most swimsuits are these days. Just more than I would normally wear. Looks like confetti all over a black background. I will have to cut these goofy bows off that serve no purpose and then I will be completely happy. I've been making do with a suit that's too big for a while now, (wore it when pregnant with my almost eleven year old) so I'm glad I'll have something that fits better now that I swim so much more than I used to. I'm going to start swimming again tomorrow. I hate to see what kind of shape I'm in. I was doing 40 laps when I got sick and quit. I think I'll be lucky if I can do 10.

We went to Lowe's and bought replacement filters for our Brita faucet filter and my mom had us pick up a filter for her, too. They had a $10 rebate for if you bought a replacement 2 pack and a filter. Mom doesn't rebate so I got it and I will send it off tomorrow. It also came with a thing that if you sign up at Brita for reminder emails for replacement filters they will send you a $2 coupon.

We got a gallon of Darigold milk today that was marked down to 99 cents because it's sell by date was tomorrow. My son's special milk was on special for $5.29 a gallon (usually $5.99) with a sell by date of March 23 so we got two of those. I also got some bananas that were 48 cents a pound. Normally the best I can get them for is 59 cents a pound, so yay.

We went to the pharmacy and got 2 prescriptions for $14.92. I was afraid that the drug part of our medical plan had changed, but it hasn't. Very happy about that. I am still waiting on the one doctor to call in another RX. I will have to call tomorrow. I called on Monday and they said they'd call it in but haven't. I only have 2 samples left so they better get a move on.

I'm going to have to make more bread tomorrow. I usually only do it twice a week, but we seem to be eating more than previously. Or maybe my mother is filching more than she used to. She does like fresh bread. DH is probably snacking on it without telling me. I've noticed a big dip in the peanut butter jar, too. I'll have to ask him as I'll want to account for it in my meal planning if he is.

Meal Planning for tomorrow:

Breakfast:
French toast with powdered sugar ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $2.50

Lunch:
2 kids--
PB and Honey sandwich (.50)
Turkey ham and roast beef sandwich ($1)
banana (.20)
apple (.50)
hard pretzels (.25)

2 adults--
All meat chili ($3)
Cornbread (.30)
bananas (.40)

Total: $6.15

Dinner:
Chicken legs ($3)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (.50)
Broccoli ($1)
Cauliflower ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $7

Total for day: $15.65

Cards in the Mail and Meal Planning

March 7th, 2011 at 11:29 pm

I guess the 18 months same as cash deal for the laptop comes with a credit card, not just a line of credit, because I got a Best Buy Credit Card in the mail today. I immediately put it into the drawer with all the other unused credit cards. I have no intention of using it. I'll make my first payment on Friday, $75 more than the minimum payment of $25 a month. $100 a month is a much better number for getting it paid off well before the 18 months are up.

Costoco AMEX sent me out a new card. I'm not sure why since the one I have doesn't expire until 7/14. It's got the same number on it. Maybe it's because we bumped up to the executive level at Costco being as we've already earned enough this year to pay for it and then some when rewards time comes around. I guess I can thank high gas prices for that. I'm a little miffed as I finally just got around to having my photo put on the old AMEX and now I'll have to do it again. *sighs*

I had physical therapy today but had to cut out early. I started getting really queasy about ten minutes before the end and ended up throwing up in a garbage can. That was fun. I don't even know where it came from. One minute I was fine, the next, blech. Anyway PT cost $90.

DH spent $21.37 picking up milk and yogurt with live cultures (we've all been on too many antibiotics lately). He also spent $8.73 for two big rolls of packing tape with a dispenser, 2 permanent black markers and a box cutter. It came in a kit and was cheaper than buying it all seperately.

There was no school today so all meals are at home. I forgot to send in my meal planning yesterday but I did do it.

Breakfast:
Pancakes with the last of the huckleberry jam we bought on vacation in July ($1.50)
Eggs (free, from chickens)
Milk: ($2)

Total: $3.50

Lunch:
Chicken noodle soup ($2)
Tuna sandwiches ($2)
2 bananas (.50)
2 oranges ($1)

Total: $5.50

Dinner:
Hamburgers ($1.73)
Homemade buns ($.25)
Cheese slices (.50)
tomato (.50)
lettuce (.25)
condiments (.25)
diced onion (.25)
French Fries ($1)
1 can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)

Total: $7.73

Total for day $16.73

We're doing much better than all those $20-$22 days now. I'm glad I did most of the baking and the dough making this morning before PT because I wouldn't feel like doing it now. I made one batch of hamburger/hotdog buns, a loaf of bread, 1 batch of biscuits, 1 pan of corn bread and a batch of blueberry muffins. The buns and bread have finished rising and have just gone in the oven, but everything else was baked earlier. I may have DD put in the ingredients for pizza dough into the bread machine for making pizza later in the week (after my stomach settles down).

I need to remember to call two of my doctors today for medication refills and see what is going on with the referral to Virginia Mason. It's been 3 weeks and I haven't heard anything yet.

Payday Odds and Ends

March 5th, 2011 at 12:23 am

Today is payday. I'm still figuring stuff out as far as the bills go. We went to Costco and bought $45.14 worth of food and a case of toilet paper. We don't need to do any major shopping this week at all. We will have to pick up milk, de-icer spray for the car windows, and jeans for DH, but that should be it.

I have to set money aside for the cell phone due on the 12th, the VISA due on the 21st, the MC due on the 17nth, and the car payment due on the 19th. Ticket prices have gone up on airfare and DH had to buy one this time around for a total of $950. Ouch. That's about $250 higher than usual. I'm sure that's due to gas and oil prices going up so high right now. Add that to the $70 for the hotel and the $40 for travel food, plus the interest for the month and that VISA is basically going to just be standing still this month. I am glad I already made an extra $1000 payment to it last week.

I was going to make an extra payment to the AMEX but I think I will hold off on that until the 1st and just make an extra large payment then instead. It's not due until April 3 anyway. The extra will go to the Master Card instead. For now I will transfer $3000 to the holding tank and then pay those bills closer to when they are due. Two weeks of interest isn't much, but it's something.

I added 34 cents to the change jar and $85 to the laptop fund.

$475.44 beginning laptop fund balance
$+85.00 amount added
-----------
$560.44 ending laptop fund balance

I got the statement from Best Buy for the laptop in the mail today. They only require a $25 payment. Sheesh. I'll be sending them $100 a month. Even though I have 18 months to pay it off without interest, I am not even going to come close to not paying it off in time. It's due on the 22nd, so I'll take $100 out of the laptop fund to pay it, and continue adding what I can to the fund as I go.

Medical and Miscellaneous Money Out

March 4th, 2011 at 12:12 am

Not much going on here today. We went to Kmart as DD needed poster board for a school project. While we were there we got some tree sap remover and a microfiber cloth to get some gunge off the car before it wrecks the paint. It's supposed to remove tree sap, bug gunge, and bird droppings, all of which seem to have attacked our poor car lately. So we spent $6.80.

We also paid our monthly chiropractor bill of $215 for the upcoming month. Our chiropractor has a family plan where you can have as many visits as you want for every member of the family for a month for $215. Since one visit for one person would cost a $20 co-pay plus 20% of an $80 visit, and all four of us go two to three times a week, it is much cheaper for us to do it this way. We all have certain spinal issues so cutting back on visits isn't an option.

DH is Home

March 3rd, 2011 at 12:07 am

DH is safely home from Alaska. The plane had to circle the runway for an hour though on account of the wind gusting up to 72 miles per hour today. (The wind is just ridiculous. There are branches everywhere. Our basketball hoop fell over.) They were afraid they were going to have to go back to Seattle to land. I'm glad they didn't because then who knows how long it would have taken him to get home.

Food expenses will go up now that he's home, as we'll be feeding one more person, so I really need to keep an eye on that and make sure it doesn't get out of control. I also need to stand firm on not eating out much, because it is very easy to do that when he is at home. We have a lot of meat and cheese in the freezer and plenty of starch (pasta, rice, potatoes, bread) so I really just need to worry about fruit, veg, and milk.

He is going to need some jeans for work so I'll need to budget three pairs into next payday's expenses. I'm really glad that Kmart has a big and tall section now. He's got really long legs. It used to cost us $35 per pair of his jeans because he'd have to get them at Carharts (usually by special order). But now he can usually get 3 good pairs for around $50. That's the only unforeseen expense going into this paycheck, thankfully.

We spent $37.03 at the grocery store today. We bought milk, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, lemons, bananas, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen peaches, and apples, so we should be set for the next seven days or so.

Little Things

March 1st, 2011 at 02:51 pm

I added yesterday's change to the coin jar, a whopping 90 cents.

I added $10 to the laptop fund.

$475.44 beginning laptop fund
$+10.00 amount added.
--------------
$485.44 ending laptop fund

I paid out $2 to my son who lost a tooth

My monthly ING interest came through so I added that $5.07 to the EF.

$7468.65 beginning EF fund
$+005.07 ING interest
---------------
$7473.72 total EF

It appears that we're going to have to pay $800 less in taxes than previously thought. DH had forgotten about the Making Work Pay tax credit. That will make things a little easier.

Payday--Money Out

February 26th, 2011 at 01:31 am

Today is payday and I’m really happy with how things shaped up.

$1000 to BoA VISA. This is the second payment this month and this one goes completely to principle since the one I made last week was to cover all of DH’s work travel expenses and the monthly interest charge.

$1000 to Mom’s 0% interest loan, dropping the amount we now owe her to $91,000.00. We have 7 years and 8 months’ worth of payments to go. We have paid off $19,000.00 so far. This was originally all medical debt.

$300 to Mom to help her with utilities.

$34 to the EF and $1 to the holding tank since the electric bill for the old house was $1 less than I’d budgeted for. That brings the holding tank to $204.30 and the EF to $7468.65, with $1000 of that in the safety net at the local CU and the rest in ING.

$20 for the electric bill at the old house

$212.66 for term life insurance for me and DH, house insurance on old house, and car insurance

$39.37 security system on old house

$131 to storage

$200 to AMEX

$375.86 to mortgage on old house

$407.75 on propane

I have a couple hundred left for groceries and miscellaneous items for the week. I doubt I will spend it all. Any extra will go to the laptop fund. I did spend $60.11 on Chinese food from the no MSG place. I got enough to have several meals out of it so I don’t have to cook while I am still so sick. I really wish this cold would leave. I am just too out of it to cook like normal. I hate spending that much money but it’s good food with lots of veg so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Out of next week’s payday I will pay an additional $500 to AMEX, $500 to the holding tank for medical, $124 to renew AAA, $1000 to the EF and $1000 to the holding tank for the two week period of no paycheck. There should be about $600 left and $300 of that will go to the property tax portion of the holding tank, $100 to the laptop fund, $100 for groceries and $100 for miscellaneous. If there is anything beyond that it will go to the laptop fund. The payday after that, which is only two and a half day’s pay will also be for stretching across the two week period of no paycheck.

I took back the 3 cans of chicken and rice soup I bought on Tuesday by accident and got 3 cans of chicken and stars soup in exchange. The price had dropped 10 cents a can on the new sale week, so I got 30 cents back in change. Also at the Chinese place the lady didn’t want to use so many pennies by giving me back the 14 cents she owed me so she gave me 15 cents instead, so that’s a total of 45 cents to the coin jar today. I also grabbed some penny wrappers while I was at the CU paying the mortgage, so I can roll coins today and add that to next week’s laptop fund deposit.

All in all a satisfying payday and I can’t wait until next week when everything posts and I can update my numbers again and see some real progress this time.

Oh, and DH has heard from three different people, one his direct supervisor that he’ll be getting a raise in April at the six month mark. It will add $525 to his gross income for a six week pay cycle if the amount he was told is correct, so I’m thinking we will at least get $400 of it and that can go to debt repayment probably. If I’ve done the numbers right, with that extra amount we should hit the end of the year no problem with having BoA paid off completely. I’m not counting it yet, though, in my budget. It’s one of those things where I’ll believe it when I see it.

The BoA VISA should now have a little over $3000 between what we owe and what the limit is on it, so with that cushion there I am going to now switch to paying only $1500 on the BoA VISA each month (expenses, plus interest, plus about $100 to principle) and take the extra $1000 and add it to the $400 payment we make on the BoA Master Card. That will pay it off by the end of May and then we’ll be able to pay $2900 to the VISA each month until it is paid off. I may try to scrape up an extra $100 each time to make it $3000. We’ll see what’s available.

Once that is done the money will then go to finish paying off the car, unless DH talks me into trading in the Matrix for a Sienna sooner than we planned.
If we stick to the plan, we should be out of debt, except what we owe to Mom, by the middle of 2012, possibly sooner if he gets the raise.

Mom doesn’t want us paying her back any faster than $1000 a month because she is using that to supplement her income from social security (and saving as much of it as she can for the future). She likes having it come in steadily and our system seems to be working for everyone.

Edited to add: I was cleaning out an old purse and found $1.95 in coins. I then rolled coins and I have $7.50 to add to the laptop fund.

$467.94 beginning laptop fund balance
$=07.50 amount added
---------------
$475.44 ending laptop fund balance

Comcast is on My List Again

February 25th, 2011 at 03:10 am

Comcast needs to get it's act together. I paid for both the phone for the old house and the internet for where we are living now on the 17th. The checks have still not been cashed. Seriously, Comcast, it takes you more than a week to cash a check now? As greedy and as grasping of an entity as you are and you haven't deposited the money yet?

It's annoying. I want my checkbook to be up to date and these two checks are the only things I am waiting on. They better cash them before the end of the month. I hate carrying stuff over from month to month (and generally avoid writing checks the last week of the month so I don't have to and everything will have cleared). I took them there in person so they couldn't have gotten lost in the mail. I should dig up my statements and at least make sure they were credited to my accounts. If they try to pull late fee garbage over this I am going to go down there and make a scene.

In other news, I spent $35.92 for $11.022 gallons of gas. It's at $3.25 a gallon at the cheapest place. It's better than in some states, but it still is a ridiculous amount to be paying.

I also spent $5 on soup for my poor sick kiddo (because I'm too sick to make another batch myself). They were on sale and of course I grabbed the cans right over the sign that said Chicken and Stars. And then of course I get home and see that they are Chicken with Rice, which nobody likes. Why can't they put the sale sign with the proper item? Most of the time I check, but I wasn't feeling good and from a distance it looked like the right kind. They were on sale, too, so I should just be able to exchange them. I'll do it tomorrow. Kiddo will just have to deal.

BoA Refund Finally and Ham Soup (no beans) Recipe Wanted

February 20th, 2011 at 01:34 am

I forgot to mention that the $218.18 refund finally showed up from BoA yesterday. It was part of the payment I made to the VISA yesterday of $1500. I can't wait until next Friday when I can send them an additional $1000. I wish they'd hurry up and post the payment I made at the bank yesterday. It probably won't post until Monday. It was after 3 p.m. when I paid it and if it's after 3 p.m. they don't post it that day, though they do credit it that day. With everything online, I don't get why they don't, same as I don't get why online banks really "need" that three day transfer between banks. It disappears from your account right away and then it's just in limbo. I think it's just an excuse to get out of paying a few days' worth of interest. They can certainly accept and add to your account a credit card purchase instantly. To me it should all be the same thing.

I went grocery shopping today and bought milk and produce. I also got a pound of sundrops. They are like M&M's only made without artifical ingredients or food dyes. They are colored naturally. My son was happy. I was happy to find them. They have them in the bulk bins at Fred Meyer. That pound should last a few months.

I spent $19.41 at one store and got a reciept that had a coupon for $4 off a car wash. It's normally a ten dollar car wash so that is a good price. I also could have my choice of very cheap pizzas, half off at the pita place, and half off at the pho place. Not that I'd use any of those, but I'll use the car wash coupon. In warm weather we wash the car ourselves but it's been in the thirties with whipping wind for months and the car is filthy so I'll definitely take it in. I'll probably wait until DH comes home. I really hate matching up the tires with those automated tracks.

I went to a second store and paid $18.43 for a large picnic ham. Does anyone have a good soup recipe made with a ham bone? I don't want anything with beans, though. My kids have textural issues and I don't like them. Pretty much any veg except parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas are a go, though. I'd like to be able to stretch the ham as far as I did the chicken. I know I can use diced ham in omelettes or breakfast casserole and the kids will eat it in sandwiches, too, but soup goes over really well here when it's this cold.

I can't find what I did with the receipt, I might have dropped it, to the other store, but it was $21 and something. I bought cans of organic chili and beef stew there. Everyone is feeling under the weather. I have plenty of food made/planned for the next two days for dinners. But if the kids get sick of them they'll have another option and I can freeze the other stuff for next week sometime.

I added $3 in ones to the laptop fund today and $2.16 in change to the coin jar. I found a quarter on the floor at the check out of one of the stores.

$432.94 beginning laptop fund balance
$+03.00 amount added
-----------
$435.94 ending laptop fund balance

Payday, EF, Holding Tank and Safety Net, and Money Out

February 19th, 2011 at 02:45 am

I love it when the first payday of the pay cycle gets here and I still have money left in the account. That isn't always easy because that final paycheck of the cycle stretches across three weeks instead of the normal one. I had $100 left so I transferred that to ING to be added to the Emergency Fund. That makes $6,231.35 in the EF at ING. I also transferred some money to be held there that isn't part of the EF. It's part of what I call my holding tank.

The holding tank is for short term savings. I just started it. It will have things in there that are paid bimonthly or every six months. I transferred $100 in there for property tax. I'm not sure what my property tax for the year on the old house is, because they still haven't sent out the paper work, but last year it was just over $1000, so I decided to go with $1200 and put $100 a month aside. I didn't do it in January, but I'm not worried about it. We'll catch it up one way or the other. Maybe from the safety net if we have to. That's what it is there for. But more likely we'll just pay less on the VISA in April.

Also in the holding tank is $6.30 for garbage (I budget $50 a month and the bill is bimonthly and was less than that, but I pay garbage pick up for the old house (that will end soon) as well as garbage pickup here. So I'll save the extra and add it to when the bill for here comes due. Any extra will carry over and just build a cushion for garbage when we have to make dump runs from the old house.

I also put $80 in the holding tank for water/sewer at the old house. It's paid bimonthly and I think it's only $72 per month, but I can't remember, it might be $76 so I built in some cushion. And I put in $17 to go towards the HOA dues that will be due in July. So altogether the ING holding tank has $203.30 in it and the total amount of money in ING is $6,434.65.

As for the safety net, it has $1,068.65 in it. We used $1000 of it to pay some medical bills off.

Other than all that out of today's paycheck I paid:

$1500.00 to the BoA VISA (will pay more next week)

$400.00 to put back in the safety net that I used yesterday to pay on the Master Card

$51.91 for phone out at the old house (still hating on Comcast for that amount)

$65.55 for cable internet

$43.70 for garbage

$490.75 for the car payment

$60 for DD six week allowance ($10 a week)

$36 for DS six week allowance ($6 a week)

$100 for groceries

I will pay out $90 for physical therapy Monday and that will leave me with $116.56 in the checking account until next payday.

Other than that I added $2 to the laptop fund and $1.06 to the coin jar.

$430.94 beginning laptop fund balance
+002.00 amount added
--------------
$432.94 ending laptop fund balance

I finished reading America's Cheapest Family by Annette and Steve Economides. It was interesing enough, but the book is pretty dated at this point and a lot of the ideas won't work for our particular situation. A few of them will, so I walked away with something. I think for the beginner, new to trying to be frugal it would be a good book to read. (Not as fun or entertaining as Amy Dacyzn's Tightwad Gazette, though). I also started and finished reading Live Well for Less than You Think by Fred Brock. It was okay. Again, for anyone living the frugal lifestyle for a while it didn't really have all that much to offer, but it was a bit more current than the other book. And the newly frugal would learn a lot for it.

I'm about a third of the way through Jean Chaztky's From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day: Pay it Down. This one is a bit more relevant to me, but even so, it's got several things I've heard before. Still, I really like the writing style and the way she presents things, so I think I'll definitley get something out of this book by the time I am finished.

Subscribing for Food Delivery and Budget

February 17th, 2011 at 06:22 pm

Thanks to Laura I learned about a food program that amazon.com has for shipping you food and if you take out a subscription for it, you get 15% off the purchase price. And if you buy more than $25 worth you can get the free shipping. Of course they then wanted me to apply for their credit card and get $30 off as well, but I'm not at the point in my life where I have any intention of adding another credit card into the mix.

Anyway the choices of subscribing had a six month option and could be cancelled at any time so I went ahead and clicked the six month option. I will be getting 12 boxes of a gluten-free, organic, hamburger helper type (but healthier) lasanga dinner. They stopped carrying this particular brand around here. I figure if we go through it faster than six months we can switch to three months and if we don't go through it as fast as I think we will, I can just drop the subscription.

Anyway, I paid $34 for it, which is $2.83 a box. This stuff cost $4 a box when the stores around here still carried it. So, add in the cost of a pound of hamburger (2.29 usually here on sale) and I've got a filling dinner for 4 for $5.12. Add a veg and it goes up a buck. Not bad for something super fast and easy to make. It's good to have back up items like this when I don't feel like making a real effort to cook.

I also ordered a cookbook as a birthday present for me. B&N didn't have it when I went in there before my birthday. Just as well. The price from amazon was $18.79. When I bought it at Christmas as a gift for my neice it was $30. It would have been worth paying that, though. It's a really excellent book that tells all about the ingredients and covers dozens of proteins and hundreds of fruits and veg, as well as having recipes for the items. It's a real learning tool for a cook and the pictures are amazing. I got free shipping on that as well.

Then I ordered a replacement copy of a novel of mine that DH took on an airplane two years ago and left behind. It's out of print now, but I was able to find it new on half.com for $9 plus $3.99 shipping from someone with 100% positive feedback. I'm considering that my b'day present, too, even though it's technically not.

I'll need to set aside the extra money for the AMEX when it comes due. I put a notation in the budget. I've been working slowly to get the budget set up so that it covers extras like this, and put on two columns as holding tank in and holding tank out, to keep track of any extra money in each category and when it's paid out. The holding tank will be saved in the same savings account as the safety net. For now, anyway. I may switch it over to the laptop fund account once I reach my goal there, just to keep it away from the easily accessible portion of our EF money.

I was running numbers last night and once the credit card debt is gone, we will have $4000 a month just to put to saving up for a downpayment on a house. That's $96,000 after two years, assuming all goes well. Add that to whatever we sell the house for and we'll have a pretty substantial downpayment. As much as I'm going to want to rush to get out of here once the debt is gone, after running the numbers it makes so much more finanacial sense to wait two more years. We're probably looking in a price range of $350,000 max and I'd like to not carry more than a $150,000 mortgage. I know it might be closer to $200,000, but hopefully we'll find something closer to the lower end of our price range and not the higher one.

We also want to buy a mini-van in 2013. Hopefully a 2011 Toyota Sienna because they meet all of our needs and are so nice. They are too expensive brand new, but the price drops substantially on two year old vehicles. We definitely want the new redesign though, so a 2011 car in 2013 will be just right. We'll have $10,000 saved by then for a downpayment and we'll have a decent trade in and we're used to paying almost $500 a month on the car anyway, so if we can get around that on financing the rest (probably 15 to 20,000 depending on mileage), we'll be in a good place for it. By then our FICO should be back over 800, which makes low interest rates our friend.

After that there will be at least $2000 a month going into a college fund. Her school of choice is the local U and it, at the moment, costs about $7000 a year (including books and fees) for a local student living at home. After a year of saving we'll have $24,000 set aside right as our daughter is starting college. I'll keep adding to it. Fortunately our children are four grades apart so she will graduate college in the summer that my son will start in the fall. Hopefully they can both get scholarships, too. DD is on honor role as a freshman and DS is testing well above fifth grade level despite his behavioral issues. So it's a possibility. I want nothing to do with student loans or having my kids start out their lives with the debt they cause.

Odds and Ends

February 10th, 2011 at 06:56 pm

Yesterday after school I stopped at a different grocery store to pick up scallions because I needed them for the two types of soup I am making this week. Well, something prompted me to go back to the meat department and check for any sales. They had 2 pound chubs on for $2.49 a pound and five of them had $1.50 off stickers on them with a sell by date of today and they still smelled good. That made them $1.73 a pound which was such an excellent price I went ahead and bought them.

I am lucky if I can find it on sale for $2.29 a pound and have grudgingly began to think $2.49 was a good price. But $1.73 had me practically doing cartwheels. I still miss .99/lb hamburger though. But anyway, $17.30 for ten pounds of meat is awesome and that will be anywhere from 10 to 18 meals worth of protein, depending on whether or not DH is home or away at the time.

DH finally got around to taking care of the Verizon refund. They sent us a $50 debit card instead of a check a while back and in order to get a check you have to then call the number on the card and ask them to send it to you. I don't know why they can't just do it in the first place. Debit cards are no good to me if I want to put the money in a savings account, which I do, my laptop fund one. Anyway, they said 3 to 5 business days so I should see it by Tuesday or Wednesday.

The refund from the loan should hit our account tomorrow. They said no later than Friday, but I was hoping maybe it would be there today so I could send it to the MC. Oh, well, I can wait another day. I just get impatient sometimes.

I entered both refunds into my spreadsheet that tracks those things. I also updated my freezer inventory spreadsheet with the meat I bought. I love that thing. It was quite a bit of work when I made it, but now that I have it and can just add or subtract from it and automatically know what I have in the freezers at all times with out looking, is an awesome meal planning tool.

I am in a weird mood today, craving lettuce like it is going out of business so my meal planning (at least for my meals, not the kids) reflects this. Also DS is home sick again.

Breakfast:
(Everyone) Homemade beef sausage patties ($1)
(Just me) Lettuce dressed with E.V. olive oil and salt (.30)
(Just kids) Hashbrowns (.50)
(Just kids) Milk ($1)
(Me) Water
Total: $2.80

Lunch:
DD
Leftover pizza (free)
apple (.50)
baggy potato chips (.50)
water

DS
Half a chicken quesadilla
--3 ounces leftover chicken (free)
--1 tortilla (.30)
--1.5 ounces of cheese (.30)
Pineapple Juice (.50)

Me:
Ribeye steak (4 ounces, I cut up a big one, on sale for $3.99/lb over a holiday weekend) $1
Lettuce dressed with e.v.o.o. and salt (.30)
water

Total Lunch: $3.40

Dinner (for 4):
Baked potato soup
--potatoes (.80)
--8 ounces extra sharp cheddar ($2)
--Half a package of bacon ($2)
--8 cups whole milk ($2)
--16 ounces sour cream ($2)
--Half bunch scallions (.40)
Salmon (was on sale for $5.99/lb)--$4.50
Broccoli/Cauliflower/Asparagus ($2)
(Just Me) Yogurt ($1)
water

Total Dinner: $17.70

All meals $23.90

Dinner is very expensive tonight but there will be several servings of soup leftover (we'll eat about 1/3 of it tonight) and lots of veggies leftover for future meals this week. So I'm making planned overs which will bring the cost of the rest of the week down quite a lot. It's more about the average for the month than the daily average anyway.


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