Today started off with a visit to the physical therapist, so that was $50 right out of the gate. After that I picked up DH from the airport and then we went to get gas at $3.10 a gallon. The other stations are at $3.25. We filled it up but we used the Costco cash card so I'm not sure how much it was off of that. Probably $45 as its an 18 gallon tank and only had 1.5 gallons in it at fill-up time.

Then we went to LensCrafters to pick up my year supply of contact lenses and to have both my regular glasses and my prescription sunglasses adjusted. No money out there as I'd already paid for the contacts.

After that we went to WalMart and bought more Rubbermaid tubs for moving stuff to storage and also items I'll need for my trip. I got a small First Aid Kit, bottle of Rolaids, nasal spray, sunblock, and vitamin C. I tried on swimsuits but none of them provided enough support on top, or enough material for that matter. When did one piece bathing suits get so low cut? If I wanted a flimsy bikini top I wouldn't be looking at a one piece to begin with. Sigh.

Then we went to Arby's for lunch. Just too much money out today, but I guess all of it but Arby's was necessary spending.

I wanted to take the car to the car wash but it is still closed. I am hoping it will reopen soon. My punch card is full and they owe me a free wash and wax and I'm getting annoyed waiting. I hope they aren't broken down. I know there are other carwashes in town but I've got a free one coming and I want it by golly!

This has been a rough week for getting on the computer and blogging. Rose is badly sick again for one. I thought it was pneumonia for awhile because of the depth of her coughing and the fact that she was getting dizzy.

But when I took her to the doctor her lungs and bronchials are clear. She has a severe sinus infection though and a chest cold. Lovely. $15 co-pay. So we got two prescriptions, generic zithromax and flonase. $20 total co-pay. I'm not sending her back to school until Monday.

Tobias had his first t-ball game and goodness its going to be boring. Two games a week that last far too long. We're definitely going back to soccer next year. This is too tedious and unenjoyable to watch and T says he was bored during the game. It was also very cold there. It isn't right on the river, the river is across the road and down in the gulley, but its close enough that it makes it quite cold. So blankets are going along for tonight's game. Rose will be staying home. I don't want her out in the cold. The neighbor girl will keep tabs on her.

I also spent $20.00 this week to fund T's hot lunch account.

I ordered my parkhopper for Disneyland which should arrive on the 25th. $189. I think that covers what has been spent this week, then.

And I've managed to write 9 pages this week. Not great but something.

About 3 a.m. last night the sky split open and we got walloped with one heck of a thunder lightning rain storm. Guess I was right about the source of the migraine. Fortunately it did not last long and I was able to get back to sleep. This morning I just needed a butal to function instead of Imetrix. I had a lot to do today so I'm glad its down to a quiet roar in my head.

First thing was to take the kids into my mother's house. She is keeping them for the rest of spring break. I pick them back up on Sunday just in time to take them to the open house for MIL and FIL's 40th wedding anniversary.

After dumping them off I went for my cranial sacral therapy and that made a big difference in the reduction of pain in my head, also. Then I had made an appointment a few days ago to get my hair cut, so I went to Regis for that. I only go twice a year to get my hair cut so I figure I don't mind shelling out a bit more when I go. Most of the time I cut my own bangs and not worry about it, but twice a year it needs an overhaul.

It was about 18 inches long and getting heavy, and I am so tired of blowing it out straight, which I have to do when its all one length, so I had layers put in to take off the weight and took about an inch off the ends and got my bangs back above my eyebrows. With all the weight off my hair does what it always does and went bouncy and curly.

Anyway, it was $38 and I left a $5 tip. I was very pleased with the cut and will go back to this girl again. Just not for another six months.

I had lunch at the mall while I was there, not good for me food at all, which was probably stupid considering I'm just getting over a migraine, but I did. $3.02 for a small strawberry Julius, $2.75 for a prezel with mustard, and $1.09 for a double cheese from Mickey D's.

After that I went down to Lane Bryant. I don't normally shop there but they were having a sale on unmentionables, and since I needed new unmentionables, I decided to see what they had. They had a very large selection of the appropriate size of unmentionables in an attractive array of colors. Each unmentionable normally costs $28 but the sale was buy one at regular price, get the second one at $9.99. Which is a very good price considering the product is of very high quality. So I got four, and I had a coupon for $15 off any purchase of $15 or more. So ended up paying $65 for $122 worth of unmentionables (that is including tax on both amounts).

Then I bought two pairs of running shoes. They were on sale 2 for $89.99 (which is pricey) and I have such a difficult time finding a shoe that fits my foot right, let alone running shoes, so I got two, one white pair and one black pair of the exact same shoes, and one will go in my closet until the other wears out. I also bought 2 pairs of the reinforced heel and ball off foot socks for running/walking for my trip to Disney for $10. The socks help not to get blisters, and the properly fitted well supported running shoe should help as well. I'll be using my white pair on the treadmill to get them broken in. It's only 17 days until I go so I do need to get them broken in. Shouldn't be a problem. Anyway with tax it all added up to $112. But I shan't need to make anymore purchases like that for a good bit.

Went to the chiropractor, put $10 in the gas tank, then came home, took a nap, shook off the majority of the headache hangover and spent the next 3 hours answering the phone before I decided to just let the machine get it. That's of course when people stopped calling.

My mood is much improved today, so it was definitely migraine related. It is good to be back to my happy self with a cheerful outlook on life.

Went to the chiropractor this morning, paid $175 for the family monthly unlimited plan this time. I managed to tweak out my hip again, big time.

I also had cranial sacral therapy, which helped some with the hip as well.

We filled up the car at Costco, $39 and something. It's up to $2.959 per gallon, everywhere else is at least $3.05 and most are higher. I have $16 and some odd change left on the cash card there.

DH and I went out to lunch at Hungry Bear. We spent $36, including tip. We ate at two and I doubt I will eat another meal today, it was very filling. The food is always good there, the best of the best of diner food.

So quite a bit of money out the door today.

I had my appointment with the specialist today and had an ultrasound done. He decided to sign me up for another test, so I will go back on March 27 for some kind of scope thingy. It is out-patient and doesn't require drugs. $15 co-pay for that.

Spent $10 to buy a small pizza and a soda from Round Table. I ordered it in the parking lot of the doctor's office, swung by the credit union, and it was ready by the time I got there. It cost $10.23 but for some reason the employee gave me $10.25 back from my twenty dollar bill. I didn't notice this until I got back home and looked at the receipt. I do remember him taking some coins out of the take a penny, leave a penny container. Maybe he didn't want to give me all the ones that $9.77 in change would give me?

Oh, well, so not only did I save 23 cents, I earned 25 cents on top of that. I did call them up and they said not to worry about it. I wasn't worried, but I remember what it was like to have a till off when I was a college student so, I guess that is why I called.

I ate the pizza on the way back home and arrived at the school in time for Tobias' parent/teacher conference. Did that, then went to Rose's. I'm glad that's over for another while.

Now I feel all stone in the stomach though, from eating white flour and drinking white sugar. Bad choice, I know but I haven't had good pizza in so long and I had to grab something or I'd be really hungry as I couldn't eat before the ultrasound. I should have got tacos, at least they are marginally healthy, especially if you get them in the whole wheat tortilla like at Taco Time.

DH finished the pizza off when we got home from conferences. I had eggs and no-sugar bacon and a kohlrabi for dinner. The kids had leftovers of theirs.

I haven't been doing a running log of my novel writing since DH came home. Mostly its because I have less time to myself to write when he's home. But I'm up to page 72 in the story and have 105 pages of other stuff to work in and around the main plot line. And some of it is for the second book, not this one anyhow. But it is coming along.

I got accepted at PineCone and am now just waiting for the surveys to start coming in.

I cashed out at NFO MySurvey today after doing a 200 point survey that put me over the limit, so will have $10 coming in the next 3 to 5 weeks. And still have 150 points in my account. Only 850 more to go to cash out again, LOL.

Still no news from ReadRevenue, TinklyCash or Dayslook on payments.

DH is taking the kids to his mother's house tomorrow. I am not going. I love his parents but they have a cat that is all over the furniture, which is bad enough, because I clog up and have a hard time breathing, but if they run the air cleaner and I sit next to it, I do okay. But his sister will also be there with her kids and their dog, and I'm more allergic to dogs than I am to cats. Badly allergic. And the in-laws let that animal run around inside the house.

Which I would never allow myself, I get irritated with people that think it is okay just to bring the dog in because it is their dog and they don't ask permission, they just do it. (Worse at the grocery store when someone brings in a puppy in a purse which is illegal in a grocery store! Service dogs are of course not the issue at all, they go where they need to.) Which is what SIL did the first time and now they can't say no because they already did it. And I'm "Hello, its your house, of course you can say no to your spoiled youngest child." Sigh.

This is, by the way, the pedigree puppy that was bought when SIL and BIL had had their phone turned off, their gas turned off, their cable turned off, their mortgage behind, their car payments behind, and were about to have their electricity shut off and to lose their cell serivce if they didn't come up with a $400 payment. And they can't declare bankruptcy as its only been five years or so since they did that last time. So, I'm also not fond of the dog for that reason, but really it is secondary to my need to breathe.

Plus MIL's cat is scared to death of the dog. I don't want to come across as an animal hater, because I'm not. I love cats, but I just can't have them around much. Not terribly fond of dogs but don't hate them if they are properly mannered and on a leash. I have real issues with ones that are allowed to run around free all day as we have a county leash law as well as it being in our CC&R's for our housing development. A couple of the roamers have attacked children. So, in that respect I am anti-dog. Well, maybe more anti-bad-dog-owner, as dogs, like children, only do what they are allowed to do or have been taught.

So anyway, being in that house tomorrow would mean I would probably end up having to use my inhaler and it wouldn't be enough and I'd end up visiting the ER. So not how I want to spend my Saturday. Instead, I will stay home and do some writing and get caught up on laundry with my lovely new dryer.

I guess if MIL wants me to come to their house she's going to have to make a choice between standing up to her daughter about the dog, or me. And I'm okay if its the dog, I'm perfectly content to have a phone call once a week with her that lasts an hour.

Turned into a bit of a rant there, sorry.

Spent $422.65 on a new dryer today. The dryer itself was only $299 (on clearance, marked down from $459). The rest is 8.4% sales tax, delivery (we live in the boonies) and installation fee, and removal fee for the old dryer. I did not get the 5 year maintenance plan. It does have a one year warranty. It will fit very nicely in the alloted space as it is 1.5 inches less wide, but it also has a greater capacity, which will make doing comforters much easier.

It is very pretty. It is white, but the control panel across the top is stainless steel. It does not have a ton of bells and whistles, which I am happy about. I just want to be able to dry my clothes on a few different heat settings, not compute the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything (42!).

We decided to use part of DH's bonus check now to pay for it, and then repay the $422.65 to savings out of the income tax return. I know my mother was going to loan us the money until we got our tax return back, but I just feel better doing it this way. He's pretty much decided to wait until he has the new job under his belt for a few months before signing up for more schooling anyway. Tax return should come sometime in the next couple of weeks, definitely before month's end.

They are delivering it tomorrow. I was surprised they could do it that fast when we just bought it today, but tomorrow is their day for delivering to this section of the county. See, that's why there is Lucky in my name. Things like this have a way of working out for us. DH will be home and I won't have to worry about letting a stranger into the house by myself. I know they are bonded, but I would just as soon not take that chance, you know?

Bills paid today:

$ 400.00 House Mortgage ($375.86 + $23.14 extra to principle payment)
$ 130.00 Chiro Family Plan
$ 100.00 Bank of America MC
$ 320.48 Propane (6 months)
$ 37.36 Garbage (2 months)
$ 50.00 Costco Membership Renewal
$ 50.00 Costco Gas Card Loaded
$ 154.63 Costco groceries, Kleenex and Charmin
$ 20.00 Rose's monthly allowance
$ 15.00 Tobias' monthly allowance
$ 15.00 Doctor bill
$ 100.00 Citi MC
-----------------
$1392.47 Total Bills Paid

I am also setting aside $500 to be used along with some money from next week's check to pay BoA Visa, and took out $100 cash for miscellaneous expenses.

So, I picked up DH yesterday at the airport. It was early release day at school so I took the kids and then we went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Which turned out to be quite expensive for the four of us, but gave everyone 2 meals worth of food. $45 for the meal, $9 for the tip. We tend to go here once a month on the day DH arrives home. Usually it doesn't coincide with early release so it is just the two us and comes to around $25 plus $5 tip. Big difference.

I am hoping this will be the only time we eat out for the rest of this paycycle. We really don't budget more than $60 a month for eating out. Probably shouldn't budget that much either, its not like its healthy.

Ah, well, can't change it now. So DH is home, which means I didn't get any writing done last night, but I did get two pages done before I went to pick him up. I don't know if I'll get anything done to night at all. I think DH is going to read the first 8 chapters tonight.

He is a very good sounding board for me, helps me when I get blocked and knows when I'm using filler. Doesn't happen often that I use filler, but it does tend to crop up when I'm just putting in chair time and not really in the flow of writing. Actually, I shouldn't call it chair time as I do my writing on my laptop, sitting on my bed, which is more comfortable for my posture than the computer chair and the PC keyboard.

I have been reading a writing book right now also. I'm not sure I agree with some of the things advised in it, as it was written in the early 1990's and I've seen plenty of good books out there since then that do the opposite of what they are advising here.

I think it best to probably go with my instincts on this, at least at this point in time. I know when my stuff isn't working, I know when its garbage, I know when its passable, and I know when its good. Which is a big reason why I have not attempted to try to publish the last book I wrote. I am not happy with parts of it and I figure working on this and letting the old stuff just kind of roam around in the back of my head for awhile may bring me around again to where I can fix the other book. We'll see, I suppose.

I guess I got the posting bug today. Anyhow, today is technically a no spend day, even though I am writing out bills, I won't mail them until tomorrow. Did not go anywhere, did not spend anything. I'll post later on what bills I paid and how much.

We went and got take out tonight and spent $13.86 for the three of us. Tobias threw up in the car on the way home. Fortunately I had an empty 22 ounce cup to hand back to him in time, so it didn't get all over the car or him. I hope it was just car sickness. He does get it sometimes. He seems fine now. Well, I suppose I will send him to school tomorrow and if he gets sick there I will just go and get him. He's not running a fever.

Today was the last day of the mini-winter break. It would have been all week but they are making up snow days W-F this week. Rose is completely over the flu and Tobias is over the worst of it, just a little sniffly still. I will be happy to see them back in school. Rose missed all last week and Tobias missed Thursday and Friday. They both are anxious to go back and the advice nurse I talked to today said they could as long as there was no fever or coughing.

As for goals, well, I wrote one page last night, didn't work on anything else, though. Oh, well, I am 4 days off caffeine, so I guess that was one of my goals, too, to get off the soda completely. Don't drink coffee.

Rose has been sick the past two days and has not gone to school. I had to drop her off with my mother this morning so I could go to my first cranial sacral therapy session. I have to admit while I was lying there it felt a bit like voodoo magic and I kept thinking, well, this won't accomplish much. But surprisingly it made me feel better somewhat. Not a huge transformation but a noticeable improvement. Enough for me to go back for an additional 5 appointments and allow it a real go.

My birthday present had arrived by the time I got back, the new Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series. I've spent a few hours watching the first disc and doing all the commentaries while I did my PTR's, and watching the extras on the first disc. Now I've started episode 3 on the second disc.

It is really very good. I wasn't sure what to expect. I never am when they change out the lead. For those of you who don't know, the main role is set up in such a way that if the doctor "dies" his body regenerates and looks completely different, but he is still the same character with a few different personality quirks. This is a very clever way of replacing an actor who leaves the role, without ending the show.

They are on the 10th lead now and there have been close to 30 seasons, I believe. They brought it back in 2005 after being off the air for several years and they modernized it. But at its heart it is very similar, but I've found it even better. Sort of like the difference between the high camp of the original Battlestar Galactica and the high drama of the new one.

So I have adapted to this new doctor, though I adored the one from the first new season. He was Christopher Eccelstein who is currently reoccuring on the tv show heroes as the invisible guy. But I took quite well to the new one, David Tennant, even though I've only ever seen him in one of the Harry Potter movies and he was playing a bad guy.

Definitely worth the one day shipping.

Anywho, Tobias came home froms school cranky and flushed and warm to the touch and he took a two hour nap (no, he does not do this) so doctor Mom is diagnosing him with Rose's cold. He may stay home tomorrow.

I wrote 6 pages last night, which puts me up to 52, I think. I think I'll work another hour on it tonight.

Today was a no spend day. I had enough pennies to do a roll, so I did that.

I still have not been paid by ReadRevenue one month after cashing out (its supposed to take no more than 72 hours) so I have decided to quit them. They have failed to respond to any of my 5 emails. They were so good in the past about paying, but I can't waste my time on them if they aren't going to pay out anymore.

Oh, wait, it wasn't a no spend day. I wrote a $20 check to fund my son's hot lunch account at school. I forgot.

I had to go down to the DMV today to renew my driver's license. It was $25 for a five year license. Ouch. Last time I had to buy one it was only $16. The wait was forever and those employees had their heads in the clouds, couldn't care less that they had a mile long line of people, they were going to take their own sweet time.

Anyway, I did that while DH took the Blazer to Les Schwab and got the flat tire fixed. It was only a patch, so it was free, thank goodness.

We also spent $25.37 on lunch out and $5 tip at our favorite Mexican restaurant. And $20 for gas.

There were some more purchases made tonight but I have to get the receipts from DH. He took the kids to buy birthday presents for the boy/girl twins who have a party tomorrow. And he picked up a new belt and some deodorant. I have enough female deoderant samples that I shant need to buy it for at least a year.

It's been a long day, I did not sleep last night more than 3 hours and I have been little miss Judy Attitudy all day long, but only in my own head. I look forward to waking up tomorrow refreshed and back to my old positive nature, even if it means hitting the Excedrin PM. I certainly have the headache to go with the need to sleep.

So no midnight or after entries from me tonight. Oh, on the bright side of the no sleep thing, I did manage to write 10 pages last night, so I did get something out of it. I'm still too sleep deprived to know whether they are any good or not yet, though. I'll read them through tomorrow. But that is 36 pages for the year, now I just need to multiply that by 10 to reach my 2007 goal.

It is my birthday on Monday. I will be 37. I like my birthday as I share it with Abraham Lincoln. I don't remember much about seven but the years I turned 17 and 27 have been incredibly good years in my life so I have high hopes that my luck will follow through on this.

I don't much believe in numerology or anything, but I do have to think that the years that have a seven in my age also coincide with having a seven in that year, as 2007 does, and with seven also being a sacred number to God, well, there's got to be some real goodness in all that, right? I was also born in a year with a seven, 1970. So I kind of have a thing about it. Maybe I generate my own luck through my belief. I wouldn't put it past me.

Sleep deprived ramblings, good thing its free cause you get what you pay for. Night folks.

Yesterday was game day and as usual, Rose's team got trounced. It just is hard to get any rebounds when 4 out 5 players on the opposing team are a head taller than the tallest player on your team.

I emailed the head coach last night and I told him that next year they need to divide the teams up more evenly between ages and grades and experience and lack of experience and height because when you have one team from your school that is beating everyone by 30 points or more and the other one has barely managed to win 1 game all season, there is a huge inequality and it makes the losing team very dispirited every week. I don't know if he will do anything about it, but I'll be a big pain about it at the start of next season to at least be heard on the issue.

Rose got fouled on badly and got pushed into another player who's elbow went right into her temple. She was hurting too bad to even take her free throws and she's good at those, almost always makes them in practice. Another girl got slammed in the face and her tooth cut through her lip and was bleeding. She couldn't take her free throws either but also had to have a sub. Same person fouled them both. She got pulled two fouls later, thank goodness.

We packed our own snacks yesterday so no money was spent at the vending machines. The kids left the game with my parents and I came home to rest. Which I did do some, but then I got to writing and 26 pages later it was 3 a.m. That's really good for my health. But when stuff starts writing itself, I tend to go with it, because you never know when the muse is going to leave.

I made a promise to myself that I was going to write 365 pages this year, whether it was good or not, the habit needs to be gotten back into. And blogging doesn't count! And neither do outlines. That doesn't mean I have to write a page a day, I just need to hit my page count by year's end.

I went back and read the stuff over this afternoon and corrected all the typos and grammatical errors that weren't intentional, and I was really pleased with it, as sometimes middle of the night writing turns out to be less coherent than other times. In any case, its going in the "write" direction. Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Today I went in and picked up my kids and got gas. I used $30 of my gas money. It was down to $2.55 a gallon. I didn't go to Costco where it might have been cheaper because I can't find my Costco card and I didn't really want to go all the way across town, either. My card expires at the end of this month anyway and I'm not sure I will renew it. It's a hard decision, especially since they raised the fee.

Mom got me some eggs from the organic egg farm when she went out to get some for herself, so I have four dozen fresh eggs in my fridge. She cleaned them out between us. So that cost $6.

I got really fed up with a rude person today, and kind of let them have it in my own understated way. I always try to be polite, even when what I really want to do is be less than polite, to put it politely. Some folks are clueless and no matter what you do or say, they shall remain clueless. But such is life when you are dealing with people who don't have an ounce of common sense or consideration for others.

I'm going to try to see the doctor tomorrow if I can drag myself out of bed. Or more accurately not fall back into bed once I get the kids off to school. Or at least make an appointment for Tuesday if necessary. I am tired of being tired and not well.

I did a survey this morning and have a $5 check coming from Your2Cents. I also took a prequalifying survey for ACOP but I don't know if I'll get it as they asked about what type of TV service we have and we don't, so that's probably a no. I didn't make the one with the product trial I wanted as it was supposed to have started the 24th. Oh, well, these things are hit and miss. I've gotten two offers this month from Vindale but I just don't know if I want to do those anymore.

I'm still waiting on ReadRevenue to pay out from the 1/13 cash out. I'm not sure what is wrong but I heard from another one of the PTR places that they were having problems connecting with paypal due to an earthquake and dislocated cables, and since both are Asian Island based that's probably what the deal is. So it will most likely get straightened out eventually.

I haven't updated my spending journal since Thursday, I think. I was so gung-ho on this when I started and now I'm kind of...eh. That's partly because I really don't like what the spending journal is revealing about my own personal habits. Which is that I am weird about food.

I will often buy food I don't need, even though there is plenty of food in the house because I am stressing over something. I'm not talking junk food or dumb purchases, either. Just...quantity. Like I'm afraid there won't be enough in the house or something.

This is particularly difficult now as we are no longer using the full size upright freezer. I am confined to a half size cubic chest freezer and the freezer that comes with our fridge, which is quite large for its size. I think it may be bigger on the inside than the outside, very tardis-like.

Well, I've managed to curtail the freezer spending, but seem to be trying to make up for it with pantry items. What is up with that? I did not grow up poor. Even the year my dad was on strike from the mill (he went to work pumping gas and my mom, a retired teacher, substitute taught nearly every day that year), we always had adequate food. We were never deprived. So where is this coming from?

Oh, I have issues with food. I'm a recovered bulimic, 11.5 years free of the disease, which conincides with my getting married and moving out of my parent's house. But its never been over not having enough. It was always over being in control of my life, or not being in control of it. I'm starting to wonder if my need to have such great quantities of food in the house is my way of dealing with how out of control I feel the debt situation is and the whole life on hold will he/won't he get a raise issue with DH.

And as issues go, well, I'd rather be buying too much food than ever go back down the road to an eating disorder. But when we are trying to cut back on our grocery budget and save some money here, it is very counter-productive to be coming up on this sort of thing.

I'm hoping putting it out here in black and white, may help me to recognize what I am doing and find a less destructive thing to do.

My last straw with myself was tonight when I emptied my change jar and went down to the convenience store and got a 16 inch pepperoni pizza for $6.49 when I could have very easily made something healthy at home, or even a homemade pizza of better quality for less money with what I had in the house. It went over from healthy food buying to junky food buying. Uh-uh.

This has to stop. No more money is to be spent on food between now and January 26th, unless it is for milk or for the kids for making cold lunches at school. No more mindless buying. I must be mindful in my buying.

Today was game day and we spent 3 hours at the gym, with packed lunches. As usual, Rose's team lost the first game, but it was much better, it was 28 to 24. I really thought we were going to win the second game and I'm not a hundred percent certain we didn't win, because the person manning the scoreboard kept "forgetting" to put our points up when we made a basket but the other team's went up right away and never seemed to get forgotten. People had to keep going over to tell her to put the score up five times during that game. I wish they had someone impartial
running that thing and not one of the parents. Hire a high school student or something.

Anyway, the other team's last basket was made after the last buzzer sounded. It didn't even leave the girl's hand until the last buzzer had started but they counted it anyway. Sometimes we have good refs and sometimes we don't. They weren't calling much traveling or double dribbling in any of the games on any of the teams. Just fouls when they happened, usually. And the refs judged the basket good so the other team won by one point, final score 19-18, though there was a lot of disagreement from the coach and the parents. If we'd had instant replay, I think it would have been different. This is the only team we had already beaten once this system and they just weren't that good. I have no illusion about Rose's team, I know they are less skilled than most of the other ones that are more evenly divided between 5th and 6th graders but it was just a very fishy thing all around.
Regardless it was a good game even if a huge case of ditsiness seemed to overcome both teams at times. It was exciting and fun to watch and that's all I really care about as long as Rose is having a good time.

They had their team photo taken today so hopefully that turns out well. I forgot to ask DH how much it cost as he's the one that filled it out and handed it in. Probably $10 as that is usually how much these things cost. DH took me home after the game and then took the kids off to his mother's house to do laundry and visit, while I rest. Doc said to rest for the next 48 hours, which puts me pretty much to noon tomorrow. We still haven't gotten the dryer fixed or replaced. We probably will when the tax refund comes. Now that we are catching up on clothes, I can do a load a day and hang it on the drying racks.

Oh, I forgot to post yesterday that I went to the doctor. I have a problem with getting chronic kidney infections, its a side effect of the whole medical mess that tried to kill me a few years ago. We have to stay on top of it and I have to go in at first sign of symptoms to prevent further kidney damage. I came close to losing my right kidney at the time, so I'm very careful about this.

So I'm on medication, 2 RX's at $10 each, and these are different ones from the ones I was on last time. I insisted on that as the ones I had last time made me gain 15 pounds of water weight in 2 weeks time. Not fun. It went away after I went off them, but really didn't want to go through that again. It was really uncomfortable.

As for other things medically related, I have been kind of ignoring my exercise program lately, pretty much since before Christmas, so starting on Monday the doctor said I could do stuff again but to pace myself and watch for kidney pain, I am going to get back to it. I will start walking on the treadmill 20 minutes a day and hopefully get back up to an hour by month's end.

I keep wavering on whether I should cancel my Curves membership or not, but if I can just get back in the swing again I know I'll really start using it. Then again, with the treadmill and the weight bench and weights, it also seems like a waste of money sometimes. I don't know. It's kind of my last hold out between financial necessity and what I need to do for my health. We'll see.

I think I'll update my spending journal tomorrow seeing as it is almost midnight.

$1121.81 YTD spending
8.97 grocery spending
15.36 fast food
+ 1.29 sales tax on fast food
---------
$1147.43 New total YTD Spending

____________________________


$180.30 Month to date grocery spending
+ 8.97 1 gallon organic milk and 2 gallons regular 2% milk
--------
$189.27 MTD Grocery spending
_____________________________

$10.73 Left in the grocery budget

$1118.21 YTD spending
+ 3.62 milk
--------
$1121.83
- .02 store had no pennies to make change with
--------
$1121.81 YTD spending

________________________________

$176.70 Month to date grocery spending
+ 3.60 groceries
--------
$180.30 Total MTD grocery spending
_________________________________


$19.70 Total left in grocery budget

$1114.61 YTD Spending
+ 3.60 eggs
---------
$1118.21 Total new YTD Spending

_______________________

$173.10 Month to date grocery spending
+ 3.60 1/8/07 grocery spending
--------
$176.70 Total MTD grocery spending

I don't know about you but spending my morning upside down in a chair while a nice lady pokes my gums with sharp sticks is not my idea of a fun time. I'm not afraid of the dentist or anything, I just find clinging to the arms of the chair for dear life so you don't slide headfirst onto the floor to be sort of uncomfortable. And I'm not a great fan of the suction thingy either. That goes back to when I was little and you used to spit the flouride into a suction device that grabbed onto my chin one time and left it a big purple bruise. Now they use a little vacuum tube, but still I get tense when I hear the noise.

DH went to the big library to poke around while I was at the dentist. Afterwards we took the long way home so we could stop by a farm in Lynden that sells fresh brown organic eggs. We got 2 dozen jumbo eggs for $3.60. Some of them are huge double yolkers, I'm sure. I usually eat 2 eggs for breakfast but with some of these babies I'll be having just one.

We are spending the afternoon cleaning in T's room, excpet Rose, who has algebra homework. I don't think I care for algebra and geometry to be taught in the 5th grade. The basics sure, but this is getting complicated for a ten-year-old.

Aside from the eggs we spent no money today, so it is a low spend day.

My 4 week grocery budget is $200. 173.10 is how much I have spent on groceries so far. I have $26.10 left from which I will only need to buy milk and eggs. I have everything else I need for the month. I think this is going to work. Previously my grocery budget has been between $250 and $300 per 4 week pay cycle, so this is quite a cut for us. But with the right planning and the right management of leftovers, I think we will be just fine on this new budget.

$ 952.13 Previous YTD spending
$ 192.48 1/6/07 spending
---------
$1114.61 Total YTD spending

$ 34.33 Balance as of 1/4/07
$917.80 Today's spending
--------
$952.13 New YTD total as of 1/5/07

Today was payday so of course, I paid some bills and we went grocery shopping.

Bills paid:

$260.00 Medical
$ 20.00 Rose's Lunch Account
$ 20.00 Tobias' Lunch Account
$ 93.00 Puget Sound Energy
$400.00 House Mortgage
--------
$793.00 Bills Paid

Groceries bought:

@ Terra Organica:

$ 7.98 2 5 lb bags of organic 100% whole wheat bread flour
$ 3.38 2 packages of organic 100%whole wheat tortillas
$ 3.39 1 box of Wheatines organic crackers
$ 5.09 1 jar of Spectrum Omega-3 Flaxseed Oil Mayonnaise
-------
$19.84 Total at Terra Organica

@ Fred Meyer:

$12.40 for 7.2 pounds leanest hamburger
$11.98 2 packages organic uncured ham
$ 2.10 for 5.53 pounds navel oranges
$ 1.99 1 gallon 2% milk
$ 4.99 1 gallon organic non-fat milk
$ 3.29 Organic Yogi Ginger Tea
-------
$36.75

$56.59 Total grocery spending

@ Fred Meyer non-grocery spending

$ 1.98 2 packs key sorters
$ 3.29 bottle of Rolaids
$12.98 2 bottles Vicks Sinex nasal spray
-------
$18.25
$ 1.87 sales tax
-------
$20.12 Total non-grocery spending

Meal Out for 2 at Cinco de Mayo

$21.13 cost of meal
$ 1.96 sales tax
-------
$23.09
$ 5.00 tip
-------
$28.09

$897.80 Total spending today

I still have some bills to pay and $300 or so to do it with but have will not sit down and do those until this weekend.

The hamburger was the leanest they make and was all in the reduced bin so it went straight into the freezer when we got home.

The oranges were on sale for 38 cents a pound, really great price.

----------
Edited to add:

I forgot we got $20 worth of gas today, too.

$897.80
+ 20.00
--------
$917.80 Total payday spending.

Today's spending:

$10.43 1 gallon of egg flower soup
$ 3.48 1 gallon of milk
-------
$13.91 Total today's spending
$20.42 Previous January spending
-------
$34.33 Year to date spending

DH spent $10.98 of his travel money for food at the airport. Technically this is money from last year, but since it was spent this year I am tracking it anyway.

He also had enough left over to take us out for a very cheap lunch where we spent $9.44.

$10.98
+$09.44
--------
$20.42 Total spending for 1/3/07

Today is shaping up nicely, well its almost over, but no money was spent. I will be using gas to go to basketball practice, the 2 mile round trip twice. A whopping 4 miles worth of gas.

The French Dip restaurant desire passed and I never made my chili today. The windstorm kept me up late last night. I took down the Christmas lights that are on the opposite side of my bedroom wall today so the clunking wouldn't keep jerking me awake tonight, like it did last night. I also turned off all the timers so the rest of the lights no longer come on. As tired as I was, I didn't think a major kitchen production was in order. Maybe tomorrow.

DH comes home tomorrow, maybe I'll make the chili then. It's a big recipe and there ought to be leftovers for the freezer.

I checked my regular savings accounts today. I made a total of 50 cents interest between the three of them. I am so glad I have ING.

Today was a no spend day.

I didn't go anywhere so I didn't use any gas.

We ate leftovers.

I built a fire in the woodstove instead of using the propane furnace.

I scheduled a bill to be paid online for 1/5/07, to save a stamp. (Man, that 07 feels weird to type).

I found another quarter on the floor of the kitchen and added it to my change jar.

I did the garbage can dance, where you get into the garbage can and smash it down so you can get a couple more bags in it before you put it out. Technically, not supposed to do that, but my garbage can has a limit of 80 pounds and believe you me, I am going to get all 80 pounds in there, or as close to, and the only way to do it is to do the garbage can dance.

Got all the recyling sorted as we have free recyling pick-up every two weeks and the value of recycled materials is deducted from our garbage bill since it doesn't go into the landfill. It's usually only a couple dollars a month, but every little bit counts.

Just my frugal things for the day.

One thing that I really need to get better at is balancing my checkbook. I tend to go for days with a general idea of where I am in the checking account, but I don't actually sit down and do the actual math. This makes it really easy to burn through money that probably should have been spent on other things or put into savings.

So I'd really like to break that bad habit. I need to try to keep it up to date and balanced daily, and if not daily then every other day. I also need to enter it into some kind of tracking software at least once a week.

Tracking software goes hand in hand with another thing I'd like to begin. I want to start tracking all expenses. Ultimately I'd like to do it all year, every year, but I think for now I'd like to do it starting with January and try it for a month and then re-evaluate after I get through the month. I'd like to keep a little notebook in my purse so I can write down everything and then transfer it over into a spreadsheet or something like that.

If I can manage to keep a spending journal and balance my checkbook daily, I think the miscellaneous money that gets frittered away would stop frittering and things would be easier for us.

Okay, these late night or early a.m. entries are starting to be a habit with me. I think the whole holiday thing threw my sleep cycle out of whack and I need to reset the whole system.

DH had to leave for Alaska today so on the way to the airport we stopped at McDonalds to use all the gift certificates we got for Christmas. Not the greatest eating healthwise, but I didn't have any sugar, just drank water with my burger and fries (I'm sure those had transfats!) Felt sluggish after eating it, too. Well, what do I expect eating white flour?

I withdrew $50 from the bank today, $30 for DH's travel money and $20 for my incidentals. I'm going to try to make it last until January 5, which is our next payday. We won't eat out at all between now and then, either.

I used the last of the grocery money tonight, too. I bought apples, organic milk, bananas, marked down shrimp and salmon (from the day before Christmas, (I froze them when I got home), hamburger, lettuce, green bell peppers, and a Danish squash. This will supplement the rest of the produce I have on hand and some of the fruit should last until payday. If not I have canned pineapple and home canned peaches. I may have to borrow from my change jar to get milk, but I think it should last if we keep it to one glass each at mealtimes (and I only drink it once a day) since DH is gone now. He's the biggest milk drinker.

I had to work out a very careful budget but I've covered all the bills there will be between now and the 5th. Buying that generator really knocked us for a loop, but I still feel it was a necessary purchase, even if we don't have another power failure this cold season. It will definitely hit our savings account hard, but then what was I really saving for that can't be put off so we can absorb the hit?

What else today? I read another chapter in The Underground History of American Education. Honestly, its like working my way through a thesis. It is interesting and it is giving me a lot to think about, but its sooooooo long.

Oh, and I watched The Devil Wears Prada, which was given to me as a Christmas present. I liked it, it had a wicked sense of humor. It sounds like it was quite different from the book though. I don't know if I'll keep it or not. I've been trying to winnow my DVD collection down a bit, preparing to sell stuff on half.com. I'll have to think on it a bit. I've got a box of books ready to go, though. I just have to find where DH put them.

Today was a really long day. The good news is that we have completed all of our Christmas shopping and I only have maybe 20 rows left to knit on my Dad's second hat. We did not use credit at all, it is an entirely cash only Christmas.

The bad news is that I have been feeling kind of generally bleh this week, even though the sinus infection is starting to clear up with the antibiotics. This morning (12-22-06) I woke up and my hands and feet were horribly swollen and my face was all puffed up. I immediately went to take my blood pressure and it was 145/95, yikes. Called the doctor and he sent home some samples of a different BP med with a diuretic in it with my mother who just happened to be in the office when I called (happy coincidence, especially as they closed at 12:30 today and I couldn't get him on the phone until noon). And called in a potassium prescription to my pharmacy.

I'm to monitor my BP, which is already down after one dose and if it gets too high, I'm to go to the urgent care clinic. I think this will solve it but it was a little scary for awhile. Most of the time I don't even think about the fact that I have high BP, I just take a pill and eat right and I go along with my life. This sort of thing really throws me for a loop when it happens. Makes me remember that yes, I am still dealing with a disease that causes high BP and with a family history of high BP. Just because the disease is under control 99% of the time does not mean it is not there.

DH and I did manage to pick out a new door knob and deadbolt set several hours later when I felt more normal again. It is really pretty. We were going to go for brushed chrome but when we saw this gorgeous brown brushed copper we got it instead. It matches the brown trim on our house almost perfectly. DH installed it tonight and we now have a front door that opens and shuts again. So much more convenient. We spent almost $60 on it.

DH and I argued about that for a bit. I just wanted to replace the door knobs as the deadbolt was perfectly fine, but HIS opinion was that having a door knob and a deadbolt with two different keys would drive ME crazy. Not him, me. And he didn't want to be changing them out again in a month when it happened. So I eventually agreed with him that it probably would bug me and so we got the full set. For twice the price. Sigh.

I think our EF is going to take a major hit. It isn't going to be as easy to absorb the cost of the new generator as I thought it would. $867 is a huge purchase to just take in without a blip. We'll see. I'm going to try really hard to not touch the EF but I think in the end I may have to sink it down to $700 or so. Sigh, again.

Other spending today included $10 for the potassium prescription.