Today I deposited $69.33 from my coin jar to my Freezer Fund as well as $100 from today's paycheck. This brings the Freezer Fund up to $750.81. The freezer I want is $900 plus tax so I still have a ways to go, but it's nice to be 3/4 of the way there.

My Vacation Fund now sits at $200, my Property Tax fund at $600, Christmas Fund at $100 (very late starting this), and MacBook Fund at $200.

Property taxes are due at the end of the month and will be $518 and some change, so there's plenty in there for that. Things seem to be going along right on track and I hope they continue to do so. It makes things so much smoother when they do.

I cleaned out my purse and put all of the money that was left from the last payday into the coin jar. It was $25.63, plus one Canadian penny which went into my Canadian coin jar. I'll try to make a deposit into the CU on Monday. I have over $50 so it's time. I need to go to Trader Joe's anyway, so I can combine trips. This money is headed for the freezer fund.

Tomorrow I need to sit down and pay the bills from yesterday's paycheck. I have already written out the $1000 check to finish paying off DS's forward head posture treatment. It will be nice not to have that hanging over us anymore. I will pay that in person on Monday.

I talked to DH tonight and he has hit the $110,000 mark for the year, so that means that this was the last paycheck they will take Social Security tax out of for the rest of the year. That means an extra $700 take home pay per month until January. I will be so glad for the day when 2/3 of our take home pay isn't going to pay for new medical debt and old medical debt. Life is going to get very easy when that happens because we will be used to living on 1/3 of our income and can start to save like crazy.

Today I added up all of our out of pocket medical expenses for the year so far and we've hit $7,371.89. I know we have at least $2500 more in out of pocket medical expenses to go this year, $1500 on treatment for DS alone, and another $1125 that will go to another doctor.

We all need to have our eyes checked and get new lenses before the year is up and DD wants to try contacts this year. We still owe $300 on DH's dental work which we will finish paying off in September.

I still need to get oral surgery to fix my two oldest molars, but am waiting until after DH's dental work is paid off. I would like to do it right before Christmas break so that I wouldn't have to worry about homeschooling DS while zoned on painkillers. But I may not be able to wait that long if they start to hurt too much more.

Either way our HSA is maxed out and we'll be able to deduct the full amount allowed on our income taxes this year. I just need to have DH run the money through.

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

Payments made today:

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

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

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

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

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

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

ETA: Tabs were $85.74.

Today I sat down with the last four books of checks and entered everything into my spreadsheets. I have been remarkably lax at doing this lately. Though I balance in the checkbooks themselves, I like to have a copy on the computer, too. I finished updating the information on the April Budget Spreadsheet and entered in everything on the May Budget Spreadsheet, then I set up the June Budget Spreadsheet. I still need to transfer everything medical off the budget spreadsheets to the HSA spreadsheet, but that should be relatively simple since it's now detailed on each month's spreadsheet. I really need to stay on top of that better.

I sent some money to ING, including things that are either paid for bimonthly or half yearly:

$100.00 to the Emergency Fund
_100.00 to the Vacation Fund
__72.00 to the Holding tank for Water/Sewer
_100.00 to the Holding tank for Property Tax
+_17.00 to the Holding Tank for HoA Dues
-----------
$389.00 total to ING

This is all out of last Friday's paycheck. Then I wrote down all of the bills that are due between now and the 15th, which will be our next payday after the one tomorrow. The one tomorrow is the small two day paycheck. How small it is depends on whether or not they take out June's medical. Usually they take that month's medical out of the first check earned that much, but for some reason, every once in a while they take it out of the first one paid of the month. So it could be anywhere from $800 to $1325.

I have $1200 left from last payday and the bills due between now and the 15th total $1006. I'll keep back about $300 for groceries and miscellaneous expenses. Whatever else it left over goes to the BoA VISA. It will at least be $500, but I am hoping this is the amount without medical, because then I could send a lot more to the VISA.

I know I said I would never do business with Chase again, but they keep sending DH these really good offers. This last one is a no-fee balance transfer and a 0% interest rate until August of 2013. It sure would be nice to get the interest off the BoA card and just be using it for the autopays and DH's travel expenses that we pay off every month. We would only use the Chase card for the balance transfer and then pay it off fast with no interest incurred.

When I thought we'd have it paid off by the end of this month and we would have had to pay a transfer fee, it wasn't going to be that big a deal, but now that we will likely have the balance until the end of the summer, it's worth it for three months without interest. And then we can cancel the card when it's paid off. I guess I'm okay with using Chase so long as they are not using me. And I can deal with their crappy customer service (or hopefully never have to) if it means no interest.

We had a cleaning service out to the house today. They will need a couple more days out there, but that will have to wait until the next time DH is home. I don't want to be making that drive twice in one day to unlock the house and turn off the alarm and then go back and reset it in the evening. But we will get it scheduled for the Thursday after DH gets back. Then we will need to get the carpet shampooed.

After that I'm not sure. We might be ready to sell it As is/Where is, as in "you take it as it comes and you fix anything that is wrong with it because we are done." Doesn't matter what they find on the inspection, doesn't matter if it needs to be painted or a new gutter put on or whatever. As is/where is, and it will be priced accordingly. I just want it gone, enough to pay off the mortgage, which will be just under $17K when I make the payment tomorrow, and have some money to go to a good downpayment.

We bought it for $65,000 in 1998 and it's assessed at around $110,000 and I'd honestly be happy at this point to get what we paid for it. Sure I'd like more, but you get what you get in this market. Once it's sold, it will free up each month:

$375.86 mortgage
__72.00 water/sewer
__41.25 house insurance
__20.00 power
_100.00 propane
+_44.89 phone for the security system
-----------
$654.00

and then when we move out of Mom's and into our own place we will have:

$154.00 from storage
$300.00 for the utilities we pay for here
--------
$454.00

$654.00
+454.00
---------
$1108.00

So $1108 freed up just by getting rid of that house and moving out of this one. I think that's worth a loss if we have to take one. And once the credit card is paid off there will be another $2000 a month free and clear. So $3108 will be available for house payments and running a household. And since we are looking at 1500 to 1600 square foot houses in the $219,000 to $250,000 range our house payment should only be around $1200 a month. More than enough to run a house and put some money in the EF. I really can't wait for that day to come. I am sick of throwing money away.

Oh, and our debt to income ratio is now under 45% so we will qualify for the really good mortgage loans when the time comes. Actually once that mortgage is gone and the credit card is gone we will be around 25% and that will put us in great standing.

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

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

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

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

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

Well, we won't be able to cash it until Monday, as we didn't make it out to MIL's house tonight, but MIL told us the amount and it is $7,456.58. I had remembered realtor fees but forgot to calculate in lawyer's fees when I estimated between $7500 to $8500, so it's right around where I thought it would be, just the low end.

We'll go out for a visit tomorrow and pick it up while we are out there. I am excited to finally know how much we will lower our debt by. Once we pay it that credit card will have $14,077.83 left on it. And when we get out tax return back we will be sending $8000 and have $6077.83 left. So much major progress to be made this month. I am excited.

I'm getting irritated at the IRS. Yeah, who isn't? But seriously, it's only supposed to take 3 days from the time they process your electronic tax return for them to say when to expect it to arrive in your bank account and it has been exactly one week since they said it was processed, and yet the website keeps saying that information is not available. Really bugging the heck out of me.

It's the planner in me. I don't like not being able to plan when I can send that money in to pay down debt. I know any date they give me probably isn't guaranteed, but I'd sure like to know when to start looking. The whole purpose of e-filing is it is supposed to be faster and more reliable than the mail, yadda, yadda, yadda. But it still feels like it's moving at a snail's pace. I already resent the fact that we had to pay for it since it wasn't a 1040EZ, they could be a little quicker on their feet.

It shouldn't be hard for them to process it. We didn't itemize. We only did the standard deductions so it shouldn't flag it for any reason. Just get it in there or fix the website or whatever, because you are really doing nothing to encourage faith in the government, here.

We will be getting back $8,425. $8000 goes straight the BoA and the $425 is going to pay for DD's driver's ed class. He says they will be processed on 2/23. He didn't get a when to expect it date, though. How long does it usually take when you e-file?

I added $3.33 to the coin jar.

I paid $700 to the credit card debt.

I still haven't made it to Costco to cash my cash back check from the Costco AMEX card. Seriously inconvenient that you cannot cash it at a bank. I think they want you to spend the cash there, but I'm not going to.

I've done some more research and I think we'll aim for the summer of 2013 for sending DD to the total immersion Korean language camp. I know if we sent her this year and next we could get 2 years worth of language credits for high school, but it would mean paying less on debt repayment right now, and I just don't want to do that. I figure we can send her the summer of 2014 as well and she can get college credit that year, as it is also offered.

My mother has offered to take DD around and introduce her to some of the neighbors in the area that have young children and need babysitting. I think it's about time she started earning money beyond her allowance. She is really good with kids. If she can get some good sitting jobs this summer she might earn some serious money. I know I did. The local fast food places around here just are not hiring kids anymore. There are too many older, far more dependable workers filling those positions.

I need to call DH and see if he filed the taxes last night. He was supposed to, but he procrastinates things. I want to find out what the final number was. His last estimate was somewhere between $8100 and $8400. Most of that is from the HSA we maxed out and used all of last year.

The grandparents' house was supposed to close on the 20th, but I don't know if they did, being as yesterday was a holiday. DH was going to call his mother and find out. I need to find out if he did. It would be nice to know when that money can be expected. Between the tax return and the inheritance it should be somewhere between $15,500 and $16,000 and that will make a serious dent in what's left of our credit card debt. We might then be able to get a 0% card to transfer the remainder to while we pay off what's left over the next few months.

So if you efile your taxes how is the question of signatures handled? DH didn't get the taxes done so he is thinking of just doing them while up at work and efiling even if we have to pay a bit to efile. I'm assuming you don't need a signature with efiling? Is that so? Because he wouldn't have mine for the return obviously if he is doing it from Alaska.

Friday we went shopping at Costco. I picked up a few items for my mother while we were there. It cost $67.11 and she paid me back today. I kept the $65 in my purse, but added the $2.11 to the coin jar.

We spent a good $230 at Costco ourselves, mostly because I did not want to go back there again any time soon. I may be walking almost normally now, but after a trip there I was limping and had to ice for several hours afterwards. It is just too big a place to try to manuever through when you are disabled.

So I doublestocked on some stuff, toilet paper, Ziploc bags, medicines, etc. Most of the cost was that, though I did get a big bag of precut broccoli, some hamburger patties, pancake mix, a case of oranges (after opening the box and checking every single orange for mold), and some chicken thighs as they were .99/lb. Since they come prepackaged in family sized servings, I prefer to buy them at Costco if the cost is low enough, so I don't have to do any extra work. It had been running $1.59 for the last year or so, so it had been cheaper for me to buy it elsewhere in bulk at .98/lb and package it myself.

I wish I had realized we were nearly out of brown sugar though or I would have bought some there. I have about a half cup left after making the marinade today. Now I'll need to wait for a sale and it's not really baking season so I may have to pay a higher price. We use it too much to go too long without it. I should root around and make sure I don't have any in the cupboards. I had quite the stockpile at one time.

DH had to run DS's viola down to the school as he forgot it today and then he is to swing over to the one CU and get the amount of last year's interest for our taxes. He needs to get those done this week so we can get them sent in before he leaves on Monday.

The closing date on DH's grandparents' house was moved from January 30th to February 20th. Even though the people had put in an offer and had the inspection done, they then had to have the bank approve and do it's own inspection, which is taking a while. They were preapproved before the offer and figured that was enough, hence the earlier closing date. First time homebuyers.

Hopefully it will actually close on the 20th. I don't know how long it will be from that point until DH gets his share of the inheritance. Not too long, I hope. No one has contested the will and it was divided fairly with 5% going to each of four grandchildren, and 40% going to each of two children. The family is more or less amicable.

I got the book I put on hold from the library today, The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather that someone here on the blogs had gotten not too long ago. I am really looking forward to reading it. The author lived on $40 a week for food after her husband divorced her and she lost her job. That's about $160 a week for a family of four if I extrapolated it out. We spend about $150 a week for the four of us, so it's pretty close and I thought maybe I could find some actual useful ideas in this one. So far I'm liking it, but haven't got too far yet.

All right, I've procrastinated my bills long enough. Time to grab the bull by the horns.

DH wants to buy tax software because this year is going to have the most complicated return we've ever had and he wants to make sure he doesn't miss anything. It's not really complicated enough to take to a tax professional, but he feels some kind of software might be necessary. He has always done our taxes by hand and then gone through it step by step with me so I would know how to do them, too if I ever had to. (I used to do my own when I was single).

So I've heard of TurboTax and Quicken, but which is better, more user friendly? I am also curious as to whether there was anything else out there. Possibly something that didn't cost anything at all? From what I understand you have to buy new software every year with the two name brands, you can't just update it. Is that true?

DH says that bonus checks will be mailed on the 16th. Still no word on what his percentage will be. I'll probably know before he will because it'll arrive in the mail before he comes back home on the 21st. They will tax it at 25%, because they do that with bonuses, but he will get most of that back when we file our tax return. He's already met the one tax cap for the year anyway.

He also did a preliminary run at our taxes. Of course until he knows about the bonus amount it won't be completely accurrate, but with just the information we have now, we're looking at around $8500. Now before someone starts on about changing our witholding, a good portion of that is due to medical reimbursement.

And the part that isn't, around $3,500, well, it wouldn't matter. DH works 26 weeks a year, but he is taxed as if he worked 52. It is stupid, but it is the way it is for slope workers. We have tried numerous times to do something about it, but until they change this particular quirk of the tax code there is nothing we can do about it. They take out what they take out and that is that.

Still, it means a fairly massive payment to debt come March. And if the bonus is the rumored 10% of a year's salary, we just might be out of CC debt entirely between the two. Which would be awesome.

We need to look into the sales tax deduction as well. We have no state income tax so we are allowed to deduct sales tax, but we never have because we have never itemized. It was never more than the standard deduction in the past. It might actually be worth it this year to do so. And if it is we can take the sales tax deduction. We have bought some big ticket items this year (including the car). That could push our return even higher. It sure would be nice to temporarily get the governments' hands out of our pockets for a minute or two.

I am pretty much basically on autopilot until Friday as far as finances are concerned. And even then, it'll just be setting some money aside for the first of the month bills and dumping the rest into savings. We have moved past living paycheck to paycheck. It is really weird. I know that we aren't that far away from it, maybe a month or so ahead, but having as much money in the bank as we do right now, I don't have that same unsettled feeling in my stomach that I've been living with since the first round of big surgeries started eight or nine years ago and brought with it the debt we have been struggling to get out of ever since.

DH has heard that bonuses will be paid out right around Christmas time, but not the set date. We still don't know how much, but all evidence points to a fairly substantial one, between 5 and 10% of his yearly income. It would be so nice. I know I shouldn't even be thinking about it yet, but I find it is on my mind a lot. I tend to worry about things I have no control over. And anticipate. A lot. I need to stop that, because there is no guarantee of anything in this life, especially end of year bonuses.

At least I know for sure that our tax return next year will be huge, because we maxed out our HSA and we will get all of that back. At least that money I can depend on and maybe dream about a little.

Didn't make it to the CU to deposit the coin jar scrapings. I totally forgot, which is easy enough to do. Maybe tomorrow after I pick up DH from the airport. It's been a month since he's been home. I will be so glad to see him.

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

Now for the regular payments:

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

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

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

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

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

I go into my ING account every week or so just to check on things and I was very disappointed to see that the savings account is no longer at 1%. It's dropped to .9% from the last time I checked. I had heard the money market one had dropped, but not the savings account. And they didn't even notify me. Usually they notify of an interest change. Pretty soon it's not going to be worth keeping money in an online bank. I wonder if this has to do with them being bought out? I really miss the days when ING was at 4% interest.

I have to pay half year property tax by Monday. It's $518 and some change and I have it in my ING account where it's been gathering interest while I saved up for it. I am going to be sad to see it drop that account down, but that money was saved for taxes, so it needs to be used for taxes. I will transfer it tomorrow so that I can get the last piddly bit of interest on it that I can.

This is the first time I've successfully put money aside for property taxes each month. Normally I just come up with the amount when I have to and don't make as big a debt payment on the credit card. But this year I was able to take that small step away from living paycheck to paycheck. I had tried in the past but always ended up using the money for something else along the way. That was when I had no EF to speak of.

I was able to reschedule my physical therapy appointment for Wednesday so that money is still set aside for that.

The PTSA called and said that not enough kids signed up for the Japanese class so she'd be sending my check back and did I want it mailed or sent home with my son. I didn't see the point in wasting a stamp and my son is responsible enough to bring it home with him. I am glad they asked though. Some kids are not. They are still trying to get something together, but probably 8 sessions instead of 13 so it won't cost as much.

I could have told them asking parents to come up with $75 bucks for an after school enrichment class with only 4 days notice was a bad idea. When most people live paycheck to paycheck, they need a couple weeks' notice to scrabble money together for something like that. I'll put the money back where it came from when I get it.

I can't believe I forgot to post yesterday. I am like Posty McPosterson of the Clan McPostsalot and I totally spaced. Anyway, yesterday was day eight of no eating out challenge. Unfortunately today was not day nine. I don't actually feel bad about it though. I got the manager's special from KFC, which was seven pieces of dark meat chicken, 2 large sides, 3 biscuits, and a mini chocolate chip cake for $15.85 (that's the with tax price).

That was actually enough food for two meals so we had it for lunch and for supper. I added a can of green beans to dinner for veg. The biscuits we are saving for breakfast tomorrow and half the cake for another day. I don't feel too bad about this as breakfast was free today. So $15.85 for the day plus food leftover seemed like a good choice when I woke up with a head full of congestion. I am so sick of allergies right now.

I am going to try to finish out the next week without anymore eating out though. Just because I gave in one day does not mean I need to give in every day.

Meanwhile, I balanced the checkbook on Friday and then sent out the bills.

$522.90 Anesthesiologist
$172.37 to ENT Doctor
$144.00 Water/Sewer Old House
$100.00 6 weeks allowances (plus extra jobs money)
$100.00 propane holding tank (ING)
$100.00 property tax holding tank (ING)
$_17.00 HOA dues holding tank (ING)
$100.00 Emergency Fund (ING)
$250.00 Groceries
+_90.00 Fringe
-----------------
1596.27

I have $986 left. I was planning to put $900 onto the credit card, but the stupid BoA website has not been working all day. I just keep getting Out of Memory at line 612, which is usually code for update your fricking flash player, but since I just updated my flash player I doubt very much that that is it. I will try again tomorrow and if it isn't working than I will go down to BoA in person. Nothing is due before the 4th and this was just an extra payment anyway, but I really wanted to make it and I'm bummed.

As for allowances, DD got her $60. That's $10 a week for her and she has to make it last for the next six weeks. DS got his allowance of $36 or $6 per week, plus $2 in tooth fairy money and $2 in extra jobs money. He picked up 200 pinecones and he gets a penny a pinecone, so a total of $40 for him which we promplty went and deposited into his bank account. He's now got $220 saved up for the 3DS he wants to buy.

My allowance was buying seasons one and two of Fringe (which was $90). DH will get his the payday after he comes home. He gets $100 for six weeks.

I got back four ones and 15 cents in change from KFC so that is going into the coin jar for the EF. I am hoping to go out to the house tomorrow and mow the lawn and weedeat. Hopefully DS will gather up all of the aluminum cans and bag them up. We had a bin in the shed that was full of them but something or someone got into it and now they're all over the floor. I told him if he does it he can have the money for recycling them.

And of course anymore pinecones he picks up at a penny a pinecone. He really wants to buy the 3DS before we go on vacation on the 11th but he doesn't quite have enough without doing extra jobs. And I've already told him we won't loan him money again. It's not that he doesn't pay it back, because he does. But we are trying to teach him that sometimes you just don't qualify for a loan, not even from Bank of Mom and Dad. Sometimes you just have to save up the whole amount on your own.

He seems to really get it. DD, not so much. She's already spent $15 on makeup and is planning out the rest of her purchases. I suggested, like I do every payday, that she at least put $10 into her savings account. I may have to make it more than a suggestion. She's almost 15 and resistant to saving in a big way. But she also thinks that credit card debt is stupid, so at least she's got that going for her.

We went to the courthouse today to get tabs for the older car (which we are in the process of getting going again). I'm not particularly fond of the way the courthouse is set up. The handicapped access is on the far end from where the most commonly done things are, licensing and tax assessor offices, as well as where you need to go through the metal dectector to get to the second floor for jury duty. So if you don't want to deal with their stairs or if you don't have a wheelchair that can attach to the chair lift, you have to walk the entire length of the courthouse and back from the handicapped parking.

I got my permit right before we went to Virginia Mason, but the more I've used it, the more I've noticed just how inconvenient it can be for people who have difficulty walking but aren't in wheel chairs. Like at rest areas. I've always had a pet peeve with rest areas anyway, because for some unknown reason the women's bathroom is always on the side where the truckers park (who are typically made up of 90% men) and the men's bathroom is on the side where the cars park. Cars that generally have women and children who go into the bathrooms with women.

I do not get the sense of this. Never have. Well, the handicapped parking spots are even further from the women's restroom than parking in a regular spot. So while you can get in and out of your car easily and up the ramp to the sidewalk, it is an even longer walk to the bathroom than it should be. And if you don't want to walk through the cloud of smokers you have to go even further out of your way.

Oh, well. End rant.

Anyway the tabs cost us $43.75. When DH gets back from picking DD up at school we are going to put the older car on the battery charger and get it charged up, then take it to the car wash if there is still time. So that will be around $13.

I paid the half year property tax on our old house yesterday. I forgot to do it before the courthouse closed at 4:30. Seriously, why are they not open until 5:00? And why do I forget that all the time? Anyway, I ended up paying it online, which made it cost an extra $12. I guess that's what I get for waiting until the last minute...again.

Oh, well. Such is life when you take a couple days off from being organized. Getting myself back there again, pronto.

DH and I are going out to the house for a few hours tonight to see if we can't get the last of it packed up. Then maybe tomorrow we can borrow FIL's truck and take a load to storage and maybe do a dump run, also. There is definitely enough to do a dump run. Which reminds me, I need to cancel the garbage service for the house on Monday. All the stuff we have left is too big to fill up the can with and will have to go to the dump, so no point in paying their monthly service charge when we are no longer needing to put anything out.

Neighbor asked if we were going to keep our generator. I think we are just going to let him have it. We paid $500 for it, but it's ten years old and he keeps an eye on the place for us, chases off the kids who sometimes like to congregate in the yards of empty houses, and makes sure the windows aren't broken. We don't need one for town and the type we would need if we did would have a different tail on it anyway. So no big deal to let him have it, especially for all the stuff he's done.

He also asked if he could have our compost. Not the bins, just what's in them and I've agreed to that. I was just going to dump it into the existing flower beds but I wasn't looking forward to the backbreaking work of shoveling compost, so he'll come and take it and we won't have to worry about it spreading it. One less thing on our to do list.

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.

So here's the money out for this payday:

$1,102.89 BoA Master Card pay off
---800.00 BoA VISA
---250.00 Emergency Fund
----44.92 Phone for old house
----65.55 Internet
---144.00 Water/Sewer for old house (2 months)
----42.78 Garbage old house
---100.00 Propane holding tank
---100.00 Property Tax holding tank
----17.00 HoA Dues holding tank
---250.00 Medical holding tank
----69.97 Medical payment
----32.34 Lenscrafters
---100.00 Computer
----------------
$3119.45

We sent the taxes off today with the check for $5,506.03. I added $250 to the emergency fund.

$277.36 old EF Balance
+250.00 added
---------
$527.36 new EF Balance

I've got $120 cash for the week and $291 in the checkbook.

I have $475.72 in the holding tank now for future bills.

The amount of credit card debt left on the BoA VISA is $19,566.94. DH still has to buy his next plane ticket so that will bounce it back up above $20,000, but starting next month it gets $3000 a month so we'll start making serious progress paying it down once that starts.

Tomorrow I have an eye appointment and will get new glasses. That will be covered by insurance. DD is getting a haircut which will come out of my $120 cash.

So far our budget has been working perfectly. Here's hoping it continues.

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.

...or why does paying a large amount of taxes feel like death? It felt awful to do it, but it had to be done. I transferred the tax money from the ING account to my local CU so that we can send in our tax bill on Friday. I am grateful we had the money to do it, but I hate how low the emergency fund is now.

This is the first year we have ever had to pay extra taxes and it does not feel good. Even though we knew it was coming because of the contract buyout, I still don't like it. Still, at least we are prepared and that's more than half the battle. And on the bright side this shouldn't happen again. It was a unique circumstance.

And when May comes I will be able to put a decent amount back in the EF and get it out of the triple digits and back into the quadruple digits. It'll be a few insecure weeks until we do. Especially since we pay property tax on the 30th and that means another reduction in cash on hand.

I keep forgetting to post my meal planning, but I am doing it. Here is today's:

Breakfast:
Pancakes (.50)
Homemade syrup (.05)
Eggs (free from chickens)
Milk ($1.50)

Total $2.05

Lunch:
--2 kids
deli meat sandwiches ($2)
orange (.50)
apple (.40)
plain potato chips (.50)
water

--Me
TV dinner ($2)

Total $5.40

Dinner:
Turkey legs ($6.43)
Baked sweet potatoes (.69)
Broccoli/Cauliflower (1.29)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $9.91

Total for day: $17.36

There will be leftover turkey and veggies for future meals.

DH comes home tomorrow so food expenses will go up for the next 3 weeks.

I finally sat down and quit procrastinating and ran the numbers on my EF. After I take the money out for income tax and property tax I will have $277.36 left in my emergency fund. I will also have $204.30 in my holding tank (where I am now setting aside money for bills that are not monthly.) So it's definitely a major hit, but I think we can recover from it okay.

As eager as I am to pay off our debt, after we pay off the Master Card this month, I am going to take enough from what we would be paying to the VISA in the future to build the account back up to $1000 and then I'll add whatever I can to it. I would just feel better with at least $1000 in the bank quickly and then work on building it back up to $8000. Eventually higher, but I will feel a lot more secure with at least the $8000. We will still be able to pay the VISA off by the end of the year, it would just be December and not November.

I got a whopping $5.42 in interest from ING for the month of March. It is going to the emergency fund. I need to sit down and do the numbers and find out just how much is going to be left in the EF after we pay our tax bill and our property tax. It won't be much, I know, and there's not terribly much I will be able to do about that at the moment. Just build it back up bit by bit.

I have now started saving a monthly portion for property tax so when the next bill hits us in October we will have it and not have to dip into any other form of savings. I really wish our income tax bill was not so high, but we knew that would happen with the lump sum contract buyout. At least the money is there. That is the important thing. We'll only get about ten days worth of interest on the total amount this month before I have to transfer most of it out to pay income tax. After this year we hopefully won't have this problem again.

DH wants to take a mini-vacation this year. I told him it would have to wait until summer's end, we just can't afford it until then. Well, I say can't. I mean, we can't without holding money back from debt repayment. We agreed that this year would be all about debt repayment and that we'd hit it hard. But he's getting a little antsy about that.

We still have no confirmation on whether or not he will be getting the raise he was told he would get in April. The man who told him he would be getting it has been fired for failing a drug test so he doesn't have anyone to ask about it, either. If it does happen though, I could save that new money half for vacation and half for the EF. But I'm not counting on it.

We will be going to Seattle this month again though to the Pacific Science Center. They are having a Star Wars exhibit there and the Millenium Falcon will be on display. We will likely do an overnight there as last time driving down and back seriously borked my knee. Having a night to elevate it between drives will be better. So we'll stay in a relatively inexpensive hotel. A small cost, but maybe that'll help him get the mini-vacation feeling without a true three or four day trip.

Most of my flu symptoms are gone now, just congested and really, really tired all the time. No fever today. Progress.

Well, DH picked up a flyer from that house that we've been eyeing up and it still looks very nice. It went into a lot more detail than most flyers. He was going to go by himself to the open house but they had just closed it when he got there so he just got the flyer. And apparently the house across the street and one house down is going to be put on the market in another week and it is also a good option, plus has a garage and is not on a corner so lower taxes, but still...we are not ready.

I do not think house number one is going to sell, though. Anyone with half a mind for research could find out that it was sold in April of last year for $178,000. They flipped it, which is obvious from all the changes that were made, but they were asking $479,000 for it when they first put it back on the market in August. Where it has sat doing nothing. They finally reduced the price to $419,000 a few months ago, but still nothing.

I doubt very much that they made $241,000 worth of changes. Maybe they made $50,000. And in a neighborhood where the median house sells for $150,000 to $200,000 and has a garage (which this one does not), they aren't going to get that price. I think it will just sit and sit and sit because of the greediness of the asking price. Which is okay with me. If it is still for sale in a year we might consider making an offer. But nowhere near that asking price.

My mother's house is six blocks away in a slightly more upscale and desireable area with much larger lots and her house is probably 1500 square feet larger, plus has a garage and is only valued at around $350,000 so they are definitely grasping. They are probably not local owners who thought they could make a fast buck, but not in this economy. I can be patient. Have to be anyway.

DH finished our taxes today. I will not mail them in until the 14th of April so that the money can collect what little interest there is as long as possible. We owe $5506.03. It is the first year we have ever owed money. That is because of the lump sum contract buyout of the company that laid him off. We paid quite a bit in taxes at that time but we knew there might be more coming so we set aside $6000. That money has been doubling as our emergency fund and will be all but decimated. The rest of the money will go to pay property taxes April 30th and then we'll start rebuilding the EF. Well, I'll start rebuilding it sooner than that, but it won't be super fast because of our high amount of debt repayment.

Edited to add: I noticed that several of my comments made on different threads in the forums are missing today. There's still a few there, but almost everything I've posted this month is gone. Weird. I wonder what is up with that?

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.

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.

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.