We have actually managed pretty well with the portable heaters. I mean it wasn't comfortably warm or anything, but it wasn't freezing either. Just more sort of adequate. Fortunately the new control board for the furnace came in a lot earlier than they claimed it could get here and the guy came out and installed it around 2. It is nice to actually be warm again. I think that's something we can really take for granted sometimes until it's no longer there.

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Some expenses that have gone out this week:

$50.47 for 3 prescriptions
$90.00 for physical therapy

Also $76.95 to AMEX which had a couple of autopays go through before I could cancel one and switch the other to the BoA card. The holidays made me absent-minded. Or maybe I'm just naturally absent-minded. It has a zero balance again and I don't plan to use it for gas until the BoA is paid off.

And $30 to DD for last week's and this week's allowance. Also 4 cents to DS who has finally paid off his advance and will resume getting his full allowance next week. As of next week the kids have to start banking half of their allowances for Disneyland.

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Finally got through the preface of the book I got for Christmas. The review at Amazon said it was written from a Christian perspective, but I think it's coming off more like he's a religious whackadoodle. If it doesn't tone it down some I may not make it through the rest of the book. So far the writer does not come off as the sort of Christian that I strive to be, certainly. More the type that I tend to look at and think please get out of my religion, the type that makes that verse about not judging others very difficult to apply. At this point I am glad I did not purchase it myself. I hope it gets better. I hate to think it was a total waste of my SIL's money.

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I do plan to get back to the food stamp challenge menus soon, but I totally torqued my knee on Christmas day and so it's making it hard for me to concentrate for the amount of time it takes to devote to one of those. It is getting better but is still swollen and sore. Hopefully it will continue to improve.

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DH and I have been planning out more of our Disneyland trip. We have a hotel narrowed down for our overnight in Seattle. It has a hot breakfast included (not continental). That was the last thing that needed to be booked.

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The chickens are doing really well. Finally put a light in a week or two ago. Today we got 10 eggs out of 12 chickens. Not bad. I miss Lady, though. She is doing well at the new farm, but I still miss her. She was my favorite duck and such a sweetheart.

I've run the numbers to see exactly how I will pay off the BoA VISA in the month of January. I will be using the money in the freezer fund to help with this, so:

$2000 on January 4th--$1000, from the freezer fund and $1000 from the extra money set aside for January that I don't need now that the AMEX has been paid off.

$2000 out of the January 11th paycheck.

$2000 out of the January 18th paycheck.

$2000 out of the January 25th paycheck.

That will pay it off even with DH charging a new plane ticket, travel food, and motel cost for his overnight stay in Anchorage.

In February I will need to take $1252 along with the money I have saved in the vacation fund, $400, to buy 7 parkhopper tickets for Disneyland/California Adventure for our planned March trip. So while there will be some debt repayment to the last card, the Chase card, it will be closer to $500 for this month, I think.

When we get our taxes back, it should be close to what we got back last year, which was $8,425. Most of this was caused by deducting the entire HSA amount since we spent so much on medical. The same will be true this year. DH's income should be about the same, maybe off by a few hundred dollars.

About $3000 of that money will go towards Disneyland. The condo is free, the airfare was mostly free, and what wasn't was taken care of a few months ago. That probably seems like a lot of money, but I am overbudgeting to be on the safe side. We will be renting a limo to get us to and from the airport. It actually turns out to be cheaper to do that than to divide seven people and their luggage between two cars.

The only cheaper option is to take one of those buses that stops at every single hotel near Disneyland (and yours is always the last one), but those are always so full you never get to sit with your family and with four children, two of which have anxiety issues, that is not an option. The nine passenger van doesn't have enough room for us and our luggage.

Once we have settled into the condo DH and I will leave SIL with the kids and take a taxi to the nearby Von's to do some grocery shopping. We plan on eating breakfast at the condo and most of our dinners, then purchasing lunch in the park. It will cut food costs substantially.

DH and I have determined to buy everyone one sweatshirt, one t-shirt, a Splash Mountain or Grizzly River Run beach towel and one set of mouse ears as souvenirs. Also autograph books and pens for the kids.

We will need to rent two motel rooms for the night in Seattle before we fly and we will also need to pay for airport parking of two cars when we get back. Also one meal at the airport at least.

Plans for what is left of our tax return after Disney money is taken out is to put $1500 in the Emergency Fund and $3500 towards Chase. I will have an additional $500 from March's pay cycle to pay off Chase completely.

And at that point we will start saving and building the EF and paying down the mortgage which will be under $14K at that point. Currently $1000 is going towards principal every 2 months, so I'd like to make that $1000 towards principal every month until it is either paid off or the house sells. I will also be trying to save $1000 each month for college and will ear mark the tax refund after this one to college savings as well.

3 months and the future begins, unfettered by the credit card debt of years. At least as long as Murphy keeps to himself and all goes well.

I've run the numbers to see exactly how I will pay off the BoA VISA in the month of January. I will be using the money in the freezer fund to help with this, so:

$2000 on January 4th--$1000, from the freezer fund and $1000 from the extra money set aside for January that I don't need now that the AMEX has been paid off.

$2000 out of the January 11th paycheck.

$2000 out of the January 18th paycheck.

$2000 out of the January 25th paycheck.

That will pay it off even with DH charging a new plane ticket, travel food, and motel cost for his overnight stay in Anchorage.

In February I will need to take $1252 along with the money I have saved in the vacation fund, $400, to buy 7 parkhopper tickets for Disneyland/California Adventure for our planned March trip. So while there will be some debt repayment to the last card, the Chase card, it will be closer to $500 for this month, I think.

When we get our taxes back, it should be close to what we got back last year, which was $8,425. Most of this was caused by deducting the entire HSA amount since we spent so much on medical. The same will be true this year. DH's income should be about the same, maybe off by a few hundred dollars.

About $3000 of that money will go towards Disneyland. The condo is free, the airfare was mostly free, and what wasn't was taken care of a few months ago. That probably seems like a lot of money, but I am overbudgeting to be on the safe side. We will be renting a limo to get us to and from the airport. It actually turns out to be cheaper to do that than to divide seven people and their luggage between two cars.

The only cheaper option is to take one of those buses that stops at every single hotel near Disneyland (and yours is always the last one), but those are always so full you never get to sit with your family and with four children, two of which have anxiety issues, that is not an option. The nine passenger van doesn't have enough room for us and our luggage.

Once we have settled into the condo DH and I will leave SIL with the kids and take a taxi to the nearby Von's to do some grocery shopping. We plan on eating breakfast at the condo and most of our dinners, then purchasing lunch in the park. It will cut food costs substantially.

DH and I have determined to buy everyone one sweatshirt, one t-shirt, a Splash Mountain or Grizzly River Run beach towel and one set of mouse ears as souvenirs. Also autograph books and pens for the kids.

We will need to rent two motel rooms for the night in Seattle before we fly and we will also need to pay for airport parking of two cars when we get back. Also one meal at the airport at least.

Plans for what is left of our tax return after Disney money is taken out is to put $1500 in the Emergency Fund and $3500 towards Chase. I will have an additional $500 from March's pay cycle to pay off Chase completely.

And at that point we will start saving and building the EF and paying down the mortgage which will be under $14K at that point. Currently $1000 is going towards principal every 2 months, so I'd like to make that $1000 towards principal every month until it is either paid off or the house sells. I will also be trying to save $1000 each month for college and will ear mark the tax refund after this one to college savings as well.

3 months and the future begins, unfettered by the credit card debt of years. At least as long as Murphy keeps to himself and all goes well.

I was reconciling my savings accounts spreadsheet with the bank statements I received in the mail today and I realized that there was $252.01 that was not allocated to any category at ING. Not sure what I did there. I might have paid something out of the holding tank without actually taking it out and just using checking, but I took it off the spreadsheet. That's happened a couple of times. Regardless, I added it to the emergency fund category, so the EF now sits at $1457.42. Almost to the $1500 mark. I think I can get it there by the end of the year.

I received the propane bill for the old house today. The thermostat is set on 60 so that the pipes do not freeze. It is $159.65. That is quite a lot less than I was anticipating. I have $400 allocated for propane in the holding tank right now. So I will pay that and then leave the rest of the money ($240.35) in there and just not transfer any more money to the holding tank for propane until after the next quarterly bill comes. I can use that $100 a month elsewhere during that time.

Tomorrow is payday. I still have $297.82 in checking and $25 in cash. I added $6.48 to the coin jar. I really like this new habit of getting to the next payday with more than $5 left.

I've been saving my allowance since I started drawing one again. I have $154. I haven't decided what to do with it. Maybe I'll save it for Disneyland. I like to buy a sweatshirt or light jacket, a couple of t-shirts, and one of the Splash Mountain towels when I go and they are a bit expensive, so having the extra saved for that would be a good idea. They are so well made that they last for years. In fact I can still wear the Disneyland sweatshirt I bought in 1995 on my honeymoon and it looks great. None of the stitching has come out or anything. So I feel like they are a good investment.

DS's Christmas presents arrived today so he is all taken care of. I need to get on the ball and order DD's presents now that I have her list. I procrastinated last year and a couple of her presents didn't show up until a week after Christmas. 5 more days until DH comes home. It's been a long hitch and I will be glad to have him home.

I sat down with my December and January spreadsheets tonight. The majority of my bills for this month have been paid except for the car loan, the BoA VISA, internet, the old house phone bill, allowances, weekly physical therapy and the monthly chiropractic family plan. Water/sewer is due at month's end, but that money is already set aside in the holding tank.

With DH's extra week of work the next three paydays should net around $8600. $3000 of that will be set aside for the first two weeks in January. We will be going from December 21st to January 11th without a paycheck. I figured out what needs to be paid during that time and came up with $1963.91. Then I added $1000 for groceries and a nice cushion.

That leaves me with $5100 to pay the rest of December's bills. $1579 is for everything but the credit card. I'll need $1000 for allowances, groceries, and a nice cushion. That leaves me with $2521 to put on debt. $2000 of which has been allocated for the credit card. Depending on how things work out with the bonus, that extra $521 will go for the credit card or to the vacation fund.

Any of those nice cushion dollars that are left on January 11th will be distributed similarly, depending on the bonus.

I am feeling so much hope right now. When that credit card debt is gone, it is going to be such smooth sailing. We will really be able to start saving for our future. DH makes such a good income these last few years, but so much of it has always gone to this massive medical debt it was like living on a third of it. I'm not going to go wild or crazy, but it will be nice to loosen up a little bit and also to be contributing to the 401K again. It's like coming out of dark clouds and into the sun, like winter's chill giving way to spring.

Today is payday and for once I got to sit down early and do everything. As of today the only bill that hasn't been paid for the month is the internet bill. I don't think it has come yet. That means the vast majority of next week's paycheck can be split between credit card debt and Christmas. It feels nice going into the holidays without having to scramble this year.

DH's boss called him yesterday to let him know that he will be working an extra week on his next hitch. They still don't know about January. They'll have a better idea of that after he works the extra week. But one guaranteed extra paycheck is great. Especially if he has the three weeks off. I can just save it for that time period and if there is anything leftover put it toward debt.

I hadn't paid the car payment yet, so I'm including it here, but the money for that was from last week's payday. Here's what went out today:

$1700.00 to BoA credit card
_757.82 to car loan
_300.00 for glasses (3 months same as cash, paid in full now)
1000.00 to Mom
__37.68 Garbage
_100.00 to Vacation Fund
__72.00 to holding tank for water/sewer
__44.87 Phone at old house
__23.00 for kid's allowance (DS owes me $2, so that's lower than usual)
_300.00 for beef money
_100.00 cash for miscellaneous stuff
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$4473.05

DH is going to be buying a new pair of workboots, too. They will be around $200. They are steel-toed, steel-shanked, electricity proof, water proof, and Arctic safe. The last pair lasted him about 5 years so that works out to about $40 a year. Not bad for safety gear.

The actual day of our zoo trip was a balmy 92 degrees F. We slathered on enough sunscreen to keep Banana Boat in business. DD is one of those porcelain complected, hazel-eyed blondes who would not look at all out of place in Iceland and I have enough redhead in me that I will burn pretty easily without the stuff.

Our first stop was the polar bears. I was feeling pretty sorry for them, considering this sort of heat is not in their native habitat, but then again, they did have a nice, cold pond to swim in.



They have three males at the Point Definace Zoo and no females. They seem to get along pretty well, but they did keep to different areas of the enclosure. The biggest one was 9 feet tall when it reared up. You don't really realize the size of these animals when they are just laying on a rock.



Or how big they are until they lick the window in front of you because that's where the meat they were being fed bounced off!



The muskox was hanging out in the shade trying to get away from the heat. With that fur coat, I think she had the right idea.



I was definitely jealous of the seals and their cool waters.



And the penguins! Heavily shaded and they had plenty of water to swim in.



The elephant was giving herself a bath in lots of nice, cold water.



The anoa decided that being inside was the best way to escape from the heat.



As did these two:



The leopard seemed quite happy though to bask in the sunshine.



And the budgies also seemed to love the heat. The kids got seed sticks to feed them for $1 each. The birds land right on the stick or on you and eat the seeds.



The landscaping was also lovely. I'd love to have this flower in my garden.



And I actually do have these ones, just not blooming right now.



I haven't uploaded the aquarium photos yet, but here's my son being eaten by a shark that also, apparently swallowed a hardwood wall.



It was a great zoo all in all, though I think the Greater Vancouver Zoo in B.C., Canada remains my favorite.

We are back from our short vacation to Tacoma. It was incredibly hot while we were there, in the low 90's each day. It was close to that here at home, but we really took a doozy of a time to go.

Still it was very nice to get away from home for a bit and to relax in a pool each night. The zoo was very nice, much better than Woodland Park Zoo. I have some lovely pictures some of which I will post when I am not so exhausted, but here is one.



I didn't actually ride one of the camels as my knee was acting up fiercely by the time we got to the camels (about 2 hours in)and I didn't think I could climb up the stairs to get on, but the kids and DH both did.

We stayed on budget for vacation which was something I was a little worried about. I took an extra $100 just in case, but I came back home with it.

There was a really great diner across from our hotel. We have lucked out quite a bit in finding excellent diners when we've been on vacation. We tend to shy away from the big chain restaurants most of the time if we can help it. This place, Elmer's, reminded me of the place in Port Angeles called Joshua's that we ate at several times on our summer trip last year. Elmer's is a very small chain, local to the PNW, but feels very homey and the food was incredibly good and locally sourced.

The kids got their school wardrobes (well, I guess for DS it was just getting clothes because he's outgrown everything since he's homeschooling this year) taken care of as well. Although DD still needs a pair of gym shoes for PE and a pair of everyday tennis shoes. And both kids need socks. DS's jeans will need to be altered as they are far too long, but we found ones that fit him well otherwise, which we couldn't even come close to doing last year. He's grown a lot in the last year.

I really hate the years between boyhood and teenage boyhood for finding clothes. If you are not a super skinny tall beanpole there is nothing for you in trousers between the XL 20 boys and the size 32 mens waist with a 29 inch inseam. That's 5 missing sizes. DS lived in sweat pants last year, but he hated it. There are tons of tween clothes for girls and you can at least make do with skirts for a few years if you have to. The choices for boys are extremely limited. A business taking advantage of that clothing gap would clean up. I am not the only mother of a boy I've heard complaining of this.

Still, with homeschooling he can get through the fall, winter, and spring on two good pairs of jeans and the hated sweat pants. He wears shorts in the house all the time anyway.

Out of yesterday's payday and about $300 from short term bill savings, I paid the following bills:

__32.88 Electric
__10.59 Medical
_400.00 Mortgage for the old house
_301.30 to Chase (no interest for 18 months)
__90.00 Medical
_300.00 To Mom for her utilities
_757.82 Car payment (plus extra to principal)
_685.86 to BoA credit card (will pay more next week)
_176.09 Paid off computer (18 months same as cash)
__70.56 Internet
__44.87 Phone for old house (for security system)
_144.00 Water/sewer for old house
__49.91 yearly propane tank rental
_125.00 Cash for groceries
__25.00 Kid's allowances
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$3605.18

I just raised the kids' allowances from $7 and $12 respectively to $10 and $15 per week. They have really stepped up and started doing a lot more of the daily chores and helping with the gardening. I've told them that if they slack off though it's going back down.

I have $42 left of my grocery money for the week. Aside from milk I should not need to buy anything else this coming week. I thought I needed to buy chicken legs or thighs, but I did some digging around in the freezer and found 3 pounds which I cooked up for the next few days lunches. There may be more in the freezer. I do have two whole chickens and some boneless, skinless thighs.

It will be a short grocery week as we are going down to Tacoma on Wednesday, spending the night, going to the Point Defiance Zoo on Thursday, spending that night, and then coming home on Friday after morning rush hour. That wipes out our vacation savings, but we have nothing else planned for the summer.

Our hotel room has a microwave and a fridge and there is a Top Foods (like Haggen) nearby. We will bring a cooler with some food from home and our little egg cooker (which does boiled eggs or poached and our microwave bacon cooker, so we can have bacon and eggs for breakfast that we bring. I am going to roast a chicken on Tuesday and pick all the meat off the bones and we will bring that in the cooler. I will also bring along coleslaw and salad and a bottle of dressing and maybe a couple cans of green beans. And peanut butter, jelly, butter, and bread. We will probably eat out two meals (one at the zoo), but that is in the vacation budget.

We went to the Pacific Science Center to see the King Tut exhibit yesterday. It was fantastic and we had a great time...until we tried to leave. Seattle traffic was nasty on the way out. I was not pleased that Obama was in Bellevue. It screwed up being able to get back out of the city. I have never seen Seattle traffic this snarled before. It took 25 minutes to go .4 of a mile! And then another 15 minutes to go 3 blocks. And with all the one way streets, you can't get there from here, even with GPS.

I thought we'd never get out. Since we had bought our tickets well in advance of Obama scheduling his trip here, all it did was make me cranky. And I would have been just as cranky if it had been Romney screwing with traffic. I am an equal opportunity grump.

Also what is up with all those dedicated bus lanes? Can't they be dedicated bus lanes and carpool lanes? We had 5 people in the car. That's practically a bus! LOL No, I know, public transportation is big in Seattle and the buses need to stay as on time as possible. But...it's not like half the city stays out of them, anyway. They would go in them illegally and then try to shove into the lane that it was legal for cars to be in. Made me even more grumpy, because we were driving properly and they were cheating and people were letting them in anyway. When it takes six light changes to get across an intersection because only one car at a time can make it because of all the irresponsible scofflaws, it irritates me. DH even honked his horn once. DH never honks his horn.

And don't get me started on the crazy, jay-walking pedestrians who were trying to commit suicide by car. Or the motorcyclists who think they belong in the bicycle lanes. I may never complain about the crazy drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and bikers in my city again. I think next time we may just take the train. Save ourselves a lot of annoyance and not have to deal with the crazy people.

We ended up spending $200 of our vacation money, well within the allotted amount for the day. I even came home with some money. It goes back in the vacation fund so we will have it for our trip to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma next month. Hopefully there will be no political visitors at that time! Because if there is one thing that gets to me more than Seattle traffic, it is Tacoma traffic!

We did some moving of stuff to storage today. We ended up emptying our 2nd unit at the one place. We got a bigger 2nd unit elsewhere for about $20 cheaper. I would like to change out our bigger unit, too, in time because we could save quite a bit on it at the new place. The only real difference between places is one is outside the city limits. So it's two miles further away, but that is worth it for that much less money. They also do not require extra insurance. Since our homeowners policy has a rider for storage items, this is a savings of $15 a month.

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The man who was supposed to come out and check the house for painting and estimate on the door repairs called to say his daughter had been hurt and rescheduled for Wednesday. *sighs* Will we ever get this done?

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I picked 2 pints of blackberries today. I have enough to make jam. Speaking of jam we finished off the first jar of strawberry jam and opened up the first jar of apricot jelly. It definitely is not jam like, but jelly like. It was so good. Everybody loves it. And it was perfect even without pectin.

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Those green onion bottoms that I planted have started sending up shoots. I count 3 so far. It worked!

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I did not make pot roast today as I had some food that needed using up so instead I made chicken/turkey noodle soup today for dinner. Well, yesterday before we went to the farm I threw 4 turkey legs and a bunch of chicken wings that were just starting to get freezer burn in the crockpot with 2 cups of water. I let it cook all day on low and last night I picked all the meat off the bones and returned it to the crockpot. I added all of the onion skins, carrot peels, garlic skins, bits of green onion that hadn't gone bad but no longer looked its best that I have saved in the freezer and the four chicken carcasses that I have saved in the freezer.

I chopped up half a bunch of fresh parsley, smashed five garlic cloves, chopped up one and a half onions (along with their skins), some celery leaves, and chopped two carrots. I added 1 tbsp of white peppercorns (what I had on hand) and 1 tsp of fresh sea salt. I filled up the crock to the top with water and let it go all night and until 5 o'clock tonight.

Then we put it through a collander, put the broth in a stock pot, and tossed the remains in the crock into the compost (we have a heavy duty rubbermaid plastic compost bin so the animals can't get into it. I usually don't compost bones but in this case I will). The broth was a rich brownish gold color (turkey makes it light brown).

I washed and peeled one onion and three carrots, saving the peels and skins in a new stock bag. I chopped them up and sauteed them in olive oil for about 15 minutes to make them soft. Meanwhile I boiled half a pound of egg noodles in the broth. After fifteen minutes I added the carrots and onions (I was out of celery or it would have been in there, too,) to the broth and then added 3 cups of the cooked chicken and turkey meat and let it warm through, about 3 minutes.

After that I adjusted the seasonings, adding about 1 tsp of black pepper, 1 tsp of sea salt, 1/4 tsp of ground celery seed, 1/4 tsp of onion powder, 1 tsp of thyme leaves and 1/4 tsp of garlic powder. We also added salt and pepper to taste at the table. Some of us like a bit more pepper than others of us.

I ended up with enough soup to feed the five of us 7 big bowlfuls (DH and DD had seconds) and I have a quart and a half leftover in the fridge. I think I am going to do up the rest of the chicken wings over the next couple of days. The bag was originally 10 pounds and there are about 7 pounds left so I think I will do it in two batches and make up more stock and then just pressure can the stock in pint jars so we have it on hand. I'd really like to do that. I had planned on it before but plans fell through. I would net about 8 pints of broth this way, I think, and that's about a canner level full.

Most of the things I put into the soup were foods that were looking worse for wear, too, especially the carrots and onions, but you couldn't even tell in the finished product. I'd say the expensive of it was in the fresh parsley and the meat itself.

Altogether the cost to me was about $6 for 5 quarts of soup. That's 10 pints, which is equivalent to ten cans of a big-noodled, chunky-style soup in the 16 ounce can. One with all organic ingredients is $2.99 at the cheapest place. So for an equivalent amount of organic soup I would have paid $29.90. That's a cost savings of $23.90. My son will eat a can of soup a day and he is happy to eat this instead.

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

I also made two loaves of bread today. We ate over half a loaf with our soup with strawberry jam and apricot jelly. So very good. I will have to make more bread tomorrow. My neice is spending Monday night as we are taking her with us to the science center on Tuesday to see the King Tut exhibit as her birthday present. We will be taking sandwiches down with us so will need plenty of bread, but we will also be making French toast for breakfast that morning for her, DS, and DH. We will also have sausage and bacon and eggs and cucumber slices for those of us who low carb at breakfast. They can have jam if they want it on the French toast.

I am really looking forward to seeing the exhibit. I saw it when it came through when I was a little kid in the 1970's, but I really want to see it again as an adult. This is part of our "vacation" this summer, since we aren't having a real one.

I think I forgot to mention this, but DH booked the condo for our Disneyland trip. We've got it for a week in March of next year. We only had to pay $163, which is the yearly maintenance dues. This is part of my Mom's WorldMark Travel Club. She had a ton of credits that needed to be used up or she would lose them, so otherwise it is free to us.

Airfare will also be free as DH will have the miles by then from all his flying back and forth to work. So we will just need to pay for park tickets and food and transport to and from the airport.

We got a three bedroom condo as we are taking DH's sister and her two daughters with us. We are covering all of their expenses except food and souvenirs. DH's sister lives well below the poverty level, she makes as much in a month as DH makes in a day and a half and we try to help her out as much as possible. She would never be able to afford a trip like this for her and her kids and since we can get so much of it for free we can afford to take them.

We may help on the food a bit because we want to treat them to the Blue Bayou which is very pricey. But we want her to save something for the trip if she can (though in-laws will probably just give her that money). The condo has a full kitchen so we will buy some groceries at a nearby Albertsons that delivers to save on food costs, at least breakfasts.

Five day park hoppers for seven people will cost $1652 using today's prices and that may go up in 2013. And we calculate $2000 for food and souvenirs. That's probably high but I'd rather have too much than not enough. And transport to and from the airport for seven people...well it might actually be cheaper (and quite a hoot) to rent a limo for that. I'll have to look into the price. It's either that or a full-sized van with DH driving. We do not want to do the bus thing with that many people.

I am going to start saving now, but the bulk of the money will come from DH's annual Christmas bonus, which is 5% of his yearly income. And failing that (though they give it as standard) we'll use our tax refund money. With the HSA we are assured of getting a huge return even if we spent no more on medical than we've already spent so far this year (ha!).

I am looking forward to this trip a lot. It will be so much fun to do it with DH's sister and the girls and I will also get to spend one of the days with a good friend of mine who lives in California and has an annual pass and will come up to see me. With DH's sister and the girls there DH won't and the kids won't feel like I am abandoning them for my friend, but I only get to see her every few years so I'd do it even if they did!

What I was figuring would be $9 of interest after I paid off the MC turned out to be $32.04. Obviously I was very tired. But I've paid it today regardless, so it's fully paid off now.

The payment I made last night of $1490 isn't showing up as pending, but I did that really late at night so it should show as pending by tomorrow. It also isn't shown as being taken out of the checking account yet, so I'm sure it's just slow because of the weekend.

I have paid all the bills from now until the 20th of April, except the car payment and DH's life insurance. There is techinically enough in the checking account to pay that, but it would leave us with $50 for the week. Since it is spring break, and Mom thought that would be the best time to remodel our bathroom, we are having to be out of the house quite a bit this coming week. The workers are very loud and smelly (dust, mold, cigarette smell clinging to their clothes) so they are stirring up allergy issues. So we will wait until next payday to pay the car payment. It's not due until the 19th. Most of the money for it will still come from this payday, though.

As for DH's life insurance, it comes out on autopay in a day or two, but they change the rate every six months, it goes up a dollar and a bit or something. DH doesn't know what he did with the paper that came with the new amount, so I am waiting until it is deducted before I record the exact amount in the checkbook.

We will be renewing our Pacific Science Center Membership this week as we are going there one day this week. We also will be going again when the King Tut exhibit is there. We may also go down one day and do the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. Depends on how things go.

Yesterday was early release for the kids from school and so we went out to the house and finished packing. The only thing left to pack is the tools, the drywall installation stuff, and the cleaning supplies. On Wednesday DH and FIL will go out there and put up that final wall on the back of the shower.

Then we need to rent a small U-haul to move the last boxes and the stuff in the shed, like the table saw and the broken dresser beyond repair that needs to go to the dump, but can't fit in the van.

DH still needs to set up an appointment with ADT to come out and replace the alarm box that is cracked and set up an estimate on replacing the broken window pane. I need to vacuum but I can't do that until the boxes are out and then we need to hire someone to clean it. My mother insists she wants to do that, but I really don't think she will. I know I don't. I want to hire a service that cleans houses or apartments after renters leave so that it is really clean, not something like Merry Maids that leaves the illusion of clean, but doesn't really deep clean anything. Then we need to get someone in to do the rugs as well. All that before we can put the dumb thing on the market. This is what we get for procrastinating so long, but then again, my health wasn't up to it before now.

The plan tomorrow is to go to the NW Washington Fair. I consider this as sort of a one day staycation/vacation type thing. It cost $10 per adult and $5 per child entry fee. That means it will be $35 for the four of us (and next year DS will be 12 so this is his last year at a child's price). The Lion's Club rents wheel chairs so we could get a regular one for $15 or an electric one for $25. DH tends to get tired pushing me around so I think we might splurge for the electric one. So that right there is $60 just to get in and be mobile. Oh, and parking is usually anywhere from $3 to $8 depending on how close we park. Hopefully the handicapped lot will still be open if we get there early enough.

We will not be doing any rides. Ride bracelets are $30 each, which is utterly ridiculous. And the kids just think the rides are lame as they've been to Disney enough times to know what good rides are. So no big loss there. Most of the music is free and we will look at the dancing groups and the horses, bunnies, and chickens and of course the other animals who are less interesting as well. There are tons of exhibits though I won't be able to go upstairs at all, so I will take my paperback in my purse so that I have something to do while waiting for the family to come back down. Only two of the commercial buildings have 2nd floors. I am looking forward to the local art and the quilts. It is amazing, usually.

Each child will get one souvenir a piece. DH and I might get something each also, but I'm hoping for something practical, like a nice water bottle. There are tons of giveaways so we will end up with a lot of those just by crusing the commercial booths.

There are certain foods that are musts when we go to this fair. Funnel cakes topped with strawberries, whipping cream, and powdered sugar, corn dogs, corn on the cob, ice cream cones from ice cream made on site, fish and chips or chicken and jo-jos, and pulled pork barbecue sandwiches. Most food is shared around between the four of us, (except corn or corn dogs), so we all get a taste of everything. Last year as the fair was closing we were able to get DS a cotton candy with no dye in it, just pure white spun sugar. But we aren't staying until closing this year so it is unlikely he will get that choice.

I am taking $150 to the Fair with $50 as back up money just in case. I don't think we will need it. We usually do fine with $150 (and that was back when we bought ride bracelets for the kids). I haven't been in a couple of years as my health has not allowed so I am really looking forward to this. Hopefully I wake up feeling decent, because I would hate to send them without me.

My mom has been a member of a travel club for about 20 years now. I guess some people might call it a time share, but instead of it being one condo and a week of the year that is fixed in stone, it's a choice between any of about 200 condos scattered across the U.S. (including Hawaii and Alaska), B.C. and Mexico. They also have a couple in Austrailia. It's completely paid for and has dues of $500 a year which gives you enough credits for five days a year. You can borrow from the past year if you didn't use them and the next year. So if you wanted two weeks somewhere you could use three years worth of credits to get 15 days.

She asked me if we would like her to put it in our names. She had planned to leave it to us in her will since my eldest sister does not want it and my older sister already bought one. But she doesn't forsee anymore travelling at age (almost) 72 and we are wanting to take a road trip every summer now that we have a comfortable travel vehicle.

When I consider how much it cost us to spend the night in hotels on our last vacation, $500 a year maintenance dues is about half of that. Because we have both a boy and a girl that are older, we needed to have at least three beds. Pull out beds are very uncomfortable and lead to very whiney kids and we actually stayed in a hotel that did not have rollaway beds. I have never heard of a hotel that did not have rollaway beds.

The condos have the options of two (twin beds in the second room) or three bedrooms, full kitchens, and two bathrooms. They have washers, dryers, and dishwashers and provide the detergent. They have pools and hot tubs and game rooms (with pool tables and ping pong tables, as well as a few video games). One of the ones we stayed in even had a Pizza Hut Express on the 7th flood. At least with the condos there is at least some privacy for me and my husband. And even if the kids had to share a room, at least they are separate beds.

We have used the condos over the years (for free, Mom gave us the credits when she didn't use them) to stay in Anaheim, CA, Victoria, B.C., and Birch Bay, WA. They are goregeous, clean, and well-maintained properties.

We are strongly considering taking her up on this offer. Since we spend at least double on hotel rooms for the same amount of days it feels like a bargain to take it over. Not until we are out of credit card debt next year, though. Mom is in no hurry so we have plenty of time to think about it.

We leave on Sunday for our vacation, a little swing around the Olympic peninsula before we wind up at Virginia Mason the night before my surgery. I have been looking up restaurants and menues along the way so that I could get a handle on what food costs will be. There are also a couple of grocery stores that sell Organic Valley Milk. We will have an ice chest with us for milk, cheese, and fruit. We are also taking along cereal, granola and fruit bars, and some deli meat, bread and peanut butter. Every hotel has a fridge and microwave except the last one which just has a fridge.

I am so glad that so many restaurants have menues with prices available online. Not only to see that even some extravagant places have some lower cost menu items like fish and chips and cheeseburgers, but to see what's actually in the foods. Like if something is prepared with a demi-glace then we know not to order it for my son or mushrooms not to order it for me. It just makes things so much easier to have that information at my fingertips.

There are a lot of Mom and Pop diners along our route and that's really the food we prefer. Most of them don't have a ton of additives if you avoid the soda and desserts. The food is hearty and not as expensive and the servings are such that it is easy to each split a meal with one of the kiddos, maybe ordering an extra side here or there. Then there are some restaurants where we will just order soup and appetizers and still be fed well but for far less money.

I've got my list of questions ready. Not only do we ask about food additives/colorings, and whether grapes or apples are involved in any way, but we ask what is in their eggs. At least one namebrand restaurant we know of puts pancake batter in their omelettes to make them fluffier (but are happy to leave it out if you ask), and some restaurants use liquid egg product which has all kinds of shelf stabilizers in it. So we need to make sure it's made with real eggs and has nothing added other than the fillings if we order omelettes. Most of the time I am very careful with eggs and simply order them poached. DS is allergic to margarine so if a place doesn't use butter or oil in the frying or scrambling process, poached is always safe since it is always cooked in water.

Well, today was payday and I did some major debt repayment as well as taking care of quite a few of the regular bills. The MC's are all paid off again and the VISA is firmly under $20,000. I feel completely back in control again, both with the credit cards and with the no eating out. Day 4 on that challenge is going well.

I went to the grocery store and picked up a few items. One of them was gnocchi. One of the things my son really misses about going out to eat is going to olive garden and getting chicken and gnocchi soup so I got him a package of gnocchi and a box of organic free range chicken broth. We still have a couple of leftover pieces of chicken so tomorrow I will make him some chicken and gnocchi soup. My chicken soup is almost gone so I don't mind making another soup so soon.

Okay, so bills paid are below:

$1457.40 BoA credit cards
__500.00 Amex
__300.00 Mom's utilities
__100.00 Emergency Fund at ING
___16.70 Electric Bill Old House
___37.61 DH Life Insurance
___32.20 Me Life Insurance
___41.00 Old House Insurance
___83.98 Car Insurance
___39.37 Security System Old House
__155.00 Storage
__375.86 Old House Mortgage
__200.00 Cash
__100.00 groceries
__193.20 Dentist
__106.94 Medical


Car insurance has gone down with the Sienna by $11.63 a month or $69.78 for a six month term.

Of the cash $90 is to pay for physical therapy on Tuesday and $100 is for fireworks. Not sure what that extra $10 is for but it will likely end up in the coin jar. I have $62 left in checking if I need to buy milk or anything else this week, but since I already went grocery shopping I don't think I'll need anything besides milk. Maybe some hot dog buns if we decide to have a cookout on Monday and I am too lazy to bake some myself.

Bills left this month (other than the first new car payment) are pretty minor. There is just phone for the old house, internet, and garbage for the current house. Everything else is paid. That leaves almost $3000. So the majority of the next paycheck and the one after that will go to pay first week of August bills, to savings for upcoming medical, and to pay for our little trip around the Olympic Peninsula before we go to Virginia Mason for my surgery.

I am trying to make the gas left in the Sienna last until Wednesday when DH gets home. I have about 1/8th of a tank, but only have 3 minor driving excursions between now and when DH comes home. I sort of hate pumping gas with a passion. Well, it's more waiting in the long gas lines at Costco, but close enough. There is half a tank in the Crown Victoria so if I need to use that car one day instead I will.

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, I dropped off the face of the Earth for a couple of weeks. I'm getting over walking pneumonia. Isn't that lovely? But I am feeling like a human again and starting to resume living.

We finally got all of our books for the virtual school week before last and are plowing full speed ahead with the homeschooling. The kids seem to be thriving and we are falling into a routine now.

The bathtub/shower remodel is almost done. It's done enough to use the bathtub anyway and I had my first long soak in three months last night! It was wonderful. I won't be able to use the shower part of it until DH comes back again and finishes securing it and then it needs to be caulked and then we still need to put the back wall on and paint it, but at least it's useable and there is still the other shower so it's not like we have nothing but a tub.

Okay, what else? Oh, I sent money to savings, to the EF fund.

$1211.96 old balance
150.00 deposit
+ 2.79 October interest
---------
$1365.75 new balance

And I transferred the $40 from the October coin jar savings to the Vacation Fund. It's moving along nicely.

$536.46 old balance
+ 40.00 deposit
--------
$576.46 new balance

$31.61 beginning amount
+09.74 deposit
-------
$41.35 ending balance

I had a bunch of ones in my purse today so I decided to go ahead and throw them in the coin jar when I cleaned out the change pouch. I also found a quarter and a dime on the floor of my room so added that in, too. I've met my new October change goal of $40 saved. I'm tempted to push for $50, but I'm not sure I'll be buying anything else in cash before next payday to make change with. All coin jar savings goes towards vacation costs.

$28.91 beginning balance
+02.70 deposit
-------
$31.61 ending balance

So I've officially met my goal of saving an extra $30 this month to put towards vacation. Since I still have a week left in the month of October, I'm going to up my goal to $40.

Today was payday and I paid the American Express card in full as I do every month. It is used for gas only. I also paid the car payment and the property taxes for the half year out of this paycheck. And the kids got their monthly allowances.

I will do a bit of grocery shopping on what is left and then figure if there is enough money to send the $150 deposit to ING or if I need to wait until next week. I still need to pay cable/internet/phone and garbage as well out of this check. Just have to sit down and write out the checks. Everything else was paid for online.

I took my son to the Doctor today and she is happy about the improvements in him since we changed his diet to one of no artificial anything. He's doing a lot better. Still a long way to go though.

Yesterday we filled up our gas tank at $2.89 a gallon at Costco. I really hope it keeps dropping like this. It's freeing up about $50 a month in the gas budget at the moment. It's only been a few months since I was paying nearly $4 per gallon. If this keeps up I'll be adding the difference left over each month to our vacation savings account. Which will make us reach our goal that much faster.

This is the first time that we'll be doing a fully cash vacation ever (not that we haven't tried, but we didn't fully succeed before) and I want there to be no reason at all to fall back on excess credit card spending, so I'm trying to save up 1/3 more money than I think we'll actually need. Anything left over will go to seed the next big vacation, which we'd like to be a trip to Italy in five years, but that may be a pipedream. We'll see.

I'm not saying we won't use our credit cards on this trip at all. They are convenient and we will, but we will keep track of every dime and not go over what we have in savings and then pay it back immediately when we get home. There's a big difference between using cards on vacation and abusing cards on vacation.

But so far, condo is paid for (free from Mom), airfare is paid for (free with airmiles), and we're saving now for food we will eat and the tickets to get into the theme park. I've got over $500 and aiming for about $1500.

Fortunately DH has hit that point in the year, for the first time ever, where they stop taking out FICA (I think it's FICA) tax. So for the next 12 weeks we'll be getting quite a bit of extra money in his paychecks. $800 will go the vacation fund, and $800 will go to the emergency fund. The rest will go on debt.

I know that I should probably put more on debt, but our repayment is going at a pace that I'm happy with and honestly we've never had this kind of freedom before, really. It's been nose to the grindstone for so long and this last year of ease has made it so much nicer.

In return for this, though, we've buckled down on all the excess spending, especially the eating out. We had gotten to a ridiculous amount of meals out each month. Probably around $400, going out twice a week or more. That is a lot of unnecessary and wasteful expense. Almost every meal is at home now, though.

Oh, I found a box full of stuff we were given at Christmas from our extended family. Most of it was that kind of stuff that you will never use and people just give you because they feel obligated to give you something, but it's never something useful. Anyway, tucked inside was $20 worth of McDonald's gift certificates. So that's two free meals out if we order off the dollar menu, that I can save for a couple of crazy town days and not be tempted to spend real money from the budget on.

Okay, guess that's about it then.

Cleaned out my purse and DH cleaned out his wallet of coins and added to the coin jar today.

$18.26 beginning balance
$02.36 added
-------
$20.62 ending balance

We lost power again last night again during a windstorm. Fortunately it was only for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, it didn't really affect us and we didn't lose any food because of it.

We've started using the wood stove for heat now anyway and will be for the rest of the year and through spring of next year, so we had heat. It'll be nice not to have a heating bill. All that work we did the summer of '07 will finally pay off. It's nice dry wood now and it heats very well compared to some we've had in the past.

I cleaned out my coin compartment in my purse today and had five ones so I added $7.12 to my coin jar.

$11.14 starting balance
$07.12 added
-------
$18.26 new balance

Not bad for only one week into October. All coin jar money goes towards vacation. DH says he put some money in there too, so the amount is a bit higher, but I don't want to dump and count it out. He doesn't think it was more than fifty cents.

I'm trying to get back into the habit of daily blogging again but when you stay home all day and spend nothing, there's not much to talk about, now is there?

DH wants to save part of the raise towards vacations instead of all of it towards that credit card. My view is that we are saving $100 a month right now for vacations. I think I'll give in a bit on this one, though and start saving $150 a month for vacations and then the rest of it can go to the card.

I know its not the practical or logical thing to do financially, but I also know it promotes marital harmony which actually is the practical and logical thing to do there. So I suppose it all evens out in having a smoother running life.

I find it to be a bit weird not having to have the belt so tight these days. I got rather used to it and I really have to fight hard about letting my guard down completely. Because I want to, but I know that's no way to get out of debt. So I guess this daily blogging thing needs to remain in the forefront of my brain, lest I forget that rather important fact, hmm?

Some of the folks in the engineering department where DH works have jumped ship and his bosses decided to give him a pre-emptive raise in the hopes that he won't do the same thing.

Since he's got no intention of leaving anyway, it was a nice surprise. Especially since it's only been a couple months. It works out to $500 gross every 4 weeks. He hasn't run the numbers yet to see what it'll be after taxes, but I'm assuming it will add an additional $300 every 4 weeks into our budget.

That means we should be able to pay that remaining credit card down even faster, so I'm quite happy with that. DH still wants to go to Disneyland next year, but I'm holding out for 2009. Though I'd much rather go to London. Not with the kids though. Anyway, that's a pipe dream right now. I have a feeling London will be closer to 2019. But that's fine at this point in time.

Not really much going on. We're all sick still but DH and not spending much money.

DH is talking about Disneyland. I said no way for next year unless his extra weeks continue for past what is currently expected, but its doable for 2009. I have started saving $100 a month. And if I can add the 2008 tax return into the vacation fund, then there will be no problem going in 2009. We only have to pay for food, park fees, and lodging. Airfare is always free from the miles DH racks up flying up to work and back.

We might not even have to pay for lodging if we can get Mom's condo. That can be hard, but planning it over a year in advance makes it possible. It's not within walking distance but they do provide a shuttle, so it would be worthwhile to do.

We tend to go for 10 days, though, which also might be hard to reserve at the condo. Even if we could do one week at the condo and 3 days elsewhere it would save a bundle.

Now that Disney and some of the less expensive surrounding restaurants offer healthier food choices, like salads,kale, asparagus, celery and broccoli as sides or for sale at food carts, we won't have to get a hotel with a fridge and microwave, either. That has always added to the expense.

I have to be very careful how I eat because of my past health issues and so does Rose who also has postprandial hyperinsulinemia. Which involves eating a lot healthier than the normal Joe and balancing protein (devoid of any fillers, growth hormones, additives or preservatives) with low glycemic vegetables and being extremely careful with the complex carbohydrates we do choose (no corn since I was recently diagnosed with a corn allergy, no white flour, no barley, no white sugar, no white rice, no processed cereals, and very minimal amounts of fruit which is the hardest). In the past we've had to really work hard at it on vacation if we didn't have a full kitchen and access to a grocer. My last trip there alone proved it can be done easily now.

I'd really rather wait until 2010 but DH says that is easy for me to say because I just went this year without them. LOL He does have a point. I just think it will be easier when Tobias is almost 10 than almost 9. But if the money is there, I will probably get overruled.

It's good to be back and in my own bed after a week away. My vacation was pretty good. The rest of the family had a better time than I did. I got sick so bad that I thought I had pneumonia and ended up staying in bed for 2 days straight, except to go to London Drug and pick out cold medicine. They happened to be selling the Harry Potter book, and of course it had the British cover art, so that was neat.

So I was dizzy and just totally coughing down in my lungs and we almost went to a walk in clinic, despite the cost of it, but after two days in bed I woke up feeling better (still pretty bad though). So I didn't go to Craig Darroch or the Titanic exhibit or the Undersea Garden, but everyone else did.

I did however go on the carriage ride through Beacon Hill Park, which is similar to Central Park in New York, only safer. We really liked that and it was $90 well spent because we learned a lot about the city and the park and of course Tobias got a kick out of the horse because it kept passing gas. He's at that age.

Despite that it was a lovely ride and we saw people parasurfing. They had special surf boards attatched to their feet and parachutes on and the wind would pick up the parachutes and they would fly into the air. It was amazing. We also saw the world's tallest totem pole at 156 feet. I have a picture of my kids in front of it and the scale is just mind-blowing. I'll try to post it. I haven't done pictures before on here but DH is home to help me figure it out.

I did get to see Hatley castle, but I was not impressed. It was way overblown. By the time I was marginally well enough to do Centre of the Universe the kids were down with it so we didn't go.

I spent a lot of time in bed sleeping and a lot of time in bed reading Harry, which I finished Tuesday night. I spent time in the hot tub to help break up my congestion and it helped a lot. And the kids were out with DH for long stretches of time, which was really nice. So even though my vacation did not turn out quite the way I planned, and even though I still have a cough, ears that crack when I swallow and a bit of gunky stuff, I had a lot of me time, a lot of rest and a pretty good read.

I was actually disappointed in a few things in the book, but for the most part after the first 200 pages it went fast and was exciting. One thing I had predicted came true, so I was happy to be right about it. But that's all I will say about it because I know so many people don't want to know anything at all until they are done reading it and I know how careful I was to avoid any spoilers until I finished it.

I came back with a $20 bill and a couple dollars in change, so not bad. I'll put the Canadian money in a jar until we go to the zoo next. We're really close to the one in Langley and it is so much nicer a zoo then the one in Seattle is.

I'm looking forward to having my mail all delivered tomorrow. I hope that $50 check came. It's been six weeks so it better have. I just hit 1000 points again with them so I need to cash out again, too. I did a few surveys while I was sick in bed.

I guess that about covers everything. Oh, I probably have money to move to ING. I should do that, too.

We went to Butchart Gardens yesterday and boy was it ever expensive. In the long-run I think it was worth it, but man! All money is in Canadian dollars.

$ 56.00 Entry fee for 2 adults, 2 children
$ 49.77 Lunch
$ 15.74 Dessert
$ 58.16 Souveniers
$ 23.73 CD of music group playing at the gardens
$ 7.50 3 hot chocolates
--------
$210.90

We had lunch at the Blue Poppy Restaurant. It was not as expensive as the other on grounds restaurant and it had food the kids would actually eat.

DH and I had the best fish and chips I have ever tasted. Rose had a pasta dish with those swirly shaped noodles and marinara sauce and foccacia bread and Tobias had a cheese quesadilla (freshly made tortilla) and fries and some of the foccacia bread. Everyone tasted everyone else's food and it was all good.

Then we decided to have dessert. Tobias had a very chocolately cookie, DH had mango cheesecake and Rose and I had chocolate mousse. The mousse was very good, and extremely rich. If it hadn't had whipped cream to cut the richness I never would have made it to the bottom. Very yummy. A little expensive for the amount, though.

The fireworks were pretty good but it would have been better if there had been some wind. The smoke was very thick and just stayed there so after awhile you couldn't see all of the fireworks.

Oh, and it rained. It poured. Imagine sitting on a wet blanket on saturated grass and no sign of the rain stopping. That was us. I woke up with a nasty cold this morning. Throat on fire and enough phlegm being produced for the population of a small island. Fever, too. Lovely. Just once I would like to be well for my entire vacation. Ah, well. It was a good day overall, but I don't think we'll go back there again in future. We've been twice now and though this is the first time we've seen the fireworks, we don't need to do it again.

You can't leave on fireworks day and get readmitted so there was a lot of boredom after we'd seen everything. Plus, I didn't want to pay dinner prices to eat a second meal there.

For dinner we ordered pizza from a place that delivers 24 hours after we got back to the condo. It was okay, but I wouldn't order it again. I wish we hadn't gotten so much. We ordered 2 large pizzas, cheesy bread and tzatziki with pita bread. Never order when you are that hungry should be my motto. It came to $43.63.

So:
$210.90
+ 43.63
--------
$254.53 Total spent 7/21
$400.04 Total spent 7/20
--------
$654.57 Total Vacation Spending

I'm glad I brought an extra $300 with me. I'm almost to the amount I had originally budgeted. Nothing else will be nearly as expensive as Butchart and we have a lot of coupons.

I did get some Blue Poppy seeds. I have been wanting to grow blue poppies for a long time but have never found the seeds before and I wasn't about to pay the $15 per plant from a mail order company, when mail order plants don't always survive. And even if they say 100% guaraneteed I have found it difficult to get either a refund or a new plant from mail order companies. I will have to declare them at the border but I bought less than $10 worth so no big deal.

We made it safely to Victoria and for 10 days worth of internet access it costs $15.95 Canadian. Not bad. It's $4.95 if you do it day by day, so even though we'll only have it for 7 days, it is much cheaper this way.

So expenses so far in Canadian Dollars:

$ 78.03 Ferry Crossing
$ 23.99 Breakfast
$ 1.29 extra milk
$ 56.07 Lunch (on the Ferry, ouch!)
$ 23.54 Dinner
$ 1.39 extra burger
$199.78 Food from Costco for the week
$ 15.95 Internet Fee
--------
$400.04

I ended up bringing $1000.00 in Canadian money instead of $700. Part of the extra came out of the grocery budget. From tomorrow on we will be eating two meals at the condo and only one meal out, so daily expenses should drop quite a bit after today.

Tomorrow we are going to Butchart Gardens and the fireworks show. They have coupons in the lobby for dollars off or percentages off tickets for various attractions. I can't remember if Butchart is one of them or not, but several of the other places we planned to go this week do have them.

Well, I better get to sleep. It is almost 1 a.m.