I am going to a very small convention this spring of women who have the same disease as I do, that will also include 4 days at Disneyland, which I think I have mentioned in here a bit ago.

I just spent a couple of hours going through all of the menu options at all of the restaurants in the park. I have to be very careful what I eat to keep my condition under control, maintaining a strict balance between low glycemic vegetables, carbohydrates, and protein. The ratio is about 50% low glycemic vegetables, 40% healthy proteins, and 10 percent carbohydrates (preferrably complex ones). This is not the same as a low-carb diet, it is what is known as a controlled carb diet, which is far away from the high protein/low carb thing.

Well, the menu changes over the last two years have really made an enormous change at Disneyland and this is actually going to be easy. Plus, going there with other women with the same condition who all have to eat the same way as I do, makes yielding to temptation a huge peer pressure no-no.

On top of that, I will be avoiding everything with white sugar and white flour in it. I don't think I can avoid the chemicals and food additives, I'm hoping I can avoid trans fats, but I can do the best I can with what I got. And what I got is going to be way easier now.

I am going to make up a list of my preferred eating places with the choices I want, and all of their prices, so I can make up an appropriate budget for food expenses. I already know how much the hotel fee is going to be with tax, and because I will have a roommate both at the convention and the hotel by Disney, that will be cut in half.

It's going to be weird going there without my husband, but I'll still have a blast, with just a teensy twinge of guilt that I will squash down like a bug. Some of these women are like sisters to me, the good kind of sister, not the evil one. LOL They supported me through all of the surgeries and all of the trials I have had and just being with them is one of the most nurturing things I can do for myself. And the fact that half the time will be spent at Disneyland is just extra cheese on the skinny crust pizza. What? You were thinking icing on the cake? LOL I can't do that too often anymore.

I tried to lobby for us all just going to Disney for a whole week, but sigh, they want to have the learning stuff, too. And I do, too, but...its Disneyland! I'm just a big kid when it comes to that place.

At least the entire trip is being paid for in cash. I haven't gone the last two years so I don't feel guilty about going this year, especially since its in California. I know I should probably spend the money on debt, but like we were talking about in another blog, sometimes Mom has to do something for Mom. DH gets correspondence school, something he wants, and I get this. And $2000 still goes to debt.

And airfare is free with DH's miles. First Class even. As long as we don't have to pay for it, I am too spoiled to fly coach. But I am too frugal to actually buy a First Class ticket.

Today school was delayed an hour because of the snow and then the kids had early release 2.5 hours early. I don't have a clue why. They usually have early release on the last Wednesday of the month, which this is not. I hope they aren't still going to do it that day, too.

We went into my mother's house to do some laundry. When I was there she told me she had closed out an old joint bank account we had that I had forgotten about. It was mine, but her name was on it as she used to make deposits for me when I worked nights and slept days. Anyway, it had $85.75.

Oh, I also spent $36.06 filling up the car with gas. I thought I'd be under my gas budget this month, but I just met it. Darn. Oh, well.

I spent under $12.95 and $16.95 on books, plus $2.34 sales tax for a total of $32.24. I bought Smart Couples Finish Rich, which I have read previously and The Automatic Millionaire Workbook, which supplements another one of David Bach's books, both in paperback. I feel like I am ready to face working through the workbook now and getting all my ducks in a row.

The rest of the money I have set aside until 1-26 and I won't make any decisions on where to put it until then. I am tentatively thinking about putting it in the vacation fund. My trip to California is coming up in May and the convention for my disease lasts 2.5 days and then some of us are going to Disneyland for 2, possibly 3 days.

My airfare is free through DH's miles and I will have a roommate both at the convention and at Disney. So I'm trying to save $1000 to cover hotel and food. I'm not interested in souveniers other than my one lapel pin that I get no matter where I go. So far I have $116 saved up. I will have $500 from the tax return that I get to use. Well, technically its $800, but I want to push to save as much as I can and only use $500 from the tax return, so I can use most of it to pay debt.

So I have $116 saved, and $500 dedicated, which means a total of $616 and I need to come up with $484 in 3.5 months. Without dipping into the $10 a week that goes to the EF no matter what.

I saw an ad for donating plasma in the paper today. They are claiming up to $200 a month. I don't know if I can donate or not. I have high blood pressure but it is completely controlled with medication, diet and exercise. I will have to look into the requirements. If I could do that and max it out, I could earn $600 in the next 3 months. Oh, plus a $10 bonus if I bring in the advertisement.

After DH deposited the pocketful of change he'd been forgetting about for the past couple days into the change jar, I was able to roll coin.

$10.00 in quarters
5.00 in dimes
2.00 in nickles
.50 in pennies
8.00 in $1 bills
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$25.50 total in coin jar
$20.00 to be paid back to savings
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$55.50 total deposit for Monday

This is going into my vacation fund tomorrow. I am going to town anyway for a dentist appointment so I will do my banking on the same trip.

$ 59.27 current vacation fund
$ 55.50
-------
$114.77 New vacation fund total

Today has been a good day. I got all of my errands accomplished, though I think I must have hit the slowest drive-thru bank tellers in the history of the universe. And all I was doing was making a deposit! I didn't even need cash back. The easiest task for them to perform and despite being there first (it was a 3 lane drive thru) I was fifth out of six cars served because I chose the lane with the drawer and not the ones with the tubes. So I had to wait for the girl to press the button to open the door for me to get my deposit slip and check in it, despite having pressed the teller call button twice. Which she might have done earlier if she hadn't run off three times. The other teller seemed preoccupied with filling up the candy basket. Hello, last banking night before a big holiday weekend, get your act together. End rant.

But I got all the various monies transferred to my checking account and I mailed off the check for the Medical Mortgage. This is the first time ever that I have not paid extra towards the principle. I hate that, but this month couldn't be helped. When I pay the house mortgage next week it'll be the same thing. Ugh. But after that it'll go back to normal.

I was going to drop off my house insurance payment at the local office today, but the lazy bums closed at four instead of five today for the holiday weekend, so I had to mail it. I'm not happy about that, I prefer to do as many bills in person as possible but oh, well, what can you do?

I received a check from Your2Cents and deposited that into the vacation savings account, along with the ones and rolled coin. So the total deposit was $41.50, bringing the amount in that account to $61.50.

I can't remember if I wrote about his before or not. I have the opportunity to go to a convention for my support group for my disease in May and it is a tight knit group so it is going to be fun. Some of us will be arriving a day early to go to Disneyland for one day and I am hoping to be one of them.

I do not have to pay for airfare as DH has plenty of miles, so I just have to come up with the hotel fee and the park pass money. I can have a roommate to cut the costs and I may do so. DH's schedule works out so that he will be home to watch the kids. So if I can get the money saved it will all fall into place.

I am taking my kids in to spend the night with my parents, so after I drop them off I am going to the CU to deposit my ones and rolled coin.

$26 in ones
$10 in quarters
$.50 in pennies

Total deposit: $36.50.

Hopefully, I won't have to use it for anything else and it can stay in savings where it belongs. This is not to build up the EF, this is the start of a vacation fund, along with $20 already in that account, bringing it up to:

Vacation Fund: $56.50

We plan to take part of our income tax return to build the EF back up and the rest of it will go to debt.

We have our dates for taking our vacation to Victoria set. We will be going up on July 20th and staying for one week. My parents will come up and spend Friday and Saturday nights with us and then we will have 5 days as just the four of us.

My parents are in a travel club and they are using their points to pay for the condo rental for the whole week, so there is no expense for that. The condo has a full kitchen, including cookware and dishes so we can cook our own food.

Things to do now:

1. Check on the border website to see what foods we can bring into B.C. and make a master list of what we will need to buy and what we will be bringing.

2. Find out the address of the food store in Victoria that sells no GMO foods and only organic foods that we used last time we went, so we can find it again.

3. Start putting money in my 3rd CU account, the one I used to use to save for the freezer, to pay for food and then when enough has been saved for food, start putting in money for the ferry fees, and entry fees and souvenirs to the places we will visit.

4. Decide what places we are going to visit.

5. Decide what restaurants we will eat at, check their menues, and prices. We have agreed to only one meal out per day (and possibly quite less) and one of those will be at The Spaghetti Factory. Probably should schedule a nap for that day as the pasta will probably put us all into carb comas.

That's all I can think of for now.

DH and I have been trying to plan a vacation for this summer to Victoria, but I don't think it is going to happen. The round trip ferry costs $150, and a four night stay in a hotel with a kitchen and 3 beds that also has a pool is $820. So that is $970 before we even do anything on the Island. We would have brought any food over the border that was allowed and purchased what else was needed at the grocery that is between the ferry port and the hotel. But just keeping it to 4 touristy things we want to do and one meal out per day, that's at least another $500. Okay, that is Canadian money but the exchange is a lot stronger than it used to be, only about 10% difference now.

In the past, we would have just put it on the credit card and worried about it later, or robbed whatever little savings we might have had and put the rest still on the credit card. But we won't do that now.

Fortunately, there is a compromise. We can still go to the Island, just not during the summer. My parents have a travel club (not a timeshare) membership and one of the places they have condos is in Victoria. Well, if we wait until November, the kids will have 3 days off from school plus the weekend, and DH's schedule works out that he will be home then. It won't matter that it is Thanksgiving up in Canada, so nothing will be closed that might be closed here in the states.

So that will be free lodging and we will still bring as much food over the border as we can. So then we will only need to come up with the ferry fee and the money to do the four things we want to do and then a few meals out. That we can handle.

And my mother will also reserve the condo again for us next summer so we can truly have a "summer" vacation during the right season.