Yes, still sick of the rain.

The gym has been horrid. Anyway, it was super extra crowded tonight. I figured it would dwindle down a bit as we get further from Jan. 1. Anyway, for whatever reason I braved the wind and rain and went to the gym and it was PACKED. Probably the worst I've seen. It didn't occur to me until my way out that maybe there was a direct correlation to the weather. Perhaps. I only really plan to use the gym in the extremely cold and extremely hot months. I much prefer to go for a walk myself. But it is rare the weather is just this bad. It has been a COLD rain all week which is really rather ware. So stormy windy and COLD. Did I mention cold? We usually get warmer rains. Maybe it will snow. IT does on occasion (pretty rare but happens).

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

Anyway, I popped in to check my Net Worth for 1/31. After about a year of this I am starting to notice a pattern. The stocks always seem to jump up the last day of the month. So it wasn't so bad. Down $500 from 12/31.

Cash is up around $250 (mostly interest). Paid $307 off the mortgage. $675 to retirement.

Which means about $1600 in stock losses.

I also have no idea how much BM lost on his 529. I get random statements. So the loss is probably a bit more.

We'll be in a place to contribute more like $1k/month to retirement, come summer. So I say bring it down!!! We just don't have that much to lose at this point. No complaints here... I think these storms will be tougher to weather (emotionally anyway) when we have more at stake. I don't really look forward to that. But for now I look forward to a chance to buy at some lower prices.

I understand that my Net Worth goal is not very attainable at this rate. But I guess I am going for a long term average more than anything and I knew it was pretty aggressive. I am happy with the amount we put in to up our net worth this month. The stocks will work themselves out.

Even if we don't refi, we are SO CLOSE to getting our mortgage interest under $1k/month. woohoo. Just a few more months. We past the $300 principal mark not too long ago... It feels a little more substantial and reflects on our net worth. Still no prepayments here though, as long as we have 10 tax-deferred investment options (about how it feels with all the ROTHS, 529s, UGMAs, HSAs, and on and on and on...). Though if we refi we will most certainly jump on the prepayment train. I have no desire to extend our mortgage beyond the current payoff date. No desire to start my 30 years over and drag it out. Though I guess I can't promise anything. Our mortgage literally just gets cheaper with time and the opportunity to plump up all our tax deferred investments probably isn't the worst. I guess we'll just have to see.

Either way would help the net worth. I guess that is what is important. & why it helps to look at the big picture. Likewise, I really enjoy tracking our net worth. It helps me to see the big picture.

Well, um, we tried a new dentist, which I dread dread dread. But it went REALLY well.

Took LM in (he is 2.5) for his sharky mouth. He had a blast. Which for one, says much for their setup. BM has always loved the dentist but he is weird. LOL.

Anyway, LM was much more wary but he immediately fell in love with the plastic dolphin up front. (& fish).

Of course, dh went back with him and they were gone 1.5 hours. I Was trying not to fall asleep. Likewise, BM Was hungry but I Was there to watch him. Figured, we could have gone out to eat like he had asked. Then I worried worried worried what the hell was going on. (Apparently, a lot of paperwork. Whcih is another reason it is so tedious to try new dentists, but I have had horrid experiences since we moved here, myself).

Anyway, we lucked out. I think this place is a winner. I actually walked in expecting he would need work, and heard a "everything is fine, he doesn't need anything." What music to my ears!!!!

The x-rays showed no extra permanent teeth. YAy!!!!!!!!! They were concerned about crowding (oh sounds familiar, I couldn't even tell you all the work I had done from age 5 - 18, but I thought I had a few more years to save up for all the work I envision my kids will need).

But anyway, as far as extra tooth, it's just a baby and they don't want to do anything with it. "It will work itself out." More music to my ears. I am sure we could have found a more aggressive dentist, but I think this works for us. Phew!

OF course our dentist, who I know we have it good with (the longtime forever patient discount). We paid $125/each, dh and I for our last visit. BM a little more since he had flouride.

Anyway, they did charge $250 here but it was for consultation and full x-rays, as well as flouride and cleaning. Well worth it for all the fanciness; it was a great first experience for LM. I did not ask dh what they recommended, but dh said he did not book the next appointment. They only reason we made one was for his tooth. & well, I figure he will go back there in a year. Then maybe every 6 months until he hits 5 or 6. Then he can join us at the big dentist.

Oh yes, and dh sort of asked for a discount. Not really, but he did not know I Wanted to put it on the card for rewards. He asked if they could just send a bill. (BEcause he though that I Wanted to pay later for some reason). They said no, but that they would give him a 10% discount. He seemed to think he wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. IT was the cash discount but he did use the card. Score! So in the end we paid $225. We'll earn 1.25% rewards on that too. So we'll have to remember to ask for the cash discount next time. Or make sure we have the checkbook in case they aren't so nice next time. I think it helps the girls were taking payments and they always go gah gah over a guy with a small kid. LOL. The women just eat it up.

I am just so happy today that that is his only prognosis for now. Phew!!!! HE will get plenty of work on his mouth down the raod, I am sure. I know so many people getting so much preventitive work done on baby teeth and such. I always wondered if it was really worth it. Maybe it really is? But I am glad for now it is not something for us to worry about.

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

Anyway, I don't think the kids have ever seriously asked for much, but today BM Asked for a trampoline, and whined when I said no. I told him he already had a mound of toys for Christmas. The FUNNY thing though was my first response was, "No, those cost a lot of money." So he immediately said, "Then why does Miss L have one???" LOL. At his preschool. The interesting thing is I knew Miss L was carless but apparently she is now homeless too. & BM seemed to grasp that meant she had no money. Wow. Anyway, I was asking what he meant it was hers, and he said she had moved in and it was her trampoline. "She doesn't have a house any more. She used to but now she doesn't." Well isn't that a lot of insight from a 4yo? I will have to ask my friend about that one. (HEr kid goes to the same school but since he is full-time she seems to know much more of the scoop).

All that from a kid asking for a trampoline.

Anyway, we were going to start the allowance/chore thing when he turns 5. So I talked a little about that and said that is the kind of thing he can save up for when he starts earning money.

& so it starts - the learning about money. My parents started really young with me and so we just will do the same. It worked well for us. I couldn't tell you when I started getting an allowance, but it wasn't the traditional allowance thing, so I don't want to hear how bad allowances are. It really worked for me. IT's not like we are going to hand him money for breathing. But for helping out around the house he will also get a chance to learn about how to handle money. That was always the point of allowance in our house, and I learned all about how money worked quite young. We just figured at 5 he would start Kindergarten which will be his "job" and likewise he will start helping more around the house too.

Which reminds me, Little LEague is starting up soon and they take 4yos. I think we may sign him up. IT's pretty inexpensive and he has been asking to do soccer. IT seems soccer is a fall sport and may fit our schedule better as a whole. BAseball is spring (tax season). But might as well let him try both, and go from there. We'll see. We didn't sign up yet or anything. Dh and I so do not do sports, but it has always been important to us to let our kids be who they are. I have the feeling BM will be a sports type. Too bad he got stuck with us for parents. We wouldn't have a clue. LOL. But he is SO excited about the idea -would be T-Ball for him.

& so it begins!

Kncok on wood, but LM has been sleeping so well lately (For months. Oh my, it feels so good and strange to get a full nights' sleep every night. It has been YEARS!!!). As a whole the kids are actually pretty good sleepers. I mean BM has not been a problem since he was 2. A friend was just complaining about her 5yo waking her up and I thought, "oh my!" IT's been years since sleep has been an issue with him. LM did not handle teething well at all but he seems to be done. !!!!! So I no longer identify with the idea of toddlers who don't sleep. My kids SLEEP. & it is heavenly.

Anyway, and with him going to preschool 2 days a week dh has been in such a better mood. This tax season is flying by and I think that might be part of the reason why. With a happy dh and a good night sleep it just seems to be skipping along quite well.

So we all breathed our collective sigh of relief and began to really enjoy. & now all I See is sports practice and homework in my future. Well we are trying to enjoy the peace and calm. I see a very busy future. Just seems like there is always something with kids. OF course I Am just excited to show them everything the world has to offer. I want them to emjoy being kids like I always did, but I want to expose them to the world too. I guess it is a fine line.

The other thing I would like to do about now is start teaching piano to BM. I am sure we will sign him up for lessons eventually. (The unwritten rule is never teach your own kids. & for the long term there is a reason. For the short term I am too broke to do otherwise). But I think I can get going on getting him interested and teaching basics. I taught piano for many years. Time to brush off the cowbebs and rememebr what I used to do for a living. LOL. I Always thought it was nice to have another skill to fall back on, but now trying to remember exactly how and what pace the program went, funny I Don't remember! I am sure it will come back to me...

Reminds me we need a piano tuning too. $$$

It's busy busy busy here. Busy at work, and busy on the home front. Just a lot of stuff going on this week.

I'll see tonight at stock close how our net worth did this month. I think we were down $500 or so as of yesterday. On the net worth front. Wasn't bad really. (My goal is $25k-$30k for the year so yes I have a long way to go. Won't be quite so easy on a bad stock year, if this continues). The budget has been VERY good this month. I think I have -$50 in my checking account unofficially BUT I think our credit card bill will be on or under budget and we may be able to pay for the windshield from the budget instead of savings. So that is all good good good. (Officially I am doing my medical saving transfer after the first to avoid a negative in my checking account. But I put everything in Quicken the date I should do it so I can see when I am falling behind. I hate all those negatives, but I think for February we are caught up. Let's just say I don't expect a negative in February. Of course, never do. )

I have a CD coming due and a balance transfer coming due as well. Which is fine with the interest rates not being so hot. I thought I would be able to get another 8 months at 5.7% on the CD. I really remember that being a promotion but I don't have it anywhere in writing. I may just be crazy, and likewise, the balance transfers are no longer so lucrative. But it's still easy money and I can still get 4.5% (for now) at my bank. Anyway, I'll call the bank and ask. If no 5.7% I'll move. I don't know if they will care so much with my $10k. But they could always offer me a deal to stay. They have a good CD deal right now but only if you have direct deposit. Not much I can do since my boss does not offer DD. Bummer for me.

We are waiting on the sidelines to lock in a great refi rate. We'll see. If the lower than low rates comes by... Our broker is very gung ho since we actually have equity and good credit. I guess we are a rarity around here. The CU just wasn't going to let us sit on the sidelines and wait to see if 5% would materialize again. So this may be better - was referred by a friend. Very untrusting of the mortgage bunch, but we can save so much money with a refi!!!! So we are moving forward.

I was worried about the BTs on my credit score but the guy just LAUGHED. He said my credit score was in the 95% percentile at 730 and he didn't care basically. The payments are so little they don't matter either. Phew!!!! (I think he was shocked we were only paying $400/month on all those cards (But helps in this case). HE was like, "I thought those cards were upping their minimums." Like I Said before, squeaks our "debt payments" and mortgage under 33% so the refi is not a biggie. Phew. Since I never expected to refi this year. But the guy was really shocked with our financial situation. He said we were one in a million. Yay! Well considering he is mostly working with people desparate to fix their mortgage messes. It's all relative I guess. I got the sense he was relieved to have someone who qualified so readily for refi, and I feel he will pull for us, likewise. He had much more incentive than our CU.

So I leave you with this.
----------------------------------------

Fair Tax

Anyway, beyond all that, switching gears. HEre are some thoughts on the Fair tax. IT always struck me as the Fair tax supporters glossed over some of the more complicated aspects of this system, plus it always struck me as very unfair to the middle class. Anyway, this is just a tax expert guy who I knew would have a very intelligent write up on the Fair tax. With all the talk about it I thought I would share. If nothing else it's a pretty practical point of view that you don't see much on the debates.

I honestly don't know if my initial reaction (cringing at the idea) is just because the complicated tax system is my livelihood. I think any change like this would be HUGE. Huge ramifications for everyone because it would so greatly change the way we do things. So I don't know if my viceral reaction is because it's bad or because I fear change. I am sure much of it is the latter. But thinking it through I see a lot of holes that the supporters aren't going to talk about or really even grasp. There are just a lot of kinks to work out, if nothing else. So just another point of view:

http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html#6467...

http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/search?q=%22fair+tax%22

This is probably my favorite paragraph (below). BEcause unintended tax consequences and loopholes always pop up in local legislation when these things are not thought through. For example, California passed a law for a 1% income tax surcharge to tax returns over $1 million. They didn't really define this very well. So basically whether you are married or single, or file separate, the limit is $1 million per TAX RETURN to avoid the surtax. We had few clients who make this money, but all we had to do for the very few was file their taxes "married filing separately" to avoid the surcharge. It's just a perfect example. Completely unintended tax loophole because they just didn't write the law the way it should have been.

Here it is:

"Each of the terms in this description need to be defined. What is a common residence? Who is the spouse? Is a person a spouse if he or she abandons the residence during the year? Who qualifies as a student? How is support calculated? What constitutes incarceration? What happens if someone is not a member of the household for some portion of the year due to illness? How are kidnaped children counted? In other words, all of the complexities that afflict sections 151 and 152 of the current Internal Revenue Code would still be with us. There are special rules for hobby losses that resemble section 183, special rules for gaming activities, an exemption for intermediate sales, provisions affecting purchases by governments, rules for mixed-use property, not-for-profit organizations, and financial intermediation services. Each of these provisions includes all sorts of terms that need to be defined. For example, the need for complex definitions dealing with non-profit organizations will be no less under the Fair Tax than under the current income tax. Bottom line? The Fair Tax is nowhere near as simple as advertised. That it is presumably less complicated than the current income tax is not a noteworthy achievement. Everything is less complicated that the current income tax."

Yeah, I like that last tax line too. LOL.

Man, I am ALL FOR simpler tax system. For sure.

I was just playing around with his cost of living calculator.

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html

This is the move we made, in 2001 anyway. Moving from San Jose to Sacramento to cut our cost of living. I would say we cut it significantly more than the % this shows. We sold our little condo for $300k and bought a very nice house (twice as big) for around $290k. The savings in housing was much more at the time then it is today (not sure what year this calculator pulls from).

It's not very apples to apples. I actually kept the same pay here (a slight increase in benefits) so it made this an AWESOME move. Because we so significantly cut our cost of living. But dh never found a job and we had kids. So things have been tighter in the long run.

We went from $100k to $50k, but it is a pretty comparable living. I'd say we cut our costs 50%, easy. (Housing was only really our ONLY cost back home. Felt like it. If we rented or owned, it was almost an entire income to housing). Hell if we bought a condo here we could have lived the same lifestyle on $35k-$40k perhaps.

Likewise, we couldn't imagine living 1/2 this lifestyle back home, on just one income.



Likewise, I put in today's wage and what it would equate to back home. Could I find a $95k job there? Easily enough. Would I move back there? Um, no. $95k would not cut it in any way shape or form. To keep our current lifestyle I really imagine we would need a good $200k. I mean for one, it would be impossible to find a house on this par for under $1 million. So what if we settled for a tiny 3-bedroom for $700k? I am quite sure $95k income wouldn't quite cut it. That would be another $400k to our mortgage. Even to rent a smaller place would double our cost of housing.

So this calculator doesn't really paint the picture how expensive it truly is. I wouldn't consider moving back home pretty much short of winning the lottery or inheriting property there (more likely). Of course we have become so accustomed to the simpler lifestyle, I don't think we would move back for anything!



The last one I threw in a comparison to Kansas, our current wage to the equivalent in Wichita Kansas. I have a lot of relatives there. I imagine I would probably be making not more than that at my current job if I moved to Kansas. But we could pay cash for a house. So it's all relative. I think we could frankly live somewhere like Kansas with a much lower income. I am not even talking about taking any equity out of our house. We have put so much cash into it as is, we can equate that to an entire house purchase. Throw in the equity, and we would semi-retire.

But we have talked about this at length and often. PArticularly the 2-3 years we had a good $300k - $400k paper equity.

We're happy where we are. We don't want to move. Sometimes there is more to life than money I guess. We are pretty attached to California. (Plus we already cut our cost of living substantially, so we are happy with that).

Likewise I haven't been in the mood to complain about the cost of living of late. I have been focusing more on all the upsides of living here. There is a reason people pay so much to live here.



Just reminds me too when we moved here our perspective was the houses might as well be pennies. My coworkers knew we had bought a new house and they were so funny. From their perspective housing was so expensive. I remember I donated $50 to some guy for some charity or something (for hid kid's school). He's like, "I Can't take this from you. Didn't you just buy a house?" I said, "um, well, yeah but it was a lot cheaper than our old one." LOL. We had trimmed our $1800 mortgage to $1500, and here this guy wouldn't take $50 from me.

Since that day the perspectives always boggle my mind. We got in the bottom phase of this development and the model homes were still open 1-2 years after we moved in, as they were still selling the later phases. I remember our friends going down and looking at the models assuming that was what we paid for our house. IT's like, we locked in our price in June 2001, and bought in Dec. 2001. Then people would come by in 2003 and think we paid $450k for our house because that's what the models were going for. They would always make comments that we were too rich for their blood. People are just funny! It's like, you did know not only did we move in over a year ago but we locked in our price 6 months before that. Of course the entire time prices were rising like crazy. I am not sure why people wouldn't factor that. But it is just funny. (Like hell we would pay over $300k for as house, for one. LOL).

Also I was lucky my boss gave me an interview. He said us Bay Area folk we were too unrealistic with our salary expectations. As for me, I was open to a 10% pay cut. He kept my same wage and gave me an awesome profit sharing compensation plan, in the end. I figured I must have been really underpaid back home. I mean I went from an international firm to a small pop and pop in a city 1/2 as expensive. Reduced my cost of living by like 1/2, and got to keep my wage. It was insane. (Leaves me wondering what people were asking for!). I remember he told me that in my interview. He thought we were all crazy and he didn't want me to waste his time. LOL. Glad he gave me a chance.

Oh just the last 2 posts on what of my favorite blogs. Funny/Sad.

http://sacrealstats.blogspot.com/

P.S. My salsa recipe is down in my last post!

P.S.S. I was just thinking I am SO SICK of this cold weather and being locked up indoors. BUT I realized winter is just about over for us. Yay!!!!! It will start warming up in a week or 2 and we might get to go enjoy some sun. I am burned out on winter... I just don't do winter well.

(First, the other 2 recipes are in my prior post...)

Here's the orignal:

"Val's Mexican Salsa"

3 Roma tomatoes
1/2 Onion
1 large clove of garlic
1 jalapeno pepper
1 serrano pepper (peppers to taste)
1/4 tsp salt
handful of cilantro (to taste)
lime juice (to taste)
water (to desired consistency)

Cook tomatoes & peppers in microwave for 3 minutes. (I believed this was in water in a bowl, cover with saran wrap and poke holes in the top).

After cooked you can leave the skin on or peel if you like. I believe my MIL took to boiling the veggies on the stove. (This recipe has evolved with time and I will post the simplest one last).

Take stems off peppers/tomatoes and place in blender. Blend to desired consistency.

Add:

*chopped cilantro, as desired, to blender.

*(large) chopped slices of onion.

*water (to change consistency as desired).

*lime juice (around 1 tsp)

*garlic

*salt

Blend (but not too much).

This is a recipe that you experiment with. I think this version is rather spicy (but not too spicy).

The key is to find that right balance of lime, salt and cilantro. It has taken a while for us to fine-tune.

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Here's dh's version:

Simple Hot Salsa

1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 Onion
1 large clove of garlic (or equivalent jarred/minced garlic)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 serrano pepper
1/2 habanero pepper (peppers to taste)
1/4 tsp salt
handful of cilantro (to taste)
lime juice (to taste)
water (to desired consistency)

Chop everything up a bit, toss it in the blender, and blend. Be careful not to over blend.

*This recipe uses canned tomatoes and an extra hot habanero. Plus it skips all the cooking. This is the one we eat regularly.

You should skip the habanero if you don't do *hot*. You could also remove/reduce the seeds from the other peppers to keep some of the pepper flavor and bring down the hotness.

If you want fresh tomatoes it is best to cook them a bit to soften them.

This recipe is easy to double.

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Warning: If you use the habanero wear gloves or wash your hands very well afterwards. Seriously. IT will burn your skin and you don't want to rub your eyes or anything after handling one. I think it is a bit much but dh loves his habaneros. I am sure most of you should probably just skip it.

I found this:

"Habanero peppers - To date these are the Hottest chili peppers know to man, HOT - HOT - HOT. Use extreme caution when using. Marble-shaped chili peppers, ranges in color from unripe green to full ripe red."

"Serrano Chiles - A small 1 ½” fresh HOT pepper. The smaller they are, the more kick they have. Most often used in Pico de Gallo. Dynamite hot is an understatement for these tiny 1-inch peppers. When new on the vine, they are rich, waxy green, changing to orange and red as they mature. They also sold canned, pickled, or packed in oil. A great source of vitamin C."

Courtesy of: http://www.texmextogo.com/chilipeppersfacts.htm

I have recipes!

I still have to write down the salsa recipe (& pick dh's brain on it).

But for now. This is one from the newspaper that the kids even liked and was quite tasty for a bunch of rice and veggies. Not that it was the greatest ever but it was a form of veggie even picky old me could eat. & was quite good for what it was.



& this recipe was DIVINE. A little spicy, very filling. I think dh doubled the recipe to fit the veggies he had but it was good and made great leftovers. I Wouldn't make it otherwise (Well for a family anyway. Was just great for leftovers). (From our 'Light & Tasty' mag).

OF course we are still receiving 2 mags by mistake so if anyone wants one, the first to reply, I will mail it your way.





http://www.lightandtasty.com

There's a lot of recipes on their website too. Oh we wouldn't eat so well without these magazines. LOVE them.

We have had a good meal week.

Dh has been using leftover veggies to make salsa quite often. We got the "recipe" from a hispanic friend a while back. & we LOVE salsa. So in our frugal endeavors dh has been making it much more because usually he has everything anyway in leftovers (except maybe peppers and tomatoes). & we buy the chips more in bulk when they go on sale. I am not much of a veggie eater so the more salsa is good. The more chips is not. We might have to go find some healthier chip varieties. But these are so cheap. I seem to be losing weigh regardless. ?

Anyway, last week we tried a new cauliflower soup recipe from the newspaper. It is pretty good. I am not a veggie fan, but in that form I could eat it up. It is very creamy but it just has rice and chicken broth, something like that. & a lot of veggies. I was sure it had some high fat cream in it or something, but it doesn't. We've had it twice since because it is another great leftover recipe (all the leftover veggies) and the kids LOVE it.

The paper also had an Indian Broccoli recipe. Love Inidan food; not a fan of broccoli. But it actually used shoestring broccoli and it was REALLY good. So needless to say I have been eating more veggies this week.

Finally, dh tried a new rice and meat dish. It is SO good. We usually try a lot of new recipes and a few make it to our tried and true recipe book. But it seems like it has been a while. So it was a great week for new recipes. & yes I will share them when I get a chance!

We also tried Ms. Bean's frugal greek dish and it was good. We tried that a while back and I think dh is making it again this week. I forgot what it was, but I saw the recipe sitting out so I know dh is planning on it again. IT was yummy.

I also asked dh how grocery prices were and he said besides milk he hasn't noticed much. I wonder if the big cities are a little more immune to inflation. I don't know. We just haven't seen it here. I shouldn't say immune. Maybe I should say, just slow to reflect it. We just aren't feeling much pinch here. Yet. Not where we shop.

Which reminds me, I have been trying to talk dh into astro turfing our back lawn. We both hate yardwork and such but he is really against it for whatever reason. Anyway, now that we have metered water I have brung it up again. We should re-landscape. Sure the front yard has to look just so for the association. But the backyard - who cares. We just waste a lot of water. I's be happy to get desert landscaping (it's almost desert here anyway) and save water. But anyway, he wants to grow a garden. We are thinking of dividing the lawn into maybe 1/2 garden and 1/2 play area for the kids (get the tanbark and maybe a play set). Well, it will be a step in a good direction. We'll still have to water the garden. But not near as much as the lawn.

We could maybe get a cheaper rate on our gardener as well, with one less lawn to mow.

We had a tree die also. So we are thinking of getting an apple tree to replace it. The kids are apple monsters. So that will be nice!

The apple tree, we should jump on in the spring. After windy season. But the rest, I think we will wait a year or two. Not that the garden would cost money. But ripping up the lawn a bit, might. I don't even know where to start. IT's in the "idea" stage for now.

I was watching some reality this last week. There is a new reality show on meter maids. You have got to be kidding me. I actually saw part of one episode and looked a little interesting. Then just got boring. Poor meter maids, stupid people. LOL. Same arguments over and over and over.

Anyway, then I saw "The Real Hustle." It was a few scam artists pulling off various scams. The first one caught my attention as a lady was sitting alone in a park with her purse sitting by her feet. I usually put my purse on the floor as well, but wrap the strap around my knee or put it between my legs. Apparently this is smart; not paranoid. They took her wallet in like a minute. But I have to say it was eye opening since I could see the same thing happening to me. Regardless how careful I was holding on. (They also stole a cell phone from a guy who had it sitting right in front of him. Tricky!)

So it sucked me in. But then it just got really stupid. I thought, "Who falls for this stuff?" It was tricky but I didn't see the lure in the other 2 scams. One was that monty game on the street where they get people to bet loads of money then and there, on a card game. Just screams scam. Regardless, I wouldn't gamble $60 or so on the street. Maybe $2. LOL. But it was a well planned trick that got a lot of people to drop a lot of $20s pretty quickly. Amazing.

& then of course the stupidest where a guy walks into a cafe on his cell and loudly talks about the antique plate at the market around the corner selling for $60 when it is really worth $800. Not that I would think it was a scam. But I can't honestly see getting excited and running to buy the $60 plate. PArticularly not being much of an antique seller. LOL. Of course they made $9,000 off that scam in the course of ONE Day! Which means pretty much means that just about everyone that overheard that conversation ran to grab the worthless plate for $60. YIKES!

This is all very relative to personal finance. The dear friends I have that struggle the most financially, are the ones who are the most gullible and least financially savvy. They have fallen for all the scams in the book. They can never give up the hope of winning money or getting something free (usually these are scams that cost them in the end). They spend so much time AND money chasing these "get rich quick" schemes. All they really had to do was buckle down and get a financial plan. It's much simpler and less heart breaking in the long run.

Anyway, the SA blog covered this topic today and I so it spurred me to write on it.

I am very thankful my parents taught me from a young age to spot a scam. I learned that "you don't get something for nothing" when I was probably 8 or 10. & that is the time to teach your kids. When they don't have any money to lose. LOL. So they don't learn the hard way when they are older and do have money to lose.

& watching the Real Hustle I think will probably open my eyes to some scams I hadn't heard of. I don't think my knowledge and wariness makes me immune from scams. I wish! However, the bulk of the scams that you run across daily are usually simple and quite obvious to the skeptical. I mean, if I had a penny for every time I won a "free vacation" or a "large sum of money". I had a lot of friends recently "win a free computer" and handed over their credit card for the shipping which cost hundreds of dollars. Also, the penny stocks, I know people who can't pay their bill but buy the penny stocks they get sold in the obviously spammy e-mails. (Not thinking why would people give you this insider info for free? & the basic rule - never pay ANYTHING for a prize. Don't give your credit card #!)

I also saw this article on the topic. Another good, relevant one (and mentioned "The Real Hustle" too).

http://www.wisebread.com/street-m arket-scams-dont-believe-...

Dh won $5 in poker yesterday. Yay. (Well like I Said he is usually up). So I can't say I was surprised.

I am enjoying the peace and quiet until him and the kids get home.

I am lazy and only working 5 hours today. That puts me to 40 hours for the week. Eh. This week was just long.

You know I really didn't work that much overtime last year and I realize my boss didn't chastise me at all. I think pretty much whatever I want to do, the boss doesn't care. As long as I don't quit.

This is a pretty sweet spot to be in.
-----------------------------------------

I just got my updated FICO score from WAMU. I have been nervous with my large borrowed to credit ratio (whatever its called) on my latest balance transfer. It went from around 770 to 730.

I am borrowing about $17k of my $25 credit limit. (About 70% plus whatever is showing outstanding on my monthly paid-off card).

Eh. I think I will survive. Only 6 more months until one of them is paid. If 730 is the worst it gets, maybe I will borrow more. It's tempting!

(I actually expected it to be worse).

Likewise, we reported like $200 interest on our tax return in 2006 & it looks like we made a good $1k in 2007. Of course the beauty of shifting so much of our efund to our ROTHs is now we don't even have to pay taxes on all of our interest. Sweet! I expect to hit around $2k this year though on all our cash and balance transfers, taxable or not.

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

Kind of depressing - another round of desparate craigslist postings.

http://sacrealstats.blogspot.com/2008/01/craigslist-trolling...

It's like a car wreck; just can't avert my eyes.

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

More to the whole ID Theft thing. What if the institutions that got your data from ID thieves then lose your data? Sounds like a vicous cycle.

Data lost on 650,000 credit card holders
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-data18jan18-ap,1,61879...

It's just maddening to me all the mailing lists I am on (sent to "loyal customer") because of all the accounts the ID thieves opened in my name. Not worth the effort to call and yell at them to stop sending me crap. It's just annoying. But now the same companies are losing data the same way I think mine was compromised in the first place. Lost computer. Blah.

Can I write them and tell them since I never wanted to do business with them in the first place, I would prefer that they wipe my data off their computers? Do I have that right? I get the feeling no. As I find it extremely tacky they would send so much crap to ID theft victims. I mean they look at this opportunity to try to win me as a customer by sending me card offers and all sales ads. I think, are they out of their minds? Well, it seems to be working for them. But I think it is extremely tacky and annoying.

Oh well, I might have to write some letters. Not that I expect much action, but might help the junk mail levels. I have the feeling they can't just erase all my personal data after investigating it. But it would be nice.

You can't win.

Yeesh. On that $1600 family tax rebate thing? Insane. I already get to keep like 90% of my paycheck and now I get to keep even more when you consider the rebate.

Yeah I am on the side (the one I don't see so much here) that I am SO WAY undertaxed. The government wants to subsidize my mortgage and my kids. Which means to some pretty measly income tax bills for us this last decade.

I don't think this would push us to a year where we were paid by the government instead of taxed, but it will be close, and we have had a couple of those.

I would never mortgage my future like this though, so it peeves me to no end. I'd gladly send back my last 5 years of child tax credits for some more responsible government spending. GLADLY.

Likewise, what we could do as concerned citizens is write our representatives and GRIPE. They need to know this is not just a free re-election card. Many of us are not happy as they expected we would be.

Anyway, I am extra peeved as already I said we pay zilch in taxes BUT the government is pushing AMT down our throats (the tax for the insanely rich). They don't have enough money to fix AMT but they can send every family a $1600 check? Sounds like it's just a more popular thing to do. (Well and just a one-year thing). It's just, crazy...

What am I going to do with my $1600? Unfortunately I owe the Feds about $1100 on a ROTH conversion. Some bad miscalculation I haven't figured out yet. But yeah, I am just going to send it back. Might be my "get out of jail free" card. If not for that I would invest it in a fund called "Future Taxes." I would save it for when I start having to pay AMT or we get a responsible government who starts taxing enough to pay all the bills. Just stuff like that. That is all I really could do, save it for future taxes. That is the only thing I could do that would give me any peace of mind.

If I have to send $1100 to the IRS? I don't know. I don't know if I will bother saving the rest. It might round out my vacation fund pretty well. I am just weird like that. Hand me $1600 and I will pop it in savings. Hand me $499 and I will probably just spend it. Eh. It would actually help a lot. LM orthondontics, is nothing else. Vacation. Work we need to do around the house.

Then again if money feels tight now, wait until we have to pay income taxes again. I almost forget what it is like.

Better save it.

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

Anyway, today was a very nice day.

The weather seemed a little chilly but it was nice and sunny for our drive to San Jose. Oh, I am so done. I think that was a good 7-8 drives in 2-3 months. I am out. I am not going anywhere for 4 more months. & that sounds divine!

Of course today was gorgeous and I actually enjoyed the long drive. Go figure. But I am happy to see our gas bill go down.

Dh is going to San Jose one more time this month. Then I think we will rest our cars for our So Cal drive in May. Well, I hope so anyway.

Dh made out well. He got $75 in gift cards for movies and such so he didn't want me o add any money to his allowance. So no gift after all. Zilch/nada for him. He also go a movie and a book from his grandma.

My mom gave him $50 and his GrandDad gave him $20. I am just depositing those for bills. Well needed. Bummer.

On the flip side, so far, January is not near as scary as I thought it would be with the whole preschool thing. We are holding our own. It may not be the financial ruin for 6 months, that I imagined. (Oh sure I exaggerate). But overall, end of year is very spendy and this time of year is usually pretty slow for us. Less driving, less getting out, more income. win win win. IT seems to be working out. (knock on wood). Of course I was stressed until I remembered dh was getting birthday cash. But oh yes February is always an easy month too since it is a short month. Yeah, things are going well.

Anyway, today we went to lunch and treated. MIL dug up a $25 G.C. so we ended up paying about $80. It wasn't bad. Was a GREAT lunch. I had a really pleasant day with MIL too. I don't remember the last time I had. LOL. I think she is over the holidays. Oh, well, until next November or so. Blah. I almost forgot why I could even stand her. But like I said, today was SO pleasant. Phew.

We actually had such a nice lunch. With MIL and my parents too.

The kids went to the zoo afterwards and I went home to work. Dh called to say the zoo will be closed for about 18 months for renovations. What a bummer! Oh the kids love it there and we have a membership. They said they would honor the remaining months we were owed upon reopening. I wonder if they knew this why they just didn't sell a 1/2 year membership or whatever. Well they close in July so we will get our money's worth before then, for sure.

I tackled my taxes again. Since I got a bunch of 1099s and my W-2. Oh, blech, nothing has changed. Still owe $1100 has mentioned. I need to dig up my estimates and figure what I did wrong. I still don't know where my error was. But my withholding still looks okay, so that is what matters I guess. Should be more breakeven next year, all else equal. No more ROTH conversions. Yay!!!!!!!

Anyway, I dollar cost averaged my gas. LOL. I was in a terrible hurry yesterday on my drive to san jose and stopped at an expensive place. It was $3.25/gallon. I was dissapointed to hear dh paid $3.03 at our regular place with discount. It was a mile away (maybe less) but I was rushed. So I got 5 gallons. I forgot to fill up and popped on the freeway after lunch. Traffic was horrid. (For the big city living funny to admit I don't do traffic. Just hate it. Little patience for it. I spend my life avoiding it). Anyway, gas light came on rather soon, no doubt with all the traffic which reduces the van to a paltry 15mpg. I stopped and filled up 5 gallons to get home, $3.30. *cringe* Of course a mere 15 miles later was my usual gas stop and $3.15. Figured. (I thought I was much further out). I could have just waited 15 miles. But oh well.

I got home and still had a good couple of miles. I figured I would wait to empty to refill, though it was still only $3.03 here. We drag out our discounts by using them primarily in the van (bigger gas tank) and only filling when empty. So maybe I will fill up tomorrow after work.

I am just so spoiled by that gas station. It is hard to suck it up and pay another 25 cents - 30 cents on the road like that.

Dh called me on the way home to remind me we had no bread. So I went to the store. It feels so foreign to me. I just never go grocery shopping. & rightly so. I bought bread, pepsi, cookies and chicken nuggets. I love to eat a little too much. I figured I would treat myself to some nuggets and treats since I would eat alone. Spent around $10.

Yes this is why I am forbidden from the grocery shopping. Which is fine by me. Actually I was terribly sick when pregnant with my first and dh wasn't working so he started getting big on home cooked meals and all the shopping and cooking. It has just evolved that way. Which pretty much means I never have to go to the store. I am calling dh and asking him where the bread and the soda and the cookies are and everything so I don't have to waste time looking around. Otherwise I just feel lost. Phew.

So yes that is my long entry for the day.

I do not know how much work I will get done tonight. But I am working most of tomorrow and most of next weekend. Busy busy busy busy. I just feel behind.

I can't believe it is the 19th though. Seriously? This tax season will be over in a blink. So what is the big deal anyway? LOL. It's like 1/4 over. I just can't believe how fast 2008 seems to be flying!

$420 at the dentist.

For the 3 of us.

Not bad.

I just made our next appointments. We only went once last year. It seems we were going every 7 or 8 months by the time we found appointments to fit in our schedule. Anyway, so I locked in a good Friday appointment in July. Will go back in December then - make it 3 this year. I can't do the long drive during tax season - just too much. IT was too much this weekend!

Oh and the pediatric dentist called back right before I wrote them off. Dooms day is the 31st. LOL. We'll find out what they say about Mr. sharky - LM. *sigh* I am scared of both the cost and the treatment (poor LM).

Well it was nice we all had a clean bill of health. No cavities. Yay. We usually don't but I did last time. So I Was nervous!

Oh yes and LM was JEALOUS he did not get to go in with us. So he is excited about his special appointment now. Well that is something. Last time I mentioned it he said he did NOT want to go to the dentist. We'll see how he feels on the big day. It could go either way.

Oh yes, dentist money is accounted for in our "short-term savings." So nothing to sweat there. I put it on the card and earned about $5 in rewards too.

Dh and I don't really exchange gifts any more.

It's more of a one-income thing than a gift thing. We rather save up our pennies for vacation and stuff like that than buy each other more crap.

I don't know, we have been doing this more consciously in the last couple of years.

Anyway, the guy in MyMoneyBlog said so much about him and his wife. No gifts for Christmas. & the response to his blog was kind of nasty. Like the world will end if you don't join in the consumerism for christmas, for your spouse.

I have to say we are QUITE happy with this arrangement.

For one, I think the joy of gift getting has gone out the window with the one-income thing. It is hard for my spouse to pick up a gift without me noticing (I pay all the bills and look at the cards daily, etc.). Plus, though my dh is a great gift giver, it is annoying that my paycheck goes to these gifts. Maybe I would have rather gotten something else. I don't know. IT just isn't the same. I imagine when money isn't as tight, it won't matter. I might appreciate some gifts. But for now, I appreciate not having to pay for them more. That is what it REALLY comes down to. Dh is on the same page. For him it probably helps his parents spoil him rotten. He rather we save our pennies for TVs and the like than more junk on his birthday.

Of course one thing nice I always do is take the kids out and give dh a free day. See, it's not like you have to do something materialistic to be nice. There is nothing he would rather have more than that.

This year I am not sure I can swing it or that it will cut it. He had THREE days with no kids this week. LOL. & I am working all weekend and ha has plans (& babysitters).

So I don't know.

I will probably give him $25 to his allowance to go buy some Blu-Ray movies. Then he can pick out what he really wants. There is probably nothing he wants more.

I also agreed I wouldn't nag him for trading the carseat for the PSP. LOL. That's his gift too. I could use the cash and the budget is about $110 over right now for January. I was planning on getting in the range of $100 for the carseat to cover that. So that is also a pretty nice gift.

He'll give me his birthday money to cover the cash shortfall. I didn't spend my birthday money on anything but bills, so seems fair.

He is skeptical but his mom gave ME $100 this year (kind of rare). I said if I got $100 I get the feeling you will get $100. His grandparents will each give him $50 too. I might put some to retirement. Oh I am not counting on it all 1000%, but I think odds are good he will get some decent cash.

I was hoping we could just add these to our allowances, but just didn't pan out this year. There is a fairness factor there. Usually his parents and grandparents rain cash on him and I get zilch. So who knows. Then again now his family is giving me cash. So it might be more fair in a year. ?? We'll see. We always play it by ear. It helps our birthdays are back to back. It helps with the fairness card. Of course, we are also pretty happy to forego gifts and cash and all that right before/after Christmas. Since we get plenty for that too.

Anyway, for the weekend we are going to San Jose tomorrow for a dental appointment. We are going to have lunch with our parents (I may treat, or my parents; we'll fight it out). I wanted to treat with my raise. But I expected it to be more. So if they insist - will take the offer.

Olive Garden. Can't remember the last time I went!! Ages...

Then dh has a poker game. He took $40 cash for that. Since it is his birthday weekend, I hope that means good luck. He actually usually comes out ahead. But I think last time he came home with $0, or only 1/2 or something. We'll see.

His mom is babysitting so I can work all weekend. Phew. Well I hope to work most Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Then enjoy the rest of the day with the fam.

Oh and we are going to try a new pizza place Sunday night. So it will be a bit of a spendy weekend. Dentist, gas, 2 meals out. A good $700/$800 weekend? (Mostly Dentist!)

BM is going to the dentist with us.

I left a message for a recommended pediatric dentist for LM. They never called back. It took me ALL this time to get the nerve and they can't even call back. I take it as a sign to look elsewhere. LOL. I know technology is not fail safe, but I am terribly annoyed. I always look at these things as signs.

Bah.

Man I just hate dentists. Very bad experiences. Not looking forward to this on so many levels. Back to the drawing board for LM. He really needs to be seen. My dentist won't touch him with a ten-foot pole because he is a "baby." Which is fair. He gripes about BM but he was excellent and the hygenist insisted we just bring him in. This will be his second visit and he did excellent last time. He actually LOVES the dentist. (Who is this kid? LOL.) Anyway. I think my dentist said he sees 6 or 7yos and at this point BM can pass for that age. He did very well. But still looking for a pediatric dentist for LM.

It is super super crazy at work. BUT I wanted to go to aerobics tonight. I usually tend to go home at lunch on aerobic days. Then I can grab my stuff at lunch (since mornings seem so rushed) and I can feel less guilty getting home at 7:30pm (if I can see the kids for lunch).

Well, today the kids are at preschool. Both of them - all day! (BTW, LM is loving it. If we left him there all week and picked him up Friday I don't think he'd care. LOL. & I thought it might be a rough adjustment? I have been taking him to the gym daycare in the evening after a full day at daycare because he wants to go play some more. Well, okay then. He is getting accustomed to other toys and the company of lots of kids I guess).

Anyway, kids are gone, so I have a lunch date with dh.

This is kind of nice. We should start doing this. Well, the problem is I usually have to leave early to pick up the kids. Which rules out a long lunch. But tonight dh is picking them up since aerobics is closer to my work. Kids got to go to preschool today since Monday is a holiday. She always lets them come in another day when their day falls on a holiday, which is just awesome.

So dh and I get lunch date. I think I will make a deal that once a week we should have a lunch date if he will pick up or drop off the kids. That is one thing we would like more of, more "Date" time, but the babysitting expense is horrendous. But if we're paying for it anyway, might as well enjoy.

For today just going home for some leftovers. But I Don't remember the last time dh or I had any time for each other. Kind of sad. So it will be nice.

I am also working on my budget with my raise. Will look something like this:

+2,690 (1st)
-50 retirement
-450 short-term savings
-1,318 mortgage
-630 preschool
-200 utilities/gardener

+2,690 (16th)
-50 retirement
-450 short-term savings
-1,300 credit card (all other expenses)
-728 Health Insurance
-200 utilities

Leaves $0.

Ideally...

We'll see...

I realistically expect $5k/year in interest and overtime to fund more long-term savings.

& I have a 10% contribution to retirement (employer) regardless of how much I physically put away.

Preschool drops to $315/month come august. (Did I mention that yet? )

Which means I hope my budget to look more like this by the end of the year. & this would be pretty sweet:

+2,690 (1st)
-150 retirement
-500 short-term savings
-1,318 mortgage
-315 preschool
-200 utilities/gardener

+2,690 (16th)
-150 retirement
-500 short-term savings
-1,300 credit card (all other expenses)
-728 Health Insurance
-200 utilities

I am still lucky to take home almost 90% of my paycheck. Taxes are just nil with the kids, mortgage, etc.

This is one reason I am in savings mode. Certainly don't expect this to last forever. I feel blessed it was this way for us during our one-income years. Then again we will probably have to pay it back tenfold down the road. Which is exactly why we don't borrow money in the first place (as a rule). The whole thing makes me nervous for the long run.

Man, I am whipped.

I did all my Thank-You cards yesterday. I should be thankful there were so many, but I wasn't. LOL. Seemed like an all day project.

Anyway, I did enjoy the morning. I'll give you that. Then I worked all afternoon. Then at 5:00 I did paperwork for various things (rebates, contests) and all the Thank-Yous. I still have to dig out addresses for most of them. I just don't keep addresses. I am terrible that way. As organized as I am. Of course I have a lot memorized which is my thing. & phone #s are in the cell phone. I just never really saved addresses anywhere. Maybe I should make that my goal. Need to look some up on the web and call our moms for the rest. Isn't that terrible? LOL. I guess with the internet age I don't need addresses for any other reason.

Then dinner and gave the kids a bath. & then pretty much crashed. I fell asleep at 9 which is even a little early for me. But I did sleep well...

This week will be no better. On go go go mode.

Then again January is about 1/2 over, which means tax season is about 1/8 over. It will FLY! At this rate it will be over in a blink. That's the upside I guess. This time of year always fly with the hecticness and then I can slow down and enjoy the rest of the year.

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

Well, I cleaned up Quicken a bit yesterday. I added a category for gym/fitness. & differentiating 2007/2008 IRA contributions. Stuff like that.

I also looked long and hard at "miscellaneous." For budgeting purposes I don't want to spend a lot of time breaking down every little category. There is a time tradeoff there.

For example, on groceries. Everything we buy at the grocery store I just put in groceries. I know all we buy is groceries, personal care products, cat food/cat litter, etc. Everything we buy at the grocery store though is pretty basic. The basic needs.

For a while I was breaking out how much we spent on milk, bread, meat, etc. Just out of curiosity. But that, like the price book, was just way too impractical and time consuming. Just not my thing. So I am happy to leave groceries as is. There isn't any fat to cut there anyway, so why bother. (Not now that dh lowered our bills like 20%). !!

Miscellaneous is much the same. I don't want to budget every item to the penny. Plus I like some flexibility. So I always had a round $150/month in my head towards miscellaneous. Usually for stuff like going to the zoo, to concerts, small car repairs, excess medical expenses, or whatever. If it was a slow month and nothing came up, we'd enjoy it. But if we had car repairs and too many trips to the doctor, we would apply it for that stuff and splurge less. Same when we just needed stuff around the house.

I decided this is still very fine for budgeting purposes. I really like this part of the budget because it is so flexible. Just makes it easier.

But when it came to year-end and comparisons to prior year, lord know what that big blob of miscellaneous was. LOL.

So I looked at it closer and broke it down to about 10 sub categories. Might matter less to me throughout the year, but at year-end it will be nice for the big picture, to know how much we spent on this and that.

I already had categories for dh, me, and the kids. So will leave those. (For birthday presents and just misc. things that don't fit anywhere else).

I then added the following categories:

**Household (just stuff around the house. I put the thank you cards here. From last year I saw stuff like mattress pads, beard trimmers, table clothe, towels, etc.)

**Electronics

**Furniture

**Entertainment (I have a separate category for our blockbuster online service, but it is outside of the misc. budget. All the rest of our entertainment out goes to misc. So figured I'd add it here too).

**Family Activities (This is what we used misc. the most for, anyway)

**Books/CDs/Software

**Holidays (easter egg decorating, halloween costumes, anything and everything holiday. Except I have a separate category for Christmas, already, as that is the pricier holiday).

Anyway, looking at last year, that was the best way to break down the misc. items. So we'll see how that goes. It's a work in progress... I think I will appreciate this for year to year comparisons. & seeing where our money really went. I am just going to reclass last years' numbers, monthly, as we go along. So that I will have useful comparative reports throughout the year.

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

Yesterday I was perusing the paper and found a $1 off coupon for my deoderant. So I think I will pick some up. I am particular about my shampoo and deoderant, though particular about little else.

I also saw $1 off for Cover girl. I could kick myself for not looking through those before buying make up last week. I mentioned I only buy like once every 5 years. So I just have to put that somewhere in my brain for next time.

Dh is usually good with the coupons, and stocking up on the regulars on sale. But these are the things he didn't think of. Too girly. LOL. So I have to remember to peruse the adds and stock up when I see coupons.

P.S. We sign up Big Money for kindergarten tomorrow. !!!!!! I think I am going to cry. It doesn't help that a relative said that now he will be an adult in a blink. Once they start school it is over... (Not what I want to hear).

Well I still have Little Monkey. For now... He's still a little snuggle bug. I will really miss this age/stage when it passes.

I never even wanted kids and now I think I am a baby addict. LOL. Figures. Well maybe I will have grandchildren someday. I know I don't want more kids. I really don't. But there is a lot I will miss about the baby/toddler age.

I guess good thing for nieces and nephews!!!

How's this for frugal?

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/10229.jpg

If you click on the link above you will see a print out on the floor, of a baby. It's a bunch of sheets of paper put together to put together a big poster actually.

At the party yesterday we saw one of those. So cool. So this morning I played around with it. I came up with a picture for each of my Monkeys. I just happened to have 2 framed posters sitting in the closet. Just poster-sized, cheap black frames. So I uploaded my recent favorite Christmas picture of LM and printed it out. It came out really good.

BM and I chose a picture for his room.

They are framed; I haven't put it up yet. If you can live with the white lines, it wasn't that hard. I wasn't going to bother slicing the pages down to chop the borders, though we do have a paper cutter. I figure that would just be too complicated for me. I don't do good with putting things together. But this was rather simple and fun.

Anyway, I didn't figure it out yet but it looks like you can do the same for top quality prints. It's just free on their website. Look at some of these!

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/10668.jpg

We have to fix up LM's room and I saw that one. Is giving me IDEAS. (Oh yes I know that one would be tough to implement. But looks more fun than painting anyway. )

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/8884.jpg

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/10311.jpg

Well here is the website to give it a whirl:

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

I can just see my house being covered in art in no time. LOL. But I was also thinking it might be a nice gift to put together one of my dad's photos on one of his walls some day. Sneak over there and put it up as a giant poster or something.

So much you can do...

We had a good day interesting. Yes, another drive to San Jose. But this time was well worth it. I figured it would cost about $300 to replace my windshield just going with the flow. But my dad, cheapie that he is, pointed out a real cheap place by his house. Swears by them. Except they were closed for a good week after the windshield cracked.

So we went by yesterday while in town and it was a whopping $150.

Will just come out of the monthly budget. Not a biggie. & I was stressed about it!

I am so happy to get that fixed and to pay so little.

Of course on the way home we hit something on the freeway! It was one of those lawn mower bags. It was not good. I think the odds are good my car is okay. But it got lodged underneath the car. We pulled over and dh finagled it for a bit. But he is the smart one. He said, "why don't you back up?" Then it popped right out. The car seemed fine and we got home late. Today I'll look under it and make sure there is no obvious damage. All I could think is we just fixed the dang thing.

Well we did our good deed for the day. We got it off the road. At least no one else hit it. I told dh I preferred to hit it with the van than the subcompact. So as long as the car is okay...

Anyway, I have been realizing lately that there are a large number of benefits to being in the land of expensive. They keep popping up this last week or 2 or 3 and I am feeling less annoyed about the disadvantages of late. I think in a forum like this, seeing so many people live in more reasonable places, it is easy to start getting annoyed about all the downsides, and lose sight of the upside.

Cheap auto glass is one.


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Well, we went to a fancy birthday party in San Jose yesterday. IT wasn't terribly fancy. It was actually rather low key, but they did have entertainment and about 30 guests (for a 2yo). The nice thing is all the guests had small kids and didn't last long. So us and the family stayed a little longer. The kids just had a BLAST. They have such a fun house.

This is dh's cousin. I am sure they would be easily labeled as the Joneses. But they are not. I don't know anyone our peer who has such a nice home in the area (who can afford it) and I would guess that they have the smallest mortgage. She started with a tiny condo, then a townhouse, then this home. I know she paid something in the $500-$600k range in a very similar neighborhood to when dh's sister paid $800k. The thing is his sister has 1200 square feet if lucky. This house has a nice backyard, & is a very tiny 3-bedroom. But it has an add-on so a family room and a master added on to it. They have some pretty decent square footage as a result. & I know most of that was bought with equity. They are just smart buyers. (I mean the house is a zillion years old, but that's what you get for 1/2 mil in the Bay Area).

Their house is filled to the brim with electronics and fancy things. But I mean, they wouldn't buy anything they couldn't pay cash for and I know she had saved a crazy amount down on the first condo she bought. They are just savers who make a lot of money. They don't have the crazy mortgages the rest of our peers do so they can enjoy those big incomes that much more. Of course I think they are crazy, LOL, because they both still work full-time, opposite schedules. But it seems to work for them. & if it works for them, so be it.

The thing that struck me about the party is most of the parents were OLD.

Anyway, around here in Sacramento, I know a LOT of young moms. Which is not very much the norm in the Bay Area. BEcause it is just too expensive! So up here it was always striking to me how many young parents were. Of course, on the flip side, know a lot of parents in their late 30s, early 40s. But they all look very young.

So yesterday, this party, I see a lot of older people. I figured it was just the different culture. These people can't afford to have kids until much later. I don't know if that was an accurate conclusion, but all I Could figure. None of these people would pass for 20s/30s. So I was pondering.

Anyway, one interesting conversation we had was that dh's aunt teaches for a community college. She was asking a lot of questions of BM because he is quite the brain. (YEs I have bragged about him before). So she was asking me if he knew combinations of 10. (5/5, 6/4, 7/3, etc.). Well, um, of course. She said, "If I asked him if there were 27 people in a room and 7 more people came in, how many would there be?" would he know the answer? I think, yes, of course. He's been on this math kick and he LOVES combination of #s. & adding and subtracting all that.

Anyway, she was asking because she teaches the lowest level math in community college (pre-algebra) and she has for a while. But she says the people coming through can not do BASIC math. We were discussing that and dh's family was kind of concluding that more dumb people are going to college. LOL. I chimed in and said we couldn't find any CPAs who could do basic problem solving skills. I think it is more of an age thing. The young people coming through are just not properly educated. I feel so blessed to be educated and to know that I will ensure my kids are educated. But apparently not everyone has that same leg up. I mean I am in the middle when it comes to home schooling. I am not going to homeschool my kids 24/7. Not my thing. I want them to open their horizons. I had so many wonderful teachers and experiences through the years; so much more than my parents could have given me. BUT just because I send them off to school doesn't mean I am going to put the responsibility 1000% on the school. Come on. I can't fathom why anyone would. But then you get college grads who can't do basic arithmetic. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently a lot of parents aren't paying any attention. &/or don't have the skills to teach their kids. IT's just a sad state of society I think. Since when was education such a low priority. *sigh*

But I never really thought about the 2 before, but someone mentioned that no wonder people couldn't figure our basic personal finance. If they can't do basic arithmetic. I had never really thought about it, but I think it is a good point. They young particularly, seem to have a big disadvantage in that regard.

I also know a lot of it is because people rely so much on computers, somehow they miss the basics. But there isn't a lot you can do without the basics. Which is the frustration we find in our field. People just don't "get it" because they don't have the basic skills. You can't be a CPA if you don't understand algebra... For one. But we get these college grads who don't understand BASIC algebra... It seems to be the norm. We don't even really interview recent college grads any more.

I find that quite scary. So talking to dh's aunt was quite interesting. She said for her it was just the last few years things have changed, much as we have found at my work.

Anyway, we just drove home last night so it ended up being a long day. But the kids had a BLAST. Which is why we went; for them. & I am glad I got to sleep in my own bed and get some stuff done at home today. Phew.

I forgot to add that I got 3 free meals this week, which was nice in the hecticness.

A coworker took me to lunch Wednesday and my boss brought in lunch Thursday (which is quite rare. Was leftovers from a dinner party). Between the 2 I had plenty for lunch Friday. Which was great because I went in Wednesday thinking I would buy lunch; was in a rush. (& yes usually I can grab leftovers in a rush. Was just an extra rush for various reasons).

Heck, I might be able to stretch those leftovers a few more days. LOL.

But my lunch out was a nice meal & a 1/2. & the leftovers from the boss's lunch was a nice supplement to that. Which is the fair thing about eating out - usually have leftovers and stretch them out a day or 2 or 3.

Of course, that was a lot of calories for me. I usually have a simple lunch. So we'll see how that goes. IT was free, but not so sure it was worth it. Oh, good food. Too good...

Good food is fine once in a while, but I tend to eat good a little too often...

It's busy, but it's a good busy.

I hit the gym 4 times this week. A record. LOL. But I am feeling motivated...

I don't feel too behind at work; though it is quite crazy.

There's a positive correlation there. Praying I can keep this up through tax season. Helps with the stress and helps me be more productive. So though the gym takes time, I think it is saving me time in the ends. Know what I mean? Trying to keep that in mind as work gets crazier by the second.

I have yet to get my review or raise, between lost electricity and then my boss was sick. I just figure I should know when I get my paycheck at this point. LOL. I give up. Dh called me yesterday. He said, "come on, you should know by now." Considering all the craziness I was just giving my boss some space. But I had to break the news with the boss out sick, um no, I wasn't going to figure out anything.

I expect anywhere from 3% - 10% raise. & so yeah, it would be nice to know. So I can work on my 2008 budget.

Dh executed the carseat/PSP trade yesterday. He is happy.

The applications for kindergarten will be ready Monday. O.M.G. THAT is so surreal.

I keep hearing it is so horrible to wake up kids early and was watching some family on tv wake up at dawn to get their kids ready? Where does everyone live? I just LOL at the idea of waking up my kids. They are usually up at 6am-7am anyway. Just the way they are. Take after me I guess. (Funny enough they are late birds TOO. Their bedtime is 9 which all my friends think is insane. But if I put them down at 7 they'll wake up at 3. You know?).

His preschool teacher was telling me about some weird schedules she has come across where kids sleep around their parents schedule. I can't remember, but telling me one really odd schedule. She said, "well, it works." I think it came up because she babysat our kids a few times, and I didn't even care if they were in their PJs at 8pm. So I was telling her how for the longest time BM's bedtime was 10pm. It took a long time to get them down to 9pm. Phew. But yeah, I went back to work at 6 weeks with BM and all he did was SLEEP. I quickly decided the whole SAHM vs. WM debate was completely ridiculous. As he kind of worked his waking schedule around me anyway.

Then LM came along. He never sleeps. I have always had a harder time working with him, likewise. I miss so many awake hours with him. Just never had that whole thing with BM.

Which is also why I wake up at dawn to get some quiet time. Since the kids are up so dang late.

Anyway, this is just crucial for us to get it squared away. The school has 61 openings for K. & 4 for 4th grade. & that is IT!!!!

It is a charter school, and for us, we are founding parents. We put in x amount of hours to get the school started. So we are in. But of course I worry too much. I have a fear what if I screw up the application or something. I just have to get my kid IN. The rest should be easy.

But it is just mind boggling for me. My BABY is starting school.

No matter what, our kids would go to public school. We are public school people, and in this area there are just SO MANY options. For one, there are so many charter schools. & this one has been faring very well. IT started when we did not have a school due to some major BS and politics. The school board did not buy the land it intended to when it was cheap. Then it whined the land was too expensive (while they were making some backroom dealer with another developer to buy land that was questionable if it was even usuable).

Just crap like that.

Of course our charter school does not have a space yet. Conveniently they are down the street for now. I can't help but wonder if lowering prices will help us get a solid school site. Maybe while one of my kids are there...

This is where buying "small" in a fancy neighborhood paid off. Anyone can do this. But we have a lot of wealthy neighbors, resources, and parents who don't work full-time. So we banded together to form our own school. I have blogged about this before. You would obviously never see this in the inner city. So though technically it is a public school and anyone can do this. It is kind of eye opening what can really get done in a wealthier area. Dh and I used to joke when we moved here that we were living with the rich people. They will divert the airplanes and fight off the Big Box stores and will have the deep pockets to do whatever they want. We would joke, but it is kind of eerie that all this is more true than we ever imagined. So that is my vote for buying in a wealthy neighborhood. I mean we have a nice house, but we are outside the gated part and it cost pennies compared to some of the mansions around here. So we did the whole buy small in a nice neighborhood thing. Of course back home we would be lucky to own a shack. So it is all relative. We might have gone a little gung ho with our buying power here. But the benefits are clear. I am not sure I we will ever regret spending a little more than we had to. HAving more peace of mind for the kids' public schools and all that. Just a BIG benefit to moving somewhere more affordable.

Anyway, school starts at 8:30 for K-5 and it is a 5-minute walk. Or a 1-minute drive. So I don't expect much. I usually drag the kids out of the house 7:30-8 for preschool anyway. & that schedule is pretty easy. Of course with K, I guess there will be projects to gather and homework and all that. For preschool we just throw on their clothes and go. It's not very schooly. So I am sure we are in for quite an adjustment overall.

Actually, K is 8:30 - 2:45. So though BM is used to a 8-hour day at preschool. That is only twice a week. AND they nap a good 2 hours of it. I have the feeling, knowing him, he will come home and crash every afternoon.

But yeah, I guess it is a good 9 months away. But I think our lives will change much. As far as the public school, lord knows it is cheaper than going private. But I am trying to be mindful of all the little costs. For one, uniforms. I am not happy about the uniform thing. Like I want a second set of clothes for school? How frugal is that? Not very. Though they push it for the "poor kids." I think do the poor people a favor and don't make them buy more clothes!

I mean come on, I went to public school, my parents shopped at KMart. & kids picked on me. Somehow I survived. I just don't believe in the least if we were wearing uniforms anything would change. Kids pick on kids. If they can't pick on their clothes, they find something else.

I just don't buy it. & like I believe that the "poor" will be camoflauged by their uniforms. You have got to be kidding me. ?? But this is all for them apparently...

Pictures? I always hear people whine about the pictures. Personally, I don't see what I would buy them. I already posted about that...

Field trips? We'll see.

Supplies? Yes, we have to send a check in once a year for supplies and such.

There are probably a lot of expenses I haven't even though of. Which is why I am trying not to get too giddy about diverting all of the preschool expenses to our retirement. I know better... We'll have some school expenses... Maybe many...

Anyway, in other news, my CD expires in a few weeks as well. I will have to re-evaluate it as I moved so much cash to my ROTH. This would tie up some balance transfer cash until it was due back. Which is probably fine. But I was happy to put it in CDs when I had other cash to fall back on. So I do have to ponder that one a bit. I think only the last 3 months I would have 1/2 the balance transfer tied up. I think I can live with that, but I have to check all the dates.

Also, when I purchased the CD, it was a promotion where it would renew at the higher rate (5.7%) one time. Well, um, yes I want to renew at 5.7%! But I can not find that anywhere. I think, gosh darn, I don't see that on the certificate! So I will call and make sure I am not crazy. I am sure it is fine, but part of me is wondering if they just say that and hope you forget. LOL.

If I can't renew at that rate I may just take on a 3-month CD.

We'll just see.

Well, weekend plans. I'll work. Wasn't intending to, but with the impromptu vacation last weekend due to no electricity...

We're getting my windshield replaced.

We're going to a birthday party. (Apparently a very fancy one for a 2yo. We'll see. Sounds a little crazy, but the kids will certainly enjoy).

The house is actually clean. I have been really productive. So besides working I just don't have a lot to do. Kind of caught up on stuff. Well, I have a pile of thank-you cards to do. I am sure I will find something to keep me occupied. But mostly looking forward to spending some time with the kids.

Well it is almost official. Waiting for the cash to appear in my checking today, and then transferring the money over to our retirement plans.

So will be officially maxed out for 2007.

I think it's cool that we could probably employ the same strategy for 2008. & max out again. We'll see.

By 2009 I would hope we were well into maxing out anyway.

So though the money is just as much efund as retirement right now, I am mostly keeping it separate in my mind.

But if I get to leave it in there...

Puts me at exactly one years' salary in retirement vehicles.

My plan to have double that in 4 years is looking a little more likely now as well.

I think when I started to freak out we had $5k in savings. When I joined this site and tried to get our butts back in gear. After having a spendy couple of years.

The way I look at it I now have a good $5k in efund still sitting in my bank in cash.

BUT I also have almost $2k in other cash and should have $10k in other cash come summer. So in the grand scheme of things I am still oodles above where we started. As such, I am really optimistic this retirement efund thing will stay in retirement. Certainly no worse off in the interim. It feels the same with $5k cash. But I have to remember we had NO other cash before. & that was way too outside of our comfort level. This is a little different...

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In other news, dh was to sell the carseat for retirement monies. (Or more likely monthly expenses since I am a tad short for the month).

Somehow, now he is trading it for a PSP. LOL. Don't even ask. It wasn't him. They offered. How did they know? I said I thought it was fishy that they would KNOW that that is just the kind of trade he would love.

He's all excited. Now he wants to buy a memory card, (and probably games though he has credit at the used store). & he wants to pay a small one-time fee to TIVO for some feature. (Download shows? Play games remotely? Both? I am not sure).

He also wants to buy a new surround sound receiver. His new thing. HE bought surround sound like a decade ago when he lived at home. That's part of our theater system that just didn't cost much (none of it really did) since we just put a lot of "old" stuff in there. Probably fair. He is saving up his allowance pennies for ALL this stuff.

I told him once we drop preschool we can talk too about upping our allowances a bit. Then he can buy more of this crap with his allowance and stop stressing me out all the time. For now it's just $50/month and he really stretches it out pretty well. $100/month would be nicer! Maybe next year...

This stuff is fine, but he also wants a HD TIVO (or 2) and a new computer. The stressful part.

The bigger allowances we can justify, the better this stuff will go.

Anyway, I have a really nice crib bedding set to sell. Around $300 brand new (& yes, probably what I paid. I was a little crazy). Apparently I am not the only one. I saw all this stuff listed on Craigslist for $75-$200. So, I figure I start $100 and see. Don't expect that much. But who knows??????

Maybe I will make some decent cash this month after all.

I have a lava lamp to sell. They are only going for $10. But will probably be worth it. I lied, my price limit is not $20. I guess in a more desperate month it is worth selling smaller items.

But I am doubtful any of this will go to retirement.

Then again, I am pleased overall dh worked out a good trade. He said he had his eye on a new $200 PSP anyway. Not sure he would have bought one anytime soon, as he has been talking about other stuff. But I only expected $75 for the carseat, and now he gets the PSP with no cash. So oh well. He even agreed to deduct $75 from his allowance likewise. I don't think I will. But maybe I should. Hmmmmm.

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Oh yeah, and he told me last night we could sell the van for a fun car. LOL. I am not so sold. I said you know that would be a 3-car average for me. (Sold the convertible for kids - bought before kids were even on the horizon. Bought a really old Saturn for interim but was a great car and drove 3 years. Then got the van, which was the end goal). Anyway, with gas prices, we just rarely drive the van. Dh had a point. If I sell this one after 2 years, we're not any different than our friends/neighbors who upgrade every 2-3 years anyway. LOL.

He has a point. No one would probably blink an eye.

I feel we made a dumb decision, we should stick with it. Plus, well, I like the van. I told dh I wasn't sold on dropping it. I really want 3 cars. & am willing to wait. Love having the van and the subcompact. Best of both worlds. We already shelled out the money, why give it up.

But I did tell dh that was vey dangerous. To offer that to me. I might have the van sold at the end of the day. LOL.

This is where going used is nice. We didn't lose much in appreciation in 2 years. We could probably sell for a good $12k ($10k if we are ultra conservative).

I could buy a pretty nice car in the $8k range and have plenty to spare. We could fund our IRA in 2008 easy peasy then.

But I also like having the van as a nice secondary emergency fund. Sure we don't need such a nice car. We never have. But likewise we could enjoy it now and sell it in a heartbeat, if need be.

Oh, don't tempt me.!!!

I think I will resist the urge.

The funniest thing of all is we replaced the windshield on the saturn shortly before we decided to sell it.

I told dh, well with the cracked windshield on the van, maybe that's the sign. Time to sell.

But yeah, as tempting as it is. I can't justify a non-kid-friendly car for a second car. Which is why I dropped my convertible in the first place. !! We could have kept it, but dropping to one income and upping our insurance just didn't make sense at the time. It makes a little more sense now, but not much. I think I have a few more years...

Plus the weather is terrible here. In the spring it may be harder to resist!

I haven't impl