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Stormy! & Gas Savings

January 4th, 2008 at 02:07 pm

"Today: Windy with rain, heavy at times. High 56F. Winds S at 25 to 40 mph. Rainfall expected to exceed 2 inches. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph."

& then I saw:

"LOCAL GUSTS TO 75 MPH ARE POSSIBLE IN THE MORNING"

O.M.G.

IT is really windy here. & rain is rather "rare" anyway. So might as well be a blizzard for here. I don't look forward to the drive today. I haven't been driving the van since it is garaged with the cracked windshield. But I saw my life flash before my eyes twice this week driving dh's little compact. I don't know if the big trucks just look more menacing after driving the big van so much, but they scare the crap out of me. I almost got ran over by a giant camper on Wednesday. I don't like to be tailgated, but in the teeny tiny compact, yeah, my life flashes before my eyes the way some people drive.

So on a day like this I think I prefer the van. Maybe the little Escort which is very low will barely feel the wind. Or maybe the wind will just blow it clear off the road since it is so little. LOL. I am not sure if wind and rain is good for my windshield though. *sigh* Probably should just take the compact.

We were talking about going up to the snow this weekend. Then dh and I both saw there was a big storm for the weekend. Figures. Blizzard conditions in the Sierras. Think we'll stay home.

This year started rather mild. We always find it hard to get to the snow in tax season, but never make the effort in November/December when we should. Anyway, I remember the first (only) time we took BM was May. IT was a weird year and tons of snow well into May. At this rate I told dh we could just go in May. LOL. The cold started late and this is the first storm of note for the fall/winter.

Yes we also drove through a snow storm in June one year. We were driving home from Reno on a beautiful weekend and all of a sudden it started snowing. Heavily. Luckily our friend had 4-wheel drive. We eventually got out and had a snow ball fight. What the heck, who can say they have had a snowball fight in June? We were all just stunned. Where the heck did that come from? Didn't think to check the weather reports in June.

So yeah, here's to April or May. It makes me nervous really to try in winter anyway. I like the snow on a nice sunny day myself. Big Grin

Dh's family has a cabin about an hour out from here and they have all their snow gear from generations past. So we go up there, bundle up and head up to Tahoe which is a good hour from there. Of course if it snows down to the cabin, as it often does, we don't have to go far to find snow. But we generally do like to go up in better weather conditions and drive up to Tahoe. It is very pretty.

Dh is not into skiing but I like it a fair amount. Too many ski injuries in the family though. I think it would be fun to take the kids though. For now no one will go with me. But with age it does sound less appealing. Risking life and limb. Of course the same can be said for sledding. LOL. Not quite so fun when you are old and big than when you are young and small. Wink

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Well, our gas bill was $80. Down 20% from last year. I think it has just been milder. IT has seemed terribly cold for days. But then it was well into the 60s for a couple of days. I went out at lunch and was sweltering. What a beautiful few days.

Dh did remind me last year was extremely cold (we had a few days of freezes which was quite rare).

But anyway, something like for every 1% we lower our bill in Jan. & Feb., we save 1% on a future bill. Lower bill 10%, save 20%.

It's not entirely clear, but I don't think there is much motivation there for us. Our non-winter bill rusn $10-$20 average. (November was $20 and that had some winter in it). Anyway, so if we save 1% or 20% on that? Big whoop! LOL. But we'll see.

Anyway, one reason our bill went down is we turned down the water heater in summer. I turned it up come winter and though it wasn't quite as scalding as I prefer, it was quite comfortable. With our new metered water I figure might as well not make it TOO comfortable. But to be clear I thought it was just fine. Also trying to be mindful of child safety. I never saw the point of turning down the water heater with kids who couldn't even crawl or reach a faucet. BUT these days, yeah, they can get into anything. So turning down the water heater as we were told 5years ago when I gave birth.

I guess dh has been miserable though and he complained. I told him the point was not to make him miserable. Yeesh. Not worth freezing to save $5. So I turned it up 1/2 way between where it was before and where we had it now. We're still tweaking it. But when we figure it out we'll get the sharpie out and mark the dial so we'll have the winter setting and the summer setting. We cut our summer bills in half. ($20 to $10).

So anyway, our $80 bill was rather low. I am not sure how much was because of the water heater. We'll see how our January bill fares...

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In other news, LM is day 2 into potty training! Yay!

We're really lazy in this regard. Know too many people who tried too hard at 18 months and were still trying well into age 4.

Dh and I kind of didn't see the point of training a kid who still needs so much help. & we hate those little potties. Ugh. Too much work and doesn't help when you want to leave the house.

Even though MIL told me a million times she trained HER kids by 2, we were pretty lazy with BM. We had a new baby at 2 and I heard too much about regression. But he was always very interested in the potty. At 3 he started to do #2 in the potty and we just told him, that's it. No more diapers. That's it. We were just very relaxed about it and didn't make a big deal about it for YEARS. As such, my friends with her 4yo asks me how we do it since they still have so many accidents. What do I say? We really didn't do anything. Which is the point. He took the lead.

So MIL has been going on and on about this again and we figure diapers are just easier. I said I rather wait until 3 again. That was easy! Though LM shows less tolerance for being wet and dirty, and he wants to be like his brother, he is also way more timid. Thus uninterested in the big potty. but somehow MIL got him pretty trained at her house (well with lots of candy for one) so dh decided to work on it this week.

Still lots of work since we have to remind him and help him onto the big potty every few hours. But he is officially out of diapers most of the day.

Good for the pocket book!

We'll see. I am not very optimistic. But we'll see. He seems to be doing really well.

I can't believe it has been 5 years in diapers in this house. (& yes I know lots of people do it much longer. LOL).

But the end is so near I can taste it.

Since we switched out of clothe and dropped the diaper service, it really doesn't cost very much. The diapers. I mean we change them so rarely anyway I Would be surprised if we spend more than $10/month. Dh just buys the giant bag of generics for $10 every month or so. MAybe $12. But it will certainly be nice to drop them, regardless. In more ways than one! I never liked the disposables (environmentally). But LM has always been very particular and wouldn't wear clothe at night, etc. So we'll see. The less disposables we have to use, the better I will feel environmentally... & he is getting big enough to do all the work himself. Here's to that!!!!

He'll be 3 in summer. & the other thing that REALLY motivated BM was going to preschool and seeing the older kids. He started preschool when he was just about 3. & so LM might be getting a little motivation from that end too.

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In other news I am feeling good. I stressed way too much about money last year. I think after reviewing our progress from 2007, on our spending, I feel like a load has been taken off my shoulders.

I still roll my eyes at the people who poo poo any luxury in life. That anyone would pay for preschool!!!! For me it means I will have a 7% contribution to my IRA, from 0.8% come September. & certainly I could do 7% tomorrow if I lost my profit sharing. Then priorities would change. I find the luxuries the easiest to enjoy, and the easiest to drop when needed. The interesting thing for us is that many of our luxuries are NOT long-term expenses. I always looked at preschool and our gardener, and the like, as very temporary. & when we save up the money to buy fancy electronic equipment, it is usually a one-time purchase. Not like there are payments. In tough times we have plenty to get us through (or maybe even to sell). In good times we enjoy.

1/2 my emergency fund today is my car. Efund is $12k. But if I lost my job and our efund was draining fast, I'd sell the car in a heartbeat. Another good $12k.

That is the nice thing about the extras. Don't get used to them. Don't make them "needs." But we have to much nice stuff we bought well before kids that we still enjoy. & plenty of other stuff that we enjoy now in times of abundance, but would drop in a heartbeat to make ends meet.

So anyway, our spending is down and we are trying best to save every raise and windfall.

As such I feel more relaxed. 2007 was year of financial. 2008 will be year of something else. Yay!

I actually took some time this morning and last to work on some scrapbooking. I do digital scrapbooking, but am eons behind. Ever since we switched to digital pictures, we print out few. But I arrange my favorites on little pages and print them out. & I find it MUCH cheaper than traditional scrapping. The software cost $30 eons ago, and my dad sends us free photo paper all the time. (He is really into photography and just sends us the leftovers as he is always upgrading). So it is a pretty cheap hobby. So for 2008 I hope to get a little more caught up. I had the most adorable pictures from Christmas and am working on that. I will share some of my layouts when I am done.

3 Responses to “Stormy! & Gas Savings”

  1. db1974 Says:
    1199460343

    We're on the potty training journey also. DS (3 yrs) hasn't worn diapers in about 5 months except at night. Over Christmas break we decided to make the leap to underwear at night. Now I have to get up in the middle of the night to take him to the potty...thought those middle of the night days were behind me. Small price to pay for having to wash sheets everyday. I agree...best to let them take the lead.

  2. reginaastralis Says:
    1199493001

    Something I bought for Juliette was a fold up potty seat, when we're out and about. I had it in the diaper bag, along with a little thing of clorox wipes so I could clean it before putting it back in.

    My daughter doesn'tcare anymore, she wants to sit on the "big girl" potty and she doesn't want me in the bathroom at all. This includes out in public. Talk about scary.

  3. monkeymama Says:
    1199539315

    Oh wow!

    I know my boys throw a fit about going into the girls' room with me. I roll my eyes, but he is almost 5. I am going to have to let go a bit one of these days. But lord knows I will just go into the mens' room if I have to. LOL.

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