"Productivity" must be in the air. It is definitely a fall thing.

**Counted kids' money today, and BM has a $50 deposit. It is so funny how crammed full his piggy bank was with $1 bills. Mental note: check his piggy bank more often.

For now, BM is the saver (he is like dh: likes his electronics, but hell if he would spend a dime on anything else. Seems totally disinterested in fads. Though, since dh gets so many games and books for free, he is content).

LM is more imaginative and could play with lint all day, but he also likes collecting little characters. He has been the spendy one. That being said, Grandma spoils him a bit, and as spendy as he is, he still had about $40 in his piggy bank. Go figure. (He doesn't get an allowance yet, so BM has much more dough).

**Dh and I discussed no-spend November. Well, I think it will be "low-spend November." We've spent our money for the year, pretty much. (Keep in mind - all our November bills are already paid, etc. Anything in December will mostly be charged, and paid in January).

Today I reconciled all our "savings buckets" accounts - spreadsheets - through the end of the year. In the end, I don't think we will have to touch any other savings (barring Murphy or unforeseen), but on the flip side I am upset that I have no money to add to the efund. Maybe next year!

We will end rather breakeven in short-term savings, and with $0 in the medical savings. $20k-ish in more long-term savings/efund.

I think short term savings needs a $150/month boost. That is where preschool money will divert to, mid-2010.

(Drats - and I forgot to account for possible $1k car repair. Might have to touch savings, after all. Won't beat myself up over it since short-term savings covered $2k body work on the van this year. I'll be lucky to have barely touched our "true savings," otherwise.).

**I've finished most of my goals for the year, but have completely ignored all my "house goals."

Until the month of October anyway.

This weekend I:

*Touched Up Paint
*Trimmed Trees (never done before)
*starting demolition on bathroom repairs.

Last one sounds fancy, but I am mostly just removing grout, old caulk, and cleaning for re-caulking.

The nice thing is I have all the time in the world for bath projects. I have quite a few areas to work on. Our bathroom has not been used for years, and so I will take my time on it. Once it is in working order, we can start work on the other bath. The perk to having 2 full baths. (My bath will be the most tedious - the only one with grout to remove. The reason being that it was falling out all over the place. I got all the easy stuff on Friday, and the rest will be a chore. Just where the tile meets the bottom of the shower. I have read that it should be caulked - where different materials meet - so that is what I will do. I read builders are bad about this detail, but it hasn't affected our other 2 tubs. I am just going to caulk over the other 2 tubs since the grout has held up. Phew!).

The only other frustration this weekend is that the door paint, which we had never opened or used, was all "curdled." We went by the paint store today, but it was closed. Doh! Builder gave us small 1/2 gallons of touch up paint, and wrote down the paint #s. Hopefully it will be easy to replace (though I am not terribly sure that it's the right paint to begin with?).

So all I was able to touch up was the walls, but they do look like a million bucks.

In the end, might have to pick a new color for 2 doors, and completely repaint them. Worst case, anyway.

Anyway, I was starting to think I might not hit any house goals this year. No idea where this motivation has come from, but I will take it!

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Enjoy it while you can. I don't plan to make "house repair" a hobby. I have actually been a pretty terrible procrastinator on this. Like, I rather not use the shower, than fix it!

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Dh earned his keep. He did minor garage door repair, changed air filters, and promised to repair a hole in the wall (from doorknob - pesky kids loosened the door stopper). Him and the kids helped me with the trees, too. Dh did the grunt work.

Oh yeah - I figured I'd attempt to remove our small, dead tree. It seemed wobbly, so I gave it a good kick. Well, that was all it needed! Dh ended up having to saw it up into smaller pieces. It was just too dry/brittle. But I was able to get all the live tree branches trimmed. Borrowed saw came in handy!

I also drug dh along on a home repair shopping trip. Though I ended up buying most of it online (cheaper).

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One thing to add: I puzzled over our grocery bill this month, since it was quite high, for 2 months in a row. & um, family was gone for ONE WEEK? I thought this month would even out since dh had stocked up on so much before their trip in October. (To be fair - I gave a fair amount of food away because dh cooked more like for 2-3, than for one).

Anyway, I swear the kids have asked for a snack about 100 times today!!!!! I think I can see the culprits! They usually do not eat light in the least, but I think keeping them well fed will be challenging for a while. They get this way with growth spurts. I can not imagine what it will be like to have 2 teenaged boys!!! With their metabolisms? Oy vey!! Glad I have time to save up for that - may need a second income. Or a Costco membership.