Oh they called me back and it is all worked out. It won't kick in until around September, but that is fine because July & August were the only months our metered billing was the same as the flat rate anyway (or could end up being even more - with the extreme heat).

So I think that works out rather well. Can I venture to say I am the FIRST person in Sacramento with metered water? Perhaps. Sounds like it - LOL. I am not sure that is the best way to be. But as long as our bill goes down is all I really care.

Dh got called for a focus group last night. Someone had cancelled - it was for today - but he didn't fit the criteria. Bummer. I honestly have no idea how he gets on all these lists. He's got luck - he is on 2 group's lists now - just one is in another county so unlikely he will ever be able to go - usually they disqualify him since he doesn't live there so I am not sure why they keep calling. For them he does a lot of free phone surveys though. I assumed it was them when he was called to the last focus group, but since found he had gotten on ANOTHER list. One that pays well. & calls often. Lucky bum.

Electric bill for June was $92. Not bad at all. I was worried since dh's family was here for a week while we were gone - that maybe they blasted the air all week - it did get to 100 that week and they are certainly not used to the heat. But then again the thing about back home is there were plenty of 80-90 degree days but no one has a/c back home - not really necessary. On the few hot days you just swelter. But even when the heat is in the 80s it can get rather warm inside. So we set our air at 80 which is very comfortable to us. I find that we can tolerate much more heat inside the house than most people here who are used to cranking the a/c. Just interesting.

Of course my mom is very sensitive to the hear so we set the a/c to 75 for the kids' birthday party. The interesting thing was when I went upstairs our bedroom was 75 too. I thought, "crap" since the thermostat is in there. What happens is the other bedrooms get stifling hot and our bedroom is cooled by the downstairs air. However, I checked the kids room to guage how much I should put the upstairs air on to, and their rooms weren't so bad. I almost wonder if it is better to set the air cooler and cool the entire house with the downstairs system. & forget the upstairs. Then again we rarely turn on the upstairs anyway - just before bed. So probably best as is. I am sure it would cost considerably more to cool the entire house to 75 than keeping both zones at 80. I mean the whole house at 75 meant around 80 in the kids bedroom, still considerably warmer since not near any vents. But the cold air did float up into their rooms when there was a lot of it. Interesting.

Of course July is by far our worst month so who knows. Next month will suck and then our bill will get back to the $50 range...

I was moving so much money for the kids I just put our $450 in savings for the month. I moved $1k from my short-term savings into checking as a cushion. So I don't have to run to the bank when I get my paycheck. I am rather happy about that. Phew. We will probably get $1k for Christmas (around the time I drain our ST savings for insurance and property taxes anyway) and I am thinking of earmarking it for little more than a cushion in the checking account. I was pleased to pay for dh's beloved tv with the extra money we had sitting there but it has been driving me batty since. I guess we can consider it a gift from his parents when they give him the usual Christmas windfall. Which reminds me when he bought it I said he needed to find a way to pay for it. He hasn't been very motivated. But I must admit he has come up with about $200 since. $200 down, $800 to go! His mom's money is fine, but I am hoping to use that for his ROTH going forward so overall I am not pleased. He has a projector to sell for a few hundred dollars and some games. If he can squeeze out a few more focus group sessions too this year I will be happy. I will consider the debt settled.

Oh which reminds me LM is sort of starting preschool. He was going 2 days while dh is on a big hike this month but I was talking to Ms. preschool who still has not had a spot for him (fine for my pocket book) but has some people who come off and on in the summer because their mom is a teacher. So we are going to start taking him Wednesday mornings when she has a spot. Which should work out a lot in the summer. We'll go from there. Once he gets adjusted she always seems to have a Friday spot, but we kind of wanted the kids to be together. Maybe he will enjoy going on his own turf though. HE can start Fridays in the fall if nothing else. Of course it also means much more gas and all that, but at the most it will be a year that we will have 2 in there. So I think we can deal with it.

I can't believe my baby starts kindergarten in a year. That's crazy! In the meantime we may shell out quite a pretty penny between the 2 in preschool but I guess we never really minded the expense so much because it is temporary. It will be tight this year but doable. By next year hopefully he will be out of diapers (which will save us lots of diaper money we can use for preschool) and/or I'll get a raise. We'll suck it up. Once September and school rolls around the money can be diverted to retirement then since we'll only have to pay for 1 in preschool. Then again we may need some of it for school expenses anyway. I guess we'll see...

I think I will do dh's balance transfer today. Step #2 in credit card arbitrage. This one is $10k! I have $10k in a 5.7% CD right now so I am guaranteed that rate of return on the money. It matures when the balance transfer 0% rate expires so works out quite well. Plus I have already earned that rate for a month. I will be glad to pad my accessible cash though now. Wouldn't overall put most my cash in a c.d. otherwise. I am going to see if I can do this transfer straight to my money market. I heard you could so we'll see!