$20 challenge:

$7,875.32 - Balance 6/30

$ 55.00 - June writing money
$ 100.00 - Price match on PS3
$ 50.00 - Gift card - last credit card reward for a while...


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$8,080.32 - Balance 7/12
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I just remembered I had some stuff to update and while I was at it I also remembered dh's score with the price match. Which brings me up past $8k...

I mentioned earlier I would probably need so much overtime to get to $10k... I don't remember how much. But I am definitely working overtime this month. Trying to pull in 10 hours/week OT which would be around $700 take home for the month if I could pull it off. I am not sure I have really been working any overtime lately but July is a deadline month and I have little choice. I worked an hour on the laptop last night over dinner on some more mindless stuff and have more for tonight. A client meeting tomorrow night and I may only have to work a few hours Saturday to make it to 10 hours for this week. We'll see...

I also haven't written much if anything this month because I feel SO swamped though I have 10 articles floating in my head. Plenty of ideas but still a bit of writers' block. I think mostly stressed and trying to find a decent chunk of time to write a proper article. I am hoping once we get past July things will settle down. At least August is a rather quiet month - hopefully plenty of time for catch up. I should probably buckle down and do the overtime then too. Maybe I could take some time off in September. October is busy and November is slow and I am taking around 8 days off as is. December is CRAZED. I probably should just buck up, work hard, and take a week vacation in September or something. I had wanted to spread out my vacation time and work a reduced schedule in the summer. But summer is half way over and I have to work overtime instead. I can work hard knowing I will have a week off in September and a week of in November. Sweet! Well, we'll see...

I'll probably also received $30 next week or so for mileage reimbursement. I have been traveling a bit... Will help...

I still have a pile for ebay and Craigslist - just haven't had much time.

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!

LOL. I just posted in my last post how we can switch to metered water and it will save us around $140/year - washing diapers and all.

So I called and the lady who answered said I was the first to call for the switch. Lucky me!

She had no idea what to do and asked for my address. She read off some phone # which was not mine in the least. I tried to verify if she really had the right address/account but I wasn't getting anywhere with her. Sounded like an elderly lady and she was really flurstered. I told her there was a flyer in my bill to call the # to change now and I can't imagine I will be the only one to call! Might want to get a little more prepared.

But anyway, she took my phone # and said she'll get back to me if she needs more info. She'll figure it out. As for me I am still not convinced she got the right house. LOL. What a surprise for someone else? LOL.

I'll call back next week and try again if I don't hear anything. She said we would be eligible 7/17 so no hurry I guess. I'll give them a few days to work out the kinks.

In other news, when we met with our estate lawyer she told us why we don't put bank accounts and cars and stuff like that in the names of trusts. It is something to keep private that you have a family trust, otherwise people smell money. But we put the house in the trust, as is common. So of course our utility bill this month comes to "_____ Family Trust." OMG! I will ask if they can change at least our mailing address to just say our names. Yeesh. They recorded the new title on the deed quite a few months back but for some reason they changed out city utility bill this month. Weird.

Well, I think I got all the bills paid for the month (or set up to pay anyway) except for the gardener who hasn't billed us yet.

I got the gas bill which was a whopping $16 & also the water/garbage bill which is flat but went up 29 cents per month with the new budget I guess. I think we'll be okay.

Now that I think about it, I didn't get the electric bill yet. Soon enough. Won't be pretty for June...

Anyway, back to the water bill, I have probably said this 10 times already but they bill a flat rate. So for the year I lived here alone I was certainly overcharged. For the year dh and I lived here alone we were certainly overcharged. It figures they are switching to metered water now that we have 4 people here and use a lot more water.

But the good news is I just got a notice they are switching to metered water 2010 but we can switch NOW if we like. They have been adding to our bill what the water portion would be with meter readings every 2 months and 90% of the time it seems the meter charge is less. PLUS knowing we can control our costs I am sure we can work on getting it down. So I think we will switch. I will look back and double check. On our current bill they would have billed us $40 for 2 MONTHS of water. As is they billed us $30 for 1 month at the flat rate. The savings looks like it will be on average $10/month. Not bad!!!!!

I'll double check our prior bills. I am not sure I noticed they were only doing the metered water in 2-month increments so it could save a lot more money than I realized. The 2 months is usually less than our 1-month bill. I am most definitely switching over ASAP.

The downside here is the ridiculous requirement for green lawns in the 100-degree summers. I think we will change the backyard to more dessert landscaping one of these days which will help. All of our appliances are really water saving (low-flow toilets, water conservative washers, etc.) so we have quite an advantage. I question how they have billed these newer houses all along. Of course there are a bunch of retirees living on our street in 2800-sf homes so no doubt their bills will lower considerably as they probably don't use near as much water as families like ours. We still wash diaper covers every day. Moving past diapers will save us a lot of money! But even beyond that we don't bathe every day or shower every single day. I think all of this stuff is to our advantage. Though if they find they aren't getting the revenues they will certainly raise rates. I guess it could be a gamble. But overall I am not surprised the meter will cost less. We grew up in drought country. It's just natural for us to be on the conservative side with water. We grew up not being able to shower every day. It isn't as bad as it sounds - I swear - LOL.

ETA: I did check and we would be saving on average $15/month (50% decrease) 8 months of the year. Save $10/month in May & June (gets hotter) and save $0 in July & August (no doubt all the lawn watering). So all in all we should save around $140/year on water!

The best is once we get the baby out of diapers we should be able to bring it down (& give the clothes washer a break!). Between that and the diapers and diaper service, well I hope it is sooner rather than later. We really haven't had the motivation to keep our water use down so maybe we can find more ways with extra motivation. Man I have been griping about how expensive water is here. No wonder. We still pay like $50/month for sewer or whatever. Geez. But I am very happy to no longer be penalzied on water just because we have a bigger house. Coming from drought country I was just shocked they did not meter water here. Just foreign to me.

Hey, in other news dh's car just rolled to 70k miles. The baby is about 7 years old so has averaged 10k miles per year. We've had it 5 years and got it with 15k miles. The first 6 months he was commuting to San Jose for work with it so probably put on some decent miles. Since then it hasn't got much daily driving but we tend to use it for road trips since it can get 35 mpg. The thing is still one of our newest cars ever at this point. It's a baby. I am not sure if it has ever really had much in repairs. We've gone years without spending a dime on it outside of oil changes.

The van is going to hit 50k by the end of the year. We've only had it a year (put 15k on it). It will be ironic if dh's car lasts longer. IT costs 1/2 as much as the van and so far I would say it is more reliable to boot. The van stands a chance though because dh is better about letting me use his car with gas prices lately. His car has been getting used a lot more lately...

Today dh saw that they lowered the price on the PS3s, today I believe, by $100. He grabbed his receipt only to find out that the expiration on returns for his PS3 was YESTERDAY!

Anwyay, he told me today that he was going to go demand a price match or return. I wasn't very optimistic. "Good Luck," I thought. But he just called me and he said he got a $107 gift card (includes tax) for the difference. He said he was polite but insistent and they obliged. He will put in a good word for the lady who helped him. He said if it hadn't of worked he would have tried another Target later. But score one for Target customer service. It was nice they were willing to bend as he was only 1 day late. Woohoo.

Since we already have a $50 gift card in the mail (to arrive soon from credit card rewards) and kids' party is done, we decided we most likely will save it for kids clothes in the fall. They seem pretty set in every other way shape or form and nothing else I can think of we need. We have the $50 g.c. for sale items like laundry detergent, in the meantime.

Then again with $150 coming to us maybe it is time to revisit the purchase of a GPS. Something to think about. Though there is no hurry on that. We have been wanting to do some geocacheing, but I think it will be another year before LM is up to some of the hikes we want to do. Then again if we could get a decent GPS practically for free, we can start looking for some of the local cahces... Hmmmm..

I had been meaning to and so I just ransacked my closet and tossed 51 items. Not bad. I think I still have more than I purged. I have to admit I left quite a bit of nice clothes that no longer fit "just in case I lose weight." Which is reasonable, especially with so much more room. Plenty of room to store it - our closet is the size of a small bedroom. Don't even ask - wasn't exactly my choice.

But I don't think I have ever done such a purge before. There was stuff in there that is a decade old from college and stuff. I did go through a while back and did the "I will never be a size 6 again" purge. Getting rid of everything size 0-6 or 8. I was such a waif in college and high school that I don't expect it is physically possible to be that small again, nor would I want to be. SO I finally thought what the heck am I doing with this stuff? My ideal wight is more a size 10 or 12 so I kept those and would be nice if I do lose the weight that I intend to but haven't really worked at yet.

So dh has a couple of bags to take to Goodwill full of clothes and toys. Phew. Feels good to purge!!!!!

I think I will have to institute a rule that next time I buy more clothes I have to purge as much as I buy. There was plenty of stuff I Was on the fence about and that would be a good way to handle those.

Most of the stuff I tossed was of horrible quality. I am a better shopper now and expect to still be wearing a lot of these clothes for a long time.

In regards to the thread of what would you do if you became a millionaire, I asked dh and he said, "I'd invest it." That's what I figured, but I double checked. I don't think there would be much fighting here, but I did wonder if I Assumed too much. He did ask if we could get HBO back if that was the case. I guess he could have his precious HBO. I was surprised he didn't ask for a new TV. LOL. Actually he said he would maybe want to buy a Prius and upgrade his electronic equipment, but for the most part he has everything he needs and he would rather invest it towards our mutual goal of working LESS. It's good to think you know how your spouse would respond but good to ask. I guess overall I agree. sure maybe we would splurge a very small portion, but overall it wouldn't affect our lifestyle. The funny thing is I said if I had $1 Mil to invest I would probably cut back my hours at work because I would no longer need to save for retirement - it would be well covered if invested well. Dh actually got a little annoyed with that answer - we would still need x and y and z. Yes I said, but I intend to save for x and y and regardless, but why work for retirement if it is covered? It is almost the #1 thing we work for these days! IF we don't need it, why bother. I think sometimes he gets annoyed with my work ethic. He obviously is not as supportive as my goal to work part-time as I imagined. I said if he wanted to work full-time it was just dandy with me, but wasn't on my list of things to do long-term if we had a $1 Mil windfall. I told him I hope he knew if I got a $20k raise tomorrow I would cut back my hours. I am not sure why he would be surprised/annoyed. He says he intends to return to work someday and we have his entire income to tap for extras and investing. So interestingly I knew how he would answer and I was correct, but I was taken aback how annoyed he is about my goal to work less. The thing is I could probably make twice as much as him working part-time within the decade so I don't really care what he thinks. I made clear I Wasn't talking about cutting back my hours anytime soon. But if we could live this lifestyle on a part-time income, which would be a cinch if I no longer needed to save for retirement - LOL - then well I Would be up for working less. I think he just imagines I would jump the gun or be careless in my career which isn't the case at all. A silly argument since the $1 Mil will likely never materialize. Not in our youth anyway...

Well it was fun while it lasted...

We bought our home for about $295k when all was said and done, in 2001.

It appreciated quite rapidly and hit the $650k mark in 2005. Dh and I made a deal around then that if our house hit $750k we would move. $795k would be TOPS because we could sell and take out $500k profit tax free and go semi-retire in Oregon or something. Doesn't really matter where because such a windfall so young would be pretty sweet.

But of course we don't expect to get there anytime soon, but we see it as possible in our future.

Sure the market has stunk but we had our house on the market briefly last year and nothing in our neighborhood had sold for less than $600k. We would have sold for much less if any offers came in, but we were in a hurry (were trying to get into a specific house - make a lateral move) and we ran out of time in 2 weeks when they found other buyers. So we only had our house on the market 2 weeks with a few crazy $450k offers. We would have taken $499k to sell fast. In the meantime the other houses that were on the market with ours - the sellers were patient and they all got $600k+. I was absolutely amazed. I guess you start to feel a false sense of appreciation. & believe me our neighbors were NOT happy we low-balled our house. You hear about frustrated first-time buyers complain about the greedy sellers, but try selling your house for $50k less than other houses are selling for. IT would have been a $250k profit in just 5 years, sure, but the neighbors were ready to lynch us and the realtors were harassing us. They had worked so hard to keep these insane housing prices in the neighborhood, god forbid someone actually wants to make a fast sale and settle for a more reasonable price. Which is why we gave up on the whole move thing - we got so sick of looking at crappy homes in the $600k range - very unrealistic - people unwilling to admit the tides had turned.

So anyway, our neighbors just moved and had mentioned to dh they did not do well at all. But they had to sell fast and get out due to medical reasons. They sold within the month. The house is a bit bigger and nicer than ours. IT's frankly gorgeous. But I just opened the paper and they sold it for $490k! I was shocked!!!! Whoa! I told dh the realtors around here were going to flip out!

As for us, not much to complain about. We could still sell and move and plop $200k in the bank easy. We still have options. But dreams of independent wealth are slipping fast. We haven't had many foreclosures in our neighborhood, but you know that there will be more with time. IT feels like this is only the beginning.

Well it was fun while it lasted!

You would not believe how many people around here would freak out about our equity. Why don't we spend it all, or aren't we rich, blahblahblah. I am just like, "here today, gone tomorrow..." But it has been here so long I guess we were getting a little used to it. I am not sure if our house has been worth so little since 2003 or so. But all the same we didn't make grand plans our lessen our retirement contributions because of it. We lost $100k equity overnight while our last home was on the market so live and learn... It put things in perspective for us here as our equity grew even more rapidly than our first home.

I honestly don't expect our house to fall below $400k like ever. But I guess you never know... Well, I should qualify that as long as the Bay Area is still going strong, I don't expect much further of a fall overall. Of course I have no idea why the Bay Area is still going so strong - it is really the land of ARMs. The truth is really that anything can happen. But as I said a million times, I really didn't care how low our house got because we bought something WELL within our price range. I remember when we bought some relatives here thought we were insane and we were just like, you can't even buy a real house back home for $300k so we were happy to grab up a nice house for the price. We didn't buy to get rich, has just been a side benefit seeing all the equity. Honestly we just bought because it was dirt cheap form our perspective. & with a 50% raise from my job since it is just that much cheaper in our minds.

On the plus side we kind of like lower values. We have been wanting to make a lateral move, but the property taxes would be insane moving from a house valued at $300k to one valued $600k+. So as things settle it makes it easier on us. IT is also much easier to sell a $450k house than a $600k house. Finally, I am happy if things settle down maybe our kids won't be completely priced out of the state. When you have some decent equity, ever-rising prices is not necessarily the best thing. Our house would have to fall to the $200k range for us to be upside down. So falling prices isn't exactly keeping us up at night.

As for us we have a big adjustment to our net worth schedule. I valued our house at $550k which I felt was quite conservative. apparently it isn't any more. I seriously wonder if $450k is too much now. Kind of a bummer, but I can see the bright side. Maybe my kids will be able to live here into adulthood after all...

Well the realtors around here are going to have to work hard to get back to our neighborhood's over-inflated values. It will be interesting to keep an eye on sales prices. I think buyers are waking up though...

You know we ALWAYS get compliments that our parties are relaxing. Dh and I tend to be pretty low key and I cringe at some of the lengths people go to for parties around here. It's like a competition. If they enjoy being Martha Stewart (& then some) good for them, but it feels like a Joneses thing.

As for us, we don't play the game and we always have the best parties anyway. LOL. Anyway, yesterday was a smashing success. A wonderful party, most people stayed for 5 hours which is insane for a kid party. I was ready for a nap. I was pleased because I didn't really do much to prepare. I think it made it extra low-key and people could sense it.

All our ice cream pies/cakes came out DIVINE. I will post the recipes. Everyone seriously thought we had slaved over it all though. I laughed at that - it was really pretty easy. But it was an experiment so I am glad it came out so good. Most of it is gone.

My bacon pinwheels were also an experiment that went well. I made 4 dozen and they were all gone by the end of the party, with many recipe requests.

The meatballs were a bit of a bust. They were certainly good, but dh and I agreed they were a little too ketchup-y. I have a couple of other recipes to try though - for next time.

We went through all the food except had 1 full pizza left. Over-ordered. But I am pleased most of the appetizers and dessert went. We'll have plenty of leftovers all the same. Fine with us.

The part that was frustrating was the kids got WAY too many gifts. We asked for none, they got too many. Gah. The only people who didn't give them gifts were my mom. Grandma gave them the cash and a pile of books. I am impressed with her resistance, but she did by them 100 toys and outfits when she babysat them for our cruise. Probably why. I still get the impression they got a little less than they would have otherwise. I mostly disappointed our neighbor who had a "no gift" party before bought a gift. We figured if nothing else she would understand. Then you wonder if she meant no gifts, because we certainly took it to heart. I don't like the games people call etiquette. Where people think you don't really mean it or it wouldn't be polite. But oh well.

They got a pile of books, some cash, video game, Mr. Potato Head, Toy Story 2 DVD, some large stuffed animals (dh's pet peeve - LOL - was all he would let me purge earlier was the stuffed animals but now we got MORE!). Oh and some walkie-talkies and some travel games from SIL for their Florida trip. They made out quite well! Dh and I gave them a toy tent with a periscope. It is really cool, we just gave it to the kids in the morning since it was a joint gift. They LOVE it.

At the party LM blew out his candles in one blow. I was SO impressed. I expected he would need some help. Actually he was impatient to wait through the Happy Birthday song and wanted to blow them out sooner!

We went to a joint party where they had 2 cakes and sang twice. I think if I had to do it over I would do that. At the time I thought it was a bit much. But I think though they shared their party they probably both deserve their own time to be recognized. We had 2 cakes, but I will have to remember that next year. It is really more fair to sing happy birthday twice so they both get a turn at all the attention. Mostly I realized I was so preoccupied with LM that I didn't really get to see that BM blew his candles out well too - he was very proud.

Today we don't have much planned. Recovery. I want to take a nap. A mark of a good weekend is if I have time for a nap. LOL. I am one of those people who is wide awake at 5am every day, but then have to nap in the afternoon. But rarely get to.

Tomorrow is back to reality. *sigh* But this was in a way a much nicer vacation than the cruise even. It is nice just to be home and enjoy time with the kids.

Tomorrow is crazy. Work/preschool than take BM to karate. Luckily it is at a cool park. It is LM's birthday. We figured we would meet at the park and let the kids play and go out for a late dinner. Will probably give him his gifts in the morning so he can play with them all day, and also because it will be such a hectic evening.

I absolutely dread work. I got NOTHING done last Monday & Tuesday because so many clients were having computer issues and I was put on IT duty. I will be doing IT duty Monday - probably going out to 2 clients to install stuff. On most days I would welcome the change in pace/schedule. It is more interesting to get out of the office and meet new faces. BUT considering how behind I am on everything I am not pleased. & July 31 is a big deadline that looms. I'll probably just work weekends until things get more under control. I have been stressed and dh asked if I would do better working at home. I said hell no - been there done that - don't like working from home in the least. But after Monday & Tuesday... He has a point. If I don't have to be the go-to gal for EVERYTHING I might actually get more work done at home. I have to at least pick 1 day a week where I lock myself in the office and don't answer the phone. Pretend like I am not there. It may be possible to juggle work and everything else, but I haven't figured it out yet. Historically I always work on long-term projects and I can get through them quite fast and effectively. But since I have become the jack of all trades in the office I find I get little done. I think it is more of a function of a more managerial role. I am working on delegating more work out which really is the only solution. But I don't enjoy any of this nearly as much. I rather work for weeks on 1 project - just what I am used to.

Well I got fat checks for the kids today so I popped on my online Vanguard account and set up their UGMA/UTMA accounts. Very fast and easy. Woohoo.

I had some money in my bank to spare so just took care of it. Was eager. I set up auto investments so $50 is going to each account every other month.

They may get a few more dollars before the end of the month as neither of them have had their birthday yet. 2 birthdays next week. I'll just hoard it up and deposit the rest (if any) at the end of the month.

The kids' net worth is now about $6k. Most of it is in a 529 plan. I am jealous. LOL. If they don't spend a lot on college, like we didn't, they are going to have a nice nest egg when they get out in the real world. That's the part I am little jealous of.

It is funny I read that MSN article on a bunch of financial tips (someone mentioned here) and one of them said yeah, take care of yourself first (retirement first), but investing a mere $25/month for college now can make a huge difference. I missed that one the first time but I must have taken it in subconsciously because it was around the time I read that article I figured I could budget $25/month/kid.

I don't really plan to do much more in the near future. Between this and the 529 (& all their gifts) I don't plan to put any more money in their name or in a 529. When our IRAs/401ks are maxed we'll working on building our taxable accounts and/or paying off the mortgage. A paid off mortgage is worth $15k/year which will go a long way for college if need be. I don't want to over-save in the kids' name. I want them to appreciate that they aren't going to get everything handed to them in life. If the rest is in our name we can spend at our discretion - college, help them buy a house out here, or just leave them to their own devices and retire early. That doesn't sound so bad...

No - Not HERE!!!

I called my mom yesterday and mentioned our 108-degree day and she topped it. I guess it was 118 in Vegas (my BIL is there for military training and my cousin is getting married there tomorrow). 118!!!

Well, she blew the wind out of my sails. I didn't go outside yesterday myself, but I just have to remind myself thank goodness it is not THAT hot here. I have been there when it was Hotter than Hades. But I am not sure about 118. Can you even go outside in that weather? Blech!

As for here, they predict 96 today. Not horrid anyway.

YEsterday we went through the kids' toys and it is like pulling teeth to get dh to get rid of ANYTHING. For one, the pile of the alphabet toys no one plays with but that we must keep until LM learns the alphabet. The thing is BM LOVED the alphabet and practically taught himself to read when he was 2. LM, not so in love with the alphabet! But we have to keep all these toys "just in case." Of course my pet peeve is the pile and piles of McDonalds Toys. & after yesterday my pet peeve is all the STUPID toys dh won't part with because the kids love them. Fine, the kids love them, but do they need them ALL? To his credit he honestly knows every toy in the house and where they are. I found all sorts of crap in the cupboards and when I threw something in the pile saying, "You didn't even know we had this or where it was," he proved me wrong. Just because I didn't know didn't mean he didn't know. I think it is extra frustrating to me though because I only see the kids play with a handful of toys. Dh swears they play with the rest on occasion. Whatever...

I will revisit a couple of things. He wouldn't let me throw out a box of old animal markers because some of them work and the kids ask for them. I thought later I Can at least throw away the ones that don't work!! & the worst fight was over crayons. Dh would not let me give away one crayon though somehow we have 100 boxes or something. LOL. I don't know, all the little boxes of crayons from the restaurants and happy meals, and just piles and piles of art supplies I have never seen used. I will approach dh again on the other new markers - if they are not being used they may dry out. The kids mostly use crayons at this age. & frankly I should just go over his head on the crayons - not like anyone would notice. Not like there would be a great shortage! Those strike me because I have a giant box myself from then I Was a kid. So I think more than 1 or 2 boxes is a bit much. We didn't buy ANY of this stuff. I swear every time we see grandma she has a box of crayons. Next time we'll just have to say no thank you please - we have enough.

We ended up getting rid of about 1/2 large garbage bag of stuff. Maybe a bit more. I think all we could really agree on was the stuff other people bought and a few baby things. LOL. I cleared some of the old bottles out of the cabinet as well so we had more room for all the play-dough in there.

I have to say when all was said and done, it was nice to purge what little we did. The kids have plenty but unlike most of their friends they don't have toys floor to ceiling when you walk in the house. & we certainly purged more toys than they will received today. SO phew! Not as much as I would have liked, but at least the toys are still within reason. I think I will have to institute a rule with dh, and the kids, that a new toy means giving up an old toy. Going forward it is really the only way to go to keep it under control.

In other news, I don't know if it is because I am being a little more frugal minded or what but I keep finding I don't have to buy much this year because in many instances for one-time things I already have what I need. Weird. When we went on vacation I found a stash of travel-size shampoo and and all that stuff from last year so didn't have to spend a dime on that stuff. Yesterday we were getting ready for the party but no need to buy utensils or paper plates or plastic cups - got it all. IT seemed like I had another example recently and it struck me as bizarre that I have all this stuff covered. well sounds good to me!

I did not go out in the heat yesterday but dh ran to the grocery store. Today I will go to the party store and get some balloons for the kids. Just our tradition, they love it.

I swear I have never thrown together such a last minute party, but it's not do bad. We came up with the menu yesterday and the house isn't even entirely clean yet. Kitchen is a mess but I figure I'll clean it after I am done with the morning cooking. Just taking it easy.

I am experimenting with 2 recipes today too. Something I usually wouldn't do, but what the heck. Some bacon pinwheel recipe thing (bacon, cream cheese, seasonings, rolled up in a crescent roll - bake and chop into smaller pieces). I am also trying a meatball recipe in the crockpot.
Both form our cooking mags.

Dh and I both attempted one ice-cream pie and they look divine. One is mostly cherries and vanilla ice cream & mine is vanilla & chocolate & peanutbutter cups & m&ms for the kids. HE also attempted the ice cream cake. I was wary but so far it was almost the easiest to make. Well they were ALL easy. We'll see how they go over.

On top of that ordering some pizza. & fruits and veggie trays, and some chips and salsa (which we always have a ton of laying around anyway). I have been lazy and gotten veggie trays in the past but I asked dh just to get some ranch dressing and some veggies. we can chop them. why have we been so dang lazy lately? LOL. I have these cute plastic trays with a little "bowl" in the middle for dipping sauce I got at target for a couple of bucks WAY back. The funny thing is everyone always raves about how cute they are. To me it's like, cheap plastic, but does the job. Oh yes and for fruit I have some recipe where you mix together sour cream and brown sugar - for a fruit dip. Everyone always raves about it - is a must - but couldn't really get any easier.

For ice we have been taking ice out of the freezer and storing it in bags so we have enough to fill the cooler without buying ice. We just started yesterday but looks like we'll have plenty with the ice trays too. Well the ice maker started working just in time. It would have been a lot more work the other way, but very doable and would do it to save a few bucks regardless. just emptying ice trays for a few days.

& so it goes. MIL was all amazed when dh said we are having 20 people over. I am like, well it is mostly YOUR family and not everyone could come. LOL. I just found that funny because we can't have a get-together without at least 20 people with dh's big family. Not exactly shocking. I think we are expecting 13 adults and 5 kids so overall it will be one of our smaller crowds. & that includes us 4 actually so not so bad,.

Anyway, for whatever reason dh was VERY helpful yesterday getting things ready. I guess not having the kids could be a big reason why. IT is hard to work together when someone is caring for/keeping an eye on the kids. I appreciate not having to do everything myself. Phew!

I hope the party goes well. I will let you know how much crap the kids get. We asked for no gifts but I heard the kids are getting walkie-talkies and a video game. We'll see. We asked for no gifts a couple of years back and it was quite manageable. & then last year they just got PILES so I like this way better. Dh got them a little tent with a periscope (CUTE) that he set up as a surprise for when they get up. We have a few things but will wait for their actual birthdays, which are coming up very soon! But anyway, if they go NO gifts I would be happy.

Oh yes and my mom always respects that the kids have too much crap so she is giving me cash for food. She told me yesterday she would bring $5 for food, as a joke (she'll give me $20 or $40). I said, "sounds good to me!" I mean seriously, would I turn down $5? When I said no gifts it meant I don't expect aNYTHING. She told me I have a great attitude. Well of course. But regardless $5 or $40, I'll be happy to accept some cash.

Yesterday was marvelous. I guess I have been missing a lot of the down time I had grown accustomed to. The last couple of days have just been grand.

Anyway, I was impressed when we got home last night and it was only 85 in the house (downstairs where the air hadn't been on). I figured maybe it hadn't gotten so bad, there was a bit of a cool breeze when we got home at 11pm. I thought differently when I woke up in a sweat and it was up to 85 inside (we had whimped out and turned the air to 80 right before bed - usually do this anyway and keeps cool overnight - turn it off once it gets to 80). So I woke up earlier than I intended to, sweltering.

Dh got up a bit ago and grabbed the paper. I guess it was 108 degrees yesterday! A record-breaker! Blech! Obviously we made a very smart choice to get the hell out and not come back until late at night. LOL. But unfortunately they have revised the forecast to 100+ degrees the rest of the week. Double blech.

Anyway, I share because the insulation and energy efficient measures in these houses still amaze me. That the house could stay at 85 while it was 108 outside! not bad. It is days and days on end of heat that it starts to get hot inside. But if we have cooler nights it just self regulates.

Oh well, frankly we are lucky we went this long without this kind of weather. It can be this way from May - September sometimes. Endless 90-100+-degree weather. It is still just a shock to my system since I grew up where the weather rarely varies between 60-80. I feel entitled to good weather because of it - LOL. But we have all the waterways and night cool breezes. Of course it usually doesn't get up to 108 until days of 100-degree weather and no breeze. So rather bizarre. The next week will be pretty unbearable. Thank goodness for a/c!

As for us, we had a great time. Got a bit of a late start and got to the Redwood Forest around noon. IT was CROWDED!!!!!! I guess a bad week to go. admission for us adults was $6. IT seemed pretty on the honor system though. Who knows if anyone checks or cares if you pay. But we did regardless. We ate at their pricey cafe and headed on a nice hike. The kids did spectactular. LM tripped and fell a few times so he is obviously not up to the big hikes yet. A lot of the road was paved and he did fine. But I think he needs another year (or 2) of walking to do any significant hikes with us. BM as usual was fine. HE could probably outpace us with all that energy - I am sure he could do an all-day hike if we wanted to.

After our hike we drove to GRandma's. We were able to avoid the tolls on the way to the forest, but had to take the Golden Gate Bridge down ($5 toll). I REALLY regret not having my camera in the car with me (had put it in the trunk). To us the Golden Gate Bridge is, eh, seen it a million times. But yesterday it was absolutely GORGEOUS. The fog was rolling by and it just looked mystical peeking out from the fog. We saw the city in the distance shrouded in fog as well. We rolled down the windows and enjoyed the COLD air as we waited to cross the bridge, thinking of all those suckers back in Sacramento yesterday - LOL.

There was absolutely no traffic so made it to Grandma's within the hour where the kids went swimming with their cousin. We got out really late but had a good time. GrandDad BBQed and we ate well! (Now I remember why our grocery bill was so low - we have been eating so good on our parents' dime).

Oh well, I have a million things to do today. Grandma is keeping the kids until 4-5 so I guess we best get to it.

With the heat I had an idea for ice-cream cake for the kids. Maybe splurge. I got the idea as we walked by DQ. Went in and didn't have a cake under $30 - yikes. I told dh I knew I had gotten cheap ice cream cakes before - we should try Baskin Robins. But he remembered an ice-cream pie recipe he had - was premade crust covered in hard chocolate (magic shell) then fill with ice cream and top with toppings. Looked so easy and DIVINE! We are going to do that... I am looking online for a simple recipe - something a little more kid friendly. I even found carrot ice-cream pie. LOL. Eeeew - I didn't even look at it - how weird is that. I don't wanna know - hehe.

He is onboard with my frugal pizza plan too. Two premade pizzas from the grocery store ($5/each) and order a couple from Round Table. The pizzas are on par but since we only have 1 oven I haven't really figured out how to bake 4, and I didn't want to cook all day. I think it is a good compromise. I'll take either pizza - they are both just our FAVORITES so it is not like the cheap pizza will be lesser and some people will feel gyped. LOL.

But I have some pics to share:

A hike we did by my folk's house. A little hilly park with trails where I used to ride my bike a lot as a kid. We did this as an easy/experimental hike and LM had a freakout that day. (May?)



But there was this lone house on the hill that struck me. I think I could go for that when I save my first millions of dollars. Just looked so peaceful.



& found some baby birdies by the pool:



& from yesterday... I didn't get a lot of great shots of the forest, but the kids were cute:

I already wrapped up June before, but I always have to wait for the final credit card statement to make sure nothing got missed and where we stand...

Was a very good month income-wise.

Received some cash to spend on our cruise, and had a good interest month. Also received $250 in credit card rewards and $200 in other money from freelance work. Dh also received $75 for his focus group. Seriously, a few months like that, and it is not so far-fetched we could come up with his IRA contribution as well next year. IT certainly adds up! Doesn't even include the $60 we spent in free gift cards (more credit card rewards).

(Oh yeah - and the $15 we found on the ground we deposited in the bank as well!)

As far as expenses, I treated myself to some clothes, a big chunk which I have yet to return.

Gas was $350 but with the state farm insurance rebate to offset it our auto expenses, net, were $300 or right on budget - woohoo.

Diapers - I paid 2 months on the service so bigger than usual. A good choice since otherwise it was mostly a low-expense month.

Gifts - Fathers Day & Kids' birthday stuff too. Portion of one FDay gift was reimbursed cash from other family. Sometimes I report those as income in Quicken but I don't think I did in this case. So was not all our own cash outlay at least. But June can tend to be a pricey month as we prepare for the kids' birthday. We didn't do much this year, in contrast.

Groceries came in at $375, or $125 under budget. Granted we were gone for 5 days and granmda probably stocked up on some food for us while we were gone. BUT we only ate out once (ordered pizza) all month. All in all I have to say we had a stellar grocery month. Usually the times we don't eat out at all our grocery budget reflects it a bit. Instead it was $50-$75 lower than I expected it to be and the only reason dh has to run to the store today or tomorrow is for party stuff - we have plenty of food! How bizarre! I hope this keeps up!

Medical - just our insurance premiums. Probably a first for the year.

Misc. was a trip to the zoo, a toy ball, and a few used books for the kids. A meager misc. month since I usually budget more like $150 just for extras/unexpected, and usually we splurge it at the end of the month if nothing else comes up. But with our cruise we took the attitude no other splurging all month. Zoo was last minute and spontaneous, but cheap enough to keep us well under budget.

All of our utilities are fixed (& yes expensive - water/sewer is insane around here, etc.) But gas/electric is only $75 of it. Not a bad month at all. May can often get up to the 100s but it was quite mild so we only had a $50 electric bill. phew. We'll pay June's bill in July. Bracing myself for that one. We've hardly run the air or heat since February. Until now!

Well, that sums up June. With the cruise (compounded by last month's very unexpected car expense) we did not have money to save for June. But since we got a rebate on the insurance and significantly reduced premiums on dh's car I pulled money out of short-term savings and put it into long-term savings. When I get my auto insurance in the next month or 2 I will have to evaluate if I can pull out more or if I pulled 2 much. I assumed my premiums would go down $200 for the year... Which so far looks reasonable/low-ball.

In Conclusion, June was a GREAT month because:

1 - We found lots of sources of extra income
2 - NOTHING "unexpected" came up
3 - We splurged so much on our cruise we kept it very low key otherwise for the month

If every month looked like this I could max out both our IRAs easy peasy. But well, usually life happens! & we generally don't find so much side income in 1 month either. Though we could certainly work on it...

Well, I am annoyed with dh for suckering me into the Rat movie yesterday. Sure, it was cute, but he knew it was a 2 HOUR MOVIE!!!!! I just do not know what the hell he was thinking. & now that I think about it next time it is his turn to take out the squirmy/screamy child. The only other time we took both kids to a movie was last year (Cars?). But when LM freaked out I was the one who left the movie. Though granted I didn't miss a ton, our plan was that he would sleep through it and I had to take him for a walk to get him to go to sleep mid-movie. But at least I saw the end. Anyway, yesterday I was very impressed how he did and figured he might sit through the whole movie. About an hour into it was his limit. He wanted to walk around. Every time I threatened to walk out he screamed, "no! I watch rat movie!" But since he clearly did not want to watch it we finally left. HE argued and tried to turn back a few times, but the lure of going to the pet store was enough for him to forget the rat movie soon enough. I said, "Let's go see the real rats!" It was 100 degrees outside and it was quite a walk across the parking lot to Wal-Mart & the pet store. We went in and looked at pets forever and had fun. Mostly fish, but lizards, birds, rodents, and cats too. Plus many dogs with their owners. I noticed the staff ignored us. I think we are clearly in the "kid couldn't sit through the movie" category. We are obviously not the only ones who use the pet store as free entertainment. LOL.

After about 45 minutes I was wondering what in the heck was going on so I called dh and I could clearly hear the movie when he answered. OMG. How long is the movie??? He tells me about 2 hours. I am just flabbergasted. Did he really think LM would sit through a 2-hour movie???? Gah. I assume it was a little thing. Of course now if I think back I thought Cars was ridiculously long as well.

Still waiting, we headed to Wal-Mart and looked at toys.

Finally found the fam and picked up MIL's cheap crappy pictures from Wal-Mart. She paid like $5 and I am not even sure it was worth that. LOL. People out here have an obsession with professional pics. I find with our equipment we can produce as good quality, certainly better than Wal-Marts so I don't bother. But MIL gets all upset and drags the kids in for pics (poor kids). Granted she has had some nice ones done at Sears on ocassion. But for the second time I was NOT impressed with Wal-Mart. I think we took BM there when he was 2, as a break/surprise for MIL. They had some special. But I wasn't really impressed in the least. However, we got some nice pics then. This time was way cheaper and not much to show for it. I am just not a big fan of Wal-Mart. If they have stuff that is the same stuff as Target and cheaper, fine, I'll buy it. But everything else is pretty much just CRAP if you ask me. In the Wal-Mart wars I don't really have that much problem with them as a business. I think they are the fall guy for modern retail. But as a business to shop at, I have never been a fan. I mostly try to stay the hell away from that place - LOL. Say "wal-mart," and all that comes to mind is insane crowds, dirty store, crappy stuff... Now I can add to the list - horrible pictures.

In the evening we headed to the Cal Expo for fireworks. In the past we would drive there at the last minute and try to find a free patch of grass at the local mall or one of the local businesses. I have to say the plan wasn't the worst. We decided to be a little more fancy and actually go pay for the parking at the expo and see the free entertainment. What was not clear was that the free "seats" was simply the ground. LOL. I have to admit, regardless, I had a great time, and BM rather enjoyed it, but LM was in hell. Poor kid. I think it is worthy for future years, but was a bust for LM. We sat on a blanket on the ground and I tried to entertain LM for a couple of hours while dh ran around. He ran to get the blanket we keep in his car for picnics and such (left in their from the park playdate days) - phew. Then we sent him for ice cream. Then I sent him for nachos which apparently was an hour-long line. HE didn't get the memo that the hell he went through for my nachos wasn't worth it. He just thinks I am a nacho nazi. But I guess he waited like an hour in the wrong line and they were REALLY disorganized, so when he was in the right line it was too long because everyone else in front of him was in the wrong line. ??? Oy vey. He eventually emerged with nachos about just in time to see the fireworks. Of course they freaked out LM, but I was optimistic since I don't remember him minding them last year. Dh ran him inside and missed most of it but it was absolutely SPECTACULAR. A very long show. Well worth the $7 to park and get up close. We had in the past watched them quite a few blocks away and don't remember them being so grand. Bm was a little frightened by them as well - we were just SO close. But he did okay - he really liked it.

Anyway, we got out of the parking lot within 15 minutes and home not long after so it was perfect. PArking was $7, All the food we got was $13. All that was certainly worth the show (plus talent show and a live band before the fireworks though LM could care less).

I have to say though, I have been really frustrated lately when we try to plan fun things with the kids and everything backfires. I finally put my finger on why recently, and not sure why I didn't notice before. We are big on routine and all that, as most kids need to be, but the second you break the routine they just freak out. In yesterday's case I think keeping that in mind I was a little more relaxed. Plus I guess it was obvious LM was going to have a hard time with all of these activities. I guess the moral of the story is to plan fun activities as much into the regular routine, as possible. Then again when we took them to the zoo the other day they completely missed their naps and had a blast. I guess they get a little more flexible with age. Phew.

Oh well, amazing enough I have something for my wish list. I haven't had much on there lately. Not really much I want. I guess lately my struggles have been trying to cut costs down on eating out and little splurges, not so much on material things. There is just not much I have wanted for which always drives dh and his family batty come christmas and all that. They can't fathom that I don't want *stuff.* But I will oblige them this year. I have my eye on a nice used Stairmaster. Something I would really enjoy and be positive. I had had the idea for a while but I am scanning Craigslist and they have all this unused equipment bought new for thousands and thousands of dollars, selling in the $200-$800 range. Best yet I saw there is a used workout equipment store that sells, delivers AND has a 30-day money-back guarantee. I might even checked that out - they were priced competitively with the private party stuff, at first glance. & well part of the reason we got the van was so that we could more easily buy & transport more used things. I figured exercise equipment was the epitome of the used deal. People buy it and don't use it, and sell it years later. So you can get practically new equipment at a fraction of the cost. I Feel the same way about most baby stuff, furniture and appliances, but exercise equipment is just top notch on the list with the abundance of "new" stuff just never really used. Yet worthless enough you can score some decent equipment for $200 if you shop right!

Oh well, I think it would be a bit much to buy right now. But frankly, it might be worth it. Spending a little money to get off some weight now. I'll talk to dh about it. You don't know how many times I went to the gym just to use the Stairmaster. I love them. But using it at home in front of the t.v. sounds even better & easier. Dh wants to get a bike. I think we can probably get both this year for Christmas if nothing else.

Well today we are going on a hike and MIL is taking the kids overnight. Our gas budget for the month ended up being $350, or $50 over budget. Still not bad considering all the driving (LA, SF, and SJ twice). We were saved by lower gas prices which I was just discussing with dh. I figured we were in trouble when they were up so high in the winter and spring, but they had mercy and dropped instead of the usual summer rise. Phew. MIL though said she was bored and wanted to keep the kids. We said sure since we have not done ONE THING for the party. IT is really unlike me to procrastinate like this on one hand. On the other hand I don't plan to do much and was keeping it low-key. So it goes. But tomorrow we really need to clean the house and go get groceries and see what we need, etc. Bake cupcakes, and on and on. So it is great she'll take the kids! She is semi-retiring this year from teaching, and retired after this last year. She does not have to prepare for a class though and usually she has a million things going on, so no doubt she is bored. I think it is great that this will be the second week in a row she'll take both kids overnight. we are certainly spoiled!!! For the long haul I am not sure how the gas and wear and tear on our cars and all that can handle this. I always liked the distance between us because she can be a little over-bearing, but I am starting to think maybe it would be a lot better if she moved up here. Who knows I guess, FIL will not retire for a while. She is scared to make the drive up alone so it created more problems. Otherwise I think we could just say, "sure, you're bored, come get them." LOL. Anyway, the year ahead will be interesting. For the most part it is really nice and freeing for us to have so much free time. My mom and dh's grandma don't work and take the kids on occassion, but neither can keep up very well. MIL is the only one who will take them hours or days at a time so I see more breaks for us in the future. & when she takes them the kids have more opportunity to visit with extended family than we usually have with our random weekend visits when everyone is busy. So it's good for them.

Well the next 3 days will be LONG... & busy!

Oh yeah - but today is s'posed to be 105 degrees and we are skipping town. Yikes!!!!!! I left the upstairs a/c set to 85 so the cat doesn't melt. She'll be okay, there are some cool spots. Turned off downstairs. We'll see what we come home to tonight. Last year a friend came home from a long heat wave to a 100-degree house and a dead fish. Can you imagine???? I had always left the air on for the cat and that was a good reminder as to why! As for this week, today is s'posed to be the worst and it is s'posed to cool down a bit the rest of the week. Phew. I told dh hopefully we get home late enough we can just let the downstairs cool off overnight. It might get to 90 or something if it is that bad out. It's already 81 in here since it didn't cool down much overnight. But leaving means we don't have to run the a/c on max all day today. When we get home it will be 85 upstairs and we can pop open a window. The heat sucks but at least we get cool night breezes usually... Since we don't have to cool the kids' rooms tonight - the window should do. I laugh at some of the comments on how we bought a bigger home before we had kids - and the comments that it was a waste to cool/heat the rest of the house in the meantime, the empty rooms. Um, not exactly. We have an upstairs and downstairs system, and so before kids we would only run the downstairs a/c and heat which would waft up to our bedroom at the top of the stairs. We NEVER heated or cooled the other 3 upstairs rooms in the house. But now with kids in mind we have to run the upstairs a/c and such. But not tonight!

Dh ran my paycheck to the bank yesterday. (No direct deposit here). On the days BM is in preschool he'll brave the bank with LM.

BM went to preschool because they were having a 4th of July parade and she had a spot. So he went Tues instead of today which is a holiday anyway.

When I dropped him off I did not see my friend or notice her car but I noticed it on the way out. Strange, I thought, since I didn't hear her or see her when I walked in - I haven't seen her since the cruise.

So I asked BM later if she was there in the morning and he said, yes, that there were a lot of moms at the parade. I either wasn't invited or didn't realize I could stay. I was a little jealous - LOL.

Oh, VERY interestingly is my son is a drama king and I am interested in getting him into children's theatre when he is older. Even just to try it out, give him a taste. But he seems to have what it takes. (Interestingly, dh took a bit part in an internet sitcom his production company is working on and he turned out to be the "star." I had no idea he had an actor in him, but he is very good with humor and so I am not surprised he is probably the most adept of the bunch at improv comedy. He's also written some hilarious scripts for a sketch comedy show so maybe it's just in the blood. Though BM is MUCH more extroverted and charismatic and dramatic and all that stuff, which is why we have been saying since he was pretty little that he is going to be an actor. He's got the personality). Anyway speaking of the personality, the husband of the preschool owner is a very demure, quiet guy and she just told us he was in a local play. I just figured he must have a bit part or something, but I was telling dh so we looked it up to find out more and he is like the LEAD!!!! I didn't know he was a big actor guy.

But the theatre he is working at offers workshops to 4-6-year-olds. For $100 they have a class one hour a week for about 2 months and then they have a part in the current production as well (a group part it sounds like) and then after the show they feed them pizza or something. It looks like the perfect thing to try out. Not only does he get to learn a song and dance, but he would get to be in a big production? I think that is so cool! It was too late to sign him up this summer, though it looks like they have classes 3-4 times per year. I am not sure they always work the kids into the show. But I am thinking maybe next summer. He will be a little more mature and things should be less crazy.

This theatre is kind of far away as well, so in the meantime I should probably look long and hard for closer opportunities.

I guess we have to brace ourselves if he does enjoy it - time consuming! All the more reason to wait.

LM has been singing ABCs - but he usually gets to about "ABCDEFG, Next time won't you sing with me..." LOL. So I almost fell over yesterday when he sang the whole ABC song by himself. Wow!

As for BM, he counted to 100 the other day. He has had the building blocks to do so for a while, I think he needed help with 60, but he really did it. Wow! I told him if he could count to 100 he could count to 1000, but we haven't tried it yet! I thought this was cool since grandma said she would give him $1k for his birthday. I told him maybe it's a good rule that you can't have that much money until you count it, and now he understands just how MUCH that money is!!!!! Well, he will when he attempts to count that high. LOL. But he is all excited to have money for the bank - he has been a little fascinated since I drug him to the bank a couple of time. He asked what we could buy at the bank which was cute. I said we don't buy - it's where they pay you to keep your money there, and so it grows. I know most of it is probably lost on him but I am milking his interest for all it is worth.

Speaking of which I double checked Vanguard's Auto Invest Plan and you can put in the $50 minimum as often as you want - weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever. It is not a cinch to set it up every other month. But I think I will start $25/month/per kid. Since I have to do minimum $50 per account I will just set up a schedule to alternate accounts. $50 every other month to each, staggering so I have a $50 outlay every month. I think that works best. I was thinking that I can do $75/quarter or something, but then it gets complicated. $50/month, automatic pay them first, out of sight out of mind. Maybe next year I can up it to $50/month each. In the next couple of years I'll be able to cover it, but I think it is a bit much for now.

As for us, by the end of the month I project $11,500 in the efund. It would be easy peasy to get to $12k from there, interest alone for the rest of the year would do. But I will be diverting a chunk to the IRS for my final ROTH conversion. I will probably just do it this quarter, we are doing well on cash. I figured maybe I will set a rule to not drop the account below $10k, and just get it done. Barring the unforeseen, we will still get to $12k at 12/31. I just want my efund "full" and my IRA converted to ROTH before I can and will contribute to the ROTHs again. I have a goal of $400/month starting 1/1. Of course, I am not leaving dh out in the cold. I will split it between our IRAs. It is just easier thinking of terms of mazing out 1 IRA. In dollars though we usually contribute pretty 50/50 to our IRAs. Maybe more heavily in dh's since I have so much in my work plan really. It probably does make more sense to max his out as a result. But it is complicated since we still have small amounts, I diversify all our accounts as if they are all one IRA. He has all the indexes and I have all the mid-cap/small-cap/managed funds. I'll probably start heavily investing in his indexes but will have to evaluate periodically if I need to add to some of the other funds to keep our planned portfolio mix.

But the cool thing about building back up our cash is all the interest. It just means less we have to save. With the balance transfers we will pull in $100/month interest for a while. My goal is to put away $100/month, and wala new car fund. It helps we don't plan to purchase another car for a LONG while - 10 years plus. But cash in the bank and interest certainly makes it a lot easier. Dh and I could both buy brand new cars in 10 years at this rate. Then the simple $50/month to the kids.

All that for the low price of $550/month. College fund, 2 new cars, IRA maxed. It's really not that hard - just have to start small! This is why I never *got* debt though, everything just costs twice as much when you put it on a card or make a payment plan. You can't buy 2 new cars for $100/month that way. But I have always preferred to earn interest rather than pay interest myself.

I've heard good things about haircuts at the beauty institute around here, but since we generally don't spend a lot on haircuts and I stay away from SuperCuts after many a bad cut, it didn't sound terribly appealing. Not that I go to the salon, but I have been much more impressed with Great Clips - and is quite cheap. Though I must admit you have to take the risk of the occasional bad haircut anyway.

However, was flipping through a coupon book in the mail and they had a big ad for kid haircuts at the beauty institute. $1 for every year of age. WOW! I cut both kids' hair to about 2 & butchered LM's hair so bad last time I figure it was time for the pros. BUT the thing is we take him to the kid place with the car chairs and the TVs. Beauty institute does not have the TVs apparently BUT they have the car chairs and even give you a balloon for free with your very first haircut. All this for $1 if we get him in before his birthday next week! Not bad, not bad. I think for the kids it will suffice. We'll give it a try. You can also pay a small premium for the more experienced people. Will have to check out the rates again.

I think with tips BM's last haircut cost $15. We just try to limit it to 2 times a year and not worry about it, it's not terribly expensive. But I meet keep him more trimmed at $4 a pop.

As for me I got a cut around January and I was thinking it was time for a chop. But 2 people asked me if I had had a haircut, my hair looked really nice. LOL. I decided why bother. I got the most excellent cut last time and it still shows I guess.

In other news dh finally got a date for his Mt. Shasta hike and I am happy that preschool had a spot for LM. So I got the kids covered for M/W and my mom will come help with the kids on the Tuesday. The alternative will be to just take T/Th off and work the weekend instead. I have plenty of vacation time, but too much work to do!!!! Anyway, LM full-time for 2 days is $70 and so dh's focus group money will really help for this. Woohoo. If he only stays 1/2 days it will be $50. We will just have to play it by ear. I am not sure he is up to the all day thing, but if he naps with the other kids and doesn't disrupt them he will probably be just fine. He'll have his brother and he just loves it there. The alternative was for grandma to take them all week but I wouldn't like that. I would miss them. I am pleased I arranged something that won't interfere too much with work anyway.

Dh went a little crazy and bough a few toys for the kids' birthday last night. Oh well. Just more spoiled as usual. MIL told me all she got the kids was a couple of books (outside of cash) in respect for my request for no gifts. Well, we'll see. LOL. I'll believe it when I see it?

My grandma sent me a bunch of shoes she did not want to throw out but could no longer wear. Funny enough a lot of then said size 10 but were too tight on my. Figures. Others were not my style or just more worn than I cared for. So I told dh we should run a batch to Goodwill (I did make out with a couple of very nice pairs of shoes though!!!). & we really need to go through the kids' stuff and make a Goodwill pile. We just got crap spilling out of every cupboard. I know we can get rid of a few million toys. & a few from Christmas that we might try to sell. BRand new in box. Though for the most part I think we'll donate most of it.

The weather has been rather mild here but it is s'posed to be in the 105-110 range the rest of the week UCK!!!!

We haven't decided what to do for the 4th but will probably see some fireworks somewhere (if nothing else, at the mall). For the rest of the week we plan to go see the new rat movie. Will be experiment - take both kids. Not sure LM is up for it but we can leave and go for a walk if it is too much. BM will love it.

Going to a redwood forest just north of san francisco another day. I am not sure where dh's brain is but he is like, I don't think we can go on a hike in 100+ degree weather. You think? I said all the more reason to get the heck out of here. I looked and weather in SF will be around 70. Sounds QUITE refreshing. I have no idea why dh thinks it would be 100 degrees in SF though. LOL. Silly. But anyway, there is a very small hike. We tried a smaller hike a few months back and LM had a freakout, but he tromped all over the zoo without a prob last week so we decided to give it a whirl. It will depend on his mood I guess. I REALLY look forward to next year when he is up to more hikes. We really want to do more outdoor stuff with the kids. But it is nice when you don't have to pack the diapers and bottles and stroller. My kids were huge and way too big to carry any length so we just haven't done much hiking with them. But we went on some big hikes in Hawaii last year and BM LOVED it so we are trying to get into it with him. The abundance of day hikes around here is beyond belief so I think we will have much to explore as the kids get older. I hope LM shares the same enjoyment as he gets longer legs and can keep up better!

Saturday is the kids birthday party, but looks like mostly family. Very low-key. Not much to prepare.

Well today is my Friday. I will bring a ton of work home for the long weekend but not sure if I will get to any of it. No more vacations for a LONG time after this though.

Oh, Princess Perky's post reminded me and I figured I'd share (not to steal her thunder though!!!).

LM has suddenly started talking in terms of "yesterday" and a lot more about feelings too. IT is so cool when they start being able to communicate more abstract things.

But anyway, when I picked him up from grandma yesterday we all ate lunch together before we headed off. I took away his spoon because he kept banging it around and making a mess. Of course he was not happy and had a hissy fit. But a few minutes later he turns to me and says, "I'm happy now!" HE got over it and moved on. For the rest of the day whenever he got upset, he would announce when he was happy again. SO cute.

Considering the emotions of a 2-year-old, I am sure we will get sick of hearing this phrase soon enough. LOL. Sad happy sad happy sad happy sad happy. But I guess happy is quite a concept for a little one to get and he seems to get it!

Oh & LOL - his other new phrase is "I'm Busy." I honestly never remember BM picking up that phrase or ever really saying that either. But I imagine with a brother to share with mommy and daddy he hears "I busy" a lot more than BM did at that age. He is really enjoying being "too busy" when we try to engage him lately.

ETA: since I can't comment from this computer. Yes - I just picked up a list of my older son's first words recently and among animal sounds and small words the word "sick" jumped out of me. "How bizarre," I thought, and then I remembered I was pregnant with his little brother when he was learning his first words, and well not only the morning sickness, I would pretty much spend all my time home on the couch for about 9 months - I am just a miserable pregnant woman. So one of his first words was "sick." "Mommy sick."

Gosh, we have had quite the week. But QUITE the Saturday!

I mentioned briefly we went to San Francisco zoo this last week. We actually went during the week and had a blast. All in all it was not a pricey trip. The zoo is excellent (as opposed to our local zoo which has issues). It only cost $13 for all 4 of us to get in, with our local zoo membership. I remembered last time we were there the food was INSANE. So we stopped at BK on the way and splurged on a $10 meal. It was probably more food than we needed but sure beat the $50 we'd pay inside the zoo. As dh says, well at least it is for a good cause. That would be fine if I had $50 to spare. But not really. So it worked out quite well. It was my mental health day and we decided to be spontaneous (which we pretty much never do - we are anti-spontaneous). So when dh started talking about packing a lunch I was like, "no way!" Was ruining the spontaneity of the moment. & I remembered well. BM really wanted cotton candy but it was $3.50. Dh and I looked at each other - No Way!!!! By the end of the day we gave in. Being spontaneous I guess.
I regret it now because I now know I could have gotten free & colored cotton candy at that. Yesterday. Oh well. So we bought that paid a $4 bridge toll and spent a lot on gas. But way under budget anyway for the month - so woohoo.

We were also spontaneous and drove to see grandma (it beat sitting in commute traffic for 3 hours+ to get home - so we drove 1 hour south and grandma treated us to dinner. We drove the 2 hours home at bedtime). Much more pleasant than toll bridge/commute hell - plus no toll on the way home. We called grandma an hour before we got there and she absolutely did not believe we were coming down. Dh had wanted to surprise her but I wanted to make sure she was home and we didn't surprise her too much. I think it worked well. Great day. I made the entire trip on almost a 1/2 tank of gas - so the van was a little more generous on mpg than usual, to boot. Woohoo.

Bunco was canceled this week because the organizer of the group left her husband and he drained her bank account. Oy vey. Bummer. One more night out for me ruined. I just don't get out anymore. & well I mention because it is a good financial lesson. Don't put yourself in a financial situation where you rely on someone 1000% for money AND they can leave you penniless. I told dh I could never understand in a million years. No matter what he could have done and how mad I could be at him, if he was caring for MY child - I can not imagine not giving him any money to live on. It's sad. It's the third friend this has happened to in the last year. Interestingly I worry about my SAHM friends who has ass husbands and no money to their names. But it is always the ones that seem together on the outside who have the serious issues at home. I guess the ones who are more honest about their situation work it out? I don't know. This woman told me some of her issues but I had the feeling she could take care of herself just fine. She probably could, but I am shocked she did not have a private bank account somewhere - seems like someone who would - it was her second marriage after all. Perhaps blinded by love...

Yesterday was a little crazy but we had a nice day. Boss invited me rather last minute to the baseball game, no kids. I felt obligated from the way he asked and he REALLY wanted my spouse there too. I guess it was a couples thing. Well we were driving home to San Jose anyway for a family party so we arranged to leave the kids and come back in time for the game. It worked out rather well. We may be a little sick of driving and not big sports fans, but we got a no-kid night out of it. Woohoo. So yesterday we drove to San Jose in the morning and had lunch at grandma's house. We had pizza and spaghetti and soup and you name it. We then went to the adoption party. Oh I have a story about this one too - hehe. But first the boring stuff. We went and just hung out for a while. They had a ton of food but we didn't eat much. & we left for home. Traffic was absolutely horrid but we still made decent time - took a few shortcuts. Arrived at the game around 7:30 or about an hour late. We had free dinner plus $20 spending money (only redeemable at the stadium). The game was kind of fun - better than I expected. It went fast because the away team got no runs until the last inning. Fine because it seemed long enough. LOL. We had all this money to spend but I was just stuffed. Dinner was for a king as is. But after digesting for a couple of hours we settled on ice cream sundaes in little plastic baseball caps that we saved for the kids. We had $10 left so we bought them each a baseball. Dh was wary but I said hell, I could sell them or use them as gifts or something. I can't say no to free stuff! They were really nice baseballs. Once we bought them we realized they are WAY too heavy for the kids to play with. So who knows what we will do with them.

After the game they had a pretty spectacular fireworks display. So good food and good fun - a really good day.

Oh but we were going to drive the compact car (we are going to the Bay Area next week as well). But just as we were leaving dh's mom calls and says she needs a ride to this party thing and to bring the van. We were kind of annoyed and I knew if she needed a ride that bad she could squeeze in the back between the carseats. But I have done it and it is REALLY uncomfortable. I had mercy. But maybe I shouldn't have. So we drove the gas guzzler. Bah. Means compact car next week for sure.

Anyway, as if I haven't blabbed enough. I guess just lots of stuff going on. The interesting thing is dh's cousin adopted a boy and had a party. Dh and I are rather against giving cards (environmentally) and giving gifts (feeling obligated). She has given plenty of gifts to our kids, but if she never gave another gift again I would be fine. We have cut obligations for gifts with most friends and family. Meaning we can truly give gifts when we want to, not because we feel we have to, and all that keeping track, blahblah. So we were discussing the etiquette for this adoption party. Seems like gifts may be involved but we were just stopping by for a bit, not staying for the whole party. The other thing is we have given tons and tons and tons of hand-me-downs to this person. I could have whipped out one of my ebay items to sell (new clothes with tags - a regift) but I wasn't really sure if it was necessary. I guess it would have been nice but dh was rather against it. We figure we could buy him a nice birthday present instead at his birthday. I don't know. I don't want to be a cheapo but there is more to it. We had been giving them hand-me-downs and we went to their place for a party and also heard they had WAY more hand-me-downs than they needed. As evidenced when we went to their home and saw the abundance of baby stuff and toys. But not only that - they have every electronic toy imaginable. Dh's cousin is VERY frugal but they make GOOD money, and since she has been married they have bought just everything imaginable. So dh turns to me after that visit and says - you know what - no more hand-me-downs. They don't NEED ANYTHING. He has a point. I'd rather give a lot of this stuff to people who need it more.

So in this spirit we didn't do anything. But it feels a little tacky. I am thinking of making a contribution in the boy's name to charity. She is actually the kind of person who would appreciate that over all. So it is what I am thinking of.

Anyway, depending on the day, according to MIL, everyone is either rich or poor. There are times she has lamented on how poor this family is. But most of the time how rich they are (salary details and everything, though you have to question the accuracy of said info). As we struggle in our own role in all of this, MIL exclaims to us that she just got them a card, because they don't need anything. She says she asked what they wanted and they asked for cash. We all laugh at that. I think that is WAY tacky. Well, we all do. She said fine, I think she bought the kid a book at the dollar store or something.

I think the whole charity thing is a good resolution. I kind of cringe at MIL's stance. Like you shouldn't have to buy a gift for a milestone because you perceive someone is rich. Particularly someone like your own NIECE. That seems pretty tacky to me as well. Dh and I came to a similar conclusion, but gosh, I can't imagine feeling the same way about a CLOSE relative. I don't know.

That is the family money drama over here. Remind me not to pretend like we have any money in front of MIL - yeesh. LOL. Of course maybe we should. Maybe she would curb the wild spending on the kids. She told me that she was only getting our kids books too for their birthday. I honestly hope she MEANs it. Not exactly holding my breath.

Anyway, I we are meeting 1/2 way to exchange kids today. 2-hour drive roundtrip for each of us then. We have NEVER done this before. But I hope it works out - seems like a good solution. She is semi-retiring this next school year and wants to take the kids more. So we'll see. We're meeting at a restaurant for lunch on her. More abundance of food. Woohoo!

I am going to go work on that donation. I can't in good conscience not give anything. I don't care how rich they are. LOL. If they don't like it they can shove it, but I truly think they will appreciate it. Unlike most of my "friends" who would view that a gift to charity as cheap and tacky. Well, we'll see. We'll certainly get feedback through the grapevine. Ain't family fun??? LOL.

ETA: I donated $20 but I should have made it $25. I'll save $5 in taxes. Just an idea I had after - and a tip!