Got the balance transfer statement for dh. They are only asking 2% so woohoo. when does this 4% thing go into effect (minimum balance?)? Plus I assume since it is based on averages that must be why they only asked for about 1% of the balance for this month. Making more money.

As far as subprime loans and all that menutia, I am at a loss to where the surprised was in all this. I though I learned a lesson in market timing as I locked in some CDs last fall, but these days not feeling so bad about that either. Rates are falling and I got about $20k locked in 5.5-5.7%. Some for a long while. I guess it can pan out bad, but latest I heard was October was a big rate adjustment month for ARMs. If people think the worst is over, ugh. IT seems to me it is just beginning. I keep reading articles that "only" 1 million people will lose their homes. "Only" 7 million... Since when do we live in a vacuum? I don't know, for a while I thought I moved too soon, I believed too much the sky was falling... These days I realize I have to give myself some credit. I guess dh said the Mad Money guy was freaking out on TV today. Where is the big surprise??? People getting too caught up in the ride up? I don't know... Dh and I have been sitting around talking about how all these credit and ARMs were going to mean a bad fall for the economy one of these days - talking about this for years. I think it was 2 years ago my broke friends started getting approved for these crazy subprime mortgages and you are like - what in the heck????? At least the ARM people stand a chance compared to them. Oh yeah - they are all going to be rich next year so it won't matter... *roll eyes*

I have $50 going to my new ROTH account tomorrow I believe. I just checked to see if it got purchased today - that would have been too perfect - to buy at a low. We'll see how the market hangs tomorrow. got money in stocks, but feel confident it is well diversified - all long-term retirement stuff. We were really going to jump in heavily come January. The timing might be good. Going back to income averaging too - it helps. Makes it all less volatile as a help. We'll see...

Oh I got our electric bill. I got an e-mail but I didn't look at it - it was $130. I think that is pretty nasty for us. Dh and I have been having a debate as I swear we always leave the air on 80 and he insists 78. (78????). Since he usually insists on 68 in the winter and I insist on 70, I didn't argue too much. We are obviously 2 degrees off - LOL. I have been switching it to 79 when I come home myself. If he doesn't notice he can't complain. & well - it is a compromise. But I think he forgot how we used to set it honestly - I don't remember keeping the house 78 at all. & the bill shows it - yeesh. august is usually our worst month so it isn't looking good, but when I told dh he got scared off and the house was 84 when I got home. That seems a bit extreme. Oh well. Well, good thing my minimum payment is only 1% this month. It helps. My efund sits at a square $12k with that payment (just transferred $150 from the BT column to the efund column - paid it out of checking). So essentially that money moves from the BT category (to be repaid) to the E-fund category. Woot.

I am about $100 under on my savings this month, but screw it. I need to sell some stuff or write or something this month. I need to save $1k more to keep my efund at $12k for the year. (Just $300/month and I have been aiming for $450?). HEck, with all the interest I only need to save 1/2, if that. So I am not going to sweat it. Some days I wonder how well I will do on this automatic saving thing. I just never really had to do it like this before... We'll see. For now I fail miserably it seems. But I have had enough windfalls to get by. I am expecting another $1k check to cover the rest of my IRS bill and also some overtime (maybe in the range of $1k - to retirement). So eh. I am bracing myself next year because when I set up automatic payments of $400/month to our IRAs there is not much I can do when one month is short. Well there is, cut back on other stuff. For now I am too used to too much savings to fall back on. Good or bad but we haven't been doing as well on retirement as we should.

On the other hand I started putting $800/month away this year for more short-term things and that has been easy peasy. I know a couple of more raises and I won't even notice. A few more thousand in cash to fall back on and it won't matter. But it will be a bit of an adjustment for a while. I am used to having more cash I guess so it is an adjustment to sock it all away in retirement (though smarter - investment returns and all). I am considering setting my goals a bit lower next year. Then again I think that is my problem. I set REALLY high goals this year, all is well, and I lose motivation. I have been REALLY relaxed all of a sudden. I guess that's good. But then again I don't want to relax the rest of the year and make it harder to get back into the swing come January. Maybe my goals just weren't aggressive enough? Or should I relax just because I Received a windfall? I don't know...

I guess it doesn't matter going forward. The balance transfers will be a good $350/month going forward and the kids will be $50 and my retirement is now set to $50 so it is all automatic. Not much I can do. The budget will have to fit all that - my entire $450 earmark for savings - every month for the rest of the year. Better slow down and breathe this month in preparation I guess. I may be bad at the automatic saving thing right now but one thing I sure as hell won't do is take money out of savings to pay my bills. So maybe there is hope for me the rest of the year.