I've got a large pile of old bank statements that I can purge. I decided to enter a lot of the data into Quicken. I went back and forth a bit, but if I get it entered electronically I could keep the data without taking up so much space. I'd probably be pretty cool with just shredding it, but thought my future self might appreciate preserving some of this information. But then again, it seems like kind of a waste of time to re-create old data. I am not much of a "looking back" type person to begin with.

I have been using Quicken since 1/1/06 (at least, that is how much data I entered when I started), and I married in 2000, so it's the 2000-2005 time period I am going through. (Before that, the "broke college years" are probably pretty boring - not much there). I am sure it would have made a lot more sense to enter more of this in 2006, but I had no idea how useful I would find Quicken. & I admit I can probably go through it much faster right now with the ease I feel with the program, after using it for several years.

There are a lot of holes so these will be pretty incomplete financial records, but at least I can keep what I can. I might find other pieces eventually.

In the end, I am so glad I decided to do this. I have had a delightful trip down memory lane...

Some of the delightful memories:

I did a fair amount of traveling in college (driving) and post-college (by air). So, I Was seeing all those travel expenses and reliving those memories. I then noticed a lot of flower purchases. I was remembering how on more than one occasion some friend (or a friend of a friend) would have well-off parents who would open their home to a pile of young people for a small vacation. At least we were polite and always thanked them by sending them flowers afterwards. Was just something I hadn't thought about in a long time. (In fact, took me a while to remember why I seemed to be always buying flowers).

{I didn't particularly spend any real money on any of these trips. For example, my friend and I went to NY and Boston simply because we found $150 Roundtrip airfare - we stayed with friends when we got there. Just a lot of stuff like that. When we went to Utah I apparently spent like $30 to go skiing, and that was about it. We had been invited by some friend's parents}.

Another pleasant memory: My car broke down in the middle of nowhere when we were driving between homes (our newer home was being built, we had gone up to check its progress and/or sign some paperwork).

Doesn't sound so pleasant? AAA towed us to some awful shop that wanted to charge us a fortune and keep the car for an entire week. ??? It was just the alternator. The tow truck driver said "Psssst" and offered to fix it for free. We didn't have much to lose at that point. So, I saw the charge for Kragen, for the new alternator, and immediately knew what that was. I remember he had a family and we gave him whatever cash we had (which probably was not a lot OR didn't feel like enough given the hassle he saved us). But when I thought back on the experience I had an entirely different perspective. He was probably happy to just make a few extra bucks. Whether we gave him $20 or $60, I am sure it was appreciated. Oh, and it took HIM about 10 minutes to fix it and he did a good job - never had another alternator problem since.

As I went down memory lane during the times we were "deprived" and saving most our income (literally 50% - 80% of it saved) all I had was happy memories. & I realized what made the memories special was all the people. I have had amazing friends, we have amazing families, and I have had the luck to come across these kind of good samaritans at times...

Beyond that, I got a sense of my very simple budget system and I did not remember anything with rose colored glasses. If anything, we did better than I remembered. So that I don't write a huge novel I will do a separate post on "simple" budgeting.

**I got new tires - what a difference! Absolutely nothing else needed, so all ready for our road trip. (That was a nice surprise - that the van needed absolutely no other work - woohoo!).

**I had another surprise as I was able to redeem $50 credit card rewards to my ROTH. For whatever reason I miscalculated and thought I'd have -0-. Can only redeem in $50 increments.

Yay!

**The money I transferred to my checking account showed up in less than 24 hours. It was a very large sum. Holy Cow!

Makes me rethink if I should keep that account for emergency money. Hmmmm... The reality is that in 20 years I have never been in need of a large some of emergency cash. Not even this year with everything breaking like crazy. I think I will continue with my plan to close the account. Savings transfers already made to other accounts.

**How random is this???

Musical artist who we saw on "living room" tour last year is doing *one* similar type show - in our city - when we will actually be in town. OMG. He's not from around here, or this half of the country. You got me! We bought up our tickets the second we saw that. There may only be 10-30 guests. Our family and friends have already bought up 10 tickets. How FUN!! I am so excited!

He wouldn't even come to our city last time! We had offered our home as a venue.

**My Dad and I are starting to discuss an April Japan trip. Obviously I am not going (no time off in April for me!). Just BM? Maybe dh and BM. They may go backpacking too, so may stay a couple of weeks. We will pay 0% - 100% of our share. We are just pinning down dates for now. My Dad and I both agreed to figure out the finances later - see how the year shakes out. Arrangements will be made next year. I told him dh and BM were probably game, but only if my house and everything stops breaking, so I appreciate the time to see where our finances land. I don't think there is any way in heck my Dad would pay one cent towards this trip, for my family's travels, except he is wrestling if he should invite my sister (who could not afford it) and keeping it fair.

I suppose that is another post for another day.

For reference, as a child we could never afford to vacation *anywhere* (my parents never took advantage of all the frugal options in our "backyard") and so I have no frame of reference regarding all this. Yes, my kids are spoiled rotten! Honestly? My Grandparents hardly cared I even existed, and I am far more jealous of and pleased with this special time BM is getting with his Grandparents. The destinations don't mean that much to me - the time they are getting together is priceless. IF they spent $50 on a camping trip, I think it would mean about as much. But my dad wants to go to Japan and would love to take a Grandchild along for the company and to share the experience.

**Feeling lighter:

--Shredded a huge pile of financial documents. Most of which are moot any more, in the electronic age. Phew!

--Gave away my wedding dress! It was a huge space hog that I have been wanting to get rid of for a long time. I tried to sell it but wasn't sure of size and really didn't want to open the box and deal with it. I was only getting flaky no-shows. So, dh asked me if he could list it for free over the weekend - he was sick of it taking up space in the living room - it was gone basically in minutes. It seems we couldn't give it away last we tried. It sat in my closet for 13 years - I am so relieved it is gone!

I could let it sit in my closet another decade, but it had to go before we downsized. The people who took it were extremely grateful, so dh felt happy about it. BUT, they hadn't even taken it out of the box yet. !! Will see... I hope they like it and that I was in the ballpark with the size.

**Since it is the most expensive year ever, the big expense this month is new van tires. I thought I was keeping more on top of things, but we had some rain and I glanced at the tires as I left Tuesday, out of habit when the weather turns. I was horrified when I looked closely at the tires - getting kind of bald. So, the van has been grounded - will get the new tires today. Turns out we got good tires - they have about 60k miles on them. I was shocked we had bought them all 4 at once and they all still seem to be the original. In the past I have had horrible tire luck. Dh's car is on a "replace 2 at a time" schedule, so is usually more of a non-event. I think two of his tires are on schedule to be changed, but they look pretty darn good - like they actually have some tread. I'll look more closely once we get the van in tip top shape. His two tires will still be mostly a non-event - smaller and cheaper.

We have a big road trip in a few weeks, so it will be nice to have new tires. We were going to take the car in for a check closer to our trip. We decided to get a "safety check" with the new tires and will do an oil change the week before, just to have a double check of fluid levels and such.

I also won't be surprised if it needs some brake work or if it's time to change some belt. Will see... I've crossed 100k miles since last I took the van in to our mechanic, so he might recommend some preventative work. Might not, since they only recommend work that is truly necessary. I am sure they aren't cheapest for the tires, but the peace of mind is priceless.

**I am shuffling bank accounts around. I am going to close a CU account I have that has dropped interest rates over the years. I have about $24,000 over there and transferred the bulk of the money over last night. Honestly, we have saved up much more money several times over. We put a $50,000+ down payment on our first condo. & so on... So, on some mental level, it's nothing *that* exciting. BUT, when I transferred all that money to my checking account, my heart skipped a beat. Holy cow!! What a lot of money to move around at once. Just some thoughts like, "Man, I hope I didn't screw this up and send this to someone else's account." Which is a ridiculous worry.

For reference, $23,000 is more than we paid for both our current cars, combined. It is a huge chunk of change! It's just funny how one small difference in looking at it can make it feel so different.

I also wanted to share because it was a savings effort over time.

I opened this account in 2009 with $5. I transferred over $7,000 from another savings account. The rest was saved over time. I added around $7000 over the course of 4 years. (An average of $145 per month). I earned about $500 of interest on this account. I deposited $9,000 of overtime money into this account and $5,000 in gifts. I pulled $3,000 out at some point to put down on the mortgage.

That said, most of that build-up was only in the last couple of years. We had gotten to a place where we could just save 100% of our windfalls, to cash.^^ Because our IRAs were maxed out and we were contributing a fair amount of extra to mortgage, and so on.

I actually pulled out the home repair monies, this past month or so, from another account.

^^This just means that we have no other needs or obvious goals. Cash is holding tank for mortgage paydown or other investments. Or in this case, we could really use some cash.

**This reminds me:

Mortgage progress!

Got my paycheck and paid the mortgage. Added $25 for credit card rewards. & added $10 carpool money. I calculated $1 per day, and rounded up a bit for the very short school month. Our next payment will put us in the $190,500 realm. If we hadn't had such a year, I'd just throw an extra $501 to it and be done. Down to the $189,999. That 8 looks so nice! Another $10k milestone.

The reality is it is going to have to wait a couple of more months. I doubt I will put anything more than snowflakes to the mortgage for the rest of the year. The year has been too brutal. I will have paid $6,000-ish in home repairs and would still like to pre-pay $2,000 to the property taxes. I think it's fair to give up in a year like this, but doesn't mean I give up for the long run. Next year will be a new year. I won't beat myself up that I had $8,000 cash to direct to other home stuff. Maybe next year I will have $8,000 extra for the mortgage. I can hope!

**I earned $45 this month on our Gas/Groceries card. Higher than usual because we charged about $250 in Amazon cards, at the grocery store (for 6% cash back). I can only redeem in $25 increments, but had $11 already, so can redeem $50 cash to mortgage this month.

I can't say if I have been double checking my rewards calculations every single month. It's kind of complicated because there are three reward tiers. But, I checked the first few months I had the card and I know what the ballpark should generally be.

This month, with the Amazon gift cards, I just wanted to double check that the strategy worked. It did work! But I noticed two errors: They knocked off 11-cents on my grocery rewards - ??? Rounding down 11-cents. Interesting? BUT, what is worse, is they had left off a $20 fuel charge for the 3% reward. I figured maybe dh had filled up at some non-obvious gas station name or something (out of town). But, it was Safeway fuel. Which is clearly either grocery store or fuel. We had last filled up at Safeway in June, and lo and behold, they put it to the right category in June. But left it out for July. I am out 50-cents with both errors. This whole thing is annoying. I have absolutely never had a cash reward calculated incorrectly. Like seriously, this should be computerized.

**In other credit card news, we have opened and closed so many credit cards the past couple of years, I am not going to be double dipping on any more until we get the *best* rewards. If this is my last chance with these cards, or my only chance for another 12 months or so (before I can try a triple dip). So many of these cards had $500 rewards earlier in the year, so I am holding out for those.

Dh did get a $250 reward (spend $1,000 from Citi). I had set it aside in case something better came along before the expiration of the offer. It would be a triple dip on that one. The low spending requirement is the enticing part on that one.

What's interesting is he has gotten several more similar offers in the weeks that followed, but they are all worse. "Spend $2,000 and get $150." "Spend $1,000 and get $100." What on earth are they doing over there??? It's just so random. "Gee, he didn't sign up for that one, so let's see if he will take a worse offer?"

Monday was such a *Monday*. I am not used to having *Mondays*. !! Maybe something in the air, dh had a similar day. (He had to go to the store twice, and then realized he had forgotten something, but that could wait versus trip #3). We are all adjusting to new schedules. I am still very discombobulated.

One thing I forgot Monday was to set out some Goodwill bags for pickup. Just my luck, because another charity came by Wednesday. I somehow remembered. Put out 2.5 bags (some baby stuff, some clothing purge - kids and adults). & this plastic organizer/shelf thing that I was going to sell. They took "furniture" so I just left it out and crossed my fingers. Phew.

We've actually been pretty on top of all things kid and baby (sell to replace - some just out of no other option to afford thing). BUT, what I purged was a giant pile of baby blankets. I honestly don't remember who any of them were made by. (I kept our parents' knitted baby blankets). Had some olde sleeping bags and stuff (on the older kid side of things). I thought the organizer/shelf thing may be useful at some point, but decided it was too small. I have a couple of pictures/wall hangings I can sell on Craigslist.

Onto a new purge - time to fill up some bags. I told my mom last night that I swear we didn't even buy anything any more and I have no idea what it comes from. She did say, "Have you met your mother in law?" Touche. But, it's more than that. I'd just like to know the point where I feel on top of the *stuff.* There has got to be a tipping point. For me it started when I was in that pregnant "nesting" stage and clearing out a bedroom for the younger child. I don't remember what I was doing for older child, but I remember the purging/nesting thing (we had a totally empty room for him). It's been 10 years - we shouldn't own anything any more that we don't use a lot.

{Lord knows we return and re-gift and sell tons of stuff that MIL brings into our house - we don't keep it all. I just sent back a pile of school uniforms because she did not give me a receipt or ask what sizes we needed. Oh, and the shirts were all for girls. LOL. I don't think it was her mistake, but the sizing was all off and I said, "Is it just me but do those sleeves look kind of girly?" The inside had polka dots and their usual size was way too small in the girly/polka dot variety. Since my nieces have no school uniforms, I think Wal Mart or whoever mis-stocked them. Thankfully they did not fit, or else I am not sure we would have noticed. I am sure others would have noticed. Maybe not many, but someone would have!}.

----------------------------------------------------

Oh, dh scored a $30 focus group. IS about the cheapest one he's had, but will take it!

Life has been busy with last-minute unexpected guests, and a babysitting request (that I got stuck doing) from carpooler. IT's all fine, but just bad timing. Our driving saving has been substantial this week - so that is the plus.

Our cat has *way* mellowed out. Last night the 6-year-old carpool buddy played rough with him and carried him all around the house. His favorite thing to do was to trap him (in a room or in a box). I was waiting for the cat to scratch his eyes out or run away and hide, but the cat just followed him around everywhere. ?? I mostly kept a close eye on things, but watched with amazement. I've always had such fraidy cats. His wild and fun and curious streaks has no doubt masked his patient streak.

The cat also seems to understand there will always be ample food, so is not being such a pig. I think that is some of his mellowness - that he is more comfortable and less on edge.

**Dh killed two birds with one stone this weekend. He helped a friend move, and also got some family video interview footage (out of town). Phew!! He has put so much time and effort to my own family's videos, post-dad-heart-attack, that I am relieved he has finally gotten around to footage of those closer and more local. (He has been collecting film out of town and when out-of-towners visit, for several years, and had put his 90-year-old Grandma high on the list - has already done a couple of interviews with here in less recent past). But, we all know the youngest of us can drop dead tomorrow... So, I feel great relief, and am sure he does to.

The kids and I read, lounged by the pool, and spent about $20 on pizza and ice cream.

Dh was paid in pizza and beer. So, aside from gas, he didn't spend anything.

**I don't think dh is feeling very gung ho on his video project. His feedback pre-interview was that my family is 100 times more interesting than his.

His feedback post-interview, is that we are also way more interesting to interview (maybe because we have more interesting stories?). Actually, his family has great stories, so I think he is just finding it hard to pull it out of them.

So, will see what he will come up with. I am sure he will work his magic.

**It's been on and off *smokey* here, due to all the wildfires. One day last week was particularly miserable (it had gotten really hot and the car AC did not seem to work with the smoke. I was worried the car was having problems, but it seems to work fine without layers of smoke in the air mixed with crazy hot temps).

I just saw that Berkely family camp (near Yosemite) was completely destroyed. I looked up San Jose's camp because it seemed it was probably in same area (was on the same river). Well, it's just a few miles away, and some of it has been destroyed. Sounds like it might be a miracle if it isn't completely destroyed when all is said and done? I couldn't find the dates on some of the news articles that said it was still in the midst of the fire.

We've been going to Sacramento camp, closer to Tahoe, for the past several years. But, it's up in the forest close to where our family cabin is. All of which are very open to the same fate. Dh's Grandma has had a heck of a time getting fire insurance in recent years (she owns the cabin).

Actually, there was a peanut allergy death this year, at Camp Sacramento. Not a good year for the city Camps! We've actually had a heck of a time with the snow in maybe 2 of the last 3 or 4 years. (Camp being buried under 8 feet of snow in June, stuff like that). The snow sounds mighty fine about now.

Had some time today to see where things are with the checkbook and such.

**We are getting 2% back on our Visa this month, due to a temporary promotion. In fact, the 2% promo kicked in the day we bought our new garage door (& they did not accept our 2%-back AmEx). So, phew!!

**Sent $5,000 off to the AmEx, earlier this week, for plumbing bills.

Kind of a non-event, because I had already transferred $5,000 from savings when we got the first quote. I thought it was possible we'd need a lot of money *fast*. But, we were able to charge it in the end, so I got to hang onto it for a month. {We keep checking balance around -0- and so I don't bother to include it in my net worth. It has felt like the money was *gone* since the minute I put it in my checking account}.

**I was $10 in the negative, as of 8/31, so I decided to fix that before I forgot or got distracted. I didn't think much about it because it's been *crazy*. But I realized since we could not charge the garage door repair that I had paid cash for that from checkbook, without pulling the funds from savings. (Which makes me not in the negative at all).

I usually do one net transfer a month, but had not done the August transfer yet. Once I added that garage door money from savings to checking, I was back in the green. This was much easier than moving $100 over now and moving it back after payday, which was my initial plan. Phew!

This is one of the biggest reasons I really like using Quicken (or any electronic system). It's easy to move things around and just keep things simple. I threw in all the September deposits and bills, and it seemed to $0 out (income = outflow). So, phew.

**Total cash still seems to be hovering around "6 months of expenses." I stopped funding ROTHs, due to all this hoo-ha, so that explains the most of the why. If things settle down, we should be able to fund one entire ROTH by 12/31. I always send 20% of every month's pay, to savings. So, that is why we are treading water. I also receive January 1 paycheck on December 31, which is why it should be enough to fund an entire IRA, through the rest of the year. The worst case plan is to fund the rest of second IRA in Feb, March, April. I have already put $1,000 into one IRA (plus $500 credit card rewards). We should also have some Christmas gift money to help fund the IRAs.

**We did an unofficial inventory and this sums up my year, financially:

--Two Dead TVs (the only two we had/both fairly new)
--One major car repair
--One MRI
--Vet bills/lost pet
--Replaced computer (was crazy old)
--4 Plumbing Repairs in one month
--Clothes Washer broke
--A/C broke
--Garage Door broke
--Cell phone Broke (it was rather new)
--Major carpet cleaning (more ailing pet stuff)

& it's only August??? OMG - I am exhausted. (& I am sure I am forgetting something...).

Many thoughts and comments on this (wanted to put this all in one place).

I've seen the comment to save 1% - 3% of home purchase price, for home maintenance. Given the overall low maintenance of our home (we aren't maintaining acres, and many other low-maintenance factors) and due the general higher cost of housing here, I find that 1% is more than ample. In the grand scheme of things, if we had done this from Day 1, we'd have about $30,000 saved today for home maintenance. (& I am not aware of any large repairs on the immediate horizon). The reality is we got about $-0- saved up specifically for home maintenance, because we had some really low income years and weren't particularly saving. Which is fine - our house was bought new and has been VERY low maintenance. Which was our plan, and has worked out fine. We can save more now to make up for lost time. If we save 2% of home purchase price, every year for next 10 years, is about what we are doing anyway. In the meantime, we have fully funded our car replacement funds (with no plans to replace anytime soon) so can borrow from that. Just to say, planning ahead is a VERY good thing, and is most of our ease with this crazy financial outflow.

When we started the year, we were thinking along these lines for things we might do this year: Replace carpet and reface kitchen cabinets. (The kitchen cabinets aren't the best quality and are really messed up).

In the end, we got a GREAT carpet cleaner who has our pet stained carpets looking like new again (we still have to bring them back to do the upstairs. I was giving it time to see if it was true - but yes, the stains are totally gone). SO, we completely crossed "carpet replacement" off of our list (might never do so as long as we can hire these people) and started thinking about the cabinet refacing. We like to do one big project a year, and just spread it out a bit. I suppose cabinets came next into our line of sight once we wrote off the carpet replacement.

But, this year has been crazy, so I think we will put that off to next year. I share because keeping on top of things and being able to be flexible, I think this is also all key to not panicking in times like this. Anything that has to be done, is done, but things that don't *have to* be done, we try to space out as much as possible. I can survive with fading cabinets a little while longer.

Notes on each of the above:

--It's unfortunate that dh's newer TV died, but the older one we were able to fix very inexpensively, all on our own.

Even if we aren't the most handy people, being willing and able to fix things or hire people to fix things, is a HUGE financial savings. (Versus tossing everything that breaks, which many people seem to do).

--Car repair and MRI - these are kind of usual and predictable, but just add to the insanity of this year, I guess. Seems like I have had a $1,000+ bill every single month. Gah. We do have a great very trustworthy independent mechanic to keep our costs way down.

--Vet bills... I think we got off easy with this. Could have been a *lot* worse. This just added to the overall crappiness of the kind of year it has been.

--Computer replacement was more than expected - dh called it the old Frankenstein computer. Which bought us a lot of time. Why did it have to die *now* though? Gah! Dh built his own computer and got something way better for the money.

--Broken stuff:

We have reasonable low-cost contractors we can call for basic repairs. So, did this with the AC, the washer, and our new faucet.

We installed our own garbage disposal. That was a long time in the making, and we had already bought a new one, but it did literally die the end of June, before we had replaced it. It is one of those years!

We had a freezer water leak and fixed it ourselves before calling out any help. (That one was at least easy).

Major plumbing repair was a freak thing, but it happens. That's what "$30,000 saved" should have been for - something like this. We were lucky we had some time to do some research and to gather various quotes and opinions. A truer emergency would have not given us that time.

{This is actually the first time in 12 years of home ownership that I actually felt at a disadvantage for being less handy. It's possible we could have fixed this ourselves, for about 1/10 the cost, but the odds did not seem good. With the way things panned out, I think we made the right choice. I've mostly felt that our other strengths - computer and tax and financial skills - make up for hiring someone for $100 labor here and there}.

--Garage door - it's unfortunate we spent a fair amount of money last year trying to just fix the stupid thing. When it broke this year, even after we had just spent a large sum on plumbing work, we just wanted to replace it and move on. I could not stomach spending one more dollar to just put another bandaid on it. Our only complaint before was that it was loud, and just really cheap quality. It wasn't giving us any issues. But, it just wasn't worth saving, once it broke. I am so happy we ended up replacing it - it cost far less than we were expecting. & Was able to cross that off our more near-term repair list.

--Cell phone - not much to say to that - a freak thing but nothing substantial in the end.

The next question is: Are we done yet??? Because if this is it, I can deal. But, I don't know what else the year has in store.

Aw man, I hate it when I don't get to blogging and there are like 100 things in my head to write about. Then it's overwhelming and I don't blog anything.

**BM's schedule is totally different this year. Which is mostly going well, but lost an hour of lazy morning time. (We are both bummed about that, because are both in the habit of waking up crazy early and enjoying our mornings). But, we will adjust. I will have to ponder what to do for blogging/journal time. Evenings might be okay - it might not be the worst thing to do more productive things in the a.m. (my peak time) and I am kind of useless in the evenings anyway. But if my blogging quality decreases, then I guess that will be why. Won't be very sharp in the evenings. Will just have to play with things and see how it works out. Make new habits and figure something out. In the meantime, I feel out of sorts because my schedule is so thrown off.

**The big financial win? I saved about $25 per month on gas, and 1800 annual miles of the car(s), with a carpool situation. Woohoo!

This was my *bad* thinking: My perfect carpool would just be if someone picked up the kid every afternoon. Since it's just on the way to work, I could do mornings. But no one is going to be able to do afternoons and it's not really the most fair arrangement, so of course this is pure fantasy.

The reality: I should have at least asked around. You never know until you ask!

Anyway, what happened is literally on one of the first days of school, BM's best friend's dad said something like, "This is silly - I have room in my car and am just going over to the other campus" why we were all standing around waiting for the kids to come out. The older kids are at a new location 5 miles way (their school is "musical chairs" until we get a permanent location).

I actually didn't quite jump on that for a few reasons. The topic actually moved on to middle schools and stuff, and I got distracted. I honestly think it totally went over dh's head. Heck, it mostly went over mine.

So I wake up like Tuesday and it pops into my head. Like 5 days after the fact. & I just get it in my craw that we need to work something out. We hadn't considered them at all, because they live kind of out of the way from our own home. But if he could drop the older kid off at the younger kid's school - that is perfect. Then, no gas necessary for us (we walk to that school).

That said, he's Mister Go-Getter and I figured he's arranged some elaborate carpool at this point. The reality? Absolutely no one will carpool with him. Oh, how we love our cars. (Seriously though, don't ask me what everyone is thinking. This like bankruptcy/foreclosure central. People here are broke. & yet we all drive to pick up one kid - it's totally ridiculous).

This is not the end of the story. BM's bestie's family is all way into the carpool thing because dh has generated some very good karma with the "always available for last minute babysitting" thing. So, what they basically tell me is they would prefer to just pick up BM *every single day* if we just can return the favor with some babysitting. Sounds like a match made in heaven. (They really don't ask for much babysitting, and ends up being more play time for the kids than anything else).

So, there you go. Somehow I swung the *perfect carpool* without even trying. Phew!

To adjust to the potential cost and the fleetingness of carpool arrangements, I will probably just put $1 to the mortgage, for every day we don't have to drive BM home, in the interim. Something like that - I will ponder.

**I am tired and it's late, but holy cow the foreclosures are fast and furious these days. More falling dominoes. It really never seems to end around here... I guess more on all that later.

**I don't know if this is a sign that my luck is turning. But, my Zappos credit has still never materialized. I decided to get a few things done today and did an online chat to resolve. I just want my refund, but they were very apologetic and sent me a $35-off coupon. Woohoo! Now I am GLAD it got lost. Heck, I hope they lose my credit again.

I had been waiting for a credit card reward to buy some replacement tennis shoes. Not in sore need for them, but just thinking ahead. My shoes are 3 years old and starting to fall apart a bit. Showing signs of wear, anyway, though I think they have some life left. So, I just bought a replacement pair. $15 out of pocket. I am thrilled with that purchase.

**I got a free offer for a canvas print - Walgreens. I had a few gifts in mind, though I'd have to pay for shipping. Decided to do a print for Grandma - some pictures my dad took of the family a couple of months ago. Was intended to be a gift for her, but not sure if anyone made prints for her. If I ever get another similar offer (who knows) then I have an idea for my Dad. I'd have done an England trip picture, but they didn't really have a good photograph for that. It would have been a nice keepsake if that had a great picture. So yes, I had a LOT of ideas...

**We finally did a belated last minute birthday thing for BM. Spent about $50 for his favorite play place and tried a new Mongolian BBQ place - both about 25 miles away. Dinner was only $5 for the kids - always a steal for us at "All You can Eat" - with the way our kids eat.

So, I can cross that off the list.

**I did not really do a lot this week, but with all the errands and birthday stuff and yadda yadda, it was kind of exhausting. I find work to be way less exhausting, I guess. I thrive on a schedule, so always seem to flounder when I don't have a set schedule.

Today I am trying to be productive. Cleaned up a bit, am making dinner, stuff like that.

**I actually had $130 in returns this week, so might have spent less than I returned. Phew! We spent about $15 on cat stuff, $30 on lunch out (just dh and I), $50 on birthday stuff. $8 (with tip) on haircut for older child. This basically means that I paid for all this stuff last month. The returns will offset the costs this month. I had returned another pair of shoes at Payless, and a garden hose at Home Depot (dh had bought a shorter hose when we had no water, but decided against using it for whatever reason).

I think we are going for a pretty low spend month the rest of the month. Splurged a wee bit on our Staycation. We are actually eating a lot of rice and lentils, for sure.

Oh - and I had one more cost to offset the returns - to make it even steven. Our water bill was +$25. We lost 20,000 gallons with our water leak - is that right? Glad to close that chapter. & relieved it wasn't like $200 or something. !! You hear of that happening with less obvious leaks. It helps to live in a water wasting city - they don't really reward you for conserving or penalize you for tons of waste. So, "phew" for this month?

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I am feeling very relaxed and blase about money stuff these days.

I think two reasons:

1 - We did a "save for one thing at a time" approach, which is helpful when you have $6,000 in entirely unexpected home repairs in the course of a couple of weeks. WE may delay funding ROTHs until April, so we don't have to dip into our cash. (I have until August 31st to pay off the plumbing bill - charged on credit - and will get two more paychecks before then).

Anyway, in this situation, just glad to be saving everything to cash right now. This does not mean our ROTH is a secondary goal by *any* means. Is definitely the primary goal. It's just, if we can wait until April without slowing down any other goals, then that makes us happy. Win-win.

2 - With the markets doing so well these days, and considering the big picture, it's hard to sweat the small stuff. Net worth is up six figures, year-to-date. All in all, not much to complain about.

**Kids went back to school. Our return rate on lost items is officially 100%. A lunch box that disappeared last year (a long time ago?) showed up over the summer. So it got returned to us yesterday (because had our name in it!). Woohoo. OF course, when kids first started school we were way more broke and always made me nervous if they would lose things or whatever. They've both been pretty responsible, but LM does like to misplace his lunchbox. IT's just they always usually turn up much faster. This one had been bought on clearance for Christmas so I wasn't sweating it. In fact, BM had been the one to buy it for him. But, is nice to have it back, for sure! (I had already stocked up on some extras on clearance, so are well stocked for a while).

**Got to check out the new campus situation for older kids, and it is GREAT. It is about 5 miles away, so that part is not so great. Kind of on the way to work, so it's the afternoon pickup that is really a pain. Still plan to work out some carpooling. But anyway, the "parking and walk in" situation is GREAT over there. The last location I basically refused to go over there ever to pick up child. There was ample space to park and walk in, but was just a very dangerous kind of situation. If I had to drive there every day, probably would have been in an accident (or two or three). Having so much room was a bit of a problem because the cars were just pure chaos.

Oh, and in addition, we actually have time to pick up other child. (Allowing more time due to the distance). So, PHEW!! This year should be *much* better. Since it's a normal school on a normal street with normal traffic rules, the chaos factor was significantly reduced. Not that I don't still feel my odds of accident are 100 times higher by any of the schools - those parents are totally insane. !!

With these school situations, it becomes crystal clear that the most basic of thought and planning can improve quality of life very significantly. We arrived a little early and strategized a bit on best place to park. It seems that literally 99% of parents chose to partake in traffic hell. We turned around and parked on the exit side of things. (Everyone parking on the other side of the street got trapped by the massive traffic jam). I only saw two other cars park where we did, which was about 5 feet from the school. If history repeats itself, no one else will *ever* figure it out. (Because getting in and out very quickly, using your own two feet, seems to be too much hassle for the vast majority). I don't understand people.

Oh, and then there was endless ranting online about how horrific the situation was. I thought it was quite pleasant. But, I don't think you could pay me to ever go through a school pickup in a car. I'd go postal.

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**We redeemed a free AC tune-up with our service contract (bought to reduce plumbing costs). They recommended $1200 of work discounted to $1100, on our heating and air systems. $800 AC and $300 Heater.

So, we called out our HVAC guy. He agreed with the AC assessment, but was able to fix it for $600. Phew! In fact, he initially said $450 (same as quoted over phone) but he had not realized we needed some extra parts for this repair. He was able to just fix it while he was here though, so back to 100% function on the AC.

Not surprisingly, he told us the heater repair was completely unnecessary. Heck, he didn't even look at it. So, that was $600 saved with one phone call. I don't even know if it was worth calling out the other guy.

**Taking a Staycation this week. Kids start school, so it's a good week to get a little extra time with them, partake in school activities, and then have some quiet and peace for half the week.

**We did a nice hike on Sunday, as an "end of summer" hoorah. Had a no-spend weekend as our only expense was gas (filled up the empty tank on Monday). My parents felt extra sorry for me and so bought us two meals while we stayed with them.

The hike we did was not far from where I lived through college - had never heard of the place. Figures... Went up in the mountains and there were some pretty crazy rocks for the kids to climb. Probably a dumb time to do something like that, but we all got out in once piece. Phew!!

**Yesterday I took the kids to get their 7%-interest accounts open.

It is all said and done, but because they are "kid accounts" I have to go in person to set up an external transfer account. ??? VERY annoying. & more annoyed that they had not told me this when I was there (I mentioned we had money to transfer over. & since it is the year 2013, I did mean electronically). That said, it appears that the kids can do mobile deposits. Go figure. It's still a pain, because I am trying to write zero checks, and had to write checks for them to deposit. But, I suppose could save us some gas for the long haul. I decided on principal that I did not want to go get my external transfer account set up. At least it's a very local branch.

We are going back today because BM has some coins to deposit. They told me change counting and depositing was free, under $250. Since we don't particularly use cash, we don't have change of that magnitude. Is fine for our needs. (I'd be surprised if each kid had $20 in change). I will have to talk LM into depositing his too.

The 7% is on first $500. BM is already up to $400, and is extremely motivated to get to $500. I don't think it's a 100% bad thing that they literally have to go to the branch to pull money out. Probably a good lesson for them. Though for the long run, they will both have $500 there and will probably save spending money in their other low-interest savings account. (Which I pull money from electronically, when they need it).

Today is quite the errand day, because I have a couple of returns, and am taking BM for his $5.99 hair trim. Meet the teachers, post office, and stuff like that. (Dh sold a game and the kids finished their Birthday Thank Yous. So we figured we'd drop by the post office while we are out).

We'd probably skip today since we know the teachers (one is our immediate neighbor!). BUT, BM is at a new campus and we want to go check that out. They can see where they are sitting and such and where their classrooms are. (The other is walking distance so we will just walk over. Can't say we'd go, otherwise).

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**I mentioned our AC was acting up, and we had bought a service plan to save a significant sum on our plumbing repair. SO, we called them out to tune up the AC yesterday.

I Was a little wary because our strategy (which I got from my dad) is to never tune up anything. Our stuff seems to last longer than average. Though, I admit there can be many reasons for this (one being that we don't throw away broken things; we just fix them). So my dad and I have had discussions about that - how the more you have people knocking around and messing with your stuff, the more seems to go wrong over time. Mainly thinking to appliances and cars.

SO... I wasn't overly thrilled about the whole thing. But, on the flip side, no one has looked at our AC in 12 years (since it was installed). & this was free...

So they came out yesterday and spent a heck of a lot of time fiddling with our AC. Hopefully it was useful at all. They did a thorough testing of everything and generally found nothing wrong (no surprises there since is very efficient and everything; not surprised to hear we have no leaks or so on). But recommended $800 in repairs - I believe it was replacing a couple of parts in the attic (The blower/not the actual AC unit). Overall, said it was a great unit and that they tend to last 20 years. So, phew!! I think it went about as well as it could have, considering we have had problems. We figured something could need repairing, but didn't expect more than a repair.

Oh, they also recommended that we replace a part on our heater.

Since it is mild this week, we went back and forth a bit on it, as this could maybe wait until Fall and lower prices, but decided to call out our AC/Heater guy. It's slow enough that he could come out today. Over the phone he quoted $450 for the same repair. To be fair, he did not look up the specific model, so not holding my breath too much. But would like his opinion, and expect him to be cheaper if the diagnosis is the same.

It's hard to believe that it is that time of year!! This summer definitely flew by for us (BM kept a wee bit busy, so we didn't relax much).

We will plan a staycation of sorts to end the summer. Haven't decided if we will go to the beach or on a different kind of hike. We will definitely enjoy some free nature.

Class rosters were released.

So... This teacher and this principal we know got married and rented a house behind us. When they first moved in we really teased the kids about it. "Your future teacher and/or principal live right behind us!!" When they moved in, the teacher had a new baby and quit working, so I kind of forgot about it over the past year or two.

Had totally forgotten about that, or assume she was retired for a while, or whatever. Well, guess who LM's teacher is next year?? HA! I think that will be a little interesting.

I have no BTS shopping to do. School's only been out a couple of months, so not much has changed (kids are same size; weather is same; backpacks are fine).

I did pay $130 to the school for field trips and supplies. I skipped the older child's field trip fee because it was $200. They are doing some camp thing at the end of the year, so I figured that could wait. Overall, I was pleased because I thought it was more expensive? Will find out more - I know they try to fundraise for a lot of it. I somehow doubt that is all we will have to come up with, for this field trip.

I am not sure if lunch prices are still the same (looks like they are though). The kids have a few dollars in their accounts, so will wait and see what the actual charges are. I generally deposit $100 in August to cover the first half of the school year.

All of the above we save all year for, so not having to come up with the money. I could pay for the field trip(s) today, but rather wait and learn more first.

BM is getting shipped off to a new location a few miles away. It's good in many senses, because they were given an actual *school* location. Last year worked out better than imagined, so trying to be optimistic. (But the building they were in last year really sucked, so glad to be done with that place). I think we are going to have to cave and do the carpool thing. The gas and wear and tear is going to be ridiculous otherwise. We've really resisted having to conform to a schedule and giving up that flexibility. But, it's probably time. On the plus side, though I am not sure how long they will fit at this location (I hope it's more long-term), when the kids are older they may be able to ride home the city bus or just hang out at the library after school or something. IT has some good long-term potential, since the kids might be there until 8th grade.

Well, it is *never* boring here. !!!

I am not sure we had a day of peace since July 23. Yesterday I made it through the day and to the land of zzzzzs without much event. But when the kids went to bed it woke me up, and it was kind of warm. & so I flipped on the A/C (also thinking to cool down the kids' rooms). Dh came up a minute later. I figured he just heard me awake and wanted to say good night or something. Nope. He asked if I turned on the A/C because...

It sounds BROKEN.

Seriously...

Couldn't make it *one* day without finding something broken, calling contractors, researching contractors, or dealing with contractors. At least dh had a bit of a breather - he must be going *insane*. I mostly get to go to work and let him deal with all this. HE at least had a quiet day!

Ironically, we bought some service plan from the plumber, so we figure we will call them out first. It gave us a substantial discount on the plumbing repair, and they would do tune up on all of our major appliances (A/C and heater and I forget what else). I figured we'd just start there because it's free.

I am not utterly and entirely jinxed because tomorrow is supposed to be like 20 degrees below average. PHEW!

Financially, the jinx is annoying me. I had a credit card payment and a mortgage payment lost in space. ??? Could have been the credit union. BUT, then the mortgage payment hit after a week, but they left the extra principal unapplied. ??? I also had two returns to a retailer, shipped. One made it back and was credited about a week ago. The other one is shown as received by tracking, but not on their website, and no credit. *Bangs head on wall* I don't have to pay any bills for about 3 weeks, and I don't intend to. Everything I touch seems to be messed up! The credit card payment did eventually show up, but it seems no avoiding follow up on the other two. [I can't recall *ever* have any problems with any of the above - so this is just crazy}.

Emotionally, I think I checked out quite a while ago. Obviously I have no say in any of this. For anyone who has never particularly read my blog, we tend to keep up on things around the house. IT's not like we keep everything in disrepair. I am not sure if it is just so beyond our control that we don't even *care* any more. OR, there is also that we have dealt with so many health problems (us and loved ones) in recent years, that we just can't muster a lot of emotional energy for this stuff. I don't know. Maybe a little of both. It could be we are just both spent on the emotional front. We lost our pet earlier in the year, we both had loved ones in the hospital, yadda yadda. But I think we both have a renewed perspective that "stuff is stuff" and I can't say we care that much. We have plenty of savings to weather the storm, so no point stressing over it.

We did replace our garage door and that is *divine*. I am not upset about that at all. Forced to do it at a bad time, BUT, it's really nice, and we can cross that off the to-do list.

To be continued...

Murphy is getting on my last nerve. !!!

That is all...

I woke up, and our brand new computer does not seem to be working.

I am hoping the cat just walked behind it and pulled a cable. (Though dh may want to murder the cat if that is the case - he is not appreciating the wild little bugger).

But, anyway, I am not freaking out yet... But the kids suggested we should move. LOL.
!
I hadn't thought about it too much because I am not much of a "past dweller" and tend to take things just one thing at a time. (& I can at least appreciate it is always one thing at a time). BUT, I thought back on the past year, and it has basically been pretty terrible. I think I am *over* 2013!!! I suppose I am reaching the end of my patience with everything.

To be continued...

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Okay, dh woke up and fixed it. Phew!!!! He had plugged something into the computer in regards to his cell phone woes, and that was causing the computer not to boot properly. (Though it did take him a while to figure out and he was freaking out a bit too).

So relieved...

**Well, after about 8 or 9 days, we finally got all our water fixed. Phew!!

We've actually had our water back for a few days, but everything else was endless problem and delays. Having never had a big job like this before, I would say it went about as good as it could have. Especially without having a lot of time to make a big decision! I actually expected much worse (just, you know, talking to anyone who has ever done a big project in their home). The delays were minor annoyances. I am just glad it is 100% over.

I suppose it's only 99% over because we have to get our lawn fixed now. The damage was very minimal, so I am not expecting it will be much money time or effort to get the lawn back to 100%. It's just one more minor annoyance.

**I decided to cash out my Capital One account. I earned $152 for depositing $500 in there (& for getting two referrals). I had to wait 30 days to withdraw the bonus. I was initially planning to close the account. But the interest was not half bad. But then again, I only put it in my name because I planned to close the account. I can probably do better shopping around.

Anyway, with having to pull out so much from savings anyway, decided to just close the account and do some higher interest research. Would like to keep an eye on rates for a while before I jump - I don't want to be stuck with some temporary promotional rate. I don't know if I can improve upon what I already have.

Oh, and I have closed enough bank accounts recently to not expect it to be a big deal. Usually all it takes is an e-mail. BUT, how awesome is this? I transferred all my money out of the account while I was thinking about it, and was thinking of just e-mailing them later to officially close the account. When I did the transfer it automatically closed the account. The End.

I don't do many (any?) bank bonuses because usually there are too many hoops to jump through (particularly since we don't have any direct deposits). But, um, I will take more of these type deals.

**So, Jeffrey posted something interesting in the forums, about a 10% interest rate he found for a child's account.

I wasn't particularly moved because the requirement for 10% was that the parents had to bank at the institution.

But I did peruse this list a little bit out of curiosity:

http://www.depositaccounts.com/savings/childrens-savings-acc...

A local credit union topped the list, but I Wasn't overly sold because it was a CU we ruled out several years ago for being pretty terrible (lots of fees, and very low interest rates).

I didn't see anything on this CU's website about us parents having to have accounts there, so I called today out of curiosity. I figured that had to be the catch, and was pretty sure I did not want to open an account there (if fees outweighed benefits). In the end, they told me the kids could open the accounts without us. Woohoo!! I am so excited about this!

Not only that, but I looked up how long the offer had been on the table, because I didn't want to go through all this hassle for some temporary promotion. Well, I saw 7% going back to 2007 or 2008, so I think it will be worth it...

No fees until the kids are 18. Only the first $500 receives the 7% interest rate. Both my kids have around $250 in their savings accounts. & their accounts will be growing a LOT faster now. We only opened their current accounts to deposit gifts made out to them (at some point our CU stopped letting us cash them or put them in our account). The 1 or 2 or 3 cents of monthly interest was fine for very little kids. But, I think the 7% will be more interesting and motivating for them. & a good lesson for them to shop around. I mean, don't I feel infinitely stupid for not getting them 7% for all these years. Duh!!

Well, I have had some interesting things to share, but am kind of drowning in fiscal bull crap at the moment. Gah! Murphy can move on to the next house now, thanks!

So, yeah, the whining and complaining can wait, and probably a lot of the interesting things I could have blogged about will be forgotten. Oh well!

Anyway, if you have not caught TED Talks on Netflix (or Youtube?) definitely check them out. "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world." I guess there is also Ted.com (where I saw this quote).

We were watching one last night and it was just HILARIOUS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ds7WzVeew

My particularly favorite moment was at 2:42

I think this is extremely relative for personal finance, so had to share.

Gah, What a Week!!!

Dh's cell phone just DIED. We actually tend to keep our phones for 4+ years, and anyway, have aboslutely *never* had a phone die in contract. The phone is 14 months old; warranty is 12 months.

Dh went over to the Sprint store and they are totally insane over there. They think we want to pay $800 up front to keep our cell phone service. The workaround they offered was we could buy a tablet for $450, and pay an additional $5/month for it. But you know, that is what you get when you talk to sales people.

{Maybe the timing isn't half bad with our huge home repair bill. I think dh was in an extra "Are you Insane?!?" kind of mood. Though I think he is peeved enough anyway, regardless of other factors}.

Plan B is to call the retention department. If they rather us walk away and cancel our contract, then whatever. We were quoted $200-ish for that, which is so far by a mile the best option they offered. I find it hard to believe they rather us walk away than find a more sane solution. BUT... I have been surprised before.

Anyway, so I throw this out just to see if anyone has been in this situation and what they did. ?????????? Or any ideas to just get cheaper service??

I am sending him all sorts of Ting links and yadda yadda, but this is still a tough sell for him. He did tell me a new phone was $600 from Ting. I sent him the link for their used phones and told him the rest of us could switch over without buying any phones. I am still not convinced he is being 100% logical. But this is maybe the best bet I have since he is really backed into a corner.

He is so PEEVED that he is seriously talking about going phoneless. This is probably the cheapest option, but not the most helpful from a *boycott* standpoint since we'd have to keep paying his line.

**Well, today is the day. Crossing my fingers that we get our water back. !!! Holding my breath, just hoping there are no surprises and we get everything fixed.

**I need to take BM in for a hair trim, and came across a $5.99 kids' haircut coupon in the mail. Woohoo!

I just went in last month, but it had been so long, and I suddenly felt like my hair was getting scraggly, so didn't think much about paying an entire $15. But now I am feeling foolish for not waiting for a coupon (it was like 1/2 off, for adults - coupons in the mail this week).

**I haven't sorted out August bills yet. I put them all in Quicken, but need to calculate how much to pull from savings for insurance and repairs and such. There's a few small bills due the first of the month that I set to pay online.

Since we charge everything, we use August income to pay for that. The month is not over, but all of our credit cards closed except for the big one. That one goes through the third, but not expecting any more charges on that (aside for this big repair). So, I am looking at August in regards to July spending.

July was kind of interesting because I expected it to be very spendy on the gas side of things. WE drove down to the Bay Area four times. Twice to drop off and pick up BM for his trip. Dh and I both went down separately to hang out with friends. (His friend is moving out of state).

Well, we budget $300 for gas, monthly, which is on the high side, but would cover a month like this (& also covers months of very high gas prices). Our gas spending in July?? $200. Very surprising. That was for one tank of van gas and 4.5 tanks of "gas sipper" gas. Phew!

I am extra relieved because August is not looking a lot better. Dh is going down to the Bay Area for a few days because his friend is having two going away parties (a few nights apart) and he has family/video stuff he can do in between. Then he promised to help friend move on another weekend. I Wanted to go to the beach or something mid-month and am feeling more like we can swing it. Though, don't get me wrong. Our credit card closed for the month and we filled up both vehicles. I think it will be impossible to pull off $200 in August - will have to fill up the van again mid-month.

I did insist on taking the gas sipper down, though we dropped off and picked up family at the airport. IT worked out well, and glad we went through the hassle. LM and I had to be dropped off somewhere for the airport runs, but it was fine. Saved maybe $40 in gas just being a little creative. The default was just going to be to take down the van so that we could all fit.

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If the water gets turned back on I will be doing lots of laundry and cleaning this weekend.

**Well, the child is back from England! That is a whole other thing and wouldn't know where to begin with that, but they had a blast!

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**We have actually managed "low maintenance" home ownership pretty well, for the first 14 years that we have been homeowners. I get a lot of comments that things don't always go as planned. I am well aware of that. But, doesn't mean you can't manage risk and odds.

Anyway, to set the stage, the city had a water main problem and asked us to turn off irrigation on Sunday night. & to use water sparingly. We obliged. Having grown up in drought country, it was a simple adjustment. We still conserve water pretty aggressively, anyway, just out of habit. But, in the meantime, our yard is very dry (it's hot and dry, like it always is during summer). & the laundry and the dishes are piling up...

No sooner than they fix that (late Thursday), then we had a break in our own main water line (to our house). UGH!!

We initially thought it was relatively minor, and we kind of inwardly rolled our eyes at the first in-person quote we got. Unfortunately, it only got worse from there. The diagnosis and the advice has been the same, 100% across the board, so the difference seems to be in the tools available. We had called a big plumbing company out first, because we thought they could come out sooner (which they did), but it turns out they have the tools to do the job with the least cost and disruption to our landscaping. So, after vetting plumbers for 3 days, we went with that option. (Though in general they are known for being way more expensive on smaller jobs). They need two days for permits, so if we are lucky we will get our water back on Wednesday night. Which puts us a full 10 days of super water conserving mode. FUN!

I did water the trees last night and we decided to water the grass with cold shower water. We are borrowing water from their neighbors (a hose is connecting our houses) and trying to run the outside hose made a noise racket, so I don't think the yard will get much more than cold shower water until its fixed. But, at least the trees got some water. The grass can take a lot of abuse, but is also a fire danger. Our lawn/yard is small though, so I figure a little shower water moisture will at least help. Though we aren't planning to take many showers either.

Oh, and the water tastes TERRIBLE (like a garden hose?) and so I will get some bottle water today. I have been melting ice, and will at least get the benefit of Alhambra water at work all week. I will smuggle some of that home too (the boss will understand).

So yeah, FUN times!

We were actually waterless on Thursday night and we stayed at a hotel down the street for $50. If I had any idea we'd have a $5,000 repair job, I never would have done that. But I *really* needed a shower. We should have showered the kids when we were in San Jose yesterday, but was not thinking. (We had to go pick up the child from the airport). But they don't have to go anywhere the next few days, so they will be fine. The dishwasher and the washing machine don't use enough water to really worry about, but are trying to use sparingly, regardless. I am mostly thankful that we can still cook. The water is providing most useful for that, and for the toilets.

Can't really clean or sweat or make more laundry, so going for a low-key "read a lot of books" weekend.

Financially, we have the savings to easily cover this up front, and I think we have plenty of give and take for it not to particularly set us back. I might fund IRAs 3 months later (for 2013), will rethink paying property taxes early, and probably won't get anywhere near our mortgage pay-down goal. But, if we do delay IRA funding by 3 months (push back to April) I still may be able to stick with mortgage and property tax goals. Of course, China trip seems dead in the water, and we were already talking about just sending BM to Japan. I guess that is officially the new plan, because financially that is all we can swing now.

The finances aren't particularly stressing me out. I am more worried about just getting the job done for the quote, and not finding worse problems. Getting our water back will be VERY nice, too. I will probably worry about the finances and figure the rest all out once I know what the final bill is.

In the meantime, I think for the first time I REALLY feel like a homeowner.

**It's hard to sleep in our house these days. LM has not slept very well with his brother gone.

The cat has been a total and complete menace. I have been making sure to exercise him vigorously after work - it seems to be helping.

So, I've got like 3 more night of this? Oy vey. BM come home, so I Can get my sleep back!! Usually no kids or cats bother me. The cat often wakes me up at 5am, but I am an early bird and that doesn't bother me. IT bothers me when he wakes me up at midnight too. He's been just getting into *everything* because he doesn't have his wild play partner to tire him out and occupy him.

**As for BM? He's been gone over a week, and doesn't seem overly keen on coming home. Too bad! LOL.

My dad mentioned going to Japan next year. He is not offering to pay for us, and I am not sure of even the travel logistics of all of us going. I was kind of waiting to see how this trip went, but am thinking that maybe my Dad should just take BM with him. I think they would have a great trip!! So, with how things have gone so far, I am more starting to think it is a GREAT idea.

Actually, both our families have lots of travel on the brain (& seem to think we are made of money all of a sudden???). So we have a LOT to figure out. Sending one off to Japan appeals to me, as far as compromise and most enjoyment. (Dh could maybe go for it, but he is really whiny about traveling without me, and man, I just don't want to go. & dh has already been to Asia a few times, so, I think he will survive). Dh has never been to Europe, and I admit all this England stuff is enticing us. We are very jealous. IF we go to England, maybe he will be okay with just BM going to Japan. I have to talk to my dad about it.

{We were planning to go to China next year, and that is up in the air. Our relative there does not want us to come?? Our parents kind of moved in to fight over our travel dollars - where they want to go and where they think we should spend it in turn. Japan is logical second choice. So, will see. Now I am thinking part Japan/part England, with the China dollars}.

In addition to all this, my dad talked me into visiting my sister next summer, and dh's friend is moving out-of-state and also going to be married in a third state (next summer). I did look at a map to wrap my brain around all this and realized dh's friend is moving 4 hours from my sister. (IT was more a shot in the dark if we could combine any trips, so WOOHOO, glad I thought to check a map)!

For the wedding and the friend and the sister, I am mostly thinking of ditching the kids on those trips, from a financial perspective. Heck, I was thinking "just me" to visit my sister, but now my dh has to go, if his own friend in the vicinity. Travel Destinations: Illinois, Montana, Ohio. (I've generally never known anyone in the "middle north" states, but I guess I do now).

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Home Improvements:

**The carpet is still looking TOTALLY AWESOME. LIKE NEW!! I can't get over it.

I am going to put a way crazy good review on yelp, and talk up this place to everyone I know. & we will hire them again in the fall to do the upstairs. (I was just giving it time, to see if all the stains came back, and to save up pennies for the upstairs. This is no cheap rock bottom carpet cleaner).

**Dh fixed the freezer leak. Thanks to the internet. We gathered a tube was maybe clogged and dh just flushed it with hot water. Easy peasy; problem solved.

**We got our kitchen faucet replaced today. Phew! We had a small leak, so that should clear that up. My dad was impressed we got 12 years out of it, given the hard water.

Got the faucet on Amazon for $160 (stuck with Moen at plumber's recommendation, and kept the super fancy one we already had. Which is probably a common style these days, but wasn't 12 years ago). I picked up $150 Amazon gift cards at the grocery store so I could get 6% back on my credit card. The 6% probably cancels out the tax.

Plumber was $125.

My dad quoted $500; we pulled it off for $285. Phew!! (Difference being mostly "cost of living." I am starting to have an appreciation that "DIY" is maybe more valuable given their zip code. But, I also think my dad is exaggerating in his mind how much it would cost for installation). We didn't shop around too agressively, but Amazon was by far the best price of anything we saw. So sounded fine to us. I sent dh off to some "discount warehouse" where saw the same faucet for $400, for reference.

We obviously weren't going to go for super high quality for something that will barely last a decade. But we are used to a pull-out faucet with different spray settings, so wanted to stick with that.

**The battery went out on my garage door opener remote. Bummer. I really don't recall every losing a battery on the old door, but it it possible I just don't remember. This was annoying because the remote is less than one year old. But, at $3 for a battery, I will get over it.

Whew! What a week! We've been very "On the Go" and/or just a lot of stuff going on.

The older child made it to London, with the Grandparents.

For those who missed it, MIL has been planning this trip like her whole life. She was going on and on about this when I was pregnant with her first Grandchild. She wants to take all her Grandkids "anywhere they choose" on their 10th birthdays. So, BM is the eldest Grandchild, and she is now realizing her big dream. (& she will be busy traveling the next few years, with all the Grandkids so close in age).

Interestingly, for as much as they love to travel, they have never been to Europe before??

Thank Goodness for skype! Actually, he is very mature and adventurous and I am sure he would have been just fine. & it's been so busy here that I have barely had time to miss him. BUT, since we do have skype, he's skyped us about 10 times already, and that is nice too.

**I've made good progress on the kitchen. It's all cleaned out and decluttered.

I've got some more work on the downstairs, but not a lot. (So much for finishing in June. HA! Was felled by illness, and then by heat. Thankfully it cooled off here after the 4th).

I am not planning to move to the upstairs decluttering until fall, so I am happy with progress. Could maybe stand to go through the entire downstairs a second time, before moving on. There is an element of, "I already got piles of stuff sitting out, and don't know how I will find a home for everything." As is, I already set out a second pile of kitchen stuff. Grabbed some of the vases. IT was easier to do so after the first purge left the house. I need to go back through with a more critical thought process.

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**Today I went through the kids' clothes. They are outgrowing the "hand-me-down" stage as they are both practically the same size any more, and no one has given me any hand-me-downs in a while. So, it was a pretty quick task. In fact, usually LM is drowning in hand-me-downs. BUT, his drawers were kind of bare and BM's drawers were spilling over. So we shifted things about - they seem well stocked for clothing. {I've been stocking up on clearance items during the off season. They also don't particularly like pants of long sleeves, so basically all I buy any more is shorts and t-shirts in the winter. The shorts and last a LOT longer than pants, since they grow so much "up" and not "out", so their wardrobe sensibilities are quite frugal}. They might be set until winter.

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If you check the blog links in my sidebar, I have "The Happiest Mom" blog linked (recently changed to "The Happiest Home").

Megan Francis wrote the original blog, and is Amazing. LOVE HER. Kind of a voice of sanity in an insane world.

Anyway, she had an interesting article yesterday:

4 reasons young women are scared to have kids (and why we should knock it off.)

http://www.babble.com/babble-voices/at-large-meagan-francis/...

The whole point is not to encourage people to have children on the super young side. BUT, to point out that our culture is putting unnecessary fear and judgment onto younger parents.

& though I love the likes of MyMoneyBlog and Mr. Money Mustache, it was infinitely more important for us to have a family than to be "be financially independent first." I clearly fall into middle ground, but considering the region I grew up, we were always chastised for settling down crazy early. The reasons for the chastising certainly never made any sense to me.

Some excerpts from the article:

Young adults in the prime of their fertility, not to mention energy levels, who want children, are actually afraid to become parents, believing they’ll feel “ready” down the road sometime…at 30, or 35, or maybe 40.

...And I’m tired of seeing youthful adult parenthood conflated with teen parenthood. I also think teen parents can be and are successful all the time, but comparing a girl of 15 to a woman of 23 makes no sense at all unless you seriously underestimate that woman.

From watching TV and movies, you’d think that the 20s are a magical age, full of self-discovery, maturation, and success in relationships and work. And for some, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean that parenting can’t happen alongside of self-discovery or career success, or that all people are better off having a decade or more of freedom and fun before settling down

there are tradeoffs at both ends of the spectrum. I’ll still be relatively young when my kids leave the house, and I’ll still have plenty of time for fun and freedom – with a little more jingle in my pockets than I would have had in my 20s. And while I did miss out on some partying in my youth, I also know that I spent those years well.

It’s perfectly OK to grow your family’s financial stability alongside your kids. It makes you more creative, more resourceful, and can even lead to some great memories. And if there’s anything this recession has taught us, it’s that no job, no home equity, no investment, is guaranteed anyway.


I particularly like the 3rd and 5th excerpt that I included. Amen!!

**Dh saved a phones message for me today. He said, "Tell me what you hear." Not very clear, but sounded like a focus group offering $700.

Holy Cow!?!

They ruled out dh immediately because he just did that big $400-ish study a couple of months back. (Which I thought was the Holy Grail of focus groups, at the time).

Dh asked if I should call back later, but they said it was for 3 whole week days. I should probably call back and find out more details. As is, it was probably the only 3 week days in the entire next 3 months or so that just don't work for me. FIGURES!!

I don't even know if dh or I would have qualified otherwise, either. IT's probably easy to assume not.

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I saw an interesting point of view that I don't think I thought of before. I saw someone in another forum mention that they had made enough in credit card rewards (in one lifetime) to pay for their last car purchase.

!!!!

I suppose I have done the same...

It's a huge sum and I am aware, but I just never thought of it in exactly those terms. Next time someone bothers me about how we can afford having two cars, I should throw that out there. "Paid for by credit cards." Not quite in the way that sounds.

My LIFETIME credit card rewards? Heck if I know. I've had a rewards credit card for almost 20 years?

Rough and dirty estimate:

$1,000 2013
$7,000 2011 & 2012
$5,000 2006-2010
$1,000 All years prior
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$14,000 LIFETIME TOTAL
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Yup, that more than paid for my current vehicle!!

I just recall credit card rewards ramping up and doing well in the years since I had this blog. Earning $1,000-ish per year. & I have hard figures in this blog for the past two years (which were totally insane). I really don't remember racking up a ton of rewards before that and don't have the records. I am sure I am probably under-estimating though as I remember having 1% cash back. Then again, we didn't charge anything and everything like we do now. Maybe $1,000 is about right, for all the years prior. If there were better rewards to be had, I didn't know and/or I wasn't spending enough to get them. As far as 2013, the year is young.

I have to go wrap my brain around this now. WOW!!

Disclaimer: I have never paid a penalty or a cent of interest to any credit card company. My reward calculations are net of any "annual fees" that I have paid to earn rewards. IF you can't easily beat the credit card companies at their own game, then I wouldn't bother trying. Something like 90% of the population fails. Unfortunately, I understand that sharing my successes might sound like a credit card commercial. If this sounds like a good idea, proceed with extreme caution.

**I was called about a $80 focus group yesterday, but was ruled out because I didn't have a child under the age of 8. This was on my child's 8th birthday. BAH!

**Home repairs are going okay:

---Dh believes he may have fixed the water leak in our freezer. (Just a tube that froze over or got clogged - so poured hot water into it). Will see...

---He called out a plumber who came up with same diagnosis as my dad. We have "really hard water" but it sounds like our parents have harder water. If our faucet lasted 50% longer than theirs.

The cost looks to be about 50% of what my dad quoted to replace - more in line what I expected. {Is this why my dad never hires any help? He thinks it cost way more than it really does? We also have the egde of lower cost of living}.

I don't particularly see the point to get anything really high quality if it will only last a decade with the hard water. Will do a little research and probably just pick up something identical to what we have (is a really nice sink faucet - very functional - I just don't see the point to pay for something like stainless steel, when it comes in a cheaper material).

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**Had a very small shindig on Saturday, for younger child's birthday.

Grocery store finds:

Got two "take and bake" pizzas for $15. These are generally our favorite pizzas. In fact, the kids raved about it. (We don't serve that cheap pizza crap at our house, and the 8-year-old crowd even noticed this).

I decided to check out their ice cream cakes. With a birthday coupon, it was only $15 for a fairly large cake. We got through half of it as of today. Technically we can keep the other half for older child's birthday?

As I said before, these are just coming out of grocery budget. I'd pretty much say that our "birthday spending" was $0.

I wouldn't feel too sorry for him (that we spent so little and did not buy him an actual gift). He was spoiled by many others. I believe he pulled in about $100 from 4 relatives. Plus numerous other gifts and treats.

----------------------------------------------------

**I read some interesting articles on real estate this weekend.

Apparently, the younger generation is looking for more practical home layouts and so home builders are trying to oblige. You can't help but wonder if the pendulum is starting to swing in a more "financially sensible" direction.

Speaking of real estate... Real estate was completely on fire in spring, but nothing is listed for sale in our neighborhood this summer. I can not even imagine what this means for housing prices. (I keep reading that supply is short. & this time it's not the banks controlling the supply, at least not as much). We live in a highly sought neighborhood so I can only imagine the bidding war on the next house that goes up for sale. In the meantime, I am not getting a strong sense of where prices are at the moment. (The last time that *no houses* were listed for sale, was, never?).

I also saw an optimistic article that said first time home buyers were being careful and conservative. & so that maybe this will bode well for long-term housing prices.

I am personally skeptical. It kind of read that people are being more careful than they were in the bubble, but not by a lot. Which kind of reads to me like "more people are starting to save more than average," which is a pretty LOW bar to surpass.

What I see with my own eyes is lots of 0-down loans and very bubble-like activity.

I was disturbed to read that so many people were being "so conservative" but buying VERY expensive homes and buying "10% less than they qualified for." So, this is the bar for conservative? 10% less than they qualified for? Considering low interest rates right now, that just tells me people are still WAY "payment" focused (versus "big picture/total cost" focused).

Using traditional lending standards (not 2005 standards when we could have easily borrowed 20 times our income) and using today's interest rates, by all accounts we spent 40% - 50% less than the mortgage loan we qualified for (considering cost of home when we bought and what it would cost today; considering our income now and then). We had a really unique situation, so that was for a really nice home. We certainly could have gone a heck of a lot more conservative. I admit interest rates and monthly payments were considered, but with our low cost move and feeling like we could very easily afford some VERY nice digs, it helped us to set a price limit to narrow things down. So we did that more than anything. I admit our commitment to find a mortgage we could cover with only one income played a large part in only buying about 50% of what we could afford. Maybe that is the long and the short of it. But I can also very confidently say we weren't so freaking "payment" focused. Our plan was initially to only have a $150k-ish mortgage. I suppose we liked the idea of a VERY LOW mortgage balance, more than anything else.

I am skeptical, but will see.

I am on a roll lately!

I didn't see the $40 Sprint credit hit last month. We both figured it had been too good to be true. The last $40 credit said "4 months credit" so like dh had expected, he thought it was just a 4-month advance on credits. Though he swore customer service had told him $40/month, he was sure he misunderstood.

So imagine my surprise when I got an bill e-mail and the bill was lower by $40. Woohoo!!

Since I now expect the same credit this month too, I added a $80 snowflake to the mortgage ($40 x 2).

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Today my youngest turns 8. You know what that means!?! DONE with car seats.

OMG, we should plan a big plane trip. (I can't believe it - no more traveling with car seats!!)

Dh burst my bubble and pointed out we should check state laws for our road trip. I ignored Florida laws when my eldest was 9, because he is very big and tall and had been out of a carseat for well over a year. (He's almost as tall as me, so if he needs a carseat I need a carseat. Maybe I do need one, but we both have our dignity).

BUT, my 8-year-old is a lot more petite (at 8) and the trip is just in a couple of months. HE will have to understand.

So, we will hold one *nice* carseat for that trip, until I have time to check rules. (If anyone knows rules for Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, just let me know).

But, I think we can definitely sell the other carseat this week. After the big trip, will sell the other one. We also have the cheapie we bought for Florida and will just keep that in the car. Dh has been babysitting younger kids and the cousins could always use a car seat.

**When we went to Florida last fall it was a pretty easy trip but we did literally bring an entire second carry-on for the booster seat. This officially means we can pack very light! & You should have seen the crazy insane crappy car seats we rented over the years while traveling. O.M.G. We tried a few different avenues, but was always some crappy seat from the 1970s or 1980s, no matter what rental service we tried. I didn't trust the airlines with our NICE carseats (for safety reasons they really should be handled very gently). But, looking back, we probably should have just bought a seat for airline travel. (A banged up seat is better than a seat from the 1970s era???) I guess we never traveled enough to justify that kind of purchase, but was always some really horrible experience. Admittedly, the booster seat was no big deal in comparison. But it is one less travel hassle to ever deal with again!!**

**With all the bills I charged this past month (MRI, summer school), I was able to redeem $100 to my ROTH this month.

**I was able to redeem $50 from our gas/groceries rewards, and so I added $50 to my next mortgage payment. (This one was also twice as much as usual, but you can only redeem in $25 increments, and I might have had $24 stored up from prior months. Kind of the same think with my ROTH bonus too).

**Not redeemed yet, but also got $152 in Capital One Bonuses.

My dad also signed up, but did not use my link. (My other friend also did not follow through or use link). SO, thank goodness I found two SA-ers for my bonus. THANK YOU!!

My dad offered to call and explain to get my bonus, but at that point it was only $20 per bonus. I was more concerned about the $76 bonus for two referrals, and so told him not to waste his time. It was okay. If nothing else, I think my Dad does enough for me that I don't want him wasting his time with that. If *I* could have called and taken care of it, I would have taken the $20! But, you know, I just had him wrestling with garbage disposal for several hours, the other day.

----------------------------------------------------

I saw a tip on MyMoneyBlog. I could generally buy Amazon gift cards at grocery stores, and all my grocery store purchases get us 6% cash back. So that translates to a 6% discount on Amazon gift cards.

DUH - Why didn't *I* think of that?

The caveat is there is a $6,000 per year limit on these purchases. But, with our Target grocery shopping, we only do about $5,000 per year at actual grocery stores. So, I think $1,000 per year in Amazon gift cards (or other gift cards) is more than we would ever use. Will have to keep in mind for gifts, too.

Oh, so I had totally forgotten about this tip. Then dh tells me the other day about a convoluted Amazon affiliate thing you can set up to get discounts. Basically, it was recommended to sign up as an affiliate, have your friend sign up as an affiliate, and then buy through each others' links. (Since they generally catch on when you buy through your own affiliate link).

I told dh, "Um, how much would this save?" He said something like on average 4%. (Though sometimes a LOT more).

I said, "Um, or you could just buy Amazon gift cards at the grocery store and save 6%."

So, that jogged my memory...

(Overall, I think the affiliate thing sounds like way more hassle than it is worth).

So, anyway, then MIL said she was going to get the kids some Amazon gift cards for their birthday, so dh offered to pick them up and get reimbursed from her later. He picked up $50 today, so 6% of that will be another $3 to our mortgage in a couple of months. Yay!

**I pulled off a $152 cash bonus with the Capital One Bonus today. Woohoo! That was $152 for about 5 minutes worth of work. (I usually don't pay much attention to bank sign up bonuses, because WAY too many hoops to jump through. But, *this* was about as simple as it gets).

In 30 days I can transfer the money back to my checking account and will no doubt close the account. Though the interest rate is very slightly better than my credit union savings account, is not enough to warrant the increased risk of bank failure, nor the pain of dealing with a "big bank" (which I mostly boycott, except to take their bonuses). So, I will pass.

Oh, I did read some of the fine print on the checking account bonus, and decided to pass. Though I could come up with 5 checks to deposit this month (I am expecting 5 checks), the amount I could transfer out was pretty much "subject to the will of Capital One on whatever given day." So yeah, screw that. I could work around it, but the hassle factor was getting to be WAY too much.

**While in "bonus raining down" mode, I almost pulled the trigger on some credit card sign ups. $400 for the Chase Sapphire really is not bad. BUT, it was recently $500, and I could just see it going back to $500 the minute after I applied. I am going to wait that one out a bit... I also have my eye on the American Express Gold card (neither of us have had for maybe 2+ years). So, these are all double dips that were recently $500/each. I am hoping to get $500 x 3 on these deals. (I already double dipped the Chase, so that one is just for dh).

Waiting and being greedy may fail me. Time will tell...

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**Surviving the heat. IT's getting easier as we get more used to it. 2 more days and nights of this...

Oh, and our AC faltered, but kind of sort of in a good way. We have a dual-zone system in our house, but it stopped working today. The downstairs AC was cooling the whole house. I really thought the kids had turned it on upstairs, until dh explained to me it wasn't working. Is probably working too hard, and murder on our electric bill. BUT, of all the problems to have... We won't bother to get it fixed until it gets WAY cooler. (In fact, I just hope it resets itself tonight once we turn it all off. I can hope).

I have just been crossing fingers that AC powers through, and that electricity stays on. I have heard endless horror stories about $$$$ emergency AC fixing; neighbors and friends. I don't remember ever working our own AC quite this hard. !!

{If our thermostat is the problem, seems it would be pretty easy to fix. Heck, if it keeps doing that tomorrow, we might try to self diagnose the problem. I do really think something crossed and when we turn it all off it will just reset}.

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**Speaking of fixing things...

We got our garbage disposal changed out. Man, what a NIGHTMARE.

I learned some, and invested in some better tools, but I mostly remembered why we don't "DIY." Of course, I expected that to be on the easier side of things, which was the only reason we even bothered the DIY route. (I should have taken up neighbor's offer to do it for free - doh).

I suppose it's good we got that changed out. Because the garbage disposal stopped leaking, but a worse leak (or at least a more awkward/harder to keep dry leak) has developed.

My dad told me it had probably been leaking for a while (masked by the disposal) and that his experience is changing out water faucets every 8-ish years due to the hard water. (This is Mr. "Keep Everything FOREVER"). Gah! Well, the faucet is 12 years old, so I suppose it is about time then. I've been saving to replace all of our (12-year-old) appliances, but I can't say "sink fixtures" was on my list. (Nor would I expect it to be so costly, but my dad may have been quoting "high cost of living" labor factoring how long the same job took with his inexperience. Let us just hope).

Today I found a plumber online, and dh said the leak is getting worse, so he will take care of that, hopefully this week. Will just see what they think the problem is, and go from there. I trust my dad more than any stranger, BUT, am curious to the professional opinion. & if they say that's it, well, I have a good idea that is the problem. (But maybe it will be something simpler?)

It did occur to me that today's bank bonus would at least pay for a fixture replacement (the parts). I'd sure like a nice credit card bonus to cover the labor. That is my other motivation for finding some bonuses. But yeah, I don't really think it will cost as much as my dad thinks it would. We will see.

I just spent about 5 minutes earning $76.

Thanks to creditcardfree!!

I signed up with Capital One. If you deposit $500 into their "360 Savings" account for 30 days, you can withdraw the $76 bonus and close the account afterwards. Like ccfree said, I already have my $76. I just can't withdraw it for 30 days.

Their interest rate is also not bad. 0.74%? There are no fees for this account (just wire transfer fees).

In addition, there are bonuses for referring people. Here is my referral link:

**See Ceejay's blog for referral**

**This $76 offer ends tomorrow. So, you have July 2nd or July 3rd to get the $76 Bonus.**

Definitely not doing much of anything this week. Too hot to move. I accomplished a LOT of reading yesterday.

It's 1-2 weeks to the kids' birthdays, and I decided we should probably plan something.

I usually don't think much about gifts. The kids get totally spoiled by in-laws, and dh is way more into "gifts" anyway. I was surprised and relieved when he agreed we would get the kids no birthday gifts this year. Phew!! We had bought them sleeping bags very early in the year (wanted them for camp), and dh just handed down his computer to them and bought them a new graphics card. Dh puts more meaning on opening actual gifts on birthdays and holidays. So I was relieved he didn't want to buy more crap just so they would have something physical to open on their birthdays.

BM wants to check out an indoor play place that opened closer to our home. Not as nice as the one they LOVE about 20 miles away, but they have more open play areas and food, so bodes better for an unofficial birthday party. I saw they were advertising cool AC and yadda yadda today, and lord knows the kids could run off some of their pent up energy. So we will go spend a few hours there today. If he likes the place okay, maybe we can do something during the week. Otherwise, it will have to wait for his return from Europe.

I'm fine with dropping in the other place 20 miles away, because the kids love it so much, but they never have any open play hours. Too many birthday parties... I've had miscommunications with them on open hours too, so is really a pain to drive there and find out they are closing in an hour...

So, I hope the closer place appeases him from a "invite a couple of friends and call it a party" standpoint.

LM opted for an at-home video game party. I was able to confirm availability of his best friend, so will plan something for next weekend. We've made ice cream cake in the past, so will look up a simple recipe. It is the only thing that sounds appealing in this heat. It sounds like we can squeeze a simple low-key LM party out of the regular grocery and food budget. BM's might cost a wee bit more if we do the destination thing, but probably the cheapest party year we have had in a long time. Seems to get simpler with age. Less family, less adults tagging along, etc. So, I guess I am feeling relieved how much thought and energy (and $$) I had to put into all this. Phew!