I suppose no one really wants to hear it - but the California girl is in the midst of weather blahs.

Camp was totally ruined this year because it rained the entire 72 hours or so that we were there. I suppose it did clear up the last morning so that we had a beautiful drive home...

I saw the entire week was going to be 100F+ degrees, now that we are home. BUT, I just peeked at the weather and it is OMG! Worse than I saw before:



I am just going to cross my fingers that the electricity stays on.

Anyway, so between trying to stay dry in the woods, and now suffering in the heat, it's a little jekyl and hide with the weather.

I am just strategizing how to keep cool. I just told dh that we should probably plan to do some microwave cooking. I've been closing blinds, drapes and doors, so the middle of the house stays a wee bit cooler. Of course, I will be making smoothies and we will be spending our evenings by the pool. (The days are too hot, and there is not much shade by the HOA pool, so kind of useless to go during the day). Who knows how cool and refreshing the pool will even be by the end of this heat wave...

The nights are always the worst on weeks like this. I am not expecting to get a lot of good sleep...

**Two posts for one morning - just FYI if you want to read my last more philisophical post - might be good for newbies.

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**Gearing up for camp. It's a relief to not worry about camp being under 10-feet-of-snow in May or June. I won't have to worry about the mud (tracking it everywhere; driving in it, slipping and sliding our vehicle through it).

We camp annually near Tahoe with parents and some extended family. (It's "Family Camp" where they provide food, cabins, activities for kids). So yeah, I don't have to do a lot to gear up. Dh checked our bug spray and sunblock levels and I noted we need to find our flashlights.

**We bought a new garbage disposal a couple of months ago. Dh feels mostly comfortable with the installation, but had concerns about the electrical side of things. So we just had asked if my dad could help us before or after camp. (He is staying with us the night before, and we will drive him there from our home). In the meantime, the disposal died in a totally bad way. (IT's difficult and it jams at times, but no idea what this latest problem is). So, I suppose the timing will be good. Could be better, but at least it's not like we won't see my Dad for weeks...

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**BM's first summer class wrapped up. He will get a "grade," but I don't know when.

Dh and LM did well filling time, waiting, and saving gas. (Probably hardly worth the time to drive home and back, anyway).

This program is at the local University, and meant on some level to familiarize the kids with a University setting. It's interesting because LM has gotten so much out of it, tagging along. He particularly likes the video game room in the student union. $2.50/hour to play - dh obliged him a bit.

They've also been reading a lot and designing LM's board game.

Yesterday dh took some time to run a few errands:

He sold some video games to the used store (they generally take music and games and books). He's got some others to sell on Amazon.

He's got a few books he had been unable to unload, so took them to a used book store in the area. Got rid of a bunch of books in exchange for $5 cash and a couple of books. (Credit would have been better, but we just dont' buy paper books any more. He did pick up a couple of books that he couldn't find at the library; I am sure we will sell them back later).

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In two weeks my baby turns 8. In three weeks my other baby turns 10, and he leaves for England. My MIL must be *freaking out*. It has been like her lifelong dream to take her grandchildren "anywhere in the world" (their choosing) when they turn 10.

Anyway, BM is the eldest grandchild. She has been talking about this since I was like 5 minutes pregnant, so I know she is just bursting at the seams.

As much as my in-laws do love to travel, they have never been to Europe. I find that kind of weird. Surprising... But, I guess it will be quite an experience for them all.

For BM, I don't think we really had any clarity until the past 12 months or so about what he would actually pick.

So, lord knows what LM will decide. The other day we were talking about Italy. (I think it came up because we were eating gelato). A bell kind of went off in my head, well that might be *it* for him. But, probably too early to tell.

Anyway, I just have no idea how I have a 10-year-old. !!

The in-laws don't have particularly deep pockets. They do have a lot of timeshare points and airline miles. I think her offer really reads more, "I will take you anywhere *affordable* for your 10th birthday" than literally "anywhere in the world." I am sure they will be spending money we couldn't possibly justify at this stage in our lives. So, definitely an awesome opportunity for the kids.

There was a conversation in the forums about the difference between incomes.

I personally can't take these conversations at face value. I know way too many people who make way more money than me, but who do not enjoy any financial edge. Fiscal inefficiency. Maybe it's more obvious in the region we live in; in the situation we find ourselves in. People tend to be very open with me about their finances. (Either asking for advice after knowing us for a long period of time, or just on a professional level - asking for tax advice). So I see real numbers across a wide variety of households.

If I completely exclude daycare out of the equation, I Can still live exactly the same lifestyle as someone who makes $50,000 more than I. With an extra $50k in income, about an additional $25,000 of that would go to taxes; income taxes and social security. In addition, most people around here are paying an additional $2,000-ish per month for their homes. (If I threw in daycare and working expenses I could probably make this a $75,000 income difference. Double the income, same exact freaking lifestyle!! But I am leaving that out because daycare is more a temporary situation).

Anyway, why so much more on the cost of housing? They didn't put money down. They don't have good credit, and so they pay more interest. They pay PMI. They bought higher. Etc., etc., etc. This one particularly stands out because of the comments we have gotten over the years. No one has any idea how we afford our house - they all imagine it costs us 2-3 times as much than it actually does.

This situation didn't just fall out of the sky. We grew up near San Francisco and knew likely 75% of our income would go to afford a roof over our head. We put a heck of a lot of work, effort, thought and strategy to manage housing costs. Definitely a lot of thinking outside the box.

So anyway:

Pay + $25,000 in taxes
Pay + $25,000 in housing costs
= +$50,000 expenses for the same exact lifestyle

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Anyway, here is a re-post of an older blog post of mine, which this all reminded me of:

So, joan asked an interesting question a while back when I mentioned a mix up between us and another family struggling financially. She legimitimately asked if we *looked poor* or could be *mistaken as poor* by the impression we give off. In this case, was just an e-mail mix up.

But, I think this is an interesting question. Why, if someone is frugal, are they perceived to be so cheap that they must stick out and have a miserable life? Not that joan was saying all that. BUT, I do find that people treat me VERY different on the internet at times, than they do on real life.

The truth is, we fit in QUITE well. Very well. To the point where most people think we are just rich tightwads. Because clearly it is ridiculous that we would watch our pennies so much. (To most people, they don't seem to understand the cause and effect. I'd sum it up as saving money on stuff we don't care about so we have more to spend on the stuff we do care about).

These are the things people will never notice:

**How much stuff we buy used, hand-me-down clothes, hand-me-down furniture. We are big fans of *barely used* goods. I can assure you that no one would ever know if we didn't tell.

**That we eat most our meals at home.

**I delight in finding birthday presents that look REALLY expensive but only cost $5-$10 (on deep discount, of course).

**That when we vacation we make frugal choices - like drive and stay at Motel 6. No one sees that - all they know if that you went to some exciting destination they couldn't afford (i.e. they couldn't afford flying too and staying at a luxury hotel - usually what that seems to mean).

**That I don't spend a fortune on beauty products. Online this is met with *horror.* In person I am often told, "Well - you are lucky you don't *need* it." As if everyone needs hundreds of dollars of beauty products and spa treatments to pass in society.

I do admit everyone thinks we just buy used cars because we are ridiculously cheap (and crazy). They couldn't possibly fathom how much we save (since we are usually told that *old cars cost more*). At the end of the day, my car doesn't come up much anyway. Few people do seem to notice the car situation. Likewise, the few friends I drive around in my van know we paid cash for it and they can't wrap their brain around that anyway. (We bought the van when my youngest was about one, immediately after my long maternity leave, with dh long-term unemployed. I Got a lot of comments - it never occurred to anyone we bought a used vehicle. I know part of the reason no one can wrap their brain around it is because they all think we bought a brand new $24k-ish vehicle that actually cost us about $12k because it was one-year-old. OF course it would have been ridiculous for us to pay $24,000 cash for a vehicle, at that time in our lives).

I admit we are in a unique position since we moved to a low cost area. So, this translates into maybe owning in a prestigious neighborhood, while having the lowest mortgage of anyone we know. Most assumptions are we are about to foreclose like 95% of our neighbors, that we are rich, or that we made a fortune on Bay Area real estate. The truth is that a $300k house feels extremely reasonable to us compared to what we are used to, and that we put 25% down, never borrowed against the home, and have a low fixed mortgage rate. The home was a lateral move from a $290k-ish condo we made no money on. No one else seems to comprehend how we could not be upside down. To be fair, buying price is ALWAYS assumed to be much higher than we paid. We bought the house because it was an awesome deal. Since it was new construction, we locked the price in much lower to what it was even worth when we eventually moved in. For a while (years), when the models were still open, everyone would comment, "I could never afford this neighborhood" after stopping to tour the models. But they seemed completely deaf when we would laugh and reply, "neither could we at THOSE prices."

Then there is the whole *hubby stays home* thing. No one will accuse us of being poor as long as that is a fact. You have to be lucky and rich to manage that, of course. Do you think all of our Joneses type friends can even fathom living on one income? If I opened up my tax returns I think most my friends would faint dead away. (Because of how low our income is, versus assumptions and expectations).

I think for the most part we can figure out how to have whatever we want, cheaper. Whether it be a good eduction (primary or college), a reliable car, a nice home, or whatever it may be. One interesting thing with the kids is dh's love of video games and the prevalence of them around the house. Yes, I'd think it would probably be ridiculous to give my 5-year-old a brand new Nintendo DS, but both kids have a DS and a PSP at their disposal. Cost? Free. As such, they fit in quite well with all the kids and their new game systems.

I remember one day when LM was younger and we were waiting at one of BM's extra-curricular classes. I pulled out a zip lock just bursting at the seams full of games for his Leap Frog. I looked at it, probably for the first time, and thought, "Where the hell did all these games come from?" I had probably paid for just a few games over the years. I was keenly aware that other people must be thinking I was carrying around thousands of dollars of games around, when really it was probably no more than $100 to us.

Anyway, it isn't really hard to fit in. I've got a college degree, a nice home, reliable cars, furniture, appliances, clothing, etc. IT all looks the same as what everyone else has got, for the most part. I can assure we paid very little compared to average for most of the things we own.

So, I had to giggle a bit to myself when joan asked, though I Wasn't surprised at the question. I think if our passions were different, and we didn't have the whole benefit of the low cost of living thing, my experience may be very different. (We maybe would have bought a much more modest home if we didn't perceive this home to be so "cheap." If our passions were not so much on the electronic side, we might not own many of the electronics that make it appear we "keep up.")

I think also we are very moderate. I can think of a few people who are stingy to an extreme. Some have come across very poor when they weren't poor at all. I can't imagine ever being so extreme - in either direction.


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Mr. Money Mustache also says it very well:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/01/raising-a-family-o...

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I think these are important to share for motivation and perspective. Why would anyone be frugal? Because it can be extremely rewarding!

I don't particularly look at my credit card statements, because I download everything. So basically, I find statements to be rather useless in this day and age, and for my own purposes.

So these newer disclosures kind of trip me up when I see them:



O.M.G. The balance on this card was about $1,425. (Minimum payment of $25?)



Well, at least my month of Target groceries could be paid off in 5 months. Doesn't sound so bad in comparison.

I tried to look at my CU Visa credit card and I could not access them. I wonder if I have *ever* looked at them???

For reference, I have always carried credit cards for rewards and convenience. I have never in my life charged a penny that I didn't already have the cash to cover. So, these balances are all paid off each and every month. The idea of taking 12 years to pay off one month of expenses makes my skin crawl.

The theme is college.

BM is taking his first "college class" this week. Thankfully, we were able to get two $10 weekly parking permits (for the two weeks of classes). Dh decided to just take him and stay and wait, since it was enough out of the way. I think more carpool opportunities might open up in the next couple of years. I think the program will generate more interest at the middle school level.

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I think this post might explain why I am a little blase about the cost of college.

I received an article from my alma mater about how they had made the top of the list as far as "colleges with best returns."

31 Public colleges in our state made the list, called the 20-30 Club, because they offer an average annual tuition of less than $20,000 and an average post-college entry-level salary of over $30,000. I think the only reason some public colleges did not make the list (since they are all priced the same at each particular level) is because they were in areas (regionally and/or educationally focused) with lower starting salaries. {Even some comminunity colleges made the list}.

But, the thing was, most the colleges cost $1,000 (community college) or $5,000 (State University) on an annual basis. & the average starting salary was $50,000+. Especially around the region we live in. So, some of the colleges could be in the 5-50 club.

In fact, I am not even sure why they bothered with the 20-30 concept, except maybe just comparative to some national standard. The most expensive public college on the list was $11,000 per year.

So, there you have it, I am not getting worked up about it. Actually, with two kids so close in age, and due to recent college input regionally, I am leaning towards community college for both kids. I am very much a "will cross that bridge when we come to it" type, but also obviously, "plan ahead and keep my ears open." So, it's not like I expect today's college and economic landscape to be the same in another 6 or 7 years. But, I am taking note and just making sure we are prepared as can be.

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I believe we had a no-spend weekend. We hit the pool Sunday morning to give the Dad some peace and quiet. We had the pool to ourselves. It was lovely, and very peaceful.

I did spend some time getting organized and made progress on the kitchen.

Yesterday was payday. My remote deposit will hit this a.m. and I will pay off the big credit card. That's it until next payday. 1st of the month is all the rest of our financial doings (savings transfers, pay mortgage, and a few little bills I can't charge, and pay off all the small credit cards). I actually don't have anything in my finances "automated." But, yes, it is very simplified.

**School is out - the kids get about 8 weeks of break.

Their report cards were *perfect* and LM wrapped another teacher around his finger. I keep feeling every year we have nowhere to go but down. But for now we still get to ride this wave. I am particularly proud of BM, who after having one teach for *3 years*, changed school campuses (same school/split campus), had a new teacher, and had his class size increased by 50%. Wasn't entirely like going to a new school, but must have felt a lot like it. He did exceptional with all the change.

So the kids asked if they could get some frozen yogurt the last day of school, and we obliged.

The crap they brought home from school this year was insane. I even wonder if the teachers took care of this in the past (or recycled supplies more)? I can't say it would have been my first goal to go through it all BUT we had some friends staying over the following night, so we were already in cleanup mode. So, I am pleased to say we went through everything and it is done.

They brought home about 50 more pencils. O.M.G. Thank goodness I had purged all the "new" and "like new" ones to LM's teacher a few weeks back.

I just need to take the time to freecycle some of this stuff.

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Summer plans?

Well, we have the pool, first and foremost (it's a couple of blocks from our house, part of HOA).

I commented on another blog that we usually have a few memberships here and there (museum, parks, etc.). But, I don't believe we have any right now? I suppose overall have just been too busy to enjoy. I tend to let them expire and then renew when we use them (to lessen the cost over time).

BM only has a couple of weeks of downtime. 2 weeks of summer classes and 2 weeks in Europe. One week at camp.

DH realizes he will have a lot of time with LM so was thinking about what he could do with him. He is going to help him design his own board game. (LM is totally game obsessed and always making up games, so dh will help him realize a game in physical form). There are companies that will print customized board games and stuff, but will probably be more of a card and a dice type game. Which will be easier to just make at home. We can maybe order him some special dice.

In addition, dh is implementing a reading reward system. (He loves to read, but given the choice, he'd just play video games and board games all day, so dh is trying to fool him into thinking it is his choice to read. Versus like forcing him to read every day, which would defeat the purpose if he only views it as a chore).

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This weekend is kind of an organization weekend, for me. I need to complete the downstairs decluttering/cleaning and we need to discuss updating the kids chores and stuff. I just want to make a list of what needs to get done and see where we are at. I am feeling refreshed and motivated because the house is already clean. Phew!!

I took a half day off work on the kids' last day of school, and it just turned out a friend of ours needed a place to stay the next night. But it's rare to go into the weekend with the house SO clean. So I am more energized to do extra chores. I am hoping this is the last weekend of this. Though I like keeping on top of things, the idea of endlessly de-cluttering makes me want to go live in a tent. The more I age the more I feel like this. I still can't get over that we have been in such a purge mode since we had kids, and how we still have so much crap a decade later. *sigh* That said, I think it will be 1,000 times easier once the kids are grown and gone. They are just "stuff" magnets - I don't know what it is.

We were just watching some home videos, and the house looked pretty immaculate when the kids were little. I've always been clear that I am not a neat freak in the slightest. The only thing I could figure was that we didn't have such an avalanche of stuff.

Case in point - the last day of school:



So, I suppose it's a silver lining that it eventually will ease up. That eventually mountains of pencils and paper will stop "falling from the sky."

Anyway, when we finish with the downstairs, I will take a break until Fall. Fall will be the upstairs de-clutter. All I have is our bedroom and closet, and some office space I have at the top of the stairs. Dh already hit his room pretty hard to make room for the music equipment, and while at it we will go through the kids' rooms. We generally keep pretty on top of toys and clothes, BUT BM is a little hoarder. There's probably quite a mess in his room. I don't expect the upstairs to be half as much as the downstairs. But, will see!!

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Oh, and I just remembered. LM lost his lunch box. 5 years of school, and I believe this is the first item we lost. (He lost it a couple of times but we found it every other time). IT was bought on clearance for a few dollars, and I have some extras, so we will survive.

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Next post: Spending doings and some college updates. If I get to it...

Gah, I am so behind on posting. So this post will be a hodge podge...

**Set out a bunch of Goodwill bags on Memorial Day, so that was awesome. Feeling lighter...

**I suppose my declutter efforts were maybe subconsciously spurred. Our recycle pickup will only be "every other week" starting in July. I've been tossing those bags of cans into the recycle bin every week and have one more left. Phew!! (I just threw one in this week but it won't get picked up until Thursday, so two more weeks of a full can??). We have some boxes, but my work has a recycle dumpster, which I suppose we may utilize more with this change. I asked dh to put any boxes we have in the van (over the weekend) and I will take them to work on Monday.

The garage could use a good bicycle and paint/chemical purge. Will aim to get that done this summer. Other than that, there's not a lot and we mostly store cars in the garage. Getting rid of so many bags of cans freed up a lot of space.

**I've still got a big bag of shoes to recycle. We decided that we will be in the general area (or that it's kind of on the way) when we take BM to University summer classes. So, we can maybe get rid of those in a couple of weeks.

**I've arranged for cat boarding while we are at camp. Will see how that goes. I hope it goes well. If it does go well, I will reserve his stay for our October road trip. I am crossing my fingers that he gets along with the other cats. If he does, it seems they don't particularly leave them in their cages (& so the nicer/big rooms would just be a waste of money, unless a cat was particularly anti-social and had to be locked up the whole time).

I don't know if boarding will always be necessary for our June camping trip, but I think it's wise while we are still adjusting to him, and will be a good trial run for checking out the boarding place. I am not really expecting to board him every time we leave for 3 nights.

We left him overnight last weekend and he did fine. Phew!! (I was a little wary of what he would do if he got too bored alone, and we have kind of spoiled him because don't think we had ever left him alone any length of time).

We will have plenty of opportunity to leave him for two nights - that will be the next test...

**Dh is doing the Scholastic thing the next couple of weeks and so we will ply the kids' teachers with tons of gift cerrtificates. (Like worth $150 retail, each). So, not really planning any "end of year" expenditures.

Oh, the school got cheap and cancelled their "last day of school" BBQ. What is that about!?! I totally understand, but think it's a shame that they aren't doing that for the kids. I always went the last day of school for the free food. Now I am thinking I will go because it's just been tradition for so long that I do show up. But we got this nice little note to bring our own food. LOL. I suppose I should just be happy that they are still doing anything. It's a BYO-picnic thing. I am sure that will be fun too. I just wish they would do the BBQ for the kids and forget the parents. The kids always LOVE it. I suppose it's fair enough that we may have 3 times the kids now that we did 5 years ago. We keep adding new classes and grades. The more I think about it the more understanding I am about the situation. We will make it a nice picnic for the kids.

**LM's second grade teacher is so awesome. We got the CUTEST Mother's Day gifts ever. The last couple of teacher tried to do a nice Mother's Day tea or this or that, but it was kind of torture because there was always the kid crying through the whole thing because his mommy couldn't show up. *sigh* NOT exactly fun. Cute in theory, but never fun. So this year I get this "recipe book" put together by the kids. O.M.G. It is hilarious. They wrote down all their favorite recipes off the top of their head and drew pictures. So lots of very cute wording and missed steps, and "serves 100," and hilarious reading.

I tried not to assume too much about all the "Get the pizza out of the freezer" recipes, because my child chose boxed max and cheese for his recipe.

Oh, so anyway, the kids made a joke book for Father's Day. I haven't read through that one yet, but it also looks to be a crackup. These gifts are SO precious!

**Dh and I made it to cooking school for lunch this week. I lucked out. IT was hard to get into for a while so we kind of gave up. I called Tuesday and asked on a whim if I could get in Wednesday. I could!!! I then asked about next week because I had forgotten some last minute work meeting. They said, "Nope, we will be closed for the semester." Crap!! So we reworked Wednesday. I was a little late and dh had to leave before the check came, and it was a little rushed, but did not want to have to wait until fall. So that was our nice last date of the year. I don't think we did many (any?) during tax season so maybe we can do another lunch date next week.

Actually, the food was kind of "meh" on Wednesday. Maybe we won't go the last day of the school year, next time. We theorized they were using up whatever was left in the kitchen. Though dh had some chicken that was *divine.* I had a "meh" Cobb Salad, but the bacon in it was the best bacon I have ever had. So, it was hit and miss like that. Usually everything is so A+. (I only got the salad because the menu didn't really appeal to me very much. I would have gotten the chicken if I knew it was SO GOOD - they didn't sell it very well in the menu).

**June will not be cheap. Correction: July will not be cheap! I have a MRI bill to pay ($1,500) and $600 due to the University for college classes. I will charge them in June and pay them off in July.

I think our cash will tread water if nothing else comes up. But heck, what are the odds of that?

I updated sidebar, and am not feeling terribly enthused with my grand mortgage goals. (Though everything else is well on track - will throw all savings to the ROTHs for the rest of the year to max them out). BUT, the year is young, so I have not given up. I am hoping for some credit card rewards, and so on. Actually, I find that making the goals is often 90% of the battle. With the caveat that they can't be crazy unrealistic goals. But I feel like my subconscious is figuring it out while my realistic brain is feeling very "yeah right..." right now. Subconscious brain usually figures it out.

**I failed on my May declutter goals because I was sick the last week of May? Mostly was in bed for Memorial Day weekend. Last weekend we had a big family thing out of town. This weekend!?! I should probably tackle it and be done with it... Will see.

**I think it's supposed to be crazy hot this weekend. Interestingly, we have had several mild summers. To the point where I don't remember the last time it was 107F, or whatever it is supposed to be. (Though 100+ usually pretty standard summer weather, otherwise). {Yes, our weather tends to run OPPOSITE most the rest of the country, in recent years. So thank you for the very mild summers? }

Yeah, I don't know if I will get much done... Might get the heck out of town. This might be a better "go to the beach" type weekend. San Francisco is 30 degrees cooler, at the moment.

We had an interesting dinner last night. Sausage-stuffed acorn squash. VERY good! Interesting, just because it was very different - had a lot of different flavors.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/sausage-stuffed-acorn-squ...

Squash seems to becoming a large staple in our diet. (Love butternut squash soup, dh has been experimenting with acorn squash of late, and spaghetti squash is one of our more recent finds).

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While sitting here and typing I kicked the cat out of the room because he was so insistent on taking a nap on the keyboard.

So... He instead figured out how to open the traditional round door knob to get back in. OMG. He is quite the little trouble maker. (Dh and I were just talking about this the other day. I said Siamese cats can easily handle lever door knobs - though I have yet to see him try because we don't leave many doors closed in the house. Dh said "at least the theater room has a round door knob." Since the cat seems to have a lot to get into in this room. HA!)

I totally forgot in my last snowflake post...

Dh got a $40 credit from Sprint last month. Supposedly they are giving him $40/month for 4 months. Which is unfortunate, because I think this is them unofficially admitting that they expect their network to totally suck for 4 more months. Lip service says we get 4G "tomorrow." (Which is what they have been saying for a solid year).

Anyway, I was assuming we'd split that with my parents, since we split the bill, but dh just pointed out yesterday that's his portion of the bill for crappy service. He's only complained about his phone. He has a point. My dad lives in another city and so is getting 4G already.

So, I will leave that up to my parents, but it sounds like it is probably a $40 snow flake for us. Maybe $160 over 4 months. I will add these $40 snowflakes to the mortgage.

The month is over so I have the following snowflakes to redeem:

**$50 to ROTH (credit card reward) - I've hit $50 every month this year, and will continue. In May we charged a computer and for June I have a $1500 MRI bill due. {Otherwise mostly charge health insurance on this card}

**$50 to mortgage (credit card reward) - I changed the due date on this credit card and so it did a 2-month cycle - the rewards are generally $25/month {Gas/grocery card}

**Monthly interest (Added to savings) is in the $15 range these days

**I overpaid piano teacher in May (Memorial Day was off) and she didn't get me the piano book $$ I owed her until today. She e-mailed me, but the payment had already been sent out for June. So, I will have a $25 snowflake in August when I subtract the over-payment net of books. I will add it to the mortgage at that time. We moved the kids' lessons to Mondays and we should have more snowflakes like this. Every Monday Holiday is $40 in my pocket. {I was expecting the books to kind of offset, but forgot I am paying for two kids for lessons - which is much more than the cost of two books}.

She also told me she is taking July off. MIL pays for the kids' lessons, so I will still have a $160 check for that. I'd generally throw this at the mortgage, but I've already got a few ideas for this. Dh was asking if we should get a new graphics card for their computer hand-me-down or wait until birthday. $70. We were going to treat LM to *whatever* in July when his brother is in Europe. He may be easy to please (like, McDonalds), but this will buy him some more options. He still may be easy to please. Will see.

Oh, and my first thought was, "Wala - cat boarding money!" & then some... Which reminds me, I will have to check if they take credit cards when I tour the place tomorrow. *Please Please Please!!*

Yes, that $160 will go fast. Sorry mortgage...

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I've stayed out of the credit card fray for a while. Letting our FICOs recover and just surviving tax season, anyway.

But, I was motivated to try to pay for the new computer with credit card rewards. I found a few rewards, but when I clicked on the links none of the supposedly current bonuses were not showing on the credit card applicaitons. So I gave up last weekend. I will maybe try again next week. I have a couple of big payments due in June (MRI and summer classes), and so also why I Was thinking about it. I may bide my time for better reward options instead. I see I just missed a $500 Sapphire offer by a month or two. It will probably come back, so will wait for that one. I haven't double dipped the Citi yet. Nor the Southwest Chase cards (we could both try). We both haven't done the AmEx Gold in a few (or several) years. For now, am not going to do anything for less than $250. A $400 sapphire Chase reward plus a couple of $250 rewards would pay for the computer. So that will be my goal for this year. Though I am going to wait to try $500 + $250 OR $500 + $500.

Dh has gotten nothing from Citi but 0% balance transfer offers, for a long time. HE just got a $150 bonus offer. *yawn* Waiting for them to entice him with something better. It would be a triple dip, so isn't on the top of my radar - lots of double dips to try first.

Nothing in particular; just the sum of all the parts. Tuesday was such a *Monday* at work. A Monday with a full moon. At least yesterday was quiet and I accomplished something. Yeesh.

The kids have this and that going on. Dh put together my elliptical and is now putting together his new computer. So today it looks like a computer parts store threw up in my house.

The elliptical is okay. I can see the benefits, and it is thankfully quiet, but doubt it will entice me to quit the gym. I tried... I just don't want to invest the money, man power, hassle and space to get a gym-quality machine. & I won't be happy with anything less. This is making my $15/month gym membership seem extra valuable. So for that, it is all good.

New cat is keeping us on our toes. He's mostly a well-behaved love. Especially since we have so many people and activity to occupy him. (I could see him easily being bored and in much trouble, otherwise). But, he did almost literally kill himself in the blind cords (I have the childproof cord winders and went through checking them all and installing after that incident - just glad he is okay). HE also tried to run off with our thawing chicken the other night. It was pretty frozen still so he didn't get very far with it. He is serving his purpose - more laughter and lighter hearts - has really helped with the mourning process of losing our pet.

This weekend I have an appointment to check out a local boarding place. Since my set point is about $0 - it is $$$$$ - but we wanted the freedom to travel if we picked up another pet, so it is what it is. The place is pretty cheap and close to home (though extremely highly rated).

He is also a total pig; eating me out of house and home - a good match for my children (boy do they all have some metabolisms! - but their energy level at least matches). Though we are going to take him to the vet re: that. I think it's possible could be sign of medical condition. I think it's a little bit of everything (Was probably neglected in the past and hoarding food, plus high energy). BUT, he also produces so much waste - I do not know if that is over-eating or if could be sign of something else going on. We've had him 30 days and he has not seemed to have gained or lost an ounce, but admittedly I am very much monitoring his food. I have still been feeding him well above average. I just wanted to make sure we weren't over-feeding him. We don't seem to be. I suppose I can relax that we are not starving him either. Because like my children, he acts starved when you only feed him 2-3 times what is recommended.

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I am no longer sad we missed Weird Al concert last year for bajillion dollars. We just snagged great fair concert seats for $20 per person. Now that was what I remembered paying in the past.

The concert is the day before BM's birthday. !!

BM also got his first two college summer class choices. SO, this is his summer:

**Two weeks of Engineering Classes
**10 Days in London (MIL is taking him)
**Weird Al concert

Does he need anything else for his birthday? Um, heck no. He turns 10 this summer...

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Our own vacation plans?

**Family Camp in late June. This is why I am looking into the cat boarding right now. It's 3 nights, but the first time we have really left him any length of time, so I think it will be a good chance to try out the boarding place. We did not pay anything for camp, so I think it's reasonable to splurge on cat care.

**We are going to do another post Thanksgiving weekend in Pismo Beach with my folks. We had the most amazing time last year.

**Hadn't made any plans yet, but want to do a 9-day road trip in October, now that we aren't tied down with pet situation. Would like to see Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Vegas, Bryce Canyon, etc. I am sure we will narrow it down. Heck, we might just wing it. I LOVE road trips and it's been way too long. So it's bittersweet as to the why we are able to do it, but am really excited about this vacation. I love road trips, but except for Vegas and driving to see family in the mid-west MANY times, I have not seen any of the destinations that I mentioned. I am ready for something new and different. Cat boarding will be a must for this trip.

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The next couple of weeks should be pretty busy with school wrapping up. Summer will fly by with all the activity.

**As far as spending...

I treated BM to dinner on Friday night since dh was gone and LM had a birthday party. He chose one of the more expensive options, but it was just the two of us. Buffet, so at least I got my money's worth.

Dh went to a concert in the Bay Area and stayed with his bff, who is moving to Chicago soon. Glad they had some time together. I believe he was planning a script writing retreat next weekend (someone else is offering a place to stay this time - just trying to get away from distractions for 24-48 hours). This past weekend dh only spent $10 on food, but his friend had owed him for concert tickets (so paid the rest of his meals - I think he also visited his folks so probably ate there too).

I didn't get to recycle those shoes yesterday because a friend took BM to the birthday party and we were supposed to pick him up. Well, they hadn't realized how far away it was, so they just stayed and brought him home. Now I have to figure out what to with these shoes!! I may make a separate trip (lunch break some day?) to be rid of the shoes. I wonder if this place is anywhere near the realm of the college - I think it is. BM has some classes there in June. My work is a wee bit closer to the place (thought not a lot).

**Next weekend I want to get the final sweep of the downstairs, and the pool should be open. So I am not really expecting to spend any money. Maybe in June we will talk about something fun - a beach trip and/or some hiking.

**Today I redeemed a groupon. It's probably been well over a year since I have. It was a boot camp kind of thing. Between that and a coupon code I received 20 classes for $34. My aerobics class is 20 classes for $50, for perspective. This would be much closer to home, so cheaper on the gas too.

The downside is that it costs almost 3 times as much (full price) as aerobics class, but without all the gas, it would be a lot more efficient. (It will cost WAY more because I only have to pay for the aerobics classes I attend - this is 5 weeks for $139). I wonder if I really like the classes if maybe I can just mix it up a bit. (I can't see paying full price all year). The plus about this boot camp is it is early morning all week (they do offer one 6pm class). I do far better in the a.m., so I like all the a.m. options.

I don't know when I Can start the class, but hopefully SOON. Ideally it whips my butt into shape and kickstarts me a bit out of my current rut, but hopefully I don't like it too much because I don't want to be swayed into paying so much for fitness. There are plenty of other options out there that are far less expensive, is all.

**I ended up not doing too much yesterday. But happy with small chunks of work. I got through about 7 drawers in the kitchen (just cleaning - nothing to declutter). Easy work, but it was something. I will try to get through some of it this week, as to not be too overwhelmed over the weekend.

I am so excited to get rid of several Goodwill bags one week from today.

Oh, and I removed child safety locks on the silverware drawer. Safety locks because of sharp knives...

We only put these in a few strategic places, but I hear Siamese cats can get into a lot of trouble so I am going to leave the rest for now. That one was kind of annoying "we use this drawer 100 times a day" kind of thing, so I hope everyone appreciates the change.

**I've bagged up a lot of shoes to recycle tomorrow. Hopefully we remember to take them. I should toss them into the car while I am thinking about it.

**I was feeling very low-energy yesterday so didn't do a whole lot. I made some fruit smoothies for an energy boost.

**Dh was out of town, so I figured a car cleaning would make sense - lots of room in the garage. I just vacuumed out the van and tossed some trash. Was not a lot, but it looks MUCH better. The kids had been hoarding packets of sugar in the back (like, restaurant packets). I don't know what the heck. Always interesting finds with kids.

**While in the garage a bit I cleaned up a bit. There wasn't a lot, but a few old toys to toss and little bits of trash strewn around the garage.

The strangest find? The neighborhood kid had put this cute sprinkler thing across our driveway one day and I spotted them at Walgreens for maybe $7. I was very tempted, but for whatever reason resisted. Thought maybe I would keep on eye for summer or whatever. So I am tossing a few things in the garage and I come across this sprinkler thing in our garage. I set it out and at some point the kid came by. I asked if it was his and he said no because his was another color.

Seriously!?! Where in the heck did this thing come from? I SO do not remember ever buying it.

I am relieved I had not bought a second one.

**After all that I took a nap and made dinner and didn't get a whole lot else done.

**Oh, and dh found my MP3 player in the car. WOOT!! This should help immensely with the kitchen work. Music will make the time go faster. I am hoping to make some progress on the kitchen today - does not have to be a lot. I still have next weekend to finish the job and to beat my personal deadline.

I think I am going to scale back on the house cleaning and relax after May (upstairs in the Fall?). But I think I could probably do another run through. For example, I mentioned all the vases I have. I need to go through those and purge some, but it will easier to start with a clean slate. Right now I might have 7 or 8 bags earmarked for Goodwill (dh has a pile of books and toys and games of such, in addition to whatever I have found in the kitchen). So once those are gone and the cabinets are all scrubbed I may go through again. I am sure I passed up a lot of stuff because it was overwhelming. & this is why I every time I do this I find more stuff. I want to be more thorough this round. !! I've got all summer to be more thorough, in small chunks.

**Taking inventory of the garage: Not a lot in there, as I though. BUT, we were saving bags of soda bottles for someone or something. For the school? I don't know. We will toss into our recycle bin over the next few weeks and clear some space. In fact, maybe I should just take a load to work (we have a "recycle" dumpster). This should clear up some space for bikes and such.

**Speaking of the neighbor kids(s) - the sprinkler thing I mentioned above...

There's this new kid down the street who is 7 - an only child I suppose. I swear he comes by our house every single day with some brand new toy he wants to show off.

???

From a child standpoint, I honestly don't even understand "Keeping up with the Joneses." Some other newer neighbors have some electric scooters that BM is always riding. The next door neighbor has some cool bike thing that all the kids are always riding, and the across the street neighbor has an electric car for his live-in Grandson. So the neighborhood kids are always out riding his electric car around. This week it was walkie talkies and "slip and side" with the "new toy every day" kid.

So why would we buy anything for the kids??? Peer pressure, I guess? A feeling to contribute?

I suppose the downside will be when one day our kids breaks someone's fancy toy. But, until that day... Yesterday our house provided sprinklers and water gun water for the play time. Which means all the kids were in front of our house though we have no fancy toys to boast. I didn't think a lot about it at the time, but it is kind of funny if you think about it. Water from the faucet versus the $500 toy car. I suppose we contributed after all.

**BM wanted a fad toy that all the kids have at school. We said, "Sure whatever, if you want to pay for it." I don't think my kids have had very many of these lessons - they don't seem to have much of a sheep mentality. I don't know how much of that is nature versus nurture. I think a little bit of both. For example, I think by nature my spouse is a stubborn contrarian. For me, it feels very learned. I didn't have a fraction of the kids' self confidence at the tender age of 8 or 9.

Of course, LM is totally bored and uninterested in this fad, so only the elder child has caved.

**The county animal shelter takes shoes for recycling. Awesome!! It's just that it is WAY out of the way. I even tossed some shoes past weekend because lord knows when I'd be out that way again.

Well... BM has a birthday party in that area tomorrow. We will take all the remaining broken/outgrown shoes that we have. I just noticed a couple of pairs in the garage that could probably go. For the long run it will just be one more thing to remember, but we can keep a shoe stash and make the run once in a blue moon. & maybe we could find something closer to home, but I have certainly looked before.

**Just got a postcard re: charity pickup on Memorial Day. Woohoo!! I don't care who it is - they win all our crap. In addition, they were advertising for e-waste. This will save dh a trip to Best Buy. (Best Buy only takes 3 items at once?? So this might save us a few trips).

**I finally pulled the trigger on an elliptical purchase. Conferring with dh maybe saved me some hassle.

I have of course kept my eye on the used market and yadda yadda. I have been shopping for well over a year.

I think what has swayed me is the Money Mustache. I LOVE the gym membership but it's inefficient. I don't remember the last time I went - it SUCKS every January through March, at the least (all those New Years resolutions). I love the gym the rest of the year - get it all to myself.

Anyway, two problems with the at-home elliptical:

1 - At $15/month gym membership (& I am pretty sure they will offer me a lower deal when I try to quit) it's hard to breakeven on an equipment purchase.

2 - The size and weight and monstrosity of a good piece of equipment. I really don't want to deal with it. Extra so since I am storing my parents' treadmill at the moment. I'd maybe rather have a good elliptical, but the point of the treadmill is that it is high-end and totally free. {We have plenty of room, but just thinking more long-term. The long-term downsize plan}. & seriously, some of these ellipticals are 300 pounds!! We just don't have the muscle to deal with that - even just to get it moved in.

So... I finally bit the bullet on a new unit. It's in the $300 range, but was on sale. If it's not a total piece of crap it will get good use.

I was leaning towards Amazon just because their customer service is so good. Target had same unit at same price - not entirely sure why I discounted it. So, I ran it past dh before pulling the trigger (he is out of town) and he asked what about a local store, for easier returns. I remembered I had seen it at Target.

The thing about Amazon is if I call and complain and can't ship it back I know they will refund the money. So I think was mostly why I was leaning towards Amazon. But with our Red Card it was 5% off (cheaper) and free shipping at Target. So decided dh was probably wise. Target has always has great customer service for our needs. A good second choice. I maybe saved $15 going with Target instead.

Will see... I figure worst case we return it and it's back to the drawing board. I won't quit gym until I am happy with alternatives.

Why do I like the gym so much? Safer (not going to be outside in the dark), climate controlled in winter and summer, etc. & I am no fan of running - way too hard on the body. Power walking is okay but I much prefer the elliptical.

Our gym is only 4 miles away and had the awesome benefit of childcare, so was also a big plus when the kids were younger (doesn't really mean much any more). In the meantime, I feel like they have added no less than 5 unecessary lights on the main road, and it can often take 15 minutes to drive there. It's just gotten so inefficient over the years. So why I mention the Money Mustache influence.

Anyway, maybe this will hold me over until we get a closer discount gym - one I can walk or bike to. It will probably happen eventually.

How am I paying for this? 5% of my tax season overtime will cover it. I am not opposed to splurging. I just like to divorce the spending decisions from the income, if that makes any sense. Of course expense decisions have to be based on income and resources. BUT, I guess my point is we really avoid automatically spending windfalls. It's a-okay to just save 100% for a later time, for when a need or want arises. I think this makes for better spending decisions.

**Payday and I only have one financial transaction to transact: Pay off main credit card (which has always been paid off monthly). That's it until next month...

I will just never get over the irony that if you clean up your financial house you don't have to think about money very much. Too often it is assumed you have to think about it all the time and obsess over it. Kind of like dieting - that's not really the best/healthiest way to do things. Change your habits, build up money for a rainy day, and it should mostly be in the background. I love numbers so obsess over it at times, but other times it's just in the background. Lately I have been in more of a "finances in the background" mood. & this is probably largely a function of things going very well financially.

Credit card bill was $3,000 because it included about $1,000 in car repairs, health insurance is $900, Paid some dues and utilities that were reimbursed, yadda yadda. Wasn't a big deal. Car repairs happen and we have savings for that.

May is half over... Nothing big on the horizon for this month. Will see. The same credit card bill has a $300 balance after payment, $200 of that being a new garbage disposal, but the utilities and health insurance will hit around the end of the month.

Yes, dh ordered the garbage disposal FINALLY. Either we will attempt to install ourselves or ask for help. Not expecting to spend any money on that. (I am quite sure my dh is capable of handling it).

For whatever reason dh had got it in his craw to update car stereo. Suddenly it could not wait. Supposedly we are supposed to get Sprint 4G next month, but we have all heard that before... I am sure there is some element that dh wants to utilize full potential of phone when that happens.

Anyway...

The good news is they quoted him about $20 more that it ended up costing. Or, they just tacked on the tax cost to the installation when quoting. Which made it difficult to comparison shop. He had also talked to a couple of Best Buys and they both told him totally different costs. How frustrating!

Anyway, so the grand total was $270 after taxes and installation. We saved a ton going "last year's model." Now he's got the blue tooth and yadda yadda. For the last 20-ish years we have been making do with a cassette tape adapter. (I like that it was rather "future proof." A cassette adapter goes for $7-ish these days. It carried my older vehicles through the age of CD and it carried dh's vehicle - with cassette deck - through the age of MP3 and smart phones).

The new car stereo is fair enough. We only paid $7800 for the car and it was "practically new." Two stereo upgrades in 12 years is beyond reasonable. We would like to keep the car another 5+ years, and can always pull out the stereo system for our next vehicle.

The best part? It didn't cost us a thing in the end. (Not a penny from my salary, so does not impact our savings goals).

He had $120 cash from last focus group plus $100 prepaid visa card from furniture store (refund) and we just got another $50 visa card from another focus group a couple of days ago. It's almost eery how it all just totally matches. The cash is sitting in our bank account, so I will just add $120 to next credit card payment. He charged the $120 difference for credit card rewards. I was going to pay the credit card Friday. So it is all easy peasy. They took both visa cards without a problem. Phew!! (Those things can be such pain to use at times).

The only problem I forsee is since our cars aren't particularly his/hers, I am just assuming that there is another stereo upgrade in the near future. The van has a single CD player that doesn't work, a radio, and a FM transmitter for the MP3 players and phones. That said, I am sure "anything" would be an improvement and dh would be not so set on such a higher end model for the van. Since he does mostly drive the other car, especially for longer trips.

Will see...

As a follow up to an earlier post on my BHAG:

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/2012/09/14/progress-not-p...

I had posted about my goal to surpass $150k in retirement by age 35, which was a really huge/big/aggressive goal. So I did not beat myself up when I did not achieve at age 35. I knew I would be pretty darn close?

How close? About 5 months after turning 36. Because I achieved the goal yesterday. Well, I think that is AWESOME. Good enough for me...

If investments return 8%, than this means we are earning more than we are putting in, at this point. Since the only retirement vehicles at our disposal are the ROTHs.

I think this is why I am not feeling behind at all with the loss of work retirement plan. It was a very generous 10% contribution by employer. But it was invested conservatively for my mostly "retirement age" co-workers and eaten up by administration and investment fees. Compounding has easily taken over those contributions. Sure, another $8k per year to our retirement funds, in addition, would be awesome. But, it's just we aren't falling behind or feeling the pinch. & maybe $8k only felt like $4k with all the other factors, and we have been easily able to make that up. I appreciate that I had that extra compensation in the years we really needed it - very early on and our lowest income years (maternity leaves and such). This means our retirement was always growing very healthily and is why we were able to meet this goal.

I also just noticed that we surpassed the $200k mark on our investments. Woohoo!! $100k was surpassed some time in 2009. Which means it literally took about a decade to save $100k but only 3 years to turn $100k to $200k. $200k can turn into $400k over 10 years if we don't add another penny. The power of compounding at work. I have this large feeling that the early years were by far the hardest and that we are over that hump. This compounding stuff sure makes life easier.

I also think this is why it is hard for many to understand why my spouse has not had to work. I've said here many times that we always saved 100% of my spouse's income, which laid a nice financial foundation. Anyway, I remember someone telling me very early on that they "to each their own," but how they just could not neglect their retirement like that.

Neglect retirement? Who said anything about neglecting retirement?

I haven't really set the next BHAG for retirement. I am thinking I should just set it to "$500k by age 45." It's about as realistic as "$150k by age 35" felt. It sounds huge, but I know it is doable. A modest rate of return and current contributions (just the ROTHs) will easily put us to $400k+. So $500k is my aggressive twist on the goal. It should be easy to remember. I think that visualization is very important - our subconscious works in ways we don't even understand.

We don't really have anything big planned the next month or so, which is nice, because there seems to be a lot going on.

The kids went to a neighbor's big pool party the other day, and then BM went to a birthday sleepover. They were both just invited to another big classmate party (one each). Dh had been lazy and just grabbed some Target gift cards. He asked me if he should get more and I said, "You know, that would be $60 in one month." !! So, he will look out for some toys on clearance - something like that.

When it rains it pours. Historically most the kids' friends have summer birthdays, like they do. It can get kind of crazy. It's just the crazy started a little early this year. As for our own kids, I am thinking pretty low key birthdays this year.

Other things coming up...

Dh is going to a concert this weekend (out of town).

Next week is school open house and all this costume stuff.

The week after is our annual pool opening BBQ (woohoo - free food). Then the kids' last day of school (they always have a big BBQ).

So, we don't have much that we initiated or planned, but I think there is *plenty* to do.

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I had to share the new compartmental lunch things I got because it makes it so much easier to spice up lunch a bit.

Today's lunch...

The youngest is *loving* these pizza lunches. There is mozzarella cheese under the pepperoni. I experimented with just putting the sauce on the english muffins. I thought it was possible it would get too soggy, but I did toast it first to get it a little more crunchy. Anyway, no complaints from the youngest, so I made it a second time today:



As for BM... They both have appetites, egads, but BM seems to be worse at lunch. I put together some varied nuts, kiwi, and a ham sandwich on garlic sourdough. He then asked for eggs and pickles. I asked him to please eat the nuts last. I have no doubt he could eat it all, but they don't get a lot of time to eat. So, will be interesting to see what he had time to get through. We tend to make him double decker sandwiches to satisfy his appetite. Protein is a must.



These are also the water bottles I bought. The kids seem to really like them. So, just crossing my fingers that they hold up a while. They are rubbermaid and are real cheap at Amazon or Target. But the lids are kind of difficult to flip on and off and so I worry those will probably break first. In fact, I am surprised the kids have not complained more - but they seem happy with them.



We certainly drink our fair share of milk, soda, juice, but also see no point to send them to school with anything but water. I often comment that we *mostly* drink water, which I am sure is a huge key in our lower grocery bills.

I shared this link already as it is helpful to give lunch ideas:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/04/19/school-lunch-rou...

Her angle is "Real foods" but I am just trying for a more "less plastic/trash/disposable" angle myself. Having the proper tools makes it so much easier. I should have bought these divided containers like *four* years ago. We've always utilized these non-disposable containers, but made it harder to add more sides. Anyway, I am glad I have the tools to do so now. I also have a lot of smaller containers to utilize now - I included some ranch dressing with the kids' carrots last week. The new containers were perfect.

I looked up my old blog posts to see what the final "out of pocket cost" was for our 2012 Sectional Couch upgrade.

Total cost: $525
{We shopped carefully, paid with credit card rewards, and sold old couch to whittle down the actual cost}.

Well, we can bring the total down to $425. !!

We noticed some pink stains under the ottoman. We had noticed them before, but when we got the carpet cleaned and the stains did not come out, this really riled up dh. (Especially considering how filthy our carpets were and how brand new they look now and how all the other stains came out. These are probably the "newest stains" on the carpet, but they are doozies).

I feel pretty "meh" about it because it's under the ottoman and I figured these carpets are mostly toast anyway. The stains are not super obvious due to our carpet choice (which was chosen in an effort to hide pink stains because our cat was always puking up pink food). But dh wanted to go complain and ask for some financial compensation.

They readily appeased him with a $100 visa gift card. It never never never hurts to ask. I sometimes feel like a large percentage of our wealth comes from simply *asking.* & it's so beyond rare when people ever say "no!"

{When I think to all the haggling and price matching and legitimate complaining we do, and "non-refundable" refunds we have asked for, it easily adds up to *THOUSANDS* of dollars over the years. I think this is money that most people just leave on the table}.

Anyway, I informed dh he could apply the gift card to his Amazon account. (I knew this because received a visa gift card for Christmas). He seems pleased with this option.

He does want to buy a new car stereo and a new computer, and so I probably rather he use against one of those purchases. He told me that while he was out anyway he was going to do some stereo comparison shopping. So, will see...

The furniture store was really nice. We ended up at a small store. & I think one reason dh wanted to go complain was because they were right down the street. (A long drive might not have been worthwhile). In addition to the $100, they said they were complaining to the manufacturer about the colored adhesives they use on the bottom of the furniture. So, beyond getting $100, maybe we can save someone else from pink stains in the future. IT seemed like they genuinely were concerned and following up with the manufacturer.

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This has been quite a month for extra income.

**First off, the 4th graders are doing a Pinoeer day this month. Send me your frugal, "make do with what you have" costume ideas, PLEASE! I saw a local rental place for $15, but I decided that is ridiculous. I am sure worst case I can put something together for $15 (that younger child can eventually use). But I doubt we need to spend that much.

This is the year of costume. I already bought a beret earlier in the year for my little "Picasso."

**Around the same time, LM has to be a little pig. (I swear, we have never been asked to bring a costume for anything before - good grief).

Supposedly I am a very creative person (the tests say so), but it doesn't come out in an artistic creative way. I just feel so "DUH..." But I perused very briefly online and quickly came up with very many ideas. How did we survive before the internet?

Anyway, how cute is this?!?



I am so NOT artistic, but I think I can figure it out. & if not, dh can. {It just looks so simple, but so cute}.

I also stumbled onto hot pink construction paper in my decluttering efforts, and LM approved.

I had no idea I had any construction paper, so am making a mental note that we need to find a place to store all things craft for when things like this come up.

**The theme is definitely "costume." A local family is collecting Halloween costumes for homeless children. I am sometimes skeptical of these efforts, and since it is only May I am definitely skeptical. BUT, we have a couple of costumes we keep forgetting to sell at ideal time, and I am in purge mode, so consider it done. I asked dh to drop them off this week. {& yes, it would be awesome if these costumes actually ended up with homeless youth}.

We had: One Nemo costume, a Spiderman costume, Winnie the Pooh, and a karate uniform and a baseball uniform. The karate and baseball were not initially Halloween costumes, but they are long outgrown so I figured what the heck.

**That reminds me, my initial reaction was to keep the Karate uniform. Then I thought, "Wait, when was this last worn? Age 5!?!" Kind of my doh moment that my baby (& his little brother) are not 5 any more. In fact, the eldest is almost as tall as I.

**I don't know how dh lucked into this focus group, but he did one yesterday for Sony streaming products. Boy was he in his element. !! They were trying to get some feedback on a movie/music/game streaming service. Dh's input was, "Stick to the games." They want to jump into the streaming game, understandably, buy it's not like they can really compete with the likes of netflix. & as dh pointed out, he uses the Playstation network and is happy with it, but he is not buying a Playstation for every TV in his house (& obviously competing TV manufacturers will not put the Sony network on their TVs). So they have a lot of logistics to sort out.

$120... Which brings his focus group earnings to almost $500 for the month. He is probably disqualified from doing any more for a year. I think he was able to do this one because last one wasn't really a traditional focus group. They like you to do no more than one per year (though sometimes they fudge when they are desparate for participants).

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Oh, and a few things on the medical front:

1 - Dh had his annual MRI over the weekend. Holding our breaths (though at this point, no new is probably good news).

2 - A family friend is having facial nerve issues (the same nerves that my dh's brain tumor affected - face and ear). So, we are worried about him. He is unemployed, broke and has no (or crappy) health insurance. What a mess. {His net worth is probably negative, though he is in his 60s}.

3 - My mom got her first good blood test results since the flu I gave her in JANUARY. Her doctor was getting concerned about cancer and wanted her to get a CAT Scan. She was stubborn and refused, which I have very mixed feelings about. (CAT scan could have been overkill and I know there are radiation concerns with certain cancers, but I think she could have asked more about alternative tests. & lord knows when my dh's brain tumor ever would have been diagnosed without the hunch of his non-nuerologist Doctor - after two neurologists said he was 100% fine and needed no brain scan - so I really believe in Doctors' gut feelings and sometimes non-logical judgement). But since everything is back to normal, I don't think he is concerned about cancer now. Phew!!

I had to share because this seems to be one of those things where going cheap has never paid off for us (though always seems strongly encouraged by the frugies).

General rule of thumb is to only clean or replace or use up items "half as much" as recommended. Or even less. My other rule of thumb is I'd rather work (to pay someone else) than do a chore that I Can not stand. (There are plenty of chores that I don't mind and am not strongly opposed to. The list of chores I'd rather pay someone is pretty small, but makes life a lot nicer).

Carpet Cleaning...

We had someone come in and do the carpets for about $40 early on. Maybe every 2-3 years was a fine schedule. (I am sure they recommend every year).

Would I rather pay someone $40 to handle it or go through the hassle to rent out a cleaner. *no brainer*

Our carpet cleaning guy disappeared, and so we have been in carpet limbo for many many years. Saving Advice talked me into buying a carpet cleaner. Meh. I don't regret the purchase as it has come in handy (particularly in recent years) to clean up pet messes. BUT, cleaning the carpet would take probably days with this stupid thing and it's not very good (nothing at all compared to professional grade). So, I don't think it has been a useful purchase. But, hey, I got it and maybe cleaned the worst areas of the carpet once.

We were initially thinking of going petless when our cat passed, and new carpets were on the horizon. The kids had really thrashed the carpets (we were way too tired - with babies - to clean every spot as we went and deal with it at that point - a few years later and it's so overwhelming). The cat also did a doozie on the carpet in her final months.

Our family room is where most the cat/kid mess is, so it's not horrible - would just be one room to replace. We also had quite a cat mess in the other room (kept litter box in distant corner - no good non-carpet surface to keep it). I really wanted to clean that corner up ASAP but we didn't get a carpet cleaner out until this week.

This place was recommended as "reasonable" and awesome, and I checked online reviews to see "stains disappeared forever."

After being quoted to pay $150 for what we once paid $40, I was not sure on the "reasonable." One large room, a hallway, and the cat corner. Dh might have said "2 rooms and a hallway" which is a fair approximation. BUT, I had high hopes they would do a very good job, so we bit the bullet.

They came over at 10am yesterday. Dh called me around 1:00 yesterday to tell me they were still cleaning. O.M.G. {I think this speaks less to our mess and more to how thorough they were. Maybe a little of both}.

I was so pleased to come home to a house that did not *at all* smell like chemicals. They cleaned up the pet mess like new - it is sitting right now with a special enzyme treatment. The carpet looks brand new.

**The bad thing about this is I don't really see the point to clean them again for another 10 years or so. If we can abuse them like that and they can look this nice with one cleaning. **

& the word is the carpets will stay like this. The stains won't creep back up. So, will see...

As of today, I am a convert. Screw this do-it-yourself, or cheap carpet cleaning people. Do it right and we can keep this carpet for many decades (which is also way more environmentally sound).

So, we are going to give it a few months (see how things settle) and then probably get the stairs and the upstairs carpets cleaned. (They aren't bad at all as there are no shoes or food allowed upstairs. Cat did not mess much up there). At this rate it might be $200+ to get 3 rooms and our large/open hallway done, but I think it will be money very well spent. (We have never cleaned the upstairs carpet - so it probably could use a scrub). I am crossing "carpet replacement" off our to-do list. I am crossing it off our near-term and our long-term to-do list. I doubt we will replace this carpet ever. Since we only plan to be here another 15-ish years.

So, saving that much money in the long haul makes me VERY happy.

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In other semi-related news, the 2.75% 15-year refi is an evil temptress!! Dh and I had a long talk about it over the weekend. On some level I think we could mostly flip a coin. But, we keep coming across two sticking points when it comes to tying up all our cash in a 15-year mortgage:

1 - We strongly believe in balance. We definitely are the most relaxed we have ever been on one-income and I am reluctant to give that up. We both are. We are richer now and saving more than ever before, so it's not like we have to try as hard as when we were in our teens and 20s. (We also to this day still have less income than we did earlier on, with the one-income situation). As far as "richer" I mean we have more assets. Most our savings is getting invested and compounding since we have far less short-term savings goals and pressures.

2 - We keep coming back to the point that a 15-year mortgage would pay off our home around the time the kids graduate college. BUT, we were just starting to get to a place to *start* to save for college.

We feel like it is better to keep borrowing at 4% (which is hardly anything!) and to 100% never have to borrow again. I am not sure I want to put ourselves in a position to have to borrow (at a likely higher rate) for college. & yes, I have said many times I am not overly worried about it and that college is quite inexpensive here. But I also believe in keeping as many options open as possible. So, we both think it's probably better just to lock in a good 30-year rate for the future.

It's just hard for us to get worked up about the mortgage. We got to have somewhere to live and if we had rented this entire time we would have paid a gajillion dollars more. It's hard to get worked up about the $600/month interest we pay to live in our *dream home* in *California.* It's infinitely less interest and payments than we initially signed up for in 1999 (8.25% on first home. We were paying about $1400/month interest on a CONDO, and renting the condo would have been about $3k per month. This is why it's hard for me to freak out about our current mortgage situation. My housing "Set point" is crazy high. To rent our current home would be $2k per month).

& finally, what would my wiser financial mentors say? Keep the mortgage. Not forever, but just for now.

The reason the 2.75% is such an evil temptress is because we do expect more income and windfalls in the near future. I kind of feel like we should lock it in. BUT, we decided we don't count our eggs before they hatch. This is the most basic of financial principles that we have always followed. We will survive. I think we would survive if we refinanced too, but I think it would be unnecessary stress and pressure.

I am going to keep an eye on 25-year mortgage rates. Rates are getting low enough that it might make sense. I have to run the numbers and doubt we would do this today, but if rates stay low a while, this might be a better compromise.

Yes, I am keeping debt to stay out of debt. But I am choosing debt that has been good to us and we have never had a problem with.

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In other real estate news - I saw final sales price on recent home sale. They asked $375k and sold for $381k. Our home will definitely be worth $400k come summer (if not already). That $381k home sold in minutes. What I am curious about is if homes will zoom past $400k. It seems like a logical tipping point (that things would slow down at $399k) BUT with these low interest rates and home buyers being so "monthly payment focused," I will not be surprised if home prices blow past $400k this summer. I don't think it's sustainable in the least, but it's where things seem to be heading. Will see...

This puts our home at 50% equity. We did not overtly discuss this point in our refinance discussions, but may be in the back of my mind. The main reason we were hitting mortgage so hard in recent years was because we were losing so much equity. Was fighting just to keep 20% equity. Was very important to us to keep that flexibility. Succeeded - saved by the bell. We bottomed out right about 20% equity, and then things bounced back in a flash. It's less pressing now. We are still paying down mortgage much faster than historically, because of lower interest rates, and mortgage chips. So it's not like we are totally ignoring it and not paying down faster at all due to large amounts of equity. We have most certainly learned that equity comes and goes - just try our best to stay ahead of the curve. This time we lucked out. (It got awfully close towards the end of the bottom!!)

**I am very sad that I can't seem to find my MP3 player. These electronics are *way too small* these days!!

I will keep looking...

**I found one treat during my Saturday de-cluttering: a $100 Kohls gift card. What the... ??? Don't ask me. I am delighted I was stupid enough to lose it and forget about it, because it was a very nice surprise. {I'd generally think that I would never find anything like that because am so overly cautious with money}.

As to where it came from? You got me!! I am sure it was a credit card reward, but I will never know why I put it in a drawer and forgot about it. I will just have to enjoy it!!

I have not spent any money at Kohls in well over a year. Probably not much at all in a couple of years, with all the gift cards I had. So, I think this means I won't have to spend any money there this year either. I am hoping they still have the same pants I have been wearing for work - they are really nice but getting tired so I could use a couple of new pairs.

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**I don't think I rule much of anything out of my diet, as we just believe in moderation, BUT I am absolutely horrified by splenda and fake sugars. Especially when it comes to the kids.

So, going to the grocery store yesterday was kind of maddening. I wanted to stock up on some smoothie fixings (juice and frozen fruits) and lunch ideas for the kids.

I ended up doing like a $100 grocery run. Holy cow! So dh was helping me unpack and he pointed out the "light" juice I had gotten. *sigh* Of course it was filled with fake sugars. I will set it aside for our parents - whoever wants it. They are all way into fake sugar - fair enough that we each have a parent with diabetes. When I am old and diabetic I will probably be thankful for the fake sugar.

I told dh, "Ugh! Yeah, it was kind of maddening trying to find the "fat" and the "non-light" version of everything." & then I mindlessly grabbed some juice. Duh...

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So, today I made the kids lunch. I had got so many groceries that I told them no buying lunch this month. It's fine because dh had no plans to shop this week (he usually does a $100-ish grocery run every week). So, it just worked out.

I perused this website for ideas and kind of made a note of lunch items my kids like. BM is easy because he will pretty much eat anything. LM is more difficult, but probably less picky than most kids. These ideas can be used for adults too, to think of more lunch variety.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/04/19/school-lunch-rou...

Today we did...

LM: DIY pepperoni pizza lunchable & pistachios

BM: turky/pepper jack sandwich + carrots/ranch dip + boiled egg + pickles

Tomorrow...

Thinking tuna sandwich plus some sides. One day this week will have to do a big salad for BM - he LOVES salad. Now I have the containers to oblige him for lunch.

As an aside, the new lunch containers did not fit into the kids' lunch boxes. BUT, I found two that did fit. Phew!! One was a Christmas present from BM for LM (bought for like $5 on clearance) and the other was one I had stocked up on at some point. It looks smaller, but is bigger. Go figure.

I was just googling lunch ideas when I ran across this website. I've seen it before because I believe this is where I got the frozen popsicle mold idea for smoothies. (They are flexible and have lids, so are GREAT for lunches). The problem with our molds was they had a gross smell, which affected the taste of the smoothies. I have read to bathe the molds in baking powder and to try again. So, I need to do that this week - will try again. If we could get the smell out, I would totally buy more molds and do DIY popscicles from here on out.

**Redeemed $25 credit card reward (cash) and so added $25 to next mortgage payment.

I changed the due date of groceries/gas card so that I Can charge/pay easier on a calendar month basis. I believe there was a $5 charge between closing date and the 30th, and I decided to just pay that next month. *shrugs* It doesn't really matter either way.

I should do the same with my other credit card. I kind of like the later due date. But it's not due late enough for me to consider paying with the next payday, so it probably makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. I have to pay it off well before payday, regardless. I think it would make life easier. I should just shoot them an e-mail while I am thinking about it.

I got this idea because my Visa just happens to close around the 25th of the month. I always pay off the charges from 1/1-1/30 or 1/1 - 1/31, on a monthly basis. So it was this aha moment that I could still pay off the monthly charges even if all the charges don't make the statement cutoff. This makes calendar month credit card managing infinitely easier.

The credit card companies tend to process this request by "due date." So I have to ask for an "earlier due date." I don't imagine they get that kind of request very often.

**Tomorrow I should be able to redeem $50 credit card reward to my ROTH.

**Next week dh has a $120 focus group. In fact, today I think he was doing a follow up to last focus group (online?) for $50.

**Craigslist sales are not going well, but I am happy to donate that which we can not sell.

**I'd really like to take some time to declutter around the house. I don't expect there is much we can sell. We are way too efficient for that. But I think there is probably some junk we can get rid of. {Who knows - will see what I find}. Dh has got a bit of the declutter bug, which is motivating me to do another run-through of my own crap. With the changing weather and nearing summer birthdays, is probably also about time for a clothing and toy purge for the kids.

This weekend maybe I should just focus on the kitchen. We should get our tupperware delivered today and there are some cabinets in the kitchen we should probably go through.

It's only the past year or so we have talked very seriously about downsizing back to a condo once the kids are grown. So I think I am going to hit the de-cluttering with that mindset, this time. From here on out, I'd like to be ready pick up and move to a condo. Tomorrow. If that is what we so choose. It's a different decluttering mindset than I had before. More extreme, I guess. Before I felt a little bit of, "Meh, we have room for all this crap, so whatever." (Actually, I think my mindset before was, "We have way less crap than everyone else," but I don't think that is good enough).

**Dh got a $5 snowflake yesterday from Craigslist (sold baby monitors). Firstly, I wouldn't have bothered for anything less than $10, but he had so much to sell I suppose it was just whatever - since he was already going through all the hassle. Secondly, yeah, the baby stuff is all LONG GONE. But those have come in handy for a long time, and I am surprised he did not want to keep them. (Particularly for when he watched movies in our theater - impossible to hear the phone or door). We actually pretty much never used the baby monitors in a traditional sense. Just more so we could hear the kids getting into trouble when they were older. I could never sleep with a baby monitor and dh witnessed that I did not need one - he told me I always woke up before the kids started crying. (I don't think I would have known this otherwise - just would have assumed they woke me up crying). So, I found them rather useless versus mother intuition. But I know dh would sometimes watch movies while the kids were napping - stuff like that. So he'd use the baby monitors so he could hear what was going on in rest of house. Otherwise our house is not *that* big or spread out.

No bites on anything else, but we will just donate whatever we can't get rid of. A few toys, puzzles, books, games. I've got a small donate pile too.

**We cleaned up the house this past weekend, so, phew.

I finished most my deadlines at work yesterday. So, today I feel a huge sigh of relief. !! This weekend will regroup and figure what I am behind on - probably have quite a to-do list at home. Same kind of feeling at work. May pause and clean up a bit today, but still piles and piles of work to do - it's all just a little less pressing.

**Dh received an offer for an additional $50 if he did a follow up interview to huge focus group he just did. Cool!! He also has some unrelated $125 focus group this week.

**I should be able to redeem some nice credit card rewards this week (maybe $100 to ROTH and mortgage). Just from regular monthly usage of cards.

**I invested in some tupperware from Amazon and am pleased with what we got. I think I will return some of it though (got too much). Having just made do with hand-me-downs or whatever we have, this is a small but nice investment.

I told dh we should not spend any more money this month, so of course he looks at all the ads today. He shows me this huge tupperware set of a nice variety we already have (though just one or two pieces is all we have of this kind), on sale at Target for $15. I couldn't resist. We need to clear out the cupboards and start from scratch though. I think this set is way more than we need, but at that price we can donate or give away whatever we don't find useful. Heck, the return I have will cover this purchase.

**We are mostly prepared for our fur baby's arrival tomorrow, but our last pet had been declawed before we adopted her. So, it will be a bit of an adjustment. I have invested in a nice cat condo/tree/scratcher (Amazon - not sure when it will arrive). & a scratcher toy that I know my mom's cats love. Will start with that and go from there. I picked up a new pooper scooper yesterday and a couple of cat toys. I suppose we did not have much for old senior cat since she was not very active. We might have some toys somewhere if we can find them. So we bought a couple of the interim.

I am okay on everything else. I had tossed a couple of old litter boxes in my grief rather than clean them out and deal with them (I reasoned I had cloth diapered my kids, and I never throw away much anyway, so I would allow myself to be extremely wasteful in my grief), but I had also bought some larger litter boxes in effort to help aging cat and plan for vacation, so we still seem to have more than we need. One of the newer ones had never been used since kitty refused to use it. I did have the patience and mental capacity to clean the one newer litter box - way too nice to consider throwing out.

Since he will be recovering from neuter surgery, we will fashion him a cardboard box fort to hide in, in the interim. I know I had more cat stuff at some point but not sure where any of it is - probably donated. I used to have a nice cube, but all I could figure is cat didn't use it and we got rid of it. Cardboard will due until the new cat condo arrives.

**Carpet is getting cleaned a week from Monday. A highly recommended place; just really booked up. We have some mess to clean up from old senior cat. Too bad we didn't get it done sooner - it's just been so hectic. I will be pleased to get that done.

Better news yet, dh told me he would go through a Craigslist pile we have in the living room. He feels motivated to clear space for carpet cleaning. Awesome!! Maybe we have enough to sell to pay for the carpet cleaning?

**Speaking of cleaning up around the house, dh is finally caving on replacing the garbage disposal. I really wanted to about 18 months ago but he was being cheap. It's actually been behaving pretty well, but we have a small leak and we think that might be the culprit. It's beyond time. So I am very happy to get that taken care of.

**Dh has been complaining profusely to Sprint about slow 3G. They are knocking $10/month off our bill, but we have to call each and every month for the credit. We have 12 more months on our contract. We did solve some of the mystery. The higher populated areas have more troubles because too many users sharing bandwith. Dh figured that out, and it was our "aha" moment. No wonder we get such fast internet speeds when in the middle of nowhere. Sprint even admitted they were slowing down the 3G while implementing the 4G, which is why they issued the credit. But they also said 4G would be here any day. Like they didn't tell us that 12 months ago. If they don't get it rolled out, we will be long gone. Dh will complain more in coming months. This is totally ridiculous. We might go crawling back to Verizon. Their prices have come down, and we at least know what our usage is. We had no frame of reference before using a data plan. Now we know what we want in a plan and can make a more informed decision. I don't regret using Sprint for the transition because it really was cheapest. & at least dh gets an answer as to why they seem to be getting slower and slower. I hope it is indeed because they are rolling out 4G. For my pocketbook, I hope they just roll the dang thing out so we can stay with Sprint. But I agree with paying a little more so that our phone internet actually works and dh can use phone for what he actually wants to use it for. Fair enough.

**Kids have been complaining about old Frankenstein computer that dh cobbled together for him. So dh broached subject with me. He kind of was talking about one or two computers to replace. I told him I'd rather buy two $500 computers than one $1,000 computer. But again, maybe this could wait another year. HE didn't think he had replaced his computer since 2009, and that it might be wiser to hand down his computer and buy up. My response was: Whatever!! So I finally got around to looking it up today. What happened is the computer he had before just died very prematurely, and it screwed up everything after that. Ideally we would have handed that last one down to the kids, and it would have been much newer. So I just remember it being very annoying, unexpected and $$$$.

So I look it up. We haven't bought a computer since 2008. !!! You could blow me over with a feather. Particularly since dh has no issues and no desire to upgrade.

So I just told him we were both wrong and the good news is we have not bought one single computer in 5 years. (He had guessed it had been 4 years).

So anyway, I think it's fair for him to upgrade and to give the kids this system - it should have a lot of life in it and fulfill their growing needs. Dh is considering getting a laptop too, to replace our netbook. I am totally fine with the netbook. But I am much more open to this investment at this point. Then the kids have access to two computers for schoolwork and gaming. They won't touch my netbook any more. Dh gets super fast desktop. We all win. I feel like dh is always buying computer and computer parts, so this whole thing just floored me. We did upgrade our monitors during last few years, but apparently that was a wise investment during some "no computer purchase" years. (I think some of that was even more my idea). I told him, "I guess it's been all the TVs lately - it all blurs together."

**& that reminds me, the $50 Amazon TV part fix seems to be working. *fingers crossed.* So, hallelujah to that.

What a week!!

I did get last weekend off, but it was kind of hectic with robot wars and such. Which, by the way, was totally awesome. We also got to meet Grant from Mythbusters.

This week was totally insane crazy, but I finished my deadlines around 3pm Friday so I left work. Just, exhausted. I've still got a ton to do, and a couple of deadlines. But I was so determined to not have to work this weekend. So, I think the worst is over. Phew!! Maybe one more week of OT and then it should be pretty 9-5. I will also get a couple of 3-day-weekends in May.

I am very delighted to have a quiet weekend.

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There are a large number of no-kill groups that foster shelter cats and showcase them at local pet stores at the weekends. For reference, I have felt compelled to take one of those cats home in the past though I could in no way shape or form do so. So, we have been by quite a few times, but I swear all the cats sleep and totally ignore us. Learning about the groups has warmed my heart and we have seen quite a few elderly cats gets adopted surprisingly fast. So it's been all good, but I couldn't feel any more like I was getting a signal from the universe that it was *not* time to get a cat. {I am not sure I have ever in my life seen a bunch of homeless cats and been able to resist}.

Dh and I even went to the shelter one day - same kind of thing. Dh even told me he had never adopted a shelter pet, and it was kind of weird and how do you know if it's a good fit? I told him, "You know. Nothing's grabbed me yet, but you will know when you find the right one." So we talked about how we just weren't clicking with any of the animals.

So, anyway, there was this beautiful cat that really caught my attention on the shelter website. They have $5 adoptions for adult cats on Fridays. So I told dh if I finished all my work I would take it as a sign and we should meet up when the kids get out of school.

There were also two black kittens there. I know - bad bad bad!!! Ideally we want a 1 or 2yo cat. BUT, I reason, what's the difference really? IF they are 6 months, they will be 1yo soon enough.

So I did finish my work early, only to find the cat that got me so excited had been adopted out already. But I was committed to perusing the shelter and getting out early. & heck, maybe we could sucker dh into those kittens. (Lord knows if we looked at kittens with the kids, we were coming home with them).

I did notice a pretty Siamese cat that had just been posted to the shelter website, so noted that one.

Shelter is very short-staffed, unorganized and frustrating. It took forever to get to meet this cat, and I wasn't expecting much. Next was going to be the kittens, and lord knows how long this would take, we didn't have a lot of time before closing. Well, they brought out the Siamese and we all fell in love with him. That was it, I did not want to look at any other cats. By some miracle, we all four actually agreed, so what more can you ask for? That is as good as it's going to get.

This is not him, but his general likeness:



He needs to get neutered, so we won't get him until Monday. Which is good, because I probably have some clean up to do around here, first.

Some name ideas:

Senor Chang

Sir Catsalot

(I like Ziggy, but no one else does). We will give it some time. We still don't have a strong sense of his personality, from our brief meeting.

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The shelter experience?

When I adopted my last cat, she had been abandoned by prior owner. They had filled out a questionnaire a mile long, that I still have. Then, I remember them absolutely grilling me and giving me the third degree. To be fair, it was the first cat I had ever owned as an adult, and they were mostly concerned that we both worked full-time and cat would be alone. That is what I remember them grilling me about.

This shelter experience? Gah. Supposedly the owner dropped him off yesterday - surrendered. But he didn't know the cat's name or sex. ??? What is that about? I've got nothing. (That was all they really asked on their questionnaire. Not what kind of food he eats, favorite toys, personality, yadda yadda). I am skeptical if he was someone's pet or what the heck. But he warmed up to us pretty fast and all you can do is go with your gut.

& yeah, he hadn't been neutered, so that kind of sucks that we have to deal with that. That we get to bring him home fresh from surgery.

Oh, and then they kind of just shrugged and took our $5 and that was that. No third degree this time, for sure. They seemed happy that we were alive and breathing, and that fit their requirements to be good pet owners. Maybe having a record of keeping one cat for its whole long life was good enough for them - we had filled out a brief questionnaire.

So, the whole thing was kind of weird. I feel like we are flying in very blind. But kitty needs a home, so what can you do? (We live in a different city now, but is helping me to appreciate how well run the other shelter was).

He is 1-year-old so I think he will be a good fit for the kids. A little more high energy than they are used to.

We finally got around to watching Kumare on Netflix. I thought it was excellent. The movie is about a man who pretends to be a spiritual guru and gathers a following - "hoping to prove the absurdity of blind faith." It wasn't quite as I expected, it's a movie that will really make you think.

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I don't know if I have ever particularly had brussel sprouts before. There were some brussel sprouts at Easter and I was pleasantly surprised how good they were. So dh tried a new recipe last night - we are brussel sprout converts. Even LM (the picky one) didn't think they were bad. BM (not picky) was not a fan.

Roasted Garlic Brussel Sprouts

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/roa...

MIL's recipe was just to roast in the oven with some salt and pepper blend. Probably tossed in olive oil. YUM.

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I invested in some tupperware last night. I got some divided containers so I could spice up the kids lunch a bit, and fulfilled some container needs we have. I just went with the cheap plastic stuff because most our current stuff is "disposable" or "came with food packaging" type stuff that has lasted many many years for us. So, it was not a big investment. Will see what works for us and at that point can buy more of what we like, and can clear out some of the old/sad stuff in our cupboards. It was a small investment, but will be a nice one. I also invested in some re-useable watter bottles.

Well, the *big* push at work is over, but I can't say things have slowed much. Still crazy busy for a while.

I did receive a very nice OT check. That said, I did not clear more than last year because of our tax situation. It's a bummer to earn more but to bring home less. So, I have $4700 for our China fund. I saved 100%, as was the plan. (This was also the first time I did not receive straight OT - definitely a bit of a bonus, which was nice!)

I was looking at our checkbook today trying to figure why I was feeling worse off than expected. But realized we still have not received dh's $400 for study. That will be much better. It really should have been here by now.

Dh is cute. He was surprised I was planning to save 100% of OT with upcoming car repairs. Silly boy. (We save for car repairs throughout the year, and he should know this).

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Having always driven much older cars, there seems to be a pattern where certain cars eat through certain parts quite often. On dh's car it has always been the motor mounts. We took it in and was as I had expected. Oh well - is the only thing we have ever really replaced first 150k miles (aside from the obvious - batteries, tires, brake pads). But it's definitely official - this car eats motor mounts! (Replacing them every 50k miles or so is infinitely cheaper than buying up in car - plan to keep this car another 5+ years).

Mechanic recommended that we replace the timing belt (probably should have done sooner, but don't take vehicle in very much). So, I thought we had replaced some belt around 100k miles but realized it was just the fan belt when I looked it up. We decided not to drive the car until we can get it back in - might be in the shop two days. So kind of an inconvenient week. We take it back tomorrow, as they were too booked to just keep the car. This will be by far the most expensive repair we have ever had on this car - and don't expect anything like this for a long while. The vehicle is very low maintenance, but belts and such do need to be replaced when you keep a car a long time.

While checking records I noted we will probably have a couple of tires to replace on dh's car this summer. Will wait until late summer, but will be good to replace before fall.

Mr. Money Mustache had a post about the amazing health benefits of walking.

I've got other stuff to blog about, but holy cow was this post timely.

So, we will never win any awards for walking, as the neighborhood we live in initially had a -0- walkability score. So, I hardly doubt we deserve any pat on the back for our walking skills. But I have griped on here before (particularly when kids were little) how I saw little use for strollers. How it bothered us how low expectations parents have for their kids to walk on their own two feet. & now I am pondering how that translates into lifelong habits.

This particularly came up this week because dh was watching other children. We live about 3 blocks from the school (though BM has been moved to another campus with the older kids - they outgrew the first location). Even after driving to pick up BM, dh just walks to pick up LM. It is the path of least resistance. The traffic is totally crazy. & by the time you find a place to walk and park, you might as well just go home and walk. So, the other day LM had arranged a play date and dh picks up this kid. He said, "OMG this kid walked SO SLOW." For reference, this kid is 8. So, anyway, they are just walking home and no rush, so whatever. But, he had to walk him back to school to meet up with the kids' mom. So, this kid is driving dh nuts because he is so slow and whiny about the whole thing.

So, it is what it is. Don't offer to walk him back to school - mom can pick him up next time. Except, he had agreed to babysit some other kids the other night. But when he picked up BM from school (& Was in a rush to get LM picked up immediately after) they had begged dh to just take them home with him for a playdate. Which was no biggie, but by the time he gets all their crap from the mom and everything and they arrange things, he is running really late to pick up LM. Plus, he has no room in his car for a fourth child. So, they drive home and walk to school. He's got a kindergardener with him now. & the kid is about as whiny and slow as the 8yo. & he asked dh to carry him. !!

So, dh has just had enough with these kids. I could maybe kind of sort of cut the Kinder some slack (he is 5), just based on our culture. BUT, then again, the 8yo is whiny and slow because no one made him walk anywhere when he was 5.

In the end, dh made them all walk on their own two feet, and they all survived.

The funny thing is when I came home, totally clueless, I had asked the kids if they wanted to go to the park. Good thing they said no, because it was a bit of a walk. LOL. I could just see their reaction if we started walking to the park - dh should have warned me!!

But again, this is our observations as suburbanites who probably walk infinitely less than we should. Mr. Money Mustaches posts often about how absurd and illogical our car habits are. This just kind of falls into that realm.

I also have one more observation on car culture. We are the weird/unique ones in our neighborhood who walk whenever it's 3 blocks or less. There are reasons people regularly drive one to three blocks (to neighbor's home, to park, to pool). One reason is time. They feel really pressed for time. But the less obvious reason is "crap." There is a really strong correlation between how big your car is, how much you use it, and how much crap you must carry with you everywhere you go. Of course, my first child was born in 2003. It was the height of SUV/monstrosity travel system stroller culture. We just never quite *got it.* We did fine with our small vehicle because we never bought into the crap. {I've actually been noticing that both cars and baby gear are slimming down in recent years. Thank Goodness! Not everyone has to go small, but some of us would like the *choice*}. So I really noticed this when it came to baby crap. Of course, planning to cut our income in half at the time, we were thinking through to what we really needed and what we could live without. Obviously we could live without SUVs. & then what followed was needing baby gear that was small and compact, so that became our focus. As well as simply doing without a lot of unnecessary crap. (& even if we had a large car, we still had a preference for more light and compact stuff - I don't think that would change things for us).

But anyway, I think my neighbor is the epitome of all this. I totally lover her, but she can not walk anywhere. She regularly drives the 1/8 mile or so to our house. The 3 blocks to the park or the pool. Why? Because you can't go to the park without 5 wheeled toys for 2 children. You load up the car. You can't go to the pool without a feast and a pile of toys. Load up the car. & so I think there is a strong correlation between walking and *stuff*. We regularly walk to the park and the pool, and I have no idea why we would need to bring anything we can't carry. It is just so much SIMPLER.

So there you go: The Auto Crap Trap

Crazy busy with work these days. I think I am over the hump, but feeling pretty "blah." I decided it's probably understandable since we put our cat down and I haven't had a lot of time or energy to process that. My mom has also been having health problems. So, I don't think life will magically be all happy after April 15th, but maybe I can start putting myself first again (better eating, sleeping and exercise habits). I have been letting those things slide, quite unusual for me even during tax season. So, I learned that it doesn't work and to put myself FIRST. Because everything else seems to follow from there.

It will be busy for a while, but am looking forward to a 3-day weekend in mid-May.

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So, I have a million things I could blog about, but will leave it to a couple of good links.

My Money Blog paid off his mortgage. (Which as I recall, was a crazy gigantic mortgage** - $500k+ range - somewhere in California). I will share the link because the reasoning was interesting. He had been planning to be a stay-home dad, but since baby was born, they have abandoned that plan. His wife wants to be home more, he is not as interested, and so they are doing the both-part-time thing for now. I think this is so important because most parents won't really know what they want to do until child is born. I have often said if I had to do it all over we would have done the both-part-time thing. Some parents are cut out for being home full-time with 10 kids, and some are CEO work-out-of-home types, but I think the vast majority of us fall somewhere in the middle. & I think it's hard to even know what *type* you are until you actually have a baby. You won't know until you have *your* baby. & even once you have your first child, your next child may be an entirely different experience. I would say working was never *any* big deal with my eldest (I went back after 8 weeks), but was more difficult when my younger was aged 0-3. So I was thinking seriously of cutting back for a time, but now all that is so moot any more. Both kids are in school now (age 8/10) and are becoming infinitely more independent by the day. It's amazing how much circumstances change so rapidly with kids. The more you plan for various scenarios the happier you are going to be as a parent, so I think this was very much worth sharing: Surprise surprise, another new parent falls to Plan B. (I think this happens more often than not, but I don't think most people are nearly as prepared for these scenarios).

**As to the "crazy gigantic mortgage" comment - I don't think it's that big of a deal since he is quite young and mortgage-free. But, just to point out that this was no small feat, to pay off a very large sum on the extremely young side.

So, congrats to MyMoneyBlog for being debt-free!!

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/paid-off-mortgage.html

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Mr. Money Mustache also had an awesome potentially life-changing post. I really think this is the *key* to happiness:

A Peak Life is Lived Off-Peak

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/07/a-peak-life-is-liv...

Basically, if you want to be happy, don't waste a lot of time in line and sitting in traffic. It's easier to find happiness when you aren't following the herd.

I can think of many examples big to small, and is a common theme in my own blog.

What is leaves me pondering is how much of this is just in my very nature? No doubt that we understand this on a very HUGE scale having made our low-cost-of-living move. We wanted to make life 10 times more simpler? We picked up and moved to a "far less desirable" region. Which has always been funny to us, because it feels virtually identical to where we have moved from. Except without all the downsides of extreme over-crowding. !! So you could argue that maybe it's just easier for us to see the benefit of living more off-peak. It's hard to ignore when you change your life so dramatically with such a small move. BUT, I think there is more to it than that. What came first, the chicken or the egg. Why are we the only ones in a large group of very intelligent friends and family who said, "Screw this, I am out of here!" You really have to delude yourself to believe that you live in the only place in the universe worth living, the only place you can be happy, and that it's worth paying $700,000 for that 2-bedroom starter home. Dh and I just never quite *got it* and that was with an emotional attachment to the only city we had ever called home. But we had enough common sense to realize life could be better elsewhere. Or at least just as good. But it turned out way better, which was maybe the surprising part to us.

So, I think we probably have off-peak tendencies anyway. It might just be our natural inclination to seek out the "different."

Side note: I also think this is why I don't see "traditional 9-5 work" and "happiness" as mutually exclusive. My job allows plenty of "off-peak" living opportunities. & so I will disagree a bit with the Money Mustache about how limiting the 9-5 job is. It is limiting, no doubt, but jobs come in all shapes and sizes. I have always had a very short/easy commute and a flexible job with plenty of off-peak time to enjoy. These are important to me in a job, and I seek out these jobs very specifically due to my personal preferences. But this maybe explains why I come across so much, "It's impossible to work 9-5 and be happy!" & why I have absolutely never understood that on any level. It's because we are living a largely off-peak life, regardless of my employment. It is interesting food for thought, and I think it's important because some of us enjoy working and more of us *have to* work. So the more we figure out how to balance work and life, the more of us will truly be happy.