I feel like the queen of cheap exercise but it looks like we may be getting a gym membership. I have missed having one (used the college gym for 5 years, had 24 hour fitness membership through my job for a few years while also living in a complex with a gym). So now I have been gym-less for 5 years.

In the meantime I have improvised. Time is short with the kids, but walking is something I do on and off. But it is really hampered by hot weather and random crimes in the neighborhood that leave me not really much in the mood to go on a walk alone or even with the kids. We walk at work often, but not when it is rainy or to hot which rules out a big chunk of the year.

I have a few workout videos that I have accumulated with time and also Lifetime airs Denise Austin workouts every weekday morning - I have my favorite workouts saved on the TIVO. Most of my videos and these tv shows are short, but to the point. They work wonders and I love the little time it takes. Then again I haven't done one of those workouts all year - LOL.

I am really enjoying my aerobics class. It is a little out of the way but it is only $2.50 for the hour, only when I show up. Aerobics for about 1/2 hour and then stretching/yoga, work the arms, legs, and abs. I love the class because it is so cheap, I can show up whenever, very good workout, and we don't use any weights or tools, so it is giving me ideas how to workout on my own. So far I paid $30 for 2 months. I hope to go a little more than just 1/2 the time going forward. & Tuesday I had a breakthrough - my stomach muscles are just stepping it up a notch - I am starting to feel "strong." So that is cool.

I just was flipping through the community college catalog and they are adding a bunch of classes to our neighborhood - right down the street at the middle school - I could walk. An aerobics class for 4 months - 2 nights a week - cost $20. I really wanted to look into that. What the registration fees are, etc. Is that really it????? (Incidentally I just was reading an article that CA community colleges were struggling because they charge so little - I guess $20/unit has been it for a LONG while. So maybe yes it is that cheap!).

I was stoked to have an option so close to home and I could keep up the other aerobics class on saturdays at $10/month or so. I had my eye on cardio kickboxing - something I have been wanting to try for a while but unwilling to shell out $50+/month.

But just one more thing. Dh was productive yesterday with his time - woohoo. We keep getting these ads for $16/month at this new gym if we lock it in now before they open. At first glance it sounds a little good to be true/gimicky so I didn't give it much thought. But I know dh wants to get working out. We had talked about joining a gym this year but decided we need to get our IRAs caught back up first, etc. We can go for more walks. So anyway, he went rock climbing a couple of times, which is expensive for my blood, and he was looking at memberships - they have a little gym. I wasn't really going for it but as with anything I said he could go get a one night a week job at the movies or pizza place to pay for it. He has options if he wants it that bad. There is just only so much my income can support and gyms and stuff like that are just a luxury (that we can't afford) as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, but he still wants to join a gym so he went to check out this place. He called me and said it was like $99 to sign up and pay for the first month. Thereafter is $16/month for life and you can cancel any time. It doesn't sound horrid but I grilled him on the details (free child care he tells me - yeah right!). So he called back to ask them all my questions too. Plus I said hell at that price I want to join too so he inquired on the family rates, etc.

We have been talking about spending $100-$200 on some nice used gym equipment. I think it would be a wonderful investment but the logistics are really tripping us up right now. I want to get something really sturdy and nice and we certainly have the room (not a cheap portable fold-up). But downstairs in front of the TV just won't cut it with the kids at this age. Upstairs in front of the TV won't cut it because the times I work out is when dh is sleeping for the most part. So it's kind of on the back burner for now. But putting that money to sign up for membership and then paying no more than $30/month for both of us to go to the gym is awesome (I can drop aerobics, or significantly cut back, which is $30/month at most).

So dh got back to me with more info. The childcare isn't free (you think?) but you can buy free childcare for life for $198. In the meantime it's $3/hour for both kids. The hours aren't much but they always have childcare between 8 & 1 and the kids nap in the afternoon so it really works out pretty good. Kind of sucks no evening babysitting if dh is ever out of town or anything, but for the most part it is not an issue. If we join we'll try out the situation and see if we even use the childcare that much. They do have childcare until 6 also (3-6?) and so I could work my work schedule around it - meet dh there or something a little after 5 and he can take the kids home at 6, etc.). If we do enjoy it I think we can buy the unlimited thing with Christmas money or something. The free/prepaid childcare for life is worth it if we use it - indeed. But we can swing $3/hour in the meantime. & if the childcare sucks, we don't need it. We can stagger our workouts.

The price for 2nd person is only $13/month. So our upfront fees would be $200 which is fine. Then $29/month for the 2 of us thereafter. We can divert our exercise equipment money to this. I am a gym person - I'll go every day. I will be glad not to drive all over tarnation for cheap aerobics.

So dh pretty much had me sold. No showers, no pool (both fine with me) and you know just not a lot of frills, but we are not big on frills. It is so close to home I wouldn't use the showers anyway - we already have access to a pool down the street - we would never use a pool anyway, Etc.

I was still feeling a little wary on the whole thing (still sounds a little too good to be true) so I looked up some reviews on the place and it actually has a very good reputation - lots of locations nationwide. The place is called Fitness19 - they seem to be a spin off of 24HourFitness - taking the complaints from there and catering to people who just want things simple and cheap. Oh and they are not open 24/7 but they open 5am on weekdays - I think we can work it in... I am not a late owl so the fact they close at 8 or 9 bothers me little.

Of course the gotcha is that they want you to pay $40/session at least twice a week for personal trainers. I think dh's brain went out the window when he tells me he is thinking about it. It's only $20/session if you lock it in now - prepay or something. I said, "for how many sessions - twice a week?" Oh yes, I guessed right. So we had to have a talk about the budget. He quickly realized personal training is not in our budget. He can find the money if it is that important to him...

Anyway, he is cracking me up though because he keeps saying he needs the personal training to get on track (before I pointed out how insanely expensive that really is) and then I said - well - just sign me up - and he is all wary. I am just frustrated with him. I said, look, I will go every single day of the week. Commitment is not my issue. I have weight to lose and having a class or gym to go to will make it 100 times easier for me. I am one of those people who can eat whatever the hell I want and go workout every day and be a size 0(well used to be before kids). & now that the kids are a little older and I have some breathing room I would love to get to they gym again. I understand him not wanting to shell out all this money if we're not going to go but I don't know why he doesn't just sign me up then. HE can join later after I check it out if he is wary about it. He's the one with the commitment issue. Well maybe we could motivate each other but with the no evening childcare I am not sure how much we can really go work out together. It is something we'll have to figure out.

He was saying - "Didn't you stop going to 24-hour fitness because you never went?" I am like um, not I stopped going because there was none in our area when we moved AND we had a gym with our condo dues - remember? LOL. & it was just never in the budget when we moved up here. I miss the gym something awful, particularly now that I Really have some weight to lose.

Overall we have a week to lock in the low rate "for life" and I am game. We'll see how it works out.

Oh yeah the other catch is we can only use this location. So basically as long as we never move, we're set. I have no interest in paying out the nose just so I can use other locations. So sounds good to me!

Actually I am excited! I could go run over and hit the stair climbers every morning before work or something - I am usually up at 5 or 6 anyway. What the heck. Or an after-work workout won't be so time consuming as my aerobics class which I Was pretty unsure I could keep up with in tax season. So I am actually really excited!

I'll probably still look into the community college aerobics in the meantime. The price tag is good at face value. I'll save a lot on gas - and time - over my current aerobics gig. IT could be a good supplement to the gym.

Hey I may actually lose some of this baby weight! I got 25 pounds - 12 pounds each kid pretty much. Actually it's 10 pounds kid #1 and 15 pounds kid #2 (was 20 pounds - he was brutal on me - my hormones are just whacked - I gained the weight with him after I had him which is the weird/annoying part). I think a lot of that is age. I no longer have the metabolism of a 20-year-old - that is for sure. A lot of it is hormones. Lord knows if they'll ever settle down.

But if I could lose 10 pounds AND tone up it may be all I need. I am not sure if losing all 25 pounds is a realistic/worthy goal. I used to be a waif. That's the plus. I don't have a huge long way to go. We both just want to be in better shape for the most part.

I was just wondering the other day if I will ever get to a point where I don't need insurance. I just saw another post on the topic =- insurance.

It just makes me sick how much we shell out in insurance.

Annual:

$8,000 Health (increasing 10-30%/year)
$1,500 2 Autos
$1,500 Home
$500 Life
$200 Disability
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$11,700/year

What am I forgetting?

Of course the house insurance doesn't really bug me. $1500/year or so (trying to remember off the top of my head because it increased last year) to protect a $600k asset in a flood zone doesn't seem so bad.

Life insurance coverage of $1 mil doesn't seem so bad. Disability insurance to cover our current level of living expenses(inclusing insane health ins.) is not a bad deal at $200/year. These are lower since we locked rates in our 20s for these.

The auto insurance bugs me because we have perfect driving records (knock on wood) but I guess that one comes back to medical to. I mean most of the expensive part of the coverage is medical. We don't even have collission on both cars.

So I guess mostly my pet peeve is with medical insurance. Just insane.

So at the end of the day a good 16% of my income goes straight to insurance. This is just mind blowing to me. Before we had kids we made six figures and we paid about $3k/year for all of our insurance. We didn't have life or disability at the time, but everything else. from 3% of income to 16% of income in just a few years. Of course it had been hitting more like 25% of our income for a while there. Yikes. This is the part that has blindsided me about having more assets - the cost to protect said assets.

We have been slowly adding more insurance through the years as we could afford it (well likewise decreasing our medical coverage to a more affordable level). I feel we are in a good spot on one hand, then again I just see it as a never-ending battle as far as health costs. I keep wondering if it will get easier.

I will probably keep all of our insurance because I am not much of a risk taker. But I am sure it is something you think about once you have some really decent assets. Then again then you start thinking umbrella assets and even more ways to protect your growing assets.

For us the next step will probably be long-term care insurance - I just feel it is too early for now. We figure we'd evaluate that in our 40s.

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In other news I got my balance transfer check - woohoo. It should hit my money market tomorrow.

I am estimating (& have locked in the interest rate on most of it) that this will yield us $60/month for 13 months and $40/month for 8 months thereafter. I will have $15k for 13 months and $10k for 8 months, with 3 staggered balance transfers. & paying down 2% per month. So these are some very round figures. I paid one $75 fee so considering that I expect to net around $1k. It's kind of an interesting experiment but would pay off far greater to have some higher limit cards. Then again $1k is nothing to sneeze at!

Since my cash is doing good I guess mostly I am diverting this interest into my new T Rowe ROTH IRA. All I needed was $50/month to get started, and once I hit $1k I don't need to add to it monthly. So it is an interesting way to look at it - the arbitrage is buying me some ROTH IRA. I was going to do it anyway in 2008 (more like $400/month), but started a few months early with the credit card money. Definitely a nice head start...

Anyway, I generally don't like to set up automatic payments for my bills, but I have just set up automatic payments for my new ROTH and for the kids' money. I will also have to set up automatic payments for the balance transfers - haven't done it yet. I must say I am playing it safe and just paying those early in the cycle - not closer to the due date. So I could take greater advantage, but eh. It might limit my returns a bit as I will probably pay back a month early too just to be way on the safe side and not mess with it.

Anyway, whereas I don't like the idea of vendors being able to take money from my account monthly (in case I have a dispute or they make an error) I do not mind so much for investments I guess. I'll make that exception.

I intend to get a lot more automated on my savings in 2008. Would love to get to a point where I don't even think about it. Beyond setting up/changing automatic savings with every raise...

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LM went to preschool today. Dh gets a free 1/2 day today. Lord knows what he is up to - hopefully either relaxing or something productive. Preferably something productive. He is just starting kind of on a drop-in basis. One 1/2 day a week is about my limit of affordability for now. Until January. I will allocate some of my raise to that, then. IT will only be for 9 months then before BM goes off to Kinder, LM takes his spot, and no more paying out the nose for preschool.

I remembered I have to run by Target for a few things so called dh and asked him to bring me the Target gift card at work (aha - won't cost me a dime - thank you credit card rewards). He said why doesn't he leave it at preschool for me when he picks up LM? Woderful idea - saved a few cents in gas.

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In other news I have been having this wild urge all of a sudden to take BM to this really cool little place called Bonfante Gardens. I have been trying to talk dh into all us going and he isn't going for it. I forgot about it for a while, but got it in my craw the other day. I decided I could just take a day off work and make it a special mother/son trip. Excited about it! Maybe in August...

I was just looking up prices yesterday and was shocked in all they had added in recent years. I just had to throw it out as if you are ever in Northern California - you just have to check this place out if you have small kids. It is so delightful. I think the place is 100 times better than I remember - more rides and some newer water features.

http://www.gilroygardens.org/

The place is a little near and dear to my heart as they were one of my clients back home (audit clients). We were there when a lot of the building was going on and the owner (who made it a non-profit) just seemed like a REALLY nice, decent guy. HE had owned some grocery chain and put a lot of money into this which is just his dream. He loves plants and gardening, etc. The gardens are just spectacular. For a while it was really up in the air if it was going to take off, but it really looks like they have done a lot of work and the place is thriving. Every once in a while someone up here finds our about it and just raves to the moms groups, etc. So as word gets out, the place has hope. But I have not been since I worked at my last job (6 years or so) and I know the kids will just love it.

Anyway, I have allocated my writing money for fun/family stuff and my June profits will pay for our admission. Plus for $2 extra I can make BM's a season pass in case grandma wants to take him sometime or something. Definitely worth it.

Yes, for us parking and admission would be covered and we could pack a lunch and picnic to keep costs down. It's about an hour from my parents' home so we'll have to go visit them on a Sunday, sleep over, and take full advantage of a full day in the park. The only downside is the weather is darn hot in the summer so I may postpone to September when they are only open weekends. Though call since I hate crowds - but we'll see how the weather is.

Which reminds me it is raining here today. Extrmeely bizarre - it generally doesn't rain here in the summer. But I LOVE the change in weather (& break on the a/c).

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2007/07/what-percent-of.html...

Just an interesting discussion. Something I hadn't really thought of and found it hard to quantify in terms of living in a High COL area. I find we have little control in this equation ourselves. Is it bad we bought a home that appreciated a ton? I don't think it was through no fault of our own. So our house appreciates more than we can save, what's so bad about that?

I think it is much more important to focus on buying what you can truly afford, and keeping housing costs down in general, which was always our goal. Why did we buy a condo immediately out of school? Because it was cheaper than renting. Why did we move 2 hours away? To limit our housing costs.

At the same time we thought long and hard about what and where we would buy. If we had to sink $300k to get into a house it was going to be a house that was set up for some long-term appreciation. A house that could hold its value well. So we have a house that has done just that (& then some). But we're bad off because 80% of our net worth is in our house??? Should we just have bought a house that couldn't hold its value?

Of course, I think the point is twofold. When you buy in a high COL area the affordability of a home AND limiting your housing costs are just the MOST important factors by far. But maybe this exercise is important to remember not to rely on the value of your home as a factor of your net worth. I certainly see that point. It's not like I look at my house and say, "wow - I don't need to save fore retirement." & that is probably a good point. I am more likely to pay little attention to it as far as our overall financial goals.

Affordable housing locked in for life? check! Moving on...

While I have many friends who are in the 20-40% range who can't afford their mortgage...

I do notice that having so much of our net worth tied up in our house has changed one thing about our strategy. While so many people here look very favorably upon prepaying their mortgage as a matter of comfort, I feel the opposite. Sinking more cash into an asset that is already so overvalued, it just makes me feel queasy. What is the point of making ourselves more house rich? Having all of our eggs in the house basket? Of course this comes also from the comfort of knowing we could simply move (even in the area if we downsized) to pay off our mortgage. That our next door neighbor pays another $500/month over our mortgage to rent a house half as big. So it is this equity richness that has changed our feeling greatly about carrying a mortgage. I feel more comfort carrying a mortgage than not around here.

But it is impossible to keep the net worth of our house in line with the rest of our net worth. Heck, our parents both have houses that they bought in the 70s that are long paid off and worth 10-15 times what they paid, today. I would venture to guess that in both cases their net worth is more than 50% home, but means little. They have saved plenty for retirement and don't intend to sell their houses for retirement monies. I think that is more important than ratios. I agree that you want a paid off home in retirement and that you don't want to rely on it for cash/retirement. Agreed agreed. But having 80-90% of our net worth tied up in our home in our 20s reflects little of how we plan to retire. We actually plan to pay off our home in our 40s and look at our house as a backup/emergency plan. IT feels nice to know you can move anywhere in the country and pay cash for a house. Doesn't mean we're counting on it overall. Just another leg to stand on if something horrible were to happen to us financially. Another emergency fund, another plan.

Maybe in some areas where housing appreciation is steady/muted you can keep better control of your net worth and your house as a percentage of said net worth.

As for me I make no apologies for the fact that my house is 80% of my net worth today. I think it would be great if it stays that way - LOL. 20%, 90%, means little difference to me. As long as my retirement is sufficient and my ducks in a row, its the best I can do rather than make sense of much else in such an insane housing market. Looking back to our parents as an example this "bubble" is 40 years in the making... From what we can tell not much has changed in 30 years. IT was insanely expensive then, and still is. As such, none of the regular rules of thumb seem to apply in the land of insanity...

We might receive some hefty inheritances, we may move somewhere cheaper and retire young (all due to the housing market). Lord knows. But if the market crashes I don't see it affecting our lifestyle or our overall strategy. Its just a perk in the meantime I guess. You can't look at it as much else I guess. We are just lucky it isn't our handicap or achilles heel as it is for most young people around here. Trying to figure out how to afford rent or mortgage. I am glad not to worry about that - we worried about it plenty in our 20s.

Though I guess it could go a lot easier...

I was listening to Dave Ramsey yesterday (just interesting) and someone called with my income and said his mortgage was $1700. I choked. Dave Ramsey said his mortgage wasn't the problem. I choked again. LOL. But he knows what he is talking about (sort of). He also had $700/month in car payments as well as credit card debt. I thought dear lord, if I added $400 to my mortgage, and almost $1k/month to debt I would be BEYOND broke. It is eye opening to listening to these stories. I feel like we have it tight enough as is. I feel we live quite well, but lately it just feels tighter than it should be. I feel conflicted on the mortgage comments as the caller was clearly scared his mortgage was too much and scared Dave would tell him to sell the house. I think that comment speaks volumes. He *knows* they bought too much house. Heck, now that I think about it he said their combined income was in the $70k range. They need 2 incomes to support their mortgage - which is just dangerous. So I think Dave missed a big one. But then again he was right too - he had bigger issues...

I was cleaning some files and saw my list of bank accounts/important info and saw we have 4 bank accounts, 6 retirement accounts (between the 2 of us) and now 2 UGMA accounts. Most opened in the last year. It's a little overwhelming. I don't foresee opening any new accounts in the near future though. We've just been in the process of re-organizing. Gosh, we may have 7 credit cards as well. Though 3 are solely for the purpose of balance transfers & 1 is an old one dh has yet to close. We only use 2 cards and dh has a backup card. I closed my backup when we got a second rewards cards for bigger rewards. But he isn't big on closing cards like I, so he has more...

It adds up fast! Of course before getting organized we had maybe 4 retirement/investment accounts and we had 5 bank accounts (at 2 institutions) that we have since closed. So lots of shuffling. I just see a list of financial institutions growing fast. But for the long-term I Feel much more comfortable spreading our money around (not all in one basket).

I am anxious to move ahead on some retirement things and just have to remember to hold my horses. I think we are doing well on cash and I could probably do all I want in a sense, but I have to remember we have $10k tied up in a CD and the rest isn't really our money (lots of balance transfer money). We need a cushion over the $10k in case the BTs make me skiddish and I decide to pay them back right away. Anything can happen...

Plus I found we were considering $100/month for LM for preschool and $50/month to the kids' college. I am getting antsy to open my T Rowe account which would be $50/month. But I also need to save up a good $2k for the IRS. If everything goes perfect between now and December we can swing it, but isn't that the big "IF"? Part of me feels like, eh, we got a good $10k, do we really need more in an efund? Twice as much as we had a year ago! I am just not sure if it makes that big of a difference, truly. Shifting more to retirement than I originally intended...

The other things in my mind are that I want to divert $1k into an IRA I opened but gave up on the transfer because both financial institutions were difficult. The account sits open with no cash and as long as that is okay (so far no complaint) is fine with me but now that the dust has settled I wouldn't mind diverting the $1k minimum to open the mutual fund. This one is pushing it for now, but a cash advance on next year's contributions to get this account settled is not the worst. Just more "retirement over cash" thinking. I would probably be wise to just hold off as long as I can - until they send me a notice or something. Even if they close the account I can just start over later. Then again maybe I should just suck it up, pay the stupid medallion fee AGAIN and transfer. I am just so annoyed the other financial institution called me 3 times to straighten out the problem and this one just sent me a note that I had to start over - medallion fee and all. Bah. But $10 is probably a lot better than $1k...

I also would like to divert $1k to start a taxable account, but I am not sure. I don't think we will add a ton to it right now, but I would like to divert a little of our cash savings into an investment account so we don't get too cash heavy. Overall I think this can wait another year though.

Mostly I find all of a sudden I find that we are doing much better than I thought and all these competing wants rear their ugly heads. I just have to prioritize.

I think the $50/month is small beans for T Rowe, and also that I can come up with the money if I put some effort to ebaying and stuff like that. So that one I am going to go through with. May be a bit hasty, but not a big dollar amount.

I don't have much choice with the IRS.

I guess once July is over I can attempt my IRA transfer again. Bah. Of course now that I think about that one I can't because I just converted the original account to a ROTH. Figures. I forgot about that whole thing. Guess I have to close the other account anyway. No more regular IRAs here... Sometimes it helps to just think aloud and realize stuff like this. I can hardly keep it all straight. We are officially all switched to ROTHs though (well - in the process) so will make things easier going forward. I just need to close that account before I forget it is not a ROTH anyway... Hadn't even thought about that.

Dh is cute.

He ran to the store for eggs last minute last night and came home all excited the store had those canvas bags for sale for 99 cents.

Of course he didn't pick any up because he'll get them tomorrow. ???

Okay then.

When he mentioned I just kind of thought I have no idea why we never used canvas bags before. Even earlier in the day I dropped by the store to get 2 cans of frosting and went to the self checkout and just popped them in a bag without thinking. I didn't need it. I usually say no thanks with a couple of small items, but my brain went out the window on self-checkout.

So yes, overall I think we do a lot to try to reduce our economic footprint, but we still need lots of work! This is a good step. Hopefully he buys a lot of bags while they are cheap.

Dh and I are also big on showers. He likes them long and I like them hot. Kind of our luxuries. I have been thinking though that in the heat the water is way too hot so I turned down the water heater last night. I was surprised it was already set to "warm." Obviously the HOT side of warm - LOL. I know I always roll my eyes when they say turn those way down when you have small kids. Like the infant is going to jump in the shower by itself and get scalded. I keep the water rather hot because I like it hot but we are extremely cautios with the kids. But it is probably more of an issue as they get older and into more trouble on their own. Anyway, I turned it down a tad and probably could turn it down much more for the remainder of summer. We are not even big on hot water for clothes washing so really don't need it too much. Today the shower was plenty hot so I will probably keep lowering it until I find the sweet spot.

But I also thought maybe with the new water metering we could work to shorten our showers. I wouldn't be surprised if we both took 15-20 minute showers. We don't necessarily shower every day. But I am sure I could take a 5-minute shower every other day. I don't have a beauty routine or anything.

Something to try anyway. I am not sure if dh will go for it - hehe - but we'll see. For us I think it is really our ownly quiet/relaxing time alone so we enjoy our showers immensely, but I can go meditate in the closet for the other 15 minutes if I have to. LOL. I think it will be harder in the winter because I just love to warm up in the shower on a cold morning. Then again it's so cold you don't want to stay in too long. I guess it can go either way. Well, I'll try. I might need to invest in a timer. I don't need to keep the water so hot in the winter if I am going to keep it short, and probably better with the kids too.

Silly me. I already mentioned but I asked BM wherever he wanted to go out today we would splurge. Well, #1 is McDs which surprised me a tad. Well sure we can go play on the playland and spend a couple of bucks on a Happy Meal if he likes. But I said, well how about dinner? You can go wherever you want or we can cook your favorite meal at home? What do you want?

"Chicken & Stars."

LOL. I think it is just like something in a can dh gives them as a treat once in a while. Like sphaghetti-os or alphabet soup. I guess it's like chicken soup with pasta stars.

It's funny dh and I were so excited by an excuse to eat out we thought the kids would really enjoy, but all they want is a can of soup. As evidenced by the boringness of home cooking and the rareness of eating out, that is all they really want. Hehe.

Anyway, BM did get a transformer toy from LM, and a computer game as well as a remote controlled helicopter (we saw it at a friends' home - kids LOVED it - and dh spotted it on sale somewhere a while back). The kids also got Stomp Rockets...

http://www.amazon.com/D%2BL-Company-Junior-Stomp-Rocket/dp/B...

I haven't seen them in action but some kids at the park had them and were letting the kids play with them and they just could not stop talking about these rockets. Dh happened to see these on sale for $5 at Ross or Marshalls (one of those) so he grabbed them.

So for today I am taking the kids out to play in the morning, popping by the store to get frosting for cupcakes, and then dh or I will take BM to McDs for lunch. Probably me because I would love some friend and/or a sundae. Yum yum! Nap time, and then tonight when it cools down we will have to go try out the stomp rockets. Oh after our Chicken & Stars dinner.

Doesn't keep much to make the kids happy...

In other news I just had a revelation. Since my efund is doing so well I will divert $700 to the IRS for ROTH conversions. I have 2 IRAs and I have been waiting for the market to bottom out a bit (and also to save the cash - even moreso) but I am getting to the point where I have the cash to cover it. So it just occured to me my one IRA is in a very slow fund right now. The managers converted a ton to bonds and cash and it really hasn't been going up wildly as the rest of my funds. I decided I might as well convert that one now. I can fund both without dropping my efund below $10k.

So I will get rolling on that one today or tomorrow. I figure I have until 9/15 to send in the tax.

The other one, I am just not sure. Of course if I think about it, if that fund dropped 10% it would only be a $100 difference in tax. I almost should do that one first because I need to add some money to it so I can move my $100 cash to a mutual fund. Hmmmmm.

I guess it's just time to bite the bullet and do both. I should have $1700 for the taxes and a good $11k back in the e-fund by then. IT shouldn't hurt my goal to get back to $12k by 12/31 and it really needs to be done. Our tax situation will be pretty equal to last year. Last year we converted $20k to ROTHS. This year we'll convert $15k but I got a $5k raise, so it will even out. Of course I probably get even more overtime and maybe a bigger year-end bonus - but overall not more than $1k or $2k. I think it will be a pretty equal tax year. Which means I will report around $90k in income at a 15% tax rate. Woohoo. I was doing some calcs in my head trying to see if we were near the 25% tax rate and we're getting there with the ROTH conversion, but not quite. But this is why I feel it is so urgent to get this done now. These low tax rates will not last forever and one part-time job on the part of dh would make us pay a good 10% more on the conversion - easy... Well that and I already mentioned I am not eligible to contribute to a regular IRA either... So I have to change all mine to ROTHs.

Oh well, it kind of sucks to be so close to my goal but to have this to pay off first. Bummer. But still... Getting there... Still feeling good about 12/31 meeting all my goals. & also, should get some overtime bonus to soften the blow.

Nothing like a good 6 hours at work with NO distractions. It has been heaven. I got caught up on so much little stuff.

That is the good.

The bad is that I allocated some work out but no one did what I asked. Between that and so many clients on vacation it leaves me on 7/15 with not ONE of my client's payroll stuff done for the quarter. O.M.G. I was just talking to dh and he was like - "when is the deadline? The 15th?" LOL. No - it's the 31st but I try to get all the easy ones out of the way so I am not too crunched with the procrastinators. Bah. The whole idea that nothing has been done is freaking me out. Oh well, a repeat of April. I am sure we had nothing done by April 15th as we were preoccupied by the big deadline, and we survived.

I think it is my biggest pitfall in a more managerial position though. I start to get antsy that things are not done and I just do them myself. It seems to work out since my manager does the same - LOL. Well he knows I will never get to it - which was nice last quarter with the craziness, but this quarter I think I could have handled it.

Maybe not...

Yeah, I am still waiting for things to slow down.

I have been pretty crabby at work these last months and so I am trying to think positive today.

I got 7 hours overtime this week and can probably push it to 9 hours if I work a little tomorrow. I have sonme mindless stuff I can do while the kids play or watch t.v. in the morning.

So I am going to start a running total of the overtime I am earning. I thought about it and instead of getting bitter about all these hours, I am trying to look at a bright side. So I made almost $200 today - overtime. Nothing to sneeze at.

If I work on average 5 hours overtime a week above and beyond the normal (which is usually no OT except tax season) I can swing that second IRA contribution. The idea is rather motivating. I really value work/life balance but as long as it isn't there might as well embrace the income. My boss is trying to redistribute the work - we are all just so behind. But I am optimistic it won't be like this forever. Believe me if he has to pay me that much overime - LOL. But we'll see.

I am going to create a page to track my overtime going forward. As a motivator. I said this before but I didn't stick with it. But I am not sure I have much choice now... So crazy here...

In other news, tomorrow is Big Monkey's birthday. I had wanted to take him to McDs to meet up with a couple of his friends some night after work and then let him choose somewhere to eat out tomorrow. All he wants is McDs - he asked if I could just take home (we didn't want to go with LM because he is too little for the PlayLand). I guess that would be a hell of a lot cheaper? I think I will take both kids to the zoo or something in the a.m. - if it isn't too hot anyway - haven't even looked at the weather - and for lunch him and I can do a nice indoor playland at McDs. Works. Won't cost me more than gas and a treat or a kids meal.

He is probably getting an oodle of toys - I am scared to look. Off the top of my head dh got him a remote-controlled helicopter and some rocket thing. I forget what else. We'll see. I might have to make more cupcakes too - can take the leftovers to preschool and/or work. He gets a big party at preschool Monday too - so spoiled...

IT is weird to have a 4-year-old. Seems like yesterday he was a newborn! I don't think he is considered a toddler any more. He's just a boy I guess. *sniff*

Which reminds me LM's favorite new toy is a flashlight. He loves them, but somewhere he got a little one and I was showing him how to put it over his fingers and toes to make them glow. We made quite a game of it - fingers, toes, ears, nose. Cute. Now that's cheap entertainment. Today I was asking him how many hands and feet he had, etc. He has gotten the concept of "2" for a while and is one of his favorite words. As he gleefully points out when he sees 2 of anything. So next I asked him how many ears he had and he said "5." Same for eyes - 5 eyes. I guess since he can't see his eyes or his ears he just had to take a guess??? LOL. Silly little monkey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well it was fun while it lasted...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well it was fun while it lasted!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No - Not HERE!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I have some pics to share:

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



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



& found some baby birdies by the pool:



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blech, I feel chewed up, swallowed, and spit out. What a week. Just seemed like a complicated week.

I wouldn't even know where to begin. But I did take one mental health day this week and have resumed coming home EVERY DAY for lunch. So far I think it is helping. I stopped due to time constraints and expensive gas, but my mental health is worth more and I also feel more productive. Well, we'll see...

IT cuts into my blog time though, significantly. I have been pretty MIA.

Net Worth

Anyway, I updated my Net Worth for June. Was just too giddy and impatient, the accountant in me.

We are up $12,300 for the quarter. Woohoo.

3% exactly.

For the year we are up $15,300 (3.75%). My goal is $25k for the whole year. Getting there...

If you take out all the equity in our home we are up 7% for the quarter/9% for the year.

Quarter:
*Cash is up $5,500
*Retirement is up $3,000
*Paid off $900 on the mortgage
Paid off $2,900 on the car

Year-to-Date:
*Cash is up $5,000
*Retirement is up $5,000
*Paid off $1,900 on the mortgage
*Paid off $3,400 on the car

Investments

We still have some pretty conservative positions. But our entire portfolio is up 7% for this year. Keeping more returns, paying less fees. Feels good...

June Budget

I assumed we would not be able to save for a 2nd month ($850 car repair & $500 vacation explains it all - usually save around $500/month).

But our june budget is insane. We drove to LA & will have 2 trips to San Jose after the weekend. With gas prices dropping and other factors we will be below budget all the same. Woohoo.

Our groceries will be way under budget. Being gone 1 week heavily contributed to that.

Dining out - $14 - Under Budget!

Misc. - $35 - some books and a trip to the San Francisco zoo (divine). (My Misc. budget is $150).

Vacation - $500

I am still a little puzzled how we had such a divine/splurgy month and still came out so ahead. Our credit card bill will be below $1200 and that is my budget - very aggressive - rarely make it. So it is the best month we ever had pretty much. Since budget crackdown. I think I made $1200 once - certainly never BELOW that. I budget by expense categories but I try to couple that with I only have enough cash every month to comfortably pay a $1200 cc bill. So I watch the bill and as it gets higher I know the extras have to scale back, etc. I keep an eye on it overall so overall amazed. Though obviously when we have a good month on the budget it is reflected in the cc bill.

The fact is looking at the numbers that we did not eat out more than once - cheap at that (outside vacation). That we curbed our driving and were very mindful of gas prices outside our big trips. That we were gone for a week. That we didn't feel like we could splurge after vacation so we didn't. The trip to the zoo was a real treat but at $30 or so. But we could do that 5 times in a month if we don't splurge on anything else.

Oh but most importantly we didn't have anything unexpected this month. woohoo! No copays, no car repairs, etc.

So I am super happy that with around $1500 in budget overages over the last couple of months that I was only short 1 month on savings - or $500.

Looks like I can transfer some money to saving for July! I might have my ROTH IRA money saved by October at this rate. I will let you know when the day arrives and I do my conversion because I can tell you now that is when the market will go bad. LOL. I keep thinking waiting is fine since the market will probably go down a bit (& lower my conversion tax bill accordingly). Instead while I have been waiting my IRA portfolio is up almost 20%. Figures!!!!! I still have to wait for the cash to pay the tax bill, so I keep telling my friends I will let them know the day I do the conversion. Market will drop and I will have paid too much tax. Murphy's Law. Then again I converted dh's IRA before all this. So PHEW. I timed one well enough...

I have to say a good chunk of our net worth doing well is our retirement investment returns. But I am hoping to get to a spot by next year that I do not rely on that for much of my net worth progress. I want to get to a point in the next year or 2 where our net worth increases $25k/year before investment returns, and that those are just gravy. & also so the bad stock years don't affect my annual goals too heavily. Getting there... This year our net worth is getting some positive hits from good luck (cash windfall and wonderful market). But setting things in motion so we don't rely on luck so much in the future.

Well I think I had 2 in January. Not a great start to the year.

But dh had a flat today.

With all the construction you would think that would explain much (construction on all corners by our home - hotels, stores, houses, you name it). But he said looking back he knows he ran something over on the freeway this morning and saw the flat when he got home. Since my flats were chalked up to running over giant bolts on 2 different occasions, I would say Sacramento is REALLY bad on tires. I am so annoyed. Well, at least it isn't all the consttruction, thus far...

The interesting thing is that dh said he does not ever remember changing his tire, he thinks this is the first flat he has ever had on his 5-year-old car. Considering that I am a flat-tire magnet, I find that quite impressive! I've probably had 10 flats in the last 5 years myself, no matter what the car.

I haven't heard how much it set him back. If it's fixable, a few bucks. If not, maybe $20. I must say for all the flats I have had it is only this year that they were unrepairable flats. We'll get another used tire. I keep reading how never buy used tires but I don't buy it. I Can see staying away from this re-treading business, but beyond that, as with anything, go down and pop off a "used but barely used" tire off a retired car and pay 1/2 as much, maybe less. Replaced tire, or just a patch, it will barely blip the budget. When it comes time to replace all 4 then we go new. But this one at a time business, eh. Of course, considering the car is 5 years old and never a flat or new tire I am wondering if it is time for new tires. Perhaps... The used tire will be by far the nicest one!

For all my flats I have never gotten a flat from a "used" tire (knock on wood anyway).

Well I'll see what the verdict is tonight.

Dh also spent our $50 Target gift card (credit card reward) today. Loads of laundry detergent (with $5 off), some groceries (with coupons), and 2 pairs pajams for BM. Grand total around $53. The PJs were more
than I Would have spent ($13 for one pair?) but the last ones I bought didn't last long either. You get what you pay for? They are hard to find at the thrift shop where I do well with pants and shirts and jackets sometimes. But I am starting to wonder why even bother. In this weather, put them to bed in underwear... Save the money for nice winter PJs. LEaves $25 for now for birthday presents for the boys (should be plenty). & I will get another $50 gift card in a bit. Probably save up for more groceries/laundry degertent/paper towels, whatever. I am tempted to start stocking up on warmer clothes for fall/winter for BM, but the thing is lord knows what size he will be. 5 or 7? LOL. I can keep the card until I know though I guess...

ETA: Oh gosh yes, the road construction is insane. Is that why - fiscal year? The road by my house is under construction as well - s'posedly for quite a few months. Doing a lot of work with all the development. But the road by my work 10 miles away is even worse. I am just sick of all the traffic and road closures.

*Went to pool Saturday a.m. but was closed for maintenance (bah).

Public pool but usually go in the a.m. and pretend like its ours - tends to get packed in the evenings, but quiet the rest of the time.

*Took kids to park instead & 99-cent ice cream at Rite Aid. Dh had noticed it (I didn't even know they had ice cream in there) - and the kids LOVED it.

*I took the kids to Fairytale Town & the zoo today. About 9am - noon, weather was extremely pleasant for a summer day in Sacramento AND no one else was up. Weird. Dh was really wary and I didn't expect it to be a pleasant trip, but wanted to give him some time. Kids were fine (I guess he had a bad trip a couple of weeks back and refused to take them alone again for a long while. I think he was peeved it was so easy for me, but the place was empty and kids were extremely well behaved today. I could easily see it going in the opposite direction so I lucked out. But I think we ALL had a really nice morning.) Anyway it was "free" except the nachos and ice cream we bought.

*ORdered pizza in yesterday because we found another $5 off coupon at Round Table. Sweet.

*Dh went grocery shopping and spent $54. He is getting very adept at getting $50 groceries every trip, which comes with a 10 cent off per gallon gas coupon.

Gas is actually going down here (WEIRD for summer - it is settling around $2.99 - from MUCH higher - and the mild weather is nice for the A/C & electric bill - pleased with the weekend).

*Double checked BM's swimming schedule - he has class all week at 9am. In a wading pool. Nothing fancy, I am not sure how many days he can make it. As a plus he has no preschool so I was thinking I could work more hours/have an easier week with less driving him around. But the whole swimming thing complicates things. We'll see.

*Dh's focus group is at 7pm, not 7am. I had no idea. The good is it won't affect work. The bad is it affects aerobics. Bah. I am wondering if I should just give up and start again July 1. Give me a week to try had to catch up at work, and then commit to myself and all that in July. We'll see.

*I will have to scramble tonight to clean house a bit. Almost forgot that I invited me mid-west coworker over for dinner Monday. Bah. I know it is the nice thing to do. Its just exhausting and all that...

*Dh is going to have to make me a batch of homemade salsa too. MExican theme for Bunco this week - I volunteered the salsa, but dh is the master chef. I think I mention dh usually has all the ingredients on hand (leftover veggies for the week) and just has to buy peppers. We have been eating a lot of salsa. I am not a big veggie fan but I can down the salsa so it is good.

*That reminds me we had a bad week wasting food. Dh left out the canned salsa and it spoiled the night his friend was here. & I dropped our giant glass container of minced garlic, on BM's foot nonetheless. What a mess... He is okay but it is funny that our garage now REEKS of garlic (where we store the trash bins). As long as it doesn't start smelling rotten I guess... The garlic capital around here is Gilroy, you can smell it as you drive past the town, so I told dh our garage smelled like Gilroy today. The container was full (new) and most of it would have been salvageable if not for the whole broken glass thing. Decided to toss it.

*Dh's cousin's adoption of an 18-month-old boy will be official this week. They did foster-to-adopt and couldn't have been easier - they have had him since the day he was born. So happy for them, they are having a big party next weekend. I hope the next one goes even 1/2 as well - they want a big family and so far unsuccessful on their own, so they plan to adopt more. They also adopted an older girl way back (long story) and they have a way of helping kids who really need it. Though they have had the boy from day 1 he was addicted to drugs and has had many issues. They are very good with it though, will probably adopt more troubled children. Incidentally I used to babysit for a single lesbian woman who adopted a crack baby. It is really sad what these little ones go through the first few years. hopefully it gets better... Being willing to adopt these babies though means an easier/cheaper process than otherwise though.

*I cut back my writing schedule a bit and it feels good. I was working on a monster article yesterday (yet unfinished) but I think I am just going to resolve to taking one day off a week - no work whatsoever. I think something I need. I usually don't mind working a little saturday and a little sunday (beats working all day saturday or something) but I think I was a little burned out too. I am realizing more vacation time is great - though I would like to lessen my work hours during the week, it is not going to happen. I will get much more rest taking large chunks of time off. So I am trying to keep that in mind going forward. As long as work is the way it is anyway. I can get out early friday but then I am just behind and have to work harder the rest of the week. In the end it is not as nice as I had hoped. I still have hope I will catch up and things will settle down a bit. Work has never been much for me at this place outside of January through April so I am just thrown for a loop.

*Financially speaking, our efund sits at $11k. I started with $5k late last year. I am rather pleased. I am shifting gears to scrounging the $1800 to do my ROTH IRA conversions. I can not add any money to any of my IRAs until I convert them. At least I can add to dh's IRAs. But I aim to save the tax money for this, this year. I did dh's IRAs last year - which was a good $1500 in tax, so it feels good to be almost done with all of them while we are still in such an insanely low tax bracket.

I will make enough interest to get my efund up to $11,500 easy by December. I only need a few hundred dollars this year then to reach my final goal. If I make the $12k efund and get the $1800 ROTH tax money, we will shift gears to retirement. OTherwise I am getting a $12k contribution from my boss this year so it isn't exactly suffering if I don't get to it. But I want retirement to be #1 come January 1st.

My goal is to start regular retirement contributions 1/1/08, but we may make it sooner... Exciting... I haven't made regular contributions since I had my 401k in 2000. & the whole dollar cost averaging thing was really good on my portfolio. That is what I want to get back to - regular contributions every month. More of a priority than an afterthought (you don't know how many years I dropped in $5k to our IRAs on April 14th just so we could get a tax break - hehe. Trying to make it priority, not last minute tax strategy. Retirement just hasn't been a priority to us before - we have been so focused on getting into a house out here and being home for the kids, so it is a mindshift). I've always had 10% contributions of my salary and thrown in a few thousand here and there, so we haven't done bad at all for our age, but my goal is to triple my current retirement balance in 5 years. & I also want to have a good $300-$500k retirement balance before we hit 40. So we have a lot of work to do!

Had to share, was talking about it earlier and just remembered:

Baby's room before we began (used to be the cat room I guess - we had an empty room when we moved in as we each took an office, and still had a room to spare):



& my "Baby Cheetah" decor:



lots of leopard print...



The wall border has a bunch of mommy & baby cheetahs and I have 3 pictures in the room (which you catch a glimpse of) with mommy and baby animals plus I have a mommy & baby monkey wood carving.

*sniff* Will miss all the mommies and babies. Of course now that I think about it maybe I can sell some of that stuff on ebay or Craigslist. That's something I guess...

The room was made rather unisex before we even knew if we were having a boy or a girl the first time, but it is a little on the girly side I guess. Plus LM has been ripping off all the wall borders. Funny since he is the tamer one usually. At least BM left the room nice for him - LOL. It was the nursery for both boys. & let me say we didn't spend a lot of money on it either - it is quite frugal.

TGIF!!!!

Gah, it's been a long week...

I think this week has just sucked extra bad with all sorts of strange responsibilities at work and us being sick all last weekend really sucked. We missed Wacky Water Day, a lazy day at the pool, and I missed a movie night out with the girls which is so rare anyways!!!! I have bunco next week though. Oh yes, and been feeling to sick/icky to go too aerobics since out return. Maybe next week... I get so tired of making fun plans and missing them due to sickness though - such is life with kids. It never seems to end.

On the plus side, and I almost hate to say it, LM has been sleeping REALLY well. Going down at night by himself awake, not waking us up all hours, etc. I know I so totally jinxed it too!!!! Actually I almost dread him sleeping well because we have been talking about moving him out of his crib. If he keeps sleeping well I don't want to do anything to disturb the peace though. He could stay in there I guess, what does it matter.

The baby's room is a cute "baby cheetah" them - quite unique really. I am sad because I think we are going to have to redo the room. I remember how I excited I was picking out the baby cheetah theme back in late 2002 when I was first pregnant. We painted the lower half of the walls a sort of brown color and put a little border around the middle of the room, dividing the walls - top-half white/ lower-half brown. Both babies loved the cheetas and laughed and talked with them on the changing table. But LM has taken to ripping off the wall border. It looks pretty horrid around his crib and around the changing table (or changing area I should say - we didn't waste money on a changing table - just had to say - LOL - we change him on the dresser). But yesterday I Walked in and the border had been ripped off 1/2 of the wall by the crib. Lord knows what was going on in there, didn't ask dh. Actually I think it wasn't *so* bad but it was close enough to the crib that *I* peeled it off a bit more because I did not want LM playing with it - seemed a little dangerous to me. But I couldn't quite bring myself to tear it down entirely. So now I am sad... I have a little frilly matching drape as we went ALL uni-sex with the kids because we planned to have more than 1 and I couldn't wait to 20 weeks along to decorate the nursery - hehe. But it is a little feminine probably for the long term.

We'll probably have to go in this summer and tear down the border and repaint. We could repaint the upper half with the brown - one solid color. But it's not really a beautiful color. I am thinking blue or something. But I don't know how that will work over the 1/2 & 1/2 wall. A few coats perhaps? No more wall border - it was just a pain to put up too. Home improvement is just not our thing, but painting at least we can do. We have some blue paint from the theatre room which I actually think would be perfect.

BM might like some colored walls too. He's just got plain plain white.

But yeah I will have to post some pictures of the nursery - just love it. Will miss it - the end of an era I guess.

The craziness never stops here though. Dh's friend came by yesterday and is staying through today I guess. There was a brand new car parked in front of the house when I got home yesterday and I was SHOCKED. His friend has been out of work for about 2 years, our age, seems content to live at home and hang out, not much job searching I can see. I mean there is no reason he should not be able to find a job. I thought he bought this brand new car and I was wondering what in the hell?????? In the morning though it was gone and I asked if he had left as I really didn't know his schedule, and dh said he was still there, sleeping in the theatre room as they had stayed up all night playing video games (Silly boys!). I Said, I hope his car didn't get stolen. LOL. Since our neighborhood has like 10 times the national average in auto theft - we just NEVER leave our cars outside. Turns out he had taken the train or something, which explains much. I have to say I am relieved he did not buy a brand new car. I was wondering what the heck - LOL.

Oh yes and in other news, hell has frozen over!!!!!!!!!! It must have because my grandma got e-mail! OMG! I am so happy for her. All our other grandparents seem open to technology and digital cameras and e-mail and all that. But my grandma is very lonely and refuses to try new technology. She doesn't want a computer. I have told her many times I could keep in better touch if she got e-mail, and I guess she finally gave in. All these years I have thought it was a shame she refused to try the internet or e-mail, how it could really be positive for her. I don't know how far she'll venture beyond e-mail but I am all excited for her. Yippee!

Oh in other news my dad is probably losing/quitting his job. Has a horrid horrid boss he can no longer stand, which says a lot because he is a pretty easy-going guy, adaptable, etc. I was kind of surprised to hear. So near retirement, but wants to work a few more years all the same, so I hope it all works out soon, that he finds a new job or things work out. Crossing my fingers for him. My dad is in an industry where jobs are very project-based and come and go. I couldn't even keep track how many jobs he has had, but he was laid off around 2003 and was out of work for a long while, as he is now in his late 50s. We worry how easy it will be to find work with his age, after that experience. BEfore this last layoff he had never been out of work more than a month or so, if that. He networks very well and has kept up his skills, etc. so finding a job overall has never been a problem for him. But the economy seems to be bouncing back in the tech industry and all that all the same so hopefully it is easier this time. My parents could so totally be fine if he never found another job, but they worry all the same, they want to feel better prepared for retirement of course. Plus if he doesn't find a job they will likely cash out their house and leave the state entirely. & I don't want that!!!

I guess it didn't hit me until the money got deposited into my bank, but well, I officially have credit card debt. Woohoo. LOL.

I have been noticing a lot of new bloggers too - welcome! & they are probably like what the heck is wrong with this person - happy to be in debt? Of course never really been in debt before it doesn't scare me that much. I can understand the whole not wanting to go down that road again - for ANY reason.

For me I am just making money. This will be the least profitable balance transfer as it is small and had a small fee. Was my little experiment. I will write an article on the experience eventually, when it is done I guess.

Anyway, so I will have to update my net worth schedule and constantly explain why I have credit card debt - but that's fine. I don't really consider it debt since you know the money will just sit in the bank. But how it goes.

I will probably wait another month and then do the big $10k BT for dh - that is where the real money will be. His is 9 months and I am hoping by then I will have $10k on my other card to transfer.

We also got $75 gift cards (cc rewards) in the mail - Target. I was hoping to get them before the kids' birthdays, then unsure. But they arrived FAST! IT was actually a $50 card & a $25 card. Dh had a $5 off laundry detergent at Target if you buy $20 worth (lord knows how much that is - a few boxes? LOL - he just switched to the powder stuff which is much cheaper). So he will load up on that and granola bars (big coupons) and whatever else he sees. The $50 will probably go to birthday party stuff - gifts/decorations, I don't know... I have another $50 coming I believe - but maybe not in time.

Dh also bought me some pepsi yesterday on sale with a raincheck from before and he said he wasn't sure if it was worth it - he had LM and it took forever I guess - some new guy didn't know how to ring it up and had to try 3 times (& keep calling the manager for help). He tried to tell my dh that the CRV for 3 pepsis was $1.50 the first time. LOL. But once he got it through was 1/2 off regular price. That one he stopped by Walgreens on the way from picking up BM. Sometimes pop over there with the big coupons because it is not out of the way.

BM was sick Monday so he is going to preschool Friday instead. I just remembered as well that there is no preschool next week so I signed him up for swimming lessons (like $15 through parks and recs - I don't know but really cheap - for 5 days). OF course that was before work was crazy. We'll see. I told dh we should go the first day (he'll probably need help with LM) but if we don't make it every day, not like we shelled out big bucks or anything. I am thinking every other day is probably about my limit but we'll see. It's just at the wading pool - hopefully LM can splash around out of the way while the big kids learn, I could be unneeded. I am sick of being too busy with work to do these kinds of things though - usually doesn't matter.

I finally got the kids' E-vite out for their birthday party - phew. It will be low key this year. I asked no presents. The kids just don't need anything. They got a zillion presents for Christmas we haven't even got through and I mentioned Grandma took them clothes shopping 10 times while we were gone. I can't even ask for clothes. Dh's sister asked for a list and dh was telling me all this crap he was going to tell her. I said, seriously, tell her the kids need Winter clothes! They have so much excess but come Fall BM will have nothing to wear if he grows any more. That is what I would really like. The family will get the kids too much anyway so I just don't want anyone else to bring gifts. They will, but at least they won't feel bad going cheap. & one of my neighbors does the same so I know she will respect my no gift request!

The kids will get too many presents anyway, and we always like to do something nice for them. So they will be fine. I decided no gifts, no party favors, keep it simple. I'll probably make a box cake and we'll do some take & bake pizzas, and I really don't expect to spend much money at all. Recycling last year's theme and we already have most everything we need. IT's 4 & 2 - they won't remember a thing. This is the first year we had the preschool conundrum but I am not going to invite 10 kids I don't know. We invited just 1. Which is my friend and would have invited them anyway. Preschool will have a little party for him. This age we mostly do the family thing. Invited a handful of the kids' friends, but don't expect many to show on the holiday weekend.

I don't think I have sent out a real party invitation since the year 2000. I just LOVE evite - like the best thing since sliced bread - LOL.

In other news my credit score really dropped. Wow. I think mostly it had to do with closing my old card (erased the first 10 years of credit history - which was basically a dinky card I paid every month). It didn't bother me because we have so much history now and my credit score was so high. But wow, I was a little surprised. All I know is score was in the high 700s when we last refied or bought this house - one of those times we got a free credit report and score. Then we bought our last car and financed through the dealer for 1 month and a few months later we were house shopping. My mortgage broker friend pre-approved us and told me my credit score was 820. I was rather proud of this and figured the car really bumped us up (since we usually don't carry much credit. Our score is something like 90% mortgage really). But anyway, WAMU tells you your credit score whenever they grab it too and so I logged in the other day and saw I had a score of 750. Whoa!!!!! Still good, but trying to put my finger on it. I expect overall that it will rise as I pay off this balance transfer. The score was after I took out the card but before I did the transfer. So we'll see how it changes accordingly. I am not sure how often they will update it. I am only borrowing around $5k out of my $30k or so available credit so I don't expect the balance transfer to really affect it negatively, but the whole FICO thing is greek to me all the same. We'll see... Dh is borrowing a lot more but I am not sure he has ever cancelled a credit card. LOL. So hopefully his score is still high - he's just not as interested and though I pull up his credit report from time to time I don't know if we have seen his score since he hasn't been working - they only pulled my score for the car and for the mortgage.

In conclusion, I say it is true what they say about erasing too much credit history, but when you have a good solid few years history remaining and a really good score, you can afford to close your old cards to avoid fees. I don't regret it a bit. Just wonder if I will get back to 800 anytime soon. A more perfect score may not buy me anything but it means more room for error. Which is why this whole BT thing didn't bother me, but we'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, well beyond the closed card I also forgot I opened 2 bank accounts, 2 credit cards (more recent for the BTs), a few brokerage accounts, etc. in the last year. I think I have been having a lot of hard credit pulls which probably doesn't help in the least. Well, going forward I expect things to settle down.

ETA: Just got first statement and WAMU is only charging 2% minimum payment. I thought the standard was 4% so I may make much more money than I realized - woohoo.

Not a lot of time but a few things.

Got my balance transfer money. Took about 2 weeks from credit card to money market (should get to MM by Friday). APplied BT to Citi card, then asked for a refund. Refund arrived yesterday (right after I deposited my paycheck - figures - dh will run it to the bank for me today) and I will deposit it to my checking, and then give it a day or 2 to make sure and transfer it to MM Friday. It should get there Friday.

Which reminds me I bought my lifetime supply of deposit slips a few months back (for a few bucks - not a big purchase I will add) BUT yesterday at the bank they said, "Did anyone tell you that we no longer require deposit slips?" Um NO!!!! Good and bad I guess. I got them for mailing in checks which I would still use them for to direct the money properly, but you have seen me rant and rave about the post office enough. With my credit union right down the street, I probably won't ever use a deposit slip again. I still had to waste a piece of paper to write down the account number for dh. Best make him memorize it.

I have been in a real funk lately and I can not exactly put my finger on it. I think mostly work is killing me. Then again I have been in such a funk I have barely been working 40-hour-weeks, which doesn't help. It's like a cycle I guess. More behind, more stressed. Just unlike me though. Anyway, then returning from vacation with this whole training thing and many issues and Tuesday I was pretty much whining to dh that there was nothing I rather do less than go to work. I could barely bring myself to go. 90% of the time I LOVE going to work. I knew I was being whiny and unreasonable, but just how I felt. I was trying to think really long and hard about it. I thought, gosh I have worked so many worse stressful job situations and I just put up with it. When did I get so LAZY???? LOL. I realized I have been working in a really comfortable and slow work environment for a good 2-3 years (maybe a year or 2 to learn all the ropes and get so comfortable). Anyway, my conclusion is I have just had it really easy of late and I am not used to it. I haven't challenged myself of late and though my brain knows that a challenge is good the rest of me is just like, why can't I keep it easy?

Anyway my son told me I had to go to work to pay the bills (my always answer to him why I go to work - to pay for the house and food on the table and cars and all that). He has a point so I went to work. & it wasn't so bad. I wish I would stop feeling like a whiny 2-year-old though. Interestingly though my discussion/whine session with dh in the morning gave me some ideas how to deal with my training job. Sometimes it just helps to TALK - it made all the difference in my day yesterday and things are going better.

Then my part-time coworker came in yesterday and I thought O.M.G. She recruited a new client and he had called me over vacation asking when (been putting it off 3 months already) when we would set up the accounting software for him, etc. I promptly forgot his phone call and when I saw he OMG. Remembered - hehe. I went home for lunch yesterday which was very pleasant BTW. I told dh when I got home, I said, you know on top of this training and aLL my regular work (which thank god no clients are complaining on how behind we are) - on top of all this I still have an audit to complete and apparently I am the only one in the office who can set up this software too. Lord knows WHY we have a new client. In general my boss does not accept them these days - we can't handle it. So BAH! Young co-worker recruits a client, he doesn't want to discourage it because it is key in most firms to bring in business. So I understand he is trying to help. But all the same there is no bringing in business here and my workload is just through the roof. The only "blessing" is I called the buy back and has computer had crashed anyway. Buys me time...

I was trying to slow down my writing a bit but I have an article BURSTING out of me today. Lord knows when I'll have time.

Oh yeah, and yesterday we went swimming finally. Was nice. MB is back to terrified of the water but okay with me. LOL. Well middle ground would be nice. Usually in the past BM and I would go down to the pool, so it was quite a caravan with all 4 of us. My bathroom got swallowed by beach towels - hehe. Work may be busy but I had a nice lunch at home and a nice swim after work, not too much to complain about overall...

Blech - we are all sick here. We had some fun plans for the weekend but we were all feeling too icky. BM got some mild virus but has had a fever off and on for 4 days all the same. Called preschool this morning to find out of course that is exactly what is going around. I was starting to worry it was maybe an ear infection, but hear all the other parents took the kids in to find out it was virus. Dh and I were discussing how insane it is that people take their kids in for every sniffle. Then again after 4 days you start to worry about infection and such, but most of the people I know drag their sick kids in on day 1, which is more the reason I try to avoid the hospital (& all the germs) when it seems awfully unnecessary.

Oh well, I had a big wake up call in the matter of perspective today. The kind of day that just makes me want to pack up and MOVE. We are so desparate for employees we flew in some guy from the mid-west to train and do some work for us. For whatever reason I am in charge of all this training and I am utterly and completely exhausted after day 1. I am not cut out for this - I like to hide in my office and be anti-social mostly. Just exhausted and not helping my feeling of being so behind on ALL my work. I see lots of overtime this week, but trying to get over a stomach bug as well myself.

Anyway, mid-west guy asks me today if daycare in California is expensive. oh, $1k/month average I say. I am surprised his eyes did not pop out of his head. He didn't show much reaction but to say he thought $200/month for his 2-year-old was pricey. I said, um, is that full-time? YEs he says. O.M.G. I said well, to put it in perspective I have my son in a CHEAP place 2 days a week and it runs me $300/month.

He had also asked me before what my hubby did so after he brought up daycare I said - now you see why we don't see the point of a second income! It is definitely way magnified in an area like this I guess.

I think it was over the weekend or recently I came upon Jeffrey's post about preschool costing $6k/year somewhere (how insane that is) and I Was thinking hell, it beats daycare here by a mile. Hehe. But I see to someone like my new co-worker - yeah that $6k would be a hell of a lot of money.

So I am just sitting here like why do we live here again???? Then again I have relatives in very low cost of living areas and I just couldn't stand it - I am a big city girl. I guess that is why. But talks like this make you wonder...

Anyway, in other news, just had to say LM is SO cute. He really likes saying "boo" over and over and over again. Can get annoying, and he always demands a big reatcion, but the funny thing is he picked up the cutest craziest giggle/laugh while we were gone. All you have to do is say "boo" and he bursts out laughing this cute little laugh. Also, he likes to call his grandparents and push buttons on the phone. HE always does this, but for some reason last night my mom started pushing buttons back and he was just cracking up. Hilarious. So I called him today from work and alternated some "boos" with some pressing buttons on the phone and he just squealed with laughter. Gosh, he has been so difficult with sleeping of late, and quite the moody/temper tantrum-y boy. But a phone call of little squeals makes it all worth it. So cute! & of course even better in person...

Oh & BM has made me extra proud of late. I have always been eager for the age when they actually understand the Golden Rule. Anyway, the other day in the parking lot we passed a shiny red convertible with the top down, and BM knows mommy is saving up money for a "fun car" one of these days. So I said as a joke, "Do you think we should take that fun car for a ride???" BM got very upset with me and said that wouldn't be very nice. But it was the first time he ever seemed to get the concept. He'll be 4 in a month and I think that is the age I hear you can begin to reason with kids a little better. So phew. Just an interesting milestone, understanding when something is not yours for the taking. He really seemed to understand that we would not like it if someone took our car, and likewise we would never take anyone else's car.

On the same day though we were running errands and I had to run to the bank. We were also running to they store that has little quarter vending machines and he always gets candy with daddy i guess. So we got out his little coin jar and grabbed 2 quarters. He asked me if we could take put his money in the bank too. So cute - now that's my boy. I said no, but I pulled out his college account (courtesy of grandma mostly) and showed him his balance and told him he already had a lot of money in the bank. I showed him his name on the statement and he was quite impressed. We talked about how we don't talk about money to other people though and the funny thing is he decided this should be a big secret from daddy. When I told daddy what happened BM got all upset and said - Don't tell him how much money i have!!! LOL.

The funny thing was family gives the kids lots of money earmarked for things and since we made much less when he was born (like half as much) we would use it for diapers and preschool and however they earmarked. I told dh that going forward all cash is going into mutual funds for BM going forward and same for LM when he turns 4 too - seems fair. So I told BM that when his birthday rolled around he was going to get some cash and we could put it in the bank. He is all excited about it. I am going to open a mutual fund in his name once he rakes together $1k. We'll see how long it takes. Could get it on his birthday, may take a few years, but we'll see. I am excited he shows interest at all in the idea. Ever since we made the decision (a few months back) the kids have gotten NO cash so it is kind of funny. They usually get oodles. I hope he gets a bit for his birthday... If nothing else I'll have to give him a little cash I guess...

Oh before I get into cars, I had to say the weird thing about Mexico was they had a huge tourist trade for medicine. I mean I am sure you hear about it, but mixed in with the shops for sombreros and churros were tons of "pharmacies" with people in white lab coats pushing antibiotics & viagra! You hear about it, you understand it, but it was a little weird all the same.

Anyway, switching gears... I read an article that something like 60% of car loans are over 5 years (61 months?) and 20% are over 6 years. & car loan go up to 8 years (oy vey). So anyway, the car dealers are hurting because people with these huge loans can no longer trade up as soon as they used to. The average car payment 10-20 years ago was $400/month and it still is $400/month today, though the average person is taking almost twice as long to pay it off. Wow! I thought that was interesting. Trying to remember statistics off the top of my head so apologize if I screwed them up. But you certainly get the gist. I laughed out loud when I read it though, they shoot themselves in the foot though, the car dealerships, for the long haul. Reads much like the subprime mortgage stuff. Just short-term thinking.

Anyway I read that and then I talked to my parents yesterday. My mom told me that they had went car shopping. They had come into some money and my mom has been eager to upgrade, so my dad took her shopping over the weekend. Maybe it is from my parents I get my intense disdain from car dealers - but I guess they had a particularly horrible experience. For one they tried to talk them into a trade-in and offered $500 for my mom's insanely nice car. I just about fell off the couch when he told me. $500??????????? I told my mom that was what I got for my old Saturn from a dealer and I think she was extra insulted - LOL. She's got some fancy fully loaded top of the line sports car with less than 100k miles. So anyways, I mean the dealer wants to buy it for $500 and sell it for $10k I am sure. They wouldn't sell a car like that for less than $8k.

Anyway, I guess the dealer just lied and lied about all the features (that obviously weren't there) and when they went to discuss price on a car, they said the best they could offer was $32k. The thing was, the sticker on the car said $31k. LOL. It was at that point I guess they walked out. But that is what I got from my dad - a healthy distrust for a scam. Which basically means I would not go near a car dealer.

Anyway, after having paid cash for cars for many hears and having such horrid experiences at dealers that I personally refused to buy from them (continuing to buy from private parties while for some dumb reason dh always bought crappy cars for too much at dealers). Anyway, I warmed up a little when dh bought his last car. It was a "1 at this price" car they just wanted to get rid of but was really low priced and perfect for us so I warm up to the idea. So when we bought the van we went that route AND we also wanted to finance a little. However, being very naive in that regard when they said 8% was the best rate they offer and that I had to put less than 50% down and finance it for at LEAST 5 years, it was just like, whatever. Because agreeing to all this they agreed to lower the price on a "1 at this price" car. I had never seen anything like it. I paid it off the following month and got a better loan. Being so anti-debt and never seeing anything like it, I decided next time I had to walk into a dang dealer, I was going to finance. The only caveat is read ALL The fine print and make sure there is no pre-payment penalty. BEcause lord knows they will tell you anything, but don't believe it - you have to READ the contract. In our case it worked out. I think there was a minor finance charge for paying less than 3 months or something that they didn't even bother to charge me in the end. But would have been worth paying another $50 for the money we saved all the same.

Anyway, this is the conclusion I came to from our experience. The difference they treated us when we decided to finance was the difference between the night and day when in the past when we offered to pay cash for the same priced car they would pretty much refuse to sell to us.

It is mind boggling and I came to the obvious conclusion that they make much more money from financing.

So anyway, my dad told me he read an article over the weekend that historically car dealerships get to skim 13% off the top on car sales, but these days they only get to keep 3%! They make all of their money from financing, oh yes, and servicing. So my father and I were discussing that. That is one thing I will never get is car warranties, I guess because my parents always showed me what a bad deal they were. You have to take the car in for expensive unnecessary service in order to keep your warranty. Having never had a warranty on a car I have owned, I will just never buy it. I have too many friends who had MAJOR problems that, guess what, weren't covered by warranty - because they were mechanical or something. A warranty may be good if you get stuck with a real lemon, which I guess happens. But really, what are the odds. Anyway, it is the one scam that I see the frugal people fall far overall - willing to pay an extra 25% to buy a brand new car with a warranty! It makes me cringe.

But I digress. My dad said they had been intending to pay cash, and he was wondering if he should say he was going to finance, and then change his mind at the very last minute. I told him frankly, from my experience they would rather not have the sale. They'd probably say fine - deal's off. I told him I really recommend financing for a month and paying it off. I think it bugs him and he will refuse to play the game. But for me it's like, if I am going to save 5-10% off the price of the car because I agree to finance, well then okay. & I really found that the salesman really didn't give a crap that we intended to pay it off right away - as we told him he would. I get the feeling the salesmen get a deal for selling financing, not on how long we use it. & so I find it silly not to use it to my own advantage. Plus financing that car for 1 month bumped my credit score into the 800s - an interesting side effect!

Oh, as far as my parents, they decided they did not want a new car after all. They aren't up to the challenge... Hehe. I think like me they much prefer to buy private party, but once you start talking $15k+ it gets a lot more iffy. It's a lot of cash to risk on a private party deal. So I guess they feel resigned to the dealerships, but they just don't want to deal with it. I encouraged them to try out the financing, my dad is good at the fine print thing, but they just don't want to play the game.

I guess I find it REALLY interesting that my experience and feelings were quantified in the article my dad saw. I will definitely play the game next time we buy a car.

I don't think our mortgage history will reas like the average person's at all, hehe, but just had to share. Our mortgage balance will drop below $212k in the next month or 2. I was trying to remember what our very first mortgage was, thinking it was about $210k. So I was thinking, gosh we are almost where we started. Of course in the course of a year almost we paid it down to $200k because we made so much money back then, (double income, no kids). So really I won't get too excited until we drop below $200k. That will be a true milestone. It's almost frustrating that 7 years later we are barely back to square one (will be more like 8 or 9 years when we get there). I guess you get kind of spoiled with a 15-year mortgage, and going back to a 30-year later seems awfully slow going! But we are about to the point where our interest is less than $1k/month - and that is pretty sweet.

Anyway, since I could not remember off the top of my head I decided to grab my old escrow statements and see. It is kind of funny we have only owned 2 properties but just PILES of escrow statements because we refied our first place twice, and then this one once, plus 1 sale of the old property, saw was a lot to go through.

Our first home cost $259,950 to be exact. I think the asking price was $260k and that was what we offered - on our 3-bedroom condo in San Jose. Nothing grand, just one of the most expensive areas in the nation. The whole $500k fixxer-upper-house thing was not our thing, so we went condo instead. & well I think we were approved for $280k, so not sure we could have afforded much more. Apparently we put $56 cash down (including closing costs) and took a loan of $207,950 - a little lower than I remembered. Wow, that was just a scary thing, tying up all our cash and income - we were making $60k at the time combined, if that. But right after we closed we both got huge raises and that is why we were able to save so much early on. & well at the time (higher interest rates - we paid around 8%) our mortgage was $1500 but rent on the same apartment was $2500/month. We mostly felt like we had no choice.

Interestingly, the entire time we owned our condo, condos in the area were appreciating faster than houses in the area. Just too dang expensive. We thought for a while we may ride the equity wave up to a house, but even with the edge it became clear after a couple of years that we just were not willing to settle to have to pay almost $300k to live in an apartment and do the SAHP thing. So we decided to move.

Anyway, in the interim with our raises we refied to a 15-year loan and a much lower interest rate so we had a $1800 payment for a while. Maybe a year and how we paid off down to $200k so fast.

When we moved we had a grand plan to sell our condo for $350k, buy our new home (twice as big - with yard and garage and all that) for $260k, and so basically we were going to drop our mortgage down to about $100k. It was our plan - we could live on $40k easily and start having kids.

So we put our condo up on the market like 9/10/01 and of course 9/11 happened and the market tanked. We spent a little more on upgrades than we intended and so on and so on, but in the end we were so far ahead with the move, we went with it even though we could not even sell our old house. We refied once again and pulled out a good $25k for the down payment on our new home. We had saved up lots of cash to cover the difference. So there was refi #2. Lord knows what the payment was or how much we borrowed, but we had two $300k homes basically 80% financed for a good 4 months. It was fine with our income, but kind of scary all the same. Rents were insane still at that time and we probably could have rented the condo for $3k/month, which was our backup plan. Could have been very profitable (the condo is worth $450k today) but just not our thing - we never had any desire to do the landlord thing.

Anyway, we refied through a friend and 3 weeks turned into 3 months. We were NOT pleased, but it all worked out because the refi ended and we were able to put the condo back on the market the very week things seemed to turn around. (we had to borrow the cash from my parents in the interim for the down payment on the new home). Sold in a day for multiple offers. I actually heavily disagreed with how low our realtor wanted to put our home up and I think we compromised. Was a good lesson to me to hold my ground when I "know" - I watched the market in our area like a hawk, and the whole selling in one day thing kind of annoyed me as we could have asked a few thousand more. Oh well, live and learn, we were just glad to sell...

Our new home was 2 hours away, but twice as big, and my new job actually paid better (when all conventional wisdom said I would have to take a 10% pay cut - but I got a 10% raise instead - in benefits and such).

So we paid $287k for our new home, which was absolutely our dream home. We were only 23 or so at this time. Put around $57k down, and also paid cash for some landscape upgrades - probably paid a grand total of $295k. It always struck me though because dh and I are VERY particular when it comes to housing, but the 2 homes we ever bought were both priced $260k "as is." That's our number I guess. For the longest time we said we would never ever pay more than $300k for a home, but we never had much equity before either. These days we would pay a lot more - maybe twice as much - to make a lateral move and keep our same mortgage. But I think $230k is most definitely about our mortgage limit, which is pretty low for California. We pretty much refused to play the game. A $500k mortgage never seemed worth the stress, no matte what benefits it could bring (being closer to the beach and to family??? Eh, not worth it). Well we ended up paying more than the $260k on this house but we got a whirlpool and granite countertops and all that stuff. We actually were pretty frugal in our upgrades, a big chunk was converting part of the garage to dh's beloved theatre room, but we had a lot of custom fixes done around the house - which pretty much spoiled us - nothing like buying a house and tweaking it to just how you want it.

Anyway, so the mortgage on our twice as big, and 10 times as fancy, house, was $1500 - back to square one. With the whole 2 house thing we went back to a 30-year mortgage.

In the meantime interest rates were still falling but I was so sick of buying/selling/refi, I just didn't even want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Again, maybe my resistance paid. Finally a month before my first son was due I gave in and we refied down to a lower interest rate and a $1300/month payment. Just about the lowest interest rates ever got.

Anyway, I think it is quite ironic that our first condo was originally a $1500 mortgage and now we pay only $1300 though we owe much more...

So we have paid our way down from $230k to about $212k over the last 5.5 years. Not bad, as we are starting to make real progress.

So anyway, when I get annoyed about how excessive our house must be or how big our mortgage may seem to others, you see why. We have bought ourselves such a simple lifestyle by moving to a cheaper area. We may have more but it cost a hell of a lot less. In fact when we moved, even our insurance was cheaper, property taxes were the same, etc. These days not so much as things are just as crazy here today as what we tried to get away from. Blah. But I feel so blessed we just jumped in when we were young. You don't know how many people told us we were crazy to buy at the "peak" in 1999 & absolutely crazy to pay almost $300k for a house in Sacramento in 2001. A house that was worth $500k in 2003 and $650k briefly in 2005.

We've looked at what we could buy in San Jose these days with our equity, and it just ain't much. A fixxer-upper, 3 bedrooms if we are lucky, and the joy of doubling our property taxes to $8k/year. (Not to mention insuring such an expensive home). IT just will never happen.

I think luck and timing has paid a huge part in our success. But the thing is we could just dwell on the fact that we didn't end up with the $100k mortgage we had planned. That is too bad. But a lot seemed to go right for us all the same. Not much to complain about here. I always find it ironic when people from the area are jealous of are home and assume we are "rich." 9 times out of 10 they are paying more to rent an apartment or for a mortgage on a house 1/2 the size. It's always a little weird. Like people don't remember you could buy a decent house in Sacramento for $100k just a decade ago. Dh's cousin bought a 4-bedroom home here on 1/2 acre around 1999. It is just insane - the same house costs 4 times as much today. If we hadn't of moved when we did we certainly wouldn't have had it so good. Sure we put a lot of cash down on our home and saved up a lot of cash while we were young. But I know plenty of people buying the same houses today with 0% down. No, it was buying early on that was really key for us.

So we have upgraded our house and downgraded our payment over the years. & that I must say is pretty sweet.

Sometimes I think if we weren't so blinded with our buying power, maybe we would have just settled down with a much more modest home. But most of the time I think, eh, you only live once. IT would be one thing if we were mortgage to our eyeballs for a house like this, but frankly it was way less than we ever expected to pay on a monthly basis for a home no matter how modest, no matter if we just rented an apartment. So I guess that makes all the difference. We could have, but I don't think we have done 1/2 bad regardless. I look forward to the next decade as my income grows and our mortgage shrinks in proportion to inflation. I like looking at my budget and knowing that is one expense that will not increase with time - phew! In fact it is almost like it is a shrinking expense as less goes to interest every year. woohoo.