Um, well, now that MIL is out for the summer (teacher) and she is semi-retired - doing some part-time work for her last year or something - but not her regular 15-hour/day teaching (so it usually seems). So the Research Group called up dh again yesterday and asked if he could do an all day gig for $200 in San Jose. Um, considering we have ample free babysitting available, for $200 I think we can swing it.

So first they tell you the details and ask a few questions if you are interested. Of course the first question is, "Are you a Santa Clara County resident?" Um, no, he has told them a MILLION times - no!!!!! So he was pretty upset about them taunting him like that. Gah. But you know since everyone and their brother has moved from there to Sacramento I wonder if that is why they have that one Sacramento option open. Maybe more opportunities in the future. They also told him there was another one coming up in Concord (about 1/2 way in between) that he may qualify for. So we'll see. I have just bugging him to help a little - another $100-$200/month. It's all going to retirement, if he starts to get more of these. Pretty sweet. The prospect of $275 in one month (between the taunting and the other one he is doing this week) would have been pretty DARN sweet. Hopefully there is more to come...

Well, we had much fun on our cruise. The cruise was "free" but I estimate that we spent around $450. I did write everything down as I tend to on vacation just add things up in my head and forget a lot. So instead I wrote everything down and rounded up. We had $200 excess to spend, plus $140 from fam, which means we probably spent $110 from our budget which wasn't bad at all. & we certainly splurged and enjoyed!!!!

Our room tab was about $160 which was sadly $80 tips and $80 drinks. Both of which we probably could have cut way down. (To future cruisers). The had an option to prepay the tips (& save a few dollars on the total) so we just did that right away. It didn't even occur to us until the last night as we distributed them that we WAY overpaid. They had a recommended amount per day but for one we had skipped one formal dinner. On the drive home I asked dh, um, weren't those tips s'posed to be for breakfast, lunch and dinner??? We only ever are dinner in the dining room so we realized we probably way overpaid...

I actually also for some dumb reason thought the unlimited soda was $6, but it was $6/day. I didn't realize until after I purchased it. So not worth it. I bought 3 bar drinks though insanely expensive were YUMMY and we also ordered champagne in one night - so mostly the champagne and soda was 1/2 our bill. What we didn't realize was room service was free (the food). Well duh. Man that whole cruise thing is NICE! I was not a big fan of the dining room but dh liked it for whatever reason. Plenty of buffet and other options, which we did for lunch and breakfast. Plus we ate lunch off the boat twice.

Anyway, so that is my advice to future cruisers. Really analyze those tips and only pay what you need to. We felt obligated to $40/each, plus all the tips they charge on every thing you purchase. I don't know why we didn't really think about it until later, but now I see why they push the big tip pre-payment thing which was most of our problem.

Anyway, we lucked out and had 4 straight days of sun (apparently some record) and just had a great time. I didn't get seasick at all so phew. I had dramamine out my ears but barely used it. The boat was so big I guess.

Catalina Island was nice. We went on a little semi-submarine ride which was pretty fun. Through the cruise ship was $37/person or something but we were thinking of doing the $15 glass-bottom boat tour just on our own time, if we felt like it. So we got off the cruise ship and headed over and decided the submarine thing looked more fun. We had all this money from grandma to spend anyway. I thought that the prices were actually more expensive than the cruise ship (& what I saw on the internet - by a couple of dollars) like they had just increased prices or something, but they only charged us $15 for the whole thing. We were like, huh? Oh - it was on special for the day. So the suckers on the cruise ship were paying almost $80 for a little boat ride that cost us $15! Too funny. I assume overall this is a common practice (though this one wasn't advertised well) as to draw in people who wouldn't pay the big bucks otherwise. We found the same thing in Ensenada. We hadn't really wanted to do any of the tours. Well I didn't, and though dh was interested he didn't want to spend 5 hours. So we took the shuttle into town just to check it out and they were offering 2-hour tours that were like $15/each as opposed to $50+/each through the cruise. We said sure, what the heck. So that was actually pretty nice.

Both times we got off the boat we splurged on some big lunches. Lord knows why, not like we didn't have enough food on the boat. I guess we had some hope of finding some authentic Mexican food too, but it just wasn't going to happen in Mexico - we probably couldn't have eaten anywhere more American than we ended up but it wasn't too pricey.

But yes, on the boat we would generally wake up, eat a BIG breakfast, nap until noon, do some sight-seeing, get in back to sunbathe/nap a couple of hours before dinner, go to dining room, go see some shows (some good comedians and stuff) and then go eat again - LOL. That is pretty much the schedule I got accustomed to for a week. It was pretty sweet...

So yeah,

$160 charged to our room - drinks/tips
$ 50 parking
$ 10 souvenirs for kids (shirts)**
$ 45 Tours
$ 70 Lunches
$ 6 Buses

I don't know - I am missing $100 for now. I'll add it up later. Oh we also stopped to eat a big meal on the drive in and lots of gas and stuff but I am not sure I added that in the $450. That could make the trip a good $500+ easy. Took the compact car for the 6 hour drive each way but gas was like $3.70 in LA - eeks. I'll have to itemize later - this is just off the top of my head.

**Dh is really big into souvenirs and I pretty much hate them. He was big into it for the kids so we decided on something useful like shirts - one each. BUT the funny thing is when we got home grandma had like bought them whole new wardrobes or something. We could have done without I guess...

Grandma also bought a lot of toys, like there wasn't enough to entertain them here as is. Oy vey.

Anyway, that pretty much sums up our trip. It was really nice, fun, relaxing, but I am REALLY glad to be home too!

Oh yeah, and customs was just hell. I don't know what the hell they are doing over there but we got off the boat and it took almost an hour to get through customs. They weren't checking bags or anything, just taking their damn sweet time as it was analyzing everyone and then when we get through of course we get carted off to some area to get checked out because they are looking for some guy with the same name as my husband's. They annoyed me too because they said I was clear but they took my ID and birth certificate back with his passport and all I could figure is they cleared him because he was traveling with me and they could clearly see he was the P.N. he claimed to be, not this P.N. they are looking for. But I Was just really annoyed, okay, I'm clear, so give me back MY I.D.!!!! It was really annoying though. I am all for increased security but I mean come on, what are do they doing????? We were just eager to get home so were not happy at the hour or so delay. IT took an hour to wait 7th in line and to be harassed. Especially since it didn't really appear they were doing much but harassing random people like us. They didn't do anything. They made us sit in a room for a while, asked dh the same stupid questions they had already asked him (where he lived?), and let him go. Dumb. All I could hope is in the meantime they were doing some background check or verifying something with their computers because from the outside it didn't look like they did anything but harass him. Which is absolutely ridiculous - not a common name and he has lived in the same place his whole dang life. That is my rant for the week though... Everything else was great - just a horrid end to the vacation. But we still made it home around 5pm Friday and so we were pleased!

It is SO good to be back!

Oy vey - kids were spoiled rotten all week. As were we I guess. It is time to get back to reality!!!!

Today we are going do run some errands and do some father's day shopping. Going to buy dh a Blu-ray disk. Well duh. He gave me a list of movies he wanted. My usual lazy self would say, knock yourself out - here's $50. Or order online. But I didn't really think ahead and felt obligated to put a little effort into it anyway. So we'll go shopping today and surprise him with whichever movie I can find.

There is a cute little place in town for the kids called Fairytale Town. A few farm animals and playgrounds and stuff. Kind of dinky but the kids LOVE it! Anyway, once a year they pour water into all the little waterways (for whatever reason are usually dry) and they call it Wacky Water Day. Best thing for us is that we have a membership so it is "free". I swear last year we missed it and then they did a second one for some reason (it's usually one shot a year) and the day happened to be like 110 degrees. We decided to go regardless, probably crazy, and I have to tell you that there is nowhere else I would rather be on such a hot day. The water was freezing and there was lots of shade, and BM had an absolute BLAST!!!! So on a whim I looked it up, just remembering that wonderful day, and they are doing 3 days this year! I hope to make them all. Especially nice since we returned from our trip to 100-degree weather. Ick! We have been getting used to nice 80 degree days with ocean breezes, so it has been quite a shock to return - blah... Anyway - the first one is tomorrow. I would love to take the kids and give dh a break but I think it might be a bit much to take both kids alone. I might drag him along. I think he would enjoy it anyway. He was cautious with the heat and I said - oh no - there is nowhere you rather be if it is HOT! IT was just so refreshing last time.

We'll probably also enjoy the pool this weekend. Usually it annoys me it doesn't open until Memorial Day, but I guess it has been a little more mild this year, as we haven't even thought to go yet. We have one a couple of blocks down we can walk to, part of the homeowners association. Oh yes, but this is my son. He is learning swimming at his preschool. & well Wednesday he fell off the little raft and I guess he sunk to the bottom, and then instinct kicked in and he "swam" up to the top. The pool is shallow enough that he could have just jumped his way up if you ask me. But my kid is a crazy daredevil who knows no fear. So he fights his way to the surface, sputters and chokes, and immediately exclaims, "I surprised myself! I didn't know I could swim under water!" So this is the story we hear when we get home. He is ALL excited and wants to go to the pool and show us he can swim under water. Mind you, as brave as he usually is and little fear he shows, he usually freaks out completely at the idea of putting his face under water. So I was rather impressed with this breakthrough. But I turn to dh and say, "seriously, who almost drowns and gets EXCITED about it???" Oy vey. Only my little daredevil. He really freaks me out. We had a little talk yesterday about how we only swim with grown-ups around and such, because he just took off upstairs and said "I am going to go swim under water." I have no idea what he had in mind (bath tub?) but we had to have a little talk about that. Gah. I can just see him diving in some body of water somewhere now that his fear is gone. Well it will be interesting to see his new swimming skills. Another one that is hard to do 2 kids to 1 adult. I guess dh and I got used to splitting the kids up - we always do our own thing. But now LM is old enough to do all these big kids things too. I guess I am just not used to it so sounds daunting. But BM and I are going father's day shopping, they are going grocery shopping, and then we're gonna meet at the pool. LM has been VERY insistent that he wants to go grocery shopping for whatever reason - LOL. Hoping to enjoy the weekend - not much going on. Mostly keeping cool...

Phew, and what a week it was. Mostly I ate, slept, and got some sun! & ate & ate & ate... My word...

No time to post much but just wanted to say hi and I feel really behind! Catching up to do - lord knows when...

Dh found $15 on the ground today and we finally got a State Farm check - $55!!! & to top it off like the second we walked in the door dh got called in for a focus group in the area for $75 for 2 hours. Um, we'll take it! I told him it is absolutely raining money today. Ask me the last time I found more than a penny on the ground - LOL - but I am not very observant. I am mostly impressed by that find, though I feel awfully bad about it. Not much we could do about it, but I feel horrible someone dropped $15 - they could have needed it a lot more than us... But I guess I'll take it all the same - I am warming up to it.

Anyway, they keep calling dh for surveys and focus groups back home and he keeps telling them over and over he lives in Sacramento now and can not do them. For $75 honestly it would be worth the drive, but not the babysitting. But today they offered him one in Sacramento. I hope that means more in the future. Easy money. I can rearrange work for a couple of hours for that!

Well I have oodles to post later. Hope everyone is well...

Saw the $5500 credit sitting in my Citi Account so I requested a refund. Seems slow going but I have most my cash in a 5.70% CD in the meantime. Hoping I get the cash when we get back form vacation. So I Can have a little more liquid cash. & get it out of lala land and into my account earning some INTEREST which is the whole point!

Freecycle is dead this weekend - no replies for my stuff. Bummer. My e-mail has been working on and off so I wonder if there is a problem. I may repost when we get back, maybe use a different e-mail to make sure.

But while checking my e-mail I noticed that dh's new card had a new statement. Checked the rewards and it is good to go with $75 in gift card rewards. Woohoo. I have earned enough for $50, so will put ALL the cards away. ($125 total - in addition to the interest we intend to earn). I didn't even activate the WAMU one as it was a straight balance transfer.

Hmmm, since I got my rewards and can pay the bill today I guess maybe I will do that and then do the balance transfer when we return. Wow!!! I am going to hold off on mine until I can talk them into a higher limit. So maybe a few months since I am a new customer. I will call one of these days and plead my case.

Interestingly as I Set up my WAMU payments and stuff, noticed they have FICO score monitoring, alert you when it dips or falls, etc. Honestly all I see is that these BTs will help our score, with the exception of utiliziation. We will start out around 30-40% but will drop down soon enough with the 4% minimum payments. We have pretty high limits on our regular cards (all paid off monthly). But we can see what WAMU thinks about our FICO score in the meantime. Found that one interesting.

I paid all the bills for the month. I just have to write 1 check for preschool - but usually just pay her after the first - but post it to the prior month - part of prior month's budget. Just try to buy float like that with all my bills.

I just noticed that I have not used 1 stamp since the new rates. I usually mail my deposits but I shrunk the float in my account, and we got a new branch down the street for our bank - very convenient. (Plus I have mailed deposits in for well over a decade with nary a problem - but this last year the US mail has REALLY gone downhill - deposits disappearing for a time whereas it ALWAYS got there in one day - part of the reason I finally switched to a more local bank - something I never had before. Deposit time was taking 2-3 days all of a sudden instead of 1. IT's been better locally, but still iffy with the mail - so I am converting to actually visiting my bank these days - it is not so bad I guess). Plus I have dh run in my deposits sometimes which helps me a lot. I have been hand delivering big deposits for the immediate credit and feeling more safe about it overall. I have mailed plenty of big deposits in the past, but I didn't really have a choice when I have always lived a good hour or 2 from my little one-branch credit union. So I am becoming an in-person banking convert I guess... Maybe this is the end of stamps! Well, nearly anyway.

The house is coming along really well. Great since I Was lazy and got off to a late start. Feeling pretty pleased, tomorrow will be packing day.

Excited as vacation gets closer!

I escaped work around 1:00 today - woohoo.

Got all I had wanted to get done. It will be crazed when I return, but I enjoy having a job I can forget while I am away. Of course I already had one call but that's pretty rare. Guess figured I was game since I took off early. LOL.

I told BM's preschool teacher I may pick him up early (thinking if I left at 3 or something because it is pretty out of the way from home). But in the end I got out early and I also made last minute playdate plans - long overdue - so will pick him up tonight and take him to McDs afterwards. Less for him as he sees his friend twice a week at preschool, but I have only had lunch with my friend I think once all year and I figured though time was tight to just bite the bullet. I invited her like Monday and forgot and she just got back to me - figures. But glad she could make it. What the heck. So I was driving home when Ms. preschool called and I was a little worried. Granted, figured she wondered if I'd be early, but it always worries you to get a call at an off time - I figured all the kids would be napping by then. Well she just called to pretty much beg me not to pick him up early - LOL. Told her not to worry. They were camping out since the play room is under construction - adding a second loft - and she thought BM would be disappointed if I showed up early. Well a free day and she insists on keeping him - sure. Be my guest.

So I moved around my schedule. Going to the bank and the store before I pick him up (Got my Chase rebate - FAST!!!!). & then taking him to McDs. Figured I would catch up on my writing in the meantime. Oh yeah and I have an empty enough tank I promised BM we could go through the carwash - you know free/discounted when you buy the gas - so figure I'd fill up the car and clean it, and park it in the garage so it is all shiny and ready to go when we get back from vacation.

Dh also made a Goodwill and another book store run today. Woohoo - less clutter. I posted the recliner and a bag of plastic hangers on freecycle. We'll see.

Progress...

But mostly I am stoked because look at me - I'm on vacation!!!! Woohoo. I'll probably be 10 times more excited when I catch up around the house though. Trying to space things out so it is not too crazed. But who am I kidding. Sunday will be CRAZED. Monday we'll hope in the car and just drive away from life for a few days though - I couldn't be more excited. It is nice to have a license to just get the hell away for a bit - LOL.

I'd probably be picking up or something but LM Will be napping until I leave so I am resigned to quiet activities for now. Which is fine. Figure I could whip out my articles and get those off my plate.

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Anyway, enough about me.

I was watching Suze last weekend and someone called on the "Can I Afford It?" segment about how they had been waiting SOOOOO LONG... for a sound system or something. & when she asked how long, they said, "6 months." I just was like, what, are you frigging kidding me? Oh yeah, 6 months.

Anyway, I wrote an article for pfadvice pretty recently about why it pays to have patience when shopping. Patience means being able to save up the cash, to buy quality, to get a better deal, and to ensure you REALLY want it. Anyway, dh and I will generally wait YEARS for things. So the whole think kind of struck me as odd. I was just thinking, yeesh, get a grip. 6 months is not a long time.

I was also listening to Dave Ramsey since I get his show on around noon I started listening just this week. The guy kind of bugs me. I think he is great for getting out of debt, but overall his anti-debt stance at any cost kind of bugs me. On the other hand if debt is an addiction, for many maybe that is the way it has to be. But as far as making financial sense, the debt is ALWAYS bad scenario doesn't jive with me, and I am about as anti-debt as they come overall. But anyway, some of his advice was pretty horrid if you ask me. Like paying debt instead of funding a SEP IRA that would save something like $10k in taxes. Um, well you don't get the SEP AND you can't pay the debt if you just fork that money to the government instead, might as well do the SEP. So stuff like that annoyed me. But yesterday he was going on and on about the mentality of the rich. & it was much the same thing. Have patience now so you can have more later. Whatever he was going on and on about I was thinking, amen. Of course, if that's all it takes to be rich, I guess. To me it feels like that's what it takes to survive. Hehe. I should be REALLY rich by now then. Well we don't do half bad, but I am always worried about the worst, and we certainly can't face any hardship that comes our way. I don't really expect to be a zillionaire. He makes it sound a little too easy I guess.

So I don't know. If I have to wait for a year or 2 or 3 for a purchase and I still want it, then great. Then I must REALLY want it. But 6 months, eh. Let me tell you, I REALLY want to buy a convertible, but until the cash is in the bank and retirement all funded, etc., etc. I can wait. The world won't end. It might take a decade, but I can live with that.

I also think dh and I are pretty darn good at figuring out much lesser things to enjoy in the interim as we wait for bigger purchases. It's a balance. I really don't see the point of complete deprivation either. But you know if we bought all the big things we wanted when we first wanted them there wouldn't be much to enjoy in life. Allowing a certain big luxury once every few years - well that is pretty sweet.

So I guess my point is part of financial freedom is when you can find the patience. & when you realize 6 months is NOT a long time to wait for something.

& I am curious what most people consider a long time to wait for a purchase?

To me I would honestly say a decade. A year or 2 to wait for something is pretty standard around here. Maybe 5 years is starting to get long. I think I learned that one from my parents though. Dh got a little more spoiled and he has a lot more problems with the waiting thing. I mean he did wait a good decade for his beloved HDTV, but then again sometimes he just can not wait for things. & you know, poor baby, couldn't get the $10k HDTV in 1997 so he just got a movie theatre room in 2001 instead. LOL. But it was a hell of a lot cheaper and tided him over another 5 years for his HDTV, all the same. We both have been wanting a dual-tuner TIVO for quite a while but it's not in the budget, that one may just wait a decade too. Oh well. That's how we flow. I went without a laptop about 4 years when I quit my last job. I missed it from day 1. But 4 years later I got one again. Dh and I never had cable until we got married at 24. I always cringe at the anti-cable crowd. Sure, I certainly did not have cable as a poor college student, but once we made six figures we figured we could afford a little cable. If I cut off the cable dh would refuse to stay home with the kids now - LOL. But I figured we waited so long for it, what difference does it make now. Dammit I waited a long time for it! LOL. I LOVE me my gardener but I did not break down and hire one until I got a ginormous raise, and after hating yard work with a passion for about 4 years. Just a few examples of waiting...

*snort*

I was just working on an article and reading some comments on another blog about ROTHs and it cracked me up that the concensus is you have to be dirt poor to be in the 15% tax bracket.

Well call me dirt poor then.

Actually I think we are good for about $100k in wages easy before we have to start worrying about the next tax bracket. But you know. I don't know. I can't blame people for not understanding the system. IT's complicated. I feel blessed more and more every day that I am in the tax field so I can make some sense of the mess, but even so it seems to make less sense with time.

Bah.

OF course usually when I tell people I Am in the 15% bracket they assume I am doing some tax tricks, voodoo, tax loopholes. I think people particularly around here would be surprised how many of them are themselves in the 15% bracket and just don't know it.

My voodoo and tricks is simply a mortgage and a couple of kids. Oh yeah, private health insurance sure knocks a chunk off our tax bill too. I wouldn't exactly recommend any of these strategies to save a few bucks in taxes though. $200k mortgage, $700/month just to insure a healthy family, raising 2 kids isn't exactly a cheap endeavor. But I have always felt blessed with our timing as having kids and living on one-income coincided with some pretty heavy tax breaks to help us along. Part of the reason I really wanted to get our financial act together with the 1-income thing is I knew this gravy train would not last forever. I imagine right around when our IRAs get maxed out that we will have to start shifting a big chunk over to incomes taxes. Something has got to give. In the meantime with the Bush tax cuts and a couple of kids, I get to keep 90% of my paycheck. If dh got a job maybe we'd keep 15% - after payroll taxes and all - even if he pushed us to about six figures. That is pretty sweet. Yeah this certainly won't last forever. I kind of dread getting back to reality. Then again I have always said I would rather pay more taxes now then pay the price later. Which is where the dread comes in. GEtting accustomed to insanely low income taxes while knowing in my gut that taxes will have to significantly rise one of these days to pay off the deficit, to balance the budget, etc.

I think it's more common out here with bigger mortgages. My mortgage & property taxes is a $15k write-off right there, for now. $5k or so health insurance, some state income taxes (higher in Cali as well though I certainly don't pay much), and then all the exemptions and kiddie tax credits, and so it goes. But a lot of the income tax rates and stuff revert back to old law in 2010 and I am just trying brace myself.

In the meantime I watch Suze and people who make a good $20k more are often taking home as much or less than I. I have to keep reminding myself that this will not last. I honestly am not even sure if it will be worth dh working down the road if he has to fork over HALF of his income to the government in taxes (when the marriage penalty returns and such). Eh. I guess time will tell...

In the meantime I do have a few single, childless clients who rent, and man, they pay the tax man big time... Taxes are fickle.

Anyway, I am going to work today and hoping to break out around noon. I was there until 7pm last night doing work for other people who are on vacation this week. I would turn the tides but they'll still be out next week too and no one else can do my work, I am just that good I guess. LOL. But I missed aerobics because of it - not sure if it is even worth going tomorrow... I still have 4 prepaid classes - should just hit it hard when I get back probably.

Anyway, one of my tasks today is to straighten out a huge mess so I may have to work until 7pm - LOL. But we'll see.

BM gets a free day at preschool today since his regular day fell on a holiday. They are nice like that, and if I can escape work will be good to have more freedom to do some housework.

My expectations of all I want to get done before the trip are diminishing greatly. We will have 4 family members staying here. The plus - and huge pluses - is not dragging the kids way out of the way and down to their house. HUGE plus. & not having to make pet-sitting arrangements and pack up the kids and all that stuff, or worry about security, etc. Many many many pluses. The downside is I really wanted to clean up the house with 4 people staying here. Today I would be embarrased so I have a ways to go. About all I got through last week was mopping the floors, which is something I never do BTW. I do so much spot cleaning with kids and pet, you know how it goes. Oh but the truth is I will think, I need to mop the floors. But first I have to mop the counters, vacuum, etc., and by then I am exhausted and NEVER mop the floors. So last weekend all I did was mop the floors. For whatever reason it was a huge chore (well it came with lots of vacuuming - can't avoid that first). & that is about my progress. Dh is to clear the kitchen today so I can scrub it when I get home (& re-vacuum) - that and the downstairs bath which is pretty clean anyway as we have had lots of guests lately. The living room and dining room will remain a dumping ground for all things freecycle/goodwill/ebay. No progress and no time! They'll just have to survive. I figures maybe tomorrow I could clean up the upstairs baths (some heavier scrubbing) and then Sunday would be left for shopping and packing.

Doable.

I will really need a vacation by the time it arrives.

But yeah, grandma, great-grandma, grandma's twin sister and also grandpa will be here. The kids will be spoiled and probably not miss us much. LEaving BM is really no biggie at this point, but LM is still pretty little overall - harder to leave him for a whole week. The most we have left them is 2 nights!!!! But I know he'll be fine all the same... We will miss them terribly I am sure. But I think we will enjoy plenty all the same.

Dh took all the crummy books no one else wanted over to the used book store by the preschool yesterday. He picked up BM so I could work late and shop - phew.

Anyway, I found out about the store recently because a woman in my mom's group owns it. We stopped by last year and they had 2 super-sized fat cats which the kids love, but a pretty small store, more expensive than others & the buyback credit wasn't very good.

But we've been weaning through our books and frankly just want to get rid of them. Dh has taken them to the other bookstores a couple of times, just trying. Every time they take a few more, but he seemed to hit a wall. So he took them to this other place and they took them ALL and he got a $40 credit. Pretty sweet! The downside is you can only use credit towards 1/2 your purchases and we have an endless supply of free books from Scholastic. So it isn't the greatest deal ever, but I am sure glad to be rid of 2 boxes of books. Woohoo. I guess if dh or I need any books we can peruse there but we usually just use the library really.

Dh also scored $4 cash at our regular used book store and about $10 store credit there which I think he used already on some grown up books, maybe a couple of kids books.

I on the other hand was anti-frugal last night. I Spent about 2 hours & $200 at Mervyns. It was rather depressing. Everything looks like potato sack on me but I do have to remind myself even when I was a size 0 everything looked like a potato sack on me. So really I just can't win. But I have been creeping up in weight a little and maybe needed the wake up call.

I finally found a swim suit top. I actually found one that was just perfect but then realized it was missing a strap. Bah. The removable straps. I guess I could have just gotten it. But I settled on a nice modest top that will go well with the bottom halfs I have. The only swimsuits as a whole I would consider wearing were in the womens' sections and on sepcial 1/2 off from $68. I was really tempted but the the 2 that looked really good and cute were just either one size too big or too small. The other ones I tried just were hideous and I felt like an old grandma - hehe. They had a lot of size 12/14s mixed in with the 20+ size womens and all those big women kept coming over and giving me weird looks like what was I doing there. I am just thinking, if only you knew. In my everyday clothes (& I do love black) I can pass off as a size 6 or 8 but once I strip down I could only fit in the size 14 swimsuit. & the rest of the store was filled with bikinis - I don't think so. LOL. I can't believe 99% of women wear bikinis - I mean seriously does anyone who had children and didn't have plastic surgery wear a bikini? I don't foresee it in my future even if I got back down to size 0. I got some serious excess skin and am not going under the knife for something so vain. As long as I don't have to wear a bikini I am cool with it. But I don't know. If women were really just embracing their bodies and baring all I would really be all for it, it would be refreshing, but I don't see it happening. So I ponder why the womens section is 99% teeny-tiny bikini... Of course 1/2 the people I know are having tummy tucks so that would probably explain it! It's insane around here.

But yeah I think the swimsuit shopping was better than dress shopping. They all looked like sacks and I started having memories back to being a kid and dress shopping. I just don't do dresses I guess. I found a dress that was so-so and I Was about to get it and just wait and pull off the tags until I was sure I was going to wear it, when I finally found the most perfect dress. It actually fit well, looked good, and the best part is it was professional looking so I can wear it for work too. win-win-win. So I have something a little dressy for the cruise .

So for $200 I got:

2 swimsuit tops (taking one back)
3 nice work shirts (taking 2 back)
1 Dress
3 cheap shirts from the $9.99 shelves
2 tank tops for summer (cute!)

Since none of my summer clothes seem to fit - so it goes.

I was actually really bummed that 1 of the work shirts I got looked hideous (I get so sick of trying on pants usually that I just take all the tops to try on at home because they usually fit). So anyway, had a large shirt for work that was just beautiful and loved it but it was a little tight. Thinking of keeping it because if I lose a few pounds it should fit well. I don't want to take it back. Stupid sizes running small. Ridiculous.

So yeah as much as I love clothes this is why I only go ever so often. The whole process can be frustrating.

I have a pile to return this week, or maybe when we get back. So all in all I will return around $50 at least.

Mostly I am just happy that I now have a swimsuit option that I think is cute and nice and not too granny-like. Woohoo.

I got all checked in online for our cruise, made some lists, did some shopping. Today I need to figure out what books I want from the library. I still need some ideas of some light non-financial books. Which reminds me that I still have 1 or 2 unread books from the sisterhood pants series. I really like it for some mindless summer reading so will have to pack those. THinking of picking up a couple of Money magazines and crossword books and such. But dh said if I sent him a list he'll run to the library for me too so I have to think. Getting close...

I wanted to go swimsuit shopping before my trip in the neverending search (well I don't put a lot of time/effort into it - LOL) for the perfect swimsuit.

So on a whim I pull up the website today just to see if they have any products online. I have been REALLY pleased with MErvyn's clothes of late as my body is all weird. I have no idea why my overweight friends rave about Old Navy when I can't find anything over a size 10. Target is out - there clothes just suck - I longer put up with the quality. MArshalls/Ross is great but once you hit size 12 - good luck.

But last summer I went to Mervyns and fell in love. I hadn't been in a while - I guess with the convenience of Kohls. But everything seems to fit better and be a little cheaper at MErvyns. Though I have been preferring Kohls for quality - but it's not that far off.

So anyway, I pull up MErvyn's ad for my area and they are having a huge one day sale today only. Wow - what are the odds??? Plus on their sales ads they show really cute modest swim tops. Now you are talking!!!!!!!! The one I have now is like the best I can do but it is not the most flattering. I like the skorts as my lower 1/2 is the less flattering part, but the tops that go with those are always so unflattering. Like I said the suit I have is fine, but the top wouldn't be my first choice either. The thing is I am not that heavy. But my current swimsuit top has a very unflattering cut for my figure and it seems to squeeze out fat I didn't know I had because just too tight I guess - hehe. I just get fed up with swim suit shopping... IT shouldn't be that hard. I am not that big!!!!!! The good news is if I can find a nice modest top it will do. I have a couple of bottoms that I like.

So I am feeling a little optimistic. Wish me luck.

& while I am there oh I will have to scan the summer clothes and work clothes and all that too. IT never feels like I have enough. But I have some allowance to burn through - woohoo.

All I can say about Debt pretty much is Don't Do It!!!! Though with time my perspective has changed, and I learn more and more with time how debt can be used to my advantage (as opposed to the "never touch debt" rule). But I think it is important to start with the "no debt" rule when you are young.

It's petty much how I was raised, debt was just never an option. IT is always amazing to me the difference in my thinking compared to other friends/acquaintances deep in debt. The thing is when you don't consider debt an option, you find other options. I am more likely to consider working overtime or even working a second job temporarily to cover a shortfall whereas our friends deep in debt often feel like more debt is their only option.

When other parents talk about teaching their kids about debt, I think of just telling them it is never an option. Of course I was a pretty obedient child and it worked with me, and I understand the importance of making sure kids understand why debt is bad. But for me my parents got me a credit card with a $500 limit when I was 16 as a way to teach me about credit. & then they told me that I could put charges on it to build up my credit, but I had to pay it off every month. I never really knew you could do anything different so that is what I did. Of course my parents were big on me working, having a checking account as a pre-teen, etc., so none of this stuff was mysterious when I was out on my own.

My parents also handed out a couple of 0% loans to me as I grew older which helped immensely. $1500 for my first car which I worked all summer just to pay them back. But the experience was invaluable.

So when it came time to the real world pretty much debt was never an option. No one in my family ever borrowed money for cars, in general, so I didn't even realize that most people financed cars. Once I had my first car my parents taught me to save up cash for my next one. I've broken the rule a little as I did finance 2 more of my cars (the third one we downgraded to and paid cash for) but I paid them both off within a year, at 0% - 3%. I was always earning more money in the bank and puts my grand total of consumer interest rate paid over my life probably around $100-$200.

This anti-debt stance was so ingrained in me that if we lived anywhere else in the country I honestly think we would have paid cash for a home, or at least put significantly down more than 20%. Our first home was a condo though and it cost almost $300k. Saving cash wasn't exactly feasible in the area we lived and we wanted to buy in and ride the equity wave. So we made a debt exception for our first home, but a few years later and a few hundred thousand richer on paper I'd say it was the best move we ever made. When we moved out of the area we actually planned to buy our dream home with a $100k mortgage. Of course the market tanked right then (9/11) and we are lucky we only have a $200k mortgage today. But I do have to say we were so close to being mortgage free I could almost taste it. If we had really had a $100k mortgage we would have paid that sucker down fast. But since things didn't work out and interest rates are so low we have also learned to embrace debt and leverage in this situation. Our investments earn much more than we pay in interest so it is the only way I can really stomach it, well that and all the equity. IT just makes a mortgage such a different animal than other kinds of debt as I feel it will buy us much wealth over the long haul.

I always say that avoiding debt has saved us so much money in interest. But the money saved is so much beyond finance charges. The money saved is in the fact that when you have to save the cash first you don't consider buying the extravagant things that you really can't afford. I still scratch my head at while people don't think twice about their car payments. The money most my friends are putting to their cars we first put to a home and now to our IRAs. Our finances can be all equal but that small difference between us and the average american will save us hundreds of thousands of dollars over our lifetime.

Of course once you are debt free and rid yourself from the ball of chains of debt, don't knock it's ability to help you. We went shopping last year for a car and went to the dealer with a '1 at this price' ad. Having shopped in the past with cash and having very unpleasant experiences, the difference was night and day when we told them we intended to finance this auto. They even negotiated on the price a bit which just about shocked me. This was a completely different shopping experience. The thing was I was able to secure a 3% loan elsewhere, but we went and took the dealer financing just because we figured it would be easy. & then I would pay off the loan right away. You have to read all the fine print in this case, and I was a little wary but it did work out. But the decision to finance the car was just a convenience decision. I had no idea it would turn the usual pushy/annoyed salesmen (annoyed we would always refuse to buy more than we could afford), well it turned them into butter. I decided then and there I would most definitely finance my car with my next purchase (and pay it off the following day. ) It's a game but I think this was the first inkling I ever saw that debt can be used to your advantage. As I try to erase the layers of "debt is bad" from by brain.

I look at my mortgage now and it is still quite hefty. Though on the flip side we have a far nicer home and a far smaller mortgage than most anyone our age around here. Our anti-debt stance has made us unwilling to consider a risky ARM or put less than 20% down, etc., which has made all the difference. But I am starting to look at how much we can put in our retirement and invest if we stall our efforts to pay down the mortgage too fast. Quite frankly the interest is insanely low and I even have a CD paying more than the interest rate in my mortgage today, so it goes. We could really put all our effort to paying off our mortgage today, but it wouldn't be very productive, it would put us way behind on our aggressive retirement goals. The thing is I am sure we will pay off our mortgage early. Barring the unforeseen it is a pretty done deal. But in the meantime we have to look at the opportunity cost of prepaying our mortgage TODAY and it just doesn't make any sense. If my hubby got a job tomorrow I could easily see paying down the mortgage rapidly though. It's all relative.

So with time my thinking on debt has really changed. Right now I am in the middle of setting up a credit card arbitrage, borrowing at 0% to earn interest in the bank. I am surprised at some of the "debt is bad" crowd who would never consider using debt in a fashion that would profit them greatly. In fact, my credit card purchases earn me a 3% return throughout the year. I just think it would be quite silly of me to give up all this extra money and benefits in the name of "debt being bad." & so my feelings change and evolve with time.

So basically I can some up my post into 2 points:

1 - First, you have to not consider debt an option. Ever!

2 - Once you got #1 ingrained in your brain then you can realize that debt can be used to your advantage in some cases. & you would be silly not to take advantage.

Those are my two rules in debt. I wouldn't recommend overall #2 to anyone who relies on debt though. Then it can be a recipe for disaster. You really have to really and truly realize that you don't need debt to move on and learn how to use it to your advantage. But once you can do that it sure makes life a lot easier.

Which reminds me why Dave Ramsey is so great if you are getting out of debt, but I find his advice absolutely horrible as far as efficiently building wealth. But it's like Dave Ramey is step #1 and then once you truly get it you should be ready to move on and really start building some wealth.

One of my big pet peeves is spoiled children and I really try not to spoil my children. But I just realized I guess it is all relative.

I was watching live T.V, last night because dh was hogging up the TIVO recording shows all night (nothing I wanted to watch). So when BM came downstairs this morning he looked at the t.v. remote all confused and asked, "is this the live t.v. remote?" I realized then and there that BM doesn't really even understand the concept of live t.v. Last night he kept telling me to rewind things or pause, and I said I couldn't because it was live t.v. - hehe.

So I guess inadvertently we have completely and utterly spoiled the kids when it comes to t.v.

I wrote 2.5 articles yesterday - woohoho. Just means I need to whip out one more before our cruise. (Well, 1.5). I was thinking of maybe taking the week off, but I feel caught up.

HAd a very nice day with parents. They took us to Mimi's which is a divine little place, but I think they pared down the menu. I remember going and the menu was like 10 pages long, and impossible to decide. Yesterday was kind of a small menu. What happened?

Dh made meatball sandwiches for dinner - one recipe I haven't shared yet - should post it. Divine!

Showed them the Little Miss SUnshine while I worked, and they loved it.

By the time they left I just collapsed exhausted. Oh yeah, we went to the park and grandpa snapped off a ton of pictures with his fancy camera. I'll share when I get some. Another reason why we don't really do the professional picture thing. Grandpa gets plenty of fancy shots and the ability to print any size.

But that does remind me the kids do need a haircut and also we will probably take them to Sears or something for a few pictures. IT has been a long time. Hmmm, I am remembering now that grandma took them for pictures with their cousin last summer in their matching outfits. It feels like it has been longer...

I cut both kids hair the first 2 years, but I am officially out. Ugh. My goal is just to chop it as short as possible and then let it grow for 6 months, but BM has monster hair. It's not very long as a whole, but the top just grows so thick and sticks straight up. LOL. & I butchered LM's hair last time so I figure just like with BM it is time to go pro. Sames me much time and hassle and saves them embarrasment.

Now that I think about it I wanted a haircut before the cruise too - has definitely been a few months for me. Maybe we'll all get haircuts next weekend.

Anyway, thinking about all this stuff as their birthdays rapidly approach. I cleaned out the cupboards a short while ago and noticed we have a ton of "Cars" plates and napkins still, from last year. I was kind of thinking of just making it a Cars birthday - would be easy. So anyway, we were discussing it and I asked the kids what kind of birthday they wanted. BM said he wanted CARS again. Well, sounds good to me. We settled on the weekend after July 4 & I am taking most the week off - so phew.

I told dh we better get out invites before our trip. Like it is sneaking up on us! Anyway, this will be nothing big. We are still so overwhelmed from Christmas that I really don't have much of anything in mind to buy the kids. Dh wanted to get a couple of things so whatever - fine with me - he can do presents. Will send out evites. Will make a box cake. Will invite family and a few friends. Wala. Asking for no gifts too. So a very simple party. I may buy a few party supplies/favors on ebay and will definitely go get balloons the day of - that is our special thing. & BM is old enough this year to maybe go along and pick some out! Overall I don't really expect to spend much money on the whole affair. I'd be surprised if we spent $100, gifts and all.

Last year we got Round Table Pizzas and my mom paid for it. I told dh we should compromise. We love the raley's pizzas so much but was not sure how to keep them all warm (only can bake 1 at a time). So I told him maybe we should just order like 2 big RT pizzas and then get a couple of the $5 pizzas, when cut the cost down significantly. I am sure Grandma would be glad to pay, but rather not put her out either.

Which reminds me, I am sick of useless party favors so I am trying to think of a useful party favor for small kids. I'd rather buy them all McDs gift certificates or something, and maybe the parents would appreciate. Better than little useless toys. Any ideas appreciated...

Anyway, dh was nice and ran my paycheck to the bank yesterday. I transfered $800 to short-term savings. If nothing else I am well on par with that. No big bills due until August I believe... So will have about $3k in there before the next bill is due. Will help my net worth in the interim, but not the long-term. I called my bank and there is no maximum on the 5.70% CD But I can't set it up until my money is in the bank. So anyway, I transferred it over and hope it will be there Mon/Tues and I can get the CD set up.

I also updated my pages. I have all these goals that keep getting revised, so found it easier just to lay it all out. I can revise it as things change then:

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/goals.html

Today I have to get some significant work in, and I also have to clean the ENTIRE house. LOL. Oh well, I feel a little motivated. I had wanted to take Friday off to kind of catch up, but work is so hectic. So I figured if I have to work my ass off from now until next weekend, it doesn't seem so bad with vacation on the horizon. Regardless of money I kind of wanted to enjoy some excursions and see some sights at the places I have never been (Mexico) but dh and I decided that frankly we really want to just do NOTHING. & that is a lot cheaper. I think I can go for it. I also have to hit the library before we go - need some good reading... Have any good book suggestions? LEt me know. Staying away from financial ones, just some good old lazy books...

Soon enough we have to pack and register all that.

OMG I just realized I don't have my passport yet. EEKS!!!!!!!!!!! But I have my original birth certificate and I guess it will do. Well wasn't that a waste of money. Oh, I've got a few more days but don't feel very optimistic. Of course the cruise papers I have now say an old passport is fine. Well if I had known sooner...

In other news our ice maker has been broken for about 2 years. We survive but we FINALLY asked my dad to look at it. He looked at it, fiddled with the switch, and said it looked fine to him. Today we have a bucket full of self-made ice. LOL. Go figure. It works. We are all excited. Kind of thing not really worth ANY money to fix since we can make our own ice and we can still dispense our ice from the fridge door. But it is cool to have it working again all the same - woohoo! & believe me we have done the same fiddling numerous times. Guess my dad had the magic touch!

The Secret of Success is really simple at face value, but sometimes it is really hard to implement. I am one of those people who truly believe you can be successful of your own true will. Too often people like to write off success to luck, and I take it very personally. I know too many people who are successful because they worked extremely hard. There have been studies done on what makes people "lucky" and it is actually in people's habits that tend to make people lucky in general. I definitely can say I have noticed these same traits in the successful people around me. So what do you need to be successful?

1. Worry about Yourself, Not Everyone Else

I notice over and over people who are constantly comparing themselves to others and worried about what everyone else has, will never be happy. They will also not be successful because they will be too busy worrying about other people and/or putting their time and resources to impressing their "friends." Imagine if you took all that energy and channeled it into yourself; into what you want and what you want to be. IT makes all the difference. Sure, I compare myself to others at time, as I am always looking for a measure of my progress, and where I am at, etc. But it is not the be-all, end-all for me. I could really care less if my next door neighbor has a fancier car or if my friend is going on a fancier vacation. The reason I Could care less is because I live my life the way I want to lead it, in a way that makes me happy. It means I have no need to worry about everyone else and what they think. I realized very young everyone else wasn't going to make me happy. Only I can do that for myself. On the flip side, I will compare myself to successful people and look at my habits and see what they are doing differently, and what I need to do to achieve that success. Again, it's not the be-all, end-all. That kind of comparison can help you. But for the most part it is better not to worry about everyone else. As soon as you wish you were someone else, you aren't going to be successful. Striving to be as successful as someone else, now that I Can go for. But you still want to be "you." You don't want to be that person. I guess the true key is being happy with yourself. Everything else kind of follows from that.

2. Be Positive

Always try to be optimistic. For the pessimist, when things don't go their way, it's the end of the world. Or at the least it is a very difficult event. For the optimist, it means either it wasn't meant to be, or a better opportunity will present itself later. Case in point, you get fired or don't get the job you applied for. The pessimist gets discouraged much more easily and equates the job difficulties with their own abilities. An optimist will assume that it just wasn't meant to be, that something better is out there. An optimist can usually turn anyway situation into their advantage. Another key to being an optimist is always to imagine how things could be worse. When you imagine things as how they can be worse it is easier to see how a bad situation isn't so dire.

3. Always look for Opportunities

Most people miss opportunities because they are too busy looking for something else. Successful people see what is there rather than just what they're looking for. For example, in business, my husband is interested in video work and becoming a film maker. He could be hellbent on becoming a film maker and get that tunnel vision as he tried to get into the industry, which is a hard way to get in. But he also has marketing experience, and started noticing that a lot of the local film makers need a lot of marketing help. HE is starting to find a little niche for himself that he hadn't even thought of before. But I think this is a prime example. Unsuccessful people tend to get too caught up in exactly what they want and disappointment when they don't get it. Successful people tend to keep their options open and remain flexible. Sometimes success comes where they didn't expect it, but being open to slightly different routes makes all the difference. Successful people are also usually more willing to try different things, which means more opportunities as well.

Another way to look at it is that sometimes it is more about the journey than the destination.


4. NEVER say "I can't."

The second you say "I can't" to something, then you might as well forget about it. The next time you come up against an obstacle and start to say "I can't," change your thinking. Start to think "I can." I See too often people think they can't do something (I am talking simple things here) and just get stuck in a rut. It really is true for the most part that anything is possible if you think it is possible. The successful people that I know rarely say, "I can't" but the friends that I have that are struggling with the basics of life say "I can't" way too much. They are unwilling to try new things, to learn, to push themselves, or to even just work a little harder.

5. Don't Complain about Things you can Change

I am not much of a complainer and if I see something that can easily be fixed, I find it far more useful to fix it than to whine incessantly about it. I have a really silly story to share though that brings this point home though. I started a new job a few years back and the microwave in the kitchen was really slow and ancient. I remember it took like 10 minutes to heat up my soup. The funny thing is I remember thinking man, it was really bad, but it wasn't until a few lunches of hearing everyone complain incessantly about the microwave that I had finally had enough. I figured a new microwave was $50 or something and I would be willing to shell it out personally for a quicker lunch. But I just went up to my boss and asked him if we could get a new microwave. The next day we had a new microwave. I had even asked a co-worker if this would be taboo because I figured the only reason no one else had mentioned it was because it was like a taboo thing and the boss was known to be attached to the microwave or something. Anyway, I thought gosh, maybe I am just a dumb newbie here, but this is ridiculous. I don't think I ever told anyone else I had been key in the new microwave, but I was certainly glad when the whining stopped. Over the years a few other incidents have happened though where a simple conversation with the boss would clear things up. One thing I see too often lately is fear and stress over unreplied e-mails, when again a simple face-to-face conversation would clear it up. E-mails get accidentally deleted or overlooked. IF you are that worried about it, pick up the phone or go chat with the person to make sure they got your e-mail. It really is that simple!

Once you can make the little changes it is easier to see how you can make bigger changes. & I guess what I notice is successful people are more likely to find a solution and move on, and also be willing to accept that which they can not change. I think most people though have problems with this and create more obstacles in their life than their needs to be, wasting too much time on what can not be chaged, and worrying too much about stuff that doesn't matter (like slow microwaves).

6. Talk to Other People

#3 was about looking for opportunities. The truth is that the more people you know and talk to, the more opportunities will present themselves. If you have ever gone to a networking seminar you have seen this point hit home. Next time you are on an airplane strike up a conversation with your fellow passengers. Time and time again business contacts are made in places you don't expect. Keep in touch with your old college buddies and your ex-co-workers. The more branches of contacts you can keep, the more opportunities you will find in life. IT is amazing the opportunities you miss by not talking to people. One example for me is a neighbor who I had met on a few occasions, who I never told that I was a CPA. My work just never came up in conversation. A few months later, she actually called me at my office as she had been referred to me by a mutual friend. It wasn't until we started talking until we both realized who the other was. How silly that a third party had to inform her that I was a CPA.

I have also seen it recommended to break routines in order to meet more people. Shop at different stores, take different routes. The more people you come across, the more opportunities you will have.

7. Keep True to Your Word

I remember when I started my first job out of college my dad said something to me like 90% of success on the job is just showing up. I didn't think much about it at the time, but he brought it up again recently, asking me if wasn't he right. I thought back to how I was probably most appreciated by all my employers because I showed up on time every day. That's it. To me this has always been a simple concept. If I agreed to do something, I will do it. If I Can't keep my end of the bargain, I won't do it. To me what is obvious, I notice with time is really rare in people. It is rare that people will finish a task that they commit to, that they will show up for work on time every day, that they will meet all their deadlines, etc. If you can just commit to keeping your word, you will notice a huge difference in your life.

It is amazing to me how sometimes the simple little things can make all the difference. Of course as a whole, if you are not used to leading a successful lifestyle, it can be hard to implement. But you can take it one baby step at a time. Start by honoring all of your commitments (even if it means taking less commitments) and thinking more positively. You will notice changes in your life. From there start networking and keeping your eyes peeled for opportunities. Think hard before you say no to any opportunity that presents itself. Maybe most importantly, remember to stop saying, "I can't" in situations where you can and should. I guess that goes along with the positive thinking.

I think I can sum all of this up by simply saying don't get too wrapped up where you are (and where your peers are), but instead start focusing on where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Keeping all of these points in mind will get you there.

Good timing! I was just thinking that all those promotional deals are great, but not worth it with CDs, as sometimes it can be difficult to get your money back out, making sure you don't miss the deadline, etc. Regardless, moving my money around a bunch of banks is not my thing. BUT I just got an e-mail that my local bank is offering a promotional 5.70% c.d. for 8 months. Woohoo. I noticed interest rates were really up yesterday (treasury bills) and was wondering if GMAC would raise their rates again - they have stayed very competitive. But the timing of this is just PERFECT. I have a $6k balance transfer in process right now. So I just pretty much drained most of my savings - about $10k. I will replenish it and then some with the balance transfers that last until next July or so anyway. The only regret I might have is I could renew the c.d. in 8 months at the same rate, if rates drop. Which I may consider because it would really only tie up my cash for 3 months or so beyond the final balance transfer payment. But not sure I want to tie up most of my savings all the same. Then again we have many options. So it could be worth it. If not for the balance transfers I am not even sure if I would bother. OR maybe I would just put a token amount in. But it is pretty sweet to up my return almost 1/2 percent. Going by the bank today anyway for a deposit so I can see if I can open the account today and transfer the money in when it arrives back from GMAC.

& you know GMAC can go up tomorrow, but I have a c.d. in my IRA at 5.50% that I am still pleased with. So I guess it is always a gamble, but locking in a good interest rate for the credit card arbitrage sounds mighty fine to me.

In other news we went for a nice walk around the lake last night. It has been a while, will have to remember to bring the camera. Plus there are 2 new parks along the way. So we went to our 1/2 way point and the kids played at the park for a while. There was a kite there flying and for the life of me I did not see who was flying it until I finally realized it was tied to a tree - LOL. OF course BM wanted to run home and get his kite then. There is certainly hardly ever a lack of wind. Well, it was a very pleasant evening but soon enough it will be hotter than hades and the bugs will be out in full force.

I am also very pleased with LM - he got my tanning genes. As a child I would be so dark most people assumed I Was mexican. WE really don't know my grandfather's ancestry but we always assumed native american, as he had very native american features. I never wore sunscreen as a child (which could have been bad - and means the tanning gene has its downside as I find I forget to sunscreen the kids too since they don't really burn). Anyway, my mom who is pretty much lily white always told me she was very dark skinned until she had children, around the same age I did. I always thought that was a bummer, but in my teens I got my first sunburn and once I was in college, I lost my extreme tan. As far as tans go I can lather up in SPF 45 and go lay outside and look like I have been laying outside all summer, in just a week of tanning, so I still have an edge as for as tanning for beauty I guess (which I Really don't do). But for the most part after years of not needing sunblock, I go for a walk outside or something and then get burned, and for the most part I am pretty lily white. Dh on the other hand is a sunburn machine. If he goes outside for 5 minutes he will turn into a lobster - very fair. So the kids came out blond/blue-eyed/fair I am thinking dear lord, poor kids, we will have to buy stock in sunscreen! But BM seems to have my skin genes and I am very very pleased. As long as he gets sunblock on he will turn 50 shades of tan in an instant. But LM - LM seems to be more a mini-me, and he went to the park one day this week and I Came home and did not recognize him - he was a tan monster - 100 shades of tan after an hour in the sun. I Was shocked. & then I said - well now THAT kid got my genes. LOL. I am just so happy both my boys aren't lobster!!!!! Like I said, I think it is great that they have their own protection form the sun. Phew! But all the same it makes it really easy to forget the sunblock for short jaunts outside. But hopefully I can give them better sun habits than I had growing up. OF course it will be interesting to see how the whole blond/blue-eyed/tan thing works. I wonder what nationality they will be assumed to be. PEople will probably just think they lay out in the sun 24/7 and we are every active because I think the blond/blue-eye thing precludes a mexican heritage. LOL. But we'll see.

Which reminds me something else I failed to mention. I have been getting a lot of compliments on my hair lately. IT is usually pretty flat but after I Wash my hair I twist it up all day and usually only wash every other day. So on the other days I Can wear it down, and my usually limp, lifeless hair actually has some body. Plus I got a really good cut, LOVE my pantene, and don't do anything else to my hair. So I have been getting lots of compliments of late. THen I read how people can't do their own hair and it looks crappy without a salon, etc. & I just roll my eyes at that. (Same with my home done nails which I am always complimented on as well - and I think they look better than plastic nails myself). But I just realized the irony in some of the flack I get about my hair. I have always been told by friends and such that it is so horrible to twist up my hair while it is wet, that it damages the hair. I do it about every other day of the week, and does my hair look damaged??? Not in the least. But I don't know why I was so dumb before. I had a friend telling me this again this week and I Was looking at her as she goes to a salon every few weeks or so. Her hair is dyed around once a month, hairspray and products galore, plus the occasional perm. I don't know why I never put 2 and 2 together before but I am just wondering how you can do ALL that crap to your hair but not twist it up in the name of damaging it. PEople are SO funny. Anyway, next time anyone says anything I think I will just have to say "bite me." LOL. The other funny thing is my hair has settled on a very dark brown color. It has always been rather dark, but I did the whole perm thing throughout the 80s, and into the 90s so with 50 perms yeah I KNOW how damaged your hair gets with those. & my hair in the end was getting to the point I would sometimes be called blonde. A little extreme, but it was getting light. Then I went through a phase where I died it a few times, and one final perm around 2000 before I got too lazy and stopped caring. & now I am disgusted by all the chemicals I once put on my head. So anyway, my grandma tells my mom recently that I most definitely dye my hair. I was like um, okay, did you tell her that all those perms and peroxide bleached my hair my entire teen years? Oh yeah, but my grandma thanks I am full of it and I dye my hair. Okay then - do I have any roots? LOL. I just think that is funny. I am blessed since gray hair seems to hit my family young, that I haven't had many grays yet, and maybe she is just assuming I couldn't be so dark-haired otherwise. Which mostly tells me I better enjoy this small window of opportunity for beautiful dark hair because it will turn gray soon. My mom has beautiful silver gray hair that I always thought I wouldn't mind on black hair, but how gray can look so crummy on brown hair. But the other day BM told me the other day that I have black hair, and it does seem my hair is getting darker with time. Maybe I Can pull off the silver look - time will tell. IT is funny because I always thought my mom had black hair and she would ALWAYS insist it is dark brown - hehe. So I figured I would embrace it - sure - black is my favorite color anyway. I much rather not dye my hair to hide the gray but I am realistic with myself - I won't know until the time comes what I Can or can not live with.

Anyway, lord knows what I am blabbing on and on about. But yes, today is shaping up to be quite busy. I Was telling my mom a little about that movie - Little Miss Sunshine and like homebody said - some of it hit a little close to home I think. I mentioned the van that had to be pushed to start and my mom said - oh we had a car like that once. LOL. So yeah, I Think they will enjoy. They are coming up today and I am all excited. My mom visits often, but not my dad. As far as me, I have aerobics in a couple of hours, hit the bank, and I brought a ton of work home. Brought stuff I can work on a little mindlessly so I can setup the laptop downstairs and be a little social. & I guess I will try to whip out an article before aerobics class.

Anyway, work was hell yesterday. I just wanted a good 8-hours to make progress on a big project (not done yet with the constant interruptions of late). & well by 2pm I hadn't even started because everyone wants everything yesterday. I am just so overwhelmed I Can't really look beyond tomorrow. I just tell myself it all always gets done - it WILL get done. I have no idea how, but it will. I brought a lot of work home, but I keep telling myself I can work every day until my cruise if need be. I just don't want to come back to a landslide, but I think it is inevitable. blah. Plus another coworker is on vacation next week and I have to get some of her work out. Figures. Is this payback for all my maternity leaves? OF course honestly last time I Was on maternity leave I swear they just left stuff for me. LOL. Now that was a nightmare - coming back to stuff that hadn't been touched for months. Yeesh. But I am sure they did a lot of scrambling to make my clients happy too. So here's my payback. Oh but anyway, I only got a couple of hours on said client but I made significant progress. Phew. I am not sure if I will have a finished product before my vacation, but I can get the difficulties out of the way at least. I feel like this is my biggest obstacle to catching up for now. But I will be raking in some overtime which is not all bad at all...

Well, May was not a great month here.

In the grand scheme of things, wasn't the worst. Our net worth went up $1300. From our current setup I am unclear where the $1300 came from. About $250 mortgage paydown, and the rest is probably divided between retirement and short-term savings. Probably mostly retirement. Have been saving $800/month for short-term expenses, but had a lot of dental bills and insurance to pay, so was probably a wash. Was a good investment month and I accrued $500 employer match, so that makes up most of our net worth increase. Dissapointed that little of it was actually money saved.

Investments are up 7.50% as a whole (cash and all). Not bad, but the year is young. Anything can happen.

Glancing at the budget and the credit card - oy vey. Lord knows why but the credit card has like $1900 charges. Our budget is more like $1200, but we splurged a bit and had some expenses from last month pop up late, which explains $200 or so of the excess. Groceries look okay, but gas is over $100 because I insisted on driving the van 2 times to san jose, mostly. The good is all we have planned in June is the LA trip but we'll take dh's car - it will hardly put a dent in the budget. Oh plus $100 extra we spent since our preschool bill was low. So a $1500 bill would probably be in a good range, but we are over $400 still. Well $100 is the gas. $100 dining out - we had our date out saturday and we treated our parents a couple of weeks back (long overdue). Still $200 over. Minus $130 to the dentist. LEaves $70 over budget still unaccounted for. In addition to our gift budget for the month, dh bought some birthday gifts for the kids, and he went rock climbing twice. & that pretty much narrows it down. Plus I prepaid the diaper service to up the rewards on my card. So we probably had a little room for the last stuff all else being equal. But all the eating out, dental bill, and the overage on gas pretty much reamed us this month. Oh well, it was a nice month.

I decided not to put any money into long-term savings last month with the $850 car repair, and the same this month with dentist (Expected it to be more) and cruise and all that stuff. So with that we will probably squeak by. But, um, I think it will leave much less money to splurge on our cruise overall. We have been having it way to good. June is going to have to be a little more low key!

Anyway, I don't mind relaxing a bit with a lot of unexpected/one-time expenses, and definitely wanted to get out a little more and enjoy since work was (supposed to be anyway) less busy. But on the flip side I don't want to get into the habit of being $500 or over budget every month. Not pretty. So we have work to do.

Not to fear since I intend to work this weekend and put in some overtime next week. I am just so swamped there is no denying it any more. I know dh will flip out, but I have to work this weekend. I figured if I squeezed in 10 hours overtime was a good $250 take-home, so I will work on some overtime this month and will still be able to make some long-term savings contributions for the month. Even if I don't get it for a while. Might as well take advantage since it is so busy anyway. 5 hours a week will make up the shortfall and let us add $500 to savings for June. It is just up to my boss if he wants to pay it out sooner or wait to christmas, but either way is fine with me. Will get it eventually and straight to savings.

Well, that pretty much sums up my month. Can't say we have any plans for June. So we'll keep it low key. Well, we'll try anyway. May was just a month of enjoying luxuries we usually can't, and it is time to get back to reality!

On the other hand, we have already made significant progress on our net worth this year. 1/2 way to our net worth goal, and it is only May 31.

It's been baby steps here. I wanted to get our short-term savings squared away (no prob at all here) and then I wanted to pay off the car and get our savings up to 3 months expenses. So so close ($1300 away on the efund?). Then do the ROTH conversions. I just wanted to clean up everything so that by the end of the year we should be starting to put 10% to retirement consistently. & then save my next raise, as my goal is 15% retirement. We are getting so close to all of this. So it's like I am not too worried about retirement right now, but at the same time taking steps to get it back up to par. & I guess the fact I am getting $500/month anyway from my boss makes it a lot easier to put it on the back burner. I was just thinking I have often put retirement on the back burner for other goals BUT I have always either had 10% from my check or a 10% match. I guess to me that is just not trying very hard so I don't count it or something. LOL. So it sounds way worse than it is. But I just want to get to the point on 1-income where we can pay all our bills, have ample savings, and contribute 15% to retirement. Really it's all I want, and we are getting so close I can almost taste it! Of course I honestly only expect to get up to 8% or so in 2008, but it depends on my pay raise. Getting there slowly but surely... 10% is okay but 15% is what I really want to aim for, for the long-term.

Well the credit card arbitrage process has been slowed considerably. I got my first statement and was ready to get my $50 Target gift card, only to find I was 350 points away about. & the only way I can see to get 350 points is to spend $350. Easy enough on one hand, but most of the stuff I pay is already set up automatically and I doubt I will spend $350 in gas and such for the next month.

But I did need to fill up so I dug out the card and spent $50 on gas today. I did need to pay the diaper service and was getting pretty late so I just paid 2 months - $106. I then signed up for our next community center classes at $50. & suddenly I am $200 closer to my goal. On a regular month I could spend another $150 easy, but I don't want to take the card on our cruise. Of course it wouldn't be the worst idea to run all of our cruise expenses on dh's card, just easy to keep it all separate. Hmmmm. An idea as I am sure he will run up against the same thing. I guess I will have to check when his card closes for the month. Will probably have to wait another cycle regardless, for the whole balance transfer thing. But that way he can put all the groceries and his gas on the rewards card - for the 3%, if he run up his card with the cruise stuff. Win-win!

I signed up for karate & swimnming. I only show up to aerobics 1/2 the time, so I still have a good month left. & we decided to drop toddler class for a while. I can't get off work during the day - it is just too much. So BM gets swimming, preschool, and karate and LM gets nothing. Then again every toddler class, about 15 minutes into it, LM tells me he is ready to go home anyway. HE seems to enjoy it enough, but 15 minutes is his limit I guess. So we are dropping it for now, maybe indefinitely. We just got to get him out of diapers and maybe we could afford to drop him off at preschool once in a while, which he would much prefer. Just LOVED getting to stay there last night.

Well for June/July I Expect to get a $250 rebate from Chase, as well as $100 in gift cards from Citibank. What a nice windfall. & then around $90 the first month of arbitrage. It will go down considerably every month as the new rule is the minimum payment is 4% of the balance or something - they just upped it which works against us. Oh well. I still expect to make in the realm of $500 - $1k, so no complaints overall.

Interestingly I got another 0%, no fee, balance transfer offer from Chase. I think I have a chance of a higher limit with them because we have had our card quite a few months by now. But all the same I decided those up front offers are no good because lord knows how much they will really give you.

Oh, but back to my card, waiting one month isn't the worst. They denied a credit increase online, but with my credit score I expect to be able to up it if I call in person. Only exception if they freak out about all the credit I just applied for I guess. Well, we'll see. It's worth a try, but $20k is a good start, where we are at for now.

& how weird will it be to say, "I have $20k in credit card debt." I can imagine just saying it out loud to freak out friends and family. They would seriously think we lost our mine because we are so anti-debt for the most part anyway.

Oh gosh, I hope we don't get too used to this!

Preschool is out last week of june & unpaid so we were going to save $70. We have been doing so good and living so budget-tight overall we decided to splurge. So we paid $40 to Ms. Preschool so she would watch the kids last night. We went to a gourmet Indian restaurant. Oh, it is just the best food ever, and we have been getting spoiled since they opened one in our city (an international restaurant we would hit occassionally in San Francisco as a treat). Now since it is so rare we get out without the kids, it is mostly where we go. But of course, as I mentioned before, my tolerance for really spicy food is going so downhill since we don't eat it that much. We eat a lot of more mexican spices at home -peppers and such, but it in no way shape or form prepares you for the curries and such of ethnic food I guess. I didn't even get the spicy stuff since my tolerance has been getting so low lately, and disapointed so I just kind of felt sick afterwards.

But the good thing is we usually spend $50 here and dh noticed a coupon in the paper way back with no expiration. He wondered aloud if they had forgotten the expiration date, and saved it. & lo and behold there has been an occasional coupon since, with expiration. So dh dug out the old coupon which was 20% off. Not bad. So we spent $40.

So all told, night out is $80. Yeah, that means we can afford a night like that all of once in a very blue moon. I really just don't know how people do it. Of course, like I always say, silly me, I want a nice house and financial freedom so I am less inclined to spend a lot of money on babysitters and eating out. Then your friends ask if you are really that bad off, and I am just wondering how anyone can afford a regular $80/night. Yeesh. Of course they wonder how we can just drop a grand on a t.v., so it is all a matter of priority I guess - LOL.

But dh and I were talking about it because we have never been much of a couple in the way of going out. Before we were married we always did our own thing - own friends, own vacations. I don't even think we spent a New YEars together until we had been together 5 years. We're just weird like that. Since we've been married we do a little more. But frankly, I found it beneficial that is how we lived our life before kids, because lord knows now the only way we get out is if we get out separately. So I guess we established some good habits for our sanity overall.

BUT I got this friend who I keep saying we need to do a girls movie night at our house and she keeps saying we should get babysitters and make it a couples night. I am thinking, are you out of your mind? You are turning our free evening of fun into a $40 night for me. LOL. So anyway, I swear we have had this convo like on 10 separate occassions. She doesn't get that I don't want to do a couples night. I know our hubbies - neither of them are interested. & she is probably equally frustrated with me that I don't get she wants to do couple things. But you know I told her there was pretty much no way I could get a babysitter. If nothing else, can't afford it. & then dh has been rock climbing with a movie buddy and his girlfriend. I guess they started getting insistent that I need to come along one of these days. Dh said at the time he was like, yeah sure, we need to all go out one of these days. But then he thought about it later and was like, wait a minute. No way. He told me if we actually had babysitting - free from grandma - or not free - he sure as hell would not give up some free time with me. It's a catch-22. HE was just saying, gosh, people without kids just don't understand. I told him to invite them over for dinner sometime and I would try hard to stay up past 9 - LOL. We can put the kids down and watch a movie or something. But overall, yeah, we were never into the couple thing and I think we are even less into it now. But this is why dh values his theatre room so much, because it is rare we really get out or go to the movies. HEck he goes to the movies alone all the time because it is just easier. I am not into the movies so why add $50 for a babysitter and a ticket for me.

Which reminds me - we watched "Little Miss SUnshine" last night. I think our new t.v. may help our marriage a bit - LOL. I do not really like watching movies in the theatre room overall. I am just weird that way myself. I'm going to watch a movie, I am going to watch it in bed. Where I am REALLY comfortably. I could care less that the t.v. is only 20 inches or whatever it is. It's a t.v. - I see the picture, I hear the sound. What more do I need. We even got comfortable theatre seating with time but I still feel the same which drives dh BATTY. LOL. So last night he said he really watched this movie. I said fine, but I'm watching it in bed. & for once it didn't end up in a fight. He was like, okay then! 50 inches of t.v. bliss. Lord knows he rather watch it on the big screen, but at least he stopped whining with this t.v. LOL.

Anyway, the movie was SO good. Dh insisted he heard this movie was really good, but I just really have a problem with movies. They take a lot of time. & if I am going to spend 2 hours watching a movie, more and more with time I just get fed up. Most of them are so bad these days. So I was wary, but this was seriously a FUNNY movie. We were both just laughing out loud most of it. To me that is the measure of a good comedy. So go see it!

ETA: SInce I can't comment... YEah, I remember being paid $2/hour to babysit, etc. Of course, we are extremely particular with the kids since they are so young still. Their preschool teacher, family, and a couple of my friends who we trade with are about who I trust. When they get a little older I think overall we can save a lot of money hiring a teenager nearby for a little less. But overall it has gotten pricey with time, indeed. Ms. PReschool charges $13/hour for both kids pretty much. But during the day I only pay $4/hour for 1, even though he is nowhere near full-time. So it kind of works out. She donates the money to a family in Africa so that always helps me stomach it a little bit more. & $13/hour for the best babysitter ever - worth it once in a blue moon...

http://tracypress.com/content/view/9467/2/

Well the whales are getting closer to the ocean. Very close! But they still have a ways to go. I think we were starting to give up hope on them. Who knows if they will even survive once they make it back out to the ocean, but at least they will back in their own habitat. They were both injured by boats in the river.

They've been hanging around in the rivers around sacramento (around 90 miles inland?) for over 2 weeks.

I imagine for anyone who enjoys the rivers during Memorial Day weekend and such it has been a PITA too. Seems like all the waterways have been closed entirely as they have been trying to herd the whales out.

Anyway, dh told me this morning they had made it to Golden Gate bridge which sounded great, but I pulled up an article and it seems like they aren't quite there yet - a ways to go. Go whales!

OMG - what the heck did I get myself into? I had a few boxes in the bedroom, and well I was hell bent on cleaning out the room. But as I Was posted I didn't want to do too much work - LOL. I didn't realize these boxes were from my office and the kitchen too, etc., etc., etc.

So I probably spent a good 3 hours, heavy lifting and all that too. I told dh afterwards it was good, because it felt good to get through it all, and I wouldn't have done it otherwise - LOL.

In the process I found a jar of about $10.50 change. Score! I told dh that would get my 8 or 9 $1 meals - just make it my cash for the month. Luckily only about $1.50 of it was pennies. Mostly quarters and dimes. I find it funny because I am not into the whole change thing, mostly as I don't carry cash for the most part. So yeah I could start carrying around a bunch of cash and saving huge chunks, but then I'd have to pull it out of my savings, so it goes. I pay myself first and cash is like if I have any leftover I Can splurge a little, just the way I work. So I find it quite ironic that I have a jar full of change.

I also considered giving it to the kids, filling up their little piggy banks as a start. I could do that too. But mostly I invest their money rather than hold onto cash for them too - same thing. But I thought when will I ever come across a pile of change again? So maybe.

Anyway, I had a big bag of trash and a big bag for ebay. I am rethinking this though. The whole reason I wanted to sell ebay was for items I thought I could get real money for. I am getting real with myself, I don't have time to sell a lot of little things, and I am better off maximixing my time at work. I think I have lost sight of that a bit, and will probably shift most of it to the freecycle/donation pile. Either way it will be good to get rid of more junk.

Dh did say he would try to sell his projector again. 2 years ago when he bought the new one part of the reason he convinced me was because he could sell the old one for $800 or something. I don't know. But he never did, then he decided to keep it. HE did try to sell it once or twice, but it was a bit high. He told me he would probably list it for $500 this week and give it a try again. Woohoo!

Well, we'll see.

In other news I just have one pearl of financial wisdom. If you saw the SA blog it had a nice little post about "what you're not." You're not your house, your car, your material things. & then today I saw the post about the Joneses. & I thought to me what is so simple is hard for many. I wasn't raised to care about the Joneses, to define myself by material things.

I noticed this last weekend when I Was hanging out with my parents and in-laws. In true MIL fashion, she actually said to my parent's face that they have always had it easier than her. I just wanted to hide at that point but my parents actually took it pretty well. For one they are both pretty on par financially, they just choose to spend their money very differently, but overall dh and I Were raised pretty on par and have the same financial views, and I know their income is about the same, etc., I do everyone's taxes. But even more to the point MIL has not a clue how poor my dad was as a kid. He did not have it easier than about anyone I know, so whenever anyone starts on that you just want to smack them, honestly. What the hell does she know being brought up in middle class bliss?

But I digress. MIL I have noticed since day 1 always compares herself to others. & she is miserable for it. She has a very charmed middle class life, but she is too busy worrying how everyone else may be doing better to actually sit back and enjoy. She had the gall to tell me multiple times last year that they are "so poor." HAving come from a truly poor family, comments like that don't sit well, she hasn't a clue what it's like to be truly poor. Not that I really do either, but she can complain about her little home all she wants where I have spent many a summer visiting my dad's family who live in shacks without most of the amenities she has. So it gets really old. The whole thing just annoys me. Blah blah blah, yes you are so bad off, then why the hell did you take 6 adults and 3 babies to HAwaii last year? You seemed to have the money for that. Yeah - that's POOR. (Not).

ANyway, the whole reason I share all this is I had an epithany. My dad could have easily in that situation said, "I had it worse." But the thing is who cares who had it worse, does it really matter? Instead my dad kind of turned it around and pointed out all that they had, as opposed to how bad off MIL thinks she is. & as I Sat there thinking about how what a truly wonderfully happy person my dad is and how miserable MIL seems to be I realized plain as day the only true difference is their attitude. I realized I have NEVER heard my dad complain about how anyone had it easier than him. & he never will. Life is too short for that. & the people who are ALWAYS comparing themselves to others will always be miserable. IT's not productive and it doesn't accomplish anything.

I guess I realize I have received a truly sublime gift from my parents who never measured themselves in terms of their material wealth, and never compared themselves to others. I find with time that these are probably the biggest challenges for most of my friends, even other family, but to me comes easy. OF course I am not these things, of course I Could care less what the Joneses' are doing.

But I just throw that out there because truly if you worry about everyone else a little less and yourself a little more, you will really be amazed at the difference in your life. Plus I guess complaining is just about one of my biggest pet peeves ever. Complain a little less and do a little more - certainly got that one from my dad. IT truly makes ALL the difference in life.

I have this neverending goal to have the house completely clean so it is easy to maintain. I never reach this goal - LOL. But then again I haven't really done that much and it feels loads better. I guess I just set the bar low!

I cleaned off my desk and it didn't take so long though I don't think I have filed anything since December. Not a biggie I guess, once the system is set up, easy to keep organized. I had been kind of dreading it and yet it is all done 1/2 hour later. Piles and piles of papers filed. Then again I have a new desk and filing system from 2005 when baby #2 kicked my office out into the hallway. It's nice actually, a big space and perfect for an office, I should share a picture. But we never really found nice filing cabinets I would leave out in such an open space, just little ones and they are getting kind of crammed. Figures. Probably not so bad as I have 4 file drawers and only one is being used for files. I just have to clean out another drawer and shift some things around. DOh.

I am feeling rather lazy for heavy labor and have no gotten near as much work done as I had planned this weekend. Then again I didn't really realize how exhausted I was until I unexpectedly fell asleep on the couch for a few hours yesterday. Yeesh. Just keep thinking 2 more weeks, 2 more week, and I will have an entire week to recharge my batteries. As much as I love just hanging around home on vacation time, it is nice to get away and not feel obligated to do anything.

I am thinking of unpacking some boxes in the bedroom and for the most part calling it a day unless I receive a sudden burst of energy.

I did a run through the bedroom last weekend and thank goodness because the in-laws decided to come up rather last minute and of course wanted to see our new t.v. set up in there. I think I now have renewed motivation to keep the room up a little better. It isn't that hard since we don't use the room so much, mostly to sleep, but then again I usually just like that the downstairs can be sparkling and the upstairs can be embarrassing, but who cares since no one goes up there. Until now! I guess the nice thing is closing the bathroom door is a must to get the full effect of the t.v. (shutting out the light) so at least I don't have to keep the bathroom sparkly.

I have a pile for freecycle, goodwill, and craigslist in the living room. I think I will make it a goal to be rid of those things before our trip. Then again if I start unpacking boxes the piles will just get worse! I should probably try some ebay selling the next couple of weeks too. Just realized we are still about $1500 away from our efund goal. I am not sure if we will have any cash to add this month otherwise, just has been a little crazy.

In other news dh has done well. I am expecting some Target gift cards and offered one to dh for a 2nd controller for his PS3. Not really necessary at this point, but would be nice. Anyway, he saw them at the used record store and had enough credit to get a controller he realized - if he sold back a few more games. Woohoo. The kids also fell in love with a helicopter toy our neighbor had - said they got $22 at Costco. Dh saw it at Target or Toys R Us or something for $30 and was thinking for birthday - but saw an ad for $20 at Frys today. Woohoo. I had been thinking of just using our target gift cards for kids birthday, but seems like most of it is taken care of anyway. I guess I will just have to buy some clothes. Oh, we'll figure something out. Might even be worth just selling for a slight discount for cold hard cash. But we could probably stock up on necessities on sale as well, just more work is all.

I hadn't updated our allowances and so was updating Quicken and running totals and all that. No point I guess since dh was in the hole and I figured I was too. But I was amused because I updated my allowance balance and I have a $1 surplus for May (well as long as I don't buy anything through the 31st - but not really worried about it. )

On the flip side I did tell dh that I would probably consider his rock climbing (going again tomorrow) an allowance item, but since he is so in the hole, whatever. I also got that whole 2 duffle bag for 1 thing which at the time was not sneaky but I realized if I put that to my allowance it should go to his, so whatever, something we needed, will just pass up the allowance. which leaves me a $50 balance to spend for June. Woohhoo.

I find a lot of it is gray area though, but for the most part keeps us reined in a bit.

So far this year I have used my allowance to cover a big cell bill (I went way over - my fault). Bought some clothes, bought nothing for 2 months. Then this last month I bought a new wallet, replaced the diaper bag, replaced my backpack, and bought a monkey doormat.

I also bought some cannisters for the kitchen which were more grey area. I felt we needed them to organize the kitchen a bit. Though we don't NEED them. I tried to discuss with dh where those or the monkey would fit but he didn't have any input. I think since he is so in the hole, that he didn't want to appear unfair, so he pretty much said, whatever, he didn't care.

I guess mostly for the stuff that the other spouse gets NO benefit of or sees no point in getting, that is what the allowance is for. Mostly for those purchases we can't agree on. So it's May and I have spent $250. I am sure all else being equal dh would not care if I wanted to replace my backpack, etc., so not the greatest examples. But, at other times he would argue. Just the fact that my backpack was no longer usable I guess this time means I could have passed it off as necessary. But it's gray and serves its purpose. In the end it really doesn't matter as long as we are cutting back our spending, that is the point.

When I buy clothes it generally goes to allowance because for the most part I have enough to get by. Dh would never buy clothes though, and so when he does he NEEDS it - LOL. I am cool with that - he bought a couple of pairs of shorts (amazing) and so I gladly let him take it out of the general fund - hehe. As I made him replace his duffle bag - yeesh.

Mostly though I think the allowance has done its job. Dh might have bought some big things, but there are no little purchases to be had. & I have certainly reined in my spending compared to the last couple of years.

As you do notice that for the most part dh buys electronics and I systematically go through the house replacing old things. It feels like a neverending battle. But I am not all innocent either as the monkey doormat and the mounds of clothes certainly show.

Which reminds me dh and I were having an allowance discussion because a friend who makes good money but always seems so bad off mentioned her husband had a $600/month allowance. I about choked when she said it (looking at our $50/month allowances). I was telling dh and he reacted the same. Imagining all of the many electronic gadgets he could buy and then explaining he couldn't even spend that much money in a year - $7200 or whatever it would be - LOL. To be fair I said I did imagine it probably included gas and eating out and all that, which we just include in our budget. We mused how we probably could not afford any of our luxuries if we ate out so much ourselves.

But digging deeper, between the 2 of us, $1200/month allowance. Hmmmmm. We both would spend maybe $100 on gas, maybe $50 on eating out on a good month, $100 on a bad month. Maybe $100 on just misc. items, and $300/month/each left over to play with? I'd put mine in a ROTH frankly. LOL. Dh would be in electornic heaven - he could probably buy whatever he wanted. But that is when dh told me, that he decided he didn't put much value on experiences. We had already had a big convo about this before, that most of the stuff we put our money to we still have and use. We put a lot of money to his theatre room and the TVs and our laptop, but these are things we use every day, and get continued benefits from. Neither of us is inclined to spend the money we don't have on eating out and stuff we won't remember. So yeah, I have to give my friend the benefit of the doubt, that that includes all spending money, but I do notice they spend a lot of money on cars, hair and nails, eating out, vacations, etc. Whereas we are likely to spend little on any of these things so we can have a nice home and dh can have his electronics playland instead.

I am happy for people who love their vacations - reading the cheap vacation blog post. I agree mostly with the concept. But as a kid we never had fancy vacations. Personally I could not see spending $1500 on a vacation myself. Not every year any way. I guess for me I always appreciated the one time we went to Disneyland, the one time we went to Hawaii. It was SO special because we had never done anything like it before. So I know too many people who think we are so deprived we aren't into the whole vacation thing, but somehow I don't worry about it too much. I have said before though, we live an hour from the family cabin, 2 hours from Tahoe, an hour or 2 from the beach, and lots and lots of camping nearby. While the kids are younger we can do plenty of that with very little money and I think they will be just fine. Probably get out a lot more than I did as a kid. Plus grandma treated us to Hawaii last year, and our cruise and Florida this year. The kids will be SPOILED regardless. But if not for that I really could do without. It's just not a big deal to me. I think my family were always mostly homebodies, and we follow suit a bit. I think why we value having a nice home. We want our home to feel like a vacation. I guess I don't see the need to have to get away to enjoy. For the most part, vacations are just something I will never really *get,* just from the way I was raised. I see plenty to keep me occupied in my own backyard, and that probably helps.

& funny enough dh feels the same way because he was vacationed out as a child. Vacations were big in his family and always a huge deal. He has been everywhere and seen everything so for the most part he rather sit at home - LOL. IT's kind of funny how we were raised so opposite in that one regard but have the same viewpoint today. Honestly, I get annoyed he is not a little more adventurous sometimes. I guess it can go so many ways.

I am stoked. I pulled out an old dental bill in the $300 range and figured it had been my last filling. Either I was wrong or they were nice to me, maybe it was easier this time, I don't know, but the filling was only $130. So basically about $200 less than I intended to spend. Woohoo.

& well, glad to get that over with. Not fun! A little sore. Not so bad either, but I am wimpy when it comes to the drill I guess.

I had SUCH a pleasant evening with my parents last night. & drove home today - more traffic than I cared for but I guess I have concluded that the drive is just so BEAUTIFUL in the morning, loved it. Plus frankly all the way to the Bay yesterday I was thinking "neener neener" to the holiday traffic - it looked awful in the opposite direction pretty much the whole 2-hour drive. I am not sure why it didn't occur to me that I wouldn't face the same on my return home though - doh. Luckily most everyone headed out Friday though - the traffic was only bad for a little stretch this morning. I got quite a late start too.

When I got home dh and I went out for a pretty fancy lunch. Was divine. & his parents are treating for Greek tonight. (My parents treated me to pizza and donuts).

I took the opportunity after lunch to get caught up on some work and update Quicken and all that jazz. This month has just been so horrid. Was just discussing with dh. On the plus side, since we will be gone a week next month, maybe our grocery and gas bill will be down a tad to offset. Well, maybe groceries, since driving to LA and back probably won't help the gas bill now that I think about it. Kids and fam will be up here so we may be stocking up on food for them anyway. But we'll see. Wishful thinking anyway.

On the plus side, just planning to lay low this weekend. Phew. Not a lot of money to spend. What I really need to do is clean the house. & hang out with the kids.

In other news, something I haven't blogged much about, is we really want to do some hiking this summer. There is so much around. Our little experiment with LM didn't go so well, but hoping things will look up better next year when he is closer to 3. We took BM in a couple of big hikes in Hawaii last year right before he turned 3 and he just LOVED them. Anyway, we want to try to do some smaller ones this year, there is a wildlife preserve nearby and thinking about something like the redwood forest in the San Francisco area - something easier for the little one (Admittedly more of a drive which I think at this point we want to avoid with the finicky one). But stuff like that. & I was telling dh about some blogs I read here about geo-caching and we were checking out the website. I was a little surprised because dh was very gung ho about it. I think we might give it a whirl. Since I have I believe $150 in Target gift cards coming and not even sure what to use it for we were thinking of maybe picking up a little GPS system. Well, we'll see. I think if we go through the effort we want to get a rather nice once, but if we can get 1/2 of it free or something, why not.

As usual lately I think who is this guy and what has he done with my husband? He is not a particularly active guy but suddenly he is all excited about hiking and camping and all this stuff he never seemed to take an interest in before, but now he is all excited about with the kids. & geo caching he is all gung ho on. I tell you 5 years ago if I brought it up he would just look at me like I am crazy and what's the point. I guess all this stuff is a little more fun with kids. But well, I have always enjoyed a good hike or adventure and dh was never on the top of my list to invite along - LOL. But I am actually feeling rather pleased. This is all stuff I LOVE and glad the family wants to participate too. Makes me happy. Even better, for the most part, a hike is free. & anything that doesn't put more money stress on me sounds pretty grand!

I do have to say though, dentist aside, I had a pretty nice & relaxing day/night yesterday. I think I can handle a week of this. My vacation is coming up very soon and thank goodness my mom found my birth certificate while I Was visiting too - phew. I need it to board the boat - still skeptical if my passport with come through. Now no more worries, as I got the birth certificate at least.

Dh is also planning on hiking Mt. Shasta this year. With my dad. I would love to go, but I have a leg injury which for the most part prevents me from doing anything like that. Maybe a day hike is my limit and I would be in pretty bad pain. Dh almost didn't want to go though because he is worried about me - pfffffft. I think I am a big girl and will be just fine.

His mom also was trying to talk me into this florida trip - oy vey. They can't imagine why I don't want to go. I just don't see the joy in flying all the way to Florida for the weekend when it will be SO busy at work. Plus I think they would all kind of enjoy a family thing, and I wouldn't mind having some free time myself!!!!! Anyway, as I understand it, condo, flight & DisneyWorld are free because they had just enough miles and room in the condo without me, so that is probably most important. But the kids are so young too I Feel mostly like, yeah, be my guest, drag them to DisneyWorld for the day. Doesn't sound fun too me - LM is way too young to enjoy it - I am not even sure why they would drag him along. No, don't really feel like I am missing much. We'll definitely take the kids again when they are older though, that is what I look forward to. Plus my new niece is due to be born in that time frame - I'd rather stick around to meet my new niece!!!!

Of course Murphy's law, each of these trips is planned for last week of July & October which are like the only 2 weeks the rest of the year I can't get any time off work - deadlines. What in the heck. But then again, if the fam is gone those 2 weeks I will have more time to cram at work AND to relax at home. win-win. We just have to work out the details got Mt. Shasta - if grandma wants to take the kids for a few days - then it sounds rather divine to me. & lord knows dh just needs a break.

http://punny.org/

Oh yeah, I thought this was interesting. Honestly I Would be willing to do none of those things for $50 mil.

I am not sure where along the line I learned money isn't everything, but I notice this even around here when the whole what would you do with lottery money stuff comes up.

Look, yeah, it could be nice to have $50 mil, but if you have paid attention to anyone who has $50 mil, especially those who won it, it wasn't all sunshine and roses as you would imagine.

That and a fairly strong moral compass, and a general contentment with my current financial situation, means I Would not be willing to drown kittens, trip old ladies, or cheat on my taxes for $50 mil. But I Was kind of surprised the results of the poll because most of the people I know would readily be willing to do any one of these things as they imagine $50 mil would mean the answer to all of lives problems. I guess I just know better.

Well, I am thankful 15% agree with me. I Was expecting more like 0, but it is a little disturbing all the same...

I mean I Think I could do good by the money and carve out a nice life and do some really nice things with $50 mil, but knowing every sinigle person I Come across the rest of my life will want a piece of it, does not sound appealing in the least.

Food for thought. I don't think overall my answer is purely moral. I think it is because I think things through a little more than the average person. I think really that is all it comes down to. Well, and knowing money isn't everything helps too I guess. Then again I Don't even have the heart to squish a spider that I am deftly afraid of, so the whole kitten and old lady thing are out regardless - LOL. & the whole cheating on taxes is a victimnless crime angle - oy vey. Every one of us are victims of that - but I get it - its faceless - that would be more up my alley if I had to choose one...

Well, I lied. I Actually came into work for a bit this morning AND will take some work home. So it is not as much of a 4-day weekend as you may have imagined, but I got a little too caught up in it myself. A short discussion with dh yesterday leads me to believe though that this weekend is not as free as thought. LOL. His mom is coming up which is fine and dandy. I wanted a peaceful weekend, but I told dh I really didn't care as long as I don't have to be social. I Feel less guilty neglecting the kids when they are smothered by Grandma anyway, so I might get some work done and I decided maybe I could take dh to that fancy restaurant that wasn't so bad for lunch - on the price.

Of course, because of this we should just be happy and postpone our date night next week, but it is so exciting to get a date night. We'll just have to make it really cheap. Not doing the FANCY dinner should help. IT may be overkill, but we need a break too.

Sunday I am not sure if we have much planned - but Monday dh is working on some internet sitcom with his buddies.

I guess this means for me I Will try to get all my work done Saturday, and enjoy a nice lunch, clean house Sunday (backwards since the guests are coming saturday - but oh well - it looks a tad better these days) & hopefully means a relaxing fun day with the kids Monday. I just want a day or 2 to not to worry about work. Which means I want to whip out 2 articles, get a few hours of work done, and go on a date tomorrow. In the name of 2 days with no pressing needs, I think I can swing it!

Today I am driving home to see my dentist (Which you all know I have been absolutely dreading - but will good to be done with) and spend a nice night with my parents. Ah, it should be nice. Just to escape!

In financial news, I know gas is crazy but I think to some extent I have been wondering what everyone has been going crazy about. I filled up and it was about $3.10/gallon (As opposed to $3.50 where it was for a bit) and then dh nailed it on the head. There was an article in the paper how gas was up on average 45 cents/gallon nationwide in the last month alone, but it went down here 15 cents or something in the last month. I have no idea why, but now I see why all the hooha and why I did not notice so much myself. So far we have been sticking under budget, many long van trips and all, but I don't really look forward to summer all the same. We're taking the Escort to LA (cramped but cheap) and probably for any other drives this summer. I guess it helps not driving a Hummer (As so many people around here drive - I get really sick of hearing SUV & Hummer drivers complaining about gas prices - gah - mostly because these are the last people it would occur to to drive a little less, much less downgrade their vehicle).

So anyway, gas for me has not been so bad. Not good, but not horrid. IT won't bust our budget until summer, and then we'll probably just drive a lot less to compensate. Admittedly I have been driving a lot more too with aerobics class and such, but WELL worth it.

Speaking of saving energy though, I just signed up for the PEak Corps program here. Which basically means they could cycle off our a/c for 4 hours, technically on a really hot day. But we save $5/month. We pay $6/month to support the green energy programs, so I figure this will offset that (for 4 months out of the year anyway). I first heard of it 2 years back, but with a newborn, wasn't interested in sweltering. THough they say on average they use it 10-16 days every summer (mostly July and AUgust I imagine). For the most part when I first saw this they hadn't even used it that much and now they are requiring all new homes to automatically sign up (they can cancel after) but since only 20% of people opt out, it just means that many more people participating and less chance the a/c will ever be out for 4 hours. I just told dh I was going to do this. If it is too much we can give 24 hour-notice to go to a smaller program - where they can only turn off 40 out of 60 minutes every hour. THat I KNOW we can handle. I always go on and on how our house stays so cool and I am not that worried. Dh argued with me saying it wouldn't affect me and why I Didn't care - LOL. I reminded him this was most likely to happen at peak times. Since I am usually only gone 8-5 and he is more likely to do his own things evenings/weekends, um no, will probably affect ME more. But whatever. I bet you a million to one we won't even notice!!! So we have to swelter for a couple of hours and turn on some fans - big whoop... *rolling yes* But like I said, if it is that bad, we change our minds, downgrade, still save $3.75/month (for 4 months) and get to use the a/c as much as we probably need it anyway.

http://www.bpa.gov/energy/n/reports/Results_Center/ProfileIn...

In other news, our local movie theatre is offering free movies for parents and kids on the summer weekdays. I Think last year it was only on preschool days and LM Was too little/fussy anyway I am sure. This year I think the kids and dh will love it, they have 2 free days a week now. Woohoo. Free summer entertainment is always good. Should 2 & 4 year-olds be watching movies (even though rated g?) You can argue that one but dh is movie king and BM has certainly seen more movies than I care that he has seen. LM we just figure whatever, he's there. I don't think we really turned on the t.v. much before BM was 2, but LM is around when BM watches t.v., and he gets sucked in. Dh and I were just commenting how he probably has seen way more t.v. just for being the younger one. Time will tell if we sucked his brain dry, but he seems okay. So though dragging 2 small kids to a movie would not be on top of my list, dh will be excited. & maybe I could arrange to watch LM while he takes BM a couple of days. Even better... I noticed the first showing was Curious George which both kids LOVE.

Finally, I have gained 7 pounds. Eeks. But it is good. I always gain a few token pounds when I start an exercise program. It must be frightening - my body fat percentage - when I don't work out or something. Today I Was up a good 7 pounds but my skinny jeans fit for the first time since tax season - so Way to Go - muscle gain!!! I have 2 more weeks and had wanted to make a little more progress before the cruise, but oh well. I'll survive. I was lazy and I pay - I have only been doing my aerobics for a month -a nd 1/2-assed at that. I have 7 pounds of muscle and that is better than nothing. My physique is just looking a little better overall. I look so forward to just eating my heart out on the cruise, but there is so much activity on the boat - aerobics, gym, rock climbing, plus if we do any excursions, etc. I would really like to do a bike ride myself. I think it will offset and honestly hope it is a chance to get re-motivated a bit. I find 2 factors working against me since having kids - hormones and time. I Think the time is the worst though. HAving a week to do whatever sounds divine. & I want to whip my body into better shape! & maybe I will be motivated to work a little harder when I get home.

Well I hope you all have a good weekend. I will probably be around online tomorrow since I have so much work to do, but you know if you see me hanging around Sunday and Monday, just chastise me - LOL. I need to get my butt off the computer!

So it looks like I may win $5 or $10. That was easy peasy money. Good to see more people participating in this newest blog competition though. I think they're fun, though I am stumped on Top 10 for now, may sit this one out.

I moved $500 over from bonds to stock. Everything is doing good I guess, but getting way too bond heavy. So did the shift. I just did a big shift a couple of months ago - yeesh. Keeping on top of allocations. Plus it looks like we are up 8% for the year. Not bad, not bad. Cash, bonds, stocks and all... I am still amazed how much we are beating ex-broker's butt, but I guess not having to pay an inordinate amount of fees makes ALL the difference. All that being said we have another 1-2% to beat 2004 & 2006.

I would really like to do some ROTH conversions right now. I keep thinking what if dh gets some giant windfall from this movie and we get pushed to a higher tax bracket? What I should really think is, so what? Like it matters. So we will have that much more money to pay for the conversion. I should just bite the bullet and do it! What are the odds anyway - pretty slim. I have to jinx it to get a big windfall, so be it. That would be quite a jinx. I can't contribute to any of my funds right now because I guess for the same reason - it is iffy if I am entitled to a tax-deductible IRA contribution if any extra money comes in. I should just start the paperwork - lord knows it takes forever. Waiting so far just means a bigger tax bill - all my accounts are doing so well. I don't think I have any bond funds right now either - dh has them all - since we have so little to work with individually I just consider it all one - our money. I have some cash, he has the bonds, we both have everything else I guess. But yeah, I should start paperwork and start converting. Every $100 gain is another $15 tax due to the Feds when I finally do it. It would be nice to be able to add some money to my accounts!

Oh, I tried to move the $115 sitting in my Fidelity cash account to my mid-cap fund, but I guess I need $250 minimum. Now that is a conundrum. I am not sure if I can add any money. All the more reason to convert that and contribute the token $135 so I can invest the cash. I was wondering if I sold $135 from the mutual fund and then bought it back with the $250 if that would work. It probably would, but would they rather me go through all that? Gah. Why are these things so dang complicated!

I kind of laugh at myself reading some of the blogs because I pride myself on being a simple person and leading a simpler lifestyle (I guess in comparison to city folk). But I guess you have to keep in mind is I am usually a go go go person, and I have REALLY slowed down since having kids. Then again, maybe it is the kids that make life crazy. I don't know. But I think back to the days I worked and had school from 6am to 10pm and you know, these days are simple if you ask me.

It is also funny because I ran to my friend at preschool the other day and told her that things were slowing down but BM was in karate and I just started aerobics, and all our evening are tied up, and she called me a soccer mom or something. Oy Vey! I think I took offense to it - LOL. But after karate class BM and I sat and watched the ducks at the pond for a good 1/2 hour. I thought soccer moms don't this. I need down time too much I guess. I don't want to push my kids. Though I guess my problem, which I get from my dad, is I want my kids to experience everything there is to life. Honestly I want my kids to take piano lessons, and BM to continue karate if he likes, I want to take him roller skating and bowling on the weekends, all the stuff my parents exposed me to. But it is all to overwhelming all at once. One thing at a time I guess. I am sure at some point it could be translated into the crazy soccer mom lifestyle I imagine, but overall I just want the kids to know there is much out there. & frankly I wish there was enough hours in the day to have 1000 hobbies, but I realize there isn't. I am content with aerobics class for now as raising kids takes 99% of my time.

Anyway, in financial news I now make enough money to qualify for $4k/month disability benefits through my professional association. Awesome Possum since I have been using this as a benchmark for our basic expenses. So I will up it from $3500. IT is only like $200/year premium. I keep hearing how disability is so expensive and so I wonder if this is another one where being young paid off. OF course then I wonder if I should have locked it in in our 20s. For now it is such a good rate though and I am already 30, I Am sticking with it. Though I will start shopping around, would be willing to pay a bit more to lock in a rate for 30 years or something. I could kick myself for not doing that in my 20s. Our life insurance was an incredible deal since we locked in the rates while young and healthy. Then again it is such a bargain through my association. Decisions decisions.

I also tried to up my credit limit online on the citi card (like I want to call them and sit through their high pressure sales tactics - could I call a credit company without a protection package spiel - oy very - Chase has been super obnoxious and Citi doesn't seem much better. Now I do not need protection in case of loss of work - that is what my efund is for!!!!). Anyway, they denied me because I was a new customer, but I tried for dh too on a whim that maybe he had been a customer of Citi before. Well, lahdedah, I just got an e-mail that they approved him a $4k credit line increase just by simply asking online, a couple of weeks after he applied for the card originally. It means we have $16k to BT fee-free between the 2 of us. I am happy. Means around a $500 return - much more worthwhile now. I will call and ask - with my credit score I really can't say they would say no - we don't have much credit to our names overall and I have been reading some people just called and got $25k. That's what I want - LOL. Well, I'll try, inconvenience and all.

I also applied for the WAMU card out of curiosity. Plus it was cute. LOL. They gave me $6k I think - and are transferring it to my Citi Card where I can online request a refund of the credit balance! This BT had a $75 fee and mostly I just wanted to try it out. I am lucky they gave me $6k. If they gave me much less I am not sure I could even come out ahead - but the BT 0% rate is for around 14 months... I now see why Citi is such a good deal, because you can utilize the BT later after you ask for a bigger limit. I knew WAMU wasn't the best deal, but offset against the others, it will up our returns a bit. mostly I wanted to experiment with the whole process. Though it would be FAR easier to just have one card with $25k or something. But I like paying bills and paying with Quicken, and for the first time, will set all these up to pay automatically anyway (keeping a close eye). I think it won't be so bad - just have to be organized and remember when each needs to be repaid in full. So I'll keep you updated!

Today I am meeting some girlfriends for lunch. IT has been too busy but finally just said screw it. I need a life - LOL. & I also have a movie night with my mom's group the week after the cruise. It seems during tax season all the working moms dropped off the face of the earth, but hoping if I host an event or 2 maybe we can move forward. Just happy I can make an event. They have been having a lot of marykay and tupperware parties - blech! I just want a nice cheap playdate for my kids - not be sold crap. & then they are always pushing for pricey weeknight dinners which many of us can't afford. Someone had the suggestion that we meet for a lunch on a weekend - now that I could jive with! We just don't do dinners except that is the ONLY time we can generally find babysitting - but saving big pricey dinners for dates with my hubby myself.

Which reminds me my cruise is in less than 3 weeks!!!!!!! I thought it was 4 weeks away. I am so happy though lord knows where my passport is. Keeping my fingers crossed I get it in time - oy vey. Now I Read that an expired one would suffice just dandy. But I mailed it off to the terribly slow passport agency. Worst case I guess is I can drive to SF the week before and demand my old one back or something - LOL. I just do not like things last minute and mail has been awfully slow so I am terribly antsy about it. I should have lied and said my trip was much sooner - silly me. But I wanted to be fair to the last-minute applyers. *sigh*

Oh yeah, and I have bunco tonight. I felt silly when I realized - meeting my friend for lunch and will see her at bunco tonight too - but it has been too long. Nice to be getting a semblance of a life back - phew. THough lunch and bunco is not cheap either.

Send me money vibes - win win win!!!!

Oh yeah, I am still planning to do Kiva, and maybe Prosper. Kiva soon, like this month. Prosper, I will probably wait until I get my efund to where I want it - plus some ROTH conversions. So maybe in December or next January.... All things on the back burner for right this moment but I want to get to!

I got a wonderful article idea because I keep replying to posts and blogs about usual rules and assumptions about finance and how they don't really apply when you start young/are young.

Like am I worried about paying off the mortgage before retirement? Not exactly. If I take the full 30 years from my last refinance it will be paid off 10 years before traditional retirement age. & neither of us really has a burning desire to retire early. We own our dream home with a fixed low rate. I really don't foresee not having our house paid by 55, nor having the desire to move up.

Today I was commenting on the faulty logic of ROTH IRAs being less favorable in today's dollars. I have a 40-year investment horizon. I should be able to put in $4k/year and take out $1 million plus tax-free in 40 years. Hello. In the meantime I am young and my income tax rate is nil now too. win-win. If your ivvestment horizon is only 10-20 years and you are at the peak of your career income-wise, well then it makes little sense. I'll agree. But as usual I see huge exceptions for being young.

I find myself over and over saying yes, these financial principles make sense when you are in your 40s or something, but the ball game is completely different when you are in your 20s. Of course I would rethink ROTHs if I were in my 40s. OF course I Would work harder to pay off the house sooner if I bought a home in my 40s. Etc., etc.

But I find having a LONG investment horizon changes all the rules.

So is there anywhere else any of you have noticed this?

I think overall I am going to turn this article into more reasons to start investing and taking charge of your finances while you are young!!!

The other obvious one is you can invest less, on an annual basis, for retirement, the younger you start, due to the power of compounding, which really ties into the rest. Why pay off the mortgage early when I have such a long investment horizon, is really what it comes down to. As does all of these. But I figure there are some other things I haven't though of - always helps to have more brains to pick.

Thanks!

ETA: I thought of a good one in the middle of the night and completely forgot. It figures - LOL. Maybe insurance - how you can lock in low rates in your 20s.

I am getting another niece around October - woohoo!

The funny thing though is we gave so much stuff to family being the first to have children. At first we gave freely because it was family, but after a while dh and I started to conclude, this sucks. LOL. We have spent so much on baby stuff and everyone else gets a free ride. Plus we have started selling bigger things. Luckily no one seemed to need them. But we visited his cousin one day and when we got home dh says to me - there is no way we are going to give them any more clothes - they do not need them in the least. Yeah they live in an expensive area but they seem to be doing quite well. & plus BIL's family is large and they have hand-me-downs galore from them too - more to the point. So we were kind of excited to start selling some of this stuff instead, and then dh tells me, well what if SIL has a boy? She'll need boy clothes. & of course she already asked me what I have available to give.

So anyway, the boy clothes I have to sell and donate aren't much, and won't make us rich or anything. But it is kind of nice all the same to not feel like the sole support of all things baby in the family any more.

I think more of my bitterness set in when SIL could not even loan us one item when we had my second. Heck I think she wouldn't give me back some stuff when I asked!!! So I got really annoyed. But I would still feel obligated to help all the same if it was a boy. We're just stupid like that - LOL. Of course anything for a 1-2 year old already resides with dh's rich cousin, so not much we could help her with now anyway.

I shouldn't get too excited though because you never know. I have a couple of friends who were having girls that ended up being boys, so you know, nothing is set in stone I guess.

Oh, but I have to tell you a cute kiddie story.

I remember it was around May 2 years ago when I was shopping at Target for some maternity bras, and I Was with my son, and all of a sudden he starts exclaiming (he was about 2) - "Those are so cute!!!!" To the bras. Well, they were just plain and white - nothing really cute, but all the ladies around started laughing. Was just So Funny.

So over the weekend I had LM in the shopping cart and was wheeling him around in search of the adorable monkey doormat I saw in the sales ad. I told him to keep an eye out for monkeys. So we went down a bath aisle with little monkey bath accessory sets and I exclaimed how cute they were. So we kept rolling and he saw more monkey stuff so he exclaimed in his little baby voice, with much excitement, "That is so cute!!!!!!" Of course again the other ladies in the aisle start cracking up. IT was really funny to me because I immediately had deja vu.

& well I guess I have to admit that I must exclaim, "how cute!!!!!" a lot. LOL. It's something about this particular age that both boys picked up on it though. Hehe.

I think for the most part I feel blah due to the lack of sleep. I concluded this because I had a wonderful productive weekend, went to bed very happy and just wokr up feeling like crap this morning. Slept maybe 11 - 6, but I like need 8 hours to function, and the whole getting awakend 100 times in between is the biggest problem.

& of course the only reason I got so much done this weekend was I didn't take any naps, which usually I thrive on. Well, maybe next weekend I can catch up around the house, and then resume naps after that. The 4-day weekend I have should help too - phew.

I swear - I never missed a glorious full night sleep in my life, before kids. I value my sleep very highly. I was actually surprised how well I adjusted to the sleepless nights when I had kids. But a mere 4 years later (almost 5 years when you realize pregnancy as well makes it impossible to sleep), I think I am done with it - I want my sleep back. IT doesn't help when older/wiser parents say your kids will always keep you up (with worry if nothing else). I can't even fathom a life of this. LOL. At least once these evil molar finally break through it will calm down for a bit. I hope...

In other news we should find out today if SIL is having a boy or a girl. Yes, I know it is not 1000%, but I am excited anyway. Very very very excited. I kind of hoped its a boy, but then I realized there are 3 boys in the family and only 1 girl, thus far. Either way a healthy baby is most important. But I can go buy those adorable little baby outfits once I find out - woohoo. I have to admit I really enjoy having a niece because I love buying those cute girly clothes I will never get to for my own children. Then again it has been so long since I have had an infant, well I will enjoy regardless, all those little bitty baby things - how fun.

Anyway, things accomplished this weekend:

* Cleaned out kitchen cupboards and threw away so much old food I am embarassed to admit. Some stuff that expired 2000 - 2003. Blah.

*Worked a bit

*Went to to realtor's house for dinner. Had shrimp! Kids met and had an absolute blast. I think it will be great to get the kids together more but not sure how well the adults jived. A little too hoity toity for me which I find ironic since I never got that impression from me. realtor before going to his home. Interesting though. I guess I got tired hearing about how their beautiful upscale home was in the "ghetto." LOL. Oy vey. To their credit, they didn't clarify until we were leaving that a horrible shoothing that took place a few months back happened 2 doors down from their home. Oy vey. But you know, idiots are everywhere. One shooting does not a ghetto make.

*Cleaned up the bedroom - had dh move his dresser to its new spot (displaced by his beloved TV) and set up my shelves and anchor them. We have boxes to unpack from when we were thinking of moving. Now I Can unpack some boxes.

*Added some more things for the freecycle and donation piles. One thing I found in the cupboards was baby food. Also bibs. At least the baby food didn't expire yet or I Would feel really bad.

*Moved old/ancient/horrible recliner out of baby's room and put the toddler bed in there. Will recycle chair. It did us fine through 2 babies with a nice blanket to hide the fact it is completely falling apart. Was a hand-me-down. Will freecycle it. I don't want to think about the crib to bed transition with nights as they have been. Then again he's not sleeping anyway, so why not. We would have to do significant babyproofing to his room though. It was easier with the eldest, we moved him into an empty/bare room. LOL. We'll have to move the diapers and babyproof and yadda yadda. Then again he might sleep better in a bed instead of a crib. WHo knows...

*Light cleaning

*Took the kids to the park Sunday. There is this really cool/big park by BM's karate class with a pond as well. We saw some baby geese there the other night after karate class and just sat on a bench 1/2 hour watching the birds. Someone had thrown food on the ground before we got there but the birds didn't notice until we sat down, so a ton of birds came up to us and BM was just in heaven watching them all. OF course he wanted to hug them all and was upset I made him sit, hands off and all that - LOL. The baby geese were actually kind of ugly, but fun to watch. A bunch of baby ducks too - very adorable. So I drug the family out Sunday. LM loves the birds, but was too enamored by the park to really be bothered by the birds. But a nice park, will have to frequent that one more.

*Ate out Greek Dinner last night. Well ordered in actually. That place is just too good - too addicting...

*Dh went rock climbing (indoor) with some movie buddy - was glad he got out though worried it is an expensive hobby to persue. He keeps telling me how much I have to try rock climbing on the cruise ship. IT doesn't sounds fun to me in the least - I don't like, well, heights. I'll try it but don't expect to like it - LOL. Even worse his best buddy has been doing REAL rock climbs and he wants to go. If you haven't noticed I am not much of a risk taker. Doesn't sound fun to me. Blah. Oh well, it could be worse...

*Oh yeah, went shopping. Spent too much money. What a spendy weekend. We went by Target because they had a sale on some nice duffle bags I had been looking for on ebay. I figured the sale was about the same, but I could check them out in person as opposed to the stab in the dark it was going to seem on ebay. So we all went and dh stocked up on sale items (laundry detergent and such), and I stocked up on bags (found a nice backpack as well since I finally just threw my old one from college away - the thing was thrashed. The new one is 10 times nicer though, and we have some nice bags for our trip. The best part is the duffle has rollers (my other one well it still works fine but it is big and gets heavy - the rollers are a NICE touch), but even better it came with a free smaller bag. Dh has a nasty old little holey duffle bag that has got to be since he was a baby or sonmething. IT's either the bag or me. It has to go. This one is 10 times as nice but he still wants his old one. I just can't take it anymore - LOL. Last time we visited his mom I had a plastic bag and dh had his holey bag and the kids had all their nice bags and I told MIL - such is lif e- the kids have way nicer stuff than we do. But now we are all on par. It is nice to move beyond the plastic grocery bags, personally. LOL. Next on the list is his jacket. I think I even replaced it once since I met him - this old gray hooded sweatshirt. But I don't know what he does to these things - it is just nasty. Washing doesn't seem to help. I guess for his birthday or something - LOL. But I conquered the duffle bag and am very happy.

Oh yeah, but my impulse buy was a giant monkey doormat. Too cute!!!!!

So it was a very busy weekend.

I felt bad we spent so much money, but today it evened out. I just realized preschool is out (& don't have to pay) lasy week of June!!!!! The payment for June is in my May budget, and I was pretty dead on for the month. So now I suddenly have $70 extra. No mind that with the car I didn't put a dime in savings (long-term) this month, and we had a spendy weekend. I told dh we should use the money for a night out. So I reserved a night our next week for Ms. preschool to babysit and we are going on a date.

Actually my boss took us to the fanciest restaurant last week and OMG it was SO good. I told dh what I really wanted to do was take him there. (Plus the lunch prices really weren't that bad - though I guess I have to wonder about dinner). When we couldn't decide what to do I think partly we realized we were kind of sick of going to the same place for dinner whenever we catch a break. At least I am. SUre, it's rare enough, but boring all the same - LOL. So, with babysitting and the fancy dinner will probably spend a little more than the $70 saved. But I REALLY look forward to it!!!!

Oh yeah, but though I did so much and all is well, still feeling overwhelmed. Have to scrub all the bathrooms, get the freecycle/donate/sell piles out of the house, scrub kitchen, pick up the lving room (looks like a tornado has been through). I just want my house back - I hate living in a sty. It was too overwhelming so I just started small with the kitchen cabinets, but it really helps. I didn't realize how bad they were for one!!!! But if nothing else want the house hospitable for dh's family - they are staying to watch the kids when we go on the cruise... I know for a fact MIL will about faint when she sees the cabinets. She knows we are slobs and plus it bugs her.

Oh yes, I also bought some canisters to set out on the kitchen counters, to free up cupboad space - which spurred the cupboard cleaning frenzy. IT didn't free up as much as I had hoped, but will probably buy more. I think it is a good idea overall - we have tons of counterspace but the cupboards seem cramped. Dh and I also got into a great debate how to store spices. I hate how they are stored now and I can't find anything, but he resists change. YEah, sure, I do never cook because I can't find ANYTHING!!!!! LOL. He does get a little possessive of the kitchen, but I do enjoy cooking it would like to do it once in a while too. That whole thing is on hold until one of us devises a compromise. I saw some cute wall spice racks until I realized our kitchen has NO wall space either. Bummer. Dh resists everything that I think is useful. Even a nice drawer organizer would work, but he resists - because the kids would get into them. Whatever. The kids don't get into the knives. But he doesn't seem worried about that one. *whatever* Which reminds me we should probably move them since BM has mastered the child locks. But that's the thing, clearly hte knives are off limits and the kids don't mess with them. I am not sure why dh has no faith in his parenting skills when it comes to spices. LOL. Knives yes, spices no. Sometimes he is really frustrating!

1. Going to Private College will make you more successful than Public College

Some quotes from an interesting series Laura Rowley did on the subject:

"Research shows that 20 years into their careers, highly motivated students who don't attend the most selective schools earn roughly the same salaries as those who do."

"Studies show the ranks of CEOs, at least, are not dominated by Ivy League grads. Spencer Stuart, the executive search firm, found 11 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 firms had Ivy League degrees -- down from 16 percent in 1998. A survey by the Wharton School found that in 2001, 10 percent of CEOs received undergraduate degrees at one of the eight Ivies; 48 percent earned them from public colleges and universities."

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/4665

Granted, there are some situations, maybe many, where a private university will give you a leg up. But is it always worth it at any cost? I would not agree in the least.

By the way, most of the people I know from high school blew too much money on fancy private colleges right away, then returned to public education (then out of money) for their real degrees and/or Master degrees. This always seemed REALLY backwards to me. So I have to add, if you must go to private college, make sure you have picked the degree/career you are going to stick with. That's pretty hard to do at 17/18.

2. Colleges that cost More are Better

Unfortunately I can't find any links to the articles I have seen on this subject. But there was a really interesting article I read a few months back how many colleges would raise their tuition (& accordingly their financial aid packages) to increase interest in the college when enrollment was down. It really worked. If tuition was perceived to be too low, enrollment would drop. Often raised tuition was all it took to spur more interest.

We are smarter than this. Much as many of us here are not too big on brand names in general, why settle for a brand name college that just costs 10 times as much as the others? Substance should be far more important.

3. You have to go into debt to get through College

As with anything, there are shades of gray here. I know plenty of people who needed to take on a little debt to get through college. Sure. The problem here is too many people look at it as an all or nothing proposition. If you can't afford college, and have to throw it all on a card anyway, why pay attention to the budget? I remember getting so sick of people in college who had to pay their own way through who racked up a lot of debt and whined about it while living lifestyles 10 times as grand as those of us quietly working our way through college, working many jobs, and budgeting and cutting expenses. I wasn't really convinced that large car payments and party lifestyles were necessary to get through college.

But mostly my point is, if you think something is impossible it will be. IF you think it is impossible to get through with no or little debt, well it will be. Consider changing your thinking.

At least make an effort to make the debt hurt as little as possible!

4. You can't work while you are in college

Okay okay, so there are some degrees and some people who can not work while going to college. I get it. Go take out some reasonable loans. That doesn't bother me. But too often I see very able-bodied/smart people who would never consider working in college. IF nothing else, is it really that impossible to work a couple of jobs in the summer and earn some money when school is out? I pretty much worked full-time all through college and had a 4.0 GPA. IT took me 5 years instead of 4. Hardly worse for the wear. What do you think looks better on a resume? Someone who didn't work a day during college, someone who worked summers only when school was out, or someone who balanced work and school at the same time. #3 will win by a mile but I don't think #2 will do half bad either. #1 - I don't know. The only exception being lots of extra-curriculars, which if necessary, maybe time to hit the student loans. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but for the most part I see too many "I can't"s where there really shouldn't be.

5. You are a Horrible Parent if you don't provide a College Education for your Kids (particularly expensive ones at any cost)

I think #4 kind of leads into this one. That parents forget their children are able-bodied adults who can help pay for their own college. Really, it won't kill them!

Anyway, I just had to share my experience, and I guess why I feel so strongly that most college talk is a lot of hype. The downside is people get SO emotional about this issue their brain really goes out the window. You don't know how many times I have been called names and considered a moron because I don't intend to save up 1/2 mil to put both my kids completely through medical school, like it is their god-given right. But most of the time I have to admit this kind of response comes from people who resent the fact their parents weren't there for them for college. I understand that gets emotional. But look, there is a huge difference between not being prepared, not supporting your kids, etc., versus just expecting the kids to pull their weight a bit, and not putting college in front of all other financial goals, illogically.

As for my family, my father came from an extremely poor family and had no help with college. He went to state and worked through college, coming out with no debt. Having done so he was able to, through his career, move from the lowest social class to pretty much upper-middle-class. Obviously my father values a college education dearly as it made a HUGE difference in his life.

However, my parents didn't save a dime specifically for my college. I am not saying they didn't save a dime. They had plenty of money to finance my education if they so choose. But they didn't earmark a huge chunk for college or expect me to get a free ride. They wanted me to work as hard as they did for their education because they knew I would appreciate it that much more. Plus the difference here is night and day. I had a middle class family to fall back on which my father never had. They helped me a bit. But they sure as hell refused to pay a dime for private college as mostly they just saw it as a waste of money. If I Wanted something like that, that bad, I Could figure it out. I needed to contribute heavily to my education at first, and then completely after the first year (As well as move out and support myself as an adult. Why not, they had done it from day 1).

Fast Forwarding to today, I have too many friends who can't pay their bills, but have thousands and even hundreds of thousands saved for their kids' college. That is just crazy! Because my parents managed their money much better I don't expect to be supporting them in old age. I truly appreciate that they did not go broke over my college. I have too many friends who had expensive colleges paid for who are now cleaning up the financial mess their parents made.

My point being overall, if you want to save for your kids' college, so be it. It will be a great gift. Just keep in mind that it will not be a great gift to your children if you go into financial ruin over it. Also, keep in mind having parents who made me work a little harder for my college degree was the best gift they ever made me. IT made me a very strong, self-sufficient person. Plus I sure as hell learned to live on a shoestring which is invaluable.

I haven't saved a dime for my kids' college yet, and likely will never earmark a dollar specifically for college for the kids. BUT I can guarantee that they will have opportunities tenfold the opportunities that either I or my parents had. Before you throw stones just know my oldest son already has more in a college account started by grandma than my entire education cost. I think it is pretty overkill. But since they have more wealth to share now, and we are so much further ahead of the game than they were at this point in the game, I am not too worried about it. Even without grandma's money I would feel the same. But it brings a point that someone not saving money for their kids' college and not intending to finance it all, does not a bad parent make. Too often this whole thing is seen as so black and white. There are many shades of gray.

& obviously, I get a little emotional on the subject too.

So there you have it. I think all these myths can really be summed up in one main rule - don't get too emotional about college decisions. That's when you pay far more than you should for your child's education. Look at things a little more critically, do your best, know your child can survive as an adult, be confident that you raised them well, etc., etc.

If you really wanna pay for the best schools and not have them work a day, go for it. Just please don't sacrifice your own life for something that may not be appreciated, or even used. I have too many high school friends who turned their fancy paid-for educations into minimum wage retails jobs. Too many parents are blindly financing educations for just that - minimum wage dead-end jobs. IT seems to be an epidemic in the middle class society I grew up in where parents valued fancy educations beyond everything else, including the outcome of said education. Hopefully my experiences can help other parents avoid the same mistakes.