Many topics to post - I Can never be short and sweet - LOL. & the amazing thing is some of you still read my long ramblings. WOW!

I have horrible horrible luck. Just did the drawing for the work guft exchange and for the 3rd year in a row I got a MAN!!!!! Aaaarrrrggggghhhh. I once again have NO IDEA what to buy. You can't appreciate how unlucky this is until you know right now there are only 3 MEN in my office and 9 women. This is probably about the same ratio for the last few years. What gives???? LOL. Oh well, any good manly gift ideas?? My coworkers have helped me out, I will ask around again for ideas this year - hehe.

I am also super super bummed and wanted to ask for prayers and good thoughts for my son's preschool teacher. *sigh* He only goes M & W, and I noticed her assistant was there in the morning AND the evening. I usaully never see her now that he goes full day. HE also told me they watched something on t.v. which they NEVER do. I put 2 and 2 together than she was sick, and was surprised not to see her yesterday either. Knowing this cold has been nasty and long-lasting, didn't think much of it. But another parent came in as I Was walking out last night and asked how she was doing, & "did she just have that nasty bug?" HEr assistant and husband replied, "oh, we will be filling you all in later." What? OMG! So I really pressed my 3-year-old for more details. HE said he saw her because she took herself to the doctor, that she has been going every day, and then came home and went back to bed because she wasn't feeling well. Who knows how accurate any of this info is - he is 3. But I have been really WORRIED about her since. She is simply the nicest and most amazing person I have EVER met. What in the world could be going on? I told dh when we got home and he asked if she could be pregnant. Hmmmm. I doubt it, but she is on her second marriage and though probably 40 or so I just had a 45-year-old friend on her new second marriage - she just had a small child. You just never know, huh? I have the feeling that is not it, but beats her being really ill. Gah, it's really bugging me now. I am going to e-mail my friend who has her son there every day and see if she has any more info.

EDITED. Friend e-mailed back - she said that preschool teahcer is going into the hospital for more tests TODAY - she has been goiing every day it seems. They told her she is having "issues" and will fill us in later. *sigh* I even played detective and checked her daughter's MySpace page - she had set it to private since I last looked. Darn. In the dark for now, but sending lots of positive thoughts that all is well.

Well besides all that, my wish came true. I think I blogged last week that it would be nice if dh could even bring in $50. After looking at last month and the $200 or so I brought in besides my paycheck. I was thinking time he helped a little too! Well he brought home $50 the other day - woohoo. Of course, he sold my guitar, ahem, but he is getting another $50 for it soon - installments I guess. A good deal though, I think - though who really knows - so long ago - I think I bought it for around $50 from my old friend. It is not the prettiest guitar, but easy to play and sounds good. I really like it. Last time I played it? Who knows. I don't know much - I just play a lot of instruments so can pick up the guitar and play a little easily. I never got past the bar chords though - too hard for me - hehe. But dh borrowed it for a movie shoot, and they drew on it - a fake signed guitar for the movie I guess. Then someone liked it so much they offered to buy it for $100. Black sharpie ink and all. I didn't really want to let it go, but being relistic, I have another guitar (looks pretty but not as nice overall - LOL) and dh probably has 4 or 5. I just think it is funny he is out selling my guitars and not his. Hmmmm... But whatever. Makes it another $100 this month. Yay! I know I Am going to use a little of it to splurge when we go to San Francisco next weekend.

I just noticed my bill was only really $25, because I volunteer to pay an extra $6/month to support green energy. I rounded a little, so in the end it was REALLY only $25.

I Was just looking at my electric bill which is separate from my gas bill. It was $20 including a $5 servie charge, $2 or so in taxes, and the $6 voluntary green energy payment. Gas was $11. I don't have the bill online to look at the details. But just amazing how low the bill is with that $6 - don't think I Was paying that last year.

Hmmmm, I have really no idea why it was SO low - the electirc portion was 1/3 of last year at the same time. I am thinking overall weather. We had the heat on for a while a day or 2, but the house has reamined steady between 68 minimum at night and 74 maximum during the day since. Pretty pleasant and no doubt unusual for late October and November. It is raining today and warm overall.

I am starting to worry if they read the meter wrong - hehe.

Oh yeah - and another interesting article from the state CPA society today - on shady credit card companies:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/moneysmarts/artic...

Well I am honored you are so impressed with my low energy bill - hehe.

I Was driving to work today & heard an ad for energy efficient lightbulbs.

Reminds me that is abig thing for us as well. Plus the house has a lot of open space and windows so we rarely use lighting during the day. It's probably often assumed a big new house is an energy hog, but not the case at all in mant instances. They put extra insulation in teh walls and roof, dual paned windows, more natural lighting, etc., etc.

BUT one huge factor is the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Our has came with light fixtures in each room, with these long-life CFLs. I am not even sure we realized we had such fancy lightbulbs until a year or 2 out and not having to change 1 lightbulb. We are coming up on 5 years in our house and we have replaces one bulb. One went out in the kitchen - probably the most used room - and I thought "oh no!" Are they all going to die at once? Will I have to buy 50 new bulbs? & how expensive are they anyway?????? I was a little frightened, surely lightbulbs that last upwards of 5 years are VERY expensive????

So I looked them up and they really didn't cost that much more than regular lightbulbs. They certainly cost more, but not what I had imagined. & I saw they were rated for 10,000 hours+. !!!!!! NEedless to say the one that went out is a fluke. & since we had 6 lightbulbs in the kitchen we haven't even replaced it. Maybe when 3 or 4 go out it will be time. For now we are just using less electricity than we were before. I should probably go throught the house and take out 1/2 the lightbulbs, probably wouldn't make much difference...

I also saw at the time that CFLs use 1/3 - 1/4 the energy of regular lightbulbs.

No doubt this helps the bottom line of our electricity bill.

We have really found that investing in the newer energy-efficient appliances and all this REALLY pays off. This is probably our lowest bill ever, and all I Can think this is maybe our first no-heat/no-air month since our new washer/dryer. We had a 30-year-old model before and recently upgraded to the super energy-efficient. Doing laundry every day with kids and cloth diapers and such, we see a huge difference I guess.

Well - check out the CFLs:

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_ligh...

Opting out of collission insurance on your car does not make you uninsured in the least. Gah. It is opting out of one type of a whole lot of auto insurance.

When you buy a car for $1k, have $30k in the bank, and the annual premium for a $500 deductible collision policy is $500, why on earth would you pay it????? Collission only insures the replacement value of YOUR car. If car is totaled, insurance company would likely value it $500, even if you just paid $1k. & if that is your deductible, then you are not insured anway. You get to pay the deductible, plus you just wasted $500/year on worthless insurance premiums.

End rant. LOL. I actually came on tonight because I Wanted to veg out and read other blogs. Just a little frustrated.

Insurance is clear as mud, ain't it. I've been trying to re-evaluate our health insurance and I feel like you have to be a rocket scientist to undersatnd it all. Luckily I think I got auto insurance figured out, but I am trying to be patient with the whole rocket-science aspect of it all.

But seriously, if you drive an old clunker, OR if you have a car that you have driven for many years and is long paid off - stuff to think about. I encourage everyone to UNDERSTAND their insurance policies. knowledge is power. Peace to you all.

So help me if anyone replies to this blog and tells me that it is illegal that I don't have collission coverage on my husband's absolutely worthless car. Or why this owuld have any bearing on liability insurance, personal injury, uninsured motorist, etc. - all necessary coverage if you ask me. & yes which I have!!!!! My newer car is fully fully insured. But I will be reevaluating it in a few years no doubt. Very case by case of course. So learn more about what you are paying and why.

Oh yeah - and with having 2 cars and only *needing* one car at this point, affects my decision as well. sure, if you rely on your car and something happens it may be nice to have some coverage and maybe a rental in the meantime while it is squared away, etc. IS that part of comprehensive of collission??? I Don't know, but regardless, I could take the loss on an entire car and it wouldn't affect me much. When dh gets a day job and relies on the 2nd car more, something to consider I guess. For now, not much to consider.

& NOW I am off to read what you are all up to...

Oh well, my Tuesday update.

Got the electric & gas bill - $30 for last month. Woohoo. You don't know how refreshing it is to come to a site where this is the norm. I have been appalled on other sites I frequent - when gas/electric comes up - people's average bills are $500/month. Seriously. You hear how bad utilities have gotten and I wonder if this is somewhat norm BUT most of these people admit to keeping their house 72 degrees day and night in the winter, etc. The idea of conserving energy has apparently never crossed their mind. As for us, $30 is about as low as it gets, I can mostly thank the weather. We turned on the heat a day or two this last week, and right now it is 73 inside and no heat on for a few days. Next month will be a lower bill than usual probably too - yay. But overall with a new baby we tended to conserve a little less. This year so far I haven't been too quick to turn on the heat - the kids are running around like banshees, keeping warm, and the baby is a lot tougher now and can handle the cold a little better. We'll probably set it to 68 during the day and who knows at night, maybe 60 - it rarely turns on at night at 60 I believe - trying to remember. When the kids are a little older we'll just turn it off altogether at night like we used to!

I just renewed my AAA membership and was surprised looking through all the discounts available. I remember looking through in years past thinking it is all stuff I never use. But I noticed supercuts, payless shoes, a lot of restuarants, and even Pier 39 in San Francisco where we were going to go next weekend. I'll have to check that out. I am bummed though my not too smart with money friend who was going with me might bow out because she can no longer afford it. Am working on dh to come with me. Oh well, maybe it will be a little adventure with just my son and I. You know, just looking at $10 for the train and maybe a lunch out. So it is nothing huge.

Oh yes - and one more thing on saving money - was just paying all my bills and thinking in my head how much I am saving on stamps with online bill pay. I Am sure all you savvy savers use it, right? I used the service through my old credit union and it SUCKED. It was free. But they debited your account immediately even though they just wrote thec check for you - it would often take 2 weeks to clear. It drove me mad. Sometimes checks disappeared and they would want a stop payment fee to cancel it. They drove me mad. Talking to my co-worker who is a bookkeeper she said she worked somewhere before where people with online bill pay were always getting screwed like that. So I thought this was normal. But I was at a very small credit union and I just switched. OMG - my new online bill pay is still free but it is AWESOME. I just set up all my credit cards (before I did not trust the payment would get there in time). A few bills come directly to my credit union, and they do quite a few electronically. For the ones they actually write a check - they don't post it until it clears. HAllelujah. I love online bill pay. I post this because if you have a sucky service, shop around. The difference is probably that this is a much bigger credit union. More resources I guess. Well since I am using it a lot more, not just for the little bills I don't care if are late - LOL - I am now really saving on stamps. The only thing that is annoys me is I run through deposit slips way more than checks. Can I just order deposit slips I guess? I need to.

Oh well, I figured I was good on jewelry the rest of the year and did not intend to spend much this month. Nothing on the horizon, I haven't spent any money in about a week or so. & then yesterday I saw some new cookiee lee jewelry and I absolutely HAVE TO have it. I will probably spend $20 and it is well within budget, but it is annoying me. Darn Cookie and her cute jewelry. LOL. I'll just have to work on sellin gsome to pay for it...

Well, off to vote. Dh was cute when I said I Was going after work - he said - "But the lines will be SO long!!!" Is he serious? Bah. LAst time I went around 5:30 and I was like 100th to vote all day - something pretty dismal for a big city. So he is telling me - remember the RECALL election??? The line was huge. I don't particularly remember, BUT you now, it was the recall election. I think this year will be a little more quiet. I just find it extremely ironic, besides annnoying and frustrating, that Arnold has done everything that his predecessor did 10 times worse. His predecessor took a lot of contributions and had a lot of debt. That was their argument against him. Then Arnold came in and did it 10 times worse. ?????? I tend to vote 3rd parties, and I Was going to this year and thought better. I do not like the democrat in the least and feel he is very budget-responsible. But if I really think about it, I do not foresee him just using billions and billions in future bonds to pay for today's expenses, as arnold likes to do. I want Arnold out. *sigh* Not counting on it, but it will be interesting to see what happens. It would be nice if someone fiscally responsible ran for governonr - but that is just dreaming I guess... Oh well, my political rant for the day.

Well, I feel SO MUCH better today. YAY! Back at work...

I am trying to put all my energy to work so I get a nice raise and or/bonus, and some overtime. I had wanted to work some OT in OCtober, but stuff always seemed to get in the way. Trying for a more profitable November. I brought in a lot of extra income last month through Ebay & Cookie LEe & expect more through some freelance accounting work this month. BUT putting in an extra few hours at work every week should be the easiest and most profitable... So I will work on it.

All that being said I am not too sure of my ability to focus and not pop online more than I should. But I will try - if you don't see me around it is good!!!! PRobably more blogging, but less posting. Bums me I don't have time to keep up with all the threads as is. HARDLY. LOL. But not even work, at home it looks like a tornado hit after being sick all week. I have no idea how I survived while pregnant (and very sick for 9 months). Dh is great in many ways, but picking up and cleaning, not his thing. Cooking, dishes, caring for kids. I guess it beats nothing. But when I Am out of commission I sometimes wonder how they would survive without me. SHould I hire a maid in my will? LOL. We are drawing up wills/trust now. I think I should have a maid clause. I Think he would just live in filth.

In the meantime, next years budget is looking more dismal by the day. TOo many unknowns to freak out yet. I Am trying to be patient. I should get our new health insurance premiums soon. Then I will freak out until I get my raise in january. Trying not to think too much about it until I know my pay and my expenses, which right now are somewhat unknown. But just got our property tax bill which went up $600/year (thank you worthless school bond) and I forgot our AAA membership which I just paid. Expenses are inching up fast. We'll re-evaulate when we have all the facts - more busget slashing I Am sure.

Dh said yesterday he will look for some tempt retail work. Not holding my breath. We figure he could work until mid-December, he has had a month to look for something. He has done squat. Going temp may work out better for us, may even work beyond december, but he has to get on it, sooner rather than later. *sigh* In the meantime I Am the only one bringing in any income, regular and extra and otherwise. SEriosuly $50 would help. HE doesn't need to bring in much.

Oh anyway, cool thing is my cruise is booked for next June - OMG. I am SO EXCITED!!!! I tell you I Could live wihtout fancy vacations and I never saw paying for a cruise in my future horizon. But a free cruise - bring it on. The even better part is the whole 4 days and 4 nights without kids - OMG!!! Sounds like pure heaven. We have had a few weekends away, but 4 nights is pretty sweet. We will probably miss them too much - how it always goes - can't win I guess.

The longer you read my blog the more you will conclude that dh and I are just simply spoiled rotten by his parents. Probably true. They gave us $3k last year AND a tirp to hawaii. & now this year I expected it to be super low-key and frugal, and now I am going on a cruise. Goodness! The funny thing is his parents are so "whoa is me we are poor." (Oh please - insulting to the truly POOR). & think my parents all rich and my parents are always like what the hell, they bought you what????? THey gave you what??? Maybe if they kept their money and stopped giving it to you - they wouldn't be so poor!!! Hmmmm. I think it is extra insulting because my dad did grow up extremely poor and my MIL's attitude is so whoa is me and my parents are lucky or something. Maybe some luck but a whole lot of hard work. Plus at the end of the day they are probably pretty equal financially - just spend their money very differently. The last time my parents dropped $3k on me or took me to hawaii? Hmmm, never. & I wouldn't expect them to.

Oh yes, but I do have the details and our cruise goes from L.A. to San Diego, Catalina Island & Ensenda. I have never been to cataline Island or MEXICO for that matter so I Am super excited.

I haven't even told any of my friends because I know they will just roll their eyes at me all spoiled rotten. I am keeping it low key but just had to get all excited here I guess. You can roll your eyes at me too I Don't mind.

HAwaii was pretty mixed because we had to travel with the kids. IT's like who says no to hawaii. But it was the second time we traveled with an 11-month old and the second time it sucked. Looking back we decided to say no next time. But then this comes along no kids. Our other gripe with Hawaii is we had to spend a lot of money in the end. It was free and MIL even bought us groceries for the condo we stayed at, etc., but it still cost us $500 in eating out, etc. in the end, and it was not a fancy vacation. I fear this cruise may head that way so I am budgeting hard for it so we can enjoy it. Though it is already looking good as the website had all the excusrions and none looked pretty interesting to me. Most of them were in LA and SD - been there done that. So that is good I guess. Mexico I think will be fun to explore on our own, as Catalina Island. For now my biggest worry is if we have to dress up for dinner or whatever. Yuck - LOL. Can't we just wear our jeans??? We'll see... It is nice they have all the message boards with info and I will learn as much as I Can ahead of time to keep the cost down. For sure we will have to pay some tips. I Am not sure what else at this point. But I Will be happy to lay on deck and chill and not spend a lot of money. As will dh.

Ah, I am REALLY looking forward to June!!!

Those rotten germies got me this time. Whatever germies ds brings home from preschool tend to hit hubby the hardest, and have let me be overall, which is strange since usually I am the sickly one. But this time we all got hit and we all got hit hard. This is a nasty one.

The cost of preschool is far more than $300/month. We'll see if my boss deems me worthy or a raise this year even with all this sick time. Bah. The upside is the last few times I bowed out of work dh was really sick and I Was able to take some work home so I didn't lose a full day of work. We are getting more paperless and all that, which is really cool as I see in the future maybe dh will get a full-time job and maybe I Can keep mine and just work more from home. You know I am an early bird, I could see waking up at 5, doing some work, taking the kids to school, going to the office, picking them up, and being done for the day. I hate working from home having been there done that, but the added flexibility is pretty superb. Thank you internet! This week dh actually suffered all week and I suffered 2 days at work, but friday I just couldn't tkae it - I felt like hell. Even right now I really should be resting...

Oh anyway, I have mad withdrawls from savingadvice.com. HAd to pop by!

Oh yeah, it never really occured to me that there migh be a lot of accounting-type personalities around here, but makes sense I guess. If the idea of a budget doesn't scare you, or even sounds fun, maybe you are the accounting-type. Hehe. Just surprised at the response to my "75% of CPAs are retiring soon" freakout. I need to do some heavy recruiting here I guess. I will do more in the future.

Oh my goodness - this is so creepily accurate. See the link below.

Black is one of the most beautiful of colors and yet is the void of color too. It is the color of detail.
Black personalities want every thing done in detail. They are statistical and make good accountants. Internal Revenue Service agents probably like this color.
If a job needs finishing, these are the people to finish it. These personalities need leaders, though, to tell them what needs to be done.
Under guidance, they are able to get to the crux of the matter and solve very large problems. When put in a position to find the mistakes of others, they are right at home.
Loving puzzles, and finding others' mistakes brings out their tenacious spirits. Black personalities will sometimes intentionally find mistakes just so that they can repair them.
This color is one of holding things inside. When one wears black, they do not want to be touched. Putting a barrier between themselves and others is the purpose of this color.
Keeping their strength inside so that they can better protect their emotions is the effectiveness of this color. Although they want to be part of the world around them, they want no one to tug at their sensitivity.
Black is a relief color for most people, like "Mom's apple pie". It makes them feel comfortable and even, in some cases, makes them feel smaller, allowing them to hide from the sometimes cruel world.

What Color are you???

http://www.personalityquiz.net/test/colors.htm

I have a few random thing to blab about today. First I looked at the budget for october and we were pretty square on. I was a tiny bit over in a few areas, but just a few dollars here and there mostly. Groceries we were over by $60. We still have issues in that area. $560 for groceries when $500 is our average. I am not sure why all this trying to save on groceries has pushed our bill higher except we tend to stock up a lot more on stuff on sale. Hopefully we will see the resulting decline in purchases in future months. I know we spent about $30 to host a get-together in our home AND that I had wanted to make eyeball cookies and try a new granola recipe and dh came home grumbling how I blew the budget out of the water. All he had to do was call me at work and say "this is too expensive." I would have figured something else out. Oh well - now he knows. Oh but we were under budget for gas by $60 so all is well. Even out!

I also saw an interesting - good and frankly scary - that 75% of the nation's CPAs were due to retire in the next 10 years. OMG!!!!! I work in a CPA firm, and I know everyone assumes I am pretty rich as a result, but frankly CPA firms are the bottom of the barrel. They used to get you because you had to work for a CPA firm for 2 years to get your license. The work is great, very interesting, you learn A LOT, BUT overall when I graduated you were expected to work 80-hour weeks for about $30k. When you could go get a $60k job easy out of school. So I did it just for the CPA designation. But shortly thereafter that law was changed, no longer needed, and as a result starting pay has about doubled the last few years. They just can not recruit people to save their soul. & the whole getting a CPA thing is now 10 times easier as well, but still we are not recruiting enough talent for whatever reason.

So I have been in a pretty sweet spot in a way. I have job security like you wouldn't believe, recruiters banging down my door, AND my pay has doubled in just a few years. OVerall I feel like my boss pays me just enough to make a few k more than the new grads, but I also sympathize that his operating costs have about doubled in the process - hehe. But it is downright frightening to think what a shortage there will be when the baby boomers retire. Wow. I don't want to go back to those 80-hour weeks, for sure... But maybe enough power to work how and when I Want all the same - there will be even more begging and pleading for people like me. Man, I hit the jackpot when I picked a career I guess. Who knew. Most of this paradign shift happened when I was in college. I remember the Big 5 frims were like the elite of the elite and you had to be the BEST to get in and get your $30k/year - LOL. Now they just grovel at your feet - they'll take anyone.

Finally, I bought a *new* car in March. What was that - 7 months ago???? 8??? So today I get a note in the mail that they underestimated the cars registration fees and I owe them $60. In fact, it says "we are trying to register your car but we are short $60." LOL. Are they serious? I just re-registered my car a couple of weeks back. I peak at my original registration and they indeed pay $218 when they registered it (8 months ago by the way - none of this "we are trying to register it and can't without your money" crap). & they indeed charge me $160 on my contract. I pulled out the contract because I believed that there was some wording on the contract that it was an estimate, but I Was thinking there has to be a time limit on that. Come on. So I pulled out the contract and well it says nothing of the sort about it being an estimate or you may owe the difference. It's a final bill of sale and they picked the price. Whoever rung it up screwed up, but oh well. I can't believe their nerve. Good luck!

I then called my parents and chatted with them because I didn't want a lien against my car for $60 or anything. But they assured me the car people were shady bastards. I decided to ignore it. If I get another note dh can tell them that we don't intent to pay it - he is good at that stuff. Seriously though, I paid them $15k for a car and now they are coming after me for $60? Boohooo I feel bad for them - not. & honestly if I got the notice 6 months ago I probably would have paid it without a blink. But the whole waiting 7 months thing is just too much. They were assured they wouldn't get any money out of me as soon as they said "you need to pay us so we can register your car." What utter and total BS. I Call them on it. Scare tactics I guess.

I hold car dealers right up there with credit card companies. I will deal with them when I Can get a good deal, but I will hate every minute of it. They are the worst of the worst. Blah. So you know, not that this is the worst incident ever, but I already have so many issues with car dealers - LOL. Just somethng more to gripe about.

I never really pay attention when my paycheck is due - I am usually surprised like - oh yeah - it's payday!! Pleasantly surprised actually.

But today I need to run to the post office at lunch, and since it is payday too I came prepared with deposit slip, envelope, and misc. checks I have been waiting to deposit. I figured I would run it ro the mail today at lunch with the Vanguard stuff.

So it is 10:00, no check, and I just noticed my boss is not here. Strange I think, so I look at his calendar and he is out until the afternoon.

So the ONE TIME I am eager for my check and make plans around depositing it ASAP - it is not here??? Figures. LOL. Oh well, I planned lunch around the post office trip as well, so paycheck will go out in the mail tomorrow I guess. No biggie, just negates all my planning ahead and gathering deposit slips and envelopes...

In other news I finally got my new credit card downloaded into Quicken after much trouble, only to notice that the closing date is set to 11/16. I start freaking out because I am not really sure how to reconcile the budget in my head with a credit card that ends mid-month. I am not happy, but explains why the last customer service chick told me it was closing on the 30th but due date was 13th. I Was SO confused, so now I Realize we were not talking the same language or something - LOL. I want it to CLOSE at the end of the month - so she sets it to the 16th??????? So I called customer support again today and asked for an end date of the 3rd. I thought better of it because that gives time for everything in the month to clear. My current card ends the 4th and is pretty good but usually sneaks in something from the first of the month. So I figure the 3rd would be ideal for budgeting and quicken purposes. I probably should have just made it the 2nd or something - then I could prepay anything that didn't quite get in for the prior month. Well now I am thinking smarter - oh well. So now my due date is the 28th which is the same as my other one. IT matters little but at least I have some time to pay it - more than 13 days from close - hehe. So it sounds like the whole 20 day grace period plus a few days for mailing/preparing statement is pretty standard after all. Both this card and my other card allow 25 days from close I guess - maybe that is the standard. I was just so confused before. Glad to straighten it out and get my first bill in just a few days. Earning 3% - oooh yeah - fun fun fun... I've been earning 1% on my spending for over a year - but 3% is even better - woohoo.

It's kind of a sad day but I just closed out my first bank account and credit card. I opened the checking account when I Was probably 15 or so and got my first credit card when I Was 16.

I finally got around to trying out a local credit union, mostly because I like to mail my deposits and the US mail has become increasingly slow. Plus there are many reasons to have a local bank. Since we tend to pay cash for cars from private parties, etc., one of these days we may need to get a cashiers check, and I am also going to open a safety deposit box. Etc., etc. We have had issues a couple of times people not taking checks that were not from local banks. So overall it was a good move, about time really - we have lived here 5 years!!! But I just wanted to try out our new bank for a while. Well, they are super awesome, their online bill pay trumps my old one by a mile, and now when I pop my checks in the mail they arrive the very next day. Plus if I Was so inclined there is a branch right down the street from my house, if I Was ever in a huge hurry to make a deposit. I have yet to step inside, but I actually lived about 30 miles from my old credit union before and I don't think I ever stepped inside that one either in the 10 years I lived in the area.

Oh yeah, so I got my new rewards card and a $15 annual fee bill for my old credit card in this last week or so. I decided it was time to close it out - haven't used it in years.

Oh well, it is just a little bittersweet to cut up the first credit card I ever owned. Mostly because it all kind of symbolizes how well my parents taught me about credit and banking, making me start young. I am grateful that I do not rue the day I got my first credit card.

Oh yeah, I also went by the Dollar Tree at lunch and spent $16 on stocking stuffers and gifts. I had a little too much fun. The good thing is I didn't grab a basket and I reached a limit to how much I Ciould carry. That was when I knew it was time to go.

I think just dh's family left with the whole christmas thing. & my one son actually. Getting there...

I must say I was a little dissapointed when my dh coming up with a fabulous trip for my birthday, came up with a trip down south which we can do anytime. We were gonna splurge a little and I am sure it was gonna be a great trip, but for a second when he was telling me his idea I thought he was getting at going on a CRUISE!!! This was before the whole cracking down on our finances thing and keeping in mind I surprised him with a trip to Vegas for his 30th.

& then when he freaked out and said we couldn't go, I was more than a little annoyed. But whatever. I figured maybe in January we could go somewhere for free on his mom's timeshare - monterey or something. So we put it off a few weeks - we put it off as we wait for his vasectomy date and also in case he found a weekend job, etc. IT was more than just we couldn't really afford it. We could have made it a cheaper trip.

BUT his mom was over this weekend telling us how great her new timeshare thingy is. For one, the old one she was getting annoyed with and told us she wanted to give it to us. Just like when she tried to pass of dh's $20k life-insurance - crazy premiums and all - I said NO THANKS!!!!! LOL. So instead they put MORE money into timeshares after just telling us they wanted out of their old one a year or 2 back???? Whatever. I know some day we will inherit those beauties and I will HATE them, but for now they are pretty sweet. WE always get a weekend away free 2-3 times a year. So this weekend she just said that her mom was going ona cruise and she was looking into joining her. & she found it it is FREE through her timeshare thing. Then she said she had to use up her many many points and would WE like to go on a cruise? I jumped on it - yes yes yes!!!!! So I will have to probably wait a few months, but maybe in the summer we can swing it. I am well aware it is not FREE - that there will be many charges associated with it. But the initial $1k charge or so - yeah - is gone. I am going. Yay!!!!!

I am so excited I get such a super cool birthday present after all. I have never been on a cruise. This one leaves out of LA and goes to Catalina Island, San Diego, and somewhere in Mexico. Forget where. I don't even care - LOL. Woohoo.

The best part is I earn an extra week of vacation this year. This particular cruise runs M-Th which kind of sucks, but with mye xtra week of vacation, oh well. Will work out okay.

Last year we were a little spoiled with our travels and I look forward to more spoiling next year after all.

We got a quote for $150 and they will clean up the area, just not the rest of the house - whatever that means. Not sure why the rest of the house owuld need it. So they aren't as thorough as the other guy, but sounds like they will take care of it. Price sounds good to me. Other place never called back so we'll move forward with it. I Am just releived it is not a few hundred dollars. We'll see how it goes.

Ah yes, I don't even think I mentioned that we had more Merrill Lynch issues. Ah. I decided to set up dh's new Vanguard account today online to speed up the process, but I Could not print the forms, ACK!!!! Printer was not working, dh was out. Hopefully we'll get it squared away tomorrow, want the forms out in the mail tomorrow - get our money AWAY from ML ASAP. I need to move it first now and then do the ROTH conversion because ML still hasn't done it. We sent in our forms like 60 days ago. 60 days to get it done, has to be done this YEAR. Gah! Hopefully Vanguard is easier to deal with. I am just sending all the forms at once with a letter I need the conversion done ASAP!!! I give up on ML. I hope never to deal with them again. Don't even ask - Friday was bad and dh has to be so difficult about the whole thing.

I just activated my new rewards credit card and they asked when I wanted my due date. I am like, um, well, I would like the cycle to close on the 30th. Okay they say, so your due date is the 13th. Are you kidding me? My other credit card is due on the 29th. Oh, whatever. my other credit card doesn't give me 3% back either. BUT I think it is interesting how they market it as "choose your due date." Just indicative of what a paycheck to paychck society wants - they have to pick that due date well. I don't care, I am just annoyed it is only 13 days. LOL. What is the average time? I thought 20 day grace period is normal. But then wonder why I have 29 days with state farm. Interesting, is this some hige perk most cards don't offer??? What is this 13 day thing??? I will find out more soon enough I guess. I just hope I heard her wrong, but it doesn't really matter in the end. 29 days sure beats 13 days when it comes to slow mail and stuff out of your control.

Dh finished clearing out storage today - YAY!!!! Next month our bills will go down $56 for storage and about $20 for HBO. IT feels great. We also have Blockbuster Online which we LOVE (saw that netflix vs. Blockbuster thread) BUT they just informed dh that they will no longer in-store coupons with it. THat sucks. He said he may be willing to cancel it now. Save 20/month. Yay!!!

This week I am planning to square away dh's IRA, best I can, and close my old VISA and credit union account - get my $25 out.

The following week I am hoping we get our estate papers signed and open a safe deposit box.

Getting there... Getting somewhere anyway...

Oh yeah - today the house is 69 degrees. Feels a lot warmer THAN THAT, but I Am not sure how long we can last with no heat or ac. Bummer... We usually set it around 68 for winter. Almost time to turn it on... Well, we lasted about 60 days with no heat or ac. Unless another heat wave kicks in. IT has been rather warm...

I don't think we'll save much this year. This month's extra to estate lawyer. & next month to clean up bird poop. *sigh*

The pigeons love our house and we paid upwards of $1k a few years back to pigeon-proof the house. The guy was awesome though, he put spikes up all around and CLEANED UP the mess that was accumulating. We seriously had a hill of bird poop accumulating in the backyard - disgusting.

All was fine but the pigeons were starting to move in again. We had our house on the market earlier this year, we thought with prices falling was a good time to make a lateral move, since it has been too expensive otherwise, but quickly gave up after looking at houses for another $100 to $200k, sellers not budging on price, houses that weren't even NEARLY as nice as we already have. We decided to wait it out in the meantime. But during that whole thing I had called the Bird Guy, thought it would be could for a cleanup, and never heard back.

Forgot about it, because the bird situation wasn't too bad back then, but just looked out the window last night and saw a mountain of poop accumulating on our roof. I Also noticed the driveway was looking pretty icky. Gah!!!! So I Called today and the guy answers. Unfortunately he is in Arizona now. Boo. HE recommended Clark PEst Control. All I know is Clark charges you an arm and a leg for regular pest service, so I am wary. But I Can't find anything else so I Called. They said they don't even do cleanup. Oh well, what are you gonna do - *sigh*. They are going to come reinforce the area that the pigeons are hanging out and I guess we are going to clean up the mountain of bird poop. Honestly I don't mind doing it. I just am not sure if we will do a good job. Plus the other guy came out and cleaned ALL of our gutters, and scrubbed with the right chemicals, etc. I will have to do some internet research. Look up good bird poop removal techniques. At least this time is just localized to ONE area. Though I am not so sure fixing that one area will eradicate them. There are a few that like to sleep in our front windows but with the homeowners rules we can't put big spikes up front. Will talk to Clark about less noticable ones I guess... OR maybe simply sealing off the one area that have gotten back into it will eradicate the mess. I hope. There were a bunch of spikes AND it was sealed off but they wormed their way in. Pigeons are evil.

Oh well, Clark is coming out for the quote today. I hope it isn't too bad...

I know I know - need to start a bird poop emergency fund. LOL.

ETA: After doing a little research I don't think doing it ourselves is a good idea. I called another company for a quote after a lot of looking. IT is more of a hazardous waste issue - ick...

In other news my kids are making me work extra too. I noticed my older son figured out all the cabinet and drawer locks a couple of days back. Frankly I Am surprised it took this long. I have friends whose 1-year-olds were into everything. SO I Consider myself lucky. All the same, some items probably need to be moved, like steak knives and scissors. Actually that is how I noticed because he decided he needed the scissors and just went and got them himself. Ugh. Then last night after bath I put the kids in my older son's bedroom, closed the door, and ran out for a minute to pick up towels. Immediately the door opened and I start yelling, "DO NOT open your door" to my older son. I Am yelling/explaining that he can not open the door and for the millionth time that this is not for him, it is for his brother - he is too little to go out unattended, etc. After my tirade my older son yells - "It was the baby." LOL. I peaked in his room and yes my older son is playing quietly in the far corner where I left him. Indeed it is true that the baby, immediately after I left the room, got up and walked out the door.

Trouble I Tell you...

Damn lever doorknobs.

Overall it's okay - I Would not leave him alone in that room for more than a minute anyway, there is a big bed he likes to climb onto and he is too little to be careful not to fall off, but now my 1-minute upstairs holding corral needs some improvisation. Time to get the gate back out I guess. The second the 3-year-old graduates from all the gates, it is time to bring them back out!!!

But I must say I Am proud he opened the door all by himself. A milestone...

But no cash -

Bummer!

LOL. But I did win a prize. A cute halloween mug and some pencils and bubbles - probably will give to the kids. I'll keep the mug for myself - super cute!!

So I did keep my winning streak. Though bummed I have no cash to add to my stash. Dh was joking and asking how much it was all worth - that I should hawk it. LOL. All 50 cents worth, eh?

So this week speeds ahead very crazily. If I am good I will stay offline and get a lot of work done. Work is a little crazy. Saturday and Sunday are filled with halloween festivities. The kids are wearing hand-me-downs and I haven't checked that they fit. *sigh* I should probably try them on tomorrow so in case one of both boys are too big - would not be surprised - I have time for a backup plan. Wish me luck - LOL. People keep asking me what grade my 3-year-old is in so that is probably a bad sign that he may have outgrown his costume from last year - ack!!!

Here is to a calm November... Please?

Cash Stash:

$35.33 cash for 2006
- 1.08 BK Lunch
-12.00 Bunco
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$22.25 remains
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But if history holds true I should win money tonight - LOL.

Actually I haven't spent much cash in about a week. Not since Friday anyway.

& $11 for bunco tonight. The one night a month I get to escape.
The sad thing is that it is a Halloween theme tonight and I just realized my good old standby - cat ears and tail - are MIA. Probably in storage. Most of the storage is sitting in my living room in boxes, but I wouldn't have a clue where they would be and I have about 1/2 hour to drop off my son from preschool and get ready and turn around. Hmmmm, I may be a party pooper and no costume. Wish I had more time.

I did make super cool eyeball cookies, I wanted to post a pic later.

Oh yeah, I drove the van to san jose and back over the weekend, and then last night occured to me maybe I should get gas. Tank wasn't even empty! I pumped out about 23 miles per gallon - my word - a new record on this gas guzzling van. My husband told me when he got the oil changed they pushed the air filter change to increase gas mileage. I told him it was BS because we had asked our mechanic before. Not on this car, but one that has another 20k miles and has never had an air filter change. So I was annoyed dh fell for this and not sure why he would in the first place because I know they are always pushing this air filter thing. Anyway, that was a while ago and of course my gas mileage around town remains the same. But I am impressed with this whole freeway driving thing. Of course we rarely drive it to San Jose because dh gets all grumpy out gas mileage and so we pack into his Escort, which I Admit gets pretty awesome gas mileage, and 1/2 the time I wonder why I bought a minivan just to commute. Seriously, we drove 400 miles down to Deisneyland scrunched up in the Escort. Oh well, I Didn't mind so much because we didn't have the baby so I could lean back my seat a tad - just enough not to squish the baby carseat anyway which was still very much in the way baby or not. The Escort does get 35 miles + per gallon, what can I say. Yeah, it should be the commuter car in the family and dh with the kids all day should probably drive the van, but he doesn't do big cars is what it really comes down to. That and he doesn't want me to drive his baby.

So anyway, back to the topic, is there something to this air filter thing or is this just the first time I really drove the van on a long freeway drive? Hmmm...

All the bills for the month are done and paid so I updated the stats. I love looking at my progress. The kick in the butt I need.

I am estimating what the costs on card will be but we have so far had a pretty spectacular month. So I estimaed my boost in savings. $30 interest, $100 from extra income this month (ebay & cookie lee), +$150.

$150 is probably more than my target savings each month, we are so breakeven on our budget, I Am trying to save minimum $50/month. The extra money made all the difference. BUT I am very pleased to report that I actually saved $1000+ this month. (knock on wood since just a few more days - don't want my car to explode). I just did not put it over to the emergency fund because I need it for the estate lawyer. I am so pleased to have the cash to pay her now and not dip into anything else.

I am pleased as punch because though we had a $250 credit on our credit card this month which helped, I had $150 expense on there for my cookie lee sales. IT was our last month paying $56 on the storage. Plus we did about $150 worth of christmas shopping (most of it), bought some clothes for the kids, and spent $40 on birthday gifts. It was a pretty excessive month overall and our credit card bill will be around $1100. $1100?????? In my old budget I just targeted around $1650 - that was my goal. IT was usually closer to $2k. I can not believe what a good month we had, we were not deprived in the least. Includes our anniversary dinner and everything.

Anyway, I need about $700/month to set aside for property taxes and insurance which I never do. But somehow I have it all covered through Dec. 31, so if November is as good I may have $700, at least, for the emergency fund next month. Only thing big is Thanksgiving. but even that family really helps out with food (we host) and I think we will have another banner month. Yay!!!

It was kind of disheartening when I joined the site and thought I Could maybe set aside $50/month. I knew I needed to do something- it was better than nothing. But to see that I have saved $500 in the last 60 days is pretty awesome.

Hubby is dragging his feet on the job thing. IT seems like we are back to square one on that issue, a little extra money could really help. But I don't foresee him really pulling it together. Oh well, at least he is helping me to maximize my income and our savings, it is something. What else can I do...

We are doing so well I Decided to resume extra mortgage payments in january if I get a raise. I started right before my last maternity leave and we just never had the money after that. Then I felt like we needed to save more. We probably do, but I am not happy until I Am paying that sucker down faster... But only if I have d ecent raise to boost our savings and then be able to add to the mortgage. I'll find out in january. Depends what our health insurance premiums go up to too - *sigh*

I just had to say to I had a real estate agent acuqaintance tell me that it was stupid to pay down a mortgage because you pay so little. LOL. She has 2 homes she owns with ARMs. Personally I think *that* is stupid. But anywho. Um yeah, our very first mortgage we had a 15-year loan for 1 year and we paid off $10k over the course of 2 years. Our current mortgage we have had for 5 years and have paid off $11,000. That is $21,000 in 7 years. YEah, we have paid nothing off our house - *rolleyes* Okay maybe $21k is nothing to some people, but it is a lot to me. Oh sure if it wasn't for the kid thing and 1-income thing we would have kept the 15-year loan. Instead I like that our minimum mortgage payment is decent, with a 30-year fixed, and we will add another $500/month when my hubby is working substantially again. On 1-income I am looking to pay $5k off of it next year, just normal payments + 1.5 extra payments, or an extra $150/month. Nothing spectacular. Oh well, I am one of those weirdos who looks forward to not having debts, vs. accruing more. I was also a weirdo who wouldn't buy a house without 20% cash down, so hey. Just call me weird.

The weekend was pretty awesome. Met with the estate attorney. She usually charges $1800 for EVERYTHING and will charge us $1200. OF course, she is a funny one and originally threw out $10k. I thought she was serious - LOL. Totally kididng but I Am like do not do that to me - hehe. My husband did her $2k wedding video for about $1k so I bet that has a lot to do with it, though she said it was the friend discount. Anyway, we are hoping to sign all the papers in 3 weeks. I am SO relieved just to get it all done, and relieved as well the cost won't sink us, we have been making so much progress on our savings, I would like to keep it that way. I have a new respect about why going to an attorney beats doing it in Quicken though. I feel like I have a basic understanding of all of this will and trust stuff but she pretty much spent an hour answering all of our questions. She also brought up a lot of good points I would never think of on my own and Quicken wasn't quick to bring up. So I feel like this is money REALLY well spent.

Saturday night we changed our minds and considered going to a movie after all, but looking throught he listing it all stunk. So instead we thought it would be fun to go to a night of comedy. Something spontaneous - we just never get out these days. We lucked out financially because it was sold out. We figured at $30 it was 10 times funner than a $20 movie night - LOL. But it was funny as we walked over to dinner, I Was trying to remember what exactly we did as poor college students. We went to the cheapie movies and the nickel arcade, both which are now closed. : ( The ironic thing is we used to go to a lot of concerts which now we feel are too pricey now that we make 5 times as much. Funny how things change. Really, concerts are very pricey these days compared to 10 years ago for sure. That was the other thing - there is a wonderful BEenfit show every OCtober in the Bay put on by Neil Young and his wife - always an awesome show. We decided to pass this year because the lineup though good wasn't the best, and saving money, etc. PLUS the weather always sucks and we are miserable. So we go out saturday and it is hot. I bring my jacket because I know it will cool off. WE went to our $30 dinner downtown which was pretty darn awesome by the way - Chicago Pizza and we come out at 8:00 and it feels like 75 degrees. WE look at each other and say if we knew the weather was this nice we would have gone to the concert. The last couple of times it rained which really stunk - it was outdoors. How rude for it to be so nice when we don't go. Bah!!! I guess on the plus side I see a few more weeks of no heat at this rate. The house has settle at a nice 75 degrees. No a/c or heat in a month or so...

YEsterday we went to the pumpkin patch and I got some really cute pictures of the baby - put one up here. My older son was in hog heaven - $8 for 4 jumpy houses and a slide. Ack. On the pricey side. But grandma paid for it, so it left our entire weekend of fun $30. We paid for our dinner and that is about it. Our family is nice that way - a lot of free food...

It was a nice weekend.

This week is crazy on the otherhand. Crunch week as Oct. 31 is a deadline. & then with all of the halloween festivities. I hope to squeeze some time on here, but I need to work some overtime, etc., etc. For me at least November kind of calms down. It is just the calm before the storm,a nd then december is crazy between work and christmas, and my life is over come january with tax season. So I will get through this week and try to enjoy november best I can. Phew.

Cash Stash:

$36.32 cash for 2006
- .99 Bag of chips
------
$35.33 remains
------

I pulled out a dolalr to pay for my tape. Dang sales tax gets me everytime. Blah. But I ran to Walgreens on my way home to pick up some tape on sale. Not bad.

In other news, on another message board I belong to there was discussion of ebay. The question was posed, "what do YOU buy on ebay?" If I thought about it in the last 3 years or so I have pretty much bought party supplies and gifts. Thinking harder I know I brought a new breast pump (why I signed up in the first place - a great deal). Also a diaper bag and some shoes for the baby. Some of those Robeez knock offs. They are soft shoes for baby - good for when they are learning to walk, etc. Oh well, I bought those like a year ago and he is still wearing them. I bought one pair and she sent 2 pair - so nice. That is what I love about Ebay, always seem to get some extra too, etc. But yeah I bought a super large size since big feet run in the family. I figure as a baby who cared if they were a little big, they just needed to cover his feet, and now that he is walking they fit pretty well.

I was kind of taking offense whenever I brought up ebay, because I am newly excited about it, and people say - oh - I find people who shop on ebay buy too much. overall. Stuff they don't need. I try to defend myself. Well, that is not how I am as a shopper overall. Um okay. I do admit I was tempted by a cute monkey sock purse - LOL - but I resisted the temptation.

But then on my message board the piles and lists of what people buy cam out. Oh my goddness!!! I see what you mean. All I have to say is that I don't buy stuff like that. I buy one thing I need and I keep it until it falls into shreds, and then I replace it. LOL. That is about it.

But I see what you mean. It gets old hearing people whine about their finances and how broke they are, just to see them spending hundreds of dollars on ebay every month because things are cheap. I will never understand why you need 20 handbags and 20 pairs of shoes, and why you spend hundreds on a night out of drinking and go to Disneyland every single month. LOL. Then I see why you are so broke. My word.

I don't know, my house is so full of excesses as is, I am no angel. I look around and wonder how we got so much crap. I don't feel like we buy much but what little we buy finds a way to overwhelm us. Oh well, I have been on purge mode the last year or so. One day I would like to get the crap down to a minumum. I have the boxes from storage to go through now. Most of which will inevitably GO. But I look at people buying all this crap and I truly wonder what do they do with it all???

Reminds me an article I saw a while back that the average american household has more THINGS than an egyptian pharaohah. (I know I spelled that wrong too). I believe it...

Oh well, gonna spend a lot of money today. I thought meeting with our estate lawyer friend may cost a few hundred. Now I hear could be THOUSANDS. My word. I didn't even ask because I Was scared. LOL. It is something that needs to be done and no one else will give us a better deal than a relatively newly practicing lawyer that is a friend. If it cost TOO much we just do the basics. This is why we are so low on cash these days. $3k for ROTH IRA conversion - thank you IRS - and now I am looking at my emergency fund wondering if we have to dip into that for something that is so awfully necessary, *sigh* BUT I think if it does end up a couple of thousand that we can swing it through the end of the year without touching the fund. We'll see how it goes. Both of these things are just so necessary for our long-term well-being. I have put this off long enough.

The worst is the birds are really doing a number on our house and we have to call back the bird guy. I think we paid $1k to him last time to clean up all the bird poop and put up spikes, etc. I don't think it will cost near as much this time, they just broke through the mesh he put up in one area and there is cleanup. But still, another few hundred easily that needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later - before the dang pigeons really damage our house. Who new pigeons could cost so much - blech.

I had a few things to blab about but I Wanted to say it feels real good to have GOALS. I really needed this. I have been feeling pretty blah lately like now what, kind of an early mid-life crisis. IT was like school, school, school, buy a home, get my CPA license, buy a better home, have kids. check check check. Okay, now what. That's really how I have felt lately. Now what??????? I know raising kids is a big endeavor, but at the same time I feel like I need another goal in my life.

I just put 2 and 2 together, thinking today that renewing my financial goals has really motivated me. I Am a goal person, I always need to be working towards something. Some things I have put off like getting an even higher education until the kids are much older. It is something I would like to do, but I know I do not have the time to devote. So I have been feeling like, what do I do in the meantime? On the other hand I look at us financially and think we have done pretty awesome. I Wasn't really scrutinizing or making any goals in that area. Now that I Am scrutinizing I wonder what the hell we have been doing. LOL. So what if we are loads ahead of the saps around us, what does it matter, we are BEHIND. I want to retire young!!!! But it isn't going to happen without a lot of work on our part. Ah, but it is a worthy goal to keep me occupied.

Along the same vein I was ready to devote a little more time to volunteering again after things were settling down from the last few years of bearing children and caring for small babies. I Feel strongly that financial literacy really needs to be taught in the schools because parents are not doing it for sure. I was looking into financial literacy programs and saw my state CPA society has a program so I signed up. I have not heard anything in months, which I Was kind of relieved because I do not enjoy public speaking - hehe. I know it is a good cause and I Want to do it - but overall I am pretty scared.

So yesterday I got an e-mail about a training next week. I am absolutely freaking out. I tell myself, calm down. I joined a local professional group for about a year between pregnancies and I spoke to the group a lot, and you know what they liked my speaking. But then I think - gosh - there were professional adults interested in any free tax advice they can get. How am I going to talk in front of high school students???? Can't I talk to the 4th graders??? LOL. But oh well. I Am trying to suck it up and move forward. All I Can do is try. If it is the most miserable experience of my life I don't have to do it again, right?

I actually wanted to start with doing some presentations for the state society and move on from there - getting more involved in the financial literacy movement. We'll see how it goes I guess. I need all the support I Can get though -t ell me I Can do it!

This is a little gem I found a while back.

www.restaurant.com

I was just telling dh if we didn't eat out the rest of the month that maybe we could go out to dinner this weekend for our belated anniversary celebration. He didn't leave much room when he slashed the monthly eating out budget to $30, and I Was planning to go to a $5 buffet this week for lunch.

But I Decided to look up my good old restaurant.com and I Was surprised to see how many new restauarants have been added in recent months.

BAsically you order a gift certificate - most of them are $25 g.c.s that you pay only $10 for. There are a lot of catches, like applies to dinner only (sometimes), doesn't apply to alchohol (fine for us) and the kicker is most of the time a $35 minumum purchase. We found a lot of the time we just ordered more food and paid the same in the end as we would otherwise without all the extra food - so it seems. We weren't really coming out ahead - just fatter and more leftovers - LOL. Though with the kids it would often be big savings if we ordered them a meal, etc.

We haven't used them in a while because only had g.c.s available to a couple of restaurants in our area. But I was looking in the Bay Area since we will be there on saturday and there was a list of restauarants a mile long. We'll have to give it a whirl - splurge on a fancy dinner and maybe stay in the budget...

It is so rare we get out to a movie that is what we originally planned - a matinee hopefully - since we'll have babysitters (family). But dh said he didn't want to waste all that money on a movie. They are all so bad these days anyway. Blech. But I am really impressed with dh. HE is doing his part for sure...

Today he is taking the kids to the zoo and to a local kid park thingy. We have memberships for maybe $30/year each, and believe me we get our use out of them. The only thing is the zoo just got a train and they charge $1/ride/person - even the baby because he is 1 (oh please). So I told him to take some of my cash stash for a train ride. There is no saying no once my son sees that train - he is obsessed. Oh well, the zoo is a good cause. Though I am less likely to go over there lately with that dang train.

& tomorrow they have library preschool storytime.

Ah yes, what a deprived life we lead frugally. LOL. I know people who think it is terrible I do not take them to all of the fancy/expensive places all of the time. I think they are okay...

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/2006/01/livin-on-petitio...

Just read an article about this guy who started trading up a red paperclip in the hopes of eventually getting a house. Really crazy.

Entertaining website of the day...

While searching for articles on the subject I came across a story about a guy in California who did the same thing - he started with lint.

Yay!!!!

I had in mind to sell that baby carrier and I just got an e-mail from ebay that they would waive their fees if I Decide to sell my first item this week. Just the kick in the butt I needed. I got it listed. My only competition is not as nice and is at $57 with 1 day to go. I expect to make $60 easy - if not more.

I Was cheking the manufacturers website for some info and saw they are selling brand new $90. I think that is probably about what I paid. I bought it in mind I would sell close to full price someday, as they are impossible to find used - very high demand.

Well, we'll see how much I can recoup. I am already eyeing some unused clothes in baby's closet - new with tags. Stuff that is easy to ship. We'll see how it goes, though obviously going something small to ship and high dollar is the best way to go. Not sure I have much else to offer in that category.

I got way outbid by $3 on those clothes, but oh well, would have put me over budget. Instead I Stopped by Target yesterday and scored with their clearance rack. Got 2 shirts and the cutest skirt you ever saw for about $14. I went $1 over budget for christmas with niece - oh well. Well worth it. I am pleased how good I did on $16 - a pile of nice stuff.

YEsterday was icky, I worked from home. I actually got some work done too - phew. Try working and watching a 15-month-old. I pulled off 3 hours of work, only 1/2 hour with the help of t.v. LOL. & then 2 hours at nap time.

Not a fulll day but beat calling sick this crazy time of year. Dh feels better today.

Was gonna meet a friend for lunch but she backed out. Now I have to go get a $1 lunch - blech. I just need to bring a lunch every monday for these kind of things = or even a frozen dinner. This is the second time this month. I don't really want to eat out since I plan to meet her for lunch thursday instead. Thank goodness for cheap fast food.

Oh yeah - and I am so frigign sick of baby showers. I HATE them. I am so sick of being invited to showers for people I don't really know, for their 2nd, 3rd, 4th child. You know what, it's tacky. IT seems to be the norm these days though. When you get pregnant by accident the 3rd time on the SAME form of birth control you have always used - um yeah - maybe it is time to change. I know you think I am rich and well off and you are so poor, but honey, now I know you make twice as much money as I do. Do like the rest of us do and go buy some used things, go to some garage sales. Maybe then you wouldn't be so "broke." & While you are at it, try some new birth control please. Thanks for not talking to me for an entire year and then inviting me to your shower because you "need" things. I fell for that with #2. I am out. No more baby showers for this lady. If you are not related by blood and I haven't seen your face in person and talked to you on the phone this last year, I am out. I am not going to your gift-hoarding baby shower. I am so fed up. If you invite me to a shower that is gift-optional or a baby celebration, you know what, I Will probably show. But then again, anyone who has the tact to do that, well I probably wouldn't mind getting them a gift after all. ; )

Gosh, I Feel better now. Rant over. Phew.

I can not put my finger on it but my husband never gets sick. Since 1 child in daycare setting, sick sick sick all the damn time.

The weirdest thing is I have escape a few things. Usually I am the one who is always sick. Weird.

Anyway, he just informed me he has a 103 temperature, and I just informed him I am sleeping downstairs. Blah! I do not want to be sick. These next 2 weeks are crunch time at work, and worst thing is I brought 3 hours of work or so home this weekend that I could not do because I was missing some info. Just enough so I could do NOTHING. So I am 3 hours behind from last week, and tomorrow isn't looking so promising.

Anyway, we'll see how nasty it gets. My mother just reminded me maybe it was all the birthday parties. Probably. No more stinking birthday parties - gah. We went to one in April - the first one we were invited to through preschool and everyone there got that nasty bug where you just puke every 15 minutes for a day or 2. It was the worst. We should have learned our lesson. Hopefully this is something minor and mild. *fingers crossed*

YEah, my husband and my son in general have immunities of steel, so I do not know what this whole daycare germ thing is about and why it is so pervasive. My son got his first ear infection (and 2nd and 3rd) at 3 after starting preschool and has been sick a few times aleady after never really being sick his first 3 years. You know it is not like he was not around other kids a lot, but there is something about being exposed to the germs on a regular basis for prolonged periods of time or something. ??? & why dh is so susceptible I can only imagine. I have no clue.

Oh well, in money saving news the storage is just about cleared out. My living room is filled with boxes. Oh well, I will take a house full of boxes and be glad to wipe that monthly expense out of the budget. Yay!

Most of the stuff from boxes will end up going I am sure. I just am not sure when I will find the time. In the meantime we can live like we just moved I guess. ??

I won some more ebay auctions - woohoo. No more bidding wars - I like it better thay way overall. I Was actually surprised because I went to take a nap and just put my real maximum bid. Woke up and was surprised I had won. My christmas shopping is almost done! I have one auction that ends Tuesday and I already put in my maximum bid. We'll see. If I win I Will have 4 brand new shirts for $13 or less, and a tiara and fairy princess wand for a grand total of my $15 budget for my niece. I will be pretty pleased. If I don't win, I have about 2 months to find something better on ebay. I am just so pleased what I pulled out on such a small budget - I think it will be a nice gift. Same for all of them so far. I intended to get my mom one $20 gift but I got her 2 awesome gifts instead - thank you ebay.

I have always believed in the power of positive thinking. I am a very "glass half full" person and little in life really gets me down. In fact, some would argue I am too optimisitc. LOL.

I find it in a similar vein, extremely interesting that putting a little extra effort to frugality and financial goals, how much the money gods seem to be raining on us lately. I have done NOTHING different with my selling jewelry but suddenly I have 5 orders vs. the usual 1 per year from my mom. LOL. They beauty is I didn't have to do anything!!! Dh thinks I am crazy, but I think it is interesting.

I am just kicking myslef for falling asleep at the wheel these last few years. We could have done so much better. I am looking at our budget this month and I am AMAZED at how little we spent and how on track we are. But I am so excited at the track we are on. If overall frugal people have this much to improve, I have no idea what the hell joe blow average is doing. Wasting a lot of money I guess...

Spent some money this weeked. Ah, but it was FUN. I was doing some christmas shopping on ebay. We had budgeted $30 for each kid and I had no ideas for the baby. I was perusing ebay and the abundance of "pretend play" toys like toy tools and toy food, etc. inspired me. I know I do not like the electonic toys overall but looking around we have a lot of flashy toys. I would like to make an effort to build up more of the back to basic toys. I am inspired by my son's preschool which is very big on pretend play. So anyway, I saw a little toy kitchen that I thought was great. IT was cheap but shipping was $20. In the end I went $7 over budget but I think it was well worth it. I will probably buy some toy food to go with it can get for under $5 on ebay. Anyway, it was FUN because I got into a last minunte bidding war and won. I had never done that before and was proud. Instead of $12 I paid $14.50 but I think it was well worth it. The kids will LOVE it. & I am glad I found something so cool for the little one who gets so overlooked. He deserved something big because frankly he never gets anything big. I feel okay with it.

We decided to get my older son a play digital camera. I am keeping an eye out for one in the $30 range. I think he will LOVE it - Fisher Price makes a "kid proof" one.

Today I perused craigslist and ebay for prices on some things I am trying to sell. I think I am going to try my hand at Ebay in the next few weeks - selling. I usually only Sell big things, I find donation and freecycle much easier for little things. & not interested in shipping big things. BUT I did buy a baby carrier a while back for $80 or so. It was the best of the best and they were IMPOSSIBLE to find used. So I bit the bullet and figured I could get most of it back. Since I barely used it - it's in great condition. I was pleased to see a couple on ebay going for $50 with days to spare on bidding. Looks like they are easily going for $60 or even more in the end. I will be glad to get most of my investment back because that purchase was a tough one to swallow.

I also priced baby's highchair, jumperoo and exersaucer at about $30 each. Not quite ready to sell yet, but will be some nice ash in a couple of months. Will try Craigslist.

I am not sure if I ever sold anything on Craigslist. I put a few things up there last year and ended up not going over well. I ended up freecycling them just to be rid because I was in a hurry at the time. But I have vied so much for above said items - I know they go fast. Plus considering I paid $20/$30 each myself - yay I will breakeven in the end.

& now for something light and cute...

Ah, I have a good story today. Dh has been teaching my 3-year-old about planets and all that using a toy monkey as the earth and something else as the sun - a ball or something. For some reason we live on the butt of the monkey in all of his analogies. My son is at the "why? why? why?" stage and sometimes a visual makes more sense. Not that we expect him to really get it.

Anyway, hubby just informed me that today my son asked if we REALLY live on a monkey butt. LOL!!!!

The funniest thing is he was asking me just the other day something about the sun and I Went to the monkey analogy and he said, "mom - we don't really live on a monkey." LOL. It was like he was scolding me for getting it all wrong.

Apparently since then we have majorly confused him.

Poor kid.

I remember all the things that really confused me as a kid and the weird things I thought and I really try to keep that top of my mind when I say things to the kids. But frankly, there is no way to know what they are thinking sometimes. Though this may be kind of an obvious one - a way to really confuse your toddler!

& yeah, I find it frustrating all this "why?" stuff. I really try to answer in terms best he can understand for the first 50 whys, but after that I start to burn out. Inevitably you have to end the conversation with "I don't know" or because "that's the way it is." With the more science-y stuff I always end with "go ask your dad." LOL.

Well today is pretty much a fluff day.

Lunch was provided - pizza and soda. Ahhh, I am STUFFED. & then I leave ina few for the Pumpkin Patch - yay!!!!

Oh yeah, I volunteered to drive because of course my control freak side does not want ANYONE else driving my kids anywhere. So I figured I would drive him. Looking at the van and its built-in carseats though, I did mention I could carry 4 children pretty easy - with no carseat maneuvering. Ah, what was I thinking???? LOL. Driving 4 little brats. Eh. I LOVE my kids but I just don't "do "kids as I have said before. Hopefully another adult will drive with me. Hehe. They are all pretty little so no matter I am sure they will be fine. THen again, hmmmm. Little screaming kids. Maybe not so fun. The drive is not far at least. Well, it will be an interesting afternoon! The pumpkin patch they are going to has slides, hayrides, animals to pet, etc., etc. I am sure they will have a BLAST! & a friend of mine will be there as well, I talked her into joining this daycare while back and on the plus side I now have a good friend at all the events. Not why I talked her into it, but hey. Side benefit. Plus we never get together because she lives 30 minutes away, but I See her all the time now and the kids are best buds now - it is cute. Since this daycare is pretty central beween us - close to where she lives and where I Work.

Anyway, I am trying my first no-spend challenge this week - the unplanned one. No spend challenges are in general pretty easy for me. I just don't shop much, don't spend much, all my expenses are pretty planned. That is just how I have ALWAYS lived. Put it this way, I am not a spontaneous person. BUT when I first saw these boards and all these "no spend" days I am thinking, huh, what is this, how hard is it not to spend a few days? Again with my non-spontaneous nature you see where I am coming from. But at the same time, since being on these boards, I have noticed that I have spent a few dollars here and there and not really thought about it. Nothing big, but even to Miss non-spontaneous I am starting to see how it could be a challenge.

So when I Saw the no warning, no spend challenge I thought, sure. I can give this a whirl. It is more interesting because it wasn't planned. If I plan to not spend for a week - easy peasy. But if it wasn't plan and I had to decide today, can I do it? Without stocking up on things first? Looking at the next week the first thought to me is "Easy peasy." Then again looking at the last month I do see a lot of little things did come up unexpectedly - unplanned spending. So in the week ahead I wonder what will come up and if I will be able to say no. I think it will be a learning experience. We'll see! & what's the worst that could happen? I may spend less money than I Would have otherwise. SOunds good to me!

I was even thinking ahead on it today and thinking when my car got low on gas I Could drive hubby's car to work for a few days. In the end I decided that is just silly because it is all the same in the end - I have so and so on my calendar I am going to drive to all these planned events, and to work, no matter what. So in the end it is all the same. I could use his car and not buy gas for a week but then we'll have 2 empty tanks and it's all the same in the end. We'll just have 2 buy 2 tanks of gas next week instead of 1 this week and 1 next. So in the end I'll pass. HE hates it when I drive his car - not worht the wrath. LOL.

HEy I just noticed I had 1300 points so I bought myself a black user name - pretty sweet. Black is my favorite color. I Would have got a glowing name - well I don't think I had enough points - but I use firefox and not internet explorer. That sucks. LOL. I might buy it anyway in the future. I use explorer on occasion.

I am just vegging out waiting for the kids to wake up. Baby slept through the night again. I in turn was wide awake at 5am, but that is good. I feel like my life has been turned upside down the last few months. Usually I wake up early to work out and get stuff done, but that has been so out the window of late. It feels good to have some time.

Well yesterday I spent $30 at amazon. I invested in some mutual fund books. I figure it was a good investment and I Was too lazy to go used. I intended to look at the used options on amazon but they were only $1 or $2 cheaper than new so I figured what the heck.

I also started my christmas shopping. I had intended to start sooner, and I Was feeling silly yesterday that I Felt so behind though it is only Oct. 6 or so - LOL. I am kind of laughing at myself - still have lots of time. But during my lunch break yesterday I perused ebay and found some cute things for my mom. Spent about $20 on 2 gifts (most of it as shippping of course). I had budgeted to buy her one gift - $20 so I was pleased I squeezed out 2. HEr birthday and christmas shopping is DONE - woot.

I also donated $20 to a co-workers grandkids' school - in return for wrapping paper. A good cause and one less thing to buy otherwise - eh. I usually do pretty generous with that stuff so spent 1/2 as much as usual. well within my donation budget.

But overall a lot of money spent this last week.

Set up an appointment with the estate attorney who is a friend of the family. We'll see how that turns out. We don't have significant assets on one hand, but if both my dh and I bite the dust we have $1 mil insurance between the 2 & significant home equity house. I decided we really need to get things squared away. ALive not worth much, dead worth a lot. Don't tell the kids. ; ) Plus as a CPA I know you really need to get your affairs squared away - because when you don't it gets ugly - see it time and time again with clients. I should know better, the fact it has taken this long is inexcusable. Anyway, hopefully by the end of the year we will have our affairs in order.

The Merill lynch guy has not sold any of the funds we asked him to. I am back to square one and want all of our money out - I am so fed up with him - I have no idea what the deal is. It is dh's IRA so he has to take care of it - and he isn't actually in a hurry. Gah. Something else I would like to take care of NOW which there is no reason why I couldn't have transferred the funds by now. I just wanted him to sell so I knew how much cash was in there. I am tired of waiting, will probably start one of the transfers, I guess it doesn't matter if he hasn't sold it yet - I have an idea how much money is in there. LEt the new custodians ask for the money...

I hope to get some time this weekend to go over the budget with dh. PArt of the problem is I do all the money and then he kind of does his own thing, and we don't communicate great. HE doesn't buy much, but one month I will be thinking we need to crack down, and he'll go out and buy a DVD or something. Anyway, I have made a sample budget but he hasn't put any input in, so I am hoping he can look at it this weekend and we can revise it again to fit both our needs. Same with the christmas budget - I put it together but may be missing something he intends to buy, etc.

Communication is good - LOL.

I also had an epiphany. When I Was on maternity we lived on very little. It seemed we spent A LOT less on gas which really helped, and little incidental work expenses. But otherwise I Wasn't really sure why we did so good.

Anyway, our credit card bill averages $1800/month, my goal lately has been $1600, and without all of our vacation stuff and gymboree which I paid for with extra money, our cc bill would have been $1200 this month. Why? I then had the epiphany that when we felt broke we didn't spend money and well, that is why we got by so well on maternity leave - LOL. Seems simple but I didn't really get it before. The amazing thing is we didn't feel at the time we gave up that much. That is the beauty of budgeting I guess - if you do it right.

My husband laughed at the "it would be $1200 except for this and this and this" reasoning - but this is all stuff out of the budget now no problem. We are not going to disneyland or spending $300 on my birthday again anytime soon. Guaranteed...

I am starting to see why I should have $700/month for the temp savings funds - it is really there. Yay!

Also, I have always been a general budgeter but once we started throwing everything on cards to get cash back I have really struggled. Obviously where I went wrong was budgeting a total for the cc. IT used to work, but we only put very miscellaneous and extra things on it before. It was never going to work until we sat down and did a line by line budget by expenses on the credit card -and look I saved $600 easy peasy. IT's crazy. Well, we're getting there anyway...

Ah, I wish I had more time to puruse the boards, but I have too much work to do today - LOL. Darn work! ; )

I did ramble on about rents which I know no one cares - I live in crazy land. LOL. This is why no one randomly visiting my blog and viewing my stats can not appreciate that I own a very nice house in CA and only owe $215k on it. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I am STILL reisisting the urge to pay it down faster and put more money in savings. It is hard. I know I need liquid cash more. The fact that we owned a home at 22 (with 20% down) is cause for applause. Sometimes we dream of moving to ORegon and putting a good $400k in the bank (well last year when our house was worth more anyway). Plopping $50k down on a similar house and semi-retiring while the kids are young. But for now we are suckers and stay. More for family than anything... Though when our equity was up to $500k for a while I Was ready to throw family out the window - we could fly down and visit every weekend with that money. ; ) But housing prices have dropped considerably. So yeah if you paid me $500k I would move from family, that is what we have learned in recent years - the price of family - LOL.

In our first home we had over $100k equity when we committed to this house - we were going to have a $100k mortgage here when we moved. But it dropped overnight. So live and learn. I know friends in other states who can not get past our equity, but I can't get too excited about it. Here today, gone tomorrow. Even if we decided to cash out today there is no guarantee we would be able to get what we think we could - anything can happen tomorrow. So I no longer get excited about equity. Frankly I am just happy we own a home. Extremely extremely grateful. I grew up thinking we could never afford to live in California at all.

Oh anyway, I meant to post and tell everyone who is getting a good night sleep to have a good night sleep on me. ; ) You know those of you wihtout small kids and multiple jobs and staying up studying, those of you without sleep disorders. But I must say I have gotten some REAL sleep this last week. I really hesitate to say it without knocking on wood. But things are well in sleepy land. The only thing worse than my son not sleeping well, due to teething, is the constant input from other people about all we are doing wrong regarding sleep. Okay, my son has horrible painful teething and that is hy his sleep has been disrupted. But over time with the lack of sleep you ebgin to question yourself and wonder if everyone else is right. & then finally your baby sleeps full nights and even begins to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Hallelujah. I don't know why I let other people get to me. Phew.

Ahhhhh, sleep is such a luxury these days and I feel in the lap of luxury today. Feels good...

I will enjoy but try not to get used to it. More teeth are on the way...

Was lazy today:

$52.17 cash for 2006
- 1.08 BK Lunch
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$51.09 remains
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I tend to do a $1 lunch every week so I thought today was a good day because it was Wednesday.

My dumb plan for the week was hosting a get together at my house thursday. I did not intend to serve dinner, and chose this option to avoid a $10 - $15 dinner. Oh well. Now I am buying pizza instead due to pressure - LOL. & then all the birthday presents - my word. Oh well, I like my budget to be flexible - so I will probaly chalk this one to eating out & I do have a gift budget. I just did not foresee using it this month or next and was going to use it for christmas instead!!!!!! But oh well - who knew october was such a birthday month! For now I will lump it where I can, just means less gift buying an eating out this month.

Ahhhh, the daycare thread is still being beat to death but on my drive to BK I was pondering something I didn't even thing about. With my first son I drove home at lunch every single day to be with him, and then he napped every afternoon from 1-5. He's a sleeper. I had no idea how good I had it of course - LOL. Another reason why the mommy wars perplexed me. So I don't see my son from 8-12 but I see him before nap and when he wakes up, does he notice I am gone 8 hours a day? Not really!

& then this was the son who we felt at 1 may be ready for preschool or daycare if hubby wanted to get a job. OF course my second son threw us for a loop. I Was lucky CA had a new law at the time and I got 12 weeks paid home. Disability - not full pay - but enough to get by. & then after all that I had to work PT 3 months because he refused to drink from a bottle. & then I had PPD issues and I just could not work full speed again until he was about 6 months old.

I look at him today and I can not imagine putting him in any care - he is such a "baby" still at 15 months. HE is not even walking yet. My older son was just the difference of night and day. At 1 he was like a 2-year-old. At 3 he is like a 5-year-old. I am guessing my baby is on par for being a normal baby, but the whole thing is weird, my other son fast forwarded through this stage so fast. I had no idea there was this stage between "baby" and "full blown toddler."

& sleep? Ha! The baby does not sleep.

Anyway, I have always felt more guilty working with this baby because I no longer have the time to go home at lunch. I have a lot more responsibility, and gas prices have been crazy. & he doesn't sleep 1/2 the day away so I miss so many waking hours. Ah, but I get them all back in the middle of the night! ; )

Anyway, I just throw this out to those of you planning ahead for children down the road. Plans are nice but inevitably your children will put a wrench in your plans. LOL. Guaranteed. ; ) My husband and I keep saying when he turns 2 our daycare options will be much greater and cheaper, etc., etc. But frankly, will he be ready for that? At this rate, no. But we'll work it out I guess. That's why I am here and cracking down on my budget. We have been doing just fine, but saving and getting ahead, not so much. I am starting to envision we will do the 1-income thing longer than we planned, so trying to get to a point where it just doesn't matter. Where that 2nd income is pure gravy. BEfore it was going to be retirement, but now I am trying to squeeze that out of my own check. But I know we will make it work.