Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Class rosters were released.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It sounds BROKEN.

Seriously...

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

Murphy is getting on my last nerve. !!!

That is all...

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

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

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

To be continued...

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

So relieved...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My particularly favorite moment was at 2:42

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

Gah, What a Week!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So yeah, FUN times!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Home Improvements:

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

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

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

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

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

Plumber was $125.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, she had an interesting article yesterday:

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

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

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

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

Some excerpts from the article:

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Holy Cow!?!

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

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

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

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

!!!!

I suppose I have done the same...

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

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

Rough and dirty estimate:

$1,000 2013
$7,000 2011 & 2012
$5,000 2006-2010
$1,000 All years prior
-------
$14,000 LIFETIME TOTAL
-------

Yup, that more than paid for my current vehicle!!

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

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

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

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

**Home repairs are going okay:

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

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

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

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

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

Grocery store finds:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am skeptical, but will see.

I am on a roll lately!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, that jogged my memory...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

**Speaking of fixing things...

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

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

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

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

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

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

I just spent about 5 minutes earning $76.

Thanks to creditcardfree!!

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

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

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

**See Ceejay's blog for referral**

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday dh took some time to run a few errands:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So anyway:

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

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

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

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

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

These are the things people will never notice:

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

**That we eat most our meals at home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Mr. Money Mustache also says it very well:

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

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

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

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



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



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

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

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

The theme is college.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Summer plans?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Case in point - the last day of school:



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I totally forgot in my last snowflake post...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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