Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

I noticed when I went to aerobics this morning that there were 2 garage sales within a block. I wondered if it was the "annual community garage sale" though I hadn't seen any signs.

Looked it up when I got home. Looked like just a coincidence. No other garage sales around...

Anyway, walked across the street and took LM. Didn't expect toys (no kids) but took him anyway. You never know. He scored a beanie baby for 50 cents.

I struck gold! There were 2 gallons of blue/green paint sitting there. LM likes green and I was leaning towards blue for his room. (We are painting next weekend!) When I saw the color it was PERFECT.

I asked how old it was and how much for it. She said $1/gallon. Not even a year old. I went home to chat with dh. He said he didn't like the idea, and I decided to buy it anyway. LOL. Well, I convinced him.

Anyway, I went back to pay for it. She told me it cost $30/gallon (it was Ralph Lauren paint). Yeesh.

I am hoping it is just dark enough to cover the brown that covers half of the room. I am going to do a test spot to see what I think. If nothing else we have leftover white, to go over the brown, and then the blue should cover that up well enough.

Anyway, dh said the WORST thing about painting is picking the color. All I have to say is, "Problem Solved."

I am not quite sure how it will look. But you can't beat $2. I am confident 2 gallons is enough for the room.

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Anyway, we went to the other garage sale and they gave LM a little toy he picked out. I would have given them some change if I had any. But they were pretty much giving away all the toys. How nice!

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My little secret is out. I drive about 10 miles - YES 10 miles - to my aerobics class.

(I don't *get* people who never venture out their neighborhood for anything. All the time people ask me why I drive so far. Because it's the best? As most things I drive outside my neighborhood for are?)

Anyway, $2.50 per hour class. Offered 3 days a week (I am lucky to make 2 days - I hit the gym on days when I have less time, and when the weather is nice there is walking and bike riding, so not my only exercise).

The aerobics class is through the community center. (The one in my neighborhood offers a $7.50 class, I have never been. $2.50 is too good a price I guess).

1/2 hour aerobics, then 1/2 hour arms, legs, tummies, stretching, yoga. I LOVE it because we spend so long on the stretching/yoga and I am REALLY inflexible. I also have a leg injury which needs lots of stretching not to cause me pain. So yeah, couldn't ask for anything better or cheaper.

& the class is largely empty. Sometimes 4-5 people. I guess maybe that is average.

But I have noticing it getting a little more crowded.

& usually no one much shows up Saturday. But today we had like TEN people.

I couldn't help but wonder if it was the economy or what - people looking for cheaper alternatives. I don't know.

Happy for the teacher (she really should charge more) BUT it's getting a little crowded for our tiny room!

Well, I looked and it looks like our health insurance will release 2009 numbers in the next 2 weeks.

I cringe at the thought. Some years have been as bad as 40% increase. So, yeah, the health insurance will make or break the budget next year (as usual). I won't get my 2009 compensation until January. So if it goes up astronomically then I am just in limbo until I find out if I got enough raise to cover it.

Fun fun!

Of course, I will be on vacation when it comes out and my birthday is beginning of December. I told dh I couldn't bare to look during vacation (could ruin it) so I will look after my birthday. !! (Lord knows if I can contain myself, but I will try).

Ugh. Just HATE this time of year.

I also have to read all the fine print. For this year the $3k family deductible/HSA plan was by far the BEST. Least out of pocket, most coverage, one of the cheapest premiums.

It's almost too good to be true. So I wonder if they are trying to get everyone on that plan and then change the rules around or something. So I will be reading a lot of fine print in the meantime. Making sure this is still the best plan...

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I also got the HOA 2009 operating budget.

The amazing thing is our HOA fees have never gone up. In fact, they have gone DOWN! We bought in 2001, and the fees went down on one occasion.

Anyway, fast forward to our heavily foreclosed neighborhood in 2008. Dh & I had discussed it. We knew it was coming. We knew we'd have to start shouldering the burden for all the unpaid dues.

So, they are certainly going up. I just have NO IDEA how much. They said monthly we will pay $97, at an increase of $11/month.

Huh?

We pay $69 now.

So lord knows what that means. It wasn't very clear. They broke out the costs by type and there were 3 that added up to $97. But I think maybe they just had a typo with the increases per month, by type. I guess I will probably get the bill end of December - when we will know for sure. I'll hope it only goes up $11/month. vs. almost $30/month (or almost 50% increase). Something just didn't quite add up.

Anyway, yeah, they sent a letter how they had tried so hard to keep dues low and they just couldn't do it anymore with so many houses sitting in foreclosure and unable to collect dues. It's just crazy.

I would say, once things settle down it could be a long time before they raise dues again. BUT who knows when things will settle down.

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I saw a giant "$10/hour; hiring today; In& Out Burger" sign by the corner of my house the other day. Minimum wage here is $8. I made a mental note that $10/hour wasn't bad, but it was a strange place for a sign. (Not a lot of traffic but the higher end homes over here. Beyond that all we got is farm land. Just one development, a school, and a lot of empty space).

But, I don't know. They could have targeted school traffic, or figured our foreclosing neihgbors maybe needed a $10/hour job. (Don't think it will cut it for their mortgages though!!!)

Anyway, Jeffrey posted in the forums that 500 PEOPLE showed up for 50 In & Out positions in West Sacramento. Holy Cow!!!!!!! It never occurred to me there would be a huge line for those jobs!!

Kind of scary. To know the locals are so desperate for $10/hour jobs.

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Well, not much planned for the weekend. I have to finish the carpet cleaning. It's been kind of an exhausting week, so put it on the back burner.

& my parents are coming for a visit. Yippee!!!!

Will do some light house keeping in prep for Thanksgiving. Simple like clear the formal dining room and clean the bathrooms.

We can clean up the kitchen a bit next week. I am not going to go overboard.

I am taking the week of Thanksgiving off work. As usual. We are shipping off BM to grandma's house for a few days. I have mixed feelings about this, but I admit it will be WAY more relaxing with him gone. LM is mostly easy. BM is so high energy. Too much, even for me. I am high energy, but old. LOL.

Anyway, we are going to work on LM's room. Which is primarily why we wanted BM out of our hair. (LM actually has school that week so he will be out of our hair too). His room is a mess. I will have to show some before and after pictures. Dh and I have gone round and round on it. The lower half of the wall is brown, and there was a border dividing the white top and brown bottom. Border has been ripped off in places. It is long overdue to fix it up a bit. Make it look decent anyway.

We have painting supplies AND the original white paint. I think we should just go over the brown with a coat or 2 of our "free" white and see what we get. If nothing else, we can test a spot and see how it looks. Right?????? Dh is very uncooperative. I'd rather paint half the room with the white we already have, rather than paint half the room with white or primer and THEN have to paint the entire room another color. Dh doesn't want to do anything, so you'd think he'd be on board, but he is just difficult.

Yeah, this weekend I might drag out the paint and do a test spot. We won't know what we will do until we see how it looks.

Of course if we have all the walls taped off and the paint supplies out, might as well go out and paint it a solid color.

Anyway, this weekend, dh is also s'posed to go over some light fixture issues with my dad, who is much more electrically inclined.

It will be nice if we get some of those fixed. The light in the bathroom upstairs strobes. The one downstairs isn't much better.

& all this means by end of November we may have new drapes, clean carpet, fixed light fixtures (& we have a few bulbs to replace as well), have cleaned up LM's room and remove the baby theme. We also cleaned out the garage and the living room (it had a lot of boxes and such - as well as a giant TV box we just tossed). So, the house is looking up a bit.

I had a fraudulent charge on my State Farm Credit card this summer. They caught it and called me. They told me it was taken care of. Then it wasn't. Dh had to call them like 5 times to remove a $1.50 portion of the charge in the end. Geez Louise!

So here we go again. You know my Chase card was compromised recently.

They never reversed the charges and since I don't get a paper statement, and I used the card all the time, lord knows if I would have noticed. BUT when I reviewed October expenses I saw I had posted the fraudulent charges to "ID theft." I thought to myself - "they never reversed those - Did they!"

I am convinced now this is a general credit card policy. Tell customers you'll reverse it, don't, and see who notices it. Then leave $2 or so and see if anyone notices. !!! Ugh.

So dh called yesterday and they said they reversed it. I didn't have a statement and he didn't know otherwise.

Wow, the SAME runaround!

I told him to cancel the darn State Farm card (he didn't) but Chase I am sticking with. They pay me $500+ a year to use their card. I am not threatening to leave. I could see eating the $20 if I had to. So it's a different game.

But anyway, I printed out my statement and all the activity since said statement, e-mailed it over to dh - and sicked him on Chase again. (Um, NOTHING had been reversed according to my statements. HELLO!)

BAH!

At this rate, it may be resolved in January. If we're lucky.

BTW, like last time, one of the charges happens to be $1.95. So anyway, how much you wanna bet they reverse the $18 charge and leave that one? How much you wanna bet? It must be in the rule book.

I am not one to chase pennies, but when it comes to greedy credit card companies, and a spouse with free time, you BET I will chase it.

I was offered a wonderful deal by a "friend" to get 20 Christmas cards done for $99. (Regular value $250!!!). I was actually annoyed because I was mass spammed. Gee, thanks but no thanks.

This is one area the market is over saturated. I know about 10 SAHM-turned-photographers - and they all do a wonderful job. They are all great. But I figure in this economy they probably aren't doing so hot. (& they probably aren't). All I figure is people mortgaged their houses for photos. I have a few friends who do like quarterly sittings and pay a few hundred each time. (It's INSANE). I haven't done one because I can't stomach the prices. My dad has a professional quality camera and we get much the same for free anyway.

I don't know. A few hundred dollars for photos? Maybe once every 10 years. Maybe if my spouse were working - once every 10 years.

It's some Joneses thing I don't *get*

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Weather is s'posed to be record breaking this next week, 70 - 80 degrees. It is looking good for the house front. If the outside does not dip below 40 over night, and it stays below 80 outside during the day, the house is just in the comfort zone. It's hovering between 68-70 this last week, inside the house. So, not even tempted to turn on the heat. It has certainly been warmer than usual.

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Today I am taking the TV box (from last spring) to the dumpster at work. (It will be recycled). I got dh to load it in the van yesterday. It's the LAST of the boxes. For now...

Dh went to Best Buy yesterday and did not drop off our PDAs for recycle. Bah to him. I may have to run there this weekend myself. (He had some gift cards from last Christmas to use up, there). But after the PDAs I think we have pretty much purged the old electronic stuff from the house. Thank You Best Buy!!!!! (We dropped off about 10 items there, all told).

Since I went clothes shopping last week I went through my closet. I found 16 tops to donate. (Egads). There's plenty more I should probably just toss. I am not much of a pack rat, except when it comes to clothes. Clothes I have outgrown due to pregnancy? I will wear again someday!!!! It's a frugal thing - why be rid of perfectly good clothes (I certainly have the space - half our monstrosity closet is not even used). It seems every sweep though I am able to let go of more. I let go of some old college sweatshirts with college logos and such. I hadn't worn them in a decade - it was time to LET GO. & a few shirts on the small side - I give up. If nothing else I can say I am getting rid of more clothes than I am bringing in. The tide has turned...

We also went through the kids' toys and got rid of very few. In prep for the Christmas avalanche. But between the shirts and the few toys, I have a nice big bag for charity. & a charity is driving by for pickups this week! I am getting addicted to this. So easy. I think they are coming by more than usual with the holidays. Will be 3rd time in last few weeks, for me. Just set it out on the curb and be rid of it all...

I have about $40 in items for Craigslist to sell. All baby nursery stuff. It's been rather hit and miss. One of these days...

This week I am volunteering for the bank program at school. I didn't want to organize the thing, but I am helping out. I think I probably found my niche.

Dh earned his keep. He received $125 focus group check yesterday and made about $20 on ebay. Just enough to pay for my ring resize, which he really wanted to do. So, works out.

HE made some Craigslist sales as well.

I actually had extra cash in the checking so will give him the $20 from ebay to plow back into his game selling.

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I usually pay most the bills around the 1st every month but I had quite a few to take care of this week:

*Phone bills (put on credit card)

*Dish (credit card - dh told them not to take auto payments, but they did. But with the card theft they were at our mercy. Dh called them and told them to stop the auto payments and they listened this time. But now it's kind of a pain to pay them. We won't have them long anyway. DirectTV by next year I am sure)

*AAA (put on card - $130)

*School Lunch (credit card - figured $45 would cover the rest of the year. First $20 is almost gone. BM Eats at school once a week. I enjoy the break!)

*Oh, I paid one credit card (backup card) online and wary if it will go through. I tried to pay regular card (both had new #s due to recent thefts and replacements). But that one was not cooperating. I may have to mail in a check or something. Feels like russian roulette with how BAD our mail service is. So I hope I can get the online bill pay set back up soon.

*I wrote a check (something I rarely do) for Reader's Digest. I think it is our only subscription besides the paper. Our cooking mags are a gift subscription from great grandma and the kids get Highlights from their aunt. I could have set it up online, but in this case, the check was easier.

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*Dh's car needs an oil change. I reminded him this morning. He said he got a $8 off coupon yesterday. Good timing! (The other ones had expired and I realized we past 6 months. I had my oil changed Oct. 31).

*We signed up to volunteer 16 hours for the Scholastic Warehouse sale. I got suckered into an 8-hour shift. Ugh!

It's sweet since dh's mom (teacher) retired. WE always had tons of free Scholastic products (she had more than she could ever use and chose to give them to us for whatever reason). Anyway, for 16 hours we will earn $320 in Scholastic vouchers. Most will go to school of course, but we may keep $20 for our own purchases.

I have volunteered for multiple opportunities but no one seems to want my help. So I was pleased I was able to volunteer for SOMETHING. Dh has run into similar troubles even with his wide open schedule. The school seems to have more help than it needs. I assume either the Kindergarten parents are extra eager or the volunteering machine lacks organization. Since they are always asking for help. I think, a little of both. Happy to get in some hours. After this we will only need 4 more hours to earn our keep for the year. (Charter school; required 30 hours a year, per family).

*LM told me our neighbors had a BIGGER house than ours! LOL! I don't remember noticing that kind of stuff when I Was young. At all.

His 3-year-old opinion is that a bigger house would be better.

Our house is about twice the size of the one dh grew up in, and about 30% bigger than the one I grew up in. I always worried the kids would end up spoiled. Here we go...

I would tell him that house would have been our first choice and well within our reach ($10k premium for another room or so) but that the layout is atrocious and the appearance of monstrosity is more due to non-energy efficient & space wasting vaulted ceilings throughout the lower level. But yeah, he wouldn't understand.

In fact, we settled for one vaulted ceiling in the formal dining room, because I think it was the least amount of vaulted ceiling we could find in new construction. (One of many horrible trends in the 2000-era; along with giant kitchens, closets and master bedrooms). My long-term dream is to replace the upper level with a giant bonus room - or more appropriately a bonus loft. I don't know how feasible it will be. But I would be happy to banish the vaulted ceiling from our home. They put enough windows up there that I think if we could get a floor and a railing, it would suffice. Shouldn't be THAT expensive, eh???? Then maybe we could reach all the windows and lights. Imagine that!

The 3yo wants to keep up with the Joneses. Ugh! I don't think the 5yo has ever had any Joneses inklings. None that he has shared...

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For reference: This is my kitchen (though mine doesn't have so much open space on the right side. Right countertop is much closer to island. We have less cabinet space and room, as such. But otherwise, virtually identical). I'd call it "big" but not "giant." Definitely, practical. Island is quite large and yet within reach of stove, fridge, dishwasher and sink. You don't have to walk a mile between these things...



LM also informed me at lunch, when I told dh about his Jonesing, that we should trade houses so the neighbors could live in our "little house." Hehe!

Yesterday was more crazy than I cared for.

We had 2 parties to attend at the same time and I wanted to go to both. I also put 70 miles on the car because one was so far away. I drove to unfamiliar land to drop off the kids at the drop-in childcare place (was a GREAT experience - they also have branches in San Jose where our family lives so I think we could utilize much. To-date we had only used the one by our house), met dh at the party, then left early to take the kids to a party at Chuck E Cheese. So I had to backtrack to pick them up and it was just pure chaos. I couldn't live like that every day - I'd go nuts. WAY too much driving.

I hadn't though much about it beforehand (for the best) but Chuck E Cheese was a COMPLETE mess. I lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Since we arrived so late for the party it wasn't a big deal we only lasted that long. Just crowded and chaotic. LM was pretty upset when we left and I had to drag him out the door. BM seemed to understand a little better. I kept their tokens and tickets and told them we could come back on a weeknight. Monday for all I care. I just wanted the hell out. On the weeknights the place is the complete opposite - EMPTY. If nothing else, LM could play in the play structure then. I wouldn't let him in with all the big, rowdy kids. (BM could hold his own).

Lord help me if they get invited to a party over there again. I guess it would be dh's turn...

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Anyway, in other news, we still haven't cleaned our carpet. I would say before kids it is not something we did. (Well, our condo had white carpet for some godawful reason and we did clean that one a couple of times). But since kids we seemed to average every 2 years (maybe should do it every year).

Anyway, I am ashamed to say we haven't yet (I talked about this in June) BUT I did also put it on my LONG honey do list for dh. Though he hasn't gotten done, and I am peeved, he has gotten almost everything else done. So I admit I have been rather demanding. For his snail pace anyway...

BUT I have come to a realization lately. I have said before. We're not lazy after all! I just could not imagine finding the time to do a lot of things around the house in recent years. But this year we are kicking butt! The difference is the kids. We don't have a lot of family real close to help with the kids. & so there is only so much we could do when they were really little. We kept babysitting help for a vacations and night outs. Not for home projects - blech!!!

But things change. They are getting older and more independent, and we find we have a LOT more time to take care of things around the house. Daycare not even needed.

So anyway, zetta recommended a lightweight, easy carpet cleaner and I said No Thanks! NO WAY I was going to do it myself. That was June.

But here we are in October, it's not done, and I have nothing but free weekends ahead of me. So my mind has changed, and changing dynamics are why.

I popped by Target and picked up the recommended device. I see mixed reviews so I won't hold my breath. Our carpet is pretty bad. BUT it is also high quality/scotch guard, all that. I don't expect it would take that much work to bring up the spots.

We have one large room that needs work. & I think I will no longer allow the kids to eat or drink in here. Once we clean it - that's it. I don't want to do it again. The rest of the house is fine. We don't wear shoes and we are gentle on the carpet. In here it's just spilled food and drinks everywhere. The rest of the house has a few spots, but this thing is good at spot cleaning.

With this device we may also be better at spot cleaning when spills happen, etc.

I am going to test an area of the carpet this morning, and if I am happy enough with it I will do the downstairs room once the kids go to bed. They'll be gone all day tomorrow so will have overnight and all day to dry and be safe from dirty little feet.

I am not sure how much we will save since it is so rare we clean carpets, but maybe we will be more apt to keep them up a little better. $75 for the device ($5 off coupon) and $10 for a bottle of cleaning solution.

Anyway, so we went to Target on the way home yesterday to pick it up.

While we were there we also picked up some food. We passed the grocery aisle and so I stopped for cookies (something uber healthy dh would never buy). Kids saw marshmallows and I saw generic rick crispies so I let them get the marshmallows. I never made rice crispy treats with them. They will love it.

I also picked up some chocolate chip muffin mix. So I think we will bake a bit today.

Dh called me on the way to checkout to ask if we could get cereal because it is cheaper at Target than the Safeway generic at Safeway. I told him I was one step ahead and had Target generic which was even cheaper. So we picked up some more generic cereal at his request.

Well, wish me luck with the carpets. I am waiting to try it out to see if I recommend it.

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Oh yeah - I almost forgot - I filled up the van for $35 yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$2.12/gallon.

Holy cow!

I had a 25-cent-off per gallon coupon - Bel Air. That is the only way I fill the van anymore - with quarter off coupons. (Saves $4 a fill up since it is 16 gallons). But we had put $75 into the van at some point. $35 I can handle.

Our strategy to not go bankrupt over gas was to drive the 40mpg car as much as possible. (The van gets a mere 20mpg). So, if we kept with our current driving habits our gas bill would be considerably LOW. We have also been driving to San Jose less. The van had also been banished from road trips.

I told dh that I would start taking the van now, more often, with gas at $2/gallon (about). It's a nice strategy but we have been putting a LOT of miles on the old car. & I really don't want to replace it any time soon. So I think we'll give it a bit of a break for a while... I also remember why I didn't mind driving the van to San Jose once in a while. Those days have returned. Phew.

So yeah, we both filled up on gas yesterday and it was a spendy day!

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I just remembered I hadn't posted in a few days.

I went to Mervyns and it really sucked. Everything was 30% off. BUT everything was full price. I'd say it was more expensive than usual. (I went Friday during the day and it was PACKED too - unexpected).

No returns. I bought a sweater which ended up being a little small. (I never try on shirts because they usually fit - I was a little peeved). I can wear it if I wear nothing under it - the arms are small. Which isn't helpful in a sweater. (Not usually a problem of mine - I wouldn't say I have big arms!)

Pants are another story. I got a great pair of jeans for $20. I am waiting for deeper sales and I may pick up a pair in the next size higher and lower. Jeans are my nemesis, but I walked in and picked up a pair that fit on the first try (a miracle!!!). I'd stock up on a couple if the price got lower. It's why I am mostly bummed about the bankruptcy. They always have plentiful pants (shorts/skirts) in my size that actually fit. Reasonably priced too. Can't say the same for anywhere else.

I also went by Kohls and used my $10 off coupon. I got 3 tops for $30 there. Not bad! LOVE them too.

I think I have done my shopping for the month...

November is a vacation-y month.

I certainly have plenty to do but this week has been rather fluffy at work. I had a seminar and today we are going to go through old files at work.

Of course, sounds boring as heck. I'd rather do my regular work!

But it is brainless and low-stress I guess. I can handle it for a day.

I also have vacation later this month.

I am also extraordinarily caught up at work - more than in years. We have a wonderful new employee (makes 2 good staff) which helps. I was behind from the years when we had no staff.

Things have seemed to take a turn for the better. It's interesting to have room to breathe. Phew.

But yeah, it won't last long. I am just really enjoying the CALM.

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This week was a crazy low-spend week. $100 on groceries, and that's it.

Don't ask me why. I just downloaded the credit card expenses and realized all we spent since Monday was groceries.

It will all change today!

I have a $10 off Kohls card and I almost forgot about the MErvyns clearance sale. I hope to hit both today. I need a shrug or something for a dress. I hit some thrift shops this weekend and did not score. I think they are pretty picked over in this economy. I also only have one pair of jeans I generally wear. So I will maybe pick some up at Mervyns if the price is okay. Jeans are my nemesis I guess. But I can usually find something at Mervyns and better stock up if they won't be around any more!!!

I'll also keep an eye out for kids' clothes - christmas gifts for all the cousins. We agreed many moons ago the grandmas have the toys covered. What we really NEED is clothes. So I'll keep an eye out on Clearance items. What I am thinking of more with the $10 Kohls card.

I also need to pick up a couple of gift cards at Target - a cousin birthday and a friend birthday this weekend.

Tomorrow we have an anniversary party to go to. I will probably go for 2 hours and drop off the kids. Dh is taking a simple video as a gift. I wouldn't be surprised if he was reimbursed a token amount for his work. But at this point he had finished all his other projects and this one is from the goodness of his heart.

The party coincides with a kid party at Chuck E Cheese - the kids' best friend. So I will probably take the kids - albeit a little late.

So tomorrow is nice and crazy!

Dh is doing a product test for the focus group place and will pick up $125 Monday for his efforts. (Not bad!) They invited me to take a survey about the product (it's soap) for $25. If the neighbors can watch the kids for an hour? I'm there. If we have to pay $13/hour for daycare it won't really be worth it.

I had originally written it off, but thought better of it later. We can get babysitting for $5/hour. I doubt it will take more than an hour. An extra $20 or so would be pretty sweet! For maybe an hour of time?

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House has been as low as 65 degrees, but still not a ton of chill in the air.

So it's 65 degrees I can handle.

Today is about 68 and it feels chillier to me. The thermostat does not tell the WHOLE story. But the days are s'posed to be warmer today and tomorrow. SO I don't expect to turn on the heat this weekend. But I am getting close to the breaking point for sure (for the morning showers if nothing else. I am remembering why we only had a $20 bill last November - probably only used heat briefly in the mornings).

& for $20 it's a luxury worth having, if you ask me. I am only saving $5 by suffering (for the whole month). NOT worth it if you ask me. (The hot water alone cost about $15; so I figure we only spent $5 on heat last November).

So yeah, I am getting close to breaking in the morning, but still trying to adjust down a degree in the evenings. For the long run...

It's too early to tell, but I feel like the thermal drapes are making a difference in the family room. My problem with that area is the thermostat is kind of in the middle of the house and we spend a lot of time by the windows. Sure, they are dual-paned, but they can still be a little chilly and drafty. I mean, if you touch the wall, it is COLD.

So though the thermostat may say 68 it would feel 65 where I spend most of my time (by the large windows).

So my hope with the thermal drapes was to eliminate that chill so we can lower the thermostat a bit this year. Or so I would stop turning it up to 70. & believe me, I would be bundled up to the nth degree before I would turn up the heat.

Mostly, I am a cold whimp.

But, it's chilled rather considerably, it's 70 in the house this morning, and it feels rather warm to me.

Probably too early to tell. I guess I'll see how I feel in December. But so far, I am pleased.

I would really like to get Thermal drapes for the kids' rooms - their beds are under the windows. I think it would just be more comfortable for them. Maybe this year - maybe will save for next year.

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Went on a nice bike ride with BM yesterday.

I am in HEAVEN! Didn't realize it would be so fun.

I also realized I am VERY particular about my bike and will probably go new and rather high-end in the end. Will start saving my pennies. Which is fine because there is like nothing else I want. It's nice to have something I want, for a change.

Anyway, my dad is an avid bike rider and in San Jose I could ride from my parent's house to the top of a hill nearby and just fly down that thing and coast all the way home. What a RUSH. IT was not an easy hill by any means, but the combination of work and reward was amazing. I'd equate it to surfing. It is just that fun. & a much easier/cheaper hobby. But it was totally the same rush (having done both).

But when we moved to Sacramento I just saw a lot of flat lands and largely gave up on the biking. Sure I could drive half hour to some decent rides, and for the long run that may be what I have to do. But I didn't know anyone hear to ride with, and we quickly got side tracked with babies and all that stuff.

But as I rode the cheap crappy bike I got off CL yesterday I told dh that it was worth it. It was worth the $20 to have that thing to ride with BM, even if for one weekend. We had so much fun. I realized maybe the flat lands weren't so bad, I still had love for bike riding.

Anyway, my old bike was top of the line and had a VERY cushy seat and fancy handle bars. These handle bars were driving me nuts. I was used to the 2 levels so you can grip however you want, and change position from time to time.

So I am starting my list of what I want in a bike. I'll keep my eye on CL for something I want, but am thinking I will probably go new.

Of course, if I go new bike and think of the kinds of rides I want to do, no one else in my family will be able to keep up, so I am considering looking into some bike clubs around here.

& I am excited!!!

Since having kids I guess I am slowly adding leisure back to my life, and that is nice. Last year I started working out more regularly, joining the gym and going to aerobics. Those are really my hobbies and I have LOVED to have more *me* time in that regard - stuff that is good for me as well.

But I find I am continually gaining more leisure, so yeah, bike riding is one place I want to direct that time and energy too. It's a double positive because it is a healthy endeavor as well.

& the kids can totally join in, in the long run. In the meantime I can explore the city a bit. There is certainly no lack of bike paths here, for sure.

On the flip side, I don't think I will be using my bike much for errands and such. We are kind of isolated on one side of the freeway and though it would be nice to utilize a bike for errands, they freeway overpass is not safe in the least. For the long run they may put in lights and bike lanes, and it may improve. But for now I would venture that way to civilization.

The good is I think we can find a path to downtown, on our side of the freeway, and I am stoked about that. We have a lot of exploring to do.

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

Oh yes, the Sacramento Symphony put on a family concert yesterday. Kids were free and I was $10. (We also went to a free concert for another local symphony a few weeks ago which was just awesome).

I called it. LM was in HEAVEN. BM I was not going to take but since it was downtown and dh's compact car has a slow leak in a tire, he dropped us off (far cheaper than parking and all that). & when we got there BM jumped out and said he wanted to go after all. Since he was free, whatever. Anyway, he was completely bored and LM (who is only 3) LOVED it. He just has music in his soul.

They did a great job though. Can't wait for the next concert in the spring!

& heck, when was the last time I could see the symphony for $10?

I usually summarize all my expenses/savings together, but ran out of time yesterday.

So we spent a whole lot of money. What else did we do in October?

*Saved $1k to short-term savings

*Saved $200 to mid-term savings

*Saved $250 to medical savings & added $250 credit card rebate also

*Earned $26 interest (to mid-term fund). Good bye Balance Transfers; this amount decreased much as a result

*Deposited $100 to ROTH

*Earned $625 in work retirement plan

--------

*Pulled $1500 from medical fund for dental and medical bills.

Our deductible could push our medical fund to -$1500 or so, for 2008 expenses. But I figured it was a lot easier to stomach paying all those dental bills out of there, for now. Will tap mid-term savings later, if we have to. IF we ever get BM's ambulance bill, etc.

I guess there is always a slight chance we won't use our deductible next year and we can recover then. Who knows...

*I subtracted $150 from short-term savings for car registration. I did not pull any money out for other things (like life insurance) because fund is depleted for year. Will have to shift to the mid-term fund through 12/31. Need short-term for property taxes and home insurances (will be about $4k due in December).

We have been slowly adding more to this fund every year and are contributing another $100/month over Jan. 1, so I am happy where this fund is for the long run. I think $1k/month is the sweet spot, for now. But a bit behind, since we did not contribute this much when both kids were still in preschool.

Adds up to about $9k for all of our insurances and prop taxes, and about $2k for car repairs and vacation, and maybe $1k for misc. things throughout the year (like Christmas & subscriptions & vehicle registration, etc.).

*Pulled $550 for new drapes and Dec. 31 concert tickets, from mid-term savings. May need to pull a little more out for car service (would have been short-term otherwise) if it hits the card for October.

*Dh earned $125 at a focus group to pay for my ring resize.

& that's October for you. We took care of a lot of stuff. But November we hope will be low key. No "plans" for any bigger purchases or anything from savings.

Truth is though we have a lot of stuff that have been on the back burner for a while, and as our mid-term fund builds up, we are using some of it. I had preferred to wait until the balance was $5k to start touching it, but with all these dental bills and everything... I kind of give up. Maybe we should take care of some things and start over 1/1. Mid-term fund can easily be gone by then. But it is nice to get some stuff done around the house, etc.

I just haven't been hot on the challenge lately, and it shows!

Haven't updated in a while?

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

2008 $20 challenge:

$3,689.00 - 8/1

300.00 - ROTH Contributions - Sep - Nov
180.00 - Interest - Aug - Oct
620.00 - Deposits to savings Aug - Nov
300.00 - Rebates
------------------
$5,089.00 - Balance 11/1
------------------

Last year my challenge was every extra penny found and this year I tried to reward my savings more. Everything in the challenge went straight to savings. But for whatever reason, isn't motivating me as much.

Anyway, interestingly, I was tallying up my "extra income" this year, outside 9-5 work, and came up with almost $6k.

For the long run, that's awesome. A way to fund my dh's IRA.

For the short term, I am not even completely funding my own IRA. All of this has gone to savings, but we have some catching up to do still... But yeah, once we catch up a bit, I guess I could say I have found a way to fund another IRA. It's interesting. & mostly stuff that doesn't take a lot of time and effort. The ebay sales take time and effort, for sure, but not a lot for someone who doesn't work a day job. A couple of hours a week (if that) for another few thousand a year? We're There!

Dh was festive and made JAck-O-Lantern Sloppy Joe Pie last night.

& it was GOOD! Not sure the kids liked so much, but was an interesting mix of sweet and spicy.

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/hallmainH/jack-o-lantern-slopp...

Actually - that's a picture - but this is the EXACT recipe we used (from Taste of Home):

http://www.recipezaar.com/322164

Used ground beef instead of sausage - and whatever small difference between the 2.

It rained, and I think with that and all the foreclosures, Halloween was quite slow. Very few people out. I'd be surprised if we went to more than 10-15 houses but the kids got PILES of candy. People gave handfuls since it was so slow. I'd be surprised if we got 10-15 Trick or Treaters once we got home, but we gave away tons of candy as well.

Still have TONS left - mostly what the kids got.

BM was spiderman and we saw a lot of them (like 5? LOL. 5 out of 10 kids we saw?). LM wore an old WInnie the Pooh costume I got off ebay and BM wore 2 years ago. We used a pillowcase for a cape since he wanted to be Super Winnie the Pooh, but quickly grew tired of it.

The "rain" was little more than sprinkles. But it scared everyone off.

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

I thought I would work on my bike today (clean some of the rust, lube the chain, fill the tires with air) but it just rained ALL day.

Dh had reminded me of a park with a nice long path nearby.

Maybe tomorrow...

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

The family medical drama front is not good. Not at all.

*sigh*

More family members seem to be catching the "serious medical condition" flu.

I wish I had the vaccine, and I also am very worried about our parents and their siblings who are under so much stress right now. Can not be good for their health either.

We've got 3 of our peers in serious condition right now (one is not life threatening but is in risk of paralysis?), and just got word a great-uncle is having heart problems and not expected to make it.

Anyway, not sure what's up with the 20-somethings all being so ill, but the older uncle was VERY sudden as well.

IT just keeps getting better!

I decided I would attempt to use my stupid/useless prepaid rebate card again - at the gas station.

S'posedly I can pay inside; not at the pump.

So, we'll see.

Was kind of being lazy and dragging my feet - thinking, "Maybe next week..."

BUT dh's tank is about empty and the credit card doesn't close until Tuesday. I'd like to avoid more charges this month.

I ran the math on the gas prices I saw today.

Wait a minute. $20 will fill the whole tank?

Why does that blow my mind so much????? A free tank of gas - now we're talking!!!!!

Well, it's 8 gallons for $20, but since the "no fuel" light has not come on I assume that is all I will have to fill anyway.

I can only figure some of you are nearing $1.99 - we are so slammed with gas taxes here in Cali.

I think October will win for spendy month of the year. Well, I hope it does. I don't want a spendier month!

Yeah, our months have averaged $5k/month spending, but this month looks like almost $6500. UGH. ($1500 being dental bills - is the culprit. But we had a LOT Of other stuff going on - so it is a little overwhelming as I pay all the bills).

I entered all my November bills in Quicken to get an idea where we were at. & I updated all my totals to the left.

Short-term savings is bulking up - all will pretty much go to property taxes & homeowners insurance in December (will be $3500 in then, for a short time before the account is obliterated).

We've exhausted the fund so any more car repairs this year will have to come from mid-term savings. I was up to $3k for a short time, but it dipped down with so many expenses. $2400 for now. Haven't posted interest yet, though. Will be a few bucks only; my CD has expired and my balance transfers have all been repaid.

Medical fund sits slightly negative. I obliterated it for dental bills. Any further dental/medical will also have to come out of mid-term. I think I will be lucky to have a dime left in the mid-term fund, come January 1.

Will make a more noble effort to build it up next year.

Mortgage balance dipped below $207k. $205k is the next goal of note. Then $199,999. Another 18 months for that one! Dh is holding out for when interest is less than principle. But that's like a decade - I need some more immediate things to look forward to! I am sure I can get a cheerful response from him when we dip below $200k though.

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

Today is going to be one hectic day. I got some dry hack cough. Any home remedies? Ugh, it's driving me nuts. I am going to sip on tea all day, and have some hard candies. Right now slowly sipping orange juice seems to help. Keeping the throat lubricated. I guess fluids are good. I think my allergies have crossed over to virus. It's hard to tell - the symptoms if I look them up are the same for allergy. But it has taken a nasty turn. My spring allergies usually consist of little more than a runny nose, sore throat, itchy eyes. For now my sinuses are clearing, but the cough is nasty. At least my eyes have been fine. Itchy eyes are the worst.

The weather is cooling off during the day but interestingly warming up over night. So it is predicted more 70 day/50 night. As opposed to our quite odd 40 degree nights and 80 degree days. I am not sure what it means for the heat front. Loss of sun, which largely has been keeping our house warm. So though it will be pretty mild overall, the house may cool considerably. Right now with all the warm/sunny days the house is at 75 degrees at 8 am. Looks like it didn't go below 50 degrees last night.

We'll see!

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

Oh yes, yesterday was a NSD but for a $3 haircut for LM, at BEauty School. Long overdue.

All the NSDs in the world haven't helped me for OCtober. I guess because most our spend days were extra spendy.

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

ETA: I answered my own question. Walked BM to school and considered bringing juice along. Thought I'd be miserable but the exercise and/or crisp/cool air "cured" me. The long drive in the car to preschool brought back the cough. Bah. Will take some walking breaks today if need be. Overall, much better.

I almost fell over when I saw $2.50 or so gas at the Valero. Chevron by my office - the meter for expensive gas - was a mere $2.60. Considering it was still $3.30 solid last week, at the cheaper stations, I was shocked and pleased. !! A dollar drop in a week. Now I can play along (I've been jealous of all your posts about cheap gas!)

Seems like it's been quiet here.

Funny thing is I haven't been terribly posty either. Couldn't tell you why. I guess busy with lots of family drama. Way too much for my taste. *sigh*

BTW, I caught the best documentary I had ever seen (or the most jaw dropping and yet hysterical at the same time - better descriptor). It was "I didn't know I was pregnant," or something along those lines. Anyway, I was a miserable pregnant woman. I would argue 9 months is too long! LOL. But my jaw just dropped to see all these women who went in to the ER with cramps only to find they were in labor.

O.M.G. I could not even IMAGINE!

Yeah, I like to prepare for things. The thought of an unplanned pregnancy absolutely makes me cringe. So finding out a few minutes before the birth (or after the birth in some cases) was a little too nightmarish for me. I couldn't quite wrap my brain about it.

Those are some stories to tell though. Whew!

I kept thinking, how do you tell your family/friends/boss? OR even the baby daddy? BTW - I just had a baby? LOL.

IT was also hard for me to wrap my brain around because I only gained weight in one place (the belly) and my kids both used me as a punching bag. Yeah, it was pretty dang obvious, morning sickness aside.

I guess it just ain't so obvious for everyone. Which I wouldn't say is exactly preferable! I'll take my 9 months of discomfort. I appreciate it a little more now.

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

Well, car was very jittery when I started it today. I was wary but I drove it to work.

I went home at lunch just in case. Figured I didn't want to get stranded at 5:00. I couldn't re-create it, but the engine seemed rather squeaky. Maybe a belt? (I read the jitters, in park, could mean spark plugs). Either way, hopefully something simple. Decided to take it in Friday. I welcome the excuse - the brakes feel wimpy to me and dh thinks I exaggerate (hasn't noticed it). I can't help but think he doesn't notice anything though. So I am happy to get the brakes looked at too.

I'll be happy if it is just paranoia. The last thing I need is a big bill.

*sigh*

Weather here is almost 80 degrees again. IF not for the allergies from hell I'd say I was REALLY enjoying.

Of course, first rain on the season predicted tomorrow - and also rain for Halloween. Bah!

They finished the park by our house. Well, let's put it this way - they finished it MONTHS ago. BUT they removed the gates yesterday. Neighborhood kids have been playing in there for months and mine have been very patient. I feel like we are the only ones who played by the rules.

Downside is the park was REALLY crowded when we went to check it out last night. Usually it is rather empty and we get it to ourselves. But they put in basketball courts, tennis courts, and a new BIG playground. That brought the kids and teens out.

Dh and I discussed putting tennis rackets on our wish list for Christmas. Will have to take advantage!

I guess since it gets dark earlier we made it out closer to dusk. Outside no longer than 5 minutes and I got 2 horrible bug bites on my feet. Oh - these are the WORST!!! (itchy and very swollen - and itchy itchy itchy) Happened to me a while back. No more sandals I guess. You think I'd have learned...

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

YEah, we may have to search the house for umbrellas. Rarely need/use them. But may need them for friday!

Halloween is easy on us this year though. Phew. Kids are doing all sorts of fun stuff at school, and we're off the hook!

IT's just kind of nice. I've mentioned before, BM is Mr. Extrovert, and the rest of us probably could hardly be more introverted. That boy just exhausts us. Since infanthood! HE just sucks our energy dry.

So, I imagined school being this huge (difficult) adjustment. But instead, it's been kind of a breath of fresh air. He's got a lot of new places to channel his energy, and we don't have to be involved 24/7. Not saying we're not involved. But we get a break from the crazy one. Even LM appreciates it, for sure. Preschool a couple of days a week was middle ground, but this is even BETTER!

I am not sure I had thought about it that much. But as my friends ran through their jam packed weekends for halloween activities and such, that's when it hit me. The kids have all this halloween stuff planned through school, and we're pretty much off the hook. We're good for Trick or Treating, but that's about it. Kids are happy and adults are happy. Win-win.

I think even LM is thriving with BM in school. He probably had no idea there could be such peace and quiet. LOL.

I guess we went back and forth, with all the family drama, but we ended up going to the cabin after all.

Had a REALLY nice time.

We are certainly the more relaxing bunch of late. They kept commenting how much easier our kids were than the 1 & 3-year-olds they have charge of. Um, yeah? Well, LM is 3. But he is easier to watch with a 5yo than to watch with a 1yo. For sure. Plus, he is just pretty independent.

So, even though it was nice to hear how easy and pleasant our kids were all weekend, I don't think the comparison was exactly fair.

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

Was surprised to see gas for $3.01 on Saturday (had hovered around $3.30 before then). But with our grocery store gas coupon we paid $2.76/gallon for the van. Was almost half of what we paid in the summer. Was NICE.

We fed 7 people at Taco Bell for about $19.99. What a load of food!

We had actually planned to hit up Apple Hill on the way up, but it was just packed. We changed our minds. The cabin is just minutes from there, so we went in the morning SUnday, before heading home. Were about the first ones there. We ate donuts and kettle corn and caramel apples, and the kids got their face painted and did pony rides. Kids had a blast. We left and laughed at the line coming in. Suckers! It was crazy. Actually, we all commented it was all so NOT worth the line. We wouldn't have waited in those lines to drive in, but we enjoyed our edge.

Sunday we had picked up breakfast at the store. $15 for fruit, granola bars, milk and fruit. We treated for that.

Grandma slipped us $40 for gas, so in the end I guess we came out ahead. As usual.

Was just a nice weekend. I would say simple and nice, but for all the spoiling of the kids at Apple Hill.

Was near Tahoe - just gorgeous - was like a spring weekend (weather wise) with a bit of fall in the air. The leaves have not turned so much yet, but we did see some pretty shades of orange.

Everyone was looking forward to snow - I think it will be a while, at this rate! IT was really warm up there, for October.

I could have all put you out of your misery last month I guess - sorry.

& reminds me, I know a few people told me that IRA limits would be $5500 next year like I Was some idiot. I thought, "we'll see." I guess it bugs me when people think they are tax experts.

Though really, I did expect them to rise too. But I knew nothing was set in stone.

IRA contribution limits remain $5k for 2009. $6k if you are over 50.

I noticed the contribution limits were strangely absent from all the IRS pension inflation numbers, so I decided to look it up with my professional research library.

The library had calculated all the index adjustments last month.

They officially calculated that IRA contributions will remain unchanged for 2009.

This is definitely official. They also correctly calculated everything the IRS just released, this week.

Anyway, the headline for the pension data said, "All but one of the many limits changed for 2009." It didn't say specifically what did not change, but I think I just figured it out.

Sorry charlies!

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

Today I also got word that social security wage based increased to $106,800.

& $102k was just so easy to remember. *sigh*

(For you highly compensated folk out there... FYI.)

Why Not???

Dh sold 2 things on Craigslist yesterday - around $100. Crazy. IT was just like everything went after days/weeks of flaky people.

Phew.

I made $50 in 2 days - just old baby stuff.

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

Some charity is coming for donations pickup Friday. So, just in the nick of time. I was going to just set it all out. All the strollers and such. (I tell ya, they come often. Various charities).

But I decided I will set out the old/cheap fan, my 3 old dresses that are on the cheap side and impossible to sell, and LM's outgrown clothes, unless our relative lays claim to them beforehand. We can pawn them off this weekend when we see the fam, otherwise. So the load is lightening.

It feels like it never ends though.

The garage is REALLY getting there. It's about empty. I dropped off about 10 giant boxes in the dumpster today (forgot last wednesday). We just need to sell/donate the bed. We found room for more bikes anyway - once the boxes were packed in the van. The bed will give way to lots more storage space. Space that we shouldn't use...

The rest of the house - has a ways to go.

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

I wanted to go to a seminar tonight on gifted children, but was hesitating about going alone. I don't know why. Dh told me he could go with me and the kids really wanted to go to the drop-in daycare place anyway. I rolled my eyes. We cut that out of the budget entirely with all these dental bills. IT makes me sick to think about spending another dime this month.

I wish I had thought of it sooner. The neighbor girl would have watched them for $5 an hour. Or her parents, for free. I just felt bad asking so last minute. It was around 9 pm when dh talked me into the idea, last night.

So I gave in. Sure, whatever. I told dh we could do it if we just pay cash. We still don't have our rewards card replaced from the fraud anyway, so it's no good (no reward) to charge it. We made so much yesterday we decided to splurge - it will be about $25 for 2 hours care.

Anyway, I am excited though. It may be a silly date - to go to a seminar - but I think it will be good for both of us to attend. & it will be nice as a little date. & the kids will be THRILLED. IT's been a long time for them.

Next time I need to plan ahead better. I really just figured I was going to go alone. But yeah, excited by our impromptu date.

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

I found a cute bike today on CL for $20. The reviews aren't great - it's a cheap mountain bike. But it beats no bike. I think it will do the job and I will keep my eye out for something better. (& it looks CUTE - so hey). Hopefully dh will pick it up for me today.

Didn't get the $40 bike - it was too good a deal and it sold fast. Bummer.

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

One of our rebates on dh's computer parts came in the form of a debit card.

Boy do I HATE that thing. I tried to use it at Bed Bath Beyond and the clerk could not figure out how to split the payment. Fine enough, since I returned that stuff anyway, since.

So I figured I'd try at the gas station, but one again, DECLINED.

I Was fed up with the whole thing. So I set up an account online so I Can look at it closer. It says you can't pay at the pump. Could they not tell you that when they sent you the card?????? I was going to put this $20 in savings (thought it would be cash) so would prefer to use it for gas - some kind of "necessity."

So I will try again - supposedly I can pay inside.

I had the grand idea to send the rebate in my name. Dh keeps telling me he is positive he can use it at Target for groceries. Goodie for him, but it's a "Credit card" with my name on it. & they are pretty good about checking IDs and such. So I will try the gas station again.

I am not risking my discount again on a declined card. So it will be expensive gas to boot. But whatever, $20 in free gas.

We are expecting another stupid card rebate.

I have NEVER had problems with rebates, but I have to tell you, this is a new level of annoyance.

I am NOT a fan.

The only other thing I have considered is a $20 gift certificate at Target. It's easy and I need to get some gifts anyway. IT would equal the amount on the card. I don't see any other way to do it. (Oh yes - the card can not be used at restaurants. On and on an on... Something else they don't bother to tell you unless you register online. Gah.)

For whatever reason.

Sold 2 strollers - $40.

People showed up and everything!!!!!!

The ironic part is I inquired about a nice bike on Craigslist - listed for $40. Came with helmet - was like new.

Not holding my breath, but I think it's funny how $40 cash materialized today.

Person has not gotten back to me. If I can get the bike, it's a steal. Wouldn't be surprised if it was sold already though.

I just perused CL on a whim since I was getting excited about taking BM on more rides. Fall is excellent riding weather. IT just doesn't get too cold here, and if it is not raining, we have many biking months ahead of us. !!!

I know of one bike trail in the area and can't wait to take BM. I will have to research a few more...

I'll keep my eye out on CL. Dh and I both think our old bikes may be in our parent's garages. So we may luck out. I think we may need to buy helmets - even for LM and BM. So, we'll see. Maybe our Christmas gift to ourselves this year - we'll get Christmas money probably.

(My mom just informed me helmet is law for adults in Cali. Seriously? I guess we need helmets. Otherwise I Wouldn't have even thought it for dh and I).

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

Anyway, dh tried to pawn off the nice/unused umbrella stroller (was a gift) on the buyers, but as usual, no one wants it.

On a whim I called up the preschool. "Eh, they don't need a whimpy umbrella stroller. They need more double strollers," is what I thought.

Nope, she has been REALLY wanting one and almost picked one up at a garage sale last weekend. Because often she runs errands with one kid or something.

Oh, I am so glad someone can use it. I was going to donate it otherwise, which is fine. But I am so glad I thought to ask her.

& there you go - 3 strollers - gone!

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

We have an old bed taking space in the garage. IT was nice at some point but it has been moved so much and is a bit scratched up. I am ready to freecycle it. Dh wants to ask $50.

We'll try I guess.

Dh just said we shouldn't get bikes until we sell the bed.

Well, um, okay, sell the bed!!!!!

He has been resistant to it. So now I have some pull I guess. The bed is really the only thing taking up any room in the garage at this point.

(I need to do another box run at work tomorrow - may be the last - big boxes to the dumpster. I am going to try to talk dh into tearing down the TV box as well. For now it is a fort but I think it has run its course).

**We got stood 3 times from Craigslist. BAH! I think I Was about to donate everything when someone came by today, 11:30 on the dot like they promised, and gave me $10 for a booster seat. (My faith in humanity is restored. Seriously, would it hurt anyone else to CALL?).

I mean, when the profit for all this work was $0 I was getting pretty fed up. $10 is at least something. I could use it. But seriously, next time a charity comes with a neighborhood pickup (often) I am going to set everything out. I'll take the tax deduction. Yeesh.

**Reminds me, ebayer has not paid up for the $23 I made Friday. BAH to them too.

Anyway, the writing is on the wall there - I wouldn't be able to relist in time if they don't pay - so I am getting really peeved.

Just my gut feel, since we have had so many non-payers lately. The only other thing I could figure is the guy is out of town and maybe will pay up the next couple of days. But not holding my breath. We'll see...

**We put up our new drapes this weekend. We learned that Dh, BM and I could move a grand piano. (A Few inches anyway). Never occurred to us there was no room for a ladder in there. We worked it out and hung the drapes. It took like 3 hours. Don't Ask! LOL. I will be lucky if dh ever helps me hang drapes again. Luckily I think any we would want to ever hang, have been hung. Phew.

**I had begged dh to humor me for a bit. So yeah, it was like, "please just take a few minutes to help me" which turned into all day. So for that I treated him to dinner at a newer Indian cafe by us. We waited a while but $33 later we left happy as clams. I swear, when we left, it looked like we had completely licked all our bowls and plates clean. My sandwich was huge, so I took half home, but the rest of the food was GONE. Not a drop remained.

BM kept whimpering the chicken was too spicy for him, but eating it anyway. He got over it rather quickly. It was THAT good - yes.

**I did mention, the weather was GORGEOUS. We sent the kids outside to play while we hung drapes (all day) and afterwards I just wanted to collapse and so hung outside with them for a good hour or 2 afterwards. I just collapsed outside and chatted with the neighbors. We were going to invite their kids over if we ever figured out the drapes. But it was even better, the kids just played outside. Like ALL DAY. They were all in heaven.

**Today we got stood up for our picnic; our friends were sick. We went anyway. There is a very scenic park amidst a ghost town of empty house lots and model homes. We went over there because it was where we had been planning, and drug dh along rather against his will (he's trying to work on a wedding video - we are very distracting) because I find the place rather desolate and eerie. I wasn't going without more adults.

It was just SO peaceful there. But for all the airplanes taking off from the airport (& all the city scape) I would have thought I was in the wilderess. SO peaceful. IT was great - of course we were alone. There are not a lot of people living over there. The models next to the park look closed. We were surprised as we drove past some of the other models that they were open. The whole place seems rather abandoned really. I doubt the sales are going well. I would expect more building if they were.

So, for now, it's our own little desolate playground I guess. They have a nice playground and a little lake and so on.

The playground by our house, on the other hand, is still under construction. & well, it's not quite so peaceful!

**The weather was so nice I decided to work with BM on his bike. He did extremely well. Pretty wobbly in the a.m. and by the p.m. he got braking, steering, starting, and all that stuff down pretty good. HE still needs practice, but he is one determined boy. I could tell immediately this morning that he got the balance down, but not the steering so he had trouble staying on the sidewalk. We stuck with it though, which was probably good. I let him practice in the street a little more once he got it. But his steering got pretty good since I made him practice so much on the narrow sidewalk.

Oh, I did hurt my leg because I am not s'posed to run. I ran and it hurts. !! At least he didn't need me so much after the first hour or so.

Anyway, last time we tried he did not do so well at all, it seemed he learned balance through osmosis or something. Difference between night and day today. I am glad to check one more thing off the list. This year has been a busy year in that regard - swimming, bike riding, kindergarten. All this exciting stuff.

**I found a curtain rod for my drapes for $15. Target. Even dh grumbled it was cheap. I said, "It's 10 feet up in the air. Who cares?" LOL. IT looks fine. I am proud of the buy.

I had bought a $30 drape rod at Bed Bath Beyond that I will have to return. Didn't need it. But it was my backup if the rod was pure crap.

**I returned a few clothing items that were too big for BM. Target. I found some adorable girly outfits on sale in exchange.

I usually start my Christmas shopping in October, but don't usually get this far. I think I have got most of my shopping done. I do lots of donations and such in December so will encourage dh to get his shopping done in November. We just try to spread it out.

**Anyway, besides my drape detour, you could say I mostly lazed around outside all weekend. & that was nice!

I can get pretty bad spring allergies but it comes and goes. I had a couple of horrid years in San Jose mixed with years with no problems (most years).

Of course, Sacramento has very high rates of asthma and allergies. Since moving here I have pretty much suffered every spring.

Anyway, I wasn't feeling well Friday and though I was coming down with a cold. I mostly rested all day.

Yesterday I felt good as new but spent a couple of hours outside. After that I couldn't stop sneezing and I woke up, not quite bad as Friday, but not great.

I just told dh, "I have allergies!" Though in spring it really affects my eyes more than anything. Thank goodness my eyes are not itchy - it's just the worst.

So I googled a bit. I can't recall ever suffering from fall allergies. Or maybe I have always chalked it up to a virus. I don't know.

It just occurred to me because the weather has been so unusually warm. I wondered if there was possibly more pollen in the air or something with the warm weather. Maybe there are some confused plants?

So I was relived to see fall allergies are fairly common in some areas.

At least I am not crazy.

I'll survive.

It's kind of a shame when the weather is nice I can't stand to go outside though. The weather is GORGEOUS here and predicted to stay gorgeous for the next couple of weeks. I think I will stay mostly indoors!

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Still no heat. It's been around 80 during the day, 50 at night, and the house has settled around 76.

Weather predicted the same for the next couple of weeks. So I probably won't update much on that until we hit November.

I turned the water heater back down to our summer level. (I had turned it up because it had dropped to the 40s for a few days overnight).

I don't recall using the heat much in the fall, if at all, so I finally looked up my bill history to be sure. For last year anyway.

I guess my memory was correct. This year October has just been so odd. It seems it has had some cooler nights but hotter days than usual. Which makes for an odd mix.

Anyway, last year our natural gas bills:

$80 - $110 - Dec/Jan/Feb

$20 - $25 - Nov/Mar/Apr

$10 - May - Oct

So basically, we didn't turn on the heat last October or November? Well, okay then? I thought maybe we had in the mornings. And maybe we did. But I get the feeling the $20 bills have more to do with turning up the hot water heater more than anything. We turn it practically to "warm" in the summer because there seems to be no shortage of hot water in summer. Thus, the many months of $10 bills. But we have to turn it up considerably this time of year to get hot water pumping out.

I already turned it up this year. Maybe I was more spartan last year. Then again, it has gotten to 40 degrees overnight. Which is getting awfully winterish for this area.

So yes, odd weather all around.

For yesterday it hit 80 degrees and closer to 50 last night so the house is settling closer to 73 degrees. & weather is expected to be largely the same for the next week. 80/50. That is quite comfortable - I don't even need my robe or slippers on today.

Yes, on our balanced payment plan we only pay $30/month for gas.

I've already mentioned that people assume we have $500 months when it comes to winter because we have a large house. People under estimate the quality of new construction. I laugh because we don't pay that much all YEAR! & yes I do know people who get those kind of bills in winter, around here.

The house does quite well as long as there is sun, which I think why we fare so well in the spring and fall. In winter there just isn't as much sun to warm up the house, so we rely on the heat more. Kind of how it works with the energy efficiency thing.

I am sure there are those of you who live on the east coast and could probably live somewhere like here and never turn on the heat. I wouldn't be surprised. BUT around here I know people who leave there house at 74 degrees 24/7. I just find it SO wasteful.

As for me, I am allergic to cold. I need at least 65 degrees during the day. The question is when will the house drop that low???????? History says December. Or late November.

I am trying to adjust and get used to maybe one less degree every year. I find that an easier adjustment. Dh likes 68 and I can deal with it most of the time. Not always. But this year I think I am going to try 67. The kids are getting older and can handle it better. We go for 60 degrees at night. Which basically means we never turn on the heat at night. I am sure we could do colder at night, but that is as cold as it gets in this house, if the sun is out or the heat is on during the day. I could probably do 50 - I just don't have to. Well, have in the past. Just don't have to in this house.

You may recall 3 months ago there was a fraudulent charge on our old card we never use.

We just cleared that up like last week. It took about 5 calls to get the last $2 off the stupid card. How annoying, huh?

That one was an odd one because it is a card we had not used in years.

In fact, they were so obnoxious about the whole thing (gave us lots of runaround, particularly over the last $2) that I was ready to cancel the card. I told dh to just cancel the thing. I Was pretty peeved.

Well, today I am glad I didn't. It's the "backup" card that I don't think I have ever had to use. But I got gas yesterday, scanned my 25 cent coupon (25 cent per gallon) and threw it in the large (tall) trash.

Of course, my card was denied. I tried again, I figured I put in zip wrong. But it was denied. In the process I lost my 25 cent coupon. I am usually more superstitious about hanging onto it until I pump my gas, so I was pretty peeved at that point.

I dug out the old State Farm card I had threatened to cancel last month and hoped it would go through. I had absolutely no gas in the tank though I had enough cash to buy 3 gallons at least.

IT went through.

I knew dh was getting ice cream with the kids so I wondered if he had just charged at the same moment or something. I called him and he hadn't paid yet so I warned him card may be declined. HE told me he had just filled the van at the same gas station, earlier in the day anyway, so maybe it just looked suspicious that we both filled up within hours.

Well, his ice cream purchase went through fine. I figured I had entered the zip code wrong. I'd been able to just try again in the past, but who knows. IT seems we had both filled up on the same day before.

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Well, this morning Chase called. They had a $1.95 charge and a $17 charge that we did not recognize. Seemed minute overall, but for whatever reason it tripped their fraud alert. (Don't ask me why they allowed the "rare" ice cream purchase to go through but not gas at the gas station we use every week).

So they closed the cards and we will get new ones in a few days. Our tanks are full, pantry is full, and all that, so I expect we will just not buy anything until they arrive.

I am glad everything I ordered online was already shipped and charged. Phew!

Dh said we will have to notify everyone who charges our card automatically. I don't like that whole automatic charge thing and only our gym does. Funny enough, DISH does too, though we told them we did not want them to do it that way. So um, yeah, I don't think we will be giving Dish our NEW credit card #. Muahahaha to those idiots. We'll pay them what we owe them (by check) but I think we will drop them this month and hell if I am giving them my credit card # again. Just chalk it up to one more reason why I am not a Dish fan. The timing is rather sweet in that regard.

For us, this is the first time our main every day credit card has ever been breached. For that, you could call us lucky. But for me it's the 3rd time in the last year I have suffered some form of credit card fraud. I don't think I could be more careful with my info so it is REALLY frustrating. All the carefulness in the world does nothing when the keepers of your info are so NOT careful. BAH to them.

I do know the point when I jinxed myself. I was trying to talk Ms. PReschool into online bill pay and she was wary of online stuff like that. I told her I had only had my one major identity fraud BUT that had nothing to do with anything online. Nowhere online do I have stored my name, address, maiden name, birth date, and SS#. My suspicion all along has either been financial institution or government agency (IRS?) security breach. But yeah, if you breached my bank account online you couldn't find my birth date or SS#.

Anyway, so I told her I had NEVER had issues with online bill pay or online credit card purchases, and I think within the week I had that last credit card breach.

Color me jinxed...

I find it suspicious I did just do a lot of online purchases. Then again, it just may have nothing to do with it. Who knows...

Will never know because the credit card companies could care less about tracking down these criminals. Just a cost of doing business. Like this piddly $20 in charges means a hoot to them? Not. THey seem pretty unconcerned when strangers opened cards and ran up $5k bills ($5k per creditor) in my name. Just as piddly in their eyes.

I gave Kohls my e-mail for some sort of discount. I don't even remember what it was or if I even used it.

They e-mail me every friggin day. It's really annoying.

I guess I can remove myself from the list - probably will.

Since I shop so much online I also get lots of sales e-mails from the stores I frequent. I largely ignore them, but maybe take note when they have free shipping or something like that.

So yesterday I got an e-mail from Hanes. Lord knows I spent enough money this month. But I was looking for some particular under garments and found them on sale at their website a while back. So yesterday I got an e-mail about polos for sale, which BM needs for school.

They were on sale for $4.99 so I bought 4. Grandma bought him a couple of white shirts, but they have both been through much and I don't expect them to last long. Heck, I don't expect any of the shirts to last long.

I found a coupon for $1.99 shipping, so all was well. I was pleased with the purchase.

When I was at Target I bought a couple of sweat shrits, which he can wear. Hanes too. I have some stuff to return so I think I will pick up a couple of more sweathshirts. They were also in the $4.99 range - so I am rather pleased with the price of this stock up. He may possibly have more than he needs, but these will also be hand-me-downs, so more is better.

With the flood of polos, and the sweatshirts and his jacket, I don't think he really needs anything else. He doesn't really need long sleeve shirts. For all the "fancy" dress code I am relieved they allow sweat shirts. Much more practical in the cold. I am still worried he will lose his jacket, but at least since it is a "uniform" type jacket they allowed a space to write in his name. Smart!

I think I am now expecting 4 packages in the mail. Yeesh.

& yeah - NO MORE SHOPPING this month!!!!!

I have a halloween costume up for auction (ebay) that is doing well. It's up to $7 and I have 2 more days. I was going to auction another but there is such a flood of that particular costume that I saw one sell for $7 with like $5 shipping. I don't think so. I can wait until next year and post it a little earlier. I put it on Craigslist for now - but no bites. I think I am asking $15. I may lower it to $10. At least I don't have to deal with shipping. It's a NICE costume.

I have had about 6 e-mails re: strollers and it is really getting annoying. "Is it still available?" So I write back yes, or call and get voice mail. Either way, that's it. No follow up.

Bah.

Except some lady who lives like an hour away and wants to mail us a check to hold it until she is in the area. I may call her and say if she mails us cash she has a deal. Worst case is the cash doesn't arrive and we try again in a week or 2. I don't mind holding on to it for a bit. Dh pondered if this was a rue to say she mailed it, but not, and then sue us. I told him I wasn't worry about someone suing us for TWENTY DOLLARS. YEesh. I mean the court filing fee costs more than $20 I am sure?

I'll relist everything on the weekend - may have better luck.

For your individual tax returns. But we don't have procrastinators here, do we?

Actually, I an mot much of a procrastinator myself, and had all my 10/15 stuff done, when one of my clients disappeared off the face of the earth for a bit.

Well, she finally materialized to pick up her tax return today. Phew. I guess it's not MY problem if she doesn't pick it up, but she was driving me a little nuts.

10/30 is a payroll deadline but we have a couple of new employees and I feel WAY ahead of the curve - much more than the last couple of years anyway. It will be calm here until December. December is crunch time and quickly gives way to W-2 season and tax season immediately after. So my goal is to enjoy a rather calm 2 months or so.

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**Today I am spoiled, dh gassed up my van and took it through the car wash.

I guess I may return the favor since I have his car and it is almost out of gas.

We may pay close to $3/gallon with our coupons. Wow! We were paying $4 not too long ago.

**Dh was watching some special on transportation on NOVA. I had heard that a large chunk of California foreclosures were people who commuted and were hurt by transportation costs. I couldn't quite wrap my brain around this idea in the North because the outlaying areas were considerably cheaper than the city centers. (Well, except for 2005 when it was just insane everywhere). But I didn't quite *get* this. Well the show had a family who was spending $2k/month on gas with their gas guzzlers and long commutes.

Yikes! That maybe explains some of it. I guess it didn't occur to me if you were commuting over an hour that you would drive a 12mpg SUV. !!!!!!!!!!!!

(I do know a few super commuters and they all drive hybrids).

Interesting.

I can see how that $2k monthly bill could get in the way of your mortgage payments.

**Yeah, I think we are going to drop Dish and I think it is going to be expensive. But for dh's sanity I guess. Their DVR box sucks and the best anyone can say is "don't record so much." LOL. Our 10-year-old TIVO could handle much more. Anyway, we haven't even used up half the space on the thing. & I don't think we ever would. (We have a 30-hour TIVO and this is something like 2000 hours or some crazy insane thing - trust me - we have not over-extended it). IT has ISSUES!!!

His parents have a Direct TV TIVO we can HAVE. Which sounds nice, but we we can not transfer our lifetime subscription to it, so we will either have to buy one (they have been offering them on and off) or suck it up and pay the monthly TIVO fee.

Direct TV is more expensive.

& dh wants to buy a HD TIVO when they come out with Direct TV ones next year. THey have mostly been offering those with lifetime subscription deals. Essentially he wants 2 TIVOs, in the long run.

Can you say $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

In the meantime, dh couldn't be any grumpier. I guess we should just be glad we had our mom and pop cable so long (over 6 years). They were a STEAL and they were really good. I am afraid nothing else will compare.

It is enough for even my dh to swear off TV. HE is getting there. The cable and satellite monopolies are just hard to stomach.

We've never paid much for TIVO but they largely stopped offering lifetime subscriptions in recent years, so I guess I am glad they are offering those again, here and there. We paid something like $100 in 1999 - and used that one almost 10 years. We'd still be using it if we could stomach any of the cable companies around here. It's not compatible with satellite. Bah. But as long as we use our ancient first generaion TIVO (which was just fine - eons better than Dish's stupid DVR) then it is "free" to use. Our options are just few as far as actually using it.

Because it has the lifetime subscription we may be able to sell it (the old TIVO) for a decent amount. When we decide what we are going to do. I am glad we did not sell it yet. We may just end up with cable and keeping it. I have just heard such horrible things about Comcast. But at least we could go back to our old TIVO ways. *sigh* We don't have any other cable options for now.

Did I mention dh was grumpy?

Anyway, all this craziness in the world and all I have to hear about from dh how is own little world is ruined by Comcast (who bought our old little cable company). I know, it seems kind of silly to be so upset about it really. What can I say?

I took 2 old car stereos to Best Buy, for recycling yesterday. You can check your Best Buy, but ours takes 2 items every day (max anyway).

I combined it with my trip to Target for some clothes for BM and halloween candy. We walked between the 2. It is frustrating how there is absolutely no walking path between the shopping centers - it was not a far walk at all - but we mostly trekked through the empty parking lots and traipsed through some bushes to get over there. I was pleasantly surprised there was some sidewalk.

Brings our total to:

-2 computers (one ancient/one dead)
-vacuum cleaner (broken)
-cell phone (replaced)
-2 car stereos (ancient)

I envision one more trip for our PDAs from when we lived in Silicon Valley. (They are a decade old).

Dh tells me yesterday he wants to see if there is any resale value. Whatever, not holding my breath. If I just take them in and don't tell him he will NEVER know. Trust me. LOL. But I will let him look. I think I will just give him a deadline. If those things are still here 12/31, they are going to be recycled. !!

I have an old film camera I will probably donate.

I tossed an old broken lamp in the garbage yesterday. Dh tossed one when we cleaned the garage.

I am feeling refreshed with all this purging. !!!

I realized that fall seems to have a similar effect to me as spring. Not the same, but the change in weather has jump started me a bit.

We still have 2 fans that we never use. For now I have so much other stuff for sale (costumes and strollers) that I think I will leave them be. If I ever get through the rest of my sell list, I will consider it. It's something you can maybe see as useful, but has been sitting in our garage for almost a decade. I am inclined to take cash. Maybe earmark them for sale closer to summer. That is a good idea.

we still have to deal with my bed as well. Will sell it or freecycle it.

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Yesterday we weren't at one with nature. I think we did about 3 loads of dishes, 4 loads of laundry, and I spent a good chunk of the evening hosing off the front of the house. Ugh. It was well overdue. I should probably hose off the back of the house a bit next weekend. But the front is now nice and shiny. (I remember doing this in 2006 so it is not something I do very often - LOL).

We had cut our lawn watering in half now that the 100-degree days are over. It might even out a bit.

Then again it is forecasted to be 80 - 90 degrees all week. Yeesh. Might have to crank up the watering a tad... I thought we were done with this...

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P.S. My buy into VG Total Stock Index Friday was around $21.75/share. Almost 150 shares.

I looked back over the last 2 years since I opened the account and I have mostly paid $32-$36 per share.

Funny enough, my regular $50 monthly buy went through Friday night as well.

Looks like it got down to 43 degrees last night.

Impressed the house is still hovering around 70, though slightly chillier.

No heat here.

We got out blankets for the beds though.

I will break for heat when it gets much colder in the a.m. I hate showering in the cold. It's the kind of thing I may break now because it is such a shock. I can ease into colder mornings a little better, but this is a bit much, all at once. I don't care as much about the rest of the day. & we don't use heat at night. (The house would drop at most 10 degrees and that is only if it is 20-30 outside, which is rare).

We'll see. I do wonder how much we would save if I was willing to shower in the cold. I am trying to remember my pattern last year but I think I would turn on the heat when I woke up so our Master area was slightly warm by the time I shower and dressed.

We might have even turned it off during the day until I got home. Dh could live in an igloo - he doesn't care.

I usually nag him to keep the house warmer for the kids.

To be fair, if I didn't turn on the heat in the mornings, or ever, the house would probably just keep getting colder and colder. So I don't think it is the worst thing to flip it on a half hour every morning.

But I can work on setting it a degree or 2 lower.

I think the kids can live with less heat this year. They are both old enough, and they run around enough!!! We've been a little bit of extra energy hogs with wee little ones around.

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Boy, this is a weekend of spend spend spend.

I finally found some thermal drapes for the family room. We have a green colored drape right now (just some cheap things I picked up eons ago). I know red would look nice, but I saw quite a few drapes in a "silver sage" color that looked rather similar to our green. Burgundy would no doubt change the feel of the room much. Though I had bought them before and tried them. It was just a toss up and I think dh preferred the green. So at least I know it works.

Anyway, I found some drapes on JCPenny (again) yesterday, online, and tried to order them, but they wouldn't add to my cart. I was frustrated, but not too frustrated before I realized the drapes were too short anyway. (Maybe it was a sign. I was going to measure before I completed the purchase, but still, the website was aggravating me).

But then I found them. $80 (for 4 panels) for some high quality ivory colored thermal drapes. (The other colors were blech but I figured I could live with ivory).

They had great reviews for being affordable and energy saving and nice looking and all that. They were nothing fancy, but probably a step up from my current $15 panels. These were on a deep sale.

The thing is I thought I had a free shipping coupon, but I realized I didn't have a $100 order to get free shipping. So I did a last ditch search for online coupon codes and found 20% off.

I can't help but wonder if I could have saved 20% off my bigger order for the living room drapes. I think it's too late - I already used that coupon. Orelse I would consider re-ordering them and returning the first order.

Lesson learned! I was happy with free shipping and didn't even look. DOH! An expensive lesson. It's like, I know this, but I wasn't thinking. *sigh*

But yes, I am pleased. It came to just under $80 for the drapes with shipping and all. I didn't want to spend a lot of money - I just want warmer windows. So I am pleased with this.

I do still have to buy a rod for the living room. I think I will wait until I see the drapes and get a better idea what kind of rod will work.

Nope, the spending is not done.

I also did a fair amount of christmas shopping yesterday. I found a Set Cubed game (looks like Set & Scrabble combined) which was just perfect for my dad. Dh picked up a gag gift for my mom. I also saw a game called Hisss while we were out and about. We had played it at the library before and it was awesome. It's like dominoes in concept but you build snakes with cards instead (each side of each snake is a different color, and there are a few heads and tails to complete your snakes with).

Anyway, that one I figured I'd price online. It was a good call. I found it at amazon for $8.99. I bought 3. We may keep one for us and keep the other 2 for gifts. If I had more cash to spare I would have bought 10. Gifts for a long time. LOL. I just thought it was so clever and BM loved it last time we played, at library family night.

Yesterday we also did the great clothes shuffle. I now have a giant bag of goodwill stuff from LM. I pulled out the next size and some winter clothes from BM's discard pile. I then went through and filled a new plastic tub with BM discards and assessed his situation. It's not bad. I just need to buy him a couple of sweatshirts and pants for school. He seems to have casual covered. Plenty of jeans that still fit.

I was worried because he put on some 5T pants that looked like they went about to his knees, yesterday. I was preparing for a large shopping trip. But most of the stuff I found yesterday seemed quite long enough. Those were an anomaly, phew. He might need a casual sweater and a couple of long sleeved shirts, but really he mostly needs more school clothes.

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Yesterday was quite nice. We went over to the California State Railroad Museum (highly recommend if you are ever in the area). We had never been. It was as awesome as I had heard, yes. Lots of historic trains inside (the place is just huge - not a huge museum overall - but the trains are so massive and it is amazing how many they have in there) and they had a couple of train tables and a bunch of model trains running in the kids' area. Kids just played forever. LM is a train fiend so it was just awesome.

We bought our membership (we decided to drop the zoo and add this one). It was only $35 for us since the kids are free anyway. Will pay for itself in 2 trips. (We dropped the Fairytale Town membership until spring so I guess it's the only membership we have right now).

We did end up paying $6 to park all day. Not bad, but not great. I think we could probably find some free parking somewhere and will make the membership very worthwhile. A perfect day excursion for LM.

We also rode the "spook-o-motive." LM was in heaven, of course. We did well, it wasn't crowded at all and they had much more costumed characters around than I remember last year. IT was fun. I think now with our membership we will have to return for the Christmas train.

Well, besides all that, we ate lunch and window shopped.

The kids spent their money on souvenirs and such.

I was proud of BM. Before we left I asked him if he wanted to count his money to see how much he had (now that he has an allowance). He had about $20 and for whatever reason said, "I want to spend $8." I said, "well, let's bring $8 then. You don't have to spend it all." I was just impressed with no prodding he decided to save more for later than he was going to spend.

& really, he had a blast with it. He LOVED being able to decide what he could buy with his money. We were trying to make him think because he settled on kind of a stupid souvenir in the end. So as I was trying to discuss it with him he kept saying, "So, can I buy it?" I kept saying, "You can buy whatever you want. I just want you to realize that if you spend it now you won't be able to buy anything else today. OR less to spend tomorrow." You know, along those lines. But he asked me like 3 times, "So, can I buy it then?" "You can buy whatever you want if you give it some thought," was my reply.

He's not at the "thought" age, but I think it's a good step. I know some people would find all this horrible, making my 5yo buy his own toys or whatever. But that is how my parents did it. I remember going to Tower records and spending my allowance every weekend. I would save some of course, but enjoyed being able to buy whatever I wanted with my own money. So it's just kind of fun to be able to start teaching the kids more about money.

The kids also bought rubber duckies with cash from their piggy banks. Since LM does not have an allowance, dh bought him a toy, to be slightly more fair. We strongly suggested he got the toy train instead of the stupid souvenir (like his big brother). Talked him into the toy.

So both kids were happy and all was well.

Yeah, you would even think that BM would be jealous that we bought LM a toy. But you know what? He could care less. He had so much fun taking his cash to the register I don't think he even noticed that we bought LM a toy.
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Well, today I am going to run by Target (I do have a couple of $5 off coupons) and maybe drop off those old car stereos for recycle at Best Buy.

I have to get listing on ebay and Craigslist.

The rest of the day I am fine with vegging. Phew.

Well, it only took 7 years...

My parents "gave" me their grand piano when we moved into our large home (around the same time my sister moved to the east coast). They didn't use it, they weren't going to ship it to my sister (we looked into shipping my old upright to her - EXPENSIVE - more than it cost anyway). So I won. I still consider it my parent's piano anyway. When I mentioned in some forum thread I had no significant assets besides cars, the thought did cross my mind, and it quickly flitted out. Eh, it's not mine - I would certainly never sell it.

Anyway, we have a very large window in the living room. All the windows had blinds installed by the builder before we moved in, but there is a crescent shaped window over the main window, which has no blinds. From day one I had worried about sunlight damaging the piano. Thing is we should have taken care of that when we were both working - doh.

I priced long drapes that would just cover all the windowage - and back then I couldn't find much. I remember finding drapes in the $250 range or thinking we would have to order custom draper. So I put it on the back burner. Just couldn't quite squeeze in the budget. Or maybe I just couldn't stomach the price.

As we started our mid-term savings fund back up this year that is one of the first things I had in mind, but I wanted to get some decent cash in there for more pressing things first.

We've been here almost 7 years. Luckily the dual paned windows seem to have not taken their toll on the piano, but still, for the long run, I am sure it is better off completely out of the sunlight. We also looked into getting treatment for that window and such. It's just not a priority at all. Don't ask me why - it really should be. It's not even MY piano.

So yesterday I was perusing thermal drapes for the family room (where we spend most of our time). I was a little frustrated because I think I found decent drapes, but the color I wanted was out of stock. This may take a while.

But I saw JCPenny was having a giant drape sale and had a lot of insulated drapes. So I was perusing their website.

& then I saw them. My jaw dropped - $70 (50% off) for the most perfect drapes for the living room. They were for floor-to-ceiling drapes. I thought, "maybe those will fit." The window is not floor-to-ceiling, but our ceilings are 10-foot-high. They would be if we had 8-foot ceilings.

I already had the tape measure out so gave it a measure.

The window in there is actually 4 windows separated by a sliver of wall. 2 of the drape panels were long enough and wide enough to cover the entire windows, but the 2 drapes together would not be wide enough to meet in the middle. Some wall would show in the middle.

I am not sure how I felt about that. I told dh, "you know, it just might look stupid." My bubble burst a bit.

Of course, dh, the wise one, said, "Why don't you get 3 panels?"

Hmmmm. Because it would cost almost $250!!!! For drapes!!!!!

We decided to go for it because they are easy to return in store. We are going to hope 2 works, but we'll have 3 just in case. & if they look hideous in person - yeah - I am going to be very particular for this large of a purchase, for sure.

I still struggled with this purchase though. I told dh, "you know I have been thinking about this for almost 7 years. This is hardly rash. But I don't think now is necessarily the time to buy $250 drapes."

So dh was very sweet. He asked me about my allowance, if I had updated our balances lately. I pretty much said no, hadn't updated because I hadn't bought anything in a while - neither has he. I am sure I have $250 in my allowance to spare. The thought hadn't crossed my mind. I mean, probably because they are a household item. But I will probably deduct whatever we spend over $100 or so from my allowance because they are completely unnecessary (we could find something cheaper to do the job). So anyway, I Was actually thankful he brought up the allowance angle - suddenly it made a little more sense as a purchase.

& so, there I was shopping for thermal drapes, and I ended up with luxurious black and gold drapes (not thermal) for the living room.

So there you have it, I will post pictures when I get them up!!!!!

I am excited!

(People would pay $500 for these things? Full price? Yeesh. The picture actually showed 3 panels).

Nope, could not afford to drape the whole house. Most of our drapes are home made. & most of our windows are drape-less.

Well, I am still drape shopping for the family room - for the thermals. These windows are weird sized too. *sigh* Maybe I'll find the perfect drapes in another 7 years or something.

But yeah - I saw a lot more affordable things to cover our large windows, that I hadn't seen before. That is nice - I guess so many people have been buying these monstrosity of houses the last 5 years or so. We have a lot of issue with this house. We love it, but it did go against our frugal nature to buy a house with so many odd shaped windows. Just not a lot of practicality in this house, in a lot of ways. Though the sad thing was we bought it because it was just about the most practical new house we could find. But far from perfect, for sure. I mean, if this is as good as it gets. Pfffft.

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Speaking of the house, the weather has cooled considerably (40s overnight). It's getting on the verge of winterish. Ugh. I mean, it doesn't get below 30 here. Usually anyway.

House has settled at 71 degrees.

I think I have to go searching for slippers. My feet are cold. & we have to start dragging out the warmer clothes now that the inside of the house dropped below 80 degrees.

But no heat yet.

My hope for the thermal drapes is to significantly decrease heat usage, actually. There is a lot of the time the the thermostats says 68 but there is just more of a chill in the air. So I am hoping the drapes help take care of the chill.

Man, it's quiet around here.

I guess why I am more bloggy. Kind of staying tuned for all the financial news, but not a lot going on in the blogs. But I feel rather distracted. Online more than I should be today.

DOW, 8500. Interesting. I am still curious to see my buy in price on the VG Stock Market Index.

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I went to Taco Bell for lunch. The plan was to run through the drive thru and have a lightning fast lunch.

I even drove dh's car today with this in mind (my driver side window doesn't work - don't ask - POC car).

But when I pulled up the line was out the wazoo.

Because of my broken window I often just run inside to a fast food place and hardly ever see a person. So I was disappointed to walk in and be third in line.

Not a biggie, but when I walked out, there were literally 10 people in line. It was CRAZY! & the drive thru was way longer than usual as well.

The strangeness continues.

Since I don't like to carry cash and deal with cash, I mostly pay everything with my credit card, to rack up points. Even Taco Bell? Yes.

I usually feel rather alone in this endeavor. I mean, sure, they offer it because people do use it and tend to spend more. But for me, I charged my 80 cent taco. I don't think I have ever seen anyone else use their charge card at any fast food place.

Anyway, the 3 people in front of me all paid by card (fair enough, could have been debit, but I don't think they were. Don't you need a pin to used a debit cars? I don't know, I don't have one). & then, the person behind me whipped out their card.

Whoa, weird!

I just walked out thinking to myself, "This is a sign of the economy. A crowded Taco Bell with only credit paying customers."

Or I could have just read too much into it - but it was kind of odd to me.

I had to wait like a 15 minutes for my lunch. Yeesh. So much for fast!

I was glad I didn't idle my car in that line though - I think I saved some gas.

I just moved $3k cash into the market.

IT was money I have in a CD to plow back into the market at a later time (cash from 2006 - I could smell this coming and my gut told me not to invest it).

Anyway, today the gut says, "INVEST!!!!!" It was whispering this to me yesterday and I thought, "Eh, too much trouble."

But today my gut is screaming at me.

IT's extremely complicated, but since my catastrophic efund (about half of it anyway) is sitting in MMMFs (Cash) in our ROTHs, I was able to execute a buy this mornings. VG Total Stock Index, wherever it lands at the end of the day. (No lower price since I have been an investing adult, just about. I don't expect much from the market today. The DOW is not going to jump to 12k anyway).

Now, after this buy, a chunk of my efund is sitting in a CD elsewhere (ROTH), but I don't have to break it right now. Essentially, that's what I did. I still have my efund - it is now in a CD that matures next year.

The IRS rules are so convoluted though, if I do need it due to emergency, I will have to roll it over to my Fidelity account, and then withdraw it, to be tax free. Which could take weeks. Simply because the CD is a rollover and I can not take it out tax-free. But my ROTH at Fidelity has enough direct contributions to withdraw tax-free monies from.

Gotta love it...

I am okay with this. I am happy I do not have to break the dang CD right now.

Just a whole lot of tax complicated shuffling...

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Because of my gut I Was more 75/25 stock/cash before all this mess and today I Am at about 80/20 which is pretty much my comfort level. All I really did was rebalance. I would have waited it out a bit otherwise. Well, I don't know, I may have rebalanced anyway today, with all these lows. Selling off some bonds and cash...

What a rebalance it was!

$3k may not seem much, but it's all I got. I am not compromising my efund as a whole, or my long-term investment plan. & anyway, $3k is a decent chunk of my portfolio. So it is a lot to me. A good opportunity. I would consider buying in another $1k if things get lower.

The annoying thing about mutual funds is I won't know my price until around 3pm here (west coast). I guess the plus side is I don't have to wait so long, being on the west coast.

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I also dropped my VG MMMF to below the initial minimum ($3k). Does it matter? A lot of my funds have dropped below minimums due to the market. Most of them are no fees. (Like Vanguard - no fees for electronic statements - a while since I read all that fine print). So I don't know what that means. I've never dropped below for selling a chunk. I have just about $1k left. I may invest it too. We'll see...

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P.S. Not attempting to time the bottom. I have a 30-year+ investment horizon and this is simply a great deal...

P.S.S. My efund is now $5k liquid cash, $4k ROTH MMMFs, and $3k ROTH CD. There is another $3k in that CD which makes up a cash part of my actual retirement portfolio (sans efund monies). Oy vey. I haven't decided how to keep track of all this... It's getting too complicated for my tastes. I guess it's all moot when the CD matures. One more year.

Considering a big purchase. Thermal drapes.

Last year I felt too broke. I think this year is worse! Broke with medical bills.

But yeah, the thermostat will say 70 degrees but there will be a chill in the family room where we spend most of our time. Because the entire wall against the couch/chair is pretty much window. Excellent double paned windows that keep the house pretty comfortable, but still can't erase that slight chill in the air. (& yes, I am an extreme whimp - allergic to cold).

So I will probably need to spend around $100 on 2 sets of drapes for the 2 windows.

On the flip side, I don't expect to use the heat as much if we take care of that problem area. So I think I should just bite the bullet!

Our bed is farther from the window in our bedroom and it just has a very heavy drape material (home made drapes) so I don't have any issue up there. Plus when I am in bed there is lots of body heat and blankets!

The kids' have their beds under the windows and they don't have drapes anyway (BM has some paper thing variety - BM has none). So I think we will test out the drapes downstairs and maybe before winter, if we like them, we will purchase some for the kids. At least BM. I have no idea what we are going to do with LM's room. It was the nursery and it needs a revamp. Should probably not buy drapes until we know what we are going to do in there.

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Yesterday I canceled our farm organic produce delivery. They asked why. I Said, "I can't afford it right now." They were understanding and surprised we were paid up-to-date. Said it's a common thing these days (canceling. not paying. both). Not surprised.

School picture time is here! Dh wanted to buy the class picture which was $11. That was the cheapest package. The next cheapest package was $14. It has like 8 wallets or something. So that is what we got.

We did have the option to buy nothing. So that is nice. What I read around here about some of the school pictures - yeesh. With all the technology we have and all the amateur photographers we know (friends and fam) pictures are just not something we need to spend money on. I think having a class picture will be nice. A few wallets for $3, whatever.

Dh is doing a product test for a month, for $125. Some kind of soap.

I just deposited $100 into my account from ebay. I am using it to replenish my short-term savings a bit. (Dh sold a pile of games - he made $50 last week too).

I can't say if it is all profit, but he let me keep it. He is holding on to a Wii and hoping to make a killing come Christmas.

So the extra money flow is good.

My last balance transfer was officially paid back today. Phew. I guess I am no longer in credit card debt. Though in my mind I never considered it credit card debt. I mean, I would just forget it was there. & the cash was a wash against the debt. But yeah, until things settle down a bit I won't be doing any balance transfers.

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Dh bought BM a $20 costume. I was pulling out last years' costume to sell to make it a wash.

Wouldn't you know, I found 4 costumes. 2 Nemo costumes from last year, Winnie the Pooh (from when BM was 2) and a monkey costume (from when BM was 1).

I was surprised all the costumes fit LM.

I decided to keep the larger Nemo one since it is nice and has a few years in it.

To be fair, I offered to donate a couple of them to a lady who never showed up to pick them up. I posted them for sale and someone requested if I would donate them. I said, "sure." She never showed up. Now I have 4 costumes. LOL.

Selling the suckers!

I tried to talk LM into the monkey costume, but that is too babyish for him. He will be "Super Nemo" instead. Happy enough as long as he can pretend Nemo is a super hero. HE really took to the Pooh costume and it is also a little large, so we will keep it around. He may wear either come Halloween.

I have a high quality nemo one to sell now (may get $30) and a monkey. No idea what we'll get for that one. It's cute and in great shape, but not as fancy as the Nemo.

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Weekend is here!

Well, I know I will be drape shopping (online) and ebay selling. I also have a ton of stuff to unload off craigslist. If not, it will go in the donation pile.

We need to go through the old clothes and pull out winter clothes. Donate the stuff LM has outgrown. I just set out 5 boxes for donation, we may have a couple more for next time.

Maybe will go clothes shopping for BM (likely online. I perused Target a couple of weeks ago but didn't seem to have the boring uniform type clothes in stock, which he needs). I guess I may go by Target and bulk up on a few jeans and warm shirts for the weekends and such. He can wear jeans on Friday, phew. I don't even bother with the thrift store anymore - Target is so cheap and seems to hold up. I rarely pay more than $5 for an item of clothing for BM. For things LM will get to wear too. The convenience wins me over. I just hate shopping. I hate driving around to the thrifts to pay $3-$4 anyway. When you consider gas savings Target probably wins anyway.

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This month we wanted to go to the train museum. This weekend might be good while it is still pleasant weather.

I am starting to think we can also do a hike in October - weather has just been SO NICE.

It dropped into the 40s last night.

2 weeks ago was 100 degrees. Right now it is 48 degrees. It's a little extreme for my taste. I prefer to ease into fall a bit more. But the weather has been absolutely beautiful and I guess little to complain about.

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Dish sucks. We are going to drop Dish. When is the question. Dh called them about a couple of issues which for one they did not understand in the least. Worse, he has been hung up 4 times in the last week. FOUR times. We figure it has to be their system. Their sales people can not ALL be that rude. Can they? Either way, unacceptable. We only switched to Dish because our little local cable company got bought out by Comcast. We haven't been in cable hell with the rest of the world. This just sucks.

We would quit except dh has heard Comcast is way worse and he wants to switch to Direct TV WHEN THEY GET TIVO next year. We realize we are quite loyal to TIVO and all these other DVRs suck. So anyway, our parents have Direct TV with no complaints and their DVR does look a little better. Dh wants to hold out until they offer TIVO. It's in the works for now. Our TIVO is not compatible with either Dish or DirectTV. I am kind of glad we kept it for now. We may suck it up and switch to Comcast for a few months if this continues.

Dh called again and asked to talk to the retention department but they said no pretty much. Nothing they can do. ????? They gave us $20 off for this month and dh is content with this for this month. But he literally threatened to leave, quite seriously, and they were kind of like, "so?" Which, yeah, pretty much seals the deal. It may be a few months, but we are not happy at all and not sticking around for this crappy service.

I could probably live without both Dish and cable, but don't even go there. My dh lives for his TV. LOL. So we have to find something. Though I have to say even he is not against boycotting the entire system. It may come to that. Man, is he a grump though when he doesn't have his TV working "just so." It will be nice if we ever move past this. At this point I don't even care how much it cost. I mean, within reason anyway. If we have to pay $20/month more for DirectTv and dh blood pressures lowers, then at this point, it will be worth it.

We try really hard not to deal with giant corporations and stuff. Stick with the mom and pops. So this is just frustrating. We want our mom and pop cable back, for sure!!!!!