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Excited, I picked up another side gig for about $60 for a hour. Of course this will go towards the student loans.

I’m really hoping that my business would pick up, but it takes patience.
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I've noticed that if I get up and go for a walk for about 40 minutes before sitting down to work, my day goes so much better. I've been walking with DD almost every day, but that morning walk alone seems to clear my head and give me much more energy. And two walks a day seems like a good idea, right?

I've got a document to edit this morning for a university committee, and will also have to face some decisions about class cancellations. My dept chair would like to drop two...
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Today I'm heading out to Walgreens to pick up some groceries and toiletries.

I'm also going to sit down and make my summer order of free OTC items, which is a benefit of my Medicare Advantage plan.

Yesterday I was vacuuming in the dining room and I knocked off the edge of the table! It's fallen off before, but I thought I had repaired it. I rescued the hardware and set it aside with the slat that came off. Table repair/refinishing is now a bigger priority, but of course...
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Hubby is sick with bronchitis again..he just can't seem to kick it...and to top it off I am exhausted and sick as well...hes on his 3rd set of meds...hopefully they work...and on the upside we have bought so many meds that we are now on free meds for the rest of the year that are on the PBS scheme...so that is nice!!

I helped my daughter build flat packs today..took 6 hrs and I shouldn't have done it I am sick and probably needed to rest up but I said I would do it so I did..but...
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Somehow it is already July 21. I have tried keeping myself busy doing somewhat useful things. We remodeled a bathroom ourselves in my rental over the 4th of July break. That was exhausting but so satisfying to see the finished work!

I haven't done much in the way of planning for next school year because I don't know what grades I will be teaching and the whole structure may change by then anyway. Currently it will be a hybrid model of face to face classes 2 days and asynchronous...
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Monday was a long, long day. The garden is getting into gear and I harvested a ton of basil, my first two zucchinis, 4 cucumbers, and pulled a bunch of weeds. They never do stop. Tomorrow I need to pick strawberries, peas, and blueberries. Maybe raspberries, too. But I have to do it early, because it was 80 degrees for most of the day and it was just too hot outside.

Inside the house we are working on completely redoing our makeshift kitchen/pantry area. Already it has...
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There was a baseball game scheduled yesterday, but morning storms made the field too wet, so the game was cancelled. Therefore, I had a long day of being inside. I did a lot of reading.

My one excitement of the day will be getting the new litter box pads from Amazon. Fingers crossed!

I have been watching "Turn" on Netflix. It's rather gory, and half the time I don't exactly follow what's going on, but I really like that period of history (early America) and the settings...
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I keep hearing John Mayer singing, "waiting on the world to change" in my head. Right now we seem to be waiting so we can take the next step and wait some more.

Our biggest wait worry is for DD's "CAS" number. I think (I'm foggy lately) I wrote that she's decided after all to go to Edinburgh for university. Her AP scores were excellent--all 5's--and she had an unconditional offer. But we need that number from the school so her visa can get started. Then we'll wait for...
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Every little bit helps. I signed up for budget billing with my electric company, I’d budgeted $120 for the month. However, the bill was to be $150 but because I did the budget billing it was $97. I took the $20 saved and added to my student loans.

This week is a pay week, and I’ll be adding $300 to my student loans.

I went back to using cash envelopes, I noticed I was spending a little more with my debit card. I also noticed that I still have about $94 left in my...
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When I was a little girl, my dad would take me to Fairfield, Iowa, to visit my great aunt during the summer. I would stay a week with her. She lived in this old house that had been made into three apartments. I remember loving that old house with the huge glass in the front door, the beautiful woodwork, and the light fixtures. Huge evergreens flanked the driveway. My aunt's apartment had a turret and that was her bedroom closet. The people who lived on the first floor had a huge...
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I was talking with a few friends and I read a great deal and always like to read comments in places that have them it shows me just how MANY people seem to think everyone is in the EXACT same circumstance.

I think People can agree on far more items then they think but too many seem to lack critical thinking about the whole pandemic thing.
Most here would say we are glad we have any kind of EF and we feel a bit more secure. Many whom still have their job may only have...
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I ordered 100 pads for the litter box from Amazon on Friday -- $41 after using a coupon and my cash back from the Chase Amazon credit card. I ordered carbon pads this time, which are supposed to control odor better. They should arrive on Monday.

Variables are at 28%.

We have been experiencing record heat -- heat indexes above 100 -- and I have been running the air most of the time. I do give it a rest in the morning, when the coolness has built up overnight.

Yesterday...
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So we have decided to start looking at the best options when we buy a house...wether or not we go with a big or smaller bank or another company (has been around for years)..some offer package deals some don't..wether or not we even want to look at that..ther eis a lot of information out there so now is the time to start looking and seeing what the options are so we are ready to go when we want to buy...its a lot to research...but worth it
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Not only did DH manage to find a big case of Charmin toilet paper at Costco, he found a six pack of Puffs tissues at Safeway. Both had a limit of one. My supply of things had gotten pretty low. I would like to stock up before cold and flu season hits again, but it has been very hard to find the soft stuff. With sensitive skin and allergies, we have to be very careful what brands we buy and they can only be white, no dyed patterns.

I have always tried to keep two cases of...
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The last time I blogged here, we had just been put on shut-down orders.

I've now been back at the office for a month, although I'm working around the person whose desk is nearest mine. That's still 10' away, so not too scary. Her son works at a grocery store, though, so I worry that she is the likeliest person in our office to have an asymptomatic exposure. Over the summer she is part-time, so she works at the office 1 day a week and I'm in the other 4. Once school starts...
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From a high of $22k in credit card debt earlier this year I’m now down to...[drumroll]...$12k! And I now have a $5k buffer in my checking account that I haven’t had in years, plus I have $2300 in savings that I haven’t had in years. All of this has happened in less than 6 months, y’all! 🤯

Amazing how quickly you can see changes when you buckle down & make the changes. Also, I would never wish the devastation of this pandemic on anyone, but it honestly had a role...
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Porch has been replaced. The final cost was about $4,400 with $2600 was labor. We are happy with the result. Husband painted the porch beams today since we did not replaced these. They were in excellent shape. Here are some pictures of the end result. We still have to paint the trellis and landscape a bit.








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Finally my student loan payment hit my account, since last month I’ve paid off $2375.75 in interest. I have $800 to go before I can start tackling the principal of $6,629.41. I’m so excited because next week is pay day, and I’m throwing $300 on this loan and then on the first I’ll throw $700 for a total of $1,000. That means my balance will be $6429, all principal.

I’m so close to paying this off I want to scream. Though I have a huge student loan debt, it will just...
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I got a marketing flyer from my credit union for home loans about a month ago. The rate to refinance was lower than my current rate with PNC and there were no fees or closing costs. It seemed like a no-brainer. After seeing Amber’s success in refinancing, I was inspired to follow-up.

I talked with the representative to verify the no costs, including no prepayment penalties, and then gave them to go-ahead to move forward. The paperwork arrived a few days later and I read the...
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I decided to go ahead and top off our vacation fund with part of the loan proceeds. Another goal done! Only one left which has $5,800 left to pay off.

Baby girl is not growing properly. Took her to a specialist who says she has a hidden tongue tie. Frustrating since I've had her checked at least 3 times by others and it was never caught. They referred me to another specialist who will hopefully get back to me today. If they deem it necessary we will have to take her about 5...
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