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I got some course prep done Saturday morning, caught up with laundry, and thought about tackling "the drawer of death" as my husband calls it. It's where insurance papers go to die as well as articles I somehow think I need to save and coupons, school announcements, and various horrors.

That's been pushed off for during today's football game. I figure it will be a bad game for us here in Cheeseland so DH and I will work through the drawer to distract us. I'm hoping to get...
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Every so often, I try to find different ways to save money. Not that I'm an expert, but after awhile, so many articles seem to say the same thing over and over. I do many of them. There are a couple I won't. One is we don't plan to give up cable. My husband doesn't drink, smoke, golf, gamble, or do any of these things that cost lots of money. He enjoys television and the shows that are on cable. I figure that is is entertainment and we can afford it. We rarely if ever go to a...
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Knock on wood, but the year is going well so far. More peace and quiet than I remember in *forever*.

I can't tell you what I am doing with this latest reset. Crossing my fingers that the tornado around me loses some steam? I'm trying to be more assertive with work hours? But... this only works when everyone isn't out with some emergency or other.

{I can't imagine what else I could possibly do within my realm of control. Which is why I am just at the point of crossing...
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Not a financial update but it has been raining here all day...might not sound like much but with the fires over here it is really helping out....and hopefully will we wet the ground enough that new fires wont start...
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They finally gave us extra help at work. We now have 2 providers for 4 hours per day on Monday, Friday, and weekends. It definitely helped yesterday as we saw 22 patients from 9-1 which I couldn't possibly have kept up with by myself. Now I just have to hope the volumes support adding a 2nd person on the remaining 3 days of the week since I work Tuesday and Thursday by myself.

We went out to dinner last night to a place we like. The restaurant sent out an email yesterday morning...
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Yesterday Iggy was sick all morning. He had uncontrollable diarrhea and he was vomiting, too. I decided to forgo the memorial service and take him to the vet. The vet checked him out and gave him fluids and a cortisone shot. The latter is risky for his condition, so I am watching him. The bottom line is, it may make him feel better, but it may hasten his kidney failure. It can go either way. I know he is near the end anyway. I just want him to feel better. If he doesn't,...
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Rolled my coins and I had a total of $29 dollars, not bad.

I can never understand why people take their coins to a coin machine to count and pay a fee. It took me just a little time to do so. Even before I was living a frugal life style, I never did this. To each it’s own.

The $29, went towards the remaining credit card debt. 😀

Friday is payday and I’ll be adding an extra $157 dollars to the credit card. I think by doing that, I’d pay an extra $800 this month...
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We haven't spent anything these last five days. When you can't easily get around town you don't tend to go out and purchase things. It's been a nice quiet weekend so far. The snow finally started melting. There are still patches of it, but you can also see patches of the ground and the road.

Of course with such a big snow melt, there is likely flooding in the county. There usually is. Hopefully it isn't too bad. We had about 10 inches in town so they probably had closer...
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Thank you all for the birthday wishes, I greatly appreciate it.

Yesterday was a very low key birthday celebration. I took $50 out of my slush account and bought two pairs of earrings, my last pair broke.

Then the SO insisted on taking me out for breakfast 🥞 so we did that. Next after breakfast I headed over to the used appliance store, in search of a dryer. Well I found one for $180. I was a little nervous but decided to purchase. As I was heading to over to pay, the...
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We got a dump of snow last night, but I hear snowblowers and shovels going even as I speak.

I am supposed to go to a memorial up in one of the northerly suburbs. I don't know how the roads are. I hope I can go because this man was married to a friend, another baseball grandma, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. It's so sad. I don't know what is going to happen to her now; he was taking care of her. He had skin cancer, but it was very unexpected, and it took him fast.

I...
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So.....it's been over one year since I've blogged. With so much "activity" both foreign and domestic, I have been a road warrior unlike never before in the 27 years since I was a rookie.

Since my last visit, everything has been set on auto pilot. Both my home and rental mortgages continue to shrink little by little, retirement continues to grow, goals remain the same and I have finished building my cabin where I go to read, rest, pray and work on some other little hobbies...
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Great update! Sooooo close to having the Store Loan paid off, I can't wait!!

Celebrations for this update:
-$949.60 paid off in the last 2 weeks!!
-My Mortgage went under the next $1000!!
-Total Debt went under the next $1000 mark for the 5th update in a row!!

Student Loan $0
Payback Savings $0
David's Bridal $0
Scheel's Card $0
Total Rewards $0
LOC - US Bank $0
Ring Iddeal $0
Best Buy $0
HELOC $0
Store Loan $737.75
Mom Loan #2/#3 $29,462.26
MO Mortgage...
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Yesterday was a pretty leisurely day, until the evening, when I took the boys to baseball coaching. The facility where it is held is not heated well at all, and the waiting room was frigid! I have to do it again on Monday, which is supposed to be very cold, so I am planning to do a drop-off and then return to pick them up. I'll find a Starbucks, or something.

I am dealing with a chronic cough, so I am tackling it on several fronts. Nasal spray intermittently through the...
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Well for DS2 it’s the final bill. He expects to graduate this May. The tuition & fees bill from the university is just under $11,000. Each semester we cobble together funds to pay for college so for this bill the funding looks like this:

$6200 funds from 529 account
$4200 half of scholarships received
$600 cash set aside


529: This is our last withdrawal. The account for DS2 is now closed. I like closing accounts – it makes me feel like I’m simplifying my financial...
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The new salary charts were posted this week. I receive a $2k raise which I’m very grateful for. The raise means not only increased pay, but an increase on my TSP matching. And although it may not mean anything for me, I was happy to see the paid parental leave bill get passed by Congress.
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It has been snowing for the past 4 days and it has been bitter cold. Today is a little warmer, but we got down to 17 degrees F, which is darn cold for here. We've had the furnace at 75 just to feel like it is 68 at the far end of the house from the furnace. We are all wearing layers inside. I have on a long-sleeved shirt with a short sleeved shirt on over it and then a long sweater over that, heavy sweats and heavy socks. I just think about how much it would be if we hadn't...
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So I have decided to start our $20,000 challenge and use some of our accounts we have a daily acct and bill account that changes all the time so won't use those and also our car account will go down as we plan on buying a car this year (second hand) so it is as follows

Ice $250.03
Car $800.01
house $96.41

Total $1,146.45
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Well it’s been a pretty good week. Tomorrow I turn 46, wow.

I feel somewhat down because I feel like I haven’t gotten myself together financially; however, I’ve made some progress.

Rather than focusing on the negative, I’ll focus on the positive.

Today, I paid an extra $453.78 on CC10 knocking the balance down to $5,500. Tomorrow’s billing cycle ends, so I’ll be hit with interest 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. I did look at transferring the balance to a zero interest...
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Drum roll please... that's the big total of the pennies I just counted. We will be taking them to the credit union at some point and stashing them in the vacation fund.

On its own, it wouldn't take us very far, but little drips and drabs all add up. I did find three wheat pennies in the total and I looked them up. They might be worth a little more than face value and you can bet I'll be walking over to the pawn shop when we go someplace near it for something else and see what...
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I’ve just returned home from a week-long business trip. Now in addition to catching up with my personal tasks, I need to sort receipts and submit my expense report. Traveling for work does provide some opportunity for personal financial benefits, but there are drawbacks too. To take a look at the personal financial impact to me for this trip:

(1) FOOD – gain. The company paid to feed me for a week that I would have spent had I not been traveling. This saves me 1 week’s...
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