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I was given permission to share a photo, so here is a pic of my little darling. He is about 7 months old here; he is almost 10 months now. He is such a joy. ❤️
 

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According to a New York Post article I read recently....
"A survey found that a majority of Americans (56%) said using a coupon is perfectly acceptable, and a further 61% said “frugality” is an attractive trait in a partner."
Excuse me?  Is this Opposite Day?  April Fools?  The Twilight zone?  It goes on....
"In a world of tariffs, economic uncertainty, and inflation, it seems being a deal maker is far from a dealbreaker when it comes to what’s...
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This am, I went to the gym to squeeze in a workout; later this am, my handyman came by and together we put together the tuteur I bought so that the coral honeysuckle a friend gave me could climb up it. Can't wait to see it grow; pollinators will love it.
He also brought his chainsaw and sawed to pretty much ground level 4 small tree stumps scattered around the yard; my mower guy will appreciate that.
After the handyman left, I decided to transplant some culver's root and mountain...
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This post will probably bore anyone who is not a homeowner or not interested in a myriad of details about home improvements, but I try to learn as much as a I can from each contractor who does work on this house.
I've been trying to jumpstart a few projects around here. I had a local contractor come out a mnth ago to replace my front entry door; he took measurements and gave me his price, which I agreed to, but I've been unable to get him over here to do the work.
(The old door...
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Wrote a whole post yeaterday and posted it but it never showed up and couldn't be bothered so will try again today.
So my lawyers have put my paperwork forward to be assessed so another step forward, I did have to pay my doc out of pocket $770 to cover report I could have claimed it from my settlement but it would have taken more time and charged me more to do it so I didn't, but we can recoup it. So fingers crossed that we will have it settled in the next month or so. The first...
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Temporarily, at least.  I paid off my last 0% balance transfer card this week.  Now what I have left is my mortgage (around 23k at 4%), about 10k of loans that will be maturing over the next 20 months, and about 3.6k of revolving credit card debt that will paid off by my next two paychecks plus some expense reimbursement from my company.
So the debt is under 40k, finally, after a long period where it hung out at around 80k.  But I've made a concerted effort to pay...
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Forty two years ago today (May 21), I graduated from college. I was exhausted, but excited. I had worked my tail off and graduated with no school debt. I did without things while in school, looked for ways to save money, and worked a lot. Would I say it was worth it? Definitely yes. I graduated with a teaching degree and although I didn't go into teaching right away, it did become my profession and I went on to get my master's and then hours beyond my master's so I could be at...
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If everything goes my way, I'm done with full time employement and when I return after summer break, I will be only working part time. This is a bit shocking, I'm still adjusting to it. Here's to a good summer!
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We met with the cabinet guy yesterday and dove deeper into the details of what will likely go where and what types of cabinets, drawers, and pullouts make sense for each. We also browsed hardware options and have a pretty good idea of what we like when it comes time to pick them.
 
At this point, we just need to clean out the kitchen and set up the temporary kitchen area in the living room. We've already done some cleaning out but can't finish until this weekend since we'll...
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Warnng: This post is only marginally related to personal finances. Proceed at your own risk.
One thing I noticed in recent years is all the different free skin cancer screenings they used to do at area hospitals are now nowhere to be found. They are usually held in May. Yes, I could make an appointment with a dermatologist, but I probably wouldn't bother unless I had a pressing concern. Still, I like to take advantage of the free clinics just as a peace of mind thing as I do have...
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Each Wednesday, Kroger does an ad for the week's specials plus the digital coupons. We were headed to the town where Kroger is and since we had a couple more errands to run, decided to make a stop for a few of the loss leaders. One of the things on sale was Folger's Coffee. There was a digital coupon for $7.99 whereas the regular price would be $12.99. DH caught me on my knees reaching to the back of the bottom shelf to get one of the last few cans. The ad said "as long as supplies...
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We had already done one round of materials shopping but hadn't made any final choices. Today we went back to the countertop place. We thought we had decided on one last time but once we got home with the sample we decided it wasn't right. After browsing the warehouse again, we chose a new one for sure. Very different than what we had thought we would go with but we both liked it better. They even measured it and roughly drew out where the cuts would be made.
Then we went to the...
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Hi all. I haven't blogged for a long time but it occurred to me that the blog would be a better place to post about this than the forums.
We have been in our house since 1994. The kitchen was remodeled 2 years before we bought the place. Coming from where we were (a rowhome in Philadelphia) we thought the kitchen was great. Bright, roomy, lots of counter space, etc. After living here a while, we came to recognize some of the issues with it. The layout created a pinch point between...
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I hope you all had a nice Mother's Day. I had an old friend come up for lunch and we spent a nice couple of hours. After he left, I set about to repair a kitchen cabinet where the trim that covered the gap in the middle of 2 corner cabinets had broken off. I happened to have a handy clamp that I found outside on a street sign that one of the utility companies must have left, so I used it here, along with some rubber brands to hold it in place while the gorilla glue dries. I also...
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I am very happy.  I checked our retirement accounts today and we are up $5,942.39 since the last time I updated my sidebar, which was the end of March.  I only looked once during crazy times and then decided to just ignore the accounts until things were up again and now they are.  The 401K has recovered beautifully and $4500 of the gain is from there.  The rest of the gain came from the IRA.  The IRA still needs to earn back $700 to get to where it was,...
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Food costs are atrocious.  My mom has been going to the city food bank weekly and the Salvation Army food pantry give out every two weeks.  I've told her we'll take care of her food, but she is stubborn as a mule and would rather get what she can for free than depend any further on me and my family than necessary.  But that is an offer I wonder if we can actually afford to make anymore, anyway.
She gets to pick out some of the items herself and she also picks up...
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A friend of mine recently adoped an adorable little kitten.  Her name is Nala, and she is only one year old.  For a kitty so young, I was surprised at how gentle and sweet she can be.  However, I did have a little bit of a hard time taking this photo because she was so inquisitive and didn't want to stay still.
She was so fluffy in my hand!  Urge to adopt my own kitty intensifies!
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So one of election promises is to help people that have hecs/help loans. These are student loans and done a little different from yours in the US we are indexed once a year (end of june) which on a $25000 loan is about $1000pa, it at 4% right now, also you have to make a $67,000 to start paying the loan off, well our newly elected govt has promised to cut 20% off the loans  to help people out so that would be around $5000 that would disappear fro a loan that size...so glad...
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Debts
Mortgage -$109,012.72 (-$493.5)Land Loan -$5,388.16 (-$408.79)
Savings
Roth IRAs +$40,354 (-$919)401K +$79,086 (-$30)Emergency Fund +$27,073 (+$1,849)Animal Fund +$2,531 (+$14)HSA +$1.862 (-$2,021)
Overall: -$204.71 (This is for March-April)
I am still fighting with insurance to fix my roof and siding. They gave me a really lowball offer so I'm getting more quotes and arguing with them. My roofing estimates are $17k, whereas the insurance is trying to say it's only worth...
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I have always paid off all my debt monthly since I paid off my credit cards in 2020. Last month was the first time since then that I wasn't able to do so. I have been spending a lot and have another vacation planned next month. That will probably be my last big vacation for the year until I bounce back from all these expenses:
Italy vacation (February)
Boston vacation (March)
Surgery (April)
Auto repairs (May)
London vacation (June)
My deductible for my surgery was over $5k....
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