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Yesterday was a NSD. Friday, which was payday, I purchased laundry detergent and bars of soap from Walmart.com. I put money on my son's lunch account and ordered myself a Contigo cup with a straw from Amazon. Today, I plan on ordering groceries. While I'm feeling better, I still am not yet prime to get behind the wheel of a car.

Other than that, life is quite uneventful. DH and I are enjoying this reprieve from the outside world. The baby is a great sleeper, just not...
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Last night I met DS and grandsons at a restaurant for dinner, and as I was driving I noticed that the oil life percentage displayed on my dashboard slipped from 10 to 5. I panicked a bit and decided I would go to Jiffy Lube when it opened this morning. But after looking up Honda maintenance codes online this morning, I realized that the 5 only means it is time to get it done, but not past time. I also have a B1 code showing, which means tire rotation and oil filter replacement....
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Yesterday, my sister and I was talking. I don’t know why but I got so angry when she told me she didn’t have any money to save so she uses her credit card for emergencies 🚨

I tried explaining to her that she needed to budget, look for areas to cut, but she insisted that the credit card method worked. I left it alone.

She’s terrible with money, owed me right now. But I’ve taken that as a lost. As she talked about why she uses the card and why it works I got more...
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I have been 44 days without caffeine. I was yearning for a cup of coffee at church, but I know if I have just one I will be addicted again within days.

Maybe I could start a crusade at church to convince people of the evils of their drug habit...?
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Today was busy, got my dad’s second place rented. Well we found a tenant and now we start the process. I don’t own the place but I manage it for my siblings who gives me $150 a month. So this will go towards my CC.

I took the car in today and the pcv was broken. The mechanic told me I didn’t have to fix it but if I did it would be $100. I fixed it. That noise scares me as well as annoys me. I had the cash saved, also I don’t know if it’s me but the car is running...
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DH took a new job today. It's back on the slope. After taxes and after airfare, we'd be bringing home $30K more a year. Yes, that's net. The 401K is not as good a match (but we'll contribute 7% instead of 5% to make up for it) and the insurance costs more (but pretax), but the difference in income more than makes up for that.

DH and I talked it over for several hours yesterday. His current job is getting iffy, because after the election last year one of the refineries pulled...
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I haven't updated in a while, life has continued to throw punches. My mom was in the hospital for 2 weeks and is now in short term rehab working on getting her strength back so she can return home. And my sister's husband was just diagnosed with cancer. Just a quick recap...my mom is 92 and lives with my sister and her husband half way across the country from me. I offered to try and take a leave from work and go there to help my sister, but she said to wait until her husband starts...
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I just did a shorter, "Life is still a disaster" post, because I didn't want to write a novel, and not sure if I will even have time to post this anyway.

So this is moving off that topic (I'd rather blog about anything else) and giving some other general life updates.

Overall, things should be getting better on the work front. January was pretty harsh with deadlines, and then last weekend I tried to wrap up as many clients as I could, getting them switched over to "twin"...
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My life is still an unrelenting roller coaster. I don't know that there's any better way to describe it.

MH just got the medical all clear (his latest brain scans show no brain tumor growth. Phew!) But this was after a period of up/down, up/down. They found something else on his brain scan this time (AGAIN) and so that was a whole ordeal.

I got to enjoy the "it's nothing" news for literally about 1/2 hour when my mom called to tell me that my sister was in the hospital...
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Because I had been reading so many stories about refunds v. owning money as a result of the new tax changes, I decided to do our taxes two ways: using last year's tax code and this year's because everything else could be a result of withholding/different earnings/other factors.

This was easy to do, because I do my own taxes and I use Turbo Tax. I just opened a new file in last year's program and entered the info side by side with this year's program.

My dad said he had...
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I've now paid both of our girls tution and housing bills for Spring 2019. We still have no loans!! Eight semesters for one done and two for the other. I will say housing and meal plans are the most expensive part of sending your children away to college. It is a choice we made, so no complaints, just observation.

I looked up the cost for graduate school yesterday. My oldest daughter is thinking about it. But that cost will be on her. For some reason, I thought graduate tuition...
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Except for walking across the street to babysit, I stayed inside all day yesterday. Today it is a bit warmer, but still cold. I plan to get out anyway and hit the gym and get some gas. I also need to get an oil change, but I'm not going to try it on a Saturday, so that will be deferred till Monday.

You tax experts out there -- I realized yesterday that I forgot to claim some income. I closed my old Sharebuilder account last summer, and just yesterday I got notification that...
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I've been doing some copy editing for my neighbor, who will be self-publishing his book soon. I knew he couldn't really afford to pay me, so I asked him to do some very simple chores in my yard, like cut down an ailing apple tree, or cut down some old wood posts that pose obstacles for my lawnmower, all that remains of an old picket fence that long ago rotted away.

My neighbor decided to throw in something extra: 2 very old books, one written in Latin and centuries old. One...
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Pay day and everything is paid. I love online banking, and the fact that I’m in a positioning that I can pay my bills early plus extra. The SO will provide his share on the 20th, I like paying things early. With the money I get from him, I throw it at my debt. It’s like a second job in that I’m not working. He seems to be on track, but again I’m not going to get my hopes up. Bad habits takes months to break and we are only about three months in.

Yesterday I paid an...
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Out:
laundry powder 3.00

I use the concentrate and it lasts me for ages. The last box I bought was nearly a year ago - I do the washing twice a week.
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I'm just wondering how people have learnt about money, when I was growing up we didn't have much money but I never felt like we missed out but we were never taught about money. Everything I have learnt over the years of being married and having kids is self taught and by trial and error...it works pretty well now for us (we still learn though) and we rejig our budget as we need to...we have taught our kids what we have learnt about money one is really great on saving and the other...
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We still have to do US taxes even though we live in Aust which is frustrating as it can be complicated and now they have changed a few things...in Aust we do the in july and january for US...so now we need to sit down and try and do them and I am still waiting for my new itin...so we are trying to get taxes done and in and signed off our list.

Still waiting for my friend o get her passport so she can come visit...it has taken 10 weeks already it takes forever over there it seems...
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So I have to further explain to CCF how hard it is to get out of poverty. It really is when people are always telling you no and not helping you.

So my grandfather wanted to be a engineer. His dad said no way. No money and go get a job to help support the family. Lucky for him he was born number 9 out of 13 kids. He got to finish high school. His older brother finished 6th grade and got jobs for money to help support the family. This is why I always give a $1 to every...
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The temperature plunged again, so I decided to stay inside today rather than do my planned errands -- gym, gas station, oil change. But it turns out GS2 is still stick, so I will go over there. DIL promises it will only be a few hours today.

I got my refund yesterday! I think that was the fastest return ever! I moved $500 of it to savings, and the rest is going to stay in checking to cover the property tax, when it comes due in early March.

My granddaughter is a Daisy...
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I did most of my taxes. I'm missing a few forms, so I haven't been able to file yet, but I'm not in a rush because for the first time in years (if ever)...

I owe money - about $680. At one point, it was $3k, so I'm not too vexed about the amount. I was hoping to get a refund to beef up my maternity leave fund, but ah well.

Even though we haven't started saving towards that, I think we're actually completely fine. We're now living on last month's income. Plus, DH will continue...
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