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I'm confused. Oh well it's the 21st of December and I received my new Zenni glasses that were supposed to come tomorrow. I am happy! DH was home when I got home tonight and had put the lasagna in the oven with some broccoli and mushroom sautéed on the side.

Omgosh I am so tired! I bought a new shower curtain for DH that is weighted so hopefully it will stay in place.

He brought me a gift card for Winco, my Christmas bonus for doing the books for our business!

Will...
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Rewrote my budget out today, so I could change and add our car account we opened in so we are looking at putting in a monthly "car" payment into the account and will hopefully save around $5000 next year towards a car...cars are expensive here so probably won't buy for a couple years and our car is fine right now.

Going to really try and stick to our budget next year which means we should hopefully save around $20,000 towards a home deposit but I have put $15,000 in my goals...
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I would have updated yesterday, but with the violence of the windstorm here yesterday, we were having power surges and so I shut down the computers and internet box for most of the day. We didn't lose power ourselves, but my MIL did and had to spend the night in a hotel. She has it back today, though. The damage is pretty bad in places.

I am really glad we zip-tied and used rope to secure our Christmas standees to the deck or we would have lost them all. The zip-tied ones...
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So I heard about a promotion Hyundai was running where they pay you a $50 visa or amazon gift card if you take one of their vehicles for a test drive.

Why not, I thought.

I fell in love with their IONIQ SEL, a hybrid hatchback that gets 58 mpg with heated seats, heated side mirrors, blind spot assist, LED headlights and various other things. I really like the cargo space, which is much more practical/usable than my small Honda Civic trunk, which my bike no longer fits inside...
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Update! I am still in disbelief, but the funds were all returned to my DS and DIL this afternoon and have been submitted to the title co. The house will close on Christmas Eve. I have no words for how relieved I am. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement!!


My DS and DIL fell victims to a horrible scam this week. They were closing on a house purchase and received an email with the wire instructions... the email was spoofed to look legitimate and just like that,...
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I'm going to leave for Michigan in a few minutes. My brother and I do not exchange gifts, but we will have a nice meal together. He spends Christmas with his kids and his wife's family -- I spend mine with my kids and grandkids.

Tomorrow I will have lunch with my friend P, who is the nearest thing I have to a boyfriend. He was my professor once, a long time ago, and we reconnected several years ago. He is now a good friend, but not a romantic friend. I really look forward...
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I'm going to try and take some small steps over the next few weeks to get a jump start on our reset year.

Here's the high-level view of what we're looking at with more detailed numbers and plans over the next few weeks as the dust settles.

High-risk pregnancy: Things are going well here. I'm seen every 2 weeks and despite the complete disregard for self-care as of late, baby is thriving. (Side note: the disregard certainly isn't intentional...I just don't sleep well, have...
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I could have sworn I paid the plumber's bill online last month but apparently not. I received a friendly reminder and can't find the transaction on my bank statement, so nzd67.28 out of my House maintenance account.
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For any business in this era, it is not easy to keep on making a profit unless it is advanced with modern technology. For every business the online presence and optimisation is much required without which to remain in the market can also prove almost impossible. For modern users, the availability of business on online platform proves much easy and useful, and hence every business is now behind the use of modern technology. To havea presence online with the help of website development...
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I’m so busy at the moment but I want to record this.

Grocery = $76.96
Gift Card = DH won a $150 worth of gift card at his Christmas lunch at work. He was one of I think about 30 people that won a door price. We are glad that he won the gift card instead of the other prices that we don’t really need or want. The gift card is for one of the main supermarket chain here (called Coles). We decided to put $50 of it towards the “Challenge” and the rest for Christmas food.

Garden...
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After several weeks of sheer madness and an average of 4-6 hours of sleep a night, I'm still going. To say the least, things have been a whirlwind. I feel like I'm finally starting to catch my breath. My plan is to start the new year by laying everything out again with what has happened these last few weeks and my goals for next year.

I also want to do the UFM challenge, but haven't decided whether my sanity will allow me to commit to it.

Just a smidgeon of what we have...
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I peeked at our portfolio. I haven't done anything more than look at the numbers and boy are we bleeding. Our retirement is down less than we contributed. Same with taxable. Only thing saving us is our cash.

Oh well I'm due to rebalance anyway first week in January I'll do it. We've lived through this before. In 2007-2008 because we take such an aggressive investment stance we take very large declines. This time we're down more than we contributed but since retirement...
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I've been complaining a lot about stressing and being over busy with web design this month. The good news is that I have hit my monthly hour goal already and still have 11 days in the month left! I've never done that. Honestly it's usually a struggle to hit my goal.

Also I have caught up enough that I am only going to have to work one day next week on web design and the rest of the week I will be able to relax and enjoy family time. Sometimes hard work pays off!

With all...
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Well, I added a $25 gift card to Amazon yesterday and I've already used most of it. When I got back from taking the boys to music lessons, I found a package for me in the vestibule. It was from a friend of mine, who apparently really wants to exchange gifts every year. We used to do it when we met for a pre-Christmas lunch or dinner, but she has moved far away. I thought the tradition would die out, but she mailed me a gift last year. I thought my thank-you-but-no-reciprocal-gift...
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In our family, the point of the 'allowance" is so that you learn how to manage money and make money decisions (at a very basic level) long before you get your first job and start making significantly more dollars. This is just until kids make their own money. My husband seems reluctant to turn off for our oldest son, but there is no doubt that it is time. He made $700 in the 6 months since he turned 15. & that's really barely lifting a finger. I expect that he will be making...
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I don't often buy substitute meats as they are so expensive, but with Christmas coming up I shelled out nzd6.99 for some vegetarian sausages. With steamed cauli and carrots and fried potatoes, that will be my Christmas meal.

The feasting has already started, I went to a barbecue for lunch. My rule with the goodies is only one of each, so I had a small piece of cake, some tropical trail mix and lots of bread rolls and coleslaw. With cutting back on sugar this year I really...
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Tonight I participated in an online discussion focus group. It took a little over an hour, and I'll get $50 in a few weeks.

I applied to be a Shipt shopper several months ago. As of today, I am officially one! I should be getting my package soon with my materials. Hopefully this will be a decent source of side money.


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I paid several bills today, and called the place with the largest bill. I asked what kind of a discount they could offer for paying in full. None. When...
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I found my holiday spirit! After a not so great Thanksgiving, my holiday happy finally kicked in. When I started decorating, playing Christmas music, and enjoying many of my mom's tree ornaments that she left with me when she moved across the country, my mood improved. I miss having mom and my sister here for Christmas, but we call and send lots of texts and pictures. I took this week off from work, and the college closes next week until after the new year, so I have a very long...
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I had my last client meeting of the year this morning, and my next is not until January 8th. I'm taking Thursday & Friday off this week, then Monday (Christmas Eve) is a half day, and I'm taking off a full week from 12/27 thru 1/2, so Monday the 24th and Wed. the 26th will be my last working days of the year.

It will be nice to have a chance to rest and regroup, do some research on my health issue, and possibly get a little reorganization done at home. Then it will also be...
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Well, we are about to head down to Virginia Mason to see if the doctors there will actually do something about my daughter's high likelihood of endometriosis, or if we will yet again be faced with another set of doctors who are too worried about getting sued to do a surgery on a patient who is higher risk.

I don't hold out a lot of hope, to be honest. We've just heard it so many times. But these doctors do specialize in it and they've had to have had patients with my daughter's...
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