All Entries

We have stayed busy.

On Saturday we took a bus trip to a city about two hours away to go through thrift stores. We visited 7 shops. Four were actual thrift stores and 3 were consignment shops/antique malls. But it was a fun day. The trip also included a box lunch and it was really good. There was a choice of turkey and cheese, chicken salad, or ham and cheese on a croissant, and then pasta salad, a bag of chips, fruit salad, brownie, and a small peppermint. The lady who runs...
[ Read More ]

I got a birthday present from the universe--I logged online today and for the first time ever, my net total was over 500k. Yay! That's actually 498K in retirement savings and 2K in an emergency account.

So I went away for a 2.5 day weekend Friday-Sunday for my birthday. I read Amish romances for fun and only live about 90 minutes from the area and had never visited, so I made a reservation at a nice B&B and left Friday morning.

I crammed in a lot over the weekend: several...
[ Read More ]

This weekend we went across the country for a friend's wedding. We went with couple of friends and their parents. I am very fortunate that the parents (my doctor, lol!) paid for the hotel rooms and we just pitched in a bit of money. They were also so sweet and paid for most all of everyone's food and gas all weekend. They said it was their treat. We would have not been able to go otherwise....

It was sort of a strange wedding. For one they have only been together a couple months....
[ Read More ]

Yesterday was a spending day. I started out at Sam's, where I spent $34 on Pledge, lunch bags, bread, Sweet & Salty bars, and a book, which will be a gift. On to Aldi, where I spent $27 on cheese, salad, almond milk, pizza, rolls, cookies, walnuts, chocolate syrup, soy sauce, chocolate chips and cheese dip. And then to PetSmart, where I spent $43 on cat food and kitty litter. At PetSmart I saved $10 by using a coupon, which I generated on my last trip by buying a large bag...
[ Read More ]

I'm not even sure what happened last time I wrote but here's a small financial thing I did a couple of weeks ago - dyed my hair successfully for the first time!

My hairdresser is great and much cheaper than hairdressing salons at $110 for a half head of foils. I always said that if I stopped going to her I'd dye it myself because generally what I get done is nothing magnificent really, just touching up my regrowth and a haircut.

So our security doors were getting installed...
[ Read More ]

Ugh, after 3 months spending only cash from my budgeted $20 for food, today I impulse whipped out the debit card and spent $3 on raspberry slice. Not a good purchase as it was terribly sweet and made me feel sick. I usually feel that way after eating sugar and try to avoid it, but sometimes I binge. I think I'm addicted as I feel better without it. Never mind, it could have been the $112 shawl kit I've been drooling over. I'll take the $3 out of this week's food money and...
[ Read More ]

It's been a while since I posted here.

This morning I visited a beautiful Japanese garden on a country estate.



This afternoon (I don't know what got into me), but I began ripping up the wall-t0-wall carpet in my family room. It's 23 years old and has many stains and I really couldn't wait to get rid of it. I think what motivated me was that I finally got around to doing a lead test on the paint, because I wasn't sure if I would just paint over it and use area rugs or,...
[ Read More ]

Yesterday was a stay-at-home day. I completely cleared out the storage space in my basement, and I have gone through all of the boxes. I am now ready to start listing on eBay. I have approximately 50 items to sell.

My BFF offered to come up and help me with that, so I don't want to just dive into it. But I might get started with taking pictures, anyway.

Even though it was supposed to be hot yesterday, I was very comfortable just using my fans. It's supposed to get REALLY...
[ Read More ]

Left in my envelopes
food 0
misc $88
medical $198
change dish $4.50
mta vouchers $70
bus card $14.08
[ Read More ]

So I've posted a few more applications unsuccessfully - not even an interview. It got me to thinking - what could I do to increase my chances?

Well .. I think since it seems as though my career track is in the business world, it might be good to have some business related courses!

At first I was looking at the business administration program, but it looked too mathy to me.

Then I saw the Office Professional program - perfect!

I'm meeting with the department head on...
[ Read More ]

We are moving again with the military. This fall, can't be more specific on when until after we move. I also cannot indicate the specific location, but it will still be in the southern US.

We are going to live on the military installation. We have never done that before, primarily because we have always wanted control over the school our girls would attend. We don't have that parameter this time!

We will be in a three bedroom townhome, approximately 1700 sq ft. This is...
[ Read More ]

Today my son is going to load up my storage area with C's stuff -- it had to be cleared out of her old condo to make way for new tenants. I have almost cleared mine out. There is very little that I need to keep in there. I found places upstairs for my Christmas tree and decorations, and it will be much better to pull that stuff out for the holidays without having to go up and down stairs.

I have removed all of the boxes of stuff left over from my booth, and it has all been...
[ Read More ]

I took $3.10 from my change dish and bought 2 Turkish rolls and 6 brown spotted bananas for lunch because I couldn't be bothered cooking.
[ Read More ]

W have 2 grown daughters that live with us and it is difficult to live in such a small house with 4 adults but we get a great rate on rent since the home owners love us as tenants. We looked around and nothing fit us even looked at house that were an extra $100 a week...nothing...so I decided that we would put most of their stuff and stuff that we weren't using right now into storage...gives us all more much needed room and space to relax. W are still moving things and we decided...
[ Read More ]

This is the second two week paycheck. DH got 20 hours of overtime this pay period. This is the first week that money was taken out for the 401K. We are having 5% (because that is the match) taken out. It will go up when we have finished paying off the Mom Loan. The next paycheck on the 7th will be when the insurances start being taken out. We will have medical, dental, and vision (all separate), plus some additional life insurance on DH. This will bring up the amount of...
[ Read More ]

We were able to throw another $1000 at the Mom Loan this payday.

$28,500.00 Starting Amount
-_1,000.00 Payment Made
--------------
$27,500.00 Total Remaining
[ Read More ]

I've been working so hard for the past week; it was probably ok that I wasn't able to post until now.

Here's what's been going on (some financial, some not so financial):

- F made it onto the varsity soccer team as an 8th grader! They played their first game last night and won! She played most of the game, and did really well. So we're proud!

- There has been a lot of spending associated with the soccer team (a lunch after a scrimmage, money for a tshirt to tie-dye,...
[ Read More ]

My DH is a moody soul sometimes, and unemployment has not helped him. He's still finishing up his summer independent study, and he's put WAY more into it than need be, but it's good for him to have something to focus on--especially since he really has to wait out the ear surgery before he can start anything.

And I'm busy with my back-to-school prep and our daughter's stuff too. He's been very reluctant to go into uberfrugal mode, and while I was a bit ticked off at him at...
[ Read More ]

Whoo hoo we made it to $18K! Things are crazy here and I am worried about savings. It looks great now, but we are having a lot of trouble with the renter in Rental #1 who is breaking their lease and moving out early since they bought a house. We are working to find a new renter, but if we don't find someone for the same monthly rent, the previous renter will be responsible for the difference until the end of their original lease term. They are not happy about that and seem...
[ Read More ]

Yesterday was a busy day with the boys. I took them to see "Hotel Transylvania 3" -- keeping a promise I made weeks ago. Because I had some free passes, that was only $6. Then, since it was Eat-Out Day, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and got lunch for $18. I believe my DIL will pay me back for lunch. But until then I'm logging it as an expenditure.

I have enough wings left over for another meal, and I took home most of my salad, which I ate for dinner last night.

Later,...
[ Read More ]