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I'm mostly back to work full time except for a couple of days. So much has happened this summer, landscaping, road trip, sister got married, visit to my son in WA and he was here for the wedding too. We're starting our foster care training. Work is heating up, and I will have more responsibilities. I feel like I've got to mindfully pay attention to self care. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room for getting sick and etc.

As far as net worth, I've been hanging around $800k...
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Husband passed the first phone interview. Now he has an in person interview tomorrow evening. I would appreciate any prayers and good thoughts.

Starting pay is $3 an hour more than he is making now plus room for advancement. The biggest plus though is insurance! I need affordable health insurance badly, so this could be an answer to our prayers.

Trying not to get my hopes up too much in case it doesn't work out, but it's hard not to imagine the positive impact this would...
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We've traveled across the US this past week and have managed to drop off our oldest daughter at college. She is beginning band camp this week. And tomorrow we drop off our youngest daughter at her University. The emotions of all this are everywhere, excited yes, but I'm a mess...I'm just going to miss them both so much. It seems sending the last one off is almost harder than the first.

So much spending buying supplies and dorm needs. I have yet total it all up. We probably...
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I finally took the plunge and got Magic Jack. It was very easy to hook up. Initially, I decided to save myself $20 and have them randomly assign me a new (free) phone number, but once I did that, I regretted not porting over my existing number, because now I'll have a gazillion people to inform.

On the plus side, having a new number should vastly cut down on the amount of telemarketing calls I receive. Plus, Magic Jack has a free service you can opt into for call screening,...
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Final vacation tally ended up being right about $2,000. I've already paid off all the charges. I usually enjoy the float a wee bit more, but paid everything off while trying to figure out next job steps. The extra $2,000 balance would have just stressed me out, and I wanted a clearer idea of where our cash stood. I needed to pay off the (travel) reward credit card anyway.

Our road trip was 2300 miles. 8 days, 7 nights.



After that, kids went back to school. I would...
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I found a dime. Net gain as I didn't spend anything. I did find a book of lovely lace patterns at the library and spent some time drooling over the gorgeous yarns but didn't purchase anything. Not until my birthday.
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I cancelled my subscription to the eye supplement I have been taking since the retinal tear. It was for floaters and it did seem to work for the first few months, but after my other eye developed a boat load of floaters last month, I have concluded that it no longer has any value.

Instead I am trying a vitamin regimen of selenium, lutein, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C, and gingko biloba. I've been doing that for a week and the floaters seem lighter. I have also started...
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I feel like I've hit the bonanza the past couple of weeks in thrift store shopping.

I write 3 ladies each week. I try to have different cards and stationery because I think it adds to the experience. Two of the ladies are 95 and one is 88 and they like getting mail. I found 4 sets of brand new blank cards and envelopes for 50 cents each and some stationery also for 50 cents. So, I'm set for a little while on that.

I have almost finished most of my Christmas gifts for this...
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(Numbers updated for those who asked about it.) At the end of June, our debt snowball was at $204. Since then, along with debts paid off, I added subscriptions that I canceled. This month I added $37 from paying off my iPhone, and we got our first combined cell phone bill, which saved us $63/mo. As bizarre as it seems, the combined bill is .26 less than my husband's individual bill was. It pays to take some time to really go over what you need for a plan.

Anyway, with those...
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had another ER visit last night had uncontrollable shaking starting at 11pm and didn't stop till after 3am...doctors couldn't figure out why it was happening..so got sent home again with no answers...don't know why we bother going sometimes but I'm hoping one day to get some answers. Lucky we have social medicine over here.

I have 3 appointments this week so will be an expensive week so not sure if we will reach our goal this month...but savings is savings and if it is growing...
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I sold a child's vest I knitted for $15. I put the money in my Trans Siberian tin. Now I have $32.70.

Left in my envelopes
food zero
misc $107
medical $158
change dish $4.60
vouchers $70
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Well, another no-spend day yesterday, and now it's the day to head north to Michigan. I'm going to try to get out of here by noon or so.

I slept poorly last night, as I often do before traveling. Think I might have gotten five hours.

My grandson and I packed my trunk with garage sale boxes yesterday. I won't have the time or the help to load up the car after I come back from Michigan, and I can't take a trip to Indiana without taking a load.

The storage unit contains...
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Bought peanut butter $2.29 and pasta 79 cents. Neither was on sale but I needed them. Otherwise a quiet day at home knitting a scarf with some of the fun fur I got given. I'm not enjoying the yarn and think I'll on donate the rest to the thrift store. Someone will like it.
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I have to keep reminding myself that this mess I’m in is only temporary.

First in financial news. My goal is to have CC6 paid off by the end of October. My 90 days on the new job is up this month and we are to revisit my salary. I’ll be asking for a raise. Since I’ve been there I have done the following:
* Save the company close to 50k
* Updated and rewrote outdated policies, about 12
* Update a number of HR forms
* Started the online implementation of our HRIS
*...
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We had some big setbacks this summer. My cancer medicine gave me a rare serious side effect called PRES syndrome. I went to the ER thinking I was having a stroke and had three seizures, then the doctors were convinced the cancer had spread to my brain. Good news; I survived. No cancer in brain, just the Syndrome. I was in the hospital for 8 days.

My first round medicince has stopped working. The tumors didn't grow gangbusters, but they grew enough. Now I go for immunotherapy...
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It's rainy outside so we couldn't go to the pool. But they have barbeques there, so we went for lunch, and ate under the patio cover. We were the only ones there!

Then we went for F's allergy shots (which are free because of D's good work insurance). She hates them, but I'm hoping when she's reached maintenance in 6 months to wean her off zyrtec. Without the zyrtec she gets hives.

Tonight's dinner is a frugal cauliflower cheese (yum) made with two cauliflowers because...
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$407.46 Tithe
_500.00 Utilities
_400.00 Groceries
_400.00 Medical
__75.00 Household
_275.00 Monthly Chiropractic Family Plan
__91.91 Internet
__50.00 Car Maintenance Fund
_100.00 Gas Money
_110.00 Allowances
_743.12 Credit Card
1000.00 Monster Mom Loan
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$4172.48 Total Money Out

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I was able to throw $1000 at the loan this pay period.

$29,500.00 Starting Balance
-_1,000.00 Payment Amount
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$28,500.00 New Total
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My town's property taxes are due once a year on October 1. Each year since buying my house in 2004, I have received property tax assistance from my state. At first, I would receive a check for the state's contribution in mid-July and then I would pay my full tax bill by October 1. Finally, the state wised up and started sending the assistance checks directly to town treasurers. I imagine a portion of taxpayers would get their check, spend it immediately on other things and...
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Updated my sidebar. I am $200 shy of paying off the balance transfer from January. By the end of August the entire balance transfer will be done.

Then,I will continue the accelerated pay-off and my hopes, if all goes well, I can have my Visa paid off by March or April. Then I will be entirely free of consumer credit card debt.

Once the Visa albatross is gone, I will tackle my student loan. My goal is to get that paid off in two years or less.

Love seeing those balances come down!
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