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My day at the museum was much cheaper than I expected, thanks to the generosity of my friends. Unbeknownst to me, they expected that I would be admitted on their ticket, as they have a membership which admits two guests. Meanwhile, I went ahead and bought admission online. When we met and talked over what had happened, they insisted on taking me to the ticket window to get my money back. Well, as it turned out, they had to count two of their kids as guests, so I wasn't a freebie...
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Begin - beginning checking account balance
pr - net payroll check
SB - my contribution towards our joint living expenses
cash - cash for the next 2 weeks
sf - automatic sinking funds transfers
roth - contribution to my Roth IRA
Citi MC - payment for my Verizon bill ($50.38), Netflix ($15.49), prescription co-pays ($57.76), less redeemed cash rewards ($27.32)
CarMax - payment towards my car loan.  This payment includes an additional $195.99. The new balance is $23,351.69.
house...
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Fortunately I am blessed to have many friends who have many talents. One dear friend is quite brilliant and he shares insights with me on many things whether it is finance or technology. I admire his many abilities because he is humble about them and is willing to share his knowledge. I feel like I'm constantly learning things that I would not have had the chance to do so before, but this person does it in a way that is gentle and encouraging. 
Another good friend is quite...
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So yes it personally did affect our life and we got to see SVB up close and very personal.We were very fortunate to get paid on Wednesday March 8th.  My DH's payroll is through rippling and they took the money out March 7th to pay his company.  So they had around $10m at SVB.  They also fortunately had a super smart accountant who put the rest of their money into treasuries.   So they used to be chase private clients but they found it hard when starting...
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Found out yesterday that a childhhod friend passed away...it was her second time having cancer and she had stell cell treatment again...it didn't go well I guess because she passed..not sure if it was from the cancer or if she got an infection or what..her sister (her only living relative) doesn't want anyone to contact her right now which is understandable...but I have no words...she was only 53 and the only the 2nd person I know that has died from school...she had so much life...
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Let's see if it works from Edge.  Because it isn't working from Chrome.
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Testing
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Received $127 bank interest for the month of February.
Received $246 I Bond interest for the month of February.
 
Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $35 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 
--Redeemed $108 cash back on Citi card
--Redeemed $10 cash back on dining out/gas card 
 
Other Snowflakes to Investments:
+ $9 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)
 
TOTAL: $162 Snowflakes to Investments
 
Snowball...
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You may recall at the beginning of the year I posted about how it took weeks to get my Clark's return credited to my account. At the time I was just thankful it was received after I didn't get the tracking info (silly mistake on my part). Well, apparently it was a system wide issue because I got a mass email from the CEO. I copied a brief part of it below. It's so unusual for a large company to issue this sort of apology & I really appreciated it.
"It is unacceptable that...
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Pay day was on Wednesday. I paid my property tax - $562 - the first of two payments this year. I also went to Aldi and spent another $10 on groceries. My previous shopping, at Food4Less, yielded two boxes of crackers, granola, and bread, for $10. Plus I spent an additional $4 for lotion, which comes out of another bucket. At Aldi, my $10 bought lactose-free milk, mushrooms, onions and creamer. It seems like I am buying less and less with the same amount of money. But since I skipped...
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It was quite a saga yesterday, looking for hubcaps. I finally decided to go with the expensive but sturdy hubcaps from the dealership, since even the people selling the cheap hubcaps couldn't recommend them. Since I bought four, they gave me break on the price, but it was still $399. But they have been installed and they look great, so much better than what I had before.
I've also gotten the front bumper fixed. The body shop jerry-rigged it with a combination of glue and wire,...
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We mainly use cash and the envelope system to budget. We do occasionally use credit cards for certain expenses, but we primarily use cash. Starting with our last month’s money, we started taking all our one-dollar bills to use as a small emergency fund.  Since February 1, we have put $125 into our newest envelope.
We put each of our dollar bills in the envelope and then once it reaches $100, we trade it out for a one-hundred-dollar bill and start over. It’s not...
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We're having a good, old-fashioned Nor' easter now that won't wind up until tomorrow. It gives me the perfect excuse to hunker down indoors and be thankful I have heat. Wind, rain, snow, sleet.  It's really just getting started.....I was inspired to make some buckwheat pancakes for breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, I wanted to offer a counterpoint to my last post, where I told the story of the boutique shop owner who ripped me off....twice.
This past week I took a friend...
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So our taxes haven't gone into our US bank...and it has been a month since they sent the 1st letter...so we are sure they have sent checks to us...well no bank in or country (at least in our state) accepts overseas checks, we can't contact the IRS unless we call them which costs a lot...especially with our new carrier....so we are not sure what we are going to do...do we send them back with our bank details again, and get them to put them into our account or do we try and sign...
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So in my layoff I've been able to take advantage of the "re-training" which means that if I take 6 graduate classes, I could teach in that discipline in a community college. I'm taking 4 this spring semester and will take 2 come summer. I will also be paid spring and summer for this. They cover the tuition and I cover fees and books. I will be able to register for my classes starting this week. 
One of the classes was a travel study to Costa Rica which I just returned from,...
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I'll start with some good news, my niece is engaged! He is a wonderful young man and we are all thrilled. He asked my brother for his approval before he asked her, which I know is considered somewhat "old fashioned" today,  but it's just the kind of guy he is. I am so happy for them!
I think I mentioned a while ago that I have osteoarthritis in my neck and upper spine. Unfortunately, it has spread to my right hip, knee, and hand. For the past 6 months the pain was really...
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I looked at my Discover card account online this morning, and the pending charge to Ancestry.com was gone. So I went to Ancestry's site and cancelled. That didn't really help, since my cancellation date is a year from now, so they're still going to charge me. They must be having some glitches with their billing. We'll see how it goes. I don't really care either way. If I still have a year to play with it, I'll get some things done. If they don't charge me and I can't do those things,...
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Buffy, my kitty who turns 18 on the 30th, was diagnosed with lymphoma yesterday.
The two veterinary oncologists at my local clinic are booked out for the next 6 weeks so we have a consult with a veterinary oncologist next Friday at a clinic 70 miles away.  (This will incidentally be the furthest I have driven since before the pandemic.  I kinda stopped driving distances back then.)
I believe that the chemo can be administered locally.  
It's intestinal lymphoma...
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Whew, this has been a pretty productive week. 
I’ve managed to knock everything off of my to-do list. 
 
Today I received my final payment from my former employer. I was able to save some funds for my car, sinking funds, and EF. 
 
I also added $500 to the credit cards and $100 to the student loan. In addition, I get an extra 300+ dollars to use towards what I want from my employer every quarter, a nice little perk, so I’ll be adding that...
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That is because the tooth can't be saved.  It has to be extracted.  The oral surgeon talked to me about an implant, but I don't have that kind of money.  So it will just be gone.  I suppose I will get used to it, but I am pretty upset about the whole situation.  However, the extraction is going to cost around $300 less than the root canal.
I went to the store last week and spent $54.  I don't need anything right now so I should make it with spending...
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