DH is a volunteer firefighter and has firefighter engineer classes this weekend and next so it's just me and the kids from 6:30am to 6:00pm. Lots of put off house cleaning, regular weekend laundry and such. I have been alternating equally between working and vegetating. Like 90 minutes working, then 90 minutes on the computer, reading or watching TV.

This morning I took DS to have his second haircut. (That means we're averaging a haircut every 5 months. That's about par for me; it seems I only get around to getting my hair done twice a year.)
It's a children's salon. Super cute with a nice play area and tons of toys. It took about 10 minutes for his haircut and then he played with some of the other kids for almost 40 minutes. I also bought a hair clip for big sister. $25 total.

I received the check today to reimburse the cost for the bumper repair. Very thankful he was so fast sending it out.

I will put that check in the bank tomorrow morning when I am out grocery shopping. Lately I've been managing to only go grocery shopping every two weeks. It's been nice because of the time savings. I also think I save a bit of money too because I'm only tempted to buy extra stuff twice monthly vs. four times monthly.

Bought some strawberries from a door to door peddler this afternoon at DD's urging. Delicious, large and ripe! I'm glad she talked me into it. $10 for a lot. We might need to freeze some and I think we'll have strawberry shortcake tomorrow night after I get the pound cake and whipped cream from the store.

So yesterday DH came home with a hand wood planer which was only $20. Instead of spending the $80+ that I thought it would be. (I was thinking he was going to buy an electric one.) Very glad about that.

DH and FIL fitted all the doors and drilled the handle holes. They ran out of time to paint anything yesterday evening and it was pretty cool and windy anyway. They re-hung the most important doors: the bedrooms and the main bathroom.

This morning it was heavily misting when we got up. It rained while we went out to breakfast. By the time we were home and watching the football game it had stopped, but was grey, cool and moist out. I really kept hoping that the sun would come out so FIL would be able to help DH with spraying the doors and getting them all hung. Unfortunately that didn't happen. The new doors look so NICE and I just really want the door project to be DONE.

The sun is out now. Of Course.
Naturally we've had high heat the past week and this coming week it's supposed to be very warm again, but it couldn't be warm earlier today!

MIL gave us a $75 Home Depot gift card and gave DH $100 for his birthday which is in a couple weeks. She also made three trips for dinner items, some bread and other food/drinks that they wanted. So as usual she spent money on us. Thanks MIL! AND as a bonus they didn't drive me crazy at ALL.

My DH and FIL are replacing the interior doors in our house this weekend. And just like any project that involves two men, moving parts, measuring; it's hitting a few snags.

I'm just kidding. It's not their fault, it's more the house's fault. Each door frame is slightly askew. Not square or plumb. So each replacement door slab must be carefully fitted and trimmed. DH just headed out to buy a planer in order to shape the doors to fit in the best way. That'll be about $80. I bought paint last night and hinges. $71. We bought new handle sets a few at a time over the past few months at $29/set. $150 total for those.

Yeah, the home improvement stores are making money off us. Plus, I'll be buying tile soon.

The real kicker is they planned to use the paint sprayer my FIL brought to paint the doors tomorrow, and now the weatherman says it's going to rain!

Cross your fingers we'll have doors up soon so we'll have some privacy in the bathrooms!

My inlaws are coming to visit this weekend. My FIL will be helping DH change out and paint the interior doors. I plan to repaint the door jambs while the doors are off.

I am very appreciative of their help, but they can both drive me a bit crazy.

MIL especially, hehe, I guess that's pretty typical, right? Thankfully we all get along better than a lot of families. Still I'll be glad when the weekend is over I can have my house back.

Gotta get back to cleaning the house.

We are tiling our tub/shower surround in me and DH's bathroom. DH had to tear into the wall (and tear out the old tile) to reposition the bathroom window. The previous owners replaced the window, but installed it incorrectly AND five inches lower than the other bathroom window! The windows are side by side and face the street. It was so shoddy looking. The window looks GREAT now. Normal.

Anyway, I have a very loose idea about what I want. And that's the problem; too many choices! Over the next several months to year we will remodel this bathroom bit by bit. No way to afford everything at once. But, I pretty much need to decide on what I want now because each item ties into the other. I don't want to pick something that will look outdated in several years if we decide to sell. Or pick something that looks cheap.

My goal for the whole bathroom:
something that appeals to most people
high quality look for low cost
neutral color for the 'permanent' stuff

I am leaning toward the browns/beiges. I want to go pretty light because the bathroom is small. 5' X 7'. White or Grey is not out of the running yet either.

Some examples I'm considering:

(A) Subway, glossy white tile with glass accents.

(is glossy tile cheap looking?)

(B) Keeping tile and accent pieces in the same color and in a usual arrangement.

(Too much of the same color?)

(C) Stone looking ceramic tile with mixed mosaic accent tile.

(Too "fad"ish?)

I've spent ALOT of time looking at tile the past several days. I think I'm going cross-eyed!

DH has been so motivated this weekend to get things done. Yay him!
He cleared out and organized the pantry and Lazy Susan.
Yard work in the front and backyard.
Folded a ton of laundry.
Loading the dishwasher.
Cooking all the meals so far.
And a few other things.

I'm a lucky girl.

Me? I've been watching the baby, watching TV, surfing the web for tile ideas (more about that later), sorting laundry and I bagged up a bunch of too small baby clothes.

About 30 minutes ago DH decided he finally wanted to get rid of his "project". An old horse trailer he wanted to convert to a heavy-duty utility trailer. He decided we should just get rid of it ASAP. I snapped a few pics and posted it for free on Craigslist. It's gone! (Well will be soon as it's picked up.) I think it's funny it took me twice as long to post it as to get rid of it.

Lovely Sunday. Lots of stuff got done (Thank You DH) and dinner is almost ready - BBQ babyback ribs, corn and rolls.

Oh yeah, tile.. Going to finally tile our bathroom soon. It's only been 11 months since DH tore the wall down to start the remodel process.

We needed a new set of bed sheets because our usual set got a little tear. I should have patched it right away because DH caught his toe in it and tore a huge hole. It was my favorite set too - dark blue damask stripe. I found them on sale at K-Mart when I didn't need sheets, but I bought them anyway because they were so pretty and thick and $35. Suprisingly, K-Mart seems to have very nice sheets at great sale prices. The Jacalyn Smith brand.

DH thought he'd be helpful last weekend and he bought a set at the Linen Warehouse going-out-of-business sale. Non-returnable. $54. 600 thread count, but thin. I didn't like them, but would only be able to return for store credit. I looked and they didn't have anything I would want to exchange for. Blah. Stuck with them. They're okay, but I wonder how long they'll last. Sheets seem so pricey for what you get.

I did check at K-Mart, but they didn't have the same set as before. All we need is the fitted sheet anyway. I should check on-line..hmm.

Just perusing Zillow because I've seen several houses "moved into" recently. There have been two on our street, both foreclosures.
One three doors down for $225k on July 15.
The second at the other end of street for $219k on July 27.
Both sold for lower than we paid and much lower than other houses on our street sold in the past year.

Not so good for our house value. *sigh*
Zillow has our estimated value at the lowest it's ever been. I know it's not really important except on a certain emotional level. Thankfully we don't need to sell. It's just I had a more positive feeling when our house had more value.

On the flip side there are still $800k to $1M+ houses that have recently sold in our zip code. (I don't think the upper end has lost much ground??)

Anybody else looking at Zillow for your area?

Last weekend our alarm clock died. I thought DH and bought it when we first got together, but he said I already had it. That means it lasted for over 11.5 years! I think that's great for a cheapie little clock. It was a dual alarm and I'm pretty sure it was $8 at WalMart when I bought it. Anyhow, I stopped in at Target and they had squat as far as alarm clocks go. So I went home and shopped on Amazon. I didn't want a really loud buzzer. We have a spare alarm clock and it is so loud I want to smash it when it goes off! On Amazon I found a nice dual alarm Sony with reviews that stated it had a quiet buzzer. Plus this alarm clock has a radio, the old one didn't. It cost $15.67 and had free shipping. We received it Wednesday and so far it's perfect. Let’s see if this one will last us 10+ years.

Thinking about the alarm clock makes me think about other small, but necessary things around the house. How much do all those things add up to? (quite a chunk of money when you start adding it all up)
How long do they last? (Sometimes you really get your money's worth)

I also got my books from Amazon on Thursday. This weekend I will finish up Suze's book and start The Game of Thrones.

The laptop cord came in the mail this morning, but I don't know yet if it will work because DH has the laptop in his work truck. So I'm making a quick post from work again.

The Giants won all three of their games over the weekend and our standard savings transfer went thru yesterday. $6 + $25 makes the new balance $3962.

Our Mother's Day weekend was very nice. My inlaws visited for the weekend and stayed at a hotel Saturday night. On Saturday MIL payed for our grocery shopping trip. $176. She told me that would count as my birthday gift. I am totally fine with that. They also gave us $100 in cash as a Mother's Day gift and as baby's bday gift.

On Sunday DD and DH made a lovely breakfast spread. Lots of tasty food! Afterwards DD, MIL and I planted veggies in my raised box DH made me for Mother's Day. I have been wanting to do this since we moved into this house! DH finally made it happen for me.

We planted corn, cucumbers, zuchinni, snap peas, carrots, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, celery and spinich. We had to buy a load of topsoil $37. And the plants and seeds added another $30. With grocery prices going up we might break even and then some. Mostly it was wonderful to be outside and I can't wait to harvest fresh goodies from the backyard.

Weather here is beautiful. Hoping you all are enjoying your spring too.

Paid our PG & E bill yesterday. $200. We have the new 'SmartMeters' on our electric and gas meters. They installed them a few months back. I know there have been studies to show they are accurate, but it does seem that our bill has trended up the past few months. I am trying to be fair and compare usage with last year and it is very close, but it is still slightly more. Hmmm.. Of course we could be using that extra; colder so more heat, Christmas lights, etc..
You can be sure I'll be keeping an eye on the usage in the coming months.

----------

Free meals this week!

Yesterday my boss treated me and my co-worker to lunch out.

Tomorrow night my co-worker and I are having dinner with a friend/client, her treat.

Thursday I'm having lunch with my laid-off co-
worker. She's going to treat because I'm doing her a big favor. :

The drawback is all this yummy food is not helping my weight loss goals.

It's shaping up to be another beautiful day here. Sunny and mild.

DH and DD have been working outside doing some much needed yardwork. Yesterday the did the front yard and it looks wonderful. Now they are giving the backyard some TLC, seeding, fertilizing, etc.

Yesterday I went shoping on Amazon. I know, dangerous. I bought nine books and a jacket for DD. Total $103. The jacket is for when she is riding on the motorcycle and the books will be gifts for Easter and for her birthday this summer. It is the complete set of the Rose books from the Little House on the Praire series.

The Giants won yesterday! Added $2 to the EF.

This morning DH and little DS ran some errands and while out they filled up my gas tank at Costco. $72. Gas there is now $3.92/gal. Blah!

I am going to work tomorrow even though I took it off. I look and feel fine so I might as well save a paid day off for another time.

Still raining here in NorCal. I think this is like the 22nd day of rain for this month.

I need to get the truck in for its smog check. I have been putting it off all week. I just don't want to take the time to do it I guess. I'd rather be here catching up on everyone's posts. The registration renewal is due the 31st, so I've got to get on it. The cheapest place is 20 miles away, or I could do it in town and spend a little more to save the time of driving. The whole thing is ridiculous because the truck is a diesel and they can only do a visual inspection. It doesn't get hooked up to a computer for emission tests, or so I've been told.

----------------------------

Last week we went over the weekly 'stuff' budget by $120. I know I had said before that I thought $175/wk might be a bit ambitious and a bit tight. However, even though we keep going over we have the money to pay for the overages. And having that as a target amount really does help me and DH prioritize spending. (I have walked out of Costco or the grocery store with only the things I went in for!)

------------------------------

Anybody see the Mega Millions jackpot was at $312 million last night? I haven't bought any tickets. If it's still big on Tuesday I'll buy a $5 quick pick ticket. How would it feel to win a piece of that?

------------------------------

I've been looking at kitchen remodel ideas and I was just watching a kitchen renovation in Sacramento on HGTV. Realistically I see us getting a new kitchen in two years or more. I like to look, plan and dream now.. All of that is free.

For Sunday dinner I have a crockpot full of carrots, potatoes and corned beef cooking right now. I will add cabbage later this afternoon. It smells heavenly, I can hardly wait.

Last night the rain was pounding and the wind was whipping. Didn't get to see the SuperMoon. (Well we saw it on the news.) DH is a volunteer fireman and last night they were called out for a tree down, then a mud slide onto the hwy, then flooding at some cottages along the river. He was gone from 1:30am to 5:00am. Then he had to go work the Home Show at 9:30am. I packed him a ton of food to take with him so he doesn't have to buy anything to eat or drink there at the show. You all know how expensive the food concessions are. Yikes!

---------------------------------

Friday was the beginning of the new week, budget wise. Last week we were over by $74. Even though we've been over every week, it has still really helped us spend less.

---------------------------------

Our truck's yearly car registration is due the end of this month. $290. Blah! And in California they've started a smog check program for diesels. SO, we get to have that done this year. $50-$60 I figure for that. I will be seeing this week.

----------------------------------

My trees in the backyard are blooming. In between cloud bursts this morning I took this to share.

This tree has really taken a beating this weekend in the wind and rain. I need to look up what type of tree it is. A type of Magnolia maybe??




This is our Oklahoma Peach. It just started getting its buds and blooms this week. DH really pruned it back last year. I was afraid he had killed it, but it looks like it survived.

The Spring Home Show is going on this weekend in our county. The company my DH works for has a booth there that he's working all weekend. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and then DD, DS and I traveled up to the home show. DH had a free pass for me and the kids were free. I did have to pay for parking. I paid $7 for the premium up-close parking. It has been cold, rainy and windy this weekend and I wasn't going to walk half a mile or more with the baby in those conditions. I figured I was only spending $7 for the whole outing so no biggie.

We met up with DH and then we walked around and looked at all the vendors. Oh my gosh, the landscaper displays were awesome. I wished I had my camera so I could have shared with you. Several had set up beautiful little stream/waterfall setups. I'd love that in my front yard! I can only guess at the price..Add it to my never ending home wish list. My DH is also in a business group and one of the other members in his group works at a kitchen design center. We stopped at her booth and set up a free consult and estimate. (You know how I was just saying our kitchen was BLAH.) We might as well figure out how much it will cost so we can start saving up.

I am always looking at any homes for sale around us. Just gauging how our property measures up. I also like to see if I can get any new ideas for upgrading our house. In our neighborhood all the houses were built the same and all about the same time. 1955-56.

This house sold in December 2010 for $195k, REO. It's been "flipped" obviously. Asking price now $278k.

I know we all like to look at pictures.

Front


Livingroom


These houses have tiny bathrooms

This is close to how we'd like to remodel our kitchen. Our kitchen is original 1955. Blah. Someday I might post a picture. You will all laugh!


Right now the average selling price in our zip code is $243/sqft. Looking at the graphs it about 2002 price level. Peak was the mid 2006 at $489/sqft.

I ended up having the day off from work because it was so slow - no appointments this afternoon. It worked out fine because DH ended up going to the doctor. Had a pain in his leg last night. By this morning he had a hot, red, painful lump on his inside thigh about two inches by two inches. Doc said it the start of an infection and started him on antibiotics. He has catastrophe medical coverage, so visits like this are out of pocket. The office visit was $96 (discounted for self pay at time of visit) and the meds he bought at Costco for $6.70. I'm glad he went today and didn’t wait until it got worse!

Needed some shampoo for me and lotion for baby DS. Well Diapers.com has a "sister" site called Soap.com and they've been sending me offers like, "Try us and get $10 off your first order". I figured today would be a good day to use this offer.

I ended up with $26.19 worth of product for $5.19!!!

How'd that happen? Well I bought Aveno Oatmeal Bath packets for $6.65, Aveno Eczema Cream for $11.95 and Head and Shoulders Extra Strength for $7.59. They had an e-coupon for $1 off one of those items, I forget which, then I had my $10 off code. $15.19 would've been great. But when I tried to checkout I kept getting an error message. I called customer service and he fixed it right away and gave me another $10 credit to the order! I was totally jazzed! DH said I should call every time with a problem.

Dinner time - Meatloaf and mashed spuds tonight.

We had our cold front move thru here in northern California on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday morning was chilly, but warmed quickly with all the beautiful sunshine. The weather people were forecasting snow flurries for our area. It would have been very odd because we're close to sea level and it only gets cold enough when it's clear. We ended up getting down to about 28F, but no snow here, although there were flurries in San Francisco! With the cold we had a crackling fire each night in our living room and I couldn't help but snap a pic of it. We had our lights off and just snuggled in watching TV by the firelight. The fire brought our living room temp to 83F. Oohh yeah!



Sunday I made enchiladas. Normally DH is the enchilada maker in the house, but the past few times I had been a bit disappointed. Shh..Don't tell him. It really hasn't been his fault. He has always used canned sauce and the past few times we'd tried some different brands and none were very good. I figured I could do much better.
Here is what I came up with:

- 1 29oz can tomato sauce, plus 1/4 can of water
- 1 7oz can diced green chilies
- 3 Tblsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- about 1/2tsp Cinnamon
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 a large purple onion diced
- 3-4 cloves of garlic minced

In a large sauce pot I melted a pat of butter and softened the onion and sautéed the garlic (about 90 seconds). Then added all the above. Heated to a boil and then turned to low and simmered while I preheated the oven and DH shredded the chicken. (I bought an already cooked whole rotisserie chicken from the store. $5.99) I mixed about 1 1/2 cups of sauce with my shredded chicken. OMGosh it was KILLER good! I used these nice soft corn and flour blend, handmade tortillas. 8ct/$2.19. So I didn't have to pre-warm them in order to make them flexible; just used 'em right out of the package. Stuffed them with the chicken, a small handful of shredded jack cheese and in some of them I added a bit of canned corn too. Covered them with the sauce, then jack cheese then cheddar cheese. Baked at 375F for about 30 minutes then broiled on low for about 5 minutes to toast the cheese top.

Served with sour cream and some beans. I could only eat two! I made 14, so they've been dinner twice and lunch once and I've got four in the fridge right now...

hhmm..I think it's my lunch time!

And Happy almost New Year!

I had this post all typed up on Sunday morning (12/26) and Blam-O my computer kicked me off the internet. I haven't had any time to re-type until now.....


Belated Merry Christmas to all! I am hoping all of you had a lovely holiday. This year more than ever I felt so lucky to have what I have. We are so very lucky. May we all have good luck and success in 2011!

We hosted this year for the first time ever. Inlaws came Thursday afternoon in their motorhome and my parents and my sister came Christmas Eve morning and everyone stayed until Sunday morning. FIL and DH were in charge of the prime rib (from Costco) for Christmas dinner and it was AWESOME! I tried two new recipes - roasted carrots with ginger and brown sugar glaze and a potato gratin made with heavy cream. The carrots were fab, the potatos I'll make again with more cheese Also had ham, green beans, fruit salad, dinner rolls and a ton of desserts. I made the hashbrown quiche and lemon scones for Christmas morning. Had to laugh a bit because FIL was kinda "eh..quiche..hu?" until he tasted it and then there wasn't enough of it. It went fast! Could've made a triple batch! DH made breakfast Sunday morning for everyone. Total for the Christmas groceries about $230. Also had the housecleaners come for $90.

I feel good about our spending on gifts this year too. Less than in past years, but scored some very nice gifts too. Best find for me was a Giants jersey for DH's big/Santa present. $60 on Ebay. Very nice.

As DH pointed it out it was nice not having to travel and really nice not having to pack up all the gifts and drive them home. We just unwrapped and pretty much put them away.

Of course the kids (just DD and DS) were spoiled rotten with all the grandparent and auntie time, plus their gifts. Baby was so cute, he opened his presents pretty much by himself (a little help from big sis to get started) and he got so excited when he saw all the goodies inside the paper. Of course the wrapping paper itself was exciting also.

SO Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Not trying to gross you all out....
Bad News - DD found a lice in her hair last week. **CRAP** You SA parents know what I mean. Just a wonderful part of childhood and parenting, Right?
So it has been a flurry of washing and vacuuming and spraying and combing..Arg. Luckily I haven't found any on me or DH or DS. And DD only had a few. Good thing it seems we caught on to the little buggers early. Everyone I know has gone thru this in their life at least once. I remember having them when I was about 10. Horrible because I've had long hair my whole life. Past my waist when I was that age. She's never had them before; we've been able to dodge the bullet all the other times it made the rounds at school.
The thing is it is expensive to treat. I was unpleasantly surprised when I spent $57 at CVS on shampoo, creme rinse and a metal toothed comb. Then there is all the time and water/energy to wash and dry everything. I was saying to my mom,
"How could low income families afford to do this?" My mom countered with,
"Think how hard/more expensive it would be if you didn't own a nice washer and dryer and you'd have to take everything to the Laundromat?"
WOW, I hadn't even thought about that. I realized I totally take my situation for granted. We are very lucky. Even though we're not "rolling in dough" all of our needs are more then met.
So after a short battle this weekend so far DD's head is all clear.

--------------------------------------

Good News - (Actually VERY good )
Received a check from our previous mortgage holder for $2475! It seems our mortgage broker got the payoff amount just before our October payment posted. So the money is our refunded October payment and the balance from our escrow account.
I am not sure where all this unexpected money will be going. I will put it all in the EF for now. I will absolutely be keeping at least 1k there for the EF goal. I will now check that off in the sidebar.

---------------------------------------

Little DS is now five and a half months. Here is a recent picture.


----------------------------------------
And ... GO GIANTS!!!

Our new mortgage is $289.13/mo less now with the refi(saving $126/mo on P/I) and the lower property taxes. WhooHoo!

------------------------------------

This past weekend my family (DD and DH) decided we needed some new Halloween decor for the yard. They picked out three foam tombstones, a strobe light and I picked out a string of purple lights. We also bought some cool window clings that look like bloody hand prints and splotches.

And we bought a costume for DD. Spent $70 on everything. DD bought a wig for her costume with her own money for $9. I tried to talk her out of it, but it's hard when it is HER money she has the choice. I told her we won't be carrying it around on Halloween night if she gets too hot wearing it. She still bought it. Oh well..

-----------------------------------

Crazy fall weather here. Last week we were using our AC and Sunday we had the heat on. I am kind of feeling ready for the cooler fall weather. Snuggling inside on the weekends with coffee and football. 'Course right now I'm watching a lot of baseball - GO GIANTS! I told DH this morning that I might need to call off work today and just stay home to watch game 3 playoffs. And do laundry!! (Always have laundry to do. ) I'll be going to work soon. My boss will have the game on the radio in his office so I'm sure I'll catch the important parts.

------------------------------------

Would love to catch up on all your blogs now, but I have got to get caught up on the checkbook register. My budget is current, but the checkbook is behind!! I can't remember the last time I was so lax. Will take care of that right now while little DS is taking his little AM nap. Such a good baby!

It seems that I keep starting all my posts with.."I'm so busy..." But I have no other excuse. I am busy.

My trip to Kentucky was awesome! The countryside was beautiful and the company was super. I had not spent that much time with my aunt in years. It was also fun to share a room with my sister again. Girl talk and all that. Our flights to and from were uneventful. We attended a few of the events at the World Equestrian Games (WEG), stopped to look at some stallions at a horse farm and toured two bourbon distilleries. I will post some pictures when I've got my camera handy.

I did pretty well spending wise. $45 spent in cash and about $220 on the credit card to be paid next week. The $220 included treating for dinner for the four of us twice and gift/souvenir items. I bought myself a pair of blown glass earrings in the shape of a horse head. (I'll take a pic of them too for you all to see)

Everyone did well at home without me. My MIL came to stay and help DH. She bought food and some home improvement stuff for us. My DH surprised me by completing a few of his TO DO projects around the house. Cleaned the garage and finished some crown molding and baseboards, and tore into a wall in our bathroom!! He did pretty well not spending much money. About $32 while I was gone.

--------------------------
Refi is all done. 4.75% 30 year fixed.
The only hitch was I had to come up with the mortgage payment about two weeks earlier than I would have normally. Made for a tight squeeze right before I left and until the first. Did move money over from the EF. Darn, 'cause I was almost to the 1k mark! The good news is that now I'm back ahead of the game and that means having the money to pay bills earlier. Makes it all run more smoothly.

---------------------------
Back to work full time now. Keeping very busy there.

--------------------------
Baby DS is great. Five months now. Wow!
DD is also doing great. Although she chipped a front tooth a few days back. Not very bad at all, but still.....

-------------------------
Time to start dinner. Thursdays are about the only weekday I have time to make a nice dinner because I get off work early.

And I've got to cheer on the Giants. Playoff game tonight vs. the Braves.

The Wife will play..

Okay, not really!

But I've been very, very busy doing double duty here at the house. Plus I have started the ball rolling on our refi. Looking to reduce our rate to close to 4.5%, depending on when we lock. That should equate to approximately $170/mo savings. And with our property taxes down we are looking at saving another $100/mo in taxes!
Yip-ee!

Also had a Comcast (cable TV co.) salesman come by the house yesterday. They come by about every two months or so and want to "bundle" our phone and internet services with our cable. In the past I've never been real interested in changing anything. But yesterday I was like, "Oh what the heck..We'll try it." $120/mo for phone, internet, TV.
We will be getting a faster internet connection, more phone services like caller ID and call waiting, free install, a free HD DVR, all the HD channels and one of the premium movie channel packages (Starz). It won't be any huge savings, about $5-$10/mo, but lots more "stuff". Of course saving is saving; it's all good! We'll see..

Told DH about it on the phone. He said he is totally fine with any changes, just as long as I don't change the locks!

He has 65lbs of Halibut and 30lbs of Salmon so far. I'm thinking packages of fish as Christmas gifts - Just kidding!

I am going to try the salmon crock pot recipe that Monkey Mama posted once the fish gets here.

-----------------------------------

I have pretty much had a NSWeek so far (Mon - Fri). Only had to buy diesel for the truck. $75. I have been too busy/too lazy to do any shopping. I will have to go grocery shopping this weekend and Costco next week. This week has been cheap!

------------------------------------

Baby DS has started some solid food. Baby oatmeal, of course, and he really likes sweet potatoes. That's it so far. Tonight I might try carrots.

--------------------------------------

Sold a pair of DD's old riding boots $12. I paid $8 for them two summers ago. Made $40 this AM from my elderly cat side "job". This money will be going to the EF which is very close to the first 1k goal mark!

I must be a good girl..the money is flowing my way..

A very generous client gave us a gift at work. $200 for me!

My coworker paid me back $50.

I made $40 by making a housecall to my friend's neighbor. I've been helping them with their elderly cat who needs regular blood draws, but HATES the vet. (I've been there a few times now so actually I've made $200 so far.)

And DH gave me the $6 he had in his pocket.

WaHoo!
----------------------------
Other Updates:

Looking into a refi for the house...
DS going to try out his new highchair tonight..
DH headed to Alaska on Saturday... A whole week of having the bed to myself!!

A few entries back I wrote about how we were needing to pay more into our escrow account for our property tax. Well yesterday we received a letter from the county assessors' office that our home's assessed value has decreased. It's down by almost 100k! Interestingly the selling/asking prices have been going up in our neighborhood. I'm thinking the county is running a year or more behind in adjusting the values. Sooo I think we will be getting back all the extra money we're putting into escrow. Probably at some point after October. *Arg*
---------------------------------------
Recent expenses:
Childcare: $600
Grocery: $140, $31, $43
Target & KMart: $70
Debt Payments: $480

I can't wait for August to be over. And on the other hand I need more money before September starts. Know what I mean? lol!

Arrg.. the website logged me off/kicked me out. Made me lose most of this post so now I've re-typed. I MUST remember to highlight and copy before I click the publish button!

Our water bill came yesterday. Our city is now billing once monthly instead of every other month. The good thing is they finally adjusted our sewer usage down to "Winter Average". That saves because the sewer charges are $7.04 per hundred cubic feet (hcf=748 gallons). Tier one water charges are $2.83 per hcf and go up from there. Then you have base service charges on both water and sewer.
Our bill $74. I am going to start having this bill automatically charged to the cc each month.
In regards to the water bill it seems that our new washer is saving lots of water and that means it's saving me lots of money both in and out (sewer). I'll post once I calculate. But even if it uses one hcf less per month that saves $10.
Recent payments:
Payment to Sears card $75. Much less than I had budgeted for, but spent in other areas. I'll do a second payment if I have a little extra at the end of the month.
PG&E $143.
Home phone/cell phones/DSL $156.
Cable $85.
Garbage/Recycle/Yard Waste $44 (three months)

---------------------------------------------
My ROTH is down $14. Not bad with the market jumping around right now. I need to check DH's, but he has forgotten his username and will need to call.

So I've been blessed to have had a cleaning service once monthly for the past four months. A gift. We have never had any "professional" help with house keeping. I am addicted! How did we ever do it on our own? We did, but not nearly as often as the house needs. And with me going back to work soon I really wonder if the dusting, shower scrubbing and mopping will get done, or put off to "next weekend". I've got one more cleaning, then if I want to continue it's $90 monthly.

*sigh*

Where's the scrubby sponges?

In the year and a half that we've lived on our street there have been four other houses that have sold just on our street. Of course there are others in the same neighborhood that have listed/sold. But in the interest of time I am only talking about our street. All of these homes have the same square footage and really the same floorplan. The lots are all close in size. All in all very comprable.
January 2009: $265,000 (our house)
December 2009: $302,000 (about 12 houses up)
March 2010:$339,000 (across the street and down a bit)
May 2010: $340,000 (other end of street)
July 2010: $285,000 (about 6 up - list price - in contract - so we'll see..)
Here is a picture that represents the houses on our street.


Currently Zillow estimates our home at $310,000.
I feel so lucky that our home is not underwater. So, So Lucky!

Oh *groan* we received a notice from our mortgage company that we have a projected shortage in our escrow account. This means our monthly mortgage payment is increased by $137. *groan*
About a year ago they sent me a fat check for the overage, like $1200. So silly! But what'da goin’ do?!
I know we could take care of paying these things ourselves, but having an impound account seems like a better idea for us right now. I mean, we'd just have to set aside the same amount each month anyway.

Here's a question: In my sidebar with regard to the debt payments. Do you think I should leave the starting balance posted and bracket the current amount? Or should I just update as I payoff? What would you all like to see? I can't decide. (Boy, my life is full of hard choices isn't it? lol.)

Met a friend and went for a two and a half mile walk with baby in the pack and DD on her bike. It was nice to get out this morning before it got too warm. We started at 8:30am and I thought it might be too cool, but it was just right, 68F. I had to take my sweatshirt off because the place we were at is mostly full sun. Thankfully there was a little breeze.

My friend is having her backyard landscaped right now. Or I should say hardscaped. It's going to be all stone and pavers. It's a pretty small (tiny) yard. You know big house on a small lot developement. She said the work should be done by next week. Cost: about $16,000. :0
I guess I'll move professional landscaping to the bottom of our home improvement to do list. lol.