Looking Forward's Personal Finance Blog

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.

We're having some crazy weather here in NorCal!

Lots of rain, and 'other' stuff. Yesterday I looked out the windows at work and the rain was hitting the ground so hard it was splashing back up. Then the wind was whipping around. Then it hailed around 3:30pm. Then more rain. And the biggest event was a TORNADO! Yeah, a TORNADO in Santa Rosa. Middle of town. It was right on the street I drive to/from baby brother's (DS) daycare! A landscaping business was hit and one of their buildings was torn apart. The news showed chunks of building flew into neighboring yards and the street. Thankfully no one was injured!

Crraazzzzy...
And me without my ruby slippers..
"Auntie Em! Auntie Em!"

Today, so far, it's just raining with a bit of wind. The weather people are projecting our rain totals at 2"+ by the end of the weekend. On top of the pouring rain we had Tuesday. Close to 1" then? Thankfully no worry of flooding near us at all. Whew.

March weather is always a bit crazy. Rain. Sun. Rain.

Wish I could record the sound of the rain pounding my roof right now for you all.

And I've got to go to the store when DS wakes up...

We got our federal return on Monday.
2k to mom, 1k to EF, $500 to MIL, $200 to checking account.

I am updating the sidebar and I am making a 5k goal for our EF by the end of the year.

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I have been meeting my workout goals for the month so far.

I went last night to a Zumba class. It is free at our gym so I thought "Why not, I should try it out." But by the time I got home from work (6:10pm) I was ready to just stay home. DH kinda pushed me out the door to go try it. I'm glad he did. It was fun and an hour went by in a flash. And boy it kinda kicked my butt, hehe. I used to dance in high school, but last night I was feeling old and slow. Not picking up the steps as fast as I'd like. The instructor is an older lady, which I thought set a great example, and she kept the class very upbeat and relaxed. It was a good mix of ages and body types too. I told DH I am going to try to make it a regular thing.

Gym four times a week???? If I don't lose weight from that...

DH and I are going tonight in about 40 minutes. I'll do about 30 minutes of something and then I've got to take DD to a class skating fundraiser thingy.

Never a dull moment here.

I made more enchiladas on Sunday and we've got one left in the fridge. I added up all the cost for 16 enchiladas to $23.60.
$6.99 for 2lbs. shredded jack cheese (I didn't use all of it!)
$1.29 for tomato sauce
$1.49 for can diced chilies
$5.99 for rotisserie chicken
$3.92 for two packs (16) hand made tortillas

I had all the spices, some cheddar, onion and garlic already.
I did use up the last of my chili powder so I will need more of that on the next shopping trip.

This is one of two baking dishes. Each held eight.

I was online checking email, paying bills and transfering money when I saw this artical from Wallet Pop. I thought you all might find it interesting.

Saving money - Brewing coffee vs. Buying coffee

I've been waiting for our federal refund. We already received our California refund, so I didn't think the federal would be taking so long. I just logged onto the IRS website and it said my check would be mailed tomorrow. Okay, not much more time to wait.

Today is the last day of week #2 of the new, tight, weekly budget. I had to pick up two items at Costco, which turned into three items . They had a two pound pack of chicken breast lunch meat for $5.89 that I couldn't pass up. I spent $42 total. As long as we don't spend anymore today, we will finish the week only $22 over budget. I am very pleased with that.

Bought gas at Costco today too. $3.81/gal. Total to fill up - $67. Ugh...

Last night I met one of my girlfriends for dinner and a beer at a local brewery. It was fun and the food and beer were very tasty. And my friend treated! I thought that was so nice and told her how much I appreciated that. Yay, no money spent there.

I didn't make it to the gym this morning. But, I did get exercise in; I went for a two mile walk with another friend. She just had her second baby, a boy, a month ago. This is the first time I've seen her since December, so it was very good to visit and reconnect. We walked with the strollers to Starbucks and got coffee. I had a free coffee coupon, so no money spent there either. Yay again!

So far we're under budget for the week.
Two and a half more days to go....

With rainy days comes lots of movie watching at our house. Last night we watched "The Bucket List" again for like the fourth time. Always a good one. This morning we rented "A-Team" thru our cable for DH. It was fast paced and fun. Now "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is on TV.

I did manage a few chores. I cleaned out the fridge. Totally wiped it out and washed all the drawers and shelves. WooHoo for me!
I also cleaned out my purse and balanced the checkbook while sitting and watching TV.

I was also going thru some mail and one was from Sears. Offering extended warranties on our washer and dryer. $151/one year. $272/two years. $385/three years. Those are all the special discounted prices too. The regular three year price was $720. I am going to pass. Thanks.

We ran over to the bank to deposit our paychecks and it's next to the Cold Stone ice cream place. We had just seen their ad on TV - buy a medium and get a child's size free. We go to Cold Stone like twice a year maybe, because they're so pricey. Their special flavor for March is 'Pistachio Pudding' so I had that and DD got hers for free. Mine was good, thick, almost like a marshmallow cream.

Still need to go to the gym....

DH is planning a father/daughter trip with DD in May. It is a four day/three night road trip. They will be riding on the motorcycle. Which, with gas prices climbing, that will be a big money saver. DS and I will be meeting them in Yosemite for the last day and night. I've been looking at the little cabins inside the park and it looks like it'll be about $115! I don't want to get a camping spot in case it rains or is cold because we'll be there with the baby. I am looking forward to seeing Yosemite again; it's been about 10 years since my last visit.

Travel is on my mind right now. I love seeing new places. While my mom was visiting yesterday we were talking about the cruise she and my aunt (her sister) have planned for this summer. A Mediterranean cruise. 12 days, with two nights in Barcelona beforehand and two nights in Venice afterwards. It sounds wonderful and I hope my mom has a fabulous time.

My boss is planning to go to Palm Springs for a long weekend the end of this month.

In the Costco coupon book we got a few days ago there was a travel offer for Los Cabos (10 minutes to Cabo San Lucas). Four nights at the Sheraton for $295/pp. (Breakfast included, $150 food/beverage credit and $50 spa credit.) Not including airfare. If you had some frequent flyer miles to use that could be sweet....We don't though.. *sigh* Tropical vacations always look so good while it's cool and raining here at home - like today.

The other thing I saw on Costco travel is their Disney packages. When you book thru Costco you get a Character dining included! For those of you who don't or haven't done Disney, Character dining is a meal where they have a bunch of the characters come around to your table. It's neat because you can get a bunch of pictures of you and the characters without having to chase them around the parks. Usually these meals cost up to $39/adult and $20/child. So getting one for free is a very nice perk. I'm ready to go to Disneyland again

I just want a vacation.

Our goal of spending $175/week didn't work out this past week. We were over by $130. It's okay, we're just going to keep trying to hit that mark each week. It may be a bit ambitious, but I feel that the amount is doable. I went a little crazy at the grocery store; it's hard to walk away from a good deal.

Bought gas on Friday. (Gas has it's own budget, so it's not deducted from the $175 thankfully, or we'd have no money to eat with!)
It was $3.68/gallon at Costco. Total to fill up - $64.
The price of diesel has really shot up. In 24 hours the stations in our town had raised the price by 0.20/gallon! We don't drive our big truck regularly, but the company DH works for has all diesel trucks and these prices really hurt business like them.

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My mom came for a visit yesterday. We meet with my co-worker and had mochas, these amazing éclairs and a nice visit. Yummy, Yummy. I spent $7. Then we dropped DD at a birthday party for one of her friends. Gift was $7. Mom treated me to a pedicure. (Thank you mama!) We picked up DD from the party and had take-and-bake pizzas and chocolate chip cookies for dinner, cost $20.

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My DH is almost back to normal. Thank goodness! I was worried that he might need further treatment. This type of thing is why having savings/EF is so critical. It is also a reminder why I need to get life insurance squared away on us. I know - bad we don't have it yet.

We received our California state refund today.
Yippee, I'm rich!!!

Just kidding.

Tomorrow is payday for me and DH, so our checking account will be quite fat for the next few days. Until all the payments and transfers post.

J4F
Would you take one million dollars right now OR wait and get ten million in ten years?
This is tax free money and would also go to your estate should you pass.

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DD had her dentist appointment. Routine cleaning/polish and x-rays. No cavities! Yay! She will need a little cosmetic work to her front teeth. I made her an appointment for later this month. Don't know how much that will be yet. Her routine visit was $25.

Very slow week at work..Monday my coworker left early, yesterday I stayed home and today she left early again. So far we've got one appointment on the books for this afternoon. Thus the time I have to blog..hehe..

DH says he's feeling a bit better today. Very tired. His meds say they might cause drowsiness. Plus infections are energy draining anyway.

A note about my enchilada sauce: I looked at a bunch of recipes online and pretty much figured out that you can add whatever sounds good to you. I saw one that had taco sauce, one with salsa, one used tomato paste and crushed, fire roasted tomatoes and I also saw seasoning the sauce with just a packet of taco seasoning. Just in case any of those variations jump out at you and you want to experiment further.

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J4F
I would wait and take the ten million. It would be hard to wait, but well worth it. At first I felt like I would rather take the money now, but *sigh* it's better to wait. Knowing myself I'd have to be sure I didn't rack up a bunch of debt knowing I'd be getting that money down the road.

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!

I have a few goals I have started working on this past month and am starting to think about March now.

1. Get to the gym three times weekly.
I started doing this and so far I'm on track. Yay! I go by myself Tuesday morning and with the family on Thursday evening and Sunday mornings. DH and I discussed trying this for a month or two and if I didn't use the gym enough to make it worth while we would cancel the family membership and downgrade to just an individual membership for DH. He plays racquetball two to three times per week. We've cut back to the individual membership before when I knew I wouldn't be using it or we really need to cut back. My DH needs to workout for his mental health even more so than physical health...that said our gym membership costs less than visiting the marriage counselor. hehe I will always make his membership more of a need. Mine is more a nice perk. I like being able to work out at the gym, although I know I could still get exercise other ways. The gym makes me more "accountable" I guess and I get nice results when I go regularly.

2. Apply any "extra" money from regular paychecks to debt. (Then it'll be savings - Can't wait!)
This is when the paycheck is more than the amount I've budgeted for. Example: DH's budgeted paycheck is $800/wk. When his paycheck is more, say $870, I used to just put that in the checking account for more spending. Now I will apply the $70 to the debt. This is DH's idea. He has wanted me to do this for awhile, but I was reluctant to "cut ourselves too short." Now I see I was only enabling our spending by looking at that as EXTRA $ and thus spending it like EXTRA $.

3. Weekly budget amount for food and household and etc. spending cut to $175/week.
I am thinking it will be easier for us to monitor our spending if we break it down weekly vs. monthly. And inspired by ThriftORama, I just lumped all of that together, instead of trying to track grocery, dining out, household, gifts, etc in different categories. So I've combined and then cut back. Yesterday was the first day of the first week of this new approach. Wish us luck!

This weekend I made the chicken club casserole that Frugal Foodie posted. Thank you FF, it was tasty and like you said made plenty for two casseroles. We had one Sunday night and the other is in the freezer. I did make it up from scratch, as in I didn't have any leftover chicken or bacon, so I had to cook everything first before I could assemble the casserole. That took a bit of time. Next time I'd like to add more cheese and bacon. DH bought me the chicken when he stopped at the store and he totally scored these huge boneless, skinless breasts for 1.59/lb.
I also have plans to make Monkey Mama's pistachio cake at some point. I love pistachios and pistachio pudding, so that's right up my alley.

Sunday a local girl scout stopped by and I bought three boxes of cookies. My box was the Samoas, DD's pick was the Dolce De Leche, and DH's fav is the Do-si-dos. $12.

Sunday evening DD fell off her scooter and scraped up her knees, her upper lip and chipped both front teeth! I already had a dentist appointment schedualed for her on March 1st. I think at some point she's going to need some cosmetic work for those teeth.

Friday night while I was driving home I was thinking about something I thought might be fun. A Just 4 Fun (J4F) question I will post, it will probably be silly or strange, but it's just for fun!

***Would you choose Oatmeal or Malt O' Meal/Cream of Wheat?***

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I received email confirmation that both my state and federal returns have been accepted. Now I am waiting for my money.

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Malt O' Meal for me.
I love oatmeal, but Malt O' Meal is so YUMMY!

CeeJay recently asked about parenting successes. And you know it seems strange, but right now I can't think of just one time. It feels like each day there are some success and sometimes failures (like losing your temper or being "too" busy).

Some things I have learned that help me are:

*Give two choices to your child. Both results are okay with you. It gives them a feeling of power over their own life. Builds self-confidence and self-worth.

*Let them do things on their own. How else will they learn?

*I've always told my DD, and I will tell my son, the truth about things. Kids know when you lie and they lose respect for you.

*Have a good sense of humor. It feels a lot better to laugh than be angry about that 'spilt milk'.

*Choose your battles. (Who cares if their clothes don't match??)

*Give lots of hugs and loves. Play and do things together.

*When your kids make mistakes be sure they know you still love and support them.

*You set the example. For everything!

*Help them pick good friends.


My children make me proud everyday.

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She also asked "What would you change in your life?"

Well the shortest answer would be - nothing. If you use the reasoning that if you change something then you alter how something else turned out.
But if I could keep everything I love and change just a few things it would be:

****Financial****
More money in retirement and savings. Wished we started much earlier.

****Personal****
Nicer legs. (Thinner and w/out any spider veins)

On Tuesday, we received DH's 1099 (from his side work/business) we had been waiting for. I had everything entered by Wednesday night, but waited until this morning to review all my entries before pressing the SEND button. Double checking that I typed the correct amounts and didn't screw up on something silly like a SS#. I have used freetaxusa.com for several years now. (This is the sixth year??) It is user friendly, IRS approved, e-files, free to file federal and costs me $9.95 to file our California return. My FIL has used TurboTax the past few years. He thinks it's great and saves him so much money. DH and I have told him about this site each year. I'm sure in some way he feels like we don't know what we're talking about. Even though I believe our taxes are a bit more complicated than theirs. I, at least, have childcare and a schedule C to file that they don't have. In our situation TurboTax would cost me $75 for federal and an "additional fee" for state. Umm, I'll stick with $10, thank you.

I e-file, but have the checks mailed to me. I guess I am paranoid because I don't want to give the government our bank information. Although I am sure they could get it if they wanted.

This year we are getting back more than from past years. I'm thinking our newest tax deduction/credit (DS) plays a part of that.
Getting back $3724/federal and $2470/state.
Our gross income was down only slightly. $3273 less than 2009. DH made more, but because I was on maternity leave I made much less, so it pretty much evened out.

Plans for our refund?

**Both our moms have given us cash in the years we've been married. We try to give a little back each year. Looking at $2k to my mom and $500 to MIL.
**EF. $1k ish.
**cc debt. Remaining $$.

I am on lunch break right now. So far I've brought lunch to work every day this month. Today was a chicken tamale with rice, a cup of yogurt, water and a few Valentines chocolates.

MonkeyMama's post has reminded me how much I need to call and get a haircut appointment. My last haircut was in April. I have much longer hair (to the small of my back), but I am a "wash and go" girl too. And obviously don't pay much in a year for haircuts!

Need to make dentist appointment for the family and myself soon. I'm like three months overdue..

Many of you have posted about V-Day spending. I bought a 36ct bag of Nerds Valentine boxes for DD's class for $3.60. I didn't buy DH anything (which is normal) and he and DD made a special dinner at home - sausage and basil lasagna. Yummy!! DH did have a huge flower arrangement delivered to me at work. Very sweet; he is a romantic type. He said they were a good deal from the florist in his weekly business group. Of course I am not going to out and out ask how much. He paid with $$ from his side work, NOT household cash flow.

On the news they were reporting the average amount of money spent by women on V-Day was about $80, and by men was about $160. Our family was WELL under those numbers!

This is from last weekend while visiting the in-laws. I was driving back to their house and took these from out of the car window. The whole sky was filled with color. The pictures just barely capture the scene.

It seems I always think of lots of blog ideas and then when I sit down in front of the computer I can barely remember one. However, I have remembered two just now...

Has anyone else tried the Little Cesar's Hot and Ready pizzas? We have gotten them a few times the past several weeks. On Monday they are $3.99 and breadsticks are $1. So a quick dinner DH picks up for under $10. DH has also picked up pizza for lunch for $5 (all other days of the week) and it's enough for two lunch meals for him. Not the very best pizza I've ever had, but the cheese and the pepperoni are good, and tastes even better when I know we've only paid $4 for it.

Back in December I got a letter from Comcast (our cable company) regarding my account and the new "bundle" I had changed to in September/October. It was just a letter reviewing the "agreement" and it also stated that if our account was in good standing for three months I would receive a $150 cash card. Well I got the card the beginning of this week, Cool! I am thinking I will use it for grocery shopping. $150 should be easy enough to spend on food.

Baby DS is nine months old! How time flies! He is crawling and pulling up and has two bottom front teeth.
He is 21 pounds and 29 inches long now.


I have to resist the urge to post more pics of him in every post. lol!

I have my laptop back. It needed another hard drive. Go figure. The repair tech said that the disk drive wasn't "talking" to the rest of the computer because the hard drive wasn't connecting things right. I'm glad I didn't have a bunch of things saved to the computer because I would have lost them all again. Still a pain in the butt!! I do have all my Microsoft Word, Works and Excel loaded in now. The silver lining was the repairs didn't cost anything.

The past couple weeks have been uneventful, just trying to keep spending down. Budget was tight in January and will be tighter in February - Short month and all. I have been taking lunch to work everyday since the middle of January. I almost always take a frozen meal like Eating Right (Safeway brand) or Lean Cuisine, a piece of fruit and a yogurt for an afternoon snack. $2/meal + $0.50/fruit + $0.60/yogurt = healthy for under $4. I really need and want to buckle down on my weight loss. I've gained almost 40lbs. (Ouch, I don't like typing that!) It is frustrating because I am trying to be good and so far I'm only down 2 lbs. Ugh! I need more weight loss to keep me motivated. It took me a long time to lose the baby weight after DD. I think my body just really holds on to the "mama fat".

Last weekend we visited family. Stayed at my in-law's house Friday and Saturday night. DH told me he was talking to his dad and that they want to refi their mortgage. They're at 7%!!! I was shocked, I mean I would have refinanced LONG ago. I don't understand why they aren't in a hurry..??..
On Saturday I took DD to Mount Shasta for her first downhill skiing experience. She took two 90 minute lessons with equipment rental was $70. This was paid by my mom as a Christmas gift. We just didn't have time to do it around Christmas, but did manage to squeeze it in before the snow melts. DD loved it and was a natural. Her afternoon instructor said she is ready for the chairlift her next time out. Now I will need to brush up so we can ski together, the last time I was skiing was 10 years ago. Would like to get my BFF and my dad to go with us too.

Yesterday was a big spending day. Baby had his 9mo checkup for $125. DD and DH went grocery shopping for lunch supplies for the two of them for $52. I ordered diapers and wipes at Diapers.com for $27. I bought baby formula and other needed supplies at Target for $104. At Target I needed to buy paper plates and napkins for DD's class party this Friday. I was going to buy some cute heart print plates with matching napkins, but then I found the clearance aisle in the back corner of the store.. I bought a 125ct pack of paper plates for $4.50 and a 400ct pack of napkins for $5. Sure they were just plain white, but now her class will have enough for all their parties for the rest of this year. I also scored a six pack of binkies for DS for $7.50. They are regularly $6/pair. Now I can have a spare everywhere.

Still no laptop. Rrrr! I am very annoyed because Staples didn't send it out for almost a week! They said they were having trouble processing the "re-work" request because their system kept wanting to charge us. Now I ask you, don't you think they have to do re-works for other clients? I mean, we aren't the only ones, right? I am more inclined to think they forgot about sending it out. I am not in much position to complain because it is a free repair. Maybe I'll get it back Tuesday..

In other news, baby DS has a little cold and is teething. The past few nights have been dotted with crying and not as much sleep as I'd like. Poor baby. We'll get through it.

I also discovered my sweet daycare lady isn't getting our bottles as clean as I would like. We had to talk. Which went fine. I will take the bottles home every couple days to do a through scrub. No one takes care of babies like mom does hu?!

I actually made $50 last weekend. Deposited to the EF. And I split the $200. Half to cc and half to the EF.

Will need to update the sidebar when I've got more than two minutes here! Busy at work. I'll have a lot of blog reading to do when I finally get my computer back.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Laptop not back yet. Still blogging from work. I must be quick.

Received a $200 gift from a client today. WooHoo! Same client that gave us some cash a few months back. She is very generous. Savings or cc payment??? Don't know yet. I will also be making $40 this weekend looking in on a kitty Saturday and Sunday. I think Savings for that.

Have a great weekend everyone. I probably won't 'see' you all until Monday. *sigh*

Our laptop is back out for repair to the disk drive again. Thankfully we noticed the problem, a likely short, before the 90 day period was up. DH took it in to Staples and they have "sent it out". No charges to us, but no laptop at home.
Trying to catch up on my emails, bills, checking accounts and your posts all while I am at work. Whew!! Not much time here to do that except for lunch time really.

Been meaning to post about my diaper buying/saving.
The past few months I was getting 30% back on my diaper purchases online and I ended up with $58 worth of credit! Enough for a huge box of diapers, actually almost two, and wipes and a toy. And I used a 15% off code for the toy. So I still have a bit of credit left over for next time.

Back to work!

Lazy Saturday here. Baby is down for his afternoon nap, DD is outside playing and DH is running errands on his 'new' motorcycle that came today. Inlaws brought down early this AM. They have just left to head home. The weather is beautiful, blue skies, sun and 65F.

I should go out, but I am comfy in the recliner switching between football playoffs and the movie Pirates of the Caribbean all while online. Enjoying being alone right now.

Paid some bills. PG&E $210. Cell phone $200 (two bills - I didn't pay last month) Cable/Internet/Home Phone bundle $165, I didn't technically pay because it's on auto bill, but I did transfer the money from checking to the Visa to "pay" for it. Water $74, again on auto bill. Our water rates went up on January 1st. Small increases ($0.20 - $0.60) to the base rate for water and sewer and small increases ($0.15) to the per hcf for both water and sewer(hcf= hundred cubic feet; 1 hcf= 748 gallons). We used 6 hcf in December for $69 and in January 6 hcf for $74. So their small increases will add up. The city is paying for a new sewer treatment plant.

Today I had enough points on my visa to redeem for $100 account credit. So I did that right off. Yay!

Watched the movie Julie and Julia last night. It was very cute! DH liked it. He's a romantic so he liked how both the hubbys loved their wives.

Now I am wanting to try a few of those recipes.

Burritos for dinner tonight. And I'm thinking about French food. haha. Back to relaxing, only two hours until dinner and Suze Orman.

I have increased both DH's and my ROTH monthly auto withdrawal to $75 each. (It feels embarrassing to type that scrawny amount..)
But really I do feel good that we are making small steps in the right direction. DH and I discussed making small increases thru out the year in order to eventually max out. No way we could afford to max contribute right now. With small increases we hope to not notice the "missing money".

Our ROTH accounts are with T. Rowe Price. I really like being able to make small and regular contributions. Their website is user friendly and their funds are very good. DH has a target retirement fund (2035) and I have Growth. DH was finally able to remember his log on info (yay!) and now I know what it is so I can check in more regularly. He was excited to see his account had been earning money and he has picked out another fund he wants to start buying when we can. It was cool to see him get excited about the ROTH accounts and funds. He was reading the information and the Morningstar ratings. This is a man who barely reads instructions!!! lol! Who am I kidding?? NEVER reads instructions - that's my 'job'. Looking at his account is good for him too because he needs to think 'Future', he is very much 'Here and Now' (uh.. motorcycle..). I still love him though **sigh**

Both ROTHs made very nice gains this past year - almost 13%. I think that's excellent, but I am not an expert investor, so what do I know???

My DH has been talking to his dad a few times today..and..well..DH is going to buy one of FIL motorcycles. ARG!! I can't beleive him!! It's totally against my wishes and he knows it. He'll be using side work money to pay for it. I want that $$$$ to go to debt, retirement and savings!!!! It's a bike I've been on before and I really like it, so he says I'll be glad he did this. I told him I am NOT happy and yes I liked riding on it when his dad owned it!! And I won't ride on it until all cc debt is paid off. So There! Rrrrrrr!!