Looking Forward's Personal Finance Blog

Happy Labor Day!
I hope everyone gets to enjoy a restful day off. We are in relaxation mode here at our house.

Tomorrow I start working Tuesdays all day. For years I have had the morning off. Recently I started thinking I should offer to work all day. I already pay gas money to commute and I could add 3.5 hours to my week by making this change. I figured that after tax and additional childcare costs I will still bring home over $2k/year more. That is hard to say "No" to.

Last week went better than I had expected in regards to my new morning routine of getting the kids off to their schools. What it boils down to is leaving the house 30 minutes earlier. I hope we can keep it up all school year long.

Today was DD's first day of middle school. The lazy summer mornings are gone now Darn it!
Next week I add dropping DS off at preschool to the morning routine. I know it will be worth it. He is ready for more stimulation and he is very excited to start "school".

In the extra income side of things: I received my quarterly check for recording some of my works' inventory usage to a research company. It pays $20/month. So my check was $60.

Unfortunately, I saw an unauthorized charge on my AmEx card this evening. $85.xx. I submitted a dispute form online and fingers crossed it gets cleared up quickly. And no more funky charges!! Argh!

We've been lucky to have some extra income and valuable coupons come our way lately.

Most recent was the 20% off coupon I mentioned I used buying new shoes. The coupon was online and I brought it up with my cell phone while checking out in the store. $26 savings.

In May I added DD to my Ting cell phone plan. It has increased my monthly bill from $16/month to $30/month. BUT, I've had two more referral credits come my way since then and that really helps cut the cost. $50 credit.

If you or anyone you know are planning to move service to Ting please, please consider using my referral link. It will give me a credit and you'll have $25 savings off your service or a phone purchase.

https://zlibcgmej.ting.com/

With Target moving into our town there is more competition among the stores. We live close to most the stores, so our neighborhood ends up with coupons that aren't distributed citywide - stores fighting over us I guess. On Friday we received this in the mail:



I'll take $30 in savings thank you very much.


Now for a really cool snowflake ...
Our family was selected to participate in a survey program that pays DD, DH and I $25 every month!



We each received an initial $10 bonus for signing up.
After our first month (last week) we each received $100 bonus checks!
After 90 days we'll each get a $50 bonus.
There are also weekly drawings for $250 and $500 and special drawings almost monthly for prize money ranging from $10k to $15k.

How did this happen? I opened something that looked like junk mail and it had $1 inside and it just went from there.

Everyone gets to do what they want with their money.
My money is going into the EF. $125 this month.


Last, but certainly not least, is some steady cash coming from some "cat care" I'm doing. This involves me "visiting" the cat twice weekly to administer subcutaneous fluids. (Owners can do this themselves, but this daddy chooses not to.) He pays me $40/visit.
I have done this for three weeks now - tomorrow will be the fourth week.
Starting this week this cash will head to the EF. $80.

I am feeling blessed and lucky to have these opportunities.
Going to pack these snowflakes into chunky snowballs!

DD had her orientation at middle school this morning. Unfortunately, she didn't get the zero period PE, so we will need to come up with a game plan for the morning drop off. I am probably going to drop off on the next street down and DD can walk over to the school.

We bought new shoes today. A pair for me and a pair for DD. (We now wear the same size.. sheesh!)
The really awesome part was the salesman told me to pull up an online coupon on my phone while I was checking out. He scanned the bar code on my phone and we saved 20%!

That was $26 I saved by having a "smart" phone. I need to remember to check for or ask about online coupons since it seems like this is becoming a more common thing.
What about if you don't have a smart phone? It's not fair, but I guess you miss out.



Later today, or tomorrow, I will take DD for more B2S shopping. We have a new shopping center that *just* opened near us. There is a Target and a TJMaxx. She has a $25 gift card to both stores - gifts from her birthday last month. DH and I agreed to give her an additional $150 in cash. She will make the choices on what she needs (Paper, pens, socks, jeans, tops, jacket etc.) and will have to budget accordingly. She has already decided she is happy to reuse the same backpack she has had for three years in order to spend on something else.

We have been enjoying our laid back summer. We've been keeping busy on relaxing.

We spent most of our time close to home. I did go kayaking with girlfriends three times this summer. It was good girl time and lovely on the river. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful, temperate place. (One girlfriend is really pushing for a fourth trip.)

DD had a week at 4H camp. It was a deal at $225 and then her club paid $50 toward her registration. $175 was a steal for a week of super fun sleepaway camp, meals and activities.

Last weekend we camped at a state park sharing a site with friends. It only cost us $8 for the additional vehicle fee. It is right across the road from the ocean so we all had fun on the beach as well as a nice hike among the ferns and redwoods.

Next week DD starts junior high (7th grade). Tomorrow we will get her schedule and see if she got zero period PE. That would mean she would go to school about 45 minutes earlier than most. The school allows 40 students to do this. I would love it because DH could drop her off in the mornings. The other advantage would be the absence of all the crazy drop off traffic. Fingers crossed...

In two weeks DS starts his three days per week at preschool. And then September starts.
Phew.. the summer sure flew by didn't it?

Financially it has been smooth sailing here. *knock on wood*
We haven't had any unexpected expenses and regular expenses have been lower than usual. Yay!
Not doing anything different in particular. Things like..
Having mild weather so not having to run the AC.
Sticking close to home.
Clearing out the fridge and freezer for meals.

Hope we can keep it up.

I heard this on the radio and wanted to pass along..

Buy two (or more) movie tickets on Friday from Fandango with your Visa Signature card and get one of the tickets for free.

https://www.fandango.com/visasignature/

The last two weeks we've spent a chunk on my vehicle. This is our 1999 Nissan Pathfinder that currently has just under 220k miles. It's yearly registration was due and it needed to pass the bi-annual smog (emissions) test. The "check engine" light has been on and it was well overdue for a tune-up.

We had our neighbor, a mechanic, do the work for us. Which was super convenient because I didn't have to drop the car off anywhere. He just walked over and picked it up when he had time to work on it. Plus, he charges $30 - $45 less per hour than a usual shop.

The money spent:
$763 - complete tune-up (plugs, wires, filters etc..), replaced a fuel injector, O2 sensor, a couple fuses, new brakes..
$ 95 - yearly registration
$ 53 - Smog test & DMV certificate

It runs so great now and passed it's Smog test easily. Should've had the work done sooner, oh well, I am very happy with the results now.

Plenty keeping me busy at home and work.
I am like, "Where did the last 12 days go??"

Work has been very frustrating this past week to ten days. Without going into a huge explanation it basically breaks down to my boss being such a poor money manager that we can't get new equipment or hire more help.

We have been running on very limited staff for two years (at least). We were told we would get extra help from his family, but that is spotty at best. Example - his daughter is supposed to work two days a week and stopped coming in one of those days months ago. Just stopped coming in.

Now our other girl that helps two afternoons per week is moving away to college/new job. When I asked boss about posting a job opening he claims his daughter wants more hours. WTF? Am I missing something?

After stewing on that for a few days I told him that made me angry because it couldn't be true when she doesn't even come in on a day she is already slotted for. (Come ON!!)
He couldn't say anything in reply.
I said we need to hire someone who would come in and help us. Someone who will do the J-O-B.
And now my coworker and I will wait to see ......

His bank fees (overdrafts) are so out of control it makes *ME* embarrassed.
I think I may have posted before that last year it was near $16k!!
Last month it looked to be near $3500 - that's just for June. It makes me sick - and I have zero control or ability to "fix it". Meanwhile the business goes without replacing dated equipment, computers or staff.

I am thinking it is time for a new place to work. But, with DS's daycare lady and his preschool in the city my current work is located in that makes me less inclined to change (for now).

It's also hard when you've worked for someone for so many years. And there are so many clients I would miss. I do enjoy my job. My boss is a kind, easygoing (but lame) person.
The sad thing is I don't think things will ever change.

And now the wrench: there is an opening at an office in the town we live in. A place I *think* would be a good fit. Fully staffed. Nice equipment. No commute.

Uncharacteristically hot weather here this past weekend and more to come this week.
(The whole west coast is in a heat wave.)

It registered 101F on our gauge Saturday. The hottest it's ever been since we moved into this house. Sunday and today were 93F. The weather forecast says it's going to be near 100F tomorrow.
All this heat means we are using our AC much more than regular.

My treat to beat the heat has been a few stops at BK for their $0.50 cones. I treated DD and DS on Sunday morning while running errands.
The cones were huge - great value.

Thankfully by this coming weekend it's supposed to be back to the usual 80F - 85F summer weather. Then we won't need to run the AC, but I think we'll keep getting the cones.

Our fair was last week. As in the past, our friend took us in for free (She has family that works for the fairgrounds - she gets passes.)

Our county has two fairs. The one held in our town is a smaller fair. It has "pay-one-price" admission. You pay at the gate and then all the rides and shows are paid for. No having to buy ride tickets or wristbands or seats for the concerts. It's really a much better deal and when you get in for free it's awesome.

My DD and I entered exhibits again this year. For DD it has been a good money making venture in past years. I find it fun and this year I made a few bucks too.

Almost all the junior exhibits have a $1 entry fee. This year DD entered three varieties of jam - peach jam, strawberry-lemonade jam and holiday cranberry jam. The peach and strawberry each won first place ($5/first) and the cranberry won second ($3/second). So her check was $13.



Almost all adult entries have a $2 entry fee.
I entered two photographs and a table setting. My black & white photo placed third and my color photo earned a Honorable Mention. No cash prizes for those placings.

My table setting was set to the fair theme this year - "Dog Days of Summer".



I am so excited because it won a first ($15) and the Best of Show ($25) for the table setting class.
SO, I spent $6 in entry fees and won $40!

As a plus when you enter in the fair you can get reduced or free fair admission. If we didn't have our friend get us in we could still save money by taking advantage of that.

Do you enter in your fair?
Check into it - it is fun and you could save money on entry or make money on prizes.

I have three baby showers to go to this summer - one for June, July and August. All gals that I am close to. I am aiming for usable, low-cost gifts.

This weekend is my sister's shower. She lives about four hours up the coast from me, so the biggest expense will be the gas. I already gave her our infant car seat from DS, a highchair and several smaller hand-me-down items. I bought a giant box of wipes and a two-pack of rash cream that I will divide between the two of us. I'd like to add one more small item like a blanket, sleeper, toy or book.

Our mom's birthday is this weekend also.
My sister has planned to make a quiche and fresh fruit salad for a Sunday brunch. My contribution is a bottle of champagne.

I made a photo book for mom's gift about two months ago. It was FREE with a coupon I had gotten. I did pay for the shipping which was $4 or $5. I am thrilled about this gift because it is really nice and I was able to get it for so cheap (regular price was $30).

Trying to come up with a little something for Father's Day. Both for DH and my dad... hmmm..

Next month DD has her 12th birthday. I am thinking about taking her to get her ears pierced as her gift.

With all these events coming up I looked at cards over the weekend - whole cow!! When I buy cards I aim for the $0.99 - $1.99 cards. I was blown away at the cost of cards. I saw a very cute Father's Day card - $7.99!! None of the mom birthday cards appealed to me at all, maybe because I couldn't find one that was less than $3.49. Baby shower cards weren't any better.

Sorry to gripe, but please, I could have spent a serious chunk of change just for several squares of folded paper!!

I ended up with one card. A graduation card for our niece who lives out of state and graduated high school a few days ago. It was the second least expensive graduation card at $2.39. I figured buying a card for her made sense; something nice to send $20 in. Everyone else is going to have card-less gifts.

HA! I sure do right now - Ugh!

Financially there have been some setbacks. Now that we are halfway through the year it feels like some goals are so far out of reach it'll take years, not months.

I don't like feeling frustrated, and there are so many things I want and need to do that the best way to describe my position is that I am stuck in the middle of a pool of thick, sticky stuff.

Just gotta keep dogpaddling, right?

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I've been so busy the past two plus weeks. I really, truly thought the end of May would be more relaxed than the start, but that ended up all wrong.

For starters work has been busy. Most days we've needed to stay late to finish everything up.

Memorial weekend was going to be quiet. We had turned down offers from friends for camping, daytrips and BBQ. The plan was just to stay home = no spending. Well, Thursday night our friends A & S called insisting that we join them camping. They were not taking "NO" for an answer. They argued that they had already bought enough food, paid for the site and would pay our fuel costs. How could we pass up a "free" trip??

DH and I discussed it and finally caved to our friends' request to go. I am happy we did too. The camping was fun. The weather was nice. And we went to a place we had never been to before - Big Trees State Park - home of Giant Sequoias.


The trip home Monday was where we ran into a problem. We stopped for lunch and afterwards when I started the truck it would drive a few feet and then die.
Hard to start.. Drive for several feet.. Die.
We were in a parking lot thankfully, but 90 miles from home.

Long story short, we had to tow the truck to a nearby shop. Good news it was in the same town as A & S live. The shop of course was closed. We had to leave it. Couldn't rent a car because all those places were closed for the holiday. Our friends graciously lent us their car to drive home in.

Tuesday DH drove their car back and picked up our repaired truck. It was a sensor that went out. Simple fix thankfully, but oh what a huge headache!
So, although we didn't spend much on the weekend (less than $100 on fuel and some food) we did spend money with the extra driving and the repair, which cost $192.

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Thursday, May 30, DD had her 6th grade promotion.
I can't believe she is old enough to be going to middle school/junior high!

You might recall DD had us running all around town looking for a dress. Eventually we found something she liked. It looked so cute on her and is something she will be able to wear again. I thought we did well spending just $21 on it.

Her graduation gift from DH and I was a cell phone.
She was thrilled - she has been wanting a phone and has been working hard at saving her money (I told her she had to buy her own).

I bought this used phone several months back and just activated it to my Ting account. This will increase usage to the next tier. I figure our cell bill will be about $27/month now.

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I have been going to my hour-long Pilates classes each Thursday night. This was a Groupon deal. I have one more class. I really like the workout - let me tell you it is a total body workout. I am usually sore for three days afterwards.

The instructor offered me an additional five-pack of classes at a 20% discount. I'd like to do it, but just cannot spend that extra money when we have so many other financial obligations. Someday maybe....

The silver lining? I am going to try to apply some of the moves I've learned in the class and do a little, mini 10-15 minute routine at home. I just need to get into a routine of making myself DO it.

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The garden was seriously damaged by our hens. GRRR!
The hens ate all the leaves on our sugar snap peas - leaving pitiful, scrawny, 7" 'twigs' that dried up and died. They ate the tops of my carrots and all my baby spinach. In DH's box they worked over his corn stalks.

The dog dug up my lemon cucumber.
I planted another - it died - don't know why??
This morning I planted two new plants in new locations - Fingers crossed!! (I really like lemon cucumbers)

My tomato and squash plants are going gangbusters - they look awesome. Yay!!

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DS and I visited his preschool and turned in his enrollment paperwork. Ah, preschool... that deserves its own post.

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Been doing a bunch of reading too. That has been keeping me up late. I am just about to start the fourth and last 'Twilight' book. Then I am going to watch the movies. Curious to see what the hype was all about.

Housing in our area has been trending upward. But, the past month or so it has been getting a bit crazy. For example, the Zillow value on our house has risen $13k in the last 30 days.

Today, one of our clients came in with his dog and was telling us about their up-coming move. He and his wife are retired and are moving to So. Oregon closer to some of the wife's family and downsizing their living space. They put their current home on the market and seven days later they had five offers.
$5k below asking.
Asking price.
$5k above asking.
$15k above asking.
$50k above asking.

No, not a typo, really $50k ABOVE asking price. Obviously they chose that offer. He said these buyers had been outbid on several other homes and they were determined not to lose another house!

Um, Wow!!
It's going to be an interesting summer for house values.

It has been a busy start to May. The remainder of the month should be a bit more quiet - Phew!
It has also been a more spendy-than-expected month. I am feeling frustrated with lack of progress.

Here is what I've been up to lately:

- DS had his third birthday and my in-laws visited. We did not have a party with other guests. Just take & bake pizza, cake and ice cream. I bought a few small cars and a pair of shorts as gifts for him for $16.

- "Cleo", our 1yo.German Shepherd woke me up at 2am on Wednesday, May 9th with vomiting. There was a good amount of blood in it and I didn't feel like she should wait until I went into work seven hours later. So off to the emergency hospital. $262.

Her diagnosis was gastritis (a very irritated stomach)

She is 100% fine now. She was feeling much better just a few hours later after she had anti-vomiting medication, acid reducer and gastro protectant tablets.

- DD played the National Anthem on her trumpet in our town's Junior Philharmonic group at a San Francisco Giants baseball game.
She and I had a fun outing, but spendy - $35 for parking, $70 for game tickets, $22 for food and hot chocolate.

- Last weekend my mom and dad visited. My sister was able to take Saturday off so she drove down to join all of us too. We went out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate Mother's Day, DS's birthday and my birthday. We split the tag with my parents. $120.

Mother's Day we all visited the dairy goat farm. Which was free.
The weather was so beautiful and made for such a lovely drive. DH made a full breakfast for us before we left. And he made BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for dinner.

- This past week has been work, work, work (for me).
Unfortunately, my DH hurt is right knee on Wednesday morning and had to take the rest of the week off. He is slowly feeling better - Thank Goodness!
I'll tell you when he came hobbling in my first thought was "OMG, how are we going to pay for treatment, bills, etc.. Our EF is pitiful."
It was NOT a feeling I want to have. It illustrated how we have to work to get more in savings.

- The kids' health coverage is in place. Yay!
We did get hit with a higher premium because they hadn't had coverage in the past 90 days. It was $28 more and I'm thinking it will be that much more every month, but not sure yet. Additional expense every month, but I am so relieved it is done and in place.

- DD is graduating sixth grade at the end of the month. We are buying her a new dress with a budget of $40. We have looked at hundreds of dresses so far ...oh life was so easier when she was younger and I could pick something out. The search continues today..

Her graduation gift will be the used cell phone I purchased a few months ago. I will add it to my Ting account. That will increase my cell bill by $6/mo for the second line and another $8/mo for increased minutes and texts I figure will be used.

- Today is cleaning, laundry, gardening, and online dress shopping. Tomorrow I am getting back on track with my eating and early rising plan.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

It doesn't look like May is going to be very good to us. Darn it!
Just too many little and big things needing attention this month.

Tried Pilates for the first time last Saturday morning. OMGosh I was so sore all over for two days after. Really a *total body* workout. My friend and I each bought a five class pack from Groupon a few months back. (My second ever Groupon purchase.) It is nice to be able to go to a class like that with a friend. I don't think I'll be taking more classes afterward because of the cost, but it's been fun to try it out.

The chicks are getting bigger.
The garden is well sprouted now.
DS had his third birthday last weekend and DD made him a super cute YogiBear cake.
My family is visiting this weekend.
I also have the two cats to care for over the weekend. (Yay! Some cash!)

DD needed to bake a cake last night to take to her 4H cooking meeting today (they did cake decorating this morning).

I *KNOW* we have two cake pans. I couldn't find them last night to save me. I think they are still packed away. (We have a kitchen with ZERO storage, so when we moved in we did not unpack all our stuff.)

I had to run to the store at 8:30pm and buy two cake pans ($14). That was after working all day, then coming home and working on the house to get it ready for my in-laws who came this morning for a weekend visit. I was wiped out last night.

Upside? We have two nice cake pans now and we know where they are.

In an earlier post I said we had met with an insurance broker about plans for our children.
Now that I learned how to use the Snip Tool I can post some screen shots of the nifty spreadsheet he gave us to compare costs. I couldn't fit all of them in (there were 66) but you'll get the idea.

For those of us who have a hard time figuring out where to start when it comes to narrowing down the choices I hope this helps - It certainly helped me.

Okay, so things to know when you look at this:
- All the numbers are doubled to account for both kids.
- It's color coded to show different companies. I didn't include the company/plan names for space reasons.
- The HSA and Tax columns are both blank because it's "child only" plans.
- Based on the best case/worst case numbers I chose four plans and investigated their specific coverage. The best thing, for me, was to remember that now with ObamaCare preventative care is covered 100% no matter what plan you have.

Best Case Scenario
Annual Premium. No other money spent.

Worst Case Scenario
Annual premium *added to* Total Out Of Pocket Limit.





I found it very interesting to see how a "full coverage/$0 deductable" policy could really cost you a whole lot more especially if you are a healthy person. You could spend as much in *Best Case* as you would in some cheaper plans *Worst Case*.

April was a pretty darn good month!

We Spring cleaned our yard and demolished the old shed in the backyard. 'Game of Thrones' season three started. DD got her bees. We planted our garden. Spent family time in the lovely weather. I read two fun, light-hearted books by Nora Roberts. We enjoyed a few visits from friends and family.

From April 1 to today I have lost six pounds.
I had plenty of little "cheats" - ice cream, pie, cupcakes, cookies etc.. So I could've done a bit better. I feel really great about continuing on because I am happy with the results and not feeling hungry/deprived/unhappy with my meals.

There weren't any unexpected expenses *knock-on-wood* in April. And I got a raise.

If you read me often you know food spending is a biggie at our house. April we managed to keep it just under $700. I don't remeber the exact amount because I'm at work and Quicken is at home. That was with a bunch of meat purchases too, so I am happy about that.

The "Early to Rise Challenge" got off to a good start at the begainning of the month and fizzled out toward the end. I think there were nine days when I was up an hour, or more, earlier than usual. I really did like the extra time on those mornings.

This month I just want more of the same.

Happy May everyone!

When it comes to Flea Control for your pets.

I think we could all come up with many other things that you should not skimp on, but this is forefront in my mind right now.

If you don't know, haven't read my info or my blog before let me say I am a veterinary nurse (RVT) and I work in a single doctor practice. (I have really interesting cases sometimes and I really should blog more about work, but that is for another time.)

Yesterday we had two separate clients bring in their elderly cats. One cat was an indoor only cat and the other was indoor with access to the outside. Both cats were being seen because they haven't been doing so well.

They were both COVERED in fleas.
Crawling all over these poor, old cats were nasty, bloodsucking fleas.

In my opinion impossible to miss. You could part the hair and see the fleas walking around. The cats' fur full of "flea dirt" - flea poop looks like specks of dirt.

Most young cats can groom off almost all their fleas. Not that they should have to do that, use flea preventatives and they are so much better for it. Many people will say they don't see fleas and that is a big reason why. But, an old cat (or dog) don't groom themselves as well as when they were younger and can get overwhelmed with fleas. Fleas suck blood and with a ton of fleas feeding on a pet it can cause anemia among other things.

The owner of the indoor/outdoor cat has been "using some drops she picked up *somewhere*".
She seemed surprised that they weren't working. (Really?! Do you ever pet or look at your cat?)
Her old kitty was very dehydrated and anemic. Not to mention how miserably uncomfortable I can only imagine she was.

The indoor only cat: "Shouldn't have fleas! She is an indoor cat!"
The cat was seriously covered with fleas. It doesn't matter to the flea where the cat lives.
Actually, inside is even better for the flea - nice temperature controlled environment.
Unfortunately, that kitty was in bad shape due to other problems and was euthanized. It made me feel so sad that the cat had to spend her last days/weeks/months being eaten on by fleas.

As the days heat up flea populations will climb. Please don't be cheap. Use the "good stuff" and use it every month. Indoor or outdoor. Look online so you can educate yourself about what flea dirt looks like. It dissolves to blood when wetted. You can find flea dirt much more easily than finding a flea - unless your pet is severely infested.

The "good stuff" in my opinion and what I use is:
Revolution or Advantage for cats.
Comfortis, Advantage or Advantix for dogs.
Capstar (for cats and K9s) can be used for a quick kill and is great to use in combo with above products to get an infestation under control.

So to conclude, this is an area where I say money well spent when you buy the right product.

What item or service do you feel is worth the "premium price"?

I realized as I started this entry that tomorrow is my Blogoversary. Three years. It seems to have flashed past in a way, and in another it has felt longer (in a good way!).

Time has been the big topic around our house today. What started it was a conversation with DH about how long ago we had made a purchase of an expensive tool.

It was 2004? No, 2005? Or was it 2006?
It was before we moved to our current house.
Before the chicken house was built.
What year did we do that? What year did we get the hens?
(That brought on a whole other debate. I said 2008 and DH said 2006.)

It seems we mark time by important events in our life. Like "was it before we moved the first time?" Or "was that when DD was in preschool?" Or "it was after we bought the house."

Does that type of conversation sound familiar?

It brought up some good memories to think back on.
We had a good laugh thinking about when we brought our Lab "Maxx" home. It was December 2003. (Before the tool purchase and before the hens - Just so ya know. )

And happy thoughts of back when we paid off our cc every month. (ugh, how did we let ourselves slip??)

And the not so great memories either. We recalled, briefly, several months in 2007 when our marriage was this close *(___)* to ending.

Ups and downs - that is life.

So, yeah all that history just trying to remember when a *something* was purchased.

After a search I did end up finding the paperwork/user manual on the tool and it was late 2005 when we got it. I bet it was an early Christmas present for DH.

Seems like it was longer ago than that, but not all that long ago either. Ha - Time is a funny thing..

The days have just been flying by here. We have been having beautiful weather and the seeds we planted in the garden two weeks ago have sprouted up. When they get a bit taller I will take a picture to share.

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The chicks are much bigger now. They have almost all their feathers so no more fluffy downy fuzz. We let them out in the backyard every afternoon and they are so fun to watch. Once they are a little larger I will move the dog crate that is their home out to the coop and they can start acclimating to nights outside.

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I received two more referrals on my Ting account - $50 more credit.
A big Thank You to the folks using my referral code (if you’re reading this.)
I am so very happy I switched to Ting. Great service and excellent value.

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Last week I changed my withholdings from 2 to 4 so I could squeeze a little more money into my weekly paycheck.

Then this past Wednesday my boss gave us each a brief review and a $1/hour raise. Yay!

Now I’m worried with the raise I might not be withholding enough. What I will do is give it a few months then do a year-end-mock-up and see where we stand tax wise.

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The plan for this weekend is relax, relax, relax. Our calendar is full for the next two weeks once May starts, so we've got to rest up.

We plan to have BBQ dinners tonight and tomorrow, so no "real" cooking to do and I love BBQ'd food.

On Thursday afternoon my DH had set up a meeting with an insurance broker. (Our kids need health insurance, so this was a good thing for him to do.) I was happy he had taken the initiative to set it up, but silently to myself I was thinking "Ugh!".

Long story short the meeting went very well. The broker was knowledgeable and not at all pushy. He thoroughly explained HSAs and high deductable plans. What was really great was the spreadsheet he gave us ranking about 55 different plans by cost. Premium, deductible, maximum OOP etc. A wonderful spreadsheet tool.

I have it narrowed down to two plans both cost about $150/mo to cover both DD and DS. I will purchase through the broker. It doesn't cost us anything to do it that way and he was super helpful.

Afterwards I told my DH he did very well by setting up the meeting.

DH has HSA compatible insurance so we are going to open an account at the credit union we use. It has the lowest account fee at $12/year. I figure we can save at least $12/year in taxes, so why not?

It would have been good for us to have the HSA earlier this year when I got my crown at the dentist and DD her eye glasses - Darn it.

I have the day off today. My boss is out of town so he opted to just have the office closed.
I am happy to have a day to do what I want, but it doesn't feel long enough.

I started by going to the grocery store this morning after dropping DD off at school. It was $176.
The total before discounts was $250, so I saved 30% which is what I average in savings when I grocery shop. I feel like that is typical, but maybe not. I could do better by using more coupons.
What percentage do you save on average?

After putting all the groceries away and clearing out the freezer (with DS's help) we worked in the garden.

We have four raised beds. I plant in two of them and DD and DH each have one of their own. This morning I "turned" the dirt in my beds and planted sugar-snap peas, purple carrots, spinach and a purple bell pepper in one box. The second box got a tomato plant, crookneck squash, two zucchini and a lemon cucumber.

The chicks are at least three times bigger than when we brought them home, but are still tiny compared to our adult hens. The chicks are still living in our bathroom. This weekend I think it will be time to move them to the more spacious dog crate. The crate will be in either DD's bedroom or in the livingroom.

Later this afternoon DH and I are meeting with a health insurance salesman about HSAs. The salesman is someone who is in DH's boss' business networking group. I am kinda *meh* about the whole thing. It is good to get information and I really like that my DH is making the effort to learn about financial things. Still, I'd rather be doing something else this afternoon.

Afterwards, DD must finish her final draft of her big report assignment.

Then a 4H meeting.

Then I can relax???

So I am doing well at both "Challenges" nearly 10 days into the month.

Can anyone believe it's day 10 of April?

I weighed myself Monday and I have lost 3.5lbs in the past week. Yay!!

I was thrilled to see progress. It really keeps me motivated. I have been very satisfied with the food I've been eating and have allowed myself some small treats too. Lots of veggies, fruits, nuts and meat. Staying away from grains and sugar. Limiting dairy. I'm not having as hard a time as I thought I would saying "No" to bread and sugar.

As far as the "Early to Rise" challenge I have been getting up at least 30 minutes earlier than normal every day. The best was an hour and 20 minutes earlier than usual twice last week. If DH goes to the gym tomorrow morning I'll be up about that early again.
The beautiful springtime weather certainly makes it easy to get up and going.
The extra time has been used to put a sit-down breakfast together in addition to reading, coffee sipping, blogging or balancing Quicken.

DD's 4H beekeeping leader (EM) captured a swarm last weekend.

DD set up her box and EM brought the bees to our house yesterday. We are all excited. Honeybees are so cool. Just amazing when you learn about what they do and how the live.


DD's 4H experiences have been so wonderful this year. It is such a great way to nurture a child's interests without spending a bunch of money. I also feel like it's a great place for social interactions. She gets to spend time with other kids near her age, with similar intrests, but not in a school setting. Actually, there isn't anyone in this particular club that goes to DD's school. I think that takes some of the "social pressure" off a bit.

The boxes, complete with frames and tops, a smoker, hive tool, frame grabber and feeder were all given to DD for free because they were donated to the 4H project.
To buy these items as a package would be about $185.

The bee leader, EM, is a sweetheart of a lady. Completely volunteering all this time to educate and suport the kids. She collects unwanted swarms to populate the hives so nobody has to buy bees.
A queen can sell for $25-$30. A group of bees like ours could cost $170.

We did buy DD a veil, a board for the box and some wax foundation for the frames. To get her started we spent $40 vs. the near $400.

Here is the queen. She is the larger, pretty golden colored one. The golden color is special. EM told us she is the prettiest queen she has seen in many years. EM also believes she is a young queen so we might have her for five years or so.




I am enjoying going out to the backyard and watching the activity going in and out of the box.

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Speaking of 4H: Yesterday morning DD's cooking goup had a field trip to see a local ice cream shop make ice cream. Really a lovely, locally owned shop in our historic downtown. Everyone got free ice cream. I was naughty and tried an Affogato (not free).
The Affogato is two scoops of icecream topped with two shots of espresso in a latte mug. OMGosh!! SO amazing. Obviously you must love coffee - which I do! It might be my new favorite dessert.

As part of my healthier eating I made this wonderful spinach salad with green onion, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, hardboiled egg and leftover ham. What was really great about it is the dressing I "created" on the spot.

Citrus-Mustard Dressing
- One Tablespoon olive oil
- One to Two Tablespoons honey mustard
- Juice of one Clementine (Cutie)
- Dash of black pepper
Wisk together.

I don't use a lot of dressing so this was enough for two servings over large salads. I think this dressing will taste great with other types of meat too - salmon, chicken, steak, bacon bits. I want to try a few variations like using an orange or a lime or even a grapefruit. Maybe trying Dijon in place of the honey mustard.





Spinach Smoothie
- Spinach
- Coconut Milk
- Strawberries
- Frozen Banana
- Dash of Cinnamon
- Tablespoon of Flax

Sometimes my DH is so very frustrating.
Don't get me wrong I love him very much, but there are times when I don't know if I can stay married to him. Sometimes he is an immature ass. In truth he has gotten a lot better over the years, so I guess there is hope he'll "grow" out of it.

There are things he needs to take care of and I don't understand *why* he doesn't just do them. One is his National EMT test. He did great in his class, he has had his EMT in the past for years. Just take the damn thing already!

He has a fondness for good whiskey. Last night he drank too much which is about a once or twice monthly sort of thing. Let me be clear here and say he is not abusive at anytime, verbal or physical. What I don't like is the lame comments, lack of rational thought and thus the inability to have a meaningful conversation. He knows I hate this and that I worry he could end up like FIL who basically drinks every night. Not to a drunken stupor, but alcoholism just the same. I could not stand dealing with an "altered" spouse nearly every evening.

He had to get up at 5:30 this morning and I didn't feel the least bit sorry for him. In fact I hope he really feels like crap.

He will apologize for overdoing doing it - I know and I am glad he will, but he doesn't change his behavior.

He is a funny, kind, supportive man. He loves his family and works hard. Lots of good qualities 90% of the time, why do I let the other 10% bother me? I am not perfect.

This morning I woke to the pleasant sounds of rain, but the very unpleasant patter from the drip inside our bedroom.

The temporary patch job DH did held up for almost the entire rainy season. The weather forecasters claim this is the last big storm, but I can't say I trust them even more than 50%. At present we only have the one leaky spot, but this roof has got to be replaced.

In an earlier post I wrote about DH getting together with some of his buddies and doing the job himself. There would be the cost of the materials and the fees at the dump to haul all the debris away. I am not yet sure what the materials would even be because we haven't started to get pricing. If you read my other post I said our plan was to use the fifth payday in May to buy materials. If the materials cost more than that we are going to have to use the credit card to make up the difference.

This morning I was up early and it gave me some time to reflect on this major replacement that our house needs. It's going to be a big job. Demo of the existing roof will probably take one day if not a weekend. The new roof will likely take more than a day or two, but that will be easier, cleaner work.
The way I figure it my DH is looking at two solid weekends on the roof. I think he thinks he is up for it, but I need to be sure he is really committed to wanting to do it. I am not concerned about the quality of the job, but with how much time it would take. If we did it this way it certainly would be the cheapest option. (Option A)

Because this is getting to be a MUST DO item and I can't see us putting it off much longer I am liking the idea of hiring out. Just get it done and over - Period. Much less stress on DH (and marital bliss) to go this route, but more expense (roughly $6500).
Two thoughts I had this morning were:
Option B: HELOC. Lower interest rate and I think we'd get one, but have never checked into it, so??
Option C: CC. I hate this, but it's an option.

Bottom line is DH and I have got to do some material price shopping and some serious discussion. There is not an easy solution with this one.

The biggest plan for DH and myself this month is improved eating. DH wants to drop some pounds for a physical test for his fire department and the life insurance we hope to get started this summer. I want to get serious because I have not started to work on my weight loss goal yet. If I wait any longer we'll be half way through the year. Worse even - I gained three pounds in March. Time to make an effort.

We are cutting way back in the sugar department. We eat healthy foods mostly, but I love fats and sugar. (I have the hugest sweet tooth! Seriously! I have dessert almost every night.)
SO, I am dropping breads, cakes, cookies, pie, etc. In addition to reducing my dairy to a tiny amount. So no cheese, ice cream, half & half, etc..

Monday and Tuesday we had oatmeal with fresh strawberries for breakfast. I made myself a big batch of quinoa and black bean salad that I have been eating for lunch in addition to nuts and fruit. Last night I made an awesome spinach salad with leftover Easter ham.

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I am cat sitting again for a few days this week and earning $140. I'll be doing it again for the same cats in a few weeks I think for the same number of days.

I was surprised that their owner didn't leave me a check so I am not sure if she forgot or if she is planning on writing one check for both weeks. You can be sure I'm going to ask!

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We have four baby chicks. Young hens to "freshen" our flock of four older ladies.

I paid $14 for the chicks and $7 for their feed. We had the additional supplies (dishes, heat lamp) from raising chicks a few years ago.

They are about 11 days old now.
We have them in a brooder box under the heat lamp in me and DH's bathroom. I love that our family has the opportunity to raise animals. It is the type of thing I want my kids to remember years later and smile about.

Three days old:


Black Australorp chicks.


Golden (Red) Sex-Link chicks.

Again, I will say how fast this month went by!
It feels to me as if we should still be in the middle of the month.

March didn't turn out nearly as bountiful as I was hoping. DH made less than usual and the unexpected trumpet purchase resulted in a "break-even" month rather than a "get-a-head" month. Phooey!

Well, on to April!

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I scored some nice deals this week.

I went grocery shopping this morning and bought a bone in ham for $0.80/lb. We will have some of it tomorrow (of course), ham/bean soup Tuesday and a ham/onion frittata latter in the week. The ham was $8.60.

I finally stopped at the mall and went to Victoria's. I had my $50 gc from cc rewards to shop with in addition to a $10 off and a free panty coupon. I left the store with a bra, a panty and a "secret reward" gc for use in April. I spent $0 and have almost $10 left on my gc.

While at the mall I bought seven hand soaps and two small hand sanitizers at Bath&Body using 20% off and free product coupons I paid $12.

I reloaded my SBucks card with $20 and received a $5 cash back credit on my cc. SBucks is an occasional treat for me, so $20 will last me six weeks. More if I buy at my grocery store where my club card gets me a grande for $2 for the next month.