When I went and picked up my purse it felt like a ton of bricks was in there! So, since my shoulders & whiplashed neck can't take that kind of bloated abuse it's time to clean out the bottom and I found $3.93 in there in small change. Taking it to the challenge.

$20 CHALLENGE

$001.26 balance
+003.93 bloated feeling
_______
$005.19 July MTD

2008 Challenge Total $169.29
Cumulative Challenge Total $697.90

And BONUS - I found a pair of my favorite earrings I'd been looking for!

Cleaning out a drawer sees me adding to the $20 Challenge allowing me & my bottom line to cheer up!

$000.12 balance
+001.14 drawer change
_______
$001.26 MTD

2008 Challenge Total $165.36
Cumulative Challenge Total $693.97

Yesterday was a No Spend Day!

While messing about in the piles of files on the desk we found twelve cents to add to the challenge.

$20 CHALLENGE

$000.00 balance
+000.12 desk mess-about
_______
$000.12 July MTD

2008 Challenge Total $164.22
Cumulative Challenge Total $692.83

CAN YOU DO THE SCRATCH-N-DENT HIP-HOP IN YOUR FUNKY BOOTS?

Got cases of chicken noodle soup yesterday at the scratch-n-dent for $3.88. Only catch? No labels. So, I spent a bit of time yesterday writing the contents on the cans & boxes. Each year finds somebody sick and wanting chicken noodle soup! Other good buy was pretzels 4 bags/$1. And I got Hubster some funky color shoe-polishes for his cowboys boots which are funky colored for .88 a can.


HOW ABOUT THE LENDER'S WALTZ?

Yesterday my step-dad paid me $50 on the computer he bought from Hubster. These dollars have to go back in the kitty. Sorry Hubster!


CAN YOU DO THE 401-K MAMBO?

This past week I finally got through all the paperwork on CashHappySon's 401-K offerings and got him signed up. Reading them is bad enough but explaining those things to another person is complicated to me, so I fell back on the nice explanation found around page 90 in David Bach's 'Automatic Millionaire' book. We set CashHappy's deferral rate to 18% which should just about match what he's been putting into his Roth.

Still left to do is stop CashHappys' Roth contributions for now. With his car payment, paying room & board here plus trying to save for moving out he can't afford to do both right now.

His 401-K plan does not offer an employer match that I could see. But, it did have a place to set up automatic 1% yearly increases, which we did. Thing is, the kiddo is 19. How likely will he be to stay at this place of employment? Ehhh, not too sure, but we're doing what we can while we can.


DO THE HEALTH-INSURANCE MOMBO??

Also yesterday we spent some time on the phone with FrugalSon's employee benefits office getting him signed up for health insurance. He finally got some small scrap of paperwork saying the open enrollment dates, which window was mighty short for use in view of vacation plans. There were no written explanation of benefits forthcoming!! BAHHH! It's complicated enough - try doing it without the info in front of you!

Eventually we got him signed up for health & dental insurance yesterday. They offer disability but the lady did not tell us about it and we'll have to call back another day to get a rate quote! Sheesh, it's always something.

Also on FrugalSon's we'll have to adjust his Roth contributions downward by about $30 a month in order to make his small salary cover everything. He's been contributing the maximum, but we'll just have the insurance and lower the contributions for now and if no huge expenses come up during the year attempt to fully fund his Roth from his emergency or car repair savings at the end of the contribution period.


DO THE HULA??

What I want to know is how do parents with 6 to 15 children handle all the paperwork for all their jobs??? Good grievies!!! I'm tired with just two of them still at home!

My parents generation never had to help with all this stuff because it didn't exist back then! They can say life is easier now, which may be true, but it is more complicated and comes with more hoops to be jumped through - what with the limited open enrollment dates and such! PHEW!


DO THE SHAREBUILDER BOO-GA-LOO!!

For myself there's a problem in my Sharebuilder account which requires me to send a notarized letter. I went to my bank last evening (long hours) and no notary was on duty. I'll be going back this morning to get the darn thing notarized and off in the mail. Due to security reasons it could not be handled over the phone. Pain in the patumpkus!!


I WANNA SEE YOU BELLYDANCE!
This entry reminds me of one of my favorite HAPPY songs - I Wanna See You Bellydance by the Red Elvises! Stop the music from up above & listen to a clip here:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QQZMZQ/ref=dm_sp_alb?...

or listen to the entire song & watch them at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY_Ylj87e3g

Great Album!


No, I don't think I can dance - but if they keep those hoops low enough I think I can roll through them!

Anybody have any bunion pads? Ben-gay??

---
edited to add:
Found money in house clean-up:

$20 CHALLENGE
$022.74 balance
+000.28 clean-up
_______
$023.02 MTD

2008 Challenge Total $164.10
Challenge Cumulative Total $692.71

With all the rains the drainage ditches around my house have filled up again and the county is out here digging them out. I went out and spoke with the foreman and they agreed to dump two loads of the sand on our property.

There's a spot that the old owner of our property, who owned his own dump truck, put out a lot of old paving. By county order he was supposed to cover the entire bunch of it but never did as there is one probably 20 x 20 spot that he never did cover over. They've dumped one truck load so far and are still out there digging.

IF we can get it spread before more rains come along then maybe some of it will stick down in the craters that the paving has got. Mowing and weed-eating this area has been a pain for over 7 years. Time to get something done.

Not certain if it'll hold as the area sits on a slope, but any is better than none and if it washes it will wash into another area that could also use the help. The burms (mini-levees) by our creek were about an inch away from being crested yesterday morning.

So, if it washes, that's the area it'll head. So - FREE sandyloam stuff!!! We were just talking about buying a dump load of dirt ourselves. If this will work, all the better. FREE is good!

Something else that's been happening this month is that FrugalSon took most of his Economic Stimulus check and paid for driving lessons. He finishes the *fingers crossed* last one on June 30th and they've got a tiny little car that he's going to use to drive during the driving test scheduled for July 1st and hopefully he'll finally pass that dumb parallel parking requirement. He's 21. If at all possible I NEED him to be driving his'onsomeself around! He could never pass it driving his little extended cab S10 truck. Hopefully with their little car it'll be all systems go!!! PRAY HARD.

Today is a no spend day for me!!

We got all the siblings checks cleared on FIL's estate and closed both of the accounts. FIL's & Hubster's joint account and the estate account. It is done except for jewelry, coins, pics. Those will be finished after our family vacation. YEAH, YEAH, YEAHHHHHHH!!!! As my faithful dear readers know I've been gnashing at the bit because we had beauque'$_$$,$$$.$$'s loaned out to the estate w/no interest being paid. It's back in my hot little hands! YEAHHHHHH!!

We will decide after family vacation what exactly we're going to do with that money and Hubster's inheritance money. Most likely we'll finish funding our IRA's for this year with some of it and I'm not sure about the rest. Some will go to tithe - likely we'll handle that portion by starting either a Family Foundation or putting it into a charitable trust so our tithing will be increased for years to come! I've got a good little sum set aside to make this happen.

Then the rest will go towards ome kind of retirement planning, with the exception of a few minor household things that need doing. Tub & Tile in bathroom appx. $1500 & $500 to widen the return air vent. Other than that it looks like retirement for those dollars. I'd like to do a municipal bond ladder but am not sure I can convince Hubster. Guess what we'll be talking about on vacation?

At the wrapping up, Hubster got the money from the sale of our personal car to one of his brother's two years ago. He was supposed to be making payments if the estate house did not sell by a set date. Well, he never made a single payment.

I never said one word. (A miracle if ever there was one!)

I can hardly eat with the hole in my tongue, canshhhuuuusheee??

So, from brother-in-law's inheritance check we got $2900.00 back. I added a hundred & stuck it in a one year CD this morning.

Rates suck!

It's ideally for car replacement #3. We've already got car replacement CDs for Hubster's car & one for my truck. So, this is for the next vehicle after those so to speak, unless we just need it before then for something. What we do is sell our vehicles outright and then add some money (the CDs) with what we get out of our cars to purchase the next one for cash.

I'm running behind on the $20 Challenge - so I'm cleaning out the wallet($20.50) and adding in some change that was found in various parts of the 'hood (.71) and some ($1.52) that CashHappySon gave me.

$20 CHALLENGE

$000.01 balance
+022.73 assorted
_______
$022.74 June MTD

My second load of sand was just dumped. Yeah FREE!!!!

Went to the bank this morning and deposited my May Challenge money.

I just added the $33.00 from the May $20 Challenge to my Roth IRA. Which allowed me a chance to again realize that I'm behind on my contributions. BoooHiisss!!

Fidelity will only take round numbers for these deposits so some months I round up and other months I round down, using .49/.50 as my deciding factor. We're half way thru the year, and I need to step up my game.

Time to stop just la-la-la-ing thru life Frugalis!!!

I'm getting ready to redo my budget and increase my contributions there and stop the Ameritrade contributions. I was supposed to have already done that but have just been lazy. So that would get me to 151.00 a month currently out of my personal budget plus the $100 going into it from the HouseBudget. I think I could easily put another hundred a month back myself. I'm going to try. Conceivably w/the challenge dollars I could get close to putting back $333 or more a month. I know we're eligible to put back more than that but that's about all I can do for now.

The only difference is that by putting it in Ameritrade if I wanted something, a travel op presented itself or I just NEEDED something I could conceivably use it. Haven't - but could. I know that if I put that money in the IRA I won't be touching it. So, it needs doing and I'm going to give it a go.

Hardly anyone says that they've put back too much for retirement, right?

----

Today Hubster and I just did another 6 month CD. Ehhh, the interest underwhelms me!! It was just an itty bit of money sitting in Hubster's ING account doing piddly! I'm sure there are other places paying more but it was easy to do it at ING while I was there doing the next thing...

----

Today I sent Jeffrey 2 more ING invites for the bonus referrals.

----
Yesterday was a no spend, no driving day!

----
FrugalisHouseBudget just paid the auto insurance policy and house policy. Good news is that it's finally doable online. Bad news is I ALWAYS hate turning loose of the money.

Getting out of the car from church this a.m. and I found a penny in Hubster's car and claimed it for my very ownsome! Adding it to the challenge.

$20 CHALLENGE
$000.00 balance
+000.01 car change
_______
$000.01 June MTD

2008 Challenge Total $141.09
Cumulative Challenge Total $669.70


Paid the house payment today adding my regular $71.04 extra to the principal. Will update the new balance tomorrow.

Of note while paying bills is the flyer in our National City CC statement (yes, we use a CC monthly and pay it off monthly). I hate reading that stuff, but it did say that they will be changing our due date around. Not that it would just have a new due date - but that we'd need to check it regularly as they apparently are going to go on some roving change the date around method of trying to trip their customers up into screwing up and making a late payment fee necessary. Pain in the Watusi!!!

Great - something else to watch! May be easier to pull another card from the old wallet, eh?

The conversation over on the SavingAdvice.com forums about folks trying to feed themselves on limited means and with limited shopping options has got me feeling all Lennonish this a.m. But, Albert will work! We're ALL needed to fight the gorilla on our joint humanity backs! No man is an island.



-------
The May utility figures are in:

$90.75 CableTV/Internet/Phone
$92.00 Gas
$63.00 Electricity
$49.40 Water/Ambulance
$14.00 Trash
_______
$309.15 May total

April totals were $318.70, so we're down $9.55 this month! YEAH!!

-------
Cleaning out the wallet to add to the $20 Challenge:

$013.25 balance
$020.17 cleanout
_______
$33.42 May MTD

2008 Challenge Total $141.08
Cumulative Challenge Total $669.69

Adding more keyboard change to the $20 Challenge:

$012.30 balance
+000.95 keyboard change
_______
$013.25 May MTD


2008 Challenge Total $120.91
Cumulative Challenge Total $649.52

I've got 30 cents here on the keyboard to add to the $20 Challenge.

Day before yesterday we locked in our timeshare exchange for this year's upcoming vacation. It is within 4 hours driving time so that won't hurt too badly on the old gas budget. Now it's just a matter of getting all the boys' employers on board with the time frame.

There is alot to be said for never being absent and covering other's shifts for them, and they've both done a lot of that, so, here's hoping! In any case, they're going. If they have to find alternate employment upon their return? So be it.


$20 CHALLENGE

$012.00 balance
+000.30 keyboard change
_______
$012.30 May MTD

2008 Challenge Total $119.96
Cumualtive Challenge Total $648.57

I've spent a bit at garage sales this week - $8.50 yesterday and $2.10 today.

This morning we spent our time outside doing some brush burning. Still cleaning up from the ice storm. There's still lots more to burn!

I found $2.00 the other day. Thanks to Koppur for reminding me. I'm taking them out of the wallet and putting them to the $20 Challenge before I buy a couple of tacos with it!

I'm slow, but this morning I just now am getting around to moving my April Challenge money over to the Roth IRA. This will go later.


$20 CHALLENGE

$010.00 balance
+002.00 found
_______
$012.00 May MTD

2008 Challenge Total $119.66
Cumulative Challenge Total $648.27

Yesterday we did shopping & banking errands while we were on our way to and from set activities.

FrugalSon, TheGrrl and I, packed a few homemade sandwiches & filled bottles w/homemade tea and headed to the lake (about five miles away). No swimming but they enjoyed a walk before and after lunch and we had a fire in the firepit and watched a family of ducks, enjoyed lots of pretty wildflowers, and soaking up lots of good Vitamin D sunshine. Cheap entertainment. I read my book and laid in the sun while they held hands and walked around. Then we let TheGrrl-i-o practice her driving on the empty roads around the lake. She says I'm more patient that either of her parents.

Got good stuff at the scratch-n-dent grocery on the way home from the lake. 2 jars of soup base .79 a jar, 4-parmesan cheese shaker cans .99, small mayo/mustard jars at .49 each for vacation packing, 2 BIG boxes of cheeze-its at .99 a box, 4 big jars of dill pickles at .99 a jar.

We came home, put up our groceries, and I mowed the acreage up top while the young'uns picked up more broken limbs left from the ice storm.


(Our house sits behind & under those evergreens about half-way down the road)

Then we cleaned up & went to see Speed Racer at the matinee movie at an increased price of $2.75 - up from $2.50! GRRR! I'm tired of them raising the prices of the matinee!! It makes my Frugalicious Gene (TM) pucker!!!

Then we came home and ate Mother's Day leftovers of baked ham, creamy 'funeral' potatoes, green salad and German Chocolate cake.

It was a full, yet inexpensive day for me. CashHappySon's car had to be towed back to the place we had the motor replaced at. Possibly a cracked head or busted head-gasket or some doo-whicky. If it's either of those two things it should be covered under the warranty and all he'll have to pay is the towing fee. Fingers crossed!

Deposited two recent Pinecone checks. I'm adding them to the challenge:

$20 CHALLENGE

$000.00 balance
+010.00 surveys
_______
$010.00 May MTD

2008 Challenge Total $117.66
Cumulative Challenge Total $646.27

I want four more matching pavers to complete the little patio area FrugalSon and I worked on yesterday. I went back to where we got mine a year or two ago and now they don't carry them any more. What a pain. Drove around looking for other places that might have them. No luck so far but I did manage to spend $9 on plants.

There's good reason for ME to stay out of the plant stands! I'm the same way in bookstores. They are dangerous places for me to venture.

Oh well, I've been 'color-hungry' and I got a few things that will spice it up just a little bit. Plants have really gotten pricey since last I went. Will try to hang tough against all the enticing plants when I try the next couple places for pavers some time in May. I'm out of gas and I'm waiting at least till tomorrow and a new months' budget kicks in to fill it up! Oh the cringing I'll do!


Adding to the Challenge:

$017.82 balance
+008.02 wallet cleanout
_______
$25.84 April Total

2008 Challenge Total $107.66
Cumulative Challenge Total $636.27

Paid my mortgage payment just now for tomorrow. New balance will be $18,438.49.

Contractual payoff: 6 yr. 1 mth.
Actual payoff: 5 yr. 4 mth.
Projected payoff: 5/2014

With extra principal payments of $71.04 the projected payoff will be 7/2012!

If extra principal continues to be paid the interest savings will be $713.50.

Total reduction in term 1 yr. 10 mths.


CashHappySon mailed off his payment to the hospital today - before the postal rates go up!

Adding to the challenge:

$005.71 balance
$012.11 leftover from a budgeted purchase
_______
$017.82 MTD

2008 Challenge Total $099.64
Cumulative Challenge Total $628.25


For those of you who know what your Crossover Point is (Your Money Or Your Life), congratulations. For the rest of us, here's where to find out!


http://www.whatsmycrossover.com/

I called the cemetery office this morning and gave them our new address. We've lived here almost 9 years now. But, hey, it was news to them. Hubster thinks I'm crazy, but you never know they may need to contact us at some time and better they should have our current address in their records. We bought our plots about 15 years ago.

We are also discussing going out shopping for headstones. We've talked about it several times but have never done anything about it. I think I may just have to make plans on a Saturday morning and tell him, hon, today's the day we go buy our markers. I doubt the price of those are going down any time soon and likely going up as we speak! I'd rather have them bought and paid for now so it's just one less thing to worry about later.

Yeah, I know, I can be rather morbid, but I do like to think practical whenever I can and get the smaller details cleaned up. I do not forsee us moving out of this area, and even if we buy them and not have them set, but store them in the basement (Yeah, really weird I know) and move them with us if we ever do move out of state, it's better to buy them now while we're a bit flush with the cash than wait until later - for me anyway! One or two less things for the kids to worry about. I'm not talking some giant statue or anything, just small marker stones. I believe some monument places will store them for you as well. We'll see.

Okay, so - on to lighter subjects...

Adding to the $20 Challenge:

$005.04 balance
+000.67 keyboard change
_______
$005.71 MTD

2008 Challenge Total $87.53
Cumulative Challenge Total $616.14

Took another step yesterday in the overall future financial plans. We've been planning all along to eventually put most if not all of our investments with Fidelity for retirement purposes to have a more centralized place for our retirement assets. I'm not entirely ready to do that yet, but did step along the 'goals'-line to starting a checking account with them. Over time as we begin draw-down of retirement assets they have a cash-manager program that will assist in keeping cash necessary for day-to-day expenses available in the checking account w/minimal involvment from us. Check one more item off the to-do list.

Yesterday was a No Spend Day for Me. No gas usage either.

We are kneedeep in calculator tape here this evening. Hubster still working on Father-In-Law's Estate's Final Accounting numbers. We have personally loaned the estate a potful of money.

He can't turn in the numbers yet as he has to call tomorrow and sell the Prudential stock that the estate owns.

So here's where we set:

$**,***.** loans from Mr. & Mrs. Frugalis
+0*,***.** Hubster's 1/5th portion sale of home & assets
-0*,***.** furniture purchase from estate
__________
$**,***.** check cut to Mr. Frugalis

(Sorry to be so vague, but let's just say there is enough loaned out there to easily pay off our house and then some! I, for one, will be so happy to get that portion of the money back and separated from the estate. If something were to happen to Hubster it might take a long long time to get it returned, ya know?)

There is also some jewelry, coins & photos to be disbursed. Basically they will set jewelry & coins up as an auction, with each child being able to bid on the pieces that they want to own. Proceeds to be divided by five kids, so basically you get a 20% discount on your purchase.

I'll have to look at it again, but we might only bid on one or two items. There are 3 boys and two girls. Mom didn't wear a lot of jewelry, and Pops wore quite a bit. He also walked alot and found lots of jewelry pieces that he kept, so it's kind of hard now to know what had sentimental value to them. The girls will know more about this than either Hubster or myself. Hubster mentioned something about getting some of the nicer pieces of jewelry appraised so he can start the bidding at somewhat of a fair market value.

There are also coins. I don't think there are any of much value but that still has to be determined and them disbursed as well somehow. Estate is going to buy a 2008 coin book and we'll see how it goes from there in at least trying to determine value.

Then there are pictures. Guess we'll have a picture party at one of our churches and spread them all out and try to divide them up fairly. That might be hardest of all. I've already done a bit of sorting on this front. Getting everyone of the grandkids school pics in a pile to go back to that family.

Had to loan the estate an additional $300 tonight to cover this past month's utility bills on the house and hopefully any final bill that comes in after we had the utilities cut off at the house on the 26th. Those are all autodrafted out of an account that Hubster held jointly w/FIL. We just never switched it as the estate had no money of it's own to pay those until after the sale of the house. The final attorney bill will be paid out of the estate account, and then we can shut out the books and hand out the sib's checks & cut one to pay ourselves back.

It won't be much as the in-laws were a one-income blue collar family that raised five children. They were frugal and did okay by themselves, but there won't be a lot of money left to distribute after the house set on the market for two years racking up utility charges. Small charges, but still they diminished the value as did the kids poking around getting the house cleaned out plus a bursting real-estate bubble.

If the house would have been sited elsewhere but the neighborhood it sat in we could have cleared an additional $20-25K. Location, Location, Location.

My MIL tried for years to get FIL to sell and relocate but he'd have none of it. In the end, the neighborhood had deterioated so badly that much of the value of their equity was diminished.

----
Adding to the $20 Challenge:

$18.63 balance
+08.75 addition
______
$27.38 Mar MTD

2008 Challenge Total $81.82
Cumulative Challenge Total $675.50

----
Miss Toffee is doing much better. She still falls over and sits a spell. Tired from her efforts. But on some hops she is doing really well using all four legs. Her little spine is crooked looking still and might always be so. Here's hoping lots of rest and the meds do their part to help her to a full recovery.

Adding to the $20 Challenge

$010.63 balance
+ 8.00 addition
_______
$018.63 Mar MTD

2008 Challenge Total $73.07
Cumulative Challenge Total $601.68

Adding in a picture of the spring cleaning I did last weekend. Got started doing it because '??someone??' twisted the blinds in the utility room beyond the point of no return. So, I went and tried to pull the blinds up when the hole darn thing fell off and hit me in the wrist last Saturday morning! Ugggh!!

To get to the blinds, I had to move the jungle out so, while it was outside I just cleaned out the spot and moved the ironing board from the kitchen in there and the jungle's desk where the ironing board had been.

The ironing board is sort of an interesting story. Our old house was so small (How small was it?? REALLY Tiny!!)that there was no room to keep the ironing board up w/all that room underneath where the X legs normally are being wasted. So, I scouted and found this cabinet and Hubster took the legs off the ironing board and screwed the top to the cabinet, so now it's part of my ironing/pantry center! The rest of the pantry is in the basement.

No before pics. It was pretty bad.
Once the weather warms up most of the jungle is going outside on the back porch!

It is cold here today and I've had a No Spend Day. I made bbq sandwiches for lunch and potato soup for supper.

I've been trying to help Hubster with the Final Accounting for FIL's estate. Although I'm the one with the accounting background he's trying to do it by himself which is making me antsy as all get out. Of course he's capable. Yet, I'm the one w/the accounting education. Trying to sit on my hands while he takes 6 hours to do what I could've been done with in 2! Butting out, is harrrrd toooo doooooooooooo!

Sweet Black Toffee got to come home from the vet last night. She is trying to walk herself around again. She wobbles and falls over a lot. Back left leg working great. Right rear leg comes and goes. We are to do physical therapy with her three times a day and she has some meds.

As long as she can eliminate on her own I think everything will be okay. As the doctor was explaining it to me the first day his scenario was we'd be doing basically a colostomy bag and physical manipulations to help her go potty, which wasn't the type of life we wanted for her or ourselves.

So far so good. She went potty by herself this morning and is on predisone which is keeping her thirsty & kidneys going as well. Mostly she is back to her usual sleeping all the time. You can wake her up and interact with her on any given day and within 2 or 3 minutes she'll tire out and curl back up to sleep. She is after all a little old lady!!




Vet bill on the CC to the tune of $180.00. Will pay that out of the Veterinary Fund. Thank goodness for pre-planning, although obviously there isn't enough in there for anything major.

Talk about your up and down days!!!

Right before we left for the vet my sister called and asked 'when was the last time I had talked to our Mom?' I had spent about 2 hours on the phone with her just the day before. Okay, she says, now she is wearing one of those heart monitor packs for 24 hours. Say what??? Both my parents are falling apart at the same time. I live one hour from my Dad and an hour and 1/2 from Mom.

I get off phone w/Sis, go to the vet w/Hubster & CashHappySon thinking we are going to say goodbye as they closed w/i 15 minutes, find the dog much better and get Toffee, come back home and call my Mom.

Seems she had recently changed health clinics to one closer to her home and they had changed her medications from one she takes twice a day to a time released type. The new one appears to be what is making her heart race.

After I got off the phone w/her CashHappySon started acting the 'wicked-child' again and I frankly did not need the additional stress. Hubster had his job cut out for him again trying to referee!

Ay-Carumba!! Thankfully the rest of the evening smoothed out and I went to bed early w/a warm corn-bag (microwave heated) and de-stressed w/a good book. I'm reading about the Ochs family who started the New York Times newspaper. Very interesting. The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family behind The New York Times, Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones, Little, Brown and Company, 1999.**

Giving parental units time this a.m. to get up and running and I'll be calling to check in with both of them!

----
$20 CHALLENGE
$007.38 balance
+003.25 wallet cleanout
_______
$010.63 March MTD

2008 Challenge Total $65.07
Cumulative Challenge Total $593.68

----
When I was paying bills yesterday I thought I'd do a little addition and check how the utilities are running. This is more for informational purposes into the retirement planning stages because if we pay our house off and stay here I wanted to see where we'd be.

Going to try and start logging them here monthly.

Utilities for March 2008

$90.68 Phone*/Cable/DSL
$97.00 Natural Gas
$14.00 Trash Service
$62.00 Electric
$49.40 Water/Ambulance Fee**
______
$313.08

*Landline charges. I recently ended my cell phone contract that I'd had for about 6 years and have gone with an Emergency Use Only tracphone (pay as you go.) Cell is now paid out of my budget and Hubster doesn't carry one.

**A couple of months back the rural water district we live in decided to start charging us $2.50 month for emergency medical services fee in the off chance we need to use an ambulance. If we had our druthers we'd pay for an ambulance IF and when we needed one. Boo Hiss!

Okay, back to the utilities, so w/the projection of having the house paid off right about retirement time and adding in current house taxes of apprx. $56.00 a month and we'd be sitting here (in today's dollars) paying right at $370.00 to live in our home. Not too shabby, eh folks??? But, we must not forget to factor in that nasty inflation!!

$370 a month - That's low enough that we could stay here and hire out the lawn care, if we wanted to. Ahhh, the joys of not buying TOO MUCH house!

----
I personally had a no-spend day yesterday.

Busy here this morning balancing checkbooks and seeing what bills need paying and filing, etc.

One day this week? When??? ...Anyway got a call from my stepmother that my Dad had another mini-stroke TIA last Thursday and had his arm go completely numb for about 15 minutes. He drove himself and went and had a brain scan this week and was going to drive himself about 4 hours away for a delivery. GAAA! My stepmother is disabled but she can drive! Why didn't she take him to the doctor? Why didn't she call an ambulance? Call us sooner? Call me in time to drive him for the brain-scan? At least she finally called! I do check in on them every week or two, but still she can afford a phone call!

I am beyond p.o.'d!

So, I dropped everything that day and ran down and drove him to and from the place he had to make deliveries. He's previously had 5 bypass surgery and a massive stroke before. What is wrong with this woman that she can't call???????

I chewed them both out - why not call us and let us know at the time something is happening. Yes, it might be scary, but I'd rather be informed in time to help than to be left in the dark until sometime in the future when it might be too late!

On my doxie - I took FrugalSon & went to see her yesterday at the vet's office, didn't get to talk to the vet, but there wasn't any visible improvement. Unless we do a very costly (to us in our financial situation) surgery then it is unlikely that she will recover the use of her hind legs and as she is apprx. 10-13 years old and already sleeps 23 1/2 hours a day we will likely have to put her down. If we did the surgery, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't have the same thing happen w/other vertebrae, etc. We just can't afford to do it.

Myself, Hubster and CashHappySon will go visit today, and if there is no signs of improvement we will let her go. So sad. We got her from the pound when she was about 6-8 years old, and she's had a good run here with us. We just can't see that if she doesn't improve she'd have much quality of life. Too sad to write about it any more today.


To keep you kiddies entertained while I do my bookkeeping...

Uncle Jay explains the Stimulus Package

http://www.unclejayexplains.com/media/UJwmv01-28-08.wmv

Funnier....

Uncle Jay explains the Congressional Recess

http://www.unclejayexplains.com/media/UJwmv09-03-07.wmv

$20 CHALLENGE

$007.29 balance
+000.09 keyboard change
_______
$007.38 March MTD

2008 Challenge Total $61.82
Cumulative Challenge Total $590.43

THANK YOU LORD - We closed yesterday on FIL's house. Next is to wrap up a sale of some stocks and divide the remaining photographs and some coins with the siblings and do the final accounting and then disburse checks and that should just about wrap things up.

The older gentleman who bought the house would be someone my FIL would have approved of and he reminded me of him very much. They were of the same generation, both veterans, snappy dressers - he came to the closing w/a walking stick, pinky ring and a nice suit and hat on. He served in the same branch of the military as FIL and everything.

My one gripe? I had to insist about 10 minutes into the closing that they stop and introduce us (buyer/seller) to each other. The closer went on ahead as if I hadn't spoken. I pinched Hubster under the table and he finally stood up and introduced himself and me to the gentleman. Then the dumb girls doing the closing finally apologized. They all knew each other and I don't know I guess forgot??

I would certainly do things differently if I were the closer. I didn't like it one little bit and if I ever have my druthers again, we'll be using a different closing company.

I am decidely not a timid mouse type and I'm certainly not used to speaking to a group of people (I used to run corporate meetings & large seminars) and having people act as if you haven't even spoken at all. Like everyone else, I suppose I do not like being ignored. Anyway that part was WEIRD!!

Nicely done was our realtor's projected net to seller estimate. She was within $300 which isn't horrible estimating in my opinion. We weren't all that excited by the lack of some requested actions during the course of the listing contract, but she did get the house sold.

Funny thing is that I'm the one who got all emotional on the way home at having the last real physical marker of his family childhood home & parents gone. Hubster is/was his usual 'ROCK'. Accurate in his "Mom and Dad have a better home now and I'll go visit them one day, and it hasn't been home w/o them there for a long time."

But still I teared up. Sad.

But glad that the financial/physical drain of maintaining the home is gone. After getting the check to the bank yesterday I came home and collapsed like a limp-rag. I think I've been holding my breath for the last month since the initial offer!! The boys cooked supper and cleaned up. Good thing because by that time I was worthless.


TO-DO today:

Call the closer w/FIL's Social Security number so that the official tax reporting on the sale of estate property can be recorded correctly. If there is a chance I'll be asking for an exit interview w/the owner of the closing company and explaining the etiquette snafu and grim picture it left of his/her company.

Call his realtor and make sure when he's going to get utilities in his name, as I am planning to call today to have them taken out of our name. I don't want to leave him in the dark if he went ahead and moved in.

This is a strange dealywho as I am always proactive about this for us whenever we've moved and had a firm time set up with the old sellers so that I knew when I could get the utilities switched to our name. I'm not sure if this isn't the very first house this gentleman has ever owned. It seemed that way.

At any rate, I'd like to coordinate it w/his realtor as she even picked him up and drove him to the closing and promised to take him to the courthouse for some other paperwork later on, so I'm not sure if he even owns a car. If she's helping him, maybe she knows of his plans on the utilities. I got the impression that they went to church together and that's how they got acquainted.


$20 CHALLENGE

$006.29 balance
+ 1.00 quarters from CashHappySon
_______
$007.29 Mar MTD

2008 Challenge Total $61.73
Cumulative Challenge Total $590.34

Of other probably costly note my little doxie (which are notorious for their bad little backs) has had her hind legs go out on her and so I'll be taking her to the vet ASAP this morning. Maybe cortisone shots will do the trick but she may need surgery. Her little self is a sad sight. I don't want her to have to be one of those little wheelie doggies. Usually when her back gets wobble-sloshed I can do a deep tissue massage on her and get her back into alignment. Not so this a.m.

Moved money from online bank House Tax Fund to checking this afternoon to cover last 1/2 of the 2007 house taxes for our house. We have until the end of March to pay them. I don't personally like doing it this way, but I did earn a teeny-tiny bit more interest by not paying it w/the other half that was due 12/31. Will be mailing check out in today's mail.

House taxes for 2007 were $662.00. Not bad at all considering what many of you pay! I've estimated 2008 taxes to go up a bit and run at $675, so we're putting back $56.25 a month towards them.

Yesterday had to get new brake rotors or pads or something or other stuff done to Hubster's car to the tune of $190.16. Took that money from Auto Repair Fund that is also kept in the online bank.

On CashHappySon's car earlier in the week we had to have a new axle put on for $196.32. GEEE - these cars are costing out the wazoooloooo! This amount goes on his tab. He has the money in checking to cover it, however, we are trying to get him back on track w/being a month AHEAD of his bills using YNAB software, and he's almost there. I'd rather see him get a lifelong lesson money truth than a short-term gratification for me to get the money back in our account at the moment. He WILL be paying it back. He did make his first payment to us on the Toyota Tercel on the first.

***Of major importance is the fact that our realtor called and we are attempting to have closing on FIL's house on Monday! HALLELU!! HALLELU!! Looking forward to the return of a BUNCH O' DOLLARS that we've laid out to keep things moving forward.

I am praying that everything goes smoothly at the closing. We don't have a time scheduled yet though.***

There is only one tiny repair left for Hubster to get finished (putting in an elect. recept. that is one of those ones that can be by water). That's planned for early tomorrow when he's off for the Easter holiday. He's already put in three of them, fixed a small plumbing leak we didn't know we had and put in a new window that had been broken in the ice storm that we had made a stopgap fix on earlier. We also had to do a fix on the stove ignitor. Hopefully they'll be able to schedule their final walk-thru late tomorrow afternoon or early on Monday.

I freaked out a few minutes ago and had to call Hubster to ask if he'd already paid (I do balance the estate's checkbook, but I refused to take on paying the bills as well! I mean, isn't it enough that I never said NOT ONE single word to his four siblings that they weren't helping financially and we were tapping our own money to the point of making me gasp & butte-pucker monthly for two years??? ) the last half of the '07 taxes on his Dad's house as if not, then he needed to call realtor and/or title company and find out if they needed a Paid In Full receipt (meaning a run to the county courthouse for me) or if they would just include them in the final accounting. Not to worry, he'd paid them about two weeks ago. They will pro-rate the little bit of 2008 taxes.

I have to dig out the papers that give him the right as executor to sell the house to take with us to closing. I'm sure the title company has done all of it's work, but he's not going to the sale table w/o the one thing that could throw a ringer! I'm invited even though I don't need to be there. He calls me his financial expert as I make him read stuff thoroughly and am one of those annoying read thru stuff people before we sign. And durned if I don't ask a lot of questions!!

Late last year the local power company sent a guy out to mark some trees that need to be removed to keep from knocking out the power line to the houses across the road IF perchance they were to happen to fall. Okay. Not my wildest fantasy to have them cut down because they do provide a lot of shade for my house, but I don't think we really had much choice. Those guys are here right now cutting down one oak tree that was dead that we did need removed and one nice cedar.

On our top property they will be cutting down a nasty scrub thorn tree that I will be happy to see go as it has a giant amount of poision ivy, oak, and sumac that we spent a lot of money on Round-Up to keep knocked back. Seemed to come back yearly anyway! So, lumberjack types strolling around in my yard making the dogs go nutso. No charge to us personally, but I do believe we'll eventually see it in increased bills, don't we always?

On my desk for the challenge:

$20 CHALLENGE
$006.28 balance
+000.01 mystery penny on the desk
_______
$006.29 Mar MTD

2008 Challenge Total $60.73
Cumulative Challenge Total $589.34

Spent on groceries this a.m. $66.23, up a bit from my normal $35-40 a week range as we are preparing for the Easter luncheon w/TheGrrl in attendance, and I'm signed up to take dessert to SS class Sunday morning, that and I went long on a 24 count case of green beans at 4/$.88=$5.28.

edited to add:

Adding to the $20 CHALLENGE
$006.08 balance
+000.20 found on keyboard
_______
$006.28 March MTD

2008 Challenge Total $60.72
Cumulative Challenge Total $589.33

/end edit
----------


You might say I am a selfish woman.

I admit it.

I want to sleep at night.

Not to worry about money.

Do I want scads and scads of it? I wouldn't be opposed, but I'm not obsessed with having money for money's sake but the idea of having my financial life in order does carry a certain appeal. You know?

I do not think I am alone in this. Surely there are many MANY women who feel that security is important? And they want to know when their family has reached it???

Ladies am I right??

Anyone????

The Hubster and I - We are stuck in the same conversation we get into all the time.

Hubster is **(double digit) older than I and our time-frames for investing for the both of us has to be coalesced into a working order that covers needs of BOTH of our projected lifespans AND takes into consideration our differing risk tolerances.

Noting that I'm generally more of the risk taker and he's super conservative.

IOW, trying to decide on a joint investment strategy is quite different in a May/December marriage than it is in say a Dec/Dec marriage. Or a moderate growth/moderate risk tolerance marriage!

Try finding research or advice on how to do May/Dec retirement investing and see the dead air space where such information should be (Google reposited thank you very much) and you'll come up empty handed!

Add a big sprinkling of the fact that Hubster doesn't like to read or keep too informed on the topics of finances and investing makes it difficult at times to persuade someone to move forward w/ a planned proactive methodology.

We just touched on that subject again last night. I am a reader. Big Time. I read oodles and oodles. He reads zip, zero, nada. He can, he just refuses to do it for knowledge building. If someone at work broaches the subject of finances or investing, fine. If he hears something on the news, great. Then we can discuss, but if I find a relevant article.

He.will.NOT.read.it!

ARRRRRGHH - my frustration level is tapped out, because although I homeschooled my children I am not an educator* at heart and, as it takes me an inordinate amount of study time to EFFECTUALLY give someone verbally (I'm more of a writer, INFJ remember?) at-the-rise/drop-of the market, the background reasoning for why XYZ-abc+123=BAD MOVE at this time, on the spur of the moment and off the cuff.

[The above paragraph was taken almost verbatim from last night's financial discussion!]

GIANT point of frustration for me, but perhaps I should just be thankful that his general lack of interest makes me become a more informed investor in order to discuss the topic with him when it does come up! I just get frustrated at trying to do it all extemporaneously, which I truly SUCK AT!!

*No, Virginia, there is no educator here. I am an autodidactic lifelong learning fanatic, FACILITATOR w/a heavy penchant for research. Thus my librarian tendencies. Imagine my frustration in finding out he's interested in owning gold and taking my knowledge of the subject (admittedly small) but I do have a nice personally assembled - because I think at heart I could be a gold bug - $green$ notebook full of information on gold mining stocks & ETFs that I have assembled and keep updated then adding in my penchant to find people the information that they need to make INFORMED decisions only to be met w/someone on the other end who refuses to read it after I've found it!

Gadzooks & DARNATION!!!

That he's the man who has hitched his wagon to my star and is supposed to have my financial best interests at heart...well PHhhhFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTT!!!

To his credit he does take a hands off approach for the most part while often acknowledging that most of the investing we are doing will be for MY benefit in the long term. He does admit that I'm the one who will likely beneft the most.

However, that isn't exactly true as I've tried to point out. Having our financial lives in order at any time should give BOTH OF US peace of mind, knowing that health care costs could be covered, prescriptions could be filled, that we might get to a place where LTC insurance could be purchased for the both of us, that we can get ourselves buried, continue eating into old age, etc., etc., etc. and that life could go on for any survivor should help BOTH OF US sleep a little better at night, IMHO.

I don't have any answers to my personal dilema here. But did need a nice place to vent. My fellow SavingAdvice.com forumites and bloggers will probably understand. Won't you???

I am a selfish woman. I want financial peace for not only myself, but my family as well. I don't want the kiddos to have to do a bunch of grunt work that we could've taken care of with some prudent COOPERATIVE planning! I don't want to be forced to make medical decisions later in his life based on whether or not we can afford it. I want to come along side my Hubster and help him make financial decisions that work for BOTH OF US!

I'm wishing right about now we had a video camera. Why? Perhaps if we video taped our financial conversations and family business meetings, documenting them w/either video or by taking corporate secretary type of notes we'd go farther in excuting a plan that could become more formalized and reviewable.

I just want to get out of loop mode where we're constantly going over the same ground.

What do you guys do to tag-team your couple finances FORWARD???

Making addition to the $20 Challenge:

$002.35 balance
+001.00 from CashHappySon
+002.73 from coinpurse cleanout
_______
$006.08 March MTD

2008 Challenge Total $60.52
Cumulative Challenge Total $589.13

The good news is we got CashHappySon's car back from the motor rebuild shop yesterday! That's good news because it means we won't be having to drive him back and forth to work.

Bad news: A big whopping charge to MY credit card that CashHappySon will be paying back! Gaaaa!!! Hubster said this a.m. when the CC bill comes in for me to take the money out of our MM account (our E.Fund) and then CashHappySon will just be paying the MM account back instead of us for the car purchase and then also the CC bill. Did I say GAAAAAA already? Well GAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I hate taking money out of the MM account. It's too hard to get any to put in there to begin with. I fought hard to get that money in place!!

Good news: Hubster did finally acknowledge the fact that we have to charge the little bugger interest as he's taken a big bite out of our interest earnings. I only had to scream & rant a little! So we'll be charging C.H.Son 4% interest which seems relatively tame in today's marketplace.

Bad News: There's some kind of new rattle under the car - so today we're off to take it back to the engine place to see if they failed to hook something up correctly.

Good News: They're willing to look at it for no cost.


Bad News: The car needed tires. We knew that when we bought it. Okay. CashHappySon paid for those out of his current income along w/getting tag & title changed over. But, when we came out of the tire shop I told C.H.S. that the hubcap was loose and that he needed to go back inside and get them to tighten it up. He proceeded to hit it with his fist and seemed satisfied enough to argue with me that it would hold that way. Guess what? Old Mom might STILL know a thing or two and the kid will one day learn to listen. When? I'm not sure. But today we're back over to the tire shop for them to replace it.

I'm still involved here w/the driving as it's over in the metro area and he's just not that familiar with the city driving on the one hand, the city driving w/a new car that's a standard that he's also not that familiar with. Sooooo, the city driving, standard shift on top of not knowing his way around the city? Equals Mom is involved.

Did I say GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?????


GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!


Good news: They're willing to replace hubcap or so they said on the phone.

The Laundry Fairy left me $1.10.

$20 CHALLENGE

$001.25 balance
+001.10 laundry fairy
_______
$002.35 Mar MTD

2008 Challenge Total $056.79
Cumulative Challenge Total $585.40

I've got a big old honking pile of papers on my desk!

More Importantly - I'm TIRED TIRED TIRED of having a big old honking pile of papers on my desk!!

To-Do
1)Spend 15 minutes morning on deskwork.
2)Spend 15 minutes afternoon on deskwork.
3)Spend 15 minutes evening on deskwork.
4)Bank February's $20 Challenge money.
5)Figure out what CashHappySon's new auto insurance premiums are going to be.
6)Move money to Emigrant.
7)Move money to Roth IRA for 2007.
8)Go to the Dollar Store & get things on list.
9)Find another copy of my truck insurance paper to go in glovebox. Took the other one out when I went to get tag renewed yesterday.
10)Either Call or Take CashHappySon to employer to get new schedule straightened out. Make sure #9 is done before driving off!!
11)Spend 15 minutes before bedtime on deskwork.
12)Get some filing done!
13)Get some files cleaned out!!

Ta-Da
Already done this a.m.

1)Bed Made
2)Dressed to shoes, hair & makeup done.
3)Brushed, Flossed, Mouthwashed
4)Load of Laundry Done
5)Ate Breakfast (Strawberry Yogurt, OJ)
6)Midmorning Snack (10 Almonds & Green Tea)
7)Walked for 10 minutes.
8)Updated 4 checkbooks (don't ask) via computer.
9)On my third bottle of water.
10)Made a shopping list for Dollar Store.


Yesterday's Ta-Da's:
FrugalSon went with me yesterday on his day off and we got some running done:

1)Truck Tag Renewed til 2009.
2)Hubster & mine allowance money from ATM.
3)Went by my bank to get new register & make a deposit.
4)Took CashHappySon's uniform pants by to exchange them for a different size.
5)Made a clothing & junk donation to the local women's shelter.
6)Went to booth #1 & picked up February's sales check and put this weeks items into the booth. February - Booth 1 Sales after overhead $283.49 - Booth 2 Sales after overhead $60.49.
7)Had a NO SPEND DAY!

$20 CHALLENGE
$000.00 March beginning balance
+001.25 from Hubster
_______
$001.25 March MTD

2008 Challenge Total $055.69
Cumulative Challenge Total $584.30

Need a good laugh about the stimulus package?? Check it out...


http://www.salon.com/comics/opus/2008/03/02/opus/


FUNNY!!

Running to get the last of my February $20 Challenge in the pot.

$20 CHALLENGE

$011.13 balance
+011.41 wallet & purse cleanout
_______
$022.54 Feb Total

2008 Challenge Total $054.44
Cumulative Challenge Total $583.05

Lots of running around this afternoon to get him to pick up paycheck, take a typing test, and then back to pick up different uniform. What for?? Okay the specialty hospital is out and another different location for CashHappySon to work - this time he's assigned for a cable TVish satelitte-y type place at a $1.50 hour raise. Finally some good news for the little bugger!

I survived working for 4 1/2 hours yesterday. Nice to know I can still answer a phone and copy papers and sort paperwork and stuff envelopes.

What was hard??? Not cleaning up the lady's work area. It was the tee-total pits! I had to sit on my hands not to throw obvious trash away and straighten stacks of papers. Auuughhhhh!!

While the phones were quiet I did get various checkbooks balanced - FIL's estate checking, Hubster's & his deceased Dad's joint account, our joint account and my account! Phew! The first two will shortly be closed out and this is one old bookkeeper who'll be glad of it!

I also got to read some on some AARP magz that had been piling up and some in "Lies About Money" by ?Ric/Rick? Edelman. Looks to be some really insightful and well researched information in there about the mutual fund industry and all the scandals associated with them. I didn't get to all of it but evidently he offers some suggestions for other investments aside from the normal run of the mill mutual fund.

Cleaning out the coin-purse this a.m. finds $1.78 + 1 cent which is a wheatpenny. I save them. Don't know what for, but I do, so that'll go in the wheatpenny jar. The $1.78 is going to the challenge!

$20 CHALLENGE
$009.35 balance
+001.78 coinpurse minus wheatpenny
_______
$011.13 FEB MTD

2008 Challenge Total $043.03
Cumulative Challenge Total $571.64

Later in the day I'll get to the wallet and cleanout what's in there for the rest of February's challenge. Should reach at least $20 by later today. Wish it was more but all the extra OTC meds & juice & kleenex this month has us nigh on to tapped out!

Meantimes I'm hauling a-foot CashHappySon into his work for a three hour shift to cover another worker who has a doctor's appointment. SIGH!!!

There is no one else to do it as all of the other security guards have quit this company because they lost their contract at his regular post. All the other security guards there hired on at the security company who got the new contract. CashHappySon got a call yesterday afternoon giving him a dollar an hour raise and a new posting. One that his Momma is pleased as punch to hear about.

This is to be at a quiet resort like specialty hospital.

It's only about a mile closer to home BUT, and it's a big BUT - there is no bar/lounge in this facility, so no drunks for him to toss out, no bank so not as much a chance for a robbery, and the parking lot is smaller so possibly not as many car break-ins to investigate nor as many hookers walking the parkinng lot, no hotel rooms for him to have to walk blindly into when there's a problem.

Also, there aren't two apartment complexes next door for spill-over domestic abuse problems, etc., etc., etc.

All you other Mommas out there can heave a big ol'sigh of relief with me on this one, right?? Thank You Lord for answered prayers!!

He worked 11-7 last night and is catching a cat nap now. After his three hour shift today at his current post we're going to go pickup his paycheck and get the new schedule for his new posting! Hopefully they don't have him scheduled for there tonight as the new hours will be 6pm to 6am for four days a week, so that will be different. 42 hours a week at a dollar more per hour as opposed to 40 hours at the old post.

Back at the autorepair shop his newest Toyota is getting a rebuilt motor put into it and a LOT of other stuff that needed fixing as well! Should be ready by middle of next week.

In the midst of all that back in our little town I've got to take FrugalSon to work at 1 o'clock, because, remember - he can't pass his parallel parking exam and with all the drama going on between me being sick and CashHappySon's car troubles we haven't been able to get to scheduling FrugalSon for driving lessons to get that handled. But we ARE going to do it. I can't be driving people around forever!

Why??? Because the Old Gray Mare ain't what she used to be!!!