The Frugalis Fam got back from vacation a few days ago. Everyone had a grand time and we left w/$490 in cash to spend and came home with $332. More to spend on the next vacation.

Ten days in a fab-o resort obtained thru my time-share exchange - our condo was right on the water with fabulous water views from the balcony. We ate out three times as per our norm. We eat out one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner during the week, besides our drive-thru meals on travel days. Those 3 meals went on the charge card to be paid off next month along w/gasoline charges. Groceries were put on the charge card as well. Had extra groceries left over that were brought home. The pups were split up, Toffee my little doxie went to Moms and Carmel went to the kennel. I missed the little buggers. Possibly more vacation details later.

Frugalis - Family of Four
135.00 exchange fee - paid
100.00 kennel fee - paid
114.87 grocery charges (prices were HIGH!)
097.99 meals out charges
089.56 gasoline charges
158.00 cash expenditures - entrance fees, momentos, t-shirts, ballcaps, drive-thru meals, tips
______
695.42 spent
332.00 back to vacation savings

I've added a new etf - FCG over on the left - to my portfolio this week. Put it on automatic investments w/Sharebuilder.

On Tuesday the Frugalis Housebudget purchased a new printer. We've had the old Epson for about 10 years! It was time for a 'refreshing'. Yeah, no more wavy lines and thin ink spots. I'm not sure where the ticket is to give a price but Hubster did his usual research before buying some kind of Canon printer (apprx. $84.00). Ink prices are the kicker, of course.

This week I bought two new light fixtures to update the kitchen and utility room 'rent contractor' el cheapo stuff that is here. Ugh. I'm second guessing myself now and will go look one more place before I have HubsterDearest install them. These I bought are okay, but are fairly tame. I'd like something a little more creative like a mini-chandelier over my sink area. Then, when looking at the ceilings it appears the kitchen ceiling needs to be repainted before that light can go up anyway. Something new makes the old look shabby. Isn't that always the case?

Hope everyone has a happy 4th!

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

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?

Yesterday on a small grocery shop ($36.27) at Aldi's I went ahead and bought powdered coffee creamer there at $1.49 when I know I can get it cheaper at the dollar type stores, where it's usually just a dollar.

I did it the last time I shopped as well. And, I'm aggravated at myself about it.

No, I wasn't out, but I didn't want to run out either and I lazily didn't want to stop at the dollar store. Grrr!

And, I'm wondering just how much this convenience shopping is taxing me in a year's time?????

So, on the shopping list for the next dollar store shop? A BUNCH of creamer! Perhaps a years worth!

And another thing that came to mind while perusing the ticket upon my arrival home...the tax rate. There are two near-by Aldi's in our general metro area. One of them lies in a different town. I'm thinking the food-tax rate might be different in the smaller suburban town. I need to check on that. The difference? The one in the main metro area is 18 miles from my house. The other is 21 miles away. If taxes are lower, in the long run, it might pay to drive the extra 3 miles. Yesterday, I was already in the neighborhood of the one I shopped at. Next time, I might have a choice.

What kind of Convenience Tax are you paying? And on what? Is it worth it to you? How often are you convenience taxing yourself??? And would the actual tax rate on what you are buying be cheaper if you drove a few more miles? Would it be worth it to you?

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!

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

Thursday afternoon I fell down the steps on the side of the house. Poooh! I did twist and I did shout. Uggh! Hubster went by my niece's house and borrowed a foot brace which allows me to hobble around enough to get to the bathroom!

I mentioned in my last blog post that the frig went kaput. Hubster is out shopping for us one right now. He just called on the phone. We are attempting to be wise shoppers and getting the bottom of the line! I think we'll get out with a new machine right at $500. Does stainless keep the food colder? I don't think so.

Putting it on the CC which will be paid off next month. This one will be Energy Star rated at $43 a year to operate.

April 2008 Utility Bills fell out like this:

$90.75 Phone/Cable/DSL
$92.00 Natural Gas
$14.00 Trash Service
$62.00 Electric
$59.95 Water/Ambulance Fee
______
$318.70 April Utilities
-$313.08 March Utilities
________
$ 5.62 >difference

Dang that pesky water bill. All I personally did different this month was water the 6 tomato plants TWO DAYS for just a couple of minutes - I didn't just stand there mindlessly either, purposefully watered only as little as was needed!!

Going to look at getting a different shower head and pricing out a more water saving washing machine! GADZOOKS!! I will refrain from cussing (HRUMPH - I mean discussing )about a 10 yr. old refrigerator that possibly needs replacing because it isn't freezing correctly this morning until after I try moving it out a little further from the wall and vacumning the coils today.

In today's advanced industrial society you'd think we could make a frig that would last longer than almost 10 years to the day!!!

Wave goodbye to the stimulus package Mrs. Frugalis! DAGNABIT!!! I wanted to add that to our Roths. There is some money in the Frugalis Furniture/Appliance Fund, but not much.

Compared to 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

I still need to look back at this time last year and go thru all the files and see what last year's utilities were.

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!

It's that time again kiddos - go Whack the Moles - the ones stealing your $$'s by eating thru the electrical budget. Don't know what I'm talking about? Go check out the backstory here:

http://luxliving.savingadvice.com/2008/01/11/whack-a-mole-el...

Today, all there was on my sweep thru the house was the hairdryer and microwave. We've been doing better with this lately.

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.

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.

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.

Okay, so I forgot to update the mortgage balance over on the left until today! Out of the blue it hit me that I hadn't changed it after the 3/1 payment.

New Mortgage Balance sits at $19,075.65!

We're getting there.

Also of note I recently upped THE Hubster's term life insurance and so that premium will be going up by about $20 a month.

Of major note on the financial awareness level here said Hubster was talking to me last night based on the bank bailout on whether we should allocate some portion of our assets into gold. At least he is FINALLY becoming aware of the financial world at large. We discussed our current asset allocation based on risk tolerance and our short/long term perspectives and our satisfaction w/our current diversification.

I also tried to talk to him about market timing and tried to get his feel on IF he sold some stocks or mutual funds to buy gold when he'd feel comfortable returning to the marketplace and how would he know that the time was ripe? No good answers there. I told him he shouldn't feel bad. No one knows those answers for sure.

For now we'll continue this discussion likely this evening. But it wouldn't hurt my feelings right now to be invited to a gold party as we do have some jewelry in the safe-deposit box we could sell!! And I wish I was more informed about the currency markets.

After posting yesterday I went on over to Ameritrade and checked my balance there and in my Irish luck calculations I had forgotten to account for the interest I have received over this past year. In the next few days the Suze Orman/TDAmeritrade $100 bonus should post and I should easily make my last 2007 Roth IRA contribution w/$$'s left over. YEAH ME!!

Today is/was a No Spend Day! Yesterday would have been too, but the three guys here go thru bread like water, so I wrote a $2.05 check at the bread store!

TheGrrl came over yesterday afternoon and they had a stay-at-home date. They made & decorated sugar cookies and we had how-to-make-hamburger-patties that don't fall apart lessons (it's all in the thumb action). After supper we all went for a walk, worked in the yard removing some of the last of the 'hangers' limbs from the ice-storm, brushed and played fetch with the dogs and then came in and watched The Bachelor. At the end of the evening an inexpensive Frosty junior topped off their date. A little more than $2 for a nice day. FrugalSon is trying to make all of his 2008 Roth IRA contributions this year as well and that leaves him w/little other $$s to date with or spend recklessly. He's on a strict budget. She'll have to understand him or be gone.

One of the things I do with cash in my wallet is donate to my church's building fund each week. Here's where I scrape the bottom of the purse out, check the coin purse and see if there is any folding money in the folding money spot.

On Sunday this week all I found in my wallet (aside from the cash for everyone's monthly allowances which are deposited into the First National Bank of Mom in the back hideyholes) was 51 cents. That's it.

Into the little special envelope it went.

For informational purposes - yes this extra money I donate to the bldg fund is just that. EXTRA. We do tithe from the household budget and I do tithe from my personal budget as well. Extra this Sunday out of household budget was $25.00 that went towards a SS class mission project we are doing in Mexico this year.

So, now I'm PERSONALLY busted AHHHEMMMMM (I mean Cash Flow Inhibited) until this coming Friday when I'll give myself another fiver from one of those dark recessed places in the wallet. That five will do me for the next week.

Tight rations for moi this month!

Who cares and why am I telling you about this?

I was just working on posting some financial doings in the YNAB software and decided that just for kicks and giggles I'd run over to Jesse's YNAB blog and see what was happening over there since I hadn't been in a coon's age. Well -- the latest article there talks about being financially aware of where every penny goes. Why? Because it's important. That's why!

Okay. So 51 cents went out this week to the church's building fund.

Meanwhile I've updated my links over to the left to show you the way to the YNAB blog. WELL WORTH VISITING.

Of other financial note this week. I sold a dresser from when the kiddos were little for $40.00. I deposited it locally this morning and promptly came home and deposited it over into my IRA along with $211 EXTRA from this month's budget to try to get that darn 2007 limit fully funded.

So for March here's what I've been able to come up with for MY latest portion of the 2007 contributions to MY IRA. The house budget puts in $100 a month towards current contributions which is not included here.

$101.00 my normal monthly do.
+ 23.00 from Feb's $20 Challenge(round-up)
+ 40.00 from dresser sale
+211.00 scraped from the March budget
_______
$375.00

So, if I've counted my chickens correctly and IF the Ameritrade Suze Orman $100.00 bonus gets posted before April 15 and it should based on my join date then I'll have 600.00 that I've contributed this past year to earn the bonus + 100.00 bonus which will equal $700 that I can put towards my 2007 contributions and IF I can scrape another $37.00 up before April 15th I will make it to complete my 2007 contributions.

Meanwhile back at the ranch as I said, house budget is feeding $100 a month into 2008 contributions and my 101.00 (the $1.00 extra to differentiate it from household contribution and not confuse folks at the brokerage) will then go towards 2008 as well. I may well then stop the $50 to Ameritrade and put it towards the IRA.

In the old L.L.Frugalis PERSONAL checkbook I am close to the bottom scrapings. I've got about $33.00 in there to last until the end of the month for whatever weird unaccounted thing comes up. If I am extra special careful (which I rarely am) I could conceivably have that much left over that I could use towards the $37 I need - probably won't happen. BUT, I'll find it somewhere in April's budget if it harelips the Easter bunny who as a matter of fact is coming way too early this year for my tastes.

Keep your fingers crossed kiddos that the luck of the Irish holds for me! Yes, I'm a bit of an Irish lass as I had a full-blooded Irish Grampy!





Here's so you don't have to scroll way down to visit the YNAB blog.


http://www.youneedabudget.com/category/blog//

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.

On 2/21 night we got an offer on FIL's house. As mentioned here previously Hubster is the Personal Representative for the estate (what used to be called an Executor).

The offer on the 21st was a little too low for what we needed to get out of the house, by about four thousand dollars.

Thus, we made a counter-offer on the morning of the 22nd that was in line w/the pre-approved loan amount the people got and with some concessions to them, but will let us walk away w/what we need to get our money back out of the house that we've put in for repairs and updates and hopefully let Hubster's siblings get a four or five thousand apiece inheritance (before the charge-off of the prices on the estate furniture they bid on and won) and PLUS, one brother bought a car from the estate against his future inheritance so that will come off of his portion and another brother bought OUR car w/his portion so we'll get paid back for that car.

Even with all that it will still let the house-buyer have a few wins on what they asked for.

The house sits in a horrid neighborhood, so we've only had a few lookie-loos.

Hubster's Dad passed in November 2005 and we've been carrying all the expenses for the funeral, lawyers, repairing, updating the house and keeping it insured, taxes paid, and utilities on since then out of our personal budget.

While his Dad had some insurance that we did receive, with just one of us working full time it's still been taxing us!

We called for prayer from family and friends that they'd accept our counter-offer. We were trying for a win/win here. It is a well maintained home that was a one-owner since it was built in the early 1950's.

And Hubster deserves not to have to worry about it anymore!!! Or to have to mow the lawn, etc., this summer.

This morning 2/26 we got a call from our realtor that we have a deal and then later this morning we got emailed a copy of the signed contract so I feel a little more comfortable telling you about it.

The closing is set for late March of course. Also good news is that the buyer is already pre-approved for the purchase price and so we are hopefully soon set. The Hubster has a couple of minor repairs still to make since a window & fence was damaged in the ice storm but they are relatively easy fixes.

So, thank you Jesus for a sale and thank you friends, family, blogites, for all your support through this trying time. Keep your fingers crossed and prayers up that the inspection process and closing goes smoothly!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! YEEEE-HAWWWW - for us this means that the approximately $22,500 +/- a few dollars that we've laid out will soon be winging it's way back into our accounts, plus the Hubster's inherited portion of the proceeds, plus the portion for our old car, and then we can get the sibs their monies and wrap the estate up.

Hubster refuses to ding the estate for the interest we've lost on that money, but as I told you before, he's one of the good guys. I personally would get our interest back, but that's me, I'm more about business transactions being conducted fairly for EVERYONE.

The kids (5 of them) have had time to grieve their parents passing and are ready to relinquish the old home place.
Hopefully it's just what the buyers want and will make them a good home.


We are thrilled about the house selling.

Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus!!!

I'm absolutely thrilled I tell ya!!

Here's a photo of one of the chairs I bought this week at a nearby auction house that has online auctions as well as local nighttime antique auctions.

I paid $22 for this chair plus it's portion of the state sales tax for the entire lot of things I bought is at $2.00. So I'm in for $24.00.

It does have a couple of small issues at the foot level as does most used wicker.



I'm going to list it for sale at $42.50 and take it along with some other items over to the junque booth probably later this afternoon when CashHappySon is awake to go with me.

So here's how it will shake down when and if it sells:

$42.50
-24.00 price & tax
-04.25 store owner's 10% cut
______
$14.25 profit

...or less. There was a bit of gas usage to go pick the lot of 3 chairs I purchased up but we (FrugalSon & I) did our grocery shopping at Aldi's while we were right there nearby (about 5 city blocks) and of course there is a small percentage of each sale that goes toward the booth rental & advertising itself.

So, I'll probably actually clear right about $12 on it. It's not necessarily about making a lot of money on each item, but having an ecclectic mixture of new & coolio items in the booth itself is somewhat important to draw people into my booth to shop. Right now I've got sooooo much stuff of inlaws in the basement that needs to be sold that I'm not doing a lot of buying for resell. Of course, there is some kind of resell license thingawhichy which I could get that would eliminate me paying tax on the items I purchase but I've yet to get it.

If this chair doesn't sell as is after a few months, I will pull it back to the house and spray paint it an antique white and then bump the price up just a bit to cover my labor. I already have a boatload of the paint in the basement from FIL's estate.

Wish me luck!

Okay when last we left off, I'd told you that CashHappySon had managed to rid himself of the two old cars and had bought a 1993 Toyota Tercel w/83K miles on it for $2250. He drove it home from the dealer and to work that night and on the way home the next morning he called the house w/the oil light on and the rods a'knocking! GAAAAAAAAA!

I went and picked him up, bought oil and then I drove the car the next mile over to the car repair shop that we frequent. News is that he is going to have buy another motor and have it installed! The kid can't catch a break!

Meanwhile, Hubster and I have been driving him 30 minutes over to work late at night and picking him up early in the mornings. Now that I've got the crud that the Doc says I need to stay out of the cold wet night/morning air and so Hubster has been doing it all! Poor man!

We're currently shopping for a used or rebuilt motor to put in it. Hubster is calling the place where we bought the car (as is-no warranty) to report to them what's happened. Doubt they offer to assist in any way but they do need to know what happened.

Last week we had FrugalSon's radiator repaired and today when we dropped him at work noticed the coolant leaking out so it's back at the shop this afternoon too!

When it rains it pours!

Still trying to backtrack and capture what all happened in the last couple of weeks w/CashHappySon's Car Saga - these are captured notes from an email to a friend...

a/k/a
Lux's Semi Fast Car Sales -

"Youngest child sold the 89 Mercury that the backend's about to go out on last night (2/12) - $900 cash in - paid us back for the 94 Toyota with remaining new balance due $74.72 on that one that he no longer has.

We car shopped the bottom price point on Monday (2/11) and ended up pushing two of them off the street. Uhhhm, no thanks!! On the 12th we loaned him an additional $2250 to buy a 1993 Toyota Tercel w/83K miles on it.

The Lord blessed him with two willing buyers quickly - totalled Toyota and the Merc gone!! YEAH LORD!!! We had found a salvage that will sell the buyer a rear-end for the Mercury car for $100 bucks, so if that guy can get someone to put it in for him cheap, & fix an oil leak, he'll have a good car w/low low miles (less than 28K original).

So we started the week with 2 other cars and are ending it with just one that is drivable - FOR NOW. Hope the kid is learning something because Mom is tired of car shopping & car selling!

I have officially made my last car loan to my children, unless they get married and need something to drive a baby to the doctor in they can just forgedaboudit!! But, I'm not telling them that! And even then? Probably not. I'll just send a taxi or go myself.

The Lord blessed me yesterday (2/12) as well. I have a relative, an older female who when she was in her early 60's married a 96 year old multi-millionaire. He has since passed away, and she's remarried, but evidently she spends a great deal of time clothes shopping.

We took my Dad a load of wood yesterday and I came home with the entire back end of my truck filled with those giant 31 gallon plastic storage containers full of clothes from her, about 20 of those big BIG boxes full of NEW high-end clothes. I am spending my time this morning trying on clothes. Thankfully I carry rope behind my seat! Yeah for a girl truck!!

Miraculously they are almost all fitting. With curves you usually get clothes that fit one spot but not the others. I can normally try on 50 pairs of pants and find only one that fits w/o being alterted. This morning I've already tried on about 20 pairs and all but two pairs have fit and they are too short.

There are probably 90-100 pairs of dress pants here, 20 or so pair of jeans, 4 or 5 dresses, 4 skirts, 4 coats, about 25 blazers, 20-30 sweaters, 30 or 40 blouses, 3 pant suits, plus a few casual outfits as well. What doesn't fit is going to _______ Women's Shelter. That and most of the sweaters as I'm too hot natured to wear them very often. But, I think the Lord is fixing to send me back to work somewhere full time in an office. Otherwise there is no need for me to have this much stuff!

I'm going to have to find a couple of clothes racks to buy to fit all this stuff on as my closet will not hold any of it. I do not particularly like to go clothes shopping - so it's very VERY nice. I personally think she dials QVC & Home Shopping Network a bit too often!! But I'm very grateful for all the FREE FREE FREE beautiful nice things. Seems she has good taste. Not everything is 'me' but I can put it to good use.

Thank you Jesus!! The cup - It truly does runneth over!"

------------
But WAIT there's still more on the car saga!!!! Just so you guys know - Mom tried to be the voice of reason and kept saying why don't we just fix the 89 Mercury but of course being a teen he wanted something sportier and Dad thought since he'd run the oil low on it a couple of times that he'd probably done some damage that would result in serious consequences later. I'm no car expert but I'd of fixed what we had and kept it. It did take a bit of a while for the Mercury to sell w/it's problems advertised.

Adding the quarter from earlier in the week that I drove around in the movie parking lot to stop and pickup. Money is money folks and it does add up.

$20 CHALLENGE

$008.10 balance
+000.25 quada from the lot
________
$008.35 Feb MTD

2008 Challenge Total $40.25
Cumulative Challenge Total $568.86


Last night was Valentine's dinner at the BBQ/steakhouse with our SS class - $23.98 which included the gratuity for Hubster and I to both have a very nice juicy GOOD steak and taters and pop.

A nice time visiting w/class members - I've had to miss SS class for the last three weeks because of being sick, so it was nice to get to go out, sit and visit. Hubster and kids have been attending w/o me.

I was seated at the end of the table across from two single guys - one who is going thru a divorce w/2 kids and another who is long divorced w/2 kids. I did my best to keep up the ol' conversational ball and ask them about their lives. I remember those days when I was single and going to events w/couples - it can be sucky! Hopefully they weren't too bored talking about themselves!!

After coming home and commenting here on the blogs I went to bed early to read and let dinner digest - it was just enough - not overstuffed like you sometimes get - but just right. On the reading bedside table is: "Your Money or Your Life" by Dominquez. I'm re-reading it again for about the fourth time trying to get into doing ALL THE STEPS to see what I've missed that could be helpful in the ol' monetary quest.

And, "Daring To Be Yourself" by Alexandra Stoddard which points you towards living a life of graciousness and niceities and joy and such. Noting the small things and taking pleasure in them. Nice to be reminded to take time to smell those roses and to enjoy your home and to pick a lifestyle and creating a refuge and peaceful home that is pleasing, warm and loving to you and your family & inviting and welcoming to your friends and guests!

While I was sick I re-read a bunch of my Paul E. Erdman books. If you like money and reading then I think you'd enjoy most any of his fiction books.

I'm up early by myself this morning, having coffee w/the pupster dogs and reading some and blogging here. Off to get ready for church. Still soggy and rainy here. Spent $5 this week having Miss Sweet Black Toffee's toenails clipped. CashHappySon paid $5 for Miss Carmelita Corn to get hers done. It was one of the smoother easy-going times we've had together this month!

Lunch will be Yummy Steak -a chicken fry steak meat w/brown gravy and onion soup mix cooked in the crocko'pot, baked potatoes (foil slipped tightly over the top of the crock & small tates forked and slipped on it, domed lid on tight), green salad, iced tea and cherry cake for dessert.

Hope everyone has a blessed and relaxed Sunday. Enjoy yourself and love on your peoples!!

How about you - do you re-read books?

When it asks you to do literal steps do you sometimes do like me and just skip them thinking they don't apply?

The "Your Money or Your Life" book is a good one to re-read as there is much I missed and/or forgot/forget!! Good to be reminded!

I am going to try to actually do ALL the steps they suggest.

Have you read this book and done the steps?

I'm recording here events of the last week or so for posterity & my faulty memory's sake - below are excerpts from email to a friend:


"CashHappySon sold his totalled Camry yesterday afternoon(2/7) to a salvage for $250.

It cost him 112.95 to get it released out of the wrecker place. And me four trips to the wrecker yard. First time was to take the autobody guy over and then take him back to his shop - wrecked Toyota Camry not worth fixing - something to do w/the suspension and it would never drive straight again. Besides which it was a $700 car to begin with.

Second trip was to go get car released from wrecker service after he found a buyer.

CashHappySon forgot his title papers after me telling him to pick them up, so third trip was backover to wrecker to get car released w/the papers and then later in the day a fourth trip to meet the salvage people - a forty-five minute wait. Then another trip to _______ (metro) to get a signature on some paperwork.

No fun. No fun."

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

But wait - it gets even more involved!!

More to come on that front but we pause here to add .13 to the $20 Challenge that CashHappySon gave me.

$20 CHALLENGE

$006.46 balance
+000.13 weary Mom taxi tip
_______
$006.59 Feb MTD (notice the extra zero's placeholding out front - that is my slightly prophetic notion that I'm shooting for this year - can't hit it if I don't aim for it, eh? Hope to roll it over to the thousands place though!)

2008 Challenge Total $038.49
Cumulative Challenge Total $567.10

On 7 February a friend wrote me:

"Your youngest child is even trying MY patience! Any remorse on his part? Does he expect you guys to buy him another one? Sigh"

I replied:

"trying your patience...

As he is mine!

Amen. Amen. Amen!! and the Lord knows, I don't have much to begin with!


Remorse? No. None that is discernible. On to the next thing.


Expect us to BUY him another one? Not if he has any contact with reality. We bought the other one (Toyota Camry) on the 7th of January. Loaned him $700 on it, plus the bearings went out and he had to borrow another 300 or so to fix that and get a couple of tires and get them put on. It didn't last a month, which is rather a bit longer than I had predicted it would last. Oh well, the payment $100 to Dad still has to be made today. Hard to pay for something you no longer have I would think.

I do not relish saviour mode. There is always another excuse and always ALWAYS it was the other guy's fault. Although I've told him repeatedly not to take that road but to use Hwy #** to go to and from work especially during the winter months. But what do I know? Apparently nothing.

We are meeting a friend who has an autobody shop here this afternoon (7th)at the wrecker service to see if there is any hope for the car, but I'm thinking probably not as I saw them tow it past me as I went to get him - and then it'll be him making calls to salvage yards to see who'll take it off his hands. He was surprised to be told that even though the police had the car towed he would have to pay the bill and apprx. $15 a day in storage charges.

The real world may be beginning to sink in, but it's a hard lesson to learn that life and the choices you make have a price.

No, I'm definitely not having any fun with this boychild. The other car he has, Grand Marquis, has not sold yet either. So he has two defunct vehicles and it seems he doesn't see his role in why both are trashed. DEEP SIGH!! His Dad took him to work last night 11 p.m. and I picked him up this morning at 7:00 a.m. But, geeee, it's the 'could care less' attitude that makes me want to keep him standing outside in the cold while I am slow to get out of bed and even slower on the drive over to get him. Perhaps a good 30 minute wait in the frozen morning hours would help someone see the error of his ways??? I won't do that, but it is how I feel. YUCK!

Guess who it will be that has to drive him around to shop for another clunker?? But, alas, and woe unto him, he doesn't have $$s YET, so guess who will be toting him around until he does??? It's right about 2 weeks until the next $500ish paycheck comes in. Or he could get lucky and someone buys the Grand Marquis.

I made my share of mistakes as a kid, but was much less stoic about the results and extra work I caused my family. He had an assignment to the steel plant down here about 3 miles from the house as a Security Guard, but without discussing it with either his Dad or I, he called his boss and asked to be placed back out at _______ 30 minutes from home! This was when he had the gas-guzzling Mercury on the road and costing himself about $50 a week in gas to get out there. And, we know why - at _________ he can sleep part of the night and at the steel plant he'd of had to stay awake. Gee, they actually expected him to WORK!!

The frustration level is much worse than you might imagine if you are the mother to one of this ilk!! The Coast Guard is looking better and better to have him as their charge. I've already offered to take him and drop him off. Pray for the Coast Guard, they are likely going to need it!!"

-----

Stay tuned...more to follow! GAAAA!!

Remember while all of this is happening I'm sick as sick can be, w/bronchitis, flu virus and resulting stomach upset all the resulting potty breaks and coughing my left lung up. Meanwhile I get a reaction to the medication for the bronchitis and break out in giant red welting hives ALLLLLLL over myyyyyyy boooooody!

Ohhhh. Some fun now!! huh?

Just wait - There is MORE!!

To update and log here what's been going on at the Frugalis Homestead...

On February 6th I spent my morning retrieving youngest (CashHappySon) from car wreck on the snowy icy hills nearby. He is fine and so were the other people. He was on a road I've told him repeatedly not to drive on in during inclement weather. Seems Mom does know best, however he hasn't quite got that lesson down yet.

The newest car (see above) we had just helped him buy 1/5/08ish for $700 was totalled and of course he only had liability insurance. It already had a bit of body damage to it anyway.

He wasn't issued a ticket but the police officer said the accident looked to be his fault. Following too closely, going a bit too fast for the conditions and he came upon another wreck and while trying to merge into the one lane he went sliding and hit a van w/a man, wife and small baby. Thankfully, thankfully, no one was hurt.

He had just spent $100 the day before getting the title changed over and he had yet to make the first payment to us. :{

Are we having fun yet?????

Dear Sweet Valentines,

I miss you guys when I don't get to read or post!

Sweetums, a/k/a The Hubster brought home a card & chocolates for his lovely bride - yours truly! He took me out to eat on Monday night for Valentines Day at the local steak and rib place (we used the gift card we got from my sister at Christmas) and will be taking me out again on Saturday for our Sunday School class's Valentines Banquet at another BBQ place (appx. $10 a plate), so I am being spoiled. He got chocolates and his favorite hot rolls (olive bread) cooked and a nice dinner, a card and fancy juice for supper. We are simple people with pretty simple tastes.

Cleaned out the wallet a few minutes ago and found 30 cents in there to take to the challenge.

There is lots more to post about what's been going on around the Frugalis house but I'll wait till tomorrow to fill you in on some of it. There is also more change laying around from various sources that I'll post about tomorrow.

Now I've got to go pickup FrugalSon from work and take his single pink rose bud for him to give to TheGrrl whom he works with. He took her out to eat Monday night as well and out to see 27 Dresses at the movies. He gave her a perfume vial that was in a flower type presentation form and some lotiony foo-foo stuff, a scarf, some chocolates and a card. She is being spoiled too. She gave him a big box of chocolates. Love is in the air!

Hope everyone has had a lovely day and if you are your own special someone give yourself a hug and squeeze from me! Then go do something just for you that you LOVE to do - spoil yourself!! Okay?

Happy Valentine's Day to Everyone at SavingsAdvice.com!


Luv,
LuxLivingFrugalis


$20 CHALLENGE
$006.16 balance
+000.30 wallet cleanout
_______
$006.46 Feb MTD

2008 Challenge Total $38.36
Cumulative Challenge Total $566.97

Yeah, I've been sicker than a dog. Saturday before last had to take CashHappySon to the emergency room and he had strep-throat and the flu. While sitting there with him I started coughing. Well, I was trying to take care of him and let myself pass. He got penicillin and other meds. He has no insurance so this should be interesting. I'll let you know later what the bill is. His scrips $33.85.

Later in the week I had to take myself to the doc and have chest x-rays, breathing treatment, etc., etc. Come to find out I have bronchitis with a viral component. Whatever. Sick, sick, sick and coughing my last lung up to boot. Many juices and trips to the bathroom later I am again upright. YECK!! I have insurance and they couldn't figure out a co-pay for my visit so they said they'd bill the co-pay when they figured what it was. My scrips for four of them was $20.64. Not bad.

I spent a boatload on juice, kleenex, Sprite, crackers, yogurt and other assorted necessities.

---------
Made my house payment and am updating the balance over on the left. New balance $19,391.57.

Nothing too exciting today. Just balancing accounts and doing filing and shredding! Boring but necessary.

Got the CC bill for the unexpected chainsaw purchase. Gaaa!! One expense I could have lived without. But Hubster sure looks fine in his flannel.

Received a $4 check for some books sold.

Last night was more planned and unplanned tag team preaching by Hubster and Mrs. Frugalis to CashHappySon. It was a bit more measured in tone than the previous evening.

HOWEVER,

His cell phone bill just came yesterday to the tune of "Hang On Elizabeth I'm Coming" $287.47.

Digitalis, anyone???


He can afford a $40 plan.


Prayer Meeting Results:

No Repentance. Zip. Zero. Nada.

Promise by parental units to remove cell phone from his possession for 4 months time if it is not brought back into alignment with his cash flow projections next month.

This too shall pass.

This too shall pass.

This too shall pass.

oommmmmmmmmmmmmmm.


OOOOOmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.


OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!


breathe in - breathe out...

---
In other financial news, I've got $10.40 to take to the challenge. Ten being what I've taken out of my allowance to put away instead of spend and .40 was given to me by Hubster for the challenge.

$20 CHALLENGE

$0017.47 balance
+0010.40 Retirement cost proj. scares the beegeebers out of me!
________
$0027.87 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total
Cumulative Challenge Total $556.48

----
Yesterday was a spending day.

Frugalson's girlfriends' parents are both sick and she doesn't drive so I picked her up and drove her to work. I made arrangements to pick her up early and we stopped at Sonic and got a couple of things to sip ($3.87 + tip) and chatted. She has the idea that they are dating exclusively and he has other ideas. He doesn't have any one else in mind right now just wanting to keep his options open.

I tried to gently reinforce this to her (I call her TheGrrl) as he has done himself. No, I'm not THAT BAD - she's the one who broached the subject. They are both still free agents. SO FAR, I really like this little girl but don't want her to become a cling-on, unless, that's what FrugalSon wants her to do.

He thinks she MAY be 'the one', but who knows. IF she wants to pump me for information or side with me against him it will be no go - she'll be on my extremely short list to hit the road! She tried it once when they first started dating and I told her he was my priority and that I wasn't going to play that game with her. I am trying to get to know her better as she may be my future d-i-love. All I know is her biological clock is ticking like crazy!!

TheGrrl and I then went to the grocery to pick up worcestershire that I forgot and a few bottles of pop. Then I dropped her at work.

TheGrrl works at the same place FrugalSon works and has managed to get her schedule switched so they are both working pretty much the same shifts.

TheGrrl was on days and him on nights so it really limited their time together. They were crossing paths for about an hour a day in the middle and had one day a week to actually go out or be together. Proximity may do them in or bring them closer. We shall see.

FrugalSon is a MODEL HANDSOME, 21 and has some limitations, so it is still somewhat questionable as to how his fates shall work out. Pray for him. He still doesn't drive either. She's 23 and doesn't drive, so pull for them to get their licenses. Parrallel parking is holding them both back. Anyway, they have a date set for her to go to church with us this coming Sunday.

We are currently investigating him paying for driving school hours to get that parrallel parking demon beat. I can't seem to teach him sufficiently.

On buying pop - CashHappysSon had bought two cases of a lemon/lime drink that he doesn't like. He donated it to the household. I can drink it IF I cut it w/real Sprite, so I bought 3 bottles of it on sale at 78 cents. Will buy more later to balance this out.

So HALLELLUJAH I got in and out of the grocery for under $5. I paid for this grocery run out of my budget since I'm the goof-ball who forgot these things when the HouseBudget was paying and I HATE making two trips. Trying to penalize myself in order to learn to GET IT ALL the first time!

Okay, I must admit I turned into a raving lunatic last night as CashHappySon did it again with the poor attitude, smart mouth and inability to follow directions (read that DIRECT IN-YO-FACE disobedience). Gaaa!!!

This was after I had just laid down my CC to the tune of $220ish dollars to have his car repaired because he's blown all his money. Only to come home and find that he has now targeted something else minor that just NEEDS to be fixed. (No, it's a clunker, I'm not paying to fix all this crap!!!)

I had a blow out pure old no bones about it CONNIPTION-FIT! Offered to leave the premises and let them all have it plain and simple and I would not stand in their way. (uh, I don't normally do that - Hubster and I almost NEVER fight.)

We spent quite a bit of time with him last night and Hubster says we're having another family meeting over it tonight. The boy is a brick wall and I'm a brick wall, and poor Hubster has to find a way to coalesce us into a functioning unit! Good luck to him.

Meanwhile back at the ranch somebody left the waitress a tip at the ol' Frugalis Bean Counter last night.

Taking it to the challenge!

$20 CHALLENGE

$017.15 balance
+000.32 tip because evidently I'm a real beaut while I waitress, sling hash & rage against disrespectful & ungrateful children at the same time*!
_______
$017.47 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $17.47
Cumulative Challenge Total $546.08

*I do feel bad about raging, but sometimes people push you to the brink and it's time to push back!! But even so, I'm still a tiny bit flirty, ya know?

Thar's Gold On That There Asphalt!!

Well, maybe not gold, not in this instance anyway.

Yesterday afternoon both sons were off work and we tried to get ahold of their girlfriends last minute to go to the movies with us. Alas, the poor girlies missed out on a last minute date! We went to see Will Smith's "I Am Legend".

It was really good, but I had no idea it was a scary movie or I wouldn't have gone. I CUSSED out loud four different times in the movie when something jumped at me. I thought the old ticker was going to go at any minute.

I think I actually strained my shoulder by grabbing onto each boys shoulders as I sat in the middle.

Ohhh, and yeah, I did pick my feet up off the floor. You never know what scary thing is down there!! Wooooo.

After the movie we had to hurry home - IT WAS GETTING DARK!!! I saw a bit of shiny-shiny on the ground by the truck. So, looking carefully around to be sure no boogies were going to get me I grabbed that puppy up - it was a dime.

So, as you all know I've been collecting money WHERE-EVER I can find it since my Grampa H. taught me when I was knee-high to the proverbial grasshopper - We now can ascertain that I'm willing to risk being bit by the Boogie-Men to pick up a dime!

Man, was I glad to get home safe!

**I don't DO scary movies people and this here just proved my point. Of course both word police sons' first words out of their mouths when we got home was to tell Hubster "Dad, Mom cussed during the movie - FOUR TIMES!!!"

hahahhahaaaaaaaaa!

Hilarious.

I said it loud too where everyone could hear me*!! "OHHHHHHHH Shoot!" Or something like that!

*I'm kind of public safety minded that way - I was giving warning to the other citizens of the theatre to let's get the heck out'a here!!!

Anyway, I'm taking my dime**to the challenge.

$20 CHALLENGE
$015.32 balance
+000.10 The Risk Queen Salvaged
_______
$015.42 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $15.42
Cumulative Challenge Total $544.03


**Effectively bringing down the cost of going to the movie by 10 cents. Matinee costs yesterday were $5.00 - I bought for myself and CashHappySon, so only $4.90 for me this time. FrugalSon paid his own way. We also got the DREADED fast food yesterday - but with FrugalSon's employee discount it was only $3.27 for all three of us to each have a burger & fries, w/water to drink from home!


Soooo, check that asphalt people. There's gold and silver and folding money to be found out there! But, do watch for the night boogies. And light up the dark!!

You can read the book it is based on here:

http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Legend-Richard-Matheson/dp/076531...

Or light up your dark-night here:
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Bob-Marley/dp/079359412X/ref=sr_1...

How about you - do you nightmare from scary movies? I don't, but I don't like them.

Do you pick up money when you find it on the ground?