Dear You:

Hubster got a nice little profit sharing check this week of $431.00 and some odd change.

Of course you know what I want to do with it? Of course you do my lil Pupcake...put it into our retirement monies, but he wants to have some money to spend.

"Well, you earned it. It's all yours honey, spend it if you want."

I understand. He does get tired of me always wanting to put back for that proverbial rainy day and we do usually keep our blow money to a strict minimum.

So, the final decision that he came up with? He's going to cash it and give me half and him take half. He wants me to spend mine, too.

Soooo, what to do w/my $215+?????

Likely I'll BUY a couple of savings bonds or some stock or put it towards one of my drips w/$200 of it. And blow the $15 and change on ING savings or whoever's running the nicest rate at the moment. How does that sound???? At those online banks I have subaccounts called CD Savings Escrow. When it gets up to the $500-1000 level and rates are good, I pop off and invest it in a certificate of deposit (old school) and start over saving in it again.

Old dog, same OLD tricks, w/a different twist to make it more palatable for those who like to gnaw their entire bone away on the same day. See me??? - I can do that too, but have a little bone left to gnaw later as well. Dig a little hole here and there, stick in my bones and cover them up for later!!



It's all good! Some things never change.

YEAH Profit Sharing!! YEAH Hubster!

Love,
Lux

~~~
P.S. Yesterday was a No Spend Day!!

Re-deposited $7.28 from CashHappySon reimbursing me for something he bought off of ebay.

Balanced checkbooks yesterday.

~~~
P.P.S. Funny - Hubster & I - our Chinese Horoscope Symbols? Both dogs.

quote from a website talking about the Chinese Dog Symbol:

"They generally have hidden savings accounts for future family endeavors such as family vacations and college tuitions."

Not to worry, I know where he keeps his socks of money buried!!

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. 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

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!!!!

Last night we went to Hubster's sisters house and met with 3 of the 4 siblings to hand out their inheritance checks.

Finally.

Hubster is meeting with the other brother today to give him his inheritance check and take him to the bank so he can cash it and pay us the $2900 he owes us for our old car.

They had to sign receipts for their checks. Funny thing was that they did not have to be notarized receipts. What would stop someone from forging them?????? Only integrity it seems.

Hubster goes this week w/the attorney to the courthouse w/those receipts in hand to get the estate finalized and then he will close out the estate accounts and we will get our $**,***.** money back that we loaned the estate, plus his inheritance amount $*,***.**. The expense money goes back into our MM account until we decide where to invest it. As far as I can recall we haven't discussed what he's going to do with his inheritance check, but most likely will put it into his retirement account.

By rights I think that the old car money from his brother should go into another CD to help with future car replacement funds.

He also has another account that was him & his Dad's checking account while Pops was alive that many of the bills were auto-drafted out of while the house was up for sale.

That's two checking accounts that can be closed. Two less accounts to be balanced each month! YES!!

There will be a final attorney bill and the sibs were told to save back a couple of hundred dollars each towards paying their 1/5th of the bill.

We've yet to set a date for them to divide up pictures, coin collection, and jewelry. We tried last night but no one would commit. So, for now then it will have to wait until we return from our family vacation.

They were also told if they want to buy something from among the coins or jewelry then we'd do it similar to how we did the family auction on the furniture. They can bid, then pay cash to the family kitty and then after all is sold either to them or to someone else via ebay or dealers, then we'll divide that kitty into 1/5s and send out another check.

Last night we discussed having any photos that more than one person wanted scanned and duplicate disks handed out. Hubster & I are going to 'gift' that duty to one of the other sibs!!

After that we still have a 1/2 of a bedroom that is STILL (2 1/2 YEARS LATER) stacked w/FIL's packratted papers to go thru AGAIN! Most of it can be tossed. Some shredded. Little will be saved. The first time through them everyone was too raw to be able to throw them away. I already spent a couple of FULL days shredding lots of things when my FIL moved in with us. I swear my papershredder was smoking at one point!

Anybody have any idea how long to keep the estate accounting records around?

Dear sweet Pops died in 2005. I miss him. He was a loving husband, hard-working, sweet-hearted, family tending man.

I'm over here today making myself some maps! Financial maps of a sort.

With today's ability to link accounts at various financial organizations I thought it was about time I mapped out where all the tie-ins were on the old push/pull of EFTs (electronic fund transfers).

For me it's important to do this and keep it for my own information as well as Hubsters or anyone who survives me to find out where all my little stashes are! I'm notorious for stashing money! A bit here and a bit there. None of my eggs are in one pot it seems.

Besides, there are so many nice enticing bonus savings & CC offers out there for those who can roust up enough change to participate. However it can leave money scattered all around the globe. NICE! IF you can remember where it's all at! Not so nice if you lose track of it.

I need someway to get a visual on it! I try not to be a total rate 'ho and chase rates daily, but I do join in the merry-making from time to time. Can't you just see some accountant going ditzy and cracking his/her mental health over the state of some folks books on their money making efforts from running after all these cool rate offers???

So, how to do it? I just drew a circle with the primary account holder in the center of a piece of paper and drew lines out to various checking, savings and investment accounts. Those that have a push/pull get a double ended arrow connecting them. I'm planning on keeping them with my Emergency Control Journal. Those of you familiar w/Flylady will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, it is something that I will have to keep updating.

Mine is a bit more complicated than some as I'm on all my kids (5) accounts as well as joint owner. So there are accounts spread everywhere and yon w/my name connecting them. And some we do transfer to/from in our own personal family bank kind of system. Example: CashHappySon wants to buy something off ebay and he doesn't have an account. I'll go in on my ebay account and bid/win/buy for him and then we'll just go online to our bank and transfer the money from his account to mine. Or FrugalSon has autodrafted the car insurance for both of them off his account. CashHappy has an automated draft covering his portion transferred monthly to FrugalSon. Saves a lot of check writing!

Plus for the moment we still have two open accounts for FIL's estate.

Anyway, it can get confusing if you've a bunch of accounts. Time to make the maps. One for each person in the house as to their own accounts.

How about you? Is it time for you to make a map/s? Or, do you have a better method? I'd love to hear about it!

Our stimulus dollars arrived today in the checking account. It was under the $1200 by a few dollars. Not sure why that is exactly. Anybody have a clue?

Hubster and I just had our 'state of the nation' talk. He's to get back to me exactly what we're going to do in the next couple of days. We are at an advantage in that we have his inheritance money coming to us fairly soon. Final hearing scheduled sometime mid-June. We have several projects around the house that need doing and we're not sure exactly what order we are going to do them:

1)Replace bathtub (cracked) and then tile the bathroom floor. It will leave a new footprint and the carpet in there is already shot, so these need doing. Even if we stay in the house it can only get worse. If we were to sell, still has to be done. It's a patch job for now, there is some kind of water-proof tape on it at the moment. If you read about Bubba (FrugalSon's) excessive use of TP and the resulting overflows you can see we really need tile in this area instead of just floorboards that are carpeted!

2)There is a pipe in the basement starting to look pretty iffy. It has to be replaced before we have a very wet 'boo-boo'.

The plumbing portions of #1 & #2 can be combined in one visit from a plumber who's a close friend of the family for some savings. I can tile the bathroom myself, except for the fancy cuts, which a niece & nephew will help me with.

3)The air return vent for our heat/cooling system is not large enough and keeps causing the switch to go out as it has to switch on and off too often somehow. This spot needs to be enlarged. Apprx. $500.

4)Our heat and cooling system in now 9 years old. It was the cheapest model the seller could throw in here in order to get us to buy the house. It will likely need replacing sometime in the near future.

I personally vote to put stimulus payment in the IRAs and let the inheritance money cover some of these expenses. We shall see. For today, I'm moving it out of checking into hard labor over at one of the online banks. Now, gotta go check who's paying what interest today!

I am grateful to have this stimulus money returned to us. Because, obviously we're in need of it!

Pic: Annie Taylor, (Queen of the Mist) who, in 1901, became the first person to plunge over the brink of Niagara Falls in a barrel.




Come along Lil'HippyChillen' and sing along with me...




I've been bemoaning the price of my water bill on here lately. This morning on a whim - since it's raining here today - I put out an old trashbarrel under the inside L corner of my roof, where two ridgelines meet, to fill w/rainwater. I'm planning to use it to water the banana trees and tomato plants later this week when the sun comes back out. Don't try this at home if you've got small children about. If you've got kiddos you need a closed system that one couldn't fall into!

Then serendipity led me to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwe_pVOYOrY&feature=dir

Holy Toledo, this place says there are beacou gallons to be had? WOW!

http://www.rainbarrelguide.com/

So, if you are feeling greenly conservation minded you might want to do something similar. As a teen I was constantly washing my hair w/rainwater, but that was back before acid rain and such. Oh, we probably had it, we just didn't know it!

I did speak to Hubster this week about perhaps installing a graywater system of some kind, and he said he thought we could hook one up pretty easily, so we'll see. Doubtful we'll go this far! I was just thinking of hooking off of the bathroom sink or something. I'm not this much of a gardener!


http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/wa...

This reminded me of my time in Honduras. Many people live w/cisterns year round as their main source of water.

And once I started thinking of this and googling around for pics I found this link that many of you may enjoy sloshing around in:


http://blog.makezine.com/archive/diy_projects/122.html


and this should have a special appeal for a certain someone who opposes composting toilets!


http://www.reuk.co.uk/Rainwater-Toilet-Flush-System.htm


Well, of course I have to categorize this post as INFLOW!

The Hubster got a $1400 a year raise the other day! WOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!! Now that is probably not much to many of you, but it is to us. It was included in his last check and after taxes and more going into the 401-K he'll come home w/an extra $70.00 or so a month.

Inch by Inch - They are finally catching on that he's vastly underpaid for what he does for them!

I am so tickled for him!

Especially in light of today's shrinking economy!!! TA-DA~!!!!!!!!!!

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.

Yesterday I went to my* college reunion and made a haul!

I won three of the door prizes, and came home with a bunch of radishes from my friends garden! Well, well, Well!! hehe!! SCORE! I won a baseball cap with the school logo on it, a college T-shirt and a very VERY nice 8.0 pixel, 10x zoom, Canon PowerShot SX100 IS Digital Camera w/a super little LowePro carrying bag for it.

I was invited to this 'doings, by an old friend who actually graduated from there.

*I was a commuter student there and only attended 4 classes there while doing the majority of my schooling in my nearby metro area. My old friend called me up about three months ago and asked if I minded if he put me up for the Hall of Fame nominations. Now, I've done a few things in my life, some that were noteworthy, yet no total body of lifetime achievement that I would consider Hall of Fame worthy, but after reminding him of my commuter student status and my lack of achievements, I said, "Sure, why not, and thank you for thinking of me."

(Note: Surprise!!! (NOT - just kidding) I did not make the final cut!)

Anyway, Hubster and I went and had a very enjoyable day as his guests. We picked up my friend and his other friend and the four of us made a day trip of it.

The day started off early w/a little shopping trip at a store I often frequent near there - Hubster bought me a $2.42 wreath hanger to replace one I misplaced while dressing FIL's house, and Housebudget bought a small gift for my niece's upcoming birthday for under $5.

At the reception they had a wide cookie selection, cheese and crackers, bottled waters, and coffee at about 10:45.

We mingled. We met. We explained that we weren't the real deal 'Alumni', but mainly there as guests of my friend.

We toured. A highschool girlfriend's of mine family had donated a very large sum of money and had very lovely dorm built there. Very much like a resort, swimming pool, club house, laundry room, etc. The kids do still have to buddy up. Four to a unit. Four bedrooms w/locks, 2 showers, 2 stools, 4 sinks. Each bedroom had space for their own mini-frig & microwave. Fullsize bed, desk, dresser, nightstand, all provided. Very nice. Each 4 student unit has a shared common dining space & living room.

The campus is small, but the facilities are very well-kept. In the library they had set up very large display cases with memorabilia and had a nice slide show presentation and yearbooks & scrapbooks out on the tables. Librarians standing by to make copies.

The Alumni President made a bee-line for me as I was considerably younger than most of the attendees. (Delightful to be called a youngster again, even if I am a Gran and nearer to midlife than most!)

He wanted to enlist me on the Alumni committee. I somehow managed to escape him. Hubster did not want me to participate because of the commute involved. For me it would be an hour and a half drive even if I was interested, which I was decidely not. However, it wouldn't look bad on a resume!

Lunch was in the cafeteria with sandwiches, chips and a beautiful spread of fruit and dipping sauces, and a nice veggie & dip selection. It was very enjoyable watching the 2 Hall of Fame inductees' PowerPoint presentations and hearing their life tales. My older friend hid behind me and took a snooze as it did run on a bit!

But hey, people only generally get these ops once or twice in a lifetime so it was interesting to me to watch their enjoyment of their special day and hear their life stories.

Later we toured vendors booths and participated in a few more door prize drawings. Hubster bought me a $2 bag of Kettle Corn.

Afterwards we attended a very nice catered dinner and live music presentation, ending the evening early about 7:00 p.m. while the band played on as we had to make tracks to our part of the state to pick up FrugalSon. While dropping my old friend and my now new friend that came with, they gave us the radishes. I just washed & trimmed them up this morning and will use part of them in today's lunch salad.

All in all an enjoyable time spent on a day with lovely weather! Of note to SavingAdvice.com bloggers, I personally had a No Spend Day!!! Hubster bought gas and paid tolls out of Housebudget.

I tried to pay friend for our tickets but he wouldn't hear of it. I will be buying him a restaraunt gift certificate and mailing it to him w/a nice thank you card as well as one to the Alumni Foundation Reunion staff for the doorprizes.

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.

I just added the last of my 2007 contributions to my Roth! Yeah ME!!! Phew. Two whole weeks to spare! hahaha I used my money from Ameritrade and the bonus from Suze Orman's promotion. That and the interest it earned made me able to slide the last little bit in there.

I'm already into my 2008 contributions as the Household Budget contributes $100 a month, and I've been contributing $101 on autodraft since the beginning of the year. Though I'll have to come up w/considerable difference to max it out in 2008. Most of this difference will be from selling junque & the $20 Challenge.

Went this afternoon and had the AARP folks do our taxes again for FREE. Yeah AARP! We have a very small refund from state and Fed both. Very closely figured - under $200 back on both. So, that's good. We didn't loan Uncle Sammie too much, and yet we don't owe him any either. E-filed, so shortly to have a bit back and we'll probably split the little bit into our Roths.

Today the house budget bought Hubster some floral arrangments for his parents' graves. He waited too long last year and couldn't find any the day he wanted to go out to the cemetery. Another thing off the to-do list.

Yesterday I took FrugalSon and the TheGrrl and we went to see 10,000 B.C. at the matinee. So yesterday I spent $2.50 from my Entertainment Fund. She came back to the house and we made goulash, salad, corn, hot rolls and apple pie for supper.

Before picking up TheGrrl FrugalSon and I went grocery shopping with a list and menu in hand. I bought for three weeks worth of meals and a months worth of snacks. I'm trying to stretch out my buying time to see if I can make it to finally doing 1 month grocery shopping trips. If I get lucky I'll be able to stretch what I've got here with what I purchased and make it w/o another grocery shop this month. Will have to go to the bread store though later in the month.

Housebudget spent on groceries $138.75. Housebudget spent on snacks $21.00 (this also included some meat as they carry Owens brand frozen there and two cases of corn at the scratch n'dent store.) The main grocery shop was at Save-A-Lot.

I watched and their register showed that something like $124 worth of my purchases would have qualified to be purchased with food stamps. I had never realized their registers showed such information before. So basically everything but tax?? I'm too pooped right now to figure it out or dig out the receipt to look.

I went long on flour, corn, beans and rice this trip. This is part of my keeping a years supply of groceries on hand most of the time. I bought two cases each of canned corn and northern beans. About three big bags of flour and 10 lbs. of rice. The prices of grains are predicted to be heading up, Up, UP.

I need a case of Milnot or equivalent brand, but will have to wait till next big shopping trip. I was shooting to only spend $140 at the grocery, so I came pretty darn close. I just bought a couple of cans of Milnot instead of a case. It's figuring that running tax that gets me every time. I got everything on my list except raw popcorn. Not microwave. Can't get just regular popcorn at Save-A-Lot here for some reason. I ask every time I go for the girls to put it on their buyer's list. Can ya'll get it at your Save-A-Lots???

Today I personally have had a no-spend day.

Tonight's menu - Steak Fajitas, Refried Beans, Spanish Rice, Fruit Cocktail, Iced Tea. A little pricier than I like to do at home usually, but it was at FrugalSon's request and he doesn't get to eat at home most nights as he's at work, so...for him (and his grocery hauling muscles) I'm doing it.

----
edited to update the mortgage balance over on the left:

New Balance $18,757.98
Actual remaining time frame 5 yrs. 4 mths.
If we continue making the extra $71.04 principal payment that we've been doing our house will be paid off in July 2012.

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???

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.

Making addition to the $20 Challenge:

$002.35 balance
+00