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Of financial note: Speaking of OLD & NEW...maybe it's just me but is everything blurry & quiet in here?? The Hubster and I signed up for his HSA this year. Hope he gets his official paperwork soon as I see an eye exam and a hearing test in my future.

At church last Sunday I couldn't see one of my favorite little girls' face while she was in the baptistry waters! Granted, I sit in the balcony, way at the back but still....

Ughhhh!! I think it is a bigger issue than just being at a distance...like maybe I'm turning into an old fossil??

AND,

I couldn't hear the people at the other end of the table in my Sunday School class. Granted, it's a big class, but, still, I like to participate. Need to be able to hear to do that!! Maybe I'm just full of funky earwax?? Hear's hoping that's all that is!

Hopefully the little bit we put towards the HSA will cover both those expenses. We are newbies at this HSA thingy, so we didn't plop a lot of money towards it. 2008 is our test launch year and I think he either put $400 or $500 on it, either of which should be easily hit.

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Cleaned the desk off yesterday while preparing for FrugalSon's date. My desk is in the living room, so um, yeah, it had to have a clean sweep! Found a dime and someone had left 35 cents on the lazy susan in the dining room. The waitress (dear Ol' Mom) claimed it.

FrugalSon's 'The Girl' came over bearing a chocolate cake last night and we had Domino's pizza (yes, w/a coupon) and watched Godzilla -the relatively?? new one.

Wooohoooo Party!!

Huuuu!! I fell asleep during the first part but was enough of a party animal to be awake from about 11 on til about 1 a.m. Big time fun. Well, for us anyway.


2008 $20 CHALLENGE

$000.00 balance
+000.45 desk cleanup & waitress tip
_______
$000.45 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $000.45
Cumulative Challenge Total $402.95

Anyway, I pray that everyone of us here at SavingAdvice.com will prosper during the coming new year!! Let the clock start ticking!! I'm off to make my mortgage payment.

OhJoyyyyyyyAndHappiness!

Is that my Sciatic Nerve Acting Up? NO!! It's a genuine pain in the posterior!

Okay, the Hubster's 40 Year Service Award is going to be paid out in the form of being added to supposedly his next paycheck, which means it will be frigging taxed & won't be issued until after the first of the year, so it will be an entire year before any of that tax bite can be recaptured.

Can you tell I'm slightly ticked off????

Arrrghhhhhh!!!


In an attempt to soften and at least slightly counteract the blow I went in and upped the 401-K deductions only to be told that it won't go into affect until AFTER that check is cut!!

Pain in the right and left buttocks**!!

Like I said before it would certainly be nice if the employees had a little notice that the company was going to do these bonuses and awards in the fashion that they do, so we can counter-attack the tax burden.

Guess why? They don't do matching or take any 401-K contributions out of bonuses or awards. Isn't that just fine?


NO, not in my book.

Does anyone have a solution, methodology or a way around this?? Maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong, but it chaps my hide and yes, I do think it a royal pain in the posterior.


I hope I'm wrong and it comes in a complete untaxed form.

Yes, we could go ahead and take some of our own money and go buy the television NOW that he's wanting but it's doubtful that we will. I didn't particularly want a new TV, but he does, and it gripes me that they COULD HAVE done better by him than they have.

Okay, so I'll let you know how much actually shows up later, should be in his hot little hands when he returns to work from vacation time off on Wednesday.

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Of other financial interest, I managed to scrape up an additional $999 to go into my Roth from various savings. I'm going to add my own little $1 from the current budget to get it to that magical $1000 mark. That still leaves me slightly short some on the 2007 done by midnight on the 31st, however, perhaps I will be able to make the deadline by April. GEEEEEE, WHINE, WHINE, WHINE, I so wanted to be done by the end of the literal year.

POUT!!

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Yesterday was a NO SPEND DAY!!! YEAH!!

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Today was a spender. Everyone here but the Hubster has the croup and the boys have been hitting the cough syrup supply quite heavily. So, after church we stopped for cold supplies. Tried to buy day time cold meds, night time cold meds, tissues and regular cough syrup.

Because some people in my state like to cook up funkydunkydrugs from the stuff I had to give the cashier my date of birth and was only allowed to buy two of the cold meds on one ticket. The third one I had to buy on a separate ticket.

How, may I ask you Dear Reader, did that keep in bounds with the law? Yeah, it did with the letter of the law?? but still. It's a law with good intentions, but silly if the cashier is just going to let you buy the stuff on two tickets. WEIRD.

Not sure how I'd of liked it handled, because with three croupy people I needed the goods, but come on!!! Either stick with the law or don't bother.

Geeee, it is a strange world anymore where you almost need an act of Congress to buy cough medication!


**For more classy information on buttocks check out Wikipedia for Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Kallipygos

Oh the things we can learn these days. I had seen the statue, but never heard the story about the farmer with two daughters possibly originating with Venus????

I live, I learn, I educate my faithful readers.

We all are now further classically educated, yes?? Additional small talk fodder for the New Year's Eve parties to come!

"If you haven't got all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have, that you don't want." ~~unknown



I received a $50 gift card for J.C. Penney's for Christmas again this year. Thank You, Momma!!!!

I was wanting to use it to buy new towels for my redecorated bathroom (it's all Chinese Plum Blossom Red w/Black accents now (very exotic looking and I love it - see I was busy while I was off the blog). We are not going to talk about how much I spent for the black leather shower curtain!!! However, I had just recently within the past year and a half bought new yellow towels. They look 'okay' in the bathroom, but black towels would be mucho mucho better.

So, Penney's was running a sale on their towels yesterday and I went but alas the only black ones they had in stock were of inferior quality and so I passed. Will find dollars later to buy the kind I want. Does Cannon still make towels? I dunno, but theirs are the only ones I know of that last, and last, and LAST!!

Hubster asked that I buy myself new nighties for Christmas. I believe I know the one he BADLY wanted replaced - it's from one of our trips to Florida about 10 years ago, I paid $7 for it at a roadside stand, and is on it's very last leg, but OOOOOOHHHHHHH so comfy. I'm saving it for a pattern.

I've been shopping around all Christmas time to find myself new nighties but alas all the stores seemed to have are flannel and fleece and I'm a hot sleeper and I need SEXY, sleeveless and thin, not GRANNY GRUNT nighties!! I have not been married 25 years by accident you know!!

Anyway, I was cruising around Penney's and there was nothing that I wanted!!!

Isn't that FANTASTIC??????????????

I think so.

Oh how your tastes change as you age. I don't really NEED anything! It's a good place to be mentally friends.

So, I did finally remember about the nightie request & found Penney's had a few that fit my (Hubster's) NEEDS for me to have new nighties. Got three of them, black, red, blue. They were all 60% off and came in just under $50 by 11 cents. So, Penney's it is doubtful I'll be back until next year & then only if Mom gets me another gift card, so I've just increased your bottom line by 11 cents.

And now Hubster is EVEN HAPPIER coming to bed!! (as if that's even possible???)

Goodbye old nightie, OH how I loved you!!! We made some FAN-TASTIC-MOR-GASMIC memories together - but I love Hubster & gift cards more.

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$20 CHALLENGE

$23.28 balance
+00.03 from FrugalSon
______
$23.31 Dec MTD

2007 Challenge $402.23
Cumulative Challenge Total $528.34

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Yesterday was another NO SPEND DAY!!! ...if you don't count the $50 gift card, which I don't as it didn't come out of my pocket.

Yesterday my niece called and wanted to borrow my truck to go buy some wood and haul it to my sister's house as she burns wood for heating her house. Sister is a single gal. My niece and nephew-in-law take good care of her. Anyway Sister has lots of wood already, it's just all dry wood and she needs green wood in order to keep the fire burning all thru the nighttimes.

Anyway, I told niece sure, come and borrow the truck, but don't buy green wood as there is a potful here. Probably five or six pickup truck loads full when all of the trees are cut up that fell during the last ice storm.

So, nephew-I-L came out w/his chainsaw, cut up a bunch of wood along w/Frugalson and CashHappyson filling up the truck. CashHappyson had also recently bought himself a used chainsaw during his recent spending spree, so we had two saws going. It was icy and wet w/blowing snow. Niece who is getting over a long streak of bronchitis and I stayed inside and made a pot of potato soup and kept trucking out the hot java.

We had a nice lunch after they were finished of potato soup and sandwiches and it was nice to get some of these downed limbs gone w/o the expense of having someone come in to do it and know that Sister got herself some wood. Love it when it all works out nice and neatly. I will be picking up my truck this evening and driving it home after the family Christmas celebration that we're attending at my other nephew's house.

A good deal all around. Except for the fact that I loved my trees and many were badly torn up during the storms. Gaa!

We probably have 200 to 250 trees on our little 2 1/2 acres. We probably lost 25-35 of them completely and many, many more were very badly damaged. Some of my trees are of the 200-300 year old bracket. It is horribly sad to see them so badly hurt by the storms. I'm not quite sure how we are going to be able to afford to trim them properly, and may just have to leave them w/some dangling limbs for awhile.

The sliding glass door was completely blocked by branches after the storm.

I only lost one small pane of glass that was cracked in the sunroom by a falling branch. It'll cost less than $10 to replace it, so I don't believe we'll be making any insurance claims. I'm going to get out my policy and read it though about the tree clean up, there may be some coverage there.

We do not own a chainsaw. Yeah, I know, goofy after you consider how many trees I have. After the storms we've talked about buying one but haven't done so yet. There aren't many in the stores around here anyway as they were cleared out immediately after the recent ice-storms. Wouldn't have done us any good yet anyway as Hubster has been on 12 hour days, and even working Sundays. Something he's never had to do since we've been married. This little bit of woodcutting has already been a big help in getting to at least the front & one side-yard.

Update: Hubster has still gotten No Comfirmation of what they'll be doing for his 40 year service award.

WELL, SPIT SPIT SPIT!! Looks like it may be time to start polishing up the ol'boohoodie kicking booties.

Okay I keep forgetting to post about this, as it happened before I got back to posting regularly. The Hubster got a rather smallish bonus this year, and about 1/3 of it got eaten up in taxes which I think is a real rip! Slightly bigger than last years but still rather small for the work he does. Twould've been nice if the company would have allowed us notice and we could of upped our 401-K contribution w/it on that check and kept most all of it! PHHHPPPFFFT!

Anyway, it's sitting nice and snugly over in the Money Market account until I can convince him to let me put it in his IRA. I'm working on him! These seem to be no-brainers for me, but he has to ponder on these things for awhile.

Also in a similar vein in addition because he has been at his company 40 years (it will REALLY be 41 come Jan 2) he is supposed to be given his 40 year award today at work. Someone on the awards committee let it slip about two weeks ago that his award was to amount to a $1500 budget that he can spend on a few certain things.

Only problem is he doesn't want any of those things as they are rather on the chintzy side. There is a kayak, some golf clubs, some SMALL tvs, a watch, etc. Nothing that he wants. He doesn't golf or kayak, they gave us a 36 inch TV for his 35th year, he has an old timex that he's had longer than me (we just earlier this month celebrated our 25th anniversary). Oh yeah, he could get a lingerie chest. Un-huh, like that's gonna happen! NOT!! Lordeee, they gave him a thousand dollar diamond ring for his 25th award, you think a kayak is gonna do the trick for 40??? Nahhhh.

What he wants is a 47 inch flat panel TV and with the budget amount he could go out and buy what he wants and we could pay the taxes. Catch the right sale and we wouldn't have to add anything to it.

We shall see. He is 'negotiating' with them to either give him a Walmart gift card for that amount or let him use their work Dell account to get one. Either way works, but we could use our own money and buy one wherever he wants to buy it were we to be given the Walmart card then we could use it for groceries thru the year.

They are balking. Gee, just how many 40 year employees do you have? Oh, that's right only 2. The other guy got his airfare paid for on his vacation and now they don't want to accomodate Hubster?

Sucks eggs, folks.

Forty years, that's longer than some folks live!!

I don't want to seem ungrateful, but you've got the budget already laid out, let the guy do with it what he wants for pity sake!

More to follow as we find out what happens. He was miffed with them when he left for work this morning. Had his company shirt on, but the old colors jacket on from back in the early days. If they didn't say anything about his award before the ceremony he was going ol'school, if they came thru, he'd go w/the new logo and stuff.

Funny thing I dreamed his old boss was still there a few nights ago and that he gave him a formula type race car to drive people back and forth between the two plants (driving - he doesn't do that for his living - weird dream). I told him upon awakening, if ***** was still there he'd of given you a car to drive! Ha! That may've set him off!! Poor guy.

I just talked to him on the phone a second ago and so far nothing. He wore the old school jacket (a mild mannered man makes his small protest) throughout the big presentation. This is a super nice man I'm married to, and he's very grateful that they want to give him something, but let us not forget people he is a Virgo.

Very, very picky.

He flat out doesn't want any 'corporate awards nicey-nice gift' that supposedly retails at $xxxx but we could pick up here for a third of what they are saying it's worth. He doesn't want something that will do him no earthly good.

The man wants to choose.

They said you can pick anything you want from the catalog. Okay, where's the FREEEEKIN' catalog?? Oh, that's what you call the two pages you handed him?

Baaahhhhhhh!

He said he'd rather get nothing than to have to pick something from their two measley pages. And I quote, "They can keep their trash." No, I'm not talking a nice guy folks, I mean think of the VERY NICEST MAN you know and triple it. He is calm, cool, collected and very very mild mannered and SUPER-SWEET. (let us not forget tall, good-looking and sexy as all get out as well! )


What we have here is a...

SUPER-DUPER NICE man.



He was insulted.

Sorry, corporate, but it looks like an old Fingerhut ad. Anybody besides me remember these folks? The vacumn you can buy local for $79.00 is $379.99 and they'll finance it for you for ten years. Yeah, that's what their catalog looks like.

When I called, he said they were giving out gifts right now and that people who'd been there six months were getting some very nice prizes and he popped off to his boss, "They're giving HER that??? I guess I'll turn in my early retirement papers on Wednesday."

"She" being the receptionist that literally LAYS ON THE DESK got a DVD/VCR combo player/recorder doohicky. I know this laying on the desk thing to be true as I've witnessed it myself! When she's not laying on the desk she's texting on her phone. Receiving customers and visitors, although that is her job description, she does not do!

EGADS People!!! Fire her sorry bum!!

He said his boss just went buggy-eyed on him when he mentioned an Early Out and went into conference w/the CEO. There is no one there qualified or even capable of doing his job - it's a custom shop and he's got 40 years of experience of WHY they do things like they do. He's been telling them they need to get someone in there under him because it's going to take a good three to five years for all the odd custom practices to come up.

Like I've said in other posts, he catches his own yearly salary and sometimes triple and quadruple that almost EVERY SINGLE DAY in mistakes others make. In other words, he saves them boo-koooooo buckos every single day, millions (yes plural MILLIONS) in the course of a year. No wonder his plant boss freaked!

So, freak on people...

And give the 40 year man his own version of an Award.

He deserves it.

I've lived thru 25 years of their hell, on the outside, so I can assure you he deserves heavy-fire combat pay.

Hurumppffhhh!

I feel like one of those God billboards,

"Don't Make Me Come Down There!"

Because, if I did, I would be kicking some boohoodie and an early retirement it would surely be!! (Anybody seen that King of Queens show where Doug H.'s mom goes to the plant?) I wouldn't be near as nice.

$20 Challenge

$02.99 balance
+00.74 CashHappy's Green Apple
______
$03.73 Dec MTD

CashHappy Son handed me 74 cents for Piggy last night right after his Dad and I talked to him about his reckless spending habits AGAIN! Can you believe this kid?? Geesh. I asked him "After what we just talked about you want to give me money?"

"Yes, why?"

"uhhhhh, because you've spent yourself down to the bottom of your checkbook and payday isn't until 5 days from now?"

"Naaaah, I'm okay."

AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!! The kid is just not getting it!

It's still all "Easy Come, Easy Go!"

Anyway, Piggy now has more change to cling to, and CashHappy has decided that he can't really handle his money well enough to feed himself and get his own laundry done, so he's going to adopt the plan his older brother works on here with us.

That is, instead of paying $100 a month to rent the basement and then go out and buy his own groceries & do his own laundry, he's going to stay in the basement and pay $200 in a more loosely structured Eat At Mom's Laundry Center room and board situation.

The new agreement also calls for him in addition to his $200 room and board fee to bring The First National Bank of Mom Frugalis a $200 deposit on the first of the month to save for his "Moving Out Fund". He's always had one, just the past six months or so he's gone crazy with his 'trinket' purchases and has no treasure fund built up.

His attitude is getting him mighty close to thin ice lately, telling lies and not doing as the parental units instruct, so he's got to get some money built up for future living arrangements as this is not his permanent abode!

IOW, his Dad offered to come home from work the other day and toss him to the curb for lipping off to Mom, so he's got to get turned around in attitude and finances.

God Bless him, he's a good kid w/a 'tude. Hubster and I have both been there, but there is only so much lip we're willing to tolerate while chillens' are also acting irresponsibly. Here's hoping this new setup helps or at least gives him some time to turn his self in a better direction.

How about it, guys and gals, I'm open to learning any tips & tricks for teaching late teen boys to be fiscally responsible??? Hit me with your best shot!

Also while absent from the blogosphere I cancelled my cell phone as my contract had expired and replaced it with an emergency-use only Tracphone. With part of the savings difference the Hubster and I purchased Term Life Insurance! YEAH!!

It's not as much as I would like to have, but it beats a snowball. Partly this is because he smokes and is older thus the premiums on the kind of coverage I'd like is a bit on the 'TOO MUCH for the budget to handle' side! It's the age difference that has me worried, because in all likelihood I will outlive him and there is a good number of years between now and when I'll be eligible to collect Social Security - this will provide at least a small coverage of that gap.

Anyway, we got a smallish policy for me and a larger one for him as he's the main breadwinner.

It's a trade-off, but I think it was a good one for us!

I wrote a big long blog entry on Saturday and then it went to blooper heaven by some strange flick of the wrist! AUGGHHH!!!

The boys keep handing me their change (good guys, eh?) so I'm adding to the challenge:

$20 CHALLENGE

$06.20 balance
+02.20 change gifts
______
$08.40 June MTD

2007 Total $171.19
Cumulative Total $297.30

Scheduled our upcoming vacation a couple of weeks ago - we'll be heading to Tucson in July. Hubster wanted to go somewhere 'warm'. Warm we'll be, I suppose, at least during the daytime hours. We'll be using our timeshare exchange to a nice resort for 7 days and the fee to use it is $135 to exchange and beyond that we've a budget of $600.00. Most of that will be for gasoline, 2 nights hotels w/continental breakfasts and we take most of our own groceries with us and eat out only a couple of times on our trips. Last year we came home with money leftover! Get out of here you say, no way? Yes way, we squeak those Lincolns ba-bee!!!

Hubster got his car tires the other day and by doing even more diligent shopping he was able to carve another $200 off of his cost and we're using the extra that we'd saved for that to fix the scratch he got on the back of the car a few months back when he didn't listen to me and use the truck to haul a bicycle - estimate to repair? $340.00. OUCH! Fellows, sometimes the little lady can be right and it might be worthwhile to listen - and NO, I didn't say I told you so, tempting as it was!

Finished up May yesterday with a $5.00 check in from Pinecone. I was over .75 cents in my grocery budget for May so I applied that to the zero based budget for May ending the month totally in the black. And, as I said yesterday there wasn't a spare penny even laying around the house to put in the pot! Thank you Pinecone Surveys!!

We use YNAB software (youneedabudget.com) and I just hate seeing any red in my columns, so I'm one of those who adjusts my budget as the month goes along. Others are diehard, fix it once at the beginning of the month/year and roll with the occasional red.

I just can't do it.

Too TOO Anal!!

I love a zero based budget - all the money coming in is given a job and then sent on it's way to do it's work. Some to short term savings and some to investments and then some to spend for current expenses. At the end of the month it should all tally up to no more than what you brought in.

I will take the remaining $4.25 to start off the June $20 Challenge.

$20 Challenge
$00.00 balance
+04.25 survey says
______
$04.25 MTD

2007 Challenge Total $167.04
Challenge Cumulative Total $293.15

Yesterday was a no-spend day for me.

The house budget paid all of the June bills: The mortgage payment plus an extra $65.04 to principal, including a painful $763.00 for house insurance for the year and $505.06 for 1/2 years worth of auto insurance for mine & THE Hubster's vehicles.

It is amazing to me how much more difficult it is these days to turn loose of the monies for these things. It was all there in savings House Insurance Escrow and Car Insurance Escrow earning us interest, but I waited until the last possible moment to pull it out so as not to loose even one extra day's worth of interest.

I'm actually becoming very Scrooge-esque these days. I mean 'tight-fisted butt-puckery' over spending money! However, it is a LOVELY feeling to be able to pay all the bills w/o having to worry IF we have the money. AND, it's not so much the spending of monies or worry over interest as it is the loomingness of an underfunded retirement portfolio. Youngsters take note and start retirement savings earlier!!

On the CC this month was a $55.00 emergency dental bill for Hubster (money was already put back in the Medical/Dental/Prescription Co-Pay Slush Fund) and a new Dell computer monitor $313.00. I've finally convinced him he HAS TO move the old stuff on BEFORE he buys new. Used to he'd buy first w/plans to sell the old, but somehow it wasn't ever getting done.

We did sell his old monitor for $150.00 on Craigslist and he recently got a nice little bonus check of $295.00 after taxes so he's paid for his new monitor and still has a running start on his next computer purchase in the bank in the Office Equipment Slush Fund. So, the CC again was used and is back to zero.

It's going on three or four years now and it is SOOOOO Nice not to ever carry a balance on those suckers! It has been tempting a few times especially for Hubster, but I've prevailed as that is a slippery slope I don't want to ever go back down if at all possible and I mean, I'm willing to go donate at the plasma bank if necessary to keep it from happening ever again!!

And I absolutely HATE needles! But, I hate debt even more!!

On the slate for tomorrow is a set of new tires for his car - he's making an educated-prices-already-compared estimate of a cost of about $425.00 including tax, mounting and balancing and there is **TA-DA** (NICELY DONE Mrs. LLFrugalis - pat back pat back!!) a total of a little over $475.00 sitting in his Car Tire Fund!! Again, the tires will be purchased on a cash back credit card while those tire dollars earn another month's worth of interest. You gotta love it when you're ahead of the game!! HOOOOOO-HAAAAAAAA!!

I made my final 2006 contribution to my IRA fully funding it.

So, that means that THE Hubster put his full $5000 in this year and I put in my $4000! That's the first time we've been able to fully fund both of them! I'm thrilled I tell ya, thrilled!!!

I would certainly like to get all of 2007's put in during the calendar year this year as carrying over what got put where when in what year can get a bit confusing! I like having ours at Fidelity as they keep a nice little running total for you.

For the kiddos: Both were able to put back $1200 into their IRAs this year with hopes/plans/budget forecasts to increase it this coming year. CashHappySon makes enough money he could seriously up his contributions this year, but FrugalSon doesn't make as much and we are already squeezing his little salary as far as we can! Perhaps another part-time job is in order.

No, I'm not slow, but THE Hubster some times (often actually) runs on 'low slow' speed. Anyway the taxes were done for free today by the AARP folks and a small refund from both Fed and State will be soon winging it's way into our account. Intend to then swing it into one of our Roth accounts.

Over and Done! Glad to get that taste out of our mouth!

For the back history on this check here:
http://luxliving.savingadvice.com/2006/11/08/skimming-rebala...

Yesterday as THE Hubster was off for Good Friday we made three phone calls on his Missing In Action Pension fund (which means everyone including his current employer the buyout company after bankruptcy) claims no knowledge of where the money went. Several million dollars of all these 300+ employee's retirement monies just disappeared into the night. Yeah Right!!!

Call one: To the man who helped transition employees at the time of the former company's bankruptcy. He gave us numbers for calls two & three.

He also told us that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp is filing for Trusteeship of these monies! YEAH!! And we got a case number although when we plug it into PBGC's website it won't let us log on. However, that is most likely because they have yet to win trusteeship over the monies.

The lady who has been working the files has been transferred for the third time it seems from one 'inner' insurance company to the next, and is employed w/a company that is a 'third party' designate to handle the payouts only they have things blacked out so that nothing can happen till they get 'okay' from higher ups.

Only problem that I see is that they aren't following the Sarbanes(sp?)-Oxley laws about notifying folks about where our monies are. She was call two and was very polite and nice and had already been working on the problem earlier in the afternoon, so we aren't totally on the bottom of the to-do list! GOOD!!! She also already had info on THE Hubster so we are in the piles of files!!

I did ask her what we are to do about signing beneficiary forms in the meantime till they get their mess straightened out. I never did get a clear answer from her.

We were told that she 'goes with the files' when they transition from one insurance company to another = So, when SNOOPY dances the monies over to another company and then again to a third one, she's still with the information and it still is under their lil' doghouse umbrella. I'm not naming names here or anything but they are sitting on a pile of money and wont' let go!

Call number three was late yesterday afternoon and to PBGC

http://www.pbgc.gov/

to see what's what there and we got no answer but were able to leave a voice-mail w/our call back info. We have the name of the gentleman there who is handling the case! I think if PBGC gets ahold of it all will be well. We did print out the PBGC beneficiary form and will be mailing it out post haste.

People could well pass away before they (Snoopster) get their act together and of course THE Hubster can't remember who he designated as beneficiary back in 1967 when this dealy-who got started!!

What we did discern is that in all liklihood if Snoopy handles it, that it will come to us in the form of an annuity and there won't be an option for a cash settlement that we could take and invest elsewhere.

However we are making progress (maybe all those emails to various legislative bodies worked???) and I thank everyone for the discussions here at SavingAdvice.com for jogging my memory about long-term prospects for retirement income yesterday while Hubster was here to make the tag-team (both of us on the line) phone calls! It had been a while since I had checked on it!

Keep praying!! Slowly the fog is beginning to clear.

Wiki for PBGC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_Benefit_Guaranty_Corpor...

I've been calling and writing around for about three years now - so you would think that someone COULD have written us by now and told us what was going on, wouldn't you??? Nothing. Not one scrap of paper or phone call saying 'We've got your money and are clearing up discrepancies and someone will be getting back with you by ____ date.' Makes you wonder if they ever intended to, doesn't it? Does me!

Great News!! THE Hubster got a 3% raise - the first in four long years!

Wooo-lee-woooooo-leee-wooooo-hoooooo!!!

Hot Diggity!!

Now maybe we can have some ham with our beans??

I'm grateful!!

However, I'm not unaware that it seems that perhaps the world sees a 3% increase as a normal thing?? Why would I say that? Because when I work with the financial planning calculators for retirement planning they most all have as a standard input 3% increases yearly until retirement! Is the rest of the world getting these once a year??

The man has got to learn to toot his own horn more often - He saves his company more than his whole yearly wages just about every single day by catching errors before they reach production (meaning tens and tens of thousands daily. - yes, he's ISTJ AND a Virgo!) You'd think they could be a tad bit more generous. I know - it's his job, but I'm thinking he does it so well and so consistently that no one realizes he's actually doing it!!

TOOT Baby TooT!!

Anyway, it's not enough to do anything major with but a blessing none-the-less!

Raise effective next paycheck. Nope, I'm not forgetting he did get a bonus at Christmas time, but it was under a thousand smackers.

We pushed the buy button this morning for:
FNMIX



Buy order $2550 @ offer price $14.94=170.68 shares

and
FSHBX


Buy order $2500 @ offer price $8.87=281.84 shares

Posting here to help me keep track! Kept back a portion in cash as we explore other opps!

X-Ray Your Portfolio

I've been having a lot of fun playing with this lately. Very nice! I believe Ameritrade also has it up within their website, but think it's proprietary to Morningstar. Very helpful! AND, well worth your time to input your holdings to see where you're at in the wide, wide world!!

I input my Roth, Hubster's Roth, his 401-K and his Rollover IRA, plus our other holdings to get a complete picture in one place, even though a couple of these accounts are held at other places. Nice to be able to see a total picture while the machine does the math percentages!



Quikette Blurbeennie: Moved $3750 into Hubster's Roth IRA this a.m. and that completes his 2006 contributions! YEAH!! Inside Roth sits $1260 in cash uninvested, so he currently has $5000 to purchase into some additional funds.

"They" say Asset Allocation is one of the most important parts of investing and choosing the RIGHT vs. the wrong investments can make a whopping $$$$BIG$$$$ difference in how you live in retirement, so I've been doing quite a bit of research. You only pray that you make the right choices, eh?

I *THINK* we'll be choosing two out of these three funds for this portion of his Roth. I'm giving him these as possible suggestions for him.

We will eventually be converting quite a bit out of his Rollover IRA into the Roth during the next few years and probably putting it in the target fund

http://personal.fidelity.com/products/funds/mfl_frame.shtml?...
FFVFX.

We don't have to do that now, but we could as our income is currently rather low and it's a good time tax-wise to be converting. The other two options he has up for consideration is:
FAGIX and
FNMIX. Both bond funds.

Due to proximity to his retirement we need to rebalance our overall portfolio with more bonds so that's why we are looking here. I'm not real excited on getting too bond laden, but he wants this 5000 SAFE. Remember, we have a May-December marriage. I'm looking longer term, he's thinking shorter - so we are trying to meet somewhere in the middle.

He already owns PIMCO Total Return-A (PTTAX)in his 401-K and FBNDX in the Rollover IRA, but somehow we need more bonds to meet his target asset allocation. Besides which he is a very conservative investor. I am more of an aggressive risk grrrrl.

So likely we will go w/the two bond funds now and maybe when we get another 2500.00 together get into the FFVFX. Not sure. I'm going to leave it up to him to decide.

I like FAGIX, just having bought it inside my Roth, BUT, I'm not real keen on us both being in it right now...would kind of like to spread our eggs into some different baskets for a time to see where we're headed. The other fund we will be looking at is
FSHBX as a different choice than FAGIX for him. But doggies, FAGIX looks so much more exciting!!

Perhaps he'll have time tonight and we can cuz n' discuz before I get too antsy and push the buy button w/o him!

********
Of other interest: Here's another nickel on my keyboard???? Taking it to the $20 Challenge.

$20 CHALLENGE
$03.97 balance
+00.05 nickel showed up
______
$04.02 April MTD

2007 Challenge 116.99
Cumulative Total 243.10

More Blurbies = Fool's Gold




To add more to today's Quickie-Blurbettes:

Blurb 5)When I went to put in the $1.02 that was waiting on the keyboard to go into the $20 Challenge Piggy I found that some mysterious fool of the April variety had stacked up $2.95 in front of Piggy! I'm thinking it must of been CashHappySon as he's the only one who knows I log it here before feeding it into the private stash. So we are up for the day!

$20 CHALLENGE
$01.02 balance
+$2.95 Fool's Gold
______
$3.97 April MTD

Blurb 6)Using Craigslist yesterday the Hubster sold one of the many EXTRA computers we have around here. $700 samoleans to go back (loaned) into the Emergency Fund! Tonight we take pictures of computer 2 that needs to be sold and posting it online! Expected proceeds of about $600 also to be paid back to the E-Fund.

Quickie-lite Blurbettes!!



blurb 1)Scaled Hubster's 401-K contributions back to only get the matching and the rest that we've been putting there will now go into his Roth IRA. He was convinced when we started that we couldn't even put back 1%!!! Slowly over time I inched us up to 10% but we only need 6% to get all matching funds. He's now convinced that we can save on our income!!


blurb 2)Hubster has agreed to let me take what's needed (about $3700)from savings to round him up to the complete $5000 IRA contributions he can make for 2006! YEAAAAAAAAAA DOGGIES!!! The man is finally coming around. It will have to go into conservative investments for him as he is so near to retirement, but at least we'll have met the yearly contribution...and then we are on to seeing what all we can do for 2007 contributions. The above change in the 401-K contributions will help.

blurb 3)Showing him the monthly statements that his money is now growing instead of just stagnating has been helpful. And for all of you out there who are dealing with spouses who are not yet on board, keep rowing, sooner or later you're bound to hit some smoother waters. The Hubster is finally beginning to realize he has to put his money out to Hard Labor before it can come back to knock on his door!

blurb 4)Adding $1.02 in change to the $20 Challenge to get the April party started.

Spinning Wheels



Okay, life has been revolving on without me and rather sucky over here with the crappy recurring blue-funk 'lost my voice' cold/virus/whatever that we kept passing back around and around at my house. To update the info over on the right...

Paid another $419 on the house - 353.96 normal payment and 65.04 in extra principal. I will update the new balances later.

In Piggy for $20 Challenge for the month is: $23.10 - that is now going into my Roth IRA instead of to the mortgage as I was doing in the past. And speaking of the ol' Roth it finally made it's way from ING over to Fidelity.

Lawseeeeeee, but those folks sho' do take their own little sweet time getting this stuff done. You may not remember but I made my first inquiry into doing this in late DECEMBER folks and it just made it to Fidelity this past week! Sheeesh!!!

We mailed all the paperwork in one envelope for the entire family's Roth IRA accounts over to Fidelity on the same day back in early January I believe. In February I had to mail it again since because true to everyone's predictions of course it must of got lost over at ING!

Hubster's got moved about 3 weeks ago. Mine went early in the past week. CashHappy & Frugal's had to have paperwork mailed a THIRD time!!! I've had to call several times as well.

CashHappySon's made it over yesterday.


And get this -- FrugalSon's is still sitting in ING!


Another call to Fidelity yesterday and hopefully things are moving again. It be enough to make a body pull the very hairs out of their head! Nothing like feeling you are spinning your wheels, heh? THIS is how 'banks/brokerages' act when you want to move your money OUT - but don't YOU dare be late making a payment! GRRRRR and ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

So far in my Roth at Fidelity I've gone w/FFNOX and FAGIX. I'm still deciding where else to go.

For March to my ADDITIONAL retirement savings goes the bank run money which evened out to a nice $10.11 in change & my regular $42.00 contribution this month. Nothing too exciting.

Of other QUICK news I did read Suze Orman's new book in March and started my $50 account at Ameritrade. We'll see how it goes. Depending on income this may set me back in my keeping up the $42 autodraft on the BankRun monies. I'm hoping that there is enough coming in to do both.

Besides being sick for most of it and as March was a rather long month following the shorter days for earnings of February let us just say that I've had quite a few days of No Spending during March. AND, that I've gotten quite creative in stretching out the pantry goods for meals.

Only one more day till I spend money again! YEEHAH!!! My refrigerator will be grateful for something to cool off! And my crew is getting ready for some 'fresher' foods.

(Do not worry - there was plenty to eat and plenty of money here that I could have gone and spent I am just working very hard to keep w/the YNAB philosophy of only spending last month's earnings in the next month.) Sticking with a budget is more difficult some months than others!

Last night finishing up February's books, I found I had $2.48 in change in my wallet. Taking it to the February challenge, as I was too sickly with the snizzles & snuffles yesterday to give a big rat's fanny...

...just shuffled off to bed in my furry houseslippers and flannel nightie w/the tissues sticking out 'my pockets! Here's hoping today is a better health day. Not to worry though, I'm wrestling with it!!





$20 CHALLENGE

$33.46 balance
+02.48 change pocket
______
$35.94 Feb Total

2007 Challenge $89.87
Cumulative Total $215.98

In other February news I was able to plow an additional $650.00 into my Roth IRA during the downturn in the market.

Bought on sale! YIPPEE.

This was extra sitting in my checking that wasn't really planned for anything else, so was tickled to have a bit to put in while things were selling at a discount. Only wish it were more. This amount is over and above my regular Roth IRA contribution.

Yesterday was a no spend day for me, but the house budget bought Arby's since the cook was sick last night.

HONK! HONK! BARK! SNIZZLE, and SNIFF! My, my, isn't THAT attractive? NOT!!

Thank God for Puff's Plus w/Aloe Vera and a very loving Hubster who takes care of Dr. Mom when she is sick!

Pinky Wheel Driving



Cleaning out the wallet and adding $2.67 to the $20 Challenge monies.

$20 CHALLENGE
$07.90 balance
+02.67 addition
______
$10.57 Feb MTD

2007 Challenge $64.50
Cumulative Total $190.61

Spent $1.36 cash on Saturday getting CashHappySon a house-key to go on his new car keyring. He's 18, I guess it's time he finally has a key to the house!

Ha!

Some of you may find that odd, but since we homeschooled there just really hasn't been an occasion when one of us wasn't either already here or with the boys when they were going and coming from the house.

Of note is that the backup lights don't work on HiHoSilver Tanklilator and he'll have to be getting that fixed. The oil hasn't been changed since 2002 and since that oil change sticker is on the window there has been only about 500 miles put on the car. And, we put about 50 of those on there this past weekend bringing it home & around town on the backroads to let CashHappy get used to the monster sizing!

In addition to getting the backup lights fixed, an oil change and lube job is also in order The Hubster says.

This car was supposedly only driven to the grocery store...WELL, they either didn't shop often or the store was just next door or barely down the street!

A dream to drive - you know the kind, you barely need to touch the wheel w/a pinky. No, of course, I didn't let CashHappy see me driving that way Officer!

HiHoSilver Tankilator Limousine



PhotoCredit: Not his car, but one off the internet that looks just like it.


Took CashHappySon on Friday to buy him a different car - his old car, his starter car, has some upcoming issues so it is soon to be out of the picture.

Hubster works with a guy who's f-i-l owns a used car lot in a little town north of us...and we've had him w/his ear to the ground for us. On Friday he called w/a 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis, garage-kept, 18,000 mile beaut!

After CashHappy got off work on Friday we ran up there and bought it. Hubster wanted it if CashHappy didn't. Thought we might have a 'SMACKDOWN' wrestling match over it. This car is a huge vehicle, but oh in such spiffy shape! He was able to pay cash for it - with a short-term loan from Mom & Dad, until his money returns from Emigrant.

He's excited. I didn't really think he'd want it because of it's size and age, but he loves it. It is silver and has really nice burgandy velvet interior. Very nice. The guy who owned it had broken his back and needed cash for medical purposes. So sad.

We've had to go out driving ALOT this weekend in it for CashHappy to get used to the MUCH bigger size than his little Ford Tempo. We had a guy look at the Tempo yesterday afternoon. Not our norm to buy one before selling the old, but this one was too good a deal to pass up.

Of course, we had to go let 'THE girl' see it. He calls it a limousine - and he's looking forward to driving her to the prom in it. Something like 'Go B.I.G. or go home!'

HiHoSilver Away!!

EEK! There are now FIVE cars sitting in my driveway!! ZOWSERS! At least they're all paid for! My poor neighbors, at least none of them are up on blocks!!

Look At Your Payroll Stub & GET Good & MAD



Wow - don't you look HOT this morning!??!

No?

Well, just wait.

I want you to get capital M.A.D. mad this morning. That's right - P.O.d!!

I want you so mad that you're steaming!

Steaming hot that is.

I want you to go and get your payroll stub out of the filing cabinet. (You do have this stuff filed, right?? RIGHT!)



}}}}}frantic rifling of piles{{{{{{



oKAY... I heard that mad shuffling of papers!!



Go ahead. I'll wait on you.






Good, you're back!!


Now I want to tell you about a little conversation the Hubster and I had this past week when I was being headhunted for a nice little J.O.B. in the financial sector.

Afterwards Hubster was asking me how I decided to turn our finances around - the answer "Your payroll stub."

"Huh?"

"As a matter of fact it was your health insurance that did it for me."

"auhhhhuuuugguuu (quizzical Tim Taylorish grunt???????)"

"I saw that we were paying more out every pay period for health insurance than we were saving for ourselves. --Way MORE! Like 85% more and it hacked me off royal that the insurance company CEO's
were living in mighty fine houses and driving super nice cars and have maids and lawnkeepers and such and we were barely scraping by.

It was then at that very moment that I decided to get serious about our finances - I determined that we were going to put back more for retirement savings than the health insurance company was taking out.

That is what began our financial turn-around."


After thinking about it, it made me wonder if it will help any of you to GET MAD enough to want to do something for your own future??

My message, dear friends, is for you to look down at your payroll stub and if you aren't saving at least the same as, if not more than, the health insurance company is getting then I want you to ask yourself, "Why do I think more of their future than I do my own?"

Then get angry enough to do the financial footwork - Take The Actions - necessary to get your future on track!

Stepping off soapbox now!

Okay, you can go back to your paperwork filing now. You are going to file that stub back in it's slot aren't you??

BTW, did I mention how hot you look this morning??

Totally H.O.T.!!

(note: cross posted in forums)

Hair Slicum & Leather Sofn'r



Well I broke the no-spend roll I was on yesterday and bought some stuff. It was out of the Personal Care category and I went to the bank and got cash beforehand so I could limit myself at the store. I keep hearing this is a way of shopping smart but tis difficult when you don't really know the prices on 'stuff'.

Hubster was out of his beloved VO5 haircream and I needed something for this leather hide that's covering my neck and face. He goes thru one of those tubes of gunk about every three years so I had no idea of the cost and I usually just use whatever face moisturizer that my Mom passes along (she tries every new thing that comes along). But, anymore I'm getting more and more sensitive to the perfumes in that stuff.

Anyway, I guesstimated what it would cost and got myself a 10 spot out of the bank.

hair slicum $3.25
leather sofn'r 5.00
tax .74
___________________
spent $8.99

So, I'm taking the $1.01 change to the Challenge.

I don't particularly think I'll do it this way again as I feel pretty secure about my ability to hold back from just running amuck in the stores and it's too much trouble to keep track of the money to put it back into it's category.

But, whatever, now we are beau-tis-i-mous once again and Piggy is fattening nicely!!

$20 CHALLENGE
$51.26 balance
+01.01 glam leavings
______
$52.27 Jan MTD

2007 Challenge $52.27
Cumulative Total $178.38

QUICKIES ala Broken Arrow Style



*Adding to the Challenge money from CashHappySon donation.

$20 CHALLENGE
$35.43 balance
+00.83 generous manchild
_____
$36.26 Jan MTD

2007 Challenge $36.26
Cumulative Total $162.37

*FrugalSon worked yesterday, Hubster dug out ice in driveway and CashHappySon and I went to the movies to see Night At The Museum which was pretty cute. Somewhat better than I expected. Of financial note is that our matinee movies have now gone up to $2.25 from $2.00. Have to readjust my yearly entertainment budget now from $24.00 to 27.00! OWWWWWW!!
Not painful, but still I'd rather that they hadn't hiked it! Even a quarter makes my Frugalicious Gene (TM) pucker!!

*FrugalSon got a dime raise on his check yesterday.

*I got headhunted for a very nice job - went for the interview - turns out it would be commissioned based sales and I'm just not interested in sales. Was nice to be sought out though and the commissions would be quite substantial but still I'm just not into sales - I've done it before and it's not quite my cup of tea.

*Hubster and I went and spent about 3 and half hours picking out the doors and hardware for our interior/exterior doors and they are now coming up w/a quote as much of it will be custom cut to fit our odd sized doorways. Hoping to get loads of the doors done for little cash, but that might be asking a bit much!

*Quote for CashHappySon's car insurance is ridiculous. Both boys are going to go together and each pay their own amount based on their respective vehicles, but they'll get a multi-car discount. Still, too much though!! OUCH!!! Hubster and I do not want them on our insurance - as we would hate to be financially liable if they were to seriously hurt someone in a car accident.

*Estimate from the country treasurer says that our house taxes are going up by a mere $5.00 next year - which isn't too bad you know!

*Think I'll go drink a cup of serenity!

Tidying Up Loose Ends

Spent last evening tidying up the loose ends on the office front. Money to Hubster and my Roth IRAs. We had cancelled the automatic drafts at ING but still want to put our monthly amounts in and went ahead and did that because I'm not sure just how long it will take for them to rollover to Fidelity. Moved & done!

Then moving more dollars that came out of ING savings on over to Emigrant for myself, CashHappySon, FrugalSon and The Hubster. Moved & done!!

Tidying up the little loose ends makes me feel much better. The mind noise - the nagging sound of interest being lost - can now SHUT UP!!

Yeah!

Done & DONE!!

Now reading CubeChic:



I don't have a cubicle, but if I did, I like the one on the front cover - only slightly less on the nick-nackery.

The Difference a Couple of Sticks Can Make!

The Hubster spent yesterday evening and will spend part of today putting up trim sticks around the top of our kitchen cabinets. Now mind you a decent stick can cost about 6-10 dollars, but you only need a few.

Our cabinets were all just tacked to the wall when we got here w/a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of space at the top (no nothing was level) and it looked cheap and crappy for as long as we've been here and this year we'll start on year 7.

I've been after him nicely to put these up since day 1. At anyrate he's on it now and they look SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER! A tiny bit of trim and few nails and V.O.I.L.A. (that people is how you actually spell waaa-laaa) it looks freaking fantastic! Luxes it up nicely!

The fact that our house used to be a rent house is quickly fading into the sunset.

A few little details are what have helped majorly. Little things such as replacing all the old silver tone INSTITUTIONAL LOOK el-cheapest you could buy light fixtures w/brass and goldtone lighting fixtures.

Really they only cost a few dollars more and they make it look So Much NICER.

Little things like replacing all the light switch and outlet plugs w/brass plates. Simple and inexpensive lil' upgrades like these few trim sticks and things are beginning to make a turn around.

Shewwww, I'll be so glad to have this stuff done and off my honeyman-do-list!!

Nothing looks sweeter to a woman than the sight of a man getting her 'PLEASE' list crossed off! YEAH HUBSTER!!! He says he's gotta keep the cook happy!



Guess I'll whack him on the shoulder more often!

Just Stop It Already & Spare Lung Anyone??!!

On today's financial forefront was a phone call to National City Credit Card to STOP sending me those dumb convenience checks. Only took a minute or two, and I did use their toll free number but wish these places did not send this crap out!

No bank run today as we are iced in AND I took all my wallet cash out earlier in the week and stuffed piggy with it for the $20 Challenge anyways. So, nothing there to run with.

Today finds us eating leftover white beans w/ham chunks for lunch. Yummers. That will be the end of that and I'll make us a big pot of potato soup for supper. I love me some tater' soup folks! The best next thing to being home at Momma's and eating HER potato soup! I did get a call from her this morning and they are without electricity but the worst to her was that she won't get to make her weekly trip to the hairdresser! Oh Vanity!!

Of family note is that my sister took my brother to the doctor yesterday and he hasn't been doing his breathing treatments like he should. Doctor gave him a good talking to. Sister asked him on the way home if he understood it all and if he knew what the cure was for the acute pulmonary hypertension that he has.

"Uh, no - a cure???"

Well she tells him..."It's a lung transplant bubba - do you know anyone who's going to give you one of their lungs???? No? Then better start doing those breathing treatments, heh? ...and keeping that oxygen on at ALL TIMES."

His breathing level is practically nil and his heart is already grossly enlarged. Can the boy not get a hint???? Sheeesh! You gotta love my sister, God love her she tells it like it is. No sugarcoating. Just blunt.

It's reality time brother!

Sometimes it feels like a swift kick to the backside is not doing any good and you'd like to go for a good whack up side the head if you thought it would penetrate, ya know????

I got off the phone w/Mom giving me the medical update and walked outside and there was Hubster with a lit cigarrette in hand. I just whacked him right on the shoulder - thru his parka coat and asked if he'd had the quit smoking prescription dealybob filled yet? I already knew the answer was no. He got it from the doc early last week!

I am tired of sitting by the bedside of folks who won't take care of their own health!!!! I gave him the evil eye, I'm watching you look and re-entered the house! Lord help us all!


K.I.L.L.E.R.

No spending - I haven't spent any money this week at all - none since last Saturday when I spent 3.24 on drinks for three harried remodeling folks after our sawing & hammering. Yeah me!!

Washed That Orange Right Out of My Hair!




I sent in the paperwork yesterday to change all four (mine, Hubster's, FrugalSon's and CashHappy's) of our Roth IRA's to Fidelity from that orange place! Ahhhh, now that feels better! I know it may take a bit for it to all settle out, but am glad to get that taken care of!

Peel THAT oh orange place! Of course, I'm filing this one under Kiss My Assets! (Nope that's not our lil' happy fambly! We're all WAY prettier than that!)



Kiss Off Orange

Even Happier Holidays



Sometimes a failing memory can be delightful. I don't remember The Hubster getting a bigger check last January, but I suppose he did.

I just opened his payroll envelope (yep, we do direct deposit) and find an extra 96.08 in there for holiday pay. YES!!! We'll take it!

Just when I was getting ready to suck wind again after upping the 401-K contributions, this will give a tiny breather - and possibly buy Hubster a new pair of cuuuub-boy boots he needs.

Yeee-Haw!

The Satisfaction Factor

What is the satisfaction factor? For me it's having the money put back for when a bill comes in.

Today it's the car tag registration for The Hubster's car - due is $93.50. In the Car Tag Registration Fund was over $100.00 so we're good and have a bit of a head start on next years! YEAH TEAM FRUGALIS!!

This means our budget is working just as we've fashioned it to do.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! That my friends is SWEET!



Photocredit: FroznCarrrots