Yep. Paid taxes today plus a quarterly estimate - that all came out to about $4800. A few other bills and errands and there you go. A $5000 day.

flash is adding me to the Pacific coupon train. I've never done one of these before - hope it works out well.

I emailed ebookdrop this morning, trying to see what's going on now that it's been about two months since I shipped them my small box of books. I doubt I'll even hear back, but it's a step in the right direction.

I checked on my insiderpages.com email, to see when I'd sent in my reviews. It hasn't been 6 weeks yet (but it's close) and they say their turnaround time is 4-6 weeks. I'll give them another few days and then follow up on that - I submitted enough reviews to qualify for 2 Target gift cards, $10 each.

I'm heading to the post office today to mail out the book that sold. I also need to buy new cat food for our kitty that's been sick. Crystals in his urine - not a good thing. So we're switching to Hill's c/d wet food, and I need to pick some up today.

Feeling completely overwhelmed by stress these days. Just not dealing with it very well.

note for challenge: 1.59 for postage today

I'm worried our male kitty has a UTI or blockage, so we're off to the animal hospital this afternoon. Wish him luck.

UPDATE: We are back and our kitty is home with us. Thankfully there is no blockage. He's got an antibitotic that ought to take care of things. I had a cat when I was a little girl that died from a urinary tract blockage, and that was what was worrying me here.

I'm irritated with my current reward card. I am a smart person, and even after I felt like I'd read the fine print and done my research, the rewards I redeemed points for are not working out. Hotel and car - neither one is doing me much good.

When I cancel this card (Elite Rewards from MBNA), I'll write a letter and incude in it my frustration and disappointment with their program. I hate the feeling of being duped.

I'll cancel this one next month and look into signing up for the Citi cashback card that has been discussed in the forums.

Today's been a fun day. Spent $65 to renew our zoo membership while we were there, and then went to the natural history museum as well (our pass is still good there until late summer). DD made a list of some of her favorite animals and drew a little sketch of one of the bald eagles. Spent $1.50 on a churro.

Dinner tonight will be Thai food. We have a frozen Thai mix from Trader Joe's, and I'm going to try a recipe for peanut dipping sauce I found yesterday while flipping through Real Simple in the ballet waiting area. I'll make some grilled or baked tofu to go with it, and maybe some roasted bell pepper, too. Add some rice and it should be good. DH ought to like it - he's a big fan of Thai food.

Tomorrow night we're being treated to dinner at a place we enjoy. Ought to be a good time!

My $2 rebate check was mailed out yesterday, according to Rite Aid's web site. That will go to my challenge total once I get it.

I'm not normally one for drama and ranting, but the other day I really just needed to get some things off my chest I think. I appreciate the supportive comments - thank you.

Back to bland and boring entries that are more for my benefit than anyone else's.

We have few frills in our budget. To live just on one income is so hard. The only reason we have any wiggle room is from the parttime jobs DH and I do. It isn't about having more "stuff" as mentioned in another blog. That offends me.

Big expense: DD's schooling. If the public schools were the kind of place I wanted my child spending six hours a day, I'd have her there. But they're not, unfortunately. I've seen them from the inside (former teacher); I have friends still teaching; I talk to parents of DD's friends who are in these schools. No thank you.

We don't even buy new cars every 5-6 years, let alone every 3-4 or 1-2. Our one vacation this year, a real getaway for rest and recreation, will have been 2 days of skiing. That's it.

The clothes we buy are returns that can't be resold, or samples. They're new, but not really. Or we buy from thrift stores.

My Starbucks habit has been on gift cards this year, thanks to Christmas and my birthday among other things.

I can't remember the last time I had my hair cut, even at a supercuts. Forget about an actual salon. I've had my nails done twice since my daughter was born, and this last time was from a gift certificate for my birthday.

We don't have cable, or a dish. I think we've been a movie theater two or three times in the last two years.

When we improve our house, we do it ourselves. No contractors, no landscape architects, no painters. I sew curtains and seat cushion covers.

We buy organic, for our own health and because we think it's the right thing to do, environmentally. We also don't eat fast food, both for our health and as a statement to the fast food industry.

I wash in cold water and hang dry at least half our clothes.

I could say what DH makes, which I won't, but apparently the vast majority of people here would think we're crazy that we can't live on that and have a very nice life. Trust me - no boats, no timeshares, no new cars. Thank goodness work matches 401k contributions, so we're at least almost saving 10% into the 401k. Almost.

I'm frustrated at how hard things seem right now. Moving anywhere in this area isn't even an option; I think the median home prices for our city (or was it county?) in $600K. There's no way we could get anything - ANYTHING - for less than what our current mortgage is. We'd be incredibly lucky to find something in the very worst part of town for twice what we currently owe.

It's not been a good day. Rant over, for now.

It occurs to me that I have no plans or goals with regards to my challenge money. I have no set amount I'm aiming to reach, and I have no specific plans for what to do with the money, either. I find myself just kind of squirreling away extra money.

I am having to track down what happened to an online check. My water delivery person can't find my last payment, but my online check cleared 3/24/06. So the question in my mind is who deposited that check, and where did it get applied if not to my account? I'll get it worked out, but I hate having to deal with this type of thing.

I took care of three bills this morning, while I was online. I renewed the car's registration online, in a process that took all of 60 seconds. That is so convenient - and we didn't need a smog check this year, so it was truly a painless process.

I printed out our first quarter's worth of budget ananlysis from Quicken, to gothrough later. I'm curious to see how it looks. Last month was a pretty good one for us, considering we had to buy plane tickets to Chicago and went on our little ski trip. We did well in most areas of our budget.

I will find out Wednesday what my salary will be, and then I can go in and update the budget some more. Actually I'll make a new one and apply it once I actually start earaning a paycheck.

I love free plants. Today I planted 18 free plants - 3 chiles, 6 tomatoes and 9 grasses (the clumping, landscaping kind, not the kind you grow a lawn out of). I still have three more tomatoes and two false heathers. The tomatoes and chiles were from neighbors who bought more than their garden could hold. The grasses are from friends of my parents who divided up clumps of grass they had growing in their own garden.

My mom also sent me off with a couple of quarts of homemade spaghetti sauce and a jar of marmalade made with blood oranges (among other kind of oranges). The blood oranges give it a beautiful color. She bought me two bags of the pasta she likes to use when making rice pilaf, so I have that now, too.

I swung by Rite Aid after going to Joanns today, to check out this month's rebate items. I picked up two new ones to try, each with a dollar rebate. One is supposed to help make your hair look smoother and tame flyaways; the other is to help reduce and repair split-ends. We'll see. (My long hair could use some help. Regular hair-cuts would help, but I don't seem to get around to those.) The difference in my mind this time around, with trying new products? If I don't like them or feel they do what they claim, I'll contact the manufacturers and let them know.

So, $11.78 out of pocket, but $2 coming back in rebates (which I already submitted, thanks to Rite Aid's online system).

At Joanns I got a pair of knitting needles with my 40% off coupon (normally $6.99) and a skein of yarn on sale for $3.38, for a gift for one of DD's friends. She is really wanting to learn to knit, so I think she'll like this gift.

I haven't spent any money today. I spent the bulk of the morning and early afternoon working on the boutique. I had a photo shoot this weekend and now have all kinds of new photos to work with. Picked up DD and friend at school, and then DD and I spent about an hour+ cleaning up her room. Now that's a lot of fun.

Dinner will probably be Saturday's leftovers. DH's parents gave us five sets of tickets to a local community theater, and we saw our first play Saturday night. The leftovers are from dinner out that night. One of my former students was in the play, which was fun. I didn't know he'd be in it, and it took me a while to place him, but once I confirmed that he had indeed been in one of my classes, memories came rushing back. He was a cool kid, and I suspect he's a pretty cool young adult now too.

Still waiting on $40 in gas vouchers for my challenge. I need to cancel that trial membership in the next couple of days. Still waiting for ebookdrop payment as well, but that's not much.

DH and I have been having a lot of talks about time and money and how to find the balance we need and fund the things we want to do/have. it's an on-going discussion, and I'm glad we can talk openly about it.

As a result of calling about our home and auto insurance policies and getting our rates reduced, we got a partial refund in the mail today for the 6 months we'd already paid for our cars. The refund is $49.76,and I'll add it to my challenge total at the end of the month. A very nice surprise!

I finished one of the leg warmers for DD today. I now know how to knit with double pointed needles, which was the whole point of the project. I'll work on the other leg warmer whle I'm waiting for DD at ballet. That time alone will give me about two hours a week to work on it.

My plans for spending/saving today:

*trip to Trader Joe's done
*deposit two checks done
*go through bills that need to be scheduled for payment online done
*go by yarn store - need to see if she carries three colors I'm interested in
*write check for this session's ballet tuition done
*carpooling today done

I've got a bunch I want to get done today, so that I can work as much as possible tomorrow should they have work for me. I would do the work regardless, but this way I won't have oodles of other things weighing on my mind.

Let's see if this shows up - me and my daughter, skiing:



Well, there you go. In all our skiing glory!

Still no word back regarding the rewards card.

Still no payment for my auction.

Grrr....

We're taking a walk tonight and going out to a cheap but tasty hole-in-the-wall Mexican food place near home. It sounds really good to me - both the walk and the food.

My auction ended today - $17.51. Not bad for $20 face value. I haven't gotten paid yet, so I can't come up with my net proceeds, but here's what I have so far:

+17.51 final total
-1.27 eBay fees
-.81 PayPal fees
= $15.43 to add to challenge

I will fill in the rest once I get paid.
Edited to add I got paid, so totals have been updated.

Money spent today - $4.25 at coffeehouse
Money saved - carpooled

Dinner will be on the run this evening - we go from ballet to picking up DH at work to school for a parents meeting.

So. I used up a vast number of points accumulated on our reward card to offset some future car and hotel charges (DH's brother is getting married and we'll be traveling). I read the fine print carefully, try to make sure everything is clear, and go ahead and submit my request. Ha. I try to reserve two hotel rooms, using two room certificates, and am told I can only use one certificate per night per hotel. Now, does it state this in the terms and conditions? Of course it doesn't. If it did, I wouldn't have gotten two certificates. (I'm trying to book a room for my in-laws, too.) I've sent a note to the customer service department for the rewards site and will see what they have to say. I quoted the terms and conditions as they relate to hotel rewards. I do not want to feel ripped off here. I'm already planning on cancelling this account and opening one up that does strictly cash back rewards. If they can't help me, I'll be sure to bring that up and see if that doesn't change their tune, given how much we use this card month in and month out.

Stay tuned.

My gift card auction is going well. The cards are valued at 50% of face value with about a day left and eight watchers. Net proceeds will go to my challenge account. Still waiting for my fourth offer to arrive in the mail.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all there is to do. Committments I've made, things to do around the house, things I want to do for myself... I think I need to make myself a list of current to-do's and then start prioritizing those items. I think it will help me feel less overwhelmed and get back into the swing of things.

Spent some time working on the boutique this morning. That is one of those things that feels like there is still so much to do.

1. You drive the 6-7 hours it takes to get there.

2. You plan on making all of your meals and shop ahead of time.

3. You plan on eating sandwiches on the road instead of stopping somewhere for lunch.

4. You go when your company subsidizes part of the trip, rather than when it's most convenient for you.

5. You check out books from the library for entertainment during the drive for your 6-year-old.

Yep, that's pretty much our frugal vacation. And it's going to be fun!

We spent about $48 today on groceries to take with us when we go skiing. We still have a few things left to buy, but that is most of what we'll need, given we already had some things at home we can bring. I'm going to make a few things before we go - applesauce cake (recipe was given to me in the forums - thank you!), baked tofu (it's been marinating in soy sauce), and possibly some chocolate chip cookies.

Blew $4 today on a box of Thin Mint cookies. I wish those things weren't so good!!

I set up some online bill payments earlier today, just to make sure that nothing gets overlooked while we're gone. We are only going to be gone for a few days, but I'd hate for something to be late.

I'll take the car in for an oil change this week, and I need to make vet appointments for all of our pets sometime in the next few weeks. I'm also long overdue for a dental check-up, and DD is due next month. Lots of spending coming up. Oh, I need to go get more cat litter tomorrow, too. And we owe the deposit on next year's tuition. I think that's due by the third week of this month. I need to loook over those forms and fill things out.

Bills, bills, bills. I'm glad we are able to swing two days of skiing - we can all use some R&R around here.

One more thing - I did 5 more reviews at InsiderPages, so hoepfully that will be another $5 for Target.

My $20 in gift cards for Bed Bath & Beyond arrived today, so I can go cancel that trial membership this week. The cards came quickly - I signed up on 2/22. I've got three more offers still pending.

I just submitted five qualifying reviews at insiderpages.com and sent in my email for the $5 Target gift card. You can submit up to ten reviews from one household, so I'll do five more for another $5.

We walked out of Borders today with a book and three drinks, and we were 13 cents richer! I had a $35 gift card, and DD found a quarter on the floor. When all was said and done, we spent the gift card and 12 of those 25 cents. What a deal.

I've got four gift cards in process right now - $20 for Bed Bath & Beyond, $20 for Circuit City, $20 for Lowe's and $40 in gas certificates. I've written down the dates I signed up for each, to make sure that I cancel within 30 days. I'm toying with the idea of selling the Circuit City and BB&B cards on eBay. Haven't decided yet. (Just looked on ebay, and the cards seem to generally go for about 80% of their face value. Seems worth it to me if I'm not likely to use them myself. When I signed up for them, I figured I'd got he eBay route with them.)

I'll total up my February AdSense revenue for my homeschool and tutoring sites, as well as my credit card roundups and add those amounts to my challenge account. I don't think I have any half.com sales for February, but I'll double-check. (I checked - already added the one sale into my account. Looks like I have about $18 in credit card round-ups to add, and about $14 in AdSense.)

April is right around the corner, and that's when I'm planning on reopening my boutique at DivaTribe. I've got my bath and body products already, and I ordered some jewelry from a favorite designer a couple of days ago. I need to finish up photos of my own items and make sure some of the technical ins and outs of the site are working - sales tax, credit cards, etc.

I'm thinking about taking a percentage of my sales and putting them in my challenge account. Nothing big, maybe 5%. Between advertising, buying materials and products and trying to actually make some money at this so DH doesn't have to work so many freelance hours, I need this to make some money.

Wrestling with expenses versus income... wants versus needs... the feeling of having enough and all that we need versus feeling deprived...

Pity party here today. Disregard.

I picked up two finance books today at the library: Start Late, Finish Rich, by David Bach, and The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph. D. and William D. Danko, Ph. D. I'm looking forward to reading them - I started skimming TMND earlier this afternoon and found it interesting from the first pages.

A couple of years ago, DH and I met with a financial planner. We didn't click with him at all, for a variety of reasons, and never pursued a working relationship with him. One of his tactics was all about scaring. Terrorists were mentioned. Whatever. One thing he did say that backfired was telling us how so few people are able to retire today and live the life they want to live. Dh and I had the same thought and discussed it later: my parents both retired early, and his father retired at a relatively young/normal age, while his mother was always an at-home mother to four kids. My mom was a SAHM until I was about 9 or 10. Both of our families are living the kinds of retirements they want to. They have enough money to do what they want, and they can pay for emergencies when they arise. They have plenty in savings, own their homes and cars, etc. etc. etc. They don't look wealthy, but they're definitely comfortable. Dh and I want that for ourselves someday.

The point in all of this? DH and I try to model our financial lives after what we see in our parents, so to have a financial advisor try to scare us about no one being able to retire comfortably was just plain the wrong way to try and snag our business.

DH emailed me today that bonuses don't look likely at work this year. Bummer. Apparently when the owners of the company get more involved, budgets get cut, as do bonuses, and not always with good cause. I adjusted the income portion of our budget accordingly.

DD and I are heading to the mall later today to pick out a birthday gift for her friend. I mentioned the earring idea to her, and she liked it, so that's what we'll look for.

I'm kind of nervous to find out about our taxes. I hope what we owe is close to what we've estimated we'll owe.

I still haven't gotten my first check yet, but I've got one of my supervisors following up on it.

Money saved today -
Carpooled
Breakfast, lunch and coffee at home
Free coffee at work

Money earned today -
3.25 hours worked

DD has a birthday party to attend this weekend. I think I'll take her to the mall to pick out a pair of earrings for her friend. The theme is a tea party, so that seems like a nice girly-girl gift.

I've been debating going to the yarn store for some double-pointed needles and sock yarn, to try and learn to work in the round with those kinds of needles. My mom made DD some leg warmers, and I'd like to try and learn to do it, too. But so far I've been talking myself out of it, at least for the time being. We'll see.

I feel like I'm in a holding pattern as far at the boutique goes. I don't need a lot of stock on hand, as it's all done online. I thought maybe I'd be ready to try and sell at a table on Earth Day (big celebration for the city DD's school is in), but to have enough stock on hand means a pretty big outlay of cash up front, and I don't know how much I'd recoup, given the event is also a fundraiser. I can't do much on the actual store look and layout until I have my new logo, and that isn't due to me until the end of the month.

Just feeling kind of blah today overall.

Today has been a great day - it's my daughter's birthday. Six years and a day ago, I was hoping she wouldn't be born for another two months, but my body had other ideas. Now she's absolutely perfect, and no one would ever guess she was a preemie.

I did some shopping for her party, and I may still need a few more things. DH volunteered to go out to Trader Joe's tonight if need be, while DD and I stay home and bake cupcakes.

I worked 2+ hours today, which is more than I was expecting. DH and I went out to lunch for a total cost of $12 for the two of us. Some friends met up with us at the restaurant - a little Mexican place - and we had a good time.

Money saved - coffee and breakfast at home
Money spent - lunch out, and shopping at Smart and Final

As others have been doing, from glancing at blog titles, DH and I spent some time this weekend getting our tax stuff together. We've got everything filled out for our CPA, and DH will be handing the pile of papers over to him. Keeping track of things in Quicken and Quickbooks, along with a spreadsheet for medical expenses, really saved us a lot of time. If you're reading this and have no way of tracking things, I would highly recommend making 2006 the year to start! It's amazing how much easier it made the process. We have two sole proprietorships and itemize our deductions, and being able to fill in the worksheets from our CPS in an hour and a half is great. I can't imagine how laborious the process would have been had we not had so much information right there at the click of a mouse.

1/1-1/29:
Groceries: $257.52 (goal = $300)
Dining: $136.02 (goal = $160)

The party today was very nice - relaxed, with lots of parents there that we knew. the kids had fun, and so did the adults.

DH spent some time this morning helping me bring all of my newsletter subscribers into a new newsletter program. We used to send them out through our own server, but I'm moving them over to DivaTribe's host (which isn't us). In trying to simplify technical life at home, we need fewer things going on with that server. I'll have to pay a bit to send out my mailings - I only get 1000 for free every quarter - but it won't cost too much. It will also be easier to deal with emails that bounce this way.

I won't have much to add for AdSense for my non-DivaTribe sites this month (I'm adding those totals to my challenge money). It might be $6 this month, if I'm lucky. I really don't do much with those sites, so to me, anything is a nice little bonus.

1/1-1/27:
Groceries: $257.52 (goal = $300)
Dining: $122.02 (goal = $160)

We went out to breakfast this morning and were pleasantly surprised when one of the others offered to treat us. We offered to pay, but he insisted. It was a very nice surprise.

Went to a potluck last night. We brought a layered bean dip and tortilla chips. We had refried beans and cheese already, so I bought some salsa, sour cream, avocados, and chips. It was easy to make, vegetarian, and yummy too.

DD's birthday is coming up. We have tickets to Swan Lake as a 'big' present for her birthday and mine, but we're going to do a low-key party for her and some friends. I'm planning on making cupcakes this year, and we're hoping to have the party outside at a park, if the weather will cooperate.

1/1-1/21:
Groceries: $230.25 (goal = $300)
Dining: $113.78 (goal = $160)