Jen's Blog

I had to go get DD a turtleneck to take on the trip. It isn't easy finding a turtleneck when all the stores are showing spring clothes. I managed to find one on clearance at Gymboree, of all places, for a very fair price. Heh - but we also walked out with a pair of jeans, a top and a pair of leggings. DD went from being a dress/skirt girl to a pants girl seemingly over night! I think these are the first pants I've bought for her new in quite a while. The leggings were in the clearance basket and were really cheap. The jeans and top had been marked down once but were still kind of expensive. Oh well. She's set now for pants, until she grows again. And then we can hit the consignment stores, and eBay.

Some of the frugal/money-wise things I did today -

*Skipped Starbucks while DD was at Spanish
*Returned a new carton of milk that was bad, instead of just pouring it down the drain and feeling like going to the store to return it was 'too much trouble'
*Used two coupons today that were for things I would have bought anyway

I might have yet another new student coming to see me. I spoke with her father this evening and they are going to give me a call back after he's had a chance to talk it over with his wife. Since I've added a student on Monday afternoon, I may as well see two students on that day. I was trying to limit my business to two days per week, but it seems I'm going to be at three days per week for at least the next month or so.

Groceries: $351.33
Restaurants: $100.28
Starbucks: $43.90
Total = $495.51

That is higher than it needs to be. DD and I both had birthdays in there, which accounts for slightly higher totals. While the restaurant total is high, it represents only three meals out all month, which is an improvement. One of those meals was my birthday dinner, and I don't feel bad about it. And part of that grocery shopping included food for DD's birthday dinner and birthday party. I don't normally buy sodas and such, and that can add up quickly.

The Starbucks total is for DH and me, and it could stand to come down. At $22 each per month, that's 7 or 8 coffee drinks each, or fewer drinks but more baked goods. There is room for a little bit of saving there. I don't want to get rid of my lattes entirely and at this point don't intend to, but setting a goal of no more than 6 for March would be a step in the direction of saving.

$500 for food and drinks. Yes, there is room for improvment there this month. The ski trip is going to cost us, food-wise, but I'll bring what I can and shop there for refrigerated items once we're there and see how well-equipped the condo is. I'm bringing my ground Starbucks coffee, so hopefully there'll be a coffee maker.

It pays to ask.

I got a very nice email back first thing this morning, explaining the error that was made on the part of the hospital and letting me know I will be refunded the money I should have received. That comes to a little over $300, so it was well worth the trouble to ask!

DH's freelance work has been busy this past month. One client alone will take care of our property taxes for the year, once that payment rolls in. That is a good feeling. Dh has been writing checks to me to put into savings, in our effort to build it back up to where we want it to be. It's getting there. I'll be getting an extra bit of money tomorrow too, with my new tutoring student coming.

This coming week is going to be expensive. We are actually taking a 4-day vacation!! Two of the days will be spent driving, but the other two days are ski days. I can hardly wait. This is through DH's work, and he has already paid for some of our expenses (condo that we're sharing with four other people, two days of lift tickets at a discounted price), but we still need to pay for DD's lift tickets/ski school, all of our rentals and food. I'll be packing up food to bring with us, but I know we'll be buying food there as well, both to cook at the condo and while we're out. I'm excited. I haven't been skiing in about ten years, and DH and I have never been together. It will be DD's first time. I can't say enough good things about DH's company. It does good work for the environment, and it treats its employees extremely well. Ideal, really.

The last vacation we took was in October of 1993, and we stayed for free in a house some friends of ours own in the mountains. The cost of that trip was basically gas to drive there and food for the week, and we would have had to buy groceries regardless, so really it was nearly a free vacation.

Our last gas bill was about half of the previous month's (about $64 versus $132). Shows how much it costs for us to run our gas fireplace and furnace. It's been much warmer lately compared to January. I'd like to think that dropping the thermostat from 68* to 66* during the day during the week has helped, too.

Is it this hard for everyone??

Here's my latest situation: the headache clinic that I go to does not take insurance, so I pay for my appointments myself and then submit claims to my insurance company. My insurance does cover these visits, which is great. Here's the glitch: the headache clinic is part of a hospital that is in my network. When I get statements from the insurance company letting me know how much they are covering, they always include a "negotiated discount" in their calculations...but the hospital does NOT pass that discount back to me, even though I paid it up front. So insurance cuts a check to the hospital, and then the hospital writes a check to me (which in and of itself seems weird, given that I'm the one being reimbursed, not the hospital).

I have emailed the business office director at the hospital under the advice of the nurse at the clinic, and will be following up with a phone call this week. So far, this amount adds up to around $300, and I would really like to have that money in my pocket! Somehow, it seems unfair that just because the headache clinic doesn't take insurance up front I end up paying more for covered services by an in-network provider.

My frugal plans for the day -

Eat all three meals at home. done
Get another load of laundry washed and hung to dry. didn't do
Get ebay items mailed (not frugal, but part of my decluttering/income from earlier in the week). done
Fill out Rx claim form - hopefully I'll get all but $20 back for a $163.90 Rx!! done

3 out of 4 isn't bad.

I got DD a cute speedo swimsuit for $11 today at Costco. It will be great for swim class.

A funny thing happened to me today. I gave myself permission to go out and treat myself...and found I didn't feel like spending money. It wasn't a guilt thing - it was more of a feeling that I'd rather do something besides spend money to treat myself. I wasn't even thinking of a big ticket spend-a-thon...maybe just a pedicure or something.

So what did I do instead? Spent a couple of hours outside in the glorious SUNSHINE, enjoying being warm for a change, after all of the rain we've had lately. DD and I just went out back and goofed off. It was fun, and I felt really good today.

We're going out to dinenr tonight for my birthday, and I'm looking forward to it. I need to decide where I want to go - haven't really given it much thought yet.

I have a new student coming this Monday, for help in geometry. Whether she'll come on a regular basis or not I don't know. DH is tutoring right now. He helps a husband and wife (mostly the husband) learn to do various things with their Mac. I think right now they're working with Flash. It's a bummer to have him at work all day and then have him gone again in the evening, but in the short-run it's good because it helps us build our savings back up to where we want it to be. We have a number in mind that we're shooting for. Once we get back to that point, we feel like we'll have a little more freedom to plan for a vacation, or do some small scale remodeling around the house.

We had leftovers for dinner this evening, and my in-laws brought dessert over to celebrate my birthday. That was nice. Now DD is asleep on the couch, and our dog is asleep on the floor below her. I told her she could fall asleep out here and I would carry her to bed later. She was having a hard time settling down, after having grandma and grandpa and an aunt here.

Sounds like DH is home, so I'm going to go.

My auctions ended at just under $30! One bidder has already paid, and the other two auctions went to one person, who has already asked what her total with shipping comes to. Excellent! I love buyers that are prompt to pay.

I took DD to the bookstore today, to spend some money she received in the form of gift cards for Christmas and her birthday. She still has about $12 left, for another trip. I didn't buy anything for myself. I was able to use our homeschooling discount - love it!

I accomplished all three goals. While at the library I picked up a few books that loked interesting with regards to homeschooling. They aren't actually hs'ing books - one is about raising a musical child, one is teaching American history through children's literature, and one is geography crafts. A fourth is about creative intellectuals - just grabbed it not knowing anything about it or its author (or even when it was published, lol).

We had Dutch babies (eggs, flour, milk, baked in the oven) for dinner, along with sliced apples. I was thinking of maybe chili or spaghetti but ended up choosing breakfast food. Sometimes that is extremely satisfying.

It was a no-spend day for me, but not for DH. He needed a new halogen desk lamp, and he picked up milk, mouthwash and cat litter while he was out this evening.

My eBay auctions (end tomorrow morning) are just shy of $24 this evening. Woo hoo - so glad I listed these three things, clothes that were still in good to like new condition that DD had outgrown.

Plans for the day -

Return books to the library
Go through the cupboards and freezer and see what meals I can pull together
Tutor one student (other one cancelled)

Right now we are planning on going out to eat on Thursday night, and Saturday night we are going to a dinner party. I have leftovers from last night that will work for dinner either tonight or tomorrow night. So I need to come up with three dinners to take us through Sunday evening. One night is going to be chili, as I know I have that here.

My auctions end tomorrow. They're up over $10 so far. Hopefully they'll all go up a bit more before they end tomorrow morning. I found a black leotard for DD in a tank style that was only about $8 including shipping. My PayPal account has always felt like found money - I basically use it for eBay purchases when DD needs something "new" (that really doesn't need to be new).

Tomorrow I will import the latest credit card statement into Quicken and see how our finances look year-to-date.

Edited to add that I just checked my auctions and they're now over $15. :-)

Spent more money today than I thought I might, but it was also a good day in that we ate homemade scones for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and mole enchiladas for dinner. Topped it off with Dreyers Tagalong cookie ice cream. YUM! I took DD out earlier in the day to look for new rain boots for her (got some, yea, and a pair of black flats for myself for about $7). As we were heading home, I was more than a little hungry and thought about where I could stop to get lunch to bring home, as DH had the day off. In the end, though, I went to the grocery store and got lunch fixings and some other splurges. $36 well spent, as it means we ate at home today for all three meals, and will have some treats at home instead of being tempted to go out.

Three-quarters of the way through February:
Groceries: $340.80
Restaurants: $46.37
Starbucks: $29.35

That grocery total is a bit higher due to a birthday dinner for 9 and party for roughly 20 for DD earlier in the month.

February 20th...2 more days on this month's cc cycle, 8 more days in the month. And four more days until my birthday. I'll be making one more trip to the grocery store, but I want to make sure that I take a good hard look at what is already here in the house beforehand. We went out for lunch today with a group of people from our UU church. It was about $16 for the three of us. We do this once a month, and it's usually fun. Today I am so tired though that I would rather have just stayed at home. Oh well. I was in bed from early Friday night until about 5:30 yesterday evening with a migraine, so today I am wiped out. If I'm lucky I'll be able to grab a nap today.

I used the dryer earlier this week, but by and large I'd say I've line dried over 90% of our laundry this month. That is a big improvement over my old habits of line-drying things that ought not be dried in the dryer, and using the clothesline on only the nicest of days. Having the drying rack indoors has really made a difference. I've also made the switch to washing nearly exclusively in cold water and haven't noticed any change in the cleanliness of our clothes.

I'm about halfway done with a new scarf that I'm knitting. It is soooo soft. I can't decide if I should try to sell it, or just keep it. I'll likely try to sell it, and if it doesn't sell after a few months, I'll take it down and keep it for myself, or keep it to give as a gift.

I've been keeping the heat down to 66* during the day during the week, and I don't think I've really noticed a difference. Sometimes I turn on the wall heater in the dining room while tutoring, but other than that DD and I seem to be fine. Well, she is - she runs warmer than me anyway.

Two of my three auctions have bids, at a total of $6.25 right now. Doesn't seem like much, but that was only on the first day. Auctions tend to be busiest in the final hour.

Have eaten dinner at home all week now, and I think tonight will be leftovers. Tomorrow night I am going to try making tofu mole, and corn.

I bought myself some Starbucks espresso roast ground coffee, to make here at home. Makes stopping there while I'm out (or making a special trip *just* to go there) less likely. We have an espresso maker here at home, as well as something just to froth milk (doesn't steam it, just whips air into it - a Christmas gift), so I can recreate my favorite latte at home if I take a few extra moments to do so.

I listed three clothing items that DD has outgrown on eBay (a leotard, a pair of jeans and a jean jacket). I also listed two more scarves that I made in my store at DivaTribe. We'll see what, if anything, sells. I started out my eBay auctions at $1, $1 and $3, respectively. The jean jacket is in new condition, as it was a gift and DD hardly wore it at all - maybe three times, if that. A shame. It's adorable. The scarves I made last November/December but never got them into the store, for whatever reason. I have five scarves listed now. If they were all to sell I'd gross about $80-$100. Subtract merchant fees and the cost of the yarn, and I still make what I consider a fair profit for a hobby.

I worked on my spreadsheet some more last night, and DH is going to add to it as well. I'm also going to add in some college money we have set aside for DD in a completely different account. Doing all of this ought to give us a nice view of what our money is doing over time.

I read about a similar idea in the book Your Money or Your Life (which I really liked). The idea there was to create a wall graph with two lines - the money you spend, and the money your investments bring in (not your regular income, just your investment income). When the second line meets the first, you're at your breakeven point. When investment income rises and stays above your expenses, you're financially independent! We, for the record, are not financially independent...yet.

Didn't go downtown after all. DD is sick and may in fact have chicken pox. I'm keeping an eye on her. So no money spent downtown, but I did go to the grocery store for soup, Vitamin C/echinacea for kids, etc. Oh well - money spent there was just a bit less than the money I made tutoring today, so it all works out if you look at it like that.

I am going to change slightly the spreadsheet I made yesterday. I'm going to add in my checking account balance as well, and create a separate line to show the growth of our savings for DD's college expenses.

Frugal things we did today -
Ate dinner at home (ate all meals at home, for that matter)
Baking blondies right now, for a treat to enjoy at home

Sort of frugal -
Took advantage of DH's employee discount to get ski clothes for DD (the way they fit, they ought to last two seasons, and then we can hand them down to friends who have a DD three years younger than DD)

I still need to set up that new share certificate with the credit union. I keep forgetting to do that.

Tuesday. I'll be taking DD downtown for Spanish, which means I'll find *myself* downtown. Lots of wonderful places to spend some money. Hmmmm...

I made a bracelet over the weekend and need a copper toggle clasp for it. I don't want to go to one of the bead stores to get one, however, because I never leave the bead store with only what I went in for. I was thinking I might try and sell the bracelet. We'll see.

I may have a new tutoring student. I lost one a couple of weeks ago (her school was offering free tutoring after school), but I was reluctant to fill her spot in case that didn't work out and they wanted to come back to me. I'm going to give this new family a call later today and see what their schedule looks like. If we can work out something, I'll start working with her.

I had my hair highlighted last November, and now I'm due for touch-ups, as well as a trim. I've been putting it off. Actually, I was all set to make an appointment when I found out our car might need work. I didn't want to incur the expense, not knowing what the car was going to cost. I don't know what I'm going to do now. Maybe I'll go ahead and make an appointment for next week.

I made an Excel spreadsheet today, listing out how much money we had in savings on the first of the month from 9/1/02 through 2/1/0. I added a line graph as well. It's interesting to see what the line has done as the months went by. I can see what a hit our finances took as we paid for our dog's three surgeries. I wouldn't change a thing, though, given we had the money and he would give his life for us if he thought we were in danger.

Anyway, my goal is to get that line to creep upwards month by month, year by year, even if it isn't by huge leaps and bounds.

Which reminds me - our credit union has a promotional 10 month (I think) savings ceritficate with a rate of 3.15%. I'm going to give them a call today and move some savings over into one of those. We have a 15-month certificate coming due in June. It will be nice to roll it over to a higher rate as soon as we can.

I made eight craisin scones and eight chocolate chip scones yesterday, so that we could have a treat yesterday afternoon, as well as a special family breakfast this morning. I froze 6 scones, so that we can bring them out next weekend.

DH is going to bring lunch to work one day a week. That will add up to an extra $16-$20 per month. Not a lot, but someting that will be easy to do, especially if we plan for it with leftovers. He's making raviolis this evening whle I'm at yoga, and they ought to make a good lunch for tomorrow. DD and I are going to have the two leftover slicees of homemade pizza from last night for lunch today.

The goal from here through the 22nd is to spend as little as possible. I want to think twice before I make any purchases, no matter how small they might be.

Edited to add that today was a no-spend day for me.

Groceries: 223.90
Restaurants: 30.10
Starbucks: 16.90

That's where we stand about halfway through February. We spent over $100 at Trader Joe's today, and that ought to last us at least 7-10 days, maybe longer if we have leftovers here and there.

I'm curious to see our electric bill - wondering if the six or so loads of exclusive line-drying will make any noticeable difference. It's wet and rainy now, so I will use the rack indoors to line dry some things, but I am not sure if I will be able to line dry exclusively this week. Some is better than none, however.

DH gets paid every two weeks, and he writes a check to me every other paycheck, to cover bills. The 401k deductions have started, and that means $150 less in the check I get each month. So now we learn to get by on $150 less per month. Not the end of the world, and it's nice to be saving for retirement.

We've decided to tap into our medical reimbursement funds about once every three months or so. It will be nice to get that money back. Even though it is coming out of DH's paychecks, it will feel like "found" money as we are not including it in our budget as income.

I think I'll be able to borrow some ski bibs and snow boots for DD for when we go skiing next month. (DH's company subsidizes a trip for employees.) We'll get her a jacket using DH's discount. She already has fleece mittens, fleece and knit hats and clothes that will layer well. DH and I need to try on our gear and make sure things still fit and don't need any repairs. It's been ten years since I've skiied! I'm looking forward to getting out there again.

Our taxes owed are a bit higher than we anticipated. Bummer. But we have the money and DH has had a good deal of freelance work lately, so we'll be OK. In income news, I have a couple of scarves listed in my store, have a new one to photograph and list, and am planning on getting a few more things made up before too long. Every little bit helps. My mom is knitting up an intricate cardigan sweater with all sorts of cable and diamond patterns in it, to list in the store.

Went to Starbucks this morning, which makes twice for me this week.

Expensive day, unless insurance kicks in. $75 for physical therapy, $10.16 for three skeins of yarn (on sale - woo hoo!), $1.00 for a cup of coffee. I submitted a claim for last month's PT, but I haven't heard yet from the insurance company, so I don't know how much, if any, it will cover for these appointment.

I followed through on my dinner plans for last night and tonight. It was nice to have the meals planned, and nice to be able to eat out of the pantry.

We have twelve days left on this credit card cycle, and I'd really like to string together a fair number of no-spend days on it. I know I'll be going to the grocery store at least once or twice in there, and I have physical therapy next week, but I'll see what I can do to limit the rest of the spending.

In looking through my cupboards and refrigerator, it turns out that I have dinner for at least two nights lurking in there. Tonight will be grilled sandwiches and homemade applesauce; tomorrow night will be chili and cornbread. I still need to get to the store for more milk for DD, but it's nice to try and whittle away at what's hiding here at home before loading up on more groceries.

1. Made fresh-squeezed orange juice using oranges from our tree.
2. Line dried DD's sheets plus a couple of throw rugs.
3. Ate/will eat all three meals at home.

I didn't get to the grocery store today, and I still need to plan out a few meals so that I don't go there completely clueless. We're having french toast tonight because I have some homemade bread from my mom that needs to be eaten, and we have enough eggs to do french toast. The fresh OJ will complement it nicely.

I did have my $2.60 nonfat latte today, however. While DD was in her hour-long Spanish class I did something I used to do quite often: I went to Starbucks with my laptop and enjoyed the solitude amongst the comings and goings of other people. Something about that is very soothing to me. Don't know why, but I'm glad I did it today.

Thought I'd check on our spending 1/4th of the way through the month:

Groceries: $98.27 (some of that is from DD's party)
Restaurants: $30.10 (out to dinner with out of town friends Saturday)
Starbucks: $5.50 (that was DH)

I don't see us spending four times those amounts for the entire month, but it is good to see the numbers in black and white anyway. I bought things I wouldn't normally buy - lots of snacks, candy, Hansens sodas, bottled water - so while it is from the grocery store, if I had to categorize it I'd call it entertainment.

I think with DH's next paycheck we'll see money taken out for the 401k, and we'll have a better idea of what our new take-home pay really is.

1. Skipped Starbucks.

2. Spent $13 on seeds, a six-pack of lettuce and mini pots for DD to grow herown herbs. (Now, this is only frugal if I actually get everything to grow, remember to water it and thus keep it alive, and use what grows in our meals.)

3. Ate lunch at home even though DD and I were both hungry while we out at lunchtime.

4. Dinner will be at home too - DH wil fix something for himself and DD while I'm at yoga, and he makes sure there are leftovers waiting for me when I get home.

5. Over the weekend I line dried all of the wash that I did.

DD's party was yesterday and it went well. Spent more than I needed to for snacks, but now we have leftovers that will get eaten.

The car ended up costing us about $171 when I took it in. Bummer. But at least it should be all fixed now. Should.

Today we have a birthday party to attend (will have lunch there), and then for dinner I'll pull something together. We went out to dinner last night with out of town friends who came for DD's birthday and had a good time.