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.

I mentioned this in the frugal forum, but I bought a drying rack earlier this week. yesterday I was able to do a medium size and a large size load of dark luandry without using the dryer at all. Are there any tricks to making blue jeans feel soft after being lined-dried? If so let me know. DH and I are also wondering if we'll notice a drop in our electrical bill if we skip using the dryer for all or most of the month. At the very least it's an environmentally-friendly thing to do, and that has value in and of itself.

I've started inputting our budget into Quicken. Last December DH and I worked on our budget, so I have all of the numbers right in a spreadsheet. It'll be nice to have the report available that compares our budget with how we're actually doing, broken down by category even. I get a rough idea of how we're doing if savings goes up or down, but it's nice to know what areas we're doing better in or wrose incompared to our budget.

DD's birthday party is tomorrow. The cake was $29.95 - that was the big splurge. The only thing left to buy are snacks, and since it's after lunch I only need to worry about snacks like pretzels, cut-up vegetables, and so on. Shouldn't be very expensive at all.

Today I'm putting claim forms in the mail for a prescription that was $106.90, and three physical therapy appointments that came to $270. I know I'll get $86.90 back for the prescription, but I don't know what I'll get back for the PT.

I'm thinking about buying myself a $10 drying rack to increase the drying space available here for laundry. Even when it's beautiful outside, I simply don't have enough line space to hang up an entire load of laundry.

Thought I'd compare money spent at grocery stores versus money spent at restaurants for January:

Grocery stores: $326
Restaurants: $131

Wow. Especially considering how many meals each total represents. We could shave off one nice meal ($20-$30) and buy quite a lot of nice groceries instead. Instead of going out for sub sandwiches with DD and DH (at a cost of about $16) I could buy fixings, make some pesto, find a geat bread, and probably get two or three lunches out of it. This is where my laziness factor comes in.

Something for me to think about.

And just for fun...
Starbucks: $29.55

Only one trip to Starbucks this week - I'm doing very well on that goal thus far this year. :-) DH is too.

He and I have talked about trying to leave stores without buying anything we hadn't planned on buying. We're both working on that, figuring that if we cut down on the impulse spending/buying things we like but don't necessarily need, it'll be good for our savings and our clutter-control.

Made another trip to the Goodwill today to drop off a bunch of stuff. Old tote bags, clothes, things taking up room in our closets that we just don't need or want anymore. It's always amazing that we can takes bags and bags of things to donate, and then within months do it all over again. I think it takes time, fo me, to let go of things that at one time were sentimental. I am slowly learning that the memory doesn't leave just because I give away the bag my aunt gave me when I went to college, but haven't used in at least seven years. ;-)

Spent another $16 on drinks today for the upcoming birthday party, as well as for when my parents and DH's parents are here for a birthday dinner. Both sets of grandparents are coming to the house to have a dinner with DD. We did this last year, and it was a lot of fun. DD gets some special family time, and so do the grandarents.

Total spending for the party (10 kids total will be there, plus some of their parents) is up to about $60. Still need to take care of snacks, a cake and DD's gift.

I am happy to say that sales in my online consignment store are starting to increase, slowly but surely. I may have a business here yet. That's good for me, and even better for the women I'm representing. I've had one glitch in terms of shipping an item, but basically the store has been running pretty smoothly in its first seven months.

I have lots of jewelry listed but would love to be able to list more clothing, handbags, cards and such. I'd like to round out the offerings and not look like solely a jewelry site.

This is a pretty big deal for me, as I run really cold, but I turned down our programmable thermostat from 68* to 66* during the day. I figure if I'm freezing I can manually turn up the heat, but otherwise I won't be heating up the house quite so much, and hopefully we'll see it reflected in our energy bills. I've also made the switch to washing clothes in cold water, so that's got to help as well.

For a no-spend day that turned into a must-spend day, I'm happy to say it was the least painful kind possible. I bought exactly what I needed to and spent only the money I planned on spending. No extra stops, no extra purchases. In fact, Dd and I stopped at the bank where she has a savings account and deposited $33.50 into her account - all change we'd rolled up from her change jar. The teller was very sweet with DD and gave her a couple of lollipops along with her deposit receipt.

I downloaded my credit card statement and updated Quicken. I'm not 100% comfortable with Quicken yet, but I'm getting there, and I am determined to make it work and not be intimidated by it. I know it's going to be great to click a button and see where we've been spending our money.

Yawn - almost 1 a.m. here, and I can't sleep. What fun.

Today won't be a no spend day after all. The kitties need food, and I told someone I would mail something to them this week. Since I can't do it Th or Fr, I'll have to go to the post office tomorrow. Oh well. I still won't go crazy with spending just because of those two necessities.

DD's Spanish class was downtown today, and it was so tempting to take that 45 minutes or so to go down, window shop ,maybe get a cup of coffee. So tempting, especially given I'm in a real funk today. But, I remembered my goal of having no spending days today and tomorrow, and just went home instead. I don't use retail therapy very often anymore - used to quite a lot - but now and then it is still appealing.

I think I'll make myself some tea to drink while tutoring and just take it easy this afternoon.

I spent another $20 or so for DD's party. That took care of a craft to do, goodie bags, heart-shaped balloons, fuzzy pencils to go in the goodie bags, and stickers. All that's left is food, drinks, cake and a gift. I think. I have the supplies on hand already for the kids to do one other craft, and I'm not planning on doing any games so we don't need any prizes.

I need to figure out a way to bring food and drinks along with us this Thursday and Friday so we don't break the bank when it comes to eating. We're staying with friends Thursday night, so I think I'll pack a cooler, and plan on bringing it inside so we can out our blue ice in their freezer andour food and drinks in their frig overnight.

Some days I wish I didn't even have to think about money.

I spent about $71 today on groceries, plus $7 yesterday on milk. We're going out of town for two night later on in the week, which means more money spent on food, gas and fun. But it will be fun.

Among other things I found "mole rojo" at Trader Joe's. We're big fans of mole here and I can't wait to give this a try. I'm going to see if I can come up with a tofu enchilada that uses mole. A friend of mine gave me a green chile/tofu enchilada recipe that ought to adapt well. I don't know why it's called mole rojo as oppsed to regular mole, but I guess we'll find out.

No Starbucks today, and we having leftovers for dinner, so no going out to eat tonight either.

My credit card cycle closes tomorrow, so Wednesday I'll import the latest statement into Quicken and then go through and assign categories to everything.

We have several birthdays coming up, so I need to get thinking about inexpensive but thoughtful gifts. DD has 4 friends with birthdays between now and 2/24, and then my dad's birthday is in March. My birthday is next month too, as is DD's. November through February is a whirwind around here, between the holidays and birthdays in the family!

I stuck to my goal regarding trips to Starbucks again this week, I'm please to report. Dh has set a similar goal for himself - in fact, we did this independently of one another, so it was kind of funny when we were talking about it and realized we both been thinking along the same lines.