September is traditionally the most beautiful month here on the North Coast of California and this year was no exception. However, looks like the temperature is going below 50 the next couple of nights so we need to harvest our butternut squash.

We have decided to not waste our time on tomatoes next year. The time, effort and water used to try to eak out a few is just not worth it. Besides FIL grows them 1.5 hours south of us and we get plenty once he starts harvesting.

In fact this weekend DH made salsa and jalapeno poppers from his dad's garden bounty. Earlier in the week I had made roasted tomato sauce for a chicken cacciatore dish, enough for our elderly neighbors next door too.

Has anyone noticed that 3 paycheck months don't actually seem like the extra check comes that month, but the month before or after? This month it was before and I was able to save $2200.00 this month.

Also our renters owed us the summer rent money since they were out working all summer. Another $1300 now and another $1900.00 by October 1st.

Then yesterday YD told me that when my SIL gets his re-enlistment bonus they are paying us back the money they owe us. So that is a nice surprise. I told her I would rather they just save it and we won't buy them Christmas presents this year, but she said no, they want to pay us back. Why is it so hard to take money back from my kids that I loaned them??

So the big news is that DH has agreed on a frugal year with a goal of saving a fairly large amount of money by 9/1/2010. My two older sisters and I have challenged one another to an entire year of buying only what we need, no wants... Of course I had to let him buy the gun safe at Costco (actually I encouraged him to buy it) since we really should have a gun safe now that we have a granddaughter visit (not that we keep loaded guns around, but you get the idea). It will also be a place to keep our important papers as it has a few shelves in it too.

A Kohl's opened up yesterday in our old Mervyn's at the mall. We did not go, nor do I actually plan to since I am embarking on a no spend year. Mmmmm..... that doesn't start until Thursday October 1st and I do have a doctor's appointment in town tomorrow after work.....NO!! I don't need anything. I can make it a year without new clothes or shoes or socks or under garments and so can DH!

My one exception to this rule will be yarn. I started Ally this over the weekend:
http://www.petitepurls.com/Fall09/fall2009_ladybug.html

But I will only buy yarn for a specific project that I am starting immediately like this ladybug coat. I hope to have it done by Christmas and hopefully before.

This month's spending:
Food/eating out: 431.89 (eek a little high except we have been feeding our neighbors too at least once a week, 2 meals out).
Gasoline: $327.80 (we both filled up over the weekend, mine will last 2 weeks).
Household: 788.47 which includes cleaning supplies, garden spending, pets and the above gun safe.

I ordered up Direct TV which will be installed Thursday October 1st. That is going to save us $17.00 a month over cable with more High def channels, more normal channels and fox business (that we don't get now, it was going to cost more, which motivated me to finally call Direct TV) so I can watch Dave Ramsey and stay motivated (I love personal finance stories).

Have your husband, partner, significant other or friend color and cut your hair for you. I waited for DH to get home from work Saturday morning to color my hair. He has never done it before and the last time I did it myself, when I washed it out I still had gray, so I figured he would do a better job. He did. He then trimmed it off for me too. Savings: $60-80. I used Nutriese Garnier Golden medium brown. It was a shade darker with a little more pizazz than my own hair. I found a coupon this week in the Sunday paper and it is on sale at Rite-Aid so I will be purchasing my next box for $3.99.

Now I gotta go find some change to pick up!

My Valentine's Day was uneventful except for 1 big thing! DH was out of town working, but he called to say he wished he could be home to make me a nice dinner. He then told me how much he appreciated how hard I was trying to stick to the budget and get our savings back up.

Now maybe this doesn't sound that big, but most of the time I feel like a receipt nazi, hounding him for every receipt, constantly talking about saving, saving, being frugal until I'm sure he would like to gag me! So it was nice to hear he actually appreciates it!

I had an almost no spend week. I spent $3.00 at a back sale for The Boys and Girls Club being held at work (hospital). I bought cupcakes for a few coworkers. They were 2/$1.00.

Otherwise, we have not grocery shopped now for 8 days, but I'm sure DH will stop into Winco tomorrow. I am certainly rubbing off on him. He took out a package of leftover noodles and cream sauce and a package of turkey Italian sausage and cooked it up along with the rest of the asparagus and a red bell pepper leftover from the week. It was pretty tasty even though the frozen cream/noodles mixture was leftover from a seafood dish that the shrimp and scallops were eaten out of. Ha Ha. Yes that's how cheap we are!

My lunch for the next 2 days is homemade mac and cheese with broccoli I fixed for myself Saturday night. I made a pitcher of iced tea and Crystal Light Raspberry lemonade that I mix half and half and take to work along with a container of milk and cereal for breakfast, nuts for snacks and an individual container of applesauce.

I am going to a luncheon on Thursday, which will cost me $12.50 and a couple of cans of food. The speaker is the chairman of Operation Homefront, a charity that is near and dear to my heart.

I have not spent any of my $100.00 allowance this month, so it will come out of that envelope!

I rolled more coins today with the help of my older sister (visiting from Salem, OR) and my mother, who lives nearby. I definitely felt like my mother's daughter, who couldn't come over until she took her clothes off the line outside!

Ended up with $109.50 and have dollar coins left to roll, but need to get some rolling papers from the bank. Note to self: As DH to check with the bank tomorrow. The bag is so heavy I could not pick it up since it included $54.00 in pennies!

This would have been a total no spend week, but my doctor called and between the 2 of us, decided I needed a few more days of Bactrim. Otherwise, no spend week!

DH was out of town again for a few days, splurged and stayed at the Motel 6 one night. I deposited $138.00 in rolled change yesterday, along with my $100.00 allowance for the month. I discovered over $50.00 in my wallet so I figured that could do for the month.

I will be transferring over $3000.00 into ING today to savings. Woohoo. It's amazing what a mind set, a real job with benefits, sticking to a plan and having DH on board can do!

I am starting to feel like the kindegartner who didn't go to preschool and see to be picking up every bug at work. This week I was home on Thursday with a stomach bug. Luckily I was able to return Friday.

Found out my oldest brother is having a heart procedure (angiogram maybe) down at the SF VA. This finally also hit DH between the eyes (10 years older than us) and we are committed to exercise and eating less (we eat right just a lot!). I have been using our treadmill, DH has not. So looks like the treadmill is going to get more use. So instead of couch potatoes we will hopefully be treadmill zucchinis!

so I can't come up with a catchy title. I figured I would write something up before I hunker down with the TV, DVR, some Kleenex and OJ, hot tea.... My cold is full-blown and DH is out of town.

I spent no money all week. The Costco soup DH bought came in handy, I ate the last of it Thursday night.

Thursday was potluck at work for a coworker who was leaving. I managed to make ravioli and sauce, took it in to work in the crockpot, turned on low until lunch. I received rave reviews, which is a total crackup because the raviolis I am totally embarrassed to say were WAAAYYYY past their use by date in the freezer. However, the delicious sauce, based on a jar of Trader Joe's vodka sauce covered up any lingering freezer burn taste. I'm sure the last of the fresh parmesan cheese we had on hand helped too.

There was about 2 bites left in the crockpot at the end of lunch break.

I didn't use all the sauce though and ate the rest last night with some more frozen raviolis that were NOT past their due date that are in the freezer too.

So DH left Wednesday for a business trip and drove the "back way" across rural Northern California, managed to hit an icy patch in the road causing some damage to the truck. Luckily my procrastination has paid off. I had not yet raised the deductible like I planned on. We have not had a claim that was "our fault" in 21+ years. Boy do I feel old writing that. 21 years, most of you have probably not even had auto insurance for 21 years.

OD called me from her bed in her new bedroom this morning at 7:00 a.m. The sun was coming up! She "locked in her rate" at 5.75% for 30 years, which is not maybe what she could have gotten now, but she is happy with it, so I did not say anything. She plans on living in her new home for as long as she can see into the future. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a lovely master suite. DH and my bedroom is on the first floor so as we age, we don't have to climb stairs (of course we have about 20 to go before that is a concern).

I have not been this sick with a cold for a long time so my plan is to do nothing but relax and watch TV (DVR movies) and drink juice and tea and blow my nose. If I feel energetic, I may knit, but probably not!

So after my last post I did order my credit report and guess what, there is a "ding" on it. It was a credit agency in NC for Progress Energy Carolinas. Well I live in California, but my SIL and YD and granddaughter all live in NC. So I called them and asked if that name was familiar. My SIL said it was their old water company when they lived in an apartment, before they bought their house.

The report was made October 2008. My DH and I did cosign for YD who was 19 with no income and my SIL was in Iraq when we moved her back to start college and await his homecoming. SIL immediately ordered up his credit report and the "ding" was not on his report. YD was ordering hers up next and I have not heard from them yet on that. They insisted they paid up everything when they moved to their house.

The interesting thing is I would not known if the whole HSBC letter had not come and I felt motivated to find out what my limit was because I blogged about it. (By the way, my credit limit was also $10,500).

Good idea Ima, I may give them a call. First I need to find my credit cards in my file cabinet. I always throw new ones in there that I don't use, but yes I have decided to make a small purchase occasionally to keep them opened.

So my advice, it's a good time of year to order up your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com

It costs $7.95 to get your FICO score, which I did not do, but free to get your report from the 3 different reporting agencies. Unfortunately I could only get one because I have a hyphenated name and the other 2 companies would not give it to me online.

What new club? Well I received a letter on Friday from HSBC saying they were lowering our credit limit. We have not used the credit card in 3 years or so. I have to say they lowered it to $300.00 which is really low considering our limit was $10,500.

Oops just reviewed DH credit report and it says it is closed. I must have had one in my name. Something tells me it is time to order my free credit report and get some things organized and figured out.

I watched Clark Howard's first show on Headline News or CNN or one of those. He did say that lowering our credit limit will effect our FICO score. Normally I would not care, but with interest rates so low I am considering refinancing our house since it is currently a 7/1 ARM from ING Direct with 5 years to go.

I think it's time to get off the computer and start getting some financial records organized!

Frugal list for the weekend:
1. Breakfast leftover recipe from below, frozen and reheated in microwave both Saturday and Sunday.
2. Homemade chicken soup made from leftover roast chicken carcass, carrots, potatoes, the last of the celery, onion and swiss chard from my mother's garden (2 day process).
3. DH trimmed my hair this morning.
4. I did my own waxing...
5. Rented 3/$3.00 movies that are not new releases, but we had not seen.
6. Bought a can of frozen OJ instead of a carton.
7. Received a $3.00 off coupon for next Safeway visit when buying #6. Promptly went in and used it to buy a 4-pack of Skinny Cow cones that I passed up when buying the OJ because I thought they were too expensive, $4.50 down to $1.50! Usually I forget I have a coupon so glad I went right back in and used it.
8. DH split a pack of turkey lunch meat from Costco and vacuumed sealed the second package so it would not go bad before we ate it up.
9. Spent $20.00 on a turkey for Thanksgiving which is what we are contributing towards family dinner at the in-laws.
10. Had steak, roasted rosemary potatoes and carrots/cauliflower for dinner with enough steak leftover for tomorrow. Steak from freezer.
11. Treated doggies with Frontline bought on line for way cheap in bulk that we drew up in a syringe ourselves.

French Toast Casserole (great for making the night before Thanksgiving or Christmas for easy pop in the oven breakfast).
1 pound italian/french bread cut in cubes
8 ounces cream cheese (I use that low fat neufatschel cheese)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional (I would use almonds if using almond extract, but have not tried it)
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Place 1/2 of bread cubes in 9 x 13 greased pan. Microwave cream cheese until melted. Stir in half of the sugar and the extract. Pour this mixture over the bread cubes (or dab it around). Sprinkle nuts over cheese layer. Top with remaining cubes of bread. Beat the eggs, milk, cinnamon and melted butter. Pour over bread cubes. Let sit overnight in fridge or freeze at this point. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Serve with syrup, fruit or powdered sugar.

NOTE: If frozen, take out of freezer night before, then bake as usual. Leftovers also freeze well, reheating in microwave in individual squares.

Enjoy!

So DH bought 4 pairs of Wolverine DuraShocks aabout 10 years ago thinking they were slippers, for my daughters and I for Christmas one year (we all wear the same size shoe). The girls hated them and promptly handed them over to me. The most comfortable shoe I had ever worn. Well my 4th pair is finally starting to look pretty shabby. I had an appointment and decided to wear my black slip on naturalizers. I was sitting and realized they felt a little funny on the sole of my foot, I took the shoe off turned it over and low and behold a hole! I checked the other and sure enough one on the right shoe too!

Time to buy new shoes. I hate buying shoes, hate, hate, hate it. DH needed a break and decided to go with me. Ugh, the cute ones slipped on my ankle. Another was just ugly. Another was too tight in the top of the foot area and slipped on my ankles. I finally ended up with two pairs of leather ballet slippers and a pair of clogs because I was sick of the slipping on my ankle. DH pointed out clogs would not slip on my ankle, why didn't I try a pair?

The older I get the more I need comfortable shoes, so what can I say, 3 pairs of Clarks for $169.42 and that was with a 20% off discount. Ugh. Hopefully I can go another 5 years or so since I can still wear the Wolverines and the naturlizers around the house.

Onward to Costo where I exchanged the jeans for a "short" pair since they were just too long and picked up an additional brown pair since I have been offered the supervising position of my current job, which means I have to leave my house and drive the few miles to the local hospital and work "in-house". Double ugh! So I am "trying it out" and will work 3 days a week for a few months to figure out if I can committ to it and if my body can stand working so much. Luckily my boss is very understanding about it and if it doesn't work out I will go back to my contract position. But with times being what they are I think I really need to give it a go. The health insurance and retirement would be a nice thing to have (well theoretically anyway!).

Gas was $3.6999 a gallon yesterday and was down 4 cents today when DH filled out the truck.

It was so cold that I stopped at a local coffee drive-through and got a latte' but I have gift certificates so it cost me a dollar in a tip.

Today DH invited his parents, his brother and SIL from out of town and SIL's mother all to brunch tomorrow along with an additional brother. So we went to Safeway (since our usual Costco and Winco are 15 miles away) and spent 56.61 on brunch items and a $10.00 bottle of wine. Oh yeah, that's why we rarely shop at Safeway.

So spending log:
10/10 Gottschalks shoes -169.42
Gottschalks, Columbia fleece zip jackets-$51.46 (29.99 x 2 x .20 discount + tax) DH and I got new ones.
Costco - 68.95, (lunch meat, milk, avocados, bottle of pinot grigio, an additional pair of pants, 2.5 pounds cheddar Tillamook, and tub of salad lettuce.
Costco - Toyota Camry fill-up 53.00
Coffee - $1.00 tip

10/11 - Safeway 56.51
Costco - Truck fill-up $73.00 (DH estimate, too cold to go dig the receipt out of the truck)

Brunch menu:
French toast casserole
Clark's quiche
Sausage potato Casserole
Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
Raspberry Almond Coffeecake (substituting blackberries grown wild locally).

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-Almond-Coffeecake/Det...

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sausage-Potato-Casserole-2/Deta...

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Clarks-Quiche/Detail.aspx

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/LEMON-POPPY-SEE...

DH is making 2 quiches, one as the recipe calls for and substituting venison sausage for the ham. The other one with broccoli and sausage.

Spending log:
10/04: Lunch out $21.00 (oh yeah that's why we don't eat out much, but is was yummy!)
10/04: Costco - $108.70, (what?? oh yeah, 2 extra bags of puppy food for the rescue group out front, new pair of jeans,then the usual food purchases).

10/06: Safeway- $5.00 or so.

10/08: Safeway - $15.00 or so.
Where are those receipts??

Anyway so I already quit the new job. I was using the mouse too much and my back and right shoulder were so bad I knew there was no way I could continue the job. I'm not 30 anymore and my body does not like sitting at a computer for 8 hours using a mouse intermittently.

However, my supervisor at first job is leaving so there will probably be more regular transcription, which is a bit easier at this point. Voice response is not quite there yet. Well okay maybe there for perfect dictators, but mumblers and stumblers, you might as well just type it yourself.

Okay I know things are bad. My brother and his family are not going to Mexico for Thanksgiving for the first time in 7 years. They cannot afford it.

My middle daughter asked for a raise in her contract after 7 years at the same rate for a group of docs and not only did they refuse, they only want to pay for keystrokes, not what prints out on the page. I may be talking in a foreign language to some, but there computer programs that use short-cuts for transcribing, such as typing "tp" and "the patient" prints out on the page. She has decided to give up her flexible lifestyle and get a "real" job. Luckily 911 dispatchers make decent wages and she has 3 years experience.

She passed all the testing and was offered a conditional job (based on passing lie detector, fingerprinting, etc) right when we found out we were having an addition to the family. She stupidly passed up the job knowing she would want to stay in NC for an extended period of time like I did. Of course she is kicking herself now. Should have taken the job and asked for a week off and it would probably have been granted.

OD was at her new job for 2 months when new granddaughter was born. When hired, she told the docs (she is an ultrasound tech) what she wanted a week off for her first niece's birth. What could they say, they are perinatologists..... of course she got the week off.

Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, right?

DH killed a buck last weekend so between that one and the one SIL got last week, our freezer is full. You can only take 5 pounds of dry ice on an airplane, so he could not take that much venison home, but he took what he could.

Okay the doorbell just rang, thank goodness the dogs were in the back yard and not in the house. Second time today a little boy has arrived at my door selling something. First was a raffle ticket, I gave a buck for that. This time I don't want that Boy Scout popcorn, but it was the cute little boy across the street so I just gave him $5.00 in lieu of the yucky popcorn. Trying to eat low carb anyway! Time to stop answering the door!

First spending:
10/1-gas fillup for truck $85.16 Costco
10/1-prescriptions $124.16 (asthma inhalers, migraine pain pills)

10/02-Grocery store for tea, sugar cubes and cream for our coffee, estimate 10.00 since DH left this morning to hunt and I forgot to tell him it's a new month and we are keeping track of everything again.

So I have a new job. My current contract has been a bit slow in paying and I think it's time for back up income. So I applied on Monday and by Thursday I was training. I guess my testing went pretty well. It will be interesting to see how much I make. It is editing per line (medical records). I have not done this before, so as long as it is more than an office job, I will be happy. Besides it's better than leaving the house every day and having the costs incurred with working outside the home. It will take a good month for me to get my speed to optimum.

Our new checks came for US Bank today. DH feels like he doesn't need a separate account for groceries anymore. I am not sure how this is going to work, but I am willing to try it. Since we are both being pretty frugal and are committed to it, hopefully it will work. We should know by the first of the year and can always open another one if we feel we need to.

I am going to get back on YNAB which went totally haywire with me being in NC for 6 weeks. Starting back up today.

My computer is having memory issues, it's very annoying and is starting to freeze up. Using the internet seems to really suck it up. So I have a computer guy coming next week to work on it. Luckily that is tax deductible since I am self-employed.

Anyone know? I still have her frugal gardening site in my favorites, but there has been nothing since October 2007 posted and nothing here.

Settling back into life. Made a huge casserole (will we ever be able to NOT make a huge casserole) with pasta, the last of the homemade tomato sauce from FIL's garden last year, nonfat ricotta and low fat mozzareela and some leftover roasted veges along with turkey italian sausage. I ended up giving a bunch to my mother. So it ended up being two dinners for DH and I and 2 lunches for me.

Today I am making a crockpot dish from the crockpot365.blogspot site. Mongolian beef. I am using the linked recipe since I did have Hoison sauce in the frig.

DH is being very cooperative with my frugal/healthy cooking (well okay healthy for us). I am making a brown rice pilaf to go with the beef and steamed cauliflower. I made nonfat milk instant choco pudding last night so we will have that for dessert.

I cut up a small watermelon for snacking, but need to run to the store today to get lunch meat for DH's lunch. He normally eats out lunch every day so this is a huge change for him. Safeway is running their deli meat in California for $4.99 a pounds, well a few of them anyway including turkey, which is what I will be purchasing.

Payroll work is finished for the day, the front is watered, dinner is in the crockpot, time to get back up and start cleaning. Being gone for 6 weeks means dusting and mopping are needed desperately even though DH did pretty good on keeping up with house pick up and sweeping doggy hair.

Beautiful sunny Northern Coastal California day!

Okay one of the biggest events of life has happened, we enjoyed it (probably a little too much) and it's time to get back to financial reality.

I spent 6 weeks in North Carolina enjoying my new granddaughter and spending way too much money (rented a house on the sound side and another on the beach side of the outer banks, rented a car, tried to economize on food, but did eat out some.


The sunsets in North Carolina were beautiful.


DH flew out twice because he was convinved the baby was going to come early so he had to fly home and then back a week later. Okay he didn't HAVE to, but how could he miss the birth of his first grandchild?



Our older daughters came to. It was wonderful. Yes it's true, this 6 day old baby girl smiled responsively.



The first thing I did when I got home was download and balance our checking accounts and AMEX account. I paid all our bills on line. DH would call and tell me what had come in the mail. He is worthless on a computer, so that was the easiest.

Next thing... clean the master bathroom. Nothing further needs to be said. Luckily DH is deer hunting so I have 5 days to reoriente myself to Pacific Standard Time. I woke up the at 4:30 this morning, which was better than the 3:30 a.m. the day before. Trying to stay up past 8:00 p.m. is tonight's challenge.

So for the rest of the year... no spending, well except for Walgreen's for photos. If you order online by tonight and put "half" in the coupon code box, your photos are half price, but you must spend at least $10.00. I had over 200 photos to print.

of California... over 70 degrees today. And what was I doing? Running errands in town. Went to lunch with DH, took a thank you gift (brownie bites from Costco) to DH's insurance agent who helped me get his Cal-Osha Injury Prevention Plan done.

Then I went to the fabric store to find something to make latest Ally quilt more girly. I found some lavender flannel gingham to put in between the rows. I used a 50% off coupon to get the backing for the quilt in the last post. I am spluring and having that quilt professionally quilted by a fabulous artist who uses a machine, but she is very good with the machine!



Tomorrow is a sock knitting class I plan to go to, but in the meantime, we have a dinner invite at our neighbor's house.

Today is the last day to open an Ameritrade account and get your bonus $100.00 after a year with minimum $50.00 deposit each month. I am still trying to decide whether to do it. I am considering actually opening them for my three daughters too. That would be $200.00 a month. It would be Christmas presents for them, which is a little more than I normally spend for them, but it might be a good idea to encourage them to save.

Mmmmmm what to do, what to do? All three already have accounts at ING.

First it was the freezer, then Friday morning I had a french toast casserole that had sat in the refrigerator overnight. I turned the oven on, stuck the casserole in, turned on the timer for 30 minutes and went back to work. 30 minutes later.... the oven is still cold. Great! Luckily it worked the night before when I made swiss steak and a batch of healthy not fat oatmeal cookies.

I passed off the casserole to a friend who doesn't like to cook and who's two older kids are home from college this week. They called this morning to say thank you.

In the meantime, with trying to regain my lost skills, I dug out a half made quilt, set up my ironing board, turned on my iron, waited a few minutes and started to iron the slightly wrinkled quilt squares to get started on the borders. Well my iron starts spitting out some gritty stuff while water came dripping out the bottom!

Great, so that's the freezer, the oven and now my iron all in one week. I hope that's it for a while.

After reviewing irons at Amazon and a couple of other places, apparently all irons need to be replaced 4-5 years as they all start this "spitting out water" problem. Ugh.

DH called from Costco, they no longer have the Rowenta we saw there, but a Sharp Steamer. My MIL volunteered to go get the Rowenta that is on sale at Joann Fabrics and DH will pick up on his way home.

Okay at least I don't have to go into town today! But I do guess I have to clean house and do laundry instead of sew until DH gets home from work!

Oh and the repair man will be here Monday between 8-12 to see if the oven can be repaired. I really didn't want to buy another oven until we remodel our kitchen. Our cooktop and oven are separate. We just dodged getting a new cooktop when DH took a paper clip (unwound) to the place the gas comes out. Now our cooktop works better than it has in a long time.

First I want to say thank you for all the well wishes on Baby Ally.

Which brings me to today's post. I learned to knit when I was 10 and sew when I was 14 or so. My skills progressed so that I made all my nieces and nephews who were born before my own children sweaters. I made so many of my own clothes as a teenager and my DH's flannel button down shirts when we were first married.

I hand smocked and made my oldest daughter's first Christmas dress and then later a smocked pinafore dress for daughter #2 another Christmas, with another cute dress for daughter #1. By the time daughter #3 came along, I did manage to crochet her a blanket and that was it. So through the past 20+ years I made one halloween costume for YD when she was about 10 and made a few quilts, but have not quilted even for a few years.

So I had some time today after meeting with our tax accountant, dropping off K-1's and decided to run into town to look at patterns and fabrics. I went in with high hopes and came out so depressed. I feel like I am starting over again. I look at fabric and can't picture the actual item (like I used to). I'm not sure which sized pattern to buy. I feel like I don't know anything!

I made buttonholes, I lined vests and made cuffs.... what happened to me??

So I'm going to stop sniffling and start easy, just start getting to know my sewing machine. I bought it after 9/11 and my oldest daughter has probably had it more than me because she started quilting and had so many coworkers and friends having babies.

There is so much I want to make and do and I feel totally incapable at this point....

So back to my plan...I want to try and sew something every day, just a straight line, change up the stitching, whatever.. just familiarize myself again and see if I have anything left in me.

How could I have let myself lose the skills I had?? sniff, sniff....

What is it about getting a rebate check that makes one spend money or is it just me? I was getting ready to go to town Saturday when I spied the mailman. I had just viewed our Amex statement on line and thought maybe we would get our rebate. We did and I had the nicest fantasy that the $171.00 plus change would be all I spent that day. HA!

Add in the new coupon book and disaster strikes! We ended up spending $334.46 subtract the 171.59 and we ended up spending $162.87. Okay I admit I bought a bag of dahlia bulbs and DH bought his "blue tooth" with a $10.00 off coupon for his cell phone. The law goes into effect in July here in California that your cell phone in the car must be "hands-free" for the driver anyway.

I also purchased cigarettes for BF's son who I was packing a care package for, along with jerky and Crystal Light individual little thingees for your water.

Zip lock bags, laundry soap, DH's deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc, etc. Some of this stuff will last more than six months so I am trying to keep it in perspective that we will save money over the long run.

February was expensive for us, spending almost $1500 over our usual budget for new work boots, a garmin navigator for both MD and us (MD's Christmas and birthday present). Dog toys, Advantage, cell phone over $200.00 in extra minutes since I was out of town for 8 days and used it constantly to talk to DH (stupid, stupid, stupid), shipping two boxes to North Carolina....

Anyway, glad it's over and on to a fresh new month.

November came and went, traveling to Reno for Thanksgiving... then my 50th birtday with a surprise party that DH planned along with the surprise of YD and SIL arriving a week early for the party.... with the best surprise of all. DH and I are going to be grandparents to an actual baby, not another puppy or kitten!

YD and SIL were here a whole month, then MD went to visit them in North Carolina and I traveled back to Reno to dog sit. I came back to the North Coast after eight days of loneliness and isolation with snow all around. I now understand Jack Nicholson downward spiral in The Shining....

The dogs finally left and life is getting back to normal. I have taken over in the past week food. DH is having withdrawal and wants to know every day if I have dinner planned and what are we having.

I upgraded my YNAB to YNAB Pro and I am really liking it.

I have this in the oven right now made from a butternut squash we grew in our garden last summer. I think we have about 4 left:
[url]http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23521,00.html

As boring as my blog may be, I hope someone gets something out of it. I want to thank everyone who talked about reading and the library. I have become an avid reader again after about a 20 year drought. I go to the library and get 7-8 books at a time and just devour them. No more TV in bed for me! DH still watches, but I am able to tune it out and lose myself in a good book.

So thank you library fans!

I have not posted in months. Life definitely has gotten in the way.

Our house in Oregon did not sell, but we luckily rented it to a local family who has two boys going to the college my daughter went to.

I have taken a trip back to North Carolina, and DH and I sat down and actually made some written goals.

One of those goals was to not waste so much time on the internet and keep my nose to the grindstone during work day, which I have been doing!

I have continued to read the blogs as much as I can and something that struck me was people talking about blackberries. Here in Northern California, I actually picked more today, but only about two cups. The apples are ripening… it’s Halloween.

I finally feel like I am really getting back to my frugal roots. We have been using up every bit of food we buy and I have at least 12 frozen lunches from leftovers. One of our written goals…

Another was to each get $100.00 allowance each month to spend on whatever we wanted. I bought garden stuff, seeds, lettuce and leeks and some Dr. Earth fertilizer. I still have around $40.00 left. Yesterday I considered asking DH if he wanted to go to a late afternoon movie, then I looked in the newspaper and saw absolutely nothing I was interested in. Good thing as DH could not get away from work.

We had a very tiny garden for the first time in like 20 years (I’m telling you my kids sucked the energy out of us)…



We had a butternut squash, crookneck squash, zucchini squash and assorted herbs. My lettuce and leeks are coming up nicely in Supersoil (the gardening store said it’s the best for starting seeds) and I will transplant them when we finally yank out the squash plants. We actually picked a zucchini over the weekend and the butternut still has a few squash on it growing. The yellow crook neck was pulled already. Some of the herbs are still growing too. I can’t wait for next year. On the flower front, I went over and took 12 cuttings from mom’s perennials and planted in little clay pots to put into the ground next spring. I also took seeds from my assorted annuals (purchased in a complete idiotic spur of the moment in a roll base from QVC like this
http://instantflowergarden.com/

I still have some roll to use next year, but dried all the little seeds and put in little plastic storage containers I found at the Dollar Store. I am also going to plan on planting tomatoes in 5 gallon black plastic containers. I saw someone at the garden store who did that this year and got lots of tomatoes (it’s a little cool here really for tomatoes). The South side of my house will be the perfect no wind, sunny area for them. I can’t wait for next year.

So after a summer, early fall of spending more than I would have liked, we have tightened up the belt, and it feels really good!

Don't carry large amounts of cash. I lost a hundred dollar bill in July. First I tried to leave it as a tip along with three one's. DH found it before we left the table when I happened to check my cash situation. 4 days later it was missing and I have no idea where it went.

I have been MIA, busy with the summer and visitors. Hope everyone is doing well.

We accepted an offer on OD's home in Oregon, 98% of asking price with no contigencies. Realtor says it's the cleanest offer she has seen. So we will know on Friday if they qualify for their loan. The new owners want to close on July 15th. OD moves and starts her internship on July 2nd. So that works out great. This was our first experience of selling a home and it was kind of too easy. The house appreciated about 38% in the 21 months we owned it.

We also received dividend checks this week from two business that we are part owners of. Last year when we received the checks, we used them to pay for YD's spur of the moment wedding. This year no wedding to pay for so that all went into savings.

Then I received my State Farm statement for our car insurance (after receiving the four rebate checks from them) and our car insurance is dropping another $20.00 a month, so it will be just about $104.00 a month to insure our three vehicles. DH 2005 Chevy Silverado is the biggest downward adjustment with my 1994 van dropping a few bucks too!

When it rains it pours in a good way sometimes too!

YD and SIL arrive home tomorrow for a visit. It may be his last chance to get home before his next deployment. So I know we will be taking them out to dinner, etc. Also high school graduation for the boy across the street and my friend's daughter, so that will cost a bit in gifts.

Yesterday I was doing a few admits and one patient was especially sad. I wanted to go out to breakfast and told DH. He got out of the shower and talked me out of it, which is funny because it was a total role reversal for us. So he made us some breakfast and we save some money! We really want to stay in frugal mode even though we are pretty flush right now. Of course the bill has not yet come for the new TV that we are enjoying very much! Love the DVR, so worth it.

In fact, I DVR'd Oprah on Friday that I rarely watch, but my sister called and said it was about money (she knows how obsessed I am because she is too). It was the follow up to the Debt Diet show she did about a year ago. Very interesting....

Then I DVR'd Big Spender on A&E on Saturday and watched it later in the day. That is always motivating... so I think the new TV and DVR is actually helping me SAVE money! Ha Ha.

Happy Memorial Day and thanks to Ima’s dad and all our dad’s or granddads, moms or grandmothers, brothers and sisters, husband and wives, sons and daughters, and in my case son-in-law. All those who have fought for our country.



These pictures were taken by my youngest daughter in North Carolina.

My brother, his Russian born wife (who became a US citizen last month) and their 7 year old son came down for their annual Memorial Day visit.

I started Friday out by taking a test for a position as an airport screener. It was very difficult and I was sure I completely flunked, but when I got home (1.5 hours from test site here in rural Northern California), there was an e-mail saying I had passed. I applied over a year ago and was surprised to hear from them. I guess feeling inspired by Ray and Sharon, I decided to go for it. Waiting to hear what the next step is. I live about 2.5 miles from the local airport so that would be great to get a job there with full federal benefits. But I am also happy working at home and so either way I am fine. There are advantages to both.

So with my brother and family, DH and I went to a local gem and mineral shop/museum that we had not been to since our girls were young. Very interesting, we had forgotten how much so. We yearned for a beautiful large landscaping rock from Brazil, can’t remember the name, but it was blue and white… $3.00 a pound, 45 pounds… ouch, no can do…. First we went to lunch and brother paid (we had made dinner for them the night before, carnitas, fresh pico de gaio, fresh guacamole, etc)… after we were done at the rock place, we went to the South Jetty of the bay and wandered around. It was windy, but the native plants were all in bloom and SIL is very interested in gardening, so she was taking many pictures. Then we stopped at a local nursery where brother bought my mother (who also loves to garden) some new plants since she lost some in our unexpected hard freeze this year.

Today was beautiful, not much wind early and we were at the beach by 9:15 a.m. with the dogs. They had a blast with Lola rolling in some undesirable stuff, which caused them both to get their second bath of the week. Then DH and worked outside in the yard. We marinated chicken (that DH thinks was a bit past the date they should have been kept frozen) in Soy Vey Teriyaki , DH made a dish with pasta, Classico roasted red pepper sauce, a little wine and some cheese he bought at Costco. The cheese was mozzarella rolled with basil and prosciutto. He also roasted cauliflower with a little olive oil and garlic. The chicken was very subtle because we used the last of the teriyaki sauce and there was not the usual amount for 6 pieces of chicken.

We don’t have Walmart or Home Depot, so on Friday when I drove the 1.5 to my test, it was in a town with both. I got there early so I could go shop. I didn’t buy anything at Home Depot, but got some good gardening/landscaping ideas. I did stock up on some stuff at Walmart and found some $2.00 a yard very cute bright flannel to make a baby quilt for YD’s best friend due next month.

It was difficult not to buy more yarn, but stopped myself. Oh and the Venus disposable razors are cheaper than the refills of just the cartridges. Why is that I wonder? I was a bit hungry at Walmart and I was due to take the test so I bought some Quaker Mini-Delights buttered popcorn flavor. They are horrible. I couldn’t even eat one little package. Thank goodness I also bought a big jar of peanuts for $3.97! Another mistake was I wanted some of that Jergen’s face moisturizer that also gives you a fake tan. It is making me break out and I’m almost 50! Oh well with three daughters, one of them will be able to use it.

Yesterday we went to see the movie "Fracture" at the matinee after my brother had gone home to Washington State. We decided to see that instead of Pirates (since it was almost 3 hours long). That is the only money we spent this weekend...$11.25.

All in all a satisfying four days! Hope yours was too.

I received a second check today for $22.00. At the top it says 1994 Plymouth Voyager. I think the last one said 1989 Chevrolet.

So maybe you will get another check if you have more than one car insured.

My older (by eight years) sister came this weekend to visit her daughter and our mother and me. She looked great. She has lost 15 pounds since the beginning of the year on Weight Watchers. Great motivator for me! I swear she looked younger than me too!

So today I started Weight Watchers. DH picked up our side of beef Friday and tonight will be hamburgers and salad.

Work is busy so I am back at it.

Mother’s Day Weekend…. Waaah, I miss my daughters all being together at home.

It’s been a busy financial week starting with 3 more rebate checks in the mail from Verizon for a total of $90.00. Instead of putting it towards the challenge, we used it to buy plants for our yard and a new hose. DH spent last weekend planting including a half wine barrel herb garden. The seed mat is sprouting today after having two incredibly beautiful days, followed by three gray cool days here on the North Coast of California and I have a beautiful red hanging geranium outside my kitchen window.

My middle daughter is here visiting with her two dogs and have been here all week, makes for a pretty crazy house, two little 4 year old terriers and two big mixed breeds that are barely over a year old. They don’t know whether to play or fight!

Yesterday I went over MD’s budget with her, giving her a clearer picture of where she stands. She is self-employed like me (same job actually) and does well, but is much clearer about putting away for retirement and how much she has to spend on “extras”. She is very open to our discussions and I LOVE having them! Let’s face it, I love giving my kids financial guidance! I just would hate to see them make the same mistakes their dad and I have made.

Today I did a spreadsheet for myself (my first attempt), itemizing out my monthly gross earnings, deducting insurance, then taking out the appropriate percentage for taxes (40%) and retirement (20%), leaving me a VERY clear picture of my monthly net earnings.

I was able to talk DH about of going out to dinner Tuesday. We were both tired, but went in and cooked up some leftovers together. I had a “burrito” made with leftover tri-tip from Sunday and DH had leftover sausage from Sunday breakfast with some scrambled eggs.

DH is also humoring me in an attempt to use less paper towels. I got a plastic dishpan full of older “flour sack” dishtowels to use for wiping up spills and cleaning. I put them in the cabinet right next to the sink while held our toaster, so I moved that. We rarely use our toaster anymore. I have been doing really well cooking during the week with DH continuing to cook on weekends.

Unfortunately I did receive notice today of State Income Tax Due. I have been trying to call them. The check I sent them did not clear when my Federal check did and I called them. They told me not to worry, sometimes it takes up to 8 weeks for a check to clear. Then today I get this notice of owing $934.54. In the meantime, the check I wrote to the state did clear, but I have a hard time thinking my accountant made this big of an error on our returns. So I am not going to panic until I talk to them. Talked to them, it’s okay, they see the payment, mix up because accountant originally e-filed, but Federal rejected, so we mailed copies of both returns, but should have only mailed Fed.

DH is bringing home a side of beef he bought at the local university sports auction. Every year he gets something interesting…It is grass fed, raised and donated by a local family. I have not eaten much grass fed beef, actually have I ever? So hopefully it will be good. It’s home, we crammed it in the freezer, no eating out for a year!!

Middle daughter arranged a Father and Daughter day June 10th, with us all meeting in San Francisco with my husband and daughters all going to a Giants game. My husband has taken the girls several times over the years. Our youngest daughter will be coming home for two weeks during that time from North Carolina. Oldest daughter is flying down and back to Oregon in the same day so we will all be together. Well they will all be together at the game and dinner later. I will be back at the hotel, probably working!!

This is my first mother’s day as also a mother-in-law to a wonderful son-in-law.



I want to take the opportunity to say Happy Mother’s Day to all of us and to everyone’s mothers. I hope we all have a wonderful day!

We don't have a Walmart in our rural California County so I usually try to go when I am near once, especially since I have been buying my every day jeans there for over 5 years. Today OD made me buy some "boot cut" since she wants me to be a little more "hip". I also bought 3 new short sleeved T-shirts.

So I am checking out, bought a few groceries, ingredients for lentil soup for tomorrow and up rings $3.00 for the jeans! I asked the clerk to check the price, she pulled them out and sure enough they rang up again $3.00!

That was a nice surprise.

We got lots of progress made today boxing up garage sale items, donations of some clothes and plain old throw away stuff. DH has decided to drive up Thursday after work and we will drive home Friday morning. That also gives OD and I a deadline, which is good.

Last night DH and I paid the bills over the phone. Thank goodness I was completely organized with bills to be paid on the left side of a red folder sitting on my desk and paid bills for the quarter on the right side. I pulled up the bank's web site and DH told me what to pay. That's the closest we have come to paying bills together for a very, very long time.

We made it through April's bill paying and tax payment and quarterly deposits without having to transfer any money.... but then my mortgage is deducted automatically from my ING savings on the first day of each month. I usually transfer the mortgage payment plus some into the savings each month. This month I was unable to, so it's not like I didn't need a little savings....rats!

We also ordered the glass shower door for OD's house that brought me here in the first place. It was kind of funny, we ordered brushed nickel with glass we liked and the price was $500.00 or so. Uh... we are selling the house, how cheap can we get one? Chrome and "rain" glass at $271.00. Um yeah, let's go with that!

Have you ever had a fantasy about spending your day however you wish away from your home since there is always something to do there, laundry, cleaning, organizing, menu planning, cooking, etc???

Well my fantasy has come true and it ain't that great!

Here is my story: OD is going to be moving to Reno from Oregon to do her ultrasound externship. We invested in a new home 2 years ago with her. Somehow a shower door never got put in the master bath. DH (being a construction foreman in his previous career) decides he will go put one in. Well I haven't been up to OD's in over a year. I will go too and help start getting house ready to sell. DH packs the necessary tools, I pack 3 outfits and clean underwear each, pack the dog's backpack with his toys and water and food, oh and OD wants to use my sewing machine, in that goes too. In the spirit of my total frugalness I also pack our coffeepot, filters, grinder and beans. Why drive to town to get coffee each morning (which is what we normally do, see what being here as done to me?).

As we head off for the five hour drive I ask DH shouldn't he call and make sure there is a shower door that will fit her bathroom....."Oh NO, I'm sure they will have one at Home Depot".

We arrive late on Wednesday the 18th. DH gets up bright and early and decides to call Home Depot. Guess what?? No shower door that will fit, have to order it. And even worse, the local glass company that he calls to see if they have one, will install it for $50.00. We spent probably more than $100.00 on gas for a round trip!

Well OD has a big test Friday so she wants me to come back "next week" to help start going through stuff and getting house ready to put on the market.

So remembering my fantasy (OD already had an out of town trip planned for the weekend), I said I would just stay here and DH could come back and get me in a week or so.

What was I thinking?? Yes I can walk out the back of OD's home and take the doggies on a long walk through the parts of the development that are not developed yet and the view is beautiful, I think that is Mt Ashland I see on my walk, and yes it's quiet and peaceful, but I want to go home!! I miss my bed, I miss my house and even miss my DH!

I have been working since I can work anywhere and OD is finally getting boxes and should be home any minute to start going through stuff, but I can't wait to get home. This morning DH said he probably can't come to get me until Saturday, but if we get everything done in the next few days I may beg him to come and get me earlier.

So in conclusion, be careful of what you wish for. It was okay for about 48 hours, but now I want my life back!

I paid our taxes and left about $30.00 in our checking account, so when I went to the pharmacy today to pick up some cough syrup and albuterol (allergy seaons), I pulled my Visa card out assuming I would have to charge it. The cough syrup was the good prescription kind!

Anyway I just finish chatting about taxes with the clerk when she rings me up.... $15.43 total. Whaaat??? I think I have a $20.00 bill in my purse. Sure enough I did. I was thrilled to not have to put that on my Visa. DH get paid this week, so we will be fine.

The albuterol was a $10.00 copay and the cough syrup was $5.43 generic for Mytussin. I guess I am used to my Advair inhaler, which is about $75.00 even being run through my insurance (no generic yet).

I spent some time today shredding old tax documents from 1999-2001 and organizing the actual returns, filing away 2006 with supporting documents.

Dinner was Carnitas DH made yesterday. Still plenty of leftovers for tomorrow too.

DH bought a bag of onions at Costco today (he had to get stuff for work) for 99 cents a pound, 10 pounds for $9.99. He had just paid $1.58 a pound at Winco this weekend and we used the one he bought. When did onions get so expensive?

Since I posted. Getting used to being home alone I guess.

We managed to get YD moved to NC the first week of December and managed to hurt my back in the process. Work has been slow, but will start picking up again in June. I am excited to start using the YNAB system that I just purchased. I would say that is my $20.00 start to the $20.00 challenge.

We leave a week from today for another trip to NC as SIL is arriving home from Iraq. We used miles for our flight, but have to drive to San Francisco again as that is the only way we seem to be able to use our miles. There is never a seat out of Eureka it seems.

We rolled coins and have almost $400.00 just from that to take with us. DH saves his change, I am obsessive about exact change!

Wow almost a month since I last posted. I have been busy clipping coupons, matching coupons to ads, planning menus, using up leftovers, reading my library books and rebuilding my computer myself instead of paying someone to do it.

I spent almost 3 hours on the phone today making reservations using our airline miles. But we will be flying to North Carolina with our youngest daughter to set up housekeeping for about $20.00 a piece.

We still are eating out of the freezer and have not bought any new meat except Italian sausage and ham hocks. Beans are soaking for the crockpot tomorrow (along with the ham hocks).

There is lots to do to prepare for YD leaving. Need to compare shipping vehicle costs and shipping packages costs since we will be shipping what little she is taking with her.

Her apartment is ready December 1st which is the day we are flying. Her husband will be home early March from Iraq, but the college starts spring semester January 5th, so she needs to get settled and signed up for school.

Lots of changes going on in my life....