All about sister today.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and for the last four years I've sent sister a salmon. One of the biggest salmon runs in Alaska happens on the Copper River around the middle of May. Once upon a time that salmon run was so plentiful and cheap the salmon caught were turned into cat food. Today salmon were priced @ the Pike Market for $15.99/lb. Gasp.

I've bought from the fishmonger for years, and as the anti-fish flinger he had the best, best prices and knew the most. He was sympathetic, assured me that more of the run will come in Wednesday and the price will drop. We struck a deal for me to buy in the future for about $11/lb. Just like a stock future, only with a fish.

Sister will get the fish on Thursday.

I walked away, remembering what a great uncle of mine said. "Remember they've got to make some money too." Make friends with your seller; otherwise you pay the tourist prices.

For non-fish reasons, sister called a couple of hours later. WiDNR 73; farmette 7. Turns out we might have an interested party for the farmette - a horse owner. Fingers crossed.

Collected my tip jar, added the crumbs from my wallet - $53 in savings this month.

Sounds like either an oxymoron or a cause of death, doesn't it?
What happened to him?
Frugal sushi.
Oh.

That really holds true with the all-you-can-eat, fixed price buffet style sushi. There's a pretty infamous place in Seattle that a couple of friends got excited about, ate there, and swore about in the bathroom 6 hours later.

I had sushi for lunch today, so I thought about the concept as I ate. With rolls, you get a small amount of raw fish sometimes gooped up with condiments (spicy tuna is raw tuna smashed in a paste with hot pepper) rolled with rice. If you like raw fish its really not the way to go. Nigiri is the style with the little pad of sushi rice under the thinly sliced fish, what most people associate with sushi - okay, but when the fish is sliced so thin that you can see the rice under it...well, that isn't the way to go either. Sashimi is the sliced raw fish, the best stuff, and you will pay.

For lunch today I had the third way which I have been finding is the most frugal style of sushi: chirashi, strewn sushi, where slices of sashimi lay over a plate sized pad of sushi rice. And I got quite a lot sashimi for my buck. For 11$ I got 2 pc of egg, 1 shrimp, 2 lg pieces of clam, 1 pc octopus, 2 pc squid, 1 tsp of roe, 1 large hunk of salmon, 1 pc tuna, 1 pc herring, 1 pc yellowtail, 1 pc red snapper, 2 scallops. And the sashimi pieces themselves were about twice the size of what you would get if you got them as nigiri pieces. Nice.

Or maybe it was a reward from the sushi chef for not celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Saving log - $3 in tip box.

Received the second advance of dad's estate. DH will research what it would cost to get the car fixed.

End of the third week and still no fix for the weird vest calculations on the 403B.

Today was my day off, but I did hit my appointments with the chiropractor and personal trainer.

It was a chain of money mistakes, though. For the want of writing a check the night before, I had to pull money out for my chiropractor copay, and as I got my copay my bus pulled away from my stop. Still have my timing with buses - exactly 15 seconds too late! Five minutes late for the chiropractor, so a new customer was ahead of me. I was five minutes late for the trainer and no water, so I had to buy that. A big bottle - but $2.50! It's what you get for not planning ahead.

I made up for it. I knew I had good Szechuan leftovers at home so I didn't spring for lunch, but headed straight home.

DH and I had a long conversation about the car. The insurance companies are dueling and it will take up to six months for DH to get the money there to fix the car. These three weeks have been okay but DH needs a car to pick up temp work. We struck a deal. I will give DH the bucks to fix the car; he will pay me back with the insurance money or his mom's gift money. And if you don't DH, I joked, you will be living in the car.

The CD earned me 114$ in interest in April; ING increased its APY to 4.15%, new I-bonds have a higher fixed rate of 1.4%. I'll figure out in the next couple of days how I want to play that.

You might notice that the age in my bio went up a notch.

Today was a rainy day in Seattle, which I love (I'd better!). I got paid yesterday. I've got Monday off (little quirky benefit of the workplace). I worked out today. DH treated me to my favorite Szechuan place that we can walk to.

Time to get philosophical. If you can't get philosophical on your birthday, when can you? Yeah, yeah, any other day.

I've learned in these last couple of years money-wise, and in these last couple of months health-wise, some strange little paradoxes:

You may decide to transform yourself in a flash, but to radically transform yourself you have to have to use the least radical of tools - a routine that you follow slavishly. Pay yourself first; 90% of everything is just showing up.

Any purchase can be considered frugal if you can afford it, and you use the dickens out of it. Its frightening the amount of money I spent on the trainer and the gym, but to my defense, my attitude is that "I've bought it, I'm using it to the utmost." I've only cancelled twice, and my trainer has cancelled twice. I come in ten minutes early to warmup so to use the trainer's full hour. I bought her time after all.

Contentment is like peripheral vision; its never straight on. After the workout today, I waited for the bus. I walked to the bus stop in the pouring rain - which nicely washed the sweat from my hair - and as I waited in the overhang by Macy's, feeling my muscles still warm and loose, I ate a delicious breakfast bar. All my needs were met and I was content.

Tomorrow will be the one week anniversary of no DH car (I haven't owned one in 7 years). He's surviving, but he really enjoys driving so its hard on him. We are within walking distance of 3 grocery stores, so no biggie on the basics. The problem is the lugging of said basics, so we'll have to invest in one of those wheeled wire carts. Kitty litter bag + hill/2 hands = long, slow trip. But today was just materials for easter dinner and easter dinner leftovers : ham, potatoes, milk, cheese. Today is easter dinner; while tomorrow is easter dinner au gratin.

Paid the electric bill - 160$! Yikes. I must be more diligent in trailing DH and turning off lights after him. We heat by electric (NW, land of hydroelectric power) so we also suspect that some of our heating bill is caused by our fireplace. We closed the damper, and lit a couple of candles in the fireplace to warm it up a bit. Our thought is if we can warm up the fireplace cheaply, the fireplace won't draw warm air out of the room, so the thermostat won't kick on.

After looking at my obligations for this paycheck, I've shored up my immediate savings by 100$ this month. I will buy a 300$ I-bond at the end of this month to still get the six months' worth of 6.73%. The next set of rates for I-bonds is really up in the air; the inflation rate is low, so maybe, maybe the fixed rate would improve. We find out May 1.

Back from vacation. It was a stay at home vacation, a break from downtown Seattle, a break from blogging, a chance to catch up on sleep, and a chance to get big errands done. It was a break from frugality, too. There were a couple of things I've wanted to spend some money on and I had researched the items for five months. So without further ado, my week last week.

Friday night - sipping one glass (two fingers) of rye whiskey with DH. It made me feel like I was in the middle of a film noir.

Saturday - gym. My current XL gym pants are flopping in the breeze. My plan tomorrow is to buy a pair of "merely" L gym pants. Made rice and black beans for the week.

Sunday - bought 2 pair of L gym pants (BOGO sale), and one cute L top that I had my eye on. 96$. Also, at the risk of sounding like one of Money Talk$ geek co workers, I bought an MP3 player - 20Gb and has a detachable battery. Pricey at 300$, but I expect it to last like my PDA has - 4 years.

And at the same mall, I found and bought 2L of passover Coke. Its the stuff with real cane sugar, not the high fructose corn syrup and caramel coloring. Best 2$ I spent this week.

Began to load my CD collection onto the MP3 player. And load, and load. It turned out that it would take 3 days, and in the end, my entire CD collection filled only 5Gb.

Monday - I've been squinting at my computer desk for the past 8 months through my glasses that I've had for 5 years. Time for an eye exam and, no doubt, new glasses. Optometrist was to come in tomorrow. Picked out new frames in the meantime today.

Oh yes - we got paid Monday morning. Shoved the 500$ back into savings.

Tuesday - Optometrist. It turns out, quite surprisingly, that my eyes had gotten better from five years ago. My thought is that my middle age farsighted tendency is catching up with my myopia. No one there bought that story, however, and I'll still need progressive bifocals. Other good eye news: no glaucoma, no detached retina, no macular degeneration. Insurance covered maybe about a third of it; the whole thing was still about 350$. Comes with magnetic clip on sunglasses, so its two for one.

Oh, who am I kidding? Sigh. Five years gave me sticker shock here. I'd do a medical flex account for this but since my modus operandi is to hold out for years then spend a bundle, that wouldn't work.

Wednesday - finished burning my CD collection. Discovered a new source for exotic CDs and tunes to check out - the public library. And kiddies: it might be old school but its legal.

Thursday - gym, and its only time I was downtown. I got a lot of compliments from the trainer on my stuff. I'd better at 96$! I look a bit potty in the new size but that's planned. I figure I'm only halfway to where I should be and I need to have a little bit of stuff to follow me down. No challenge for me to look thin in XLs and slack off.

Friday - snooze and library, read and coffee and snooze. Somebody must have slipped me decaf by accident.

With the exception of writing a $1300 check to catch things up, that's it for my week.

Lots of people out "sick" today.

Had a St. Patrick's Day lunch with a co worker/friend that I rarely see. We both had a hankering for corned beef and cabbage, and we both wanted to watch the drunks. We left for lunch at 11:15 am. First place we went to had no seating, and a table had been reserved for CBS radio. In order words, the green hair/green T-Shirt/drink green beer for breakfast people were already here.

The second place we had heard had a cover charge, so we went to take a peek. Open, but no one was out collecting money, so we walked in, asked a waitress if we could grab a table, and took our seats. There was a third person, another co worker, but she said she would be late. We waited.

Three minutes later the bouncer was at the door, collecting the 10$. Our third person came. She didn't have 10$, we didn't have 10$, the bouncer wouldn't let her in without 10$. Whoops. But we warned her...

Sometimes being frugal means you have to be lucky and be ON TIME.

We ordered hard cider at 6$ (we both could hole up and do something mindless while we were at the tipsy stage), corned beef and cabbage. The food was alright, nothing special, not really worth the 9.50$. But the company was good, and the thrill of drinking a cider at lunch was delicious in its own way.

Tonight, DH made more corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot. It was delicious, far better than the one at lunch. The whole pot probably cost less than 1/2 of my lunch.

Got the optional cash slip for my fourth DRP. Its a slip with the dividends; eventually the company tells you when you get dividends, so eventually you get the slip. Wrote a check for 500$ to kick start the account, and signed up for their online account so I can monitor it.

Vacation between the 3rd and the 9th of April. DH bought an exercise ball. We now have an agreement, I can use his ball and he can use my yoga mat and red band. The chiropractor tells me that my back is getting better - its holding the adjustments for several days - and he figures that I've put on about an inch because my posture has improved.

Put another 8$ into the tip box.

Got word from sister that Nut is a creditor because he wants us to fix the tractors. I'm confused. Are they the tractors he stole (well, duh, who steals broken items??!) or what he bought at the auction? What part of as-is do you not understand? Or is as-is, son of isis, living in denial, the main river of Egypt?

Nut is aiming for about $3000-$4000. Sister's lawyer is countering with $1500 if Nut goes away. If he goes away... of course as soon as dad's money hits our accounts its game over.

The nougat part is the ritual trading of chocolate for Valentines Day. We both got and dug into our chocolates before the day even began. The chocolates were a bit pricey - 20$/box - but you eat them and then when you run out (quickly) you stop eating them.

Implemented the walk. The new bus route is interesting at early evening, and its also interesting that different buses have different personalities. My more direct bus is definitely commuter bus; new one is a bit more hip. It only took me 20 minutes of hard, fast walking to get home. In another month when it stays lighter, I'll take another bus route and get dropped off even farther.

So for this fitness challenge, my trainer suggested (prodded!) me to get 30 minutes of cardio training each day. I can make it to the gym sometimes, but I don't want to live there. I finally figured out a frugal way to do it. I'm going to go home on a different bus than I normally do, which will drop me off about 1.5 mi from my house. My job is to walk home as quickly as I can, no cheating on the hills. I've tried it today. It definitely takes me 30 min and I'm breathing hard most of the way. I made myself a little laminated card of calisthentics so when I get out the yoga mat and the rubber band with the handles I can figure out what exercises to do.

Thinking about Valentine's Day. Why oh why are all the holidays (except Labor Day and the 4th of July) at the back end of my paycheck? We have President's Day off and even that is in the back half of the paycheck.

A freakishly good deal on red onions - .33/lb. Still have a ton of sister's cheese and now I have some milk to get rid of fast. Time for some simple, homemade mac 'n cheese. Nothing like the box type.

Wisconsin Farmhouse Mac 'N Cheese

2.5 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
milk
lots of grated cheese - sharp cheddar and colby for this. The drier the cheese, the better.

Preheat oven to 325F. In a casserole dish, melt butter, add salt and pepper, add elbow macaroni. Stir to coat macaroni in butter. Spread the grated cheese on top of the macaroni. Pour milk over the top, keep pouring until milk level hits the mid cheese line.

Bake uncovered 10 min at 325F, then drop it to 300F for 50 minutes or so. Ready when cheese is brown and bubbly and the macaroni is tender.

Let sit for 10 min after you take out of oven to firm up. Microwave leftovers with a little bit of milk.

of why we are all here:

Tonight we are having defrosted beef stew with bread. Christmas Day - well we found a good deal on duck, and DH bought a bottle of un-frugal champagne. Sister sent us a lot of cheese, spices, and a summer sausage shaped like a beer bottle with a Pabst Blue Ribbon label on it. It made us both laugh very, very much!

Merry Christmas and remember that the parents of Jesus were the most frugal couple imaginable, yet they persevered.

Well, I still couldn't find the dried mushroom guy at the Pike Market, so it was plan B for the gift for SIL and her husband. When they last visited we went on a wine tour, which they enjoyed, so I found a wood wine box covered with chinese characters that holds two bottles. Its illegal to ship wine most places and since I'm not interested in figuring out whether Wyoming (where they live) is one of them, I've packed the empty slots with gourmet cheese and chocolate bars, and finished it with a X-mas card and a note. That's the other semi-frugal trick of mine: an interesting storage box filled with something else. $27 for the wine box, $18 for the cheese, $10 for the chocolate.

Now what to get my mil....

I haven't really figured out my fiscal goals for 2006. Paying off the credit card from the personal trainer is number one; keeping up my pace of increasing my net worth by $10,000 every 8 months is good, but it depends on investments that always increase in value. Some will; stocks won't. Holding and managing the inheritance is a good goal - if I get it in 2006.

Christmas getting and giving front - sister got the fish and had some salmon already. She was also amazed at the size of the halibut steaks. I got a 150$ check as a gift from MIL, which I put into savings. I'm still at a loss as to what to give her. We got a fruit of the month box from SIL and her husband. Pears this month. Dried mushrooms would be a pretty good gift for them. Now if I can only find the market guy who sold them. No dice finding him yesterday at the market.

Conceptually, it would had been no spend day. We had our office holiday aka the Winter Event. It was held at the Triple Door. I ordered a small glass of red wine, which I shouldn't have, not because I'm gonna wear the lampshade over my head, but because it was a buy-your-own bar and I forgot to ask how much it was. 12$. eek! At least it wasn't a mixed drink. The office event was fun, FYI. I just should have remembered to pack my own bottle and glass then deploy them when the time was right. It would have been easy - it was plenty dark and nightclubby inside. The only downside is I would suddenly get a whole new reputation around the office.

I now have an official Vanguard IRA. The money left ING and went to Vanguard, all within four days, for only 10$. Of course a glass of wine doesn't come with it.

On the inheritance front, it seems that we now have a couple of buyers for the main property - the piece that has the barn, sheds, house. Sister has gotten a secretary's desk to our aunt, and the last of the furniture bits to various family members.

Spending log - 1.65$ coffee+ 12$ wine + 7$ groceries
Saving log - 150$ (thanks MIL!)

Got another piece of tax-vital paper today from one of my DRPs. Looked at a lot of pledges today, and I finished by actually going to the gym *By Myself* for a little cardio bike pedaling. I lasted at least 1 minute more than Friday.

Got a card from the paper deliverer this morning, or rather, I got a card with a self addressed, stamped envelope. Tip troll, if you ask me. I never know how to respond to these things, especially since he has an unerring ability to never, ever hit the driveway. I'm thinking of writing "5$ now if you hit the driveway, another 5$ if you keep it up". But then the turnover will kill ya. I'd have to train each person as they screw up.

Went Christmas shopping today at the Pike Market. I got sister 2 halibut steaks and a 5 lb filleted wild salmon. Nothing like food for the holidays - it gets consumed, it doesn't clutter the mantel, and doesn't need to be cleaned or dusted. The only problem is the shipping - yikes, 40$ - more than the fish itself. The fish spot I use is Jack's Fish Spot in the sanitary market, not City Fish or the stall that throws the fish for the benefit of the tourists.

To tell you the truth, I absolutely hate the fish flingers. Posers. Real fishermen take enormous risks to catch fish, including the noble salmon, who is giving its life and often its sex life so you could have a meal. And you're throwing it around for laughs. Why not pitch a dead bald eagle around for laughs? I haven't even gotten to the sanitary/ culinary aspects. Pitching salmon around bruises the flesh and if they miss? The fish lands on the fish gut smeared concrete. Well ick.

City Fish isn't so bad. They're pretty normal, so no flinging. But most of the seafood they sell is an augmented catch from other parts of the Pacific and who knows if its fresh.

Because its yikes with the shipping, I've decided that many of DH's family in Montana and Wyoming is getting dried mushrooms - chanterelles, morels, trumpets. It's light but also screams Northwest and should go fantastic with beef.

Actually, not quite true, I just bought needs: milk, onions, celery, and a cup of coffee from the grocery store; canned cat food from another grocery store. With me, its never a full blown Buy Nothing Day, but an eternal Buy Very Little Day. Saves money in the long run because you never binge.

Why do they call it Black Friday? Yeah, I know, but BF was the name given to the stock market crash in 1929. To my ears, today's nickname just sounds creepy.

Ate, drank, and made merry at a friend's house outside of Seattle (Issaquah, if you know that area). Brought a tasty 3 grain pilaf (wild rice, quinoa, kasha), and during the potluck, I did my bit as the gravy maker. Gravy is pretty simple, but mysterious enough to be nerve-racking, I guess. The real trick is knowing that you can expand the quantity of it using chicken stock.

Most of the folks there were former Micro-softees, and a few years ago it was buy this and bought that. With their reduced means, they've become more interesting.

My new-found wealth in my ING account now brings in interest of 1.44/day. Now I can afford a small coffee every day for the rest of my natural life.

I had another good workout so I made a fateful, not very frugal step. I signed up for four months for the use of a personal trainer at the gym. It will be $1941. Ulp!

It was with decided nervousness that I brought it up with DH. (Our finances are separate, but this is big.) Au contraire, DH told me, this is one of the most frugal things you can do. You want to get more active and slim down, you figure that a gym is the next step (I don't have a car, so I walk everywhere or I catch a bus. That takes care of endurance, but my weight is still high), but you don't have any experience with workout machines. Paying somebody to spot you, point out your mistakes, encourage you and keep you from cheating is da** frugal because you'll get it done with no fuss. The frugal part means that since you've put money on it you won't blow off workouts. And what good is inheriting money but not being healthy enough to enjoy it?

Funny how I'm starting this during the holiday season. I figured as long as its not January, I've got a jump on temptation.

A lot of my co workers dressed for Halloween. I went topical - a medical professional with bird flu . DH, at a different office, went as Doc Holliday. He had the cough from last week. Scratch off another lifetime goal - I got on the bus in full makeup and costume and didn't die of complete embarrassment. Less embarrassment - I lost track of my bus pass this weekend. In Seattle, if you keep a regular routine, the bus driver knows that you have a pass and waves you in. Still, you have to mumble something like, "Sorry - I forgot it in my regular pants."

I ended up with 63$ for the month, not too bad because generally Halloween throws me for a loop. Without Halloween I would have ended up with 102$. With the work potluck it was very nearly a no-spend day - the only spend was a $1.65 coffee.

Got paid today, so the check has gotten farmed out - 445$ for my share of rent, 100$ to ING, 50$ to bank savings, 40$ to 3M DRP. I'm waiting now for what the I-bond rates are going to be. US Treasury tends to be pretty timely - they announce right away.

Didn't get any insights about Mr. Nut from Bugs Bunny, but I did get some laughs. Sister thinks we are at a standoff. Each side has to prove ownership of stuff, and unlike cars, equipment doesn't come with titles. Sister got some more bad news about the house - a corner of the foundation is collapsing. I don't see how she'll make the numbers work, or even why she would want to, but I support her nonetheless.