Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $8 lunch

I'm finishing up a huge project at work with an eye on all the other crap piling up while I'm on the big project, so it was a crappy day at work. It should let up, but this whole season has been strange - I shouldn't be this busy in May. Last year at this time I was packing for Paris!

This evening I saw that the IP stock has now been bought, and that drip fully made, all done by the transfer agent (Mellon) in less than two weeks. It was because I already had a drip with the transfer agent, and the company had a program where you didn't have to buy the first share from a broker. Very nice to know that Mellon's so fast.

I did have a good laugh at this website - based on a local series of insurance ads.

http://www.werealotlikeyou.com/

Much funnier if you live in the Pacific Northwest. No stereotype really, really nails me...maybe #73 - The Blackberry Hunter, so I guess they're really not like me at all. For laughs, I submitted my type: The Intimate Anonymous Blogger.

My new stock Drip - IP - has the same transfer agent as another one of my Drips, so I could apply directly to the transfer agent. All it took was to fill out an application form and $600. I was expecting a good week or two before the account was created and the check was cashed. So I scheduled a transfer from my savings a couple of days after I mailed the check, not right away.

Imagine my surprise and light horror to find out that the account had been created already, two days after I mailed it. It started a shuffle of money, just in case the check was about to be presented to my bank. My checking account didn't cover it at that exact moment so I moved some money from brick and mortar savings, but only enough to keep that account up at $300. Then I had to check to see if I had a transfer from checking to brick and mortar savings. I did, so that had to be moved.

And then there's the money coming from ING. It shows as having left my account but not in my checking account yet. It should happen within a day or two. Maybe.

I have to tell you, electronic transfers are not what they're cracked up to be. I just know its going to be a fight because you KNOW the bank is going to pick the method that will allow them to charge a fee. Grr.

The transfer of Ameriprise money (grandma's trust) to Vanguard is nearly complete. All that remains is to close the Ameriprise account. It will be nice to get rid of one account - I won't have to monitor it, remember usernames and passwords. Blegh.

Found an unusual storefront on my walk yesterday.


And yes, what's in the window is what you think it is...

Turns out it's an ad agency..
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/13198...

Pulled the trigger on two of my decisions from the last entry. Started the new drip (IP) by filling out the application, and I added $500 to my bank Drip.

I have no idea when my stimulus check is going to hit my account - I filed electronically, but I paid by check. I'll either be 2 weeks from now or 5 weeks from now.

Found out that sister gave her notice to her job last Friday. Her last day is the 9th. Her plan is to take six months off and work on the farmette.

Still on my vacation and kicked around town again today. Went to the Tully's downtown to catch up with three people from tinfoil-hat set . They've always been there kvetching, watching CNN and CNBC, waiting for the recession. Actually, except for the fact that I don't own gold or silver, I apparently fit right in. During the conversation, I found out that only one of us had a car, two of us rented, and none of us changed our food buying habits. So we are all carless cranks throwing our money away on rent.

Kicked around West Seattle, then came back to downtown Seattle and did the $6.70 mini-vacation - I took the ferry to Bremerton and back. I managed to get back before it got too windy and before the storm clouds in the west hit Seattle.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3 coffee, turnover + $7 lunch + $45 groceries

Screenwriter friend is starting to make an independent movie based one of his scripts. Today I helped him out with auditions. I really didn't do much - I provided a friendly face and was an additional presence while people tried out for various roles. It made for an interesting Saturday.

Right now I've a cluster of "small" financial decisions to make.

I, like retire@50, have also bumped up my I-bond purchase for this month. I'm purchasing $400 in I-bonds, for a total of $10K. I figure it will complete my holdings for a little while. Because the t-bill auctions have garnered such a poor interest rate (.8-1.5%), I figure that the May I-bonds will have a very poor fixed interest rate, giving me an excuse not to buy any for a little while, meaning I have $100/month to invest somewhere else.

I will have my round lot of KO in June. After June, I will stop buying KO for a little while and let that ride. I might pick that up again if KO drops back down below $50. Here I have $50/month to invest somewhere else.

One of my CDs is maturing at the end of May. Bummer - its at 5.2%. I won't get such a lovely interest rate for a little while. I plan on rolling it over, but for a 6 month term. It will be a bad interest rate, but it makes no sense to lock it in for longer than 6 months. The interest the CD earned is going to ING.

The bank Drip stock that I own has bucked the trend and increased its dividend by a penny/share/quarter. I read that as a sign of strength and plan on adding to my position of the stock, using savings. Not too much - $500 or so.

I'm going to start a new Drip with the $600 stimulus check. Not saving, but not spending either. I have the paperwork; all that's necessary is to fill out the form my transfer agent provided. Since I'm so used to paying $50/month for a drip, in a sense I'm trading KO for something else.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

One of the little known concerns of dollar cost averaging and the dividend reinvestment program is figuring out when to stop.

In a matter of months I will have at least 100 shares of KO, in other words, the "round lot". It used to be that you couldn't buy stocks from a broker in ones and twos; you had to buy a round lot of 100 shares at a time. It made the math a lot easier. Spreadsheet programs really made the drip feasible.

I've been musing about whether to quit at 100 shares, quit for awhile because the price is just a tad rich (darn lucky that KO was in the 40$ doldrums for several years), continue until the dividend re-investment itself will buy the shares, or never stop.

Never stopping is the least appealing. I'd like to stop because I'd like to start another drip; actively investing in 3-4 drips is about the edge of my budget and attention. (I follow about 10 others passively, no problem there!) 100 shares is nice and round, however it never be exactly 100 shares - everything is calculated to 4 decimal points. It will be awhile before the dividend reinvestment dollars coming in quarterly will fully pay for what I put in every month. About 8 years at present prices.

No right answer here, just musing. I'm actually excited about knowing that I'll have 100 shares of something.

Wednesday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $7 groceries

Thursday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee

Last two days were cheap - Wednesday I had the other 1/2 of the sandwich I bought Tuesday. Today, I was bought lunch by screenwriter friend, who I bought lunch for on Monday. A nearly no-spend day was a very nice surprise.

Lawyer friend came back - his brother is now out of ICU, in the regular hospital. His leukemia is still in remission.

I finished putzing with one of my fiscal projects this week. The bank that was my transfer agent for one of my drp stocks got bought out by other bank, so it meant that I had to create a new electronic profile from that bank. Finally did it, got in, and even set up a monthly automatic withdrawl. I can now watch this account like a hawk just like all my other ones. And its one less stamp.

Now to move the Ameriprise money (from grandma's trust) to Vanquard. Get it all in one spot.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Delivered the CPA coupon that I got Friday night to DJ friend. If he uses it, he gets 20$ off and I get $20 back.

I sent my tax check out last week - the US cashed it Friday night. I just paid for about 1/1000 of a second of federal spending. Some people will wait until Apr 14 to pay, which is wise because they still get a little bit of interest, but I prefer to pay it and get on with the rest of my year. I just don't like playing chicken with my bills...guess wrong and you're late, or rather, these days you give the bank, credit card or business the ability to charge you the late fee.

Finished voting my proxy online; the next day all the paper materials showed up. Just as well, its a lot easier for me to calculate valuations from a paper annual report than it is online.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $12 lunch

Don't know whether all my blog contest entries are pearls of wisdom, but I've made it easier for the reader to find out - I've moved them all to a Category called "Contest Entries".

Its stock proxy season. If you own stocks in your name, you get a little something in the mail to vote on - Board of Directors, stock options/compensation, ratifying the accounting firm, etc. Lately I've been seeing themes - shareholders are proposing votes on compensation and on making boards more independent. I usually provide for the loyal minority - I vote against any compensation plan and for any shareholder proposal unless its terrible (and they can be). Despite the fact that I know my 40-90 shares is just a drop in the bucket of shareholder opinion, voting like a wild communist (how dare the CEO get any compensation - haha!) gives me great satisfaction. You asked me what I thought, why are you cranky at me when I tell you?

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $4.50 curry

At lunch today, the owner of the curry shop asked me if I wanted anything else.
"No," I said.
The guy next to me in line said, "You're supposed to ask for the cash register when he says that." Then he smiled. So much for his two cents!

Found two pennies on the street one after the other this aft. As I bent to pick up the second one, I thought, wouldn't it be funny if one of my friends was playing a practical joke on me. C'mon, it would be easy to lead me anywhere... just put a penny down every ten feet or so.

I looked at one of my DRP stocks (MMM), and found out that they had raised their dividend by 2 cents per share. The stock's now 50 cents/ share/ quarter. I'm getting about $2 more in dividends than what I expected.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $10 groceries

Today was the last day for most of the temp staff. We'll have a couple staying on for another month or so; my temp person will stay for one more month. We had a last lunch party, paid for by the department.

Then it was another party for a co worker leaving after 21 years. She wanted to make sure that I was still writing so in her memory book I wrote in the address to this blog. I've given my blog address out to a couple of others on their last day. I wonder if they ever looked me up here?

Kinda funny that in the age of easy worldwide publishing that I would be so covert about it. But it is far weirder to be so open. Like somehow its bad for a company to check if you've put up your spring break drunk pic...and then, the gall, not hire you if they find it. How dare they?

Checked to see where I could go to caucus at 1pm tomorrow.

Wrote a 40$ check and a $35 check to two drips.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee, $5.50 lunch

Zip is happening on the financial front. Made a $150 last month on a CD, still waiting to move some of my cash into stock. Today is clearly not the day even though the advice is "buy on the dip" - I get the feeling that there will be more price dips for awhile, and double dipping stocks is probably just as gross as double dipping chips.

I'm bugged that the Super Tuesday coverage is displacing my normal TV routine. Yep, I am frivolous.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee

Many freebees. Got cash for the sandwich, enough to do the footlong drill (buy a footlong sub, eat 1/2 one day, other 1/2 the next), got a free coffee from the financial planner, who I had a meeting with this morning. I have to do a bit of research comparing Vanguard with Schwab, especially figuring out fees when I rebalance. I suspect Vanguard will pass with flying colors, but you never know.

The issue is that my portfolio was fine before the serious influx of inheritance money. Now everything has to be re-jiggered to get the appropriate % to the now much larger total.

The plan is to take all but 180K of cash/cash equivalents (180K should be enough for a 50-60% down payment of a Seattle house in my neighborhood in about 3 yrs, a bit of emergency, along with some payments to sister for farmette), put them in a moderately aggressive portfolio. Each account that can't be rolled over into Vanguard - 403B, IRA, Roth IRA, should contain 1 or 2 different accounts to make it simple to determine whether one asset or fund is doing fantastically well or bad.

Emailed the Amerprise guy. Yes, the box of checks we gave you - use 'em. At the very end, to scrape up the little bits of interest, I need to email him to get the paperwork to completely close the account.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee

Nearly no spend day because we had our Winter Event - aka the afternoon office holiday party. A lunch in a nice venue in downtown Seattle, with a drawing for prizes, and a couple of speakers. It was all right, but not nearly as entertaining as ones when they had the no host bar. Now there was frugal entertainment! I don't remember the precise year when we stopped having the ability to buy a drink. A guess that's a good sign that I don't have an adult beverage problem.

I won 2 tickets to a John Denver (esque) concert at the Seattle Rep that I must use by Dec 24. I put the esque in parantheses for a reason, John Denver's been dead for awhile. Or maybe, just maybe, if I have that adult beverage that could appear to change.

Paycheck tomorrow. $50 goes to another DRP account. The interest that I've been earning on T-bills has been dropping like a rock - over the summer its been 5%, now its about 3%.

I keep getting Ameriprise materials, so I know that an account in my name had been created and bits of grandmas trust is moving into it, but nothing final. They say that trusts resolve more quickly for heirs, but in my experience the probate process was much more absorbing and a bit more transparent. I know that's a bit weird to say, but with all the decisions that sister and I had to make it seemed that probate knit us together a bit more. I'm sure sister would disagree - she had to do most of the heavy lifting. Trusts just seem mysterious. If its that much a done deal, just cut us two checks and be done with it.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $15 lunch

Yesterday I finished my string of brown bag lunches. It was fun, but it was nice to get a little fresh air and see something other than piles of paper around me. Food made especially for me is always much better to look at.

The big news is that my little bank is going public and have sent a prospectus, proxy card, order form. If you have money in it, you can be part of the IPO (initial public offering). I'll have to think about that, not the best time to invest in a bank. They will eventually pay a dividend.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $4.50 groceries

New temporary staff orientation with a little breakfast provided. And again, another lunch with turkey salad on top of a toasted english muffin. There's only enough salad for a couple more days; even so that's a good 4 day run of bringing my own lunch.

Also paid a total of $375 to my DRPs - $300 in one, $35 for another, $40 for another.

Homework for gym last week was to hold a hollow plank - on the back, legs up at a 45 degrees, arms parallel to legs, shoulders up off the mat - for a minute and a half. I told the trainer that I practiced and that I'm ready.
Want a countdown? the trainer asked.
No, let's just see how long I last, I said.
So in the middle of this, I'm thinking that this is the llloooonnngggest minute and a half, and I was about to drop when the trainer said that I had nine more seconds. I made it past the nine seconds...and it turned out that I had held the position for two minutes.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $15 chirashi lunch

Cashed in the $42.04 today, and received an account for more, different shares. It worked like this: I had 45.xxx shares of Company 1. It turned into - 45 shares of the new Company 1, check for the .xxx shares, and 15 shares of Company 2.

Found out that DJ friend got a resolution with the IRS, the auditor called it "convincing." So he pays 1/2 of what he feared he would pay. The consulting lawyer looked at the letter and the table, and suggested only a concluding sentence. My luck with letters worked again. I give good letter, I said to DH.

I get paid tomorrow, but I have a fair amount of money still in my account, so I decided to move $200 to ING.

Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $5.45 lunch

One of my DRPs has spun itself off, so I am getting the paperwork for it, a 1099-B and a semi-surprise check for a fractional share. Into savings it goes - $42.04. The transfer agent finally cashed my $500 check to buy more stock.

Plan on hosting a small Thanksgiving here at my place, then head to lawyer friend's larger party for dessert.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.65 coffee, cup of milk + 10$ lunch + $12 groceries

Yesterday, I found I had lost another two pounds, so I'm back to 186. Also lost another .5 inch of the waist. I'm trying and getting better at not sticking my head in the fridge when I get home. Eating an apple instead of an energy bar in the afternoons really helps too. Right now its all really about the waist, its giving up it's fat slowly. Not that I'm emaciated in other places, but the arms and legs are getting firmer.

Not much on any money front. It looks like I've gotten another fee for no reason that I have to ask about. I swear they just stick 'em on there just to see if the poor schub will just pay and they can get away with it. Getting the bank to take them off is not my idea of a great hobby.

All of my stocks have dropped. I feel happier about dollar cost averaging when the denominator is going down like that.

Saving log - 0$
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $6.50 lunch (footlong to nosh on for two days)

So lately watching my stocks and 403Bs is like playing eensy weensy spider over and over. Spider is at the top of the waterspout (last Thursday), the rains came (Friday) and washed the spider out, and now the spider's crawling back (Monday). I've got to stop monitoring it so much.

This Halloween my ambition is just not into the costume. I might just put a big fake blood spot on my forehead and call it a day. The Halloween potluck, on the other hand, I'm ambitious about. Go figure.

I'm working on a dark "Goth" potato salad - with purple potatoes, beets, red onion, pecan (walnuts weren't dark enough) dressed with olive oil and a bit of pesto. In other words, if you dribble, it will stain.. So far, the only way I've found to keep the purpliness is to get small, deep purple fingerling potatoes and steam them making sure that no potato touches the boiling water. Boiling liquid just kills the purple.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Ate the other half of the sandwich I bought on Monday. These days a lot of people use the work refrigerator, but no one used the vegetable bin. Ha ha, score for a hiding place!

Last night I got the final piece of mail from the executors - a Schedule K-1. I'll have to look it up in the IRS site to see when and if its used. The letter stated that they filed a copy with the IRS, so we shouldn't. I suspect that it means that they've filed and paid so if I file and pay, I've paid twice.

Tonight I voted proxy as on one of my DRP stocks - M&I - is splitting off one of its subsidiaries into a new company - Metavante. If the split goes through, I get some additional Metavante stock.

Payday next Friday - and none too soon.

I wrote a 400$ check for one of my DRPs. It was one in my stock portfolio trading at the low end of its price range. I'm confident that its not a "value trap" so I'm buying on the dip.

It does mean that as we are heading toward the last turn of the month I'm in a rare position - I'm feeling the frugal burn and counting my pennies with the possibility that I'm going to have to transfer some money from brick and mortar savings.

Because of the frugal burn, its a bit of a bummer that the Greek Festival is this weekend. DH and I did the wine tasting - the wines were a lot better than in years past, but still a bit pricey. I weakened and bought Greek olive oil, grape leaves, feta, sheep cheese, capers, taramasalata, sea salt, cracked green olives, and variety pack of Greek cookies. $70.50, and I put it on the credit card. Blegh. On the plus side, we get 70.50$ worth of pleasure out of what we bought.

I also encouraged DH to take the bus out to the festival. Even at $2.50 for the trip that's a lot nicer to do than to drive then drive around for very limited parking. And we are maintaining our habit that we bring our cloth bags. We'll figure it out yet.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $4.50 curry

In the past two days, my paper profits dropped about $4K. Most of the drop was in the Vanguard taxable account, my 403B had a fair amount of ballast in bonds and cash, so those didn't drop so much.

I did a good job of moving my excess money in my checking out to savings - I'm running on about $60 until the end of the month. Too bad weekends are my worst time for saving.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $5.50 lunch + $14.50 groceries

Most of the fun I have catching up with my credit card is that I can spend the cc payment on things I like - namely assets that pay dividends. I've put $500 on one of my DRPs, the one whose transfer agent is on the poky side. It looks like the transfer agent buys the stock once/quarter, but its hard to tell. If I think that the transfer agent is inefficient, then I'm not excited to put a little something in every month - I much prefer to wait until I have a chunk of money to put in. The stock price on that DRP (MI) has been see-sawing a bit, but its been down. I hope it goes down some more during the time that the transfer agent finally buys it.

As I was telling my DH, I didn't really mean to test 4 different cost averaging buying styles. Style 1 (MMM), where the transfer agent dependably buys the stock on Friday if you get it to them by the following Tuesday, I've been playing it like a tennis ball - sending money back as soon as I get the form. Style 2 (KO), where I have electronic deposit at $1/transfer, I allow the account to take out $51/month for a $50 buy. (sucks - that's like a 2% fee). Style 3 (WEC), where the transfer agent buys twice/month, I've treating a bit like style 1. Style 4 (MI), transfer agent is poky, so I buy in a lump when I can.

I can't really tell the difference in results. But it is easiest to buy on the dips if the transfer agent is dependable, so I've acquired those shares quickly.

Found a great deal on frozen corn - .99/bag. I was walking home, though, and I didn't have the energy to lug a lot of bags, not to mention its hotter than -h right now and I didn't want it to go bad. So I bought only 2 bags and called it a score.

Saving log - $3
Spending log - $1.85 coffee, milk + $6 lunch and snack + $6 stickers

DH sometimes has the sensibility of a 12 yr old boy. He told me last night that he wanted to change the stickers on his PDA - too flashy, he said. So I bought him some Japanese samurai and kabuki stickers.

Tiny and not so tiny decisions - I have one of three recurring charges (ISP, Netflix, newspaper) on my credit card. This month was the first month I saw that my ISP charge made it from the credit card to my debit card. Think I will try moving the Netflix this month.

Not so tiny decision. This stock market is baffling me and has been for months. I don't understand the fundamentals and why its going up so fast. I decided to shift the 403B part of my portfolio a bit. Before it was quite aggressive - 90% stock (I have some bonds elsewhere). I decided to redistribute to 50/50 bond and stock, so I still have plenty of stock. I'm just trimming my sails a bit.

I'd do that with some of the Vanguard holdings, however they're in a taxable account and I've bought less than a year ago, so if I shift things around, any profits from selling will be taxed on the income rate, not long term capital gains rate. The next little bit of new money I receive, I'll put it in bonds and trim the sails a bit there, too.

Just to remind me that it's May in my yard:

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $.65 milk + $5.45 curry

Gained 1 lb back, dang, but I lost another 1/2 inch on the waist, 1/2 inch on the hips. The trainer and I were job shadowed by a trainer-in-training. Today my body behaved and I showed good form during most of the workout. I managed to hold a full plank position for one minute, one second.

T-bill matured and I got $15.96 in interest on the purchase of the next one. Put $40 in one Drp, automatically put another $50 into another Drp.

Saturday DJ friend and I hammer out an easy way to manually generate the royalty logs for the radio station. It looks like we can automate the log, but it will be a month or two of broadcasting beforehand. DJ friend is a bit depressed - like most big undertakings, this is a marathon, not a sprint - he needs a second wind. And he's worried that with all the hoops, he won't have enough time and energy to do what he really loves - create and broadcast his own mixes.

This week was going to be the week that I put that 20K into Vanguard. But this week was a wicked one for stocks (500 point drop), so I'm inclined to keep it in ING for just a little while longer. I hesitate to call it market timing, I just don't want to catch a falling knife.

Saving log - $5 tip box + $16.06 T-bill interest + $75 from checking to saving
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $13 lunch + $40 ATM

Noticed that the matching piece of my 403B jumped up by about $2000. I'll have to ask around to find out what's going on. Rumors seem to be better than HR right now. A mysterious email appeared that there will be upcoming changes in the 403B and to find out about them on March 15.

Scanned through the transactions on one of my DRPs. The transfer agent changed in August. Before August, all the transactions were as neat as a pin - credited on the 1st or 2nd of the month, except on December, when it was credited on December 15th - afterwards its the 5th, 6th, 8th. And they take the money out promptly on the 26th. Ten days of float, in other words.

Savings log - 0$ tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee, tip + $4.50 soup for lunch

I was busy today so I went home to the news that the stock market's down big, big, big today. (-416).

Just because I wanted to know how a 416 point drop meant to me, I figured out that I've lost a bit over $3700 today. Who knows, it might be worse tomorrow or in the days to come.

Correction or crash, I've got to be philosophical about this.
From reinvesting dividends, my Drp portfolio is still in the black.
3 out of 4 of my drp stocks were (not now) close to their 52 week highs - bad because if you want to buy good company stock, you want to buy when the stock's cheap.
I have a fair amount of cash and T-bills (paying at 5.2%) to buck me up.
And 3% corrections to the stock market used to happen quite often, every few months or so.

Stocks go down, stocks go down. Repeat and note that its time for a glass of 3 buck-chuck wine.

Saving log - see below
Spending log - $1.36 coffee, 11$ lunch

Well I deposited the 3rd distribution of the estate today (its not really an advance any more). It seems to be more difficult to put it in. The difficulty isn't with me particularly, it seems like the bank is getting tighter. I know you all should have such problems!

I put the 25K into my checking account, dangerous to many, but not really to me - I know what I want to do with it.

It went into the bank just fine, but due to the size of the check, the bank is putting a 5 business day hold on the first 5K, a 10 business day hold on the rest. That didn't seem to happen last year. So the money has to wait in the bank until early February.

My plan is to put 20K into my taxable Vanguard account, but that will be delayed too, because I sold 4K worth to put into my Roth IRA. A noble goal, but I now can't do anything for 60 days, until early March. I could keep that 20K in ING, but perhaps I should put it in another 4 week T-bill, if the interest rate is a shade higher.

Of the other 5K, I plan on putting 1.5K into gym class/ personal training, and the last 3.5K into ING with the expectation that I'll be using the money for the Paris trip.

It seems so odd to be writing about such a large sum of money when it seems many here are struggling. Let me know if I am offensive.

Back to the salt mines, I guess, but I implemented what I could at home.

1. Increased my 403B % to 13% of gross pay, up from 12%. I'll be bringing that form to HR tomorrow. It means that my 2% raise from 12/14 has been spent.

2. Put 4K into a 2007 Roth IRA. I didn't actually save it, I moved 4K from one Vanguard account to another.

3. Got my first piece of paper for my taxes Friday. Started my 2007 tax file.

Found a deal on cup of noodles. As I was waiting in the grocery line, the woman ahead of me bought a pack of brand-name cigarettes. $6.49/pack. I hate to imagine the fiscal carnage of a carton. In a sense, though, cigarette prices aren't high enough. We all pay for a smoker. Unfortunately, we all will pay for overeaters and non-exercisers and the non-prudent in general. Its the fiscal take on "judge not, lest ye be judged."

Last night was fun - conversation, Cranium, and Scene It? - although I had 5 little tacos, boodles of tortilla chips and guacamole, 2 glasses of wine, and a glass of champagne.

Judge not, lest ye be judged.