Saving log - $7 tip box + $40 DRP
Spending log - $0

Free lunch today - it was a combined thank you for the temp staff, and a welcome back to my boss, coming back from 12 week leave and to another temp staffer who had been out with a fractured forearm.

Got three pieces of paper for taxes today: another 1099-R, a copy of my last paycheck (yes, I know, I must wait for the official W4), and a K1 from grandma's trust.

After that, same old, same old. Walk through slush, work, come home, get attacked by kitten.

Saving log - $20 tip box
Spending log - $7 bread and chocolate

Went whole hog and paid myself $20 to put in the tip box.

Chalk up one more sign of the recession - our non-profit was crazy busy today with donors getting in their gifts by the end of the year. The last two years were quiet, not so this year. We're not sure whether its because the need is now so visible, or more, cynically, donors especially need the tax break. We even had a couple of walk-ins in the lobby. I just thank them for their gift and hand them a pledge form to fill out. The donor takes the bottom two carbons and we take and book from the original.

Again, nice to be loved, and the money is better than a poke in the eye.

The thing that really knocks the auditor and I for a loop is that everyone was very insistent that we book the gift to Dec 31, even though as long as the pledge form / receipt / check is filled out on Dec 31, is enough. Everyone is much jumpier than in usual years.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $.48 coffee

Again, we had abbreviated hours (11a - 3p) because of the snow. DH drove me today, and to pay him back - because he kept me from waiting about 2 hours in the snow - I bought him whatever coffee he wanted. He used up the last of my gift card plus 48 cents.

I wasn't quite sure whether the office potluck was on. Friday (I didn't make it to work on Friday, so the story is second hand) the gang who was there decided to try to have it today. Today, though, again maybe a quarter of the invitees showed up. I brought spinach dip that I bought over the weekend. Special commendation to the co worker who brought a cake!

Got caught up with the items that I had to do this week, along with a couple of other things. Right now with the 4 hour days its just keep head above water.

DJ friend drove me home, so I avoided the 2-3 hour in the dark bus wait. As a payment, he wanted to see Morgan. Done.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 dim sum

Last night we did get the snow finally. As I was sitting at the bus stop, someone commented that they were happy to see someone else wearing "chains". (she had on hers.) The driver took it low and slow; at 2nd and Columbia, our last stop before heading down to the viaduct, he took one look at the two jackknifed buses that tried and thought better of it.

Maybe only a quarter to a third of our office made it in. Today was our all-staff meeting, but the breakfast delivery guy made it by accident. We set up about third of the food in a conference room. The food was very appreciated, and its appearance was lucky today - a lot of local places weren't open - and will be lucky tomorrow when a lot of places again won't be open.

The dim sum place was open and they were happy to see us. Normally people were swinging from the rafters, but today they filled up sedately. Lawyer friend and lawyer friend's partner were hosting but they couldn't make it, they couldn't get up Beacon Hill.

Our offices closed an hour early. However, there were a number of reports that Metro was cutting service to a number of peripheral lines to concentrate on the core ones, so I left even earlier. I didn't feel up to waiting for a bus that might not come in the dark. I caught a bus in the light but had to walk home in the dark. It reminded me of college, when we thought nothing of walking miles in the dark in -50F weather for

fried chicken and how much fun we had going there. It didn't hurt to imagine that I burned more calories getting the chicken than the chicken had.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - no spend day

Tomorrow is my day off. Just in time for the snow.

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $5.77 box lunch

Thursday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $14 lunch

Yesterday I went into work even though I probably shouldn't have. There were a couple of meetings that I had to attend. One was a casual meeting with the COO and two other supervisors - we meet to keep the COO up on the department doings while our boss is on leave. We talked a bit about how our new internal staffers were doing with some of the work we were giving them. Everybody is working out well on both sides - we have the extra work right now, and during these recessionary days nobody at work wants to be sitting on their hands.

The other meeting I felt I had to make was a visit from the Merrill Lynch administrator of our the 403B plan. He talked a bit about the two new funds replacing two under-performing funds in January (my bond fund is one of them), and he answered the question pleasantly when I asked him, "How's Bank of America treating you?" Apparently Merrill Lynch will be a subsidiary of BofA, not totally chewed up and digested.

I suppose I could have missed both of these meetings, but it meant that I had enough witnesses - I had no qualms about calling in sick today.

But I bundled up and did make the gym meeting with the new trainer. (We meet once a week on Fridays.) Something about losing $60 as a no-show made me brave it. He took one look at me, weighed me (184.8 lbs) we worked on the food plan for an hour, then he made a little green tick at the end indicating that this meeting will probably be a freebie. All because I showed up. I usually can't wheedle into freebies most places, but gym is apparently one the few places that I can.

And at the very end of the day, I got a bit of money from the neighborhood WaMu and asked the teller whether he was going away. Apparently the layoffs were in corporate and in back office - the WaMu branches are to be untouched, except maybe to have "Chase" all over them. I was happy to hear that and he was happy to hear that the neighbors were concerned.

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $5 office party

Third day of brown bagging french press coffee. Except for adding money to the tip box and paying my share for the department soiree in late December (different and in addition to the all-office party), I would have spend no money today either.

Tomorrow I field trip and eat lunch with lawyer friend's partner and screenwriter friend. Lawyer friend is in DC. His brother is ill and his father is waning. He might be away tending to family for awhile.

Tonight I got back to my third pile of catalogs. I've gotten twelve this week. I'm sure for a serious shopper twelve catalogs is a light read, but for me, it seems like a lot of temptation. I've pored through them and especially noticed the gadgety ones are selling the same things.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $0

The gym and brown bag/leftover lunch strategy worked very well. Not planning on going to the gym tomorrow, but I am planning on bringing my lunch again and finishing off several containers of leftovers. I do still have plenty of white turkey breast for turkey salad and turkey soup.

2 funds of my 403B are going to be swapped out for two other funds. There's my tinkering and then there are other people's tinkering. I am still considering moving some of my taxable cash in Vanguard to a Vanguard index fund - however I don't want to do it now because the distributions are on Dec 15 or so. I would be taxed on the distribution if I own it, even if I own it for a day.

Strangely enough, I am getting used to the freakish gyrations of the stock market. 680 points? Yawn. Now it feels if the market only goes up or down by twenty or thirty points one thinks, "why bother running the darn thing?"

All this backdating prognostication is getting to me. Yes, the recession started December 2007. Yes, I remember December 2007...everyone was saying, "no its not a recession, don't even think its a recession, and to say so means you'll trigger a recession." Decided to declare the bad news late, so maybe we'll be out of it by the time we call it? Well, I've got news for you ... this is going to be a nice long recession, we won't get out of it until 2010 at the very earliest. Ha! What do you think about that?

Sister is helping the local economy of Wisconsin out, though. She's going to get the flooring done at the farmette. Yay! The floors are the one thing that badly need repair. I suggested we hold off a bit for some of the contracting jobs until the recession really bit. If the contractor is a bit hungry, they should give you a better deal. At least if you are the only meal in town, they won't blow your project off.

Saturday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - 0$

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $5 groceries and lost $7 out of pocket

Did the gym laundry Friday night, then returned the gym bag to work Saturday afternoon and walked part of the way home. As long as I was at work, I put in a few dollars to show the tip box some love.

Walked Saturday and Sunday - it is getting harder to do the full trip because I much prefer to walk during daylight. When it gets dark by 4:30, that's my deadline, and it if takes about 3 hours, I have to start at 1:30. Not complaining particularly, weekends are for a bit of laziness. Even if I have only two hours, walking is good, because I made these three observations:

1. Listened to Marketplace radio. The piece talked about the price of eggs and the correspondent let slip that she pays $3.35 for a dozen. Yikes! Still the rationalizations flew: "But LA is so expensive and I have them delivered." Cry me a river. Here's a hint: buts cry out for a creative solution in times of trouble. Do you really have to have your eggs delivered?

2. Same radio show, except the piece talked about re-setting children's expectations. If only we can tap into peer pressure. What if everybody's teen was told, "nope, we can't afford it."?

3. Discovered that while my new hoodie is a magnet for sidewalk small change, its pockets expel dollar bills. Time to be more careful where I put my change. Sucks.

More signs of the times: the North Seattle Goodwill is doing brisk business, even on a Sunday (Monday's when the new stuff gets laid out), even at 4:30 in the afternoon.


Where am I going to get my colon cleaned now?
Before

After

Ah the seamy underside of the holidays...

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $12 lunch

We're getting our paychecks early this month - normally its the last day of the month, which this month falls on a Sunday. On a weekend, we get paid on the last work day of the month, which in other months would be Friday. Of course this month Friday is not a workday (hopefully its not your workday either), so the last workday of the month is ... tomorrow. 5 day early paycheck.

I finally got the hint and decided to cut off my recurring T-bill buying. For laughs I looked at what I would have earned on a 4wk $4,000 T-bill: 16 cents. The money that would have bought the T-bill now goes into the Treasury's no interest account, and I move that back into ING. What $4,000 will earn in ING in 4wks: $8.43.

I've been noticing more living thrifty articles. Here's

one from Alternet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch + $20 beer, snack, dinner

The office had a drawing at our internal United Way campaign. I won the other Obama book, Dreams of My Father. Another co worker on my floor won The Audacity of Hope. We can have a little lending library in the lunch room, a place even more convenient than the library. Got a certificate for our floor's first place in the Halloween decorating contest...so actually we just won bragging rights. And brag we will.

Had a beer and dinner with DH, and I tried the snack that I've always wanted to try - fried crunchy pigs ears with mustard @ 4.99$. They were french-fried strips, no curve. Tasty, crunchy, like fries with third and a fourth dimension. DH had one, and had no more, so I had the rest. I felt like Mike Tyson, bearing down on these guys. I probably won't order them again, but it was great to try them and have nearly everything but the squeal.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch + $.40 banana

Again with the busy. The CFO (who is, during our bosses' leave, is our acting boss), kindly reminded me that a little bit of overtime, strategically deployed, can be appropriate if its a busy hump.

Took a look at the T-bill interest this month: 22 cents. Now its insulting, pops. Time to think about taking scfr's T-bill "breather" myself and move the money into ING. I can move it back if the interest improves.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $4 coffee (2 drip coffees bought within 2 hrs of each other) + $10 lunch

The busy season for pledges hit and hit hard this week. Lots of work! That part is similar to previous years; the truly tiring part is that our boss is on family leave so all the deflections and meetings she went to so we didn't have to ... now we have to and suddenly its tiring. Not to mention that sometimes more than one of us is going and then some of us get our undies in a bunch because there was more than one of us. Sigh. Its not the meeting that gets me tired; its expending energy easing the snit of other people in our department. I have to save a little bit of energy and time to smooth feathers.

But back to the meeting issue. I'm shaking my head here. Have a meeting and you don't want to go, look at Outlook calendars. Maybe you're lucky and there's a dup. No sense in emailing blah, blah.

Also the low level tension due to the rain, the mood of Seattle during recession, daylight saving going away, no chance to workout this week. Sigh. I have a saying on my white board: No one dies if it doesn't get done today. I wrote on the side in response: It only feels like it.

Another recession sign is that the campaign questions I'm getting are far more pointed. Not a surprise really. The off the wall flaky ones we get from possible donors during a boom year aren't bothering to give anything this year, so no questions from them.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch

All that walking around north Seattle heading from house to downtown, all while noting bus stops paid off today.

I live in North Seattle, my usual morning bus crosses into downtown via the Aurora Bridge. I caught the bus while lugging about 15 pounds of canned goods (food drive), and congratulated myself on my luck. The intercom on the bus was on, the dispatcher mentioned delays on Aurora. I settled in because that's fairly usual.

We got to Fremont Ave (the very pretty leaf-strewn street in the post below). Traffic was backed up, we didn't move, and the dispatch estimated a hour to hour & half to get to downtown.

Time to get off, even lugging the cans. The aisle seat woman and I chatted as we walked along Fremont from 42nd to across the Fremont Bridge. We saw at least three large police vans and fire trucks on Aurora. The aisle seat woman crossed headed on Dexter. I had cans, so I waited on Nickerson to catch the 17. Everything was late, but I caught it, stood in the aisle, did the penguin-chick thing with the bag of canned goods. Got into work at 9:45. I was sooo happy to dump those cans!

Turned out it was a jumper on the Aurora Bridge. You know, its so odd to want to off yourself in such a public way as jumping off a bridge during rush hour. Suicide is not really an extrovert's activity; its not entertaining so what's the audience for? Talking you down? Cheering you on?

The odyssey this morning was useful. I found two pennies while I was walking.

.14 - .02 = .12 to get to .31. I now have this week to find 12 cents on the street.

Found out that our floor won the Halloween decorating contest. I chatted a bit with the organizer - if we weren't so politically correct, our floor would have swept all the categories, so we got Best Overall.

I bonds got their new interest rates today. 0.70% fixed rate 4.92% cpi for a total rate of 5.64%. Still not fantastic, but better than the last batch with a fixed rate of 0.0%.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $15 lunch

Put my $44 in tip box earnings into the downtown bank (WaMu Tower) this month. Still WaMu in name, on the slips, & the teller uniform and in the color scheme, but the colors of the banners are changing, with a few items called "Chase". The ATM - the electronic face - is now branded Chase. Digestion is at a plateau.

Looking forward to a NSD. Tomorrow is coffee from the French press at work and a lunch party.

Our boss, out on family leave, announced the birth of her daughter by her partner. Pwhew - she went on family leave and for two weeks we heard nothing about birth and delivery.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $10 lunch

My $4000 in this week's monthly T-bill has earned me a grand total of 31 cents. I don't know whether, again, everyone's fleeing to safety from stocks from last week, or will be fleeing stocks next week. All I know is that this month I can do better by sticking the money in my mattress and hunt for sidewalk change. There's only one flaw in the plan - its fall, and its dark during my walk. Hard to spot those little metal circles in the dark.

I opened up the envelope containing my 403B results. As of Sept 30, I lost 6.5%. Well done, baselle.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch

So in the last episode of 403B doings, I wrote out the basic rules of my 403 - when money gets put in, match mechanism, and what funds I can choose from.

Now comes the research. There are several reasonable places that I like to look at:

Morningstar
Value Line

And for a little bit of fun, useful for the larger stocks and funds -
Map of the Market (Stocks)
Map of the Market (Mutual Funds)

For all of these tools, I type in the ticker, and collect as much info as I can. I especially like the Data Interpreter tab in Morningstar, which talks about a fund in relatively plain English. I also pay a visit to the Top 25 holdings, because that is very instructive. Often you will find that large cap (capitalization) funds have similar blends of companies, so then you want to decide on other criteria - lower fees, or a higher fund rating...if you believe in ratings.

Right now, during my fact finding mission, I construct a note narrative...tell a story so I can tell the difference between my funds. And that can sometimes be depressing.

GCMAX - mid cap, above 1% fees, mostly utilities, gas, and chemicals
GSGOX - gov bond, 1% fees, 50% of the fund short bond positions
MASRX - S&P 500 Index, .35% fees, 3 star, many dividend stocks w/decent yield
MDBAX - value, .8% fees, similar to MASRX, P/Es lower
MDHQX - bond fund, .91% fees, top 2 holdings are long euros at 2010, short euros at 2009 (kiddies, long and short pairs like this are known as a hedge)
MDLOX - international, 4 star, 1.18% fees, multi-national, large position in US bonds
MDLRX - large cap core, 1.17% fees, 2 star, similar to MASRX, P/Es higher
MRAXX - cash, yield 2.21%, fees .65%, so really 1.55%
OPMSX - small cap, above 1% fees, 2 star, lots of little companies in energy consumer. Big Lots at top.
RGACX - growth, .93% fees, 5 star, google near the top along w/other software
RIDCX - income, .93% fees, 4 star, seems like a good pair w/RGACX more value-y
SPEGX - social choice, 2.93% fees, 4 star, but BP, Walmart, and Coke in a social choice fund???!!!
THVRX - international, 1.7% fees, similar to MDLOX

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch + $4 grapes and apple

Today I got my *free* flu shot. I'd have to look but I swear that it was early by a couple of weeks.

I mentioned that I was getting the shot in our staff meeting (minus our director, who is now out on leave), and I got a couple of hoots. Why are you getting the shot? Don't you know that either (a) not going to work, or (b) you will get the flu?

Pardon my french but that's chicken s%^t. I rarely get sick. I get the shot, I wash my hands very regularly. I usually have to call in for a day or two for a "mental health" day. My PTO is up to 200 hours ... which I have to prune. Everyone else? Aaaak aaaak, I can't make it.

Please. Time to start taking names and teasing when the inevitable happens in February.

In other health news, I signed up for the new health insurance plan.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $11 (lunch, soda, Financial Times)

As threatened, since the financial climate has changed, I'm going to take another look at my 403B holdings. I'm not interested in "timing" per se, but I have to note that with a new macro-economic/financial wind, I have to trim my sails again. Buy and hold doesn't mean buy and forget.

So the first task in any job is to arrange your tools, figure out what you have and what sort of rules you have. One of the basic tenets of frugality is to use what you have. I'm just applying this to the 403B. YMMV.

We can contribute any amount up to the limit of $15.5K. Employee contributions go in monthly, we are matched .50:1 with a cap of 4%. (Means I have to contribute 8% to max out the match)

Actually, even if we do not contribute anything, our place of work will give the employee at least 1%. Those contributions are put in a second account (retirement fund), which go in yearly in March. Those are the monies that are fully vested after 6 years.

Like many small-ish workplaces, we are limited in the mutual funds that we can invest in in our 403B. Not really a surprise - the more choices, the fewer dollars in each choice. The more dollars that are in the total plan, the lower the fees are (R-type funds).

Our funds are, in a word, ... meh. The only advantage is that I don't have to research zillions of funds, I just have to research 12. (One is cash)

They are (ticker symbol):
American Fund Growth (RGACX)
American Fund Income (RIDCX)
Alger Green A (SPEGX)
Black Rock Basic Value (MDBAX)
Black Rock International (MDLOX)
Black Rock S&P 500 (MASRX)
Black Rock Lg Cap Core (MDLRX)
Black Rock Total Return (MDHQX)
Goldman Sachs Mid Cap Value (GCMAX)
Goldman Sachs Government Bond (GSGOX)
Oppenheimer Small Cap (OPMSX)
Merrill Lynch Ready Asset (MRAXX) - cash.
Thornberg International Fund (THVRX)

Important to know that mutual funds have a ticker symbol for the further research.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch

both Ben Stein and Jim Cramer make it on Dr. Phil. That's what greeted me above the elliptical machine as I warmed up.

We had the super duper exciting explain-the-new-medical-insurance meeting. It was, in a word, baroque. There's the network, the non-network, and the really non-network. We also have less than a week to fill in our paperwork. Sheesh. Can you say railroad?

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch

Only went for the 6 inch sub today. It came with chips and a soda and for $4.99. With tax it came to $5.35, and I tossed in the change for karmic tip.

The COO gave a 10 minute lunchtime talk about the financial crisis, then threw it open for questions and comments for the hour. There wasn't any mind-blowing analysis or pearls of wisdom, or even any good advice. The really unusual thing was that we had a special meeting about it. The last time we had a special meeting like this was after 9/11.

After the meeting I realized that I didn't do what I normally do - provide some sort of lightness. Heard any good jokes about this crisis? I've heard only one:

Q: What's the difference between a Lehman trader and a pigeon?
A: The pigeon can still make a deposit on a Ferrari.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch + $20 groceries

Good
Found a good deal on Odwalla bars at Uwajimaya - I eat them for breakfast - .99/each. Usually they go for $1.39 - $1.69. At best lately they go for 10/$10, which is $1/each.

Weird
I was shocked to see a big bin of

jujubes . Somehow I missed the memo that they exist as a real fruit. I just thought it was a cutesy name for a piece of candy. FYI - they appear to be in season right now.

Awful
On a darker note, we were alerted that our health insurance is going up. A lot. If HR continued with the old carrier - premiums would have gone up 41%. Now they are "merely" going up 30%.

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch + $15 groceries

We had a bit of excitement this morning back behind our offices. Still don't know the objective story, so let's play some Mad Libs, shall we?

blank 1: bank robbery, hostage situation, bomb scare, extreme gaiety

blank 2: Money Tree, Washington Federal, Pacific Northwest Title, icky food court

blank 3: the robber, the disgruntled employee, the bomber, my congressman

There was a ...blank 1... at the ...blank 2... back behind our offices on 3rd and Cherry. Police cordoned off the street waiting out ...blank 3....

Looky, I can write for the Seattle Times!

Seriously, rampant rumors, and with the big updraft in the stock market (our crops is saved) I never heard the right story.

N.B: This

story I could not resist blogging about. I'll have to follow this one. Sheer genius if she gets away with it.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.25 bagel, coffee + $1.13 apple + $20 groceries

Forgot to mention that since our 403B is administered by Merrill Lynch, we asked about how that was going to work now that Merrill Lynch was bought out by Bank of America.

The answer is nothing much would change. Our plan administrator is in the now Merrill Lynch Wealth Management division, and for the moment is going to be our plan manager. In our 403B the old Merrill Lynch funds were bought a year or so ago by Black Rock.

Was just going to buy tomatoes and a red onion to go with all the cucumbers sister mailed to me. But then I saw a decent deal on bananas, a great deal on whole chicken and a BOGO free on chicken drumsticks and thighs. (DH is a dark meat guy). So I walked home with two large, heavy grocery bags - $20.

Because its Sept 19

collectings - $1 treasure box
lootings - $15 raw fish cut by ninja

Avast ye hearties! The day was one big aaaarrghh! I took me treasure box to the bank, got one hundred doubloons (my jaw be tired from biting down on EACH of them!) in case we were raided over the weekend by the FDIC navy, then walked over to a spot where I knew that if Woo Hoo made other pirates walk the plank to keep their treasure, I would get a good picture. One picture is worth a thousand aaarrrghs, ye know.

The flat side of me spyglass was busted! No picture! I would ave thrown someone to the sharks if I could. Maybe draw and quarter them first.

Back on the ship, I went over the log of other possible pirates. Bad times means good slaves and wenches could be had for cheap. Spent the time between high sun and grog time clicking fer more of me doubloons.


Translation: Put in the tip box savings into the bank, got 100$ in case things got frozen over the weekend. Walked past the WaMu Center and was about to take a picture when I discovered that the LCD screen on my camera was busted. I was mad, and depressed. (and yes, I will replace.)
At work, I looked over who we were going to interview for temporary staff. The recession means we are getting some applicants who look really good. The rest of the afternoon I finished up a database project.

N.B: comparing 18th century pirates to 21-century investment bank.... Couldn't resist.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $10 lunch + $10 toiletry drive

When you work at a non-profit, you can get yourself into odd positions. Today I helped to save us quite a bit of coin (about 12K) during our busy season by "hiring" an internal staffer part time.

The odd part is that its our Director of General Accounting.

It turns out that General Accounting's very slow season is Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb. You can only refine your procedures for so long, the Director said, so they approached us to help out because that's our hot time & we take in pledges, money and data. It seems a natural.

I figure that its worth a try because while my workload is more than one person, it really isn't enough for another whole person full time - an internal person has their own gig, so part time a few hours three days/week should catch me up; accounting is very close to what we do so we only have to re-invent the rim, not the whole wheel; easy to contact the internal person; has a greater stake in doing the job correctly because the internal person will feel the effects.

Its just going to be very odd bossing around a director. Treating my helper as a volunteer seems the best approach. She shares a trait with me - finds it much much easier to do than to teach. But I did teach her a bit about what I do a couple of months and she found it interesting. Day one is already done in a sense.

We have a toiletry drive - I forgot to pick up a few things so I put $10 for the parallel collection.

Tuesday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $11 lunch (lunch, drink, Financial Times)

Wednesday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $11 lunch + $25 contribution

I'm only going to make one comment about the political campaigns: Oy, short for oy vey. You don't have to be of one particular persuasion - Oy on both sides. Fill in the blank on whatever you feel Oy about.

Think I'll declare myself Whig.

What's on my fiscal mind is that I'm in charge of a collection at work for a gift card for my bosses' baby shower. (and no, I'm not working for Sarah Palin) I volunteered to keep the collection, and contributed a bit myself already but I rarely do it so I need a bit of guidance.

1.) Do I actively advertise or do I passively collect?

2.) If I advertise, do I do so amongst those who are invited to the shower, or do I throw it out to the whole workplace?

3.) If I advertise, is it a reminder, or is it something more? Personal touch and/or email?

I have about two weeks, so there's time.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $7 lunch

Payday, and the pace of work is definitely gearing up. In case you missed it, I work booking and processing pledges for a large non-profit. The fall campaigns are gearing up, I'm seeing new faces and new projects are starting to pop up.

Today it seemed like it was meeting, meeting, meeting. Heard out a bit of venting from DJ friend about another co worker. I had a hour chat with several of the new temporary folks working the fall campaigns. I involved in an office collection for a gift certificate. We reviewed videoes of ourselves talking about our jobs (I will always look like a warthog. ), and I took a look at a new computer program that promises to be revolutionary...code word for being a pain in the ass.

An hour here, an hour there, and the day was gone. Time to be more protective of my time to get what I have to get done. At least we have a paycheck right before a three day weekend.

Wednesday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $7 lunch

Thursday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch

Keep on, keepin' on. Haven't done anything particularly frugalicious. Like BA, I'm a casual coupon user. I was handed a lunch coupon last week as I was walking toward another lunch and I used it yesterday. The press pot coffee is still working like a champ, and it saves a few minutes off my schedule when I first get in, to boot.

This afternoon, I worked out at the gym w/o the trainer. (Not the first time, but the first permanent time). I was about 10 minutes late so I worked out for the extra 10 to make up for it. I used a 8 month old workout routine (an L) so I added 10 pounds of weight to the machine settings. Worked well.

The tough parts were
1.) taking a bit of time to figure out where the machines were moved to (new machines and remodeling). It helped to take a few minutes before the set to look at the card, visualize the exercise and the find the machines.

2.) figuring out what to do when someone is exercising in front of your machine. I worked around her, but cripes, twenty minutes doing one thing is not very efficient.

I gave DH a belated birthday gift. He wanted a 20 Gig MP3 player just like mine. DJ friend was willing to sell me his (which he wanted because it was just like mine) for $80. It truly is just like mine, except for a bitty scratch at the bottom, so we can tell them apart. The delights of the old yet again.

Saving log - $19 tip box
Spending log - (Thursday) $5 groceries + (Friday) $0

I strolled to the downtown WaMu to deposit my tip box this month ($49, a long way from FDIC limits), when I came upon this pair on the sidewalk.


Horse and rider followed me when I heard a "Harvey! Its you!" from the florist across the street.

I work in the basement floor; my office ceiling is directly under the 2nd Ave sidewalk, rather than directly under other offices (weird I know). Every couple of days during the afternoon I hear a "clop clop clop clop" right above me.

I'd like to think its Harvey.

Fiscally, my financial stock Drp is going to maintain its dividend, at least for this quarter. I'm putting $49 into savings from the tip box this month, and I've had a very low spend day and a no spend day right after each other.