Bibimbap: Korean dish. Over a bowl of rice, lay a few ounces of meat grilled with garlic and chili (beef, chicken, seafood, tofu), and an ounce or so each of little piles of: shredded carrot, shredded radish, kimchi, shredded cucumber, mung or soybean sprouts, sauteed mushrooms, cooked spinach, with hot sauce on top. If you spring for the more authentic egg on top, you get an egg sunny side on top, above the hot sauce. The idea is that you mix this all together, and especially mix the egg, so that the yolk soaks into the hot rice and cooks a bit more.

I've been noticing a lot more places to get bibimbap around here in Seattle. It seems like this dish is going to be like pho was 20 years ago - adopted and co-opted. Already notice this - you have to tell them if you want kimchi, which is a shame.

That is, if the chiropractor cashes the check as soon as he gets it, and with the new banking rules about floats (there are none) you've got to assume it. Its as close to zero balance checking as I care to come. I did put 300$ in savings so I wasn't at the edge of my budget and I have 30$ in my wallet, so I can easily survive tomorrow and Tuesday's payday.

I just got caught up in spending this month. Sigh.

My gym will come through with the rest of my costume Monday, but I did get a black long sleeved top just in case (if you get it, they will; if you don't prepare, they won't). Lately large in tops and sweaters is loose, so I gambled and won: its a medium and it fits! I also got a new medium sports bra. Tight like the large bra used to be, so I have to consider it a goal. (41.91$)

Yesterday DH picked up a buffalo chuck, so we had buffalo pot roast last night. (Montana roots, I think.) Frugal for me because DH sprung for it, but at 3.99$/lb not particularly frugal for him. Haven't seen any fantastic deals in the grocery stores here right now. November's around the corner and around here that's the time chicken stock goes for 78 cents/can.

Made stuffed grape leaves for the potluck on Tuesday. Picked up ground lamb last week at $2.99/lb. Again not really all that frugal, but for stuffing grape leaves lamb is the easiest and the most authentic.

Yesterday DH and I were watching the little trick-er-treaters on Greenwood Ave Saturday afternoon. Like a lot of other places, Halloween has undergone a shift. I picked up a bag of candy in case we get a couple of traditionalists (or teenagers), but I really don't think that many little kids trick or treat on a week night anymore. Too dangerous, too little return.

It was a blast watching all the little tykes dressed as frogs, queens, Star Wars characters (to the Darth Vader with the plait hanging down the back - you go girl!), superheroes, t-rexs, princesses, sports stars, playing cards, monkeys...its a great irony that we adults allow our children to be creative but as adults - and adult women especially - costumes are narrowly defined, generally on the wench line. Its like we say to kids be anything to have fun, but to an adult be sexual to have fun.

Thursday -
2$ in the tip box
7.70$ earned from T-bills this week, sent to ING.

Had breakfast coffee at a morning meeting, so only spent for a bibimbap lunch (6.50$).

The timeline firmed up for the first large quantity of pledges and money for this year - a week from now Monday.

Generally I try to make a week's worth of prepared food on Saturday and Sunday, but Thursday night I made the fixin's of lentil soup. DH fetched some carrots and more lentils (3$).


Friday -
8$ in the tip box (40$ total for the month)

I felt like a rich woman, so I splurged and spent on chirashi for lunch (11$) in addition for the for black coffee + no fat milk (2$)

It was a good day for my DRP stocks - KO went up $1.80/share; MMM went up $2.07. I write it now to cheer me up should they drop just as steeply. 3/4 of my stocks are close to their 52 week highs, only MMM is at its midpoint, bouncing back from its dip.

Put 300$ in a surprising place - in my PayPal account. Its paying at 5.02%.

Put out some small fires at work today. I feel bad about giving my helper a totally boring icky data job, but its important and it will help us... a lot.

Walked home from 15th Ave NW, 7 blocks further than I normally do - I have been doing off and on these past two months, but I figure this will be one of the last times this year. We go back to regular time either this weekend or next, which means walking in the dark.

So the chiropractor said that he had something for me--
A bill? I joked.

A lot of protein powder. Free meal replacement powder to mix in water or a drink. As a woman, it doesn't excite me as much as, say, a fur would but it is the thought that counts. And my thought is that sweet snacks are easy to come by, but protein ones are not. Not to mention it does free me up to not have to think of the second lunch. I can drink the second lunch for free. So girly loss but frugal win.

I thanked him, tried some this evening, and split the powder between work and home.

Went to Uwajimaya for lunch today ($5.40). They're having the 10% off everything sale, and it is getting cold, clammy and gray, so I picked up the wakame and clear soup packs. ($6.08) Come January, amongst the piles and piles of paper, something soothing to drink will come in handy.

Got the new passport back. Positively charming and informative - I can see why I get protein powder instead a fur.

Caught up on the credit card bill, so it was only 78$ this month. An even nicer feeling than saving money is not being beholden.

Saturday morning, DH and I mixed it up and had dim sum at the Hakka Chinese place. (25$) Good, but not celestial. Anyway, this is what I got in my fortune cookie--

"Next month will be your most profitable month of the year."

I'm taking that as a sign that there will be movement on the second property.

I've always gotten great fortune cookie fortunes, no matter the situation. Eating by myself, eating in large parties where you pick the cookie that points to you. I've never gotten confusing ones, or evil ones, and I never needed the "in bed" phrase to make one of those slips entertaining. One of those karmic quirks, I guess.

Bought a couple of months worth of canned cat food for my now-19 year old cat. 23$. We used the self-checkout line; the checkout voice noting "cat food" drove DH insane. And yet I must be even more optimistic this year than last.

72$ for groceries - I bought a cartload this time, and we also got meat and cold medicine which always hikes things up a bit. There was a great deal on frozen corn, peas, and green beans - .78/lb.

Last night I got out of the bath and as I ran through the skin care ritual (slapping on a fair amount of body lotion), I took a look at myself in the mirror.

Actual, genuine booty.

It was a bit like seeing an old friend at a college reunion, aged a tad from celluite, but you could see the resemblance and "she" brought back great memories.

Sunday: went to the Greek Festival for a hit and run. Didn't sense that DH was in the spirit of the thing, so I went alone. Bought a 2$ raffle to go to Lost Wages (Vegas), olive oil, feta cheese, olives, taramosalata, braided butter cookies = 42$ (mostly due to the olive oil).

At the grocery store, found a very good unadvertised deal on lamb neck @ 1.49$/lb. Lamb stew!


Monday: Put 4$ in the tip box.

Now that I've gotten busier, I have an assistant. New and exciting and scary because I'm a serious control freak and find it difficult to delegate...not to mention as a practical matter that with the buses, I'm finding it very hard to get to work before 8:30am to supervise. It was her first day and we got her up and running and trained a bit. Tomorrow I'll put her to some of her basic tasks.

She generally brings her lunch, but didn't today because she wasn't sure of the facilities we had and the lunch rules. Bought her first lunch along with mine - 23$. There's frugal, and then there's nice.

So DH and I, in our Saturday morning wanderings, went to Denny's this morning. It took me several minutes of reading and flipping through the glossy pictures of cutesy named dishes before I found what I really wanted--

The Original Grand Slam - 4.49$

It was in tiny print, no picture, an after thought. I remember many moons ago when two of everything (a Grand Slam) was a serious plate of food, even for a college student, and it got a picture and good billing. It was enough for anyone, and it was a feast. Now? You're a cheapo and on a diet.

No wonder why we are all fat and in debt.

DH went even further - he ordered a senior omelette. It's a big step; he's at that sensitive age. Pretty soon the pride will drop even further and he'll be asking for the senior discount. Pride ebbeth before frugality.

Denny's was very close to the grocery where I got the tuna rain check, so I cashed in the tuna rain check, carefully checking with a free cashier that this was the right tuna. You can't be too lax with the details.

6 cans of tuna - 3$.

Bought another long sleeved knit top at the thrift store - 2$.

Nicer than the first reckoning...

Lost 4 lbs, (I'm 194 with the shoes on), I lost another inch in various places. Now I'm officially below 30 BMI. And with the chiropractic - I'm 5'8" and no one questions it.

Since December, I've lost 18 lbs of straight fat and gained 7 lbs of muscle.

Time to keep going - it took years to get to 200, it'll take years to drop it.

Chirashi sushi for lunch today - $15.

Got word from the DJ friend - totally loved the write-up. Whew!

Got an email from sister. She figured that she'll be on vacation (10/2 - 10/16) when the offer comes in on the second property. I assured her that it was unlikely - it feels like it'll be November to me - but that if it did, I'll contact her and stall, stall, stall. And heck, both the heirs have to agree to a decision.

A branded piece of heavy equipment I saw downtown on the street Friday as the bus pulled away from the stop. It made me laugh out loud. Even funnier, check out the worldwide entities too.

Went to Uwajimaya - here's my favorite frugal purchase. Black sesame seeds, dried & finely ground orange peel, chili powder. So much addictive goodness all for $1.65. I put it on popcorn, myself.

About a week ago I got a letter from my brick and mortar bank - my 30K CD is maturing at the end of September. Since I've decided what to do with it doesn't involve re-upping for another 6 month stint, I went to tell 'em to put the 30K in my checking account.

I was too early. The grace period is 10 days and its 10 days from the day it matures, not 10 days before it matures. I get to come back nine days later. Oh well, at least I made the mistake in a way that's correctable.

Bought my cheap coffee ($1.37), but also bought a pint of non-fat milk to put in the refeer. A little more expensive than the free cream ($.65), but I'll shave a few calories off.

no tip box doings today

it just happens to drive a big Safeway truck. During my evening hike home, I waited at the slow crosswalk when said grocery truck slowed, then stopped before the crosswalk. Crosswalk light still showed not to, but the truck blocked both lanes on the left, with no traffic coming from the right. Normally, if its a car, I much prefer to wave the car on. A bad driver could make the love/hate relationship I have with my knees even worse. I knew how much effort this truck took to slow and stop and it seemed a crime to wave him on. I went against the crosswalk light and waved back.

Gave 7$ to a toiletry drive at work. Shopping for that stuff doesn't give me enough of a thrill; better to give the money to someone who likes shopping for that stuff.

Got another rain check at a different grocery store, this time for diced canned tomatoes. 2 for .98.

Put the old passport, the passport renewal form, the check for $67 (yikes!) into the padded envelope. All that remains is to get 2 current passport pictures.

Forgot an energy bar today, and since my usual coffee place only has bad-for-you stuff, I checked out the little deli that I sometimes get sandwiches from. The energy bars were 1.69 (sob - better remember my .89 bars tomorrow!) but they also sold my usual brand of drip coffee...

For a 1.25$, or about .40 cheaper than I usually get it, or even better, for 25% less. Time for a switch. No harm, no foul, just a cheaper way to run my routine.

Waiting for my paycheck on Friday.

Put 35$ into a drip.

Hard to believe it had been five years. Five years ago this morning, I rode on a quiet bus. I heard a laugh from someone, then a growl, "don't you know we are at war?" At work, we watched buildings pancake on CNN and the dust cloud roll into the street, and watched them over and over. We were allowed to go home if we wanted and many people did. I was numb; I wanted to stay and do a simple repetitive task. It had to be better than watching tumbling buildings.

DH and I ate breakfast out, at decidedly unfrugal prices. We are both getting in the swing of asking for a box at a restaurant. No sense treating a gargantuan meal as a challenge (who wants to be known as being able to eat an 8 egg omelet?), but no sense in pitching out good food and good money either.

I've been asking for the box a lot lately and I've become expert at dividing meals in half. I think I'll get into the habit of asking for the box faster, maybe about the same time as when the food comes. Another advantage to following a routine - the restaurants and lunch places that know you by face usually let you get away with a lot. Several have even noticed my new look and are happy to help me out.

Next...

Tried out a new grocery store in a nearby shopping mall. Grapes and cottage cheese were as cheap as I've seen them. It's not that much further - matter of fact if I rode my bus 10 blocks further I'd hit that mall. The only thing that I don't like is that they have data cards, too. I'm trying a different tack. They gave me a card and an application for me to fill out later. I'll just substitute never for later and see what happens. I did that with Safeway - or did I just use a fake email and phone? I forgot, but I haven't been contacted and I haven't had my card taken away from me. Call it the Gandhi method. Non violent, but private.

At another grocery store (sans card) I found my energy bars for .89/ bar, or .10 cheaper anywhere else, or even better at 10-11% cheaper. Yippee!

Also found 2 for $1 tuna. Last time I it was that cheap was back in May of 2005. (See what a price book can do for you?) Unfortunately everybody else found it before I did. The second frugal thing I did was ask for a rain check. The store was happy to provide it - even had a little slip for the purpose. The rain check was even better - I really didn't have a need to buy tuna, but now I can create my own tuna sale whenever I want (well, within reason). What a concept - if you don't have coupons, make your own by hunting for things that you use, are on sale, but have been sold out. And its easier to store rain check slips than it is to store the food itself. And its easier on the diet.

Just a weird thing I've noticed. I write $40 checks the chiropractor, and $40 checks to one of my Drips, and I take out $40 in cash when I go to the ATM, and when my tip box gets to about $40 I'm thinking its time to stick it in the savings account.

It makes my online banking reconciliation a bit cryptic. Just what is this $40 for, anyhow? And what is it about two twenties, anyway? It must be my breakpoint, when I think something is cheap vs. expensive, or at least if its $40 or under, I don't complain about it to DH.

Put $6 in the tip box. Got a lot done at work today.

Retired the Larry's entries from my price book. My local Larry's is all chained up. Word has it that it'll be an Asian food superstore, a bit like Uwajimaya.

Eventually she'll get into the 21st century. She's buying a Dell laptop (hold the flaming battery) with WiFi and that will be delivered next week. Her 6 month CD is maturing, as is mine, so she's been asking me for advice for what else to do with the bucks. At least its advice on how to save money, not on how to spend it.

Off and on, as long as I've had my ING account, I've sent her several ING invites to try to get her to try out Internet banking, to get that immediate 9% return. Now that I'm down to my last invite, and I know of a couple of people who will bite, I'm thinking that its now or never. Of course I've said that several times. I just know that if she sees the advantages of one, she'd get mad at me if I could have offered it to her but didn't.

My latest argument is that since she's going on vacation in mid-October, if she needs emergency money, she can tap an Internet bank anywhere she can find a secure connection.

My other argument is that my little fiscal empire is dependent on me being able to move money easily to other places. Its a lot easier to buy a T-bill or move dollars to Vanguard electronically. But electronically moving dollars requires a bit of faith the first few times one does it. I know that a couple of other bloggers much prefer the paper/in the hand method. A week of cleaning and trying to find assets in a two story undefended, barely padlocked farm house taught me the problems with that. All it would have taken for some of the assets to disappear was gasoline and a match. (Plenty of items outside the house walked away.) Even now there's the story of the homeless guy who found savings bonds in a jacket bought at the thrift store. I'm half expecting that some of our assets could have been found that way.

No really good buys at Larry's when I went for what I figured to be the last time, but I did get a couple of good deals on pork, chicken drumsticks (DH can perfect his fried chicken recipe), and ramen. Sometimes I have a hankering for ramen! It's sad seeing empty spaces and knowing that the stock is going. Shopping at Larry's in North Seattle was a real Saturday routine and I got to know all the cashiers and grocers. Next week we'll be at a loss.

Larry's Markets - the grocery that I got the good deals from in salmon and milk. At the time, everyone was full of optimism that they had a good buyer. Unfortunately a different buyer came in and bought several of the pieces for the buildings and land. The grocery that I shopped at wasn't part of that deal. Their probable last day is next Thursday, the last day of August.

Now I only have two grocery stores within walking distance of my house.

Larry's didn't usually have the best rock-bottom prices, so I cut my teeth using a price book and teamed it with their Internet flyer with them. I found some great surprises - cheap(er) butter, eggs, corned beef, stew meat, romaine, wine. Their tuna was cheaper than Costco's. Produce was good looking, but rarely rock bottom. On the other hand you didn't have to be alert while you dug. Best of all, you didn't have the evil club cards.

I'd watch other folks in line drop hundreds of dollars there--mine would rarely hit 30$. My high was 80$, and that was during Thanksgiving.

I do expect, however, to find some good last deals as their stock gets bought out. Potatoes are already at .39/lb.

I was flush with linen closet success, so I tackled the home office and library (aka the second bedroom). DH uses it about 80% of the time and I use it about 20%, but in the last year its been running 95%/5% because the office is a total squalid shambles. Total ick. DH makes nests despite several books on organization and cleaning clutter (hah hah - teaching the organizationally challenged organization is a bit like teaching an elephant to fly), and I have to be in the pitiless, ruthless mood to do the task. Perfect: sleeping on an air mattress and the couch for nearly a week has put me in ferocious, ruthless mood. And after that blog entry about enjoying your own box - well, I've been in that vibe all week.

Day 1 - desk, floor, and 2/6 bookcases. My technique is pretty simple: sort into empty boxes. Clean the desk down to the wood making several piles: paper to toss immediately (including pamphlets/CDs of equipment that I know we don't have), paper to put in a pile for DH to sort, CDs and video games, computer equipment and cables. Dust the desk.

The bookcases are bit more problematic. We both love books and we have more book than bookcase, but I figure if I can dispose of 3-4 pieces per shelf (dups, outdated, bad condition, items I was given that I'm never going to re-read), I can get everything back in place. Dusting, though, is brutal!

I finished by vacuuming the floor and turning the HEPA filter on. Here's hoping that the dust on the bookcases makes it into the HEPA.

The pile technique is very useful for DH, because he can make pretty good decisions once his attention gets narrowed down to a box. He got his CDs and video games sorted and sold them at Half Price Books for 18$.

Day 2- file cabinet and 2 more bookcases. I started another box of office supplies. So many reams of paper, blank labels, blank envelopes, pads of paper, blank journals, pens & pencils, computer tools, postits, a binder or two! I've got to use this box before acting on the cravings when I'm at Office Despot.

Found Clif bars for .99/apiece at Trader Joes. Now both DH and I use them as breakfast bars. Not bad with a cup of coffee and the serving size is highly defined.

DH told me about the $5 off any produce coupon after I bought the cheap produce. Normally, I would have used it to buy my ordinary stuff, so today I tried a different tactic - I used the coupon to get fruit I rarely get like white Rainier cherries and an heirloom melon. Total treat for $2.

Joy of Cooking had a recipe for fish cakes that I tried out. I can't ever follow a recipe straight even the first time. Its a quirk of mine.

Basically, the recipe was 1.5 lbs of flaked fish, finely chopped onion, lemon juice, spices (old bay and parsely in the recipe), an egg yolk and 5 tbsp mayo as binders. Form cakes, dredge in breadcrumbs and fry in 2 parts vegetable oil and 1 part butter. Not exactly health food, but darn tasty and a pretty efficient way to hide a small amount of cooked and mashed vegetables. I snuck in three of those leftover little white boiling potatoes.

Cooking is one of the most important frugal skills in my arsenal. Prepared food is always more expensive than the raw ingredients and it sure makes me feel clever when I can hide leftovers in a tasty way. To think I used to joke that the dorm cafeteria used to do the same thing! Except they weren't very clever about it.

I just don't like seeing containers in the refrigerator for more than a couple of days because after that, no one wants to risk taking an exploratory peek or sniff.

Tomorrow is DH's birthday - a restaurant trip tomorrow night. Then in the next couple of days comes salmon salad sandwiches and salmon macaroni salad.

I did my grocery shopping at Larry's Markets, which now has a buyer. Fantastic deals on red & green grapes, peaches, milk, salad in a bag, potato chips, radishes, tomatoes, cheese. 2 large bags and the gallon of milk for 16$. DH got salmon for 1.97/lb. That's an unheard of price even for Seattle. So it will be grilled salmon and the leftovers which will turn into salmon salad and salmon cakes.

DH and I both saved our tickets from the family visit to the artshow at EMP. Turns out that those tickets entitle us to get in free to the Henry Art Gallery where we saw Maya Lin's show Systematic Landscapes. Picked up the other half of sister's birthday gift in the gift shop for $27.20.

$3 more in the tip box

Spent $1.75 for coffee, and $8 for lunch. The price per lb of salad rose .50/lb to $5.49/lb. Bummer! Although they still have mango slices, baked salmon, fried mushrooms, and tofu with black bean sauce, so .50 more is still worth it.

Saw the chiropractor checks online, which was a treat in each sense of the word; last week my bank "upgraded" its site. I couldn't get into my bank account so I couldn't reconcile my checks. It could have been worse. I don't use online bill pay, thankfully - that was completely knocked out during the "upgrade". Welcome to the icky side of the digital life.

Worked out at the gym by myself today. Because I'm in the fitness challenge, I have to get weighed and measured. Another personal trainer did the deed, and I got another piece of rotten news - no weight loss or inch loss. To be fair, a bad before number means that its easier to win.

And tonight, I joined a night out party put on by the Seattle Police & Fire Dept to promote block watches. The block in question wasn't my block, but the block on the next street over. We live on a high traffic street so we had no ability to block off our street. No matter - there were at least 3 parties within 2 blocks of us.

Not that much saving going on.

Put $3 in the tip box.

I used part of the 'literary latte' gift card. One of my gift cards had .25 on it, so it got used and out it went. I realized that I had another $3 gift certificate for coffee in addition to the Starbucks card. ($2.50 + $3) Play my cards right, and I'll have a nearly no-spend on coffee week. It works best, though, if I put the coffee savings in my tip box; then I just displace my coffee spending from money to the cards. Spending feels the same, but it really juices up the savings.

As it turned out, all I spent today was on the curry lunch special for $4.36.

Day 2 of mid to upper 90s in Seattle. This time of year Seattle is sunny and dry. Not bone dry like Tucson is, but then again even Tucson this time of year isn't bone dry. Of course no one has AC around here -- why bother for only a week or so of hot weather? -- but it means that the entire city is cranky, out of sorts, and looking for frugal ways to beat the heat. Here are my rules:

#1 - Stay away from other people. This weekend is the Bite of Seattle. At least 100,000 sweaty people, each of whom is at least 98.6F congregating in front of 400F grills and paying at least $5 for the privilege...now doesn't that sound like cool, refreshing, inexpensive fun?

#2 - linger where you know there will be air conditioning. This morning, I was figuring out whether the 2 package for 3$ special on frozen mixed vegetables was a deal. Not really. The deal came from the delightful five minutes with my head in the freezer case.

#3 - catch a second-run movie. Ah, the Crest Cinemas. $3, all times. Air conditioning, darkness, cross ventilation, and a reason to linger. It's the main reason I rarely go to a movie in March and April. I've got to save up on movies to catch in July. FYI: Thank You for Smoking is very funny. Not as funny as Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, which for my money is the funniest movie this year.

Today I bought a little lunch at the grocery store and had a little battle with the cashier. It turned out that its pricing sticker was mixed up with something a lot more expensive, and conversely the expensive thing was priced cheaply. The thing that really got me was the tyranny of the sticker by the cashier. No looking at what I actually bought, or product knowledge - just the "that's how it rung up." Forget worrying about the embarassment E - its your money.

Put 6$ in the tip box yesterday. HR warned us yesterday about possible price rises in our medical insurance.

All I spent today was for a $1.75 coffee, and I put 3$ in my tip box. We had a free lunch if we were willing to listen to the CEO talk about the usual.

Lawyer friend would have none of it - he invited me to the little curry spot. Tempting because if I got the special, it would be $4.36, but on the other hand, free is $0.

Last Tuesday I bought the footlong, cut into four pieces for 2 days - tomorrow will be the other half. Friday can then be the any-vegetable-curry for $4.36. I might be able to get away with what's in my wallet for the rest of the week. Nice.

But the very nicest twist today is that I got free organic produce at the Pike Market, using a Wednesday-only-$5-off coupon. Not very exciting - Yukon Gold potatoes and purple scallions, but I have another coupon, so I'll be back next week.

Found 3 pennies yesterday. 2 were out in the street, all mangled. It disproves my theory a bit about where to collect change. It could be that plenty of people saw them, but no one dared stand there in the middle of the street picking up a penny. Call me a daredevil.

Stepping into my routine nicely - found a good deal on pork ribs ($1.37/lb). A jar of sauerkraut that I had already, and my crockpot equals dinner. It is a little heavy for today - 80, but the temperature is going to drop tomorrow. All I did this afternoon was revert back to my childhood and watch the DVD of the original The Wild Wild West, disc 1, season 1. Thanks Netflix.

Yesterday, we discovered a bit of geographic coincidence in Seattle. There are produce stands on the corners of 65th and 15th NE and 65th and 15th NW. Mirror images of each other, and each has been in there place for years. Mentioned it to the owner of the NW stand and he told us that both addresses are 6501 15th (NE/NW). I feel a Rod Serling moment coming on.

But the something new I'm trying is to buy $2000 of 4 week Treasury bills using my ING account. I won't know what the interest rate until Tuesday, but last week's was at 4.75%. After the T-bill matures (4 weeks), I going to rollover that 2K for another 4 weeks, and so on, and so on. Heh, heh. I must be inspired by the ghosts of Jim West and Artemis Gordon*.

(*Secret Service is part of Treasury Dept.)

Don't laugh, I made a batch from a recipe that I got from the New York Times food section. I finished my first batch during dinner tonight - I'm taking another batch to the potluck tomorrow...And pearl barley is .49/lb right now.

Scottish tabouli (heh, heh, heh)

1 cup pearl barley
2 cup whole kernel corn (I used frozen - we're not in corn season yet)
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
4 radichio "rocket" leaves (recipe called for arugula, so I winged it) - shredded and chopped
2 tsp dried parsley

olive oil
lemon juice
salt
pepper

Soak barley for a couple of hours, or overnight. Boil until tender. Drain & cool - this is cold or a room temp salad.
Cook corn according to package directions. Also drain & cool the corn.
Chop your tomato, shred your rocket.

Make a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper - think tabouli, and also take into account that the barley really sucks up the dressing.

Fluff up the barley, add the cold corn, dress with dressing. Add the parsely, toss, add the tomato, toss, add the rocket, toss. Taste, and correct for seasoning (barley seems to take a lot of salt). Serve at room temperature.

After reading a bit more on the thread "Why ING?" I decided to start a 6 mo CD "escalator" in my ING account. Right now the interest is 5.00%. I expect that the interest rate will go up a bit in the next few months, so I plan to buy 6 6-month CD for 2K around the first of the month. 6 months later, when the first CD matures, I see what's what. All the interest goes into my emergency fund.

It's a little bit different than the ladder, when you construct it so that your CDs mature at once.

(personal digital assistant, not public display of affection)
Well, my little Handspring Visor gave up the ghost last night. I have my price book on it, and a checkbook program and lost the data from them both. I also used it to sync up a program called Vindigo, which I gives me maps, restaurants, services, and movie times. I bought the subscription for 25$ and I'm going to use it. Anyway, my little Visor failed to hold a hot sync and it started to flash - all of which I had a response to. Not this time. I had to wipe my data clean and it still wouldn't sync.

I'm a little bummed - my little Visor stood with me through thick and thin for over 4 years. Getting the data on it was the first step on my way to prosperity, because before I wouldn't even balance my checkbook. It did, however, last longer with daily use than the Handspring company did (it merged with Palm in 03); and I learned a lot of tricks to keep it going after support disappeared. It got me into the habit of being frugal, it got me here, and all it asked for was a couple of AAA batteries every three weeks. Sigh.

(Note to self - I wiped the Visor clean. DH is using it now. How's that for recycling?)

It was a bad day for electronics all around. I wanted to update the brains of my MP3 player and wiped out my music. Backups are frugal, backups are frugal.

On the other hand, it was a fantastic weekend for groceries. Mangoes went on sale for .40/mango, and right next to the mangoes, the strawberries were on sale for $2.00/lb (we are talking Seattle here). It meant I could make my favorite fruit salad. All it is, is:

Ripe Strawberries, cleaned, hulled, quartered...
Ripe mango, peeled, cut into chunks. (6 months ago Saveur had a photograph on how to do it efficiently, avoiding the pit)
Mix.
Cover for 30 minutes.
Enjoy. Any proportion of strawberry and mango is good.

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.

Its a tip that I put in Carolina Bound's comments. The full tip is a really simple, second nature tip to me now but it has helped me out of a few jams and it lessens the Embarassment and Easy Es in the grocery line.

Grocery stores like to trick you a little bit - or, rather, fleece you a little bit if you're not alert. Sometimes they put branded sale items right next to very similar items branded, not on sale; sometimes the sale tag is not right next to the item; sometimes a coupon is maddingly precise (on the 24 oz item, not on the 20 oz item).

If I am unsure whether I will get the sale price or the coupon price of an item, I put that item in the back corner of the cart. If a store runs out of something and I want to get a raincheck, I write the brand, the size, and the item on a slip of paper and put that in the back corner too.

When I unload groceries on the belt, the items on the back corner get unloaded last and I put a little space (3-6 inches) between the questionable items, the slips of paper and the sure-thing items. Not a huge space, just a little breather so that the cashier will ring up the sure-thing items first and you know when to be on alert.

Now when the questionable items come up, you can watch how they ring up. If they don't ring up as the sale price, you can return them quickly, with less fuss, because they are at the end. And the slip of paper on the belt will remind you to ask for a raincheck. Sometimes the cashier says, "oh item x can substituted." Cool. If the stock boy doesn't run to fetch it and you don't have the time, write it out on the slip of paper with the deadline.

You get what you want, you know when to be alert, you have your fight at the end. And now I've trained all the cashiers in Seattle to roll their eyes when they see that space.

Got inspired and added $9 to my tip box, and $40 to my DRP.

Solving ancient problems at work. Life seems thousands of times calmer than six weeks ago. Compared notes with the other two people who are going to Nashville on the same junket - my ticket was $100 cheaper. We'll see whether I'll be bragging about it when I take the trip.

Today for lunch I picked up a .33/can of fruit/punch/soda. Frugal adventure. Note to self: Stick to water next time, sport.

Two weird things happened on the bus commute. In the morning, a control freak with a cell phone kept up a 30 minute conversation about how her boyfriend shouldn't smoke clove cigarettes in front of her, then on how the hike last weekend was fabulous. Bet she was on her cell phone the entire way... In the afternoon, our bus passed loads of bicyclists, one of whom was riding beside us on a 10ft high bike --wheels on stilts-- as we crossed the ship canal. "How would he stop?" said my seatmate.

$5 in the tip box.

Decided to put in only $100/month into I-bonds this 6 month cycle. I like the idea of 1.4% fixed more than 1.0% or 1.2%, but I think I will see something higher than that in the near future. Just a feeling, 'cause I'm an INFP.

Did the footlong sandwich strategy for lunch. Bought a footlong, put every vegetable on it (I want a salad with my sandwich), had it cut in 4s. In other words, I bought 1st lunch and 2nd lunch for today and tomorrow. (I'm supposed to eat 2 small lunches slowly instead of huff down 1 large lunch). Washed it down with water.

Gotta love water. It does what you ask of it with no calories and probably at no cost to you. I think its even better than diet or unsweetened tea. You have to pay for it, and somehow a flavor conveys an expectation. I don't know how to explain it. If you get used to water, you have less of a craving for sugared soda or even diet soda than you would if you got used to diet soda. At least for me; YMMV.

Did gym yesterday. Balancing and upper body. I'm improving my balance each time. Now can balance myself on an air dome thingee and do bicep curls and shoulder presses. Exciting!

The junket to Nashville is getting more interesting. Apparently I can save my non-profit some money if I take a test and certify myself in special training. It smacks of taking a test for money, a situation that hasn't presented itself to me in twenty years.

I'm a ringer! Ha ha.