Ordered a box of checks today. Yep, I do a fair amount of online bill paying and use the debit card, but sometimes you just need a check. The last box lasted me almost 4 years. I wonder how long this box will last.

Got some more info about the rise in TIAA CREF fees, and the installation of a 12b-1 fee. Ick.

My retirement account at work (different than my 403B) rose in value about $2000 last week. Pleasant but I want to know why, and why I'm still at 80% vested. I think that its because savings and data get deposited only a couple of times throughout the year.

I don't set any goals for a particular month, but I do have some expectations:

1. Grandma is gifting sister and I in 2006 (she gifted each of us in November 2005 for 2005). Since word up is is that she is selling stock, I have no idea how much the gift is, only that I'll put it in ING and let it cook for a few months.

2. Chiropractic appointments will slow a bit so my co-pays will drop by about 40-60%.

3. I will finish scanning and putting financial and medical documents on my little USB drive.

4. I will finish paying off my credit card and again set what I have been paying on the credit card onto savings, bonds, and drips. I so missed that!

I took a gander at the net worth, and luckily it has been increasing quickly. When the stocks drop, the interest earned from savings and bonds keeps going up, along with the IRS refund, the vesting, and the addition injection of money consoles me a bit.

I'm on track in April to have a net worth of about $79,000, or an exactly $50,000 increase from July 2004. Less than two years! Its a big secret, but the whole trick to this is to convert your debt snowball into a savings snowball.

Haven't heard from sister in two weeks, nothing about dad's estate in over four weeks. Something will happen - the lion is coming.

Getting to work this morning was an absolute mess. North Seattle had maybe an inch of snow, but what was underneath was a solid coating of black ice. Just walking on the sidewalk was bad; crossing intersections quickly enough to dodge sliding cars was a nightmare. The last little cross street had a wicked little hill of black ice right at the crosswalk. I almost fell there, but I fared better than nearly every car trying to make that intersection. All the drivers were trying to hit the gas to get into the intersection - a chorus of squealing, smoking tires. One car took four tries. When the car finally cleared the intersection, the driver promptly made a left turn into the grocery store. Sure hope the Starbucks coffee was worth it, dude.

Waited 45 minutes for the bus. My feet were cold, I wanted to read my paper and have some coffee to start the day. I gave up and crossed the treacherous street again, into a Tully's. Got warm, got an overpriced coffee, got an overpriced pastry, set my paper down, made a phone call to the boss, watched in the window as the... yes you guessed it, the bus pulled up and picked everybody else up.

How long do you think you'll be? my boss asked.
About forty five minutes, I said, a thin stream of steam coming out of my ears.

To hell with it, I thought. I've got the overpriced coffee, overpriced pastry, and had my paper. I'm going to enjoy them. Half an hour later, I finished and got back to the stop thirty seconds before the next bus came.

If routines save me money, this anti-routine lost me money.

Anyway, two hours late to work. (Stopped by the chiropractor before I got in to work.) Missed the phone survey. The only productive financial thing I did was the ritual of counting my office tip box money and depositing it into savings.

Spending log - 500$ credit card + 60$ copay chiropractor + 1.81$ coffee + 2.50$ pastry + 8$ lunch

Saving log - 41$ tip box + 35$ Drp + 40$ Drp

Life's rolling on.

Attended another little lunch and learn about our 403B's. Half an hour later, I was showing a co worker how to go into her account and rebalance it/ even readjust it. She'll teach her floor. The hard part is figuring out where to go when you get into your account.

Apparently the dog mutual fund in our set is getting replaced in the beginning of March but in these last couple of months that fund has been barreling along. Rebalanced it just to take my profit before we pick the next dog.

And they introduced the social choice fund. Someone asked about their criteria. The prospectus said basically it was whatever the fund manager picked as social choice. Ha ha. Talk about circular logic.

Changed my bus and have been doing my 1 mi walk now for a week and I've been pushing myself on the elliptical machines by keeping the same level of difficulty but trying to move faster. Tried the stationary bike for the last couple of minutes - what was a challenge in December now is not. Yay! Measurements on Saturday. Boo.

Nothing, no news at all from sister. Now that I've blogged will come news. Bought the I-bond for the month, two of my Drp stocks have declared dividend increases - about .04/ quarter/ share - good news there. I took one of the Pinecone invites and I now will be in a phone survey tomorrow. The money appears to good but if its going to take zillions of hours I'll have to rethink that. I will finish the month at 50$. Thank you God that February's short.

We have President's Day off, so I'm now listening to the sweet whirring sound of the washer working. We got the 20$ part today (thx United Parcel Service!), and DH installed it. The inside of the washing machine was interesting - the white box pulled away from the base like a very large computer box leaving the drum, the agitator, and the circuitry in the back. We apparently have a piece that was put in but has no dial and was sealed in. DH tells me its because we got the bare bones washer. "We get an another dial every 50$."

Took a fast 20 minute walk to deposit my BB refund into savings. DH sent me his bucks via PayPal.

Missed grocery shopping yesterday so I caught up with it today. No really fabulous buys; I bought a can of cream of chicken soup (the midwestern cooking genes are expressing themselves), bread, milk, and spinach. My downfall was bath salts. When its cold and flu-ey, I want the bath salts. But at $2.99/bath salt envelope, I might have to go 12-step on the bath salts.

Yesterday saw _Tristam Shandy_ at the matinee. Very, very dry, adult and funny. Matinee was 6$. I'm turning into a coot as I write that I remember when we thought 6$ was highway robbery for a regular Saturday night movie.

Spending log - 89$ groceries (49$ groceries/ 40$ money for next week).
Saving log - 20$ BBuy rebate + 40$ from DH

Best Buy rebate came. I can't believe how painless it was - fill out the rebate form on the web using a couple of codes on the receipt. No clipping, xeroxing and fretting about it. I wish all rebates were like that. Plan on feeling the frugal burn and putting that check in savings.

DH (dear husband) will reimburse me some of the electric bill by Paypaling my account. Modern love and finances, eh? Since Paypal is doing better than ING, I might just as well keep that money in there and let it ride.

Washing machine is still out of commission, DH is waiting for a 20$ part that he figures will arrive on Wednesday. I'm just not into heading toward the laundromat, so doing my unmentionables in the bathroom sink and shaking/beating/airing out the tops, jeans, and t-shirts.

I've been finding a lot of pennies these days, on the floors of buses, on the street. With this cold snap (yeah, I know its 20-30F) it seems that everyone is getting out their heavy coats with shallow pockets. That's okay - more for me.

Tip box = box at work in my desk that I put a couple of dollars/change in. Its like tipping myself, but it does come in handy for office collections, etc. After about a month, I collect what's in my box and deposit it in the bank. Started this a year and half ago; saved about 900$ using this method.

It took me 25 minutes today to walk my walk; only 20 minutes yesterday. I wonder if cold weather makes me slower.

Last night I went to a charity function. My ride and I got there early so I left to do some shopping. I discovered, to my chagrin, that I left my wallet in my jacket in the car trunk. Whew! It meant soda instead of wine at the no-host bar. Kind of an enforced no spend day. Losing the wallet can be a useful frugal technique. A friend came up to me and told me that she nearly didn't recognize me from the side - I had slimmed down that much.

Paycheck came; paycheck went. Our washing machine broke 2 nights ago. DH assured me that a small 20$ part broke and that he could fix it. We'll see. The electric bill got paid, as was the chiropractor and the credit card. I have about 200$ left until the end of the month. Luckily February is so short.

Put 3$ in the tip box.

Called in sick yesterday, so the work piled up today. Did manage to get a couple of things done but I also managed to say, "I am swamped, go away...."

Walked home - it took 19 minutes. I panted on the hill, but I stopped only because I would run into a nut-ball car.

Best Buy will be coming through with the rebate in a couple of weeks; the paycheck arrived. Unfortunately, the electric bill came in too and it was 40$ higher than it was last year. Last year was freakishly warm and sunny; but no matter, time to twist DH's arm and have him chip in a bit.

Spending log - 500$ credit card + 183.56$ electric bill + 5$ lunch + 1.75$ coffee
Saving log - 40$ DRP

Is now in my savings account, at least 4 days early. Very nice, because what with the copays to the chiropractor and the fitness routine, this is really going to be February's new money. I plan to keep it in the savings account, and it will eventually roll up into a $300 I-bond.

So ends 2005 tax season.

We were asked at work to change our addresses (if necessary) on our medical benefit accounts using the web, which is good for me because now I know how to get into it. Time to take a peek and perhaps put some pages and settings into my password protected USB drive.

Work is piling up and now my coworkers are really starting to bug me. I'm getting better at not rising to the bait when someone stands at my doorway. Without looking up or away from my data I simply say, "not this afternoon. Come back later."

I did something that I've never done before. I went to a lunch place where I was seated off in the distance. I waited 5 minutes for water or chance to order. Nothing. I left. I never do that, but today was a frustrating day, it was a late lunch, and with just the menu on the table, I didn't owe them anything so I figured it was time to cut bait. Next place I went to I got my food in five minutes.

Saving log - 4$ tip box + 539$ refund
Spending log - 1.75$ coffee + 7.00$ lunch

Not much ceremony to the fitness challenge. Got a before picture taken and was weighed with my shoes on because I figured that in the next weeks it will be a drag to take them off with each measurement. Still 205. Sigh. At least I have plenty of "before". And I'm going to be most toned 205 I can be. Did a lot of upper body work today.

Lunch with the lawyer friend, his partner and another friend, married. Lawyer friend and his partner have a difference of money management styles - lawyer friend lets the bills ride a bit and isn't so concerned about debt, while the partner is more like me, control and command - a problem now that they have a small joint account. They were asking for advice from the two of us married folks.

Me - straight separate accounts. If we meet our joint obligations, its not up to me to control his money, nor is it up to him to control mine. Other friend, married - joint accounts, discussion about all expenses, negotiate styles. So we were at opposite ends of the spectrum.

I can't say we helped my lawyer friend and his partner any. About all they know is that every couple manages money differently, and its usually a by-product of bitter experience.

Not much is happening financially. I'm waiting for: IRS refund, the BestBuy rebate, my paycheck for the back half of the month.

Used a BOGO coupon for both lunch and dinner, saved 6$, put the savings in the tip box. Still am fairly flush for the next few days.

Doing more of the free motion machines for gym interspersed with 10 sec of standup, hard biking. Lots of leg work, abs and twisting with weights. I now have a waist. Tomorrow is the first day of the fitness challenge, the before stage. Wonder what these measurements will be?

Today was just one snafu after another. Work is grinding yet again. Time to shut the door and hit the DND button.

Well, someone had to win and someone had to lose the Super Bowl. For us, we had some friends over that we rarely see, yakked away, watched some ads (nothing too memorable except that FedEx ad), ate pizza without guilt, got the house all clean, and we feel pretty sure that our friends won't have to drive through a riot. In other words, we got a lot out of today, even though the Seahawks lost. Lost 5$ in the football pool.

Yesterday, I found quite a deal at BestBuy. 1G USB drives were 69$, with a 20$ rebate. Even if the rebate bombs out, the price was still 20$ under what I priced them last year. I bought, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I can password protect files, so I'm going to use it to put electronic copies of my financial data on it. I put the pdf of my 2005 taxes on it already, and some of the ING Direct 1099 files. So begins one of my goals for 2006.

I was also pleasantly surprised that BestBuy has an online rebate application. Filled it out as soon as I got home.

I'm keeping an eye on my TIAA-CREF 403B mutual funds on Morningstar. TIAA-CREF's board voted to change the fee structure (despite the shareholders voting it down) on the three funds that I have, starting Feb 1, 2006. For stuff like that, the fees never go down , so I'm watching my funds from Morningstar to see what the fees will turn out to be. If Vanguard has similar funds with lower fees, its rollover time. Disappointing, because I've had the TIAA CREF funds for over ten years, but it has to be done. Don't mistake my good humor for positive sentiment - positive sentiment and positive finances don't mix. Control what you can, let go what you can't. Everyone else does when they are handling your money.

Speaking of that, the auditor signed up for ING on my invite. She must have done it as soon as she got home Friday. Another ten for me.

Got a copy of the filled out pool. I got some good numbers. Now everyone at work is looking at me as the luck magnet.

One of our temporary auditors was maintaining two bank accounts in two different states. She was perfect for flipping her to thinking about an Internet linked account, esp after hearing about ING's new money program and the fact that she can send invites after she gets set up... she's even thinking about sticking her refund in there, so I sent her my last ING invite. I'm gambling that its really not my last one - the other co worker I sent an invite to a month ago still hasn't signed up.

DH is in the process of cleaning the house. We're having some friends over on Sunday for TV, yaking, and ads. We're expecting a windstorm this weekend, though, and the friends are coming in from about 40 miles away. They might be here for dinner and breakfast.

Got up very stiff and sore today, so I just walked, ate one lunch of General Tso's chicken, left a good tip. I'll work out tomorrow so I can chow down on chips and salsa guilt free.

Saving log - 0$
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $7.00

Lots of little financial bits - bit of everything:

1. Put 5$ in the Super Bowl pool. Unfortunately, I signed before my luck magnet did; plenty of spots but no guidance. I'm flying blind. -$5.

2. Got a little e-note from the website that I filed my taxes with. Filing accepted. I should get my $540 refund in my savings account in 2 weeks.

3. Congratulations all around that I made it 6 years at my job and I'm vested in the retirement program. (who would have thunk?) Difference between 80% and 100% vested is about $1500.

4. The executors gave my sister a mystery call. She asked me whether I got one. Nope. Wonder what it is - creditors slipped under the wire, or the sale of the second piece of property?

Nice lazy, very rainy Sunday. Greens are on the stove.

Went to a small independent produce stand near home. Treasure trove of ethnic styles - part Russian, part Asian, part Hispanic. If you have a hankering for Russian branded cookies and very cheap produce here's your place. - .39/lb for cabbage, .29/lb for onions. Got the greens for .99/ bunch while other grocery stores are running about 1.99 - 2.49 bunch - yikes. I had lost the habit of going there over the summer because you really have to dig for decent produce, and I got lazy. Hit another grocery store on the way and got the wet cat food.

Mailed the checks for two DRPs. In this case, I know that neither transfer agent will get the check before Tuesday payday. Since I'm going to copay the chiropractor tomorrow, I withdrew a bit from ING. My saving's going backwards just when the ING deal demands new savings. Sigh.

Found an interesting author - Martin Limon, Jade Lady Burning. It's a police procedural set in 1970's Korea, with crimes solved by 2 GIs.

Worked out on Saturday and discovered what I'm sure is the most frugal piece of workout equipment ever: stretch cord. A big rubber band with handles. We did French presses - that rubber band whopped my triceps and nearly whopped my butt.

Tonight I do my taxes and I await Tuesday payday.

Well, this'll be a short blog entry!

This morning right before lunch I nearly tore apart my office looking for my wallet. WHERE WAS IT? Awful thoughts - I had gone to the chiropractor, which meant I could have lost it outside... Argh!

Then I fished around in my back jeans pocket. There. I could not feel my wallet in my jeans. That was not the case three months ago. Progress, I guess, and a sneaky way of having gym intersect with saving money. I'll be thin, but I'll be pickpocket bait.

Turns out that I have good medical insurance chiropractor wise - 20$ copays.

Picked up my W-2 today. I'll take another look, but I think I have everything I need.

Like everyone else, I'm running on empty. No milk or wet cat food, which makes the cat cranky. It's every man for himself tonight.

Work was getting back to normal, or to at least a semblance of normal. I'm booking a ton of match pledges. "Matches, matches, we don't need no stinkin' matches!"

More balance-y moves, stretches, and calisthenics for gym today. I could do a lot of it the second or third try, so I guess I'm developing a bit of muscle memory. Very nice and very useful for the yoga mat. I do miss the weights, though, and I've been slacking on the pedaling. After gym, it was time for a 10 minute back cracking. I had a more intense adjustment, and had to be talked into it a bit. Stiff spot in the back popped and I said "Jesus!" The chiropractor said, "call me anything."

I felt pretty good. Thinner, and standing up straighter.

I've been using the football winnings to make it through the week. I finally, unfortunately, have adjusted to my new salary. Ugh. How did that happen?

I have tightened again on the lunches. Pull #1- No more lunch and a half. One lunch, eat half, eat other half. Pull #2 - Eat the special, even if its not my routine meal. I get to be cheap and try something new.

Saving log - 2$ tip box + 100$ in sold ING invites (thx Jeffrey!)
Spending log - 1.50$ coffee (got the smaller one) + 4.36$ lunch

So I'm pretty sure that no one is out and about in Seattle at this moment - we are in the midst of the Seahawks game. I've put $5 in a football pool Friday night at work. I never win at these things, but you never, never know.

Last night I took a look at whether my health insurance covers chiropractic. They do, to a point. 12 spinal adjustments in a year, X-rays included; I figure that I'll be getting twice as many adjustments. I'll check tomorrow to see if I can still slip into the Medical Flex Plan. If not, time to ask what each adjustment costs and plan from there.

Talked to my friend to whom I sent an ING invite. Hadn't used it yet, but promised that she would by the end of the month. Sheesh. Sometimes my friends can be such putzes. Geez, a 9% return on 250$ and 4.75% on new money? I'm jealous!

Found out that paypal and ING don't talk to each other, at least in my hands. I think its because of the 6 withdrawl savings account and the fluid money market don't mix. On the other hand, ING and Vanguard talk well to each other - both savings accounts.

I've noticed that with the Vanguard account and whatnot that my junk mail has gotten classy with glossy investment ads. It just means I pack gifts with classy, glossy shreds.

My gym membership includes a free chiropractic referral, which I used this afternoon. My back doesn't hurt, but I do notice that I'm not symmetrical and that I favor one leg, one arm, etc. The chiropractor found plenty, because my posture is pretty crappy. X-rays and a little neck adjustment, which felt pretty good.

I managed to make one 40$ withdrawl last for 4 days - a big accomplishment for me. Tomorrow I'll look in my tip box and send some ING's way.

Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $4.37 lunch.

DH and I used the free hotel room last night. It was a very, very pleasant room, all in an Italian theme with a marble bathroom and a great view of downtown Seattle. It was normally expensive place (over $300/night), so it seems a shame that we spent most of the time asleep. We were going to another restaurant in downtown Seattle, one where we have a gift card, but with the crazy Friday driving and the rain - 27 days straight, almost a record - downtown Seattle traffic was a complete nightmare. We would have had to walk about 10 blocks and wait an hour.

So we went downstairs to the restaurant in the hotel. It was quite the blowout; we had wine and steak and lobster and at the end we spent over 200$. The hotel got a deal back, but they gave us a wonderful experience and I didn't feel particularly slighted about it.

I guess that's the difference between frugal and cheap to me. Frugal implies a certain amount of planning, but flexible for the unexpected. We had saved some money, let's see what the future holds and enjoy ourselves. Cheap is more reflexive; no - its too much. I guess if we would have been cheap we would have hit the coffee shop across the street and complained.

Did manage to put in 5$ in the tip box over the last two days. Put in 2$ into a football pool for the Seahawks game. Sent 10 ING invites out and got already got an invite or perhaps it was an invite I sent to my friend over a week ago. I'll have to ask my friend whether she took me up on the ING offer.

I decided to use the other half of gramma's gift money to fully fund my 2006 IRA. A couple of weeks ago I funded my 2005 IRA. Per retire@50, none of this pansy-a**ed dollar cost averaging. I had the $4000, I put it in all at once in Vanguard and now it has all year to grow.

Had a nice lunch with a co worker. Turns out that she has inheritance money that has been sitting in her brick and mortar bank for a year. I sent her an ING account invite. I know, I know, now ING is sooo done compared to HSBC, Emigrant, and PayPal even, but still. Its a big jump from .5% to 3.8%, much bigger than 3.8% to 4.25%, and the 25$ for her is a nice little incentive. We dare not even mention the $10 for me.

I love my KO drp, I love my KO drp, I Love my KO drp.

I just don't love the automatic transfer from checking at the end of the month. Usually transfer agent pulls from my checking account on the last business day, sometimes even as late as on the first of the month. This month, due to the holiday, they pulled a couple days before, on the 27th. Due to Christmas, my December finances dipped a bit low, which meant an overdraft of a grand total of 17$. Yikes! Got burned by the frugal burn.

As soon as I saw it, I moved 20$ from savings to checking. Not fast enough, apparently. I got dinged today to the tune of 27$, which showed before my paycheck did, dinging me again.

I just finished an email missive. Not quite innocent because the transactions are all there, just wrote straight out begging for them to waive the fee. "My intent was good, my timing was lousy," I wrote. We'll see whether they'll wave it. DH tells me that for a first-time louse like me they usually waive it.

Learning to try and juggle frugality with good health. I think I can do both if I make sure to remember that my diet is not two lunches, but one good lunch, split in half and eaten four hours apart.

of why we are all here:

That's what it felt like today. All of the bigwigs are gone on Christmas break, at home or in sunnier places thinking of ways to torment the rest of us. I saw an admin playing computer games. I have to say that reading a book is a classier way to pass the time. You look better.

Down in our department, we are hard at work processing money and pledges so our non-profit might live. We have quite a backlog, and now its a matter of keeping people cheerful as the piles keep expanding. Oh well, piles growing is better than piles non-existant. We work tomorrow, but Monday we have the day off, and next Monday we have the day off also. Otherwise, we are expecting a little business as big donors that want a tax break for 2005 get their gifts in under the wire.

About the only frugal thing I'm doing is using up that Starbucks card, and eating cheap lunches. My favorite curry place is closed for the holidays. With 8 days left before the next paycheck, I'm down to $185.00. I'm going to see how long I can hold out before dipping into savings. Feel the frugal burn!

Just like many other journals: after this week, I'd like to hole up this weekend.

Seattle is bright and sunny lately, but it gets bright late and dark early. The Hitchcock birds are gone - to where? - from the bare trees at my bus stop.

Neither DH nor I have great ideas on when to use the hotel room I've won. No Saturdays, No Christmas, No Valentines' Day. And we don't have great ideas for Christmas presents for his family. Sister is going to get a fish. Maybe we'll just give everyone a fish and be done with it.

I worked out today. I told the trainer that I was stressed, so he gave me a lot of upper body work. The hardest part of the diet that I'm on is to wake up early and eat breakfast, although when I do I'm a lot less likely to mindlessly snack at the end of the day. It took me a little while to figure out that the diet is decreases the starch and increases the protein and fat as the day goes on. Seeing a pattern like that makes it a lot more interesting to follow.

Of course, since this is supposed to be a financial diary, I'd be remiss to not write that I got my Vanguard mailings on how to start my traditional IRA. A little fun Friday night bedtime reading. It used to be that Friday nights were for romantic thoughts, but not this weekend.

I had about 1.5 M worth of pledges to check, stamp and send to our auditors. Eeeps! Time to lock the door, batten down the hatches, cancel a couple of meetings and get it done. Since I avoided the meetings, it really wouldn't do to be caught at the gym either (the gym is across the street from work), so I canceled today's workout. We are in the thick of it.

But lunch to me is sacred and I wanted to get some fresh air. I was also curious, with the re-routes in Seattle, whether a couple of buses that used to go in the tunnel would take me where I wanted to go in the International District. I hopped on, and satisfied my curiousity. Nope. Not really close. By the time I could get off, I was at least a mile away from where I hoped to be. So I had gym by other means.

Spending log - 1.65$ coffee + 7.00$ lunch and mini-lunch
Saving log - $0

Lawyer friend bought my lunch and blew my diet. We had a nice normal talk and said nothing about any inheritance issues. For a going away party of the payroll coordinator I ate fruit and skipped the cake. It was very nearly a no-spend day.

Sister got ahold of the insurance company and lo and behold the claim form was for the $2000+ check that we received last week. Weird to me that the form came after the check.

Stomach muscles are sore from the baby ab crunches I did yesterday. Nice to know I have abs. They will never be a six pack; I think if I get them down to a 1 liter size from the 2 liter size I'll be doing well.

Moved the 600$ extra from the paycheck to ING and started asking around. If I have to give it back, I can still catch the float.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee
Savings log - $3.00 tip box

Yesterday we re-visited the hosts from Thanksgiving. We just didn't get enough time to chat with them Thursday because they were being good hosts. They are a couple, the husband is a very high-end wood craftsman (desks, cabinets, tables), the wife used to work for Microsoft (we'll use husband and wife to distinguish them from us), but her health grew bad and the agita about MSFT grew tough to take.

They also asked us for advice on husband's business for marketing and advertising ideas. Husband's business has been falling off as of late. Jobs that husband easily closed on in one meeting are now getting the "wait and see" answer, which is usually a Seattle style passive-aggressive no. DH and I gave them a few ideas, but nothing earth-shattering.

I'm a little worried about them. They took out a second mortgage to rent increased shop space. Dangerous position, if you ask me. They also asked us, yet again, about buying a house. I don't want to buy a house. Even when the inheritance comes in, I still don't want to buy a house right now. It was hard to answer them without being impolite. I see and feel the economy constricting, especially in that husband's business. All the rich smart money is slowing down, waiting for the economy to turn one way or another. It's really no time to take on debt. Assets can shrink but debts never do, unless you pay them.

I got a claim form from Prudential Financial, the same insurance company that sent sister and I each a nice check last week. It has to be another insurance policy. Sister thought it might be the same policy, but why would they send a check first and then the claim form? She told me that she'll call and ask.

Ah...settling down for a 5 day weekend. Nice.

Put 47$ in the bank from my tip box. That felt nice, too.

I put the two big checks of last week in my ING account for the moment. It's going to earn far more and be tied up far less than it would in my regular bank.

This last Sunday I really window shopped with a very different eye. Everything I looked at I could afford, which makes things a lot more difficult. The siren sings louder when you know you have a lot more unearned money in your accounts. I can see how people blow windfalls so quickly. It is easy to say, "just what I always wanted. I'll take it!" the first time and then over and over. After the sixth over, its gone. Generic advice about budgeting 10% for your treats then stopping when you're done makes a lot of sense to me. I also have to say, "I already have that and I'm happy with it."

Didn't think about money, didn't handle any large checks, didn't hear anything from sister. I just read the newspaper, drank coffee, grocery shopped, ate grocery samples, planned for Thanksgiving, cleaned the house. I have a very short week next week, just Monday and Tuesday.

Thanks, suedavids - I found out that Bob Brinker broadcasts on KIRO 710 1-4pm on Sat and Sun. I'll check his radio show out.

Spending log - 1.65 coffee + 4.38 lunch + 26.34 groceries + 104.35 gym membership