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

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

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

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

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

Thursday
Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Friday
Saving log - $300 ING
Spending log - $1.50 bagel (free coffee!) + $230 spending

Since I worked on Christmas Eve and on Boxing Day, I took today off, and I plan to take a few more days off in January. Boy I needed it - I was losing my nouns when I talked to people and I felt like I was ready to kill someone, two signs that I was burning out. Oh yes, and the faint smell of burning toast ...

After a little bagel breakfast, free coffee from the punch card, and a nice, easy forty five minutes with the paper at the neighborhood coffee shop, I was ready for the day of clothes shopping, lunch, CD and more clothes shopping. I did pretty well, buying things I would use and use often: 1 pair cords, 1 pair jeans, 3 tops, 1 track jacket, 6 pairs of underwear, 3 CDs, a digital TV antenna (for the new Christmas TV), and a conveyor belt sushi lunch.

It was fun, in the budget, restful, and guilt free all around. I could see how someone would feel very good about buying stuff. Its too bad that the pleasures of saving money are far more cerebral - seeing higher numbers in various accounts from one day to the next is just not as brightly sensual.

Transferred $300 from checking into ING savings.

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

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

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

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

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

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $15 lunch

I've put some of my money in electronic savings bonds and recurring 4 wk T-bills so I have a Treasury Direct.gov account. I got an email two weeks ago from TD explaining that I will get a card and a letter of explanation about a new layer of security.

Tonight I got the Treasury Direct card and letter. The card is laminated, and is a grid - numbers running down, letters going across. The layer of security is this. I type in my account number and three letter/digit pairs appear - I'm to type what's in the intersection in the grid.

Interesting. Reminds me of Ralphie in A Christmas Story

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/ when he bought and finally got one of the secret decoder rings. After a lot of work decoding the secret message at the end of the radio serial, it was: DRINK OVALTINE.

Thinking about WaMu today - who isn't in Seattle? It's my brick and mortar bank downtown. I don't have a lot in there - I direct deposit my paycheck in a checking account, have credit card with them and have a little bit in a savings account. My tip box savings goes into the savings account. Mostly I treat that WaMu savings account as a little antechamber - I've linked my ING, Paypal, & Treasury Direct accounts to savings. All told, if I have more than $2000 combined in both accounts, I know its time to move some bucks away from WaMu to somewhere else.

Not too frightened, less than .5% of my money's in WaMu, but a shaky WaMu is a financial shot across the bow. Tonight I logged in - WaMu is offering over 5% on a 6 month CD. Yikes. How the he!! can they earn that? T-bills are running around 3%.

One order of kool-aid, hold the cyanide.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.30 coffee + $15 chirashi lunch.

Keeping on an even keel financially. Collected $49 from my tip box this month and put it into savings. I've been debating putting some new money into a WaMu 9 month CD, but WaMu got caught doing some interesting things during this subprime mess. Sure, its FDIC insured, but is it worth the agita?

We are now all busy at work. My supervisor and I went through my 6 month evaluation, which was successful. I'm the boss of DJ friend so I'm happy that I'm keeping things in a good place there. My other employee is working out very well, too - I've given her a bit more responsibility and she's run with it...that was good to see.

DH picked up our turkey - its huge, but it means that everyone will get a lot of turkey, darn it.

I'm usually not jealous of other people's thanksgivings, but my temp guy is heading back to Oregon to a Chinese feast of seafood hot pot. The WASP traditional feasts are nice, but the ethnic traditional ones are much more memorable. I was invited to an Iranian thanksgiving with turkey, pilaf, and a gigantic bowl of pomegranite pips. Just take your favorite feast food, make a ton of it, and enjoy.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $5 lunch

Coffee and a bagel at the all staff meeting, so I only spent on lunch today. Payday today, so in the next couple of days comes the big shuffle of money. Yesterday was moving $200 to ING, along with another $100 on a monthly schedule. Today I looked at my brick and mortar bank savings account. $700 making 0.25%. Definitely in need of a prune! Moved $300 of that into my PayPal account - that one's a money market fund still making around 4.75%.

Sister called at work. She still has yet to send out her paperwork from grandma's estate, but she's interested in having it managed by Ameriprise. Hard to figure her out.

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

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

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

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

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch (2 day footlong sub)

So it begins again. Tonight I got a call from the cousin's lawyer. In a couple of days, paperwork from grandma's trust will arrive.

I got a letter on Saturday from my bank that I've stashed 2 CDs in. Apparently they hadn't gotten the signed paperwork yet on the second CD. I called today about it, the rep told me that it is possible that it might be part of the backlog. I'll take a look and call you back she said. Thirty minutes later, the rep called back and told me it was there.

Thursday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $4 lunch

Wednesday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $15 lunch

The hold on the 95K dug a bit deeper - I tried to send money to me to pay a credit card and to sister and couldn't do it. This time I called and sent an email. They will unblock at the end of the week. It was a security issue - the system thought the transactions looked funny, so close to a deposit with a hold on it.

I asked the bank's customer service to send the checks by physical mail. I'll see how long it takes to the electronic - electronic so far takes 4 days.

Today our HR at work unveiled the market research data - the average person working at my job (or jobs like mine) makes about 14% more, so I can expect a few more payraises in the next few years, which means that setting the 403B at 15% ensures raises there also.

I still do gym. My weight has been rising again - its at 190. Sigh. However, my new clothes fit better than they did 6 months ago. Go figure. We did the tape, something we haven't done in awhile - I lost .5 inch off the hips, .25 inch off each arm, and 1.5 inch off the waist. I'll just have to lose weight the old fashioned way: lie about it.

Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $1.16 coffee + $9 lunch

At noon, I went back to the bank to get rid of the non-sufficient fund fee, and talked to the training manager, who was doing customer service. I was armed with a printout about six weeks of transactions, which were mostly unnecessary - the guy remembered me from when I deposited the money. 95K makes you memorable, it appears.

As soon as I got to the 95K, he glanced at the paper and said, "oh, that NSF fee is so wrong, would you like me to reverse that for you?"

"I'd like that very much," I said.

We swapped stories about being reasonable to customer service in the face of weirdness. He liked my Nashville story

http://baselle.savingadvice.com/2006/06/25/deep-frugal-part-...
Also told me that he has a speeding ticket to try to talk the judge down. I wished him luck.

Next time, he said, just call. No need to show up.

It looks like I will be employing the innocent missive to get rid of yet another overdraft $29 fee. This time its - ironically - the bank that I just put 95K into. I know how it happened, and it's totally inappropriate.

Step 1 - before I deposited the 95K, I had 16K, to use to pay sister in our joint account for farmette expenses.

Step 2 - deposited the 95K. Was told that the 95K, due to its size and that its out-of-state, that it will have a hold on it for 5 business days. Fine, I said.

Step 3 - actually Step 2a, because as I deposited the 95K, I said that I wanted to also put a piece of it into another CD. Great, they said, we'll mail you the paperwork so that we can send you on your way.

Well, I thought that meant that the CD would be created after I sent the paperwork. Well no, it was Step 4..

Step 4 - CD was created 2-3 business days, so with the hold, it gave me a negative account. Fine. And FYI, that's not when the fee was charged. It was charged during...

Step 5 - I sent 5K to my sister on the weekend after I deposited the 95K. After all, I did have 16K in an unheld account.

Well, what happened was that the 5K bounced because of Step 4, and that bounce generated the overdraft fee. Essentially what happened is that with the creation of the CD, all of my money was put on hold. That's inappropriate - I was told that only the 95K would be put on hold.

So its an innocent chat with the bank to get rid of the fee. I'm guessing that they will be reasonable - why charge me $29 when they have the use of, well, lots more?

So far this year the reasonable request using in-depth analysis has saved me twice - and what's with everyone charging $29?

Noticed that ING dropped their rate to 4.3% the day after the Fed dropped the prime leading rate. It will probably even go a bit lower in the next few days. Here's to having a long-ish term CD.

Saving log - $2 tip box (have to pick up the pace for this month)
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $9 lunch

Got my first paycheck with the raise - $50 more each paycheck, $100/month. I get paid on the last business day and on the 15th of the month (earlier if the 15th is on the weekend). No three payperiod months for me.

Added $50 to my recurring savings at ING, 50$ to my recurring savings at my brick & mortar bank, and tried out online bill paying for my new credit card (the one I've transferred the trainer and the newspaper charges).

The office picnic is for tomorrow (Thursday) lunch, and the co worker that I worked with for that hour and a half last Friday offered to take me to lunch Friday. I'm going to team it up with buying morning coffee with my Starbucks card and attempt two no-spend days in a row. Cross my fingers that I can do it!

I took another look at the inheritance correspondence. When I send the little form to sign-off on the last check, it is the final distribution. It's really a timing issue. Since neither sister nor I are battling and have no particular issue, the estate has to be resolved within 18 months. Because the assets are real estate, things slow down a bit, the executor filed and got a 6 month extension, which ended a couple of weeks ago.

The first piece of property was sold and the money has paid us, the debts, the lawyer, and the executors. The second piece of property has been sold, but sister and I are to be deeded the whole thing (farmette + 73 acres bought by the state of Wisconsin) at the cost basis of 150K each to sister and I.

I originally thought that the 2nd property was going to come to us in the form of money, rather, its coming to us in the form of the deed.

The executors took out, as promised, a flat 4%, and best of all, it was inclusive of the lawyer's fee. I was expecting the lawyer to take out a separate, equal chunk. Sister apparently had a betting pool with neighbors and friends. I don't know who won.

So the executors step out. Sister and I work with the lawyer on the second property sale.

The 40K CD I started last month has started to earn interest - 174$.

Just three events:

1.) Sister and I will be formally deeded the farmette on July 8, so we have to transfer and get property insurance in our name by that time. Sister talked to one of our great aunts in the area, and she got a good estimate that we probably will go with. (good enough, I think, that we probably got the family estimate) Another insurance agent will drive by this afternoon, so we'll know what the non-family estimate is.

2.) In the high-interest account that I'm using to my sister for farmette use, it has already made $27 in interest.

3.) After paying off all my top of the month obligations and looking at my slightly increasing savings in teeny brick and mortar savings account, I transferred 200$ into PayPal.

The credit card check got posted to my account. I'm caught up, with about $60 in total debt. Hah.

I have about $300 left in my checking account to last me 4 days, so I put in another $150 into my Paypal account, which is in itself paying 5.02% interest. If I have $300 in checking by this time of the month its really not doing me any good. I'd much prefer $100 - $150.

Will be seeing what this paycheck is going to look like - I couldn't get a fix on the last paycheck because it has retro pay on it. With the pay raises, I plan on hiking up the monthly amounts I put into savings. How much depends on what I see in the next paycheck.

My newspaper subscription is going up by an estimated $3/month.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + 20$ lunch

I was sort of a bad girl today, along with all the other bad girls today. Our workplace has an all-staff meeting once a month. I planned to miss and I slept in a bit. Evil, no? There was only one piece of info at the meeting that I wanted to know, and I found it out after the meeting. (if you got an evaluation rating of 3 or greater, 4.5% raise). Whenever I do miss those all-staffs, I claim that I'm doing everyone a favor - the room limit is only for 120 people, yet if we have everyone in, its 140. Missing the all-staff makes the room safer.

But I didn't sleep in too much. The large inheritance check from last weekend had been kicking around the house for a few days and it really should be put to work. My plan was to deposit it while the all-staff was happening. And the larger the check, the longer it takes...you have to say no many more times.

One of the local banks has an ad in the window for their CD rates visible from the bus. 5.6% for 11 months. Best rate I've seen for a brick and mortar bank in Seattle. So I stood at the door at 8:59am, and I must have looked prosperous, because the manager came and unlocked the door, and we began.

It turned out that 5.6% CD was the rate if you had a number of accounts with them and you banked with them before, but I did manage to get 5.4% out of them, splitting my check into a 40K CD and the 26K and change in a high interest checking, which I wanted in case sister was interested in the joint account. The manager was friendly, and had a good poker face when I told him about the inheritance and presented the check. I also got a tote bag and a water bottle.

The manager did a soft pull of my credit rating. 808. A little bit of gossip - I told him that I looked for this bank in bankrate.com. He told me that they used to advertise there (they have online banking), but they got too much "east coast" money. So Tony Soprano banks here, I joked. He laughed, but it turns out that the real issue that it would come in easily and electronically due to the high interest rate, and it would flow out just as easily if someone else gave them a better rate. So they just advertise in the window for local money.

All in all, it took about 40 minutes of signing and printing out materials. Pretty easy, and they were very friendly. I wonder if after I left and turned the corner that the manager whooped for joy. The romantic in me likes to think so.

N.B.: tote bag is in the car. Sturdy, well made, good green color, its turning into the grocery produce shopping bag.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.44 coffee, breakfast + $5 curry lunch

I usually bring (5) .99 clif bars on Monday for breakfasts throughout the week. Today I forgot, so I bought one where I buy my coffee. $1.69! That'll be incentive to remember to put my week's worth of bars in my purse.

Sister called at work. The state of Wisconsin signed off on buying our 73 acres on the second property, so things are moving along. Makes sense, it is now close to the end of the fiscal year (June 30), and the beginning of the next fiscal year. It turns out that I'll be getting slightly more money than sister because sister already got some of the proceeds from the house, etc. The gang apparently has a little betting pool to predict how much the executors and the lawyer will take in fees. Hah hah.

Paypal mailed me the code to unlock my account, so yay, my account is now unlocked and I can put money back into it. Its paying 5.04%.

I signed the letter describing my promotion, so soon I will have something to slip into Paypal.

Saving log - $6
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $8 lunch

Thought I would take a break from the Paris pics to list what is currently going on:

Taking over all of the little functions as a supervisor - time cards, approving time off, reporting who is out, sitting in on the evaluations, planning to move some of my duties onto them. Tomorrow the plan is to determine whether my two staffers are interested in 1-on-1 meetings or not.

I found, to my surprise and delight, that the promotion came with a 5% pay raise, its retroactive from the paycheck before the trip, and is separate from a raise coming from a decent evaluation. And I get evaluated tomorrow.

My lower back locked up, so the chiropractor claimed, and I gained approximately .4 lbs during Paris. Or maybe not. I told the trainer that I didn't do any of the upper body drills in Paris. She didn't seem all that upset; she was positively chipper as she put me through an exercise routine that made me regret not doing the drills.

Ate the cheese I brought back (thank you customs dog for giving me a break), and brought chocolates to work. Found out that it only took 1 week for the postcards to travel from Paris. I sent three postcards back with no writing, just a Jackson Pollock induced spray of coffee cup rings. Lawyer friend is still talking about his. Hey, anything you write from Paris on a postcard is going to be banal...why not say everything by saying nothing?

Something odd happened to my PayPal account - I saw two mysterious transactions. I emailed PayPal, they refunded the money and locked up my account. I figured that now's the time to change all my financial passwords.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday, April 25, 2007
Saving log - $1.35 tip box
Spending log - $.65 milk + $8 lunch at the food court

April 26, 2007
Saving log - $2.35 tip box
Spending log - $.65 milk + 7$ curry lunch + 12$ grocery run

Yesterday I had lunch with lawyer friend. He made the "affirmation statement" but he is not long for the job; he's talking that anything would be better. It will surprise me if he is still here after I get back from Paris. I told him that I want to avoid looking like a tourist; he mentioned that they don't wear fleece.

I'll remember that. Or I might go the Ugly Betty route.

Today more fun happened. First off, it was Take Your Child To Work day. Several of us from different departments met with the kid crew this year. We all introduced ourselves.

The first question: What are your job titles?
We went around...
Second question: Why are your titles so long?
We laughed, out of the mouths of babes. We honestly said that if a workplace can't give us money, they give us a fancy title instead. Why not tell them the truth, they're ten or so.

Did two bank moves. I called and got the note put in my account so I don't look like an identity thief having a good time in gay Paree, and I moved the first $1500 out of savings to the checking account for the Paris trip. I had two things in mind for that:
1.) Get a quick supply of euros.
2.) Time how many days it took the transaction to occur, to plan ahead so if I have move it from Paris, I know how long it takes. 3 days.

And finally, I did something at the gym that I have been fantasizing about from the beginning. Today, there was a fairly buff guy...

Ha, ha, not that

There was a fairly buff guy struggling with a flared leg lift, which strengthens the side of the leg. He was working with his trainer, who set his weights and watched his form. They left to do something else. I came in to do the VERY SAME EXERCISE and had to INCREASE the weight. Wow.

It was from 5 lbs to 10 lbs, but still a victory.

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

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

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

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

Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $1.37 coffee + $5 lunch

Pleasantly surprised at work - I walked in expecting piles and I saw only a little one. There were a couple of shockers on the work email - people leaving. Its February and it seems like all of the energy of fall disappears into a morass of depression in late winter. But our department is humming along. The temp staff that we hired to process the paper is mostly gone and its quiet again. I still have plenty to do and I'm now a week behind!

My trainer is going back home for a few days so the schedule is a little different this week. I worked out today and will tomorrow, which picked up my energy level a lot. Wore the medium gym shirt I was given when I joined the fitness challenge - it fit great. One year ago I still would have been an XL. I got weighed again today, and lost .8 of a pound over the past three days.

Again, not much on the financial front. I expect to finish the month (payday is Wednesday) with about $60. Bought another $100 I-bond at the end of this month; put another $50 in a Drp; all I expect to do this week (actually any Thursday) is watch my current T-bill rollover. Its amazing what you can save when you are in no condition to spend.

Saving log - $3
Spending log - $1.40 coffee + $7 lunch

Had a nightmare that I remembered last night - I dreamed my purse got stolen, along with all my financial data. Time to put a password on my PDA. It's just so weird - usually I sleep like a rock.

Meeting meeting today, and then I gave a talk to the customer service staff on one of the "hats" that I wear on my job. It went okay, but time flew by without me getting much done.

In addition to the two meeting, I had a chiro adjustment. Chiropractor asked me if I was getting better from my cold ... I didn't know he knew I was sick for the day. I suspect that the trainer told him - I'm sure he doesn't know I blog. It gave me a little start - imagining I'm the subject of gossip. (Chiropractor is 1/2 block away from work, gym is 1/2 block away in the other direction. I have no excuse to miss appointments.) The insurance has kicked back in for the year, so now it is just the $20 copay.

About the only thing financial I've done is move more money from ING into T-bills. Right now I have about 10K in T-bills, and will stop when I get 16K in. The interest rate is slightly better, and I plan to use what I have in ING for the Paris trip. It sets a limit on what I can spend.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - 2$ coffee, milk + $5 lunch

Collected my tip box squeezings and put them in the bank. $48. All told, since I've started slipping change and bucks into the tip box at work when I remembered, then sticking it in the bank once per month, I've saved about $1338 in two years. Its small, but the action is painless and its $1338 that I wouldn't have had.

My afternoon exercise bus passes right by a large North Seattle Goodwill, I've been in a couple of times. Every so often I talk to someone about the Goodwill - us frugal types somehow know each other... call it fru-dar - and I've discovered two things about my neighborhood Goodwill:

1.) Best general sales and the lowest markups are on Monday. Go on Monday if you want to buy big bags of stuff.

2.) The new electronics come out on Thursday, right before the weekend.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HR printed up their first draft of how PTO (paid time off) was supposed to work - as written, it looks like you can only "cashout" if you are leaving and with "management approval", not on a yearly basis. Can't say I think any of the management approval part, when theoretically PTO is supposed to be ours. And we all know how much management will approve of anything done that costs money, even if we are a non-profit and therefore money is less of an object. Time for a clarification.

Have a 6 month CD with ING that will mature in early January. Decided put it back in regular savings. I thought of adding it, in a controlled way, to either the t-bills or to my stocks.

Nearly a no-spend day. I ate the other half of the footlong sub I bought.

Felt logy at the gym today, but I managed to finish. A woman in the locker room tipped me off that the Goodwill on 65th/8th has a killer Monday night sale.

Saving log - 1$ in tip box
Spending log - 2$ coffee, milk

Well, its about as pleasant. I've been noticing that all my financial websites (banks, brokerage, 403B, IRAs, US Treasury) have been doing the same thing - beefing up their security.

Everybody's splitting the panels between the username and the password, forcing me to add characters to my password, forcing me to give the answers to stock questions that mean nothing to me (guys, how about me coming up with wacky questions, which I then answer...I can't answer questions about children's names when I don't have children!). My password has morphed into three. My bank is gripping about the fact that I didn't give them a cell phone number. I don't have a cell phone number!!!

I understand it, what with the advent of WiFi and the data theft of the past few months but man it is inconvenient beyond inconvenient. I'm just going to get my account locked up.

Saving log - 0$
Spending log - 1.50$ coffee + 8$ lunch + 4$ groceries (bag of salad for $1, broccoli, chicken stock ... warning - canned chicken stock will go up after Christmas!

Savings log -

Put 6$ in the tip box - I have 46$ in total, enough to put in the bank.

Thank you Lucky Robin! I couldn't have given my last ING invite to a nicer person. Enjoy - and remember you've got your own invites to sell. 10$

All my stocks went up. Amazing and scary, so its time to stop monitoring now.

Spending log -
Last day of the Sur La Table 20% friends and family sale (DH currently works there) - picked up a small wisk, tongs with hard silicone so I can use them on a non-stick pan, a universal lid, poultry seamer (corkscrew thingee that I can use to stitch up a turkey), clip to allow me to rest a spoon over a pot, a coarse microplaner, 2 silicone circles that can be used as a lid, trivet, or sealer for a pan or a bowl. In other words, bought only the utensils that I needed or wished I had a second of. 69$

Lunch at the hideout - 6$.

New headphones for the MP3 player. Everything cheapo (10$-20$) that I've tried has at least two strikes: doesn't have good sound, hurts my ears, falls off my ears, the wires catch on my clothing, or the wires wad up in a ball so that they fly out of my purse when I try to retrieve my keys. Grrr. Supposedly these headphones have good sound, fold up, and while they rest on my head like a regular headphone would, I'm willing to risk the bad hair. 51$. In this case, the cheapest man pays the most.

Checked to see how much I owed the chiropractor. Quite surprised to find that it was only 50.56$; will pay it next week to get caught up.

So spendy, but constructive spendy.

We got a new temporary auditor at work, and very soon we will be in the thick of it. It feels like it would before a great battle. Tension mounting, no birds chirping, no sound at all, everybody busy getting their last little things done while we can before the big piles hit.

Sister emailed and asked me what I thought of the letter. I told her that will work out well for her, not so nice for me to share the deed to the property because I'm 2,000 miles away. I was going to say that I hope she won't take it the wrong way, but its the truth.

Another of the temp staff brought a whole jar of fortune cookies. Mine:

"Someone today needs your help."

Put 9$ in the tip box. For the readers who need reminding, I have a tip box at work that I periodically put ones (many ones sometimes) and change inside. Sometimes I make reverse change. Every month or so I take what's inside and put it in my bank three blocks away. Drippings from the tip box runs about 40-50$/month in savings.

I gave the okay for Vanguard to move the 24K now in ING. It hasn't gone yet, but the since the money is making good daily money at ING, that takes that sting out.

I let people help me out today, and got a lot of work done.