baselle's Financial Diary

Actually, this should be a stronger word, but since this is more than likely a family forum, I have to tone it down.

My laptop completely went out. I've gotten a few minutes on DH's machine - enough time to warn you that until I get this fixed, my blogging will be a bit ... intermittent.

Walked about 6 miles today on an apple and $1 bottle of bottled water. This threatened heat wave is a bit of a bust - temps are "only" in the mid 80s. Still a bit on the hot side for me.

DHs sister is coming in tomorrow, so it should be a fairly spendy day.

Grrr....

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $4 coffee, pastry + $12 lunch

DH drove me in this morning, so we had a coffee and a pastry together.

I added $5 to the tip box, making it $40 total inside. A quick add of my other tip box savings and...

I've moved $2000 through my wallet into my tip box, into savings, and into my little fiscal empire! I put, on average, a bit more than $40/month, so yes, while I started my box in 2004, and while it took about 4 years to save it ... saved it I did.

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch

Payday. Attended an allstaff meeting, so coffee and breakfast was on the company dime. All I bought was lunch today.

Last night I finished editing a call for sponsorships for DJ friend to attend a New York City function. (he's from NYC, and he'll be visiting that week anyway).

Its supposed to get into the 90s tomorrow and the next day in Seattle. Ughhh! Its only May. This is supposed to happen for a few weekends in July-August, when we retreat to our nearest cheap arthouse movie theater. It is a deal - $3 for air conditioning, lovely darkness and pretty pictures. More if you want snacks. Hopefully there will be a set of pretty pictures with an okay plot that I want to see. Oh, to trade my weather with boomeyers!

Felt a tad nauseated today and thought better of sharing that physically at work. So I stayed home and caught up on my newspaper reading.

Here's a nice little rant in the Seattle Times about hating the soon-to-be .20 tax on plastic bags from the grocery store.

Local stores, in response, have been selling more permanent bags costing anywhere from .98 cents to $4. We collected ours from various places and managed not to spend a cent on them.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004411952_ram...

Frankly, changing your habits to incorporate bringing along a permanent bag and using it hasn't been that taxing on us. Here is my strategy:

1.) Fold a small cloth bag, put it in the bottom of your purse (man equivalent = backpack or messenger bag). Set your shopping on the conveyor, remember to set the bag on top of the stuff.

This is the bag you use for the little incidentals you pick up through the day. Frankly, 90% of my errands I would collect one plastic bag, so I've slowed the accumulation a lot just by doing this and remembering to pull the bag out.

The columnist above doesn't want to carry a cloth bag (too girly, apparently). Might I suggest that he take along a plastic bag (if YOU provide the bag, then no .20 fee), wad it up, then stick it in his pants? Gotta admit that would be the ultimate in win-win frugality: he has the plastic bag, and correct placement of the wadded bag in his pants should make him look more manly. Of course, no bagger's going to want to touch that bag...but you can't have everything.

2.) For serious grocery shopping, we have the bag of bags. I fold up 7-8 cloth bags (we got them all from free), and stick them in a small tote that we keep in the backseat of the car. Remembering to bring them into the grocery store is the hard part.

I have noticed two great things about bringing my own bags. First of all, most grocery stores will give you a .03 - .05 rebate for your bags. The cashiers who will give you that rebate for EACH bag are especially treasured. So far I figure I've made a $1-2 on the deal. Secondly, the baggers are starting to improve their bagging skills. Before, baggers would pack a couple of items per plastic bag - which made one feel like a dog-walker of a mass of plastic bags. Now, with the cloth bags, the baggers seem to try to get everything into your cloth bag. And that's good to see.

I won't go cold turkey with the plastic bags, I use them for garbage liners. I do shop outside the Seattle city limits and plan to pick up a few there.

One last story. I jokingly apologized to the cashier at the grocery store that I wasn't using their branded bag. The cashier smiled and said, "well, we don't care - you're shopping here!"

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $1 apple

As of right now, I am unfiscally stimulated. Not a surprise, I paid, I mailed the check, so I receive a mailed check in return. Noticed that our grocery stores in Seattle are doing the 10% sale if you use your stimulus check.

Ate the other 1/2 of my footlong sub, but bought an apple. Not a no spend day, but a very cheap day.

Got an odd $5.67 from my bank. It was an debit rewards annual payment. Small surprise, but I'll take it.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $6 lunch (for 2 days) + $3 carrots, apple + $5 bubblebath, deodorant

Back to the finances. A little financial tidbit to get off my chest. Again with the I-bonds, and I noticed a number of articles contained cutting comments about how its a good thing that savings bonds are becoming unappealing because taxpayers are paying the interest.

Perhaps. That opinion still burns me up, though, because it implies that I'm unpatriotic and a leech because I've taken out an I-bond or two (or about 30). Such a turnaround from the opinions of the past - imagine that being said during WWII.

Humph. Is it my fault that I had the savings to invest in the first place? I mean, if I wasn't there to buy the dang US savings bond, the taxpayer would have to fund that 50-5,000$ in addition to the interest. There. That's much better! Perhaps I should fund someone else's government should I wish to do so. T-bills are indirectly funded by taxpayers too, not to mention the funds that the Federal Reserve uses to provide liquidity to financial markets.

Do we, as a society, really think so little of savers?

Friday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $1.50 coffee + $15 lunch + $55 dinner for two

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $20 2 bottles wine + $5 lamp

Again, the Greenwood Art Walk. I didn't go through the whole thing because, well... let me tell you below.

I saw a lot of wonderful photographs and caught up with a couple of the same artists as last year. I would have loved to buy a couple of things, so I thought I'd do the frugal thing instead and take a few myself of the day.

Who wouldn't love a bucket of marbles? Plunge your hand in -- they are amazingly cold.


The lamp store always amazed me. Every other store, the wares are laid out along walls, or they come up through the floor. Here, you are encouraged to look up at the constellation of lamps, your nose brushing against price tags. It makes the ceiling seem bright and ciliated.


Some urban edginess between the Greenwood Library (left) and a brick apartment building (right).


I thought that the pug pulling against his leash was pining for his master. Nope. His leash was just an inch short for he really wanted. See that little bit of orange kibble to the left of his paw? "Sometimes he loves me for me," his owner (dark orange and black fleece) said. "Sometimes."


Here's the reason I cut my Art Walk short. I took a break and walked into an estate sale a block from the Art Walk, chatted with the cashier, turned to the left and saw this gorgeous brass lamp. I must have been in a lamp mood from the lamp store. Here's an action shot in my living room (apologies for the mess).

What a deal - $5!

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $10 lunch + $3 bag of salad, apple

I'm ending the big project at work. Basically, its importing electronic pledges coming from a very, very large software company from Redmond who shall remain nameless. I've been working with over 14,000 transactions (oy vey), cleaning the data and batching them in groups of 250 apiece for audit to check over and the data entry staff to find out if the donor is in our system already, and do the final upload into our systems.

I sort them alpha by last, first, then middle, so it just so happens that there is a very wicked batch of 250 pledges, 52 of which are Lee, 2 Lea, 2 Leigh, and 52 are Li. It tells you my state of mind that I found that hilarious. We were thinking of giving the batch to our boss, coming back from a day off... just for laughs.

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

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

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

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

http://www.werealotlikeyou.com/

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

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $8 lunch

Neither of the big checks were presented to the bank, and my ING transfer went through, so I could move the money back to savings. Now you know that if I hadn't moved the money in the first place, it would have been a different result.

Have to call the Ameriprise planner to close that account. All I will have left is stock and apparently, legally an email stating that decision is not good enough. Makes some sense, but a phone call is even more ephemeral than an email.

I've put the money into Vanguard, but I've put it in a money market fund, so I can buy the funds at once.

Got my new glasses today, and they replaced the lenses on my old glasses. It is such a luxury having two pair, even though right now it means I squint in a different way.

Been quiet otherwise.

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

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

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

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

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

Found an unusual storefront on my walk yesterday.


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

Turns out it's an ad agency..

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/13198...

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $12 lunch + $15 groceries

We had the third annual late April birthday lunch today, with two other co workers who had birthdays on the 27th, 29th (moi), and the 30th. We keep inviting the co worker that has the 28th birthday, but she always has to run an errand or something. .

The three of us were standing outside the office, debating about where to eat. I said, "okay, I have something that will help us decide," and I pulled out a two for one coupon. "Well that works for us," they said. Temper of the times - no one's embarrassed that they're deciding on a place by a coupon.

Tonight was the last night to use the coupons to celebrate the remodeling of the Safeway. I'm a little sheepish using their card and coupons, because I still think they jack their prices up to make the card a better looking deal. But I used the coupons tactically - only the food I normally buy, only items that can keep well, relatively healthy food, and a real deal versus a fake deal. For instance, I had a coupon for butter - but even with the coupon, the price wasn't good enough. I have enough butter in the freezer to last until November when the butter deals occur.

The other fiscal, non-coupon project that I'm doing is to move the money I inherited from grandma's trust in Ameriprise into my Vanguard account. Today the money showed in Vanguard, but didn't show as having left Ameriprise. Ah, the excitement of double booking.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $.84 apple

First day back to work. DJ friend bought me belated birthday lunch today, so it was a nearly no spend day.

Checked out the new I-bond rates set this May 1. I-bond rates have two component - a fixed rate that is set for the life of the bond, and the variable rate based on inflation, set every six months. You want to keep your eye on the fixed rate because that was going to be what was going to protect your I-bond from inflation. I figured that the fixed rate was going to be crappy. It was crappier beyond my wildest dreams:

0.0%

In other words no protection from inflation and if there's deflation (hey, you never know), these I-bonds can actually lose money. I guess that's what the US Treasury is gambling on - lots of inflation and no deflation. In addition, the US Treasury is trying to move savers to T-bills away from savings bonds - you can buy t-bills in $100 increments, while you can't buy more than $5000/yr in savings bonds. Don't know how that's going to work out for the US in the future.

Anyway, I'm glad that I've bought extra I-bonds last week and finished my position.

My photo for today. We had the May Day why-not-inconvenience-the-commute rally at 4-6 pm. Nice to know that in Seattle, when the revolution comes, it will be catered:

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee, bagel + $700 glasses, eye exam + $8 lunch.

Eyes, that is.

I'm 46 today. I had two birthday errands: glasses in the morning, and gym in the afternoon.

Glasses - the original plan was to check but assume that the old prescription would hold and I could simply get a second pair of frames and lenses. It turned out that my prescription had changed sufficiently so that I really couldn't use my old prescription for my second, but I could get new lenses for current frames, making up the second pair. The last test was to dilate the pupils of my eyes so the optometrist could check most of the back my retina to identify detachment, degeneration, the optic nerve, etc. Two sets of eyedrops - the anesthetic drops to prevent the sting and the dilator. Everything checked out well - no glaucoma, no degeneration, no oddities on the retina. Just more floaters in one eye than in the other. What is ... nah, don't tell me, I don't really want to know what causes the floaters. :P

The two pair of lenses and one pair of frames were quite expensive, as you can see above. I was a bit more nearsighted, I needed progressive lenses (my current pair is the first one I had) but my astigmatism improved slightly. It makes for a complicated prescription. I just have to think that its to make an heir and a spare, that I do this every 25 months, and I have savings for it.

Then it was to make it through my plans half blind (only 6-10 ft was okay) and avoid the sun at all costs for at least 4 hours. Just another reason why it paid to be a bus devotee. I could sit in the dark, rotating section of the articulated bus. Seattle helped out too. It was sunny when I left the optometrist - within an hour it grew cloudy and rainy. Thanks, Seattle, I owe you one.

Gym was fine, except for the fact that I was doing stuff while my eyes were dilated. We kept it simple.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee, bagel + $1.70 coffee (McAmericano - hah hah) + $25 duck ride ticket + $11 lunch + $20 2 CDs

Thursday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.80 coffee + $13 lunch + $11 crockpot cookbook + $30 graphic novel

Made my gym appointment yesterday (181.8 lbs!! yay), but also played tourist at the little shops inside and underneath the Pike Market. Ate lunch at my hideout in the market, and afterward in one of the shops, found a crockpot cookbook that had a couple of good ideas and contained a number of pork recipes (DH loves pork and brings some home all the time). Also, you probably don't know this, but I do follow one particular comic/ graphic novel "world". A new novel came out and I was glad to see it. There was a very bad movie made of that comic world - it seemed to clear out the poseurs, I guess.

Today I rode the Duck ride - amphibious craft will take tourists throughout downtown Seattle, then will splash into Lake Union, chug around Lake Union for 45 minutes or so, then come up onto the road, drive around Fremont a bit and head for base. At least twice a week every week of my workday, as a pedestrian I passed a Duck picking its way through Pioneer Square. After nine years, curiosity got the better of me.

The only vaguely frightening part - the driver (Captain Hoohaw) needed both hands to get his wig on. Hope he was steering with his knees.


Coming on the left and over you on the water...


Then, after the Duck ride, 3 block walk and a little shopping at a CD store - both new and used. The checkout person saved me 50% - she was interested in buying one of the CDs that I had so she knew that there were a couple of used copies.

So far, it has been a bit more spendy than usual to play the tourist rather than the working slob ... on the other hand, no hotel rates, no gas consumed, no terribly pricey restaurants.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee, bagel + $3.50 wrap

First day of at-home, in-situ vacation. I don't know about you, but as long as I don't have to look at a spreadsheet at work, its a vacation. Besides, one of the cardinal rules of frugality is, "enjoy what you have". I live in a city that people actually travel to see, so instead of traveling somewhere else for a week, enjoy some of the things here.

But not quite today. I got caught up on some chores and errands. The one that was the most successful was going to Greenwood Optical. I feared my glasses were scratched beyond repair - it had been 2 years after all - but it turned out that only the anti-reflective (AR) coating was scratched. Remove that, and the lenses underneath were fine. I can see! Very well!

The optician was interested in putting the AR back on, but that would take a week and I had no second pair. I made an appointment next week to get my eyes checked and get another pair of glasses. Its not cheap, but it would be very prudent to have a spare.

I remembered that I really had to be talked into getting that AR coating the first time. I thought of it as like rust proofing a new car. Now its a sweet deal to reincarnate my glasses.

The AR stripping was free. (We treat our customers right, they said.) The AR reinstallation will be $79. Insurance will pay for part of the second pair of glasses.

I walked around Green Lake, bought a sandwich with a coupon for lunch, then came home, read blogs, and cleaned the living room.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I walked from downtown to the southern-most neighborhood of North Seattle - its the midway point between downtown and home. Last Saturday, taking Aurora and the Aurora Bridge took 1 hr 20 minutes. Today I walked Dexter and the far friendlier Fremont Bridge, and that leg also took 1 hr 20 minutes. The walk was equally boring, but with less traffic it was quieter and much less fume-y.

One of the reasons why I walk so much is that I have "perfect" bus timing. I think, "it would be great I could catch the bus at intersection x", only to find that 50 yds ahead of intersection x and against the light the bus I wanted to catch is now pulling away. Happened twice today with two different bus routes 5 blocks from each other. And the buses run every 30 minutes on Sunday.

If it weren't for bad bus luck, I'd have no luck at all. Until I looked at the corner of the bus shelter after the second missed bus and found this:

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.60 coffee, doughnut + $6 garage sale + $14 brunch + $15 grocery

Well, we had it all weather-wise at the Greenwood Garage Sale. No takers on my invite from this blog, however in the spirit of karmic whatever my housemate from my grad school days walked by, training for the Susan G Komen walk. Hadn't seen her in 15 years! We caught up a bit, at least as much as one could in 5 minutes.

Apologies if I missed you if you showed late. I came about 15 minutes early, then waited the academic wait of about 10 minutes after 9 ... but deals await and there is no rest for the wicked!

Across the street from the pick up point, they were setting up for my first stop of the day.


A little flea market/plant sale/bake sale in the lower parking lot of the Phinney Neighborhood Center.


We had snow, we had rain, we had cold. Mad props to any life form having sex outside in this weather. Not even drunk University of Alaska college students would think of it!


Since hunting for cheap deals in bad weather seemed so very Scottish, the bagpiper at the church rummage sale at 70th and Greenwood fit right in. Slim pickings at the rummage sale.


For 6$ I bought: 1 small hammered metal dish, 1 bundt pan, 1 scent diffuser, 1 barbeque fork with a thermometer attached for DH, 1 deck of "Wall Street's Most Wanted" playing cards (Broken Arrow, I'm thinking of you here). DH wanted to try bundt pan meatloaf, I don't bake, hence no bundt pan until now. I bought some aromatherapy scents in Paris. At the time, I thought, "why buy the scent diffuser and waste the space in my luggage when I can get one in Seattle?" I priced simple ones in the $15-$20 range. This one's battery powered with a little pump. $2.

Not bad for a couple hours work. I met one of my coworkers shopping. We both agreed that we were hard core, but it was too cold to keep at for more than a couple of hours.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Thunder and lightning, and now snow which is starting to stick. January, or April? April, I know, because at least its still light out.

It might snow tomorrow morning, but I am undaunted. Coffee in hand, I will be at 67th and Greenwood at 9 am tomorrow if anyone dares to join me.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $3 yogurt + $6 teriyaki dinner

Put my tip box squeezings for this month into savings - $45. I've been eating the footlong sub over two days, so I didn't spend money on lunch.

DH and I went to a one-woman show at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) tonight, so I ate a small frozen yogurt while I waited and we had a teriyaki dinner. The dinner was enough for two, so it was eating half and putting half in the box for dinner tomorrow night.

The show was wonderful - about food and nutrition. If you can imagine Anna Devere Smith doing a multiple perspective show about food, you have the gist of it. Our tickets got us into a raffle for a CSA share or $100 worth of organic meat. Lost on both counts ... not surprising. But there was a guy who was selling broccoli, chard, and pea starts. Actually he couldn't sell them outside of MOHAI, so he gave them away. We got four starts of chard and four of broccoli.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $13 lunch + $7 groceries

I got the first paycheck after my new 403B withholding. In case you missed it, I hiked up my 403B withholding to bulk up my non-taxable accounts, force me to spend my taxable accounts, and basically put me in a better tax position for next year.

Better tax position, baselle, better tax position. Keep repeating that while I blink at my direct deposit deposit in my online bank account. It was a 400$ drop. Per paycheck. That makes me queasy.

This is going to be very, very different.

Collected up my coupons and bought $14 worth of groceries that we use for $7.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $13 lunch

Just a little reminder that the Greenwood Garage Sale is this Saturday, April 19.

http://baselle.savingadvice.com/2008/04/05/join-me-the-green...

If you wish to join me at 9 am, but are a little shy, let me know by email at


That way I know about how many maps to snag. I'll be at the meeting site, rain or shine (remember the prices go down when it rains!)

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $13 brunch + $4 coffee, water, apple

Well, I was curious, so I checked it out. Yes, I can walk from 4th and Pike back to my house in Greenwood. Talk about an extreme commute. Whew!

It was such a nice day. Too nice actually for this project - it hit the upper 70s, so walking got quite warm. The best walking weather for me is low 50s. Then you get just warm enough to be pleasant, and you want to keep moving to keep warm.

Anyway, if you are familiar with Seattle, its long and lean and if you are going north you have to pick your bridge. For this experiment I went direct - walking along Aurora Ave, picking the Aurora bridge. It took a soulless hour twenty minutes to go from downtown to Fremont; then I rested a bit, got myself a water and an apple in Fremont; then another rest at the Phinney Neighborhood Center; then home. Including the breaks, it took 3 hrs and 5 minutes.

Next time, I've got to think about hitting the Fremont bridge. Crossing that one on foot is far less scary for someone with a fear of falling.

I'm proud of myself. In a true emergency, even something like a repeat of WTO, getting home in 3 hrs by my own steam has got to be better than waiting 3 hrs for a bus.

10 blocks from home, I photographed a joke at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

I ate a little bento box lunch at the food court of Uwajimaya. I sat down, as I picked at my food with my chopsticks the middle aged woman next to me promptly said, "What is that? You handle chopsticks like a Korean!" (She was Korean.)

Her daughter, sitting across from me smiled and said, "don't mind her, she's always amazed when she sees a Westerner handle chopsticks well."

I laughed. "I first learned to use chopsticks to keep me from eating so fast. It didn't work, I just learned how to eat fast with chopsticks." Then I told them how I impressed my french MIL in Paris by deboning a fish using chopsticks.

We talked a bit more. Mother lives in Tacoma, daughter lives in Lynnwood, so Uwajimaya in south downtown Seattle is midway. There's a Korean spa just south of the Alderwood Mall that will let you in for free on your birthday. (gotta file that one away - its my birthday in two weeks.). And I told them about the kimchi bar on 155th and Aurora - cabbage, radish, squid, anchovy, dandelion green, etc, all arranged in a bulk food/salad bar setting complete with sneeze guard.

Hit the Safeway this evening. Last night I saw a very good price for tomato sauce - 10 for $6. Can of chopped tomato were at an okay (for these days) price - 10 for $10. Bags of pasta again 10 for $10. Odwalla bars for 10 for $10.

The strategy here was that I had a 10$ off coupon for $50 or more purchase. Tough to try to keep at $50 (which would make it a 20% off coupon). We ended at $55. Next time we set the Odwalla bars for last. When it gets to $50, no more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $6 lunch (foot long sub for 2 days).

There is one downside to having a day off on Monday: Tuesday becomes Monday. On my Monday, everyone else's Tuesday, I worked through:

1. missing pledges that the fundraising staff assumed were with us. Ha ha, we received them in the mail all right, but we sent them back to the fundraising staff to sort and batch. Where did we find the pledges? - in the fundraiser's safe.

Guys, its a safe, not a wastebasket with a lock! If they make safes with a clear, bulletproof plastic panel...well, they could sure use that.

2. I returned sister's call at work. Turns out that she did her own taxes, and she's wondering why she's not paying nearly as much as I am. Where does the Schedule K-1 fit into it? For me, the Schedule K-1 fit into actual professional help. !

Oh yes, sister mentioned that she might have quit her job. She got tired of her $13/hr job, she got yelled at one too many times, she said she had a headache felt sick and was going home. Sister's partner thought that sister should take off six months, work on the farmette, then go back and find another job.

"Well, if you did quit, you did it at the right time," I said. "It will look like it happened because of the recession, and not because of anything you did."

I can relate, I'm actually a bit surprised she lasted this long. I've had similar emotions - a fair amount of cash so quickly has its own pull. You hear all the pettiness at work, you look at your bank account, note the fact that it will last a good ten years even with careless spending, and you think - well, what for?

Dad, mom, grandma and grandpa put up with a lot of what for to build up what they gave to us. Seems like I should put up with just a little more "what for". My bank account still feels like its not completely mine. My own safe is full, locked, and also needs a clear plastic panel.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.64 coffee, bagel + $10 lunch + $12 office supply store + $1 chocolate

Today was a day off. Extra nice when you are off and the rest of the world has to work. Used the get-one-free punch on my coffee card, went to the chiropractor, then had lunch with lawyer friend's partner and screenwriter friend. Lawyer friend's brother is doing much, much better - he's heading out of ICU and into a regular hospital bed.

Mostly putzed around and did a little shopping. As I headed home it occurred to me that with the long walks that I've been taking in the last 2 months means that if something awful happened - natural disaster, attack, etc - I know I can walk home. It might take 2.5 - 3 hrs, an energy bar, and the bridges would have to be passable, but I could do it. Physical fitness equals reliance equals emergency preparedness.