baselle's Financial Diary

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

and its six weeks more probate.

Got word from sister that Nut has filed as a creditor. Wonder what he thinks we owe him. I've got to be sanguine about this; as DH put it "everyone back there knows he's a nut - the sympathy is with your dad." Now its sister's lawyer's turn to do his stuff.

And I wasn't the only one to get bad news. My lawyer friend got his ATM password skimmed. He found out when he apparently bought something at my neighborhood Fred Meyer. "Geez," I said, "if you were that close, you shoulda stopped by."

I got my butt handed to me again in gym by the rubber bands with handles, aka the exercise cords. And now I can do the same things at home - my very own set of rubber bands with handles came in the mail last night.

Checked on my refund at the irs website. I should expect it to hit the savings account on Valentine's Day.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $5.51 lunch + $17.81 exercise cords (it was $9 with $8 shipping)

Saving log - moved $100 to ING + $50 to regular savings + 7$ tip box (tip box stands at $22)

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?

Well, we e-filed taxes last night. It wasn't bad but it wasn't easy-peasy either.

I went on the www.irs.gov site, looking for free file. Found at least thirty sites and software areas willing to do it as long as you didn't make that much money. However, we file in Washington state (WA). WA has no state income tax, which is somehow a weird twist. At least two thirds of the sites wouldn't do a WA state filing, including the big famous ones like TurboTax. I picked one that would do WA and started up. I didn't like the interface particularly, so when it bailed out on me because I had an IRA, I was relieved. (Too complicated a return, it said. Wow. No wonder no one wants to save for retirement. )

The second site (www.olt.com) was a lot better. It looked more organized and felt like the tax software I used last year when I volunteered for EITC, and I used a lot of the skills from that here. For example, no matter what, fill out the 1099s & W2s completely, match it exactly to the form down to the 0s! The program asked for the forms you had first (1099INTs, 1099DIVs, 1099Rs, W2), then pitched the questions based on what you had. I took awhile before the IRA question came up but thankfully it didn't think that was too complicated.

Turned out you could do your state taxes, too, for an extra fee. That's probably why few of these sites really wanted a WA filer. No take for them. The site I picked really tried, though: it claimed that I have to file WI taxes. All for 137$. I'll look into it. (and I did - I would owe 7$. Come and get it, guvner.)

We're getting a $539 refund, yay IRA, so of course I had to come up with the routing/ account numbers. No fee for that either.

The last item necessary is a bit tricky. I had to dig out the 2004 form because the AGI on it was going to work as an e-file ID. Sent it off into the queue, and I'll look in on it in a couple of days. You can track your file to some extent.

Saved a .pdf file of the 2005 1040 to print in a couple of days. Later, when I get my financial USB drive started up, that's one of the first files going in.

All told it took about an hour and a half. Not as easy as claimed, but it does take the drama out of it. Remember only ten years ago when all the post offices were bedlam in early April? Waiting in incredibly long lines to get forms, then at the end racing in to get your filing postmarked by the 15th?

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

A little weird today. One of the data entry staff got fired today and was escorted out of the building. He apparently threatened another of the data entry staff (via blog, deep irony) and that was that.

At one point I had thought that I might reveal to my lawyer friend (also co worker) that I had this blog (who has a blog), but you know that this journal is strangely intimate because its so detached. As soon as anyone at work knows, I'll be holding my thoughts, fearing comments and this journal will lose a lot.

Of course, I can have a little bit of fun. If anyone really wants to know what my lawyer friend looks like:

http://hoquiamhouse.blogspot.com/

He's the one holding the filthy underwear in the first picture from 1/20/2006.

Got the sewer/water bill.

Sister figures that if the medical creditors don't show by the beginning of February, the four months will have passed. Worked out at the gym today with the new personal trainer - she's funny and I think we will get along well. She does more stretches, which I think are very useful.

The spinal adjustments have been working pretty well too. I've never done a decent squat for a couple of months; I've always pulled from the left, my right knee had always buckled and my right foot turns out. Today - perfect squats, Straight up, straight down.

In the football pool Sunday. 30$! You could win the first quarter for 10$, the halftime 30$, the third quarter 10$, and the game 50$. I'll tell you my technique. In the last football pool, one person won three out of four of the quarters - I considered her the luck magnet. If there was an empty spot in the grid next to her name, I took it. That's all the skill I have in gambling.

I'll have to contact our landlord; the sewer/water bill is late. I feel silly sometimes asking for my bills. Cripes, don't they need the money?

Had a Szechuan lunch with my lawyer friend/co worker. He's in the midst of his own battle with our HR department. He calculated the 403 B match one way, HR another, for a difference of $600.

I asked sister for info about the US Bank asset/creditor list. What is it? Are we at the end?

Savings log - 4$ tip box + 30$ gambling winnings
Spending log - 1.75$ coffee + 13$ 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.

Miscellaneous: Last night I counted my tip box out and sent $42 into my brick & mortar bank to be later sent to ING. I sent $150 to PayPal for some miscellaneous payments. Wow - 4.3% without a hitch...might pay to shove a bit of ING money in there to incubate a bit. Sent 500$ to the credit card.

Used a Peet's complimentary card to get a latte, a nice break from the drip. Oranges, eggs, frozen green beans are cheap in the grocery store. I really like finding frozen green beans - they keep well and they very rarely are cheaper fresh.

The shocker news yesterday was that my trainer is moving up north. We made an appointment with another trainer as a transition. Apparently the trainers talk about me - that I work hard at this and how rare that is. Funny story - yesterday I was scheduled to do 15 minutes on the elliptical, making me 10 minutes late for my next appointment. I split the difference, only doing 10 minutes on the elliptical, and being 5 minutes late. All the trainers laughed at this; the usual thing would have been that the client would have completely blown it off. I'm not happy about the trainer leaving, but I'm philosophical - the trainer is the facilitator, but ultimately I have to be the one who loses weight and gets healthy.

Still have not lost pounds, but I am swimming in my clothes and my body fat dropped a percent, so something is going on. I figure that if I look thinner, I can always lie about my weight. Sister send another box of clothes - very nice ones, with tags still on them but now 2 sizes over mine. I'll put a little ad in craigslist before I send to the thrift store.

The next appointment was for the chiropractor. Most of my asymmetry on my workouts is apparently due to a wicked hunch and bad posture. The daily adjustments take 10 minutes, and they make me feel pretty good as long as I stand up straight. The only disconcerting thing during them is that my back and neck sound like a bowl of rice krispies over milk.

Collecting my 1099s and other papers for taxes - all I need is my W2 (or is it W4). Taxes are going to be different for me yet again this year. I used to Telefile it, last year I had to do paper because of dividends, this year it's online filing.

1-20
Savings log - $42
Spending log - $1.75 coffee + $5.00 lunch

1-21
Savings log - 0$
Spending log - 5.00$ lunch + 42.96 groceries

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.

I got a US Bank list of assets and distributions of dad's estate, and the assets of mom's estate. The first piece of property has been sold and the money is now in the money market accounts, while the second piece is still listed as miscellaneous and has not been sold. Total (assets - distributions) about 650K.

I have to say that the bank was very thorough - they even got a refund of the leftovers of an AARP subscription as an asset (19$), and have paid off all of dad's medical bills, utility bills, insurance premiums, probate office payment, bank executor cut. Gotta tell you that if I had been the executor, I would be bald with all the hairs that I would have torn out of my head.

So far, no listing on any of mom's medical bills, nor sister's lawyer's cut. Creditors have 4 months to speak up and get paid. From the looks of it, most of them from the farm/dad's side have been paid off. I wonder how much time is left. And the lawyer will charge his slice. I think sister will be surprised as to the size of his cut, compared to the executor's cut.

I'll have to ask sister and/or the executor where things stand.

Three new ING accounts! Thanks, Jeffrey!

Today is a vacation day, and so is tomorrow for me. Today was also a gym day for me and so will be tomorrow. Its just like high school, all the fun stuff and then there's gym. Although these days I'm feeling a lot better about going to gym, getting into the swing of it.

But to keep this an actual financial diary I've got to mention that I signed up for a fitness challenge. Fitness, thankfully, won't be determined by the number of pushups (hah hah), but by decrease in weight and inches around various places and body fat content between the dates of Feb 9 and April 1. Winner gets $1000. It would be great if I win but if I lose, I still lose, so I'd still win.

After gym, I went to a Tully's and had a green tea and half a tuna sandwich, all while watching Jim Cramer's Mad Money and the Suze Orman show. Both are a whole different experience when they're mute and closed captioned. The advice is relatively good when you can disassociate it from the chair throwing (Cramer) and strange hectoring (Orman). When you think about it, they are both saying the same thing - make the psychology of money work for you, not against you.

And with that I came to a revelation. Several commenters noticed that I had a credit card balance with a fair amount of savings. All of that credit card debt comes from the personal trainer. I could pay it off in a matter of days but I'm not because if I did, the debt is behind me and I will blow off the gym. This way, as long as my debt is at the back of my mind I will say "dammit, I'm paying for this!" and go. My psychology of money is working in tandem with my weight loss/get fit plan.

Know thyself.

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.

First day back at work and I'm still in a good mood. The horseflies landed in the two days I was away, so they were easy to swat and kill.

No gym today, but I did buy a yoga mat yesterday (Target - $19.99) and ran through some calisthentics. Soft but grippy. No sliding around and no carpet burns! I also bought a couple of large workout shirts - I fit into them, but not in the best way. Instead getting 10 lbs of mud into a 5 lb sack, its more like 5 1/4 lbs. I'm treating getting into them properly as a goal.

DH and I are going to use the free night at the hotel this Friday and use up a spare restaurant gift card. Frugal fun! And we will be off Monday, and I have another day off on Tuesday. All to chip away only slightly at the large quantity of vacation time. We should all have such troubles.

I'm going to get one last cup of coffee from the coffee card tomorrow. Tomorrow, the trainer promised that we'll work the upper body. Friday comes the paycheck.

1/10
Saving log - 0$
Spending log - 7$ (fun stuff from Body Shop) + 20$ (2 workout shirts) + 21$ (yoga mat & bottle of water) + 7.62$ lunch + 1.65$ coffee

1/11
Saving log - 0$
Spending log - $4.23 lunch

Day off.

Slept in, ate some breakfast, had a little coffee in a small cafe that I've wanted to try, bought a lunch and a water, and then suddenly it was time for an hour of gym. Yesterday I discovered that I fit into a large shirt, rather than an extra large. Exciting! I rewarded myself with some french toast (powdered sugar instead of syrup) and I went to the gym to work off some of it. I managed to stay on the elliptical machine two minutes longer each time, and that my heart rate went down or stayed steady as long as I took deep breaths. Gym today, gym yesterday. Suddenly, I'm a jock. Yikes! After gym I ate my lunch. Best tasting sandwich I ever had.

So to keep this a financial diary - got another tax form from my KO DRP, my 2006 IRA came through into my Vanguard account, I sent 40$ to my 3M DRP.

Grocery store deal joy - fresh pineapple for .67/lb, dried spaghetti/fettucine/linguine for .50/lb, mixed nuts for $1.79/lb. All beat what I'd seen in North Seattle in two years, based on my price book. I've stocked up, but now what I have do is eat what I have and stop buying!!!

I found a tax estimator:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/calcs/n_tax/main.asp

Not that its perfect, but it should be able to tell me if I owe or am going to get a refund. With the IRA it looks like this year I will get a refund - first time in about 5 yrs. I aim with my withholding to owe a little, about $100. The estimator is giving me a refund of about $450. It gives me a little impetus to get all my forms together.

Ah...I have Monday and Tuesday off. Even though I was bugged a bit by co workers coming in and gossiping, I managed to get quite a bit done - everything done that I really wanted to get done, and that makes a four day weekend even sweeter. Think I will book my free hotel room this weekend. I'll have next Tuesday off too.

Broke down and actually got a chain-grocery store card - not Safeway. The grocery chain is going nameless - I only buy canned cat food there. When the card price for it was 20% lower, I broke down and got it. My dearest wish is that the data miner looking at all my canned cat food purchases will say, "remind me not to have pate and crackers at her house."

Curry place is back from vacation. Ah, lunch joy.

My trainer, stuck in traffic, was forty-five minutes late. He got a hold of me at the gym...so I ran through a warmup, ran through ab crunches, some weights, some exercises and stretches. He told me that he was very proud of me - I didn't play hooky. Came clean with him about the elliptical machine - he told me that we'll have to work on breathing and figure what level I should be starting from.

Saving log: Tip jar - 5$.
Spending log: lunch - 5$ (coffee card is still holding out, yay!).

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.

Moved 50$ from checking to savings, and 3$ in the tip box. It felt good.
Also put 40$ into one DRP, 35$ into another. That felt good too.
Managed to use up most of my Christmas gift card of coffee - so I get a couple of weeks of non-1.65$ coffee. That makes me feel alert and good.

Did six minutes on the elliptical machine after the workout. My heart rate zoomed to 170. I stopped; that didn't feel good. I'm not proud, I'm going to have to work up to it.

Well, my bank didn't listen to my begging. They aren't going to waive the fee. Fine - I've got to suck it up and learn from it. Its easy to be snarky - I made a whole $8.65 in interest in 2005 from that little savings account. I made $163.45 interest on my ING account.

Cleaned out the freezer of the bags of bones and frozen vegetables and made a big batch of turkey vegetable soup. Yummy and cleansing at the same time. Collected my two coupons for the grocery store for next Saturday.

Wished my uncle a happy new year and gave him a vague explanation of what is going down with the farm. Sister called and asked when we get distributions. Depends on how done the "done deal" was for the first piece of property - it brought in exactly 300K. In the farmhouse, most of the furniture is out, along with the stained glass and some of the carved moldings. The only pieces of furniture left are those that the rest of the family is going to take in a couple of weeks. Sister told me a little about the possible buyer - a county employee. Hopefully this will be a second house - the farmhouse is barely livable. The last two barn kittens were having a run on the second floor of her house in Milwaukee.

I collected up all the tax papers for the February to come.

Here I am, sipping champagne, watching High Noon on Dec 31, 2005. Courageous, throwing these numbers out here, but this is a real financial diary, so here goes.

IRA, 403(B)s......$44,918.46 (anything tax deferred, set aside for retirement)
Stocks................ $4,918.62 (4 dividend reinvestment accounts)
sav bonds...........$6,807.76 (I and 2 EE bonds from grandpa)
cash savings.....$11,949.82 (ING account)
immed cash.........$1,423.51 (brick & mortar bank checking and savings)
GROSS...............$69,138.17
cc card debt.........$1,360.06
NET WORTH.......$67,778.11

Dec 2005 ($67,778 total, $23,740 in a non-tax deferred account). By comparison:
June 2005 ($46,115 total, $11,293)
Dec 2004 ($38,338 total, $7,558)
June 2004 ($29,050 total, $4,533)

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.

And the inheritance front opens up once again.

Got a call from sister, telling me that the sale of the first piece of property is a "done deal", but nothing regarding the particulars, only that she wanted to walk on the property one last time. DH slyly commented that she could, but it would be trespassing. I shot back that if sister had a gun and wore an orange vest and knew what season it was she probably still could.

We also got another email from the husband of dad's twin sister, father of the cousin who found dad. He wished us both a happy new year, but asked "How is the farm sale coming along?" I saw him at the funeral. He seems like a nice enough older gentleman when you meet him; however he has an unerring ability to ladle on large dollops of guilt in his letters and emails. So this current email set me off a bit, asking about the farm sale. Peter Parker, c'est moi. My spidey sense tells me that if we actually tell him the next email will be the question, "where's mine?"

Mom and dad had many close calls and nearly lost the farm several times. I know that many members of the family had given money to them both and that allowed them to stay. In the cleanup that first week, we collected and saved several versions of a list of who gave what. Sister and I had talked about this and we are both agreed that with the proceeds that we will honor the list as a list of loans and pay them off. Even if sister wouldn't have agreed, I would and will write the checks myself.

However, this whole plan would be spoiled with the words..."you know, we gave your father X$, pay up." It turns a pleasant surprise and an act of family generousity into a mere loan. I suppose we would have to pay points, too.

I asked sister about this and suggested that we be as vague as possible and stonewall. Real estate takes a long time to sell, we have at least three estates to settle, we are in the midst of settling with the creditors, we haven't had a chance to catch up with the executors, the executors timeline is fifteen months. All true to a point. The real truth, as DH said, is that its none of his business.

Sister agreed. Remind me to be vague and keep me strong about it, she said.

It looks like for 2006 it is us against the world.

For the last couple of years I've been calculating my net worth every six months (June 30 and December 31) for the last couple of years. Luckily its been going up. I'm just waiting for Friday night when I can do my net worth calculation for the end of the year.

Goals & Decisions for 2006.
1. Pay off the personal trainer credit card debt. This will happen by March or April.
2. Take a hard look in January and February at what I'm spending my money on. This December - like them all - I felt like I had overspent my promotion, that I was loosening up.
3. Decide just how much emergency money I should have in my ING account, then invest the rest. (If I have to, kill off the last of the credit card debt.)
4. Keep increasing my net worth. So far, I've been able to do it by about $10,000 every eight months, but this is in part due to a rising stock market.
5. Get most of my financial information - images of contracts and files - on a USB drive. Said USB drive must have a security system on it.
6. Write a will.

Speaking of the personal trainer, I got weighed and measured today. In a word, 1/2 a loaf. I didn't lose any total weight, but I did firm up 1/2 inch in the bust, waist and hips, nearly an 1 inch in the upper arm. Christmas strikes again!