baselle's Financial Diary

This morning, because I knew I was paid, I surprised my co workers today by buying 2 different large yogurts, 2 packs of granola, and a box of blueberries and a bag of fresh cherries. I set it up as a mini fruit, yogurt, granola station.

Heroic for $22 and change.

Today was the very last day of fiscal year, and it was still mostly crazy. At least everybody had a good breakfast this morning.

Don't have too much time to comment - about all I can say is that I am so close to 600K that I can taste it. Hit it once several months ago, then stocks dropped again.

Oh, and yes, I got paid, so I now have a bit more than $3.

$220,432 IRA/403B
$202,421 Vanguard taxable
$34,299 stock
$13,238 I-bonds
$25,000 CDs
$100,094 ING
$1,307 immediate cash
---
$596,791 total

By comparison:
June 2011 ($596,791 total, $376,359 in taxable accounts)
December 2010 ($575,346 total, $356,542)
June 2010 ($553,023 total, $369,589)
December 2009 ($551,300 total, $385,771)
June 2009 ($512,054 total, $379,475)
Dec 2008 ($498,148 total, $386,021)
June 2008 ($524,261 total, $387,481)
Dec 2007 ($328,688 total, $192,747)
June 2007 ($176,422 total, $48,205)
Dec 2006 ($132,062 total, $40,329)
June 2006 ($120,261 total, $65,148)
Dec 2005 ($67,778 total, $23,740)
June 2005 ($46,115 total, $11,293)
Dec 2004 ($38,338 total, $7,558)
June 2004 ($29,050 total, $4,533)

I have $3 in my wallet and payday is 7 am tomorrow.

And yes, I know we are in June.

Our fiscal year ends on June 30. This fiscal year is shaping up to be like a number of others, a series of accounting fires to be put out. Some of our fundraising managers are stitched up tight; and some its, well ... time to slap them silly.

The garden mosaic class was a whole lot of fun. I'm working on a very simple project - a mosaic tray 10 inches by 14 inches. But in 5 hours I only got a 1/3 of it done, so I've gotten some supplies to finish. I plan getting the rest after the paycheck comes in. I got a tip on how to get glass in Seattle - Bedrock Industries. Its a recycled glass tiny piece candy land, underneath the gritty Garfield Bridge. A candy land of sharp edges though. They pay 20 cents/lb for glass.

The second movie rough cut was a lot of fun - a good crowd of 300 out of 800 seats. Not a full house, but a respectable crowd for a rough cut with scenes missing. I formally introduced dj friend to screenwriter friend (they actually knew each other), but both parties fully understand that if they teamed up good deals can happen. Screenwriter friend can possibly get movie music that he wouldn't have to pay royalties on, dj friend can get his crop of artists a new venue - movies that hundreds of people see. I was told that I'm a genuine "producer" here.

Still holding out on the frugal burn. I have $5 and one more day. I think I can do it.

Down to my last $35 for this month; we'll see if I can hold out until the 30th.

Other than that, reinvesting the 2Q dividend checks. Most are enough so that I buy at least half a share.

Weekend looks unusually busy - Saturday I take the garden mosaic class that got canceled in the beginning of the month. It happens to be at the same time as the Greenwood Car Show. Unfortunately I'm willing to bet that somehow that little scheduling feature escaped the teacher so it wouldn't surprise me that it will get canceled again. If that's the case, time to ask for a refund. We'll see.

Sunday we see a "rough cut" of a second movie from screenwriter friend and his son. Trailer is funny and it got a bit of

press in the neighborhood paper.

Oh, and if you think I should be committed for looking for change on the ground, I'm a piker compared to this guy.

No savings, but spent only for a $1.72 coffee. I brought 4 lunches for the week, so no outside lunch today. Right now I'm at a low point in both my checking and savings, so its feel the frugal burn for a couple of weeks.

Last weekend was quiet, but I had an opportunity to visit a space that I've wanted to for a long time. You might remember that my neighborhood hosts a genuine Tibetan Buddhist

monastery. The Sakya Monastery had a book and media sale inside on Saturday so I saw the meeting room and the kitchen. Several lay people also told me that the Shrine Room was open with a guided tour on Sunday noon. The paintings on the walls, the mandalas on the ceiling and the golden Buddha was amazing. I didn't take a picture - it didn't seem right. I learned on the tour several fun facts:

1. The Shrine Room was personally consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 1993.

2. It was in the film, Little Buddha. (Although our neighborhood is decidedly NOT as snotty as Queen Anne!)

3. The Lama in charge had a dream of the interior of the space in the 1970s, and sketched it. When the building came up for sale, his sketches helped the make the decision, but what really clinched it was:

4. The street number is 108, which is the most symbolic number in Buddhism - the number of beads in a mala, number of defilements to overcome to attain enlightenment.

ING is being sold to Capital One. We'll see what that means in the next few weeks.

I put in $46.42 into savings from my tip box this month (I added the paper dividend check.). I paid $1.99/lb for broccoli this afternoon - it had better be cancer-fighting. The container garden is doing well - we have teeny tiny tomatoes; with any luck, a full ripe one by the end of July.

Pay day was yesterday - dispiriting though that its been spent already, mostly on paying off the credit card. Lucky I've moved most of my intimate savings - not the ING - to checking.

I very much enjoyed the CNN

gallery of extreme savers. Some of these tips aren't all that extreme, and I am doing WAY better than Adam at no 10. I'm at $84.73 in finding change, with about 4 weeks left to go.

Turns out that the US branch of ING (ING is a Dutch bank) is

on the verge of being bought, supposedly by either GE or Capital One.

I don't know what that means for me, but I'm fairly sure that 1% interest rate on a highly liquid "checking" (I put that in quotes because you need a very high balance) account is not in the cards.

Sucks, and I'll hold on until the timetable is published (SEC supposedly won't let you secretly sell) but its time to relook.

Saving log - $6 tip box + $1.42 dividend check
Spending log - $1.73 coffee (forgot my mug) + $9 groceries

At last, I found an

article about not driving/not buying gas being a patriotic act. I've been mentioning it for years even in supposedly green Seattle and people have looked at me as if I was nuts. Finally, not nuts!

I can understand it if you were out in the boonies. Lugging groceries for miles up a hill is absolutely no fun, but in the city a car is a tool. You don't want to shoot a squirrel with a machine gun; why use a car for every batch of light errands?

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.62 coffee + $1.05 apple + $9 worth of odwalla bars

Been pretty quiet, work is at last quiet. A couple of days ago screenwriter friend told me that he made $100 in 5 hours by proctoring a SAT exam. I'll have to check into that; I used to do proctoring when I was a grad student and a teaching assistant. What you are basically doing is watching the test takers to detect the cheaters. Easy work as long as you remembered how devious everybody was. Eyes on the paper! We used to shoot rubber bands at the college students whose eyes we suspected were wandering.

The stock market, down for a good week, is depressing. Good time not to look at my portfolio too much.

So really things have been on the tedious side. Except when I looked in my right front pocket. When I pick up coins, I often don't have lots of time poring over what I got, I just shove it in my right front pocket for later. Well, I looked and I found I picked up an old wheat penny ... 1921 old. Its worn, and the wheat side got scuffed a bit from traffic, I think, but its the oldest coin that I've touched in a long time.

Well, I walked a little bit further than I had wanted to - although I haven't suffered any. I walked my route with an older man who was looking for his car. I was a bit worried about him, he described himself as having troubles with short term memory. I didn't really want to take responsibility for finding his car that who knows where it was; I split off with him to turn back to walk back home, but I did look for the car and license plate on my way home. I figured that's all I'd need was watching him as a missing person on the evening news.

Within two blocks I found that car, I was certain of it. By then he was a good four blocks away....moving away slowly, but fast enough that I had to jog to catch up to him. I told him the full license plate and I was right - it was his car. So pwhew ... a good deed but who knows whether other drivers on the road would agree.

Now for the bad deed. This in front of my former bank, the Chase on 85th. In case you have troubles reading it, it says, "Jobs Before Bonuses. Move Your Money." The part that got cut off said, "No job, No home, No fear."


And in front of the ATM. "Tax Dodger."


Can't say that I've monitored the chalk graffiti over the past several years, but I think this is the first I've seen of this stuff.

Savings: $8 tip box
Spending: $1.91 coffee + $1 apple + $17 groceries

The next weeks are going to be semi spendy. I won a pair of Sounders tickets, so while that will be free, well there's the beer and food. (And lately food is especially pricey.) DH is asking for us to go for a beer at a new pub in the neighborhood. We all reconnected with the rancher that we bought the beef from - we'll be buying another one this year - but we probably will be putting down a little deposit.

I did manage to get that $300 to buy more SYY stock, so that was something, and June is a dividend extravaganza month, so there's at least a $150 getting reinvested automagically this month. Even with the over 300 point drop over the last couple of days, my drp portfolio is holding at about $33K.

Work is back to being nice and quiet ... for once. Finished up one of my direct reports performance evaluation, one down, one to go, and I have to do mine. Apparently we will get a pay raise out of this. Will it be enough to counterbalance no fresh produce under $1/lb. Stay tuned.

Sister called. She now has 12 people who have bought into her CSA ... been gardening up a storm. This Sunday I paid for a class to learn to do garden mosaics, which I psyched about. Either I'll make a little something for my collection of pots, or I'll do a little something for the farmette. Depends on my interest, inspiration and whether I have a knack.

Well, I had an entry yesterday but my Firefox burped and the site ate it and it was gone. Let me summarize:

I moved my checking from Chase to a local credit union, and was asked whether I needed checks. Since I am 49, I was taken aback - you mean people don't use checks. Turns out that I only have 4 places that I use checks regularly ... so I've become one of those people who don't use checks. I set up two bill pays, two more to go should I need them. I feel like I'm the 21st century.

I will have to go back to monitoring my spending - I've had to dip into my savings twice this month. Its one thing if its inflation or bad luck or I spent a bit on some fun, but its another thing if there's a mindless leak that I can do something about.

So far in the two last weeks I spent on two out-to-eat lunches, one with a woman I met on the Vietnam tour (to be honest I didn't think I made any friends), the other with screenwriter friend and partner of lawyer friend; money on net rice papers that were a lattice instead of solid (those were $1.49 per package, so not a bank breaker), some on pork sausage, ginger, rhubarb, and other groceries to make cha gio; the sewer water garbage bill; to take one class in garden mosaic art; paint, brushes, sandpaper to artistically 'distress' the picture frames I got at the neighborhood yard sale - so so far, I've spent on needs, social, and fun that I'm going to implement. No mindless leak has appeared yet.

Two days ago I began to harvest some baby lettuces that I've been growing in a two foot bowl with wheels. This year I was clever - I planted the lettuces in a big "X", so that no matter when I got around to weeding and harvesting, I knew what's in my pot. Last year I planted randomly, and what happened is that the lettuces sprouted randomly, along with the weeds. It was okay for a few weeks, but then the weeds got the better of me. Planting the "X" means that I can also plant another "X" between the older "X" for a later harvest.

So I got a new credit card from Chase - a 1% and 5% cashback one. I only put the credit card in the wallet the day I plan to use it (never carry it just to carry it...too dangerous).

The day I put it in the wallet, I learned about another reason not to carry it; the credit card conflicts with my bus pass card as I tap the bus pass on the reader. The bus pass has a chip and a radio signaler in it so that it can store and compute the fare when you tap the reader to get on and tap it to get off. Apparently the credit card also has reader to store what is being charged and whether I get 1 or 5%.

Easy enough fix - just pull the bus pass card out of the wallet, but an even easier reason to not use it unless necessary.

The aaaauuuuuurrgh came from total computer problems for me today at work. I (and the IT guy) thought it was hard drive problems, but it was a piece of despicable mal-ware that was pretending to cause a hard drive failure ...probably to pay 'em money and they would magically "fix" it. So I didn't get much done today. Thankfully, I'm now in the quiet season, where there is planning, but all but one of the big projects is done.

Change finding for this year is marching along - I'm at over $80 since last July. One of the players of the death bet had Harmon Killebrew, so he is now ahead.

Greenwood Yard Sale for 2011 has come and gone. DH and I went to go, thinking we'll just see what's out there and take a picture of something that I couldn't believe was for sale. Nothing to do a double take ... maybe that "make me an offer" saddle. But I did buy a batch of picture frames - one for $.50, where the lady wouldn't play when I tried talking her down, and 8 more for .25 apiece, with the seller who did play along. Since even the fifty cent frame was so cheap, I thought I'd have a little fun and distress them artistically. I also bought a sturdy one foot square cedar table that we could use as a little outdoor tray, a stool to stand on, a stand for some of my outdoor container plants. $10 for that.

Repotted the sage and rosemary. DH has potato plants growing in a black plastic garbage can that are now about 3/4 of the way up the can. Blueberry plants are going great gang busters, even the plant that I thought was on its last legs from canker. This year, its all leafy goodness and doing wonderfully.

Some of the very old time readers might remember that I live in the Seattle neighborhood of Greenwood, about 7 miles north of downtown. And a few of the merely old time readers might remember me being excited enough about Seattle light rail to post about it.

Well, plans are afoot to get light rail to north Seattle - yesterday the two gigantic borers near the University of Washington were christened and began digging south, hooking up to the northern most downtown stop. Five years from now light rail should reach to the UW. Great, but still 4 miles south of me.

Tonight I went to an open house for a light rail stop at Northgate, which is about 1.5 miles east of me. The place was packed - a good 150- 200 came. The route and placement of the station has been pretty much decided - tunnel most, popping up some, and an elevated stop next to the Metro transit center. Multiple plans for what the station would look like, and multiple plans for how the buses will interact with the light rail.

Comments from the crowd were mostly good, although it was weird to hear the "how come its not across the street?" versus "its gonna wreck my property values because its so close". Can't win.

For a good twenty blocks the rail line should run in a channel alongside the interstate, so there was a lot of concern about making sure neighborhoods to the west (namely me) could use it. Two road/sidewalk overpasses would be maintained - on 92nd and on 103rd. A couple of comments about community college students not being able to use it. What happened to college students these days? I thought nothing of walking many, many blocks. And this community college campus - like many college campuses - ain't tiny. 12 blocks walking shouldn't be anything.

Matter of fact, the open house was about 8 blocks from the transit center which would be where the light rail line would be. I walked home from the open house. Took me 45 minutes to walk home, no biggie. Ride itself would take about 13 minutes from downtown to the stop.

The real time lag though is that the light rail will come to us in 2020. I'm probably going to be a little less spry by that time.

Late last night the conversation went like this -

Me: we have got to figure out what is kitty's problem. I think she's been peeing, but it doesn't smell.

DH (feeling the carpet): Wow, kitty has quite a bladder. Wet here, here, here.

We open the swinging doors where the washer and dryer are - the floor is sopping wet, so much so that it was overflowing into the carpet pad and the carpet above it.

Turns out it was even worse than that - the water heater leaked catastrophically. From the bottom. We used every towel we had, turned the heater off and shut down the water. Still, there was plenty of water everywhere this morning.

The one good time to be a renter.

The RE management company called in the water heater guys and the carpet guy. I got home this evening with an industrial dryer running on the carpet, and the water heater replaced. Apparently water heaters last about ten years, we've been renting this spot for eleven. I would love to get new carpeting because of this, but that will be unlikely - no doubt because of the kitty, but also because its easier to change the carpet between tenants.

Again. About 8 months ago I found a silver dime on the bed of the Coinstar machine. Today I found a silver dime right in front of it. (1957 - any dime minted before 1964 is silver)

Now I haven't found an amazing fantastic amount by the Coinstar machine, but when I do find something, its either Canadian or very old...which makes me wonder. I think that the Coinstar machine tells the coin by the weight. A silver dime or a Canadian penny has a different weight and it gets left behind. The owner thinks its worthless when its worth a lot more.

And worth more...last month I spotted a sign at an antique shop that the shop was willing to pay 25X above face for silver coin. Coinstar wouldn't take it at all, the shop would take it at $2.50.

Happy Mother's Day, or perhaps Happy Mothers' Day. I'll go generic since me mum died in 2003.

Some doings on the fiscal front for the small money. I've still have to remember that I bank at the credit union instead of my bank. Just yesterday when I planned my day I plan to hit the bank then... no, no scratch that, hit the credit union in the Safeway.

The interest rate on both checking and saving is 6% on the first $500, 0.1% on anything above it. It means that I have to figure out when to slice off some savings when it gets to be $1000 or so. ($500 @ 6%, $500 @ about 0% ... 3% is about my target). This time around I had $300 that I put into my Sysco (SYY) drip.

The variable interest rate on the I-bonds for these next 6 months is 4.6%.

Small money making small money. It feels as slow as being on a pumpkin pulled by gerbils, still every little bit of money is making something.

Right now I'm immersed in portfolio construction. Best book I've read so far is The Perfect Portfolio by Leland Hevner. Its interesting because it gives one a real nuts and bolts view of constructing a core and specialty investment portfolio. The Kiplinger book on portfolio construction reads like the same ol' same ol'.

So part 1 was yogurt, which was pretty easy once you figure out how to get the right temperature to hold the milk and yogurt culture.

Part 2 - I've expanded to include queso blanca, a white cheese made with milk and vinegar. Easiest recipe ever! I got the milk for $1.89/half gallon + a few pennies of apple cider vinegar and it made at least 1/2 lb of cheese.

Queso blanca

1/2 gallon of whole pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) milk
2 tbsp vinegar. I followed the recipe and used apple cider vinegar, so I don't know how well other vinegars work.

Heat milk in a saucepan to 185 - 195F. Direct heat, right on the burner. Stir often so the bottom doesn't scorch.

Take milk off heat. Add vinegar a bit at a time until milk curdles - forms a white precipitate/curd and a slightly yellowish whey. I halved the recipe I referred to (1 gallon milk/ 1/4 c vinegar), which worked. The recipe also stated that if it doesn't curdle, you can add a bit more vinegar.

I let it cool for about 20 minutes - not sure whether curds increase as you leave it, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt much.

Pour curds and whey into jelly bag, let the whey drain off. Leave the curds in the bag for a couple of hours to firm up the cheese. Can twist the jelly bag to really get the whey out. This cheese needs a bit of salt.

So far, the cheese spreads okay on bread and crackers, great crumbled into a salad, and heats up very well - I'll bet it will be great as a ricotta substitute...like in a lasagna.

For all you regular readers regarding this year's death bet: nobody had him.

On the eve of both my 49th birthday and the royal wedding of young William and Kate, I have only one thing to say:

"You kids! My day! Get off my lawn!"

I mean seriously, why are you getting married on cheap ol' Friday? Surely all parties involved can afford/ muscle a booking on a high class Saturday wedding?

Then again, with British austerity, perhaps not...

On a lighter and fiscal note (not that above wasn't light or secretly fiscal), I got my last payment of the bird flu study. $50! And I get paid. The only issue there is that I'm still fighting illness. I would take the day off to recouperate except that because I'm changing banks, this paycheck happens to be a paper one. And rent has been scheduled. I don't pick up the check and deposit it, payments are gonna bounce.

Closed out my checking and savings account with Chase, kept the rewards based credit card. Got what I got in cash, and promptly deposited it into the credit union bank. Now both my checking and savings accounts are close to the $500 limit for the 6% interest rate. Its only $30/ year, but at least it means that even my smallest accounts are working hard. Talked to HR, my next paycheck will be paper, the paycheck after will be direct deposited appropriately into the credit union.

That project is done.

DJ friend asked to write up a special letter for the Internet radio station. There is a serious issue - he is a legal internet radio station, which means in the U.S. he has to pay royalties. What usually happens is that he submits the songs/works/etc that he or his other DJs will play, along with a monthly payment to a royalty clearinghouse. The royalty clearinghouse pays another agency who then pays BMI, ASCAP, etc. Apparently the royalty clearinghouse that DJ friend has been using has not been paying anybody and has been shut down. So its been a mad scramble to go to a new clearinghouse.

I have to shake my head here. No wonder the music industry is in the state its in - everybody else has to streamline, get leaner and meaner, etc. The music industry appears to just have gotten meaner without the leaner.

So I wrote the letter explaining the situation to all - only took me two hours. As a payment, got a nice capacity coffee card for my trouble. Free coffee for a couple of weeks!

Even if we do nothing else this spring, it has been a successful spring cleaning. Saturday we managed to remember that a non-profit was collecting computers and computer detris. DH parted with his beloved Amiga ... finally. We also got rid of one old monitor that I had to pull from the furthest corner of the storage area (ugh), two old desktop computer boxes - one we kept for a friend for 8 years (!), one dead laptop, cables, motherboards, keyboards, my broken digital camera, my beloved old MP3 player that died last year, and another ancient MP3 player. DH packed the car trunk and the back seat.

Very cleansing, we had at least 15 years worth of stuff. We heard about the pickup from our neighborhood microblogs, so this was one of many cases that the neighborhood blog saved us a bit of money and time.

We've got rid of the hardware. Now I wonder how we are going to get rid of the software and discs. Probably the ignoble route - shred the discs, break down the cardboard, and recycle any paper or cardboard by the usual route.

Finally "got off the pot" as it were with grandma's inheritance that I've kept in Vanguard. I've put about 5% of it in a high-yield dividend fund. I've asked to get the quarterly dividends so I can plow them into my DRP portfolio.

Hope you are all having a great Easter weekend. This week, it was on my list to keep on going with transferring my checking account from Chase to my credit union.

1. I listed out my recurring transfers, transferred them over (a couple have gone through already this month).
2. To a look at the bill pay options. Since I now only write 2-3 checks/month to the same spots I'm going to try going checkless and see how that works.
3. Filled out a new direct deposit directive from work.
4. Moved my last recurring transfer today.
5. Looked at the almost $1 interest that I got on my money so far this month. Very enjoyable.

I get paid on my birthday this year, so what remains to be done is to check next week to see if the direct deposit went through. Then I have one last check that I'm waiting to clear on the Chase account.

It takes me a long time, but I don't want hitches.

Various bloggers' forays into homemade items encouraged me to tell you about my foray into a homemade item: yogurt! Specifically, I love the plain Greek style yogurt - plain because you can always add honey, fruit or jam but you can't take the flavor away if you want a lassi, dip or marinade. At its loss leader cheapest, I used to buy Greek yogurt 24 oz for $3.99. With a little bit of equipment, my latest batches have come from a gallon of free milk along with 1 $0.99 container of Greek yogurt. This is what I do:

1. Measure out 1 2/3 c of whole milk, put into saucepan.
2. Heat the milk to 180C. I measure it with a clean probe thermometer. If you don't have one, if its boiling, its heated.
3. Let cool to 116C. This is where you really need the thermometer - I've failed if its above 120C.
4. Pour warm milk into a clean food thermos.
5. Stir into the milk, one tablespoon or so of Greek yogurt. That $0.99 yogurt can inoculate at least six batches.
6. Seal, and leave the food thermos alone for at least overnight. I've left it alone for a full day without an issue.
7. Open the thermos - it should be coagulated like yogurt.

Now this yogurt is pretty loose and runny. Its not bad, but its not the Greek yogurt that I know and love. To get that, I have to strain it, and I do that using a jelly bag.

8. Set up the jelly bag. Since you're straining out the liquid and keeping the solid, the yogurt pulls away from the bag a whole lot easier if the seam side of the bag is out, smooth side is in.
9. Pour the yogurt into the bag and strain it for at least 2 hrs. You know you have a good batch if the liquid is clear, a weak batch if the liquid looks like milk.
10. Invert the bag and enjoy.

I often strain the yogurt for much longer, until it gets to be a cream cheese, and the cream cheese version is smashing also.

Well, I'm still sick. Although I am on the mend, I wasn't mended enough for work today, and I'm only mended enough to do what I call the on/off routine: one hour of resting/reading, one hour of light cleaning of a room. No cleaning too heavy, no scrubbing, no intense cleaners (like bleach). But the schedule was nice - a tidy room, several chapters and a bit of a snooze, another tidy room, more chapters, third tidy room... and hung two red/brass plaques that I got from Cambodia.

ceejay asked about the trip costs, and also gave me cover, talking about spending a bit on fun. I hesitated a bit to list the costs, but I seem to average a big expensive, passport-using trip every 4 years or so, its not so bad. Also, I spent for a 100% good result. Next time, as I develop more experience and risk tolerance, I might cut some bits.

Original cost of trip $5995/person. (This covers most everything once we got to Hanoi, including the tour guides and the prof's three lectures (he threw an extra lecture in for free) and it even covered some of the costs for leaving - a ghost room so we could stay the day at the hotel and to store our bags while we waited for our night flight, the van ride getting to the airport. However, plenty was not covered:
Travel insurance $400 (I booked and planned the trip before talking to my boss, so I needed the "cancel just because clause")
Plane ticket to Hanoi $1100
Plane ticket back to Seattle $1050
Visas for each country $200 (sister had to get the passport, so she added another $125)
Travel medicine/shots $50 for hep A, typhus, antimalarials, and anti-diarrehials. (didn't use 'em so thank heavens I cheaped that out)
DEET Bug spray, travel alarm clock, pyrethrin spray for clothes, suntan lotion $60 (got enough for two - gave a lot to sister for use at the farmette)
Camera and a couple more SD cards $100
Incidental trip expenses - $250 (souvenirs, cocktail before dinner, airport meals)
Clothes bought during trip - $120 (my Seattle summer clothes were not summer-like enough)
Siem Riep exit fee - $25

So about $9400.

Because I've come down with what's going around. I felt I had to make a meeting and do a couple of things at work, but then I just KNEW that I had just enough energy to make it home if I left at noon. I slept for the rest of the day. Its the achy, shivery, tired flu-type stuff. I sound fine.

I did, however, move two more accounts from bank to credit union, and on my way home I saved the tip box proceeds - 46$ - to the credit union using the ATM card.

Didja hear about the guy who deposited checks via a picture on his iPhone, then really deposited the check elsewhere? I have to admire that lo-fi skeeviness.

On the project of moving my account from Chase Bank to a credit union.

Moved enough money into my account so that there's something in it.
Got a PIN.
Tonight, I got the debit card.

Tomorrow, I activate the card. Then:
I go through the monthly expenses.
Change the transactions to the CU debit card.
Explore the credit union's Bill Pay to see if I can not use checks. As it is, I only use 1-2/month.
Then move the direct deposit
Then close my Chase checking and saving.

I don't see as much of a need to move my credit card, but its time to look at that also. It feels a bit like snapping a tablecloth off a fully set table: we'll see if any of the glasses wobble.