Gasping for Breath

Yes, I went overboard a little in my spending this weekend. I did get my camera fixed, well sent off anyway, to the tune of $164. I bought a pair of Danskos, probably could have found them cheaper online but I've never bought a pair before and had a hard time finding exactly the right fit so when I finally did I just bought them, to the tune of $120. In the end I have $48 that I'll be sending to savings.

I walked out this morning to go to the gym...and my car was gone. It's a '93 Honda Accord so one of the most likely to be stolen but I've had it for almost 4 years without incident. It does have nice rims and thinner tires but nothing else 'tricked out'. The bumpers have red scrapings on them from when I accidentally hit the fence when backing out of my parking spot. *sigh* Anyway. My car is gone for now. The police officer seemed pretty confident that they'd recover it. Of course I have to pay any towing fees and/or storage fees that get incurred once they do find it.

I've called my insurance agent, I don't know what sort of coverage I might have for theft, it's never been an issue before.

Fortunately, my roomate takes the bus because she works in downtown and she left me her keys so I can use her car today. Another friend uses his car rarely and has offered the use of it as well. The thing that annoys me the most, I just filled the tank. Ah well.

So..my thoughts have turned to spending my tax refund since my brother got a deposit yesterday that will take care of him through March at least. What happened to saving? I'm not sure. Thing is, I do have things I've been wanting to buy but I can't justify pulling money out of the EF for them.

I bought a memory foam mattress topper for my bed. It was $110 at Costco. I pulled out $140 cash since I don't have a Costco card and I wanted to cover all bases in case it cost more than I'd originally planned. The one I wanted was $100 but they didn't have that one at the store I went to. The one I bought is actually better than the one I was going to get, and only $10 more. I also bought shampoo, that should last me a while. That cost $14. I then bought dinner, $5. I have $11 cash left from what I pulled out of my account. I was debating about using it tomorrow if I go out to lunch after church. If I don't, I'll deposit it on Tuesday when I go to the bank.

I bought a new pair of jeans at Target for $20 so I have a pair of jeans that actually fit while I'm still trying to loose weight. Wearing slightly baggy ones was getting on my nerves.

I have been waiting to get my digital camera repaired for over a year. Normally something like that it would be cheaper to buy new than to repair. However, my dad gave me this camera so I feel guilty over ruining it after only two years of use. So I am prepared to pay up to $200 to get it fixed. I didn't make it to the camera store today so I don't have an official estimate yet but last time I checked on it they said $150.

I need a Good pair of everyday shoes, not just the cheapest pair I can find at Payless. I've been systematically getting rid of shoes that really don't fit right and am down to almost nothing. A good pair (Dansko, etc) will run anywhere from $50 - 100. I haven't decided if I'm going to do that or not. I do have a coupon for a shoe store in town that's $10 off a purchase of $50 or more. I might go check them out.

That leaves me with ... (500 - 140 - 20 - 200 - 100) $40. Wow. Um. I had really inteded on saving the rest. Why is it when the money is going towards savings I can justify spending it on things I do need but have been putting off but when the money is going towards debt I can put things off a little while longer?

I made an extra $40 I wasn't planning on tonight babysitting for a new family. That'll help. I think end of March I will have my EF all built up. That makes me happy.

I got my tax refund today! I wasn't expecting it until next week, but I'm certainly not complaining. I had stated that I wanted to make a Kiva loan (www.kiva.org) with part of my return so that's the first thing I did.

What I like about Kiva is that they are the first non profit that PayPal doesn't charge any fees for processing, even if credit cards are used. So I know that if I donate $75 they are actually getting $75.

My selection process was actually pretty simple. I thought through a bunch of different ways to do it, perhaps keeping the focus on a specific country/region or gender. But in the end I decided on something much simpler. I sorted the open loan requests Oldest to Newest and scanned through the first page of Oldest to find the one who had the most raised so far. That's it. I selected a gentleman who had $125 left to be raised and my $75 pushed him to just $50 left. After I processed everything I went back to sort the list again to see what the new percentage was. And guess what? Someone else had picked up the other $50 while I was fiddling around with checking out and such. He is now fully funded! This particular loan is slotted to be paid back in 14-16 months.

My goal for now is to make a new donation with tax returns. The reason being, since I adjust my witholdings so I don't overpay, what I get back is really bonus since it's based on student loan interest. So once a year I'll make a new donation. Once the loan(s) get paid back I will just recycle the money back and reloan it to someone else. The hope being that when my student loans are paid in full, or at least I stop getting tax refunds, that I'll have enough recirculating that I don't need to add any more donations.

I also made a small donation to the company itself to help them with rent and such. They don't get a cut from the loans.

I am also considering buying Kiva gift certificates for gifts this next year. The receiver then gets to pick someone to fund and then can withdraw the money once its paid back if they so desire. We'll see. I'm just really excited that the person I picked got funded so fast!

I have paid off CC1 by way of the loan first and then the leftover interest as soon as the statement got posted online. Which generally means that my next statement will show a zero balance. Part of me wants to wait for proof that there will be a zero balance statement March 20th before proceeding. The other part of me is certain that there is nothing left of the regular balance and wants to do a balance transfer immediately.

The next step for me is to transfer my consolidation loan from my bank to my credit card that I just paid off. Interest rate at the bank, 14.45% Interest rate of balance transfer, 3.99% until paid off plus 3% one time charge. I intend to continue making the same amount of payment that I had been making on the loan onto the credit card.

Of course I also plan on requesting more than the balance of my loan because the actual payoff will be more than is listed as current balance and I need a buffer in case my brother's GI bill doesn't kick in. If it does, rock on and I'll take that buffer and pay it towards my new loan. If it doesn't then I can still support him for a couple of months and he'll pay me back with interest as soon as possible.

Do I wait until I am certain that there is no residual charges that will be acruing interest at the regular rate? Or just jump into it now and get the ball rolling?

Phase Two. Build up EF to $1,000.

Between the three accounts my savings has increased by $258. At this rate I will reach my goal by April.

Phase Three. Pay off as much of CC1 as possible by 4/15/2010

This phase has changed. I took out a loan to pay off CC1 and lock in the interest at a lower rate. But the end result is still the same, pay off as much of loan as possible by 4/15/2010.

Statement balance difference: -$262.30
Total Payments: $350.00
Total charges and fees: $88.82

Previous potential balance by 4/15/2010: $6,701.73
New potential balance by 4/15/2010: $7,744.40

Once things settle down it'll start looking better, ie the new potential balance will start decreasing instead of increasing.

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I guess I overreacted to the thought that I wouldn't have enough in the bank to cover the first payment. With the interest being so low I had enough from what I had stashed in my electronic envelope to pay off the interest and for the new loan payment plus about $30. It went out in the mail today, will definately reach there before the due date. My hope is that by the time the next payment due date arrives, I will have everything set up online.

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Today was payday. I held out a little to get an oil change and $20 for a birthday gift. Even with that I was able to stash an extra $32 into savings. Wheee. I went grocery shopping and bought a florescent light that was the wrong size. I'll take it back and then call my apt manager to verify that it's something I do need to replace or if they'll provide us with those since it's a specialty type item. My tank is plenty full of gas, won't need to fill it for a little bit at least.

I got my first statement from Citibank on the loan I acquired from them. First payment is due 3/2, totally do-able but the first one will just be for the actual minimum required. I called the phone number on the statement to inquire about making payments online, since the guy who processed it said I'd be able to, and they informed me that I had to call a different number that only has people working M-F. I called today, and actually talked to someone. I guess it's not a holiday for Citibank.

She informed me that the only way to make payments online is to set up a Citibank checking account, that way I can have online access and include the loan in what accounts I see when I log in. Because it's a 'dummy account', only open for internet access to my loan, I only have to keep a dollar in it and all fees will be waived. Of course, Citibank doesn't have any branches in Oregon so I have to wait for paperwork to show up. Which means I'll be mailing in my first payment. I haven't mailed in a bill in a really long time, how early should I send it to arrive right on time?

Ugh. Ah well. I like online bill pay so it's worth it. Especially since there are no fees.

Now I'm just waiting for my last CC statement so I can pay it off directly then wait for a $0 balance statement so I can start using the balance transfer option to keep up with the Money Shuffle that will hopefully ensure that I do indeed pay off all my consumer debt by April 2010.

Sort of. I wear my glasses generally for four years before needing to get a new prescription. After a week of wearing my wire frames I decided I really wanted to get the sides of the lenses polished so they didn't look quite so thick. I called and was informed that the charge was $10/pair or $15/two pair. The plastic frames are thick enough that it doesn't matter so I accepted that I would have to pay $10 and not have my wire frames for about a week. I went in today, wrote my name down on the list and when the gal got to me she knew what I wanted done but didn't know how to enter it in the computer. The other tech that did know was in the middle of anther customer and the line behind me had grown. I told her that I didn't mind waiting if she wanted to move on down the list and I would just wait until the other tech was done.

It took longer than I'd anticipated but it was totally worth while. After all was said and done, I asked the tech how much. He said no charge. So that's $10 I don't have to worry about.

Then a friend and I had plans to see a movie mid day. But it was GOREGEOUS outside and I was trying to come up with something we could do outdoors and still hang out. Then I remembered my Zoo Pass. So we went to the Zoo for a couple of hours. Saved $10.75 on my admission and while she did save too since she got in under mine I'm just counting money I would have spent. Now I've only gone to the Zoo twice since purchasing the pass so I still have a couple of visits to go before I am going for free. But I had a really nice time today.

My paycheck got deposited early. Payday is the 20th, so Tuesday. Direct deposits generally go in a day early but with Monday being a holiday that means that the bank already shows the pending deposit. I'm a little confused, it shows an increase but a small one at that. I don't know if I got a raise and they just didn't tell me or if there was something figured differently in last month's pay. I won't find out til Thursday because I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday. Ah well.

The cost to file state taxes electronically, $29.95. The amount of my refund, $18.

I waited for the 1098 showing mortgage interest I paid last year...and it didn't matter. I cut way back on charitable contributions last year so itemized deductions weren't really helpful this year.

So apparently I cut it pretty close as far as state goes when I adjusted my withholdings. But I'm ok with that. This year however, I will be more cautious and not change my withholding status until July. My part time job, which wasn't counted for 3006 because I didn't make enough to warrent a W2, I expect will be a factor for 2007 taxes since it's taxed at a considerably lower rate. I just want to make sure I cover my butt, even though I know that student loan interest will probably save me.

Federal return will be $574. I'm going to take the $74, add a dollar to it, and donate $75 to Kiva. The $500 I am not sure how it will be used yet. If my brother's GI Bill kicks in then it will go first to savings and if it exceeds my goal of $1k then I'll put the rest to my highest % loan. If the GI Bill doesn't kick in, I'll probably be using it to fund March living expenses for my brother and hopefully it will kick in in April. He'll have his federal return back as well so he will be kicking in a portion towards his living expenses.

In other news, my brother has a learning disability. We knew that but he had a session today with someone who thinks he might qualify for a program where the school will pay for him to be tested to find out exactly what his issue is. If he gets into the program he'll take special classes geared towards his learning ability and his books will be covered. That would be way cool. Just have to wait and see how things fall out. Fortunately he has teachers who are helping to direct him properly, without them he wouldn't have even known that the program existed.

I got all excited yesterday because my quarterly statement for my 401k came from the new company. Apparently that still doesn't mean that the money's been transferred yet so I still can't re-allocate my funds to the new options available.

The one nice thing though that I noticed was that the new company listed my Personal Rate of Return. For the last quarter, it was 5.94% and for the whole year it was 11.06% Is that good? Ok? Bad? Well it's obviously not bad since I made money but..I really don't know much about this stuff.

I am anxious to actually be able to do my taxes and give things an extra push. Just waiting on one more piece of mail but since it hasn't shown up yett then I won't be getting my return til March 2nd. *sigh*

I messed up. I thought it odd that I had more money after the last check but just chalked it up to the fact that I have a different amount of extra money out of each paycheck. Turns out a transfer out to Emigrant got recorded as a deposit in Quicken. It was for $20 but since I thought I had $20 more instead of $20 less that actually makes me off by $40.

I just balanced my register and am now -$4.57. Which is not really the case for the account since I'm holding onto money for my first loan payment so I'm really ok. Just debating about whether or not I want to pull $40 back out of savings to cover the whoops or just leave it as is for now and make up the difference next check. I think I'm going to hold off on pulling from savings for as long as possible. I'm holding out $250 for my new loan payment since I don't know exactly when it's going to be due. So my account is far from being overdrawn.

Just frustrating to me. Know I know, if it seems like I have more money than I thought I should, double check transfers to/from Emigrant and ING. Those are the ones most likely to get reversed on accident.

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I'm going to have a chat with my brother today. His account is at $52. His electric bill is the only bill that hasn't been paid yet, it's $63. His roomate will pitch in half, but that still leaves barely $20 for the rest of the month. He has GOT to stop eating out. Fortunately he'll work at the bar tomorrow morning and probably make like $60. I just need to pound it into his head that that HAS to last him all week. The bar he works at mentioned another possibility, having him call people that filled out comment cards on the comedy nights to give them free tickets to come back. That'd be a couple hours a night a few nights a week. Anything extra is welcome at this point.

I am usually pretty good about walking into a store, buying the one thing I need, and getting to the checkstand straight away.

I walked into Powell's, their main store in downtown, headed to the children's area, consulted an info computer as to the exact row/section for the book I wanted for my friend's 3yo's birthday, picked up the one copy of the book that was new but $3 less than the other new books available and made for the checkstand.

Looming before the checkstand, something I'd not noticed on the way in, was a large section of Sale Books. On the way back a couple things caught my eye and I said to myself 'it wouldn't hurt to browse'. Famous last words. The first book to catch my eye was The Cat in the Hat. Hardbound for $5. The request for the 3yo's gifts had been for books, especially 'your favorite childhood books' since most of the people coming are adults, and the kid got more toys than they know what to do with for Christmas. I was already planning on buying him Bed Bed Bed because it's super adorable and I know they don't have it. But The Cat in the Hat. That's the first Dr Seuss books I remember reading on my own. So I bought that one too figuring if they already have a copy then they can pass it on to someone else.

Of course I couldn't stop there, I had to scan every last shelf. I stopped myself from buying any of the personal finance books, especially ones I have on my list at the library. But I'd been thinking lately about how it would be good to start carrying around a journal so I can keep track of food, exercise, water, and these light headed spells that I keep having. I might even channel Bridget Jones periodically and start entries with my weight for the day in stone. They had quite the selection of sizes and shapes for only $5.

But wait, there's more! I spotted something rather unique. A pad of Fold and Mail stationary. Ok so it had Catwoman on it but that wasn't the point. Fold and Mail stationary??? That's the coolest thing! My first thought was that I had to buy it so I could write my friend a letter on it. I've started collecting things like blank cards and such when I find them on sale and I've been trying to be consistant in mailing people every few months since I don't get around to calling them. So I bought that too...


All told really it wasn't that bad. I spent $28.44, of which I was planning on $13.50. I haven't decided how I'm going to count that money yet. I do give myself $30 to play with every check but a good portion of that was already set aside for other things. It'll all balance out in the end.

The bad news first, of course. The check I got from insurance for $106 was not to cover my glasses but rather to cover my eye exam. Apparently the doctor I switched to (mine left the clinic a year ago) is not in network so they send me the difference and I'm supposed to pass it along to the eye doctor. Which I did this morning, no problem.

The good news is that I'll still potentially get $150 towards my glasses. Of course, I don't know when exactly that will be but if the speed at which I received the check for the eye doctor is anything to go by, it could be very soon.

My brother's taxes got done today. He qualified to file both state and federal electonically for free. Yay! He'll get back basically enough to cover the second part of school. Unfortunately, I don't know that it will arrive before it's due. So we'll pull money out like normal to cover it and then when he gets it in his bank account we'll pull it back out to save for March.

It's exciting to look at CC1's balance and see it read $0. There should just be one more statement with a balance and then at the end of March hopefully I can transfer my consolidation loan over to a lower interest rate. One step at a time. I'm trying to not plan too much ahead.

I'm waiting rather impatiently for the last document I need to do my taxes. I should be getting a 1098 from a property I paid interest on most of 2006. If I don't get this document by February 14th I'm going to use the interest number from Quicken and guess on the low end how much I paid. But I'd rather it just would show up soon. Like today.

I got paid today. I was able to not only cover the few extra things I've been wanting too but I also put an extra $33 into savings! That made me happy. Slowly but surely I'm inching closer to that $1k mark.

Rock on. So back in September I sold a bunch of stuff to a friend of a friend who was going to make payments. I got one from her. I haven't heard a peep from her since. I did contact my friend once and she got in touch with her but I decided that with the holidays approaching and stuff I'd just let it go and revisit it come February. Only I forgot to touch base with my friend about it. Yesterday I got a call from the gal asking if she could stop by and drop off money today. I gave her directions and all but didn't know how much it would be. She just stopped by and handed me some cash then left (she just got off work and wanted to get to bed). I looked at it after she left and it's the rest of it! Actually it's $5 more than she owed but hey I'm not complaining. So that makes me happy. I'll deposit it straight into my Wells Fargo account since back in September that's where I decided it would go.

I saw my pending deposit for my paycheck and figured out bills. Looking good right now! I already got back a check from insurance for my glasses. That was fast! It was only $106 but I'll take it. I've also decided to efile federal for free and mail in state so I won't have to set aside money for tax filing this time around. Which also means I should be able to stash some extra into savings. We'll see.

My brother got his last W2 yesterday so we'll be doing his taxes today. Can't wait to see what that turns out to be.

Now if my voice will just return so I can carry on conversations...darn cold!

I haven't cashed the loan check yet, I plan on depositing it today. I expect there'll be a hold on it for a few days and then I'll pay off my credit card. That's exciting. My 401k has not transferred to the new company yet, but it's increasing so I'm not complaining too much.

Assets $ Diff % Diff
Cash $606 ($190) -23.87 %
Retirement $25,645 $327 1.29 %
Cars $2,305 $0 0.00 %
Total Assets $28,556 $137 0.48 %

Debts $ Diff % Diff
Student Loans $36,006 ($102) -0.28 %
Credit Card $18,012 ($142) -0.78 %
Other $8,512 ($168) -1.94 %
Total Debts $62,530 ($412) -0.65 %

Net Worth ($33,974) $549 1.59 %



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2007 goal update:

1] Consumer debt down to 14,000. Currently at $26,524. Monthly amount of decrease needs to be $1,138 each month to meet this. Not looking so hot right now. But it is going down.

2] EF holding steady at $1,000. Currently at $499.13. Need to increase it by $46 each month to meet this. Not a problem so long as I don't have any emergencies come up.

3] Medical savings at least $500. Currently a little over $100. Need to increase it by $37 each month to meet this. Shouldn't be a problem, at least until I need to get my crown.

4] (non monetary goal) Holding steady at my current goal weight. Currently have 30 lbs to go. Need to loose 3 lbs a month to meet this. Shouldn't be a problem.

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Brother officially turned in the paperwork for his GI Bill. The good news, he'll get backpay for every month he was in school from the time he started til it actually kicks in. That means he'll be able to pay me back in one lump sum. Of course, we need to actually get to that point but the office where he turned in his applicatino said the process has been streamlined and some people have been known to get theirs in 4-6 weeks. Worst case will be 2 months. That's better than 3 months like it used to be. Til then though we're going to be scrambling to make it. He has enough in his account to pay the second part of school this month. Im really hoping that his tax return will be large enough to get him through another month. And if we efile it should be here fast enough to cover for March. He's just waiting on one W2.

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Got $20 for babysitting last night. Will get $28 today paid back for buying concert tickets for people. $14 will go back to gas/food money the other $14 will go back in the bank. Plus $25 on Sunday for childcare. That's $59 to go back into the bank to help recover from what I spent on my glasses. My regular budget amount for medical, minus what I'll need for prescriptions, will pick up the rest of the slack so nothing else will be affected.

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I've done pretty well not spending too much cash or gas while parents are in town. Of course that is in part due to the fact that they insist on paying for things. But I do offer to pay my own share and I don't go crazy wth what I order.

In the past week or so since I've posted things have been ok. I've worked out a way to soften the blow of the eyeglasses expense. My next two weeks of Tuesday Deposits will just stay in my bank account instead of being transferred to Emigrant. That coupled with my regular budget amount for Medical should balance out my account and I think in April I'll be back on track with saving in my Medical account.

This week could have been bumper in regards to extra cash. I might be babysitting tonight (hopefully not as I have a class* to attend), I got an offer to babysit tomorrow night (I had to decline), and I am babysitting on Wednesday night. Every little bit helps but I need to not kill myself just because the opportunity arises.

I really need to step up my decluttering efforts. I found out this weekend that the friend that I rent a garage from is interviewing at places out of state which means I won't be able to rent the garage for too much longer should he actually accept a position that requires a move. I have shifted a lot over to my apartment, but it needs sorting because a lot of it can be dumped I think. And I've sort of run out of room to store anything at my apartment. It would save me $60/mo to not have the garage and that's something I was working really hard on clearing out over the summer.

I gave away $200 today. It was an emergency in my eyes. One of my good friends is underemployed and does not have medical insurance. She broke a tooth on the way to Croatia last May and hasn't been able to get it fixed. She finally went in to see a dentist hoping that it was someone who would work with her payment wise. The outcome was she needed to come up with $200 by Tuesday (tomorrow) and another $200 at the next visit. After that they'll set her up with a payment plan. A few of us heard about her predicament through an email her roomate sent out basically just asking us to keep her in prayer. We did, we also collected $400 for her. That way she's taken care of until the payments start up. Although none of us discussed how much we were donating so it was definately a surprise. I did not loan the money out. My EF will take a slight hit this month as a result but I'm ok with that. I know it'll bounce back and I'm just glad I had the money to be able to do it.

My brother finally got all the paperwork he needs to request the GI Bill. Hopefully he will submit that request today. Then we just have 3 months to wait for it to kick in...

*My church offers free classes on a variety of subjects so it's not something I have to attend, just something I want to as the subject is of interest to me. But I'm not wasting money if I don't go.

*sigh* So I read the sign wrong. Serves me right for not asking and just assuming. The deal is, $69.95 plus the different packages. So instead of paying $189 for two pairs of glasses I paid $293.95 for two pairs of glasses. But still, I can't complain since last time I paid $311 after insurance for one pair of sunglasses. I will be submitting a reimbursement request tomorrow and hopefully I'll get about $150 back.

I took quite a hit though in my little check register envelope system. We'll see how it all pans out. So far I've transferred $40 out of my Medical savings account but I'm trying to avoid pulling any more out. I think it'll pan out ok in the end. I still owe myself $214 but I'm hoping to make it up over the next couple of months of medical bills budget overages that would have gone to medical savings.

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I found those cubes that my friend got but I couldn't get ahold of her to find out if she wanted any. Since I was there I picked up 9, 3 for me and 6 for her. But they were a different color. I just found out she doesn't want them if they aren't the same color. Shoot. Well I figure I have about 10 days before I'll be out that way again, to pick up my glasses. So I'll see how many I really need and just take back whatever I don't really want. They might come in handy though. We'll see.

They do a really good job of guiding you out of the exam and into the optical shop. And y'know what? If I had my old insurance policy I totally would just get them there because it's easy. However, I don't have my old insurance policy and they charge extra for things other optical shops don't. Fortunately I got out of my appointment at 9:40 and had to be to work at 10 so I was able to avoid wasting the gal's time helping me find frames.

I did get a copy of my prescription and found out that I shouldn't get the polycarbonate lenses anymore because of my prescription. So that settles that, I was debating about the poly or the hi-index. I guess it'll be hi-index then. They cost a bit more but if insurance does reimburse me anything it'll totally be worth it. I'll go pick out frames tomorrow evening.

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I made my Tuesday Deposit today for a total of $30.05. $25 from childcare, $5 from Pinecone, and the nickel from Bank of America. I didn't think they'd send me a nickel check but they did and I deposited it. I transferred the $30 straight to Emigrant. The nickel can stay in my checking account.

I'm doing an extra night of childcare this weekend, on Saturday. A gal I work with on Sundays asked if they could 'hire' me for Saturday so I don't know what I'll be paid but I will be paid. I'm anticipating $25 like normal.

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Friend of mine picked up these cube things at Home Depot for storage and they worked really well in her closet. You can find them at HomeDepot.com search for 100377339 it's not exact the ones she got are only 12" and brown not blue. But they were only $2.50 each. I need some serious help with clothes storage so I might pick some up for bulky stuff that takes up too much room in my dresser.

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I just checked my student loan online. The little one isn't a federal one so it couldn't be consolidated with everything else. I got annoyed that the payment was never really the $50 they claimed it would be and it kept fluctuating when the interest did so I started paying $60/mo instead. Right now they say I'm paid ahead enough that I could skip a payment. I ignore it for now, I figure at some point I might take advantage of it but not right now. Finally though after five months of actually paying attention to what they say my payment should be it finally changed. From $52.99 to $51.89. I am curious to see how it fluctuates so I'll continue to keep an eye on it. I figure every 8 months or so it should change either by them pushing the payment due date out another month or by the amount of the payment due.

I called to see what the procedure/forms were for getting vision hardware (ie glasses frames and lenses) from an out of network provider. I found out the following:

My co-pay is now $20, up from $15 last time.

The amount they'll pay for hardware is $150, up from $100 last year.

I'm still going to the same clinic I've gone to for the past 8 years but my doctor has left the clinic so I'll be seeing someone new. I will be getting my glasses at America's Best. They are running a special right now, 2 pairs of glasses and a free eye exam for $70. However that's for regular glasses and my prescription is such that I get Polycarbonite (sp?) or High Index lenses. Which increases the price to $130 or $190 respectively.

I don't know if my insurance will reimburse me the full $150 since I'm buying two pairs of glasses but when I called to verify it didn't say anything about how many pairs of glasses it could be applied to only that I had a maximum of $150 that could be spent in a year. So I'm going to go with the Hi Index and possibly get one of the pairs made into sunglasses (included in price). It's still a darn good price considering the lowest I could find at other stores (Lens Crafters, Binyons) was $169 for one pair.

I'm bummed that I can't use Goggles 4 U because of the level of prisms I need. But on the other hand, I'm not so sure about the whole not being able to try them on before you get them thing so part of me is ok with it.

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I had a wonderful thought this morning about my brother and funding his education til the GI Bill kicks in (if it ever does). I completely forgot about taxes. As in, my brother probably gets a decent return since he only spent about half of last year employed. Soon as he gets all of his W2s (just waiting on two more) we'll scout out places to file online for free and get that going.

I'm still debating about what I want to do with my return. I did well on guessing my withholdings so I only overpaid by like $60 but because of how much student loan interest I paid, my return will be closer to like $500. Though I'm still waiting for a few things so that may change. Because of all the extra stuff I have to claim I can't do the free filing online which sucks. But oh well. I did decide a while ago that 10% of whatever I get back, rounded to the nearest $25, will be donated to Kiva.org. I may just hold onto whatever's left over to help K get by. We'll see. Parents are going to be in town next week so possibly they'll float him some extra cash. And our Aunt keeps palming him money, for which I am grateful but it annoys him because he so desperately wants to make it on his own.

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One of these days I'll get back into declutter mode and try once again to get rid of my storage unit. Once done, I'll be saving $60/mo.

When I called last week to see about lowering my interest rate the CSR said it was as low as it could be right now. He asked if I wanted to do a balance transfer and I rather jokingly replied that I only have the one card with a balance so if he knew a way to shift a portion of the 14.24% interest rate to the 3.99% balance transfer rate I would be all for it. His response was to see if I qualified for a debt consolidation loan with Citi. He really wanted me to get the full amount, $25k but I stood firm at the amount on my credit card, $18k. Roughly $16k is at 14.24% and the other $2k is at 3.99%.

I got the approval in the mail yesterday for the full $18k! The rate is 10.9%, it's stretched over 60 months with a payment due of approx $391. Normally I pay $523 on my CC1, so I wouldn't change that amount. There is no prepayment penalty.

The plan then is as follows. Wait until the check almost expires, it expires 30 days after 1/12, to deposit it. That way I pay off as much of the 3.99% balance as possible. Deposit and pay off CC1. Wait until I get a statement that says I owe $0 on CC1. Then check and see if I still have a balance transfer offer for 3.99%. If I do, request the full amount of my other consolidation loan that's currently at 14.4% and transfer it to the 3.99% BT rate. I'll still pay the $270 I normally pay on it but it should get paid off a lot faster.

That's at least how it would work in my head. If at the least I just shift off CC1, that will be an improvement.

It's something to ponder. I haven't cashed the check yet.

Phase One. Eliminate CC2.

COMPLETED!!!

Phase Two. Build up EF to $1,000.

Between the three accounts, taking out a little for airfare and adding in regular budget amounts plus extra my savings has increased by $129.83 since the end of last month. Rock on. Granted it's not the expected increase of $155 but considering I pulled out $90 I know I totally would have exceeded the expected.

Phase Three. Pay off as much of CC1 as possible by 4/15/2010.

Statement balance difference: +$1,758.15
Total payments: $523
Total charges and fees: $248.70

Previous potential balance by 4/15/2010: $3,916.24
New potential balance by 4/15/2010: $6,701.73

Right now only $2,141.74 to go before things get back to normal. This includes the $2,000 balance transfer I did for my brother. Hopefully he can start paying me back soon so I can eat away at it faster.

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I updated my Quicken balances. It now shows a payoff date of 2/1011 but that's because I don't enter in the lower interest rate because that only applies to a small portion of it. The interest saved now it shows as $781.42

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Since my raise won't be in effect til next month, I'm really glad I held out $60 to cover the budget. I didn't really need all of it though. But I'll still do it next month til I know what my actual amounts will be. I wound up with $48 left over, I like to keep $20 as a cushion so I transferred $28 to savings since that's the Phase I'm in right now.

And I found out that I can't get glasses at the cheap place I found online. My prism is too heavy. So looks like I'll be staking out LensCrafters and Binyons after all looking for a good deal.

Just got word that reviews have been postponed for a couple more weeks. There's a few things in the works that will potentially have an impact and until more is known then everything else is on hold. Ah well. So I won't really know the impact of my raise (if there is one) until Feb 20th. Sort of a bummer but whatever. It's all good still.

I didn't drive the past two days so that was nice for saving on gas. And now there's four of us all together that carpool to a meeting once a week so with the rotation it means I'll only have to drive once a month. That's nice because it's a bit of a drive out there (from 30th to 162nd with no easy freeway travel so it's all surface streets).

I am anxious for my check tomorrow. It'll be the first with my regular withholdings. I suppose I could have left it as it was and just changed it at the end of the year but I'd rather rip the bandaid now than later.

I decided to not do the cruise I was contemplating next January. Whether or not the band I like will be one of the many included, I have a better vacation to plan for in March of 2009. It'll be a sort of graduation celebration for my best friend so we're planning on doing things up right. I figure, if I can save the money and pay cash, then I can splurge on things I wouldn't normally since it'll be a special occasion. We'll see how that goes. I have a thought about how to fund the vacation account but I'm not ready to actually start it yet.

I will be riding up with my best friend's parents in March so I can help her pack and move to Utah. I put in my vacation request and it was approved. Now all that's left is to buy the plane ticket. Soon as the $90 transfers from Emigrant I'll do that. Southwest has an awesome deal right now, I can get a one way ticket for just under $90 from Salt Lake to Portland. I'm buying it now (has to be purchased by Jan 22nd to get it at that price anyway) and if something comes up and I don't go now I can use that later on another flight with Southwest. Right now that'll be coming out of my EF but my hope is once I get my vacation fund set up I will be able to pull that sort of thing from there instead.

So I have been really excited about being able to use my YakTrax again this winter. I wore them a lot yesterday with a lot of walking that I did, to the bank, to a friend's place, to another friend's place, then home.

This morning I actually went into work (they called me yesterday before I'd left the house and said don't come in) and on the way I stopped by Fred Meyer's to pick up a prescription. I left the store, put the YakTrax on, got to the edge of the parking lot and realized I only had one on. I thought it shouldn't be too difficult to find a black item in white snow...boy was I wrong. I retraced my steps twice and still no sign of it. I realize that it's got a rubber band type thing holding it on so I have a feeling it flew when it came off. Obviously not ahead of me or I would have noticed.

I'll check their lost and found on Friday when I go to drop off another Rx just in case it was found. Otherwise I'll just have to wait til next fall to replace it. I did notice though that the shoe with the YakTrax didn't slip when the one without it did. So they do work, I just don't like finding out that way.

I'm also saving gas because I'm not driving anywhere. Another plus I suppose. But I have stuff to do tonight that requires the snow to be gone or at least more drivable. Hopefully it will be later.

I'm not one known to just willy nilly spend money, not when it's cash anyway. I used to go crazy with the credit card, especially when they would raise my limit. But I know better now.

I have money stashed away for Medical bills as they come due. I have a really good friend of mine who is under-employed, has no insurance, is out of contacts, hasn't had an eye exam in two years, and is wearing a pair of glasses she got fitted for in Vietnam 6 years ago. Eye care is really important to me and America's Best was running a special, two pairs of glasses plus an eye exam for $69.95. I contacted her yesterday and told her I would like to pay for that if she wanted to get it done. She agreed and that's how I started out my morning.

It is fun truly to watch people try on eye glasses and help them decide what looks good. I let her fend off the 'upgrades', I would have been willing to pay for some of them as they were reasonable but I left the ball in her court. Her prescription has changed slightly, enough to need new glasses. I think she'll be really happy with them when they come. Total spent $85 because she'd gotten something extra that cost $15 and offered to write me a check for the difference, but I was going to give her $10 for something our group is doing next week so told her to keep $10 for that and she could give me $5 later on when she had it cash.

That started the downhill slide. The eye place is near Target. I don't often go to Target because it's not close by. I figured I'd missed out on all the good clearance stuff but felt the need to wander. I did see things that I could justify on a level, but I didn't really need them so I didn't get them. However, I did walk out of there with a long sleeve shirt (clearance ~$6.50), a couple tubes of toothpaste, and a rug that'll cover a cord so we don't trip on it. Total $13.07.

After stopping at home I went on to visit my brother at the bar he works at. I had 'lunch' except they serve breakfast til 3 pm so for $7 (including tip) I had 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, and 2 slices of bacon. We chatted for a while, it was pretty dead in there so he could stop and talk, and then I went on my merry way. I pulled the cash to pay for it out of my gas money.

I had a gift card for Best Buy. Again, not one really close by me but there was one near where my brother was so I stopped by to get a SD card for my mp3 player. They had one for $25 that I felt was good enough, my gift card was for $20 so I spent $5. While I was at Best Buy I got a call stating that my friends were going to the Zoo that afternoon in celebration of their youngest's first birthday. I had a little time to kill still (the Zoo would be on my way home from where I was anyway) so I walked next door....

...To Old Navy which was having a 50% off clearance prices sale. Man it was crazy in there, clothes piled everywhere despite the crew members trying hard to keep it somewhat functional. They had a lot I probably could have picked up for reasonable prices but I was trying to keep overall cost down so I stuck with two tshirts, another long sleeve to layer under stuff and one short sleeve. Total cost $7.39

Then it was off to the Zoo where I bought a membership because I had $45 saved up towards an annual pass, it's $9 just to get in for the day, and that would only make me $5 short of the pass total. Total cost $59.

A friend invited me out to dinner, I don't get to see her often so I agreed so long as we went cheap. Went to a cheap mexican restaurant, total cost $5 (including tip). Then we decided to watch a movie at her place, and I used my giftcard for Blockbuster.

I'm going to visit friends tomorrow that will take a good chunk of gas to do it. So I went ahead and put in my $10 gas card I had for Shell. Hopefully that will help balance things out so I won't need gas again until Friday when I get paid.

Total spent for the day: $174.36
Total to be repaid by other funds to be deposited next week: $116
Total unexpected expense: $58

Surprisingly enough, this doesn't drain my bank account. It does make it so I only have $45 held out for my next paycheck instead of $60 unless I change my mind about transferring the babysitting money I got on Friday and leave it in the bank to soften the blow of my spending spree. The only reason I was holding that money out was because I changed my withholdings back to 1 and I don't know what effect that will have on a 'normal' paycheck. $60 is how much I'm 'short' when the withholdings are set at 1 but since I'd been at 2 for a good chunk of the year I ignored it.

But you know what? I really didn't do all that bad all things considered. I got a lot of stuff but didn't pay a lot when you factor in the gift cards. And it's stuff I can use. And I rarely buy clothes so once in a while it's nice to get something new y'know?

This morning as I was scraping off frost I noticed a crack in my windshield. *sigh* I can't feel it on either side, at least I think I was looking at the right spot. There's definately frost on the inside of the windshield in the middle of the passenger side.

I just did a quick quote at Safelite and found that if it's repairable (depending on the size) it might only cost about $90 but if it has to be completely replaced it'll run about $400 give or take.

I don't know if I want to have insurance cover it, or even if that's an option. That always seems to screw with rates later on if you actually use those types of features. Very annoying.

I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow, visiting nearby auto glass places for quotes.

The nice thing about this is...either way I have plenty in my EF to cover the expense. That actually makes me feel good about it. On the other hand it's depressing because it means potentially starting over. But that's what it's there for right?

I walked into work this morning to find a nice surprise, last year's W2 waiting for me. It usually comes with the second check of the month on the 20th. Since I do TurboTaxOnline I imediately went there and started my tax return. I can't do much yet since I'm still waiting on two W2's and some interest information but I can at least see if I was close when I increased my withholdings.

That's one of the nice things about doing TTO, after you enter in your W2 it tells you right away how much you overpaid or how much you owe. Usually I overpay by $600 and then it gets adjusted later by jobs I do at a lower taxed rate and student loan interest. This year....I overpaid by only $60! So I don't owe, well not yet anyway. I think my part time jobs will probably bring it down to zero or make it so I owe but then my student loan interest will rescue me. Since I'll be working my part time job the whole year instead of only a couple of months in '07 I'm going to wait until June to adjust my withholdings. Last year I did it in April.

I haven't gotten a copy of my credit report in a while, I just keep forgetting about it. So yesterday I went to annual credit report .com and requested just one of the three available reports. I'd read in someone else's blog that you can actually get three free reports each year if you just request one from one of the reporting agencies each quarter. I got Experian last night, I'll get Trans Union in May, and EquiFax in September. And I set up reminders in Google Calendar to remind me to do that when it comes around.

There were a couple of things to dispute on my Experian report but nothing major. There's nothing negative on it but it showed that my brother was my spouse. I think that's cuz we had a few joint cards/loans in the past. That's been taken off. There was one address too that was incorrect, actually two that I disputed but after I filed the second I realized that it was a PO box that I had ages ago but it was at a non Post Office location which is what threw me off when I looked it up. Ah well, it'll just return that it is correct after all. I really like that I could do everything online and get responses back via email instead of having to wait for things to process via snail mail.

The other thing I liked about viewing my Experian report is it told me when things would go off of my record. I'm annoyed that some things that really have been paid off for a long time and should be gone, show some sort of status at a later date so it won't be off for even longer. But Meier and Frank is off of there so that's cool.

I also got a statement from Bank of America with a credit balance of a nickle. I paid off my MBNA line of credit way back in July of '05. I requested whatever I overpaid about three months later and received that check. Why do I now have a credit balance of a nickle? Don't know but I'll take it. I also spoke to a representative to close the account. I don't need it open anymore, the interest rate is like 27.99% and it's not a credit card or anything.

Citi misses me. I haven't used my only CC card with a balance since...October. So they sent me something stating 'what can we do so you'll use your card again?' I called hoping to get a lower APR but instead just got a lower interest on new purchases for 6 months. I'm not planning on using it but it's nice to know that it'd only be 1.99% from now til June 11th. Later today I plan on calling on both my Citi cards to request that they lower the APR. It's been six months since I did that last.

I love tax time. I just want to get them done so I can get whatever I'm getting back, as little as it may be, and laugh at everyone who waits til April 15th. Ok maybe not laugh but...I'd rather have my money now than wait.

My friend's birthday is today. Her husband is organizing a quasi-surprise party for her at her favorite sushi place. I say quasi-surprise because she knows that they are meeting a few people for sushi but doesn't really know everyone that will be there or how many people either. Case in point, I was invited and she asked if I could babysit. I originally had something else going on anyway (that she knew about) so I was able to decline gracefully.

I was woried about the cost of dinner though. So I looked up the restaurant we're going to and not only is it normally relatively inexpensive but on Wednesday nights most plates are $1.25 each. One plate has three decent pieces of sushi. Usually when I eat at places like that, I max out at four plates. And it shouldn't damage my diet too much either.

When her husband called he said that the theme for gifts is Tranquility. She's very pregnant with their third son arriving March 1. They have a son turning 1 in January and a son turning 3 in February. So things are already crazy without adding a third one to the mix. Fortunately the idea I'd already had for her gift works very well. I picked her up a large tin of loose leaf Foxfire tea. The particular mix, Harmony, is one I know she really enjoys. At home I already had some Asian themed things I'd picked up on clearance at Target, so I also wrapped up two smallish matching ceramic mugs. I reused a gift bag I had gotten something in that had survived being transported home. And this morning I met a gal for coffee who will also be there tonight and who hasn't picked up anything yet for the birthday girl. I mentioned what I'd gotten and that I had forgotten to get a tea infuser since I don't know if they have one. The gal I met for coffee said she would pick one up and a candle or something else as her gift. Yay, that means I don't have to kill myself trying to get that and then make it to the restaurant before the birthday girl!

I am really looking forward to tonight, hoping that the weather doesn't hinder things, and that the birthday girl will be not too stressed so she can enjoy her special day. It's supposed to snow today, it did snow a little earlier but it wasn't sticking. The party actually has a couple of stages. We were encouraged to park near the last stage since there's only 7 blocks between the first and last stops of the evening. So first, sushi dinner, then a walk up to Powell's for something the husband hasn't elaborated on yet, then to a bar for gifts (since there'll be hopefully a table large enough to accomodate everyone there) and other revelry.

I'm really glad I'm not moving a couch after all tonight. Next week will work out so much better.

I did fairly well for myself this time around. I hate shopping for clothes, with a passion. But my friend mentioned that Avenue was having a 70% off sale so I stopped just to see if there was anything that fit. I'm working hard at loosing weight and it'd be nice to have to clothes that fit right, but I'm not at my goal weight so I don't want to stock up on things I'll 'slim out of' either. Found a $40 pair of chords for $10 that not only fit and were the right length, but they were also a size smaller than I've been wearing lately. Score! Then last night I was at Costco with a friend and I tried to ignore the clothing section but my friend was taking her own sweet time. I only had $13 left in my 'personal' fund and most of the items we saw were at least $15 so I had no problem ignoring them. Until we got to these super soft 3/4 sleeve sweaters that were only...$13. I am trying to move away from wearing tshirts all the time so I picked up one, in white of all colors. I'm a dark colors person but I'm trying new things....

My brother's first day of school was yesterday. He seemed to enjoy it well enough. He'd also worked at the bar this past weekend and had made $150 which made me really happy and meant we could breath a little easier. Only, he forgot about the credit card he has. We'd decided to use that for books that way we could stretch the little cash we have, or that he brings in. Plus work on building his credit history by using it and paying regularly on it. So he spent..you guessed it, the $150 from the bar on books. His credit card has a $250 limit so it's not like he can go crazy with it or anything. *sigh* I am really proud of him for working so hard and paying cash. But I'm really frustrated with him because he's got $80 left in his account to last til the end of the month, and to pay his electric bill with. Of course, there are a few more weekends left in the month so there's possibility for work but it's never definate til the weekend actually gets here if he's going to be working or not.

Then in the mail, instead of the form he needs to fill out to get his GI Bill, he got a letter stating that it wasn't part of his contract! Uhhh. I know that's one of the main reasons he joined the Army. I never actually saw/read the contract, just went by what he said when he got home from the recruiters. And of course, we can't find his contract anywhere (that was four years ago). They're still looking into it at least. And he happened to get a call from a friend who's still in the Army and has been moved to a desk job in the personell department so he's going to see if he can look into it since that'll be faster than waiting for the US Army HR department. *sigh*

I am so proud of him for taking the steps he is to go to school, I really don't want this to be a hitch in the road...

Payday was today. I can't tell by this check what my regular pay will be because of the extra that's included from being on call. That will have to wait for next check. But perhaps I'll get my review before then, that would be nice.

When all was said and done, even with holding onto $60 for bills on the 20th, I still had $117 left over. More than enough to pay those extra things I needed/wanted. I'm going to call and schedule an oil change next week, giving me the weekend to try and find my prepaid punch card. Because if I can find the punch card that's one less thing I have to pay for. I decided to wait on the yarn store. I went ahead and spent the gift card I had for there to start on socks and I still haven't gotten whatever my best friend is sending me for Christmas. But I don't need the needles just yet so they can wait.

I did get a nice surprise in the mail. My uncle finally sent me the money to pay me back for the concert tickets. Total was $82.43, he sent me a check for $100. Since I'm stashing away extra unexpected money, I deposited $80 back into savings and kept out $20 to go towards my Zoo pass. That makes my total so far $45 and a Zoo plus pass is $59 so I'm almost there. As long as I can get it before summer so I can take advantage of the concerts then I'll be happy.

All the medical type things I have to pay for this month look like they'll be covered above and beyond what my budget is. That makes me happy, more to go into my medical savings account. But it's staying in checking until I'm done with appointments and prescriptions since there's a couple extra this month. I need to call the dentist once I have $500 in that account and find out how much my portion of a crown will be. The temporary seems to be holding ok at least.

I met up last night with the only guy who went on the mission trip with us. We talked about the remaining balance left for the group to pay and how long it will take to pay off and so on.

My impression is that the group as a whole doesn't care that much about paying it off. If they did they would be working harder to come up with fundraising strategies and so on. Then again, I've lost steam in coming up with ideas too.

Although to be perfectly fair, at least 4 out of the 7 are under/un employed. I can understand how that would make it harder for them to contribute.

I had kicked around in my head a few ways to boost what I'm already pitching in just so we can get it paid off sooner and I think I've finally settled on one that won't hinder my debt reduction much.

I will continue to budget/pay $50/month from my check on the 20th.

I will continue with my Three Phase Plan, applying money in accordance with how that is mapped out.

Once Phase Two is complete I will monitor my savings account balances and each month the total balance is $1100 or more I will withdraw anything over $1000 to keep the balance maintained at $1000. I already have budget amounts in place to contribute to savings and would like to continue those as habit that way should the need arise that I have to pull from it, the balance will be restored in due time.

Whatever I pull from savings will also be given to the credit card balance as an extra payment that month. The hope being that it will wind up taking less than 3 years to pay off.

It'll be a couple of months before that will be implemented since I'm only about halfway to my mark. And I have a couple things this year that I know will be coming out of savings. But it makes me feel better knowing I have a plan in place.

It'll be interesting to see how the group reacts to the numbers we show them when we finally get together and discuss it again. The guy I talked to will be calling each person individually to get answers to specific questions that way he can present information to the group as far as concensus goes so our meeting will be more structured.

I'm also excited to help him with mapping stuff out, ie if we want to pay it off in a year each person HAS to contribute $X each month or it's not going to happen.

I must say I'm really torn on this whole thing. I feel an obligation to pay it off on the one hand, yet on the other I feel that what's left is no longer my responsibility since I've pretty much paid my share. I feel an obligation to put as much money towards it as possible, yet am in the middle of my own debt reduction goals and don't know where to draw the line exactly. I'm finally no longer robbing Peter to pay Paul and I'd like to keep it that way.

(For those of you new to my blog, I went on a mission trip to Croatia in May/June of '06. Because of the World Cup, ticket prices doubled before we could lock in a price and wound up raising only half of the money we needed to pay for our airfare. The tickets had already been purchased by a third party on our behalf, whether or not we went we were still responsible for paying for them so we decided to go anyway. One of my teammates put the balance [$8600] on a then empty credit card. Since we've returned we've managed to get it down to $5500 due to money that came in for the trip after we returned. We've pretty much just been making the minimum payments since then. Through my coaching, the gal with the card has taken steps to decrease the interest. First she called and asked them to lower it, got it down from 19% to 16%. Then she found a balance transfer offer to get it down to 7.99% so that's where it's sitting now.)

401k meeting was today. Our funds got bought by Wespac although the transfer hasn't happened yet so we can't actually dictate what money we want to go where until that happens.

They have quite a few options to choose from, all but like three of them were in the 4s and 5s as far as star rating on Morningstar is concerned. Because we're an institution there's no fees on trades so we can log on every day and change things if we want. Once it's all set up of course.

I think I've decided what I want to do. I took the little risk assesment quiz again to see where I fell and I'm still in the 'Balanced' range. Basically 60% stocks and 40% bonds. I picked out about 4 stock funds and 1 bond fund. I plan on putting $4k into each stock fund and the rest into the bond. Now it's just a wait and see..

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I sort of use Quicken as my envelope system. I make 'future' payments with amounts I'm setting aside for use later. For example, I hold out $100 for rent out of my check on the 20th to go towards the next month's rent so I enter it as a payment on the 4th of the following month and then use the Ending balance as what I pretend my actual bank balance is.

I am out of gas. I had to run errands this morning and used more than I'd planned. I've put in all of my gas budget, the last bit was enough for 2 gallons which is about 40 miles of all city driving. I'm up to 26 miles driven so far, and have at least 21 to go before payday (Friday). So I 'borrowed' $40 out of one of my 'envelopes'. I'll put gas in tonight or tomorrow morning and fill it. Then I'll pay back the 'envelope' on Friday as soon as I get paid. It really struck me as funny how ingrained I've gotten to pretending money isn't in my account, I was actually panicing trying to figure out how to do everything I needed to on fumes.

I don't plan on doing this often but it's nice to have that 'oh yeah' moment.

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Anyone have tips on how to keep oranges from going bad? Normally I only buy enough fruit to get me through the week but I only had my Costco card to buy food with so I bought an 8 lb bag of oranges. I've eaten 4, and have had to toss 4 because of mold. There's 5 left, well 1 in my lunch so that one's ok but then 4 more at home.

I suppose I could keep them in the fridge but my teeth are sensitive so I don't think about putting fruit in the fridge because I can't eat it right away. However I could just store it in there and it should be room temp by the time I eat it at lunch. Hmm. Anyway.

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On last thing. My best friend is moving from Seattle to Utah for 18 months to go through a Nursing program. She's very excited about it and I don't know that I'll get to see her as often because of it. I'm working out my schedule for the end of my vacation time and I got a schedule from her of their tenative move plans. Her parents are driving up from CA and towing a UHaul trailer (though it'd be more cost effective to pick up the trailer in WA) and then they'll spend a day packing it, another two days driving, and then a day unpacking.

I wanted to go help her move, it's a big life change and I really support her in it. But original dates made it impossible. However it looks like it just might work out. I could catch a ride with her parents as they pass through Portland and fly back from Salt Lake. Right now tickets are $137 for one way and according to Farecast ticket prices will be heading back up in the next 7 days so buying it now is a wise move. Of course the ticket is non refundable but I'm going to call and make sure I'm reading it right, that I can use it for another ticket on that airline later if I cancel it. I figure I'll probably be making at least one flight out to see her in the next year if nowhere else.

I'm going to wait to actually talk to her about it before doing anything since it's still dependant on when her dad can get time off work. It's also dependant on when another friend's baby arrives because the front part of my vacation will be spent helping that family. It would mean dipping into savings to pay for the flight.