1. Do my job well.
-- um.
2. Learn skills to take to the next job.
-- Slowly, but starting. August.

3. Network for next job.
-- This month for sure!

1. Keep track of every penny that comes into the house.
2. Keep track of every penny that leaves the house.
3. Record a monthly budget.
-- I designed a budget, at least.

Well, I did #1. #2 I was lax with. #3.

Some victories -- I found my TreasuryDirect sheet with my account number. I'd like to thank the spirit of Charles Chaplin for that: I was putting a book my child and I were looking at (Walter Kerr's The Silent Clowns) back when I saw the stray sheet of paper. Also found I had $325 in a stock account somewhere. I have a stock account with seventeen cents in it too. woowoo!

1. Shop for car/motorcycle/home insurance.
-- I got a discount on my car insurance.

2. Get estimates for wiring.
-- I called an electrician. I need to call him again so he can come over and give an estimate.

3. Assemble 15-30 recipes for next month from "thrifty" sources.
-- I photocopied from Cheap. Fast. Good! and Jane Brody's Seafood Cookbook.

4. Try to work over 35 hrs/week.
-- this didn't work out so well.

5. Start researching -- buying stuff for brother
-- this I did. This relationship is so lopsided: he's asking me for favours and paying me to do stuff because he's overseas. Is there anything I want where he is? No.

My liabilities are $989 lower than last month, and $3482 lower than June. Assets are up $14000 since June. I have to remind myself of this because the cash we have in our account is $400 after childcare and mortgage are accounted for.
I wonder where the money went then I remember: I paid off $1300 principal, and $700 interest.

My spouse swears he faxed in reimbursement applications for June and July child care, but I have not seen any checks in the mail. The balance he has in there is around $800 by now. If he got it out, he could have a fine time this weekend. He'll be riding a train, staying at a hotel. How can I not let him have his fun, when I have had daytrips to the Kitsap Peninsula and to Mount Rainier?

Mortgage will be paid off by June 1, 2023.
One week to go until the stock proceeds come.

Who was it, Amy Dacyczyn? Jerrold Mundis?, who said "don't compare your financial situation to others. What matters is how your financial situation is compared to what it was, and what it will be." I need to always remember that. My financial situation is better, but as the housing prices deflate nationwide, and a recession takes a bite out of my retirement goodie basket, I can't count on it always being this great. Steeling myself for 20% depreciation in retirement balance, and 10% in home -- why? we've actually made some energy improvements: a new furnace, natural gas rather than oil, double-paned, argon-filled energy efficient windows, newer energy efficient applicances, and also, 20% depreciation in home price leaves a price that is commensurate with inflation: it takes 1.208 times as many 1999 dollars to buy our house that would supposedly not ever have appreciated. As houses appreciate maybe 1% beyond inflation, and my area is being revitalized by the city, plus is one of the few affordable places left in the city, I can't see 20% depreciation for the house. No. 10%.