My spouse will be outsourced in October, and probably gaining another job with a staffing firm, at least on a one-year contract. He'll get $12K severance pay, so that's not entirely sucky. If the staffing firm messes up, then he'll probably be hired back.

This week 35% of our team received "don't worry, those layoff rumours have no weight" e-mail messags. I wasn't one of the 30% who got a message, but it was unsettling nonetheless.

My child agreed to have $1600 of his education fund go to his kindergarten tuition.

I DID book all the accommodations on our July/August roadtrips. Now to research where to eat... (Pacific Coast Highway--from Seattle to Los Angeles)

Oh, and for the second time, the gold I've mislaid has been found in the futon downstairs. Why do I never check the futon first thing anymore for missing jewelry/coinage?

I have to get this off my chest. Perhaps in an hour I'll think "I have to get this off savingadvice.com" but here goes.

(no foul language, no porn, no politics, no religion/atheism)

I am in both a real-life and an online debt support group. When I got out of my consumer debt, as a result of the positive strokes and encouragement from the real-life group, I was invited to stick around as an example of how someone free of consumer debt would build her net worth. When I got out of my consumer debt on the online group, I was invited to stick around and record my mortgage progress, although I have 16 years to go before it is paid off.

The problem is that in a small face-to-face group, people are more careful of what they say than in a large, semi-anonymous group. I had been online long enough to see what the obvious button-pushing posts were, and yet I foolishly let my button be pushed (by people who think they hit a home run when they were born on third base and married someone who earns 5x what they did, or have parents who GAVE them houses to live in and act like it's a big accomplishment on their part).

And somehow, avoiding the obvious button-pushing (picking on single parents, kicking people who are in a debt hole) isn't enough. Repeatedly rooting for people who make big strides in their debt isn't enough. Sharing stories of anger and anxiety about the accumulated debt: not good enough for some people. Somehow one has to imagine out there in Internetland there's going to be someone who will take my impersonal and general words and stab themselves in the heart and say "oh look what you did to me you heartless brute. How could you make such POINTED insults with your impersonal general words. This is clearly your fault."

And if I share the mistakes and drawbacks I had: being a SAHM for a year-and-a-half, getting involved in IPOs, overestimating my abilities as an investor and to ferret the truth from analysts' statements, skipping a year's retirement contributions, or starting out with $140 and a $15/hour job waiting for me after years of irregular temping, I'm supposedly superior? Because admitting mistakes and sharing potholes is a sign of superiority?
I tell you I am too stupid for this culture.

I feel I'm on some cracked-up mountain where the people down at the bottom, where I was, are throwing stones and mocking me, not willing to consider I was down there too, starting out a long debt journey with no "rapid-ski-lift", and yet there are people who eagerly follow Paris Hilton's paparazzi parade. I don't get it. It's not a country where building yourself up or improving your standard of living without inheritances or stock options counts for anything anymore. You either stay at the bottom and be victimized by institutionalized corruption or you get out of it somehow and deal with people trying to tear you down. Because it's so intimidating to others that you're orphaned and outside the system and have to rely on yourself and not grandpa's billions or hubby's executive salary?

1. Visited Jack M. Guttentag's Mortgage Professor Web site. This man was actually a professor, who cowrote economics articles on real estate twenty years ago. Put $150 extra per month to the mortgage from now until the loan is paid off, and I shave a whopping $12,162.61 in interest.

2. The windows company came by, my husband signed some contract, and gave them $2000. The work won't be done until mid-August at least, so there's no raiding the HELOC just yet. Better research those tax credits and save the sheqels: I want no more than 30% of our HELOC to be used on the windows, lest Bank of America, after our vacation charges, robotically assumes we are financially done for and gives us a 24.99% annual percentage rate change. BoA performs monthly credit checks on its cardholders, according to my annual credit report.

3. I am apparently living not beyond my financial means, but beyond the planet's means. Maybe we're overpopulated, or maybe I'm over-entitled. If everyone lived the way I did, expending 3.9 tons of carbon dioxide annually, 2.3 planets would be required to sustain us all. Clearly I have a long way to go. For the finger-pointers out there: I own a house which occupies three people, have one compact car, and try to buy local produce and meats.

Use your search engine of choice to find a carbon footprint calculator. There's not enough smugness knowing I'm spending less than a rich Democrat to cover my shame.

4. I'm operating on a fresh assumption that my child wants to spend time with us after dinner, and not necessarily wants to watch a half-hour of YouTube. I tested this assumption by announcing I would be watering the roses, the tomato plants and the newly planted seeds (radishes, basil). Boy volunteered! This even got the Lord and Master away from his computer as we all did "a little something" with the flora.

It pays to read as much as one can, as widely as one can, about "green" energy alternatives. It's a hot topic, and shameless hucksters will present a dramatic statistic and not be forthright about how it applies to one's microclimate.

For instance, my state has very inexpensive electricity. The carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production per kilowatt hour in our state is 0.25, compared to the U.S. average of 1.34 (for years 1998 - 2000). Electricity costs are $25/month for us. Natural gas is more like $80/month. Several alternative energy suppliers may make much of the savings in energy, but if I'm spending I'm hoping the window replacement will take care of some of this. As I opened my natural gas bill, I did read an insert from my utility offering rebates (up to $300 or 50% off) for additional energy efficiency measures like duct sealing and insulation, floor/attic/wall insulation. Taking advantage of the rebates will reduce the payback time, and increase the internal rate of return. If an energy efficiency measure performs better than 12% a year, it makes sense for me to choose it over traditional investment vehicles.

We're consuming 55% - 70% of what the average family consumes in energy, in our antiquated house, but I think we can do better. I'm aware of the law of diminishing returns, however. I just don't recognize the savings until there's a 10% reduction in cost or energy use on my bill. Since the same period last year, we haven't seen a reduction in either.

Book information
The Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook: Slowing Climate Change and Saving Money, by Godo Stoyke.
New Society Publishers: Gabriola Island, BC, Canada; 2007.
Website Carbon Busters

I kind of joke. I have been reading The Power of Intention because I know I have been spiritually starved over the past two years. For eight months I hosted a disabled, ill friend who in turn made me feel needed and mitigated much of my depression.

She's giving me a chaise longue, and another friend is giving me an upright piano. The Forces That Be are dropping hints that my kid take piano lessons -- yesterday we entered a store we'd never visited before, to buy a tea strainer, and spoke with a man who taught piano for eighteen years...

This summer I will finally get rid of, somehow, my recliner and ottoman, and the tot's crib, and perhaps the secondary refrigerator. Perhaps they'll turn someone else's life around.

1. Today I was up very early so I took my scooter to a cafe open at 6, and attempted 45% of the NYT Saturday crossword, in pen.

2. I transferred money from our shared account to my account, and deposited one gold coin (still looking for the other, probably in a pocket) into the credit union vault. Then I reviewed my "treasure box" and saw appraisals for some but not all the bling dating from 1999 (when gold was $286/ounce). There's hope for me yet, especially with what gold's done in the interim.

3. My son and I used the coin collector at the credit union: $4.57 in collected coinage. This went into my bank account.

4. I sent a cheque for $138.44 to ComputerShare for my son's Burlington Northern Santa Fe shares.

5. I sent a cheque for $153 to GE Stock Direct for some General Electric shares.

6. I wrote a cheque for $240 to TD Ameritrade for my Roth IRA 2007 contribution.

7. I wrote a cheque for $110 to Habitat for Humanity.

8. I deposited our escrow cheque for $138.44: $69.22 to savings, $69.22 for our Visa bill.

9. My spouse gave to 'end poverty', I gave to 'end homelessness.'

10. I wrote and deposited a cheque for $1586.00 for our mortgage -- a $150.01 overpayment for July.

Charles Hugh Smith's June 13 entry, at first, made me think of our retirement situation.

"We should pull out! Pull out now! But we face huge taxes. Maybe it won't be that bad. Maybe if we just shift our asset allocation to more international, it'll be okay."

And I am not proud that we have not yet requested windows. I need to carve time to research proper northwest options and go make the phone call. Same with the gardening... I need to make the time to plan what I want and call so it's done right.

What am I proud of? Well, yesterday my husband, who is sacrificing a week of income (let's hope he is using his accumulated 'sick days') for the greater good of JURY DUTY, put $1000 in his Roth IRA. He's asked me for help finding a suitable investment for it. He has $123,655 in 401(k) contributions distributed in a reasonable asset allocation mix, so he can go a little nuts with his small Roth.

I forget to do this Steve Pavlina million dollar experiment on a daily basis. I must start again.

In a month a class action suit against our mortgagor begins in court. We may receive up to $3000.

I still have not yet requested an end to our Voice Mail. I should do that.

Escrow refund of $134 marked in our mortgage account.

Took the bus/taking car ride home: savings -- $1.80 saved.

Scooted to the vitamin discount outlet and then to Safeway to run errands: saved $10.00 on the bill.

I am now enrolled in General Electric's and Procter & Gamble's DRPs. I applied for Walgreen's but I haven't heard back yet. I have made $1.58 from PG so far.

I have now enrolled in some mutual funds in the company 401(k). Put 50% of the proceeds in international.

I have made a $150 extra payment toward the mortgage.

I have not yet called about the windows. I keep hoping my spouse will do that.

I have applied for my vacation time. I hope it goes through. We've booked two hotels, and a rented car, and then it's the pet sitter and a slew of other B&Bs, and MUSSO AND FRANK (cue: choir of seraphim).

My five-year-old has given me verbal permission to use a portion of his education fund to pay for his kindergarten. Well, it is an education expense, and it is tuition...

I have contributed $260 toward my 2007 Roth IRA.

I have enrolled in a SQL Server 2005 certification track course, at the low low low price of $150. What's nice is that I can get free training materials.

I'm thinking hard about Kiva and Prosper.