Sometimes it seems that our net worth goes up in spite of my inertia or misguidedness or hyperfocus on inconsequential matters, thanks to inflation and reduction of expenses. Maybe it's my headspace right now, which is not where it should/could be (for instance, my account IDs that I've had for the past seven years? FORGOT THEM LAST NIGHT.), but I can't rightly think of something I've learned here or on another money forum, did, and had great success with.

Washing in cold water?
Buying a crockpot which gets used once every two months because we don't have a collection of crockpot recipes?
Buying in bulk from Costco?

Stuff I did that reduced our expenses I did because I saw energy costs going up or because I read personal finance books. Mostly it's the stuff I don't do that keeps us out of trouble.

I sure would like to feel proactive and proud about active measures I took to increase net worth and decrease expenses. I'll read the boards more carefully and gradually shift to a planning-in-advance household.

So I'm managing twenty-two accounts.
My goal for November is to increase our net worth by $1957.43 USD (not including gold and house). This is easiest done by first reducing liabilities by that much, then increasing returns on accounts (less money in low interest accounts, more money in high interest accounts), and lastly making the most of employer matching.

We do not have dependent care savings accounts to fund anymore, so that should free up some taxable money. Husband vows to put 15% in his 401(k). I suggested:

$4.00/week allowance for my six-year-old
(heartily approved by six-year-old)

I will suggest, in descending order of importance:
$225/paycheque-or-bonus for HELOC payment.
$150/week Roth IRA 2007 contribution for me
$375/week CDs ($1500 per month) for emergency fund
$125/week Roth IRA 2007 contribution for spouse
$120/week contribution to my personal savings account (for funding taxable accounts)
-------------------
Anticipated bonuses: $3300 this month.
-------------------

We'll give that a whirl and see what November 30 has to give us. I expect less income this coming month on account of half-days and one full day off school this coming month. I'll bring my child with me on banking activities as he seems to be on a monetary kick.

My son opened his School Savings account with $2.87. He enjoyed making his first deposit to that account.

I blew $8.00 on gasoline today. At least it was in cash, and at least it was at $2.98/gallon. And it will last me probably 150 miles. Paying $0.053/mile isn't terrible, is it? It'll last me probably five weeks too, if the weather returns to its usual dark, wet and cold.

Our insulation will be more expensive than originally estimated, on account of an ancient ceiling fan in the kitchen. Sigh.

Thanks to inflation I am not interested in paying off my mortgage early.

Putting off "finance chat" leads to "finance showdown." Both my spouse and I have inactive retirement and trading accounts, and we can't be comfortably passive about our money anymore. We simply have too many goals and not enough money to go around. I am gathering account statements and making a monthly tally tonight, so if I die from vehicular homicide, my surviving spouse will have half a clue where money is.

I'm sorry this is a dull post. But it is not convoluted and it is not panicky. That's the best I can do right now.

to talk to someone face to face about finances, someone who is either an organizational person, or a financial counselor, or someone who is in a position similar to mine (net worth, working parents, homeowner). I regret that I am blind in many ways: can't see poverty among me, nor how my own spending habits jeopardize my future; and dumb: can't talk about my fears with my spouse because he'll counter with "you worry too much," "you're like this right before your period," "your expectations are too high."

to start accounting for all purchases and charges in my family, not just the ones that I make.

to read "yes, we've noticed prices going up too and the percentage change is larger than the government-stated inflation rate. You're not paranoid, just watchful."

to be told I'm doing okay. If I can't be honestly told I'm doing okay, because I'm really not doing okay, I want to be shown how I can realistically manage all my financial goals on our current income. And yes this is markedly different from making sure my goals are realistic or trying for more income. I already spend less than I make, so no five-word platitudes or quips to that effect, please.

adequate Vitamin D levels (working on this)

junk in my garage Freecycled, and books and magazines downstairs sold on eBay.

time to exercise

a look at my backyard and see how shady/bright it is and what I can use for gardening.

This would be a four-wheeled automatic transmission covered automobile, large enough to accommodate two adults 70 and 71 inches tall and a boy who'll sprout from 48 inches to 73 inches over the time we own the car (barring accidents and repossession).

My ideas:
honda accord sedan EX-L
honda accord hybrid
toyota camry hybrid
toyota camry XLE
Nissan Maxima SL
Nissan Altima Hybrid
Nissan Altima 3.5 SL
Toyota Prius 4-Door Liftback

The credit union has repossessed autos, but not the makes and models listed above. I got the above from myproductadvisor.com. If I start saving now... maybe in 2009 or 2010 I'll have $20K set aside and can buy one in cash or finance for a 24-month period and pay it off in half the time.

I am reading the above mentioned book, written by Henry K. "Bud" Hebeler, and I am already scared.

10-15% a year, which is what we were paying into our retirement, does not seem to be cutting it as a long-term strategy.

I'd share what I learned with my peers, but you good folk have the author and the title of the book now, so you can go borrow it from the library as I did, and I'm afeared of mentioning what I learned to my friends because the ones who care about this stuff have already retired, and I don't need to hear "oh that doesn't apply to me because I have a trust fund" nor the sobs of people I like when they reflect on their situations and regard them as hopeless.

I'm not out to make you cry -- like I mentioned, you're probably already retired or on track; or if you're only doing 15% in the 401(k) and maxing out the Roth IRA like me, you're just a few clicks away from learning how to change your consumption patterns so you can save more. I'm just saying I was complacent without good reason, and I'm now scared into making better decisions or cutting back further.

Right after I blow $678.11 on R-38 insulation for my attic.
------------------------------------
frequently I wonder if I'm the one in my peer group who's behind, and how I can catch up. I wish I had more friends I could discuss this openly with.

I took the Living to 100 Life Expectancy Quiz and despite my lack of exercise, and both my parents packing it in before either reached 65 the calculator gave me 90. I was projecting a death age of 70 (cancer) or 71 (car accident), the ages my non-smoking grandmothers died at. Then I could look at my retirement portfolio and say "hey, this is looking SWELL! Four cruises per year until I have my cardiac on the shuffleboard deck!"

I didn't lie on the quiz -- I intentionally answered honestly to get a shorter result. However, I've been eating healthier for the last year and am supplementing as prescribed.

Let me tell you something: Canada may have a lot going for it right now -- a strong economy, progressive government, strong commitment to globally competitive education, no wars for our kids to have to pay off -- yet the fact remains that my American in-laws, shortish and roundish they may be, are still alive and working and have been cancer-free, and my Canadian parents: tall and lean, retired early and were ashes after four years. Does education factor into this? Fewer stress factors?

The life expectancy result was 90 years. Sheesh. I DO have some money saved up: I just hope the US economy can rebound after twenty-five years... but Social Security is projected to be empty by 2042, which is too bad, because I know I could have used that monthly $1015 for a nice hot cup of 2042 coffee... if this calculator is a relatively good predictor I regret not having more children to shelter me in my dotage. I better start exercising so I can have a healthy body to lure the few septuagenarians... go swimming like Gertrude Ederle or mountain climbing like Leni Riefenstahl... but that'd be tough, because septuagenarian single guys are probably gay or divorced with too much trauma to remarry or they have longevity genes...

Ninety. Not looking so swell.

I briefly had a whiny poor-me post up this morning. Then I read San Diego was on fire, and my disposition maladjustment was small potatoes compared to that.

We did some decluttering! What motivated us? We never have people over. We're too busy and too lazy to clean, too embarrassed by our house. Then my son was invited to a friend's house, and now my son wants to reciprocate hosting duties, so we cleaned up! (If you don't invite anyone over to your house, people here mostly assume you're an alcoholic or aloof.)

So we took clothes, glasses and toys over to the Saint Vincent de Paul thrift store as donations. I felt a little lighter.

Tonight I may start "Finance Chat Weekly," an attempt to get my family on the same page wrt spending and saving. The only one who stays alert and attentive to these chats is my six-year-old. Tonight I will give him a task of finding as many coins as he can so he can begin a deposit to his soon-to-be-opened WaMoola savings account. I didn't see the point of opening another account (we are deluged already with account statements), but the difference with this one is that HE would be initiating it, and taking action, and having fun with math skills. He also thinks that if I have an interest in doing something, (I volunteer with the program) it must be worth doing.

I know the little one is going through an Oedipal phase but I hope his support and enthusiasm for our family projects doesn't flag when he's gotten it through his head he can't marry me.

More active than me giving him a statement and saying "this is how much you have."

Read article here

Gas is up to $3.129 at my favourite local station. When I see the "help me with my budget" posts monthly fuel costs are $200.

Suze Orman's Financial Detox - or welcome to "give us your over-leveraged, your desperate, your not-needing-so-much-Vitamin-D" Seattle.

I'm not even interested in riding my bike anymore. Not with wet leaves, not willing to share the road with people who think their right to drink and drive, or right to drive without headlights on in heavy traffic or in the dark, or right to deem cell-phone conversations are more important than MY SPINAL CORD or LIFE. I'll live with the 75-minute-plus one-way bus commutes on the accident-thick highways for now. At least that way I'm physically above those clowns. Hint for PNW drivers: driving faster on wet roads is not safe behaviour.

BTW, what percentage of Americans not living in California can afford California? And why won't they move there? California's population is greater than Canada's and it gets much more sunlight. I can tell you from my August vacation that the Pacific Coast is very nice...
Tips on Free Budgeting tools and Software

I wonder if I should post this on the forums, because other people might benefit from it, but right now it seems self-centered:

I am now a wee bit ashamed of my ennui last night. We were prepping for a major windstorm: I put smaller garden items in the shed and in the garage, our 17 city-block-radius area was out of power for over three hours. Large tree limbs blocked the sidewalk. I saw a smashed wood trellis toppled over a neighbour's shrubs. That was anti-climactic compared to November/December 2006's nasty storm.

I made a list, on the bus this morning, of ways I could have used my time better last night. I could do this stuff whenever "there's nothing to do."

1. Household inventory
2. Put items on Freecycle
3. Plan meals (I actually did some of this, for it was CSA box pickup day)
4. Thaw food for the next day's dinner
5. Clean laundry area
6. Clean pet area
7. Start a price book
8. File financial statements
9. Shred stuff
10. Write a letter
11. Sell magazines on eBay
12. Clean outdoor pots.
13. Go through closets and get rid of torn, small, rarely worn clothing.
14. Read up on PNW gardening.

What else? The Simple Dollar has suggestions.

Made a big payment on the HELOC: $1060. At that rate I should be able to pay it off before the end of the year.

My class action check from my mortgagor is for $3.42. MOCHA TIME!

Feeling such ennui. Must be the rain.

Sometimes I wonder how that Dale and Darby Brennan "Gut Check America" article would have gone over in Seattle if it had been a couple earning $150K between them, no children in daycare, no car loans, no student loans and had $60K saved up for a down payment but were priced out of Seattle proper. I do not think we can afford (owning a three-bedroom house in a decent non-crime-ridden part of) Seattle now.
I have an easier time understanding couples who WANT to have kids buying a house, but the single professional... where's the time for maintenance?

A city council candidate was arrested for DUI. On a blog, one comment was "everybody has a DUI, just like everybody has a credit card debt." Uh. Not everyone has credit card debt in Seattle. I have maintained this for seven years now...

So I'm involved in WaMoola for Schools at my son's school. I asked him twice last Tuesday, when I began my volunteer stint, if he was interested in an account. "No."

This week he told me he had two one-dollar bills. He wanted to give them to the school. "You mean as a scholarship for a field trip?" I asked.
"For banking," he said.
"Where did you get these dollars?"
"From your wallet."

Also: "I should be getting money every week." So yes, time to read that book on 'financially intelligent parents' and set an allowance for the lad.

He was all over the banking table like a fruit fly on an open mango today. And I have MY two dollars back. I also have a cheque from my great-aunt for $20 meant as a gift for him. So I'll open an account for him later, I guess, while he's thinking he's the next Charles Schwab...

Read article

It’s no mystery to Dale and Darby Brennan why they have not realized their vision of the middle-class dream, despite seeing their income double to $70,000 in the past four years.
...
“We are doing all the right things with our money and I feel like the dream of owning a home is still so out of reach for us,” says Darby. “I don’t want a handout. I just feel like our middle-class income should be enough and it’s not.”

When I first read this, and some incendiary statements recorded in the article, my head boiled over with a long diatribe, and then I remembered my readers deserve better. So read the above and know, that I live a few short miles from this family and when we bought here we were earning the same amount of money, and had a car loan, put at least 15% of our gross income into retirement plans, but didn't have children.

$1050 for house rent is EXCELLENT. I was thinking I could rent my house out for $1600. If I wanted to rent a house closer to the schools where I REALLY want my kid to go I'd be paying $1800-$2000 (two miles away).

$720 for TWO CHILDREN in daycare is EXCELLENT. I paid no less than $910 and for some months as high as $1095 for ONE CHILD for over five years.

They have TWO CARS. We have been a ONE CAR family since 2001, driving the same car since 1996. (Three vehicle family now, but still ONE CAR, plus a FlexCar membership for those winter months.)

They spend twice as much as we do for cell phones, and three times as much as we do for gasoline. Their utility bills are higher as well (and my house is going through some energy upgrades).

Median family income of $75,600 is for King County. These people do not live in either Seattle nor Bellevue. They live in Mountlake Terrace, in Snohomish County where the median family income is $65,273.

The Brennans’ street is the boundary between King County, where the median home price is $440,000, and Snohomish County, where it is $370,000. Even with a fat down payment in either county, which they don’t have, the Brennans wouldn’t qualify for a conventional mortgage on a median-priced home.

House prices have to come down. They are coming down, they're just not crashing here yet like they are elsewhere. I don't get this hotfooting and jumping up and down and wanting a house NOW NOW NOW and saying "I don't want a handout." I don't get the "we're not saving for retirement, we borrow for cars, we have children and student loans and we're doing everything right with our money" thinking.

WSU keeps a special set of statistics on housing affordability for first-time buyers. Those numbers are especially dismal, indicating that the average first-time home-buying family or individual couldn’t afford even 40 percent of the mortgage on a starter home in King County.

TRUE. Even without student loans, car payments and children, a family earning $70K could not buy a HOUSE. A two-bedroom condo out in Lynnwood or Everett, maybe right now. Heck, I can't buy a house where I live on $140K. Well, I could, but I wouldn't respect myself in the morning.

The problem for a lot of the middle class is a consumer mindset, says Dale, a devoted listener of talk radio who says he quickly transformed from a liberal Democrat to a conservative Republican after becoming a father and going to work in a small business.

Dale Brennan loves his job as the manager of a Seattle-area produce stand.
“Things are to be earned, not for instant gratification,” he explains. “It’s not what you have; it’s getting there.” That's fine with me, what I don't get is converting to a different political ideology because AFTER car loans, student loans and having babies, one decides personal responsibility is a good thing. Because "that other side" can't ever lay claim to personal responsibility. I'm probably irresponsible in spite of wanting to save up to buy a car, or pay off car loans early, and started retirement as soon as I had disposable income, and waited until I was financially 'okay' before having kids, because it's easier for Dale's brain to see people who don't agree with his political viewpoints as personally irresponsible.

I am envious that Darby Brennan can find time to bake bread and help the girls clean their room. We have not-so-hot furniture ourselves, and really modest electronics--so modest the thieves flashlight into our living room and can't see a stereo or TV or computer so they leave us alone. The $20 a month for entertainment is very ambitious too: I think we pay that per person per week. So buying thrift store clothing, making bread from scratch, and using one credit card for gas only: those are things I could certainly do for the benefit of the budget. But is that "doing everything right?"

We had assets equivalent to one year's salary when we bought. It's bad timing that the Brennans have to contend with: trying to accumulate money when rate cuts to bail out homeowners are disincentives to save.

This is like me going up to Vancouver, BC and saying 'guldarnit! Houses here go for $850K Canadian! I can't buy a house on $140K/year!' (No kidding! How about waiting for house prices to come down?)

I guess delayed gratification and being priced out of the market are not partisan issues.

Disclaimer: I do not earn $140K/yr. I just threw that number out because the Brennans' salary doubled over four years, and I wanted to make the point that in the Seattle area, families earning under $150K are priced out right now. If people are still buying homes, it's either because they're downsizing or they have inheritances or they earn in excess of $150K/year.

We have taken to decentralizing our food shopping: we pick up fruits and vegetables once a week, I try to buy bread and fish on weekends, and I order beef once a month. Dairy and poultry, along with condiments and all that other stuff, we still use the supermarket for.

This evening's shopping trip was $142.95. It was enjoyable: I went to Central Market with the tot, who was pretty restrained considering the Halloween candy displays. He does, yes, put food that he wants in my cart, but he asks first, and if it's an informed food choice I generally allow it.
I was pretty happy when he asked me if we'd pick up some spirulina and was trying to bargain with me to put kiddie Emergen-C in the basket.

I actually like it when he talks a lot to us in public: I try to encourage him to converse with us because I know in about five-six years he'll be in for a long spell where he'll think we're too fossilized and brain-damaged to be worthy conversationalists.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, even though I spent a lot of money (pasta was on sale, vitamins, salmon, pancetta, prosciutto, wine, dairy), I'm trying sprouting because it's an easy and cheap way to increase the vitamin abundance of beans and seeds. I have some adzuki beans and mung beans sitting in jars.

More info on sprouting.
I may continue with wheatberries, kamut, and rye... Walton Feed specializes in 'emergency food supplies' and also has sprouts.
What a great way to get Vitamin C in the winter without paying $3.99/lb for peppers!

Before last week I would not have considered my shower/bath unit to be fraught with danger. Two reports of freak shower accidents causing death and disability to women my age too closely timed to each other have jolted me. Yeah. No rape, murder, or left-turn collisions, but rather SHOWERTIME is a risk. How freaky is that?

baselle offered this comment
and yes, in the darkness of Seattle autumns and winters a frothy tub of fragrant suds is wonderfully restorative, maybe even with some lit candles, chilled Aqua Libra tubside and some Puccini or (The Real) Tuesday Weld playing nearby, and then the scrubdown with a large, soft towel, and the layering of fragrance: body lotion, powder, eau de parfum... oh yeah baby...

However, for those mindtweak moments (which for some reason always happen two-three days before my period) where I feel I will never catch up to where I believe most Seattleites are ("OMG! Look at my plane! My stock options! My Subaru Forester/Legacy/Outback with politically correct activist stickers on the bumper!My Ph.D! My big house overlooking the water! As long as I have the big bucks to keep driving my vehicle to work I don't ever have to vote in the interests of the masses for wider, cleaner, cheaper mass transportation options but in every other way I am oh so green"), I delude myself into thinking cutting down on my water/natural gas expenditures is going to PUT ME ON THE ROAD TO WEALTH.

Here is the text from Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 pure castile soap label. One can use pure, toxin-free soap frugally to maintain American standards of cleanliness the following way:

Enjoy only 2 cosmetics, enough sleep & Dr. Bronner's 'Magic Soap' to clean body-mind-soul-spirit instantly uniting One! All-One! Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! For facial packs, scalp & soothing body rub, add dash on bath towel in sink of hot water. Wring out. Lay over face & scalp. Massage with fingertips. Repeat 3 or 4 times 'til arms, legs & all are rubbed, always towards the heart. Rinse towel in plain hot water and massage again. Breathe deeply! Health is Wealth. Within 9 minutes you feel fresh, mint-clean, saving 90% of your hot water and soap, ready to teach the whole Human race the Moral ABC of All-One-God-Faith! For we're All-One or none! All-One! All-One!

To simplify & enjoy life more, dilute 1/2 oz. or 2 squirts of this pure castile soap with 2 gallons or sinkful hot water, then towel massage a facial pack, then wring towel out & fingertip massage your hair & scalp. Enjoy the creamy emollient lather on baby, bath, beach, body, dentures, mint deodorant, shaving, mouthwash-silk-wool-pets-diapers-car-hand & foot soap.

Always dilute for Shave-Shampoo-Massage-Dental-Soap Bath!
Peppermint is nature's own unsurpassed fragrant deodorant!
1% & 99% hot water = facial pack, shampoo, hair conditioner!
A dash in glass water = breath freshening Peppermint Soap!
For massage, dilute 1 part in 10 parts hot water! Not oil!
Apply Peppermint Soap undiluted, to clean ant-mosquito-tick-fly!
Dilute with hot water to clean & freshen from head to toe!
Peppermint Oil Soap for Dispensers-Uniforms-Baby-Beach!
3 dashes in water rinse most Sprays off fruit & vegetables!
2% soap in water sprays-cleans flowers & fruit trees!

This reads like a testimonial for Dr. Bronner's. It probably is. I don't get any money for it. A nine-minute visit with hot water, washcloth and Dr. Bronner's seems cheaper to me than four months in rehab or a funeral.

Eureka! I feel dumb (see last post) because of OPPORTUNITY COST. I sent $500 off for my Roth IRA, paid $612 of my credit card (billed for $312, but $890 worth of purchases currently), and shifted $445 to the HELOC. Now I find that Thundering Hooves is requiring a two-share minimum ($2000) for investors choosing to park their money @ 10% interest in a ten-year investment plan, instead of a one-share minimum.

I thought I'd have more time to rustle up (hee!) $$ for the livestock program, but my hubby's severance pay doesn't start until November, and I'm considering taking a paid week off instead of taking a bonus week's pay because my brother is arriving from the Far East for a week in January.

Other terms for the day: cash flow, leverage.

Freed from monthly $950 daycare expenditures, I bumped up my 401(k) contribution to 15%, and am now second-guessing myself. I am buying at the "top" of a market, although 50% of my 401(k) assets are international and 20% are bonds. Should I go 70% int'l?

I'm concerned about the further $103 reduction from my weekly paycheque. How to budget so as not to notice it? I could be paying off my HELOC with it, or buying gold, or prepaying my mortgage.

These past seven days have been a barrage of reminders of the fragility of life: a 34-year-old friend of several acquaintances died from a fall in a shower; yesterday I learned an acquaintance is in an adult home because of HER fall in a shower; an acquaintance lost his father last week to multiple organ failure; ten people aged 18 to 40 died in a plane crash in our state; breast cancer incidences among women who are not genetically susceptible are on the rise. I don't feel my chances are good here. Why am I contributing to retirement beyond what I need to so as to get the employer match? So I can make a political statement by cutting down on the taxes I'll owe? To avoid Alternative Minimum Tax? To juice up my creativity in thinking of ways to save (e.g. go to WaltonFeed.com and order huge barrels of legumes and grain)?

As far as saving money goes, I don't have cable television nor do I smoke or pay for daily expensive coffee. I do have a 30% discount on a family cell-phone plan (my spouse GREATLY overestimated the # of minutes we use), use a programmable thermostat, bus to work 30% of the time (and scoot for 55mpg the 70%). I have raised my automobile insurance deductible. My kid's clothes we get either second-hand, or at Target, or from my stepmother. I could start brownbagging it, which would save $25/week. If I take my bike only two days a week on average to work I'll save $18/month. I don't eat a lot of processed food, so coupons don't do much good for me. I rent movies either from the Northwest's #1 DVD/video rental/sales store, or from the library, although I do pay full dollar for the occasions that Chaplin comedies make it to the ornate, deluxe theatres: call it therapy.

Maybe I'll try to sell the excess stuff we have, like that 1950s GE refrigerator and the handmade glass and wood booze cabinet.

Links from my Google(tm) search for "save $100 a week":
1. CashBulge.com
2. Arcamax.com
3. AlanHaft.com

Article: Figuring the size of your emergency fund from Philip Brewer, WiseBread.com

I added my minimum, routine and job hunting expenses. I multiplied that total by four months (discounting the Unemployment Insurance benefits for which I'd be eligible), as I have a working spouse, and came up with a total which, serendipitously, equals the amount I have in CDs plus savings.

So my savings goals look like this:
1. Pay off windows
2. Pay insulation (in full from savings)
3. Maximize Roth IRA 2007 contribution.
4. Build Roth IRA 2008 contribution.
5. Save for replacement car.

Article: Heating Costs to Jump This Winter

My natural gas provider informed its customers that the cost/therm would be going DOWN by at least 10% from last year, so I was initially surprised to read this headline. The dateline included New York, so I thought "that's not PNW." And it would be much more expensive for heating oil -- I had two winters of oil sticker shock before deciding on natural gas. The President and Vice-President helped me make that decision and I have never regretted it. Thanks, guys!

Did I mention I came across an electricity bill from 1998, when I was an apartment dweller, and our bill was 54% higher in 1998 for a 600 sq. ft. apartment than it is for a 2320 sq. ft. house in 2007? We didn't even have laundry facilities in our apartment.

We have received already one bid from an insulation contractor, for replacing the R-5 rockwool in our attic with R-38 polyurethane. We expect another bid from a second contractor later this afternoon. The instant rebate from our natural gas company makes this a very appealing cost-cutting measure.
Our new double-pane argon-filled windows, although still unpainted because of inclement weather, have helped a little too.

I expect lower heating bills this year, regardless of the headline. I do not want to pay $160 for one month's heating (January) like I did earlier this year.

...through two cute boutiques in Greenwood/Phinney Ridge. It wasn't a midlife crisis "must look hip instead of hippy" excursion, but more like "I need to dress more my age, with more class. This T-shirt and jeans thing gets old, especially when I have only three pairs of pants and they're all jeans and two of them I can't get into when I'm bloated. Three years of going without clothes I absolutely need is enough for me in a civilized society, thanks."

I bought three pairs of pants, a Ben Sherman striped shirt, and a pink shirt. Also some pink toile pajamas. I practiced negotiating.
These babies are supposed to last me a few years, so I don't mind the price tag. I've found that many of the cheap clothes are functional for a few washings. The clothes I buy at the boutiques get many positive comments.

I am not like this normally. Most of my clothes have been hand-me-downs, with the occasional suits purchased for interviews. I may get more girly-girly and purchase some silver jewellery and accessories as strategic accents away from the parts of my body that are rebelling.

Everyone in my debt group has consumer debt now. It hasn't been like this since 2003. I wonder if it's time to recruit more members. One of us has triple-digit debt, one five-digit debt, and two of us with six-digit debt (we're counting mortgages). However, the higher net worths, and revelry in the glorious vicissitudes of life let us sleep at night.

This is totally off-topic, but I must squee like a fangirl: On MySpace.com I have caught two sons of a man I've long idolized. They have very small networks of friends. I don't know if I'm so bold as to add them, but I e-mailed the most approachable because I liked the music he had on his page, and my son really liked the film clip of his famous dad.

How little money can we have in our chequing account without getting into trouble? Before house and child our "float" was $200. Now it went up to $1200. That's more than necessary, methinks. I do like to have $2000 in chequing by the end of the month, for mortgage. $500 first week, and $500 added every week? $500 first week, $750 added every "double pay period?"

How do you establish your chequing account float?

Yeah, yeah, I know, I "think too much." I should probably just go for a walk and immerse myself in Greek drama and banned books.

First dilemma is about school volunteer commitments. Too boring to share here.

Second dilemma is this: our chequing account is underfunded right now. Soon (0-2 days) our mortgage payment will be extracted from our chequing account.

I do know that within fifteen hours my husband's and my paycheques will be deposited, which will both surpass what is needed for the mortgage payment.

Also, within a few hours, my husband will be writing a cheque for close to $8,000 for the windows installation that is taking place today. (We get a tax credit for some of that.)

Savings:

Chequing:
HELOC:
CDs:

Blessed Event (double pay-period) $2615
Mortgage payment $1537

Everyone loves a math puzzle:
If we are overdrawn on our chequing account, our regular line of credit comes to the rescue.

I've made one of six possible transfers this month from savings to chequing.

I want to make the fewest # of transfers this month, and incur the smallest amount of interest charges.

The regular credit line is four points higher than our HELOC.

I would rather not take any more than $5400 out of my HELOC.

I would really rather not be drawn on both my line of credit and my HELOC.

I'll be working on this puzzle today, until I am assigned real work.

The kicker: I'm going to start volunteering at my kid's school for the student banking program. Har.

It doesn't take much for my savings goals to disintegrate.
Yesterday I had zipper trouble with my overpants: I couldn't get the teeth to mesh. I looked online and asked a coworker, and none of the advice seemed to fit what was going on.

I rode into work that morning and wanted to ride back home earlier to have dinner and go to the movies. The nearest motorcycle accessories dealer to my work opted to begin winter hours exactly this week, meaning being closed on Mondays. The option of riding home on the freeway with no protective armour on my legs did not appeal.

I could have taken the pants to my local seamstress, to get a new zipper perhaps.
The pants were two years old, and were of passable quality.

So I took the long, under 35mph way home, then gathered the lads to head to the Cycle Center. Unfortunately, their sale on gear ended the day before. I did not expect the zipper of my pants to give out yesterday, else I would have shopped during the sale.

I looked at some pants, and the ones that fit, the ones with the removable insulated liner, with the reflective striping, the waterproof ones, the ones a woman totally needs for October - March motorcycling: $189.99. I did ask for a discount. The woman I usually see at the Cycle Center sales counter is happy to ring me up at a 10% standard discount when she can, but she wasn't there. The young guys give me maybe 5-8%. But the young guy and I did discuss the merits of the new pants.

I'd save the cost of the pants over three months with the lower costs of busing and motorcycling it to the office. I think some planning is involved to make these savings goals work.

Last night we ate out, at a local burger joint, plus went to see Charlie Chaplin comedies at a theatre, complete with sound effects/percussionist and an organist playing the 1928 Publix Wurlitzer. This was the last screening of the four-part series, and it included my son's favourite Chaplin comedy, so we went. A pricey day. This week is his birthday week, so it's going to be a pricey week.

I gotta start making some evenings available to make stock and soup and ready-made lunches and dinners. This just isn't the week I can start: I want to see what plans the new School District Administrator has, I'm giving blood on Wednesday, a newlywed girlfriend wants a cocktails-and-artwalk night (already she needs a night out with her friends!), and Friday will be a private celebration for the day my little boy ripped my insides--errrr, joined the living.

Interview Quote from Shira Boss, author of Green with Envy: A Whole New Way to Look at Financial (Un)Happiness:

And once you get beyond the poverty level, income is almost irrelevant: The more you make, the more you can borrow, and people certainly do.

I read a comment on a local blog by someone from my country, recounting his amazement, when he first immigrated, at how much wealthier the Americans seemed to be: nicer cars, bigger houses, more of everything, and how the amazement vanished when he saw how much in debt his new acquaintances, friends and workmates were. I had this impression too, and I still have it. Although I do employ the reality check "they don't have children" to explain how my friends afford Paris, Rome, and London trips (hint: we don't live in Amsterdam).

When we don't know how others are affording their lifestyles, we can fall into a trap either of wondering why we can't keep up ("Where did I go wrong?") or of overspending to match what others are doing ("But everyone has such a big flat TV!").

I'm not sure I want to count daycare as "going wrong," as my only choices were child neglect or reducing my family's income by 46-54% for six years, but certainly that took a big chunk out of our disposable income. I worry now that we'll have to borrow for roof repair, or for a replacement vehicle.

I don't see the debt, locally. I don't know the right questions, the right indications. I have to wait for people to tell me. And with the human tendency of wanting to hide any weakness, and discussion of money being a prevalent taboo in this culture, that could be a long wait. It's not like I'm a financial predator: I just want a real-life next-door financial role model/peer/mentor to help me steer smoothly through booms and busts without reliance on long-term credit. (Short-term credit is okay in my book, if it helps cash flow and I have enough reserves to pay in full if payment's demanded earlier than expected.) When one comes from a more heavily-taxed nation into a lesser-taxed nation, one expects to see mastery of disposable income. One doesn't expect to hear: "we went with a payment-option ARM on our 600K townhome. We may have problems refinancing because it's harder now to get a jumbo loan. We'll make do with our 1991 Dodge Colt for a few more years. Two weeks until our Rio de Janeiro vacation!"

Why should I care whether my neighbours are in debt? Because I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong. Having both a humble background and children, or not applying for a nifty cashback with rewards credit card shouldn't be what I'm doing wrong. Budgeting slackness, inertia and attention-deficiency are what I could claim responsibility for and improve upon.

Somehow I never thought those Marc Jacobs clothes and trip to Paris were charged to a credit card, even though I knew the statistics about credit card debt.

And if I do buy clothes on my credit card, doesn't it ultimately matter how many statements it takes me to pay them off, rather than whether I use a credit card, debit card, cheque or cash? Considering how often I'm challenged for ID when I bring out my credit card, I might make more cash purchases. According to another blog, 80% of consumers do.