Spondulicks Forever!

Went ice skating today. Have not done this in over thirty years and it shows. I'm used to a bigger rink and there were so many young children with walkers that I didn't trust myself to pick up speed. It's a Christmas miracle there were no collisions. Some of us set blade to ice for the first time ever, and although we wore out fast, we all want to do this again.

Beautiful blue sky, we could see the peninsula and the water: another Christmas miracle there. Bought ingredients for Osso Buco: it's just us this year, but I still want something special if not gluttonous, so Osso Buco it is, plus blood oranges for juicing and Quebec/Vermont maple syrup for pancakes.

The supermarket was busy, the parking lot packed, but everyone was in good spirits -- Christmas miracle number three. A woman who staffed the till at a local retail shop recognized us. She noticed me after she muttered a four-letter-word in the spices aisle, and had looked over to see if my son had heard her. Good times!
--------------------
I pulled the trigger so to speak and threw some extra principal to our home equity line of credit. Officially now we have $100000 paid toward the house and unofficially I am 102 months and a bit ahead of schedule.
--------------------
Merry Christmas Festivus End-of-Year Gaiety. I hope my blog can let registered users comment okay.

Ever ask yourself if you can do better with your household finances? Ever follow up that question with how? Are you blessed with a mind that determinedly does NOT complicate a solution?

For me, two out of three ain't bad.

My credit union reduced its deposit interest rates (boo! hiss!). My reaction to this is that my $$ need better apportioning among: debt, emergency funds, planned expenditures, and investments. I do not expect 2014 to be as splendiferous to my house value and common stock value slopes.

My Money Market Fund is $2500 shorter than it needs to be for its interest rate to bump from 0.05 to 0.10%.
My CDs earn .35%

My math task will be to determine what three options have the best chance to save me more interest and increase my net worth.

$12,547.34 Heloc 12/15/2012 $411.38
$11,499.80 Heloc 12/15/2013 $363.19

Interest difference:

$109,034.67 Mortgage 12/1/2012 $4,232.48
$100,535.68 Mortgage 12/15/2013 $3,602.97

Interest difference:

$7,568.48 Money Market Account 6/28/2013
$8,800.35 Money Market Account 12/20/2013

0.35 % CDs
0.05 % Money Market Fund
----------------------------------------

Price of GE Dec 21, 2012: 20.88
Price of GE Dec 20, 2013: 27.36
Price of PG Dec 21, 2012: 68.74
Price of PG Dec 20, 2013: 81.84
Price of WAG Dec21, 2012 37.21
Price of WAG Dec20, 2013 59.04

House Value December 2012: $310000
House Value December 2013: $372500
----------------------------------
If you've read this far, and you can handle some whimsy and are of a certain vintage or nationality (you can be American and enjoy this, Americans recorded this, but my experience has been more Canadians than Americans roll their eyes at the opening chords; Americans, stay with the medley for your US-patented content, cued at 2:17), please enjoy Seattle band

The Squirrels (no relation to the Chipmunks). No video track, so safe to enjoy.

I have thoughts swarming and distracting me. In no particular order:

I mailed a parcel (no insurance) to the United Arab Emirates. Flying parcels over there is expensive. I had this idea that because my brother works at an institute of higher learning, somebody would sign for the parcel. It arrived at the building I addressed, but as my brother was away from his office teaching, it went away with the courier. I don't have a tracking # for it. It's the cost and effort that counts, right?

I am using whey protein shakes but I find I get hot flashes, despite use of coconut oil and coconut milk. Not that hot flashes in freezing temperatures aren't welcome, they just don't last long. I must do some research about cortisol, branched chain amino acids, female hormones and serotonin. Sleep is brief now because the cat, a South East Asian variety lacking a thick coat and fat, sleeps on us or beneath the covers, making rolling over burdensome. There are other cats, but he's on the wrong end of the pecking order (they hate him) for all of them to cuddle up with each other, and he won't go near my gentle, sensitive, kind child (no sarcasm here. Unfamiliar cats find my child more approachable. I genuinely don't understand the aversion).

I learned efficiency isn't luxury. I hate everything being cluttered but it's not like I get any help at home. At least no past-due statement calamities have happened. Such a bother determining what to toss and where; where to track down those folders and statements meant to go into those folders.

I am dreading dealing with ComputerShare to get replacement userid and password info. The credentials were lost to the hard disk drive. I know this is nothing compared to the Library of Alexandria's destruction, but chee!

My small comfort about this Target breach is that our credit cards and debit cards have already been replaced due to other breaches, after I started exclusively using the RedCard and cash at Target. Therefore only my Target shopping data may be compromised. Will Target close the account and issue a new one without my needing to request one?

It has snowed here. I have no real snowboots, only rainboots and fashion boots. I don't like wearing rainboots: my socks end up sliding down past my ankles or if they're already mid-ankle, past the heel. Do I have to wear garters?

Thank you for keeping your blogs lively, honest and true, and not blighting my eyes with passive, third-person toneless palaver about insurance or car loans or loan consolidation. Thank you to the eagle eyes who report those blogs so they are "smote into gobettes" by the vigilant site administrators.

I have something else, very budget related, but it's for a separate post. Stay tuned.

I've met my 7% principal debt payment goal for this year, time to ratchet the % up to 8% for 2014. I want to refinance our car note down to 1.74% or whatever the prevailing rate is for new. Hoping for 48 month term instead of 60. If not I shall invest the difference.

Winter for me means a monthly gas bill over $110. That's what ours came to for the past month. Not interested in reducing it. I feel, with blankets, newer windows, throws, insulation, and a programmable thermostat, we've done enough. That triple digit just shocks me. Fortunately the bill shrinks by the March statement.

A whole lot of things I want to do differently. Make my blog content more useful and find the useful contents on other blogs would be great. Save enough to buy a new mattress or refinish the wood floors.

Things I did well this year:
* correctly diagnosed executive functioning problem
* reduced car fuel costs by over 40%
* met my goals for debt
* identified my energy leaks
* found and am using effective weight loss and stress reduction routines
* learned to shop at Asian markets for cheap vegetables and fruits

If everyone who created SavingAdvice.com user accounts for the sole purpose of trawling the forums for W*k* *p N*w suckers or defending its value/payout structure started their own M*lt*-L*v*l M*rk*t*ng company, they'd be richer than they are now.

Why the asterisks? You know that search terms are what brought them here, right? You think they're bright enough to search with asterisks? I don't.
-----------------------------
Buendia, Life After Life was a terrific read. I had to put it down during the 1940 Blitz attacks, how Europeans then emerged from WWII devastation without post-trauma stress is beyond me, and because a bomb shelling killed Al Bowlly, my fave singer from that era, but I picked it up again and read. I perceive the headaches and heart strain as accumulated stresses of those other lives, and think Dr. Kellet must have gone through the same phenomenon, and possibly other characters.
------------------------------
I am slightly insane. Every four months I think of consolidating my debt, and now that I've been to MortgageProfessor.com, I see now that doing nothing is the cheapest plan. The MortgageProfessor doesn't allow me to calculate for a 12-year refinance though.
------------------------------
Mental note for 2014: Invest in data brokerage companies, 3-D printing companies.
------------------------------
Judging from a certain person's Dead Pool winner list (and current lead), I would say that SavingAdvice.com bloggers have a talent for getting more bang for their buck
------------------------------
More on slow-cooking: here's how to make over 30 meals in four hours -- frozen meal packs for slow cookers

link
------------------------------
I am a few dozen dollars away from reaching the $100000 principal paid milestone. Should I meet this milestone before the end of 2013, or should I combine it with my Mortgage Principal "Digit Drop" for an extra shot of New Year Joy?
---------------------------------
I met Ken Jennings. I have not been called for Jeopardy!, but if I had been, I couldn't tell anyone except people who would wonder why they are sleeping alone. He wished me luck. The great thing about triviahounds is that they are at no loss for conversation starters. We couldn't talk for long as he was tasked to sign and promote some of his favourite books at a bookstore, so there were awkward moments of looking to see if people were lining up. I will say that he and I have similar tastes in fiction, plus he is the only person on the planet so far with whom I have discussed Chip Kidd.

Having a great time saving money on the gas bill making stews, soups and ragouts, but some recipes I underestimate the time and effort for preparation (washing, peeling, chopping vegetables, trimming meat into fatfree cubes). A slow cooker is an ADHD person's dream. About three hours into cooking the food's aroma intensifies. Plus, it is a joy to go to a meats purveyor where the jolly souls educate me and give me good deals ("You want stroganoff? Forget this round steak business, we have ends from tenderloin and strip steak, sell 'em same price as round steak."), cut to any size I want. And their shanks for osso buco are bigger than those found at the supermarket.

It may snow. Just north of Thrifty Ray there is snow. I have a supply of logs, coffee, Kahlua and some hefty reading in case we are snowed in: Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End as I have the Frumious Bandersnatch, er, Benedict Cumberbatch film on hold; a short posthumous book by Canadian David Rakoff; a Kate Atkinson Novel; Agatha Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker. And Brian Eno's ambient CDs so we don't kill each other.

I am not giving you that Nintendo 3DS for Christmas. Sure I spent $$ on stuff for boy but two of those softcover gifts were signed to him personally by international luminaries, two I used coupons for, one I had to import but he yammers on the subject matter 60% of the time so I think it'll be money well-spent, and the one electronics game I bought was for $18.99. We know electronics obsolescence by our collection of obscure diskettes, and we know the longevity of books by the musty dusty ones we have downstairs.

I can't buy a $200 gift for you knowing that there are students at our kid's school who are freezing, and that lots of struggling families nationwide are on food stamps.

I think I'd like pajamas, warm sturdy socks, or maybe a family-use subscription to a VPN so we can keep the computer entertainment going.

I'm not quite at the 7% benchmark for debt repayment for HELOC and Mortgage, but could meet it by December 16. Wondering if I should throw an extra payment at the HELOC so I can have $100,000 principal payment achieved on the house by the end of the year. I'll also have the 20% mortgage paid off milestone reached too. Should I see what percentage of my original 30-year mortgage would be paid off by now?
Update: On March 1 2014 I'd have a balance of $134,518. I'd have paid $162657 in interest at that point.

Not in a big rush to have primary mortgage balance drop to five digits: give it five weeks and it will. Disheartening to see a leftside digit drop practically fifteen years after buying the house.

About planning for the future: the elderly couple down the street adopted a Siamese kitten. I told them how long Siamese cats live on average: they are the Okinawans of the cat world. You should have seen their faces. We should swap cats: they can have our two 14-year-old cats in exchange for the kitten.

Pretty sure I'm not going to win any of this year's Dead Pools. I've lost one sheet to the annihilated Hard Drive, another DP is shutting down because its admins are overcome by the scope of work (72 lists, 40-person lists) updating.

Still ambivalent about debt group attendance. I believe I am the only one counting her car loan and her mortgage, and I am grumpy about attending and listening to how others' parents help them with this and that. "To lose one parent is misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness." It's like listening to hedge fund managers complain about how their penthouse strata council won't let them put in fountains, or how their Cayennes have scratches.

I mean died. As in no hope of data recovery, unless I want to mail it to southern California. I am now inbetween the depression and acceptance phases of grief. And even then, I do not want other people to see what stuff I have on my HDD.

I do have an old Dell, which is not completely wiped. I also have DHs (sorry, I cannot use apostrophes as this Windows keyboard configuration has Canadian default keyboard character assignments on my American laptop. DH is in for a surprise when he turns on the Toyota SatNav Voice Guidance too... she will be speaking in metric, hee!

I am using the old Dell. And I have two-month-old backups. But gee! I am **crushed** by this data loss.
Tomorrow morning I was going to have my haircut and colour, and buy a birthday gift for the man who puts up with me (I do not deserve him but that is not an invitation), and all I will think about is the $$$ for all that plus a new hard drive with a five-year warranty.

People were kind to me, my husband and son are sad for my loss, and my preferred School Board director candidate won. Consolations. And we have some Microsoft Gratuity coming to us for usability participation. But Fornicate a Mallard! This data loss sucks!

1. Some of us had to drive to the other side of town (15 miles) for a two-game tournament day starting at 7:45 am, so a visit to a 24-hour diner was warranted.

2. By 9:30 am our side of town lost power, for nine hours. A windstorm knocked out electricity to several counties. I've not been without power for that long in this part of the world. We drove north another fifteen miles to eat midlunch/middinner at probably the only Czech/Hungarian restaurant in the western part of the state. The first time I had food there I cried, it was so good. They're open on Thanksgiving, as they are immigrants who don't have family nearby (as am I) so that's where I'm heading.

3. Friday night we had not much thawed, and 90 minutes before a free concert and horror movie, so we went to a happy hour at a local restaurant.
--------------------------------------------
Mortgage milestone: 20% paid! In 2014 I'll have $100K principal paid on the house and that will be very sweet to see the mortgage balance drop to the five-digits!

I never see my spouse's paystub: they aren't mailed to him. He does ask me how much per paycheque is to be placed in a HSA. I sum up and estimate two pair prescription glasses, my expensive eye drops, kid's dental exams, annual exams for me and for tot, divide by 26. Apparently my memory is not so good and we put in $4000 a year. Sure, that's great for when my drops run out, or a pair of specs shatter, but what if you never knew how much was in the account? What if you were paying out of pocket for expenses because you were unaware your spouse contributed 3x as much as you thought?

I think now maybe $1500 per year (not per pay period) would be better, especially with a car loan to pay back, because who likes budgeting take-home pay to where under twenty dollars is a surplus? but he's ratcheted the contribution to $113 per pay period.

This past weekend we hit the out-of-our-control milestone of $250K equity on our house. The last time that happened was 2007, but it plummeted. House is now valued at $55000 below peak, and we owe $55000 less than we did at that time. I used to believe that for every dollar of mortgage principal paid, the house equity would rise by an amount larger than a dollar. That's how it should work. Is our house overvalued? I don't think so. Everybody's house in our area was overvalued in 2006. The people who purchased between September and November 2006 have just this year achieved positive equity, after an excess of $65000 principal has been paid over seven years. If we'd the average 4% rise in home value over the last twelve months instead of the absurd 20% leap I'd probably be making the $250000 equity crowpost in summer of 2015, with an interest rate of 3.75% and a payoff date of August 2023.

And if no boom or bust cycle happened at all, with logarithmic growth of 4% annually, we'd have the $250000 equity benchmark in March 2014, owing $37000 more than we owe now, assuming 30 year mortgage and 6.625% interest, and a final payment due February 2029.

This tells me our area still hasn't fully recovered. This is why people who've seen boom and bust real estate cycles do not use their primary residences as ATMs.

The grocery strike threat prompted a re-examination of protein sources and advance plan of meals. I made a weekly plan and in that week we've had take'n'bake once, eaten out once, and had leftovers for three days. Why take'n'bake? We have a coupon book for local, "sustainable, green or organic" businesses and we haven't used all the coupons we want to yet. I bought two pizzas for $10.74. My closet is hurting for warm sweaters, thick socks and knit tops so I'll be hunting consignment stores in the next week.

So we entered a coffee shop, set to work on the Friday NYT crossword, when we heard "we're saved!" from the proprietor. Apparently there was a crossword already in progress, tackled communally. We helped out, discussed tech, mentioned interest in getting a Raspberry Pi, and lo! We were given a 17" flat screen TV with HDMI port for streaming Pi fun! Now for the Pi, SD card, USB keyboard and some cables. Also for our crossword help, we received a good tip on monthly government surplus auctions for PCs with no operating systems. I may save some $50... I want a cheap laptop for Linux work.

Clothes: bought socks for us all; whimsical frivolous socks -- mine have illustrations of a young moppet struggling with a wind-battered umbrella and slashing rain, saying "#*$% this ^!@&" (not really, the four-letter words are on the socks but I'm not typing them out) -- saved $5.40 there. I apologize to My English Castle for the brain-damaged punctuation of the last sentence. I see the use of plain cheap sturdy socks. At Value Village, using a 20% off coupon from the coffee shop, I purchased two sweaters for me, and a rain jacket for the boy. I have a branded pen from the coffee shop, again for free. The coffee shop saved us about $24 that time, five times the cost of our drinks. Saved four dollars at Fred Meyer outfitting boy with dress shirt for orchestra. Somehow I don't mind shelling out $ for the boy's clothes or school or books, but man, am I stingy with most everything else (except food implements).

Strike averted a few hours before deadline: that may explain why the food co-op I shopped for mass quantities of paprika was not crowded.

Ate out last night, but somewhere cheap and cheerful, as the pot roast for Goulash had not thawed out. I'd thought 18 hours in the refrigerator would work for a 0.8 kg chuck roast. Beans had soaked for all of two hours. Eating down the stores will be a little challenge: I have more footlong hot dogs than I know what to do with, so feel free to suggest recipes; for me, sharing URLs doesn't work in the comments but if you give me a collection of keywords and a site, my browser'll probably find them for me.

I am thankful to my family for being adaptable to my budget-guided cooking repertoire tweaks: they are okay with vegetarian. I made burritos for the first time and they turned out well. I change bean water frequently to reduce the pootin', but when it's cooler, the three seconds of warmth generated are welcome, you know?

But not really... the West Coast supermarket strike looms. Supermarket parking lots were full yesterday, but rather than gather provisions with the crowd, we thought to use our remaining independent-grocer and "green product" coupons that expire October 31 and order a 31 lb. bulk-box of meats from one county up. The independent grocery was so quiet and there was no wait for service, so we chatted a little with a checkout person about the impending deluge. The independent grocers have better music, believe it or not. I feel that Kroger/QFC tries to get rid of me with the music it plays.

I did notice that the independent grocery prices were not as low as Safeway's and Fred Meyer's, but I know where the cheap vegetables can be had. I don't know how long the strike is going to go on for, but my food budget will be highly uneven as we bulk-shop and eat down the remains. I feel we can last one three-month-supply of sugar, coffee, quinoa, canned vegetables and toilet paper at Costco, literally run to Target for last-minute incidentals, and head to ethnic markets (Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Mediterranean) for good deals on oils, beans and to Pacific Food Importers for spices.

Rudimentary Food Plan
Sunday: leftovers, maybe with udon.
Monday: That Hungarian Goulash thing
Tuesday: Lentil Soup
Wednesday: Black Bean Soup
Thursday: Spaghetti con Tonno
Friday: Red Bean & Quinoa Chili
Saturday: Wieners & Sauerkraut
---------------------------------
Our favourite video store is struggling, and to be honest, I'd been watching films and TV shows on YouTube and European websites and from our local library; however, these films and TV shows I watch online are not available (yet) on DVD. I feel everyone except corporations is struggling, so we renewed our 10-rental-pack. Maybe I need to budget 3-5% of our takehome income for "saving the struggling" like schools.

This week we learned that my mom's old Hobart KitchenAid food processor is missing two shafts. I've had her 1979 12-cup processor for fourteen years but used it only three times because the set-up seemed arduous and let's not kid, 20 lbs is a heavy weight for a food processor. I scouted the Web to find out what the attachments not shown in the KFP-700 manual were, then learned that Hobart recreated its model and accessories for other companies, so we could still get shafts, although they are pricy. I do want to use all four slicing discs, and I don't want to use the "Whole Body Feed Tube" every time I want to shred carrots or cabbage so maybe I'll treat myself and experiment with the KFP-700 recipes. I kept thinking "hmm, seven minutes to assemble a food processor, or seven minutes to hand-grate or use Cutco knives on vegetables. Which is faster? Which involves less cleanup?"

Even our credit union is changing the terms of our credit card, from fixed to variable. I sense either yet another impending economic collapse in the US, or that credit usage is greatly reduced and less frequently utilized.

I am now understanding that our credit union struggles, first with the reduction of interest in our savings and chequing accounts, then with the shift from fixed to variable rates for our credit card. I thought they shifted to variable in 2009: I haven't been keeping up.

I am disenchanted with my debt group. I am considering a break until I get my mortgage down to a five-digit figure. I feel left out because I am neither on Facebook nor do I have diabetes. All I have to talk about is reduction of interest.

Another gripe I have: it seems every three days I am buying $20-$24 worth of vegetables and fruit. They go fast!

Trying a new approach to what I put in my stomach, after three weeks of Pop-Tarts. Daily morning lemon squeezed into water has given me new energy. Plus, I put a teaspoon of cinnamon in my daily coffee. The first night I woke up feeling my stomach was incinerating its contents. I have yet to establish a baseline for weight loss though: 100% of the time I feel urge to lose weight is when my pants are tighter around the waist and 24-48 hours later my period shows up. Has anyone had success with a plan from Timothy Ferriss' The Four-Hour Body?

Also going for more black beans and lentils, because it is turning to soup weather here, and I love the extra iron from lentils when my period comes. Mostly though, 4-6 ounces of lentil is cheaper ($0.55) than 4-6 ounces of meat ($1.60). I did pick up veal scalloppine at 50% off: my big thrill of October. I still love meat: I am just choosing to have it less often and be more creative about eating down my stores.

So:
Sunday - Marinated Roast Beef (30% off)
Monday - Turkey Breast (Thanksgiving)
Tuesday - Lentil Soup, probably with bacon
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - New York Strip Steak
Friday - Roast Chicken w/Red Peppers and Tomatoes
Saturday - Black Bean Tostados

What was good:
I saved 11% of the takehome pay. The child found a $10-off supermarket coupon and we used it. I earned 8 gas rewards (80 cents a gallon off our next fill-up).
Assets up 1.4% from last month
Debt down 0.8%
Free tasting of Ethiopia coffee @ Starbucks.

What was not good about September
Gold price falling.
Stocks dropping.
Supermarket closing.

The savings surplus is really just deferred spending. I'd like to begin allocating $ to debt and investment. I could pay off one of the debts in full but I am too chicken to do that right now.

Today I mailed a check purchase of Walgreen (WAG) stock. Each quarter I download Value Line sheets and check Standard & Poor's Stock Reports. If the Investment "Intelligence Quotient" for one of my companies' stock is higher than my own IQ, and if the projected annual return is 300% of my highest debt APR, along with a Price to Sales Ratio under 2, or at least the lowest Price to Sales Ratio of the stocks I own, I will buy it. Hence, Walgreen. It helps that Walgreen is expected to have more customers as more Americans receive access to healthcare.

I will make an initial purchase of company stock if the company has a Direct Purchase Plan and outperforms my existing holdings.

The heavy windstorm impacted us thusly: brief flicker @ 8:19 pm Sunday.

Triple paycheque month is officially November, but as the mortgage is next due November 1 I may make October the month no mortgage actually is paid. The extra $ no doubt will go to the lovely, sweet, mellow and indulgent Sagittarians in my life, and to holiday gifts.

That's right, caffeine achievers! Sunday September 29 is National Free Coffee Day! And even Tim Hortons is participating!

Consumerist has the scoop from a Parade article.

I copied and pasted seven offers for your java delectation:

Caribou Coffee: Enjoy a complimentary small coffee of the day at participating Caribou Coffee stores. You'll need to download and print a special National Coffee Day coupon from Facebook, and bring it with you, or show it on your mobile device when placing your order.

Dunkin' Donuts: You'll need the Dunkin' Donuts mobile app to get your free small hot or iced coffee on National Coffee Day. (The app is free for Apple and Android devices.) Once you've downloaded the app, look for this freebie coupon under "offers." Also, on Saturday, September 28, and Sunday, September 29, Dunkin' has discounted coffee that you take home and brew. A one-pound bag of Dunkin' Donuts packaged coffee is just $5.99 (limit 2 per customer); regular price is $8.99. And a box of K-Cups goes for $7.99 per carton (limit 2 per customer); normally, K-Cups cost $11.99 per carton.

International Delight Creamer: You can score a free bottle of International Delight Creamer by visiting the brand's Facebook page, and entering its contest to win a case of Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer. Everyone who enters is emailed a coupon for a free bottle, redeemable at the supermarket.

Krispy Kreme: Choose between a freebie or a dollar deal at Krispy Kreme. You can start your coffee consumption with a free 12-ounce cup of hot coffee at participating Krispy Kreme U.S. and Canada locations. Then you can move on to one of the shop's specialty coffee drinks, such as the Pumpkin Spice Latte, which can be had for only $1 (12-ounce size only).

Peet's Coffee & Tea: Stop in at a Peet's Coffee & Tea location, order any baked item or a bowl of Simply Oatmeal, and you'll receive a free small maple latte. Note: this offer is good from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. only, with this coupon, and is not redeemable at Peet's airport, supermarket, or transit locations.

Starbucks: To celebrate the launch of Ethiopia, a new coffee blend at Starbucks, participating locations will offer free coffee tastings of this new blend. Also, anyone who purchases a one-pound bag that day will receive a complimentary Ethiopian-inspired commemorative ceramic cup, while supplies last.

Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop: Say "Happy National Coffee Day" when you place your coffee order at Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop, and you'll get a free coffee with the purchase of another coffee.

More of my stock accounts are heading to ComputerShare. I am not happy with the new security policy of 14 day wait for account identity verification. I am happy that I thought to enter my son's UTMA account into ComputerShare last year. This year, he wants THI but I may surprise him with KO (Coke). Sure wish there were more kid-oriented or Canadian S&P 5-star rated companies on ComputerShare.

DH may apply for a FT perm pos at his former lead's current employer. All I know is that it's a healthcare IT gig.

In an unusual move I took our phone with us out to lunch and it rang! My spouse answered it: it was a third number the previously mentioned political action committee used to phone me, and the third call they made to me today. (Again, debt collectors do not call three times a day.) He told them we had no money for them. Here's hoping this ends their calls.

Grocery workers in our region voted in favour of a strike. Weighing my options: Costco (beat the rush), local small Mediterranean food market, Target, farmers' markets, local farm produce market. For fish I can go to Fisherman's Terminal, blessing of living by the sea. Yeah, this isn't going to bother me much except for the lines and crowds at my identified alternates.

Free Museum Pass Day sponsored by the Smithsonian is in two days. I printed out a pass for the EMP Museum yesterday.

In Dead Pool news, I missed my chances to watch "Love Story" and "Honey I Shrank the Kids" yesterday. I saw one musical segment of "Mame" and learned today Jane Connell, who played Agnes Gooch in "Mame," died. I saw "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" yesterday and learned today Marta Heflin died that day as well. You better hope I didn't read any of your blogs yesterday...

On August 15 I used CC#2 for a fuel purchase instead of CC#1 because the spouse and I were racking up all kinds of expenses between the two of us. CC#2 was scheduled to be decommissioned as the account had been compromised. CC #2.2 was sent to us and authorized before the August trip. I have not used CC #2.2.

39 days have passed and I have not received a statement from the credit card issuer for either CC#2 or CC#2.2. I have telephoned the 24-Hour Customer Service line for both accounts to learn I have no outstanding balances.

Outstanding.
----------
I have a cold. I was going to post about that yesterday and autumn arriving but I wasn't thinking in my mother tongue (English) and took the fact I wasn't mentally composing anything in English as a sign of delirium. French language has a terrific phrase for it: "attraper un bon rhume" (catch a good cold, only good is used as strong here, not beneficial).

Someone left ten cents credit in the photocopier, so I paid a nickel for my Saturday New York Times crossword.

Although the ginger root was horribly overpriced at my local supermarket (no gas used), someone in front of me left forty-two cents in the change pocket. Whee!

And although I did not save lots of cash at Safeway, I did get seven gas rewards for $60 expenditure.

I like Linux Mint and want to play with it more, but can't rationalize another PC purchase. If I'm going to spend over a hundred dollars on something it'd be an interview outfit.

Dinner for the week ahead:
Beef/Broccoli stir-fry
Roast Beef w/Yorkshire Pudding
Chicken Breasts someway that makes them moist and mustardy
Fish (Probably salmon, or maybe mussels)
Spaghetti con Tonno (that's tuna, mio caro)
Marinated Roast Beef
Spaghetti Carbonara

If I had * million dollars:

The move to north of the border is one action all the family agrees on. They don't really know/care where, as long as it's in a safe, walkable neighbourhood of a city. I care, but they trust me to know where to land.

Public or private school? Don't know.

Donate enough for the barista/cook who survived a mass shooting at my fave coffeehouse to pay for his surgeries and a year's worth of counselling therapy.

Get scooter properly maintained, or a new one, or maybe just use bicycles when we move somewhere flat.

Overseas trips to destinations south of 37N and north of 35S in the winter (except New Zealand, would happily dip below 35S for Kiwi land), but not to those places where I have to cover my head and neck because of my already covered mommy parts.
Overseas trips to destinations between 55N and 42N during summer months.

1st class international flights or premium economy flights. Stalk my fave composer in a southwest London borough until I get him to talk to me by asking him for directions. Then when he gives them to me, leave him in peace.

Redo will.

Roadtrip to southern Oregon. Rail trip to Los Angeles. Rail trip to Toronto.

Start a business. Start three. Learn to program and troubleshoot properly. Learn to invest other people's money.

Transaction Fees for your most common credit card transactions aren't changing, but fees for the following less frequently used transactions are increasing
* ATM Cash Advances
* Over the Counter (OTC) Cash Advances
* Wire Transfer Purchases
* Cash Equivalents
* Same-Day Online Cash Advances

The fee for these transactions will be 5% of the transaction amount or a minimum of $10 when the transaction amount is less than $200.

Why? I don't use any of those. I used my card eight times over the past five years and always paid in full by the statement's payment deadline. Is it because I bought a car? My credit union credit card hasn't (yet) given notice it'll change its terms and conditions, but this national bank did.

The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was get a credit card with this issuer sixteen years ago. Did anyone else get this message too?

The card issuer keeps changing its terms and conditions, and minimizing any rewards, to penalize me for using the credit card. I wonder why.

Although we used half as much water as last year our water bill came out to be about the same. This tells me the recycling and yard waste got pricey.
I'm on track to exceed paying 7% of my total debt by December 31. That is a lowered expectation as none of my debts have amortization periods longer than 12 years.

What isn't a lowered expectation is the reward I dangle for the boy if he manages to score in the top 10% of kids in his grade for end-of-course state standardized test performance. This year he gets a treat of his choice as he actually did that in one tested subject. So a little budget blowout.

I originally offered him tickets to a NHL game at the city closest to us but found that the cost of tickets before service charges and Harmonized Sales Tax is $115-$160/person. This doesn't include food, souvenirs, currency conversion premiums, parking, gas or overnight stay (closest hockey city is in another country). Plus the tickets sell out fast. I dunno why Pittsburgh, a city with half the population, can afford two of the priciest NHL players in the league (Evgeny Malkin and Sidney Crosby) and have half the ticket costs of Vancouver, yet have Stanley Cup rings, and in Vancouver one defenseman took a salary cut (earning 12% of what Malkin or Crosby earns) to extend his contract with the franchise. The Vancouver Canucks hockey club has 400+ consecutive sellouts in an arena with over 18000 capacity, so you can't tell me there's no interest in hockey up here.

My kid said he'd be fine going to the other country and having treats at a 1940s-style soda fountain/ice cream parlour , with rickeys, malts, egg creams up there (they even dress like soda jerks with the paper wedge hats and smile when you call them soda jerk). We do not have Farrell's or

Brooklyn Farmacy or Serendipity 3 or Crown Candy or The Fountain on Locust or anything fun like that. Our favourite custard place within 3 miles of us is closing at the end of the month.

The political action company left me alone, two days after my previous posting. Wonder if they read it.

I vowed to put my found money toward debt repayment: I've managed 27 cents. I am no baselle. The supermarket where my son and I scavenge the self-check stations has now put multiple bright yellow stickers on each station reminding shoppers to pick up their change. Probably because of us. There are some university students renting a house down the street who almost always spill money on the sidewalk. My kid found a $10 Canadian bill in downtown Vancouver so he's a prodigy. I take him with me for grocery shopping because his superpower is finding money or cheap deals and coupons or good lotto bets.

I can think of two Savings Advice forum topics that won't die. I become the Incredible Snark when I read updates on the active one. I haven't posted there because: I don't want to contribute to the topic's lifespan; people have contributed cogently and respectfully thoughts that I would be prone to express in a way such that would at least get me a warning from an SA forums monitor; I've hit my limit on alienating SA people.

A local political action firm has been calling me six-seven times a week since August 22. Debt collectors don't call that often. Both debt collectors and local political action firms use restricted phone numbers and don't leave messages. I know it's not a debt collector because we are current on all our bills and I've chased away those looking for people who've used this phone number on their credit apps by citing the Fair Debt Collection Protection Act in mail and by phone.

The correct protocol is to answer and say "remove me from your list." I know this. Last year I was bullied by a caller from this political action committee (there is only one that contacts me) into agreeing to send money, even though I said how long I'd been out of work and the money left at the end of the month was little. The canvasser said they had quite a few members who used food banks. She didn't say how many had children.

Ungh.

Given a choice between expensive medications to slow my eventual blindness and the political action firm contribution, I'd take the meds; between a week at the already-stretched food bank with my family to preserve $$ for the PAC and buying fresh farm food, I'd buy the fresh food; between outfitting my child for a three-day eco-learning required school activity in the Olympic National Forest and giving to the PAC the PAC loses out. The political action firm isn't working for my benefit if they're making money off the indigent and unemployed. If "remove my data from your list" doesn't work, I'll give them a list of the vagrants living under viaducts and a list of freeway offramp panhandlers as "contribution prospects." At least the vagrants and panhandlers without children.

I don't answer the phone because I want their time wasted. The more elusive and inaccessible I am, the more they'll perceive me as a highly valued tantalizing treasure. Then I can answer and say, "The Man From Del Monte he say... 'oooh sod off.'"

Badaba DA da DA da, feelin' snarky...

The only progress I seem to be making is decreasing my debt.

My assets value (stocks, CDs, bonds, precious metals) have increased in the past twelve months by 0.5%. Mostly because one CD gets $25 added to it monthly, and the bonds always go up.

I have six-figure debt, so reducing it by 9.7% annually is not terrible, but that and the big uptick in home market value appreciation are making me look good. I don't have cash flow, I have cash drip.

What we spent money on:
$31.07 - fill up car gas tank for 464 miles. We finally input our gas costs, so the Pious computer can display how much we spend from point A to point B. Five kilometres = 25 cents.

$47.94 - one of our supermarkets is closing. The savings aren't all terrific: some amazingly bloated prices, like $6.32/lb for frozen berries (get real); 30% off $11 bottles of Rao's pasta sauces. No thanks to that! We did save on bagged cereals, the baking soda, and wines; I'll come back for stewed and diced canned tomatoes. I'm sad about the market closing: it was part of a northwest Washington state chain, and now no supermarkets in our county, the most populous one in the state, exist.

$20.75 - Value Village thrift store: kid needs some rugged shirts for Peninsula trip in November; DH selected some gaudy Hawaiian shirts. Filler paper.

$24.55 - apparently lost book. What I remember is taking it to a library (probably the wrong system). And my child's overdues. The overdues will come from his account.

$31.93 - acid reducer BOGO. two packs jerky, two jars preserves, olive oil and super glue.

Maybe I won't have to buy anything this week other than next year's local "green" coupon book, if even that. I'd like to pay some of the credit card balance, and stash some $ into the tot's savings account.

I cannot refinance our vehicle loan, even though the rates have dropped a half-percent from what they were earlier this year, because we've had our loan only seven months. I don't feel like extending our mortgage another two years for a mere fifty-dollar per month saving. We're saving $44 more than last year because we no longer rent an instrument and a router.

The good stuff:
Paid more than 18% of our mortgage in two years! Spotted a quarter on the floor of the closing supermarket.
Received a free automated car wash courtesy of my auto dealership.
Made personal edition of LUSH's well-loved "Ocean Salt" scrub with ripe avocado, coconut milk, Dead Sea Salts, witch hazel and lemon juice. Shoulda used lime... saved $$.

This is the funniest and real retail coupon savings hack I've read from Lifehacker. For those club savings offered by retail loyalty cards linked to a phone number, or even when corporate retail cashiers ask you for your phone number, give them the area code you're currently shopping in and

eight six seven five three oh ni-yee-ine...

Another little hack, although I suspect this is limited to people in Buffalo, Detroit, Bellingham, and Escondido/San Juan Capistrano/San Diego, Corpus Christi...
ask the retail staff if they accept "the colourful currency." I've now had "the colourful currency" accepted south (a mile, 1.6 km) from where I live.

I've been thinking of what to do next month. So many ways I could improve myself: I may purge -- I could get a lot done. I have to design my kid's after-school schedule. Maybe one challenge a day, then build up. One thing he wants is Tim Horton International stock. He has some stock already in a no-brainer company, but this one I want him to study. I want him to learn how to find an annual report, and to read one. Then I'll teach him what ratios are worth looking at, and why. I'll show him some calculations to determine the future value of this stock, and appropriate buy points. This sounds heady, but when it comes to money my child is precociously sharp.

We're not moving north. My spouse is working on his resume for a FT job at the company for which he presently contracts (he used to be a FTE). He'd have to commute in every day. We'd either stay put, or move a mile north, or (gulp) southeast (12 mi SE: I have no basis for comparison with any other state of the union, and 90+% of them are southeast of us, so don't think I mean your habitat).

My credit union has cut our savings account interest rate down to 4%. I may toss some money into my son's account to get some of that six percent action.

Getting this down while it's still fresh:

Readers of this blog'll know I had a "time out" away from home, and that we've been "kinda" working on moving. In my dream we had gone as far as divided time between our house and an "efficiency apartment"-style hotel, our room in a cheery-but-bordering-on-ghastly yellow-orange-white combo. The day after I arrived from my time in the homeland I "woke up" (those dreams you wake up in, and you're not yet sure if you're dreaming or waking from a real dream) my spouse gave me coffee and a western noir paperback novel written by someone with a name like "Troy Deering" or "Travis Newman" or "Trevor Phelps", remaindered from Sparks (Nevada, not the band). I went to the bathroom where several flies hovered near the toilet.

My spouse also gave me the bill of room charges: $147000.

"How did this happen?" I sputtered. "How long have I been away? Why didn't you do anything?"
He shrugged. "Why is this my problem? It's not a big deal. It's only money."

My clue as to how this could have happened came at 10 pm that night, when a service employee came in with our complimentary Pop-Tart: only it looked more like a Kind Bar than a Pop-Tart. The service employee opened the mini-bar which had gigantic Canadian candy bars: Mr. Big, Coffee Crisp, Crunchie, Sweet Marie: those were $10 each.

Addendum In the same hotel room I was having a late night conversation with a pushy well-known stats nerd (name rhymes with "Tate Wilbur") where he was attempting to pressure me into a whole-night "friendliness session" (this is a family website, so beware of euphemisms). I tried telling him my spouse was due home at 1:45 am and I had a 1:08 am "friendliness session" booked already so an all-nighter was out of the question. Apparently I was wh*r*ng myself out to lonely nerds to make ends meet.
This addendum helped me to analyze my dream, believe it or not. The Signal and the Noise was the book I read before nodding off to sleep...

Soundtrack

The bummer of returning home is to see how much the finances resemble 1942 Guadalcanal or 1917 Vimy Ridge and having sole responsibility of cleaning that mess up.

Il buono
I paid my optometrist bill. Isn't it odd how some people are keenest to pay the creditors who've positioned themselves as given the customer a break? My bill wasn't overdue but as I don't know what balance is on the high-deductible health spending account, I postponed payment for a few salary payperiods. There was enough $$ in the HSA for my eye exam, yay. The optometry office staff treat me so well I feel abject and unworthy.

I sacrificed my vanity scooter plate to save $32 on my license tab renewal. I knew hubby would pout but I said "Virtual Private Network" to him.

The entrepreneurial tot got his 1995 Topps Larry Walker (MLB:Expos,Rockies,Cardinals) card signed, multiplying his card's worth by 5000%.

il brutto

I have forgotten when my spouse gets paid. When yesterday I dared peek at our chequing account balance it was around $1900. So I am guessing he gets paid next week. I left the spouse with $300 in the account on August 5, I know that much. He has the password to our credit union online access, but he's not ON IT like I am fifty weeks of the year.

Update: He was paid today
I deduce that he must have used the credit card for everything, looking at our CC balance.

I have a serious case of the wants after house-sitting a "monster" designer house in the burbs. Not the size of the house: too much to clean! Not the electronics: too many manuals to keep and read! But furniture: I could use a dinner table that doesn't rock, a better organization system in the kitchen and bedrooms. And here the 2014 IKEA catalogue tempts me.

il cattivo

Scooter insurance payment gets mailed today.

Most school supplies have been purchased. My boy is ramping up toward manhood (learning to cook, absorbing Facts of Life/Birds and Bees, acquiring first USB drive--RadioShack tried to interest me in a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes character drive, but I declined: dignity is crucial to the tween).

I don't know where this is in the buono/brutto/cattivo Venn Diagram, but very little changed in our fridge during our absence. Condiment-heavy fridge shelf, vegetable crispers untouched. I did not see any pizza boxes or empty beer bottles/cans. I do see that most of our frozen meat stash has gone. I have to do another inventory, but I can safely state that a Costco trip for bath tissue and paper towels is due.
That's what I'll do: play "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" on my mp3 player while I shop at Costco.

-----------------------------
Lagniappe: Most common questions/comments I received in British Columbia
"So how's that marijuana legalization working out?"
"Now you know why we shop for dairy in Washington!"
(seriously, how can veal be so affordable but milk be so pricy up there?)

And I love hearing "Welcome back" from Americans. (I never get "Welcome back" from Canadians, ever.)