Here is my obligatory Veterans Day salute to those who endured horrors and fought for our countries. I will support them by supporting the legislators who fight for veterans' benefits and I will hold thoughts for my and my husband's grandfathers who served in WW II. I will also be extra patient to my cousin who has PTSD like so many people who served in Iraq.

Okay. I'm at home, I made a $1261 payment to our credit card, and have $900 left to go. This week was the first time in four months I looked at the statement (I paid on time, I just couldn't bear the guilt of the gluttony). I'm now wary of upcoming expenses: birthdays birthdays holidays in late November over here. I probably shouldn't have made so large a payment on a month when my heating bill, water bill will shoot up.

Despite our new space heater working in the living room, my cat is not leaving me alone unless I choose to be with my son. Beds, blankets, heaters, fires, and my cat wants me.

My friend "Thuc Ly" and I plan to spend maybe 20-30 minutes at least once a month discussing stocks. I am stodgy and literally by-the-numbers, looking at the online Value Line Reports. I don't know how she screens for her prospective stocks, although I know she follows Green Sheets equities, but I do trust her judgement, as I told her the name of a company whose stock I was following and she riposted with the trading symbol. We're not talking Dow 30 stocks either. I am learning to trust opening up to people.

I am cleaning up the rooms today, setting fire to things with my son, stoked on caffeine and tyrosine. Purges and wipes!

I am more than halfway through a novena for my brother, my cousin and me, and I'm seeing job-search activity (interviews, phone conversations) but of the flaky/confusing type. Like going on one interview with agency B's representation, and talking about a job in the same group agency A sent my resume in for. Awkward! I probably won't get agency B's job, which is a bummer, but there stands a chance of getting the agency A job, only agency A didn't set up the interview. I can see Agency B's viewpoint that they worked to get me the interview, so they should get representation rights. Agency A also doesn't offer 401(k) and medical benefits, whereas not only does Agency B but Agency B would give me a higher rate. Plus Agency B has placed me in three contracts consecutively.
update: found $2300 while cleaning up the house. woohoo! let's hear it for caffeine and tyrosine!

Several readers have likely seen the New York Times article about Samantha Smith, the children's dance teacher who ate an Angus Beef Patty with Bacon and Cheese, processed by Cargill, and had food poisoning so awful she was in a coma for nine weeks (doctor-induced, to stop her convulsions) and became a paraplegic.

I had stopped buying commercial meat, except for the Public Market or local butcher shops, two years ago, without knowing of Ms. Smith's horrific experience. My fear that companies don't fess up to unsafe additives or practices until hundreds of thousands of people get sick or die, combined with Food Labeling laws that allow food manufacturers and processors to limit listing ingredients to what they want the customer to know, led me to limit my supermarket shopping. Now I find that Costco has its own meat processing plant so its private label ("Kirkland") products have stringent safety standards, although they probably don't control for what the animals and birds eat before they get slaughtered. Still, better than Cargill's shoddy food safety practices. In a deregulated market a company can get away with pretty much anything. I might try buying meat again from Costco, although we've had some success opening up our protein choices to include more fish and chicken. Once a month, though, my iron needs replenishing, and a 6-8 oz. steak from a pasture-fed martyr does the job nicely.
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Eight-Week Home Cure

I am eager to try this. Slowly we are changing our house so it more closely resembles a restful retreat. Now it looks like all three of our ADD-afflicted minds exploded. It's the Toxic Brain Dump. We've replaced our child's curtains that he's had since infancy with blackout shades, my husband has painted most of downstairs, and we're visiting the dump to discard our accumulated waste. Soon I hope to suppress or eliminate the bioelectronic urge in my head to borrow 18 books, 3 DVDs and 2 CDs from the library. I think my brain must be bulimic. Gorge Gorge Gorge info and new ideas. Hwaaaaaaaugh: no nutrients (good ideas put into practice) stay in the head.
I am hoping to stick with the Green Cure, like I hope to start a novena and a regular exercise program.

Slowly coming along to organizing. I may be able to plan dinner entrees by the week. One complication/pitfall I have is that some seafood I like to buy demands to be prepared/cooked as soon as possible, so I am unsure about buying mussels, for example, on Saturday and waiting until Tuesday to fix them. Yet mussels and clams can be economical and very nutritious: Vitamin C, iron, phosphorus, Omega-3 fatty acids, manganese and Vitamin B12.


Reading a great book on parent-child attachment relationships by a psychologist and a physician, both from Vancouver: Hold On to Your Kids. I recommend it for people with kidlets or planning to have kidlets. It's made me reflect on our attachment behaviours, and has given me new ideas for corrective, natural discipline.

The spouse and I arranged to bring up the Thomas & Friends train table our son had for several years to the children's consignment store. He brought up the frame, I carried the table leaves. We were ninety feet from the store when a woman and her mother-in-law asked us if we were planning to sell it to the store they just left.

A conversation ensued. They bought our table, drove my husband to the house, while I walked with the mother-in-law (displaced by the bulk of the table in the vehicle). They bought the trains too. We are $65 richer from our four-block walk. This is great: our basement is gaining space! How serendipitous!

My natural gas utility is requesting a double-digit reduction in rates this winter as apparently there are ample resources for us to make it through the winter.

Looking forward to getting monthly bills under $175 through 2009-10.

...because reboots are for installations, only.

http://templates.services.openoffice.org/ has OpenOffice templates. The more I play with Ubuntu the more opportunities I see for it to meet or surpass Windows applications, with the exception of iTunes. I have found journalling software, mortgage acceleration sheets, menu planners, invitation templates and media players.

I might get rambunctious and attempt PostGres SQL or mySQL with some XML, just to keep my skills sharp.

The good news is that I'm 10% up over 2006's year-end. I lost the December 2007 data when my iPod was accidentally reformatted. More good news: I have a positive net worth.

My pessimistic estimate is that my net worth will go down by 7.9%, even though I will do my best to save 25% of our gross income in retirement funds, HELOC repayment, mortgage prepayment, and something my inner doomsayer is calling "Seattle Skedaddle." Gash and gollars.

I've identified six charities and non-profits, two non-profit advocacy groups and four publicly funded radio stations to fund in 2009.

Happy New Year to you, dear reader. Be well, do good work, stay positive.

I'm all aflutter about what's happening in Ottawa right now, and sad about the much-too-early loss of Calculated Risk finance blogger Doris Dungey ("Tanta"), but here are some preliminary notes, cribbed from last year:

Goals

Savings:
45% of annual gross income, to be distributed among:
mortgage payoff: $1200
emergency fund: ideally $15,000
long-term savings: ideally $5,000
replacement car: ideally $14,000
home improvement: ideally $10,000
garden: ideally $800
kid's stock plan: $1200
Roth IRA: $5000

How much to save:
Somewhere between $6000 and $50000.

How much to pay down
This might sound counterintuitive, but I want always to have at least 55% equity in my house. I want to be above average in how much is owing on the house, and how much equity I have. Currently I am at 59.59%. With luck I will be back above 60% by March.

What upcoming expenses do you need to plan/save for

trip to Japan
car

What to buy, what not to buy
2009 will be a year of frugality, with the exception of a laptop and emergency replacements.
Limiting number of cash charity recipients to six this year, and political action groups to two.

What accounts do you need to open/close/consolidate

The taxable E*Trade account might eventually be sold. When I read about its eventual sale, I will transfer it to where I have my other accounts.

The Save Yourself Suze Orman Plan: close after April 18
Add personal chequing account to PayPal: remove dead account.

What do you need to teach your kids/spouse this year about finance
the glory of compound interest. 0.075 > 0.0025.
trickle-up economics
what to do or invest in in a depression/recession
dividends

What do you want to educate yourself on more
bookkeeping
organic gardening
Elliott Waves and Kondratieff Cycles
the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
developing Web Parts for SharePoint 2007
nutrition
not really education, but Iris Murdoch and the rest of the Rabbit Angstrom novels and many Philip Roth novels I have not yet read, and I'm not proud of that.
MCSE

What do you want to do better in 2009 then you did in 2008

reduce my waist size to 28
stick to a frequent exercise routine
develop and stick to a cleanup routine and schedule that includes the family
track expenditures
eat more raw food
network locally
avoid bad drivers -- OMG! I have my Zune/PDA/GPS/DVD: what do I have to pay attention to traffic for? -- I don't need these people. Insurance companies do.
volunteer or give more
declutter my house -- Freecycle, sell on half.com and craigslist

P.S. I express gratitude for my inner oracle for counselling me five months ago to wait until December 1 to buy stocks. I doubled up on PAYX and took a stake in JNJ.

We ordered appliances yesterday for the kitchen: $1710. We'll be paying for those with credit card, and then from savings when the bill is due.

I reread the HELOC terms and conditions, and saw a condition about suspending the credit line when the market value of the property is significantly below its appraisal value at the time of borrowing. That hasn't happened yet -- we borrowed just before our property received its highest ever assessment, but unless the County decides it doesn't need as much of our property taxes, the assessment will go down. By how much remains to be seen.

I should do some reading about the conditions that urge a lender to REDUCE the HELOC, and conditions that urge the lender to SUSPEND it.

Considering goals for 2009 -- I see some planners are mulling theirs over already. My goals shift from month to month, it seems: something always happens. Nebulous nice-to-haves would be getting the hubby to save for his retirement this year, having an equal amount saved for the replacement car as there is owing on the HELOC, and return of automatic investment into boy's Coverdell account.

Links du Jour:employers suspending 401(k) matching

American Express seeks cash advance -- considering its credit record, and ability to pay, how much APR would you assign to AXP if it came to you for money?

12/01/2022 look at those lovely twos, and zeroes, and ones. Eight months shaved -- [insert Sesame Street Count laugh]. Do you think the Count loves to do his taxes? "Four lovely Schedules! Uh uh uh uh aaahhh! Ten terrific itemized deductions! Uh uh uh uh aaahhh! I do not fill in... 1040EZ forms." Do you suppose he approaches paroxysms of ecstasy calculating the Alternative Minimum Tax and annualization of stock option gains?

I suppose you're going to tell me the Count works for the IRS, bloodsucker that he is.

My goal next year: to surpass in retirement contributions what we spend on principal, interest, insurance and property tax.

Coming up next: Grover and Elmo as daytraders.

I delivered my November mortgage payment this morning. I had hoped to be cheery, and wrote a cute note of gratitude to wrap around my cheque. However, the vibe I got from the bank (8:45 am) was not chipper, not informed (I was asked to endorse my payment). I removed my cheque from my envelope, and kept my note hidden.

I just want to celebrate the fact that 20% of my mortgage principal has been paid off. For those of us who are reducing debt and saving and building equity, we know the thrill of bounding over an early hurdle.

I know my savings tribe will share in my celebration, even if the bank wasn't in a mood to. I treated myself to a Viennese mocha from Dilettante en route to the bus stop as a reward.

Phew! I had worried that I forgot to make BEARX part of my automated purchase plan. That's not the case! I don't have the r-to-the-power-of-3s (write it out, math geeks) to look at my balance. Other things gnawing at my nerves.

401(k): down 40%
Rollover IRA: down 10%
Roth IRA: I CAN'T LOOK.

Link du Jour: Dividend Stock Investment Strategy

1. The contingency part of my remodel budget is sadly getting a workout. Water/drain supply issues and new circuits. Perhaps the solution to the plumbing issue will result in fewer leaks and lower water usage costs.

2. People in my life are being more open with their finances. This is comforting and refreshing, for I was a stresscookie due to believing I was failing to keep up. Several families are sharing experiences in redoing their "never touched" kitchens. There's some relief in buying a home that hasn't changed ownership in 50 years, but there are some headaches too.

3. Milestones reached this week:
20% spending on the kitchen (no reward);
40% costs for Osaka;
90% annual 401(k) contribution;
75% annual Roth IRA contribution;
20% proposed saving for replacement 4-wheel covered vehicle (no reward)

Rewards:
close to retail priced item of clothing (shoes or boots)
daytrip out with the scooter (scheduled for Sunday: I can fill up for less than $10 again! Bonus!)
two neat magazines (I bought ShopSmart, I can have one more)
scented sea salts for the bath, Market Spice Tea (when I empty two tea boxes) and an at-home facial.

4. I am 0.34% away from reaching the 20% mortgage principal paid milestone. One more week...

5. I've read a prediction that the prime rate will be reduced at the Oct. 29 meeting. Please, yes, reduce that rate. I hope I won't be dinged for the $19000 cabinets prior to the rate cut. If yes, I guess it'll be cash, as my credit card doesn't run that high and I don't feel like exhausting my emergency fund right now.

Or should the Entry Title read: "We Faw Down and Go Boom!"

Our son could buy 1200 shares of WM with the money he saved in his WM account. We haven't talked to him yet about the bank failure. We're hoping he doesn't notice. I'm reminded of something he would say when we did Banking: he'd announce "only bankers drink at the banking table!" Indeed, that might very well be what they're doing now...

BoA has finally offered me a 0% APR for check cash advances and balance transfers, but the standard transaction fee for either of these is $10. No cap of course. It's for a year, though, and that's better than the 2.99% for eight months I'd been getting for oh, four years. Hmmm... HELOC @ 4.74% @ $20K or BoA @ 3.00% @ 15K and some other combo...

One friend has solicited my advice over the past week about investing: what brokerage? what funds? ETFs? How to save for certain goals? I recommended Scottrade, ShareBuilder or Zecco, but she's chosen to make an appointment where I have my accounts (what can I say, my discount brokerage takes care of me and doesn't do dumb things like diversify into mortgages, like E*TRADE did). I feel good in that I genuinely and honestly shared an approach that wasn't intimidating, nor required a lot of new vocabulary, and was completely about what would be best for her.

I recommended Andrew Tobias's book The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need to her: I think she'd really enjoy his writing and would learn lots from him -- I still do. She's meeting with the guy I talk to about my investments: he remembers me and said I was very analytical about my investments!

Now if I could bottle up this lovingkindness and use it when I need it the most...

I reserve the right to have sushi on occasion with the coworkers. Seriously, since August I have brought my hipster-ironic 1940s "modern living" lunch kit with me, and remembered to pack a lunch. I hope this will help prevent food from spoiling and help us save some money.

I also suspended our CSA for four weeks while we eat our way through our garden. So far we've eaten only the parsley, basil and the lettuce.

I can't do much to make a sizable difference in my water bill. I will try one method of body cleaning that apparently saves 90% of water.

I was going to bake bread this weekend -- opted for rolls instead, and oh boy, the difference lukewarm water and the Kitchen-Aid dough hook make! These were the best rolls I'd ever made, and I'd used the recipe 30 times. Very fluffy on the inside, wee bit o' crust on the outside.

My splurge today has been for products on the King Arthur Flour website.

To celebrate the completion of my bathroom and garage door savings goals, I am taking some continuing education classes through the local community college: yoga, Japanese, clutter clearing, and how to plan a kitchen remodel.

1. I have passport! And a place to stay in Osaka! This simplifies my savings goals: wedding gift, gift for sister-in-law, maybe gifts for brother's in-laws, tickets for bullet trains and trip to hot springs onsen.

2. I decluttered a bit: two boxes of books dumped in the aluminum 7' tall container by the Safeway, for charity. Am cleaning out the bathroom, because in a few days I will have new tiles, new fixtures, new bowl, new countertop, new soapdish, and new toilet roll holder, and a ventilation fan with lights!! Woohoo!

3. I visited the Vital Statistics office in Vancouver on Friday -- my change of name certificate has been mailed to me, so getting my kid's citizenship certificate has gotten one step closer to reality. I also visited the Canada Post office (it was my official 'Canadian government errands' day, including picking up the passport) to mail my elections registration info.

4. Mailed off order to the garage door replacement company.

5. I have posted ads to give away a lamp, a foam puzzle, and an afghan. Also am trying to sell a rare Elvis Presley 45rpm 7" EP for $5. An auctioneer in St. Louis is offering a similar 7" EP (same songs, different release, better condition of sleeve) for $500-$750 so I think if this doesn't go, I'm going to try eBay, where no doubt more Elvis fans with long-playing hi-fis still exist.

Link du Jour: 3000 miles debunked

My auto manufacturer still recommends 3000 miles as the appropriate interval for oil changes, but it's good to know that of the cars I am most likely to purchase in the next two years I can postpone the Grease Monkey trip.
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from the etc. bin: I am so tantalizingly close to completing two savings goals! When I can deposit two cheques into the accounts I can consider #2 (bathroom) and #6 (garage door) complete! Maybe I should start #1, #4, #5, and #7 in earnest on 7/25 to keep things quarterly.

Huzzah -- a quote for replacing the garage door came in at $900 under what I was expecting. Can you say "freed up money?"

Aiyee -- dreamt last night that the market would drop 600 points today. I typically buy an ounce of gold when the Dow drops 300 points. I'm several drops overdue, but the darn coin shops are closed when I come visiting.

Huzzah -- according to David Wann, my wee house inna city, in an area undergoing 'community condensation', with my small but vital garden, will eventually be considered very valuable as people downscale and move away from the burbs. 2/3 of what David Wann wrote in his book of Simple Prosperity is an Aiyee.

Aiyee -- my child wanted to write a letter to the Tooth Fairy asking to up the payment per tooth to $2200. No doubt to cover emotional damages from seeing and feeling blood, and separation anxiety. What's worse -- he thinks the Tooth Fairy is Dick Van Patten in a pink tutu.

Huzzah -- call me Jimmy Carter, I'm growin' peanuts! A peanut shell dropped by a bird into my raised bed is sprouting. The Urban Farm Boys are surprised to see how well my tomatoes are doing, but what they don't know is that I give them tomato food every week.

Another huzzah -- found a recipe for making creme fraiche. Perhaps that will save me gas-fueled trips to Whole Paycheque.

I have a spreadsheet of savings goals. As I've just started saving for most of my goals many of them are just past the 10% mark. I had a specialty tea with some shortbread in the posh part of the city with a friend to commemorate my 10% milestone of funding my Osaka trip.

Our water consumption is up. I wonder how much of that is due to someone being home full-time, or from the garden setup. I set aside the greywater/re-use/cistern plan as I don't even know what's legal right now, and renters/buyers would care more about the garage door than "am I being sustainable?" Also, thanks to our wet and miserable winter and first half of the spring it looks like we won't have a water drought this summer.

A good friend commented that I had lost weight. It must be more than five pounds I've lost, as my friend is a straight male. He's known me since I was really thin. I hung out with my straight male friend today as my spouse is gaming at a tournament. At least my in-laws remembered and sent flowers today. I sent flowers to my stepmother, and my kid has actually been well-behaved today, as I greased my social gears and took some exercise.

I've decided that this year my charitable donations are to be divided between helping families living with cancer and families living with hunger. Go with what you know, right?

Apportioned $150 to the Save Yourself Account. I owe myself about $750 more to my Roth IRA judging from my pay advice. 10% of gross pay to retirement. Actually it should be 13% according to my spreadsheet, but I don't want to be in debt for the bathroom remodel. Because I know the minute I dip into my emergency fund for some non-emergency, an emergency requiring more than the full amount I had stored will happen.

I am also four mortgage payments away from being one-third through the principal paid on my home. The sad fact is that by then I'll be almost 40% through the term.

All these little drip-drip-drips.

This is a bonus. I unplugged the television and other peripherals downstairs.

The city wants us to discard our old refrigerators and get newer, more efficient ones. I may do this.

I challenged myself to come up with ways where I have saved thousands of dollars a year. Here are some:

1. We have only one car. Insuring, maintaining, fueling and paying for another car would cost us $5K.
2. My child grew out of full-time daycare.
3. We drive the car mostly on weekends, with two wee (5-mile round trip maximum) errands during the week.
4. Contributing 10-15% to 401(k) plans.
5. Refinancing has, on average, saved us over $4K a year.

Update: I enjoyed Heather Havrilesky's 4-18-2008 Salon article; there's so much I could identify with. Growing tomatoes, baking bread, buying food in bulk, making bean soup, shopping the natural food stores for bulk beans. It's worth reading the comments for some yummy bean soup recipes.

I paid $100.01 extra toward my mortgage. I've paid a whopping 17% of principal since 5 years ago.

I finally, after four years, logged onto my son's Coverdell account and found he actually didn't lose any money. His stock investment has returned 24.42% over eighteen months. His mutual fund has gone up 33% since I purchased five years ago. His savings account at the credit union offers 7.25% APR. Oh to be a kid again.

Does anyone know what it's like to have the "Midas steward touch" on others' accounts, but have not so much luck with one's own accounts? Yes, I researched the fund -- not passively managed, but still a good one with a low expense ratio of 0.52%, and the stock investment shared the theme of one of his grand passions at the time: locomotives.

I unplugged our DVD player, VHS player and television. I took out a book on Once-a-Month Cooking. We have very little meat in the refrigerator: ground beef, pork sausage, and salmon. We are considering alternative grains like spelt and amaranth. We already use quinoa and millet for side dishes.

I joined the Weston A. Price Foundation. Following the food principles will hike up my food costs and reduce my already precious free time as I venture into do-it-yourself fermentation, bean soaking, sprouting and broth making, but the health benefits should be worth it.

Link du Jour: Ode to the Inexpensive Bean

Link de l'Annee: The Snowball Effect of Savings -- from the Simple Dollar: looks like I can get a deep freezer now!

I am in my second respite day after two agonizing weeks of anxiety. Yay for the oasis of serenity! Perhaps it's because I'm taking steps instead of hemming and hawing and wondering if it's too late that I feel calmer. Or if it's the Bach's Rescue Remedy, or my mantra of "let go and let God" or learning to ask the universe for what I want and weaning away from obsessing about what I DON'T WANT.

I sold close to half of the shares in two of my Roth IRA mutual funds (Vanguard index funds, if one must know), and am awaiting the proceeds of my 401(k) to rollover into my non-contributory IRA. At my discount brokerage I am fortunate to have an advisor (Anniebird, don't start with me: this one isn't a parasite feasting on my net worth, and he respects the worthiness and sensibility of my personal asset allocation strategy) willing to act as a sounding board.

I am two paycheques (his and hers) away from mailing in my tax payment. That will free up some money to go toward Japan. We may go in person on Saturday to talk about reapplying for a larger HELOC, although I'm skittish about incurring extra debt. It's a ten-year draw, and rates are very low right now, and our house would benefit from some interior improvement and exterior energy conservation through walls and doors -- I am keeping in mind Katwoman's suggestion of replacing the windows in the basement and contemplating drywall too.

I met with some bearish (economically, not the big hairy gay kind) gentlemen on Thursday, and a sweet and wise woman, and had Goldschlager and Guinness with them. They helped stabilize my emotional equilibrium: yes things are going to get worse, but I've gone through bad stuff before, I have a community of like-minded progressive worrywarts who have constructive solutions, and I'm better off than I think, because I'm getting prepared.

I am surprised to learn I have not made my full Roth IRA deposit for last year. I can change that today or tomorrow.

I have visited with my new accountant. I gave her all my materials, and she did some figuring for some possible business expenses. I like that she commended us for having one car between us two working adults. She was amazed how little we pay in real estate tax. I really need to spruce up the home.

I deposited $100 into our chequing account.

My kindergartner son wants a Roth IRA. I will tell him tonight that he has an Education savings Account, and we could fund some of it if he would like. He doesn't completely understand what a Roth IRA is--he knows that it's an account where one deposits money, and that excites him.

I have created a Money Market Account that pays twice what our savings account is paying. I moved $10K from savings into the Money Market Account.

I faxed, to the tune of $27, almost all the documents required for employment. I will deduct this, and the charge of faxes yet to come, from my taxes for this year.

So I accepted one offer. The pay's better, and the duties more interesting, than what I have just finished doing, but the people I left behind, well, they are gems. One man almost cried, and two men gave me their e-mail addresses and volunteered to be references, and one man solicited my resume for possible vendor, temp, or full-time work. I will have to buy some "serious" clothes, and buy bus passes. However, I will have a shorter commute and an excellent view of Puget Sound.

What I love is that I'll probably be out of work for most of this next week, my son's mid-winter break, and yet with our emergency fund, and ample supply of grains and legumes, we should be doing some pantry scavenging with minimal impact to the income for a week. I will not be eligible for unemployment insurance this go round, having accepted an offer of employment.

business taxes
$338.26 - state taxes
$80.41 - city taxes

The biggie, federal tax, is looming... I am thankful I had the foresight to save some money for that.

allowance for him and her
I included an allowance for the young one, who hardly ever asks for it. I had the money in my pocket but the father and I spent it on hot chocolate and cappuccinos. Call Child Protective Services. On the other hand, I've included my kid in the "profit-sharing plan" of a budget surplus.

donations
So many worthy causes, so few dollars.

I've been reading elsewhere about people considering replacing their mid1990s vehicles. I've been considering replacing ours. I'm angsty about the complexity of scope and enormity of costs for updating our home and the looming car replacement. I might get into consumer debt again, but I plan the maximum amount of debt to be $16700 at a time.

Okay, so from the intertwining of post topics and shared reading over the past few days, it looks like my brain has entered an intentional community with that of lux living frugalis. I'm glad my brain can do one good thing on occasion.

A follow-up on "I Ask Myself, How Much Do You Commit Yourself" and my Insurance Bill musings, especially after V's comment about targeting and planning charitable giving: I am reading The Better World Handbook and on page 266 is the suggestion of setting up a giving budget.

"On January 1, make up a list of your values. Then find organizations that are working to make those values real in the world. Don't let your giving be dictated by who sends you a request in the mail[, or who makes unsolicited fund-raising calls]. Do some research to find the best organizations and the ones that best represent your ideals. The last step is to set up dates and the dollar amounts that you plan to send to those organizations. A giving budget keeps your charitable giving at the forefront of your mind throughout the year so that it doesn't take a back seat to all of the other ways you want to spend your money."

I like this because it seems to me that groups will try more than annually to get additional contributions. This way I can record my contributions, collect receipts, keep records, and say to those who have their hands out for more: "sorry, my funds have been allotted for other organizations at least as fabulous as yours."

Consider also that charity begins at home: national and global organizations like Unicef and Doctors Without Borders do good, yet making additional room in your giving budget for donating to local non-profit organizations has the added benefit of local community improvement, a difference you can see.

Not only that, but making a list of one's values can be wonderfully focusing for how one chooses to budget time and money for maximum impact. We budget for what's important for us. Time is also valuable -- we should budget time to allow us to accomplish what we want.

GuideStar - Non-profits and charities search
Charity Navigator -- how effectively do organizations put ra...

It was unintentional, but I had one.
I didn't appreciate "no spend days." I figured, well, someone would just buy the next day. Someone doesn't have to fill up the car with gasoline every day, nor buy clothes, nor buy food and medicine on a daily basis. Work made the "no spend day" easy: I had a noon-hour appointment, and my lunch bunch went without me, thinking I'd blown them off. I wasn't, but I was a little hungry, so I had free teas, juices, water, vitamins and coffee, and the employer-provided bus pass took me to and from work.

12,277 lbs per year carbon emissions from our household is not terrible when the Average (more than two persons) American household emits 41,500. Replacing the refrigerator would reduce our carbon emissions by 577 pounds of carbon monoxide per year.

We can cut our pre-tax retirement contributions a bit: in retirement we hope not to have a mortgage, and won't be contributing to retirement programs.

So there are two pats on the back. It is hoped that the increase in disposable income will accelerate achievement of the goals in the Savings Tracks.

On the other hand, I'm not happy that in the first week of recording outgo, we're already up to $644, $944 if we count the last Roth IRA contribution for 2007.

A third pat on the back: I've lost three pounds.

I was dopey-morose reading the Refrigerator forum threads... last month we went to a warehouse sale for refrigerators and did not find an EnergyStar refrigerator that was short enough to fit beneath our 1940s-era built-in cabinets. I refrained from making snarky comments on the forum about remodeling a kitchen for $30,000 so I could buy a larger, energy-efficient refrigerator -- for frugality. I am glad that I refrained, for now I have found one:
GTH16BBSLWW. I'll probably end up paying $700 for it, but running it will take $3/month. Our current 1980s-era fridge is a little off with the cooling: freezing some areas and wilting some vegetables. The gasket seal leaks cold air. In a month I will have the money for replacing the fridge (from the home improvement budget).

Also, a link to an interview with Benjamin R. Barber, whose book Consumed I am, uh, consuming...

Today I visited the credit union with my boy. We used CoinStar (I know, I know about the surcharge) and deposited about $10 in change to his account. He wanted me to take out $3 so we could go to the movies. He is very retro: his fave movies were made in the 1920s and 1930s. I told him he was living in the wrong decade for us to go to the movies for $3. We can't even rent at Scarecrow Video for three dollars unless it's "Second Take" or, fudging slightly, we use 2-for-1 Wednesdays. I took him to the library where he could rent DVDs.

I also, finally, applied for a userid for my online banking -- I used what I thought was a joint account, but I "failed" a security check even though I had the answers correct because it wasn't MY userid I was calling about, but rather my spouse's, which I had used for three years. Also my credit card and debit card have materialized, which is good.

We waited for CoinStar in front of a man who had deposited, I kid you not, over $400 in coins. With the surcharge from CoinStar he could have purchased a coin sorter. In fact, I think I'll add that to the purchases I will make as I reward myself for clearing out ten books:
1. bread slicer
2. coin sorter
3. juicer that's easy to clean

If I don't get too giddy, I might even sign up for a Treasury Direct account and fill out my 2007 tax application forms for my CPA.
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I've been feeling nutty this morning. Not in a good way. Taxable accounts are very small, and now I have $300 remaining for Roth IRA 2007 contributions and $5000 remaining for Roth IRA 2008. And what am I going to do tomorrow instead? Get my hair coloured. I'll be starting to interview for new jobs in February, so might as well start the preening, right?

Hokay -- I am hoping this is IT for posting about gas bill anxiety. I woke up, thanks to anxiety and anger! at 5 am, found the house warmer than the 58F I programmed it to be. It was a mild 67F. No wonder I was roasting in my bed. I then learned more about how to program my thermostat! Sure I had the 'heat' settings at conservative levels, but the 'cool' settings had not been adjusted since July. I temporarily held the temp at 58F.

I saw the sun today! It was peeking through the iron cloud curtains, among patches of blue!

I read posts from people going through what I am (high gas bills, what's wrong with me--what am I doing wrong that I am living within my means and prepping for dark days but not living with as many comforts as other folk). I don't feel quite so alone now! Thank you, Saving Advice bloggers! *kisskiss*

Oh yes, and the most important thing, AMT adjustments at the very end of the year, possibly granting me, a lowly middle-income person holding up the poor and the rich, some respite! I don't think I should have to pay AMT unless I can afford sturgeon roe once a month. Or an annual trip to Hawaii.

I will try growing garlic and some herbs this winter, perhaps. Apparently using grow lights for seed starting is cheaper than buying fresh vegetables. I will also invest in myself, learning practical skills I can use for bartering. I can bake, I'll learn gardening. I'll try to "put myself out there" locally to build a social network.

I tried to be as local as I could, shopping within twenty-five blocks. One chain was out of a gift (that I couldn't find anywhere except online) but gave me a terrific deal on it and its accessory as long as I picked up the item from another outlet further away -- it's apparently a hot item, and I got the last one in stock. Another chain store within walking distance didn't have in stock another gift I was looking for but put it on order for me. Again, a good deal. My spouse is getting spoiled this year.

I went to a local, unique store to buy some stocking stuffers and gifts for my lad. Sometimes I have to choose between supporting the local economy and getting exercise. Sometimes I don't: I bought a gift for a friend in New York state from a locally owned store, and I walked there.

I suppose that because I walked and enjoyed the sun and fresh air that I wasn't as misanthropic, claustrophobic and harried as I would have been if I had driven. The retail staff saw me, saw my list, and cheerfully directed me to where I would have found the item had it been in stock. I do try to be prepared because I have worked retail. The retail outlet that was further away was very slow at 3:40 pm on Sunday, which made me happy.

Amazingly, this could be the first year in nine where I haven't purchased any gifts through Amazon.com. (Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk do not count.)

He made his first consumer purchase at Target on Saturday, with the proceeds from sacrificing a tooth.

Yesterday I read online that: a fair predictor of a child's success in school comes from math skill proficiency in Kindergarten or Grade 1, so I took out some Spectrum Math Workbooks at K and Grade 1 level and told my kid we'd work on them after dinner. His eyes lit up. No, no sarcasm here.

He wanted to work exclusively on the money problems.