1. Read through How to Say It
2. Read through Content Management books
3. Look for interview clothes
4. Start addressing thank you notes for everyone on my interview list
5. Fill out application form
6. Pray pray affirm affirm pray eat sleep
7. Clean out car
8. Think of/write down interesting questions to ask the interviewers

I'm reading Jean Sherman Chatzky's Pay it Down!, about how to save $300 a month. I'm gradually becoming convinced I CAN save an extra $10/day. The questions are: am I motivated enough to do it? Can I get my family to pitch in? What are the best allocations for those extra ten dollars? Can we drop/adjust our healthcare premiums when it's not "open enrollment" time?

I checked My Rate Plan to compare telecom plans: family and pay-as-you-go. Pay as you go is about 20 cents -> 34 cents a plan. Only T-Mobile and AT&T have plans cheaper than what I'm getting with our 25% discount at Sprint, and I'd have to buy a phone.

I prepped some beet salad and cooked some lentils for eventual salad use.

I've mentioned Weiss Ratings elsewhere as a useful site for checking the best and worst of insurers and savings and loans. For thrifts ratings, check out Office of Thrift Supervision. I cannot rule out that the whoo-hoo(tm) rollercoaster ride that is WaMu did not prompt me to post this. Speaking of rollercoasters, I learned that they are faster than they were when I was in the prime rollercoaster riding years. I wish my tot were tall enough to ride with me in one. I also learned, through the same exhibit at the science center, that I can expect to zip from London to NY and then to SF by 2049, if I am not toast by then. I can imagine myself being irritated at not having a longer time for working on a virtual crossword or listening to books-on-implants. And where would the fun be in a family cross-Canada railway trip if we can finish it in the time it takes to finish a copy of People Magazine?

P.S. Do you think perhaps the new catchphrase for WaMu should be "Ka-Boom!"? Or is that trademarked? I am not gloating. I have not shorted WM, have no plans to short WM, nor have I counselled anyone to short WM. My child has money in WaMu, and I've had volunteer and work connections in the regional thrift. I will not continue to volunteer next school season in that capacity, but in a different way that helps the PTA.

I've seen posts where people are looking for work, and report upcoming interviews, or blog when they're waiting to find out. Comments along the lines of "we're rooting for you!" "Keeping you in my prayers!" "holding a good thought for you" ensue.

If you posted about an upcoming interview, and you received those comments, did you get what you wanted? Or did something better come along very soon after?

I'm going to assume that commenters honestly made the effort to align the universal unconscious with the poster's stated goal: if you've been a commenter, have you charted your success/failure rate?

I'm asking as I'm both applying for a job that seems a GREAT FIT for me, and WELL-TIMED, and also because I'm praying for something else (nonmaterial/nonphysical) at the moment. The only downside I can think of is that I'd probably have to start riding the scooter or taking the car to work or waking up early to catch two buses each commute, with extra fare.

Update: Decided not to register for this event, after reading the biographies of the facilitator and the financial advisor. I told my friend I'd welcome a different event for us to hang out and learn, and that I'd keep an eye out for such things as well.

Cons:
1. I could use that time meal planning, returning library books, cleaning the house, gardening, riding my scooter to get the battery to bounce back, teaching my child to ride his bicycle.

2. I have already attended a touchy-feely seminar about money. I still get whacked out about poverty. Maybe this will work, maybe it won't.

3. Car insurance, utilities, day camp, and bathroom stuff are collectively going to stomp my savings into a flat greasy spot this month.

Pros:
1. I can save my friend $25 off her registration if we register together.

2. It's downtown, and I can shop for groceries at the market and get decent books from the library.

3. I love my friends and don't see enough of them. This friend helped me get $167 post-tax as she listed me as a referral for her current job.

This is not an MLM seminar. This seminar has the following description: 'Using a whole systems approach, this one-day introductory seminar will help me to:

•Be more confident in negotiating for what I really want (this I need)

•Explore cultural, gender, and class conditioning (bo-ring! already took 1st yr women's studies, thankyouveddymuch)

•Identify and get beyond my own “glass ceiling”' (this I need, my spouse is happy in his salary gutter and I am too stressed and unhappy where I am)
---------------------------------
Home Energy Front: According to EnergyStar.gov's Home Energy Yardstick, my house energy score is 9.1 out of 10. "Your score is excellent and your energy use is well below average. 91% of U.S. homes use more energy than you." I guess because I average $85/month in heating costs (we don't have air conditioning) and neither our exterior walls nor our basement walls are insulated I figured we sucked mightily.
Wanna Try?

I brought some books with me on the trip to Vancouver: that's right, I spent the Fourth of July applying for a Canadian passport. One book was Doris Janzen Longacre's Living More with Less. I read through it, and saw how relevant these simple living and "living lightly" strategies still are: don't eat so much meat, material possessions aren't everything (they certainly don't make us happier in the long run), share with the less fortunate.
Also am reading Brent Kessel's It's Not About the Money. When I have the emergency fund, bathroom, landscaping, garage door, refrigerator and the Osaka trip squared away, I can think about expanding the giving budget. For now, I am working on donating 10% of my food budget to local food banks.

Still struggling with having fun in this lifetime and yet paying off the mortgage semi-rapidly. I learned today from a friend that it's not unheard of for Vancouverites to be spending up to 74% of their takehome pay on housing. Ach du lieber!** No wonder YVR's called "Hollywood North," eh?

During the Great Depression the market fell by 83%. I do not believe I can stomach that kind of loss. Time to move some assets to cash.

I guess there's always something more I could do to save energy/cut costs/save the planet/get in shape/save time, but figuring out what can be mesmerizing and time-consuming. I'm obsessed with the idea of doing something cheap that results in a 10% decrease in energy costs.
For our debt support group meeting on Sunday, I plan to visit a county library branch and get as many books in the 332.02402 call number as are available. Or reread my current books and come up with plans to reduce, reduce, reduce. Maybe I'll buy a refrigerator this weekend.

** Ach du lieber is short for Ach du lieber himmel: German for "oh for the love of heaven."

Semi-annual auto insurance, bimonthly utilities, monthly full-time child care. The $300 promised to us for the boy's stimulus package is not going to take care of all of the above. Bleargh. Am hoping the bill for the bathroom can be paid the second week of August without penalty.

June 2008 - June 2009
73260
Annual Monthly Budget
Food at home $4,747.25 $395.60
food away from home
$4,043.95 $337.00
booze $600.00 $50.00
Housing $18,315.00 $1,526.25
Natural Gas $1,236.00 $103.00
Water/Sewer $1,025.64 $85.47
Electricity $366.30 $30.53
Telephone $842.49 $70.21
Household operations
$1,794.87 $149.57
Household supplies
$897.44 $74.79
Household furnishings
$2,417.58 $201.47
Apparel $1,794.00 $149.50
Maintenance $3,300.00 $275.00
Pet expenses $900.00 $75.00
Auto Expenses $4,249.08 $354.09
Public Transport $360.00 $30.00
Insurance $952.38 $79.37
Tabs $216.00 $18.00
Healthcare $1,200.00 $100.00
Entertainment $1,620.00 $135.00
Personal Care $1,200.00 $100.00
Telcom/Internet $323.40 $26.95
Childcare $2,010.00 $167.50
Gifts $900.00 $75.00
Reading $219.78 $18.32
Education $1,260.07 $105.01
Miscellaneous $1,260.00 $105.00
Cash Contribs. $1,223.44 $101.95

This comes out to $4940 monthly, on average. I'm trying to cut some of my expenses to get our outgo to be closer to $4716 -- I am greedy and want to squeeze more $$$ toward my savings. Food seems a likely culprit -- all that Alaska wild salmon, pasture-finished meat, local farmer produce. But hey, my foods haven't been recalled.

Gifts go to distant friends, relatives, and schoolchildren who invite our child to parties.

Healthcare includes copays and medications, and dental expenses. Electricity includes a $6.00 monthly Green Up! optional payment to enable the utility to purchase "green" power.

Personal care includes vitamins, soap and haircuts.

Booze includes beer during the summer, wine for cooking, and the occasional birthday party cocktail and scotch for Mr. Works Fifty Hours a Week.

Education includes non-credit community courses, yoga, registration fees for the lad's courses.

Entertainment means movie rentals, public radio memberships, movies out, birthday party dinners, espressos with friends, crosswords, magazines, video games, school auctions.

Auto expense does not include insurance, but covers oil changes, maintenance, car washes, air filters, and gasoline.

Cash contributions include church and highly rated local charities and friends doing Breast Cancer Runs for the Cure.

I'm pessimistic -- I'm thinking that food is the easiest one to cut, for two adults and one six-year-old. Fave bookmarked URLs for eating-on-the-cheap or even how to organize the working week so we can use the crockpot more often and eat on the cheap would be good. We strive for no more than 4 oz. of meat a day, and at least 70% of our food intake to be vegetable matter. Maybe I can get by on D3, calcium/magnesium, Emergen-C, eye support, cod liver oil, and iron supplements only, and leave out the B-complex and E vitamins.

Only because I hastily showered to keep myself awake without caffeine so I could go to my nocturnal outing. My preferred card was in a jacket I didn't take out with me, I still haven't found the mailer with my debit card PIN, so I had to use the card of evil on a cab (brought a bus pass, but the show ended 80 minutes later than I thought) and dinner. Not normally so extravagant, but a friend who is very happy to be alive and dancing found some excellent well-timed opportunities to celebrate her birthday.

Bought more BEARX with money kicking around in my Roth. Prices of some stocks I own are down 10% from last month. Not worried, because they all have dividends, they all will likely beat the S&P this year, most are international, most are S&P five-stars, and none of them is an automotive company nor a bank.

My 2006-era Ecco shoes are fraying and looking so scuffed my coworkers look to me to provide extensive and trenchant English literature knowledge. All I need is a shabby corduroy jacket and my specs riding high on my head. And so soon after I bought shoes! I'll try saving some money until the rains come so hard that my feet get wet, and then I can buy boots and shoes. Maybe I'll get the lining and a button replaced on my fave wool coat.
What a good thing we don't have to have a real wardrobe at work: just shoes, shirt, garments to cover the bottoms a plus) but no T-shirts with slogans. However, I would like to own more than two dresses.

The 3.03% drop in the market makes me think I'll buy a gold coin and some Yen next week. This week I applied some extra to our mortgage. Wouldn't the first week of July be delightful to declare Baby Step #3 (6 months' emergency fund) accomplished!

I don't want to live where I do anymore. The real estate market outlook is nasty, but I have 63% equity at present and can handle a severe markdown.

OTOH, the economy outlook here is booming and I might be able to rent out the house at 13% more than what I'm currently paying.

I am not posting about emotional attachment. I am posting about announcing on Freecycle and Craigslist. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Couldn't get rid of a television set, can't get rid of a printer. These aren't uncommon nor unusable items: they still work. On Amazon I posted auctions for seven books, and only one sold.

Where are the buyers? Where should I be selling my wedding dress, my scooter, my handmade wood booze cabinet that can be plugged in to light up the glass interior?

Maybe it's possible I'm living where people are so affluent they don't want anything for cheap or for free.

June 16: Decide, with help of stimulus check, to buy a printer to replace the one I've had for eleven years (cue the harridans: "OMG! HOW COULD YOU REPLACE AN 11-year-old cheap inkjet PRINTER?!" Enough.)

Go to Staples. They have a display model of our printer, but nothing else. They suggest two other stores, each about 12 miles away. We drive north 65 blocks and go to OfficeMax, which actually beats Staples by $12. So I buy a candy bar and share among the men. Only boy is still in dying stages of Oedipal complex and doesn't want mom to share her candy with dad. So about $12 saved.

I'd been itching for three months to buy a printer, so I don't view this as a grand expense.

$265.52 left to go.

1. No worms/flies in the grain.
2. No melted butter dripping on the table.
3. No having to keep the bedroom window open for air and hearing the dimwitted/speshul needs dog next door that must bark past ten o'clock at night because it's neglected, not exercised regularly, and is jealous of the newborn. I used to have a loud cat that kept me up with his yowling too, when I had an infant to deal with, but I knew better than to push him outside so the neighbours could hear him.
4. Better focus on the work. Less tripping out to enjoy the sun.
5. I can order duct heating and buy insulation for pipes and water heater when it's out-of-season AND immediately reap the rewards of comfort!
6. The paramedics that visit the senior living/extended care places nearby aren't doing double duty to serve people with heat exhaustion: just the regular heart attack/respiratory failure/stroke routine.
Meaning less noise, more gas conserved, more seniors waking up to enjoy more cool gloomy days.
7. Better weather to bicycle in.

If you had a big flat screen TV, a satellite dish, and two large cars, and you were out of money, would you think to beg (you'd say "borrow" only you would never pay the money back) from a household on your street that had one old car and no television set?

Thanks to those who cared enough to suggest I see a doctor. I did exactly that, and have emptied my wallet for co-pay, back amounts owing (I didn't know), and prescription cough medicine: $41.43. The cough medicine has gualfenesin, codeine and no high-fructose corn syrup so it's quality stuff. I have bronchitis but chest x-rays show I'm 75% of the way through it. No antibiotics, although it's looks to be a bacterial infection.

Link du Jour -- another hard-core coffee drinker got a bad cold and went without while convalescing. I had regularly taken two cups a day, then one and a half, then one, then 3/4 of a cup, and now I am drinking green tea which has theine. I don't have foot cramps so often, I don't rely so much on melatonin or valerian to spirit me off to dreamland and my energy levels are nearing constancy. I may try some Yerba Mate, the next time I'm in a natural foods store or hip supermarket. To trolls who'd nag that everything is okay in moderation, note that I'd probably still be drinking coffee if I hadn't had this bronchitis. The lingering chest congestion effects have turned me off my Precious Bean Elixir.

I added $150 to my Roth IRA today, as I happened to be a few blocks away from a TD Ameritrade office. I'm 40% through my contribution year.

I read a blog posting elsewhere from someone who took Brent Kessel's archetypes quiz and reported results similar to mine: Guardian, Saver, Empire Builder, in that order.

I know I tweak and freak about my budget here. Sometimes it's hormones kicking me, other times it's too much news pushing my panic buttons. But those who tweak and freak, and those who work their plan, how much of our concern or worry is merited? Wouldn't it be the people who aren't scrutinizing their expenses, their incomes and outgoes, who would be more at risk in an economic downturn? Perhaps the people who never saw this coming? Do people who imagine themselves to be without help (retired and well-off parents with houses big enough to move back into, lots of immediate family nearby) compensate for their weaknesses sufficiently through sustainability and thrift? How much more do we need to do to get through this with our hearts, minds and bodies intact?

Speaking of bodies, I might have bronchitis. Certainly June temperatures of 51F and drizzles, plus the never-ending to-do list at home keeping me up aren't helping my body recover any faster. Anyone in a heatwave wanna trade with me?

1. My paycheque arrived in the mail. Woohoo! It has been deposited and will enter my account probably Monday.

2. Ed Slott's paperback The Retirement Time Bomb came in the mail today from his company.

3. I picked up Ed Slott and Bernard Baumold books on hold at the library.

4. Late to the party: The IRS gave us a notice we'd be receiving $1200, and not the $1500 we were expecting because some little person with my eyes, legs and hair runs around making messes and calling me "mom." This is apparently because we do not have a child born after December 31, 1990 with a valid SSN. So that means I can toss the little mooching rugrat out to the elements, because hey, according to the IRS he's not my tax credit, and the IRS is always right, right? Just ask Wesley Snipes! Seriously, this is the fault of some tax software tax professionals use. I think maybe my CPA used this software, which doesn't indicate that we're eligible for an additional $300 rebate for the kid.

We also have been treating ourselves to library DVD rentals and very old movies off the 'Net. We did splurge on some tapas and a silent movie on Monday. For a week my favourite film archivist ever is showing early soundies (precursors to music videos) at my favourite cinema ever, so attending two of those shows'll be a hit to the entertainment budget. It's my alternative to the Seattle International Film Festival.

I read yesterday that by June 2009 one in four mortgaged houses will be lost to foreclosure. A third of the homes in the US have no mortgages. For some reason I thought I might be one of the mortgage casualties. Someone at breakfast today said I was an economic hypochondriac, and that what goes wrong with the nation doesn't necessarily hold for my household. If there are 150 million households, and 1/3 are renters, and 1/3 are owned in full, that means 1/3 of us are "mortgagin' riff-raff". 1/4 of us in mortgage crisis = 12.5 million households. I'm not joining the paid-in-full crowd anytime soon, it looks like. Too many other irons in the fire.

I'm rereading The Tightwad Gazette. I found it cutely nostalgic to see someone writing about a time when $75 a month for automotive fuel was excessive. I filled up today and it was $45.74. If I have time today I will walk to the Coin shop and see if I can get my yen and maybe an ounce of gold (I buy an ounce every time the market drops by 300+ points).

Borrow book from library. Note that there are pages missing. Return book to library. E-mail author, ask for missing pages. Author's representative wants to send a new book to me.

Should I accept, read it all the way through, then donate it to the library? Or should I tell them it was a library book I read? I feel it would be stealing if I accepted a replacement book without giving it to the library. It's not the author's fault there were pages missing, but the publisher's.

I am 85% destressed from my last assignment. I haven't touched my Rescue Remedy in five days. Over the previous four weeks I went through one-and-a-half pastille tins. It's interesting that my new/old team is comfortable discussing the housing bubble/bust and the interim contract team was acting like it was contained only to California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona, and then only to subprime. I think my new/old team didn't take out any 0% down mortgages in the past six years.

This month sees some new expenses: passport and birth certificates, appraisal. My optometrist is threatening to bill me for $215, because the insurance isn't automatically "oh we'll pay that!"

I'm probably just antsy because I need to make some dietary and food budget changes/choices immediately. Or feeling broke because of the utilities and larger mortgage payment, and the 15% pretax 401(k). Or maybe it's because we still spend more than the median Seattleite household earns. Must be the DSL and food out and the cell phones and accelerated mortgage. I tell you it is not the utilities, nor our clothing.

Lylic, the copy of Slott's Retirement Time Bomb book I borrowed from my local library had dozens of pages missing, despite it being in the library's possession for three months. I e-mailed Slott at irahelp.com to see if I can get some word-processed missing pages.

I'm trying to plan our meals a few days ahead: I'm sprouting some barley for a casserole, and either going to make beet kvass or beet soup.

Discovered Trader Joe's for bread, bananas, and dairy!

Net worth up $8512 from last month, despite the house. Up a staggering $70K from last year at this time. And from January 1 of this year, down $5800.

Got Co-op America's Guide to Socially Responsible Investments, including listings of community development banks and progressive/green-friendly advisers.

The kombucha (sweet and effervescent and no doubt full of nutritious enzymes) that is Lux Living Frugalis asked me if I have a regular paying writing gig. Yes and no. I am a paid writer, with an office to go to. I do not ghostwrite for M.P. Dunleavey, although I think I could pinch hit if need be. I know how to reach her MSN editor, anyway. When I write, I write out of a sense of lack and for catharsis. I thought about applying to the open call for an SA blogger, but by that time I suspected my contract would be renewed, and that meant little time to do much else. Also holding me back were the facts that I don't plan my meals very well, nor do I clip coupons, keep a price book, or spend three hours of "free time" each day planning in advance how to save money. I think I am too subversive and panicky to be a readable SA blogger. Excellent writing from me means the worry ferrets got loose and are harum-scarum in the cerebellum. Please send chocolate.

Yay for me. 15% pretax. That's a big bite, but I need it to be large for tax planning.

BTW, I'm reading The Retirement Savings Time Bomb... and how to defuse it, by Ed Slott. I recommend it for people who have US retirement plans and who plan to retire in the United States. I'm thinking I have to consult a CPA knowledgeable in immigration issues to see what happens with my retirement assets when I move back.

I'm back at my old contract, and am gradually nearing tranquillity. I am grateful for the familiarity: asking for help is easier. I'm aware there are serious challenges outside of work, but having stability and friendly faces goes a long way. Exercise, meditation, vitamins, and a healthy lunch prepared for the next day should be part of my evening routine.

I have decided I would like to look more feminine and professional this summer, so I bought a dress. I would next like to buy some open-toe shoes and some capris or khakis. This busts my clothing budget but my public transportation expenditures will be around $5/month for at least six months. I don't have to dress well for this job, but I like how people treat me when I do dress up. They notice more than I imagine.

Lost nine pounds since I left in February. That was noticed too. :-)

I learned recently my safe deposit box contents are not insured by the credit union, so to get insurance I took out my baubles to get them appraised. $210 for seven items. The last time they were appraised, their resale values were enough to cover a year's worth of mortgage payments. Wonder if that's still the case, now that my mortgage is $25 less a month starting in July than it was when I bought the house...

I also couriered my passport application materials to my nation's capital/home town: $61.75. For an envelope weighing 0.15 of an ounce. When my passport is processed the application will cost me $97.

I also, for laughs, deposited $120 in my Roth IRA and, after a pleasant chat with the gemologist, received research stock reports on Newmont Mining, Willamette Valley Vineyard Incorporated, Mesa Trust Realty, and EZCorp. Still not really thinking about investing until after November 26... I'm thinking with the credit crunch the payday lenders will do really well. I'm holding off on EZPW, although it has appreciated by a factor of 10 in five years, because it's too easy for me to revisit in my head the misery of poverty, and the shame of being gouged because there's no other place to go. Newmont and Mesa Trust were suggestions by the gemologist, Willamette I read about in Equities magazine.

So there's a nice vertical path: from having to wear thrift store clothes and moving every year as rents rose, to wearing thrift store clothes to make a reduce-reuse-recycle fashion statement, discussing stocks with the gemologist. Let's hope the trajectory remains upward, or if it must return course, that it plummets with all the speed of a tiny feather dropped from the Empire State Building.

I also called to reinstate my contributions to my 401(k) plan, having freshly returned to my job site I vacated in midFebruary.

So the above, plus some chocolate chip cookies and San Pellegrino, plus bus fare, plus a New York Egg Cream and some fixings for lunches, set me over $500 in expenditures in one day.

Ordered and paid for 21,000 Yen.
Paid for garden set-up.
Will be putting a little extra toward the mortgage: $135.70.

As for Osaka and possible repatriation, I have faxed my request for replacement birth certificates, and secured signatures from my guarantor for my passport (trickier than US passports, but not as tricky as requesting a replacement birth certificate).

Ended one contract with drinks and boxty straws: boxty is julienned potatoes, fried crisp. What the bistros in my area call pomme frites. I am looking forward to returning to my software company contract on Tuesday.

I read how the U.S. savings rate is below 0%, and I read that 36% of us have emergency funds sized at the minimum three months' living expenses. How do people get three months' living expenses if they're not saving?

Also, considering many baby boomers have had defined benefit and pension plans prior to the defined contribution retirement plan era, are the stats that boomers have on average 50K in their 401(k)s really that scary when their defined benefit plans and Social Security entitlements are factored in?

Link du Jour: Five Basics for Building a Solid Financial Fut...

I'm thinking of using a fee-only planner through the Garrett Planning Network, after my retirement assets reach a certain amount and some of my short-term financial goals have been achieved. When I poke about for insurance I never know what is the best, or what to look for, I know nothing of trusts or estate stuff, and my spouse has a sizable 401(k) plan I wish he'd roll over into a noncontributory IRA. I also have questions about using a 529 or a Coverdell, especially when there's a possibility we may relocate out of the country.

I thought maybe one had to have an estate or net worth of over $500,000 to use a financial planner. Is my thinking incorrect?

My spouse noted at dinner that I seem to be the one getting the credit card offers. He didn't enlist in the Direct Mail Opt-Out Campaign, as I had, and thus he'd be getting four credit card offers from Capital One a month, but only the month before anti-consumer legislation benefiting credit card issuers would be law.

I received an offer from Chase today. The second surprise is that it didn't suck. F.I.A., formerly MBNA, would have me in the position of an abused spouse, believing that it had every right to refuse me 0% offers and APRs below 13% because I didn't deserve good credit--those installment loans for vehicles, over 100 months of mortgage payments, not good enough for F.I.A. I felt unworthy of having any credit card. But Chase is willing to offer me 0% until June 2009, and then a fixed APR of 8.99%. And my credit card issuer of twelve years isn't willing. How's that for weird?

I wonder what would transpire if I got some first-tier customer retention support person at F.I.A. "Hey, Chase offered me a 0% teaser for a year. Did you tell them how much I suck? The best you guys will offer me is 3% plus a 3% transfer fee for eight months. Any idea why they'd offer me a rate 4 points below the absolute minimum you'd give me?" "Doy, durrr.... we think our rates are more competitive. Black is white, ignorance is strength, slavery is freedom. Doyyyyy..."

Update/Correction: Chase offered 20-day grace period. So apparently I still suck as a credit risk after all.
--------------------------
I'd been dwelling on our finances--I know, BIG SURPRISE--meditating on why we still can't afford lotsa stuff it seems the average American household has. Our emergency funds and retirement funds have had the same growing pains our incomes had. Our savings are still recovering from five-plus years of daycare...

(No, this isn't a partisan post. Honest. Skim through the paragraphs, do you see any names you're sick of reading about in the newspapers' politics sections?)

The garden stuff might be finished up today. Hooray! Another cash balance step backward, yet one fewer goal to save up for!

Made a Roth IRA deposit today. A little larger than I planned, but I found a prepared check in my purse that required only my signature. Again, that merely means fewer dollars per week to meet the magic $5000 number.

I have a glimmer of hope, a crumb of opportunity offered to me, careerwise. I have to think of/prepare a potluck dish for a school event tonight, but inbetween prep steps I'm tempted to be a feng shui whirlwind and declutter my career center, get writer's cramp penning affirmations, preparing a "treasure map." Maybe I still have time to down a Red Bull and keep the sunny side up... can you put some reddish-pink cling film over your monitor for a few seconds so it looks like my dream is in the pink bubble of actualization?

Although I frequently look at my less-than-40-hour-work-week as martyrdom ("look! I'm volunteering! for the children! for the future of America! and I could instead be putting more in my 401(k), restaurant revenues, and in Washington's coffers!"), a "Should you stay home or work?" calculator indicated we're actually saving ourselves extra tax money by my limited hours.

Title in reference to my baby steps. I want to stomp stomp stomp like Dumbo on a fermented berry rampage through my financial plan.

I had some moments at the library -- for an academic exercise, because I can't afford to buy stocks and seriously, late November, after August and September's predicted volatility, might be a better time, I researched some large-capitalization blue chip stocks through my discount brokerage and through Value Line. Here's what looks good right now, if you're buying:

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO)
Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI)
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL)

I've been going through the budget repeatedly and I have noticed two things:
1. I spend too much at hair salons.
2. My spouse and I don't earn enough money. Some ex-Marine can get a job earning $8K after taxes, but I with ten years' IT experience net half that...

Liz Pulliam Weston argues that saving for retirement is a higher priority than building up 3-6 months' savings, and advises that a HELOC used only as an emergency fund would do while the retirement is being padded. This gives me some breathing room. I'd rather chop down the actual money in my E-Fund to pay for the bathroom, and shove more at the Roth so I can restart my 401(k) at 15% without forcing us to live on Top Ramen and Kraft Dinner (Kraft Macaroni and Cheese), than use the HELOC for planned expenses. One's a definite, one's a maybe. Rule in favour of the maybe.

In my dark teatime of the budget, the DAYCARE years, I would dream about what I would do when the child went to school. Europe! Home remodeling! New car! Vacations! 18% retirement contributions! BEING LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.

I didn't think I was ever living beyond my means, because I had been consumer debt-free for most of those years. I accepted vehicular and HELOC debt as consumer debt, short-term though they may be. I was also contributing 10-18% of my money to retirement annually.

I looked at my budget. A few years earlier MSN Money profiled a couple where we live going broke on $90K a year -- they adopted children from China and had car payments.
When one first tackles a budget, one records amounts that are comfortable and reasonable. Maybe a family living at twice the median income thinks it can get by on DSL Internet, three cats, a cell phone, extra to the mortgage. Maybe one family at that income level is heading toward bankruptcy.
Shockingly, $100K doesn't go as far as it used to even ten years ago.

And then the little whacks are the challenge. One thinks one's doing well because she doesn't have cable television, as long as she waits ten weeks between haircuts at the "good salon" and four months between hair dyes, or because she has cut by two-thirds her family's automobile gasoline consumption, even though gas has gone up to three times what it was when she first bought her car. And then one reads Easy Money and thinks: "okay, somehow I've got to manage college, early house payoff, a decent retirement, home renovation (the kitchen is an untouched 60 year old), disability insurance. Downscaling expectations can be tricky. Preparing for an era where food and energy are no longer subsidized means additional expenses: greenhouses, better windows, gardens, tools, rain barrels and aerators and insulation. How to budget all that in with feathering the Nest of Tomorrow?

So I'm rereading from my personal library for how to live on less: Living More with Less, The Complete Tightwad Gazette, Your Money or Your Life, Invest in Yourself, Saving on a Shoestring and Orchids on Your Budget: the latter is not a nuts-and-bolts "do math to make your income larger than your outgo" but rather a 1937-New-York-City-Vogue "Oh honey yes the money is gone but you needn't throw your chicness out the window"--amusing for its humour and for the recognition that even the lifestyle of having to let the maid go can afford crudites, taffeta, silk, satin, crepe and wool. I'll add this: there was a time, not so long ago, when people accepted their carless, TVless, and retirementless lives with joie de vivre.

"The Smart Poor do not pretend to be rich, which makes everything different. Once you give up struggling to fool people, you can have a lot more fun on very little money. You can live in a funny flat in a poor city neighbourhood or a remodeled barn in the country. You can go to cheap foreign cinemas (now we rent DVDs) and boast about it, instead of skimping in order to be seen at the Opera. You can hunt up bargains in clothes and rip off the gewgaws and--if you have the flair and the figure--look like a million dollars."

Really, Orchids on Your Budget presages YMOYL with this message: "The point, nowadays, is not merely to know the cost of a thing and whether or not you have money to pay for it, but to know whether it's worth the price to you."

It's a funny old world... the neighbours to the north and across the street from us have broken into their home equity piggy bank a few times -- their houses are valued higher than ours, but their mortgages and liens are higher than what our house is worth. I thought I was hard done by because I was choosing to pay for cars and home remodels (whenever they were below $10K, that is) in cash, which takes years to save up for, by the way, when you're saving for retirement, flying home to visit the folks who are too frail to fly over, college, daycare @ $11K/year, and an emergency fund. So my house looks like junk right now. Yet I have the most equity, both in terms of numbers and percentages, of the three houses. Sometimes it is a boon to have the junkiest house on the block. Let everybody else's remodel bring up the house value. The city is helping to prop up my property appraisal taxes with a public park, "condensed community cages" and "expanded commercial retail zones." I would also like a light rail station please.

Also, a sign that reality has set up a tent (yurt?) in my area: I actually have acquaintances whose house value is below what they purchased it for 22 months ago.
My home value has dropped too, but I'm choosing not to worry about it until a 40% drop happens.

My i-Bonds arrived today. I may put them in the Safe Deposit Box along with a deposit, if I have time tomorrow after banking.

I look forward to seeing the bathroom remodeled and paid for so I can catch up on the retirement and save up for the other home improvement projects.

Sent an Optional Cash Purchase cheque for 5.5 shares of GE stock.

Spent money on a small selection of starts at the Edible Plant Sale, and at Emerald City Organics: dwarf oregano, tarragon, one roma tomato plant and one Early variety; also valerian, geraniums (both edible and flowery -- the valerian roots are a nice herbal sedative for the nervous), spearmint, catnip, and one sweet pepper.

Judging by the starts and the weather outside this May day has been brought to me by the Vitamin letters C and D.

Reconnoitered the garden shed and found rose food, liquid fertilizer.

Also baked bread last night. Little by little. Can't bring instant self-sustainability to my little .18 acre.