Bought my first bulk pack of meat for the year, picked up lots of packing materials. $125.87 for what I expect to be nine weeks of good eating. Then $19.03 at Grocery Outlet, where we were told we saved $19.04. Saw a neighbour at Grocery Outlet. It makes me strangely happy to see neighbours, the ones with paid off homes, shopping cheaply. Like I'm not a complete weirdo, or I am weird in a way that is healthy.

Friday night I was half-crazed from noise abuse. I was going to go off on my lonesome for a dessert and a drink once my husband came home, but my dumb move was telling my son I was going to do this. So the family went with me, we did a puerile sci-fi MadLib that I wrote after quaffing a pear vodka/champagne combo, and spent three times what I'd have spent if I just skulked off alone.

Today I had my first full sleep in three days. Waking up without my eyes fried and tender was delicious. I will for sure read my African American novel.

Feeling more Girl Guide/Girl Scout today. I took out I (Heart) Trader Joe's Cookbook from the library, the Urban Homesteader and the BUST DIY Guide to Life. Bought triple superphosphate to scatter by the lilac tree and my sad rose bushes.

I wish I could open up here about what ails me.

Dead Pool Joke: Y'KNOW I'M NOT A BIG MOVIE GUY OR ANYTHINK LIKE THAT BUT I THOUGHT DON CORNELIUS DIED PLAYIN' IN THE GARDEN WITH HIS GRANDSON!

Reasons: [for Jerry! hi!]

1. I asked to see the title. Instead of offering or showing me a copy, the seller said it was in a safe deposit box and would be presented to me at the time of signing.

2. I hoped for a half-way point between his place and mine for a title transfer place, like maybe downtown at a County office, but he said it would have to be in his neighbourhood.

3. I slept, but not very well. My precious metals went down, beside. I'd been told that when God is with me, I feel deep peace inside. I did not feel deep peace until I had read responses from a handful of message boards in which I posed my question about requesting a copy of a title. I had read on automotive consumer websites editorials and articles recommending asking to see a title. The responses from the message boards said my request was reasonable and thus I declined the seller.

4. I insist on doing due diligence. That means taking a checklist, having the right questions to ask, and perusing the correct documents. Why a seller wouldn't do the same, especially when I am not the first person to come look at and test drive the vehicle, is not for me to know, I guess.

5. I am not financially ready to make this purchase. If I am okay with the price of the car, but balk at paying 9.5% of the car price for county tax, and the car is priced at $14700 when Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds suggest $12434 - $13470 for a Prius for sale in my city in "very good" condition with the options this auto had, and I'm freaking out because I don't know why my spouse takes out $40/day from our account, then purchasing the car in full is going to drive me bonkers. Okay, more bonkers. Lifetime residency in the Bonkers Penthouse Suite.

I would like a Prius, I would like to pay for it in full with cash, I would like to read more about how a buyer prepares to venture into private party vehicle sales. I have cash, but they are in scattered liquid assets, which I would pay back into the HELOC within a year.

I like the 2007 Toyota Prius, but for all my bleating about paying for a car in cash, I learned that I have to pay County Tax (9.5%), and the insurance is nearly double what I pay on my POS car. So not 100% "I'm paying in cash!" but closer to 85% "I'm paying in cash!" and 15% financing.

DH and I are haggling -- he wants to use the home equity line of credit for the financing at 3.0%, and I want to use the personal line of credit at 8.9%, because I don't want to lose the tax deduction of interest on a home improvement, which is all I use the HELOC for. This expenditure is going to hurt a lot at first, but if we have it for 14 years like we've had the POS, we stand a better chance of withstanding the eventual $10/gallon fuel.

Maintenance and fuel for the vehicle will put me ahead by $90, and if I don't factor the insurance into it I would pay $540 less than what I do for the POS car.

Someone else has come by to look at it and drive it, and is taking a second look on Saturday. I am going to sleep on it, and offer $14520. My spouse is okay with the car. The Prius is much more technologically sophisticated than our car, and has more than we need for getting from point A to point B. But finding one at Kelley Blue Book value or under with under 45000 miles in Seattle is like finding a unicorn.

Off to run a CARFAX report.

January 1st:
HELOC: 14927
Money Market Account: 10493
Gold and Silver: 11918

January 31st (no-spend day, by the by)
HELOC: 14400
Money Market Account: 10600
Gold and Silver: 12915

What should be up is up, what should be down is down. The Money Market Account amount is arbitrary: if I had to pay my mortgage tomorrow for March, my Money Market Account would be at 10600, else it would be at $11400.

I am mulling over challenges and goals for February: maybe just doing something courgeous and noble every day, whether it be public or private, is enough.

Ideas: juicing, decluttering, washing -- I bought a gallon of Sal Suds, which now has tax added when purchased online from Dr. Bronner, reading, exercising... fill some in, I'm relatively bereft of ideas.

For my first outing since snowflakes started on Tuesday, I went to Starbucks with my spouse yesterday to go get coffees and then to the post office to mail some bill payments. I wore my mink hat and coat: nobody blinked. We all probably felt like we had been teleported to Juneau. I don't like the money tsunami flooding out of our chequing account at January's end, yet it's a relief to know that some money still remains, and not all of the payments due are monthly or even bimonthly. I only wish more of the payments could be scheduled for after January 27. It'll be a flood going out and a flood coming in.

With the rise of gold and silver prices, I am now past $15000 for our car fund. This is a milestone. I am caught up with my HELOC, next week we get pay stuff.

Wondering if I should buy some Walgreen Co stock. Standard & Poor's Reports plus Value Line say yes. My list of replacement items suggests otherwise. I could buy two shares of WAG, and have some $ left over for DonorsChoose.org. On the forums someone said he'd bought TC and FCX, and the fundamentals and buy prices on those appeal to me: I like 17%+ Return on Equity, some dividends, low price/sales ratios, and natural resources. Now that you know my strategy you also know how not to invest.

Our refinanced mortgage has seen us leapfrog past other recent refi'ers I am tracking. We haven't even made our six months payment yet and already we have paid 6.27% of the mortgage, and by our first year we will have paid over 10%. It took us eight years to get to 33% payoff with our prior mortgage, and now if we don't sell the house we'll be at 33% before 2015 comes around.

I have a few no-spend days. It feels like deprivation and no benefits because much of the surplus has been earmarked for end-of-month utility bills, ensuring a zero balance for the next credit card, and the semi-annual auto insurance.

We were warned by the pediatric dentist late last year that she would be an out-of-service provider. Fortunately that issue was resolved very recently (we should get our letter in the next two days).

Learned that our charges for water, waste and sewer services are 34% below average residential.

The problem: my brother is straddling hope/expectation that our two families will vacation together. I won't do it if I can't afford it, and yet I sense I will be buying a car soon. I am now putting out feelers for a relax-pace, part-time temp job for four months.

I have a question: do you know any home mortgagee who did at least one cash-out refinance in the past seven years who presently does not regret her decision?

Update: A man who nearly lost his house to a Sheriff's Sale last year has been arrested a year after breaking into a woman's house across the street, tying the woman with duct tape, taking her debit card and demanding her PIN. He didn't refinance in the last seven years, just bought in Nov. 2005, like the guy in the BottomLine MSN article, and didn't have the means to pay his mortgage for several months. He didn't have a serious criminal history before then. I've got to keep tabs on my neighbours now!

At last it can be told:
I met

baselle yesterday to deliver my list and share in a toast to 2011 and 2012. We had a lovely time: I was immediately comfortable with baselle, and coming from a hermitess like me, that is big. She told me she was waiting for someone, and I pulled out All Your Worth and my decorated price book from my bag and said "let's see if these items are markers of the person you're to meet with."

At last it can be told:
1. Annette Funicello
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Dick Clark
4. Etta James
5. Gary Carter
6. James Garner
7. Larry Hagman
8. Penny Marshall
9. Robin Gibb
10. Zsa Zsa Gabor - breath barnacle

Eight slots were committed, two of them wavered over three weeks. I agonized about Don Rickles, Prince Philip and Andy Williams, but I am about points. This is a "balanced" (growth + income: some sure things, plus one long shot, one nonagenarian) list. I do not wish ill on any of these people, and I do know what it is to lose immediate relatives well before their time. I put Zsa Zsa Gabor down to thwart everyone else who had her on their lists too, just like I buy stock or precious metals just to make its price go down the next day. I wonder if the rule of five applies to dead pools: one does better than you expected, one worse than you expected, and three are par for the course.

I won the dead pool my friend and I had between ourselves last year, with 20% success rate. I'll be happy with 20% success this year, but I hope for 44 points or more... But the dead pool victory of 2011 ensures $30 added to my $20 Challenge! Thank you to Chris, Harry and Jack for making this possible.

Hubby bought clothes at JC Penney at vastly reduced prices, I think 70% off. Righteous.

Walked on Burke-Gilman trail in north-east part of city with boy. Beautiful day, hubby was pushing at me to break in my helmet on the scoot, but boy asked to come along.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Link Du Jour:

Aretha Franklin sings Auld Lang Syne

2011 Spending: It happened. Some of it has yet to happen.
2012 Spending: It will happen.

Hubby bought new clothes at closeout prices!
I made restitution to the library. So good to me: despite a kaput copier, a librarian offered to photocopy the Saturday NYT crossword, for a fee of course, which suited me fine. I paid my dues and got a replacement card.

2011 Reading: Finished The Pickwick Papers. It's a wonder Dickens didn't go blind or get carpal tunnel syndrome. Watched BBC comedy special Dickens parody "The Old Bleak Shop of Stuff" which is either wonderfully silly or silly garbage, depending on your point of view. Best reads: Beat the Reaper, King Suckerman. Best film: Hugo.

2012 Reading: Burr, I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President (Daily Show writer pens young adult novel, throws in jokes about Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" album), stuff on my shelves, 1Q84.

Major thing I did wrong in 2011: let events beyond my control affect my life.
Major incorrect beliefs in 2011: Opportunities come when I feel ready for them. My stomach will reduce if I reduce my caloric intake.

Things that went right in 2011: Won my dead pool 3-0. Was less in debt in December 2011 than I was in December 2010. School board election. IBM stock price. Mortgage refinance (on a single income!).

From Leo Babauta via Barry Ritholtz, 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity
Try rising early.
Do less.
Slow down.
Practice patience.
Practice compassion.
Find your passion.
Lose weight.
Exercise.
Eat healthy.
Meditate.
Get organized.
Think positive.
Simplify your finances.
Simplify your life.
Accept what you have.
Envision your ultimate life.
Set long-term goals.
Review goals.
Life mission.
Plan your big tasks for week and day.
Maintain focus.
Enjoy the journey.
Create a morning and evening routine.
Develop intimate relationships.
Eliminate debt.
Enjoy the simple pleasures.
Empty your inbox and clear your desk.
Build an emergency fund.
Keep a journal.
Use the power of others.
Read, and read to your kids.
Limit your information intake.
Create simple systems.
Take time to decompress after stress.
Be present.
Develop equanimity.
Spend time with family and loved ones.
Pick yourself up when you’re down.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
Focus on benefits, not difficulties.
Be romantic.
Lose arguments.
Get into the flow.
Single-task.
Be frugal.
Start small and slow.
Learn to deal with detractors.
Go outdoors.
Retire early.
Savor the little things.
Be lazy.
Help others.

Projects for 2012: Classical Education and Writing tutoring for kid, Japanese language, Price book. Get a Real Job, either in US or Canada. Home fix-ups: fence for the back, replacement door for the back, replacement stair material.

Link du Jour:

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas - New Year's Resolution

Last payday of 2011. I crash-saved $400 over the past two weeks. That doesn't sound like much, but I also finally brought the VISA card down to a flat zero balance.

Today we bought a framed illustration of SCTV's Dr. Tongue and Bruno (John Candy and Eugene Levy) for $10. It is not in 3-D. This is a $90 markdown from what we saw at Cafe Racer. I wrote to the artist and said I liked it and he sold it to my husband.

Also bought, finally, replacement motorcycle helmet, at about $80 less than I expected to. Yay for girl rider discounts!!

I logged into paypal, and saw that PayPal threatened to close my account within 30 days if I did not accept all-electronic communications. Deadbeats. Through PayPal I will pay for YNAB.

I also put some $$ into each of the savings and chequing account in my other credit union, because I can never remember how they debit me for annual safe deposit box rentals. It occurs to me I could give myself an "allowance" weekly and deposit $ to these accounts for investing, or secret gift money.

Silver was down 22% for the year in 2011. Gold was up.

Today I used my price book for shopping! I forgot one item but I was in a rush so my spouse could use the car.



I am unhappy about the home value and my equity taking a dive over twelve months despite the new roof but it happened to seven properties on my schadenfreude sheet. Californians who remember 2008 are nodding. Sometimes I think of paying enough down on my HELOC to get my equity past 60% but that would mean losing the APR on my money market account, and jeopardizing my ability to pay in cash for my car. I imagine some people my age have worse scenarios. I've paid just 6% of my mortgage in four months (good!) and have paid 38% down of the sale price for the house for 13 years (ugh).

I present a short list of new or offbeat effective ways I have saved money this year:
1. Freecycle.
2. Invest in Turkish coffee kit. Espresso cravings go away with re-roasted fine ground seasoned with cardamom.
3. Shop at Goodwill for pants and shirts.
4. Start shopping for some groceries at Target.
5. Bring Chinook Book with me to all shopping expeditions.
6. Use Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap as occasional shampoo. Bring own empty bottles of Dr. Bronner's to refill at store: a 40% saving.
7. Airdrying not quite bone dry clothes.
8. Baking own bread.

We caught a half-hour of the lunar eclipse before the everpresent clouds smothered the moon. Walking in the 56F house led to the observation that my house is still cluttered. I wonder if our school's families can have a fundraising rummage sale.

I found the KitchenAid KFP 700 booklet for the food processor. I have used the processor exactly once, for pie dough. Now that I have the booklet out, I can learn how to use those blades and accessories.

Storewide sale at motorcycle center. Thinking of asking about layaway plan. I told a long-term salesperson there, I suspect he may be the husband of the woman who regularly gives me the "biker-chick" discount, that I am used to certain discounts. If I can get 20% off a good helmet that fits, it's worth paying for.

A suburban Bank of America branch has taken to stationing a security guard outside, I saw as I returned to my car from a grocery trip. I defeated the temptation to tell him that the thieves were in the branch already, wearing business attire.

Paid full price for a screening of "Hugo" in 3D, but as it was one of the best films I have seen in two years ("Man on Wire" made me cry, as did "Hugo" -- films that use Erik Satie compositions are tearjerkers), and we didn't pay for concessions, the outlay wasn't that bad. Seeing "Hugo" in 3D is worth it to approximate how the fin-de-siecle audiences reacted to the "lifelike" motion pictures. It was even better than the book because of the Satie soundtrack and the clips of Keaton, Lloyd and Chaplin.

According to my car fund chart, I am behind my June 2011 accounts by $1734.91. That's about how much principal I've paid my Home Equity Line of Credit, which means that we're not saving much money, if any.
Somebody please let me know I am not alone.

HELOC: $15137.12
Mortgage: $117,328.84

Money spent on coffees today. A local entertainment periodical is offering a raffle of two paid nights in a Vancouver, BC hotel for those who give to a certain food bank charity. If I win I have to take my family (they and apparently homeland security take my solo excursions with alarm). They've been to the hotel and my husband still gripes about it. It's a decent hotel but the nickel-and-diming of fees rots his socks.

Mailed a present to my NY friend: $2.25.

Things are rough all over. When we went to coffee the proprietor was wailing and gnashing his teeth. Half my debt group are ill. Owe money in overdues to libraries but will pay up before Dec. 31.

Dirtnap for Dollars 2011 closes in 30 days. I leapt into the lead in early January and have been there for nearly eleven months.

How to save $10000 - Link du Jour from Wall Street Journal.

Spent $100 less than anticipated at Costco, but we didn't get as much as originally planned. Long grain brown rice is hard to get. I would like to thank the thousands of locals who got so p.o'd at their banks and switched to our credit union that Costco opened ALL its stores to participate in our credit union night. The parking was MUCH easier, and we spent no more than twenty minutes in the store, with clear aisles and short waits at tasting stations.

My freezer is now full with three weeks' worth of meals. Thank you, Costco and Credit Union!

Last week my husband found our car's cabin light was on. Not all of us lock the car's doors -- my husband and son don't. Today I found that although we've driven eighty miles since the last fill up, our gas gauge reads as if we've used two-thirds of our 12-gallon tank. Our car gets between 24 to 36 miles per gallon. I suspect someone is siphoning our gas. It'd be easy for them to do if they had easy access to our gas cap by opening an unlocked car door.

Also: used Savings Bond Wizard on my bonds -- I was within $30 guesstimating the accumulated interest. The bonds have a 3.46% yield and a 5.83% rate.