Spondulicks Forever!

My son is excited about the new School Savings plan Umpqua Bank is offering. I am not. My son earns 6% interest on his credit union account, Umpqua Bank offers 0.1%. I tell him this is 1/60th of his credit union rate.

I thought my kid was good at math. What happened to the good ol' days of rocketing returns from shorting the banks, boy?
[heavy sigh]
Washington Mutual, the "we faw down and go boom" bank, was offering .25% way back when.

The only advantages I see is that my boy does his banking in person, he gets a piece o'swag for a deposit reward, and I have an excuse to visit an Umpqua Bank to cash in my "free coffee!" Chinook Book coupon without looking like someone on the take.

Even though I'm losing a potential point from a Dead Pool, happy birthday to Zsa Zsa Gabor. I'll cook a Hungarian dish in honour of 95th bd.

And happy birthday to birthday boy Charles Dickens.
I already read Pickwick Papers, that's worth a year of Dickens right there. Can you imagine a one-semester course on Dickens? "Here, read Pickwick Papers, Barnaby Rudge, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, Dombey and Son. I'll have more reading for you next week."

Received money back from CenturyLink. Spouse and I went to a diner in Ballard with the proceeds. I like going to diners with my spouse because we're in the straddle between hipsters and old farts, and both camps like diners.

Which would be heavier reading: Dickens novels or divorce documents concerning Zsa Zsa Gabor?

Went shopping for vegetables for the week, plus cereal and walnuts and honey: $34.57. Spouse and I dined on $4 Chinese Food specials in the cafe inside the supermarket.
Plus, boy needed valve oil for his trumpet so I bought a replacement bottle for 54 cents, thanks to a $5 off coupon.
Today's savings: $13.37
Today's expenditures: $45
I can't find the TD Ameritrade/Intuit sweepstakes where one wins $15000. No mention on either the TD Ameritrade or the Intuit website. I know I saw it last week, because I printed out the instructions on how to enter if you don't have a Facebook account.

It is 10 degrees Celsius out and beautiful. I have $740 until Friday. Plus, I am participating in some month-long challenge for February to mail something every day. I mailed five things on Sunday to catch up -- one was a Target bill plus two donations. If someone wants something like a postcard from me, Private Message me through the forums.

Mother-in-law is sending us Ha Jin and Harlan Ellison books. Yay!

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.

1. My brother e-mailed to say he's having knee surgery this summer, but that won't stop his plans to fly literally halfway around the world to visit our Cascadia. He plans to show up much earlier, like maybe next month or the next few weeks.

2. Someone local is selling his 2007 Toyota Prius for $14700, extended warranty, and the Prius has under 50000 miles. The warranty means I wouldn't have to take it to a mechanic, but I probably will anyway. I've been in contact with the seller and tomorrow I hope we will have a test drive. I have enough in cash to pay for the car!

Oohhhh!
If #2 happens, then #1 is going to be a stretch. My brother's not keen on visiting the Rockies, but will stick to islands around the Salish Sea and some cities on the coast, including ours (Vancouver/sibling-ours or Seattle/couple-ours). This suits my budget fine. Canucks tickets, well, that might require a third mortgage...

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.

I speak of simple pleasures. Coco Chanel said that a hot bath is good for a rotten mood, and I agree. Yesterday, having had very little sleep, I threw some dead sea salts, ylang-ylang and jasmine essential oils in the bath, and once soaking made some price book entries from my Trader Joe's escapade -- yes I could use some advice as to how to properly enjoy cheap yet luxurious pleasures -- am I to read Balzac or Flaubert or Baudelaire and pop Trader Joe's cocoa truffles in my mouth while hydrating with mixed pear juice + sparkling water? Then I could deal with the "this just in!" reports from Junior about the NHL All-Star Game and other interruptions.

I try for $100/day maximum spending, including bills. I maxed out today with gas and groceries, and will max out the next four days with bills.

YNAB end-of-month top four updates:
Food
Groceries: $480 (excellent!), Restaurants: $220 (three people, I ate out every week, but only at one place with cloth napkins or Script-typeface menus or pâté with toast points. My family ate out too. Groceries spending will rise next month: my seven-week supply of meat will run out, and eventually we will try to get our $55 membership use out of Costco.

Mortgage: $1353.71. Includes a teeny prepayment.

Car Insurance: $266.80.

Phone & Internet: $229.18. This WILL go down next month by $105 next month: we both paid the same bill unbeknownst to each other, and we no longer have a landline.

This month, while eating out, I learned of grenadine soda. A tablespoon or two of grenadine, and soda water, with a bit of lime juice. This I have been attempting to recreate at home, using what must be a decade-old bottle of grenadine syrup. We also used up the decade-old box of kosher salt. My bilingual box of salt I brought with me when I immigrated is still here and nowhere near empty.

I saw a Seattle Councilmember come into the closing-fast Greenwood Market. We were lured in by the Everything Up to 40% off signs but wow, now that I have my price book I can see how marked up the merchandise was even with the discounts! Finds: some Saint Andre super-butterfat Brie to use for a posh pasta carbonara with walnuts, kombucha which actually WAS a deal with discount, butter. We were careful about our purchases until we left the dairy and produce, sigh.

As we left, the beginning notes of Talk Talk's "It's My Life" caught me. "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up," I said. The lads walked as far as the main ingress/egress where the speakers are when my son stopped and said "No I'm staying until the song is over." We took turns at the water fountain until the song ended, good times. I wonder if the Councilmember likes Talk Talk.

Oh yeah, as of today I finally have enough $$ to feel comfortable buying a Prius should our car die tomorrow.

I repent at leisure for my impatience in mailing the bills off. This is a personal problem: I see the bills with payment in their sealed envelopes waiting by the front door and fret about late-fee charges, also can't estimate to the day when payments will be received, so off they go.

I've mentioned in earlier posts about the "tsunami" of bills at the end of this month--dashed difficult to time these before Friday's payday. The mortgage cheque, insurance cheque, phone cheque have all been received; the EFT for the electricity bill went through, I made one payment to the HELOC for a rounded balance.

Now my husband has a day off and we're down to our last $200 unless we want to risk a third withdrawal from our Money Market Account, or "live off the credit card" for unscheduled expenses and you just know the US gummint's gonna suspect us of funnelling money out to support Al Qaeda if we have too many withdrawals (thank Maud I am not responsible for Congress, and that it's highly unlikely we'll make four additional withdrawals from the account before January 31 when we get money on Friday).

We talked about stocks. My friend showed me her monthly dividend averages for the last three years, the growth from $9 to $30 (wow!!) and I feel I have a lot of catching up to do. She's a dividend investor though, and I'm a "fundamental" investor looking for a good balance of growth and income.

We shared our favourite stocks: I showed her Value Line investment surveys for Target, Walgreen Co. and Freeport-McMoran. I bought two shares of Walgreen by mail, because of the 20% projected LOW annual return, and I already own the stock through a direct purchase plan. She mentioned Southern Copper (SCCO), American Express (AXP), Apollo (AINV) - 14% Dividend plus low of 30% annual growth.

eBay (EBAY) and Pan American Silver (PAAS) look good too. I'm happy buying silver for now, but if I got hold of an A-level Financial Strength, Return on Equity of 16%+, projected LOW annual return of 20% stock, I'd be dividing my $$ between precious metals and the stock. Right now I don't pay taxes purchasing precious metals (I pay a 3% premium, not a flat rate), plus if my credit union ever *ahem*ed for its HELOC money back, I could pay them back within three days. Not so easy with direct purchase plans.

SCCO - Price/Sales: 4.44; 4.66% Short Float; Target Price: 36.87

EBAY - Price/Sales: 3.83 1.12% Short Float; Target Price 38.28

AXP - Price/Sales: 1.83 0.73%% Short Float; Target Price 56.60

PAAS - Price/Sales: 1.83 0.73%% Short Float; Target Price 56.60

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.

Lots of people don't. School is closed, so lots of writing practice scheduled for boy. Woke up to ice pellets striking the windows. Nice feeling to be able to turn on the lights, though I did bring the battery-powered lantern into the bedroom last night.

Regretting not making Costco trip earlier in the month: ran out of flour, brown sugar, best-tasting coffee, apple juice, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes. What good is a price book when you are limited to carrying your groceries on foot from two local supermarkets?

Update: We are now without a landline. It wasn't good value to get repeat phone calls from spoofed numbers saying "this is your final notice" for reducing credit card rates. Also somehow landline voice messaging costs $13+/month and that's more than half of what I pay for Voicemail, unlimited texts and internet with Virgin Mobile.

YNAB four weeks later: $437.27 increase in assets, $493.82 decrease in liabilities. Net worth is $6818.54 (excludes stocks, retirement funds, personal property, precious metals and house equity).

coffee without honey and cream = 41 cents/cup
saving at least a dollar by not visiting a coffee shop.
turkish coffee = 53 cents/cup
saving $1.22 by not visiting a coffee shop

Assets up $380.75, liabilities down $445.28.
Does not include gold and silver, bonds, CDs, retirement, or illiquid assets.

Inspired by monkeymama's foreclosure post, I checked my street: one block up, our block, one block down. We didn't have many foreclosures--just one Notice of Trustee Sale from 2003 on our block, and a dead woman's house that didn't sell fast one block over, but I think that's because people with 0% down found new construction more alluring than these "Welcome Home GIs" mid-century houses. That's not to say our neighborhood didn't suffer, it just didn't zoom up in price. Summer 2008 saw the most inflated values, I believe, as people were priced out in better areas.

The top two properties for equity (both above 48%) in my Schadenfreude tracker are on my street. They didn't do cashout refinances. When I calculate the total amortized principal+interest from current mortgages, and divide that by their current Zillow values, the results are both under 1. All properties but two (those are four bedroom houses on our street that Zillow last year recalculated their values to be roughly $92000 per bedroom) have lower equity from May 2010, despite some having 20-year and 10-year mortgages.

By the end of the year, I think I can get my HELOC balance to equal 10% of my mortgage balance. It's a tidy goal to work towards. Probably more realistic than the hoped-for return to 60% equity.

This week I did not at any time order coffee or espresso out. I know the week doesn't officially end until fifteen hours from now, but I thought that was remarkable. My husband had only work coffee on Friday.

I will brave jaunts for flour, eggs and canned soups, so I can commence to warming the main floor and our stomachs. I will also brave semi-annual payment of car insurance. This might be the last one we have for our vehicle. I better go bless the heap with holy water so we are protected from driving hell this week.What's great on a snow day? Red pepper soup and brioche!

Downloaded ePamphlet from usa.gov on healthy frugal recipes.

You Can Too!

As I picked up some paper detritus, I found an old printout from grocerylists.org. I love how, in addition to dairy, fish, baking goods, there's a shopping section for carcinogens. I resolve to reduce my intake of parabens this year. I just had bacon burgers last night, au Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, so that will be sad to restrict. Come to think of it, pancetta and prosciutto are processed meats too. I go cry now.

It is nearly the middle of the month and we have spent only $26 on automotive fuel! Yay shut-in lifestyle!

Fave poverty cookbooks: Cooking for College Kids - home ec teacher from Alberta so LOTS of meat recipes. Meat's plentiful in Alberta! More-With-Less, the Mennonite classic. Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely.

Etta James released from hospital last week
Robin Gibb seeking natural treatment. Seven rounds of chemo!
Penny Marshall smoking and eating Italian food.

Psychics predict ends to Abe Vigoda, Muhammad Ali, Pope Benedict XVI, Lindsay Lohan, and Dick Clark. This is not wishful thinking: I have only one of those people on my list.

Also, gold and silver will rise. I'm hoping they'll rise enough to handle the also-predicted summer spike in food commodities and oil prices. I predict summer gas prices west of the Rockies to reach $4.50 US/gallon by August.

If you look at the sidebar, there's a new debt reduction milestone. My car fund is not increasing, as I have made debt reduction my top priority this quarter. Hubby and I paid the same bill without each other's knowledge. He did it on the credit card, I used EFT.

For fun: go to Google.com and input "do a barrel roll." Safe for all ages.

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!

It's a religious observation, sure, but meditating on its secular connotation here are some:
1. my food bill is high because the meat I buy is growth-hormone free. Sure that sounds smug until you know that my dying mom asked me to eat organic and whole foods. If your parents died from degenerative and cardiac disease you'd be making different choices too.

2. Inertia is the only thing stopping us from cancelling our landline. The only calls are from offshore autodialers, and they're not worth running out of the shower to answer.

3. You know what would be funny? A 2000s-era home-building publicly traded company specializing in Nevada/Arizona/California properties called "Icarus." Seattle can have "Fungi Bull Properties."

4. Come to think of it "Seattle Spores" would be a funny NHL hockey name.

5. The Canucks is not a nice team name: "A Canadian, esp. a French Canadian (chiefly used by Canadians themselves and often derogatory in the US)", but it's used. What's sad is that "Canadiens" is a team name used in a city in a separatist province. "Canadian" is also a code term

white American racists use to label African-Americans.

6. Insurance companies somehow know when our insurance becomes due: three solicitations in two days for our business. Two of them give teaser quotes higher than what we currently pay, and one of them has the Hugh Dennis catchphrase "Are you paying too much for... insurance?"

7. Ease is the Disease.

8. For your decluttering/weight-loss/woo-trippy pleasure, It's All Too Much - Beatles YouTube (safe for all)

I live on the coast of the largest body of water on the planet, 110 minutes drive from the second vastest country on the planet. Gas prices, home values, taxes for me are more expensive than for someone in Gary, Indiana or Tulsa, Oklahoma. So my food budget is bigger too. If you gasp at $600/month eating-in groceries for a family of three, you are either a farmer or vegetarian or you can get a 4-bedroom mansion in your neighborhood for $175000. For $175000 one gets a two-bedroom condo in a 40-year-old multi-strata building in my neighborhood, and I live in one of the uh, more affordable areas in my city.

I have been fixated with $750 budgeted for food away and at home and now recognize this fixation is futile and wrong. If someone lived in Boston or Manhattan or San Francisco thought "I should be able to spend no more than $1000/month on a 2200 sq. ft. living area not situated anywhere near a toxic waste site. What am I doing wrong?" I would gently mention that costs of living vary by area.

Since adopting the YNAB software budgeting system, I must accept that there is no “normal” month for categories, and food is one of the most volatile. It probably has a beta rating of 2.4 in my household. December is when we splurge on stocking stuffers and little feasts and that is not normal. December 31 is not normal for us either: we spent $60, the three of us, eating out.

I’ve also just recently started to keep a price book, have not abandoned meat on our diet, and although I’ve cut down on my coffees out, or swapped two cappuccinos for three drips, in January it feels really good to have something hot down the throat while making those no-gas-day errands.
My son takes lunch to school.
I make soup but maybe not enough.
My husband eats at home most of the time he works.
We do whole and organic foods and shop at farmers’ markets, though.
I like seafood and know its health benefits but even being by the fricking ocean doesn’t stop mussels from being $4/lb and clams at $5/lb or halibut at $22/lb. What do we have? Salmon at $5/lb., sole at $7/lb, tilapia or snapper at $4.50/lb. And it’s not just me buying coffees, or chess meeting snacks, or hot chocolates.

I am now reading the flyers to stock up on good deals offered by any of the three major supermarkets and two discount chains I frequent. Probably it is too early to call this food-cost experiment a bust.
--------------------
January 1:
personal holdings
Precious Metals: $10800
HELOC: $14771
Liquid: $17500
Stock: $1800

Stockwatch - some I have, some have great expectations.
TGT: 51.25
MCD: 100.33
DIS: 37.51
FCX: 36.81
WAG: 33.09
PG: 66.71
-----------------------------
What I'm reading now: Burr, by Gore Vidal. The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean.

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).

SavingAdvice.com forum post on

price book.

I didn't think to take one of the little notebooks I gave to the school teaching staff last month, so I bought a recycled-paper small one to fit in a purse. The price book idea I read in The Complete Tightwad Gazette, but OrganizedHome.com also has a downloadable template.

YNAB v3.6.0.5, perhaps considered "faddish" by some, so far has kept me mindful. My Money Market Account (MMA) is $600 larger than it would have been if I weren't keeping track. We're not completely denying ourselves either: I bought nibbles for our board game sessions. I'll be shelling out $$ on NYE. My attention deficit disorder had me drafting and redrafting some asset allocation/spending plan schemes. With YNAB I can keep better track of my savings goals and where our money is going.

I also don't include my gold and silver amounts in YNAB because of their daily fluctuations, so I look more broke than I am.

Today I give blood.
My Price Book so far has entries for items we commonly buy from Costco, or find ourselves walking to yonder national chain every week to get.

Thinking I might not do a Target (TGT) Direct Purchase Plan, but rather put some cash in one of my stock accounts: the initial purchase fee in the DPP is equal to the commission the investment service applies, and I've had a number of free trades, so averaging the commission cost is lower.

The spouse of one of my alt.obituaries Dead Pool picks died: no points.

Wishing you the true and greatest gifts: love, friendship, peace, joy, a warm place to sleep, and a full stomach.

My personal approach is to have mini-challenges. I won't restrict these to one per month, although they happen to number twelve. Some will be easier than others.

2012 $20 Challenge Savings Goal: $200. This way I look like I accomplish something.

Bathroom Challenge: Use up cleaning products from Bathroom and Kitchen, replenish either with homemade remedies or with products for which I have coupons or 10%+ savings discounts.
Amazon/Craigslist/eBay Challenge: Let's sell some stuff!
Chinook Book Challenge: Use coupons from 2012 Chinook Book.
Coffee Challenge: Reduce # of coffees out per week to two.
Coupon Challenge: Using coupons from circulars or Target.com, but not Chinook Book.
FreeCycle Challenge: Get needed items through the kindness of strangers.
Freezing Challenge: Keep forgetting I can freeze homemade bread, dough, pies, muffins and beans after they've been cooked.
Gas Challenge: Does not apply to scooter. Fill up every ten days. Options: walk, bike, take transit, or scoot.
LifeHacker/Tightwad Gazette Challenge: Learn something? Share something!
Movie Challenge: Watch films on Archive.org, on my personal PC, or from library whenever possible. Exceptions for films like 'Hugo' or rare specialty films at theaters where we have memberships.
Pantry Challenge: Popular in the last four days of a payperiod. Exceptions only for milk, eggs, butter and bread.
Poverty Challenge: Weeklong Pantry Challenge.
Reading Challenge: First, pay off library fines. Then pay for replacement cards. Then get books from the library. Also read ebooks from library or what I've downloaded.
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Wondered why I've managed only to replenish $2450 of my $7500 roof. Spot price for ounce of gold was $100 less than what it is now, and I had 1.5 oz fewer than what I have now. Also silver was $5 more per ounce than what it is now. I did not dedicate myself to debt repayment. When silver touches $40/oz I will liquidate some.
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I signed up for a local consumer research study firm but I fail all its survey qualification questions. Maybe because I don't have a lot of techie gadgets, or watch television. What are some good questions to answer "yes" to so I can get somewhere between $50 to $100 for participating in these groups.

Somewhere between being baby-la-la and "oh I never thought of money that way". Comfortable with YNAB's philosophical approach and Rules.

Keep forgetting I have stock. My stock balances are very low though: I haven't added to them this year in favour of an investment yielding 22% instead. I bought one share of P&G. I have enough stock to liquidate if I needed to pay tax for the new vehicle.

Paid mortgage through the mail this month.

Yes. But tomorrow won't be one: I'm buying turkey sausage for bean soup, ground veal and ground pork for tourtière. My scheme for the next eleven days is to spend under $100/day, and put what I didn't spend into the VISA card, then the HELOC, then into silver, money market account, Procter & Gamble Direct Purchase Plan (DPP), and Walgreen DPP. Target by Value Line and Standard & Poor's judgements is worth buying as a Direct Purchase Plan BUT! The initial purchase charge is equivalent to my TD Ameritrade account charge; and when I signed up to receive the Direct Purchase Plan by mail, the Bank of New York/Mellon website's form did NOT accept my name, although when I used the Contact Us form to complain, my name didn't hold up any processing script.

I have been blessed with heaps of bean sprouts so am making chow mein, chop suey, egg foo yung before they get slimy beyond use. The More-With-Less cookbook is helping me out.

I dropped off three cans of tuna, one box of macaroni (it was Barilla, the good stuff), and one package of whole wheat spaghetti at the local food bank.

Has anyone used the YNAB software program with success? Has it paid for itself? I have a trial program but only a seven-day trial key.

My Dead Pool 2012 lists are ready.

Friday I witnessed six impossible things before noon:
1. Smooth ride free of congestion to downtown, namely the Public Markets.
2. Immediately available parking.
3. Easy walk with 25 lb box o' meat to car.
4. Easy parking spot to Western Ave where I reused the parking sticker (illegal).
5. Got back from downtown in thirteen minutes. (I live over eight miles away).
6. Had exactly enough for fish, meat, Terry's Chocolate Oranges, and 2012 Slingshot.

I offered one to my son's teacher when I came by to give my son a lunch. His teacher is English, so I expected the Chocolate Orange would go over very well. He received it like a young child, with an "OOH!"

Not going to buy a car until my finances are big enough to manage paying off the car + the HELOC.

Compared to a year ago I am $1515.01 poorer in liquid assets. I'm playing the tattered and faded "I paid for a new roof" card here and saying that's not entirely sucky.

Hubby got $350 from his parents. It's designated "fun money." I asked him to consider putting it in the Money Market Account and he made a face. What's wrong with wanting cheap fun all year?

Did I mention I have three strikethroughs for my 2011 dead pool? Two within ten days. Golden!

HELOC: $14950
Target: paid $36.57 (statement balance paid in full before 12/22 due date)
Visa: $220 remaining (statement balance paid in full before 12/27 due date)

Year-end interest on HELOC: $454. My goal was to have paid $10K of debt for 2011, and if I exclude borrowing, I've accomplished that. But my balances currently owed are not $10K less than December 2010: they are $6900 lower.

That $10 Target gift card went to a local women's shelter.

I gave $10 each to two schools in the new school directors' districts.

I am feeling broke because of the selloff. I recognize that I must act against my feelings in investing. Hubby gets paid tomorrow, so I'll see if gold slips below this year's average price, and ask about Maple Leafs: expecting big swings. And it's a triple-paycheque month: that's always good.

If you missed

this post and want to participate in the recipe exchange, please do. And thanks to those joining in the recipe exchange -- you've posted some intriguing offerings!