Spondulicks Forever!

I seem to have lost a spark. Read then, if you dare, this plodding narrative.

This whole burning & burying the brother episode led to a surprise: a credit limit increase to $21000 on one card, the day after I paid back the last of the amount. What this does to my credit utilization ratio is probably close to nothing: I still get so-so credit card offers, and ThirdFederal routinely sends me mortgage offers I can't qualify for.

Albertson's is having a meat sale: I amazingly purchased about ten pounds of fish (sole - $7/lb), pork (BOGO), chicken ($1.99 bnls skls per pound), stew meat, and steak (BOG2). I intended to buy animal protein under $5.00, so this was a windfall for me. I saw

this golden oldie and Miz Pat's Pork Roasts recipe request, so am feeling more optimistic about feeding my family for under $3/plate.

I am starting my finances from scratch after my Spending in September and October. I keep a debt repayment/assets spreadsheet and am, sigh, $4000 under from the beginning of September. I have a fair bit in gold and silver, and that's tanked along with the Canadian currency I maintain "for emergencies", as the US dollar is so strong. Apparently some of my stocks like IBM, ONNN and GILD have dropped significantly in value as well. I'm happy I didn't buy PCLN, and that I managed some BRK-B purchase while it was still under $140. My first clue should have been how cheap the Yen was compared to my first trip to Japan. The good news is that I have run out of brothers and parents to bury, I guess.

If I can brave the dark and cold, I can get $100 for participating in a focus group on Thursday. I have too many wants for the $100 to cover. Birthdays, heating bill, a handful of hot soaks in a women-only sauna and hot tub place, Christmas gifts, maybe even Amazon Prime for a year...

Oh yes I am also currently in the lead in a Dirtnap for Dollars competition. Fortunately for me the lead competitor, who had four people in common with me on her list, disqualified herself by not ponying up the $20...

Menu for the Week -
Monday - Roast Sirloin
Tuesday - Chicken Tonkatsu
Wednesday - Cottage Pie? Leftover Roast Beef?
Thursday - Solo Sole. Guys can have whatever. Or I'll eat out, knowing I'll be getting $100...
Friday - Red Lentil Curry for real this time
Saturday - pork maybe? who knows. The mind reels. Especially after a few toots of Gentleman Jack (my bro's friends and I toasted him in a sendoff with this. I learned how to ask for aspirin in Japanese the morning of the funeral.)

The quilts have come out from storage: high of 7 degrees C/44F today. One has some urine stains: ick! Dumped lotsa washing soda and some trickle of Woolite in the Delicate Soak cycle: hoping this will do the trick... I already regret not picking up OxiClean at Costco.


My kind of laundrette. Scooters and chamber musicians welcome!

Revisited the glove drawer to make sure I have matching pairs too. Even considering putting a "cold weather survival bundle" in the car: blankets, drinking water, flares, lightsticks, flashlight, matches, protein bars, whistle, hand warmers, kitty litter, window scraper, rag. No snow shovel: not in a severe weather area. For those of you between the Rockies and the Appalachians, north of 40, I feel for you. As my people would say, standing outdoors in their summer shorts: "A bit brisk, eh? Bit brisk."

Went to Costco for first time since... July? Easier to go in the evening! We didn't waste any time, stuck mostly to a rehearsed list, and paid $2.68/gallon for gas. It seems now we are always refuelling, and I am always buying vegetables. When we were fuelling every 10 days, I'd have a game with myself where I'd have to save at least a dollar on my spending when I went out. As I'd buy enough to warrant the size of the car this wasn't a problem. Now, I may have to try another game: the Use-It-Up or Pantry Challenge popular here.

Menu for the Week:
- Shepherd's Pie, tonight
- Bean Soup, with Kielbasa Wednesday
- Bean Soup Leftovers Thursday
- Either Red Lentil Curry or Quinoa-Kidney Bean Chili Friday
- Roast or Baked Chicken, yum or probably Bean Soup leftovers.

Recap:I've paid for obituary, memorial dinner, interment, funeral attire, hotel room, travel, gifts, postage for more gifts, thank you notes. I didn't contribute to the

GoFundMe account for burial expenses, but I did pay close to half its current amount in interment, and brought the bones to Canada, so I think I'm good. I didn't contribute to the trust fund for my nephew and his mother, but I did help circulate notice of it to over 20000 people. I was the only blood relative who attended the funeral, so I'm good there too. Nobody's told me I haven't done enough. It just feels like I haven't because I don't know how much my brother left his widow. Objectively we can agree my brother should have planned better. Subjectively I don't feel his widow and son should suffer.

I am so happy to have an emergency fund. Christmas isn't going to be much fun though this year, unless we do an Advent Calendar of Joy or some antimaterialist mission. Something that doesn't involve a lot of money. I should probably mail something to my brother's widow and son though... maybe. I don't know how relationships through marriage go after a death. It's much up to the bereaved, or the older relatives, in my experience. I'm still in touch with my step-parents.

My husband did his open enrollment activity in front of me, groaning "that sucks" so I am gritting my teeth and mulling possible financial rearrangements. Like maybe paying for the car in full to free up some $$. I know he is reducing his HSA contribution. I may have to get my prescriptions filled in Canada if they'll cost half as much. Another thing I could do is reduce my espresso intake to once a week. I bought Mount Hagen Organic Instant coffee, which comes out to a little more than eighteen cents a cup, one twelfth of what I'd expect to pay for a demitasse of espresso. Nescafe is probably cheaper than that, even. I'd heard that Nescafe invests more $$$ in research and development. Half the coffee drinkers on the planet prefer instant. What helps me stay frugal is that I've become so old that I can't abide loud music in coffee shops in the daytime, and where I live it seems mostly young people with profound hearing loss are serving espresso. Seriously, isn't that what ear buds and earphones are for?

Shampoo: my hair's oil-clumpy whether I use a citrus shampoo, Garnier Fructis, or Dr. Bronner's soap. I wonder how I can get a smooth, manageable head of hair. Do I need to rinse with vinegar water every shampoo? And why do clumps of hair come out when I use soap or baking soda?

Food: Root vegetables and squash varieties I am experimenting with this year. We were introduced to yam chips and love them almost as much as sweet potato chips. Tried spaghetti squash for first time tonight, that was a big hit. Mostly I like roasting the root vegetables, putting tons of butter and maybe some chile powder or crushed red pepper on split-open halves of squash, with lime.

For some people in the Atlantic Provinces, the month is half-over. My HELOC is, after an eleven-dollar adjustment, at half; my mortgage is a little more than half of my original 1999 loan of $184450, which in turn is half of what Zillow says my house is valued. Car Loan, not halved yet, but I've paid more than half of the car's retail price.

I did halve my credit card balance, by paying all of the October Statement. I booked the Japan return flight on that, and went to Nordstrom Rack (I can do a smart thing on occasion) for funeral clothes. Funny thing is that I had the presence of mind to call my credit union to ask for permitted charges from Japan merchants, but I never used my credit card there. I brought Yen but the Yen I purchased at face value were collectors' items (think Susan B Anthony dollars or silver certificates, or King George VI-era minted coinage) and no Japanese national was going to let me spend it! The women shouted "Sugoi!" (super, amazing) when I brought the bills out of my wallet. I also had an American national for a host who has a USD account so we did some arbitrage. I came home with: Hong Kong Dollars, Japanese Yen, United Arab Emirates Dirhams, American Dollars, and Canadian Dollars. I was not much loved at espresso shops, rooting about and finding every coin except those with white Presidents on them. My son had to buy me coffee with his birthday money (embarrassment).

I wrote earlier about smartphones. I probably could have used one in Japan: I didn't have constant access like what I'm used to in the US, and that caught up with my family when I returned to North America. My husband had the good sense to pack my laptop and drive it to BC (while our kid was at school! how great is it to drive to another country and back during your child's school hours!) the day after I arrived in Canada so I could communicate better and not be at the mercy of the hotel's desktop PC.

I'm fed up now with Virgin Mobile, and don't like that 7-11's SpeakOut Canada doesn't accept US credit cards (I have to show up at a Canadian 7-11 to buy minutes). We'll be investigating smartphones and a T-Mobile plan. Thanks to everybody who contributed useful information and explained their reasoning for going with the plans they have.

At one point yesterday we had $11.20 in our chequing (checking) account. Good thing the "House Master" as my sister-in-law puts it (we all know in real life our cat is the House Master, right?) gets paid in two days, and that we have turkey leftovers and wild sockeye salmon at $5.00/pound.

One silver lining about my little brother's passing is that my friends our-his age who have similar health problems (hypertension, blood pressure) are now super-inspired to treat and defeat them!

Me, I've lost some 1.5" (4 cm) around the waist, without doing much exercising, mostly from stress and four tiny dietary changes: homemade sweet potato chips instead of Lay's (a few to me is a 9.5 oz bag), no sugar or milk in coffee, 1 serving of bread only 2x/week, and filling 2/3 of my dinner plate with vegetables. Oh yeah and stressing so much the adrenalin eats up the fat. But it feels really good to fit comfortably in my smallest jeans without jackknifing on the bed to pull up the zipper, or feeling the raw pinch marks around the waist.

Roasting real turkey pieces this year, to approximate the homey sensation of an in-use oven for hours. Thanksgiving is always just the three of us in October: the spouse's birthday is always in the fourth week of November so we go north and eat at a diner and let him buy CDs instead of hanging out here. It is fun to be an immigrant without parents: I make my own traditions!

Dinner menu: turkey, beets, potatoes, succotash if I can get away with it else kale and carrots.

So if you're having a Thanksgiving dinner today, let's toast to better days and better health.

1. Today was my first day braving the online banking since my 23 September departure. Ten minutes ago I paid the mortgage, the first time I have been late. Normally, five days before the end of the month, I schedule payment on either the first of the next month when it is due, or the last day of the current month. For obvious reasons I did not do this.

2. My brother died intestate, it appears, as nobody came up to me in e-mail or at the funeral, or the vigil, and said "hey I was a signatory to the will, and I'm telling you this because you've been named executrix." I am back home now, and if a will had been found, I would still be in Japan, and I dunno, probably bill collectors would be hassling my family by now. I don't usually recommend dying intestate, but that may be preferable to keeping an executrix without an income of her own overseas for at least seven weeks in a country where she doesn't know the language nor the customs.

3. If one has a digital or soft copy of a will, keep it on an external USB HDD or a flash/thumb drive. My brother's e-life is now in a laptop damaged from transit from Abu Dhabi to Osaka. I don't know what priority his widow has made data salvage: some sensitive news about their relationship was broken to me by his confidants, not by his widow, so she might be as willing to view his communications as I am willing to look at my credit card statement. If the data is salvaged, and there is a will on there, I'm gonna be p****d.

4. I paid for interment of "my half" of my brother's bones. Plus a few days in Vancouver in a downtown hotel for Canada-side estate duties; my brother died without a will, but he did send me a "if anything should happen to me" e-mail six months ago, with instructions, including his stated intention of procuring life insurance for his family, making a will, and appointing me executrix.

5. I abruptly left the home 23 September 2014, but I did print out all my internet account userids and passwords from our database and left them at my husband's workdesk before departure. Not as a "if anything should happen" precaution, but as a "I expect you to take care of things while I'm gone" message. Guess what: not everything was taken care of while I was gone.

Oh yeah, for those of you who might care and have oodles of altruistic facebook contacts - here's a

GoFundMe link to my bro's funeral expenses fund. This goes to his widow and child, not to me. My expenses are my responsibility.

I'm kinda relieved now I am not already over the Pacific. I've just been reading up on Japanese funerals. Bluesfemme kindly filled me in on the pearls, but now I have to get hosiery and a black handbag, maybe a nice Ambien prescription. Sleeping was hard last night. I exchanged some money for the "funeral envelopes" (I did this for the wedding years earlier) but fear it is not enough. I don't think this is the right time for me to be stingy, and maybe I should expect to be in debt for a month or so.

Anyway: $1576 Canadian after taxes to fly to the Far East, no awkward transfers in Honolulu so Ambien can send me for 6 to 8 hours.

An American is going to greet me at the airport and take care of me at least partly so I don't burden my sister and her family too much. I do not know if my brother had a will. He made mention of making me executrix last year when he had a health scare. I'm scheduled to stay a week. This would've been open-ended if there were a will and I would have to take care of things. I think intestate decedents leave half the estate to the surviving spouse, don't know if Japan government takes the other half.

Japanese funerals cost $25000 USD on average. I think I might have a heart attack of my own. I don't know if I'm going to offend by putting as much as I can afford (the maximum) in a funeral envelope, or if I'm going to be surprised with a bill for funeral expenses.

Reposted from forum:

My brother, 44 years old, died last night. In Japan. I am in shock racing into grief.
(I know this is very young, and I will tell you it was from a lung malady, not from selfharm or a traffic accident or what usually takes the lives of men under the age of 50.)

His wife asked me to fly over. I need this information fast. I don't know if compassionate fares work for overseas flights.
Will my 12 yo child need a passport to fly with me?
Are there fare discounts or freebies for children?

Update: My cousin who is a travel agent found a flight for me. I am going alone. I now have some Japanese Yen, a tasteful black dress and black flats (no sense going as Godzilla-in-mourning) and maybe I'll have ticket info (website timed out on my cousin when she booked as me). I am still kind of in shock but prone to sudden crying fits. I am very thankful I have two places to stay at in Japan, and I'll be there for probably a week so I don't burden my sister's parents, who know very little English (I know even less Japanese). My mom and dad are both dead and I am struggling with minor details and what to do for Japanese funerals and how I'm going to communicate across the sea: do you think maybe my sister will let me have my brother's laptop?

How weird is it that today's SavingAdvice article is about men and heart disease? My brother died of a pulmonary embolism.

I just read a Forbes article on the real costs of smartphones when one foregoes the 24-month contracts service providers try to lock customers into. According to Forbes, the cost was around $450 - $600.

I've got a cheap mobile phone with a cheap monthly plan: $28.34 in monthly charges. I won't be switching to a smartphone unless it can absorb or eliminate other budget expenses. Can a smartphone help me save $50 in groceries, 10% at the gas pump, 15% off my utilities, et cetera?

Anyone have any true stories to share?

Married Twenty Years on August 13.
House Principal Now 50% Paid or 50% Owing, depending on your outlook.
Mortgage: 25% paid over three years.

Baselle and I underwent another Community Fundraiser Scavenger Hunt. We got everything this year, without having to return another year. I did some prep work to save us shoe leather. We were caught in a hailstorm, heard the loudest booms this side of the Rockies: later I read someone 0.5 miles away was struck by lightning.

My son might find "The Rockford Files" bizarre: people using pay-phone booths, going through paper files to look through information, maps of Vancouver, British Columbia in US private investigators' offices.

My spouse looked over my shoulder as we saw an early bit of "The Farnsworth Stratagem," a 2nd season episode, where Joe Santos' character Sgt. Dennis Becker has paid 2.5% into a million-dollar luxury hotel, with only $700,000 left on the Deed of Trust. "That's $1250/month. Dennis doesn't even CLEAR that," groaned his wife. Of course, forty years later, maybe $1250/WEEK would be due on the 200 sq.ft. Rockford's trailer takes up on a Malibu beach. My spouse said "I clear more than $1250/week, don't I?"

What the characters quote for steak, fish, car prices can be multiplied 386% to get 2014 dollar values.

I do miss the mid-70s architecture, the dying days of Googie. Just once I wanna see Rockford at a Farrell's, or Sambo's, Bob's Big Boy or a Dean Martin's Steakhouse...

The inflationary period is mentioned a few times in Season One. It was not a happy time for the stock market: company stock going down as much as two points cost tens of millions in market capitalization. Checks bounce.

There were a few unrealistic things in "Rockford Files": you never saw Jim open up even a bottle of aspirin for all the punch-ups and beat-downs he'd take each episode; the LAPD are upright characters (you know who'd been helping to cover up movie stars' illegal acts in real life? Beverly Hills Police); all the hoods sneer and tawk in youse guys dialect: no crisp enunciation unless the actors took roles of the well-to-do. And remarkably few African-Americans and Latin Americans in prominent guest star roles for southern California!

King of Eight

Goals for the eighth anniversary:

1. Lose eight pounds!
2. Declutter eight pounds of crap!
3. Walk eight cumulative miles in eight parks!
4. Earn $8 in interest from dividends and interest this month!
5. Sell eight lacklustre equities, replace with value-weighted fund and value-weighted ETF
6. Share eight frugal links!
1019 Different Ways to Save
Better Budgeting
No Credit Needed
Mr. Money Mustache - share your badassity
The Dollar Stretcher
Help me cut costs without feeling the pinch.
Tightwad Central
Get Rich Slowly
7. Make eight vegetable & fruit juice combinations!
8. Your suggestion here

I have loosened up on the stinginess from this first quarter. I have signed up DS for school district music camp. The city animal shelter has dinged me $27 for not renewing my pet license on time.

We saw baselle on Memorial Day, as we walked past her bus stop.

I chicken out of paying extra to the HELOC and car loan every time I log on to my credit union account. In their 1935 short "Thicker Than Water," Mr. Laurel suggests to Mr. Hardy that the whole savings account be emptied to pay off the furniture, after Squinty-Eyed Mr. Finlayson, their greatest comic foil, comes by demanding the dough for delayed payment.
Mr. Hardy thinks emptying the account is a grand idea, Mrs. Hardy does not, but gives no reason. Mr. Hardy is emancipated, no 4'9" woman with a frying pan and a mean swing is going to tell HIM what to do, so he empties out the joint savings account. He walks into an auction, sits by a woman who wins her bid on a grandfather clock. She has no money! She has to run home and get it but won't Ollie be a gentleman and cover her for a little while? Ollie does.
The grandfather clock is demolished owing to stupidity, because this is a Laurel & Hardy short. Mrs. Hardy goes to the bank, learns that her spouse empties it out. Angrier than a wet hen, Mrs. Hardy is.
Her domestic violence against her spouse sends him to the hospital, presumably for a subdural hematoma (that frying pan made a massive gong noise) yet a blood transfusion is required (dunno, lots of these shorts are heavy on gags and light on scenario continuity).

Okay, I can see kinda why emptying one account to pay off a loan, leaving today's $200 for the month, is a bad idea. But I'm still hesitant to pay anything more than $20 biweekly toward the debts. The "What Ifs" for my son's teeth, cat's eventual euthanasia, furniture, budgeting for car repairs (warranty expired April 2014), and home maintenance loom large in my scenario. I'm not worried about domestic violence. If domestic violence hasn't happened in twenty years it'll be an sign of dementia that'll bring it on if at all.

What is average credit?

With today's mail was an application from Capital One for a Cash Rewards credit card, $39 annual fee, APR 18.9%. I went online to see how this card ranked, and one source said it was for consumers with average credit scores, like 689 FICO. The text was that my credit information had been reviewed, and this was the "right" offer for me "... right now."

If our purchases and spending are monitored under close scrutiny, I don't see how I'd be offered an average credit card. I have: one 12-year mortgage with under ten years left to go, one HELOC with 22% utilization at present, one store card ($2500 limit, max balance $89, always paid in full) and two credit cards (7-year, 12-year) none of which has ever seen more than 10% utilization at any time, always paid on time and in full. The variable APRs on those cards are 6.24% and 6.9% respectively. Two years ago I had a credit score of 798, reported by Bank of America. My non-revolving balances owing have gone down. I have not defaulted on anything, no bankruptcies, no foreclosures, no repossessions. I check my annual credit report free, and regularly. I saw no incorrect reports when I last checked five months ago.

Does Capital One send out credit card offers of fair to average quality to any and all addresses a credit bureau has for sale without any credit background filtering? How frequent does credit card activity have to be to keep a credit score close to constant?

Credit.com, creditkarma.com, all these credit cards sites have NOTHING on credit card companies sending out crap offers to people. Credit card companies hire really smart people to develop data algorithms and data mining, and marketing people to come up with cards for each credit score strata. Why don't the credit card companies look at credit scores of people and send them the right card for them instead of one "average" card for just anybody?

eBay (NASD:EBAY)'s subsidiary PayPal screwed me over in late March. My donation to PortableApps.com through PayPal set off an account "flag" request for verification. I input my information very slowly and carefully and accurately, but it was rejected and PayPal demanded I send sensitive personal identification like my SSN, verification of my mailing address. I thought "no, not when it's THEIR fault."

But companies will rarely apologize or change THEIR mistake. Because that would be responsive, and who cares about customer retention when one can spend more money attracting people who haven't yet had a negative PayPal experience?

I looked in PayPal's forums for ways to get around this baseless limiting of my account: there were none. I changed my address, I unlinked my joint account, I withdrew my balance from PayPal. PayPal sent automated multiple e-mails to the tune of "c'mon, you can send us your sensitive info. All you have to do is send us your sensitive info!" And yet on the PayPal forums one can read "I sent my info nine times, to a different person each time, and my account limitations are still there six months later" and "my PayPal account was hacked."

After five weeks of this asinine activity from PayPal, I received an e-mail: "We fixed our verification process." No apologies for any inconvenience. I don't know that I'd want to continue business with a company that flags my completely legal activity of online donations to tax-id organizations on some double-secret algorithm, or because of faulty business rules or bad programming. I am not convinced the benefits outweigh the risks.

Yet eBay is on both Jim Jubak's "best 50 stocks in the world" and "stocks for an 12-18 month horizon", Standard and Poor's "NetAdvantage" online database gives eBay an Investment IQ of 141, which is higher than my IQ, it's undervalued, and Value Line projects its annual return range (3-5 years) from a 7% low to a 14% high.

I kinda wanna buy some stock in eBay, chancing on a high 7%+ return, and using that to buy cryptocurrency.

What are your "investing for revenge" choices?

No surprise, kitty's surgery took our monthly expenditure 10.2% beyond the takehome pay.
Equity is way up, about 1.7% over thirty days.

Next month is a triple paycheque month. I hope I can save the extra paycheque for things like 20th anniversary celebration, new mattress, debt paydown. I would, in fact, like to put some of it toward an investment to help us save even MORE money. Maybe neon jackets and saddlebags for bicycling, revive the garden now that I can go into my own backyard again; screen windows so no flies get in. Maybe $ for a written license test for the scooter. The credit card payoff is the highest priority. Hate carrying a balance. Hauling crap to the waste terminal.

Eating out took a lot of our budget too: my birthday, celebrating 70% equity in the house, a two-day sports competition fifty miles north, with four mouths to feed both days. I did pack some spring water and protein bars. Fuel cost doubled as a result. On the other hand, my grocery bill is 20% less than average.

I'm reading a splendid book on being thrifty: Be Thrifty: How to Live Better With Less compiled by Pia Catton and Califia Suntree. Its do-it-yourself articles are by a panoply of experts, with illustrations and clear instructions for acquiring the "skills" touted in online articles. Especially useful for the first-time homeowner. Plus lots of recipes. I'm hoping to save enough using these tricks and making other adjustments to pay for a new mattress. Also looking forward to making my own mayonnaise. I've been reading Elizabeth David, and even sixty years ago there were people like me who had no idea what fresh homemade mayonnaise tastes like.

In dead pool news I have an eighteen-point score in the pool with no profit.

I spent over $100 today, for no meat. Wine, dairy, cereal, raw honey, household items, condiments, eggs were the big items. Looking at my waistline, I am ready to eat more eggs and ingest more adrenal-gland-friendly potassium-rich vegetables. I have more juice recipes and am looking forward to seeing the grocery bill come down even further.

I learned I have a whey allergy, or is it a lactose allergy? Whey has tons of lactose. I won't say what it does to my system, but I will say that I need digestive enzymes to keep the whey shake inside me for longer than an hour. I'm bummed, because I was using whey shakes for leucine and protein, with an egg, for meal replacements. I used coconut milk, not cow milk, in the shake.

The woman who loved to neglect her large dogs by never exercising them, so they'd freak out when the dog next door to them was being properly and regularly exercised, has moved away. I walked past her house and wow, it was quiet. I loved it. I think I may have PTSD because I keep expecting the dogs to start barking when my husband opens our back door. My neighborhood is now a beautiful place, with well-cared for dogs. I can walk to the supermarket and back through the shortcut woods. I can restart my garden. Then I have no reason to complain about the cost of onions, because I'll be growing my own.

This is not my year for commenting. I have learned that my comments, while not threatening, trolling, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, mostly not political, usually on-topic, and always true, have been deleted or have failed to publish. I have learned that US & Canada news is mostly advertorials or distractions to hide encroaching horrors or disastrous legislation. A US newspaper will not publish that a bank robber's been photographed as a likely suspect in more than one hold-up but will wring its hands about police brutality ("how dare you shoot for center mass at someone who charges you with a knife and whom you, in your working role as a robbery detective, have been told pointed a large firearm at a teller during a holdup"); a Canada newspaper will not accept a comment that a post-mortem blood alcohol test shows a driver was twice the legal limit when he died, even though a link to the actual medical examiner's substantial and supportive of evidence claims report is provided; a US weekly periodical will ask "did you see this out-of-control car back into a light pole and speed on city sidewalks endangering pedestrians?" but will delete a comment if the comment shows the registered owner of the car has over four dozen traffic infractions according to the *ahem* publicly available municipal and state courts histories, and has "Fast & Furious" films on his Facebook profile. I get that cars can be stolen, but how likely is it really that someone is going to steal, more than once, a 1992 BMW 750i with no gas tank cover that just so happens to belong to a reckless driver and notorious speed demon? To take it to outlying county areas to whizz around in transit centers and supermarket parking lots at 40 mph?

How is posting items that are verifiable and can be found online and available to the public bad? "I get that this is all public information available online to anyone, but we can't accept your comment. We could get sued." You know you live in a sucky area where people can be sued for saying "the morning sun is east and the evening sun is west." But whoa, the garbage, lies and unsubstantiated reports from these news outlets can't be believed by a discerning individual with some media literacy.

Can you imagine how dull "Sherlock" and "Elementary" would be in real life? "Actually, I have a lead with much evidence, including surveillance footage to go on, criminal record, address, the whole works." "SILENCE! The suspect might SUE! We must let them be free and celebrate their independence. Pretend concern and fake furrowed brows and frowns to go with our disingenuous hand-wringing are all that we can muster for this crime."

Three dollars! Woohoo! I know, you're thinking "but wasn't there a humongous mudslide caused by heaviest rain in recent history? Shouldn't your mortgage flood fee be cranked up like the 5% extra your insurance company tacked on, with its documentation typed up by an ESL rhesus monkey with three fingers amputated?" But yes, only 19 months after my 12-year mortgage was instituted, I am refunded THREE DOLLARS! I could buy two global stamps and mail letters to my favourite people!

Apartment dwellings DO flood at my elevation, but our house hasn't had that problem, thank goodness.

Impatience got the best of me this week and I paid down 9.5% of our credit card purchase before the April 27 statement, plus 100% of the Target credit card before the April 22 statement. So now we will have $75 to last us three days in the savings account. The good news is that we're full up on vegetables and meat, car fuel, cat food and coffee.

My husband ate up the lo mein I made yesterday with our 1/2 lb remaining ground beef. I was going to reheat leftovers but now eating takeout seems like a good idea.

Had good frugal shopping day today, except for the seltzer water, but we saved $4 buying the seltzer so okay.
Chicken thighs for ninety-nine cents a pound, whole chicken for eighty-eight cents a pound, bought nine tins of the cats' favourite food at 15% reduction, free sour cream, pork chops for $2.20 a pound.

I'm bothered by the price of beef being so high, but I can still eat eggs, seafood, pork and chicken.

Birthday is coming up, spring break for boy is this week: an expensive week. Trying to up the fun factor and down the spending. Soon I'll be venturing out for a long walk in the sun. Planned is a dinner on an island, we have a restaurant coupon and ferry discount coupon. This is to celebrate the 70% equity milestone. Another activity could be trying our hand at pie-making, or buying a neon jacket and getting the bicycle fixed and outfitted with an engine to go up hills. When I tell people I'd like to get a Raspberry Pi they say "that's a super idea! I might get one too!" and then they're surprised that I mean the Pi with cables and memory card and LED wires. Although a Raspberry Pie or Key Lime Pie or Mexican Chocolate Pie sounds great too. I'm more concerned with feeling fantastic than risking a positive correlation between money spent on me and any positive self-esteem I may have. So I'm staying off the forums for a "free or dead cheap ways to celebrate my birthday" question because I prefer to come up with answers without getting verbal abuse from strangers.

I did treat myself to Turkish coffee and orange flower water. Only twenty-three cents a cup for a 6 ounce trip to the secular Middle East! Beat that, Starbucks!

I may open up a DogeCoin wallet and start using GoogleWallet. And start playing with my finances so I can find ways to save more than 3% and put the savings toward debt reduction. Oh for the day I can obliterate one five-digit debt. Might be a four-digit debt before that happens.

Most importantly thank you for the kind thoughts about my brother, and the cat. My brother's problem is fixable, the cat's, not so much. I haven't heard from him in a while so maybe he's calmed down and is busy getting his affairs in order.

My men took advantage of Ben & Jerry's "Free Cone Day" promotion on Tuesday. I bought Apple stock, finally, after weeks of saving up for the amount needed for commission and one full share. I probably need to do some spring cleaning on my Roth IRA, while I'm busy changing passwords on my accounts.

Oh yeah, equity in the house has pushed past 70%! It boggles me how I can be paying over $700 principal per month on a small house in a "thriving metropolitan area" and yet accrue equity oh so slowly. Eight years ago we were at 65% equity.

My birthday's coming up and I can't bring myself to buy myself a present because of the $1092.79 on the credit card. The only person who talks about my b-day is my son who tells me I should go up to B.C. and have a good time. Last time we did that, for his birthday, he complained and still complains about the 20 whole minutes we spent at one of the greatest independent record stores in North America, at his father's request. We didn't spend over $100 there, so I don't know what the big deal was.

Maybe renewing the Costco membership will be the birthday present. The sales flyers don't do anything for me: I'd rather have a dead cheap 10lb bag of quinoa than leather furniture, 54oz tubs of coconut oil rather than a bulk assortment of KIND or CLIF bars...

I may abandon the 52-week Savings Challenge. The oral surgery that led to the cat's dismal prognosis usurped my future savings and dispelled any grand 20th anniversary notions I may have had. For weeks 13 and 14 I moved the savings to the Roth IRA to take advantage of the AAPL purchase.

Incidentally, right now my total debt equals the mortgage amount we took out in September 2011. I feel that one debt is going to be eradicated within a year in one swoop, perhaps two or three.

I'm seriously considering BUYING this cookbook, as if I don't have enough on my shelf. Beth Moncel, creator of www.budgetbytes.com, doesn't know me, didn't pay me to endorse this.

I'm pretty sure the recipes here will not slash my grocery bill in half, as promoted on the front cover, but the recipes I've used are very tasty, and easy to follow. Beth Moncel tells us what's freezable, and her recipe ingredients are LARGELY what's in the pantry. I've never had lo mein noodles, for example, had no idea they were American, and struck out at Asian markets.

For instance, I made her chip dip recipe, and it was even better than what I'd find at the supermarket. I did use Spike Saltfree Seasoning, though, as a substitute. And her Soft dinner roll recipe I side-eyed (where was the oil? and the milk?) but tried only because of her paragraph anecdote of how fast they went, and my spouse admitted he liked Ms. Moncel's variant better than the coconut oil and nutmeg one I use. My child inventories servings of foods he really likes, so his "how many did you have?" is a marker of excellence. He even helped make the southwest chicken salad recipe with me.

You don't have to buy the book. I didn't get hold of the book blindly from the store, but put a hold on it at the library after visiting

Budget Bytes.

Okay, not completely off-topic. We've spent $413 on the cats for vaccination boosters, and $1100 on oral surgery for one of them, who has since been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. She's got less than six months, I think.

The $1100 was for a biopsy and two teeth extractions, anesthetic, medications and X-rays. I did not tend to this matter: it was dealt with by someone more tenderhearted and less money-obsessed than I.

I don't like that the bulk of our tax refund went to a cat with a few months to live, but I suppose life goes like that. Edit: it could have been much worse if we didn't have the money or if the cat hadn't reached her average life span. And no, we didn't vaccinate her. Looks like we don't have to bother with that now.

Also, my brother found out after his shoulder surgery he has hypertension and an enlarged heart. He is feeling mortal and told me he'd assign me executrix duties. He hasn't done a will yet. He has a wife and a child. Maybe he's panicky from the post-op drugs.

This doesn't include what's extant on the credit card.

I calculated the interest on our mortgages: over twenty-four and a half years we'll have paid $152,599.06. Over fifteen years we've paid $134,299.22. Calculation of cumulative interest for original 30-year mortgage is $240,739.28. I'm keeping these numbers in mind so I don't feel terrible about extending some debt to maintain lower monthly payments.

The latest company to vex me is Paypal. I wanted to donate to Rare Ideas LLC for its

Portable Apps Bundle as requested. I was prompted, when donating through PayPal, for the last four digits my SSN and date of birth, which I supplied, but PayPal demanded more than what I'm willing to give an online "payment transfer agent" that can't process or recognize my date of birth and SSN. So I emptied my account and am looking at DogeCoin, LiteCoin, BitCoin and GoogleWallet, among others. If you need to know specifics I'd had the account for over seven years, never had more than $25, and had a total of four transactions over those seven years, none of them with "sanctioned" or "forbidden" countries, all of them donations or shareware payments under $10 USD, no guns no porn no knives no plutonium etc. So none of this IRS declaration or maximums being reached, or withdrawal monthly limits hit problems that sour many other relationships with PayPal.

Still sour about cat expenses.

Eating down the pantry and freezer, so to speak. Fridge looks bare except for condiments and Bob's Red Mill grain bags (Flaxseed, Cornmeal). Tried some Lentils with Salmon: tasty with thyme, leeks and red vinegar. Groceries for the month of March cost $512.38

GEICO Insurance put a 8.5"x11" glossy double-sided insert in my Berkshire Hathaway annual report on how I could "score big savings" on my car insurance. Only after a "No" response do I see the tiny print on how some discounts are not available in all states. There is a maximum of discounts applicable to policies. How vexatious.

What a waste of advertising.

Worse, the "speshulist" I spoke with couldn't give me an average annual premium for my vehicle's age, make and model for someone in my city. Later found all that on the internet. I'm paying $388 less than average, but that feels like a lot.
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Anyone want to be a co-conspirator for an April Fool's Day prank on the Saving Advice forums "is ---- a scam" board? If you think the MLM thread that won't die is ridiculous, maybe consider dreaming up a MLM scheme and pretending we're all millionaire founding partners. After all, most of them are lying, and it's for one day...

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth) punished for chronic deceitfulness by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.

My county dearly wants to place a FLAT vehicle registration fee (FLAT = fee for renewing the annual tabs on your 75cc 2002 Yamaha Vino is same for renewing the annual tabs on the 2014 Porsche Boxster). We have two motorized vehicles: one is an eight-year-old Yamaha scooter, another is a two-year-old Toyota Prius. This flat fee is $60/vehicle, equivalent to what I spend on gas for the year for the scooter, and two months' gas on the Prius.

My county already instituted a fee hike of $20 on vehicle tabs (they call it car tabs, but no, it's a motorized vehicle tab fee, make no mistake) no more than two years ago. Its transit authority's already eliminated the "ride-free area" option. For some reason my county and state enjoy disproportionate and regressive taxes. I'm too ignorant to point out any political party as the culprit, so I'll just type that both of the two major ones are to blame. The county council is "nonpartisan" but let's be honest, I live in a city where only American cities like St. Louis and San Francisco seem more Democratic.

I don't want to pay $10 more per month because I'm not sure I can afford it. So my challenge to myself is to come up with $10 savings per month. I can tell you it will not come from fixed budget costs, nor from monthly expenditures under $40 a month. It won't come from spending $1440 in closing costs refinancing a 12-year $100000 mortgage down 0.125%.

I may be Sisyphus here, but I feel I am being punished for my county's chronic deceitfulness.

This is a very tightened black belt. I won't be giving up my celebratory Moxie pop for each alt.obituaries dead pool stiff (usually 10-11 a year, that's $1.50/month). I will probably cut down on my potato chips. I love the salt, but the carbs aren't good for me and the calories are empty. I will, however, be searching for the obscure, rare, brilliant, bizarre and ethically grey ways. And I'll put them in a page linked from the side bar.

Update: I play with a spreadsheet. I'm paying $382.21/mo in debt outside mortgage. Seeing what paying 10% less a month for a longer term looks like.

Blindsided by WhiteCat's tooth malady. Could be abscess, could be infection, $52 for an observation yielding no real answers, looking at $300 for dental X-rays, more money for antibiotics, before even any blood panel & surgery. None of this was budgeted.

Thinking of how to pay for this. The cats went in for vaccination to a real vet this time, pricier than the mobile vet clinic that visited a supermarket (vacated our area) we used, so there's $413 to pay first for their shots.

I am still obsessing about reducing the debt, to have it re-amortized or consolidated. Every time I pick up a surprise invoice, or learn of an upcoming county-wide vote to raise motorized vehicle registration fees I fret. I fret because we cannot, will not cut back more than a dollar from my monthly budget. We scrimp on heat, car fuel, food, clothing, restaurants, household goods and entertainment. I use coupons and a price book. I make many concoctions and recipes from scratch, plus I check the priced-to-sell-today bins at supermarkets for meats and fish.

I'm not asking for budget help because I'll only stymie those who think the only budget savers are cancelling phone plans (we don't have one), ditching the landline (done), ending gym memberships and magazine subscriptions (none) and saying goodbye to cable television (haven't had it since January 1999). Pitching the obvious ideas from the lamebrain mass media articles will be fruitless.

My options so far:
1. Liquidate my 52-week savings challenge.
2. Use emergency fund.
3. Carry balance on credit card.

Options for either the car or HELOC. Metals & stocks are sliding like mud in Oso/Arlington.
1. Do nothing.
2. Stick to slow debt-reduction plan ($31.79/month snowball).
3. Learn how to use goal-seek and what-if scenarios in Excel to determine what combination of prepayment & consolidation is optimal.

Oh like you care.

I've entered contests for the first time since I was a tweener reading "16" Magazine. Friday's a deadline for many of them.

This week: Games Magazine Crypto Twist contest. Movie quotes and cryptograms, how could I resist? Grand prize: $100

PBS Masterpiece: Four days in London. My friend and I are trying to get to London as cheaply as possible. I might spring for travel to Toronto, then London England, but that's as pricey as I get.

Newegg.com: Every prize, grand to fifth, would be useful in my House of Nerds.

Valpak Clean Up Cash Sweepstakes. $500 for one stamp, not too shabby.

Commented on VerityMom.com, didn't get the $5 Starbucks gift card I was looking for.

I've found eight sweepstakes websites, varying in value and promise. Some require FB "likes" and those I won't go for.

Making this short and sweet. Use "sweepstakes ends February 28, 2014" very soon.

Week 8 52-week Saving Challenge: $21. Now that Sochi Saving Challenge is done with I can save amounts greater than $20 per week.

Don Cherry Quietly Reflects on Sochi
I CALLED IT, DIDN'T I? EXTRA PERIOD IN WOMEN'S GOLD GAME, MEN BRINGING HOME GOLD, DEFEATING EURO PLAYERS! ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR UNCLE DON! OFF BY ONLY $3 IN YANKEE DOODY DANDLE DOUGH! LET'S GO!

So with my Sochi money I'm buying exercise gear: stretchy pants and perhaps a monthly pass to a swimming pool or community centre gym.

A not quite bold move: put $4 to HELOC balance, $12 to Car Loan for first pay period of Debt Acceleration. The only people who don't dislike five-digit debt balances are the people who've recently slid down from six-figure debt balances. This should save me a solid three cents in interest.

The woman who neglects her neurotic, large loud dogs (hint: one of them is an attention-hungry breed that requires exercise) is moving. YAY YAY YAY!

Son is noticing rise in precious metals. He's very good at reporting expenditures that I may otherwise have missed. Now that silver is rising he wants some.

What to do with tax refund? My options:
Put $1155 into Money Market Account to sextuple the interest I'm getting currently, then liquidate a CD to put toward debt;

Put $1135 - $1200 in any combination toward the HELOC and Car Loan. No move will give me the instant high of dropping down to four figures; refinancing the car isn't going to bring the monthly amount down.

Remainder will go to us, to be used for Boy Achievement Adventures, Emerging from Man Cave Adventures, and Geek Girl Undertakings.

Taxes are done, filed. I passed on the Amazon giftcard because I was afraid I'd err and end up putting all my refund in the giftcard. Ditto on the I-Bonds. Lost internet four times this weekend and was afraid of anything getting lost, or resubmitted.

Return monies potentially allocated thusly:
* one Raspberry Pi
* x% of outstanding HELOC paid, where range(x) is 4-6%
* x% of outstanding car debt paid, where range(x) is 5-7%

It would feel delicious to see those balances down to four-digit figures before the end of the year

*Rest of $$ for family

More importantly, I am at the magic point where we have 3 months living expenses in our liquid assets. My plan now is to put 1/5 of the surplus aside for investing, where anticipated gains > 6.5%, and 3/5 toward debt repayment, and the remaining 1/5 to the assets for inflation creep or Savings Challenge. The plan for this executes 21 February 2014, when the credit cards are balance-free.

Menu planning:
Franks Paprikash
Fried Tidbits of Swordfish or Other Fish
Baked Fillet of Sole with Tomato, Oregano and Hot Pepper
Eat whatever day
Beanie Weenies
Chicken Tarragon Spaghettini
Veal al Limone
Coconut Lamb Curry

We will have eaten down most of the freezer meat by payday. I have the money for our next great meatmarket venture in the Money Market Account. Only with extreme planning can I get our monthly grocery spending below $600. I use coupons, price book and check for meat markdowns.