Thrift-o-rama

The car my dad gave me when he died has finally died.

(we always called it dad's last laugh, as he was always trying to talk us into taking or buying it when he was alive, and we never wanted it, and alas, we ended up with it anyway...)

It's in the driveway completely dead. It got a short circuit in the interior lights that drained the battery. The mechanics say it would take days to find the source and then they'd have to disassembled the dash and interior to fix it. For this car, a piece of crap that has required thousands of dollars in repairs AND almost killed hubby when the brakes suddenly went out on the interstate, the repair makes no sense.

We planned to buy a new car this year and well, the time has come. Actually, the time is Thursday night at 7 p.m. We test drove a few cars and decided the Honda Fit was the best one for us. I was surprised. We looked at bigger and more expensive cars, but the Fit actually had the same amount of interior space and still a decent sized trunk, so it won.

We solicited internet bids on the model/configuration/ color we wanted from five local dealers. I highly recommend this to anyone. The bids for the exact same care varied by about $1000 from low to high. Clearly, we are going with the low.

I'm happy to have a dependable car, and my first NEW car ever. At age 35, this is the first time I will have a car note. (of about $191 a month)We qualified for the Honda 0.9 percent financing, so it makes sense to finance and pay off early than to take the money out of savings. I think I'll be paying about $66 a year in interest.

It's kind of exciting. But mostly, I'm just happy we got a very inexpensive car, AND a safe car for me and the kids to drive.

I'm waiting for the tow truck to take dad's car to the junk yard. They are paying me $236 for it, which is pretty good, considering. Sure beats another repair bill. I admit I did sit in the car last night and have a cry, since it is one of my last physical connections to dad, who ironically died two years to the exact day this car gave out.

In my last post, I admitted that I fell off the wagon. I am determined to get back on. Part one is redoing the budget and then altering our savings rates, etc. to make sure we are meeting our goals and getting the most value out of our paychecks.

I did scribble down all the bills and all the savings goals on a couple of index cards. Next step, figuring out what it all means and what is left after savings to pay for gas, food, fun, etc.

I will keep you posted.

Recent events: namely, hubby giving away 5k, and the surprise when I have opened our last two credit card bills have shown me that I have officially fallen off the wagon.

When I joined this community and started a blog, I was on target. I was saving money, making more with the $20 challenge, being more creative using savings and discounts. It was great, financially speaking. And it was fun, like a new game.

Boy, have I gotten sloppy. I'm almost ashamed to admit it. I haven't been paying as close of attention to our spending as I should be. I haven't been socking away as much in the savings account as I could be. I have not been shopping around.

What happened?

Well, I got sloppy, for one.
2: I had a second kid and sleep became no.1 priority, not spending extra time managing the finances.
No.3 I started wanting to fix up the house in ways that we could see and enjoy. (Paid cash, but still)
No. 4 I started writing a weekly column for the metro newspaper that took up 3 nights a week-- so there was even less time and energy to spend on money.
No. 5 Because we are so tired and stressed, we spent more eating out and such.

That said. It's time to get back on the wagon. I read an article online today about all the folks suffering because of the recession, many without any more places to turn for help. It made it very clear to me that the well-being of my family is paramount, and the family has entrusted me with the job of managing the accounts to make sure this happens. This is a sacred trust.

We need to have more respect for the money we are earning. And start over again on our budget. Pay the savings account first, then live off of what's left. We used to do it that way, but lost our way these past 6 months.

It's clearer to me now that we are squandering our opportunity. We, like many, could be laid off any minute. Would I look back and be happy about the money we've wasted? No. So it's time to change. Seriously.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Woo-hoo! The online yard sales is actually going pretty well. I've managed to sell a few things, and I've brought in about $8o so far thanks to Craigslist. This money has been added to the tiki fund.

I've also donated 4 boxes ad two bags of items to Goodwill, and am going through more closets and drawers hoping to find more. I am really determined to cut to the bone. We have way too much stuff in this very small 1400 sq ft house.

In other happy news, I have written 59,00 words of my novel, which means I am more than halfway finished. Th3e tiny green tomatoes have sprouted in the garden and it's raining outside, hopefully making way for more.

The bad news is, of course, that we are still 9,200 away from ur savings goal for the year, thanks to the 5000 my stupid hubby lent to his dead-beat friend, and which I will never see again. I am trying to not stew about it, but it is hard.

I'm wondering if it's useful enough to warrant the time to set everything up. I started fiddling with it today and wasn't super impressed. I don't know.

Hubby informed me last night that we are giving $5,000 to his best friend, who needs help to save his house. I get why he wants to do it. They've been friends since age 14, this guy has no family he can turn to, and he is always helping other people out. That said, he's been in way over his head with this house since he bought it. He alwasy had some weird loan situation working and thought he could refinance his way out of a mess. We all know times have changed. His house is in San Francisco, he's put 110k into a renovation.

He needs the money to pay $3800 in property taxes and $1200 to finish off the last little projects. He plans to either sell it or refinance in the next 90 days, assuming it's all done. He says he'll pay us back then.(I'm doubtful. He's assuming he's able to refinance, or that he can make money if he sells it. Both are dubious)

I know it took a lot for him to even ask us. hubby says we should make pay back a non issue. Basically, it's a gift. So, the money has been wired.

I'm not happy about this. That money was our downpayment for a new car, which we need desperately. We have no safe, reliable car to transport our kids.

Plus, we always end up bailing out friends and family who manage their money poorly or with the idea that somehow it will magically all work out okay some day. We are fairly conservative. Saving, no debt, etc. Trying to build up funds to hedge against the unexpected. In reality, that's just made us the people that magically DO make things okay for the people who didn't plan. Ergo, we aren't getting ahead.

This will knock me back 5,000 more on my savings goal for the year, so basically, I'm right back where I was Jan. 1, after 6 months of scrimping. I scrimp. What can't everyone else?

I'm getting really tired of being the bank.

I've decided to have an online yard sale this year. I have a list of about 20 items that I am selling on Craigslist, etsy, as well as a lot of small items I plan to donate or freecycle. This is part of my serious decluttering kick. De-clutter til it hurts!

so far, I've sold two items and made $35. I have realized already people will pay more for something on craigslist than they would pay for the same item at an actual yard sale. I have sold another item today for $10, and they plan to pick up today.

All of the money is going to the $20 challenge and to the tiki bar fund, which has been on life support since I cleared it out to pay off my student loan last year (a decision I do not regret, as I no longer have a payment and interest on savings has bottomed out at 1 percent).

Last year, I had a yard sale that failed miserably. We sold a lot, but didn't make a lot of money, and it was a lot of work. We did get rid of a lot of things, but not enough to make it worth it again.

Well, hubby donated a bunch of the items I had set aside for the yard sale. I don't really have enough left to make it a real attention-getting stop-the-car and get out sale now, so I have resorted to plan B. I am donating the little items, and I am putting the rest on craigslist.

I did one sale to test the waters and walked away with $20 for one headboard. Not bad! I made my second sale today-- $15 for my son's portable baby swing. I think I like the online thing. It's slow, but you get more for each item individually than you would at a real yard sale.

And, of course, the house is finally getting cleared out, albeit slowly.

***

In other news, we are completely peddling backwards on our saving account. We had a lot of expenses this month: our new patio, the swing set for the boys, and a weekend trip to New Orleans (without kids) that hubby and I really needed. Oh, and the property tax bill is due. So, we took about $3000 out of savings to cover all of it. It makes me sick to do that, but it seems to go that way. We're great at saving, but when we spend, we do it all at once and end up pulling out of the savings account.

That said, I am enjoying my new patio. I'm sitting there now, drinking tea. Love it. And, the boys and all of their toddler friends L-O-V-E love the swing set. It's been a baby party here at least once a week, and that makes me really happy. Good for the beans, and good for us parents to have adults to talk to.

***
Now that we have spent basically all of our home improvement budget for the year, we've decided that the rest of the year is dedicated to decluttering, organizing, and simplifying. We realize that less stuff will make us happier. We are always tripping over something and we can never ever find what we are looking for. Never. It's very frustrating.

I know we have a lot of mess because we have two kids under two, but still. It's infuriating to never be able to fins a screwdriver or a AA battery when you need one, and with two kids following you, it's even more frustrating not to be able to do things efficiently.

Part of our declutter strategy is the online yard sale and donating. I want to declutter until it hurts. If it isn't useful or really meaningful, it's out. More stuff does not make you happier.

I want life to function smoothly, and for that to happen we need to have less stuff to sort through and everything that is left has to have a place.

Do you know I've lived in this house 4 years and we don't have a dedicated place for the vacuum? How sad is that. It just kind of lives in the last room it was used in, and it's always in the way.

After we get rid of more things, I am going to research some closet/ organization ideas so we can finally find a home for our vacuum and all of our sports/ski equipment. I feel like the disorganization is out of hand.

When it was just the two of us, we could skate by, but now that we have kids, we have to control the chaos. I don't want them to grow up never being able to find anything!

Well, I had to bite the bullet and take some money out of savings. We're still doing well on our 2010 savings goal, but this will slow progress a bit.

I decided to just go for it and take out about $2400 for our new backyard patio. It was either that, or wait three or four months until we could pay for it out of cash flow. By then it will be fall and we will have missed out on another summer with a nice big backyard patio. And, I wouldn't have a safe, car-free and worry-free place for my 2 year old to ride his tricycle. After some thought, we just decided it was worth getting it done now.

We're just tired of waiting. We have lived here 4 years and spent the first three doing all the unfun but necessary things to the house. New roof, new furnace, new windows, etc. to the tune of about $30,000 (total). We're finally getting to the more tangible, quality of life things on the list.

$2400 out of savings for a patio we can enjoy that we will buy eventually seemed like a reasonable move.

We are also buying the boys a wooden swing set this weekend. I have shopped around for MONTHS!! There are so many combinations and levels of quality that it is overwhelming. I was not going to pay $1000 or more, but I didn't want a $300 one that wouldn't last, either.

I finally decided on the Hawk's Nest model from Home Depot. It will cost a little less than $600 when all is said and done. I am going to pick up the slide and kit tonight (about $500 total), and we are borrowing a friend's truck to get the lumber next week. (About $80 for lumber) On Sat. the 22, we're having a swing set raising party, and some people are coming over to help us do the structural beam parts.

The patio and the swingset are the last of the big projects for the year. Okay, one left: $850 to redo our electrical box, but that's no fun!

And, I do still have to lay some landscape fabric, put out a ton of mulch, and maybe buy some landscape stones, but I can easily do all of that as we have extra money. These, individually won't cost so much that they qualify as a big project.

Once the patio and swing set are in we will have pretty much blown our $10,000 home improvement budget for the year. The kitchen cost $6200, $2680 for the patio, and about $600 for the swing set. That's about $9500. Add in the new electrical box and we'll be just over the limit for the year. Oh well, it could be worse! We could be way over budget!

I'm debating having a yard sale again this year. I have a lot of things I'd like to get rid of, and I could donate them, but it would be nice to have a little bit of money for them.

I had a yard sale last year and it tanked. Wasn't worth the time and the energy. But, I also didn't have it during the community yard sale weekend, so I missed out on all the free advertising and the critical mass of neighborhood sales.

I'm debating have a yard sale for one day this year, DURING the community yard sale, just to see if I can unload some things. I have a ton of baby stuff, a patio table and chairs, and a lot of odds and ends. I guess I'm wondering if it's worth the effort to price and put out everything. Everything that doesn't sell would be donated. I want every thing out of the house!

Bean is a little older than 2 now. He's incredibly active and energetic. It's a challenge to keep up with him and to keep him entertained every day. Hubby and I are now considering two-day a week/summer camp then preschool at our local community center. They have a good program. It's $220 a month for preschool and $86 a week for summer camp. (Same thing, just more $ in summer, plus swim lessons on the agenda).

I'm considering it seriously because I feel like I'm not able to give him all the things he needs at home with me. He loves other kids and there are none around us. He needs constant running, jumping and playing, and I can't do more than an hour or so at the park due to his 5 month old brother, and my exhaustion. And I'm so stretched to my limits and tired, I'm not always good at coming up with ideas for activities or crafts or ABCs or anything.

A couple of days a week of art,music, playing, swimming, and learning with other kids might be just what he needs.

Any thoughts?

I got my first bid for the new 25 ft by 13 ft concrete patio extension we want to add to the back yard. It came in at $1600 to $2000. I think this is good, although I don't know. I've never had concrete work done before! I had budgeted $2000 to $3000 for the project, so who knows, it could be the first thing I've done this year that costs less than the estimate.

The patio is an extension of an existing patio, and will give us much more usable space in our backyard. We'll still have plenty of trees, grass and wild areas as well. It'll just be really nice to have more places to sit and a place for bean to safely ride his tricycle back and forth!

I FINALLY started my novel. I am 7000 words in and it's going just fine. Now I am kicking myself for waiting so long to do this. Maybe something about turning 35 flipped on the now or never switch.

It's been on my to-do list for a long time, and considering I'm a journalist and I write for a living, you'd think it would have been easy for me to do. But, there is always a reason not to. It's now or never.

I am tired, though. I stay up late until 1 or so writing, because that's the only time I get after kids are in bed and my "real for money" work is done.

I'm doing well on other goals as well. We've almost met saving for the year, though that may change as we are getting quotes for a new patio in back and a swingset for the boys. I managed to put something in my IRA and more into the boys' college funds.

It's pouring down rain outside. At first I was sad, because it means Bean can't play outside. But, with both babies napping and me stirring away at pots in the kitchen, it's actually kind of relaxing and nice.

I just turned 6 basically dead mushy bananas into two loaves of banana bread. My mom gave me some leftover Easter ham, so I made a big pot of red beans yesterday (the New Orleans classic, it takes at least 4 hours to cook and is worth every minute.) I'm making the rice to go with it right now.

I had a "duh" moment today. I've been trying to compost our non-meat leftovers, and I always have too much to go into the bin. It just occurred to me that I could put it in the weekly municipal yard waste pick-up. All of that is composted on a grand scale, so what will it hurt if I throw my broccoli stems out there? Nothing! And, it will save me a lot of heartache. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.

On a financial front, things are OK. Freelance is steady and I'm not making big bucks. (Only about $600-$700 a month before taxes) But, I am pretty happy to have that regular check coming every month and to keep my hands in the profession even with two babies.

I am really lucky I have a job I can do at home and at odd hours, because any other kind of work would be impossible with two kids under 2.

In this economy, and with journalism a declining field, I'm happy to have any work at all.

Now that we've paid for the kitchen renovation and gotten the tax refunds, we are back on track with saving regularly out of each paycheck. January and February are always hard months for us, because the big bills like insurance and property tax are due. We don't usually catch up until around April, so we are right on track.

Our next big house project is extending the patio along the back of the house. This weekend, my jobs are to identify a handful of contractors to give us quotes and to file our city income taxes and my quarterly self-employed tax forms. Woo-hoo!

Bean is also having his baby friends over for a birthday barbecue on Sunday, so I will need to clean up and pretend for an afternoon that we don't live in a house filled from floor to ceiling with baby toys.

In the meantime, honey and I have a movie date tonight. If you can call popping popcorn and netflix in the basement a date. I'll take what I can get!

This past week has been non-stop craziness.
First, the good news. I managed to put $400 into savings and $1000 into each of the babies' college fund. Yay!

Now the craziness.

This was the week I had my kitchen counters, sink and cooktop ripped out and replaced. So, two days without a fully functioning kitchen and two boys under 2. That was hard, and much to my chagrin, $1200 over budget.

As if that wasn't bad enough...

I had the ducks in a row for my weekly freelance gig and the whole thing fell apart, the same day I had no kitchen. So, I went to my three back up plans, and they all fell apart too. At the end of the day, with deadline looming, it looked like I'd really have nothing. Thankfully, something came together and I was able to write something fairly good and interesting to hand to my editor. It was hard, though.

Then, after I had done some interviews for my project, I lost them all because my laptop died. Kaput. After only 2 years. Hubby, the professional computer geek, talked me into buying a new one (a Dell) that costs twice as much as the one I could buy on sale from Best Buy. I'm not out $954, after tax and shipping. I thought hard about this one. Mine lasted 2 years, his (A Dell) has lasted 8 and is still working fine. I didn't want to be penny-wise, pound foolish if you get my drift. I took the money out of my freelance account, as I usually use it only for work.

As if all of this wasn't bad enough, Hubby and I got into a bad, not-talking for three days fight on Wednesday because we are both feeling stressed out and unappreciated and have little time for ourselves or each other due to children. Thankfully, that was resolved yesterday.

Oh, and our son's 2nd b-day was Thursday, in the middle of all of this. He had a friend come play in the sand box and some cupcakes and told me he had a fun birthday, so it doesn't look like any of this impacted him.

I really hope this week goes more smoothly, especially with work and the hubby. I could use a nice, easy low-key week. Well, as much of that as you can have with a 2-year old and a 4 month old.

Call it the saga of the kitchen remodel. I laughed when I heard on HGTV that the average mid-range kitchen remodel cost $59,000. Who spends that? Thankfully, I am not that ambitious. However I did think I was budgeting plenty of money when we decided to replace our dying, down-to-one-burner cooktop and heavily damaged 1957 counters.

Budget $5,000 for new quartz counters and a new gas-cooktop.
Actual cost? Gulp : $6,252.82

Cost for countertops, demolition and installation : $4,305.82

Extra magic amount they charged me later after they claimed it was more work than expected, despite my detailed drawings and description (Bear in mind I have taken many architectural drafting classes...):$282

Extra cost because they said they couldn't reuse my current sink: $150, and the extra cost because current faucet didn't fit any other sink : $150

Cooktop : $780

Electrician for pre-demo work on cooktop and outlet for new cooktop : $135

Cost for plumber to run a new gas line: $450

I've never gone over budget like this in my life. I love the counters and the new cooktop, but was it worth that much money? I'm not so sure.

Just for the curious, We chose quartz because it doesn't need sealing and it contains 35 percent recycled glass.

Phew. My 5-figure tax refund and my freelance checks for Jan. and Feb arrived today. I can finally move out of money limbo and move on with my life!

I used all of the tax refund to meet savings goals. I almost feel like I cheated, but hey, whatever fills up the savings account, right?

It will put us much closer to our general savings and our college savings goals for the year.

Now that the freelance checks arrived, I can file my quarterly taxes, then move the remaining money into my IRA and into the tiki bar fund.

Limbo is still on for the kitchen renovation. The electrician is coming Sunday to disconnect the cooktop and install an outlet, the countertops are being installed monday and the plumber will hopefully come Tuesday to install the gas line and then Tah Dah! I hope we love the kitchen.

It will be just in the nick of time, as another burner went out on our cooktop today, so we are down to one.

I ran across this interesting article about how to tell if you are middle class. Here is the link:

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgetingk/article/109155/h...

It's an interesting read and I wonder what you think about it.

Here is the run down:
*Middle class = $50,000 to $123,000 a year for family of four

*Home is worth $231,000, and makes$17,600 in mortgage payments

* Spends $12,400 per year on two medium-sized sedans

*Saves $4,100 for college expenses for two kids

*Saves $2,600 per year for retirement

*Spends $14,200 a year on living expenses

*net worth of about $84,00

I thought this was interesting:
"A median-income family that saved 3.2 percent of its income—roughly equivalent to the national saving rate—would sock away nearly $2,600 per year for retirement. Of course many families don't hit even that modest goal, and stock-market losses over the last several years have further shrunk the national nest egg."

I was flabbergasted at the $2,600 a year figure. That is so low.

I will say that we are squarely in the middle class income area, have two kids and seem like the "typical" demographic they are going for.

So here's how we stack up to average:
Our house is 1443 square feet and cost $154,000 (below average),we have no car payment at the moment (way below average), we put aside about $9,000 for college for our two kids (above average), no annual vacation, and we save about $20,000 a year for retirement in 401ks and IRAs. We both work, although I freelance so we don't have to pay for daycare.

How do you stack up?

I've had house envy ever since my friends moved into a fabulous, and I mean fabulous, 1960 ranch house in our neighborhood.

When we bought this house, we still had a mortgage on a house in a hurricane zone, and were looking for something manageable, that w could work with and that we could afford to pay off within 5 years. There were also almost no houses for sale in this area, as someone basically has to die for a house to go on sale.

My hubby loved this house. I had my reservations but thought I could work with it.

It seemed like tons of space until we had two children and suddenly had no guest rooms.

So,when my friends moved into a house that was all the things we wished our house would have been, it was hard.

We casually looked at a few houses for sale, but deep down i think it's a better idea to just sit tight and learn to love our house again.

We don't really want to go through the hassle of moving, all for a few more square feet.

And, we don't want to start from scratch making improvements inside and out. We've already spent $30,000 on windows, roof, furnace, paint, etc. that we have no hope of recouping in this market.

SO, the plan is to make the most of this house, which is small but paid for, has a bedroom for everyone, even if not a bathroom to go with it, and has a decent fenced yard for the kids.

I think it will help that we are finally starting to get to the "fun" house projects. Things you can enjoy, not just things you have to do to preserve your investment (like a furnace). Our new kitchen will be done next week (counters and cooktop converted to gas).

And,we've decided to extend our concrete patio to the entire length of the house. it will give us a really nice space to spread out for kids and adult fun in the backyard, while still leaving most of the yard trees, grass and flowers.

This is part of my plan to fall in love with this house. I want to create a mini-forest flowering woodland forest-style oasis in the back. A place for us to have fun, and for the kids to explore, and to have friends over to sit in front of the chiminea, grow some berries, and support local wildlife. I think we can pull it off, and for not a lot of money, apart from the patio.

OK, so I will never have my own bathroom, even with two boys in the house. But I will still have a paid-for house.

We also are going to go hard on the green thing. We hope to redo our insulation this fall and to add solar panels in a couple of years. All of this will only be possible if we stay put.

Plus, with this house, we already know what we are dealing with and what the issues are. With a new house, we'd be starting over completely.

So, I am determined to fall in love with this house and stop dreaming of one that's bigger.

I'm still waiting for our tax refund. I feel like I've been waiting forever. The IRS web site said it'd be in my account by March 16, but alas no. Maybe I'm extra anxious because it's a large refund (north of $10k) and I have countertops to pay for.

I also feel like everything is on hold, waiting for such a large chunk of money. Once it's here, I can send it into the various accounts where it needs to go and be done with it. I just hate waiting!

On a positive note, I finally got paid for the first two months of my regular freelance gig. Now, I can pay my qtrly taxes (for a decent amount) and move all that money where it needs to go: taxes, IRA, tiki fund, etc.

I just feel like everything is on hold!! I hate it!!

Bean is about to turn 2 and little brother is 4 month old. Next thing you know they will be getting their own apartments!

I'm 35 today, and boy I guess time flies. In my head I'm still 28.

In honor of the festive occasion, I'm going in for a haircut and color, which I haven't done since 1999. Yeah,that long. I have wanted to for a while, due to two babies and no time to take care of myself, plus I need a change. This is just giving me an excuse.

Then, mom is coming to babysit tonight so hubby and I can go out.

I was fuming yesterday. As I posted before, the kitchen is going way over my $5,000 budget, even though it seemed like basic changes-- new cooktop, new counters.

As I mentioned, I was forced to buy a new sink because the contractor said my current 1957 cast iron beauty can't be reused. So, I bought a Kohler stainless steel one for $150. I also had to buy a $150 faucet because my current one only fits my current sink.

THEN, the counter people called back with the final bill based on their measurements, etc. They added another $285 to the bill. Even though the rounded edge of one counter was in my original diagram, they "forgot" to include the special circular edge charge. Get this: $99 for each 1/4 circle, so one half circle costs about $200. Who has 1/4 circles??? I was very livid. They also are making me take the backsplash behind my cooktop out for some reasons about the new counter not adhering to it. I had planned to keep this, so that's more money for ripping out and more money to replace it with something new.

This is not a major construction project, and yet it is more expensive and complicated than I feel it needs to be.

I can't wait until this is finished. If I didn't have two small kids I could save some of this money by doing the demo and stuff myself, but with two little ones, it will be next to impossible.

I'm steamed, but feel I am in too deep to back out.

So yeah. I had budgeted $5000 for a modest kitchen update-- really nice counters and a cooktop that is converted to gas. The budget is already blown, despite my best efforts.

The cooktop cost $777 after tax. That was expected.

What I didn't expect was that the $78/sq. ft. quartz counters including installation don't REALLY include installation.

Every little tiny thing costs extra. They're charging me $500 plus to take out and haul away my old countertops, charging me for the cutouts for my sink and cooktop, etc.... so I'm looking at $4300 for the counters, about $500 more than I had planned.

So, from the get go the budget is blown.

The bad news is, the expenses are already mounting. The counter guys came today to make the template and told me there is no way to reuse my current sink, which is from the 1950s, because of the way it mounts to the counters. Long story short, I need to go buy a new sink.

And, I just realized that I need to pay to have the electric cooktop unhooked and pay to install a three-prong plug. Shame on me for not remembering that even gas cooktops need an outlet. That one is my fault. Luckily, I have a great electrician, but I am probably still looking at $100 to $200.

I have thought of trying to save by doing some demo and stuff myself, but with two babies under 2, that just isn't possible right now. Plus, if I accidentally destroyed the cabinets, I would really be in trouble budget wise. So looks like I am just going to have to take this one on the chin.

I had to go to a trade show for work today, so my mom and sis came to help hubby with the babies.

When I walked in the door, Bean noticed the helicopter flying back and forth over our house. I didn't think much of it until I realized it was literally hovering on my block and it was really loud. Then, bunches of police cars started driving back and forth down my street.

Great, clearly someone is on the loose, so I put the whole house on lock down. Mom and sis weren't allowed to leave, all the doors locked, etc.

I still don't know exactly what happened, but when I finally sent the relatives home, there were 4 police cars in front of the house four doors down. I suppose the neighborhood gossip will fill me in later this week.

There have been some random crimes in our neighborhood lately, with people robbing people and stealing their cars when they are walking out of their garage. That kind of stuff makes me angry because we live in a nice quiet neighborhood and these folks are clearly coming from somewhere else to prey on my mostly elderly neighbors.

It also makes me angry because hubby gave our gun to his dad because he thinks we don't need it. I say be prepared, but I also have mixed feelings about having a gun in the house with babies. Maybe I should invest in a baseball bat or a bee bee gun!

The weird vibe followed through to dinner, when I made chicken casserole. The weird thing is I was on auto pilot. I have never once made a casserole in my entire life, but I must have been channeling my grandma because I didn't have to think about it and it turned out fine!

I hope tomorrow is much more boring than today.

I'm behind the 8 ball on this one. I have been considering Lent and what to do about it, so my resolutions are

1. No fast food
2. No unnecessary or unplanned purchases. This means no sneaking the candy bar in the cart at the grocery. If it isn't essential, we aren't buying it.
3. Cut back on sweets. I have a serious sweet tooth. Once whatever is in the house is eaten, no more is coming in, except for the two March birthdays.

In years past, hubby has gotten a bonus this time of year. With things so bad in the economy, I wasn't expecting it this year, but it came today.

Now, what to do with the money? Which goal should I put it towards? Should I just park it in savings? Put it in the bean college fund?

I used part of it to pay for the cooktop, so that is one goal met.

I got this in the mail today. Feel free to use it:

$50 bonus if you open an ING checking account and have use your debit card 3 times in the first 45 days:

EL633

It's official. I am super cheap. That, or everyone else has lost their minds.

I'm wringing my hands because we budgeted $5,000 to redo our kitchen. That includes converting the cooktop from electric to gas, a new cooktop and super beautiful and indestructible Silestone quartz countertops.

We will likely have money left over when we are finished, depending on how much the counters set us back.

So, I was watching Sweat Equity on DIY last night and they said several times that the AVERAGE mid-range kitchen remodel costs $54,000. Ten times my budget. Are these people crazy? That's mid-range? I could add on to my house for that!

No wonder we are in a housing crisis, if that's what people think they need to spend on things.

It's 10:15 and I am up with Baby Squiddy. During my baby shift, I watch Clean House. Totally love that show!

I'm watching now and I just keep wondering why the hell people hold onto things they admit they no longer need or use. Usually, it seems they have some symbolic or emotional attachment, I get that, but really? Do you need 90 pairs of shoes like this lady? Do you need the first bedroom set you bought as an adult, which is a symbol of your independence, to still see yourself as independent?

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I have no problem clearing out closets. I always have a bag or a box set aside for charity.

I know it's hard, but there comes a point where you have to move on,
- admit when you aren't going to be as thin as you were at 25 and let the clothes go
-admit that you have a hubby and family and don't need all the stuff you bought for your single life!
Please!!

Watching these shows makes me want to give away EVERYTHING, so I will never be up to my butt in shopping bags and balled up clothes!