What a title, huh?

For the record, Plecosaurus Rex is the name of the clown pleco the well-meaning clerk at the pet store sold us. I was convinced, once I brought him home, that he was going to die a horrible death in the tank. But alas, a week later, he is alive and seems to be doing well. He has also managed to get the fish tank so squeaky clean and algae free that ironically, I have had to buy algae chips to feed him. Who would have thought. I also rewarded him with a piece of driftwood, which in theory, they also like to eat and lounge on.

Anyway, as y'all know I have been obsessing about whether or not to buy a house now, or wait for another year or two. That has not been decided, but I will say that I have learned a few things about myself in the few short days we've been discussing it.

First, I should probably just go ahead and pay off the car. When thinking about reordering our budget, and cutting expenses, the car just glared at me. We have to pay for full coverage insurance (cut!) as long as we have the loan. We have assets, so why not pay it off? That's 200 less a month in bills and lower insurance. So, whether we do or don't buy the house, I will be paying the car off this year.

Second, we have too much stuff. I have always felt like this, but looking around and thinking of moving, my list of what I am willing to transport has gotten significantly shorter. Moving or not, it's time to start selling, giving away, and purging purging purging!

I have also come to terms with some of the things that will not change between now and our original one to two-year time frame:

It won't be any less scary trying to sell our house

It won't be any less work moving, painting, and prepping this place to sell

The money I will get for my house won't be significantly higher.

So, all of those things are no longer deciding factors. They will be universal, now or then. Moving is never easy. Moving with kids is never easy, and you will never know how long it will take to sell.

The factors that do count, and are specific to now:

Driving 15-20 min longer to the preschool and babysitter. That will disappear once kindergarten starts, but we are committed for at least another year. Already paid and enrolled, and we love the program.

Paying for childcare, to the tune of $400 to $600 a month, until kid 1 goes to kindergarten in two years. Then, we'll only be paying a yet to be determined amount for kid2. In four years, we won't be paying for any, so there is savings in the future. But for now, this expense isn't going anywhere, which would mean a tighter budget if adding in a mortgage.

On the money front, I have mulled our options:

I need to talk to the bank, and look at our assets. I would prefer a monthly payment, including taxes and insurance, of closer to 1200 a month. (which would be a mortgage of up to 130,000 on a 250,000-260,000 house.)

We can generate a $50-60k downpayment now out of tax refund and bonus plus non-retirement brokerage accounts. That would put our loan payment at 1600-1700. If we took out a bridge loan of 100,000, we could get the payment down to 1200 ish. I would have no reservations about a mortgage payment of that size.

Just not sure if it's a viable route until I talk to the bank.

Or, if we opted against the bridge loan, my plan would be to drag out closing or put in a contingency clause on the new house, so we can get our current home on the market and see if we can get a bid.

And, in worst case scenario. Say we bought the new house and our current home doesn't sell in six months. I may consider renting it out at 1,000 or more a month, and putting all of that toward our new mortgage. Being a landlord wouldn't be easy, but it would be an option if we are in a pinch.

If we didn't want to do that, and we found ourselves in a pinch, we have options. We could
-adjust witholding on hubby's checks to free up more cash. We get a huge refund every year.
-use my freelance money to pay expenses, rather than sending it all to savings/retirement, etc.
-and if we were absolutely desperate, we could temporarily cut back on hubby's retirement contributions. We max out every year at 16,500. When we were in a bind after Katrina, we suspended them for about six months to get back on our feet.

Essentially, through the process, I have realized that we are incredibly blessed and lucky. We have options, we have flexibility.

And as our realtor said, we are in much better shape than a lot of people out there trying to buy houses. But I suppose that is what worries me! Will the person who wants to buy mine be in good enough shape to seal the deal!

I never thought I'd be excited to see my last tax forms roll in, but I am and they did today. Now I can wrap up the taxes and get another big chore crossed off the to-do list!

Hubby and I just talked about the house we fell in love with. I outlined how much we bring in every month, and how much the mortgage plus taxes and insurance would likely be. He didn't flinch. He said he was comfortable with that. For a 200k loan at 5 percent for 30 years, we'd be looking at 1650-1775 a month, once the property tax and insurance was added in.

We bring in about 4500 a month steadily (more when there are three paychecks), plus the 1000 to 1400 a month I bring in (1000 always, steady. sometimes more.)

Our only debt is the car loan at 219 a month. Our biggest expense otherwise is preschool and babysitting so I can make that money and give our kids the level of activity they need. That costs about $637 a month. It will go down to $400 in the summer, during vacation, and go up to about $525 to $600 in the fall, with our new schedule. We have a free grandma one afternoon a week, which really helps.

The rest of our money goes to savings in some form or another-- a lot of it to the kids' 529-- something I can'[t stand the idea of cutting back on. Otherwise, we spend money on groceries, and whatever-- the occasional trip, CDs, that sort of thing. We've haven't had to scrimp in a long time. I'm just worried. We would have to to make the mortgage. (I'm not opposed to cutting cable, or the gym membership, by the way.)

If we bought this house, money would be tight for a while, until kid 1 went to kindergarten in about 2.5 years.

We did do a payoff plan. If we get the BARE minimum out of our current house after commissions, we'd get $125,000. That would bring our mortgage balance down to $75,000 and, with no extra payments, we'd have it paid off in 2018.

If I used $400 a month of my freelance money for the mortgage, we'd have the new house paid off within five years.

I like the sound of five years. I can do tight, if I know there is an end.

And, if hubby keeps his current job, we could use all or part of his annual bonus (6k to 9 k after taxes) and our annual tax refund (3k to 10k) to build up savings or chip away at our payoff date. Or, we could reduce our withholding and throw that money at the mortgage. That would increase monthly cash flow, but I don't want to risk underpaying. Plus, it's nice to get a big forced savings bonus every spring.

We both like this house a lot. It's everything we want. Yes, our daily life would be inconvenient for a bit-- we'd have to drive 15 minutes longer to get to preschool and the sitter. And, my mom would have to drive an hour to our house, instead of 45 minutes (once a week). But, we'd have the place paid for by the time the youngest hit kindergarten and we'd be right back in the sweet spot we're in now, except with a bigger house and one of the best school districts in the state.

The house is also in walking distance of the elementary and middle schools, and less than half a mile from four parks, including a river/reservoir with walking and bike trails. Hubby could also bike to work. It's less than 5 miles.

What would you do? Is it worth it?

We took the family to look at houses yesterday. Our plan is to move into the best school district in the area in the next 1 to 2 years.

And of course, we found a house we adore on the first trip out. We have agreed to discuss logistics-- selling this one, staging it, etc.

Anything with two toddlers is crazy.

We will no matter what be losing money on this place, but we have 100 percent equity, so no matter what we make we will be able to put that toward paying down the next place.

Still, it's depressing. We paid 154k, put 40k into serious upgrades and maintenance, and the realtor says we need to list in the 130s, because the house is small. UGH!!!! Even if we waited until the market were up, we wouldn't get our money back.

We plan to look at more houses, but if this one still sticks with us-- do we go for it? Or do we stick to our original plan?

Hubby said yesterday that his company has confirmed he is getting a bonus this year. When that happens, it usually posts to the last paycheck in February. I am praying it does. This will be just the boost to savings and everything that will really jump-start things.

I am not sure how much it will be. Last year, it was somewhere around $7,000 after taxes. If it holds steady, I think I will put $5,000 toward savings and then divide up the other $2,000 between the other goals--namely the car loan and the kids' college.

Still, hard to plan until the egg is squarely in the bank account.

In other news, we are going to look at our first four houses in our target school district today. We aren't planning to move for at least another year to two years, but decided it was time to casually see what is out there, how much it sells for and to start driving around the area deciding what part we want to live in.

It's exciting and weird at the same time. We also went on a family outing to Lowe's yesterday (the kids had fun, amazingly) to price out some of the smaller improvements we are going to make.

Menard's is having an 11 percent off of everything sale this week, so I may drive down there (it's about 40 minutes away) to pick up some of the odds and ends we need to do some of our designed to sell projects, such as a tub sink for the laundry room, a gallon of paint for the laundry room, and some mortar for the chimney and exterior stonework.Little stuff, but I may as well get a discount, right?

As soon as it comes in it goes out. My $500 freelance check cleared, so I sent

$250 to my IRA
$180 to the kids 529s
$75 extra to the car loan.

I also got $10 worth of Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks and a $25 Amazon card from my rewards credit card. I am going to try (though unsuccessfully) to amass as many credits on the Amazon account as I can, and use it toward Christmas. I know I will fail, as we are always buying something on there!

Anyway, it feels good to make progress. I am also so ready to file taxes, but am still waiting on my brokerage account forms. They are no online, and our broker has said they will not be ready until end of February.

Argh. I want that refund in my house fund! It will feel really great to put that tax refund to work, and cross a big goal off of our ambitious list. But alas, I must be patient.

The state tax refund will likely go toward upgrading our electrical box, which will need to be done before we put our house on the market, next year. Sigh. We do love our house and we will be sad to leave it. But it's also clear we will soon outgrow it. It will be time to move on.

So I took the youngest to the fancy pet store today, intending to leave with a snail. They had only one selection of snails. It was a tank filled with goldfish and snails. At first, I thought Eureka! Then, I noticed that the tank was instead littered with the corpses of snails. Only a handful were still living.

The girl working there was "like yeah. Some goldfish like the at the snails. Some don't." The carnage. But, there was potential. I bought a $1.74 plant out of the live plant tank, hoping I might get a hitch-hiker.

And, in the goldfish tank filled with snail corpses, I spotted a lonely clown pleco. I was not wanting to go this route, but it will stay small (mx 4 inches, vs 12), AND supposedly, it won't attack my goldfish. The girl assured me it would eat my algae and be peaceful. I paid through the nose for that little guy. $9.99.

And, now that I am home on the Internet I find out that clown plecos can't live on algae, need warmer water than I have in my tank AND need wood to eat. Seriously? I quit.

They are now all in the tank. The pleco looks stunned, like someon hit him over the head. He's probably mad that his new place isn't as swank as his tank at the pet store.

Anyway, let's hope this works. I have snail fatigue.

In other news, I deposited a $500 freelance check in the mail today. On Monday, when it clears, I will send

$250 to IRA
$175 to college
$75 to car

I'm also waiting on a $600 check for another project. It should be here any day! Can't wait to put SOMETHING toward the goals.

My splurge shoes-- yes, clearance rack at DSW is considered a splurge--- arrived today. Just tried them on. They are super sexy and amazingly comfy. I don't regret buying them one bit!! I like them so much, I have my eyes on the all black pair. (I have a $5 off coupon, but it isn't good until Feb. 15)

I have also checked a couple of fashion books out the library. I don't even recognize myself anymore!!! One Hundred Pieced by Nina Garcia, and How to be a budget fashionista. The firs it super helpful. It's a guide to the classic, never out of style items stylish women should consider owning.

Since I am basically starting over from scratch with clothes, it's an interesting read, and helpful for planning my approach.

I just thought I would let you all know that the Petland that refused to sell me the snail just last week went out of business!! Now I wonder what happened to all of those snails that could now be cleaning the algae off of my fish tank.

In other weird news, I had to spend an extra 15 minutes at the checkout at Target because the cashier refused to press the total key because my order total was $36.66. Seriously? She called over someone from customer service to press the button, because it was the devil's number. I'm still in shock.

I'm having an algae explosion in my fish tank. All I want is one of those tiny, simple snails that goldfish do not find interesting or delicious.

Petland refused to sell me one. The little guys were all over the tanks. But they were like "what those stupid things? you don't want that."

Um yes, I do. They tried to sell me a big mystery snail for $3.95. Um no. Goldfish eat their eyes off and they die horrible deaths. Not on my watch.

My hubby thinks it's ironic that no one wants to give us or sell us a snail, considering our last tank was riddled with them. They do a great job on the algae. I'll guess try another store this weekend.

***Why am I broke? Oh, it's Feb.***

This has been a huge money out week. We paid homeowners insurance, car note, $300 deposit for kid 1's 2011-2012 preschool tuition, credit card bills, regular preschool tuition, 529 plan debits, electric bill. The list goes on.

I had to take money out of savings to cover it all. It's always depressing, but it's always the same this time of year. You'd think I would expect it by now. From January 1 to the end of February is always tough, because we have so many big bills due.

Then, like magic, we manage to tread water and then get ahead again come March.

*** Coupon experiment***
In coupon news, I did take mjrube's advice and bought the Renpure Organix shampoo at Walgreens. They are having an unadvertised BOGO sale, plus each item has a hang tag saying "Try Me Free" for a rebate of the total purchase price.

So, fingers crossed. I paid $6.99 retail price for one, got one free, and sent in the rebate card for the $6.99. We'll see if it works. I'm skeptical, but a lot of the coupon sites swear by this kind of thing.

I just hope it's accepted. It would officially be my first free shampoo!!

I am finally getting the hang of it. I only look at couponmom.com. The funny thing is now that I have been doing this for a while, I can spot the errors. Like coupon values they forgot to double, ergo a better deal than the site leads you to believe. And, I'm finally starting to catch deals.

I.e. Target has a $2 off store coupon, plus there is a $2 manf. coupon in the 2.6 Sunday insert for any Garnier face product. I smell something for maybe cheap or free. I plan to check it out this week.

***Couponing for a cause***

Now that I am getting the hang of getting things for free with sales/coupons, I printed out a list of wants and needs for the two main family shelters here. I put them in my purse. If I find a great deal, I will put it in a box to donate to the family shelter.

The idea of homeless babies and toddlers drives me crazy. It may not be much, but I will do as much as I can.

I ventured out once again last night, coupons in hand. I need hair dye. My target price was less than $3. I ended up getting it for 65 cents each for three, after tax, thanks to a Walgreens sale and three $3 off coupons. I did pay $7 out of pocket, but got $5 in Walgreens rewards bucks back, hence 65 cents each.

I also three of my favorite shampoo at Walmart last night. No sale, but cheapest price in town, plus $1 off for each.

And at Kroger, I used a coupon for $1.50 off three gerber graduates, plus a cataline for $1.50, paid $2.31 each before coupon. And at checkout, got two more coupons-- one $1.50 catalina and $1.50 off another three.

My toothpaste stockpile is sufficiently large now,so my plan is only free toothpaste from now on.

Now, I'm trying to build up the food, cereal, body wash, and shampoo stockpiles. Problem is, I only like one shampoo. Is it worth switching it up if it's free?

For all of you who are into serious couponing, I have a question.

How do you decide when to use a good coupon and when to keep it?

And what is the target price you pay for cereal, toothpaste, deodorant, etc.? What is the number I should aim for?

I ask because this was the first week I actually was able to get some things for free or super cheap.

For instance, I got 3 deodorants and 2 tubes of toothpaste for free stacking sales/coupon. But, I opted to use a couple of additional coupons because I thought they were good deals even though they weren't free.

For instance: bought 2 more deodorants (dif. brand), and two more tubes of toothpaste, and after coupon/sales paid 50 cents each. Should I have held out for a future sale hoping to get them for free? Or was it a good move to use that coupons and pay a nominal amount?

I also bought a body wash, reg. $4.99, on sale for $2.99 and I had a $1 coupon, so $1.99. This isn't super cheap, but it's cheaper than the brand I would have normally bought. Any thoughts?

I'm new at this and trying to figure out the strategy.

I also got a catalina for $1.50, and at the same time got coupon for $2 off four of that item for future purchase. I bought four more, used the $2 coupon plus the catalina, then got another $1.50 catalina at checkout. I use the stuff. It wasn't super cheap. Cost $8 for four- $3.50 = $4.50 - another $1.50 off= $3.00. Is that good? Is that the approach I should be taking?

I just checked our online savings account and realized that the interest rate went down again. It's held steady at a craptacular 1 percent for about a year. Now it's down to .9 percent. What more humiliation can this economy throw to us savers?????

In better news, I did put $200 more to kid 1's 529 and $35 more to the car fund today. Too bad it will earn less interest!!!

Looks like we avoided to worst of the storm. Last night, the news acted like the world was ending. We made it through without losing electricity. This morning, the ice had melted off the roads and the roads were clear. It's still very cold and very very windy, but I think we are going to be okay.

In other news, I also finally got all of the new cell plan issues worked out today. When I bought my new phone at the store Saturday, they gave me a new phone number, even though I wanted to keep my current one. The salesguy told me just to call and everything would be transferred. Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Three phone calls and two hours of my life later, it's finally all settled. New phone has the old number, and all the minutes I bought are attached to the right account. Now, what do I do with the old phone? Is there a way to donate it?

I just got an unexpected freelance assignment today. This on top of my two weekly projects.

It's good pay, but I wasn't expecting it. I hadn't set aside time for any extra work. So, I am now in super work mode. So much to do, but in limited time! Plus, we are one day into the massive ice storm, with two more days of ice on the way. I am just praying I can keep electricity, so I can keep the family warm and get some work done.

I suppose this is a good problem to have. I certainly do like when the check arrives, but actually getting the work done is very very hard!

Here are the last two personal finance books I've read:

Point, Click & Save. Mashup Mom blog book. I really like this book. I think it's very helpful and relevant to the interests of SA folks. It has a lot of information on how to coupon and stack coupons to get good deals; lists of web resources for saving and making money; and lots of info on how to make money online. Worth reading.

Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day. Interesting stuff. It is very academic, but there are a lot of lessons those of us in affluent countries can learn from the world's poorest people. It tells you how these people manage to save money, even though they are very poor.

The in-laws are in town, so I managed to sneak out Saturday and have a mostly me day.

I shopped for a new cell plan, and got one, so that is one big thing off the to-do list.

I was paying about $600 a year for plan, and we hardly used it. So, I ended up going with prepaid. I bought the phone for $100, then bought 1000 minutes for $100. So, $200 and the minutes will likely last at least 6 months. At the most, I anticipate we'd pay $300 for a years' worth of service, so in effect, I've cut my bill by about 50 percent and got a much more functional phone.

The rest of the day I actually went shopping and out to dinner and drinks with my sister (it was her b-day.) I dropped a bunch of my clothes off at the consignment store. They only took three things, but paid me $27. Not bad. The rest is going to the thrift store.

Right now I'm in a hotel room with the honey. The in-laws say they can't handle the kids for more than 2 days without us (which ruins any chance of a real vacation, ever.), so we just drove 2 hours away to a ski resort. Hubby snowboarded last night while I sat in the lodge and worked on my novel (once again, back to that list of important to-dos!)

I was planning to ski today, but once again the urge to work on my novel is trumping all desire to ski. It's weird, because I like to ski. I suppose it's good I'm drawn back to the novel. Revising is almost the hardest part, and I never have a big chunk of time like this to concentrate on it. Now is the time!

I was also thinking about what some of the other moms on here have said about to-do lists. You are right. I need to just let it go and not be so stressed out when things don't get done. From now on, I think only very important and timely things are going on the list (like filing income tax...). Little things, like dropping the box off at goodwill, will not be on the list. If it happens, fine. If it doesn't, nothing bad will happen.

So yeah, I'm resolving to keep little things off the list. And only put big things on there that really really need attention-- at some point.

I did finally get two tax forms, and they were handy enough to be the most important. I plugged them in to turbotax, and it looks like we will be able to meet our house saving goal out of the refund. That is great news. I also forgot that hubby sometimes gets a bonus at work. It posts at the end of February.

I haven't decided how to spread that money around. I may just take the money we need to hire the lawyer to do our wills and trusts out of it, then put the rest in savings. We really really need to get those wills done, and this would be a kick in the pants to take care of it. I may also take the $800 or so needed to upgrade our home's electric box-- something we need to do before we sell.

Geesh. Easy peasy!

Ever since I've had children I'm exhausted, stressed-out, and angry. All the time. I used to be very relaxed and easy going, level-headed and fun. I don't like who I've turned into. I want to be my old self again.

Take better care of myself. I haven't had any time for my appearance since having kids 3 years ago. I look terrible. It's shameful really. I don't buy clothes because I haven't lost the baby weight and I don't want to spend the money when I'm hoping to lose it.

I'd have a real relationship with hubby. I miss how close we were before kids, and all the fun we used to have. Now, it's all work work work, kids kids kids.
Our friends tell us it will get better, but that seems so far away.

As you can tell, life has gone downhill in many ways since we had children. I adore my kids. and I love them very much, but let's be realistic. They change everything, and in ways you can't ever imagine before you have them. I want to get back to where I was in these areas.

I took a giant box of very nice things to the baby resale store today. It was so not worth it. They gave me $8.34. Seriously????

I've decided I am finished with baby resale. Either the stuff goes on craigslist or straight to the goodwill.

I always have to wait around forever to get my buy offer from the resale shop, it's an out of the way drive, and they always give me a pittance, yet the stuff in the store is expensive.

I'm done.

I finally got cracking on one of my 2011 goals: shop for a new, cheaper cell plan. I got my most recent bill and I literally only used 34 minutes. I pay $60 a month for 1000 minutes. Geesh.

My current plans costs us about $624 a year. The deal below, would cost us about $516. (After taxes) I'm looking for an even better deal.

I use T-mobile. I have always been happy with them. My contract is expired, so I am month to month now, which gives me flexibility. I talked to a rep and he was willing to give me $29.99 a month for 350 minutes plus $4.99 for texts, and a free phone with a keyboard so I could actually text. (Can't really on my current model). But, I would be locked in to another2 year contract.

It's a better deal and closer to what I want, but I am still going to go into the T-mobile store and play around with some prepaid phones to see if that might be better. I think prepaid is about $100 for 1000 minutes, which at my rate of use, might last 6 months. I also want a phone with a keyboard for texting, as most of my friends prefer to communicate that way.

I'll probably go in Saturday and see what they've got, then I'll crunch the numbers and see what's a better deal.

Oh yes, and the spendy babies. Enrollment for toddler 1's next preschool school year is Feb. 7, which means another $200 deposit. We have decided to skip summer camp because we just can't afford it, so at least for July and August, we'll be spending about $240 less a month on childcare.

I can tell you I am working hard, not hardly working.
Since I took on my extra regular freelance gig, I am up to my eyeballs in work. It's been a little frustrating, considering it's not a high-paying gig.

Over the weekend, as I was once again bumping up against deadline, I said to myself that I'll give it six months, and if the work doesn't become more manageable, I'm going to have to give it up.

Life is hard right now-- two kids under 3, freelance work that must be done after bedtime, ergo mommy doesn't even get 10 minutes of down me-time. Ever.

I think my boss on this project must have been zoning in on my brainwaves. Out of the blue today, she sent me an email saying she was bumping up the pay, from $300 a month to $400 base. Some months, it will be $500. (Some months, due to the calendar, require a little more work every month, because there are 5 Sundays.)

Just enough to reel me back in. In this economy, I can't turn down $400 a month, to help my family reach its ambitious goals. So, looks like I am going to have to find a way to get this workload under control, because the project isn't going away...

The week is finally back on track. Okay, I'm playing catch up, but the kids are no longer sick, I am no longer sick, and I have a couple of hours free to catch up on work.

My freelance check landed in my account (delay posting due to MLK day), so I sent $300 to my IRA, $210 to the kids' 529 and $90 extra to the car loan. It feels good to inch ever so slightly closer to the goals.

Payday is Friday. Woo-hoo! Hopefully I'll be able to stash something in savings and still pay all the bills.

I also sold a book on Amazon. I bought it for 25 cents at a yard sale and sold it for $13. Must ship today. It's very exciting to make that much. It doesn't happen often.

I'm still anxious to get started on our taxes. Not a single 1099 or tax form has arrived yet. What is taking so long???

I am now convinced it's useless to make a to-do list and actually plant to cross anything off of it once you have children.

I had a ton to do today, both work and otherwise. I was JUST about to put my head on the pillow last night when kid 1 walks in the room. I pick him up to put him to bed and he barfs everywhere. Projectile. Great.

I had to change his sheets, clean his floor, change his clothes. Everything. So we sit up together for a while, he says he's okay, I put him to bed. Five minutes later, he's up again, barfing. And on it went. Didn't get to bed until 2:30 a.m. Decided to keep him and his brother home from the sitters. Had to cancel all of my meetings today, and pray like heck I can reschedule them for Wednesday.

Now, we're all home. I'm exhausted. He's lower energy, but still high energy because he's a toddler. No naps in my future. Lots of laundry. And I'm just praying me and brother don't get sick, too.

Oh well. Always a wrench in the plans, right?

Monday is officially a holiday, except in our house We still have to work and meet deadlines, it's just now we have to wait an extra day for our checks to deposit!

Oh well. I just hate waiting. When I deposit my freelance checks, I like to transfer the money to all the different goals so I can see some progress on the sidebar. I'm addicted to results, I suppose, so it can be hard to be patient!

I have a bit of work to do tomorrow while the kids are at the sitters, but I am hoping I will also have time to take some baby toys to the resale shop and get a little bit of money for them. Probably not much, but still.

And if I'm feeling extra ambitious, I may drop off another box at the goodwill. Always so much to do!!

We picked up the enrollment forms for summer camp at kid 1's preschool. We pay $200 or so a month for two half days of preschool. Summer camp, for the same days and basically the same activities with the addition of swimming, is $520 a month. I was shocked. Why does it cost so much more?

I think these places realize parents are desperate and need child care so they can work, especially in summer. Schools let kids out but jobs don't let parents out.

So, hubby and I talked about it and it's going to be a rough summer. I'll have to find some other way to keep him occupied so I can do my freelance jobs, because $520 in addition to what I already pay someone else to watch him 8 hours a week is just too much.

Good

The coupons are coming along. Got 3 toothbrushes and 4 tubes of toothpaste-- 1 free- for deep discounts, loaded up on BOGO rump roast and pork loins for the freezer.

I also got a free box of Cheerios (buy 3, get 1 free promo). The three I bought were also on sale 75 cents off, plus I used 3.25 more in coupons, so I paid about 25 percent of the normal cost for all of them. It felt great!

I bought a new cheap printer that I'm going to use for coupons. (My fancy printer ink it too expensive for this. The new printer cost half as much as a refurb ink refill for the other printer!!).

Also cleaned up the laundry room. It isn't scrubbed or painted yet, but it is organized. Still a couple of boxes to go through, but most of the work is done.

Habitat for Humanity Restore picked up the big stuff from the laundry room-- the vanity and the lamp table--after hubby and I lugged it upstairs.

Here is the before:



Here is the after:



It's almost embarrassing that it was so bad for so long, considering it only took about 45 minutes to clear it out.

Bad

The checking balance is razor thin this week, due to property taxes, preschool bills, 529 deductions, and all the other things we have to pay for out of this check. But, we'll manage. It happens every January.

I'm itching to get started on our tax return, but not a single tax form has arrived. Argh.

I also made the mistake of filling out an online form requesting homeowners insurance quotes. I specifically requested email contact only, but my cell has been ringing off the hook with insurance agents. It really annoys me. Email is much better when you're a mom. (Form wouldn't submit without a phone number.)

Also, for some reason, none of the agents are in my city. They are all at least 100 miles away. It makes no sense. I'm dedicated to shopping for new insurance, but I want a local agent and don't want to be harassed.

Ugly

Got a collection call for hubby's crazy ex from 11 years ago. Apparently, she has been putting our phone number on credit applications. Hubby has had at least 4 phone numbers since they broke up, and has lived in two other states, so this is crazy and really annoying. Nothing fishy on the credit report, though.

I got a freelance check for $600 today. I will deposit it and send

50 percent to IRA = $300
35 percent to kids college = $210
15 percent to car loan = $90

We also met with our realtor today, to get an assessment of what we could sell our house for.

149,000 if we want to sell fast
169,000 if we want what we should get out of it.

We paid 155,000 five years ago, and have put 40,000 into upgrades. We knew we would be taking a loss. Frankly, the numbers are better than we thought.

I've been sneaking around clipping and filing coupons. Hubby didn't know about it until he caught me printing some off the internet last night.

I didn't want to deal with his eye rolling, and I do most of the shopping, so I kept it on the down low. Anyway, I was shocked, because now he's totally into it. This morning, he was rattling off a list of name brands we really like and asking if I could go on their web sites and look for coupons.

No more sneaking around!

I can't wait for spring-- just so I can let the boys run off some energy outside. I used to love winter--fires, catching up on reading-- but being cooped up in the cold with two toddlers is enough to warrant sainthood. That, and we went cold turkey on binkies for both kids this week. What was I thinking???

We've had about 6 inches in the last two days. Not much compared to a lot of people. I'd send the oldest out, but it's just so bitterly cold it'd be too risky. He hates hats and gloves, so I could see that ending poorly. I did let him go out to shovel the sidewalk and driveway with dad, and he seemed to enjoy that.

He'll be 3 in April, which means it's "potty" time. Before I was a mom the thought of having to teach some irrational human to use the bathroom revolted me. Didn't sound like much fun. Well, it's not any more fun now that I am a mom!

I've been bribing him with stickers. He goes potty, he gets a sticker. I made a chart, and when it's filled up, the whole family gets to go out for ice cream. This seems to be working. That and the occasional lollipop for no accidents. What can I say. We're making this up as we go along, but isn't that how most parents do it?

I bought a cheap $30 HP printer today. I'm from the generation whose first ever computer cost $2500, so when I see how cheap technology has become, I am always shocked. It is a great little machine for the money, and perfect for my needs-- printing coupons and mapquest directions. Ink is cheap.

I already have a printer, but it's an expensive graphics thing that requires VERY expensive ink. It'd cost me a billion to print coupons, so the $30 Hp seemed to make sense.

The new freelance job is crazy, and really too much work for the money. I'm hoping it will tone down after I've been doing it a while and am in the groove. If it doesn't I may have to make a tough decision and either drop it, in favor or less frequent but higher-paying work. But we aren't there yet. I'm going to stick it out.

Thanks for listening to me ramble!

So, I was all set to buy Quicken Starter 2011. I just want something to help me track spending in categories, so I know where I can do better. Goal tracking is also nice. I was all set to buy Quicken, then I started reading the reviews. It doesn't sound like a particularly elegant or well-designed piece of software.

Then I started reading up on Mint.com, and it sounded like it offered the same things for free. I had started a Mint.com account six months ago, but got uncomfortable handing out my account numbers and passwords to some random web company.

Now I feel paralyzed with indecision. Who knew finding budgeting software would be so hard?

I guess I don't want to spend money on a program that may be a dud.

In other news, it's probably snowed 3 inches here today. Half the town is shut down due to bad roads. I got groceries last night in preparation.

Also, the charity truck came today to pick up some of the stuff that had been living in my cluttered and disastrous laundry room.