I had posted earlier that I have been pretty depressed about the economy, and some of you talked about your personal economy. You inspired me. You are right. I can't control what's going on out there, but that doesn't mean I am powerless.

So, I am attempting to reclaim some power in our personal household economy.

-I have capped the amount of money we are allowed to spend each week on everything: groceries, gas, formula, incidentals. If we stay at or under the target, we will have more to put in savings every pay check.

We hit the target on week one, and it looks as though we will hit it again. We have had some incidentals, so it looks as though this budget will work.

-I reordered the bill due dates so that similar dollar amounts of bills are due during each pay period. This is only for budgeting. all of our monthly obligations used to come out of one check. This simple move showed me how much we really have left over each week.

-I am trying harder to save money and track spending. The coupon folder is back in my purse.
I am once again looking at grocery sale fliers.
I'm buying as many groceries as possible at Aldi again.
I'm only buying what's absolutely necessary on every trip.
I'm trying to combine trips to save gas.
I'm trying to cook as much as possible at home to save on take-out.
And, I'm trying to do house projects I already have the supplies for, rather than start anything new.

This hopefully will have a positive impact on our finances. Regardless, I feel more in control, which makes me happier.

I ran across this great little free guide to making and canning salsa. The recipes were too good not to share. I am going to try out the green salsa recipe tomorrow.

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/PNW0395/PNW0395.pdf

Just dropped off a box of food goodies for our unemployed neighbor only to find out our other neighbor and friend just got laid off.

I read business and financial news every day, and it sounds as though things are pretty grim economically. Now, I've got at least 4 out of work friends struggling. My own income has taken a hot (down to 1/3 what it was in 2008) and I'm just praying hubby doesn't get laid off.

It's hard to remain upbeat.

Anyway, on the goals front: I had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year. It was ridiculous. My goal was to can 24 quarts of pasta sauce. It has been surpassed. I have 31 quarts of pasta sauce and tomatoes. Today, I canned another 24 pints of red salsa and 9 pints of dices tomatoes for cooking. I still have to make green tomato salsa and can the stragglers in the next two weeks. I actually have to buy more jars. I never thought this would be possible!

I thought this was particularly poignent:

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/20/watching-walmart-a...

I have been thinking about the economy a lot lately. My spirits are sinking, thinking the U.S. has reached its peak and is now on a precipitous decline from its status as a world leader and rich nation.

I don't want to argue politics here. I will just say other countries seem to be moving ahead and we are pedaling backwards. China just launched the most high-tech submersible so they can claim minerals from the sea floor, while we are here arguing over who deserves health insurance. Really?

I wonder what kind of future my children are going to have. We aren't rich, but I fear they will be worse off and have fewer opportunities than we have had. I hate feeling like this.

This is in part exacerbated by the fact that many of our friends have been ;aid off recently, and most have been looking for months for jobs an have nothing.

I am heading to Aldi today to pick up a few things, and while I am there, I am putting together a food box for an unemployed neighbor. This is the second friend we have done this for in the past month. A sad economic indicator, if you ask me. But on the bright side, I think America needs more neighborliness. We need to bring back the idea that we should take care of each other. I don't know how we lost that.

I hit the thrift store today looking for winter clothes for my 2.5 year old. I didn't expect to find anything, but came home with a giant bag of stuff.

Last year, I got him 7 pairs of pants and three sweaters for $18.

I scored, but didn't get by as cheap this year.

This year, I got him 5 pairs of pants, 5 sweaters, and a new winter coat for $39. Not too shabby, for what is essentially an entire winter wardrobe. Most of the brands were Old Navy or Nike, so no one will have to know how cheap they were! I noticed they charge more for the 4 and 5T than for the 24 month sizes, so I won't complain. It was still half of what I would have spent new, not including the coat, which is very nice and was only $4.

The little one will then be getting the big one's sweaters and pants from last year.

I'm doing some tinkering with our monthly budget/auto payments. I hope this will help us better manage our cash flow. Before this, we had all of our monthly large debits coming out of one paycheck, which brought my checking balance uncomfortably low. With a few changes, I have managed to make our committed expenses from each check the same.

First, I broke the kids' monthly 529 payment into two debits, one on the 1st and one on the 15th. Before, I had one giant debit coming out on the 15th. I also upped the amount for each child by $25. We'll see if we miss it.

Second, I arranged for our preschool tuition to come out in the first check, and our car loan to come from the second check.

These two changes mean I can budget for the same amount-- $440 to come out of each check. (I rounded the car payment up to $240, from $217. We'll see if we miss that extra).

I have a firmer plan for my freelance income as well. I make a steady $600-$750 a month. After my IRA is maxed, I will use whatever is left to make sure we have met our college savings goals for the kids. Whatever is left after that will be used as a lump sum payment to the auto loan. I just hate having debt, so it's got to go!

Now that I have a secured plan for the freelance money, maybe I will be motivated to take on more work.

It isn't much, but I hope this will help us plan. I was so on top of our finances two years ago, but this year I have basically failed at my family fiduciary duties! I'm trying to turn it around, though.

I guess with everything that has happened around here, I should be happy anything gets done.

As some of you already know, hubby and I constantly joke about the butter consumption around here when his parents visit. We have no idea how they eat so much, and yet another visit has passed and we have no idea where it went. The tally was 2 pounds plus one stick of butter for a 5 day visit.

It's madness.

In other news, We were finally able to put some money into savings this pay period. We'd been treading water for a couple of months now, due to unforseen expenses, nothing major, just a lot of $200-$300 things here and there that really ate up every extra penny.

Hopefully, we can keep that momentum going until the end of the year, minus the new windshield for our Honda (with 200k miles on it.), a new car seat for the youngest, and our last house project for the year-- adding insulation to the attic. I may hire this out, as we can't realistically do it with two kids 2 and under.

Finally Success! Or so I thought.

First, the good stuff:
-I finished my first draft of my first novel. Feels great. Now the work of revision can begin.
-I bought Squid's b-day present on ebay, a $60 discovery channel exclusive toy that I think he will enjoy for a long time. I paid $19, including shipping.
-got groceries at Aldi for $62 and made dinner with what was in the freezer today.
-I picked another 10 pounds or so of tomatoes from the garden, which will be diced and canned later this week.

Now the OK and the bad:

-Just found out the in-laws are coming tomorrow for a week, so I have to head back to the store and buy things they need to have on hand. (They mysteriously eat about 2 pounds of butter every visit. Hubby and I can't figure out where it goes. Maybe they just eat the sticks while the rest of us are sleeping!)

-I have managed to keep our spending on the credit card (we put all of our day to day expenses on there) to a reasonable amount this pay period. Hopefully we can keep it up until Friday and put an extra amount of our paycheck into savings, to make up for last week.

-the checking account balance is okay, but lower than I like, due to preschool, first car payment, and the 529 debit this week. But, I think we will be okay until payday, so I am not going to pad it with a withdrawal from the savings account.

The non-money goals are coming along. I canned 11 quarts of pasta sauce today, and 8 last weekend, so I am at 19 quarts. Five more and I've met my goal for the year. I have a bumper crop of Romas, so I'm pretty sure I'll make it.

Although, I slaved over the stove for 6 hours today making sauce when I could just go to the store and buy some for cheap. Moneywise, it probably isn't worth it. But, at least I know the ingredients are organic and homegrown. And I get a kick out of the self-sufficiency part of it.

Also, I MAY -- just a maybe_- be finished with my first draft of my first novel by the end of this week. I was typing along on it today and realized I was almost there. Crazy!

As for my weight loss goal, I am joining a program at the YWCA called Fat Club. it's a six week weight loss exercise program. My friend has done it three times and has lost 30 pounds. She says it's hard, but a lot of fun. It starts Oct. 9 and will cost about $190. I'm amped. I want to be pre-baby skinny again!

Apparently $75,000 a year is the key to happiness.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/09/07/the-perfect-salary-fo...

I am unhappy to report another payday has passed without any money going into savings. Ugh. We just spent too much on the credit card (we pay every two weeks), and we had too many other bills to pay this time. We had my first car payment, our first preschool bill, and the deduction for the kids' 529 plans.

We didn't take a step back, but we didn't go forward either.

On that note, I'm trying really hard to only spend what is absolutely necessary for the next two weeks, so I can make up for the recent lack of savings.

I have also decided on a Christmas budget for the kids of $100 each, using second-hand items to stretch that where it makes sense. An example. My youngest likes Bob the Builder. I bought him a giant red Muck dump truck for $6.00 second hand, versus about $50 for a new one.

I also wrote my financial mantra on the fridge:
Spend as little as possible on the boring things you use every day, so you have more for the things you value.

So far, this is the plan. We'll see if it works out.

Well, our bed broke a few months back and we have just been living with it. The support beams are shot. We built new ones, but it didn't seem to do much good. One night at about 2 a.m., I rolled over and the frame collapsed. I was so mad, I decided right then that I was buying us a new frame.

I told hubby and he agreed. Until today. He's convinced me that we can fix it, and upon further reflection, I think we can.

I was planning to buy a new frame at IKEA for about $200. But, I found out they also sell the support beams and slats seperately, for about $30. That's really what we need.

I like the way the new one looks a lot more. It would fit better in our house. But I thought about it, and if I just remove the legs, paint it, and add a new headboard (really just cut 3.4 birch plywood that's been painting), I should have the equivalent of a brand new bed, that looks similar to the $200 bed, for about $50.

So yeah. Hubby's cheapache is going to save me about $150. Go hubby.

It's a non-money goal, I know, but a life goal nonetheless. Today I hit 75,000 words and officially 75 percent finished with my first novel!

All in all, it's been a decent week.
I got paid for a freelance gig I did in February, and I put all of it-- $387-- to my IRA.

I also got a check for June freelance to the tune of $750. I have to pay my self-employment taxes, but will be making a transfer to the IRA later this week, after that chore is done. It feels nice to make some progress.

Also, made $5 on my online garage sale, and if the guy who is supposed to buy our old futon shows up tomorrow, we can add another $75 to that. So, $80 to the online yard sale, for a total of about $160. Not too shabby. The money will either go in the tiki fund or to the kids' extra college fund.

I dropped off three more boxes to the Goodwill. I'm thrilled to be clearing the house of more things we can easily do without. I do wonder if it will ever end, if we will ever live something remotely close to the clean, uncluttered life of my fantasy...

I have a confession: I am not good at family life. I don't enjoy it at all.

Let me preface that by saying I L-O-V-E love my children. I would die if anything happened to them.
But there is a big BUT

I don't like being a parent. Frankly, I think it sucks. I take care of two boys under two from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., from 9 p.m. to midnight every night I clean the house, do the dishes and laundry, take a shower, and then I have to WORK. Yes, I am blessed that I can work from home, but while hubby is downstairs playing video games or reading, I basically have to "go into the office." (and much of this time, I have to listen to our youngest yell and scream from his crib or the older one keeps getting out of bed and trying to walk around the house. It never ends. )

There is no downtime. Usually, I can manage this. It's like my daily marathon. But, when something is thrown into the mix, it's very stressful.

The stress really starts when we try to take the kids somewhere. Every time I leave the house with both kids, my stress level hits the roof, and it stays there, no matter what is happening. It just stays at a sustained high level until we get home.

Tonight, we went bowling. Bean was all over the place, jumping into other peoples' lanes, running all around. He runs off. It scares me to death, because it takes him 10 seconds to make it 30 yards, and he is wily and quick. Once, he managed to get away from me at a community barbecue, and I couldn't find him for 10 minutes, and I literally thought I was going to die.

This would be hard enough, but throw in the 9 month old, who is crawling and cruising, and it's almost unbearable for me. Hubby doesn't understand why I just "can't relax."

I want to, I just can't. He somehow magically thinks everything will be okay, while I feel like things are only okay if someone makes sure it is okay, which unfortunately is always me.

I feel stuck at home a lot. Bean gets to go places and do activities with an "aunt" (really one of my friends) and grandma. But hubby always complains I don't take the two of them out more to do more things just the three of us.

I feel like I can't handle the two of them alone.

I did try to take them to a play place at the mall. I thought it would be perfect. But bean kept running out, because he saw a gumball machine. So there I was, hauling 50 pounds of backpacks, car seat and little brother jut trying to keep him in eyes view while he ran all over. It was a nightmare.

Bean needs a dedicated adult, just to keep him from running away or into traffic.

I feel like a bad parent, always being stressed out when we leave the house, alone or as a family, but I don't know if there is a solution. I am hoping this feeling will go away as they get older and more capable, rather than being a toddler and a baby, but I don't know. I see my friends with older kids and in some ways, it looks like it just gets worse.

How do all of you deal with this (or in the past, dealt with it?) Am I losing my mind? I sure feel like it. And will I ever get a good night;s sleep ever again?

Today, we managed to put $750 from the paycheck, some freelance work, and ironically the check the junkyard gave me for my dead car, into savings. So yay! It's a step in the right direction.

I cut my savings goal in half for the year, to $6,000, to reflect recent events, namely hubby giving the $5,000 we had already saved to a friend in a fix. I'm trying to just forget all about that. Otherwise, we would have been on track to save $12,000 this year. But now, there's no way I can save that much by the end of the year.

We bought my first new car ever last night-- Honda Fit. It's my first new car and my first car note. Of course, we used the super cheap 0.9 percent dealer financing, for 60 months, but will certainly be paying it off early. The goal is to have it paid off in 24-36 months.

Some have wondered why we didn't buy used. Normally, I would. But, we drive cars until they die and we needed to have at least one sure bet, perfect safe vehicle to get the kids around town. Plus, the used Fits cost about what we paid new. With no other debt-- including mortgage, we thought it was safe to take on a car note. It will be about $200 a month.

Since I confessed my financial transgressions and overall sloppiness a few weeks ago, things have started to get a little better.

Money is finally going into the savings account every paycheck, and the credit card bill has been a bit lower.

My savings goals have still taken a giant hit thanks to the $5,000 hubby gave his friend. We are buying our planned for new car (a $14,821 Honda Fit. The payment will be $175/month for 3 years, although I have no intention of having the loan that long.) tonight, and since hubby gave away the down payment, I had to pull an extra $3,000 out of savings.

Thanks to this, I'm pretty sure I have no chance of making my $12,000 savings goal this year. We're pretty much treading water at this point. It's frustrating, because my plan has been to stockpile as much as we can while hubby is working, because in this economy, he could be laid off at any moment.

Feast or famine, you know? But, it isn't happening. Our college savings and our retirement savings are on track, but our liquid cash account is not.

I guess now I need to regroup and figure out what a realistic savings goal is for the rest of the year.

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.

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.

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.