Yep, this is the big weekend. I am painting the outside of my house. yes, I am doing it myself because it's a one story ranch and I like to paint, so why not? It'll save me a lot of money to do it myself. I estimate in the neighborhood of $2,000 saved versus hiring someone.

I rented a power washer last weekend for $74, so the house is nice and clean and ready to go.

I'm excited. Of course, I am still a little sore from helping my sister paint her house two weeks ago! But, hers was a ranch but had higher gables than mine. Mine shouldn't require schlepping up and down a ladder.

I readjusted some of the yearly savings goals. I am now diverting what should have gone into the stock brokerage account into the regular savings account. I have already put $2500 into the brokerage this year, so I m satisfied with that. And, seeing as I have already put another $11k into the market since all of is nonsense took root, I'm comfortable diverting funds to the EF for a while.

So, another $1,000 will hopefully be added to the savings account instead of the brokerage account this year.

All of this market nonsense also has me focused on our one debt: My student loan. We have viewed it basically as a nonentity, but now having that one debt and a $300 monthly payment for it is really bothering me, so I am planning to try extra hard to knock some principal off of that and come up with a pay-off plan.

I do have a $300 freelance check coming soon, and the plan now is to put 1/2 into savings and the other half toward the student loan. But we'll see. Plans change.

Before the came to visit, the in-laws said they wanted to talk to us about their financial situation. Well, they did and it wasn't even close to what I expected.

They own a rental property right next door to their own house. It was my hubby's grandpa's house, and when he died, they had an emotional attachment to the house and didn't want to let it go. So... they turned it into a rental.

They told us they were done being landlords and they asked us to take over all the rental house responsibilities, repairs, tenant management. etc.

The rental house is 1000 miles from where we live, yet right next door to his parents.

I understand that they are not the right personality types to be landlords. They like to micromanage, and every small thing that happens in their life is considered a crisis. Not really conducive to letting other people live their lives the way they want in a house you own and live next door to.

We straight out told them Hell NO. With a new baby, and me not working full time. no way. We have no problems being a landlord, but we do have a problem being an absentee landlord, especially on a house we live so far from and that wasn't purchased based on its ability to make money, but only because of an emotional attachment.

If we had done it, it would have been a nightmare for us. Hiring and paying a property manager and paying the real estate taxes would have eaten up any money it made. Plus, his parents would constantly be calling us telling us to deal with this or that about the tenant or this or that should be done around the house, etc. and I really have a strained enough relationship with them without throwing that in.

I'm glad the hubby and I agree that this is a no go.

I am just going to stop checking the market and my portfolio stock prices. It's just too stressful.

I'm just going to keep forging ahead on savings and wait for the upswing.

I am usually Ok when t he stock market tanks, because I view it as an opportunity to buy stocks for cheap. But today, on top of everything else? even the hubby and I were asking, "Well, should we do something?" Start hoarding more cash? Buy more stocks, What? For once, we had absolutely no answer. What are you planning to do?

The stock I bought for cheap wasn't cheap enough. I was up 40 percent last week, and I am don 50 percent today. Oh well! The price is down to about $1.44 a share. So what did I do? I just put in an order for 100 more shares. I'm willing to risk another $150 on 100 more shares. What the hell right? Market dips = stocks on sale!

I also bought 100 shares of Sallie Mae. I'd been waiting for them to dip to $10 a share and today they did. Down from $60 a share last year!

My money pit- the used hot tub I bought on Craigslist. FINALLY works. after 1 year and almost $2400 extra spent on electrical wiring and repairs I am FINALLY going to get to sit in it tonight. And the weather is perfect. It's nice to finally have a payoff for the outlay of wasted cash!

The hubby and I rarely get much time together these days, thanks to work and the bean but last night we had a nice cheap faux date. We broke out the air popcorn popper, got some free DVDs from the library, and stayed up late watching movies together, snuggling on the bean bag chair. it was nice, and it was cheap!

Also, I looked at one of the bars that was for sale today. Definitely NOT the right one for me. It was a nice, cheap building, but it wasn't right for me. It would be a great neighborhood Cheers-y place, but not a Polynesian Tiki Palace!

I was talking to the hubby about this blog post:

http://smallnotebook.org/2008/07/01/july-is-no-spend-month-w...

And he surprised me. Let's try it! Sounds interesting. Of course then he tried to talk his way out of it, but I committed him and us to only spending $250 or less in November (that doesn't include utilities, bills, savings, etc ).

I put it on the calendar. So we'll see. I am intrigued to see if we can do it, and what it will be like.

We didn't do october because his parents are coming to stay with us for a WHOLE MONTH. (Don't even get me started on that...)

several months ago I noticed that two Ohio bank stock prices had plummeted to $3 or $4 a share. I know these banks, and I was convinced that this was really a rock bottom price, so I bought several hundred shares.

I looked today, and on one stock I am up $539, basically doubling my original investment. And on the second, I am up $174, or about 50 percent on my original investment.

I know, you don't really win until you sell. But I paid so little for these stocks, that I feel comfortable hanging on. I am sure they will be back up to $22 or so a share in a year or two...

The stock market seems scary right now, but we do need to stop and think about it as a giant clearance sale for stocks. Now is the time to buy.

Today is the day my hubby and I look forward to all year: the 25 cent book sale at the local fairgrounds. It's very exciting. We love books and we love a bargain!

We bought 53 romance novels for the MIL, and about 39 books for ourselves. Most were for me, as I collect vintage craft books for the ideas. $23 spent. Not bad.

Then, we took the bean to the park, where he had his first ride in a swing. He loved it. Then, as he napped, the honey and I ate out at one of our favorite restaurants. And the bill only came to $11, for more food than we could eat.

It has been a good day and it's only 1 p.m.

I am about to go work out in the yard. I'm digging giant flower beds and landscaping the front yard, which became a neighborhood joke last summer when some sink holes magically appeared in the sod. It's going to look nice one of these days, I promise! The neighbors just shake their heads.

The hubby also made $1,000 in extra money working during Hurricane Gustav, so that money will go into savings to replace some of the $7200 we spent on a roof last month.

It feels good to finally be back on track.

Has anyone had any luck using UPromise? I have about $1.38 in the account and I opened it 2 years ago. hardly seems worth it. I also tried to link it to my bean's 529 plan but my state's plan was not listed as an option, so I am wondering if there is any way, should the balance go up, to get the money out.

I posted earlier about my work-baby dilemma. (

http://thriftorama.savingadvice.com/2008/09/03/tired-of-24-h...)

Today was the first day my friend came over to watch the Bean for four hours. It was great. My friend and the Bean had fun together and I got ALOT of work done. We are doing it again next Wednesday.

I am paying her $10 an hour for four hours one day a week. Money well spent!

This post by Monkey Mama got me thinking about anniversaries

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/2008/09/06/six-years-and-...

It's been about three years since the levees broke in New Orleans, forever changing our lives.

When it happened, we had a house with a $2,000 a month mortgage payment. This is the house:



We had some money in the bank, but didn't know if our house was even still standing or what if anything our insurance company would pay for. So we went to work. Literally.

First, let me say that Citibank, who bought our mortgage from our favorite local bank, gave us no relief from mortgage payments. Remember when Bush insisted that lenders give borrowers in New Orleans two to three months break from payments? Citigroup pretty much said screw you. I still hate them.

That said, as soon as the levees broke, our resumes went out. Hubby got a job right away, and I got a freelance gig writing for the local newspaper. Phew. Money to pay the mortgage. Now the real work began.

We moved into my sister's finished basement in Ohio for 6 months, paying $300 rent plus the gas bill and groceries.

Then, I set up an office and spent at least 5 hours a day every day on the phone trying to reach our insurance company and our adjuster. Adjusters kept quitting and each person I talked to in the claims department told me something different.

I also had to hire a contractor to fix the damage to my house so we could sell it. No easy task.

We had decided to stay in Ohio,and we couldn't really move on until we sold our house. Which meant we couldn't afford to wait 6 months or more for our insurance claim to be paid before we started fixing up our house.

I went to New Orleans in November of 2005 and spent 1 month fixing the house. I paid $18,000 out of pocket for everything from roof repair, fixing a balcony that was knocked off by a FEMA truck and rebuilding a concrete block privacy fence that was uprooted by a tree. I also did some "Designed to Sell" HGTV magic by painting the inside and outside of the house. And scrubbing everything to make it look fabulous.

Two contracts and some termites later, the house finally did sell, on my birthday. March 13. It was a miracle. And it came just in time. We had just got the new bill for our homeowners insurance. It had tripled, costing about $600 a month just for insurance. We wouldn't have been able to afford our house if we had stayed in New Orleans.

If we had lived paycheck to paycheck, we would have been so royally destroyed financially by this hurricane. We would have had to pay $2000 a month mortgage for a lot longer, and would have had to delay starting our lives over again while we waited for an insurance company to pay up. We would have missed the window of opportunity to sell our house. People were buying 6 months after the storm, when we were ready.

Here is the financial picture. We paid $225,000 for our house in June 2003. Sold it for $325,000 in March 2006. (Because it didn't flood, our house value went up a lot). We had $30,000 in equity already.
After real estate commissions, etc., we had $90,000 in cash free and clear to buy something in Ohio. Here is what we bought. Much more modest:



So we bought a 1957 ranch for $145,000. The experience of worrying about how to pay the mortgage after the storm, and our not so good experience with Citibank (having your mortgage sold to a company you did not choose to do business with) really changed our perspective.

We stretched to buy our first house, which is what the conventional wisdom is. It was a mistake. Too much house payment= too little freedom and to little wiggle room when something goes wrong. So we bought a more modest and cheaper more manageable house the second time.

My MIL didn't like it one bit. Many times she told me that we were supposed to always trade up, trading down wasn't the way it was supposed to work. She's never been through a disaster, and she and my FIL also live very different lives than me and the hubby want to. We agree to disagree.

Then, hubby and I set about finding a way to pay off the remaining $50,000.

When we finally got our insurance check for $18,000 (6 months after the storm!!), that all went to the mortgage. When we were both settled in to full-time jobs, we made the decision to liquidate $32,000 in stock in a taxable brokerage account to pay it off completely.

We ended up making one real mortgage payment. Then, we began depositing the amount we would have spent on a mortgage payment into the brokerage account to replace what we cashed out.

Some financial people would say that paying off the house isn't the right move. I disagree. There is a freedom and peace of mind that comes with owning your home outright. I remember my grandparents' mortgage burning party. We should all get back to that mindset. That a house is something to be paid off.

After we sold the Nola house, we set about really getting a hold of our financial lives. A natural disaster really drives home the need for savings. We had no idea that our paychecks would be gone virtually overnight. You can't live one paycheck away from financial insolvency. It's a recipe for bad things.

Many of our friends who didn't have money in the bank JUST finished their hurricane repairs. Three years later. One couple finished just in time for Gustav to come along. Thankfully it missed.

Having the house paid off has allowed us to not only sleep better at night, but also max out 401ks, IRAs, and Roth IRAs, every year, fully fund a 529 plan for the bean. And pay cash for all of the major home repairs to our new house.

It has allowed me to work as a freelancer instead of a full-timer so that we don't have to pay for daycare. It really has changed our life.

The current housing advice has it all wrong. Don't stretch. Find a modest house you can pay off ASAP, and find one you can fix up to make nicer. We really did buy the worst house in a good neighborhood, which means we are really improving the value with every project.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. I get a little sappy every Katrinaversary.

I have really fallen off the bandwagon these past few months. My savings have basically ground to a screeching halt.

Part of it was expected, as I knew I would have to raid the savings account to pay for our new roof ($7200).

But there have been some other unexpected expenses.

For instance, this week we spent $1,000 for a back-up server. We needed the extra space to make sure our Gustav clients had their info backed up in case disaster struck. We will be reimbursed for this, but god only knows how long that will take, and in the meantime, I had to take $1,000 out of savings to cover the CC bill for it. Argh.

On top of that, I feel like we are spending a lot of money, but I don't even know on what. It just seems like bills are rolling in and the checking account is at the minimum.

Caveat: I had to buy gifts for two baby showers this month, and I still need to buy something for a wedding shower this Saturday. So many showers! And my husband decided to buy like 10 CDs without telling me (all used, but still) and to donate $150 to a presidential campaign (at least he's being an involved citizen!)
And I did spend $90 on mulch and peat moss for the gigantic garden beds I am currently digging.

I think I answered my own Q. This is where all the money is going!! Time to cut back.

I am currently trying to lower our grocery bill, but I don't think that's the problem.

I had also planned to do a stone wall around all of the new flowerbeds I am digging. I had budgeted $600 for stone. I may have to wait until spring.

I was doing so well meeting my savings goals. I don't want to end up missing the mark!

It feels good to have a plan now, even if it only means having a babysitter 4 hours a week so I can do some freelance work. Already the ideas are flowing, and I am attempting to manage my time and accomplish little tasks so that I can make the most of my 4 hours.

My goal is to get 4 articles published by the end of the year. The money will be split 50-50, with half going to savings and half going to pay extra on my student loan. That should help me meet my goal of paying an extra $1,000 on my loans before year end.

Hubby and I also talked a bit about what we want to do with our lives. We agreed that in a few years when the bean is a little older, we'd like to live overseas for 6 months or a year, so we'll both start looking for jobs and see if anything comes up. It can't hurt to try, right?

Also, I'm thinking of rooting through the basement closet to see if there is anything I can list on eBay. I also have a vintage 1950s bathroom vanity and a 1953 O'Keefe and Merrit stove, which works and was in my last house, to sell. I was thinking of saving them for the yard sale next summer, but I would like to clear out the space.

Maybe I could either post them at a fixed price on eBay with pick up only, or on Craigslist. Although, I have had them on Craigslist and none of the people ever showed up to look at them.

That's the news.

My New Orleans friends left this morning. It was great to see them. We made beautiful meals at home, stayed up late talking. All that good stuff you do with friends.

It got me thinking about what me and hubby want to do with our lives. They are heading to France for a year. The wife has a fellowship to study 19th century French ghost stories and write a book about it. She is a published horror author, as well as an academic. The hubby is going along and making documentaries.

Ah, That's the life. So my hubby and I were talking about what we want our life to be. We wanted travel, adventure and excitement, and instead we have a baby and a 1957 ranch home. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but is there a way to inject some adventure into that??

I guess that's what we're going to have to figure out, and soon.

we are planning to visit this couple while they are in France. And hopefully do the Mexico trip all in one year.

I love the bean. He is a sweet kid. But frankly I am really tired of taking care of a kid 20 hours a day. It's mind numbing. The hubby helps out a lot.

I am just really tired because he still doesn't sleep and the sleep training is hit or miss.

But even though I am tired, I want to do work. I feel compelled to make more money and contribute more to the household.

I like my field, and I like making money, I find it fulfilling. So how do I make it work with a baby?

My mother works full time and can't babysit during business hours. I already import my MIL for weeks at a time when I have a huge project to do that requires a lot of hours. But those projects only happen 2 to 3 times a year.

I want to fill in the rest with some part time work, either from home (as a freelancer, which I did before the bean ) or at an office. The only problem with freelancing is I can't have him crying in the background while I am on the phone,and his nap times are so sporadic that it's near impossible to schedule calls when he is asleep.

Is there any way I can make it work? There is no part-time daycare here for babies Beaner's age. And I am not comfortable with full time. (Nor would it work financially)

I could possibly ask two friend to babysit once or twice a week, but I would be limited to the hours their children are in school. And how much should I pay them? I have no idea.

HELP!!!

I need to do something soon.

I had never heard of this program until today. Basically, you donate extra produce from your garden to local food banks, who are happy to have fresh produce. What a great idea! I will definitely participate next year, and may even try to persuade the neighborhood association to go along with it!

http://www.gardenwriters.org/par/

Well, several adults, 3 cats and one dog are on their way to our house, evacuating Hurricane Gustav. We were expecting two more adults and a six-month-old baby, but they are hunkering down in Memphis instead.

I am sad for New Orleans, my former home, and sad for my friends who just finished all of their Katrina repairs. Here we go again.

Today I hugged the Bean and I told him how thankful I was that we were safe and happy and didn't have to evacuate and start all over again.

It was hard enough once. We didn't want to do it again. (FYI, I was driven out of Nola by Katrina and had to start life over again in Ohio, and spent 9 grueling months battling insurance companies and trying against all odds to sell our house.)

That said, I cleaned the house tonight, went to the farm market for some sweet corn today, and am about to go set up a queen size futon bed in the basement. Our basement is gigantic, all finished and the same size as the upstairs. This way, everyone will have their own bathroom and their own space and no one will have to listen to my Bean scream at night!

I pray it doesn't hit New Orleans again.

I have ambitious plans to beautify the outside of our house. Part of this is to eliminate grass,because I hate mowing, and since all of the full sun on our property is in the front, build beds large enough that I can secretly grow vegetables behind the flowers without raising the ire of the neighbors.

And then there's covering up those glamorous sink holes that showed up last year!
Here is the plan. The dark areas are the new beds. Now that the roof is finished, my goal is to dig the beds during the month of September. If all goes well, I will be able to buy stone and lay the stone retaining walls around the beds as well.

The dark parts of the diagram are the new flower beds. There should be enough room to plant some perennials for a butterfly garden, and then a hidden strawberry patch, herb garden, and watermelon patch, and some zucchini plants. From the street, all you will be able to see are flowers, if all goes according to plan.

It's like a stealth agriculture plan! I'm such an anarchist...

I got a notice from the county auditor this morning. My house is officially worth $5,000 less than I paid for it 2 and a half years ago. I guess, in a way, this is good, because this value means less I'll have to pay in property taxes.

But it still hurts a bit, especially considering we've put almost $25,000 in work into the house in that time. (All cash, thank you.)

A new roof, A geothermal heating and cooling system, new Marmoleum kitchen floor, new Energy Star windows. I guess I can't complain too much. Two of those projects have saved me a ton on my energy bills already.

Well, I took the plunge and bought a can of the generic Target bean formula. My mom talked me into it. It's $11 cheaper than what we use, per can, and has the same ingredients as Enfamil. I don't think twice about generics for myself, but for some reason I am uncomfortable with unbrand formula for baby bean. Maybe because his brain is growing so fast right now? Maybe because formula isn't regulated by the FDA. Not sure, but I am going to try it and see how it goes.

Well, I had to buy a new operating system for my Mac so I can run my new Adobe CS3. It retails for $129. I shopped around and found the best price on Amazon.com. $109. Then, I used $5o worth of Gift cards I earned from my rewards credit card. Then, I took in all the loose change I have accumulated since January. It was $43 plus worth!

I just ordered the OS, got free shipping. I'm very happy. I was really upset when I thought I would have to spend $129!

Also, I met my second savings goal today: $2,000 into the hubby's Roth IRA. I am going to stop the auto drafts into that account and snowball the savings to the other goals. Once those are met, I will stash more in, hopefully by the end of the year.

She is the lady who got me to really like this site and yet I haven't seen a post or anything for months. Any of you know what's up?

This was her blog. Took a lot of work to find it!



http://pinchthatpenny.savingadvice.com/

Most of you know I have posted about my financially oblivious sister. Her money management skills leave much to be desired, to say the least. But 2 recent developments now have me thinking maybe, just MAYBE she has had a change of heart.

First, she joined a vanpool. So her commuting costs have gone from $300 a month to $9 a month. Yes. $9! What a deal!

And yesterday she sent me an email saying she called Time Warner to negotiate a lower price on her cable bill. When they said no, she actually cancelled and went with another company. So, she's saving $27 a month on that.

This is VERY out of character for her. But I hope it sticks.

Overall, I'm pretty thrifty. But the hubby and I decided to afford ourselves on luxury when we moved to Ohio-- a hot tub.

There isn't much to do in Ohio, so people have a lot of house parties. So, we figured, we'll invite lots of friends over and make margaritas, grill out, and sit in the hot tub.

It started out thrifty enough. we bought a used tub on Craigslist for $1,000. About $8,000 less than the same one new. It worked when we bought it. But something must have happened to it when we moved it because it hasn't worked since.

We've put $2800 into it so far in repairs and installed the electricity. It's just one thing after another. The repair guy came last week, a $432 bill, and yes, we fixed one problem, but the problem we had last summer when it went on the fritz is still there, so I have to convince the guy to come back for yet another god knows how expensive repair.

That hot tub is my albatross. After I filled it this weekend and it didn't work despite the latest repair, I was so mad I couldn't talk about it for days. Then I had to tell the hubby we wasted more money on it. He said call the guy, we're stuck with it, I want a working hot tub.

So here we are still, 18 months later, with a tub that doesn't work and eats money like it's at a buffet. It's frustrating. Something will definitely remember next time I think something that requires maintenance is a good idea....

I finally hired a roofer yesterday. I like them a lot (so far)!. For a while, I felt like I couldn't even give my money away. I've had 4 estimates. Of course, I called more roofers than that and many didn't even show up to do an estimate. I thought the housing downturn meant more contractors looking for work. I guess not!

Three weeks ago I had actually hired a roofer, the one recommended by my neighbor, and he never came by to pick up the deposit. Geesh. Is there something wrong with my cold hard cash?

I have two other projects that are on hold waiting for the roof, so my entire summer project list has been on hold. I keep promising the neighbors that yes, I do have a plan for making the front of the house presentable, nay, even look fabulous, but they are starting to not believe me!

I can't put my landscape plan into place until the roofers are done, because i can't have old shingles falling all over my flowerbeds.

Maybe this will get the show on the road.

I earned half an airfare for our Mexico trip today. It felt nice to work. This is my first project since Baby Bean came along. It was so nice to do brainy adult things rather than baby sit all day. I love Beaner but he wears me out! A change of pace was nice.

The fact that it was a lucrative change of pace that will get me and the hubby one step closer to travel is even better.

I am working tomorrow and Friday as well, which means I will earn about one and a quarter airfares this week. It's fun to think of it like that!

Also, I just finished reading a very helpful book. "How to Raise a Family on less than two incomes."

I read a lot of personal finance books so it takes something good to keep my attention. This one spoke to me because it's for people in my situation. Not full timers, but earning something, just not something steady. It was so helpful I may actually buy a copy for reference.

I wrote a while back about the hubby and I finally moving one of our international dream vacations on to the to do list. I sat down last night to go over some numbers.

For two weeks in Mexico, including a 8 day tour of 10 or so Mayan ruin sites,we'll need about:
$1300 RT airfare for two
$2500 for 8 night 9 day guided tour of Mayan ruins, for two
$1400 for extra week at beachfront cabins at Tulum ( estimating high at $200 a night)
$300 for 1 or 2 nights in a hotel in Cancun, one at the beginning and one at the end.

Total: $5500

Plus unknown:
$$ ? souvenirs
and travel to and from Cancun to Tulum (rumour has it there is a bus for 24 pesos...)
Day trip to Islas Mujeres.
Food and drinks

So far, there is $3862 in the vacation fund. Not too shabby, but still isn't enough. At least $1638 left to save, before spending money.

Here is the plan. I may have two more freelance gigs lined up for this year. The first is a two-day stint this week, which should net enough profit to cover half of the airfare. If the second project works out, it should cover the rest of the tab, and then enough to pay off more on the student loans. But if the second one doesn't work out, I plan to get on the ball and sell enough articles by the end of the year to round out the fund.

I'm also hoping to go on this trip in the off season, which should shave some of the costs off of the airfare, tour and hotels. April 2009 at the earliest.

Life is short. It's time to put fun on equal footing with saving for the future.