As if!

Trish just called and asked to borrow my scale. Umm, no. Call me crazy, but I would probably never get it back.

So....finances. We closed our equity loan/line conversion and what it actually turned out to be was a separate loan for which we received a check. I deposited it yesteday, then paid 14,600 of it on our equity line today. I went ahead and paid for a few things that I needed to just go ahead and pay for - car tags, AJC subscription, A/C service contract. I also scheduled Stanley Steemer to come out and clean the filthy stairs, landing, our bedroom, the rug, and the sofa. I'm not going to have them clean the boys' rooms this time around.

We are going camping this weekend so I had to buy more groceries than normal today. I only spent $85, though. I had a pile of coupons, and I got a LOT of groceries.

eBay auctions are rocking along. I am thinking seriously that I need a manni or form. I found a St. John Knits dress at the thrift on Monday and I wish I had a manni on which to display it. The Levi's twisted seam jeans that I bought at the bag sale for thirty-seven cents are bid up to $37 now; the auction ends tonight. I'm a little nervous about them, though, because I keep getting ASQ's about the cost of shipping from foreign bidders with zero feedback.

Auctions are rocking along.

Last night my cashmere sweater set ended at $102.50. My old Dansko clogs ended at, I think, $36.50. I am waiting to be paid for the Earth Shoe clogs, and there are two money orders on their way. I have thirteen items up now, six of which have bids. I have three holiday items waiting to be written up, a pair of Dansko sandals (Those black ones, I love them but they just don't look right on me) waiting to be photo'd and written up, and a few things hanging in the closet upstairs waiting to be ironed/photo'd/written up. I'm planning to hit Last Chance on Monday after the recall thing is done on the Forester (which hopefully will be quick). I need to buy a few more things to carry me through listing into November.

After the winner of the twin set paid me, I had more than $200 in my Paypal account so I transferred $50 to checking, and I'll transfer it again to ING (where I added $30 to our account, and the $50 will put the balance over $800). I also paid $15 on my eBay fees, and am going to snipe an auction for 25 bubble mailers.

Still am on a plateau WRT grocery spending. I spent $64 today at DFM, and thus far have spent $241 this month. That is too much! It's only the 7th. Quite honestly, we have plenty of food. The outside freezer is full. So is the fridge and the pantry. I'm going to really, really try to see if I can keep the grocery spending to a minimum.

The scholastic book order form came home today and it went right in the recycling. Those are the kinds of things I'm passing up in order to save money. I also, after much thought, decided not to renew my Mothering subscription. I can live without it. And I can renew it later on if we come into an inheritence or something. ;-)

I got the car tag blues.

Went to the tag office today to transfer the wildlife tage to the Honda. I was hoping that the registration was paid for the next year - that is what happened with the Subaru - but alas, it was not. I paid $5 to transfer the tag, and she went ahead & gave me the bill for 2005. It's $479.

I really, really need to get busy listing some stuff. I have a picture or two I need to retake, then I need to get it in gear and get some stuff up. Things have been doing pretty well, people seem to be buying, and I need to capitalize on it!

Blah blah

Ok, so where are we...

We have $442 til payday. I need to pay Parisian (due after payday) and Arrow for their monthly service (can go ahead & pay now, it's only $36). Due on payday: taxes, car payment, other monthly stuff. Wonder when I'm going to get an AMEX bill?

I ordered a set of all-weather floor mats & a cargo liner last night for the CRV. The floor mats are tan and already are getting dirty. I paid for them with a Visa and I need to transfer some money to cover it. Shipping was free, fortunately...

Went to Target today. I got necessities except for splurging on a white sleeveless shirt for $9.99....I was ironing the two I have the other day and noticed that they are very dingy...so I don't think it was a completely frivolous splurge. I returned the fin & mask set I had bought Michael for his birthday, and got $15 back. I turned around and put it in Michael's backpack for pizza money.

Auctions have been doing okay, though I was sure my lot w/the Hartstrings sweater would go higher. My Paypal balance is back up over $100 again.

Tonight after supper we are going to take Michael to Jake's for ice cream, since it was his first day of kindy.


That $20 Lee found the other day, I took it & the Forester to the Kroger gas station and filled up, for about three cents less than everywhere else with my Kroger plus card. He's going to Union Co. tomorrow and Augusta Friday, so we'll get some mileage money back.

I guess that's it...I still haven't called Glen Culhane back and told him to pull the trigger on converting part of our HELOC to a loan. Must. Do. That!!

Not really austerity-related....

but I'm going to try and get myself organized here....Michael's first day of kindy was cancelled because of Frances-related storms (dammit). It kind of threw me off for the whole week.

So, tomorrow I take him & stay for the parents meeting. I have an appointment w/Kerry at 11:00, then carpool is at noon. If it is not raining/excessively muddy (not likely) we'll go to Concert on the Square...if so, maybe we'll go ahead & go to Target & return the mask & fin set I got him & do my other Target-ing.

Thursday....I really wanted to walk. Maybe I'll go to Kroger after I drop Michael off, then come home & walk.

Friday I'll do the Farmer's Market.

Still haven't done my banking to see where we are. That's on the agenda for tonight, along with going thru YAAPS' recipe archives for cheap/crockpot meals.

Auctions are doing well, except for those two damn pairs of girls jeans that will NOT sell. Don't think I'm going to waste my time relisting them.

Misc.

Lee picked up his new bike helmet today, and it was $58. Yikes!!

On the flip side, he found a twenty dollar bill near Howard and Greenwood when he and the boys were crossing Howard on their bikes.

I paid our Scana bill, Michael's preschool tuition, and our Rosewalk dues. That should be it for bills until closer to the 15th. I need to check and see if BP is paid; it is due early in the month.

I went through a box of clothes in the attic hoping to find something to sell, but over half of it went in the Salvation Army bag; the other half is in Will's closet or drawers.

I have some meals planned for this week, so I feel pretty good about that. Tomorrow night (or maybe Monday night) is chicken curry in coconut sauce; later this week I am going to have a black bean and sausage stew. Maybe tomorrow night we will have quesadillas since I have some pinto beans and cheese that need to be eaten.

For the coming week, my plans are:

Thrift on Monday
Tuesday - first day of kindy
Wednesday - return mask/fin set to Target, do Target shopping, maybe to Dr. Kerry's, hopefully concert on the square if it's not raining
Thursday - walk
Friday - Farmer's Market, chiro here if not Wednesday

The farmer's market may have to start laying people off...

because I've gone from spending about $180/week there to spending about $60/week (the last two weeks, anyway).

This week, I spent $165.91 on groceries. That includes Sevananda, which I don't go to every week. It doesn't include Big Lots, where I bought laundry detergent, wipes, and four cans of dog food. I would like to get that down to $150/week, which is still $500/month....more than I would like to spend. I bought some stuff for Michael's birthday, stuff I won't normally buy, but I'm sure other weeks there will be stuff I need in its place.

I had an unexpected expense today...I went to Will's CMO open house and I had to pay a $70 registration fee, plus the monthly fee had gone up to $75.

I put $125 into our savings account today.

Oh. My. Hell.

I just added up what I spent on groceries in July. Again, that doesn't include anywhere I paid cash (which wouldn't be much, really) or any groceries I bought at SuperTarget....I still spent....(ready for this?).....

$971.56.

Ho-leeeee crap. What was I thinking??

Needless to say, it's obvious that grocery spending is the place where I can make the biggest change in our spending.

The next finance-related project will be going month-by-month and estimating expenses. I'll be back later to do that.

Testing.

This blog is going to be the place I brain-dump about our finances and write myself to-do lists. I feel stressed, like we're *almost* in over our heads. I don't want to stress Lee about it by talking to him, so here is where I'll do it. I need to sort it out so that I can make the best decisions and feel better about having a plan.