Staying Debt Free

It's been three weeks since DH left his job, and he's starting to get cabin fever. He's ready to start looking, but frankly the way things are right now it's good he's still off.

Monday our dog is having surgery to check out a tumor on her face. The vet thinks it's different from the supposedly harmless lipomas she's had elsewhere on her body. They have to put her under to even do a careful exam and biopsy, because she's not the most laid-back of patients. We can't just let it go because it was getting oozy and ugly-looking.

If this is the beginning of the end, I'm sure DH will feel better being able to give her plenty of quality time while he's still home. She's his baby. Even if all she needs is some after-surgery care, it will still be a big help having him home, as I've been working extra hours.

We've also had things come up like one of us having to be here while a new water meter is installed, car repairs, getting to the bank about a matured CD, navigating through the COBRA insurance maze. It's all been easier to manage because he's been home and carrying some of the load.

I'm starting to have this feeling that maybe things are going just as they should be, even if it's uncomfortable for both of us right now. Except for the vet bills, our income and outgo through December is pretty predictable, so there's no use spending time on obsessing over money right at the moment. All we can really do is get through each new thing as it comes along.

In honor of Blog Action Day ...

Personally, I just can't stand the way my clothes smell when I first bring them home from the dry cleaner. But there are health and environmental aspects to it, too. Did you know that California is on the way to outlawing those smelly chemicals by 2023?

www.faircompanies.com/main.aspx?uc=notampl&id=229&sec=1

For years I've been looking for a local dry cleaner who uses the C02 or silicone system, without success. Recently, though, I was happy to see that a new "green" dry cleaner was opening near our vet's office.

I'm going to use them even though it's a little out of my way, and even if they're more expensive. I usually run things through the dryer with Dry Cleaner's Secret between cleanings anyway, which is already saving me trips and money.

To find a green dry cleaner near you, try the locator links at the bottom of the above article.

DMom and I were looking through my uncle's 1932 yearbook today, before she gives it to the local historical society.

I got a kick out of this page showing the Thrift Club, and was also quite impressed.



In the depths of the Depression, the students managed to add $2,500 in deposits to the school bank. In today's dollars, that equals $37,500!

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

There were only a few hundred students at most, and it wasn't an affluent area. My grandfather had his hours cut to half-time, and felt lucky to have that. The culture of saving back then must have been really strong. Can you imagine 100% of a home room participating in a savings program today?

Interesting article that includes info on how to save money on COBRA health insurance after you leave a job:

www.charlotte.com/business/moneywise/story/289408.html

"But here's what a lot of people don't know: You don't need to sign up for or buy COBRA coverage as soon as you bid adieu to your old workplace. That's because you have 60 days to elect COBRA coverage and another 45 days after that to buy it. In other words, you don't have to pay for any insurance for 105 days -- and if you don't get sick or need to see a doctor or go to the hospital, you pay nothing at all.

Here's what you do: You sign up for COBRA on the 60th day after leaving your job. Then, if you need to use the health insurance within the next 45 days you pay for coverage. Claims are retroactive to the first day in which you were no longer covered through work."

I'm trying to rethink our food budget again, in light of the freezer's arrival and our upcoming lower income. So I went online to find the latest USDA Food Plan as a guide.

It got me thinking--they keep saying inflation is well under control, but I'm definitely noticing higher prices on certain foods. I haven't been keeping good spending records lately, so am I just imagining it?

The CPI figures that just came out say food is up 4.2% on an annual basis (August to August).

www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

I compared the USDA food plans for last June and this June (June is supposed to represent an average figure for the year.) Their food budgets have gone up 5.9% in a year.

And here's an article that says:

"According to figures from the United States Department of Agriculture, the price of foods containing high amounts of protein have increased the most. The cost of beef has increased by 6.4 percent. Poultry is up 7.8 percent.

"But both are trumped by milk, which costs 9.5 percent more than it did at the beginning of the year.

"For the year, the USDA is forecasting a food inflation rate of 4 to 4.5 percent, with the highest increases being seen in dairy and eggs. Historically, retail food prices inflate at a rate of 2.5 percent. “Very rarely do we get above 3.5 percent,” said Leibtag. But even if prices fall some this autumn, it appears this year's inflation rate will be the highest since 1990."

www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=6647

It really makes you wonder what to think.

I guess it sounds nutty, being that DH will be unemployed in less than two weeks. But I'm glad I did it.

The reasons I had for deciding to get one a month ago have just gotten stronger. My stress level is even higher, and it's even more important to cut down on the time I spend on errands. I know I'm going to have to devote time to the computerized end of DH's job search, and I want to be able to pick up extra hours at work if they're available. We need to have enough easy stuff for dinners at home so I'm not tempted to pick up take-out.

On Sunday at Shop Rite I was behind a woman with three girls, who spent $495 on two piled-full carts of groceries. I was shocked at first--I would have at least used some coupons and not bought full-price pomegranate juice!

But then I looked at how calm they all looked, and how the mother was slim and looked like she took care of herself. I thought, well at least she's done shopping for awhile now and can go live her life, exercising, playing with the kids, whatever.

That's what I want, in addition to keeping the grocery budget under control. I'm tired of having to make a weekly trip to the bread outlet for the whole grain light bread that helps me control WW points. Why weekly--I don't have room to freeze bread for future weeks. And I'm sure not going to pay full price at the supermarket.

I'm tired of having to decide between the bag of burgers and the bag of chicken at Aldi's, just because there won't be room in the freezer for both, and then having to make another trip there a week or two later.

I'm tired of shopping sales all day, not able to really stock up at each store, being so tired I stop at Wendy's for dinner, and then having to do it all again the next week.

I'm also tired of putting things in my mother's freezer temporarily, and not being able to get to them right away.

I've spent hours pursuing possible used freezers on Craig's List, to no avail. I've been watching prices online for the model I really want, and the sale prices at the big box stores aren't any better than our local appliance guy is every day.

So today I did it. With actual cash money out of our home/car repair savings account.

Thanks for all the support and the "fightin' words." I'm more relaxed about it at this point, but I do have to remember not to make things too easy for him.

Actually, we've both done this before (left jobs without having another one yet), and I completely understand why he feels the need to leave this one. At least he's given plenty of notice and is trying to stay on his immediate supervisor's good side, so he can use her as a reference.

I can even understand why he went ahead and did it without telling me first--he knew I'd probably freak and try to talk him out of it. (I've gotten this way with my mother, who seems to fear all change and decision-making, in my life as well as hers. I just don't tell her things anymore, til they're a done deal.)

What I really can't take is being yelled at like I'm the enemy!

DH is burning off some of his stress with physical activity now, like taking walks and doing yard projects so he's a bit less irritable. I've been bargain- and freebie-hunting like crazy the past week or so, like I used to do when we were in debt. I did go clothes shopping and got enough to keep me happy--but it was mostly at Goodwill and a huge sale at Sears where I got a bunch of tops for an average of about $4.

I just read that it's taking about 4 months for people to find a job at the moment, so I'm trying to stockpile 4 months worth of grocery and household stuff when I see a really good sale. So far, we have enough bath soap and Kotex for the duration.

Vent Alert! Guess what the D stands for today?

I'm about as angry and frustrated and scared as I've been since I started writing this blog. DH told me the end of last week, and it sounds like he actually gave his notice at work a week before that--without even mentioning it to me beforehand.

I started out with a sense of calm, because I finally knew what was going on. See entry here: http://stressless.savingadvice.com/2007/07/27/fud_28650/

I know he hasn't been crazy about the job for some time, and it does sound like it may be getting harder. So I can understand it. I immediately got on the stick and started cancelling automatic transfers to savings, figuring out how much more I can get in take-home by adjusting my W-4, and looking up how much individual health insurance might cost. I've done a lot of thinking about how I can reduce the food budget more, and what else we can cut. My Weight Watchers membership, perhaps?

Then this morning, DH started picking at me about the state of the house, and how I should be spending my vacation week. A vacation week I scheduled out of desperation because I was already feeling exhausted and frazzled before he hit me with this news.

All of a sudden I'm not feeling like such a team player. He's still spending money on discretionary stuff, and hasn't applied for any other jobs yet. While I'm doing my financial fiddling, he's happily watching tv or sleeping. I've been trying to be cooperative, and then he has the gall to start browbeating me.

Right at this moment, I'm feeling like I shouldn't have to give anything else up. I've been working hard at getting our expenses down over the past few years. I'm not willing to go any further. I still need to lose weight. With him at home, it's going to be hard to find time to myself, and WW meetings would be a good escape. So that stays. I need clothes, and I already have money set aside. He's still spending money on books and cigarettes. AND I'M NOT THE ONE QUITTING A JOB! So today, I'm going clothes shopping as planned, dammit.

Oh, and to top it off I found out today the car insurance bill has gone up 26%.

Found an study from the Federal Reserve about payment preferences, and it was really surprising to me. Scroll down to Table 7, and check it out.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2006/200617/

It looks like the highest users of credit cards are senior citizens, age 65+.

The highest users of cash are 18-24 year olds.

So if you want to be trendy and youthful, use cash. Don't mind being in the company of old farts? Then go ahead and use credit! (I say this as an old fart who'd rather be youthful and trendy!)

Thanks for the comments about my health insurance worries. The support here is always great.

I spent the best part of a day worrying about it, and have at least a month to go before we really have any answers. And it's not the only thing I'm worrying about right now, so..

At this point, I'm looking for ways to distract myself for the duration that 1) won't cost extra money, and 2) won't undermine my weight loss project. It's so easy to fall back into bad habits when under stress.

So, here's what I've come up with so far:

--Writing to a library that might have info on an author I've become interested in
--Getting back on track with housekeeping stuff
--Watching lots of movies
--Taking walks, exercising
--Reading
--Taking quiet time in the morning to relax, maybe write affirmations
--Listening to podcasts
--Playing Bookworm
--Closing out another credit card account, as an act of confidence in the future
--Getting to an extra WW meeting each week
--Going back to recording every penny in Quicken, and doing the 4-week reports again

That would be Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Wikipedia says it's an advertising term, but what I'm feeling is about DH's job and our finances.

His company has been sold, and so far DH and his coworkers have good feelings about the change. They are encouraging all employees to stay, and they have more generous sick and vacation policies. However, I'm antsy to know what the health insurance situation is going to be.

They have several Blue Cross plans to choose from, but not the cheap High Deductible/Health Savings Plan combo we have now. DH has no idea yet whether it's fully paid for by the company, or whether he has to kick in, and how much.

We could be looking at substantially higher or lower take-home pay. It could mean moving ahead on goals faster than we'd thought, or having to cut our Emergency Fund and New Car Fund savings down to a trickle. As it is, we really need to buy some life insurance on him, as the new company-provided policy will be half what it was.

I'm glad it looks like he still has a job. I'm glad we have no cc debt left. I'm glad we have enough in the HSA to cover the dental work DH is in the middle of. But I still can't help being nervous!

Warning - Long!

Got a message from a family friend, asking if we were doing anything special for my mother's 90th birthday.

Back when DMom was 80, we did have a fairly large party--and now that I remember it, it was at the instigation of this same family friend. We dug out old photos and things, and put them on display. It was a nice group of guests, a mix of family and friends, and overall a very nice memory for everyone. But it also cost several hundred dollars at a time when I was using credit cards and spending money like water. This family friend whose idea it was did make a nice memory book, but didn't contribute to the cost of the party. She just made me feel like I ought to do it, if I were any kind of daughter.

So here we are 10 years later. I was planning on keeping things small, for a myriad of reasons.

My MIL turns 90 the same month, and we probably won't even be seeing her. We'll send her a larger gift than usual, and talk to her on the phone, but that will probably be it. It doesn't seem fair to go overboard for my mother if we don't do it for both.

Many of the people who attended the 80th birthday party have died, or have moved away to live with or near their children. Or they're in assisted living. Also, there really aren't many blood relatives of my mother to invite. I'd end up spending hundreds of dollars to feed distant relatives like my cousins' grandchildren on my father's side, so that other older relatives would have a ride to the event.

If I were still spending money like I used to, I might not think twice about it. (And if I weren't already devoting a fair amount of time and mental energy to my mother and her situation, maybe I'd be more willing, too.)

But right now my gut answer is "No, I'm not doing anything special for my mother's 90th birthday. If you'd like to do something yourself, feel free."

It makes me feel kind of guilty and cheap, but I just don't want to be roped into trying to recreate an event that should stay a nice memory. Or spending money because someone else thinks I ought to. (Someone, by the way, who is much better fixed than we are! And who is retired and has a lot more free time.)

FYI - You might want to check and see if you're covered for cleanup from sewer backups. That is, unless you're willing to do the cleanup yourself--yuck!

DMom is going through this right now, and the cleanup is even going to involve removing basement shelving and other old wood that can't be sanitized. It's going to run into several thousand dollars--and she discovered her homeowner's insurance won't cover it.

Apparently you need to add an extra rider to your policy to cover this sort of thing. She hadn't thought of it, and her agent hadn't suggested it.

Luckily, we're with a different company, which automatically adds the rider unless you specify you don't want it. It's costing us $50 a year for $3000 of coverage. Worth every penny, as far as I'm concerned!

flyinghamster.com/post/39440

This is the same goofy bank where someone else's credit card payment was taken out of my checking account. The same goofy bank that charges 20 cents if you use your debit card with a PIN instead of putting it through as a credit card. The same goofy bank that makes you jump through hoops by forcing you to change your password constantly, as if they're super security-conscious.

I deliberately changed my log-in ID from the default ss# to another word, but I've been told that didn't protect me at all. No matter what log-in ID you choose, they still used the ss# internally. So basically, there is absolutely nothing I could have done to protect my data better, other than avoiding this bank to begin with.

I've never had these kinds of problems with any other bank--tell me, do you think it's time to go?

Yikes, it didn't take long.

I stopped doing my 4-week reports here after February. Thought I didn't need them anymore, and was tired of the tedious work involved.

I stopped recording what I was spending out of Cash, figured I'd just chalk it all up to Everyday Expenses.

Life's been getting busier, and I started using the Discover card when I wasn't sure exactly how much was in checking. Rather than stopping to check, I charged things rather than risk having a debit purchase turned down. (Also I was lured by the cash-back rewards.)

Gas prices have gone up, and I haven't revised the rest of my budget to make up for it.

I've been buying special foods for myself to help with The Diet--but honestly, many of them have been luxury items I could do without and still eat healthily.

So, now I've got $135 on Discover from overspending on groceries that I can't just pay off. It's either pay it off over the next 3 weeks, or just don't eat this week! I know it's a tiny balance, but it's a Red Flag, for sure.

When will I ever learn?

In case you hadn't come across this, Netbank is being taken over by Everbank, and the changeover may be finished by the end of June.

biz.yahoo.com/pz/070521/119898.html

I've read good things about Everbank, but their money market account is too rich for my blood right now. I'm using our Netbank MM to try and build up a Fully Funded Emergency Fund. Netbank wants to you keep a minimum of $500 in the account, so although we have $955 in there, only $455 is really available for emergencies. I found that frustrating enough. But Everbank wants even more--a minimum of $1500 to avoid a monthly fee of $4.50.

www.everbank.com/001MoneyMarketYP.aspx

So I'm looking for alternatives. Right now it looks like Capital One Bank is our best bet. $1 to open their MM, no minimum balances to maintain, no fees. Plus they apparently send out paper statements!

If anyone has experience with Capital One as a bank, I'd like to hear it. I only had a credit card with them years and years ago.

Here's my plan for today, totalling 30.5 WW points (which is within my limit), and costing $3.50 (which is below the daily allowance of $4.38 for the USDA's Thrifty Plan for Dec '06). It includes the minimum 5 fruit/veg servings and 3 dairy servings that Weight Watchers recommends. I've also got 2 servings of whole grains.

Breakfast, fruit and grain bar .21, and 1/2 cup pineapple chunks .17

Lunch, 3/4 c baked beans .25, 1 corn muffin .07, 8 oz glass skim milk .18, 1 raw carrot .06

Dinner, salad made with 1/3 bunch romaine .19, large radish .03, equivalent of 1/4 of one pepper from tricolor package .23, 1/2 cup cauliflower .27. 10 sprays of Wishbone Balsamic Vinaigrette .07 (Aldi had it this week.) Ten cheese ravioli .54 with 1/2 cup Grandessa sauce .30

Snacks, hardboiled egg .10, tropical fruit snack bowl .35, 7 triscuits .10, yogurt .43 and 1 cup popcorn .08.

The snack bowls are twice the cost of the fruit that comes in larger cans. I'll try to only use them when I'm not home.

The Grandessa pasta sauce is twice the cost of Mama Cozzi, but it has half the fat and calories so it's worth the extra money to me.

I'm actually still using up some Act II popcorn rather than Aldi's brand, so the price is based on the Act II right now.

I'm not just eating the beans and corn muffin to be cheap--I actually like them and they are pretty filling.

Someone is posting Weight Watchers points for Aldi food items:

aldireview.niesens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=111

Here you can track and analyze your food intake according to the latest version of the government's Food Pyramid:

www.mypyramidtracker.gov


It's been a hectic week, and I'm really scampering to figure out what I can eat in a day on Weight Watchers. I just haven't had time to sit down and figure out cost per meal like I'd hoped, plus I'm missing some cost and label info for stuff I bought awhile back. I think I'll have more time after I have some good menus worked up that I can repeat.

I'd started to work with the Pyramid Tracker above, but that system allowed me a lot more food than WW is, even though I set it to maintain my weight at 50 pounds less than I am! So this a second change to my eating habits in about a week. My head is kind of spinning right now.

I just got back from the doc, and have some additional motivation. My blood pressure has gone up a bit, and he's talking about increasing the dosage of my medication--the pill I want to get off of altogether because I'm tired of running to the bathroom!

I have a 6-week reprieve to see if I can lower it by losing weight, watching salt, and exercising. I asked the doc, of his patients who have lost weight successfully, what did they do? What's the common denominator? His answer--Weight Watchers. I asked him for a note of "medical necessity" so I can use HSA money for Weight Watchers fees. I guess I'll give it another try.

On the good side, my blood work was fine. Total cholesterol under 200, and HDL 50. At least he was happy about something!

Stopped at a different Aldi on my way home, to see if they had anything different from mine. I scored some sugar free Mystic mints--my usual store only has the sugar free gum.

I started a new file in my shopping list program for keeping cost per portion info. (Such as, one Italian sausage is 50 cents and saltines cost less than a half a cent each.)

I figure I've been counting calories for almost 40 years, and it hasn't done me a whole lot of good. I'll try something new and see how much I've eaten in dollars and cents each day.

I thought of just continuing to track what I spent on groceries overall, but it would be hard to take into account how much DH and I each ate. Also, it wouldn't give me such a close look at which items are the best buy, like a banana vs. an individual applesauce cup.

Made a trip to Aldi's last night, at what I hoped would be a slow time. I was able to take my time in the aisles, looking for things I couldn't find previously, and writing down prices.

Pleasant surprises:

Nonstick cooking spray (canola-based) $1.29
Turkey bacon $1.89
Splenda, in addition to their own brand of aspartame
Plain, nonfat yogurt
Sugar free "jello" and fat free pudding, in the refrigerated section $1.79 for 6 cups
Fat free "cool whip" 75 cents
Baked nacho tortilla chips $1.49
Mixaid (like Crystal Lite) $1.75
Lite mayo $1.49
Corn tortillas in the bread section, that I turn into baked chips myself, by slicing and baking, 89 cents
Sunflower seeds 39 cents
Tomato juice, large can 89 cents

Some disappointments:
No 1% milk; there's skim but I'm not wild about it
No reduced fat sour cream
No reduced fat sliced cheese
No vinegar besides white distilled (cookbooks say too harsh to be used in salad dressings)
Not much selection in bottled diet salad dressings
No flavored lite cream cheese, only plain
Diet frozen meals limited to "Lean Pocket" type wraps

Still and all, I think I'll find plenty to eat and lose weight. I'll try their diet dressings, and I'll try making some homemade ones calling for lemon juice rather than fancy vinegars.

No, I'm not entering the blog contest. Actually, I'm not even starting this project til May 1.

I signed up over on the Let's Lose A Person thread, and am getting nowhere. I need some way to jumpstart my weight loss, some way to make it interesting enough to stick with. The accountability of blogging helped me to get out of debt--maybe it could help me lose weight, too.

So, for the month of May, I'm going to eat nothing but Aldi food and see how it affects my weight and other health factors. I made a doctor's appointment for May 1, so I can get official weight and blood pressure numbers. And I'll be getting some long overdue blood work done this week, so I'll know where I'm starting with cholesterol and such. The trick might be getting a slip for more blood work after only a month!

I'm actually looking forward to working within a limitation like this--I think it can force you to be more creative. And being creative is usually fun. Wish me luck!

Sorry about the new colors--I was going for Springy, but it's hard to tell what a color will look like from those little squares!

Last night and again this morning, I took the time to sign up for some freebies, and signed up for some good ones. Purina One (again!), Good Life Recipe pet food, a free book on Windows Vista, and a CD-ROM of computer games from AARP.

I've been trying to do advance food prep more often, like hard-boiling eggs and cutting up veggies. Hopefully it will help with eating healthier as well as cutting down on food waste. So far so good--I've put it into some task scheduling software I got recently, and it does seem to be helping.

Another task I put in was checking my Yahoo mail. It's where I get all my paid emails from MyPoints and Inbox Dollars. When I get busy with other things, I can go a whole month without dealing with those emails, and then the offers expire. I don't want to be checking all the time, but I do hate missing out on those points.

Finally programmed the One Suite access number into speed dial. Our old AT&T phone card raised their rates, so I switched. But since I didn't have the One Suite number memorized, I was making in-state toll calls on our regular long distance carrier and generating a bill of about $2.50 a month. While the $15 I'd already paid to One Suite sat there unused.

Bought more minutes for my mother's MCI phone card, using my Discover card. She doesn't have credit or debit cards, so I use mine and she pays me back.

I also ordered a Virgin Mobile phone for her, as she finally decided a cell would be a good idea for emergencies. When it arrives, I'll be activating it online and setting up automatic billing through of of our cards, too.

I'd really like to stop using credit cards altogether, but I don't feel like I can front all of my mother's purchases out of cash yet. Hopefully sometime soon I'll have enough extra sitting in checking accounts so I can use debit cards for her stuff instead.

Even with earning 5% cash back on gas--I just want to get out of the habit. Every week when I get gas, it just reinforces the habit of using the card. All of a sudden, I just want out!

At least today I did switch billing for our long-distance from Discover to one of our debit cards.

For the first time in a long time, I managed to get through a whole work week without hitting the vending machine, or picking up coffee at Wawa!

I switched our cell phones to 18 cents a minute all the time on Virgin Mobile. Our original plan was 25 cents a minute for so many minutes a day, then the price per minute went down. But our calls are usually very short, so we never got the lower price.

I made the extra trip to Pathmark this week, as they had some things on sale cheaper than Wal-Mart. I made the effort to get rain checks on things they were out of. I also asked at Wal-Mart about their price matching policy.

I've been taking out $100 a week in cash to try and get used to using it for groceries and such. I want to see if it really does cause me to spend less than when I use debit or credit cards.

Why? I want to find some extra money for fun stuff. I can't get psyched to find extra money for savings, but spring clothes and plants seem to be a powerful motivator!

Bingo! Found a report that partially solves the "intangibility" problem for me.

Your kind comments yesterday also helped. Intangible is definitely the word for the problem. Earning interest in an incentive. And I can buy into the insurance deductible thing.

pewresearch.org/pubs/325/we-try-hard-we-fall-short-americans...

Thanks to My Money Blog, who mentioned it here:

www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2007/02/americans-assess-their-...

The most common kinds of unexpected expenses are medical, car, home and housing, life events and children. The %'s for other occurrances is way lower.

We can save for medical deductibles and expenses in the HSA. I already have special savings accounts for car repair and replacement, household repairs and maintenance. That kind of leaves unemployment, veterinary expenses, and funding car and homeowner's insurance deductibles, and life event things like traveling for funerals.

The deductibles for car and homeowners comes to $2000.

Veterinary is kind of discretionary, and would depend on how much money we had on hand. Some people spend thousands trying to keep an animal alive, some would let a dog go naturally or have it put to sleep.

I can see building up the HSA to cover our $3000 annual medical deductible, and keeping $3000 handy for other deductibles, vet expenses and family events. We'd be covered for all the most common things.

I STILL can't see the point of building up even more cash-equivalent savings for remote possibilities I can't imagine, rather than increasing our retirement savings and getting the house paid off.

I haven't said so before, but we have some "untouchable" money in a regular brokerage account plus IRAs. It's not in the form of ready cash, but in the case of unemployment we could survive on it for well over a year. I don't see the point of cashing it out and putting it in the money market just because that's where Dave Ramsey says an emergency fund should be.

So I'm going to aim for $3000 in the HSA, and eventually $3000 in the money market, even though that's only a little over 2 month's expenses. And I'm going to concentrate on fully funding the HSA first, since medical expenses are the most common and we get a tax break.

I'm having trouble getting enthused about socking money away in a general Emergency Fund.

It's pretty easy for me to accept putting money away for specific purposes, like the property taxes or car repairs. I can see the purpose of the savings in my mind's eye.

But "emergencies" is so general, and the need to have the money on hand feels remote. It's been impossible for me to throw every extra penny toward building it up as Dave Ramsey recommends for "step 3"--it's even been uncomfortable trying to make myself get a small, steady monthly amount in there.

So I want to start keeping track of when it's come in handy, or would have if there'd been enough money in there.

March, Emergency vet visit - $460
April, PSE&G budget bill balancing - $102
Jan-March, costs of Indian meal moth infestation (airtight food containers and traps) - $60

That's a total of $622, or about $207 a month. I've been begrudgingly putting $100 or less a month into the EF account, and actually had to pay the vet bill out of the car/house repair money.

So, as of today I'm decreasing the amount automatically going into New Car Savings, and increasing the amount going into the EF. And I'll keep reminding myself here of why that's important.

Gosh, I sure hope this new design is just for April Fool's Day. It's kind of weird having a guy's picture on the top of my blog!

I've been concentrating on other things lately, and let the blogging go. But I've got to start paying more attention to money again. I feel like it's been slipping through my fingers...

Let's see, our biggest financial hit recently was an emergency vet visit on a Sunday that cost $460--and the cat just turned out to have gas. (Did you know they give cats Zantac?) Today he's limping--and he's going to have to keep limping til a weekday.

Our neighbor the mechanic prefers to be paid in cash, and we both thought my car's problem was going to be an expensive one. So I took out $500 to be safe. It turned out to be much less, but it wasn't convenient to get the leftover money back into the bank right away. And so it just WENT. Since my last blog entry, I've gone through $164 in the "unaccounted for" category.

DH's boss is having a baby, and we ended up spending $56 on baby shower gifts. There was a group gift where each employee was expected to chip in $40, and then I was invited to a shower, which seemed to require an individual gift.

There's a possibility that my paycheck could actually go down this year. A new town government has come in that's decided to take away "longevity" bonuses from non-union workers. (The unionized ones would never agree to it.) That was a percentage of pay that was in every paycheck. We also don't know if we'll get much of a yearly raise or not. Usually we get the same % raise as the unionized workers, but there's no guarantee. It's possible we'd get no raise, and lose the longevity, resulting in a lower hourly rate. Keeping my fingers crossed.

On the positive side, I have not run up any debt during these little emergencies. I have two car test drives that haven't expired yet ($75), and I know of a couple of credit cards I could apply for that would give a bonus after the first purchase. It's a new month--gotta get cracking!

Well, that's the news from Lake Woebegone.

I never have. "In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the funeral home to defray the cost of X's funeral expenses."

This is was an elderly friend of my MIL's, not a homeless person or some poverty-stricken victim of violent crime who's been in the news. There were 23 surviving relatives listed, including two children and two brothers. The rest were grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Very sad, of course, that she didn't have enough at the end to pay for her own funeral expenses. But doesn't it seem rather tacky that such a large family is asking for help paying for it? I wonder how fancy a funeral it was. Too embarrassed to have a really simple funeral, but not too embarrassed to ask for money?

I never, never want to be in that position where someone has to ask for help paying for my funeral. I think I'd be embarrassed even if I were dead!

OK, here's what the bank said happened. The other person was paying their credit card bill by phone and by mistake, put in my account number instead of theirs. It's only one number different. The $19 should be returned to my account later today.

I'm assuming it was an honest mistake. OTOH, one could assume that if someone is paying $19 on a credit card by phone, it might be because they have to make the minimum payment at the last possible minute. If someone knew they didn't have enough in their own checking account, and felt desperate, I can imagine how they might try using a slightly different account number in hopes that the other account would cover the payment, if only temporarily. Then they could just say Oops.

Kind of like when people used to mail the phone company check to the electric company and tried to pass it off as an honest mistake. (I actually read that as a suggestion in a book once!)

I'm glad it's fixed, and I'm glad it was such a small amount that it didn't make other checks or debit charges of mine bounce. BUT...

I would have thought that when someone pays by electronic check, the software would look to see if the name or address and the account number go together. But apparently not. As long as there's money in the checking account, no matter whose checking account it is, the payment will go through.

People worry about debit cards--there seems like plenty of opportunity for fraud with plain old checking accounts.