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Archive for July, 2009

Lazy Last Month of Summer

July 31st, 2009 at 09:22 pm

School starts a month from tomorrow, and I'm determined to pack more fun in. Tonight we're having a picnic followed by a free planetarium show at the university.

I'm trying to find loads of fun free things and end the summer with great memories and enough cash left over for our basement remodeling.

I sold a book today so am adding $3.99 to my ebay challenge total. Will I ever get caught up again?

Unmotivated

July 29th, 2009 at 04:07 pm

Maybe it's that lazy summer feeling, but I feel tremendously unmotivated about saving money lately. It's not that we've been spending wildly, I just don't feel like paying much attention to the things I'm normally so vigilant about--a couple bucks at the grocers, Walgreen's rebates, best deals on school supplies.

I don't know if I should try to motivate myself with some sort of goal, or just laze around with another library book until September...

A little silver surprise

July 22nd, 2009 at 03:16 am

The hamburger I was thawing for tacos today turned out to be two frozen NY strip steaks.
Not our usual Tuesday night fare, but a not-unpleasant surprise.

Our library was filled to overflowing today as they had the coolest kids' program with naturalist David Stokes. Who knew that a bald guy with frogs on his head could make me laugh so much? A lovely free afternoon's entertainment.

I sold a book today at half.com for $54 so will add that to the challenge. After a long hiatus, maybe I can make things up!

A couple things up and running

July 20th, 2009 at 05:45 am

Well, I think I've got everything uploaded and ready to roll for Week 1 of my online class which starts officially in 15 minutes.


And I made a nice little chunk of change from leading the couples' book club which will go right into my Italy Fund.

Lots to do this week including finding a hotel for the upcoming wedding trip and scouting out a couple more basement contractors.

Summer Work

July 17th, 2009 at 02:46 am

I've been working hard setting up my online class that starts Monday. It'll be an interesting experiment, and I signed the contract today. The university is paying me exactly what they'd pay me for a regular class during the normal term, but it'll be condensed into four weeks.

I deposited $300 for a textbook review and some rebate checks today. We're getting basement remodeling bids now.

Only really frugal thing I've done lately is carefully slowly shopping for school supplies for DD. My goal is to complete her list for 25% of what the "fast packs" at school charge.

Leftovers!

July 13th, 2009 at 05:06 pm

We had a fun baby shower last night for friends, and now I've got leftovers galore-- everything from half-full bottles of wine to pesto salad and caprese and chocolate tart.

C'mon over for lunch or we'll be eating this all week!

Home Again

July 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am

We're home after almost three weeks in the UK. It was brilliant; the best weather we've ever had there for such a long stretch. We saw family and friends and did tons of great stuff from Charleston Farmhouse to Ben Franklin's House.

We did have a couple financial successes there. The nasty car rental folks tried to charge us 135 pounds for alleged "damage", but after complaining to the manager, it was all refunded. And I lost my digital camera on the car ferry, but it was returned! I can't say we pinched pennies (or pence) there, but we had a great great ime.

Most of the spending there went on DH's British credit card, but I'm home now spending for a friend's baby shower I'm having on Sunday and DD's birthday.

We've started getting bids on the basement remodeling, so that'll be interesting. The key question for us is whether to get a gas fireplace down there or not.

Frugality will return next week, for now I'm in party-planning mode.