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.

We've been back and forth to my family's hometown three weekends out of the last four. Let's see, at 360 each way times 6, we've driven over 2100 miles. They were all good reasons: A birthday party for my mom, followed by mom breaking her hip, followed by a very sad funeral for another dear one. But I don't want to set foot in the car again for a while, at least for the other hour before I have to head to school.

Besides all the gas, we spent on snacks, meals, and hotels. We brought snacks, pricelined hotels, but still with that and some overdue clothing purchases, it's been a very expensive month.

While I was away, some of my ebay items sold. I'll update my totals tomorrow.
After I get out of the car!

We're back from a weekend away. All in all, it wasn't THAT expensive, considering we hosted a birthday party for 25 for my Mom's birthday and had a couple of meals out.

But another contractor from DH's job just got laid off, and the situation there continues dire.

In the meantime, my ebay listings all sold, contributing $36.03 to this month's ebay total; now I just have to make up for missing March! And a nice thrifty dinner soup is next on the agenda.

Last weekend we booked a couple days in a downtown Chicago hotel for $54/night complete with a fridge, pool, and great location right off State Street. I'm grumbling about nothaving a "real" spring break this year, but although this is no Orlando, it'll be nice to get away for a few days.

I used a great site to help me decide on the Hotwire Hotel offerings. It's called betterbidding.com. They helped me identify the hotel by the amenities offered before I bought it. I highly recommend them.

So we're off to Chi-town armed with snacks, beer (hey--maybe this is like my students' break!), wine, and the membership card from our science museum to get us in free to several Chicago museums.

My frugal self solemnly swears to come back and list stuff on ebay and balance my checking account. And try to figure out how to help those ailing retirement accounts.

I have become compulsive on saving on the NYC hotel stay. My hotel has dropped to $112/night with breakfast, so I'm sticking with it.

I did try a couple of priceline bids for $85, but with breakfast, a steam room, and a cappuccino machine, I'm staying put.
I've also decided NOT to buy a guidebook, but use the current one at the library.

I'm getting excited to go! We're doing the usual round of museums, shopping, but also a jazz club and the Metropolitan Opera.

First, the Ebay good news. An item I'd previously listed sold this morning for $14.05, so I'm adding that to my total.

I decided against walking a half mile in the -10 windchill this morning, but chose the cheaper metered parking by the university, rather than the underground. I figured I saved $2 doing that, plus my epidermis remains intact.

Now on to my compulsion: I'm visiting NYC next week with some friends. I started out at a nice Manhattan hotel for $149, but two weeks ago found a comparable one with breakfast for $133. The rates dropped again on quikbook, so I canceled and rebooked it at $123, which includes breakfast. The hotel website says they guarantee the cheapest prices, so I asked them to match or beat quikbook's rate, which they refused. Nice, huh?

So now the folks monitoring the hotels at betterbidding.com are getting better hotels for under $100 through hotwire and priceline. I'm not sure whether I should just leave well enough alone, or shop some more. My friends are starting to think I'm compulsive, but????

Advice? Or any frugal advice for NYC?

We're back from my conference in Tahoe, and we had a fabulous time. We didn't spend a lot and enjoyed the conference while still making time for the beautiful sights.

But of course, as usual, something goes wrong while we're gone. Our five-year-old GE Spacemaker microwave (which got panned on lots of websites) started making a racket, indicating, we think, that the fan is shot. Finally this morning it shut down from overheating. DH has managed to take it off the wall, but I suspect we'll need a professional repairman.

Oh well--I can still close my eyes and see those beautiful yellow leaves, smell the pine air, and see the lake and the mountains.

We're back from a few days in upper Michigan and Mackinac Island. I'm happy to report that I used all of last year's postcards, and we saved a few bucks by bringing water,and other beverages with us in our softside cooler to the hotel. But I've got to remember to pack a corkscrew and bottle opener regularly!

I can tell we don't eat out much by my reaction to restaurant prices. Man oh man, have things really gone up that much?
$10 sandwiches and $5 beers are a bit too much for me.

We had a great time though--I love the lake and it's so pretty there. DD rode along on the bike and the children's program at Fort Mackinac was splendid.

But now--alas--back to reality with meeting and the semester all starting this week. Time to ship the Amazon sales and the ebay sales.
Time to formulate my semester. Time to be a grown-up again.

I haven't blogged in a long time, so time to get that and my finances back together.

We're back from a too short trip to Florida and enmeshed in another snowstorm!

I cannot believe this winter.
We had another 11" of snow so far today, and more is on the way.
I guess we're saving gas by not going out of town for Easter, so I'd better venture out for Easter groceries tomorrow.

We did pretty well not spending too much in Florida, especially considering Orlando seems to be a big spendfest--especially at Disney and downtown Disney. At no other place in the world would I even consider spending $4 on a ballpoint pen! But our condo was great and having the kitchen and pool made meals easy and relaxing. We loved every minute of it.

I thought I'd leave it up to all of you to determine a decent metaphor for this winter.

I have the February grumpies again. The Child is ill, so DH and I have been tag-teaming her care. I had to go teach this morning, but came home early, so he could head off to work. Half my students have this same kind of bronchial crud that the Child has.

But the only thing I spend money on lately is parking. It's too cold to walk 6 blocks and then have to pay for frostbite treatment!

I spent the weekend visiting my mom and brought her lots of treats and supplies.
I flew for free with my NWA airmiles, and abstained from the airport food. The plastic-wrapped sandwiches were nearly $7!
Yikes! Someone should do an article on airport food prices. The captive audience thing has gone too far, especially with the no-liquid rule. I usually bring an empty water bottle with me to refill, and boy was I glad. Bottled water was $2.50.
That delicious combo of water and a day-old sandwich would've set me back $10 with the sales tax, Outrageous!

and trying very hard to figure out a way to get out of Tundra-land for spring break.
I was hoping for somewhere warm and nice, preferrably Disneyworld for the sake of the young'un (thanks Disney Steve for the fab rental advice), but even with all my plotting, with 3 days worth of Disney tickets, we're scraping close to $2000.

I just don't see that happening when I stare my other goals in the face. I think I need to get my head around that, but I'm such a stubborn brat that I've spent most of the day plugging in air miles, travel vouchers and everything else I can think of to make it happen.


Perhaps we should settle for a long weekend in Chicago at a nice hotel with a pool for the child? A pricelined cheap but fabulous one? Perhaps I should grow up?