My English Castle's Personal Finance Blog

Finally! A day off!

(My English Castle) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:28:25 PST

I see I haven't blogged in a month, but I've way too busy with teaching and DD back at school, and a small consulting gig. But today, except for the big pile of grading, I have no real obligations except of course, laundry, bills, etc.

But it's great to be home!

The new doggie...

Winding things up and our new addition

(My English Castle) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:49:04 PST

Got the manufacturer's rebate on the A/c today, finished up my online class, and read a bunch of freelance projects.
These checks should results in a nice deposit, and it's great to have money coming in September, when the university usually doesn't pay me until October.

But...

Today's Mission: Money!

(My English Castle) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:24:36 PST

Everyone in Wisconsin can thank me for the cool summer guaranteed by my purchase of Central Air earlier in the summer. I just found the rebate form sent by the installer and got that completed on line.

Today's mission will be to try to figure out the federal Energy Star rebate...

Credit Card Switch --again

(My English Castle) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:07:45 PST

I received yet another new credit card from Citibank because the account may be in danger of fraud from someone someplace who's managed to get access to someone's stuff. While I'm glad they're proactive, its the third new one this year--which means an hour switching over all the automatic...

Lazy Last Month of Summer

(My English Castle) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:22:16 PST

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...

Unmotivated

(My English Castle) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:07:18 PST

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,...

A little silver surprise

(My English Castle) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:16:20 PST

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 couple things up and running

(My English Castle) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:45:05 PST

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...

Summer Work

(My English Castle) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:46:49 PST

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...

Leftovers!

(My English Castle) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:06:05 PST

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

(My English Castle) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:00:51 PST

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....

Another Goal to Check off the List

(My English Castle) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:42:52 PST

Our new Central A/C was installed yesterday and I paid for it today.

We had a funny conversation with the HVAC guy about how we wanted to finance it. I told him I'd just write him a check and he about fell over.

Today's is my DH's birthday and we had a lovely dinner, he got...

Dejunking Continues

(My English Castle) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:06:48 PST

This morning I recycled three empty wine cartons, my husband's annual reports on a stock he owns that are over 10 years old, the contents of my shredder, and all those all NYT Book sections that are so hard to part with.

The vintage books I listed didn't sell on ebay, so I offered...

Cooler

(My English Castle) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:48:46 PST

It's just hit me what a funny word "cooler" is--so many meanings!

We've been thinking about installing central A/C in our house for years, and this morning, I signed the contract.

It's not that much money, and I upgraded to get the energy star model with the federal rebate. ...

Revised Approach to Extra Income

(My English Castle) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:29:29 PST

As some of you know, I teach an evening class in addition to my regular schedule at the university. I've always just thrown this money into the general fund, but I've been feeling like it just gets lost in the mix.

So here's my latest allocation strategy. It'll be divided into...

Drug Dealing (ha!)

(My English Castle) — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:40:41 PST

No, not the guy on the forum with the problem. This is legit.
I made money on illness this week. Both DH and DD had some sort of odd sinus infection. Both were prescribed antibiotics, and with the prescription coverage and the $25 gift card CVS is offering with a prescription,...

Kid's Summer Activities

(My English Castle) — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:21:31 PST

My oh my--it looks like we're going to have a hodge-podge of summer activities for our daughter. And everything seems to cost $150 for a half-day one-week session.

I'm mostly sending her to half-day sessions hoping we can fill the rest of the time with swimming, the library and...

My Love Affair with the Library

(My English Castle) — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:05:34 PST

This love affair, a longer-lasting affair than either of my marriages, began when I was just a kid. My mom had her hair done in a "beauty salon" right next to the library and while she got shampooed and set, I wallowed in the books.

I spent much of my tween and teen years on a...

online rebates

(My English Castle) — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:53:35 PST

We bought a bunch of stuff at Ace Hardware today--weed and feed and other lawn stuff mostly.
I'm reminded again how much I like the idea of an online rebate. Now true, it's better if they just mark the darn things down, but I did the rebate on their website in about one minute. ...

Dejunking for Cash

(My English Castle) — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:25:34 PST

We've had a productive day. I sold DD's Fisher Price play set on Craigslist for $75, we did tons of errands, dropped off junk at the Salvation Army, and sold a couple of books to HalfPrice that weren't worth the Amazon listing.

I'm adding the $77 to my ebay total, and I'm happy...