I sold some kid's clothes over the last week via a FB group, and today saw someone wanting to buy iron patio chairs. We replaced our patio chairs a couple years ago and have exactly the chairs she's seeking gathering dust in the garage. I'm going to inspect them tomorrow, and hopefully have them out the door by the end of the week.

More decluttering was done in the office and master bath. I listed a couple books on Amazon, but my ebay items failed to sell. I also have a box of postcards (gees, maybe I am a hoarder) that a co-worker's daughter would like, so I hope to get them out the door soon too.

We've just received the information about DD's school trip to Washington DC next year. It's a groaning $1200+, and of course, all her friends are going. So--in a burst of inspiration, we're doing the 52-week savings plan which will fund it nicely. There are also fundraisers along the way, but if we have overage, she can use it for spending money.

And today was a NS day!

Over the weekend DH and I spent some serious time talking about if we should move to the UK. We both really long for it, and both waver a lot. He's going back in June to see his dad, and will get some ideas about jobs. Small exploratory steps are in order as we start to think more.

But no matter what, I need to set some goals. Today's goal is to clean my home office. It's pure awfulness, filled with leftover tax information, items to sell, lesson plans, and lots of crud. Lots of crud.

Following on the heels of the office cleaning and before our Brit friends arrive on 19 May, I'm going to declutter or sell 10 things a day.

I won't count myself done for the day yet, but the Easter Seals dude has just picked up a bag of clothes, and I evacuated a tub of ricotta with a sell-by date in February. DH never cleans the fridge while I'm gone. Another ancient jar of pickled beets also left the building. Let's say I have seven more to go today.

Please hold me accountable so I don't lapse back into wallowing in NW3 homesickness.

More goals to follow.

I've sold two more things on the Kidscycle page today for $7. In a slightly larger drip, I've read a capstone project, reworked my syllabus, and am halfway through _Wild_ which I'm enjoying more than I thought I would.

About to start keeping track of my sales in the sidebar!

While I was in London, a friend here signed me up for a FB selling group list. They sell kids' stuff and home things locally in our Northshore area.

I've decided to give it a shot as we always have too many things. Since Tuesday I've listed six things, sold three, and have now listed another two on ebay. I love the system. You just leave it on your front steps, and people leave $ in an envelope. Perhaps not the most secure thing, but ok if people want to pick things up in a certain time frame.

Even better is you can list things you're looking for. I needed cheap copies of several books I'm using in my upcoming Bestsellers class--and while the library has them, it's SO much easier to have a personal copy you can mark up. I tried Amazon, but even $1 copies are $5 after shipping, and because these are not academic texts, publishers don't provide review copies. So yesterday I gave it a try on the FB list, and someone sold me a brand-new copy of _Wild_ for $2. In hardback! I'm still looking for Unbroken and Ruby,but I'm really trying to keep a lid on spending for a bit.

On the earning front, I did the taxes just in time and am happy to report we're getting a refund. And I read two capstone projects for more cash.

And look! I've gone through the whole blog post without mentioning London more than twice. It is NOT indicative of how I feel, but never mind.

Our university had its Benefits Fair yesterday. I'm not sure what's up with that title; there's never a dunk tank or a corn dog or a merry-go-round, just a series of tables staffed by unlucky vendors.

It always makes me laugh because although we employ people of all ages from 18-80 or so, everyone at the BF is over 40. Always. And virtually everyone was talking about and seeking out dental insurance. My 50- percent coverage is as good as it gets; I'll just have to put more in flex if I suspect another year like this one. I always pick up the freebies, but they're not like they used to be. I did pick up some dental floss, a stress ball, half a dozen pens, a calendar, a pencil sharpener, and some other odds and ends.

The best news was that my very good health insurance is now offering an annual $150 gift card for taking their health screening every year. We're in!

In other assorted news, I've finished one of my free lance accuracy checking jobs. I await payment.

It's been a couple of flurried weeks between the weekend trip to Minneapolis for my nephew's wedding, three weeks of the new semester, my department chair deserting us for the loftier climes of the Deans' offices, and all the usual household and child raising issues. Plus the London recruiting.

I won't even rehash my many administrative issues with the university; let's just say they have a very hard time leaving well enough alone. I'm over my justifiable outrage about a couple of things, but not a couple others.

It was my birthday last weekend, and two years ago I started a new tradition which I really like. With some of the money inherited from my mom, I invite a number of my lovely women colleagues to go out for dinner. We order decent wine, good food, and two weeks before any one gets their first paycheck for the academic year, we relax, talk, and laugh a lot. It's pure pleasure for me, and a break from all the headaches and austerity we often face together. My mom would certainly approve. Her women friends meant the world to her. That was last Saturday. Sunday DH and DD presented me with a cake and some little gifties. All in all, a very nice weekend.

I'm still slogging away at a freelance textbook editing project. I don't have much nice to say about how so much of this work is outsourced and the result on the quality of the work. But I am looking forward to the cash.

Staying true to my pledge to sell some of the mounting piles of stuff, I've sold a textbook for $49 and a pair of DD's outgrown rainboots for $4.

Lots of work ahead this weekend--both prep and household duties but have decided to play trivia with a colleague this afternoon. I hardly ever get to see him, so this should be fun. We are founts of useless knowledge.

The cute new shoes have arrived. I'm tickled.

Other than admiring the shoes, I'm spending the weekend mired in the freelance project accuracy checking. The material I'm checking is a disaster. It seems like it was written far too quickly, and I'm giving it a fairly scathing critique.

We're also in the process of moving books off our big set of bookcases to ready the room for the new carpet on Monday. I hope to sort through and divest some, but I'm fairly sure only mine will be sorted. As snafu knows, my DH will never surrender a book.

Onward!

Excitement doubles here as I got another ebay item listed and it has plenty of bids.

In further accomplishments, I got lots of laundry done, we're almost packed for our getaway, and I opened a Vanguard Roth last night which will be the home for some of my older mutual funds. The fees on those older funds are just too high, and I really like the way Vanguard does business.

We're excited to see my MN family,especially my SIL--and the bride-to-be. Great to get out of here for a bit too. I'm getting stale. My daughter put it best last night, "Every couple of months, I like to go on a trip." I've been home since April. Gotta go.

I wonder if anyone except Midwesterners use that phrase, Up North" to designate a particular place. In MN it meant places north of the Twin Cities--Brainerd, Alex, Duluth, and everywhere in between. Here in Cheeseland it means Rhinelander, Minoqua, and all of those parts of the state.

I spent a big chunk of yesterday searching for a getaway spot for us now that we're not heading to "our" lake. I found three that would take the dog too, and quickly narrowed it to the mid-range option. They've also knocked 10 percent off because we'll be staying midweek. Now I'm trying to budget meals. It has a kitchen, but we won't want to eat every meal in. I guess I'm figuring between $50 and $75 a day for the three of us. That will give us the opportunity to have some great local food, but not blow the budget further. Does that sound reasonable?

Frugality abounded (sort of) yesterday. I'm on the waiting list for the new Robert Galbraith mystery (aka JK Rowling)at the library, but I think I'm #367. I saw it yesterday marked down at Half Price Books, and had another 40% off coupon, so relented. I'll sell it back when I'm done. DD escaped without purchasing anything, but got a $5 reward in their summer reading program. She'll save that for later.

We spent nothing else, ate from the fridge and freezer, and started gathering trip essentials. I mailed my ebay sale, transferred money from checking to savings, and found a few more potential ebay sales.

In larger news, the university seems to have money available for online course development. My boss offered me a chunk of change to work on converting a class I already teach into a more viable online offering. Things are never done there until they're done, so we're cautiously optimistic.

I've listed two items on ebay thanks to Creditcardfree's inspiration. I'll aim for one more tonight. I suspect I have 12-18 things around here that would sell and I'd be glad to be rid of.

Let the challenge begin!

I got paid for my adjunct class yesterday and read a few more capstone projects.

We too had the bad Midwest storms Monday night. As I was teaching the first session of my new class, our lights flickered several times then went out. We're in an interior classroom, and it was pitch black. Within 15 minutes we got the word that it would likely be hours before power was restored, and our administrator sent us home.

Today I met with our Study Abroad office about next year's London program. Based on the increasing costs there, they're planning on increasing my stipend. It will raise student costs a bit, but the higher rents and strong pound really eat into the stipend.

Looking forward to having my DH home for the holiday weekend. I believe today was a no-spend day too!

On Sunday I bought a few things for DD's upcoming birthday celebration and was significantly overcharged at both Walgreen's and Michael's. I caught the Walgreen's error before we left the store, but ended up returning to Michael's to collect the $15 they overcharged. A further reminder to myself to check those receipts all the time.

I hesitate to call the teeny amounts I've found for my bathroom budget snowflakes. They are more like teeny drips, an apt description for such a rainy odd day.

I did a bit of shopping over the weekend, and actually did quite well with coupons. DD has been very interested in, of all things, tortoises, so we took her to see some at a local pet shop. Interestingly, their patio was FULL of giant tortoises returned after their former owner didn't realize how big they get. Some were huge, too big for DH to lift. But we enjoyed watching them.

Besides the usual groceries and Claritin purchases, we got "Monuments Men" from Redbox. Any one else see it? I thought the idea behind the story was fabulous, but the writing just didn't do it justice. Still, it was worth the $1.20. We also had lots of fun at the library where I got the JK Rowling mystery written under her pen name, Robert Galbraith. The story is set in London, and all my favorite places are referenced again and again. I'm halfway through and enjoying it.

DD went to a sleepover Saturday, and DH and I had an impromptu anniversary dinner as we weren't expecting to go out. We had a lovely time. Going through the stack of papers he left piled in the guest room, I found a four-month old check which I deposited. I'm not sure they'll honor it, but I figured it was worth a shot. I'll credit it to the bathroom fund if it clears. It's a refund from the dental insurance, so cross your fingers.

Yesterday I returned some sandals I didn't need, but bought some others for DD. Still, it was $50 credited to the Mastercard. I also succeeded (ha) in spending Kohl's cash on tee-shirts and summer shorts for DD. She's growing so fast we seem to need new clothes every season. But amazingly, Kohl's took two coupons and the Kohl's cash, saving a lot.

In other boring drippy news, I sold a book for $8 on Amazon, and listed several things on ebay, one of which has a bid. The week clears after my class tonight, so will get flowers and veggies planted then.

With five days left here, I've started to sort, pitch, and pack. Since we're going on to the cottage rental from here, I don't feel pressure to get rid of everything, but do need to sort out all my teaching materials. Too bad I have so many books. And my winter coat. And rain boots.

I've already made a donation pile, but I do need to be ruthless with other stuff. Again this year I have a student who refuses to deal with British change. He had a huge Ziploc bag with him Thursday and asked me if I'd deal with it. Uhm, he's 21. I sent him to the change machine at Tesco. My colleague said to him, "Not much of a problem solver, are you?" I had to turn away so he couldn't see me laughing.

Now my absolute wonder at the continued escalation of London property prices. Neighborhoods that I wouldn't venture into after dark ten years ago are now far out of my budget's range. The latest thing I read said prices here have gone up, are you ready for this, 18 percent THIS YEAR. It's absolutely ridiculous, and I'm not sure if I hope it's a bubble or am afraid it's a bubble. Either way, it's difficult on many people. But I'm hooked on the property shows and love to look at the decorating. Great stuff to grade by.

And I'm nowhere near caught up. DH and I are still coughing, the wind is howling here, and it's almost Monday.

But I do feel like things are in perspective a bit. I spent almost three hours with my friend in the hospital on Friday afternoon, and it was so good to see her. I'm going to go either tomorrow or Tuesday again. What a time she's had.

On a slightly hilarious note, I thought the storm had passed this afternoon, so headed out to Target. After filling the cart and all sorts of bags, I checked out and headed to the car--in a gale force wind with horizontal sleet. I was soaked by the time I got to the car, thought I'd thrown all the bags in, and was about to park the cart in the cart corral when it blew right out of my hands and about 20 yards into the empty parking lot. There was no way I was going to chase it, so headed home where I found one of my bags must've remained in the cart.

I called Target, but they admitted no one had gone out into the storm to get the carts. But best of all, they said to bring in my receipt and get the things I'd left behind. Really? Amazing. I'll try that tomorrow after school.

I think all I've bought in the past three days is some yogurt for DD and two cups of iced coffee at school.
It's just too busy for much else.

Another full day of teaching today with little prep or grading done. I had that iced coffee with a prospective London student. I think we have 15 now that have started the applications.

Tonight we attended the middle school (or Muggle school as we call it) parents' night. I'm always happy to hear other people's kids lose as many assignments, spend as much on lunch, and are chronic dawdlers like mine. But I'm not sure I needed 160 minutes there. We got nothing else done tonight. Yikes.

In further financial news, I sold a book for $90 and saved a mint at CVS. Their stooopid coupon machine wouldn't print, so the cashier gave me double off. Isn't that nice? I paid for ALL of my purchases with coupons and extra bucks. Such thrills!

I've just contacted Swagbucks about some of the content issues on their pages. It seems to have gone from bad to worse, and I think they need to do some audience analysis to determine what sort of content should be on their site. It's really bad. I'd hate to stop, but I will if it doesn't improve.

How do the rest of you SB users feel about this?

We had huge downpours today which slowed down my errand list. Yet DD and I had our traditional Friday lunch out. We alternate choices, and today was hers: Culvers.

We stopped at Office Max to get a few school supplies, including most of their specials. She needs a new calculator this year which they had for $15.99. Our next stop was the ever-tempting Target where we got more school supplies, a cute jean jacket for her, and a few grocery items. A big shout out here for DD who spotted the identical calculator at Target for $6 less. Plus, of course, the savings with the Red Card.

I used several good Target coupons and got a $5 gift card as well as returning some party items from last week. All in all, good savings, good shopping.

I'm reading an older Kate Atkinson novel which I also like. This is part of the Jackson Brodie detective series, and it's a good summer read.

We spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 for the weekend party. I didn't think it would be that much, but we seem to have lots of wine left over and DH was given lots of wine as well.

The only spending other than food, drink, and paper goods was on some flowers for the house and big beverage jars for the outdoor bar. We've eaten leftover food for the past couple days, and don't have much left. All in all, not too bad.

On the selling front, I sold something on ebay for $5 and a book for $50. The biggest triumph from the entire party prep was the dejunking. We still have the garage to do, but the rest of the house is MUCH improved.

Besides class and study abroad planning, I'd like to spend the next five or six weeks relaxing, reading, and financial planning. To that end, DD and I went to the library today for a few more books. We spend a lovely afternoon just lazing about and reading.

My super-decluttering powers continued yesterday as I found that a local Goodwill has drive-through drop-off. They were pleased with the aquarium (me too!) and the converter boxes. I am SO pleased to be rid of another big bag of stuff. I have more outgrown clothes to give to a friend at school tonight too.

However, more junk was procured at Target yesterday, albeit useful junk. A distant Target had all their 4th of July stuff half off. So why did I buy $20 worth of that? We're having a combined birthday party for DD and (long-suffering) DH this weekend with an American/British theme. Fortunately for me, all the red and blue cups, plates, tablecloths etc were half off. I'd already bought some, so the full-price ones will be returned, but pleased as can be that they're cheaper now.

A bit concerned that as I age (rapidly, this week) I'm taking on my mother's obsession with garbage pick-up. After my class last night, I was on the curb at 11 hauling stuff out. Pre-party or post-decluttering nerves? Not sure, but at least it's out.

I ordered some things from Kohl's last week--summer shorts, pjs etc. Pleased as punch because I got Swagbucks, free shipping, and a promo code, I like everything we received. But also in the package was an swimsuit we didn't order for an 18-month old. I wasn't billed for it, and it wasn't on the packing slip, but the packer must've put it in the box with our things.
I phoned Kohl's who said to either keep it or return it next time I'm in the store. Yet I know, like Target, it's hard to escape from Kohl's without buying anything. I had two alternate strategies: donate it to the charity shop since I don't know anyone suitable for this swimsuit or list it on ebay.

Hmm--what to do? Should it just go back to Kohl's?

I've been telling DH all week that we couldn't turn on the air con until we completely cleaned the furnace room where it lives. This wacky reasoning arises from several sources. First, sometimes the air drainage tube sweats and leaks a bit, leaving damp spots under the hose. I didn't want anything in there damaged.

Second, and frankly my real reason, that room is a mess. When I was in London, DH "put away" the Christmas stuff--meaning he took it out of the main floor of the house and dumped it in the furnace room. It was such a mess, I've had a hard time convincing myself to deal with it and really wanted his help. I promised it would only take the two of us an hour. After 2 1/2 hours, it was terrific. Lots of stuff dumped, more stuff already at the charity shop, many things just sorted out.

That almost made up for my evening with my soon-to-depart friends which was so sad that we all went home early. But the basement was an accomplishment. We have another room to sort out there, but that will be this week. It's supposed to be a hot one, and I think I'll actually enjoy being down there.

A low spend day--just my sad dinner.

I seem to be up to my ears in some jobs, tasks, and errands. This is NOT going to be the week where I lounge on the sofa and read. Lots of garden cleanup remains to be done, plenty of home fix-up jobs, and all the errands seem to be piling up.

I chatted with the bank teller yesterday about changing our joint account. Because DH is now officially over 50, we can get the same free checking with a free safety deposit box and some other misc perks. We had chatted about a safety deposit box anyway, so I suspect we'll change over. I need to get more potting soil, mulch, and spend a couple of hours in the garden.

Part of this is piling up because DH is still so tired from work. He comes home, eats, and falls asleep. I could really use a couple of hours with him at full force every evening to go over the painting and chimney bids with me, consider the bank and credit union options, and dejunk his closet. Maybe the week will go better? I think I mentioned in ceejay's comments that he saw his name pop up in an email during a presentation yesterday. He's worried about job stability yet again. Lots of stress on him, so perhaps I'll just make the decisions and plunge forward myself.

Not a stellar day, by any stretch. But a cheap one. DH very busy at work and worked at home till after 11. My evening class has dwindled to three tonight, none of them talkers. DD had a great day at camp.

I did again take coffee to my class shaving a big 75cents off my spending. The vending machine coffee is awful anyway.

Only sizeable financial news is very good news. The Study Abroad organization has cut me a check to cover last year's airfare. Now that is GOOD news. I read some capstone projects that will net me over $100. i guess the day wasn't so bad after all!

I finally took a BIG load of stuff to the charity shop today, and mailed the DVD sale. And now I'm at my tutoring gig and there's not a student in sight. So me and the laptop are doing Swagbucks for $44/hour.

But still, I'd rather be home. Tomorrow should be fun. I'm taking DD and two friends to lunch, then we're heading to the local library for a free movie. Her friends are so cute and fun.

It's a warm, hazy, humid day here. I'll admit to being lazy, but the after effects of a 4 and 1/2 hour evening class always do that to me. The bad news is that I'm subbing for a colleague tonight too, so I expect a lazy day again tomorrow.

But I've made some progress. Several more of my small ebay auctions are selling, and I've listed more of DD's outgrown DVDs. The laundry is on the line. A rebate is in the mail.

Thank you all for indulging my England wistfulness. DH and I have committed to a complete financial inventory over the weekend to give us a better idea of where we're at and where we're going.

We got our first chimney bid. I sort of estimated it would be in the $3000-$3500 range. It was $4265. Gulp.
No, that doesn't include reinstalling the flashing. Then there's the exterior painting which really needs doing. And DH's dad is not doing well, and I'd like him to go visit. All this is pretty stomach churning.

All in all, no matter how I look at it, we're nearing $10K in expenses.


So? What to do? Well, I'm not sure. I can raise a couple thousand with my summer teaching, and another $750 (pre-tax) with the tutoring. I've volunteered to take someone else's tutoring hours next week (twice) and last night another instructor was looking for coverage for his speech class. That will help a bit more although I was planning on that for DH's birthday.

I think I need to declutter and sell some more for another couple hundred. And I guess, sigh, that means the EF for the rest.


The second chimney bidder can't come until mid-June at the earliest. But I'll call him back and get some appt figured out.

What makes this worse is the cancellation of that summer class. That cash would have paid for the darn chimney. Grrr.

I got the blue screen of death this afternoon, but managed to extricate my PC from it. I honestly think it has something to do with shockwave or some of those video players. They seem to slow everything up.
But I'm running a full virus scan and defragging tonight.

I cashed out of one of my survey companies--American Consumer Opinion yesterday for $11, and will add that to my sales totals. The only other productive work today was reading a capstone project and some very bad student papers. But we took another long walk in attempts to stave off middle-age spread.

Lots of rain last night helped the new plantings. Sounds like a cool week here, and I'm hoping to get a lot done before school ends for DD in 10 days.

We had an expensive trip to IL yesterday. Our IPass needed to be replaced in IL, and we needed to get DD a new desk. We bought her one at IKEA. I wish I could say we saved a lot on it, but we did get a free lunch for all of us with the purchase. So maybe we saved $30? Or not.

DH spend most of the evening putting the thing together, and it's very nice. I can actually imagine her having it for years to come.

I'm pricing books for my scholarly list. I sold one of them for $50, so am happy to have it go to someone who will use it, and happy to get these off my shelf!
I hope the bulk of the rest of them go too.

The decluttering continues more fast and furious than I expected. The Turbotax software I listed sold within hours as did a book. That adds another $16 to the May totals. And we took another bag to Half-Price Books for $8.

And now for the big push. I spent a couple hours Friday night inventorying some of my old books. Many of them seemed not really necessary, especially if it meant hauling them all down to my university office. I belong to a sort-of scholarly discussion list, and I decided to see if any of my fellow list members were interested in them.

Man alive, I had no idea. I think I'll be able to sell 20 or more to them. Amazing. It's doubly nice since many of those same list members were so helpful in my work.

Some of this was prompted by our discussions the past week about potentially moving back to the UK. It's certainly not imminent, but now back on the radar.

Just got the news that my summer class was cancelled for low enrollment. Classes across campus were cut, so I don't feel singled out; we just have summer enrollment problems. Students need to work.
Unfortunately, that was, by far, the biggest income source of the summer, so some cutbacks will have to happen.

But in happier news, I'm so glad I listed my ebay items. The total sales were just about $50, so I'll add that to my $15 from the HalfPrice Sales for this month.

Encouraged, as always, by CCF, I did some extra Swagbucks activities and donated the Swagbucks to the Red Cross.

Now to declutter and find more items to sell!