My English Castle's Personal Finance Blog

And still cabin-feverish. I had a fun day out for us all planned tomorrow driving west to see the eagles feed on the river. But now DH has a cold and I'm not sure that will happen.

I'm also sad--sad that for the first time in four years I am not bound for London on this third Thursday in January. I've heard from lots of my former students today, and we're all sad together. It doesn't bear thinking about and while it's probably for the best, it doesn't make me feel any better knowing that.

I am not happy either at the dire financial hardship of many of my friends. There's likely to be some serious downsizing at the university, and the bleak situation there coupled with politics, no London, no job for husband is making me blue.

I'm not a weepy person--at least not anymore--but I think I need a few days to myself to get my head back on straight. I just want to be quiet and maybe have some drinks with my BFs. If this continues, I may drive to MN one weekend soon and hang out.

But we remain uberly frugal. Yesterday the car tire needed a new valve, but it was our only spending and was $40. DD got another babysitting gig at church for next Monday, so she'll have some spending money soon. We ate leftovers for lunch and stuffed shells for dinner courtesy of the almost forgotten cottage cheese from the fridge and frozen spinach in the freezer. Maybe I'm a shark--I need to go forward.

I cooked and baked for about half the day yesterday. I made bean salad, quiche, two batches of granola, and two loaves of peach bread. Lots of things went from freezer to the oven. I was pretty beat after all that, but bagged up granola for gifts, wrapped up a loaf of peach bread, and finally delivered gifts to our university admin staff who make life possible. One lot of granola and a loaf of peach bread went to my struggling colleague whose classes have been cut and more awaits another.

The worst part of the day was the meeting from hell with one of my most miserable colleagues. Man alive, after a dozen years of working with her, I'm amazed I'm still standing. She makes the simplest decisions long and agonizing. Our meeting should've lasted 15 minutes and somehow she dragged it out to an hour and a half, making everyone annoyed and impatient along the way.

But honestly, I was happy to get out of the house and off to school. I like to work. I had lunch with an unemployed colleague who insisted on buying lunch with his gift card, but I had a BOGO coupon, so I had a lovely lunch for free. I did errands, went to the bank, picked up milk and got EB at CVS. My office mate bought me lefse. I'm doing pretty well. I wish I could make things go as well for everyone else. Very minimal spending after a NS Day yesterday.

Best of all? The textbook publisher finally paid me the $1000 they've owed me since September.

BTW--I'm very sick of Swagbucks but penny by penny, the cash keeps rolling in.

Sorry,NJDebbie,but there is lots of joy in Wisconsin this morning after that amazing Packer game. And we didn't even eat all the game time snacks because we were too nervous during that last quarter. But, they will be out for next Sunday's Atlanta game.

Except for the church offering, it was a NS day with new movie titles from the library and several new books--including--to my delight, the Colson Whitehead book that has received such raves. I love the library, especially now as we're being uberfrugal.

Speaking of uberfrugality, I may need to have one day with a little leeway. We're planning to head to western Wisconsin this weekend to watch the eagles feed on the river. It will be a good day for a lunch out. Maybe I can use the cash from the boot/skate sales.

Meal plan for the week is done. It's going to be a meatless Monday with a quiche for dinner--leftovers to DD's lunch this week. Taco Tuesday and spaghetti Wednesday as per usual.

We finally got the Christmas tree down, and I've chosen some unloved ornaments to go in the donation bag. I'm also making granola bags for my buddies without full teaching loads. I have lots of oats and dried fruit, so no outlays there. In other exciting plans, DH and I will clean the carpets, and I have meetings at school beginning tomorrow.

Happy MLK day! We're spending some time today to act on his words: "The time is always right to do what's right."

My most exciting news is that I sold a pair of DD's outgrown boots for $15. Does that give you an idea of how mundane life has been around here? She went to "Cocoa and Cram" at her school this morning--an exam prep session that had snacks, so I didn't feed her breakfast.

I'm off to the bank, the grocery and drug stores. Crossing my fingers that I can keep under $50, my uber-frugal goal.

DH and I had a quiet night. I'm sorting through course files and generating huge piles of recycling. We've been trying to watch "Man in the High Castle" but I've lost interest, so we switched over to "Homeland" DVDs from the library. What great acting.

We're still eating it all. Last night I made a pot of vegetable soup that has CSA veggies from the freezer, cabbage and celery root still from the CSA and assorted little bits from the veggie drawer. Not magnificent soup, but hearty. Then today I baked Rachel Ray's chocolate chip banana bread using three bananas rescued from the freezer. DD liked it, but it was too sweet for me. However, it will all get eaten.

DD also got paid for her church babysitting gig today. She's happy. I'm encouraging her to save some of it. She also babysat for them Monday night, so will look forward to that.

Oh, and I took a new photo for DH's Linked in profile. It looks pretty good. He's busily applying for more jobs now. I cashed $25 out of Swagbucks. Back to working on my other classes and finishing cleaning out my England class files.

I need to find something fun and frugal to do together. And of course, the Packers' game is Sunday.

Let's start with the good news, eh? My presentation went very well. I had dozens of people at my session and got excellent feedback. They also fed us breakfast, coffee break snacks, lunch, and more coffee break snacks. DH dropped me off so I wouldn't have to pay to park in the ramp or walk on our ice-coated sidewalks.

Now the bad news. Two of my friends got more teaching sections cut due to poor enrollments. They're going to be really pinched financially. To add insult to injury, my boss has hired a new lecturer while cutting sections for others. This is really out of line and a tremendous morale depletion. I'm fine: fully booked and fully enrolled. He certainly has the "right" to hire who he wants, but it's tremendously insulting and, I think, morally wrong. I am debating complaining to the department chair.

Hopeful news? My DH has had conversations with a potential employer, and we're hopeful he'll have an interview soon. A friend from his old firm has also dropped off his resume with another possibility. And remarkably, it was a no-spend day.

Yep, that's my blog these days. I have another couple hours of organizing my conference talk and am ruing my choice of the hour-long option rather than trying harder to find other participants and do a panel.

Guess what we ate for lunch? Leftovers! I pretty much always eat leftovers for lunch, but somehow serving them to DH makes them seem pretty mundane.

It's Wednesday which is always spaghetti night here, and we've had freezing rain. Perhaps my mood can be ascribed to not being out of the house since Sunday. But I'll be at the conference all day tomorrow. Or the mood could be blamed on it being the first January since 2012 that I haven't been headed for London. Let's not even discuss that.

No spending. Indeed nothing but working.

I spent all morning working on my upcoming conference talk. I still have lots of work to do on it, but the bulk of it is laid out. DH went to an early networking meeting and applied for a few jobs. We spent nothing and ate leftovers. I'm really boring, but I did get half my class admin stuff ready for next semester--spending hours--as usual on the details of the syllabus and learning platform. I got an e-mail offer from a textbook publisher to take a quick survey on their classroom simulations for a $10 gift card which should arrive next week. Still waiting for the Chicago seminar reimbursement and the accuracy checking money from another publisher.

I'm still cabin feverish, but it's so icy here I don't see myself going out until Thursday. It took me 10 minutes to walk to the end of the drive and back for the mail.

That's what I get for trying to do too much. But we had a lovely lunch--lasagna, bread, salad, warm sprout salad, wine, mimosas, flan, brownies, and pears. My dessert-bringing pal failed to bring dessert, so I made an orange flan, but someone else brought brownies and pears. I cooked, I cleaned, and now I want to go to bed at 8 p.m.

In the interest of eating it all, we will be eating leftovers of all of the above this week. My DH got invited out to lunch by a former colleague today. Total spending on assorted flan ingredients= 2.12. But I'm now out of eggs, so hope I can get to Saturday's shopping without buying more.

I hoped to spend only $50 this week, but I've got girlfriends coming for lunch on Monday, so today's grocery spending was $57. That included extra milk, lasagna ingredients,and everything possibly needed for the week as well as some notable bargains. We too continue to eat it all as my DH is still plowing through the bean soup for lunch while I had the last vestiges of the NY ham, and DD had leftover chicken soup. Dinner featured yet more delicious eating it up--this time the CSA veggies. The glazed CSA butternut squash (yum) had wild rice, cranberries, onions from the CSA. I subbed two aging clementines for the required OJ. We had that with pork tenderloin on the last of the CSA pears and apples. We still have lots of leftovers.

I also moved a treasure trove from the basement freezer upstairs. Honestly, except for some fresh fruit and veg, we don't need food for a good month. I'm looking forward to drawing it all down. Really, I dream of an empty downstairs freezer.

Great double couponing meant free yeast, some odd frozen cauliflower "tots" from Green Giant, Hormel lunch meat, and tortilla chips ready for tomorrow's Packer game.

Man, it's cold. Granted I grew up in Minnesota and -20 was a fairly common occurrence, but it feels cold here, and it's only -15 with the wind chill. I have several layers on and my warmest socks, but I do let the heat drop to 58 from 8 to 2 then it rises until bedtime.

I've spent much of the morning helping DH polish his resume and am now about to write him a cover letter. We have bean soup (LOTS of bean soup) and wild rice salad for lunch. The pantry clearance continues unabated.

I also signed my university contract and returned it. Yet on today's list is the insurance reimbursements, more work on my syllabi, and lots of work on my conference talk. I did manage to get out of Costco with just the milk and required smoke detectors since ours have both gone pop. But I splurged on a cup of $2 coffee with my Costco shopping buddy. I'm still under $30 in total spending since Sunday--even with the smoke detectors at $24.99. Grocery shopping is scheduled for tomorrow, and my target is $25 at the primary store (enough to activate the double coupons) and another $5-10 on the shop with the better produce. I might be able to delay that until next week.

Stay warm, folks!

All my family is home now; child sniffling on the couch, husband rooting around, dog happy that everyone is home. And it's very cold here with negative numbers for the wind chills. As directed by the Frugalwoods folks, I'm clearing out the pantry. I've got bean soup on the stove with bits of the NY ham and tomatoes and chiles from the pantry. I've made some wild rice which will be stuffed into the remaining CSA butternut squashes.
Every bit of laundry is done, and now I either/all need to face the office, the Christmas boxes, the basement, and school planning. Or escape to Costco with a friend for an hour or so. I honestly think it will do me good to get out, and I raise my right hand and promise to spend no more than $5. We need milk and spreadable butter. I spent nothing yesterday. I made my SB goal. I should go out.

Well, three days into uberfrugaldom, and so far, so good. I met university colleagues today for coffee, but brought my own to our university coffee shop which adjoins the library. Everyone brings their own food there, so it didn't seem out of place. We've had lots of bad news on enrollments, and while I appear to still have a full teaching load, many of my colleagues will be cut back to 75 percent or even less. I'll need to be a frugal evangelist to them. After doing some work, I deposited my adjunct paycheck and bought some necessary toiletries for DD with CVS extra bucks. Total outlay 17 cents, and I got $1 in Extra bucks back. Teeth cleaning was free with my dental plan, so today's spending topped out at that 17 cents. It's turning cold here tonight, so I'm watching the heating bill closely.

We are busily eating our way through the refrigerator's contents, and I've made bars for DD's lunchbox this weekdays. I wish she had a few more days off; we've enjoyed the down time. I've also been a whirling dervish decluttering and picking up. It's been good and there's so much more to do. Tomorrow I'm heading to the university to start planning spring semester and work on an upcoming conference talk.

We had a lovely NYE. Rather than sacrificing our rather modest tradition of pizza, a movie, and a jigsaw puzzle by the fireplace, we went ahead with it. We saw the Dev Patel movie, Lion, which I recommend although the more cynical among us may find it sentimental. In my current mood, I thought it was very good.

I did some bargain grocery shopping on double coupon day yesterday, and the freezer is well stocked. Lots of pasta bargains, the usual chicken breast markdowns for the dieters and some freebies.

In an unusual situation at our church, they had no volunteers for the nursery this morning, and they sent out a call for paid help. DD was interested, so she made some spending money, and I tagged along. They tried to pay me as well, but that's silly, and I refused. Through both services we had one very charming little boy who played with toy cars on the playroom rug. We came home and made pumpkin pancakes which were delicious, I must say. We've now used up the non-carryover part of our flex spending, we gave some time to church, and (!) I sold my ice skates for $12. I hate to admit it, but I think my 50+ years of skating are done. My fear of falling has overcome all the joy I used to get out of skating. I'm happy to have them out of the basement and happy to have the $12. Now to find some more crud to declutter--especially if it brings in some cash.

This has been an interesting morning. DH and I filed his first unemployment claim. I'm a little amazed at how much the state already knew about him. The form seemed to fill itself. He's updating his resume now. I've never claimed unemployment, and he found the process much easier than in the UK where unemployment is means tested.

I have more returns to do today. DD has been a great help, particularly yesterday when we returned some things to Target. She got me out of the store without buying a thing. Target is horribly tempting, but I resisted even the after-Christmas sales.

I also have $100 of flex spending that won't carry over to next year, so I'm planning on marching everyone out for a flu shot this afternoon. And I'm signing us mentally up for the Uberfrugal Month Challenge. One thing that has already struck me is lunch prep. DH is an easy person to feed; he'll eat all sorts of leftovers, but we've spent 16 years with him getting a free lunch at work every day. I see many more pots of soup and rice and beans in our lunch future.

So, today's goals are:
finish the returns
flu shots
list three things for sale

I did 2/6 returns today, and DD and I went out to lunch and to see Rogue One. I had a BOGO at Noodles and a $5 gift card from buying other gift cards for Christmas, so our lunch was free. And it was $5 Thursday at the theater, but I had a $5reward, so we had all that fun for $5. DH and I spent some time on the budget. More returns on the agenda tomorrow, and I'm going to list some things to sell on the FB lists.

My dinner group did a soup swap tonight. Seven of us and families gathered at a friend's house, made enough soup to sample and containers for everyone to take home.

I brought some wine and crudites; others brought cake, popovers, hummus and crackers. It was a lot of fun and we have enough different kinds of soups to keep us going for days. I also filed some reimbursements for my flex spending and thought about returning some Christmas gifts, but I sort of ran out of oomph. Anyone else exhausted by Christmas?

After a lovely four days in the Twin Cities for Christmas, we're home. My brother and his wife are the best. Their house is on the market so we talked about staying in a motel to keep out of their hair, but we managed well. I cut back a bit on the vast amounts of wine, champagne, and brandy I usually bring them, but I hope we were still generous enough. I made a mint grasshopper ice cream tart which was great and a spinach pear salad for Christmas Eve. Lots of Wisconsin cheese as well. We made some time yesterday to go to the Martin Luther and Art show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and then headed home.

That and some road food and a breakfast with friends meant the financial outlay was minimal, but real frugality cranks up now. We've decided to do our usual pizza and movie NY, but I've already started crockpot soup for the next few days. I see a couple days of digging out of Christmas--some returns, etc, but mostly small errands. Off to the library for some DVDs and books!

Hello SA-ers!

It's time for me to return to scrupulous savings since two weeks ago my DH got his notice. His company has outsourced 100 of their local contractor jobs to India, and they've undergone massive belt-tightening. It's time for us to do the same. Tomorrow is his last day, and prospects are neither merry nor bright.

On balance, with some juggling and budgeting we can manage on my income for a while without withdrawing money from savings. We are mortgage-free, and I've just paid the property taxes. We don't have a car payment either, but our nasty scenario would be to have to replace one of our aging cars.

Our health insurance is from my job, so that's covered. We are trying to figure out unemployment since neither of us has ever filed for it. I have a full teaching load for spring (Hallelujah!) unlike some of my colleagues. I just finished my adjunct class, so they still owe me for a month there. Another adjunct class begins in March. I've already started to drive DD and DH crazy turning down the heat, but that's going to be the drill. Christmas will proceed as usual, but it's going to be leaner but still lovely. And yeah, I have Swagbucks videos running in the background. :-)

Any advice is welcome.

For the last week I have found dimes on campus every day I've been there. I have no idea where they're coming from, and DD and I laughed very hard at the results of a Google search about finding dimes. People have some wacky ideas about finding change.

I got a surprise check for $150 as a result of a textbook focus group I'd completely forgotten about.

My evening class has ended and another starts next week. I'll be teaching Bestsellers again and look forward to talking about books rather than just grammar and style.

I'm buried in school work. It's always this way. Ugh.

My aunt turned 99 over the weekend. My dad's sisters are both well into their 90s, and though not without health issues, doing remarkably well.

I don't know much else. My head is in school work, laundry, school work, cooking, school work, and then some school work. Not amusing musings at all.

Ah, yes, it has been over a month since I've posted. Between DD's 5:45 alarm and a full load of classes, I'm pretty beat when I get home. Things are as busy as usual at the university, and overall, my students seem fine. I've managed to finish up the summer's freelance work, keep teaching my evening class, and get a very few things done.

I could easily spend $8/ week on coffee, especially between classes. I've been holding my office hours in the library coffee shop which only adds to the temptation, so last night I unearthed an old electric kettle for my university office. My office mate and I have decided to do either instant coffee or tea there. We both feel a little broke.

Our state budget woes continue, and while I have a full load scheduled for spring semester, she doesn't. Last fall I sort of fell into the habit of stopping at the grocery on the way home to fill in for the week and pick up lunch. But that's off my list too--either lunch from home or lunch at home almost every day. Thankfully with two classes each day beginning at 8am I can usually go home--unless there's meetings or other appointments.

I've transferred some cash that was sitting in Paypal into my online savings. Most of the cash was from Swagbucks which I let run in the background while I'm grading papers. I spent nothing today and picked up the CSA veggies--some of which went into the spinach, broccoli, red onion, red pepper quiche. We also roasted some carrots with thyme--delicious. I feel very boring, but seem to be on track.

Yep, it's the dull roar of classes to be taught very soon. But coupled with that comes the fun of some new students, and the fabulous nearing of a regular paycheck. I have, of course, been teaching since June, but this is the "real" job.

Did I tell y'all this? My DH has decided to enroll part time for a master's in history. He'll still work full time, and I'm not sure he'll ever do anything with that degree, but it is a joy to him. Of course, grad classes are $1000 more than undergrad classes, so while I've been planning for this, it seems to have just occurred to him. He asked me this morning what budget arrangements would have to be made. I think he could cut down on buying books and wine, but wisely asked him to try to brainstorm a bit to see what he comes up with.

We all went out for pizza and to see Ghostbusters last night. It was at the cheap movies, I had a coupon for pizza, and while it was sort of "meh," DD enjoyed it a lot. I think we're becoming quite conscious that we'll likely only have her living with us full time for a four more years, so we better treasure that time.

In other monetary news, I seem to again have a fridge full of veggies, so am off to make salad and soup for the week soon. Did I also tell you that my trivia team won second in the state last month? How excited was i? We split $750 between the four of us. I think I should send NPR another donation for teaching me about the Gotthard tunnel that moved us into second place!

To deal with DH's upcoming pay cut, I have been nosing around for more bargains. Here's what I've done, starting with the minor.
A large pot of soup for lunches and tonight's dinner successfully using some wilting veggies.
Less expensive back-to-school shopping than anticipated. DD is fine with much of what she has. We can buy more to supplement as the school year progresses.
A Costco trip that filled in some gaps
A cheap Hotwire motel for next week's Minneapolis trip.
and my large triumph--a truly bargain flight for DH's trip to his nephew's wedding in October. He's going alone as mid-semester trips are impossible for DD and me. I'd been looking for weeks for a good fare between Chicago and Heathrow and struggling to find anything in the strict timeframe under $1000. We'd used consolidators before without any problems, and since he's flying alone, I thought, "why not?" The ticket has gone through, he's flying AA for under $600. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. If you have a consolidator horror story, please don't tell me. Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

And on the income side, my grades are in for my summer class, learning platform and assignments ready for tonight's new eight-week class, freelance project bill ready to be submitted. I still have loads of freelance work, but it can wait a few days.

DD and I are off to visit my brother and fam in MN tomorrow. Hanging out at the lake seems like a good way to wind up the summer.

My DH's employer called yesterday and asked for a meeting. He's an IT contractor, so meetings are rarely good as they know he'll be off the clock to meet. The company where he's been working is facing their usual sporadic financial challenges, and they want him to take a $1/hr pay cut. There is really no choice, and frankly, the $1 didn't sound awful--but it does add up to almost $2000 a year.

At the dog's physical therapy appt this morning, I realized again how much we pay for her anti-inflamatory. I did a quick check and found I can buy it online for $55 cheaper.

Now for a place to find that other $1945! I don't think I can work more. My full time 4/4 teaching load is plenty, and I'll have an adjunct class until mid-December. I'll try to crunch the grocery budget a bit.

The CSA really keeps us fed through the summer. We had the most brilliant panzanella salad last night using some drying up Italian bread and a load of veggies. Maybe we'll try a credit card offer or two?

I spent yesterday with our Center for Intl Education. They've received the bad news that our academic department is no longer willing to pay faculty salaries when they teach studies abroad. This comes from all the budget cuts we've been faced with at the university. So, they'll need to raise costs to students, even though we teach courses in our subject area abroad, just as we would at home.

I spent some time brainstorming with them about how to cut costs. The drop in the exchange rate will help for now. But mostly I came away sad--sad that I can't go again for another fours years, sad that fewer students will be able to afford this, sad at the devaluing of university education into some sort of trade school.

I also came away determined to really stockpile cash and cut back--smarter spending on everything. My overflowing closets and cupboards are testimony to impulse buying. I've become so much better, but we still have so much excess.

I was having lunch with some friends last week. They're all hard-working teachers, all married with kids. One of the usual moans from all of us is our broke summers. As you may recall, I'm teaching one class, doing some freelance editing, and trying to recover from spending on funeral airfare, my summer trip to Canada, Tree removal, and dog surgery and PT.

The hoarder of the bunch has had major surgery this summer which has brought her issues again to everyone's attention. You might also remember that friends raised (gulp) over 5K for her. Then it came to light that an employee was embezzling from her husband's business to the tune of $25,000. Now the money from the fundraising is gone to help the husband's business, and she is swamped by medical bills.

In the midst of this lunch, another friend--who rolls her eyes at my carefulness with money-- said they we should all go to the hoarder's and help--me especially--because I'm "good with money." Happily for me, I was busy the day they went to her house to help. Two of them spent four hours there. Two hours of it was opening unopened mail. They had to argue about throwing out all the return envelopes since so many of the bills were second and third notices for the same procedures. There were two giant garbage bags full of mail and one room they weren't allowed in. People brought them gifts when she was in the hospital and they're all piled in the entry way.

Is there a point here? I'm not sure, but I needed to vent to someone who is not my child or husband. I have plenty of chaos in my life--not everything is always under control, but I really can't understand how people can live like that. It makes my head want to explode, and perhaps the Swedish work ethic part of me finds their constant (years' worth) need of all sorts of help really trying.

After yesterday's spending, it was nice to have a no-spend day. It was also CSA day so the bounty just rolled in. After weeks with the A/C on, the temps have dropped dramatically, so we have the windows open and are really enjoying it. Those CSA veggies actually made their way into minestrone instead of the usual huge salad.

I'm counting the days until payday. It's been a long stretch without any income from me!

We started out the day with some more vet spending. The round of vaccinations, heart worm treatment, etc ran a cool $225. I came home to a $200 rebate from our health insurance for our CSA membership which just made it into the checking before we headed to the graveyard of no-spending: Target. DD needed a new phone, and we slightly upgraded her current pre-paid phone. It's mostly from her birthday cash, and she's v excited. As current phones go, it was cheap--well under $100. I'm a bit shocked at how many of her friends have $500 phones. But she understands our attitude towards things like that, and never complains.
While there, we also bought the graphing calculator required by her school which was on sale for $89.

On the way home we stopped at grocery as it's double coupon day, and I needed a few things for dinner. Our local grocery chain has been purchased by Kroger, and it appears they're eliminating all their own brand organics. I was WAY too excited to find most of those items tucked away around the store for 75% off. Oh my word, I got $4 granola for 75 cents, cans of chili beans for 35 cents, organic applesauce for 75 cents--it was pure delight. I loaded up the cart. We checked all the expiration dates and bought a few extra things for food shelf donations. We spend $65 and the register tape (never completely fair) said we saved $98.

It's been an interesting day; I'm sure enjoying having DD home. We spent part of the evening watching the convention and the rest reading her required book for Honors English in the fall.

Many of us are thinking about you. You ok?