My English Castle's Personal Finance Blog

We all went over to the bathroom remodeler this morning to go over detailed plans with them. As I suspected, there's no way we can get an English-length (6 foot) bathtub in our 1960 house. But we spent an hour going over choices of tile, and they'll send us a bid in a few days. We had them bid both the family bath and our en-suite, but I'm not sure we can afford to do both now. It will be interesting to see their numbers. Even for our smallish bathrooms, I think it will be in the mid 20s.

DD and I hit Costco and Target to begin school supply shopping. We've done a brief inventory of last year's leftovers, so we didn't spend too much. I always keep a running list to see if I can beat the School-Pak boxes offered by the district--which I always succeed at. One year I beat their numbers by $70.

After the Costco hot dog for lunch, DD and I went to the dentist. Thankfully I still have a balance left on my flex card, so nothing out of pocket after the insurance and the flex. A month ago my kitchen sieve/strainer broke, and I was surprised to see how much they were. The OXO ones were $18, but I spotted one for sale on a local FB list for $3--which we now own. I roasted some garden zucchini and peppers to go with our black bean burgers tonight. We're trying to move from one to two meatless dinners a week, and I must admit, the dread zucchini has helped!

More accuracy checking work tonight, so I'm ahead of schedule with the project managers and editors.

Tomorrow DD and I are off to Minnesota again, the beautiful North Shore with my best friend. We're there until Monday and we're all looking forward to hikes, pie, and a visit to the Wolf Center in Ely.

I'm really enjoying these summer days. It's been a good balance of work and play.

I've received the final go-ahead from my family and department, so it looks as if I'm going to London again next year, pending enrollments. I'm very excited, and we've already started some planning.

Not a lot of financial news. I put a $12 rebate check in the bank, had a haircut, took DD to pick up her school registration, dropped off batteries and a computer mouse for recycling, and then did some grocery shopping and hit the library. Tomorrow we go to check out the bathroom remodeling bids.

The zucchini keeps coming fast and furious so tonight we had zucchini quiche. I froze some over the weekend along with peaches.

Happy to have the windows open tonight and happy to have new library books and wonderful peaches!

My day was spent making jam and chutney. We made 36 jars of peach ginger and peach and blueberry jam and another 21 jars of chutney. It was lots of fun doing it with two friends. And it was delicious!

The three big things on the to-do list for today all got done. I ordered the office carpet: Shaw's Functional in a grey called "Operative." https://shawfloors.com/flooring/carpet/details/functional-j0060/effective

I also made it to the peach truck where the growers from Georgia sell from the back of the truck, bought two crates of peaches, then into Menards for more jars (on sale). Friday I have two friends coming over to make peach jam. It should be a fun day.

The shipped package was a bit of good financial news. DH's professor gave him a bunch of things from his office as a gift including an unopened Woody Allen box set. I like Woody Allen films, but not enough to own a box set, so I sold them on Amazon trade-in for $37. I may have made more if I was willing to wait to sell them, but they're just taking up space so have been shipped already.

I'll add that to my totals when Amazon credits me. I did use the healthcare assessment Visa gift card for the carpet deposit, so it sort of seems free.

I don't like our August spending. DH's tuition, home and car insurance, back to school spending, DH's annual life insurance are all due. It's always like this, and I'm always fretting about it. I think it's time to handle these big expenses differently. We have plenty of cash to cover them, but I need to face up to not being able to "cash flow" them.

Part of it is that DH objects to the extra couple of bucks it costs to pay the household insurance in more installments, but I'm switching it over to quarterly as we do with the car insurance. I know it's a psychological thing, but I hate taking money from savings to pay for this. I could set up a separate account, but honestly, for $3-4, quarterly makes me feel much better.

Now, over to the insurance website to handle that.

The carpet store is coming today to measure my office! We're about to get a goal checked off the list!

I'm planning on using the prepaid Visa that I got for the health assessment for 1/3 of it and am hoping to convince DH to use his too.

In other thrifty news, we're having zucchini "zoodles" from the garden for tonight's dinner.

As I expected, the textbook editor was pretty upset with the supplementary writer's work. I suspect he'll be fired as it seems he reused many of last edition's questions without checking the material appeared in this edition. I'm not happy that he's so bad and will likely lose the contract, but it's really sloppy work. It probably also means another delay--just when I was hoping to get the bulk of the work done this summer.

We came home to an overgrown garden after more than a week away. The darn invasive campanulas needed a lot of attention so after church I spent two hours in the various gardens. I pulled campanula, wild carrot, sedges, and countless other things and tomorrow will try the white vinegar treatment on the driveway crack weeds. I hate weeding, just like I hate cleaning the house but love it when it's done.

I also spent a lot at Costco yesterday including a case of wine and food for yesterday's group/community dinner. We had excellent Asian food, and my Korean beef was very good, I must say.

After three hours sorting my textbook edits, I think they need to have a firm word with the supplementary material writer. I found far too many errors. I'll be eager to see what the content editor and project manager say.

More tomorrow on end-of-summer plans.

Granted this was just two things--a dress I never wore and a vintage book given to me, but I'm happy to add $26 to my sales totals.

Things I had listed but that didn't sell are now at the charity shop. No real other financial news, just enjoying the summer.

We're off on vacation for a week or so, and have given the next week's CSA produce to some friends who are really struggling. It was a good reminder of how much we have.

Yesterday was testimon(e)y to the KEEP PUSHING mindset. After six months of on- and-off arguing with my dental insurance provider about DD's root canal, we received a check for $707 yesterday. Hooray! And a $5 rebate check. And a $35 credit from Amazon on a trade-in book they apparently "lost."

Granted all of this should have happened automatically. The dental insurance should have paid in January; Amazon should've credited the book. It was a lot of time and aggravation for both me and the endodontist office, and I was on chat with Amazon for at least 25 minutes.

I'm more than excited.

I had my London de-brief meeting yesterday, and they've asked me to do the program again. I'm undecided, but leaning that way. Lots of things to discuss with the family first.

My DD is still at French camp, and I'm missing her a lot. She's my partner in crime in the summer. But I'm getting a lot done. On the way home from yesterday's meeting I dropped a big bag at Goodwill. Then I stopped to deposit checks from a friend and for the root canal reimbursement. For the life of me I can't figure out what and how they're paying. It seems the endodontist has received half the amount, and I keep getting tiny check for other portions of it. I'll wait until next week for the endo to reimburse me, but I'm not sure what else they're actually paying me for. Honestly, it's like putting tiny shards of tile together to see what kind of sculpture they form.

I've been dragging my feet on closing my Wells Fargo checking. It means moving my paycheck direct deposit and my IRA direct debit, but I moved the direct debit a while back, and since I don't get paid again until October, it seemed like the ideal time. I figured it might take 15 minutes but 90(!!) minutes later, they finished it up, and I walked out with another check to deposit in our joint checking. Check that one off. Now to fix a few other direct debits.

I also need to spend some time on the phone setting up dental and doctor appointments. And some more decluttering--and a long walk. I've also blocked off a couple hours to write next fall's teaching materials.

Our CSA box had turnips this week. Anyone have fabulous (stop laughing) turnip recipes they'd like to share?

I am home again after driving 1200+ miles to take DD and her friend to French camp. The trip taught me a few things including that my DD is pretty low maintenance. Her friend is not. My DD is used to our rules about food, stopping, buying junk, etc, and it was interesting to see their differences.

We spent $100 on Sunday's hotel, had a lovely dinner with some of my Minnesota friends at a place where kids eat free on Sundays. Again, my daughter was a star. Free breakfast the next morning saved us some cash as did the car snacks in lieu of lunch. I stayed with friends on the way back who made me an excellent dinner. So gas, hotel, and some road food was all that I spent--and I even managed to stay out of the outlet stores.

It's very quiet in the house without the kid around. I hope she's having a grand adventure.

Yesterday was sort of a wrap-up for me. I got the dishes and food all stowed from the food swap, finally finished my grades for my Bestsellers class, and unwound a bit. And we've been eating leftovers from the community meal and swap.

Today will be moving forward day, I think. We have to get DD packed for camp, all her various forms completed, editing contracts signed and scanned, and the office tackled.

There's a pending bus strike here, and either my DH will have to pay high parking prices, or I'll have to drive him to work. He's going to ask to work at home for a few days, so we'll see how that pans out.

I'm not quite sure what to do with August. DD will be done with her camps, but it can be a long month without many planned activities. I have plenty to do, but her friends are here, there, and everywhere in August. I've been thinking about a(nother) trip to MN but we'll see how the budget holds for this one.

I finally have good news about DD's January root canal. After way too many conversations with the endodontist, the insurance folks, and my HR people, it looks like the insurance folks have finally paid their half. I won't quite believe it until the check is in hand, but that will help all our accounts.

I haven't sold anything in almost a week, and am itching to get rid of more things. DD and I may take some stuff to Half Price this afternoon.

This dinner and food swap started when I was in London, and this was only my second one. Though it sounds like the whole town came, it's really a small community of friends and friends of friends.
We hosted tonight. The hosts get to pick the theme, and we picked Southern-style BBQ. One couple made pulled pork with peachy sauce, someone else made slaw, and we had potato salad, mac and cheese, and I made deviled eggs, and beans. One friend made two HUGE pies, a peach and a strawberry rhubarb. I made mint juleps, someone else made peach sangria.

We also made food to swap with a bean theme. We have squash and white bean soup, black bean burrito filling, pasta salad with green beans, cannellini and pepper bruschetta, and a warm bean salad. We had a lovely evening with tons of kids running in the yard, lots of talk and laughs. Very fun and not much work. And my daughter had so much fun she's out cold in her room with her clothes still on. Now that feels more like summer.

I'm always restless on these long summer nights. I don't want to waste them and look forward to sitting outside with a glass of wine long into the evening.

But today was too full of chores and errands for that kind of night, and I find myself up at 11 still dealing with groceries, dishes, and long lists of things to do.

We did get to the bathroom contractor's storefront today and set up an appointment for an estimate. I've got some ideas and am eager/apprehensive to see how much this will set us back.

Today was an expensive one with a Costco trip and lots of groceries. We have our community dinner and food swap here tomorrow night so I've been cooking up a storm. Better find my book and try to get some sleep before tomorrow creeps up on me.

It's actually been a productive day, but such a drag. I packed up lots of the books we sold, an ebay sale, a book given to my husband by his history professor, and (the most exciting!) two boxes of Swiffer wet-jet pads from our busted Swiffer. Everything except the professor's book and the ebay sale was sold on FB, and the other two delivered to the post office.

But most of the day was spent reading truly horrible capstone projects, most of which I failed. They have a new advisor this term, and his students are not getting good advice from him. I failed more than half his projects. There's only so much bad prose a person can handle.

DD and I did take a little trip to Target for some camp essentials for her: stronger insect spray, a new flashlight, that kind of thing as well as some fill-in groceries. That was a swift $50, even with the Red card.

I need more fun! Perhaps tomorrow?

After a dozen calls, as many chat sessions, and one very angry session with the rep in the ATT store today, my Facebook connectivity came back for about 3-4 hours tonight. It had been completely out since Wednesday. I got nothing but the runaround from ATT including customer service reps who said everything from "reboot your computer," to " unplug your modem." But of course, it was not a hardware problem, and a few of them admitted it was their problem, not the FB problem that seems to be the party line.

Now the da*n thing is out again and now it will not even load Google, much less FB. Apparently this remains a widespread problem in the Midwest.

It's one thing to have this problem; it's completely another to have such horrible customer service.

Despite several calls and chats with ATT today, we are still unable to load FB. FB says it's a u-verse issue; U-verse says it's a FB issue. Frankly, I don't care whose issue it is, I just want it fixed.

There's more news, but I'm fixated on that right now.

My FB pages have refused to load for the past two days. After running various diagnostics, I've confirmed the problem is with our ISP, the always- disappointing u-verse. The chat help said it would be another 8-12 hours at least.

Besides being very behind on messages, I'm slightly concerned about my FB selling pages, but perhaps this is a good break in the action.

First world problems indeed, especially in light of all the horror in the news today.

Long-suffering readers may remember that last year I got a summer textbook editing job, accuracy checking lots of auxiliary material. I've been on the verge of calling the editor to see if they have anything else in the works as they were very easy to work with last year. But she beat me to the punch, e-mailing me on Monday and then ironing out the details in a phone chat yesterday. It's easy, if somewhat tedious, work, and if they indeed get it ready for the summer, good for my break schedule. Last year, unfortunately, it stretched until Christmas.

In less pleasant news, my dental insurance again rejected my daughter's root canal after assuring me they'd pay. I need to contact them this afternoon to see what's up.

I have more things I'd like to pedddle on FB, but it's been down all morning, so that will have to wait.

I got my closet reorganized this weekend, and it's paid some dividends. Besides being much neater and more pleasant, I sold a shoe rack that I'd been using as a shelf in the closet, a bunch of scarves, and a shawl, as well as old shutters that have been sitting in the garage for years. That whopping total was $17, a large bag for the charity shop, and a much better closet arrangement.

Both my daughter and I had pedicures yesterday, a somewhat frivolous expense but totally mood lifting.
Now summer can officially begin. Rain, rain, go away!

White DH still in the UK, I'd planned on a leaner budget, but DD and I have been living it up: Chinese takeaway last night and breakfast out for the last day of school. Leaner budgets can wait until next week.

I did cash out $50 worth of Swagbucks last night, half to Paypal and half to Amazon as I see some book purchases in the future.

Nothing coming up this weekend but a few free kid events.

The Study Abroad folks haven't invoiced me for the March Iceland trip yet, so I've contacted them. I'd like to get it paid, and usually they also pay me something for my airfare, so perhaps that will be a wash? I still miss all of them and London a lot.

It's been raining most of the day, and it's been one of those stop/start days. Example A: I sold a basket to a woman in a nearby suburb and offered to drop it off en route to another errand. When I got there, I could hear vacuuming but no answer to my repeated bell ringing and door pounding--in the rain. So off to Walgreen's and Goodwill. All good there. Then back home for lunch, found other FB sales had been picked up and paid, messaged first woman who apologized and wanted me to come back. Ugh. Example B: But then got a message from someone I've been trying to buy a chair from for weeks. Could I come this afternoon? Ok--arranged basket drop off, then got ANOTHER message from chair woman saying she was having an allergic reaction to a bee sting and couldn't make it. Sigh. But dropped off basket, picked up a few groceries, and came home wet and cold but $9 to the good.

I have now officially cancelled chair purchase after third missed meeting, and am again in that place where I'm tired of it all. But I found some old shutters in the garage last night and will try to sell them before I slack off on other FB sales for a bit.

Example C: I've wanted to close my Wells Fargo accounts for months but was waiting for the end of my university direct deposits for the academic year. But now that the university overpaid me by $4K and I wrote them a check to repay it, I have to wait for the check to clear. And this is the university--it could be weeks. Sigh.

A bunch of went on a tour of Milwaukee's only urban creamery yesterday. They're known for their artisan cheese, and we've been meaning to go for a while. I traded a friend some FB sales for admission price, so the $3 was free for me. But I did spend $18 on cheese. Yikes. And then we went to lunch to the tune of another $20. And then DD and I went to Dairy Queen after dinner.


Hmm--fattening and expensive. But fun! I got a couple of frugality/financial planning books at the library and heard about my friends' financial woes. I'm grateful we're in a better place than them, but sure wish things would turn around for them. Everyone is working extra jobs, buying used clothes, etc, but summer is lean for teaching staff. We probably should not have gone to lunch and should have packed lunches. We've discussed that before, but haven't quite got it together yet.

Nothing spent today although I have been shopping airfares as my MN girlfriends want a autumn hiking trip. They've already booked, but I can't find anything quite cheap enough yet. I think I have some time and am crossing my fingers that fares go down not up.

I spent the morning getting the kidlet ready, going for a walk, and working on school stuff. The walk was lovely although it's been a bit sticky here. That and a load of laundry rounded off the morning.

With DH in England, I didn't want to leave DD alone all evening while I taught, so she spent the evening with a friend. Conveniently the friend's husband teaches where I do, so we drove together this afternoon. I saved a babysitter; he saved gas, and we had a fun time gabbing.

When I got home I realized I hadn't spent a dime. Isn't that lovely? I'm always tempted by the vending machines, tempted by ebay, tempted by fast food after four+ hours of teaching, but I seem to have gotten past all those lately.

Although I'm missing my DH, the child and I are having a lovely weekend, highlighted by a dinner party last night and lots of lovely leftovers today.

On Friday I sold a few more things, but still have lots of decluttering and selling to do. And tomorrow's list includes calling the insurance agent to review our rates.

Better get on that list right now!

Yep, I'm out the door running errands, delivering stuff to folks, dropping off checks, and going to Goodwill.

I listed four things on FB groups last night and two have sold. And had a fabulous e-mail from a London student who told me how I was like "la luna" in London shining on them, giving them so much to think about. I hope he didn't mean "La lunatic." But it made me almost cry.

Every day life can be so mundane; it's nice to hear from someone who appreciates things.

Adding $6 to my mundane selling list. More importantly, getting rid of extraneous junk clouding la luna's life!

I'm not quite sure what was going on with me yesterday, but all sorts of minor things just went wrong. DD and I heard a clunk yesterday morning, but I could find nothing that fell off anywhere. Later in the afternoon I went downstairs carrying too much--the bread machine and two laundry baskets, missed the bottom step and wrenched my ankle. Then I discovered what clunked--a brand new giant bottle of laundry detergent had fallen off the dryer top, split and spilled all over the floor.
After getting that cleaned up and muttering up soap dollars down the drain, I hobbled back upstairs and needed a shower to get all the soap residue off, promptly breaking off the shower head.

So--$25 for a new shower head, $20 worth of detergent gone, a slightly swollen ankle, and a really cranky self.

Thankfully my evening class went very well, DH got a new shower head, and things seem less precarious today.

In other financial news, I set up DD's Washington trip account and paid the first $99 on it.

After the Door County expenses, now comes DD's summer camp expenses. So, to keep things as much in line as possible, we're going to need some simple weeks with limited spending. We have lots of food around, and not a lot of obligations. DD and DH have been going out to Noodles or some such place on the nights I teach. It's more cash, but I feel strongly it's better for them. They spend more time in conversation rather than hurrying back to their respective screens.


DH is flying back to the UK to see his dad later this week. It's another slightly optional expense, but his 89-year-old dad is failing and they need time together.

So, as you can see, we need to hold it down. I'm always looking for ways to economize and stretch. Hit me with some new ones! This is the week to try things!

Last week a second (third?) cousin asked me to join a FB genealogical list about our shared great great grandparents in Sweden. We've never been close as we live in different parts of the country, but her parents and mine were always close. After I lost my mom several years ago, I found them on FB, and we've become closer sharing family history and other interests.

Tonight she and her sister asked if I'd be interested in traveling to Scandinavia with them next year. It had never occurred to me, but I like them a lot, and suddenly it seems like a wonderful idea. One more thing to save for!

I decluttered a bit today, sold some sandals on FB, and saved some cash by borrowing something DD needed. Frugality continues.

Most possibly exciting, except for travel, is some advice I received today about DD's root canal last January. Both dentist and endodontist told me my insurance wouldn't cover it, so we paid it all out of pocket. But after calling the dental insurance provider today, it appears they may pay more than half! They advised having the endodontist file a claim and then reimbursing me. Now I have called them and they seem puzzled about their earlier advice and have now filed a claim. It looks like we may get $400 back. I'm pretty darn excited about that too.

Lots of expenses this week including DD's camp funding, DH's car's exhaust, and our increased food budget from a week with guests.

My dear governor's refusal to take Obamacare funding has caused a budget shortfall which has meant he has again squeezed the university. We've just heard our health insurance premiums will rise as will co-pays and deductibles in 2016, so I need to schedule all sorts of medical things this year/summer. This latest bit has really increased our desire to get out of here. It's a very ugly climate at the university right now, and many of my colleagues are taking retirement bonuses which help them but will hurt our ability to deliver in many areas.

Happily (sort of), I've been offered another adjunct class in the fall which will help, but really load on the work. I need to use the summer as wisely as possible.

I held off buying anything this weekend in Door County except for some nice meals and a couple of jars of jam.

In other minor news, I sold a shirt and sweater on FB today, adding $7 to my totals. And my radishes and lettuce look very happy.