My English Castle's Personal Finance Blog

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 feel very behind in everything from class planning to laundry to house cleaning and errands. I owe half a dozen people e-mails. I need an hour with a cup of coffee and a list.

Since I don't teach on Fridays, I thought I'd have the day to catch up. But last night I remembered I'm meeting with London students followed by a two-hour meeting.

And I got some sad news about a dear friend who is in the hospital now with cervical cancer. We used to be thick as thieve, like sisters really, We had a rough split over money lent, but a mutual friend who lives hours and hours away says she wants to see me. And I so want to see her. So either before or after all these meetings, I'll go to the hospital.

If you're the praying kind, keep her in your prayers.

Now, there's a nice problem to have. But the turkey bones have monopolized the fridge, and though I cooked half of them down yesterday, I still have another pot's worth to go. I used to make a mean turkey creole soup years ago, and I think I'll try it again. I bought some okra today and have the rest of the ingredients.

As ceejay, ccf, and cb said, it's cold here in the Midwest. A nice pot of soup will be perfect for tomorrow.

Apparently the full fridge didn't mean that I haven't been eating much. I lumbered onto the scale this morning and it wasn't very pleasant. So it'll be a low-cal soup. I'm still too congested to get on the treadmill, but perhaps by Thursday.

There's just about a month left of the semester and frankly, I'm wondering how we're going to get through it all. I could use a week off to spruce things up around here and rest up. Despite the cold, it's the point in the term where I have to show up.

A bit of grocery spending today, but nothing else.

My DH was home Friday with a cold that stretched all weekend,; no one felt great but it was nice to be home together. He had it worse than me, but I woke up this morning thinking I was too sick to go to school. But two ibuprofen later, and I got through the whole day, just a little slower than usual.

Because of the rain/snow mix this morning, I parked in the ramp at school, something I rarely do, but between having a cold and the weather, I think it was worth it. The wind was howling off the lake, and I was glad to stay warm and dry.

Staying in most of the weekend, we didn't spend much. We got take-out Saturday night; nothing like spicy hot and sour soup for a cold.

I also volunteered to roast two turkeys for the local shelter's Thanksgiving meal. I did one yesterday, carved it, and then froze the meat and pan juices to bring to church later. It made the house smell so good. I'm making soup from the bones now.

Only a little bit of snow lingers here, but it sure is cold.

I wager some of my retirement funds that many of you saw the PBS Frontline special, "The Retirement Gamble" when it first aired last spring or maybe when it was rebroadcast last week. Here's a link to it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/the-retirement-gamble-facing-us-all/


It got me mad (as usual) and got me thinking about my own mutual fund holdings and how badly I've probably been stung by the fees. I just did a cost comparison from one of my American Century holdings with a Vanguard Index fund. Now granted, this is Vanguard's site, but if it's near accurate, American Century, whose fees are ranked "below average" is costing me a lot of money. A lot of money.

I'm wondering about how I sweat the small stuff, like the price of coffee, yet these fees, which seem to have little if any relation to performance, are costing me tens of thousands. It sort of makes me sick.

I suppose I'm the only ding-dong here who isn't in all low-expense ratio funds?

I'm finally thinking I'm over the worst of the semester. I have the rest of it planned out, and the best part is now that my evening class is over, I have some more time.

I went to New Orleans from Wednesday-Saturday to do a conference presentation. It went well, and the best part was New Orleans itself. I haven't been there in years, and I had such fun. The university will pay for about half my trip, but I heard great presentations, ate fabulous (and free!) food, and had at least a couple of hours for a wander around. A bunch of folks I was in grad school with were there, and some other former colleagues, so it was fun to go out with them. I didn't spend too much, tried to economize where I could, and got some work done at the airports, on the planes, and in odd snatches of time. So, I'm caught up enough and feel refreshed.

I came home to a registered letter from my adjunct employer which made me a bit anxious. But it turned out to be good news. Their IRS audit revealed they owed me a 403b contribution. Because I work there only sporadically, I don't have a retirement account with them, but apparently I worked enough in the previous year to open an account with an initial $800 deposit made by them. Isn't that peachy?

I hope to clear things up around here this week, completely catch up on work, and clean the house. Maybe I can even turn into Tinkerbell or lose that dread 20 lbs.?

Let's start with the biggest anxiety reliever. DH's contract runs into at least the end of 2013. They sort of casually told him this on Monday after we'd been fretting at the impending end-of-October date. And since they have more money in 2014, it'll likely be extended again. Pheww.

Yesterday a colleague and I had a meeting with our dean about salaries. Our department chair is nice but useless and, as he says" doesn't want to spend HIS capital" arguing for us. Thanks a bunch. Three additional colleagues and I all missed a $2000 salary increase because we "went up" for our tenure equivalency early. The salary bump came six months later, and we were not eligible for it. The university so rarely moves on any of these issues, no one even whimpered publicly. No one except for my colleague who was madder than hell. As it turns out, the dean see our point that it penalizes seniority rather than rewarding it and is pushing our case. Since it was all going so swimmingly, I asked if they could do something about me being on half salary while in London. She was genuinely shocked about that and promised investigation there as well.

So, nothing definite out of it yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Cross fingers, please.

Then I narrowly dodged a $65 immunization last night. The school wants 11-year-olds to have a booster tdap vaccine right now. I figured we'd save the doctor visit and went to Walgreen's, but they don't honor my insurance for "medical" vaccines, whatever that means. They were happy to do it for $65, and there were other parents there all grumbling about it. I called our doctor this morning and she'll have it in the office on Tuesday morning-no fee or co-pay. I'm thrilled.

No other big news. DD and I went to Noodles last night for dinner as I had a coupon for a free meal. I'm shocked at how many people and their kids eat dinner out all the time. We spent under $6 for both of us with my birthday coupon, but the couple behind us who confided that Thursday is their Noodles Night spent $54 for themselves and two kids. Eeek.

I'm happy to say it's been a couple days since I've spent a cent. I had a raft of meetings this morning, preceded by the dentist. The dentist bills me, and as a bonus, I found out my favorite dental hygienist also does dog sitting. If my brother can't take the dog while we're in England, she will.

But I spent nothing on student meetings at the coffee shop, even though they were ordering lattes, I restrained myself. I thought about stopping to pick up a late lunch, but came home and ate a salad.

DH has sent off a resume to another department. The skill set certainly matches his. No definite word on end dates or the possibility of the other contract job.

Now to figure out dinner. Pasta with ?

After a very busy week, I decided I needed some wiggle room.
My advanced writers had a workshop today rather than a regular class. I helped those who needed help with their upcoming projects, and those who just needed time took our 90 minutes and worked. It was lovely, and it was pretty funny too.

I held drop-in hours at the library and was joined by students from each class (!), some taking early quizzes, some turning in papers and asking questions, and other talking about projects. And three London students came by. Turns out the dean from our Fine Arts program was at the table across from me. He came by and said, "Man, you have a lot going on. I heard you talking about everything from apostrophe use, to Photoshop edits, to immigration rules, to the London subways." I sometimes envy people who have a more refined focus, but it was a nice variety.

I have a busy rest of the week too--lots of meetings, lots of extra stuff, but I'm determined to give myself a little more time this weekend. I've turned a couple of individual assignments into group drafts to be discussed. They need extra practice, and as much as they hate collaborative work, I think learning to work together is an important and difficult skill.

It's been a "treading water" week, but we're a week from the semester's halfway point. Nothing really financial to report. I had to buy coffee to keep going. I was frustrated with my DD's inability to bring her various hoodies and jackets home from her locker. She complains it's too warm during these October afternoons for a jacket, yet every morning she's freezing. My stopgap solution? I paid her a dime for every one she brought home. Bribery? Yep.
But her locker was jamming because she's such a hoarding little squirrel. So I'm out a dollar on that one.

Looking at this post, I can't decide if I have overload or abundance.

We had a nice weekend, but I am working way too much. Except for a few breaks, I spent all of yesterday (until after midnight) grading papers. DH made dinner, but this is a month full of various commitments including teaching Sunday school, and delivering a conference paper. I seem to be always behind.

But still, it's ok. We had a lot of fun at the "Black Hole Bash" sponsored by our Astronomy department. DD brought a friend who actually stumped two well-known astronomers with her question. I met lots of interesting graduate students from all over the world and learned that we really have a fabulous astronomy department.

I will miss the paycheck when my Monday night adjunct teaching ends, but I am really looking forward to having some more time.

Hooray! It looks like I have my numbers for London. I needed 8-10, and we should have 11 or 12, plus me! My iffy one is waiting on a recommendation from a TA. Don't get me started on TAs; I've had several run-ins with one that I'm mentoring. Ah, to be 25 and so damn sure of yourself. But wrong.

I couldn't sleep much last night; way behind in my own work, the house, and now London events. But I don't have to do much for the next couple of weeks except hold a couple of meetings. Still, my head is spinning.

Our chimney rebuild started today, but it's raining so hard, they gave up and went home. It'll be a busy busy weekend here. And hopefully a cheap one too.

Today's excitement was non-financial in nature. My second class watched a low-speed chase today. About 10am there was a huge racket, and some kid ran halfway into my classroom carrying something. He ran right back out again, followed by 3 or 4 guys shouting at him. Apparently he'd nabbed something from one of the Business School labs, and it was the IT guys chasing him. Almost immediately the fire door alarm went off, and we all ran to the window to see him sprinting across the street followed by some very slow university cops.

After that my huge drugstore savings and double couponing seemed a bit less exciting.

When DH's boss went into a meeting today, he asked if he could have a copy of DH's CV to circulate as they still suspect they'll run out of work for him. Sure enough, someone said they could perhaps use him until the end of the year. That would give us a bit more room, and perhaps another longer-term contract will come up between now and then. So, we're a bit more hopeful.

But we traced out yet another austerity budget and found that we can live, very carefully, on what I make. And that without my adjunct job at night. We couldn't do it long term, as there's no room for car repairs, house repairs, or much of anything besides property taxes, utilities, food, and other necessities. But it is doable in the short term.

As I was cleaning up the fall garden today, I found some of last spring's spinach and radish seeds. It may be late for them, but I put a row of each in and some lettuce. It's a long shot, but the seeds were just sitting there. Why not, eh?

The federal government may be a disaster, but thankfully the state government appears to have deposited my university paycheck, my first paycheck since June.

Underlying money anxiety continues here. DH's job appears increasingly shaky;many of the contractors have been let go, and some have been asked to go part time.
My adjunct evening job appears to be fine, although their enrollments are down. I usually have three or four classes a year there, plus my capstone project piecework, but it may only be two classes next year. I may have to scout around for more work come next spring.

Unless DH's job settles down, I think we'll likely abandon some of my sidebar goals. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

I have loads to do. Paper grading is looming, and I've just finished commenting on 27 pretty awful assignments.

Maybe it's the thought of DH's job instability, the upcoming conference talk, or even (yeah!) London that makes me want to hunker down, clean the house, make soup, and prepare. Maybe it's fall?

I'll know by next week whether I'll have enough London students to go this year. But I'm cautiously optimistic. We took quite a financial hit last year as I was on half salary while there, ironically working at least as hard as at home. But I've volunteered to do an online version of one of my regular offerings in addition to the London classes. Since I'm teaching that class now, I've been trying to compose the online class for spring term at the same time. I'll regret not having the luxury of just focusing on London, but if I get everything up and operating, it should be less painful.

So, the dishwasher is humming as is the washer. Next step might be the slow cooker.

An off topic addendum: I hate banks. The $10K that I moved to Chase for their $150 bonus has earned me a whooping 14 cents in 90 days. And reading about their trading scandals and executive pay have not further endeared them to me. As soon as the bonus hits, the cash is going into the credit union.

Wow, we're almost at the end of Week 4 of the semester. That's 1/4 of the way through. I'm thrilled to report I have managed again to learn everyone's names. I live in fear of the term when I won't be able to learn 100 new names.

London recruiting seems to be going well, but is keeping me plenty busy. DD seems to be handling middle school much better this year, and although my house looks a tornado hit it, I feel on top of most other things.

Our only potentially bad news is word of another end of project for DH. He may be out of work as soon as October 1. He's put the word out all over the company, so we're hoping for the best.

I'm giving a conference talk in New Orleans at the end of the month with a colleague. I was hoping the three of us could go, but with the job issues and a few other complications, it looks like I might have the time to myself.

DD and I have been down for days with some kind of nasty flu-like cold. It hit me like a tons of bricks on Monday, but I was determined to push through it. Man, that was a stupid idea. By Monday night I was miserable. On Tuesday I tried to go to school, but left after my office hours, and DD came home after 30 minutes at school. Last night she slept 14 hours, and I cancelled my classes today and switched all the assignments and discussions on line. I am better now, but I've never had a mere cold hit me like that. Yeesh.

We spent nothing for days. I suspect DH will have it tomorrow. Everyone blames the weather, but that makes no sense to me.

I'm going to school tomorrow as I'm sick of me in sweats and a tee shirt. Keep your fingers crossed for my London enrollments. We seem a bit shaky to me.

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!

What might may been a fairly minor, but destructive, skirmish today turned into a victory.

My class was rolling right along, plenty of participation, some jokes, lots of student involvement--except for the gentleman in the top right-hand corner of the room who was obviously (to me) texting with his phone on his lap.

Last year, I called a student out about the phone issue, and we immediately squared off. It created a tension that lasted far too long. Today, I had a better idea. I ask them to read my "Classroom Policies and Procedures" document with the syllabus, but I suspect many do not. As the student's texting continued, at a suitable pause, I decided this might be the optimum time to review those policies.

I projected the policies, read them aloud, and emphasized that a phone infraction counted as an absence, and detailed the absence penalties. Facing the screen rather than the students as I read, I could hear a rustle of a backpack unzipping and the phone being jammed into the bag. I assured them if this infraction happened today, I was giving them a free pass, but next time, the rules apply.

Every single question I asked for the rest of the class, the guilty party has his hand up, ready to respond.

An ally, not an enemy. Everyone's happy.

Except for two breaks yesterday, I taught from 8am until 10pm. Everything went very well, but I'm glad I only have five weeks left of my evening class. What a grind.

Especially when it's a long day like that, I tend to go on auto pilot, making sure students are engaged and getting the information, but not probably as open to their emotional reactions. Last night, my confused student who couldn't find Pride and Prejudice and seems addicted to her phone talked to me after class. She wanted to let me know she'd be late next week as she's having wisdom teeth pulled. Would you go to class after having teeth pulled? I tried to reassure her a bit, but oddly, for someone who usually appears very tough, she broke down in tears and started telling me how scared she was to have her teeth pulled. The emotional angst of first weeks just adds to the exhaustion.

Off to a London meeting this morning before my class. These are busy busy weeks.

Now that school's in session, I think lots of my time will be spent course planning for my new class. While it's mostly seniors, their levels of preparation are widely varied, and I can see the class will need some fine tuning from my original plan.

So, while DD was at a birthday party I spent a few hours plotting the class work and homework for next week.

Spending was confined to a pretty darn frugal grocery store trip. We were very happy to see hours of rain today. We certainly needed it.

One note of hilarity from my evening "open enrollment college" job: Two weeks ago I assigned 50 pages of _Pride and Prejudice._ Tonight a student e-mailed me to tell me she couldn't find the book anywhere. Regular readers of my tales of woe may remember this student being chastised for her cell phone habits during class. I sent her a link to the 162 copies in our county library, assuring her at least one must be available.

We're all dragging around here after the first week of school. Does everybody get worn out like this?

But I had a cheap and very nice day. Next week is my birthday and a friend took me out for lunch at my favorite tapas spot. While she paid for lunch, I have a loyalty card there, and have now earned a $25 bonus.

On the other cheapskate front, we got a free rotisserie chicken at the grocery store today with a coupon as well as a free Bird's Eye Voila meal. We won both in the supermarket's latest inane game. But free food is good and we had the chicken for dinner.

Now, back to reading my students' introduction assignments. Looks like I have some real corkers this semester.

We had a great time at the Study Abroad Fair today, and there was indeed lunch. Four of my former students stopped by, and we filled a sheet up with folks who are interested in this spring's trip.

I was on my feet from 8-2 and boy, am I tired. Hoping to find some great down time this weekend. Not much financial news, but we are successfully eating through most of the fridge and freezer.

It's been a crazy first week back at school. All my classes are full, I'm mentoring new instructors, and both DH and DD are back at school too.

Tomorrow should be fun. It's our Study Abroad Fair and last year's Londoners have promised to drop in. I'm very excited to see them and recruit more for this spring. I'll be there all day, and I seem to remember they bring us lunch. At least I hope so!

It's been so busy that it's been a very low-spending week. Long may it continue.

With a bit over a month to go until my regular paycheck, and with major expenses still looming, I'm calling a halt to summer spending. Our budget is still reeling from the painting, the washer, the brake repair, and the still-to-come chimney expense.

We've paid my DH's fall tuition, and he's delighted to be a returning p-t student. We'll still have to pay for his books, but I know all the tricks for cheap textbooks.

DD's back-to-school shopping is done. If the weather doesn't get any cooler, she can just wear a swimsuit every day. We dropped off some things in her locker yesterday, and it was at least 90 degrees in her school.

I have nothing to buy for back-to-school fun, except tonight's haircut and color. We're going to meet with some prospective London students this afternoon, but we're packing a lunch. We have another meeting tomorrow and will follow the same drill.


Once I get my fall materials squared away, I'll list some things on ebay. In minor joy, my "Shop to Earn" motel stays credited on Swagbucks today.

While my evening tutoring gig is over, my new evening class started last night. I was slated for a class of seven, but only had five bodies in the room. One of those bodies was so attached to her phone that I predict I will hurl it against the wall by the end of the eight-week term. Three times last night I told her to put it away. Yes, these are college students.

The staff there is trying VERY hard to get me to do another tutoring gig a couple nights a week in addition to my class there. Yet with the regular university starting up, I really feel that I can't. My DD struggles with homework completion, and two nights a week is too much during the school year. And I can't get any of my university colleagues to take it either. It's not that we don't need the cash; we all do. But fall teaching is hard going. No one has time for an "extra" job, yet in the spring and summer, we all need the work.

Although it's very hot here, I'm finally getting that fall feeling.

Sure of imminent budget disaster, we embarked on a shoe buying venture today. First, the foot measuring. DD has gone from a Girls' 3 to an adult 6 1/2 over the summer which explains the fit of her Tevas.

My predictions were correct as we left Infamous Footwear $230 poorer than when we entered. Yet that staggering total includes Clarks, already half price, PE shoes, and Bear Traps in a size up. We used every trick in the book: BOGO half off, coupons, loyalty cards, codes, and every other shenanigan I could pull. I did ask if I could stack shoes in the back for a couple hours for another 10%, but to no avail.

Cinderella's mom also got a pair of acceptable work shoes and a deeply discounted pair of summer wedges since I have had no new shoes this year.

So we got the Shoe Blues but alotta sole.

I dared have DD's feet measured today at Infamous Footwear. She has gone from a children's 3 to an adult 6 1/2 which explains something about the fit of her Tevas. We spent (gulp) $230 on shoes using coupons, their BOGO 1/2 off, and all sort of other shenanigans.

But she had to have a couple of pairs of ordinary shoes, and although that total is staggering, it does include two pairs of Clarks that were already half price before the other deals. Then PE shoes, a size 7 pair of Bear Traps, a pair of work shoes for me, and deeply discounted wedges since I have bought no new shoes this summer and was feeling terribly neglected.

But still. I guess I got the blues and plenty of sole.

My summer school term is over, and I've made it through the eight weeks of tutoring a bit richer. But being away from home two nights a week doesn't sit right with any of us. DH is weary of it, and DD misses me, so I've turned down tutoring next term, but will begin a new class on Monday night.

The happy dance is slightly smaller because I discovered a completely plagiarized paper amongst my students' work. Not a chance of it being an overlooked failure to cite, but man, sometimes they are really dumb. After eight weeks of listening to this guy talk, did he really think I'd believe he wrote sentences with vocabulary so far above his usual spoken range including words like "exigency" and phrases like "gross inequities"? So I'm irritated and he will fail.

My happier news? Two days on the treadmill and I've rediscovered how happy exercise makes me. Not a penny spent today either.

We seem to be having one of those spells when at least one member of our household isn't sleeping properly. I was up till 3am last night, tossing and turning. DH had several nights like that as did DD. I have no idea why. But we managed to get DD all registered for school this morning to the tune of $103 in fees and another $100 in lunch money.

My budget is almost as much of a shambles as our sleeping lately. Back-to School expenses come the same month as our household insurance and DH's life insurance. If only I had coupons and a Red Card for those.

Off to drown my woes in half price Baskin Robbins. Ignore my weight loss goal on the sidebar.