My English Castle's Personal Finance Blog

After a long chat with DH last night, we've decided to sell the lake house to my brother. I'd like to keep a big chunk of the money intact, but I think we will pay off the mortgage and do some things around the house I've been planning. I'm going to hold off on the second half of the windows, the fireplace refacing, the new carpets, and the bathroom remodeling. We need to fund that out of our regular savings over the next year.

But that said, we'll pay the mortgage (wow),get my rugs rebound, and recover the chair that needs it. My biggest indulgence will be a cleaning service a couple of times a month. I really hate to clean, but so love a clean house. And it will really be necessary when I go to England and DH is fending for himself.

So, I feel better about it. Last night's dream featured my mom --and I honestly think she was giving me her approval.

I had many stragglers taking their final exams last night in my evening class. The class officially ends at 10, but the security guard kicked us out at 10:40.
These students really struggle with their writing, and many of them come to school after working all day, so I appreciate them really concentrating on the exam.

But with getting home so late, DH was already asleep and we didn't have time to talk over selling my parents' lake house. It's been spinning in my mind what we could and should do--we'd certainly pay off our mortgage first thing, and probably spend a bit on repairs around here. My 25-year-old wool rugs need rebinding and cleaning, and we have a chair badly in need of reupholstering.

But I guess I'd like to bank the rest. Just paying off our mortgage would save us about $600/month, and we could split that into retirement savings and savings for a UK property. And retirement--and DD's college savings.

I guess it's a good problem to have. I thank you all for your input yesterday. I think I need to sit down with friends and think about what my parents would want and their many gifts to me.

My brother and I jointly own my mom's lake house. We had it appraised after she died, but I haven't been there much. My brother goes often as it's only a couple hour drive for them, but for us, it's almost 8 hours.

My brother, bless him, is a peach. He's fair and business-like, and just called to see if I want to sell my half to him. It would be a nice chunk of change, and we'll almost certainly do, but I guess I still feel some grief about it. We'd still be welcome there, and I think it's not that I really want to still own it, it's that I just wish I could turn back time and have my parents still there.

The money would be great. We could pay off the mortgage, and then start banking that money for home improvements and retirement savings. I wish I wasn't so emotional about it. Bleah.

We had a workshop at the university today, and besides being very good--albeit depressing about the state of instructional staff-- had excellent food.

This may not seem remarkable to most, but we hardly ever get food. Virtually every seminar I've been to in 15 years asks us to bring our lunch. But this was funded by a grant--so there was a terrific yogurt bar this morning and great salads. But man, I heard horror stories about people STILL not knowing what they're teaching in two weeks, about the business school cutting contracts to avoid paying benefits, about the total lack of institutional support for huge sections of the school. Yet--a very good lunch.

We finished up the school supply shopping yesterday, and bought lots of groceries. The bulk of the school supply shopping was at Target (with that 5% Redcard saving), with a few specials picked up at other places. DH and I were commenting on how many more supplies seem to be required every year. I suspect it's the impact of school budget cuts.

I've got a workshop at the university tomorrow, so today is my weekly lunch date with DD. We're headed to the art museum in a bit and will have lunch there overlooking the lake. I'm am so proud of what a geek she has become. We spent an hour last night watching a PBS special on rats in areas of India. When it was over, she went to the atlas to look up that part of India, and we talked through the differing regional ethnicities in India. One of our friends is from that region of northern India, and so we had a special interest.

I've turned down all offers of activities this weekend, and want to spend the weekend here in the garden and cleaning in prep for school. Man, I feel like my mom.

I've had some small but fun triumphs these past few days. The hotel in Minneapolis had free newspapers, complete with the coupon sections, and my next door neighbors at the hotel threw theirs out, so I've ended up with three coupon sections. Sunday evening when I got to the airport, there was little choice at the smaller terminal, but I had a couple of bags of Sun Chips and some hummus from a giveaway on the downtown corners. It was the perfect snack; better than the $9 sandwiches and free. Plus they gave me a handful of coupons for the hummus, which when doubled will make it almost free.

I sold an old textbook over the weekend and a light fixture that didn't sell at the yard sale. Add $70 to my clutter sales!

Today DD and I visited the local botanical gardens. She had a free pass from the summer reading program, and I saved $1 with my AAA membership. I am strangely pleased with all of these!

I spent a lovely weekend in Minneapolis with my dearest Minnesota grrrrlfriends. I've known one of them since second grade, and the other one is probably my best friend, so it was a terrific weekend. Usually airfares from MKE to MSP run about $250-300, but I got a great $96 airfare and a hotwire rate on a 4-star hotel that ran less than that.

It was pure luxury to stay in a downtown hotel, go walking by places where I worked for years, places that all held so much history and so many memories for me. And to top all that off, we had a terrific time. The weather Friday and Saturday was terrific. We had cocktails, walked, and chatted on Friday afternoon--then dinner. Saturday we walked to Loring Park, ate a great breakfast at Loring Kitchen, went to the sculpture garden, then got the fun rental public bikes and rode through downtown to the Stone Arch Bridge and St Anthony Main. We shopped a little in the late afternoon, and I got some great bargains.

Saturday night we heard terrific jazz and had a great meal at the Dakota, followed by breakfast yesterday, a wonderful free day at the Minneapolis Art Museum including a Rembrandt exhibit and tour and terrific woven works at the Swedish Institute. So much fun!

I'm not sure I calmed my tummy with that eating and drinking, but it sure was fun.

To top off my glorious weekend, I came home to an e-mail this morning asking if I wanted to teach an overload section this fall. Indeed I do! That'll help with the deficit around here and enable us to cross some items off our lists.

Good all around!

I'm certainly better today although my meals have been limited to yogurt and a piece of bread. But I think I'd better continue the yogurt diet into tomorrow as I'm very burpy. Yuck.

But much has been accomplished despite being in somewhat slow motion. I've written letters of recommendation for students, counseled friends, paid bills, transferred cash, returned and received library books, donated a box of books to the library, and planned the upcoming weekend in Minnesota. Heck, I even dropped off four-year-past-its-expiration Tylenol PM at the police station. Why on earth do they need to see an ID for that? And why do they need to summon a police officer to take it? Anyway, it's gone from the medicine cabinet and not in the watershed.

But Minnesota here I come--right back where I started from! Looking forward to a weekend of fun with my pals. DH and DD are holding down the homefront in my absence.

Sunday is my blogoversary! I've learned so much from so many of you--and laughed so much at so many stories. Thanks for all of it!

Of the past 24 hours, I've spent 23 either in bed or on the sofa. Most of my university friends have got hit with a Noro-like virus, and while I've been super queasy and achy, they got it much worse with vomiting and all the rest. So hoping I dodged it.


Nothing else to report. I'm hoping I can get some minor work done today.

Not a bad day, just slow going. Lots of rushing around to try to get the dog to the groomer, get the stupid U-verse box to stop screeching, plan for class, touch up my hair--boring errands etc.

Our state fair is happening directly across the street from my evening class, so the college blocked the parking lot. I wasn't sure I could squeeze my car through, so I moved the barricade perhaps two inches--and the security guy came out of his car--lurking in the air conditioning with the motor running--and started yelling at me. I showed him my parking pass. but he started in on me claiming I had plenty of room and if I'd been careful, I wouldn't have to move the barricade. I got really angry and started yelling back at him. Not my finest moment. I offered to move the barricade back, and we got into it again. "Stupid women drivers...Don't you touch that barricade; it's my job. " I was one second away from some very unpleasant language--but instead let loose with "Well,good for you." Only the thought students might be watching saved him from a torrent of further abuse.

But the class calmed me down--and we spent a lovely four hours on Zora Neale Hurston and my favorite James Baldwin story. I was half tempted to report him but figure tempers have been frayed with the heat and other things.

So, that was that. No spending today, but bad diet choices. There's always tomorrow.

I imagine most of you have heard by now of the terrible shooting at the Sikh temple in south Milwaukee. Our heart goes out to everyone involved, especially our Sikh friends and neighbors and the policeman who was wounded. It's been hard to think of anything else, and it puts my minor worries in perspective indeed.

I'm still struggling with my cold and slept late and napped again this afternoon.

I made $100 today at the garage sale. It's awfully hard to figure out what sells sometimes. The really good girls' clothes didn't sell, but one woman bought all my skirts. No one bought my good Timberland hiking boots or the vaguely equestrian flat black boots, but most of my books went as did picture frames--and mom's mink stole. I can say this; I've made $100 easier many ways. But some stuff that was cluttering up my basement and office is now cluttering up someone else's basement. And the good leftover clothes will be photographed tomorrow and head to ebay listings. I've made a huge pile for Purple Heart who are picking up next week.

All in all, it was fun. With kids there were 15-20 people. I made a big pasta salad, the kids were sticky with lemonade, and we're all a little richer and a little less cluttered. DH is happy to get things out of the basement, and I have a clearer sense of what I need to divest.

Good enough, I say.

Although I was lamenting the cold that sidelined me for two days, I got a lot done today. First--further excavations into the basement for more garage sale merchandise. I'm hoping my mom isn't reaching out from the grave to chastise me for this, but I'm selling her 1960s mink stole tomorrow. I've had little luck on ebay, and I'm tired of it in my house. I've also learned this valuable lesson: I should not be allowed in IKEA unsupervised. I buy too much, and it's too far for easy returns. Much of it is going on the block tomorrow.

I also took a very tired (post-sleepover) DD out for her second round of mystery shopping pancakes. Mission accomplished there. We made two returns-one to Kohls to return the extra nightgown and another to swap out a birthday gift she didn't want.

I hope tomorrow's hot weather doesn't keep garage sale traffic down. I want the stuff gone.

Now for some sleep--

I'm meeting with my university gals this afternoon to plot our garage sale strategy. I can tell it's almost August and still two months from payday by everyone's growing enthusiasm for this project. We're all broke.

At my evening class last night I ran a colleague who is joining in our sale. She's just pulled a slightly dinged DVD player from the classroom garbage hoping to sell it Saturday.

In another communal venture, we've decided to "shop" in each others' kids' outgrown clothing piles after the sale and then regularly from now on. Everyone is tickled and relieved.

DD and I walked again this morning after a "mystery shopper" breakfast at McDonald's. Neither of us is too fond of McD's breakfast, but she ate the pancakes and I'll make a breakfast burrito from the eggs tomorrow. DH hates wasting food so I'll bet I can get him to eat the biscuit. I did feel a little odd snapping photos of the breakfast, but heck, it was kind of fun. I haven't done one of these in years, and I'm not sure how regularly I'd do it, but for a change....

This afternoon DD went to her first day of Church Vacation Bible School Challenge. It's supposed to be a combination of Survivor, Amazing Race, The Apprentice, and Top Chef. She'll attend three afternoons and have an all-night challenge. All this for the $35 fee.

While dropping her off I ran into another mom from school and told her I didn't know they attended our church. She said they didn't, but her kids go to four or five different churchs' summer programs. Man--I've been paying $150+ for the great nature camps, but what a bargain this is!

DD and I have also started a fitness challenge--walking 2 miles every day and doing some other floor exercises. After one walk, I can't tell you how much better I feel. Looking forward to increasing zip!

I sold a couple of things on ebay today, posted them, and went grocery shopping. I've been rooting around for days trying to find my favorite summer nightgown--I hate PJs that are anything but cotton, and it's been so hot. But no luck. So I caved and bought one at Kohl's for $18. Later this afternoon DD and I were finishing yet another book, and I found it fallen in back of our headboard. I'm relieved at not having to spend that $18 when cash is tight around here.

And indeed I continue to unearth more to sell. I have a plastic bin in the office that hold DD's outgrown clothes that I intend to sell on ebay, but heck, let's sell them all at the garage sale, right? So the pile increases.

DH has come down with some sort of cold and has gone to bed, so it's me and Bob Costas for the next hour or so.

In my quest to de-junk and make some garage sale cash, I'm getting a little overwhelmed. Partly it's the realization of all the junk we have. And much of it is tangled up with memories. I'm finding things from my mom, things from my ex-husband, things from old friends--and just plain too many things.

I'm going to try a couple strategies to stop the frustration--perhaps one room at a time. Or maybe even one corner of the dread office at a time.

On a positive note--the RR magazine the Brits left her in June sold for $3 on ebay.

I think I've mentioned before that the viability of my semester in London depends on my recruiting at least five-six students. Prices drop for additional students after that baseline.

I've had pretty good luck with my initial prospecting, sending information to my own former students, and today I asked our undergraduate chair to forward information to our majors. I had a huge wave of people e-mailing me for more information. I'm pretty excited, though I know we'll lose plenty of folks once they crunch the numbers. But still!

Tomorrow I need to e-mail the undergrad chair in the Education Department to see if they'll do something similar.

On a more prosaic front, my garage sale pile is growing magnificently. Since it looks like another darn 100 degree day tomorrow, I expect to spend plenty of time inside unearthing treasures.

DH purchased his car last night. Please don't ask me to divulge the kind of car as it's more suitable for someone 40 years older. But despite some last-minute wrangling, we managed to escape for just over $4000. Since he only drives the car to the bus stop and on Saturday errands, I was hoping to pay less. But so many of the used cars we saw were either priced much higher and had mileage over 150K. The mechanic checked it out, and it's in very good shape. It'll need new rear struts sometime, but that can wait until fall.

I'm still trawling the house for more garage sale items, but paused to read this very depressing article (another one?) on retirement. It's here if anyone feels too cheery today: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/opinion/sunday/our-ridiculous-approach-to-retirement.html?_r=1

I've managed to successfully talk some of my university friends into a combined garage sale on August 4. We all need the cash, especially since no one gets paid again from the university until October 1.

DH and I had a long talk about how much the budget cutbacks from the state affected us. He really doesn't care much about money, and although we've talked it through before, I think he FINALLY gets it. Perhaps the lack of huge amounts of available cash for his soon-to-be purchased car? But we've got the requisite 4K for the car he wants, and enough in the emergency fund. But the car, the high cost of the UK, the new windows, and my $500 salary cut has bit us a bit harder than we'd like--thus my unbridled enthusiasm about the garage sale.

I've unearthed piles of things already and plan to devote an hour each day this week to find more. Thanks to ceejay and bankergurl for making me pull out two denim skirts, two pairs of capris, and two pairs of pants from my closet along with a few other items.

And oddly--the British train magazine that our friends left here is now selling on ebay.

I'd like to make $150-200 on the sale. Experienced garage salers, I welcome suggestions. It's been a while for me.

While we were there, the BBC featured a series of interesting programs on aging and retirement. They sent TV personalities in their 70s to work in physically demanding jobs, discussed the costs of nursing homes vs private care, and debated benefits available to older folks.

For me, one of the more interesting programs included a discussion on whether some benefits should be means tested. Among the most hotly debated were the winter fuel allowance and free bus passes. Currently, even though transport costs have risen dramatically, older people can travel free on buses during off-peak hours. Winter fuel benefits--dependent on temperature-- are almost universally available to those over 80 living in private accommodations. Neither of these are means tested--so I imagine the queen would qualify for winter fuel benefits. Here's information on it:
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/documents/en-gb/factsheets/fs1_help_with_heating_costs_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

Much of the debate centered on what you'd expect--the costs of means testing, whether people "deserved" it or not, and what seems to be a major issue looming everywhere--the generational tensions.

Controversial too were debates about whether people should have to sell their homes to pay their nursing home bills.

All of these are issues in the US too, but we mostly don't talk about them in public forums. AARP groups do, but it's not often it makes prime time TV.

As I said earlier this week, I continually find myself doing an analysis of how people are coping with the economy in the UK. First, it's undoubtedly more expensive than it was last year--and a lot more than when we were there 12 years ago. A lot. VAT has risen significantly, and food and energy are much higher than ever.

Everywhere I turned, it seemed folks were talking about money. There were lots of articles about posher types now using the Pound Stores--their equivalent to our dollar stores. All the magazines and food markets seem to have a continual chatter about how much per serving things cost and lowering expectations, and simplifying lifestyles.

I had a long chat with a friend who does not have a garden allotment because of the long current waiting lists, but is growing all sorts of veggies in pots. This may not seem unusual--there's always been a keen interest in gardening--but this is a woman who used to get a weekly manicure, but now is really concerned about the banking system, her pension, and the costs of everything. I got that widespread vibe from lots of folks.

The area where DH grew up needed to replant some hedge rows due to construction, and the local government made a decision to make all the new hedge rows fruit-bearing plants, as the paper said, "suitable for foraging." That cultural shift to a sort of wartime austerity seems common.

But like here, lots of bankers in limos seemingly untouched by the cutbacks in funding to ordinary people, medicine, schools, etc.

DH and I are still in car-hunting shell shock. I've canceled a planned trip to Minneapolis this weekend to try to help him find a car and to save some cash.

I wasted 20 very unproductive minutes on the phone with some ATT call center rep who was tremendously unhelpful.
I'm trying to save some cash on the internet service, and I don't want their U-Verse TV. This is apparently an anathema to them, and I spent every other minute telling him, "NO, I don't want that bundle." In the end DH and I went on line and found a better cheaper plan for $15/month less.

DD and I also discussed some of her online memberships, and we've cancelled all of them that cost cash. All in all we've saved $25/month. More to come tomorrow, I hope.

In happier news, one of our English nieces has announced her engagement. Happier still? We'll likely be there for the wedding as it looks like it'll be during my Study Abroad time.

Despite the cool rainy weather, we had a wonderful time in the UK--even enjoying a two-hour Harry Potter walk in the rain. DH's family is all doing well, but man, Britain just gets more and more expensive. I read several stories on the cost of living rising almost 30% in the past four years. We economized where we could, cooking lots of meals in the cottage, but London, despite my brilliant new Oyster card for transportation, was a budget buster. I'm in a fight with hotels.com about the extra bed charge in the hotel, and despite eating a fair amount of supermarket food and using the hotel fridge, I hate to think how much we spent on food.

There was good news with my Study Abroad folks. I enjoyed meeting them, and they've sent me a list of faculty accommodation alternatives. I get a health club membership and a transportation card too.

Transportation now that we're home has run into a major issues: DH's car died yesterday on the way to work. It's old, but I thought we'd get another year out of it. But the mechanic says it's a blown head gasket and that's all she wrote. We're trying hard to figure out how much to spend on a used car that he mainly drives to the bus stop. For a brief moment, I wondered if we could do with one car, but my evening classes make that almost impossible. So--do we drain the emergency fund, or buy a less-expensive car that may only have a couple years in it?

We had several couples over tonight for an impromptu potluck BBQ. I never know how much stuff to bring when I go to someone's house like this, and I usually end up with too much stuff. I had to laugh though, one family brought a jello salad (?) and another brought chicken to grill, a twelve pack of beer, wine and lemonade. And left us with the extras. It doesn't much matter--I bought a bunch of brats on sale today and all in all, it was an inexpensive fun evening.

All my university friends are feeling the pinch of the past year's paycheck slashing. Everybody is looking for more editing work than usual, there's talk of babysitting co-ops, and many many more potlucks.

I'm going to be scouring the house in July for things to sell on ebay and maybe we can do a joint garage sale. Thank goodness for my evening class!

While DD was in her half-day nature camp, I spent a couple hours working on my Study Abroad materials.
She has such a great time at that nature center; they spent hours "ponding" and looking at bugs under magnifying glasses.

On the way home we stopped off at a local Fresh Market to pick up a few things. We'd received a gift card from them for doing a fundraising run, so I got a couple pounds of apples and some raspberries for $1 after the card.

I'm busy using up fridge food and made very tasty chicken and black bean enchiladas for dinner. Then I put all of DH's Chase miles toward his bill. It was over $200, so it really felt like free cash.

To top it off, we downloaded a couple of free books onto our Kindles tonight--and I was again impressed with the simplicity of it.

Not looking forward to the impending heat wave, but very grateful we're not getting Florida's rains or Colorado's fires.

Any spinach growers here? My initial spring crop has been harvested and/or eaten by bunnies. Can I plant another crop now or does it dislike heat?

DH and I watched the Dateline NBC show last night on the shrinking middle class. He was, as always, appalled about how much stress losing health care with job loss adds to stress.

I'm not sure there was much new in that show, but it certainly demonstrated how having one wage earner, health problems in your family, and only a small emergency fund can devastate folks very quickly.

Here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/47927183#47927183

Not sure what it is, but I haven't blogged much lately. I've been spending all day every day with DD, and thinking about money a lot, but not doing much about stuff that really needs doing. Let's blame the heat for my laziness. I suspect I need a couple hours alone and a big cup of coffee to get back on track.

I spent some $$ at the Lands End summer sale, using the MyPoints portal and remembering to enter my frequent shopper number. DD and I bought a frame at Michael's too.

I've been reading the NYT travel section which is NEVER a good idea for frugality and decided if my study abroad teaching goes through, I'm spending a long weekend in Stockholm. It's cheap to get there from the UK, and if I don't eat, drive, or heat my house between now and then, I should be able to afford it.

DD and I wanted to buy DH a firebowl for the patio, but I had a hard time finding one under $50. This morning after church we headed to Target, and found one for $49.99. However, it rang up at $60. The checker found the sale ended yesterday, but they hadn't taken the signs down, and they gave it to me for the sale price. With my Red card savings, I'm under $50.

I had a great cheap fun time at a colleague's retirement party last night. We ate fabulous food, sat outside drinking wine, and just talked.

Grilled steak tonight with the remaining garden spinach and peas from the farm. What a splendid June day!

Here were yesterday's small delights: eating more fresh berries, getting a free lunch at Noodles, and free Nivea shave stuff at Walgreen's for DH's Dad's Day bag. After swimming DD had a fab time at the summer library movie, "Tin Tin." I made more jam and read until the wee hours.

Still no word from my ebay buyer. I'm starting a claim.
Bah.


Tonight's potluck dish? Spinach strawberry salad!