It's the official end of my teaching week, and there's a busy weekend ahead. I hope I can squeeze in a 30-minute nap before DD comes home.

It's also been a cheap week. I just finished a survey on MySurvey.com and cashed $10 into Paypal. More product surveys coming up on products we've been testing.

Looks like a perfect night for spaghetti--new snow and lots of meatballs in the freezer!

Well, school has officially started up again, and I'm trying to maintain the steady decluttering and calm I seem to have had over break. There's lots of stress at school with plenty of students scraping to come up with tuition, being dropped because they didn't make their deposits, and other problems. I usually teach at 8am, but nothing this term until 9:30, and I find the atmosphere around campus much busier at 9am. I used to get into the building, hunker down, teach three classes and leave, but this morning the busyness meant I had to WAIT for coffee and struggle to find a parking spot. This schedule is better for DD and DH, but I like the quietness of early morning better.

I had an interesting chat with my haircutter this afternoon. She's in her mid 30s, her husband has a landscaping business, or did before their truck got wrecked last summer. He's been working as a waiter, his restaurant closed, so they're living on her income and his unemployment with no medical insurance. I'm glad I brought her muffins, but it just amazes me how people get by. I'd be a wreck in that situation--or maybe it's just because I'm older and know what could happen?

Someday I'll get out of the house! I was up coughing AGAIN for a long time last night and so was dragging today. I was determined to make it the grocers, but sat down after getting my list and coupons together and promptly fell asleep for 90 minutes. By the time I woke up, DD was home from school.

But the nap helped and I'm optimistic about seeing daylight tomorrow!

So again, I haven't spent a thing! However, if I don't get out soon, we'll have to eat those strange cracker leftovers in the back of the cupboard or have popcorn for dinner tomorrow.

I've been meaning to get out all week to do some shopping, but my cold, while better, is still making me tired. I get work done at home, but have little excess energy for shopping. Count that as a plus.

I worked on my promotion packet all day, we all ate the big pot of veggie soup from yesterday, and still need another day of resting, it seems.



A slow start to the New Year, but probably a good one.

Our DD is back at school, and although very snuffly still, I'm at the computer putting items together for my promotion packet.
I need to write out goals for today and the week, so here are today's set: Complete two parts of promotion packet including teaching contributions and university service. Find at least a dozen unsolicited student recommendations and ask four selected students for recommendation. Clean office and take down card table that is natural clutter magnet. Mail book sale.
Make big pot of veggie soup.
If I get those accomplished, I come up with more!

Good Luck everyone on all your goals!

We've hunkered in for the now-cold NY and are enjoying the quiet weekend at home.
I accomplished several of my 2010 goals but need to update them for 2011--perhaps tomorrow or Monday.

Glad to be checking back in after the past crazy semester.

Happy New Year SA!

I haven't blogged much lately as I've been diligently working my way through a pile of British Lit papers. Only occasionally do I think about rolling down the car window and letting them fly all over the road.

It's been an inexpensive week on my front; I made a big pot of soup on Sunday and have been eating it for lunch--avoiding the deli specials that put a dent in my budget. We spent part of the weekend winterizing the lawn and garden and a few hours putting up removable caulking. I hate to admit this, but we've never caulked the windows before. I hope it helps with our heating bill.

I officially got a full teaching load for spring semester again, so that takes one worry out of the mix. We can make it fine on three classes rather than four; it's just easier with four.

I still have a couple of money-related errands on my "to-do" list. One is to sell some gold jewelry of my parents. There's only a few things, but I've never sold gold before. Any advice? I plan on getting a couple estimates, but I don't want to drive all over town.

Back to those papers....

I'm adding (or should I?) $100 to my ebay totals for something that sold, but which hasn't yet been paid for.
Things are back to normal busyness around here with the current crisis a lost library book of my daughter's. I'm convinced it will surface.

Today in class we had a discussion about persuasion. A whole bunch of my students--mostly young men-- insisted their ethical values never sway them in the marketplace. I was so taken aback by that I was at a loss for words. Can it be that people's ethics don't sway their decisions? We had other things to discuss, but I need to come back to that contention on Wednesday. I think they were exaggerating, but still it astounds me that someone would actually say that. I'm still mulling that over....

That's me lately: Busy and Tired.
I probably should stay up late again tonight and grade, grade, grade. But I've spent twelve hours on school stuff today--publisher visits, presentations, student conferences, preparation--and frankly, I'm tired of it.

Although it's not yet 10pm here, I'm going to bed in the hopes that I can face 70 new student papers tomorrow feeling energetic and reinvigorated.

I ate breakfast at a meeting, lunch at another meeting, and my dinner was a sandwich and a brownie from yet another meeting. Perhaps some of my tiredness comes from vaguely unhealthy meeting food?


Good Night!

The onset of midterm exams usually means I'm more tired than my students, it's true again. That tiredness led to overspending at Target today and eating too much sugar.
I hope to spend the next few days catching up on both sleep and grading--and and house stuff too. That'll make everything better.

Grading and sleep--what a dream weekend!

There's been a rash of moderate expenditures around here lately. We need a few things, and DD has outgrown all her shoes and many of her clothes. Her Pooh sleeping bag has just been rejected as too babyish for the upcoming sleepover. Now it appears she has also outgrown her rain boots.

I foresee a trip to the dread Target in my future, especially since she has a half day at school tomorrow.
It's a good thing some freelance work has rolled in, not that I need more work, but the money will be handy.

No other news except we still have to get to our insurance choices!

My eight-week class ended last night. We celebrated with pizza and cupcakes. I'm happy it's done because I've been a bit overwhelmed with work.

Because of that (and I suspect I'm not alone), I've overspent on things that I usually watch--parking, take-out food, etc. because I just need to get things done. I feel a little guilty, but am hoping things will ease soon.

My ebay listings are selling so that's good news.
But I need to watch what I spend a bit.

I've blogged about this before but Target got me again today. And I brought it on myself, bringing DD with me. She needed workout clothes for her new exercise class, and I came home with coffee, a lampshade, a DVD (but only $4.75 and out of DD's allowance), cleaning supplies, Halloween hair color and tons of reduced price items to put in the Operation Christmas child boxes at church. Not awful, but at least $20 could've been avoided.

We did better at the grocery store and had a quiet evening reading and watching library videos while I was grading. The library also yielded a couple of books, including one from the "Millionaire Next Door" author which looks like a quick, but perhaps reinforcing, read.

In between, we went to the Post Office and mailed our ebay sales. That was fun and decluttering!

After scrimping our way through September, all my freelance money seems to have come in at once. My editing checks, the seminar I led earlier in the summer, plus the medical reimbursement. It's lovely, but it's taken a little getting used to.

Speaking of being flush, I tipped my coffee servers $1 this morning. They almost fainted. Apparently no one ever tips them. Or they admit, one in 25. I buy coffee every day at the university, am served by the same students every day, and they're very sweet, even to grumpy me before the caffeine kicks in. My daily coffee is $1.50 with the reusable cup bonus. Is it that unusual to tip the coffee folks?

I've updated my ebay totals and the mortgage to reflect our current status.

All my paychecks rolled in over the weekend, and our bank balances look substantially healthier. Even my 45-minute concentrated focus on money last week has paid off with lots of listed items selling and my flex spending reimbursement now happily in hand.

What I am having problems with is my supplemental dental policy. They routinely deny claims on everything, and over the almost two years I've had them,they have paid $O. I've tried to reach them three times in the past week, and I've been on hold each time for over 30 minutes before I gave up in frustration.
I'm planning on having a little chat with the plan rep at our benefits fair on Wednesday, but wonder if this is typical of all supplemental dental. Our provider is Anthem--and I'm pretty darn angry at them right now.

Anyone have a recommendation or further issues with Anthem?

Now we're not normally a paycheck-to-paycheck family, but it's been almost three months since I've been paid. My summer university paychecks were delayed, and my fall teaching is always a month behind. So I'm very grateful it's pay day at last.

I spent the morning at a teaching technology seminar with bagels--which served nicely as both breakfast and lunch, so new new expenses so far.

A big pot of Italian vegetable soup is on the menu for tonight, and I look forward to a relaxing weekend.
Happy October everyone!

Before DH and DD came along, I was a regular at my local health club. I worked fewer hours, weighed less, and had much more energy. Middle age, longer work hours, and the increasing demands of the family (and lots of laziness) have made me reluctant to join another one, though boy do I need it. Money was also a reason to hesitate.
But last Saturday we took a look at the fancy schmancy club by our house and fell in love. They have a great pool for DD, lots of machines that I can use, free trainer sessions, lots of classes, a beautiful locker room, and reduced rates on massages. We took out a one-month trial membership. DD and DH have been swimming a couple times already, and today after teaching I went to a session with the trainer. She was upbeat, fun, and spotted my "issues" immediately. The key question is, Will we go enough to justify it?

On principle, I'd prefer the Y, but this is less than half a mile from the house. The Y is miles and miles away.
I'm giving it a month, and then we'll re-evaluate. But for now, I love it.

I had a parents' meeting at DD's school today--planned for 11 am. The teacher seemed a little surprised that only half the kids' parents could be there. I'm not surprised at all. But indeed to be there, I had to let my class out five minutes early, pay for parking in the university ramp, rather than park in my usual off-site free parking, and drive slightly more than the speed limit to be on time.

Other parents had to take more time off work, and the school has already had a day off in the less than three weeks school has been in session. They have two "late start" days, when they don't begin until 11 am, at the end of the month.

We're doing a small family dinner out tonight for my b-day. it's a quiet birthday, but that seems perfect right now.

Yep, this is the first full week of school for me--with four days of university teaching, plus my evening class tonight. The house, I'm sorry to say, does NOT run smoothly in my absence,-- and I'm still a little irritable about the babysitter situation. We won't see her for a while, but I fully intend on straightening things out with her.

So I'm busy: special events at DD's school, students wanting meetings, a presentation project, my promotion packet, and all the house stuff. It always takes DH a couple of months to switch from summer--when I do most of the housework, to fall--when I expect him to step up.

In light of all that, sometimes the best thing to do at the end of an unsatisfactory day is to take a bath and go to bed. Sounds like a plan!

September is such a long month for us. My university paychecks don't start until October 1, I forgot to submit my project approval forms for my reading job, and we have a lot of expenses to start off the school year.

In other bad news, the university coffee shop has increased its prices due to wholesale price increases, but David Bach's latte factor aside, my daily coffee is a small price to pay for alertness and sanity.

I need to complete my flex spending reimbursement to free up some cash, but this first week of school has worn me out. I have 135 new names to learn and way too much early prep. Cash is trumped by sleep tonight.

My university teaching started up again today, and they seem like they're a decent bunch.

It's still a month until I get paid, but thankfully our expenses are just groceries and coffee(salvation of all overworked instructors). I saved 15cents on my daily coffee by bringing in my own travel mug, but almost left it in both classrooms today. I'll need to review my 403b contributions and my flex spending account. I should probably file my flex spending reimbursement requests over the weekend too.

I sold some shoes of DD's today and an outfit on ebay, so will try to get them in the mail. More stuff out!

I'm looking forward to the weekend and getting all caught up.

Well, almost set. DD will be ready to go to school tomorrow, and her clothes and backpack are both ready.

DH has volunteered to do morning bus duty for the first three days of school. He has an odd, geeky, ongoing fascination with American school buses since that kind of school transportation just doesn't exist in his part of the UK. I'm doing the afternoon ride along for three days too.

My class went well last night; they appreciated and drank the Diet Coke, and I spent no money on snacks, only coffee.

Today's surprise was the final bill from the basement remodeler. As I was going over it, I realized he forgot to credit us for a $5000 check we wrote him in July. I've e-mailed him and will have him refigure the bill.

I've got a couple small projects planned over Labor day weekend, including degunking the shower in the master bath. Anyone have great suggestions for the best way to tackle that? Ugh.

Nope, we're not ready for school, but I hope to have an entry that says "Set" this week and another that says "Go."

My evening class starts tomorrow night, and DD's school year begins on Wednesday. My day classes begin on Thursday, so it's sort of an easy start, followed by the long Labor Day weekend.

Wishing all of you getting ready for the school year success!

I don't know about the rest of you, but money is about the last thing I want to think about during the summer.
I want to think about gardens, books, movies, peaches, relaxing, swimming, traveling, and a lot more pleasant things than the state of my 403b.

We're headed out on vacation soon, so listing more things on ebay seems difficult, and I have loads to do before we leave. So on that lazy note, I'm taking some time off from scrutinizing my budget carefully, and I'm just going into a holding pattern till school starts.

I've got courses to plan and promotion files to compile, so money will have to wait a bit.

We started watching "I Claudius" on library DVD. It's been years since I've seen it, and it's pretty enjoyable. The trials of ancient Rome make it seem even more idyllic around here.

I've been reading a fair amount of new fiction, most of it pretty lousy, but a great new biography of Jane Addams of Hull House. Now there was a woman who DID something with her money!

We had gallons of rain last night, almost 5" at our house, so much of the morning was devoted to righting plant pots, retying tomatoes, and picking up branches.

I finally got a few things listed on ebay yesterday, but my book selling continues strong. DH ordered a "print on demand" book that came late, and they sent him another free which sold immediately on Amazon as did a few other books. I've found I need to check my selling prices regularly to make sure I have the low price on them.

I've noticed conflicting economic signals lately--more and more storefronts in the local strip malls seem to be empty and a long-time sushi place has gone out. I honestly don't know how the smaller boutiques make it work. But I can't get a teen-age girl babysitter anywhere around here. Granted we live in an affluent suburb, so many of the girls don't need the spending money and spend their days at the local pool and mall. I've called the youth director at church, asked everyone we know--nothing.

I babysat most summers from ages 13-16 and did dog walking and everything else my mom could sign me up for. She has very adamant we had summer jobs.

Adding another $35 to my ebay challenge from the book sales.

And I can't say I've had a relaxing time--it's mostly been catching up with grading, class prep, and those mountains of laundry and paperwork.

We've had a spend-y month too--between our house guests and seemingly thousands of small expenses. I did some course evaluation work for another university and picked up a few$--but it flew out of my wallet quickly.

I have managed to polish off a couple of books including the new Nick Hornby--which I liked. I also started the taxes, but not liking how it was looking, I've saved the file and will peek back into them this weekend.

And not surprisingly--our house stays cleaner when I'm at work more!

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.. oh wait, that's that other Minnesotan. But it's been a quiet week here too, even with a snow storm and plenty of school-related work.

My ebay listings have bids, our checking account is finally getting back to normal after the car purchase, and we are, as promised, eating our way through the freezer stocks.

I'm looking forward to the beginning of the Olympics, Valentine's day and a weekend at home, as well as tackling the taxes.

Wind chills below zero and temps headed that way.

School started yesterday, and besides the usual challenge of figuring out when to eat and use the bathroom when I teach five hours in a row, everything seems fine.After last fall's harried semester, this should be easy.

I'm home three days a week now, and need to rebalance how I spend home and work time.

Off to grocery shop now which is always so much better during the week.

Oh dear. I thought I'd blogged in October or November, but now I see it was September. And I've lost my way a teeny bit--no debt or anything, just too busy to be as frugal as I'd like.

So what's new?
My scholarly work has been going a bit bit better.
My overload semester is finally over--and at least one class was outstanding.
We need to buy a new (to us) car very soon.
Tonight we finally dug through three months' receipts, and I need to get things organized before next term.

No particularly good or bad news, just the death throes of my now 10-year-old car which has been very expensive.

Eager to find out how everyone's been over in SA land!

I see I haven't blogged in a month, but I've way too busy with teaching and DD back at school, and a small consulting gig. But today, except for the big pile of grading, I have no real obligations except of course, laundry, bills, etc.

But it's great to be home!

The new doggie is doing well and DD is completely entranced with her. Never having had a small dog before, I'm adjusting to her small-dog ways.

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure of how much it might cost to have a Shih-Tzu-Bichon mix groomed? More than $50?