I received a refund of $19 from CarMax for my car tags; I have applied it to my car loan. The balance is now $15,558.60.

My mother has been wanting to go play Bingo. I have found a Bingo hall we are going to try tomorrow. It is $25 per person to play. Afterwards, she wants to go look at cars. She has a full sized truck which was my step-father's (he is now deceased). It is very nice and has low miles. But she has been thinking she wants a small car with good gas mileage. So, tomorrow will be a convenient time to take her to look. I think she will ultimately decide the price of the car would pay for a lot of gas, but we will go look anyway.

Here is an update on BF's house. It is still not listed, but he has decided to take a bridge loan to pay the contractor in full to this point. When I heard this, I piped up to say I would like to be repaid in full at the same time. He agreed. The loan should fund within the next two weeks.

Originally, I lent him 6k from E Fund. Later, I lent him an additional 1.7k from CurveBall. Since making that first loan, I have repaid E Fund 4.5k. This is my plan for the repayment:

1.5k E Fund
.5k Mini E Fund
1.7k CurveBall Fund
4k car loan

I am excited to be repaid. I don't really like mingling finances. I'm glad I could help him avoid disaster, but I am ready to be "unmingled". And frankly, I like my money in my accounts rather than someone else's.

And you know, I don't think I have ever gotten around to posting more pictures of BF's house. The remodeling project grew bigger and bigger, and is still not entirely done. I happen to have this pic on my phone, so I will share it. This is the bathtub in the master bathroom.



It has tiny bubble jets all around the tub, towards the bottom. The tiny garden outside the window is walled in, so the bathtub (and anyone sitting in it!) cannot be viewed from outside. Just to the right is a large shower, room for a crowd in there, with the main shower heads on opposite walls, and 6 body spray jets under one of the shower heads. The only trouble is, you just don't want to ever get out.

Today is payday, so my scheduled savings transfers are happening any minute now.

I have made another $20 from a payday loan. The co-worker keeps insisting, so I take it. I have been trying to talk her into opening a savings account for YEARS now, but so far she has not. I have been regularly giving her loans "until payday" for about 6 months now. She always pays me on payday, but a week later asks for another loan. Most recently, I loaned her $160.

I just redeemed $62.36 in rewards from Capital One Quicksilver. I charged the cruise tickets, so that is why it was more than usual. (Even though my mother is paying for our cruise, I charged the tickets to earn rewards points. She has already reimbursed me, and I have already sent the payment off to Capital One).

Previous Car Fund Balance: 1,388.80
Budgeted monthly deposit: 170.00
Payday loan: 20.00
CC rewards: 62.36
New Car Fund Fund Balance: 1,641.16

And credit card rewards are up to $996.33 for the year! Yes, I will definitely make 1k in rewards this year.

Last update balance: 1,124.87

Recent activity:

September interest .68
proceeds from payday loan 20.00
Hausernet decoy mail 3.25
part-time job 240.00

New total: 1,388.80


Going to see a play with a girlfriend tomorrow night, "Spank, The Musical". We will probably have dinner too. This is a girlfriend I don't see often. She had her kids later in life. They are 7 and 3 now, so she doesn't get out much.

Last weekend, I went to see Spam-a-lot with J, two of his friends, and BF. It was a community theatre production in Roseville. The boys all loved it. I try to make play-goers out of people whenever possible!

The weekend before that, I took off both Friday and Monday. One of my dearest friends from childhood was in town for his niece's wedding. He stayed at my house. Between his family activities, we got to spend some fun time together. It had been 9 years since we had last seen each other in person.

That's about it.

Well, we booked our cruise yesterday. We don't leave for nearly 4 months. That's OK, because the anticipation is part of the fun.

Recent car fund activity includes my budgeted transfer for September ($170), payment from part-time job for August ($200), Capital One Quicksilver credit card rewards ($14.56), and interest ($.44). Car Fund's new blance is $1,124.87.

HauserNet paid me for February, $2.25.

My part-time job paid me $160 for July's work.

My budgeted automatic transfer of $170 happened.

And we are up to $739.87 in Car Fund.

I have been thinking about my car needs. I was thinking small SUV for several reasons. I am not used to driving in snow and I might like to tow a small travel trailer one day. Upon further investigation, I have learned that towing a travel trailer with a small SUV is not recommended. On another forum I visit, there was a thread recently discussing driving in the snow and many people there reported driving in sedans with front wheel drive and snow tires and doing just fine. And many of them live in places which get much more snow than Reno, NV. That started me thinking that perhaps I don't really have a compelling reason to spend more to buy a small SUV and more to keep gas in its tank.

So, now I am thinking car. But, I would like a hatchback for easier in/out with bicycles. I have been browsing online, pricing cars which come with a hatchback option. Of those, I really like the looks of the Ford Focus hatchback. They are super cute! I'm not crazy about the Ford brand, though. I still have plenty of time to think about it.

HauserNet coughed up $4.25 for decoy mail in January.

I redeemed $23.90 in credit card rewards from Capital One Quicksilver.

Barclay's paid a whole 12 cents in interest.

And we are up to $407.62 in Car Fund.

Also, redeemed credit card rewards for the year is up to $919.41.

J has one more driving school session, and it culminates with a trip to the DMV for his behind the wheel test. Yay! And then my car insurance will skyrocket. Boo!

BF has been at my house all week, and we are driving to his house this afternoon. J will be going too, as he will spend the night at his friend's house (the friend lives in the same town as BF). I think I will just let J drive. Wish me luck!

I took J shopping for school clothes a few days ago. He got 3 pairs of jeans, 4 t-shirts, 1 real shirt with buttons, collar, and sleeves, and a package of socks. It came to $211. School starts Monday.

Cash is down.
Debt is down.
Investments are down.
Home value estimate is up.




Car Fund Update:

I received $4.25 from HauserNet and added that to car fund. With that deposit plus yesterday's interest, it is up to $383.72

Credit Card Rewards Update:

My Wells Fargo Home Rewards Visa still gets some use. It automatically redeems in increments of $25. When the billing cycle closed last week, sufficient rewards were available and so $25 was applied to my mortgage balance. So, I made another mortgage chip despite myself.

I have a co-worker/friend who has been having cash flow problems. I have been lending her various sums of money between paydays to tide her over. She always repays me, and promptly.

Today was payday. When she repaid her latest loan, she gave me an extra $20. When I opened my mouth to protest, she said "Listen, you have helped me out a lot. I'm happy to give you $20, just take it". So, I did!

I have sent that $20 off to Car Fund, and we are now at $379.35.

My budgeted automatic transfer of $170 has happened.

I received $160 from my part-time job and sent that off as well.

Car Fund is up to $359.35. Just think, I could buy two tires and a big stick to connect them, and away I would go!

I have redeemed $16.46 in credit card rewards from Capital One Quicksilver. A transfer to Car Fund has already been scheduled, bringing the balance to $29.35.

There are some changes brewing on my horizon, and as a result I am changing some of my short-term goals.

What are the changes? I want to move, and I will be giving my son my car as a graduation present. So, I'm going to need some cash.

I spent more on vacation than planned (of course!), including a very unplanned repair bill for a rented ATV. My son was not seriously injured, so that was good. I have drained my vacation fund and tapped my curveball fund, but I continue to have no credit card debt.

I have renamed "vacation fund", its new name is "car fund". This will be to purchase my next car. I will not be taking another vacation until after my next car is bought and paid for.

I will no longer be chipping at my mortgage, but instead will be piling up all of the cash that I can.

Yesterday I received a rebate check for $6.67, as well as a payment from HauserNet for $4.25. I have added both to car fund. Combined with the $1.97 which was already there, I am up to $12.89. Not much of a car there yet.

I will be changing up my budget a bit. I will post that when I know if I got a raise on 7/1 or not. I won't know until next payday (7/15).

My plan once I have moved and gotten settled is to purchase a condo. Not sure yet if I will go for a 1 or 2 bedroom. Either way, I expect my total housing cost to be much, much lower than it is now.