Bloom Where You Are Planted

This is the first time I have posted this since my last refinance. I haven't made much progress, but my credit card reward mortgage chips have helped a bit. As you can see, my last payment has been reduced from 874.38 to 414.41.

The credit card rewards post mid-month, so I include them on the next line. For example, that sweet $50 chip was applied on 6/18, but I included it on the line for the 7/1 payment.

Hard to believe it has been an entire year since my last refi, but it has.

As you can see, it was not a good month, budget-wise.

Cash is down.
Debt is down.
Investments are down.
Zestimate is ?

Since I was not able to update my home and car value estimates on June 30th, I have just left them alone. The estimates are those from May 31st.

Well, my ship is about to sail! Mom and I are leaving early Saturday morning.

This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home. Even so, I have been enjoying my evenings with all 3 kiddos. I am sad that this time is coming to a close once again.

I have picked up a few new articles of clothing for my trip, but not very many because I have had an unexpected expense arise (more below). I bought a lined rain jacket (from the clearance rack), a pair of long jeans (I mostly wear capris), a nightgown, two shirts, and some underthings. Altogether, I spent $92 on clothing for myself.

Last week when we went to the theme park, the house was empty of people. When we returned home, J discovered that his Xbox, a stack of games, and two controllers were gone. He had played one of his games the night before and all items were accounted for. Nothing else in the house had been disturbed, and there was no sign of a break-in. The dogs were both inside the house and fine.

During the last week of school, J reported to me that he had misplaced his house key. He had been playing ball in a park that day, and thought he had lost it there. I got him a new house key, but was not worried about changing the locks as there is no identifying info on his keyring. Well, I think that key must have been used. Nala (nephew's yellow lab) is an excellent watchdog. Therefore, I further think the key was used by someone Nala knows well.

During the last two months of school, J made a new friend, L. L started coming to our house nearly every day, both after school and on weekends. L seemed to never want to go home. I asked him point blank if there was something going on at home. He replied not really, but that usually it was just he and his foster brother (L is in a foster home), they don't get along, and so L prefers to hang out with friends. L was a pleasant enough boy, but I did catch him lying to me once. Another time, he asked me to please lie to a third boy's mother, so that this third boy would be allowed to go someplace. Of course I refused. Both times I explained to L that I do not tolerate lying.

As it happens, L was with J on the afternoon the house key went missing. We have learned that on the day after the theft, another boy D who is a good friend of L, sold a stack of games at Game Stop, identical to J's stolen games. J does not know D well, he has met him a time or two at school, but J has never been anyplace with D, nor has D ever been to our house.

J did confront L, but L denies any knowledge of the theft. Nonetheless, L is no longer welcome at our house. J feels very used and is very upset with L.

I had the locks changed, the cost was $84.66. J found a used console, hard drive, controller, and cables on eBay for $95 plus tax and shipping. I bought that for him. J had borrowed a game from another friend K which was in the stolen stack. I offered to replace that game, but K said he would be happy with $20, so I gave him $20. All told, I am out $230. I told J that I am done, it is up to him to use his own money to replace his games.

In chippy news, I did a wallet sweep today and sent $8 off to E Fund. The $50 credit card reward I redeemed last month has now been applied to my mortgage. And wouldn't you know, I redeemed another $25 just a few days ago. That won't show up until around July 20th.

In family news, last Sunday mom and I drove nephew up to my brother's house. Brother lives in northern California (the REAL northern California, not just north of Orange county ), it is 4 hours each way. Add in visiting time and it makes for a long day. One niece popped in with her husband and their 3 babies (3yo, 2yo, and 1yo). Mom and I briefly stopped by the workplace of another niece. It was a wonderful day, and we'll have a repeat in a few weeks when we go back to retrieve nephew.

That is one $50 mortgage chip (credit card reward), and one $50 credit to my Ting cell phone bill (thanks to NetSkyBlue), which I will convert into a savings chip. Sweet! I love chips.

We had a lot of fun at the theme park. I am glad we went.

Because I fiddled, I am now having to park my Simple money in a target retirement fund while I wait two months to be allowed back into total stock market. In my traditional, I am selling blocks of S & P 500, waiting in cash for 3 days, then buying total stock market. Sometimes, I irritate myself.

Chase Freedom bonus rewards for the third quarter once again include gas. I really enjoy getting 5% back on my gas.

Over the past two days, I have continued to fiddle when I know perfectly well I should leave well enough alone. Well, guess what? My WellsTrade brokerage account has a new policy...after a "sell", it takes 3 days for the cash to settle. In the meantime, no "buy" can be executed with that money. At first, I was irritated to learn this (the hard way). But upon reflection, I think it is really for the best. This new policy will discourage me from making trades I do not need to make.

I don't know why I periodically put myself through this; I always end up going back to what I already had, or close to it.

Tomorrow the kids and I are off to a theme park. I bought the tickets at my credit union at a substantial discount, we will pack a picnic lunch, then I will spring for a meal out on the way home. Should be fun.

Had to have the plumber out yesterday. The handle popped off in my shower, and it was then I learned the shower handle in the hall bath had popped off the week before! (No one thought to mention it to me). I Googled it and learned I needed new "cartridges". I hadn't even known showers had cartridges, but apparently yes, the handle mechanisms in the wall do. The DIY videos I found were insistent it is an easy job, but it didn't look easy to me without the proper tools, which I do not have. I didn't want to make a bigger mess, so I called the plumber. It cost me $89. He replaced both and re-caulked the hall shower for me while he was at it.

Even though I swore to myself I was through with fiddling, I fiddled some more. I am almost at the "3 Fund Portfolio", except I am overweighting mid/small caps a bit.

Here is my new target AA for tax-deferred:

30% S & P 500 Index
20% Extended Market Index

25% International Index

25% Total Bond Market Index

I have updated my "My Portfolio Holdings" page.

How about you, do you find yourself fiddling, even when you have sworn it off?

I have just spent the afternoon at my part-time job. I am done with it now for June. I put in 10 hours, for which I will bill $200.

Work was super crazy this week, the other staff accountant was on vacation. That means I have to do all of her payroll clients as well as my own, while juggling other things as well. Add swinging by the part-time job 3 days this week into the mix, it has made for a long week.

I can hardly wait to return the favor and go on vacation myself.

J and I returned from another mini vacation weekend. This time the vacation site was a beautiful vacation home at Donner Lake. We were invited by BF's boss; the home belongs to some associate of hers. All told, there were 14 of us and we were not crowded at all. Activities included fishing, kayaking, bike riding, etc. The home is currently listed for sale, and the asking price is a seven digit number, so that gives you some indication of the conditions we were forced to tolerate.

After work today, I put in 2 hours at my part-time job. I put in 2 hours last Friday afternoon as well, for a grand total of 4 so far in June. Since starting, I have been asked to take on one additional task. As a result, I expect to regularly work 6 - 8 hours per month rather than 4 -6. As it happens, this place is close to my regular work place. It seems it will work better for everyone if I put in several short "shifts" rather than one long one.

And hoorah, I have been paid for my May hours. The proceeds have already been sent off to E Fund.

It has been 8 days since my daughter and son-in-law moved in temporarily. Thus far, it has been nothing but a pleasure to have them here. I can really see that they are both quite a bit more considerate than the last time they were here.

I am planning to treat the four of us (daughter, son-in-law, son, and myself) to a fun outing in the next week or two. I suggested the water park, but said I would let the three of them decide. I will take a vacation day and we will go mid-week. When I return from the cruise I am taking with mom, J will already be off at summer camp; daughter (S) and son-in-law (A) will be heading back to Colorado Springs.

And that brings me to next summer's vacation plans. Mom, J and I have decided to do a road trip to Colorado Springs. Along the way, we will visit Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone. Mom has never been to either place! My cousin L is also interested in going. It has been about a decade since I was on a long road trip; it should be lots of fun.

My move to Barclays online savings bank from TIAA-Cref is now complete; the process was completed smoothly, no glitches at all. I expect the bulk of E Fund will be "available" tomorrow.

So, this is how I did in May:



The overage in Everything Else is from my pergola cover, the second installment of J's camp, and a donation to the American Red Cross.

Groceries continue to be a challenge. My daughter and son-in-law arrived yesterday, and will be here until mid July. I expect groceries to continue to be a challenge. I know I can do better. And I'm just going to have to start.

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are down.
Zestimate is up.

Tonight while reading on The Bogleheads Index Forum, I learned that Barclays is currently paying .90% on savings accounts. Also, several members report that Barclays is very easy to work with.

Being a girl who enjoys getting a better deal, I hurried to the site and opened a savings account with $1.00. I must wait for the two test deposits to verify my external account before I can open additional accounts or set up automatic transfers.

As we have all come to expect from our online savings accounts, accounts can be nicknamed easily enough, just click on the icon following the account name and name it whatever you like. Here you can see that I gave mine the original and clever name of "Emergency Fund".

As is the custom in my office, this past Friday was our first "Happy Friday"; we close at noon, but are paid for the full day. This continues all summer until Labor Day weekend.

On Friday evening, my grandniece graduated from high school (my own alma mater). I attended the ceremony with Mom, my brother, and his fiancee (yes, this is a new development, we were filled in on Saturday). This grandniece is also brother's granddaughter. Brother lives about 4 hours away, so it was a treat to see him as well. As always happens at this sort of event, there were family members of former classmates graduating as well, so it was fun to run into those sort of people. Afterwards, J (J did not get a ticket for the ceremony) and I went by a grad party for a friend of J's who moved to Tulsa the next day. The friend's dad had taken a job in Tulsa last December, the mom and kiddos stayed put for the remainder of the school year. That was a bittersweet gathering, but I am glad we made the effort to stop by and wish them all well.

On Saturday, we had a BBQ at Mom's house, so that was a fun, all-day event.

On Sunday, after J's dad picked him up, I went back to Mom's to visit. Brother and fiancee left in the late afternoon.

Monday was a quiet day home alone.

In between, I hauled more rocks, successfully gave away some rocks to a co-worker and her husband (yay!), and did chores around the house.

I have my May spending tallied through 5/24, and except for "Everything Else", am doing fine. While tallying, I noticed that my first installment towards J's summer camp ($100) was not reimbursed from CurveBall. Instead, I managed to pay it from funds in checking. So, I was pleased to discover that.

I received a check from American Express in settlement of a class action lawsuit in the amount of $8.23. I have already sent it off to E fund.

My WF Home Rewards Visa closed yesterday, and as expected I have earned a $50 mortgage chip. That should post in about a month. This is the first time I have ever redeemed $50 in a single month. It is thanks to the Alaskan cruise Mom and I are taking, so I don't expect a repeat.

My home value seems to be continuing to tick up. Zillow is up to 130k, Trulia is up to 152k. Just for giggles, I used realtor.com to view houses in my city for sale at both of those prices. My conclusion is I think my home's true current value is someplace in between. Being upside down feels like a huge weight on my back; it is a great relief to feel that weight decrease a bit.

In the forums last week, NetSkyBlue was asking about prepaid cell phone plans. She saw one of my posts in praise of Ting, she decided she wanted to sign up, and she graciously offered to use my referral link to do so. Since it is my first referral, I will score a sweet $50. I'm not certain if they credit that all at once or over time, but I intend to add that money to my E Fund as it is received. Yay! Thanks again, NetSkyBlue.

I worked a total of 7 hours at my new part-time job. I expect future months will require less time, as I am now familiar with their system and should be able to find the information I need more quickly. I will send them a bill for $140 tomorrow, and will look forward to adding it to E Fund.

Someone at my son's school has learned his lunch account number and password, and so has been eating their meals at my expense. The school will not allow him to change either his account number or his password, so he will no longer be using the account at all. This means no more checks; I must make certain he has sufficient cash.

So, there goes the last regular bill/expense I have been paying with paper checks. I have 100 or so unused checks, which it seems will last me the rest of my life. However, I will need to order checks from time to time just to get a new register! I do get my checks free of charge, so that is good. With the way banking has changed, you'd think they would be making thicker registers, or putting more than one in an order of checks. Perhaps I will switch to keeping my checkbook register on an Excel spreadsheet.

In front planter news, today I uprooted all of my lamb's ear. I think it is possible I will have the remainder of the rocks removed this week! Then next weekend, I will work on mixing in good soil. My soil is so sandy.

The fabric cover for my pergola shipped via UPS Friday and is supposed to arrive Wednesday. BF plans to come down next weekend, so I will ask him to put it up for me.

I have been listening to some very good audiobooks lately. I love it when one unexpectedly touches on topics which interest me.

One such audiobook was "The Lake of Dreams" by Kim Edwards. The main character is a young adult woman who begins looking into her family history and tracing the story of her great-grandfather's sister. It veers into women's suffrage and the plight of the working poor in times past.

Right now I am listening to "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier. It is set in the 1800s and is about two women of different social classes who become friends and have an interest in fossil hunting and collection. It also touches on the plight of the working poor in times past and gender inequality.

I don't know that I have ever seen

goodreads.com mentioned here at SA. If you don't know, goodreads is a free site which allows you to keep track of books you have read, want to read, and/or are currently reading; and to rate them. You can then get recommendations on other books you might like. You can make "bookshelves" and title them anything you like, then place your books on those shelves. So, you can have your "mystery" books together, your "classics" together, etc. There is an area called "listopia" which is comprised of member submitted lists. For example, one list is "Books everyone should read at least once". Each member may submit a limited number of books to each list and also cast a limited number of votes. Books with the most votes are at the top of the list. This is another great way to find books you might like to read.

Our family BBQ on Saturday was a great success. It has been a lot of years since so many in my original family came together on a holiday.

I am starting my part-time job tomorrow evening. So, we will see how this goes.

My rock removal project is coming along nicely. I estimate I have my front planter about 75% de-rocked. It has inspired me to get cracking on my yards. I have been doing some weeding in the back, and today I ordered a mesh fabric cover for my pergola. It is made of 80% fabric (meaning 20% of the surface is holes), is hemmed, and has metal grommets every 24". So it will cover my pergola, which is attached to my house. It should make it a lot nicer to be out on the patio, and hopefully will help my kitchen stay cooler in the summer. It set me back $331.06.

I have received $1.75 via PayPal from HauserNet for January 2013. Currently, they owe me for May 2012 - December 2012. They said they are going to pay their agents for 2013 before they "catch up" on 2012. Frankly, I would rather be paid for May 2012.

J and I spent the weekend with BF in El Dorado Hills. BF's office had a flood in the basement a few months ago. While the repairs are being done, they have rooms with a workspace at the Holiday Inn Express in El Dorado Hills.

It was like a mini-vacation. The hotel is inside a large shopping center. There is a natural pond (hotel pool area backs up to it) in the center, with restaurants built all around to enjoy the view (lots of outside seating).

On Saturday evening we went to a venue in Folsom with live music. We enjoyed the music, and J even spent time on the dance floor, shaking maracas. The middle-aged adults were all tickled.

I just loved the pool area. It was so pretty with the pond in the immediate background, and the hills beyond that. It was so relaxing to sit out there.

This coming Friday morning my niece who lives in Seattle will be arriving at the airport. She is going to surprise my mom for Mother's Day. I've got to make certain my house is squeaky clean, so will be doing chores all week. I'm not certain what her plans are, just in case she stays a night or two with me, I want to be ready.

So I got my April numbers together, and here is my April budget report.

Everything Else included $300 for J's allowance and $370 to the IRS. If I exclude those, I did OK.

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Zestimate is up.

Mom and I have booked our cruise. It is a 10 day Princess Cruise, sailing from San Francisco. That makes it so convenient, no flights. We will drive to my cousin's house, then have her drive us to the ship and take my car home. (She lives just a few small cities south of San Francisco). This is the same cruise my family of four took in 2005. Mom is paying, but I plan to choose one really nice excursion and pay for that.

I charged the trip to my WF rewards Visa, and Mom will give me a check. The statement just cut off without the cruise charge, and I have $22.78 in rewards. So May will be the first month since January that I have not had a $25 mortgage chip applied courtesy of my WF rewards card. In June, I expect I will have $50 applied, thanks to the cruise. Those rewards do add up nicely.

Two years ago I shared on this blog

http://petunia100.savingadvice.com/2011/05/15/my-front-yard...about my plain front yard and the large hideously ugly planter which really has potential. I talked about my plans and my budget to make it look nice and add some curb appeal. Well, those plans have come to nothing in two years. Those darn rocks!

This past Monday as I got into my car at work, I looked to my left. In our parking area, there is a gap in the cement pad. Inspiration struck! Wouldn't it be nice to have that gap filled in, so that no one would accidentally run their tires off the pavement? And wouldn't rocks fill in that gap nicely? On Tuesday, I got the OK from my boss (he owns the property) and I have since been diligently working to fill in the gap. I own two buckets, so fill them with rocks from my front planter and place them in my trunk each evening. In the morning, when I arrive at work I empty them into the gap. So far this week, I have emptied 8 buckets full (on Thursday I had to run to a client's place of business which is close to my house, so I used the opportunity to fill up my buckets again) into the gap.

One of my co-workers commented that she could use some rocks in her yard, and would it be ok if she took some? I said no, but she was welcome to come to my house and help herself. So we will see if anything comes of that.

BF had suggested a while back that I make pavers using the rocks. I thought that was a great idea, until I looked into the cost. It is more expensive to make your own pavers than to just buy them.

And in worst neighbor ever news, I had a visit from the police last Saturday. When my nephew had the altercation with my neighbor, a condition of his probation is that he may not come within 100 yards of the neighbor. The police came to my door looking for nephew. The officer said neighbor had reported he heard nephew at my house. I replied no, nephew has not been here in more than a year, but my high school aged son had a friend from school spending the night, so perhaps that is who the neighbor heard. The officer was satisfied and left. I found this so creepy. Is the neighbor listening at our windows? You know, it really wouldn't surprise me. The lots in my subdivision are small and the houses are close together. So now I am thinking about what I could do along the fence line to provide more privacy.

Well, I did clear 4k as I expected. I have made all of my planned transfers.

I decided to send J to camp. In addition to what I mentioned before, I felt kind of bad that I will be going on a cruise and he will not. A cruise? Yes.

Mom has decided Alaska is a go. We have chosen a different (less expensive) trip. I think we are leaving towards the end of June. We have not actually booked yet. It will be just her and I.

My employer's annual matching check was mailed off yesterday. So lots of new money going into my Simple and Roth this month.

I am expecting a third $25 mortgage chip any day now.

Apparently, I now have a part-time job. However, I am still not entirely certain. On Monday, the woman who called to ask me if I was interested called again to ask when I am meeting with "M" (person who has been issuing their financial statements) to discuss where he is leaving off. Mind you, I have never heard from M. I told her I have no meeting arranged with M. She replied in a confused tone "But, he hired you." I laughed and said "Oh, I did not know that." She laughed too. This sort of thing is very typical for this particular unorganized organization.

I am expecting to clear 4k on Monday from my bonus and over-time. I have it earmarked like this:

$1200 Roth
1700 CurveBall
400 E Fund
400 Vacation Fund
300 J's Annual Allowance

Now, if you take a peek to the left at my sidebar, you will notice CurveBall is sitting at just over $1200. However, I still need to pull out $600 for the vet bill charged to Visa, and $370 for the IRS. So while CurveBall is not anemic, it is also not so very flush. When the dust settles, it won't be a great deal larger than it is right now.

J's summer camp is coming up. The cost is $500. Last year, ex-h agreed to split it with me. However, I have not seen one red cent of his half. So, there is no point in pretending he will split it with me this year. He won't. If J goes, I will have to pay.

I think going away to summer camp is an important developmental experience for a teen or tween. But J has already been 3 times. So, he has had that experience.

He loves the camp. At his age, he is in a junior leadership role.

I have told J frankly that while I do have the money, I feel I may need the money for other things. I do discuss money and budgeting with J, and we talk about how you must cover your needs first, then you can think about things you just want with what is left over. We also talk about how some needs aren't a regular bill like the electric bill, but are things which come up from time to time, and so you need to plan ahead to cover them.

J was disappointed, but said "I understand, Mom". Then he mentioned his money (he has about $1400 in a mutual fund, about $300 in his savings account, plus his allowance is coming up). I said no, I didn't want him using his money for camp. Then he asked if he got a part-time job when school is over, did I think he would be able to earn enough in time to go to camp. I said maybe you could, see if you can find a job. So he plans to try.

Now, I think it would be great for him to have a part-time job. And I really am proud of his attitude. He is disappointed, but not sulky. He rarely asks for anything and he rarely complains. He really is a great kid.

I want to send him, but I am not sure I should part with the money. I could skip the Vacation Fund infusion. It takes me so long to save for a vacation that I am loathe to pass up this annual opportunity to give it a nice little boost.

He doesn't know I am still considering, as far as he knows, the matter is closed.

In other news, my trad IRA broke 130k today for the very first time.

After 4 days of antibiotics, Bree was not responding. The vet felt it was renal failure rather than just an infection, so we made the decision to euthanize her yesterday.



For her boarding, meds, more blood work, euthanization and cremation, I "paid" another $300 via Visa.

Tomorrow I am going to my mom's for Easter dinner. It will be Mom, nephew, DD, DS, BF, and myself. I am looking forward to a nice day with my family, and just enjoying a day off. This has been a rough week, I am emotionally drained and tired.

I have a client who's 34 year old daughter died in a car accident earlier this month. So, I am trying to keep the passing of an elderly dog in perspective. But we will miss her.

Yesterday I ended up leaving work just after lunch to take my sick Bree to the vet. Bree has been staying with my daughter. (Bree was originally adopted by ex-h as a pet for daughter.) Daughter said Bree was vomiting and lethargic. Bree wouldn't eat or drink, and even declined to eat gound beef! Daughter was very worried.

And I had been patting myself on the back for my spending this month. Isn't that the way it goes?

It turned out Bree has a kidney infection. The vet says she has a good shot at recovery.

I "paid" (via credit card) $299 yesterday, and will owe another $25 for each day she stays overnight. Later today they will advise me if they feel she can leave or if they recommend she stay another day. She is on an IV for dehydration.

While we were waiting for the results of Bree's bloodwork, daughter and I walked over to a nearby Starbucks, that was $11. Also, since DD was not in a particular hurry to go home and we hadn't hung out in a while, I treated us both to a movie, Oz The Great and Terrible, that was $21.

One locale I think about from time to time is Reno, Nevada. Why Reno? Climates with dry air appeal to me, due to my mold allergies. There are other locales which interest me, but Reno has the advantage of being close enough to "home" to be driveable for visits.

So yesterday I was browsing real estate listings and saw this:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8670-Umber-...

Now, doesn't that look like a nice little house? 81.5k. That would be very affordable. My minimum income requirement would be so much lower than now.

In budgeting news, I have decided to bump my mortgage payment up from $1081.63 to $1085. Not much, but something.

Payday is not until tomorrow, but I had to do banking errands for a client today at my bank anyway, so I did a wallet sweep and deposited $12. This is another little savings chip for E Fund.

And when I was walking out to my car, I found a dime in the parking lot, right by my car door. It doesn't really add to my wealth though, as I suspect I am the person who dropped it in the first place.

The proceeds from my e-Bay sale (a cool $100) are now sitting in E Fund.

My decoy mail volume has been dropping off to barely anything. Today I received a Time magazine. That is great, because it is a new assignment. I hope I start getting a bunch of magazines, especially the weekly ones.

I got a call this afternoon from a woman I used to work with. Her employer has been experiencing financial challenges. As a result, they have cut way back on their staff. A few years ago, they made the decision to cut their full-charge bookkeeper and have a member of their board of directors issue their financial statements. That board member has recently decided he isn't going to do it any longer. This prompted her call to me.

She called and asked if I would be interested, and if so what I would charge. I considered and said I would be willing to do it for $20 an hour and that they would have to pay me promptly (they are behind on a lot of their payables). I believe once I get my system situated, I could issue their statements with 4 to 6 hours of work, once per month. She will inform the board member and he will call me back, or he won't.

This is something I would have to juggle at night or on weekends, which is some trick this time of year. However, most of the year it would be very easy to fit in.

If I said I would do it for $12 or $14, I'm sure they would kiss me on both cheeks and ask when I can start. However, $20 is on the low end of fair, and I'm not giving my time away.

I don't NEED the money, but I don't feel I'm in a position to pass it up, either. I'm certainly a long way from where I would like to be financially.

Overall, not too bad.

I continue to overspend in Groceries (includes household supplies).

The cost of my car insurance and car maintenance/repair bill exceed the overage in Everything Else.

I received my statement yesterday, and my local electric company is dropping my monthly amount from $238 to $130. This means I can bump up CurveBall some, and bump up my groceries/household budget some.

My paycheck yesterday was for only 9 days instead of the regular 11, so cash in checking is in short supply this month. As a direct result, I will not increase my CurveBall savings deposit in March. Will start that in April.

I took my car in for a service and 4 new tires. My right headlight was out, as well as my left brake light. And it turned out, I had a hose with a hole, so I had that replaced too. The damage was $738.09, charged to WF Visa and will need to be paid (from CurveBall) before the end of March.

I did a wallet sweep yesterday and sent $8 off to E Fund. I'd have had more, but I paid cash for my round trip cable car ride in SF last Sunday. My Bart ticket, my breakfast out, and my dinner out all went on WF Visa and count towards February's "Everything Else". I'll have February's numbers totalled soon.

I have earned a second $25 mortgage chip. The first one posted 2/20, so perhaps the second one will post 3/20. I hadn't anticipated a second one so fast, but my car insurance, groceries, and utilities added up quickly.

We had a wonderful day last Sunday. I was really due for a good, giggly, girlfriend day. But after 2 weeks, I am missing BF of course. He is due to arrive tonight, we will spend Sat together, then he will head home Sunday. I work Sunday, and he has to be at work Monday.

BF and I have discussed moving in together for the past 3 years. He is finally going to sell his house, but now has his new job. His life is there, mine is here. I don't foresee it happening.