Bloom Where You Are Planted

I received an email from Vanguard today, they have received my Simple IRA money! The email states the funds will appear in my account balance tomorrow.

I spoke with my mortgage consultant today. She said my loan will fund June 30th and my first payment will be due August 1st. My loan balance should go up ONLY by the interest accrued in June. Of course, I could just pay it and not skip a payment in July. However, I believe I would rather use the money to pay off Citi MC and the start up costs to switch to Ting (cell phone service). This will improve my cash flow by $150 per month.

Dare I say it? Things are looking up over here.

My daughter texted me yesterday, the apartment complex has denied them. She has an eviction with money still owed from almost 3 years ago. She signed a 6 month lease, lived in the apartment for a month or so, then moved. She was shocked when they expected her to pay anyway, even though I had told her that was how it worked. She was barely 18. I might have done the same at that age.

So she was upset and says she doesn't know what they will do. A medical bill has drained their savings account, she says. I told her try to find a rental offered by a private party, not a property managment company. Even though they have bad credit, they have guaranteed income from the Army. If they look hard enough, they should be able to find a landlord who finds that attractive. I don't know what else to tell her. I don't want them moving in with me again, it never goes well. Also, I feel adults need to do what they can to make their own way, not do nothing and then wait to be rescued.

I haven't had a return call from the WF mortgage consultant who sent me that letter, so I e-mailed the woman who was doing my Harp 2 and asked her about it. This is part of her reply:

Yes, I just checked and your loan is now eligible for the 3 Step. I will have to cancel the loan we started and we can make the 3 Step no cost, live tomorrow.

Yay! Yay, yay, YAY!

She called me just now, too. My Harp 2 is being cancelled today, will be "dead" tomorrow, and we will open my 3 Step.

So I'm going from 5.25 to 4.125 with no closing costs, and a new 30 year loan.

I'm just going to stick with her, since she gets back to me and certain other people do not.

Today in the mail I received an offer from my lender (Wells Fargo) to do a streamline re-finance. It states the terms are based on my LTV of 147%. It says no application fee, no appraisal and no closing costs (no kidding). The rate is 4.125.

It was mailed to me by the same guy who did my loan last time, but who didn't return any of my phone calls when I was trying to find out more info about Harp 2.

The Harp 2 refi I have going on right now with Wells Fargo does have closing costs and the rate is 4.375.

Why didn't they mention this program before? The streamline refi is a much, much better deal! I am calling tomorrow.

Well, my new Simple at Vanguard is still sitting there with $0.00. Edward Jones has sold my mutual fund shares, and I have nothing but cash sitting in my Simple there. I am impatient for them to transfer the funds! So far in 2012, I have contributed $600 to my Simple, but that money hasn't been sent. I think my boss will write the check when he does payables on the 15th. I sure hope so! He will write the check to Vanguard, then give it to me. I will need to log on to Vanguard's small business site and print a deposit coupon, then send that in the mail with the check. Hopefully, he will do my 2011 matching at the same time. (They ended up filing an extension, effectively extending the deadline for 2011 contributions, since the Simple issue was still up in the air on April 15th). I'm just impatient for it all to be DONE already.

Over at the Boglehead's Forum, they suggested I use admiral shares of total stock market in my Simple, then adjust my holdings in my traditional IRA to compensate. What a smart idea! This will effectively reduce my costs even more. I view my traditional and Simple as one pot of money anyway, so that will work just fine. They suggested the same for my Roth, but I'm not going to do that. In my mind, my Roth has a different purpose, so should be invested for that purpose and allocated separately.

I charged the balance due to the travel agent for Hawaii, then transferred the money (before the bill came). With my refi in the works, I didn't want a 4k Visa bill showing up on my credit report (I assume they will check it again before closing). So airfare, hotel, and rental car are all paid in full. Everything left in Vacation Fund is for food and excursions.

My TIAA Direct accounts are open and funded, I have no money at all in Ally any longer. So far everything is fine with TIAA Direct.

I believe I will skip the insurance when I sign up at T-Mobile next month. That means my total monthly bill before taxes will be $80.43. With tax it should still be under $90, which is so much better than what I have been paying! My savings will go to....savings! My cash is getting much too low for my liking, so an additional $50ish per month will certainly help.

A few no frills gyms have opened up near my home and are competing with each other. I am going to investigate, but I believe I can trim a bit from my current gym membership of $25 per month. My girlfriends (reason I joined this particular gym) never go when I do, so I would prefer a gym closer to home anyway. If I can free up $10 to add to savings each month, that is just fine with me.

And the big news...my daughter and son-in-law will be moving back from Indiana next month! They will be renting an apartment before they get here, my daughter says. They have been pricing them online and it seems they have decided on a complex not too terribly far from my house, so I'm excited about that. Once it was clear and agreed upon they WILL NOT be staying with me, I was very happy with the news.

I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend. BF was at my house for a week and just left Wednesday. He will stay home this weekend, as will I. J will have a friend over tonight, and I will likely take them to the movies tomorrow. They want to see The Avengers. I want to get some yard work done. I still (yes, STILL, can you believe it?) have an ugly front planter. I want to get it looking better this spring, so my plants are established before winter sets in.

So I have about a month to go until the contract on my line and my mom's line is up. J's line has another year and 3 months to go.

This month, my bill was $148.77. This is an improvement (!) because I am no longer getting those $2 charges for data access (accidentally hitting the button, not actually accessing the web!). Currently, I have AT & T.

I have been pricing T Mobile this morning. I can get a 3 line plan with 1000 daytime minutes, unlimited nights & weekends, and unlimited text, including insurance, for $94.77 per month plus tax (I think). This would be a savings of $40ish dollars per month.

I would have to pay a $105 activation fee ($35 per line). To leave AT & T early will cost me an early termination fee on J's line of $150 less $4 per full month of service, which should equal $114.

If I wait, the early termination fee will eventually go away, but the activation fee will not. Meanwhile, I will still be spending an additional $40ish dollars per month.

I think it is worth paying 1 early termination fee. It is not worth paying 3, so I can't switch just yet.

How about the insurance? It costs $4.78 per month per phone. Maybe I should just get it on J's phone? That would trim another $9.56 per month.

Do you pay for cell phone insurance?

I was very excited about eliminating payment #357, but my pending refi kind of killed my excitement.

Once the refi is complete, I am going to focus on my savings, both cash and retirement, and stop trying to chip away at my mortgage.

I just stumbled onto this a few days ago. There is a new online bank called TIAA Direct Bank. It is affiliated with TIAA-Cref. Their rates right now on savings and money market is 1.25%, which compares very favorably with other online banks at this time.

I have opened accounts and intend to switch from Ally. I have no loyalty, I just want the best rate I can get.

I received my seasonal over-time and bonus this month, so that is where the extra money came from.

"Everything Else" this month included son's allowance and the dentist.

All in all, not my best spending month, but not too awful, either.

Good news! It seems Harp 2 rates have come down a bit. Two months ago, I was offered 4.625% with no points. Today, I can get 4.375% with 1/4 of a point, approximately $450.00. I am moving ahead with the refi, which I am told will take approximately 60 days. This will drop my PITI approximately $150 per month, but reset my mortgage clock.

The month I skip a mortgage payment, I will pay Citi MC in full and just be done with it. That will free up an additional $50 per month.

What will I do with an additional $200 per month? I am thinking Roth and cash savings.

Yay!!

I sent in new paperwork on Monday, and this afternoon I received an e-mail with a confirmation link to register for the small business site. I am now the plan administrator and company contact of my own Simple IRA! Whoo-hoo!!

I logged off the small business site and logged on to the personal investor site, and my Simple shows up on my page there, too! Now to send some money.

Yay!! I feel like this is such a huge boost to my bottom line! No more front end loads and no more high on-going expense ratios should help me keep more of my dollars.

Yesterday I filled out a new set of paperwork, naming myself as the company contact and plan administrator. My boss said that was just fine. So with my fingers crossed, I am hopeful this will go through with no trouble.

Such a "simple" solution, maybe.

Received $.81 from Lending Club and chipped it.

I received my check from Card Pool on Thursday, and have already turned it into a mortgage chip.

Bad news with my Simple IRA transfer. I received a letter from Vanguard asking me to call. I did so and was told that I need to supply the SSN of the retirement plan contact person at my company. That would be my boss, and he has declined to provide his SSN. So...I cannot move to Vanguard. I'm very disappointed.

I am checking with Wells Fargo. I know that they offer Simple IRAs, but don't know if they will accept orphaned Simple IRAs, and also don't know if I can set it up as a brokerage account and get the same deal as I have on my plain vanilla traditional IRA (100 commission free trades per year). Heck, if they'd just let me share my free trades between the two, that would be more than sufficient.

As a last resort, I will start a new account at the new company (our old Edward Jones guy recently started) with my two bosses, then roll the money currently in my Simple at Edward Jones to my traditional IRA. My fear is the commissions and fees at the new company will be even worse than they were at Edward Jones. After all, it is a new company with lots of start up costs.

What a relief that another tax season has ended. This year was especially exhausting. Our receptionist/secretary needed time off which meant the other staff accountant and I had to take on her duties as well. We hired a temp, she was trained for 5 days, then worked solo for 7 days. She was doing a great job, but stopped showing up. She didn't resign, just stopped showing up. Her agency e-mailed us to say she had a family emergency and had to go out of town. However, we discovered that she left her key in her desk at the end of her last day, even though it would be hours before she would even learn of her family emergency. Hmmmm.

I racked up less overtime this year than last, due to my Bodega Bay overnight trip fiasco, and being sick for 3 weeks. My bonus was $100 larger than last year. Together, I cleared just a few dollars under 4k. I deposited them, then transferred $1400 to vacation fund, $1000 to CurveBall, and $600 to my Roth. I plan to send $400 extra to Citi MC and $170 to my son's mutual fund. (I promised him $300, but he asked for 2 video games. I told him they would come out of his $300.) That's $3570, the rest is sitting in checking.

My Simple IRA transfer is still in transit. I am expecting my matching plus my contributions from Jan - March to be deposited. The transfer is holding up my deposits. Together, that amounts to $1920 which needs to be added to my account. It will be so nice to not lose 5.75% right off the top anymore!

Yesterday in the mail I received a refund from my impound account in the amount of $119.05. I have already turned it into a mortgage chip. Beginning in June, my PITI payment will drop a few dollars. I do not plan to change my budgeted PITI.

Still waiting for my Card Pool check. The website says it takes 3 - 7 business days, and today was only the 3rd business day.

BF brought me a nice big garbage can to keep in the garage for my recyclables. I think that will be nicer than storing them in used grocery store plastic bags. I don't buy a lot of canned sodas, or bottled water, but I do buy some. (I don't like my son to drink a lot of soda, and I rarely drink soda. We have a Brita pitcher for home drinking water.) When my nephew lived here, he would always throw the empty containers away. I got tired of asking him not to, so I started taking them to work with me. I work downtown and park in an alley behind our office. We have a large homeless population downtown. I would simply set my empty containers next to a dumpster, and they wouldn't last 30 minutes. So it worked out both for me and for the person who found them first. However, I think now that I have a nice big plastic can to store them in, I will sell them every so often and use the money for....you guessed it, mortgage chips.

Cancelling my landline resulted in a credit balance, and I received a check from AT & T.... in the amount of .05! Uhm, thank you?

Friday was payday, but I didn't make it to the bank until today. I did a wallet sweep and had $9.69 this time.

Both amounts were mortgage chips.

I have been thinking about my front yard, and have come up with a plan which I think will both look nice and give me some private outdoor space. The best part is...it will result in no lawn to mow! I am not certain what it will cost me, but I am thinking once Hawaii is done, a makeover for my front yard will be the next thing I save up for.

I sold my gift card this morning electronically on Card Pool, for $18.75. I lost an additional $1.25 in value, but don't need to mail in the actual card. This is convenient, since I no longer have it.

From the time I put in my sell order, to receiving an email that they had verified my balance and mailed my check, about 30 minutes.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I intended to sell a gift card on Plastic Jungle. I have been trying to do just that, but it hasn't been working out too well.

I have sold gift cards on Plastic Jungle in the past with no trouble whatsoever, but this time it is another story.

First, I put in a sell order. I received my e-mail confirmation, which stated I would receive my shipping label e-mail within 24 hours. I never received it. After 2 days, I e-mailed customer service. Eventually, I was told that my order had been cancelled because it had orginated too far from my home zip code. I submitted the order from my work computer. I live and work in the same town. Glitches happen sometimes, so I take this with good humor.

I submit a second sell order. This time, I do receive my shipping label e-mail and promptly mail my gift card to Plastic Jungle. A week passes, I go on-line to see if my check has been mailed. I discover that the status of my order is "cancelled"! I e-mail customer service, they eventually reply that Plastic Jungle was not able to verify the balance of my gift card. I am supplied with the gift card and PIN number.

I call the merchant's gift card information line, and I learn that the balance on my card is $25.00, exactly what I had claimed it was. I e-mail customer service. I receive a reply that my e-mail is being forwarded to another department.

A few days go by, and I receive another e-mail. They are sorry for the inconvenience and they ask me to submit a new sell order. I think to myself, I will do that, then reply to the e-mail with my new order confirmation number. Well, I attempt to submit a new sell order but I receive an error message that the gift card already exists in their system. I e-mail customer service again.

This is the reply I received this afternoon:

Thank you for contacting Plastic Jungle.

We would like to inform you that your card for the order # PJ200210142 has been freed from the system. However we found that the card balance is less than $25.00.

We request you to check the balance again because if the balance is less than $25.00 we will not be able to accept it.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

I called the merchant's gift card information number again, and again verified that my gift card balance is $25.00. Right at that moment, I became very disgruntled. They obviously still have not bothered to verify my gift card balance!

I sent them an e-mail summarizing my experience and my frustration. If they don't just send me my check, I am going to contact the merchant, have the gift card replaced, and sell it to another gift card broker.

Well, it isn't pretty, but here it is.

My utilities are UGLY. I had to trim back on savings and credit card debt to accommodate my new, bigger, balanced bill pay amounts, and I still went over! I have paid my last home phone bill, so that will help some. I expect my electric and gas usage to go down now that there is one less person in the house. And I am seeing that already, it will just take some time for the reduced usage to impact my balanced bill pay plans. I'm still not completely sold on the whole balanced bill idea, but I'm going to leave it be for now.

Also in utilites, my cell phone bill is too darn high. I have called to see if I can get a lower bill, but I really can't at the moment. My contract is up in June for my line and my mom's line. J's line still has more than a year to go. AT&T is much more expensive than T-Mobile. I just want to go back to T-Mobile! My bill in March was $166, which included several $2 per use data charges. I had asked to have data blocked! When I called, I was told that it isn't blocked, but they will be happy to block it. If I accessed the web from my phone, it was only because I accidentally hit the wrong button. I have tons of roll-over minutes too, but I have the lowest amount of minutes which includes unlimited nights and weekends. If I bump down (from 700 to 550), then night and weekend calls will have to come from those 550 minutes. For 3 people, that seems like not enough.

"Everything Else" this time around is mostly for pharmacy and dr. co-pays, but does include a video game for J.

My Visa spending in March was fine, but February's bill had to be paid and CurveBall is poor again.

In all honesty, after all that has happened in the last 6 weeks, I am just grateful to have no new credit card debt.

Groceries was way too high. I picked up too many convenience foods, and picked up take n bake pizza a few times as well.

So that's how it went. I am determined to do better in April.

Chips this month included interest, proceeds from wallet sweeps, and Lending Club.

A day early. The markets are closed tomorrow, and I will have to keep my wallet closed. After all, I want my reporting to be accurate.




The past few months have been kind. My cash is down as you can see. Investments are up. Housing value is up (amazing!). Debt is down.

I missed reporting last month due to illness.

My employer's retirement plan is a Simple IRA. It has been set up at Edward Jones. A few months ago, our plan advisor chose to leave Edward Jones and open his own investment firm. The two partners at our firm chose to follow him. They gave us employees (all two of us, the third employee does not participate) the option to follow, stay, or move our accounts elsewhere.

Well, it turns out Vanguard will accept "orphaned" Simple IRAs!! I started the paperwork process today. My Simple IRA is moving! I am so jazzed. No more front end loads, no more high expense ratios, and a reduction in annual fees from $40 to $25. Yay!! That means more of my money for me.

In other riveting news, I did a wallet sweep and chipped another $9.38 from my mortgage. What will the huge chunk of granite become as I chip away? Will it resemble Michelangelo's David? Hmmm.

To recap my situation, I bought my current house in November 2007 for 231,400. I put down 20% + closing, + had to make repairs out of pocket.

I feel regret pangs when I see what my home is worth today. It isn't so much the loss in value, it is the knowledge that had I waited a few years to buy, I could do so much better today.

Look at this place, in a very nice area:

http://www.ziprealty.com/property/1804-CASHMERE-DR-MODESTO-...

Isn't it cute? It is the same size as mine now, with a smaller lot, in a better school district, with a community pool. 97k!!! If I were buying that today and putting the same amount of dollars down, I would have a mortgage of 51k. I would take a 15 or 10 year note, have smaller payments than I currently have, and be done paying YEARS sooner.

What a huge difference that would have made in my retirement plans!

Since time travel is regrettably not possible, there is nothing I can do about that. But I ponder, what CAN I do? Is there some way I can benefit from today's low home prices + low interest rates? Is there an opportunity here for me to add to my modest nest egg?

I am toying with the idea of seeing if I can qualify for an FHA loan, buy a house for 100k or so, rent out my current home, and wait for the day I can sell for enough to get out from under. FHA has a 3.5% + closing down 30 year fixed loan. I would have to pay PMI. I would need to scrape up 7k or so, which would have to come from a retirement account.

Of course, I would have to take a 30 year loan on the new place, not a nice 10 year loan. But the payments would be half of what I pay now. That is the advantage I see. The disadvantage I see is....I don't enjoy being a landlord.

In other news...I had another $2.43 available in my Lending Club account. I transferred and chipped it. I have less than $5 still owed to me, so Lending Club chips are approaching the end.

I sold a gift card on Plastic Jungle for $20. When I receive the check, I will chip that too.

I am feeling a lot better, but still have not gotten caught up to my usual level of organization. However, I am making a bit of progress. In the past 2 days, I have:

1. Paid my electric bill. A day late! Thank goodness I thought of it yesterday. I ran down to their office, without my bill (can't find it) and paid. I am expecting a $5 late fee to be added to my account.

2. Paid my home telephone bill.

3. Called to cancel my home telephone. (With nephew gone, there is just no need for it.)

4. Returned my Chase Southwest card with a note to please close the account. (Opened for one-time rewards.)

5. Returned my Discover More card with a note to please close the account. (Opened for one-time rewards.)

6. Transferred the $1500 in my Chase checking account (part of my EF, opened to take advantage of a free money offer). It's been 7 months, and I was only required to have it open for 6 months. Once the transfer is posted on the receiving end, I will close the account.

7. Balanced my regular checking account.

8. Did a wallet sweep and chipped $3.29 to my mortgage. Compared what I have actually paid to what I have been scheduled to pay, and was pleased to notice that....I am nearly 1k ahead of schedule!

9. Got my bill book up-to-date.

10. Called Edward Jones (our Simple IRA custodian) rep to get my contribution deposited in Jan 2012 reclassified. They called it a 2012 contribution, so their records of my 2011 contributions did not match my W-2.

My balanced bill plan with my local electric company has just adjusted up, from $132 to $238. I'm not surprised, I knew $132 was too low.

My balanced bill plan with PG & E has just adjusted up, from $54 to $78. That one did surprise me, I thought $54 was plenty.

I'm hoping to be completely organized by the end of the month. We'll see.

I have been a bit under the weather. Two weeks ago, I had a cold and with it came a deep, hacking cough. The cold is gone now, but the cough remains. The more I move around and talk, the worse the coughing. It is constant. I have been to the doctor twice, completed a round of antibiotics, two different cough suppressants, and she even tried steroids to see if it was an allergy thing. I went for a chest x-ray last Wednesday. The doctor has still not called with the results. I'm annoyed about that. I called the doctor's office Thursday and the results were in, but the doctor still needed to read them.

I have been missing work, and while at work have not been as productive as usual. I am going to work tomorrow, but I am no better. I have no choice, there are some things I must have done before 3/15. It's going to be quite a challenge as I still feel awful.

Between missed overtime and co-payments, this has been costing me plenty of money.

I am way behind on my budgeting, bill-paying, and record keeping. I don't have the energy to catch up right now, either.

At a pre-trial court appearance, my nephew plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge. His sentence includes probation and he can no longer live in my house. He must remain at least 100 yds away from my neighbors for the duration of his probation. This is not a restraining order, it is a condition of his probation. At the moment, he is staying at my mom's house. It hasn't really sunk in yet, that he is gone and not coming back.

And lastly, I did something I hope I will not regret later. I lent my BF $6,000. He was on the verge of losing his house. It is his own fault for dragging his feet for so long. He had scraped up every cent he could, but was still short. Even in this market, the house is worth 500k or so. The mortgage balance was 30ish thousand. So the mortgage is now current. Additionally, he is borrowing some money from an old family friend to pay the mortgage in full. The friend will put a lien on the house in the amount of the loan. So there will be no more mortgage.

The house is a beautiful custom built house in a golf course community. It is an unusual house, modeled after a resort BF's mother and step-father visited in Mexico. There is a pool with a swim up bar in the middle of the house, and lots of tropical plants. The rest of the house is built around it, with views of the pool from every room. There is a master suite and a guest suite, living room, kitchen, home office, laundry, and a third bathroom. Not a lot of rooms, but all of them are large. There are a lot of upscale features. My favorite is all of the windows in the master suite are floor to ceiling. Outside each window are small gardens complete with fountains and a privacy wall. So as you look outside, you simply see lush tropical gardens.

This past weekend was like Mr. Toad's wild ride.

On Saturday, BF and I took off for a day trip to Bodega Bay. We enjoyed the beach and a fresh seafood dinner. We had a nice, relaxing time.

We started home about 7 pm. It should have been a 3 hour trip home. Instead, it was a 20 hour trip. I am going to summarize this particular fiasco quite a bit. It started with my car dying as we were driving down the road. We eventually got a tow into a nearby town and left my car at a Pep Boys, hoping they could work on my car Sunday. We had to take a cab to a hotel with a vacancy. The only vacancy we found was at a budget motel and the room had a broken heater. Better than sleeping in the bushes outside, so we took it. No clean clothes, no toiletries. That cost $65. Spent half the next day waiting at Pep Boys, and they were able eventually to get my car repaired (new alternator). That cost $389.

Arrived home a little past 3pm. Missed work, that cost 8 hours of OT. Upon arrival, my nephew and all 3 dogs were not in the house. My nephew's bicycle was in the garage. He would not take all 3 dogs for a walk all by himself. His bedroom door was wide open, and he always closes and locks it. Over the course of the afternoon, two different people called to say they had my dog. I collected those two, but the third dog is still missing.

What happened to my nephew? Well, it seems Saturday night he played rap music really loud all night, upsetting the next door neighbors. The very same neighbors with whom we have had the fence isssue. Sunday afternoon, they called the cops. The cops came but heard no music (it was off by then). As they were speaking with the neighbor, my nephew came outside and began giving the neighbor a piece of his mind. He screamed "Im gonna kill you" to the neighbor in front of the cops. Brilliant idea? Hmm, perhaps not. Nephew has been arrested and is currently in jail. I went tonight thinking I could visit, but that isn't how it works. I had to fill out a visitor registration form and they will review and approve or deny me, I will hear back in a few days. His bail is $50,000. I will not be bailing him out.

I'm still pretty upset. I apologized to the neighbors for the disturbance. I don't care for the neighbors, but there is no reason they should have to put up with that.

When you are applying for a Harp 2 refi, that is when.

Rates dipped this morning so I contacted my mortgage consultant. I learned that Harp 2 loans are not market rate and do have a premium. This is not what I had understood her to say when we talked previously. I can get 4.625%, or 4.375% with a point. I said that unless I can shave at least 1 percent from my current rate with no points, I am not interested in doing a refi. She acknowledged that the current rates are not very beneficial to me. So unless rates dip quite a bit more, there is no refi in my immediate future.

I chipped the $10.00 I received from Hauser. Tomorrow is payday, so I did a wallet sweep and chipped an additional $7.01 from that.

Its my birthday, but more importantly, it is the day I can officially begin my refinance. All last week, the rate for a 30 year fixed was 3.875. This morning, 4.0. Isnt't that always the way? :P I did not ask for a lock today.

I have not heard from my mortgage consultant further. So I haven't actually signed anything at all yet. I am sure I am not the only person around here salivating to refinance.

Today in the mail I received my first check from Hauser! It is for $10.00. It is for the period Jan to Oct 2011. I was expecting $21.00 for Jan to Nov 2011. If you exclude November (which was a high volume month), then $10.00 is correct. I really want to chip it, even though my refi makes it seem pointless.

Friday morning J decided he wants to be on the school swim team. The deadline to turn in the paperwork and get a physical is tomorrow. Don't you just love when your kids pull that sort of thing? When I filled out the paperwork, I ran across one sheet which needed to be signed by me in the presence of a school official, who also needed to sign. Well, great. So today I took a long lunch and drove over to the high school to take care of that. It was pouring down rain and I got soaked. Tomorrow immediately after school, J's dad will take him to the dr. for his physical. And tomorrow night J will attend practice and turn everything in. As it happens, practice is 4 nights a week and is held not at the high school J attends, but at the one a few blocks away. Yay! That means J can get himself back and forth from practice with no trouble at all.

On Saturday, I spent the day with my mom, my cousin, and J. My cousin bought some nice travel books for each of us; one on Oahu and one on Hawaii (Big Island). We pored over them, discussing what we would like to see. Wasn't that thoughtful and organized of her? She is sooo like that. (I have LOTS of cousins, but this is the one with whom I have a close relationship.) Her name begins with an L. From now on, I will refer to her as cousin L.

Work is crazy. I don't know what else to say about that.

My federal income tax refund of $763 posted today. I sent $700 to vacation fund (to repay what I previously "borrowed") and $63 to CurveBall. I'm feeling much better about the balance in CurveBall!

Yesterday I charged a deposit for our Hawaii trip to my Visa. That charge won't show up until next month's bill. Until then, the money will sit in Vacation Fund accruing interest (teensy as it may be).

Mortgage rates for 30 year fixed continue to be 3.875%. (I check twice a day.) They haven't even fluctuated in more than a week. I can't lock yet, still waiting.

I made a big mistake at Christmas time when I redeemed rewards points. I had 50,000 pts on Chase Sapphire and was expecting, at any moment, 50,000 pts on Chase Southwest. I was saving the Sapphire pts to use on airfare to Hawaii, as that yields a 25% bonus. Half of the Sapphire pts belonged to BF as it was his purchase which earned them. But the Southwest pts were mine, all mine, and I planned to use them for Best Buy gift cards to buy J's iPad2 (his Christmas gift).

Well, Christmas was approaching and my Southwest pts kept not showing up. I was beginning to worry they would not arrive in time. So I thought, I'll just use the Sapphire pts, then the Southwest pts will go towards airfare. So that is just what I did. And it might have worked beautifully. But guess what? Southwest doesn't fly to Hawaii. Did I bother to check before using the Sapphire pts? No, I did not.


My next thought was to cash them in for gas cards. They do have Shell gas cards, but only $25 cards. $25 cards cost 3,000 pts each. $50 gift cards cost 5,000 pts each. I'm not too excited about losing 500 pts on each $25 gas card. If I cashed in all of the pts, I would receive 16 $25 cards, or $400 worth of gasoline.

So, today I cashed Southwest pts in for Wal-Mart gift cards. I bought 10 @ $50 each for 50,000 pts. Once I receive the gift cards, I will close the credit card account. I will sell the Wal-Mart cards on Plastic Jungle and take a loss on the face value (3.4%). The transaction should net $483. That is $241.50 each for BF and I.

I suppose it isn't too awful since we ended up buying a travel package including airfare. I had priced tickets, and they are running $850 each including taxes. Our whole package is right at $1800 per person, for air, 9 nights lodging, and rental cars while on the big island. (Our 2 days on Oahu, we will not have a rental car. We do have shuttle service to and from the airport included in that price.)

Previously I said $1850 each person, but that was based on the first resort we booked. (My cousin has narrowed it down to two resorts. One was almost booked solid, the other was not. She booked the one which was almost full, and we had a time window during which we could switch if we wanted with no penalty. We did decide to switch to the Mauna Lani Point resort, which is the link I posted in my last entry.) There was a small price difference and our total went down. We are actually staying in condos, and will have a kitchen with a stove, fridge, pots and pans, dishes, and utensils. This will be nice as we will not need to eat out for every meal. We will do a grocery shopping trip shortly after arrival. We will eat some meals in and also will pack lunches to take with us on outings. And I want to try the local farmer's market. I wonder how freshly picked bananas taste? I'm going to find out!

My cousin went to see her travel agent this morning. Our trip is booked! We will spend 2 nights on Oahu and 7 nights on the big island. For round trip air, hotel, two rental cars (there will be 8 of us), and travel insurance, it comes to $1850 per person. Of course, we will need more for food and activities.

I'm very excited!

Update: here is where we are staying for 7 of our 9 nights
I don't expect to suffer much.

http://www.maunalanipoint.com/luxury/villas.cfm