Since my last entry, I have received:

1. SB rent ($200)

2. CC rewards ($73.22), and

3. payment from HauserNet ($31.25)

All of it has been sent off to GE Capital. The balance is up to $2,595.83.

Slow but steady progress.

Today my mother and I attended a baby shower for my grand niece. She and her husband are foster adopting through their county's social services system, and are expecting two newborn girls at the end of this month. One will be placed in their care immediately following birth, and one will be placed in their care in a few months. They are hoping to adopt both babies.

At the shower, I got to see another grand-niece whom I had not seen in about 5 years. She is turning 18 next month, and so very grown up now.

Also at the shower were my grand-niece's mother and a woman I have known for about 14 years through a former job, and for whom coincidentally my grand-niece has done babysitting. And that was it, I did not know anyone else!

It was a super fun afternoon. I am so happy for my grand-niece and her husband and I cannot wait to hold those little babies.

In savings news, I received a check from my part-time job for $180 and have sent it off to savings. I now have savings accounts at GE Capital Savings Bank, Wells Fargo, and my credit union. The credit union account pays 0.00% interest, and I have to make a transaction at least every 12 months or I am charged $5, but I can't close it and remain a member. So twice a year I make a small deposit to keep it fee free. The Wells Fargo account is just for convenience, since I have my checking account there. And the GE Capital account is what I am trying to grow.

I am trying to reach 15k in GE Capital by the end of this year. Not sure if I will be able to do it, but that is my goal.

My state income tax refund has shown up! The amount is $1,023.

Next month, $822 will be due on my auto insurance policy. I went ahead and paid it using a rewards card. I have already scheduled an electronic payment from checking to the rewards card.

That leaves $201 to squirrel away into savings.

Savings account balance is now $3,109.82. Still far too low, but making progress.

In riveting personal news, SB and I are going to finally see the new Star Wars movie tonight. Tonight is his treat; he already bought the tickets. It sure is nice for him to be able to take a turn. He says it is going to be his turn for a long time.

I just paid all of my bills for August, and had $91.76 "extra" in checking. Off to CurveBall it went. I just love it when I get to sweep "extra" money to savings or debt.

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.

I received my check for $41.53 from Inbox Dollars, and it has been applied to my mortgage principal.

October bills are all paid, except for the bug man who has not shown up yet. I left $562 in checking, and swept the rest to CurveBall. The sweep amounted to $102.86, so that is helpful.

Today was payday, so it was time for a wallet sweep. I had $8 to apply to my mortgage, bringing the balance down to only $176,247.01. (Yup, that was tongue-in-cheek).

Automatic savings transfers happen tomorrow, so I just went ahead and updated my sidebar totals. It is nice to have a little something in CurveBall again. If I finish October bill paying with more than $500 in checking, I will sweep any excess into CurveBall too. It needs all the help it can get.

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.

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.

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".

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.