WOOT!

Listed a few textbooks on half.com a couple of weeks ago. The lower priced ones ($10 and under) haven't sold, but I came home to an email saying that the book I listed for the highest amount ($51.38) has been purchased and I will be paid on the last day of the month- tomorrow.

When I get my $50 from the hospital refund, plus the $51.38 from half.com, I will have $101.38 toward my $480 of tuition, due September 17. The moral of the story, kids, is to never, ever damage your textbooks (and the funny part is that this is a personal finance book!)

I need to get off my butt and list more things on half.com and ebay- I've got a room full of stuff to list that was given to me free of charge (probably 125+ pieces of clothing that I'm listing in lots of 3 or 4 items). And probably some more coming in the next few months by a kindly ex-relative who is moving out of state and downsizing considerably (both in that she is moving into a smaller place and in that she has gone down a few sizes- woohoo for her and double woohoo for me!)

The way that my husband and I have divvied up the bills has meant that for the past four years, he was responsible for all food purchases (meals out, groceries), which is a pretty good spot for him considering some weeks I spend next to nothing and am really careful about wielding his debit card. Plus, he likes to be the one to pay in a restaurant. Overall, this system works out really well for us (and we based our expense load on what percentage of the family’s monthly income- mine being 60% and his 40%- then averaged out our bills and assigned him what would be roughly 40% of our total expenses and me 60%, he pays the electric too to round this out).

Anyway, the pay check he got yesterday was pretty pitiful. We figured out that after he made his car payment (he’s always bought cars outright, and this one is the first he’s ever financed and he is insanely meticulous about the loan) and paid for daycare on Monday, he would have about $60 left in his checking account. Instead of looking at this like a problem (and really, it’s not a big deal), we’re going about this like a clean-cupboard challenge. Now, let me also point out, that we only have 2 cupboards to hold food in anyway, so it’s not like ours get crazy-out-of-control-call-the-health-department kind of full. No, when ours are full, it’s maybe 2 weeks worth of meals in backlog. We had to install a lazy susan in the cupboard for our spices because otherwise they took up an entire shelf which we desperately needed.

So, while we already have a good stockpile going, a few handy dandy surprises showed up. One was a gift of some fresh picked onions from my grandmother-in-law’s garden. Another was some banana peppers from a girl at work in exchange for some of my cucumbers. My garden is overflowing with sweet peas, cucumbers, jalapenos, and bell peppers so I find that when I share my excess, other veggies magically appear at my house. This has to be the greatest unexplained gardening phenomena that there is.

Without further ado, here is a list of things I can make with stuff I have on hand. I only plan to buy milk and pop this week (damn you, vices!)

Pizza Night:
Homemade pizza dough (yay for bread machines!), tomato sauce, oregano & basil from garden, bell peppers from garden, banana peppers from coworker, jarred artichokes from cupboard, marinated mushrooms from cupboard, pepperonis from fridge, shredded mozzarella from fridge. I have enough to make two pizzas, but I could make one pizza and one calzone…hmmm

Mexican Night:
Braised pork loin stockpiled during excellent meat sale and frozen- topped with jalapenos from garden & enchilada sauce, canned black beans with onions & canned diced tomatoes, corn muffins from jiffy mix in cupboard (the just add water kind!)- this will feed us for dinner and lunches the next day

Asian Night:
Sushi Rice, sliced rib-eye in a ginger marinade(from the side of beef we purchased with our tax returns and froze), pea pods from garden, wasabi & soy sauce, broccoli from freezer (this will also be a tasty in my lunch the next day)

Mediterranean/Veggie Night:
Some pickled Mediterranean veggies from the cupboard (I should explain this, a few months ago my husband was cleaning out the stock room at work and found a case of gourmet antipasto stuff, covered in dust, but unopened and not expired. He asked the manager on duty and she said to go ahead and take them home because they would just get left there and go bad at work- there’s tons of roasted peppers, artichokes, mushrooms, veggie salads, it’s all really delicious. There’s also a severely out of place jar of orange marmalade, and I swear I’m going to use it some day). Rice, Cucumbers from the garden, more onions, garlic, yogurt (I need to use that up anyway!), and curried chickpeas or possibly falafels, depending on how daring/lazy I feel. This stuff always seems to multiply, and would make a good lunch too. I could make some whole wheat pitas with stuff on hand and pop those in the oven, but I don’t think I even need to.

Cornish Game Hens:
Cornish game hens (from the freezer, bought on sale with a coupon), stuffed with garlic croutons (I’ve been saving up some stale bread for this) rosemary, and thyme (both herbs from the garden), served with broccoli & cauliflower, could possibly use leftover meat & bones to make a chicken soup, but probably won’t.

Spaghetti & Meatballs:
Garlic bread from bread machine, whole wheat spaghetti, jar of pasta sauce from sale/coupon sitting in the cupboard, meatballs from freezer stockpile, add basil & oregano to sauce (from garden)- Have enough to make lunch & dinner

Breakfast for Dinner:
Eggs (need to use up), turkey bacon (frozen, in the freezer meat stockpile), fried potatoes with onions & rosemary (from garden), and if the potatoes aren’t looking so fresh, I can make pancakes with syrup & butter instead.

Apple Tarts:
Homemade pie crust (for some reason I have 2 lbs of butter that desperately need used up), apples that I bought on sale a while back and are getting close to their prime, and the rest of ingredients are sitting around

Banana Bread:
Frozen bananas, and the rest of the ingredients are sitting around

Cream of Wheat Muffins:
The recipe is on the box and is embarrassingly simple. They taste like corn muffins. I have dried cranberries and white chocolate chips to add to them- YUM! Great lunch time snack or breakfast addition…maybe I’ll throw in some of that orange marmalade!

Chocolate Chip Cookies:
I never, ever have ingredients to make these from scratch, and for whatever reason, I do right now. This will be fun for watching movies tonight- pizza & cookies!


It's beginning to look like I might have enough food for two weeks...wow!

Soooo-

I had this HIDA scan done on my gallbladder back in May. After the insurance paid their 80%, I was supposed to be charged $300. I agreed to pay $50 every month on the 15th. I made the first payment while I was at the hospital. June came and I never got a bill. I thought maybe the girl who did the billing made a mistake and started the billing cycle in July instead of June. July comes, nothing.

I called the hospital yesterday and explained I hadn't gotten a bill, and wanted to pay but because I had no bill I had no account number or PO Box to send it to. The lady on the other line (and seriously these people must really, really hate their jobs, she was so incredibly unhappy, even when I made it plain as day that I'm not the type that calls bill collectors just to yell at them) just sat there in silence. So then she goes, "what do you need me for?" and I said, "well I don't have a bill and I don't want to get behind. Can you tell me if my address is right and what is going on in my account?"

After some heavy sighing she tells me that the insurance went ahead and paid it in full, because my new billing year had kicked in by the time the transaction was made. Not only do I not have to pay the $300, but they are in the process of returning my $50 right now and I should get it any day.

So I tell the woman, "wow that really made my day, thanks I'm glad I called." "yeah bye."

HOSPITALS!

Anyway, that $50 is going toward my tuition which is due 9/18. I have to pay $480 out of pocket, and will get 100% reimbursed in December if I get an A or B, if I get a C I get 75% reimbursement from my employer.

With that $50, I have to raise $430 more. I still have a room full of stuff to sell on eBay. I get off of work at 11am today to see the dentist, and the husband doesn't have to work today. I'm hoping to convince him to entertain the little one for a couple of hours so I can get the eBay auctions up and start chipping away at my tuition.

Soooo. I finally got off my butt and called the cable/internet provider. Turns out they are offering new customers a deal, ultra high speed internet, digital cable with DVR, and digital phone loaded with services and free long distance for $99.99/month, free installation. We're already going with this company for our internet and cable (both the lowest level of awesomeness that they have) and paying $72/month. My telephone bill, which is just the basics, and started out as $29.99 a month, has slowly and steadily climbed to around $75 a month even without long distance. (WTF?)

So I asked the cable company, just out of curiosity, do you extend a discount to existing customers if they get this package? And what do you know, since I don't go through their phone service currently, I'm considered a new customer, and will get the deal and free installation.

I will save $47 a month, have a faster internet connection, actually get to watch shows that are on while I'm at work, and should I make a long distance call, the cost won't change.

Sooooo

I'm involved in a highly addictive crafting website (craftster.org). The kind folks on this site mostly post photos of their latest conquests and ask for help. There's an additional forum for swaps, a moderator sets you up with someone you don't know, you fill out a survey about your likes, and then have to craft a minimum number of items that revolve around a theme.

I was recently paired with a lovely kindergarten teacher from California who had mentioned that she wanted a bag that was big enough to fit all of her crap in and had a strap wide enough that it didn't slip off of her shoulder- and she doesn't sew so she would like someone else to make her one.

So I made her a bag in exchange for some lovely knitted items. I was pretty proud of the bag, it took maybe 2 hours to make, but I did it in 20 and 30 minute spurts in the mornings before work or when my son was preoccupied with cartoons in the next room. So she emails me Monday and says she really loves the bag. No, she says, I REALLY love the bag.

Today I have an email saying that she used it at work and her coworker [i]FLIPPED OUT[i] over it and was wondering if I would be willing to do some commissioned work. Seriously? I mean- really, really seriously?

Yep. Now what to charge, what to charge...

If things go well, I may have to open up a shop on etsy.com! (squeal!)

My husband works on cars for a living. At any given time we have at least twice as many cars as what we probably should. Because he's also paranoid, we insure all of them.

When we split the household bills eons ago, I took on the duty of paying for all insurance (health, auto, homeowners, etc.).

Recently he sold one of his cars, and he fixed up another one and garaged another one to be his project next summer. He asked me to please switch the insurance from the garaged one to the one he fixed up and drop it completely from the one he sold (confusing I know). Thank goodness we know our insurance agent really, really well- I have the girl's email address and she knows us on a first name basis now (yikes)

Anyway, so whatever leftover balances they had they applied to future payments on our other cars, but when all was said and done, there was somehow still some extra money floating around that they couldn't apply to anything. I got an envelope in the mail yesterday thinking it was just another policy renewal, and turns out it was a check for $25.20, labeled as a "Policy Dividend" by our agent.

WOOHOO!

So this morning I'm heading to the bank to deposit $26 from eBay, and $25 from the car insurance into my account which I can use to help pay for these medical bills that keep rolling in. Also, since my son just had a birthday, I have $115 to deposit in his savings- once it reaches $1000 we're going to transfer it to a money market account in the same bank. I do my banking at a credit union which has fantastic rates, awesome programs for kids, and makes everything super easy.

Yesterday before work I listed about $150 worth of textbooks on amazon and half.com. One of my books was only selling on average for $2 (it's a workbook) so I decided it wasn't worth it to pay the listing fees.



Edited to Update with Awesomeness:

Went to the bank and started up the baby's savings. Also, while I was stuck in there anyway, asked if they would change my direct deposit contribution so that instead of my entire check going to my checking account, $40 goes to the savings biweekly and the rest to checking. It was so incredibly easy that I feel stupid for not doing it 5 years ago when I started the account- I could've had $5200 in savings by now if I would've started sooner.

Anyway, I was thinking about my 457 plan and how about $100 a month goes into it and feeling kind of pathetic, until I did the calculations and realized that I am putting 5% of my net income into my retirement. That's really not that shabby at all considering I have 25 years to go. With this $40 biweekly going into my other savings, that's almost another 5%- so I'm pretty much putting 9%(ish) into long term and short term savings. Not bad at all for a 23 year old.

As of next Friday I have a $0.66/hr raise. I knew it was coming for a while now, but only really figured out the cold hard numbers yesterday. When I did this, I found that after taxes I'm only really going to see about a $35 difference in my biweekly paycheck (80 hours), but I'm not too disappointed by that.

I have a pension that is funded by me and my employer. I also have a 457 plan available to me, and currently I am contributing $35 biweekly to my 457 Retirement plan (I work for the government and do not have 401k, 403b, etc.). I've been contributing to this for a little over a year, and already have over $1300 in it (and remember, that's at $35 every other week).

Since I got this raise I figured I would go ahead and up my contribution to $50 biweekly. The funds that I've been investing in have had really a lot more success than I would expect in a long-term retirement type of thing. A lot of people who work with me don't start funding their 457 until about 10 years until retirement or so, they just always assume that their pension (and yes, I do have one pretty amazing pension) takes care of everything and that the 457 is icing on the cake. Factor in that I started mine at the age of 22- my retirement years are going to rock.

My medical bills keep on rolling in for the digestive problem which bears no name and according to my lovely $10,000 doctors, does not exist. I am soooo not going to make my August goal of slashing my American Express balance down to $505.

But instead of whining I'm being proactive. I listed 4 textbooks on Half.com this morning, and have a room full of clothes to list on eBay. However, I've noticed that seling on eBay is actually really expensive- what gives?