So I decided to take the vinegar plunge for cleaning. I discovered I hated the smell. SO I added a smidgen of oil, I now had oily floors. Then I tried lemon, I had sticky floors. So I hit on soap. Dish soap. It still smells like vinegar, with a hint of umm soap.

anyway, it works, the floors and such are clean, I can let the kids clean without worry of strange chemicals, until one fateful day.

I ran out of vinegar, really you can go thru that stuff quite fast when you use it to clean most things most days. So I went back to bleach. The first day I used bleach three nails on one hand cracked split and tore, and two on the other! Plus my excema went from annoying to painful.

I managed to get more vinegar today, and I hope my hands will recover soon.

I think vinegar has more benefits than price for cleaning!

Right now our heat is set at 61, but living in the south, the house is actually 67.

Now I am comfortable...in jeans socks two shirts (though the top one has a ton of holes..really I am just wearing it cause I want long sleeves, but the maternity clothes are all short or no sleeves.)

Now 5 years ago pregnant with my first I was cold at anything less than 73...I preferred 75. (non pregnant I was cold at 75). So I took to calling myself 'cold blooded'. Not due to being mean (though I am not nice) or to really thinking I was missing the oh so important thyroid (err is it your thyroid?) that keeps one warm. Just that my natural temp was 96.8 (rather than typical human 98.6) and it showed is my preferred room temp.

Now I go to my friends houses in winter and sweat! Even the relatively frugal ones with houses at 71!

I have always said the human body is incredibly adaptable, but now I have proof in myself. Ia m comfortable in much colder temps than I used to be (don't worry, I am still comfortable in much hotter temps)

Just what is that 10K going to pay for? I do want a person with some experience just in case of some odd mishap, cord around the neck, or breech baby or something...but I don't need cable tv...

What I want-and need, is a competent trained person to catch the kid, stitch me up, and be capable of emergency issues should they arise....hopefully a bit more competent than reading the 'what to do if the baby arrives before the ambulance' section of the book.

Oh and I want someone else to clean up the err mess...not the baby I would gladly do that bath (or let my husband), just the bed, and placenta. That I would rather not have to deal with right after delivery. Though this one I could do without.

Why can I not get that for less than 10K?

I am not even asking for someone to talk me thru wanting to push early (three kids, been there done that, at 8cm I will want to push). Not that I would mind, but that kind of help isn't offered in the 10K.

Nor am I asking for someone to figure out a way to avoid the tearing that happens with each kid (3 kids, all three tore at the same spot) - not that I would mind the help, but that isn't offered for the 10K.

I can handle the sleep, the shower, the food, and the nursing (though I highly recommend praying for a competent nurse your first time, let her move you around to get you and baby latched on right, learn from her, don't mind the contact, it is worth it for the health of your baby)

I just don't want to have to decide between delivering the kid alone, or paying 10K...that choice is unfair. How can it help to force women to choose between ridiculously high debt or going alone? (or breaking the law and hoping that a back door midwife is not a quack..with no legal records to look up)

Well in my own little mind I do, not that I have the cure, just the real problem.

Drs charge extra for checking out issues...like headaches, or rashes...now I know that my headache is just a headache, I think, and my rash is just a rash..prolly. I mean I haven't gone to school for it or anything, but seems to me, if it was a problem there would be some sign...no sense looking for zebras, when horses are more prevalent.

So I am not going to the Dr..because if I went for an annual checkup (to check what? I already know what I weigh, how tall I am and what my BP is, 106/68 this time - and if you want to get personal, the bod looks the same weather you poke it or not as last time, so don't)

So back on topic, should I go for this annual checkup...I will consider asking about that niggling problem, maybe it is a headache, or maybe it is a rash, or some sort of odd pain that keeps reoccurring, or maybe it is my annoying trouble with blood sugar.

But if I do ask, I will be billed for a sick visit - even if the doc spends the same amount of time with me as if we joked about the kids instead of mentioned that niggling detail....but I am not really sick, I just want the guy with 8 years plus education to tell me what I already know, that it is no big deal, or the

This seems a bit out of place in a finance blog, but well it was on my mind.

I hate the nearest mall, Concord Mills. it is large, with many essentially duplicate stores, but, I never knew that. Because it is clustraphobic! The mall is one story, thin corridors which are always full of keosks or vibrating chairs or something. It has crappy bathrooms most of which contain at least one broken sink or toilet or empty paper dispenser.

Now I have nothing against one story, or kiosks, one of my favorite stops pre-kids was an incense kiosk (at a different mall). I have a problem with cramming thousands of people in a space that seems more suited to fit hundreds, and throwing a bazillion kiosks so close together that you simply turn around at one to touch the knick-knacks at another.

On the other hand I have fond memories of the mall in PA, Ross park mall (it has since changed, if you live there, know it is not what I remember as a kid) big, new, bathrooms while they had a line at the holiday season, worked, and they were designed so the line waited out of the path of folks washing hands and getting out.

Ross park was two story, and the kiosks had room between them. there was a wonderful openness to the eating areas, of course there were tons of folks eating during peak seasons, but you didn't feel like you were looking at a school lunchroom with tons of folks crammed in as closely as possible, you were looking at spacious tables and lots of packages, with plenty of light to see them by.

So should you ever become rich enough to afford to design your own mall, aim for huge open spaces with TONS of light, large bathrooms designed for a in and out flow of people, and don't try to cram too many tables in the eating areas.

I posted regarding 'finding money' about what I did when I lived in my car..and then this morning I just got back from getting a root canal done, paid totally out of pocket. With no crimp in the food or gas budget....Christmas did not suffer for my dental work. I had money to use as I needed.

Now don't get me wrong the money could be much better used to pay down the car, or some other nice finance option. But the amazing thing is, in just about 10 years, I have gone from living in my car, to living in my own home. And I don't even drive!

Some of the difference is due making more money (though my husband does all of that) but a larger part of the difference is caring more about 'grown up life'. Back then I was single-ish smoked, drank aplenty, and while I had no delusions of living forever, I didn't care one bit if I did or not.

Now I still have no delusions, but I do care, I want to live and live healthy for my kids and husband. I care about not taking to many risks, not ruining my own health, and well even if sleeping in the car isn't so bad, it is no way to raise a kid (or 3.5 of them).

10 years ago, money came in, and money went out...I really don't know how much, so long as I paid the car payment and ate relatively frequently, I didn't save up money. Mostly I made sure there was gas for the car, ciggs to smoke, and caffeine of some form. Any leftover was spent any old way I felt like (mostly on food).

Life then wasn't all bad, I learned a few things, like cold is easier to sleep in than hot... And how to look like you are primping even if you don't wear makeup just so you can wait out the other person to brush teeth in the restroom.

I also broadened my horizons about food during that time, I was never the bird eater, and with no way to cook or store food, I became the 'are you going to finish that?' friend. I discovered I liked food a smidgen spicy, fries even with pepper, pizza with sausage, calamari, stuffed mushrooms, crab legs, most any kind of wine or hard liquor, though still not beer, and I still don't like fried eggs, or really hot foods.

I learned a few things about the kindness of strangers, and not much about mean ones...a rather blessed time I am sure.

In a way I learned a bit about how much simple things are really a luxury, from hot daily showers to closets, to the ability to sleep fully horizontal. While I wouldn't wish that situation on anyone, I do hope to help my children see how blessed they are to have such luxuries... and I hope, that while I go call another dentist for more out of pocket work, I never to lose sight of how amazing the 'cheaper gifts' of life are...that I can go grab multiple blankets to keep warm, or that I can head off to the fridge and drink another glass of milk, or not, it will still be there fresh and ready in an hour or ten.

I actually hesitated about letting the kids try because I was afraid GMC would be able to stay up till midnight!

But it turns out they were all asleep by 11pm. JC and UE were on top of me, GMC was on the floor right beside me.

I decided to go with watching movies at bedtime, and insisted they all lay down. mostly.

So snuggled in Pjs and with clean teeth we watched a veggie tales movie, then channel flipped finding some lion nature show, and of course the music of the countdown shows.

Course it made for an interesting skill of my husband to try and move over 3.5 kids to give me a new years kiss, but boy were they cute .

It isn't like we need to be awake at any particular time today, though we will have some effort in getting them all the rest they need to catch up. A good nap and a few nights proper bed time should have them back on track. (One more great thing about not having daycare, or school or anything to set our schedule for us)

so long as you skip the hospital, and hospitals do not want you calling them to find out their portion of the bill.

Remind me again why I am not going with a home midwife? Right because they are illegal in NC so I cannot find one that is certified, tested, has a legal file on them to show weather they have a good or bad past record. I have to just take a shot in the dark and trust that a woman willing to break the law to help me deliver my kid, knows what she is doing.

Tell me again how these laws are protecting me? How can it possibly be safer to force a service underground?

On a side note, finances are so good due to well responsibility and some decent planning that if the delivery was only 3000 we could swing it, clear out the EF, but currently doable... it is the hospital portion that is the trouble. That and the unwillingness of Drs and hospitals to let me cut out all the medical stuff I don't want. (like a stay in the hospital..I can't rest in a hospital)

At the end of the year I read tons of articles on new years resolutions, and well being the tortoise I am, I kinda don't get it.

I do have goals, I just don't start them at any particular time, and like a lowly tortoise I work on them piecemeal.

Not that I haven't tried to jump on the whole bandwagon of new year new goals (big or small) just that I never succeeded. And I think I am finally ready to admit that.

Having denied the new year goal system, I am now ready to put down in print a few of my current goals (that just happen to coincide with the year 2008)

But I have no intentions of waiting till January 1st to start on any of them! In fact all were started on earlier (some last month, some yesterday, some last week)

1. Have enough money in savings to pay for this baby's birth. (due June -been working on this by not paying extra to the car anymore)

2. Pay off the car, this will be revisited depending on just how expensive the baby is. Which reminds me, I need to call around and get quotes for delivery.

3. Be more organized!

$. eat healthier!

I couldn't resist adding the same health and life goals as half the world. I do have some concrete ideas though.

For organization, I need to work on accomplishing tasks for Cub scouts, and the church nursery schedule in a more timely manner, and keeping track of what I did/who I asked. So I set up an excel sheet that can keep track of who is willing to work, who has worked, and who I asked to work. I think I need to add when I asked, so if no reply is found in a certain time I can ask someone else to do it.

For cub scouts, I need to set a specific time and list what I need done..I am trying to figure out a way to get some of the administrative pestering on an excel sheet so I know what I need/have done..but so far not sure how.

I also had some trouble with Christmas cards this year and managed to make a list of addresses that if I can find it next year I can print on sticker paper cut apart and use quickly. Hopefully redoing some of the changed addresses and updating the list this year will help next Christmas. (no I can't use labels, the printer is always off kilter, more stress than cutting a flat sheet of stickers)

On healthy eating, I want to up the portion of vegetables and fruit, I have finally gotten to a point where almost all meals have one or the other, now I want to up the amounts...As well as working on snacks being less junk more healthy..adding an apple to a spoon of peanut butter, or oranges to my chocolate.

The things I know or could take a test on, I must not really know, because I don't act on them. For example, I know I should eat more fruits and vegetables, I was raised Irish meat and potatoes, or at least the potatoes. So adding a veggie is not to hard, but to remove any of the meat or potato? Now that is tough! But I know the portions are a bit upside down. Just try telling my brain when it is craving 'something good'. I certainly never crave veggies!

This idea was sparked by a health and fitness magazine, sorry I don't get any money mags, too boring... But I think the idea translates into many areas.

Since this is a finance forum, I guess we should talk about financial things we 'know', but don't follow.

For example I know that I could save on the grocery bill by buying more of whats on sale, and less of what I am craving. I even know that veggies, and beans cost less than meat..and provide protein needed. But I don't do it.

I bet in a given day I could read tons of notes about finance and say plenty of "I knew that' yet if I looked at my actual budget/finance plan, how much of those tips would I use?

Yesterday was wonderful...My early bird woke up at about 7am..asking to climb up with a stocking, we talked her into waiting for her brother thankfully. About 8:15 GMC came in and we had to wake up UE. Hey it's Christmas! I wanted to do stockings too.

Of course there was plenty of playing with the gifts, some art, some computer games and breakfast, model building, lego building, lunch, glue 'stickers' made, a nap, stories read, a movie finished, steak dinner, and a few games played.

In all that fun (and I do mean fun) we never even thought about calling family. I know we are anti social, but..well we were busy, with our family.

After the kids were in bed, we watched the extended scenes and deleted scenes, and documentaries that came with the special edition of Serenity. and then we talked about Christmas, and kids, and us, and talked some more. Really we aught to have gone to bed, but around about midnight there we were sitting on the couch talking and the doorbell rang!

A bit of confused swearing (sorry, we really are working on that bad habit) We checked to find the brother standing at the door in the rain, looking mighty agitated at having to be there.

It seems MIL called a few times to talk...6 and was quite certain something terrible had happened seeing as how we didn't answer the phone. This is not a rare thing, I have a cell phone, but I am not always accessible. It is on buzz so that I don't get interrupted during nap time, or feel pressured to rush out from helping kids in the potty. (UE still needs lots of help). Though having the poor guy come out at midnight on Christmas is rare. As in never before happened. I felt so bad for him, but fortunately we all decided we were in a laughing mood. Well not the MIL.

Having no commitment to go anywhere or see anyone we all stayed in PJs all day. Which means Daddy never put his phone in his pocket. And I left mine in my backpack from Church the night before. Now normally I can hear my phone buzz when the backpack is in the room. This time, UE had managed to put it on silent mode so there was nothing to hear.

I am sorry we scared her, I just wish she would relax. And I imagine BIL does too!

Either that or they were good actors.

Yesterday after church, and the kids Christmas pageant, we headed to the Bro-in laws to trade gifts.

The one niece was very 'ooooh cool' about her gift, the other played with hers right away. And the boys played with their laser game most of the evening. They tried to run downstairs to test it out before we even gave them the second present!

Hopefully the 31st and the 2nd my husband will take them in pairs to the arcade, to use up the second half of their gift. (we have done that for birthdays and they seem to really enjoy it)

Unfortunately we are not sure if the parents liked what they got at all. I really am so ready to not give to adults at all. I would be more than happy with a no gift obligation or reception from the adults. I might try to talk my husband into at least testing the waters on that for next year...

Yesterday my husband was discussing a friends from resolution to not eat any processed sugar (or drink it). While I heartily agree in such a wonderful goal. I wonder at how long he will be able to keep up a no consumption resolution.

I myself have spent the past 7 years working toward less and less refined sugars, less high fructose corn syrup and less white flour, both in purchased and homemade products. Did you catch that 7 year part? I am a terrible dieter a terrible person for change. Now that might seem strange to many who have known me, I have changed my eating habits, my sleeping habits, my spending habits, cooking, cleaning, even my teaching habits. But I took a LOOOOONG time to do it all.

I didn't overnight go from diet Mt Dew drinking, sugar hyper, all night partying DINK, to a water chugging, whole wheat eating, 'typical' sleeping, frugal non working mom.

It took me about 18 years to formulate all my 'bad' habits (and a few good ones) and I think my slow tortoise change of almost reversing some in 7 years is pretty good.

I often wonder about folk with dramatic resolutions. Do they work? Can you stick to them? And if so, please don't expect me to! Not all folk can handle overnight change.

I find the 'Santa story' to be cute, I like watching old Christmas specials, I like hearing different stories of how 'Santa' got started. We read "the night before Christmas" every year with the kids. The kids have a Santa hat and regularly grab and old pillow throw it over their shoulder like a sac and 'play Santa'.

BUT at no point have I lied to them, I do not deceive them into thinking he is real, I do not suggest Santa brings the presents that I lovingly picked out, and carefully wrapped for them. Nor do I center my holiday traditions around him. At no point do I interfere with their imagination, nor do I try to alter reality. Imagination is a wonderful thing, but it is NOT reality. At an age where children are learning the difference between fact and fantasy, I do not hold back one fantasy as reality.

Which leaves me having two kids old enough to talk and understand others are convinced Santa is real, not understanding how they could be so ... dense. Which is putting my sons opinion of them mildly.

How on earth can anyone truly believe that Santa is real? The answer is deception by mom, dad and others, the only way an intelligent child would believe in Santa is due to deliberate and constant deception by trusted adults. Without nearly everyone a child encounters perpetuating the story, Children would fast discover he is just that, a nice fantasy story.

But many parents feel compelled not only to hide their own part in choosing gifts but also to find inventive ways to keep them believing. Leaving boot prints for a kid with baking soda might make for a cute face on a 2 or 4 year old, but is that cute face worth having a 12 year old that is afraid to admit he knows the truth, for fear you wont give him anything? Does our gift giving have to be tied to belief in a fantasy?

Now I know plenty of parents do drop the fantasy when the toddlers and very young grow out of it. But I also know many who fear visiting my house at Christmas time...with there 8, 10, 12, 14, or even 16 year olds! (BTW my children are under strict orders not to argue religion.. including the religion of Santa, so you can visit, we wont try to talk you out of it)

Why force a cute story about how being different can be an advantage, by trying to convince kids that one little red nose can light the way on a stormy night? Why twist the idea of a kind fellow with a giving heart, one worth emulating, by refusing to admit to the children who most look up to you to learn how to act in the world, that you yourself give freely?

What is so wrong about learning from stories without trying to make them real? Elmo is a puppet, controlled by more than one person, Dora is a drawing, who's words and actions are designed by a team. Santa is a story, retold and retold in many ways, with many lessons. Why can't we appreciate the lesson of freely giving without having to lie to children?

We generally keep our eye out for Christmas gifts all year long, but this year. Maybe due to less shopping in general, or just bad luck. We were short many gifts come Thanksgiving. Add to that a bad couple of weeks due to new pregnancy and you have us in a last minute crunch.

We went out two weeks ago and bought over half of what we needed in one trip, then we struggled thru the next few gifts. Last night we left at around 2pm to find the remaining 4 gifts. At 7pm after finding two we gave up and went home, UGH!

Today on his way home from work my husband is stopping to hopefully pick up a gift for our nephew (he has a plan, just needs to find it in the right price) Leaving us with just one more gift to get... For UE, you would think the hardest gifts would be for extended family! But nope, we are struggling on a gift for UE. We always have trouble with the youngest.

On a positive side last night my son picked out a gift for his sister and Daddy and wanted to find a specific item for his little bro (plastic bugs) And I got some traditional junk food for my husbands stocking. Plus he bought himself a slinky. His sister found one item for Daddy, but nothing for either brother. Seeing as they are young and it is late I just don't think the gifts will be bought.

We might go out again tomorrow to try one last time.

Every year we have really really low gas bills until December, then they climb and January February are terrible. But with all the changes we are making/have made every year they are slightly less terrible than last.

Apparently in 30 days last December we used 36 therms. This December we used 34 therms in 32 days, both months had an average temp of 50. So we used a smidgen less in a smidgen more days. That is better than using more!

I love those little graphs the gas bill has showing usage over the last year, but I almost wish I could get a usage graph for multiple years. I know we payed more when we first moved in, before all the cost savings went into place (I know that from the checking account records that I do keep) but I don't know by how much, and looking at a smidgen drop isn't as cool as if I could look at the huge difference from 2002 to now.

We live with an HOA, for us it means a pool pass in summer, for them it means they get to waste money reminding me I have a terrible lawn.

Every December we get a booklet of 5 payment slips scheduled for the first of the month Jan - May. Now at first I tried to send in one a month on time..but well, truth is I am the least organized person I know, I hate clutter and disorganization, but I am not any good at it. Leaving me hating myself

A friend suggested I pay the full amount for the year in January and then forget it for a year, at the worst I would only pay one late fee! While I kinda thought that would be wasting my money letting them earn interest on it before it was due, but I also thought, given my organization disabilities, it would be better for us. So off went several yearly checks in early January.

Well this year I have my little book in hand, and my secret weapon...INg, I can schedule a payment right now for Jan, Feb, Mar, April, and May..and leave the money sitting in my savings account (or use excess OT) earning interest instead of paying early!

I love ING

Thursday my husband started his on call rotation, I knew we were in for Overtime, but I had no idea what the holidays at a store were like.

He is a computer guy, he keeps servers running and helps trouble shoot registers, printers, desktops and the like.

Well Thrusday he has to be in the office at 5am...and didn't get home till 5pm, at which point he proceeded to be back on his computer for most of the evening, and had a scheduled 'reboot' or whatever at 8pm.

Then on Saturday he had to wake up at 3am to do some more remote stuff from home, then drive in for a 5am call, and didn't come home again till 5pm...at which time he immediately ran to his laptop and began fixing yet another problem...he came to bed at 1AM! that is 20 hours of work!

Don't get the idea Sunday was easy, he was up and on the laptop at 7am, and still there at 8:30 (when our church service starts) he had a short break to drop us off at Sunday school and was back online again! UGH! (this morning I don't know when he got up, but he was gone at 6:30 am, and I doubt he will be home before 5pm)

Don't get me wrong, the money is going to come in handy with Christmas and a root canal this month...but 20 hours in one day?

Please as a favor to all who are serving you at Christmas time DON"T SHOP! Or at least know the harried person serving you may very well have been working for over 12 hours...along with plenty of support staff behind the scenes. All so we can buy last minute gifts! (self included I still need about 6 things)

GMC my oldest was talking about Tiger cubs and how many 'yellow' elective beads he was able to earn. For no cubers you have to have the Tiger badge first then you can do 10 electives to earn one bead. There are a total of 50 electives in the book, for a total possible of 5 yellow beads. Though you are sortof allowed to repeat if needed (but shhh)

Anyway, point is he seemed disapointed that 5 was the max, so I told him he was only going to a be a Tiger till May (9r is it June?) then he would be a Wolf..immediatly he wanted to know what he had to do to earn the wolf badge and just how many parts, and started planning his next year!

Wow, Dude, slow down, one step at a time. He is so like his mother and father..we have trouble slowing down and taking things one step at a time. I love planning...I hate to admit that, because I only like the planning part, making sure it all goes according to plan is not fun!

Financially I want to jump into being done paying things off and done with this EF buildup, and move on to bigger better things. I can plan it all I want, but if I forget to focus on what I am doing right now, I will fail at this step and never need the future plans! (or rather I will need a whole nother set)

I often see something cool or neat and might play with it at the store if it si a toy, or I might just oooh and aww if it is s knicknack or painting, or fancy pretty thing a majig.

But usually I do not buy it. The reason...I do not live in a museum. I live in a house. My kitchen doesn't have pretty nicknacks..it has cooking pots and frequently used appliances.

My living room is NOT a sitting room...yeah we sit in it, but we also 'live' in it...my kids bounce, jump (we hae a step..like the kind for people to work out, solely so on rainy days the kids can jump...) play, goof off, build castles and contraptions. It is a well used room. If I had to worry about them breaking some valuable china or glass pretty thing all the time, when would they play? Besides I am klutzier than they are.

No room in my house is safe from klutzy, bouncy, curious kids..or mom. So no room is cluttered with knicknacks.

On the other hand I like to go to the science center to play with odd ball expensive toys that take up tons of room (build an arch out of blocks bigger than the kid? or a water pipe maze?) and museums to look. That is where the fancy art vase belongs (make sure you pronounce that all hoity toity!) My house is not. Sorry.

Not that I wouldn't mind some nicer walls..so long as they are out of reach of the kids . I just see no reason to buy twenty million pretty things...not when the art over my desk is totally kid made, no rembrant could ever make me as happy as the adorable pirate ship with pirates taller than the main mast. or the pretty princess with three fingers, or the scribble by UE - with echos of his "I did that, I cribbled!"

I guess that means I cheat on the low spending front..the paper is usually scratch paper, the crayons were gifts. and the tape is pretty cheap. Someday when I paint or paper the living room I will have to invest in some sticky tack or something to save the paint.

Well I researched a bit..mostly I am lost in a sea of quasi information.

I found several plans that are around $30 a month that cover any dentist, and a discount on everything..maybe..depending on what the asterisks mean.

Plus a few that seem to be discount cards, where local dentists may sign up for. I can't get the fine print though... I need that before I am willing to pay for what may or may not save me money!

The one good thing is while hunting up what Dentists might take the discount card I found our old dentist! We loved him, yeah he still did root canals, but he was GOOD at them...very quick, little pain after and his staff was excellent at knowing what to hand over to make the whole thing seamless and quick. Today..was the opposite. I got in the car after mumbling "I want our dentist back" over and over and over again.

So I will be calling him tomorrow to get quotes and ask if he knows something about the discount plans.

(I just googled dental insurance..please if anyone else has better info let me know)

I have a tooth that has been bothering me on and off for about two months, mostly I can deaden the nerves with mouthwash and some creative distraction, but last night nothing worked, I was up all night..well until 4am, then I managed a bit of sleep till 8.

So today I called the dentist and got a quote for a root canal..yeah I know self proscribing, but I have been thru this pain before. Only last time I went for a good many more sleepless nights before I called the Dentist. For one root canal the cost is around 800 dollars. plus the Xray and exam, plus a buildup and cap..or is it crown?

All told this little painful episode will cost us 2000 dollars...not really my favorite way to spend money at Christmas time.

But on the upside, it was there, sitting in the savings account...nice to have put it there for this sort of thing.

Boy Scouts wants me to register as a member. I am the unofficial secretary/nag of the pack. Mostly the nag part. And I am supposed to fill out a form and pay $10 for the joy of doing this job. Umm No. I am not going to pay money to work...sorry.

Now my husband has paid, he is insured as a leader, BSA covers him, because he registered. And he needs that, he is the Tiger den leader, nominally in charge of 7 boys each week. (though their parents are mostly there)

I on the other hand, am never in charge of kids. Well my own, but never any others. So I don't need insurance, I don't want the responsibility.

It was suggested that $10 is a small amount, and I could 'save up for it'. The point isn't that I don't have $10 the point is I am unwilling to pay to work.

On the other hand we spend at least $10 every month on healthy snacks for the Pack meetings. Not to mention the food for each den meeting. plus misc. craft supplies, we have never asked to be reimbursed, and don't plan on it.

We have the money to spend as we see fit. (that is a nice feeling, wasn't always the case, so I am very thankful that we do have it) I simply have better places to put my money. I would rather buy food or crafts for that $10 than a card for my wallet that says BSA on it.

I automatically transfer 1/12th of the yearly bills like insurance and the like. I debated on using the 'escrow' or extra funds many times this year. and previously I always used the extra and figured the escrow already sitting in my savings would pad our EF. which is rather in need of padding.

This month however we just paid insurance and tax on the car and had one week of no OT followed by one of less than 40 for DH being sick (no vacation no sick pay) So there just isn't any extra right now.

I had to use the escrow from savings and transfer it over to the checking to pay. Not to happy about having to do it, but at least it was there sitting and waiting for this.

That was what my son said to me while I was doing his hair. We were talking about him controlling himself..Monday I wasn't feeling good and he and his sister were ... bratty. So Tuesday we started with yet another talk about how he has to control himself without waiting for the big mean mommy to force him to behave. For one thing I do have limits, I cannot make him behave, I can just ban him from fun until he does.

And that is when he said "God can't make people be good". Well...Truthfully I believe God can, but I don't want him to do it, even though I would like to find being good easy, I don't want all my decisions made for me. And I can't very well ask to be the one and only exception to the rule! I asked GMC if he would like life as a sim..never even deciding what to wear, or when to read a book, or if GMC would even like it if I made all his decisions for him. I could choose his clothes if I wanted, or choose what he can color or all of his reading.

He decided he wanted to make some decisions and figured having to make all of them was a small price to pay.

I found myself relating this idea of behavior to the recent money tree article on

pfadvice
What if money was all taken care of for us..what if someone else got to decide just where and when we saved and how much we spent and exactly on what. Wouldn't leave much room for variety...

That is one reason I am very much against govt control of money. Oh sure they need some for some things, but I don't think they are even good at controlling any money! At least if God decided to remove free will I believe He would be only making the best decisions for us! The govt on the other hand can't even handle it's own debt! The only thing saving the USofA from retirement downfall is that it doesn't get to retire! Somehow asking the govt to take over as Big bro for anyone is like asking your in laws who can't pay the bills to come tell you how to pay yours!

Even if the govt was good with money, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat for life."..Govt should stop handing out fish without fishing poles.

So we have been trying to nail down the trigger for hives in UE. We think fake food is the culprit. We had been eating some pre-made breaded chicken patties..easy to make when the rest of the house is sick. Plus a few other convenience foods that all prolly have food coloring in them. And we already have a very good idea that he gets hives from bright red food coloring (like in colored goldfish, or red punch).

So we stopped eating convenience food...until we went to GA. There he had some American cheese, and the Japanese steak house food. Next morning new hives... so we really think it is fake food...I hope it wasn't the soy sauce, we like fried rice and the like. American cheese on the other hand we don't really like anyway.

I feel like a silly overprotective mother when I tell teachers and friends no food coloring but I worry that one day instead of just hives it will be something bigger...

While meandering through someones blog I saw the nifty new stars for voting on contest entries..it looks really neat!
And of course thanks to all who voted for mine
I checked out all the most interesting titles and did a little voting myself.

I remember reading a tale of a writer who credits his skills to a childhood assignment to write 100 words on nothing once a week. The fellow recalling this was of course an excellent writer..but you know every kid in his writers class had to do the same thing...and most of them were never heard from again. But were they better writers for the practice?

I have no idea, not having a class list or a before and after writing sample to test this, but in theory it makes sense. Which is why I blog every day. Not that I have any desire to be a writer, just that when I do have an opinion I wish I could write it better. So I blog every day, and I make it a personal goal to blog for the contests. Just to have a forced topic to practice on.

I dunno if it is helping my writing skills at all, but I do type faster!

We were taken out to dinner last night and I had a conversation about our former (pre kid) wasting days..two things that made me realize I am inherently frugal..

First I realized even when we used to go to Nakato (Japanese steak house) 3 or 4 times a week...I ordered water. Not that I didn't drink pop then, on the contrary we had a case of diet a case of regular and a box of wine in the fridge at all times then. But I refused to pay 2 dollars for a drink when I had a case of 12 at home for 2$! I would pay for the cooking and the show, I couldn't replicate that, but I would not pay for the pop (or the rum...)

Then at dinner I asked my son what he wanted (another Japanese steak house) and he pointed to a lobster shrimp and something else platter for twice the cost of other meals...I immediately pointed to the price and said no...I wasn't paying, and I didn't feel right about asking someone to pay that much for my kid. (he did get shrimp and steak)

The drinks last night were not free refills unless you got sweet tea...which of course my husband did (He was driving and needed caffeine) when water wont do we will pay for the 2$ drink...but with no free refills? Nah we will take the tea!

Then there is the kid meal vs real meal..we get three meals, one for each adult and one for the three kids to share ... of their meal there was 3 pieces of shrimp left..and rice..Even Daddy had rice leftover! (lunch today)

We just can't see the point of paying for a kids portion that is usually half sized..but not half the price. Now sometimes it is a good deal, so this isn't a hard and fast rule, depends on the restaurant. Plus kids meals don't have the variety of adult meals.

So apparently some frugal habits are hard to break!

Got an ad in the mail for trader Joes..I might recall they tend to have organic foods and more whole wheat type options at reasonable prices?

Not sure if this is true or not but we hope to make it out there next week to find out, we would love to be able to find a store that sells whole wheat flour pasta and sunny field farm yogurt, rather than having to go to two stores different stores.

Feminine troubles aside, the end or beginning of the month my husband and I have never found to be a factor in spending.

I often hear the 'end of the month' complaint from folks, or 'day before payday' and I have never understood it. I actually don't trust most businesses and never short our account less than the next mortgage...what if the pay check doesn't come in? So 'day before payday, is just like any other day for spending. (and the day after is often time to transfer money to pay down debt)

Before direct deposit my husband and I had a bad habit of not cashing checks...seemed a royal pia to cash one every week, we'd rather save them up and go once a month.

I suppose financially it would make more sense for us to figure out how to get interest on it, but well money should be there for an emergency, or for a last minute splurge if you can afford any. Or at the very least for a last minute trip to see family.

Not that money has never been to tight to splurge or pile up much, between the DINK life of forgetting to cash paychecks and our current 3 kid comfortable life, there was that miserable time with horribly low grocery budgets....but even then, the time of the month didn't matter...I still never let the account get less than the mortgage and I still didn't care if it was payday or not..the sum total of money in was a smidgen more than the sum total out..if I didn't have it right now I wouldn't next month either.

In fact I remember a time when someone offered to 'spot me some till payday' and I broke down and cried and said it wouldn't matter this payday or next there just wasn't any spare cash. Normally I wasn't so weepy about finances but it was the 'wrong time of the month'..being female and all...

Then we got a raise, and life is comfy, though not easy. (easy would be enough to hire a maid and already own the car .) And we still don't care what time of the month it is, the budget is what the budget is no matter what day...and being pregnant I cry no matter what day too