Princess Perky's Page

So since I don't know how we are financially, I am hunting up worksheets again, I found two useful sites

tlsbooks.com with many pages levels ranging from pre to 5, with most being a bit easy for end year students, but nice for mid or early. (and for late move up a level .)

and tutorial.com with several for each level pre-6 only trouble is th3ey don't fit all on one page without heavy editing.

Now all I have to do is solve my 'low ink' problem (and as you can see I got my printer back .)

I dunno...I need my hardrive...If I had it I would know what bills are still to be paid this month, and which have already been paid (most are automatic, so not like a late fee is emminant) I would know how much is paid off on the car, how much to send extra...and how the EF is doing...

But I don't so I don't....

Nothing, nope I know nothing..

And it bothers me, not just bothers enough to rant yet again about it, bothers me enough to not want to get stuff done...why scrimp and make a totally scratch dinner if I don't even know where the debt stands?

Isn't that pathetic, of course saving loot is important even if you can't quantify it...but....well being the rediculous person I am...I don't wanna!

(course dinner is egg salad so not like there is a way for me to be lazy and spend money on it, good thing too)

Not only do I have no idea what "Sidebar Link Border Bottom Background:" is I have no idea what color "#80002B" is...

And to top it all off I am color challenged, I have to see it to know if it is passable or not. (knowing good from passable is not an option..sorry)

So in short I think I aught to stick with the basic blue here...though I would prefer a deep green tint, cause my favorite color is green, preferably with a hint of red, cause my hair is red...

I tried Ba's links and found a scheme I like dark green with a hint of red, but..I don't know where to put the colors! all well and good that I know what color is what I still don't know where to put it .

Not only do I not have my hardrive, I don't have a way to print today!

Sigh, so not my tech week (err month?)

I will get it back though, it is just attatched to my husbands computer, and I don't know how to use it.

First I have to say I am so proud of myself, I am not by nature a garage sale or ebay looker, but I knew that my son was interested in viewmaster reels so I looked and found a reasonable lot and he agreed, Daddy bid (heh gotta use up daddys money so he stops bringing so much stuff in!)

Then I asked my daughter what she wanted to do with her money figuing I could search ebay for her as well.

"I want to use it to buy that cord GMC wants"..sooo cute! but he already 'bought' the cord and had money leftover to buy the reels.

I told her this and asked again what she wanted to do with her money:

"Buy clothes for girls who don't have any"

SOOOO cute! and we have to oblige! I just don't know how...I need a trustworthy organization that specifically gives clothes to girls..any suggestions?

Way back in January we found that gift normally priced 50, for only 15, yesterday was my sons birthday so we were all set to give it to him and wow him with it.

And his Grandmother from Pa gave him almost the exact same gift. Ours was a 3 in one set of chess, checkers and the dice game from pirates of the carribean. Hers was just chess. We snuck out hte box of chess and snuck in our box, and in essence gave him nothing for his birthday.

But you know with all the stuff he got from relatives for Easter and his birthday, I don't think it is too terrible that he didn't get anything from us.

We were handed cash to replace the chess set and Gma will be taking hers back, and we will let him buy something with it...some of it.

Because insisting on 'some to church and some to the bank' is more about not having too much junk comming in than about anything else.

And over the course of the weekend with gifts comming I discovered my son thinks you can't split bills. He recieved 2 dollars as one gift and said there isn't anything left to spend (one to church one to the bank)! I thought it was cute, and he has a point, we are lazy so we do tend to send a whole bill rather than split it down to change. (always with a result of more to the bank, never rounding down!)

Soap, we went visiting once long ago (only had one kid at the time) and I smelled the soap my Grandma used to use....Niether my husband or I had any particular preference of soap at the time, and I imediatly told him to go buy me that brand when we next ran out.

Unfortunaly the soap was worn down, and the name was no longer on it. And grandma died long ago, so I can't ask her.

I sniffed in the store but couldn't find it. So I shelved the idea for a time.

Then today, I took a shower, and found it. In my shower, I had put a 'new' bar in yesterday. 'new' beacuse it was sitting in my dresser 'drying out' I was testing the theory, and it changes the smell of Ivory soap...Dunno if grandma used Ivory soap or if she dried hers and it smells the same, but I am happy I found it.

I just sat down and paid a bill. No I don't have my hardrive back, so I do not have my checkbook..instead I peeked on Ing to see what I had and well...trusted it.

Now I have been using ING and my checkbook for a bit now, and they nearly always agree, see if I tell ING to pay a bill, on the same page as my account 'statement' is those bills scheduled, and when they are scheduled for, so I know the money it says is in there is there and will be till those other ones come out.

Bad part is the pay is still auto deposited to the 'old' account, which means there isn't plenty of money, so no extra can go to the car yet, but good news is I can instantly transfer from the ING savings to the ING checking if I need to while waiting for it to come over from the other bank.

I love ING's easy access a simple design with all the info right there.

The only thing I would ask for is a way to go straight to the checking oiverview from paying a bill instead of a two step click, but then I am lazy

Oh and never believe that 'spending power' always remove the 1K credit line, it is not good interest, and I wouldn't want to pay a bill on credit!

Well since I brought up Oath of Swords yesterday I had to go look up the thrid in the serise, I had read 'War God's Own' but not the next, on my search I found a website with all kinds of free books!

Baen free library

In the explination for why on earth Baen is offering some books free for online reading Eric Flint offers some very nice reasons including my favorite financial reason:

3. Any cure which relies on tighter regulation of the market — especially the kind of extreme measures being advocated by some people — is far worse than the disease. As a widespread phenomenon rather than a nuisance, piracy occurs when artificial restrictions in the market jack up prices beyond what people think are reasonable. The "regulation-enforcement-more regulation" strategy is a bottomless pit which continually recreates (on a larger scale) the problem it supposedly solves. And that commercial effect is often compounded by the more general damage done to social and political freedom.

I have long thought if more things were easonably priced, less people would be interested in free versions, I will gladdly pay a couple books for a hard copy (well um soft cover) of any book I want to rearead more than once. Especially if I can never find it in a library, and serieses I hardly ever find in the library.

'War God's Own' by David Webber is an exact example oif that, my Sister In Law found it online (back before I had internet) and printed it out for us to read, I loved it, and several months later bought my own copy.......

This is a good time for a computer to be broken, or rather the last 4 days were I borrowed and read Eragon and Eldest for the duration, I am now done, I would like my computer back....

If you are interested in dragons, fantasy, elves and strange creatures, epic struggles, and well failed missions. It is a good read.

If you are looking for a book with nice neat tied up ends..these are not the books. I finished with more irritation than love for the next book. Dude still hasn't avenged his dad from book one, and this book just added more to his tasks!

Though honestly it isn't a half bad book...and while I think it could use some editing help, far to often in Eldest the wonderful descriptions cover 5 minutes of fantasy time in 5 minutes of reading, leaving the rest of a 3 week journy with no page space to describe!

I think the 2 books would have been better served as at least 3, if not 4 to get to this point, or else Paolini should have ditched half his world.

Trying to cram the history of elves, man, ra'zac (insectlike monsters), riders, dvergar (dwarves) dragons, and urgal (large man like horned monsters) into such a short space along with three different romances (the hero, his cousin, and his dragon), plus the epic battles, betrayals, and miscelaneous comments regarding life, faith, and community, is a bit much for two (albeit thick) books.

But, they are good books, and cool battles, thoguh not half as good as David Webber writes, He can make a space battle interesting, and write wonderful sword play (Honor Harrington novels and Oath of Swords)

In short, I am nitpociking, because the author is a homeschooled kid..well 20 something so not quite a kid, but still. He was homeschooled, I should love his work, instead, it is just...good enough.

And that is yet another reason why I should keep my comments to myself, too picky, always wanting more...I don't complain about J R R Tolkien, why would I complain about Paolini?

Same reason I complain about my kids, they I can change. Tolkien is long past changing Middle Earth.....Of course I have a right and obligation to work on my kids,(Speaking of complaining about my kids, my youngest still has an 'accident' (potty training) a day sometimes two, my middle girl can't keep a 6 from a 9, and my oldest, well he is still my behavioral handful...sigh)anyway a 20 something bestselling author..he can do what he wants and I have no right to complain, besides his editor prolly told him no one would stick around to read 6 books of one riders journey (humph, Drizzt won fans over like a dozen? books, I think readers can handle 6)

Now see what happens when I can't balance a checkbook or update payoff charts? I babble on about books! I need my hardrive back!

PS did you know you could read Webbers books online?

Wind Riders..so I guess I am not out of books .)

So apparently I missed April Fools this year, I didn't even notice it was the first till today when I came on line and found yesterdays feed from Jeffrey's blog, I seem to have missed pink and green....I suppose I shall live.

Speaking of my broken computer...I need it, no not the computer, the hard drive..remember I said I put my checkbook on the computer..well...that would be the broken computer..wonder how much money is in the account....

'Holy week' we have company to feed, eggs to die, and apparently church to go to...See somehow I ended up with the task of filling the nursery with staff...a strange job for me as honestly I do not like other peoples 'I want my mommy' kids.

But I do see it as a task that needs done..so off to call around or something...

Of course all that information like who does what when is on my harddrive... Did I mention I need that hard drive?

Pretty Percents:

46% Need
28% Debt payment (extra car)
13% Wants
11% Savings

Looks kinda cool due to the extra weeks income! (BTW the remaining 3% is sitting in the bank as cushion still)

Lessons learned this month:

1. Yes I can put back things when I am over budget, even if the money is in the account should I feel like using it, just not enough things ...working on it.

2. Forgetting a phone and failing to call for a grocery list may result in spending less money (I cook he shops...under budget on food by 80$)

3. Lowering the heat may not result in low enough gas bills, that hot shower may have to be shortened...next winter.

4. Yes we can stay out of stores if I plan well....and are willing to suffer through lima beans and spinach for almost a week!


Next month:
Plan even better on groceries, and stay under budget for 'misc.'.

Expected 'Misc'....umm....none....so why do we always spend so much!

Though I do foresee some trouble with food as it is my sons birthday and Easter.

Today for lunch we had, as usual, leftovers to nuke.

After hands were washed, kids were seated and oh so patiently waiting, I opened the door of the microwave and pulled out the container... and then watched it fall to the floor. OOPS

As noodles and broccoli crashed to the floor covering 3 square feet in a saucy sticky mess, I actually thought, cool.

No not that the leftovers were that bad, actually they were good. But it is cool that we can afford to replace the meal. I simply scraped the food up into a pile, and put it aside while talking to the kids about replacements.

We had alternatives, from waiting 20 minutes for mac N cheese, to nuking those easy macs the Grandparents sent, to whipping up a batch of spaghetti or beans, we had options.

Given the state of hunger we went with super fast nuking a veggie and making PBnoJ. But isn't it amazing, I didn't have to feed them food from the floor to prevent starvation, and we am not looking at starvation later in the week to make up for a lost meal. We just had a couple sniffles over the lost food, and a wonderful discussion over how blessed we are to afford enough food to make up for a clumsy momma, and moved on.....

We learned a wonderful lesson from our lunch off the floor, but I don't plan on repeating it anytime soon!

http://www.dinkytown.com/java/RetirementPlan.html

This nifty calculator says we will be fine If we up our 401K by just a bit and...if Social security holds out...

I don't really want to rely on that.

But we do plan on upping the 401K contribution next year, so if we do that each year, and then pass the current need we aught to be ok...except for that social security thing....

But regardless it is a far cry from the last

calculator!

I actually have hope of not needing my kids to support us, or of having to work at age 90 (though in case I haven't mentioned it when the kids leave, I plan on getting a part time job teaching or something..because I would be so bored without!)

We had our date! we spent ALL the date money..we splurged, we were not frugal...and it felt wonderful to know I was not spending milk money, though I do admit a twinge of conscience that I aught to save some of it to pay off the car..but..only a twinge

Not planning on spending that much again, but we are planning on going out again, maybe in a month or two.

I did spend a few minutes thinking how amazingly different this year is from last. Last year at this time I also received gift money for my birthday...But we did not go out and splurge, we spent a little bit and the rest went to extra groceries.. This year we had leftover Christmas money, that wasn't needed for groceries, combined with my birthday I had enough money to spend a wonderful evening and no I didn't drink water! I do like water, (no ice with lemon please) but sometimes I like something different, (glass of wine) and in general I feel I cannot spend the money on wine, when I could get it at home for 5$ a bottle vs 5$ a glass (yeah cheap wine, really I can be a pretty cheap date)

Last night, I felt free to spend every last penny (that was budgeted), on the wine in the fancy glass that I didn't have to wash..and the water kept being refilled again no glass to wash (I dirtied two glasses!)

Anyway, just grateful for the wonderful change in finances, and grateful for the chance to know need so I can delight in plenty....I know that seems weird, but if I started rich I wouldn't be so grateful! (Nor would I think 35K a year was rich .)

Just placing pictures

on a side note..can you see my page? (on right says 'bio'

thats where the pictures went btw (one of each kid)

Well sorta, all my work is done, two trips to the recycle center, one more in line and room to walk around the car when parked. Not the passenger side, but the driver side is no longer an athletic feat to get in...I think, car is not in the garage right now. But it looks better.

Of course all spring cleaning in my house comes with a need to purchase 'stuff'

In this case an S hook for two bikes (bitty bikes, so cute and short!) plus some brackets to hang shelves (we have the shelves) plus some looooong nails to make a 'table' to hold the lawn mower out of the way...weird to say that, but we have a ledge around the garage, if the mower is on the ledge the car fits, if not....it doesn't, so we have to get it a bit up off the floor...with a handy dandy plywood found in a dump while they were building a house (sticking out the top, no workers lunch or anything yucking it up..)

umm, oh yeah and some hooks for the bike helmets....

I think that is it...And well there is this guy who does home stuff we know who gave us wall paper...I wonder if he ever has odd hooks laying around he wants to get rid of too? I have to figure out how to ask without sounding like I am err asking for stuff...yeah that'll work.

Oh yeah! and we are NOT going to PA, update on father in law he is doing better, and home so we figure he needs rest without rug rats still open to going later if need be, but not tonight (nor tomorrow, date is still on!). Thanks for all the well wishes!

We are doing a new book in Sunday school, or planning on it anyway, the book plus workbook costs $13 or you can get the book used and buy the workbook for 3$, personally I would rather neither, but then I am cheap.

So we found the book used and offered to help others find it that way to, we agreed to go buy 5 copies. Now the chances of finding a copy of most books online used and cheap is good, the chances of finding 5? not so great.

So far we have 4 coming and one with 'some writing' we figure we will take that one and hope it is a person who took good notes. My husband did all the work and reminded me that we go to a church full of people making double triple or even quadruple our 35K salary..each...and most of them are dual income families...for the most part they think $13 is a fine price for a book.....I am not sure they want a used book...but they did agree to try it.

Either we will make a convert or two or we will convince them never to touch a used book again.

And btw this means I do not have to write the book down as 'bought new' Or those other 4 books we had to get while we were there....(what your k, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grader needs to know - got tired of renewing them from the library, and the 2nd and 3rd grade book will be used for all 3 kids, the others for 2, seemed reasonable)

google twin

Though I am not obsessed..course it isn't my exact name (my last name is shared by an author who wrote a book about a character with my first name)

Now my user name..the hits it gets ... that irritates me silly I know, but can't help it My only saving grace is some are actually me ain't I special....

My father in law is in the hospital again and we may go to pa to visit, will use the date money for it..so no big financial hit, but...no date.

Planning on packing english muffins, some treats that were given to us, and some fruit/nuts. that plus water and some peanut butter should keep the food costs to about what I have saved for our date. I also am figuring on baking before we leave some muffins, maybe cookies (for him) and cheap eating out.

Now gas isn't cheap, so I am not sure if that will come in under budget, plus we plan on paying our babysitter at least half her fee since she reserved the night for us...could be out making money (and better money, we are cheap) if she wasn't on hold for us. Not fair to give her nothing.

Waiting on more news from the in laws before we pack, but either way, it sure is nice to know we can go if need be. No cancellations, husband already worked his 40 hours, so not missing work, no meetings or important work that must be done...and my kids wont miss any education at all . (not to mention will gain a great deal of insight what kinds of things we do for family)

Oh and btw my father is better, came to visit and everything, not too sure on the details, but glad he is healthy again.

So in my recent attempt to lose weight without the benefit of nursing I discovered lots off odd facts.

1. I eat a lot..ok I knew that, but really I eat a lot! (over 2000 calories when I am being healthy)

2. the 1500 calorie rule of thumb is HARD! and I am having no luck at it at all, not even a smidgen.

3. It takes 3500 calories burned to lose one pound!

from here

4. I burn 2202 - 2500 calories in a normal day (now today was not a normal day I was burning way more!) (info from same site)

Now to take that information and figure out how to lose weight without feeling super deprived....

Taking 3500cal/7 =500 less per day to lose one lb a week.

average 2200 and 2500 = 2350

take 2350 - 500 = 1850

So if I do nothing more than my housework I can eat up to 1850 and still expect to lose a pound a week....if I do something really strenuous and burn at least 150 calories I can eat up to 2000 and still lose weight.

That I can manage, I think.
See the internet is a wonderful resource!

In general we eat cheap, but healthy, and I like it that way, for one thing I don't feel bad about ruining cheap food (never said I was a good cook) and for another thing, well even lousy tasting food at least has that 'it is good for you' line to help you force it down.

so after reading

hungry for a month (thanks lux for the link)
I decided to see just how much we are spending on food a day...

Suppose I spent my whole budget:

$500/month * 12months = $6000 (year)
$6000/365days = $16.44/day
$16.44/day/5 people=$3.29/day/person

hmmm I am not sure what that means, other than we are rich compared to a whole lot of the world........

I searched to find the average cost to feed a family and while I discovered America wont be able to feed it's own by 2050
and that you can make a small batch of chicken Lo mein for 4.27 (small batch because there is no way that would feed my family!)

It took much longer to find the usda average food cost chart.

And for that my family should spend $685.70.....(for a low cost plan)....which is $4.50 a day. (thrifty is $4.09 a day)

And begs the question..just how does the USDA come up with those numbers? And why does it say women cost less to feed? Am I the only girl who eats just as much as my man? And why does it say a 2 year old costs less than a one year old? And just how much does it really cost to feed a family healthy? There is no way I would feed myself or my kids on white pasta and white rice....and not much else.

* Apparently I need to make sure my house has eves to save money

good design save money

*Boy scouts of America is price gouging! They have to be to charge 54$ for a shirt you only wear once in a blue moon! No we didn't buy one, but our oldest is going to be a Tiger scout and we will not be buying one! The club leader on the other hand bought one. and wasn't to happy with the price.

* Only 5 more days till our date!

* I recommend avoiding the AAA driving school here in Charlotte, we passed a car today with the nice 'student driver' sign and a smoking cell phone talking driver...not the example I want for my teen!

While I really don't know how much it would take I do know that I would use some of a large sum for a house..not my house, my dream house.

Wanna see it? as of march 17th 2007:

The first floor:


The legend in case you can't tell what my goofy stuff means.


The second floor


Not perfect, and I got lazy on windows, but there it is, the house I would like to own.....

On the forums they posted a link to Scott burns article on Dallas morning news about net worth, I decided to see how we stack up.

net worth assets minus debts..well the debt is the house and the car, and that is worth more than the amount owed..so the total has to be positive right?
I wouldn't know where to start on the rest of the 'stuff' so I will rest content in knowing so long as I borrow no more, and keep said house and car it is positive.

To see how it changed I would have to look for old CC bills for last year, how about I be content that had to go up, as last year started negative. (owned less house, owed more CC)

categories...there is the 401K (how grown up of us .)and the mini EF, and the house plus stuff, ....Umm yeah, rough guess of 15% stuff..not so terrible, but higher stuff than financial (10%).

home equity percentage....75% house....yeah not anywhere close to his 40% recommendation.....

Debt up or down...guess it has to be lower.

consumer interestumm I projected the interest for the car for 2007...if I am doing it right...1K in interest...which is 3% interest...so less than his 4% recommendation. Finally we got one right!

Now I know, and knowing is half the battle

Course what to do about too much house...well nothing right now, we want to pay off the car first (etpo* end of 2008), then we want to pay off the house (etpo...2030 in time for the merge with Canada**), then and only then will I aggressively work on net worth.

*Estimated Time of Pay Off
**

shadowrun timeline "# Oct 15: Act of Union signed in Washington D.C., Canada and the US merge into the UCAS." yeah sorry the date stuck in my head from the teen years..had to google it when I realized the etpo for the house

They never work, math wise..I am always left with either too much money in the bank or not enough money, and trying to figure out why or where!!!!

UGH..

Today it is too much money, I know nice problem to have, but...

See the budget is only set up to spend the minimum paycheck, and he almost always works overtime, so that over time money is supposed to go to pay off the car....but I have two different answers on how much it is...

My bank account says one number 2K (actually two bank accounts each have their own number added up is the 2K), my budget says another, 1.5K. Neither are what I expected (

We are going on a date!

A real date. With no kids!, just a man and me, (my man of course).

Soon, only 7 more days, we even have a babysitter!

I am so afraid something will happen between now and then, but so looking forward to the possibility of time alone with no kid.

The cost will be exorbitant.....and trust me I know it is a luxury, one I fully inted to take advatage of, cause it wont be happening again anytime soon!

So thanks to all who gave me money for my birthday! it is going to a good cause .

When we moved in here oh 5 years ago, we put lots of boxes in the garage..temporarily.

That temporarily kept the car out till last year.

This year I have a goal of being able to get into the car from the garage, as of right now my husband has to weasle his way over and squeeze in, thankfully he is a slender fellow. Then he takes the car out of the garage and the rest of us get in. Now with his collection of err junk. I doubt we will ever get both doors to open fully, but I have hopes of easy walking to and from the door for him.

First up is a pile of stuff to goodwill, he sells I goodwill. Second up is cardboard...some of it he needs for his ebaying (have I mentioned the stack of boxes in my living room?) but most of it is just piled up out of maybe laziness.

Third up is a pile of garbage..ok fine he doesn't call it garbage but I do...I sincerely hope Saturday to take a large laod of stuff to the recycle center.

And then.....A free cabnet from a friend to better store some of the junk that must remain...

Now to actualy implement all that...right now I have to get off my rear and go clean a kitchen so the kids can go play wiht chalk whie I do some preliminary work.

I googled mine and always turn up some author who wrote a book followed by movies I would rather not know about.

So today on a whim, I googled my husband...apparently he is a fighter, street style....now I happen to know he is strong and prolly good in a match should one occure, at that particular time he was a bit busy in a match with me.

Then I tried his 'handle' or one of them, and discovered he is an avid ebay seller! I knew that, but though it was cool to find him. out of three pages of links, all but 4 were for ebay.

One of the 4 was his blog bing linked back to by an education site, pretty interesting since he is not the teacher in the family....man I gotta learn how to write!

None of the posts were for someone other than my husband, he picked a unique handle...mine on the other hand is shared by 10 pages of links, less than half of which seem to be me..ok I didn't waste that much time reading all 10 pages, but out of the first two half are me, I'll assume more down the line are not.

unfortunatly some lady has been given my name

the other princess

Oh well, guess I knew it wasn't all that origional when I picked it.

Now to me the key word there is 'fantasy' Ok yeah I like most all games, but when it comes to fantasy games I expect a certain break from reality...

I want to play the girl, not just any girl but I want my figurine/character to be my ideal version of myself, with proportions completly fantastic, armor that is all encompasing even though it consists of a kerchief and a string, and of course amazing powers to defeat the 'biggest baddest bad guy ever'.

What I do not play fantasy games for is to find out that the kerchief and string armor costs more than my car payment so sorry 'po folk' can't use it, that the only character with any skill I can afford is about worthless and might as well stay home (doing nothing but teaching and cleaning I suspect), or that the 'biggest baddest bad guy ever' can only be purchased by those with 6 figure disposable incomes.

I just simply cannot get into a game that requires money - real hard cash as a game piece! I don't even play poker with real money ! (oops I said that name again, sorry .)

Apparently many can, and there is a booming mini game industry (paint your own - with whatever hair color you like) as well as the 'collectable card game' ripoff, where you have to spend a fortune just for the chance of getting the right card! I mean seriously, why not just play the lottery and be done with it?

Now when I play a game I like for all players to start with an equal financial standing, like monopoly where you all get to start with the same 2K, or Munchkin where you all start with a character of roughly the same stats...(you can earn that string armor as you go...) And I'll leave the state of my finances behind for a time, and not ask after yours while we play.