Journey Towards Financial Freedom

Well, I finally got my salary letter with what my salary will be for this fiscal year. After doing the math, I realized I have about a 6.59% raise, way better than I was expecting!

Also, because the raise was supposed to begin with the first July paycheck, I got a catchup paycheck that included my extra pay for July and August. I made a list of what I wanted to do with it. It included:

1) Buying a copy of the book Traditional Thai Yoga. $4.98 with shipping -

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=10475825&matches=13&.... DONE

2) depositing $50 into the car savings account - DONE

3) making an extra $20 payment to the credit card - DONE

4) making an extra $20 payment to the mortgage - WILL BE DONE SEPT 1

5) buying chair cushions at Home Depot for the chair my husband sits in - ~ $30 - DONE

6) replacing our defunct wireless router at Best Buy - ~$59 - DONE

7) buying a few replacement clothing items for the hubby and I - ~ $20 DONE - I found a great thrift store over the weekend, so I will be doing more of this on Saturday.

8) $40 out of any paycheck gets automatically deposited to my regular savings, so that account increased also - DONE

9) my retirement account went up a little too, but I don't know how much - DONE

10) buy some needed health supplements - ~$40.00 - DONE

Unfortunately, the rest got absorbed into the grocery budget and other stuff, but I got some great stuff accomplished.

Also, I have made my lunches to take to work and suppers for the week. Here they are:

1) Stir Fry with chicken, green peppers, canned tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, leftover frozen veggies, Chinese hot chili sauce, and rice. 4 meals

2) Tuna Salad sandwich on gluten free bread, cucumbers, carrots, apples, and filtered water from home. 3 meals

3) Almond butter sandwich on gluten free bread, cucumbers, sliced tomato, apples, and filtered water from home 2 meals

4) Gluten free lunchmeat on gluten free bread, cucumbers, carrots, peaches, and filtered water from water. 4 meals

Well, howdy everyone. I got paid again today. Still no raise, but I am still plugging right along with my goals. I increased my regular savings (emergency, although I don't really like to say that) to $708.02. I am increasing my car savings by $20.00. I wish I could do more, but we had to have work done on our car's air conditioner that cost $150 and I did not want to go into debt over that. I got a $5.00 survey check. As soon as I got it, I deposited it and paid the cc by the same amount. No survey money does not waste time lingering in my checking account or it would get spent on something when I want to spend it gaining financial freedom. I also paid extra to the cc today, bringing the balance to probably about $1797.06. I will pay more later when I scrounge up some other funds.

I am going to Coinstar tomorrow and will deposit the funds into my car account. It will probably be around $2 to $3. Update: I had $3.00 in change, bringing my car account to $296.49.

We got our latest mortgage statement. It is no surprise to us that it is going down, because we pay every time on time. It feels great to know we are building equity.

I am going thrift store shopping tomorrow for 2 pairs of slacks (1 preferably black and then other khaki). I also need some new socks. I will check Big Lots for those.

Just saw this link referenced on a listserv. I thought you all might like to see it, too.

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/financialhealth/index.html

I only got a C+, so it's looks like I have a lot of work to do!

Well, the latest in our household is that last weekend, our mailbox was vandalized. We called the police and they filled out a report on it. We knew that since the mailbox only cost about $50.00, that we could not file insurance on it. So, we set about trying to figure out what our options are. We don't want to have to buy a new mailbox and/or post every 6 months, so we were willing to buy something a little more sturdy. My hubby talked to a few friends online who made some suggestions. We also did some online shopping on the Home Depot website. We even investigated the possibility of moving the mailbox to where it was originally located about 1/2 way between the street and the house. No go on that one by the way, as the post offices nationwide are trying to move everyone's mailboxes to the street for safety and limitation of liability. After talking with the postmaster, they came up with an idea the post office is happy with and will also hopefully eliminate future vandalism issues. It involves: 1) mountaing the mailbox on a new post where the box is screwed into a hard metal plate, 2) setting the post in quik crete, and building a sort of cage made of rebar around the mailbox. It is bound to be the most unusual and ugly mailboxes in our town, but if it will keep people from knocking it over, I am all for it. Will post more on this later.

The second issue we are dealing with is ants. Ants by our microwave, in our kitchen cabinets, by the stove, and on the floor. We have been trying for weeks to stave them off by keeping the counters meticulously clean, washing all dishes as soon as we are done with them, and sweeping and mopping the floor often. That has not been working, as they seem to come back anyway. Well, today we decided we had had enough. I did some searching online for anything we could do that did not involve calling an exterminator or spraying awful chemicals into the air.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4744027_kill-ants-household-remedies...

We went out and bought the boric acid and I put it where the online instructions said. Then, my husband went out and looked around the house. He said he found hundreds of ants in our yard and so he put some of the boric acid on them. Hopefully, this will do the trick.

There is other stuff in our house we definitely want to change. Here is a picture of the closet doors in our bedroom. Yes, they are actually an icky color somewhere between pink and lavender. Yuck.



Here is a picture of the bathroom looking towards the bathtub and a small cabinet Notice the weird colors? Yes, we have a harvest gold bathtub and tiles, but that lavender/pink paint on the inside of the cabinet above the bathtub on the wall. I think whoever painted must have been color blind!



We also want to install some kind of insulation in the attic. Some I know was commenting how they had recently installed radiant barrier in their attic and that it made a huge difference. They described it as looking kind of like big pieces of aluminum foil. I am not sure if it is considered a replacement or a complement to regular insulation. Have any of you heard of it or used it?

I knew that home ownership would be different than renting, but this has not been much fun. It certainly hasn't been boring, though.

Well, I got paid again today, so there's more money in savings and retirement. I have already set aside car insurance and 1/2 of the mortgage payment for August.

I work at a university and have a contract. The union has ratified the contract for this year, but it has to go to the Board of Regents in the state for approval. In the meantime, the salary increase I was supposed to get beginning today, I will not get til the Board of Regents approves it. When will that be? It's anyone's guess.

I really wanted to go to HR today and increase my amount going to retirement and savings, but don't want to until the raise comes through.

Don't get me wrong. I count myself lucky I have a job and a salaried job at that. Some people in my field are unemployed and have been for a couple of years. Others are underpayed. I am doing alright salary wise, but I have been promoted and want to be recognized for that in my salary. I worked hard for it for the last 6 years at my current job and 15 years overall in my field.

Here is the dispersal of my reimbursement as it stands now:

$1241.38 (total of reimbursement)
-$200.00 (payment to credit card)
- $90.00 (balance payment on lawn mower)
-$200.00 (deposit to car savings account for eventual replacement of car)
- $33.93 (ordering health supplements)
- $56.25 (ordering new water filter cartridge 7/4/2011)
- $50.00 (second payment to credit card 7/4/2011)
-$325.64 (replacing dying PS3)
-------------------
$285.29 balance as of 7/4/2011

I would have sent a larger portion to the credit card, but the bank balance is a little wonky right now and I need to clear that up before sending more. Our PS3 is our primary source of entertainment, as we do not have cable tv or satellite. My husband plays some of the PS3 games and we both watch tv episodes and movies on Netflix instant viewing. So, that's why we wanted to replace our dying PS3. After I get the bank balance straightened out, I will likely make another payment to the credit card and put more in regular and car savings.

Oh, and if you need to order any health supplements and certain health food stuff, try

http://www.vitacost.com. They are having a 4th of July sale today with a lot of things heavily discounted and no shipping charge on any order over $49.00.

Here is my progress so far with the reimbursement.

$1241.38 (total reimbursement)
-$200.00 (payment to credit card)
-$200.00 (deposit to car savings to eventually replace the car)
-$90.00 (pay off the balance on the lawn mower)
-$325.64 (bought a new PS3 because our old one is about to die)
__________
Balance $425.74

I will make at least one more deposit to the savings and payment on the credit card next week.

The other thing we need to get is a new filter for the water filter connected to our kitchen faucet. That will probably be around $75-$80.

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=231719&catid=...

A computer geek we know has basically offered to buy our old PS3 because he fixes old ones and sells them. We don't know how much yet, but it should help some.

The note about my credit card balance at the left is correct for the first time in a long time. I had not put the actual number up there because it was so embarassing. Now, I will be putting the correct, and declining, number there. I am getting a pretty good raise in July and that should help a lot in enabling me to: 1) increasing regular savings, 2) increase retirement, 3) pay down the credit card, and 4) put away more for house upkeep and eventual car replacement. Woo-hoo!

My reimbursement for my travel expenses has arrived. Normally, I only get $500 per year, but if there is any travel money left at the end of the year in my organization because someone didn't use their travel money, someone gets the benefit of that. So, it is being deposited and once it clears, I will begin the process of dolling it out. The first amounts to go out will be: 1) $90.00 for the lawn mower, 2) $250.00 to the credit card, and 3) $250.00 to savings. That is just the beginning of my plan, but it gets better than that. This is gonna be FUN to pay off debts and bring up savings balances!

Well, I just got $10.00 in survey money, so I immediately set up a payment in equal amount to the credit card for Thursday. By then, I should also have my reimbursement money and can alter this amount to include what I was going to pay out of it on to the credit card.

Anyone know what's happening with Netflix? We cannot log into our account or watch instant movies.

I did pretty good with the Food Challenge this week. I only bought an occasional iced tea or soda and lunch on Friday. I had to buy lunch then because the floor in our break room was being cleaned and waxed, making the only refrigerator in the building inaccessible.

Here is something I am trying in order to get away from drinking soda and also to drink cold tea in the summer. I just cannot stand drinking hot tea right now.

http://www.vitacost.com/To-Go-Brands-Green-Tea-Energy-Fusion

Well, here are my meals for the next week:

- Oatmeal, raisins, almond milk, flaxseeds, and honey, 6 servings

- Gluten free pasta salad with tuna, 2 servings

- Poverty meal (a.k.a. beefaroni) with elbow macaroni, ground beef, tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices, onion http://www.food.com/recipe/poverty-meal-27520, 6 meals

I don't know why they call it poverty meal, because I have been eating stuff like that nearly all my life.

- Beef stew with hamburger, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices, rice, black beans, carrots, onion, 6 services

Well, I survived with no major catastrophes. However, while ironing clothes in my hotel room last Friday morning, I burned myself with the iron. It will probably take a couple of weeks to heal, but it's okay and does not even hurt. It itches a lot, though. I also managed to something get my neck vertebrae out of place and had to go see the chiropractor. I sounded a lot like a popcorn machine when he put them back in.

As for the financial news, you will note in my list of the debts to the left, hospital bill #1 is PAID OFF. After I got back from my trip, I found that I had some money in checking that I had allocated for the trip left over. So, I immediately wrote a check to pay off the hospital debt. It feels great. I had planned on paying it off with part of my reimbursement from the trip, but this is even better. It's like found money.

I also had $6.00 in cash left over from the trip. That money went to the regular emergency savings account, bringing the balance to $522.43! I am loving this!

Also, I got a $20.00 survey check in the mail today, so I deposited it to checking without delay and scheduled a credit card payment for the same amount.

I managed to do fine with eating on my trip. I was a little bit afraid I would not be able to find gluten free food to eat, but there was a market close to the hotel where I bought cereal, bagels, almond milk, fresh fruit, lunchmeat, peanut butter, and bottled water to eat. It cost a whole lot less than going out to eat. Most of the cash I took with me went for food at that grocery store. I am so proud that I never whipped out the credit card and only used the debit card 4 times, so I was way under budget.

I just wanted to give a salute out to the all the brave men and women out there who are serving or have served in the Armed Forces and thank them for defending our country and the Constitution of the United States of America.

This is a really awesome video by a young, up and coming artist. I hope to see more of her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhX5ET5PNv8

Well, I leave by Greyhound bus on a trip to St. Louis for a conference. So that I don't sidetracked into eating lots of junk food and spending lots of money, I am taking all my own snacks. It's a 6 hour bus ride and it leaves at 5:00am, so food is essential. Because of my food allergies, I can't depend on finding food I can eat at the places a bus is likely to stop. So, I have packed Larabars, single serving raisin packets, and single serving nuts. I am also taking a bottle of water and 2 sandwiches.

My bus ticket and conference registration are already paid for. I already have money allocated for the hotel bill and any other food I will buy. I'm so excited!

I don't leave for the trip until Thursday, so I still have to make some food to eat from now until then.

1) Salmon and gluten free pasta salad with salt, pepper, and garlic (3 meals)

2) Spaghetti sauce with rice (1 meal)

3) Stir fry with chicken, peppers, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and hot chili sauce (3 meals)

4) Oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, almond milk, and honey (4 meals)

5) Beans and rice - I am not sure how many meals I will get out of this. I have never made it before and have to look up a recipe.

6) Breakfast at the hotel during my conference - The hotel serves free breakfast, but some of it I won't be able to eat. I will probably be able to eat some fruit and hot tea, but I will have to buy my own cereal and almond milk at the store. (3 meals)

7) Dinners at the hotel during my conference - The hotel also serves free dinners, out of which I will probably be able to eat a salad, baked potato, and some kind of drink. I will probably have to buy some gluten free lunchmeat at the nearby grocery store. (3 meals)

The fact that the hotel serves both breakfast and lunch is an extremely major deal, because my college gives us a per diem (a meal allowance) for attending conferences. Since I don't have to pay for many of my meals, they will reimburse more of my other costs, like conference registration and bus ticket. I am keeping track of all costs on a printed spreadsheet and, of course, keeping all receipts.

7) I will be eating out for any meals not accounted for above. This will probably include my lunches while at the conference. I don't know what they are serving, or even if anything will be available. I have money for that, though, so it's not a problem.

The Food Challenge is still going great guns and I am enjoying coming up with new recipes and stuff to eat when I see something on sale for a really good price. Like, this past Saturday, I had already planned on buying some kind of rice, as it is one of my gluten free substitute standbys for pasta. I also occasionally buy gluten free pasta. I digress. A box of rice was on sale for $2.00 and it had one of the sticky coupons attached to the box for $1.00 off. You can bet I made a b-line for that box. Wow. I had actually worried a little bit about how I was going to make the grocery dollars stretch this week, as the amount left in our checking was a little skinny. But because of this and other fabulous on stuff I was going to buy anyway, it's all good and I actually spent about 1/2 of what I normally do without a lot of effort! Woo-hoo! So, now I ask myself, why am I worrying about it? It always seems to work out somehow.

Here are my meals for the coming week:

3 meals of gluten free pasta salad with gluten free/preservative free/msg free ham, black olives, fresh tomatoes, 1/2 of a yellow onion, and mayo

6 breakfast meals of oatmeal with cinnamon, honey, almond milk, and flaxseeds

2 meals of gluten free/preservative free ham sandwiches on gluten free bread

3 meals of leftover ham and bean soup

This is going to be great week!

I saw this article about creative ways to save money on the Smart Spending Blog at MSN.com. I find that I save a lot of money by keeping an insulated mug at work that I make tea in every day. And I take my own tea bags and stevia to sweeten my tea. Those two things alone keeps me from going to one of the campus eateries every day to buy a Coke or cup of tea. Also, if I did buy anything (I try to stick to cash for my purchases of iced tea, etc.), I put the change into a special box for the purpose. Once a week or so, I take the box to the Coinstar and cash in my coins and deposit them to a savings account. At different times, I have different goals I am savings for, but I deposit it somewhere for a later use and it adds up so fast! It's really cool and it feels great knowing that my money is going to buying future windows for my house or help me to weather some sort of unforeseen emergency.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=9c96a4...

In July, after I get my pay raise, I am going to increase the amount of money automatically deposited monthly to my savings and retirement. I will also open up a Roth IRA.

Well, I am doing really well with my Food Challenge. Except for an occasional iced tea or soda purchase, I have not really bought a meal out except sometimes on the Fridays when I get paid, I will buy lunch and later dinner with my husband. Because I had to attend graduation at my university on Friday, I did not have dinner with my husband, but ate dinner in my office and then went to graduation. Hubby ate a pizza. Arrgh! But he wanted something, and bless his heart, he his been eating oatmeal and boiled eggs for breakfast every day and "rabbit food" with chicken or tuna for lunch and dinner. Have I mentioned he hates rabbit food?

So, my meals for the coming week will be the following:

7 servings of ham and bean soup (homemade) - see link to recipe below

6 servings of oatmeal with raisins, honey, almond milk, and cinnamon

2 servings of chicken and pasta salad

3 sandwiches with Hormel Naturals Ham on gluten free bread with mustard

1 sandwich with almond butter on gluten free bread

1 serving of spaghetti made with rice instead of wheat pasta

Oh, and on the ham and bean soup, I have been dying to have some for ages. I have never made it on my own and while my mother makes it frequently, I have no idea what her recipe is. Recipe? She hardly ever uses recipes or measures anything. Anyway, I wanted to make some and found a recipe online for a basic ham and bean soup. I have to say that for my first try, it is a really excellent soup and way better than the lentil soup I tried around a month or so ago. Oh, and for my fellow frugal eaters, it is a very cheap soup to make, because most of the ingredients are things you might already have at home. I made a big 6 quart pot and that came out to 7 servings. Here is the link to recipe. I did change it up a bit. I did not use a ham bone, but just bought 1 pound of Boar's Head ham from the deli because I need to use meat that is free of gluten and msg. I also did not use a bay leaf, as I don't have any and didn't want to buy it just for this.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/basic-ham-and-bean-soup/Detail....

Well, up to now, we really had not done much of anything with our house maintenance to-do list. When we moved into our new-old house last July, we bought a riding lawn mower from a friend to mow our lawn with. It has turned out to be a bit of a pill because the battery keeps dying and it stalls while my husband is mowing, so we sold it to my brother in law. Also, my husband has been having some physical problems lately, and we decided it would be better to have someone else mow it every 2 weeks for only $40.00 each time. The influx of cash from selling the mower gave us the opportunity to accomplish getting a new ceiling fan to replace our living room ceiling fan/light which is wobbly and old. There are 5 globes on it and the wires on the neck of two of the globes is covered with tape and has been since we moved in. So, for $69.97 plus tax plus eco-friendly LED lightbulbs, we replaced our old ceiling fan/light with a new one.

I am going to convince my husband to use the rest of the cash left from selling the mower to pay off the rest of the lawn mower. Then, we will be one step closer to freedom!

Hello, everyone. Well, I am changing the name of my Lunch Challenge since I am counting all meals.

Here is the food I have for this week:

6 servings of oatmeal with raisins, almond milk, cinnamon, and flaxseed - 4 Done!

4 sandwiches with Hormel Natural Meats - 1 Done!

2 servings of chicken & vegetable soup leftover from last week - 2 Done!

1 almond butter sandwich - 1 Done!

3 servings of chicken salad with gluten free pasta, boiled eggs, and peas - 3 Done!

1 serving of Romaine lettuce salad with tuna - 1 Done!

3 hamburger patties - 1 Done!

1 serving of spaghetti - 1 Done!


Snacks will include cashew nuts and fresh fruit.

Well, I had made up chicken salad for 2 meals worth this week. But tonight, when I got home, I just could not stand the idea of chicken salad. Besides, I had no bread and was going to have to make do with carrots sticks. I improvised by boiling up some gluten free pasta and mixed the chicken salad in with a little extra mayo and spices. Even my hubby tasted it and said it was delish and he hates gluten free pasta, but he is on a diet to lose weight, so he had to eat a tuna sandwich. So, my improvised dinner was a success.

I only had a few hours today to put together my meals for lunches and dinners for this week. I have to work from 3-6 today. I also put together my hubby's salads and boiled some eggs for him to eat.

Here in my lunch challenge for the week

6 servings of beef and vegetable stew - 2 Done!

2 servings of chicken salad with boiled egg - serve with raw veggies 1 Done!

1 serving of lentil soup

4 hamburgers - serve with steamed or raw veggies 1 Done!

5 servings of oatmeal 1 Done!

4 servings of Corn Chex 1 Done!

In an effort to keep better track of my Lunch Challenge, I decided to document my progress so far this week.

I updated my previous entry with comments in red.

Well, this next week is going to be a use-it-up-week. Here are my lunch/supper plans for the coming week.

Lentil soup - 5 meals 2 Done!

Chicken stir fry - 1 meal Done!

Turkey sandwiches on gluten free bread - 3 meals 2 Done!

Spinach salad with tomatoes, onions, canned chicken, oil and vinegar for dressing - 1 meal Done!

Spaghetti - 1 meal Done!

Hamburgers - 2 meals I had to change this one to cereal. 2 Done!

I will add fruit and vegetables, a handful of nuts,
and a bottle of filtered water from home to my lunches.

I may buy my lunch 1 time in order to make it all stretch.

Hello, everyone. I have been noticing that even though I am contributing faithfully to my 401K every month through my job, that I would like to increase my retirement income possibilities.

First, though, I need to get the regular emergency savings up to at least $1000 and get rid of some liabilities, including getting the lawn mower and my medical bill paid off. I will also make a significant payment to the credit card. The lawn mower, medical bill, and credit card are slated to happen in June. The emergency fund is already in progress.

Later this year, after all this is accomplished, I want to open a Roth IRA and contribute about $500 a year to start. I would like to invest it in ETFs. When I went to my retirement company website, it looks like I can basically mail in contributions whenever I want, like monthly, quarterly, or right before tax time. For those who actually do have one, is it easier to contribute say monthly so that $50 or $100 is not as painful as $2000. What do you think?

Well, the lentil soup was very successful, but I think I will change up the spices a little next time and add a little more salt. It was slightly bland, but still very good. I even had people commenting on how fragrant and yummy it smelled. I have a few bowls left over, some of which I will have this week.

This next week, I have something a little different planned. These are my lunches and dinners. (My hubby is on a special diet to lose weight, so I am fixing separate meals for myself.)

Sandwiches with Boars Head turkey breast on gluten free bread with spicey mustard, apple, orange, bottle of filtered water from home (3 meals)

Gluten free pasta salad with chicken, cucumbers, green pepper, tomatoes, spices, apple, orange, bottle of filtered water from home (2 meals)

Gluten free pasta with spaghetti sauce (1 meal)

Stir fry with chicken, green pepper, onion, spices, and rice (3 meals)

Leftover Lentil soup (3 meals)

Leftover Beef Stew (2 meals)

My go is to have $1500 cash available for my conference trip before June. It is costing me less for this trip than the one I did in 2009 because it is only a 6 hour drive away rather than flying. I am going to have to board my cats, though. I know they won't like it. I am building that cost into my plan. So, I have $409.71 to go to meet my goal of $1500 in available cash for the trip.

I also have a goal to have $200 paid off on my credit card so that I can use it for the car rental for the trip. I can pay the $200 off as soon as I get back with the cash I will have available. In addition, I will get a $500 reimbursement from my work for my expenses. I know. It doesn't really come close to the $1500 project costs, but it is something and it is important that I attend national conference at least once every other year. This goal is in progress, but not quite as good. Working on it.

Well, I get paid again tomorrow. Hubby is going to the bank to make the mortgage payment which has already been allocated from my two previous paychecks, so no problem there.

I am also making another payment on Hospital Debt #1, bringing the balance to $177.58. Woo-Hoo!

Because I am already done paying on Hospital Debt #2 (!!!!) and I have 3 paydays in April, I am allocating a little extra money towards debt payment on the credit card, the Conference Challenge, and home maintenance.

I plan on spending around $50 to $60 on a new ceiling fan Saturday.

I am also allocating $150 to the Conference Challenge, bring my balance to $1056.44! Woo-Hoo! I will add more to that after going grocery shopping and paying the credit card bill, etc.

I am not sure how much I will pay on the credit card. Hmm...

For the Lunch Challenge, I am thinking of making lentil soup. I hear it's yummy and nutritious, so here goes!

Well, I just got an email telling me that survey money will be arriving soon, about a week or so. That will be $25.00

Also, I cashed in my beezag points for $8.00. Thanks to beezag doing some kind of special this month where a lot of their videos were 250 points instead of the usually 20 or something.

So, when those go through, I will have another $33.00 in the Conference Challenge. woo-hoo

Unfortunately, part of the money that went to pay for the car repair came out of my emergency savings. I am bummed, because it took about 6 months to get it to almost $600 and I had to take some out. I am bummed, but happy I did not have to resort to a credit card. I also have to remind myself that that is what emergency savings is for -- unplanned expenses like car engines. My savings balance is now $305.72. :|

On a happy note, I got a $20.00 survey check in the mail which went straight to my Conference Challenge.

I also got a paypal deposit of $25.40 from another survey company.

That brings my conference challenge balance to $898.44.

All I can say is Woo-Hoo!

Well, after hubby picked up the car from the mechanic on Monday, he went by Home Depot and bought a new flapper to replace the old flapper in our toilet. It was only $3.14!! Wow. I expected it to be $20.00 or something. He said the flapper is the one part that is the most frequent to fall apart and cause the toilet to run. He put it in the toilet and for the first couple of hours, it was completely silent. Then, we started hearing it run a little bit. Well, we may have to replace something else in the toilet, but at least it has stopped the almost non-stop running. Looking forward to lower water bills!!

I just got a paypal payment from a survey company for $25.40! That goes straight to my Conference Challenge and brings my balance to $878.44.