Yes, it is a new month and yesterday was payday. Sounds like a good time to see how I did with my February goals and maybe set some new ones for March.
First of all, what were my goals for February?
1. Pay for Dear Child's birthday party.
2. Pay at least $229.75 to MasterCard
3. Stay current with all the other bills.
4. Get the treatment plan for DC's dental surgery and figure out how to pay for that.
5. Make arrangements for Dog's Passover vacation and pay at least $100 towards that.
Those sounded pretty reasonable. How did I do?
1. Dear Child's party was held at the community centre with an hour in the gym and then food upstairs. Given that my Eldest Daughter's baby was overdue at that point and we were doing renovations both upstairs and down at home, it was the only logical choice. She didn't have a party the previous year and had been promised a nice one this year. I charged the party on my MasterCard and paid for part of it in February. I finished paying for it today.
2. I made a number of payments to MasterCard in February, as well as at the beginning of March. I paid both the $229.75 and $90 (my regular payment) on 17 Feb, then paid $62.50 towards the cost of the party on the 22nd or 23rd. I paid another $90 yesterday and $400 today.
3. I am current on all the usual bills like internet, water, credit card, cell, set-asides into my credit union account, ING emergency fund, etc. It feels good.
4. Dear Child had her surgery and I charged the first of 3 monthly payments for it to my MasterCard at the beginning of the week when the surgery took place. The total bill was a little under $1,800 and each payment is between $500 and $600. $200 of the $400 I paid today was towards the dental charge. I'll have more to put towards it when my hubby gets paid again. I want to pay each dental charge off before I charge the next one.
5. I wrote to reserve Dog's place today and will send a cheque for $100 once I hear back.
All in all, I did very well! Now, what do I want to choose as goals for March (bearing in mind that Passover falls at the end of March this year and is both hectic and expensive). Let's keep it very simple.
1. Stay current on my bills this month.
2. Pay at least half of the cost of Dog's vacation ahead of time.
3. Pay down the cost of the first dental charge before the end of March.
I could add more, but I know just how much of a challenge those will be.
In addition, I'm on track with my TFSA. I've been putting in $50 each payday and it's currently sitting at $250.18. I've also got an automatic transfer of $10/week to my ING Emergency Fund. There's $251.56 in there as of today, close to half the $520 I listed as a goal for the year. Yes, I realize it's not enough but the money in the TFSA can also be taken out for any reason at any time, so it can also function as a sort of emergency fund too. I'll be happier when I have at least $1,000 put away between the two funds but right now I'm just trying to find some kind of balance and form regular habits.
Showing posts with label dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dog. Show all posts
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Review Day & February Goals
It was Wednesday. It was payday. And my Hubby had transferred money to my account. Guess what I did this morning before breakfast? I paid bills, of course!
That made me think about my goals for the year. How am I doing with those? What should I work on this month?
Overall, I'm doing well with the money. Both the Home Depot payment plans are history. That's just over $1,500 worth of debt we've paid off between about November and now. I have post-dated cheques for another debt we're chewing away at and I'm on track with that. I've opened a TFSA and there's already $150 in it. I have $10/week going into my ING Emergency Fund. No, that's not a lot but it's going in there nice and regular. The IKEA account is all paid off and can no longer be used because they changed companies that provide the credit card services. As of today, I think I'm current on all my bills. The one thing I still need to do for this pay period is to go to the credit union, take out $45 in cash and then deposit it into my other credit union via the ATM. That's the set-aside money each payday for my electric bill, garbage, property taxes and fuel oil at our rural home. Next winter, when it's time for a fuel oil delivery, I'll have the money all saved up.
On the other hand, I've been charging stuff for the city house on my MasterCard. In fact, Capital One put a fraud hold on my card after the third time I used it in 2 days! What did I buy? I spent $20.11 at IKEA on 4 D cell batteries, 10 votive candle holders and a pair of sheer drapes (2 panels). I bought $129.37 worth of DriCore (including a levelling kit) at one Home Depot and, the next day at a different Home Depot, I spent $229.75 on tiles for the foyer and 3rd bedroom, as well as concealing film for the bedroom windows, a closet pole that will fit Dear Child's closet at the rural house (it's an odd size) and a grouting sponge. Bad? Not really. I had to buy the reno supplies before the end of January to be able to cash in on the home renovation tax credit. And I needed the supplies to finish important projects that will make our part of the house a lot better looking. Plus, I've paid down $149.48 of that already today.
The fraud thing was actually pretty funny. I've barely used the card over the past year or more, so 3 transactions in 2 days was obviously suspicious! I got that all straightened out with a quick phone call.
What are my goals for February?
1. Pay for Dear Child's birthday party.
2. Pay at least $229.75 to MasterCard
3. Stay current with all the other bills.
4. Get the treatment plan for DC's dental surgery and figure out how to pay for that.
5. Make arrangements for Dog's Passover vacation and pay at least $100 towards that.
Got any goals for February that you'd like to share?
That made me think about my goals for the year. How am I doing with those? What should I work on this month?
Overall, I'm doing well with the money. Both the Home Depot payment plans are history. That's just over $1,500 worth of debt we've paid off between about November and now. I have post-dated cheques for another debt we're chewing away at and I'm on track with that. I've opened a TFSA and there's already $150 in it. I have $10/week going into my ING Emergency Fund. No, that's not a lot but it's going in there nice and regular. The IKEA account is all paid off and can no longer be used because they changed companies that provide the credit card services. As of today, I think I'm current on all my bills. The one thing I still need to do for this pay period is to go to the credit union, take out $45 in cash and then deposit it into my other credit union via the ATM. That's the set-aside money each payday for my electric bill, garbage, property taxes and fuel oil at our rural home. Next winter, when it's time for a fuel oil delivery, I'll have the money all saved up.
On the other hand, I've been charging stuff for the city house on my MasterCard. In fact, Capital One put a fraud hold on my card after the third time I used it in 2 days! What did I buy? I spent $20.11 at IKEA on 4 D cell batteries, 10 votive candle holders and a pair of sheer drapes (2 panels). I bought $129.37 worth of DriCore (including a levelling kit) at one Home Depot and, the next day at a different Home Depot, I spent $229.75 on tiles for the foyer and 3rd bedroom, as well as concealing film for the bedroom windows, a closet pole that will fit Dear Child's closet at the rural house (it's an odd size) and a grouting sponge. Bad? Not really. I had to buy the reno supplies before the end of January to be able to cash in on the home renovation tax credit. And I needed the supplies to finish important projects that will make our part of the house a lot better looking. Plus, I've paid down $149.48 of that already today.
The fraud thing was actually pretty funny. I've barely used the card over the past year or more, so 3 transactions in 2 days was obviously suspicious! I got that all straightened out with a quick phone call.
What are my goals for February?
1. Pay for Dear Child's birthday party.
2. Pay at least $229.75 to MasterCard
3. Stay current with all the other bills.
4. Get the treatment plan for DC's dental surgery and figure out how to pay for that.
5. Make arrangements for Dog's Passover vacation and pay at least $100 towards that.
Got any goals for February that you'd like to share?
Monday, September 14, 2009
Over the Mountains and Far Away
I was going to post last night, but I was just too tired. I took Dear Child and Dog and went to the house on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, Hubby has been too busy to come, so we went by ourselves again.
I really didn't mean for 5 weeks to go by without making the trip but every weekend there has been some reason why we couldn't go. Since 3 out of the next 4 weekends are religious holidays when I can't drive or do anything (and when I want to be able to go to shul) I was determined to go this time.
DC had a wonderful time playing with her friend. On Sunday, starting at about 9 am, I mowed the back, front and both side yards (with the push mower), pulled weeds in about half the front garden and around my grapevine, did 2 loads of laundry, loaded up the sukkah into the van and then drove home Sunday evening.
Gee, I wonder why I was tired....
We didn't even drive into town. The furthest we got from home was on Shabbos afternoon, when we went for a long walk with Dog. I'd like to go back either the weekend after Rosh Hashana (although that's tricky because Sunday night is the beginning of Yom Kippur and I'd have to be back in time for Kol Nidre services) or the weekend after Sukkot. Heck, I'd even consider going out the night of Sunday, October 11th and return the following night (since the 12th is Canadian Thanksgiving). Later than mid-October, and we'll be running into the possibility of snow in the mountain passes.
In fact, I think that unless I go just before Yom Kippur, I have to buy 2 new snow tires first. I don't believe I blogged about it but we spent almost $700 on the car 2 weeks ago (including 2 new all season tires for the rear) and have to spend maybe $600 on it this week. So, I'm just dying to buy some snow tires but you have to have both snow tires on the vehicle and carry chains from the beginning of October until something like the end of April in order to go through Manning Park.
What happened to our previous snow tires? The same thing that happened to our last pair of all weather tires on the rear. The tread just gets worn right off in about 4 months. Clearly, there must be some kind of alignment problem (the back end of the car seems to shimmy a little) and yes, we need to get bushings done, hence the $600 this week. That should at least help although it's been pointed out to me that there may be some kind of rear suspension issue too. I hope not, but we'll see.
The only bright spot in all this is that Hubby finally got the commission from a big job and we paid cash for car repairs this time! So much better than borrowing from family, putting it on the card or other things we've had to do in the past.
Anyway, I want to go back at least once more before the snow flies to do more yard work and put together that IKEA bookshelf I took there when we went out on the August Long Weekend. I'd love to spend Sukkot there the way we usually do, but that's just not happening this year.
Last winter we didn't go there for about 5 months. That was awful. I mean, the drive is no picnic when the snow is bad but I miss the house and I'd like to go at least somewhat more regularly this year. Even every 6 weeks would be okay.
All of a sudden I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so maybe I'd better quit for the night.
I really didn't mean for 5 weeks to go by without making the trip but every weekend there has been some reason why we couldn't go. Since 3 out of the next 4 weekends are religious holidays when I can't drive or do anything (and when I want to be able to go to shul) I was determined to go this time.
DC had a wonderful time playing with her friend. On Sunday, starting at about 9 am, I mowed the back, front and both side yards (with the push mower), pulled weeds in about half the front garden and around my grapevine, did 2 loads of laundry, loaded up the sukkah into the van and then drove home Sunday evening.
Gee, I wonder why I was tired....
We didn't even drive into town. The furthest we got from home was on Shabbos afternoon, when we went for a long walk with Dog. I'd like to go back either the weekend after Rosh Hashana (although that's tricky because Sunday night is the beginning of Yom Kippur and I'd have to be back in time for Kol Nidre services) or the weekend after Sukkot. Heck, I'd even consider going out the night of Sunday, October 11th and return the following night (since the 12th is Canadian Thanksgiving). Later than mid-October, and we'll be running into the possibility of snow in the mountain passes.
In fact, I think that unless I go just before Yom Kippur, I have to buy 2 new snow tires first. I don't believe I blogged about it but we spent almost $700 on the car 2 weeks ago (including 2 new all season tires for the rear) and have to spend maybe $600 on it this week. So, I'm just dying to buy some snow tires but you have to have both snow tires on the vehicle and carry chains from the beginning of October until something like the end of April in order to go through Manning Park.
What happened to our previous snow tires? The same thing that happened to our last pair of all weather tires on the rear. The tread just gets worn right off in about 4 months. Clearly, there must be some kind of alignment problem (the back end of the car seems to shimmy a little) and yes, we need to get bushings done, hence the $600 this week. That should at least help although it's been pointed out to me that there may be some kind of rear suspension issue too. I hope not, but we'll see.
The only bright spot in all this is that Hubby finally got the commission from a big job and we paid cash for car repairs this time! So much better than borrowing from family, putting it on the card or other things we've had to do in the past.
Anyway, I want to go back at least once more before the snow flies to do more yard work and put together that IKEA bookshelf I took there when we went out on the August Long Weekend. I'd love to spend Sukkot there the way we usually do, but that's just not happening this year.
Last winter we didn't go there for about 5 months. That was awful. I mean, the drive is no picnic when the snow is bad but I miss the house and I'd like to go at least somewhat more regularly this year. Even every 6 weeks would be okay.
All of a sudden I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so maybe I'd better quit for the night.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
September and Back to School
Today was Dear Child's first day of Grade 1, her first day with a new English [secular] teacher, her first day in uniforms and....we were late. Sigh.
I went shopping for school shoes with her yesterday afternoon after Hubby came home to watch our granddaughters and we had mixed results. Just like last year we had to try on pretty well every shoe in Payless that was likely to fit her. This year that meant everything between size 10 and size 11 1/2. Some of the shoes came off when she ran. Some shoes hurt her toes or cut across her instep. Some shoes hurt her heels. Sometimes her heels came up when she walked.
We eventually settled on a pair of brown suede Airwalks for indoor and gym use (with Velcro straps for easy on/off several times per day) and the same black boots she had last year in a bigger size. It was BOGO but the boots were $50 so I spent about $68 all told. We had no luck at all finding "outside" shoes. Even the cute black shoes she had last year and wore out didn't work in a bigger size (they were among the ones that hurt the top of her instep). She ended up wearing her pink crocs as outdoor shoes today. They can't use crocs as inside shoes but they're okay as outdoor shoes. Don't ask me why.
I also took care of getting the school all the money I owe them in tuition (post dated cheques), textbooks and workbooks, school supplies, field trip money, etc. so as not to be in the huge crowd of parents who had to do that today.
The other thing I did yesterday was to get my new flipper. It's smaller and more comfortable than the old one, but it cost $361.60 because I hadn't had the old one for enough years to be eligible for a new one on our dental plan. Tell that to the Dog! Heck, if I could convince him to get a job maybe he could pay for it (seeing as how it's his fault I needed a new one in the first place). But, no. I show him all the working dogs on TV and he just ignores them....
Today, after I got Dear Child into class (with no tears!) I headed to my physio appointment where I got politely chewed out for not doing the exercises I've been given to do at home regularly enough. He wants to see me again in a week and I'm supposed to shape up in the meantime. Oh, yay. Fun.
I went shopping for school shoes with her yesterday afternoon after Hubby came home to watch our granddaughters and we had mixed results. Just like last year we had to try on pretty well every shoe in Payless that was likely to fit her. This year that meant everything between size 10 and size 11 1/2. Some of the shoes came off when she ran. Some shoes hurt her toes or cut across her instep. Some shoes hurt her heels. Sometimes her heels came up when she walked.
We eventually settled on a pair of brown suede Airwalks for indoor and gym use (with Velcro straps for easy on/off several times per day) and the same black boots she had last year in a bigger size. It was BOGO but the boots were $50 so I spent about $68 all told. We had no luck at all finding "outside" shoes. Even the cute black shoes she had last year and wore out didn't work in a bigger size (they were among the ones that hurt the top of her instep). She ended up wearing her pink crocs as outdoor shoes today. They can't use crocs as inside shoes but they're okay as outdoor shoes. Don't ask me why.
I also took care of getting the school all the money I owe them in tuition (post dated cheques), textbooks and workbooks, school supplies, field trip money, etc. so as not to be in the huge crowd of parents who had to do that today.
The other thing I did yesterday was to get my new flipper. It's smaller and more comfortable than the old one, but it cost $361.60 because I hadn't had the old one for enough years to be eligible for a new one on our dental plan. Tell that to the Dog! Heck, if I could convince him to get a job maybe he could pay for it (seeing as how it's his fault I needed a new one in the first place). But, no. I show him all the working dogs on TV and he just ignores them....
Today, after I got Dear Child into class (with no tears!) I headed to my physio appointment where I got politely chewed out for not doing the exercises I've been given to do at home regularly enough. He wants to see me again in a week and I'm supposed to shape up in the meantime. Oh, yay. Fun.
Monday, July 6, 2009
I'm Back and I Can See!
Dear Child, Dog and I had a great time at our rural home for 5 whole days!
Dear Child went swimming with her friends at an outdoor pool, where they do Swim Club a couple of times per week.
We had a Canada Day picnic at a local event and stayed until 9:30 pm because DC was enjoying herself so much.
We went to the beach and had a picnic dinner there, and made a sand castle.
We went back to the beach Friday, played in the sand, waded in the lake up to her waist (my hips) and shared a large popsicle. Then we came home and made pizzas for Shabbos dinner.
We took long walks around our little unincorporated place with Dog, exploring streets we've never been down before. I think we hit pretty much every street in town.
We found a new (local) video store and rented movies. DC had her friend from next door over to watch a couple of them.
DC also played with her friends whenever they were home, doing art on the computer, playing board games and running through the sprinkler.
My old school friend came out from town, had lunch and played 2 games of Scrabble with us.
We looked at the second piece of property I'm interested in with my realtor and I'm still interested in it! To date, there have only been 2 other properties that passed the visit to the site test and they were both significantly more money than this one. There's some stuff to research and all but the listing realtor isn't terribly interested in the property so it's not like it's likely to sell tomorrow. Heck, I've been pushing for info on it and to be able to see it for the past 3 months (since the week it came on the market) and she finally faxed the info on the weekend. We'll see.
Oh yeah, and I completed several hours more of backbreaking work in the garden. At least it looks fairly decent now. My grapevine is alive and has 3 leaves. The rosemary plants died, but the lavender is fine. Two of the three are budding. The peppermint is hanging on but the apple mint is spreading all over the place (it's in the front and I pulled some out from the back end of the far side of the house). The lilac is also healthy, although it doesn't look like it flowered.
And my biggest news? I picked up my new glasses today! They look nice, I can see and I'm happy with them.
Dear Child went swimming with her friends at an outdoor pool, where they do Swim Club a couple of times per week.
We had a Canada Day picnic at a local event and stayed until 9:30 pm because DC was enjoying herself so much.
We went to the beach and had a picnic dinner there, and made a sand castle.
We went back to the beach Friday, played in the sand, waded in the lake up to her waist (my hips) and shared a large popsicle. Then we came home and made pizzas for Shabbos dinner.
We took long walks around our little unincorporated place with Dog, exploring streets we've never been down before. I think we hit pretty much every street in town.
We found a new (local) video store and rented movies. DC had her friend from next door over to watch a couple of them.
DC also played with her friends whenever they were home, doing art on the computer, playing board games and running through the sprinkler.
My old school friend came out from town, had lunch and played 2 games of Scrabble with us.
We looked at the second piece of property I'm interested in with my realtor and I'm still interested in it! To date, there have only been 2 other properties that passed the visit to the site test and they were both significantly more money than this one. There's some stuff to research and all but the listing realtor isn't terribly interested in the property so it's not like it's likely to sell tomorrow. Heck, I've been pushing for info on it and to be able to see it for the past 3 months (since the week it came on the market) and she finally faxed the info on the weekend. We'll see.
Oh yeah, and I completed several hours more of backbreaking work in the garden. At least it looks fairly decent now. My grapevine is alive and has 3 leaves. The rosemary plants died, but the lavender is fine. Two of the three are budding. The peppermint is hanging on but the apple mint is spreading all over the place (it's in the front and I pulled some out from the back end of the far side of the house). The lilac is also healthy, although it doesn't look like it flowered.
And my biggest news? I picked up my new glasses today! They look nice, I can see and I'm happy with them.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
And They Say You Can't Go Home Again....
There are definitely times when I think it would be useful if I could clone myself! As I mentioned in my last post, I've been incredibly busy. My lunch with my Executive Director ended up being postponed to this week because we didn't have time last Thursday!
I did go to the doctor and the news was all good. She said all my blood work was normal. I'm not anemic and my thyroid was normal. The stress test results were normal too (meaning that I didn't have any kind of problematic heartbeats during or right after the test and that my heart rate slowed back down afterwards within the appropriate time frame). She feels that I'm not getting enough exercise and told me to do a half hour per day, every day. I'm trying, but it's not always working out that way. I think it will take a while to get in the habit and to manage to fit it around everything else.
Dear Child had her Kindergarten Graduation (which was very cute) and only has 2 days left of school. Tomorrow is a field trip and Thursday they pack all their stuff up to bring home and get their report cards.
My summer schedule is going to be insane. Mondays generally home with all 4 girls. Yes, four. This summer my oldest granddaughter is joining us, as her mother is working Thursday to Monday (and my Number One Son works Monday to Friday). Tuesday and Wednesday my daughter-in-law is off and has all the girls. The catch is that my son-in-law (the one we share a house with) has to take our 3 with him at 7 am and drop them off with her on his way to work! This should be, um, interesting considering that I spend about half an hour on average from 7 to 7:30 am talking to Dear Child, stroking her, tickling her, anything that will wake her up (while not putting her into a grumpy mood). Then we normally leave at 8 am. She moves fairly fast once she's awake but she's very hard to wake up (her father's daughter). There is No Way I want to get up at 6 am and start trying to wake her. I have a hunch she may be going in the van in her nightie with food she can eat in the car! Thursday and Friday are my son-in-law's days off and he gets all 4 girls here.
So, on the surface, it looks like I'm getting a break over the summer because I'm only responsible for one day per week instead of the current 3. However, my 4 year old granddaughter is registered for 2 or 3 weeks of summer camp (and the baby is registered for a week, as of today!). The older camp kids eat lunch there and finish at 1 or 1:30 pm; the littles finish at 11:30 am. That means on Tuesday and Wednesday I can only work until 11:30, go downstairs, pick up Boo Boo, hang out in the building until the older group finishes, pick the 4 yo up too and head home. Meanwhile, my own child will be happily playing with her niece, half an hour or so from home. Mondays should be even more fun. I'll be doing multiple pickup and hanging out at the centre for at least 1.5 hours with the older girls too. And I still haven't decided if I'm going to try to put DC in camp for a week too! The best part of that is that it would be an Orthodox kids camp instead of the community centre one, so it's in a different place and I don't know if it has the same pick up time ('cuz you know I'm good with being in 2 places at one time, see cloning comment above). I've been putting it off because I haven't checked with all her friends' mothers to see if their girls are going and which weeks, etc.
Anyway, to get back to what happened over the past few days, Dear Child complained of an upset tummy on the morning of her graduation and threw up in the car on the way to school. Into a plastic Safeway bag. The kid gets brownie points for not getting anything on her Shabbos clothes because they were all supposed to be dressed up for the graduation. I ended up taking her to my office for a couple of hours and we just took her to school in time for the event itself (I talked to the teachers and that was the decision as we didn't know if she was sick or just nervous and we didn't want her to miss the graduation).
After the graduation party I took DC home, we threw things in the car and I headed off on a 4.5 hour drive with a kid who had already been car sick once that day! Yes, I gave her Gravol and she had a fresh bag handy! Baruch Hashem [thank G-d], things went well and we arrived without incident and in enough time that I accomplished about 2.5 hours of intensive yard work before Shabbos. It was the first time in about 7 months that we've been to the house, so not too surprising that there was a lot to do!
Shabbos we just hung out, went for a long walk with Dog (who is in 7th heaven whenever we go to the house) and she played some with the kids next door. And yes, I did warn the mother that she might be sick. While she felt fine (no aches or pains, no fever, no further queasiness) she did develop the runs intermittently on Shabbos and Sunday. When she had to go, she really had to go. Within about 30 seconds. I was terrified of putting her in the car Sunday afternoon for the long car ride back to the city because I wouldn't even be able to pull over to the side of the road in that kind of time frame.
I did about another 4 hours of yard work on Sunday, some by hand and a lot with my neighbour's heavy duty weed whacker that you hold with 2 hands and swing kind of like a scythe, while holding down a button on the side and squeezing the trigger all at once. Do you think that was what the doc had in mind when she talked to me about exercise? By the time I finished I was in serious pain from my back, arms and right hand. When I say "finished", I mean I did all I could do but had to leave one of the side yards for next time. I ended up talking to Hubby and Eldest Daughter on the phone and the decision was to stay over Sunday night and come back some time on Monday. She worked something out for her girls and we just stayed and relaxed. I left a voice mail at work and that was that.
I took DC into town Sunday evening to buy a couple of things from the store, including a small pack of pullups for her to wear to bed and in the car, just as an insurance policy. She still had 2 more bouts, one about 11:30 pm Sunday, the other at 6:30 am on Monday, so it was a smart thing to do, although she's been out of that sort of thing for ages. We stayed until 4 pm Monday, then headed back and she's been fine. Whew!
My son-in-law took today off to do some work on their van so I worked the whole day and went back for some more time this evening. Now I'm not short any hours, even though I didn't work Monday. I'm really tired though and I'm covered in giant, itchy mosquito bites. At least 32 at last count. I don't think they liked me cutting the grass. Either that, or I just taste really good to them. So, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is payday and Wednesday, so we'll see just what I can accomplish.
I did go to the doctor and the news was all good. She said all my blood work was normal. I'm not anemic and my thyroid was normal. The stress test results were normal too (meaning that I didn't have any kind of problematic heartbeats during or right after the test and that my heart rate slowed back down afterwards within the appropriate time frame). She feels that I'm not getting enough exercise and told me to do a half hour per day, every day. I'm trying, but it's not always working out that way. I think it will take a while to get in the habit and to manage to fit it around everything else.
Dear Child had her Kindergarten Graduation (which was very cute) and only has 2 days left of school. Tomorrow is a field trip and Thursday they pack all their stuff up to bring home and get their report cards.
My summer schedule is going to be insane. Mondays generally home with all 4 girls. Yes, four. This summer my oldest granddaughter is joining us, as her mother is working Thursday to Monday (and my Number One Son works Monday to Friday). Tuesday and Wednesday my daughter-in-law is off and has all the girls. The catch is that my son-in-law (the one we share a house with) has to take our 3 with him at 7 am and drop them off with her on his way to work! This should be, um, interesting considering that I spend about half an hour on average from 7 to 7:30 am talking to Dear Child, stroking her, tickling her, anything that will wake her up (while not putting her into a grumpy mood). Then we normally leave at 8 am. She moves fairly fast once she's awake but she's very hard to wake up (her father's daughter). There is No Way I want to get up at 6 am and start trying to wake her. I have a hunch she may be going in the van in her nightie with food she can eat in the car! Thursday and Friday are my son-in-law's days off and he gets all 4 girls here.
So, on the surface, it looks like I'm getting a break over the summer because I'm only responsible for one day per week instead of the current 3. However, my 4 year old granddaughter is registered for 2 or 3 weeks of summer camp (and the baby is registered for a week, as of today!). The older camp kids eat lunch there and finish at 1 or 1:30 pm; the littles finish at 11:30 am. That means on Tuesday and Wednesday I can only work until 11:30, go downstairs, pick up Boo Boo, hang out in the building until the older group finishes, pick the 4 yo up too and head home. Meanwhile, my own child will be happily playing with her niece, half an hour or so from home. Mondays should be even more fun. I'll be doing multiple pickup and hanging out at the centre for at least 1.5 hours with the older girls too. And I still haven't decided if I'm going to try to put DC in camp for a week too! The best part of that is that it would be an Orthodox kids camp instead of the community centre one, so it's in a different place and I don't know if it has the same pick up time ('cuz you know I'm good with being in 2 places at one time, see cloning comment above). I've been putting it off because I haven't checked with all her friends' mothers to see if their girls are going and which weeks, etc.
Anyway, to get back to what happened over the past few days, Dear Child complained of an upset tummy on the morning of her graduation and threw up in the car on the way to school. Into a plastic Safeway bag. The kid gets brownie points for not getting anything on her Shabbos clothes because they were all supposed to be dressed up for the graduation. I ended up taking her to my office for a couple of hours and we just took her to school in time for the event itself (I talked to the teachers and that was the decision as we didn't know if she was sick or just nervous and we didn't want her to miss the graduation).
After the graduation party I took DC home, we threw things in the car and I headed off on a 4.5 hour drive with a kid who had already been car sick once that day! Yes, I gave her Gravol and she had a fresh bag handy! Baruch Hashem [thank G-d], things went well and we arrived without incident and in enough time that I accomplished about 2.5 hours of intensive yard work before Shabbos. It was the first time in about 7 months that we've been to the house, so not too surprising that there was a lot to do!
Shabbos we just hung out, went for a long walk with Dog (who is in 7th heaven whenever we go to the house) and she played some with the kids next door. And yes, I did warn the mother that she might be sick. While she felt fine (no aches or pains, no fever, no further queasiness) she did develop the runs intermittently on Shabbos and Sunday. When she had to go, she really had to go. Within about 30 seconds. I was terrified of putting her in the car Sunday afternoon for the long car ride back to the city because I wouldn't even be able to pull over to the side of the road in that kind of time frame.
I did about another 4 hours of yard work on Sunday, some by hand and a lot with my neighbour's heavy duty weed whacker that you hold with 2 hands and swing kind of like a scythe, while holding down a button on the side and squeezing the trigger all at once. Do you think that was what the doc had in mind when she talked to me about exercise? By the time I finished I was in serious pain from my back, arms and right hand. When I say "finished", I mean I did all I could do but had to leave one of the side yards for next time. I ended up talking to Hubby and Eldest Daughter on the phone and the decision was to stay over Sunday night and come back some time on Monday. She worked something out for her girls and we just stayed and relaxed. I left a voice mail at work and that was that.
I took DC into town Sunday evening to buy a couple of things from the store, including a small pack of pullups for her to wear to bed and in the car, just as an insurance policy. She still had 2 more bouts, one about 11:30 pm Sunday, the other at 6:30 am on Monday, so it was a smart thing to do, although she's been out of that sort of thing for ages. We stayed until 4 pm Monday, then headed back and she's been fine. Whew!
My son-in-law took today off to do some work on their van so I worked the whole day and went back for some more time this evening. Now I'm not short any hours, even though I didn't work Monday. I'm really tired though and I'm covered in giant, itchy mosquito bites. At least 32 at last count. I don't think they liked me cutting the grass. Either that, or I just taste really good to them. So, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is payday and Wednesday, so we'll see just what I can accomplish.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Busy, Busy Week
Things have been crazy busy and they're continuing in that vein. Busy at work, with Dear Child's school as it draws to a close, with family, with fundraising and with preparing to go to the house this weekend for the first time in over six months!
I was short parent participation hours so I've been doing things like thank you cards for the teachers, buying food for various events and so on.
And I haven't been sleeping particularly well.
Tomorrow and Friday are the capstones of the week. Tomorrow, among other things, I need to ferry everybody around, work most of the day, go for lunch with my Executive Director (who is leaving), go to the doctor for my test results (finally), go to the school for an assembly and a BBQ, and possibly get together with my oldest son.
Friday I'm only working a couple of hours, instead of all day. Dear Child graduates from Kindergarten in the middle of the day and then she and I are going to go to our rural home for the first time in over six months! Hubby has other obligations, so it should be interesting.
I have to arrive there with enough time before Shabbos that I can mow at least the front yard (and preferably all of it) because I got a phone call earlier this week, complaining about the appearance of my yard. One of my neighbours is trying to sell and it seems the jungle is putting buyers off! Since I can't do yard work on the Sabbath, I need to arrive with a few hours to spare on Friday so I can make it look decent before their next open house.
I'm going to make a bit of a list of what else needs to be done once I get there because DC and I are going back for a few days from Canada Day on. That's really when I'll be able to do a couple of things as well as kick back and have some fun with DC! We can go swimming in the lake and take Dog for walks up into the hills. I also have 2 properties I want to look at.
I was short parent participation hours so I've been doing things like thank you cards for the teachers, buying food for various events and so on.
And I haven't been sleeping particularly well.
Tomorrow and Friday are the capstones of the week. Tomorrow, among other things, I need to ferry everybody around, work most of the day, go for lunch with my Executive Director (who is leaving), go to the doctor for my test results (finally), go to the school for an assembly and a BBQ, and possibly get together with my oldest son.
Friday I'm only working a couple of hours, instead of all day. Dear Child graduates from Kindergarten in the middle of the day and then she and I are going to go to our rural home for the first time in over six months! Hubby has other obligations, so it should be interesting.
I have to arrive there with enough time before Shabbos that I can mow at least the front yard (and preferably all of it) because I got a phone call earlier this week, complaining about the appearance of my yard. One of my neighbours is trying to sell and it seems the jungle is putting buyers off! Since I can't do yard work on the Sabbath, I need to arrive with a few hours to spare on Friday so I can make it look decent before their next open house.
I'm going to make a bit of a list of what else needs to be done once I get there because DC and I are going back for a few days from Canada Day on. That's really when I'll be able to do a couple of things as well as kick back and have some fun with DC! We can go swimming in the lake and take Dog for walks up into the hills. I also have 2 properties I want to look at.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Slowly Getting Back to Normal
Well, Pesach is over. I'm not turning the kitchen back until after Shabbos though. It's just too much work. Especially when we have to go to our paid employment tomorrow morning. Dear Child is still off school and could stay home with her brother-in-law and the girls but has voted to go to work with Abba [Daddy] for the day instead. I'm going to leave work an hour early and pick her up on the way to go get Dog!
It has been a very expensive time, as it is every year, and I'm going to have to sit down and figure it all out sooner or later. Last year was the first time I put my notes, menus, shopping lists, etc. onto the computer and I'm planning to update all of this year's stuff with how it went very soon (before I forget). What got wasted? What went over like a lead balloon? What was finished off way too early? What did DC like last year but not this year or vice versa?
Right off the top, we did much better this year with getting the right amount of matzo. I've got about 1 lb. left, mostly broken up pieces. We have 4 bottles of grape juice out of six but that's not a problem because they were a couple of bucks per bottle cheaper than the ones I usually buy. Not a different brand, a different place. We'll use them over the next couple of months and that will help lower the weekly grocery bills over that time period.
I also have 4 or possibly 5 bottles of wine left. Now, one bottle is because my son brought 2 bottles to the seder when I thought he was just bringing one. But I'm surprised that I have so much wine left when I think I had more people drinking wine this year than usual. I know Eldest Son normally has 1 glass of wine and the other 3 grape juice when he has to drive home. This year they all slept over so he had wine. Hubby had less wine the second night, after having a headache the first day, but I don't think anybody else did. And there were no pregnant or nursing mothers this year. Again, it's not a problem per se. Shabbos comes around every week and it will be lovely to make kiddush on wine. We've been using grape juice for quite a while because we couldn't afford wine. But I paid a lot of money for the wine. The bottles I bought ranged in price from $9 to $25 and that's all money I actually spent up front because BC Liquor Control doesn't allow you to run a tab (for obvious reasons)! That's $69 (or $78, if there's still a bottle of Manischewitz left) that could have been put to other things.
Like my tab at 2 kosher food stores. Yes, I tabbed most of the food (the meat, dairy and a bunch of grocery items, plus candles) and will be paying it off over time. So it makes me a little sick to my stomach to realize that one $21 roasting chicken has been sitting thawed out in the back of my fridge on the bottom shelf for the past 8 days, behind a bunch of other stuff. I don't think it can be safe to eat any more but it's going to hurt to have to throw it out.
As I mentioned previously, I bought a new kind of Shabbos warming tray and never used it (partly because it's too big for my counter space and partly because it only has one heat all over). I'm going to try to take it back but I don't know if they'll refund my money or not. We'll see. It was $95 though, so it's really worth trying.
It's getting late though, and I have to get up in the morning so I'm going to go to bed now. I doubt that I'll have time to write tomorrow before Shabbos, what with the 2 hours it will take to bring Dog home and all, but I'll be back soon. Maybe Motzai Shabbos [Saturday night, after dark] or on Sunday.
It has been a very expensive time, as it is every year, and I'm going to have to sit down and figure it all out sooner or later. Last year was the first time I put my notes, menus, shopping lists, etc. onto the computer and I'm planning to update all of this year's stuff with how it went very soon (before I forget). What got wasted? What went over like a lead balloon? What was finished off way too early? What did DC like last year but not this year or vice versa?
Right off the top, we did much better this year with getting the right amount of matzo. I've got about 1 lb. left, mostly broken up pieces. We have 4 bottles of grape juice out of six but that's not a problem because they were a couple of bucks per bottle cheaper than the ones I usually buy. Not a different brand, a different place. We'll use them over the next couple of months and that will help lower the weekly grocery bills over that time period.
I also have 4 or possibly 5 bottles of wine left. Now, one bottle is because my son brought 2 bottles to the seder when I thought he was just bringing one. But I'm surprised that I have so much wine left when I think I had more people drinking wine this year than usual. I know Eldest Son normally has 1 glass of wine and the other 3 grape juice when he has to drive home. This year they all slept over so he had wine. Hubby had less wine the second night, after having a headache the first day, but I don't think anybody else did. And there were no pregnant or nursing mothers this year. Again, it's not a problem per se. Shabbos comes around every week and it will be lovely to make kiddush on wine. We've been using grape juice for quite a while because we couldn't afford wine. But I paid a lot of money for the wine. The bottles I bought ranged in price from $9 to $25 and that's all money I actually spent up front because BC Liquor Control doesn't allow you to run a tab (for obvious reasons)! That's $69 (or $78, if there's still a bottle of Manischewitz left) that could have been put to other things.
Like my tab at 2 kosher food stores. Yes, I tabbed most of the food (the meat, dairy and a bunch of grocery items, plus candles) and will be paying it off over time. So it makes me a little sick to my stomach to realize that one $21 roasting chicken has been sitting thawed out in the back of my fridge on the bottom shelf for the past 8 days, behind a bunch of other stuff. I don't think it can be safe to eat any more but it's going to hurt to have to throw it out.
As I mentioned previously, I bought a new kind of Shabbos warming tray and never used it (partly because it's too big for my counter space and partly because it only has one heat all over). I'm going to try to take it back but I don't know if they'll refund my money or not. We'll see. It was $95 though, so it's really worth trying.
It's getting late though, and I have to get up in the morning so I'm going to go to bed now. I doubt that I'll have time to write tomorrow before Shabbos, what with the 2 hours it will take to bring Dog home and all, but I'll be back soon. Maybe Motzai Shabbos [Saturday night, after dark] or on Sunday.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Where's Dog When You Need Him?
The title of this post is Dear Child's new favorite saying. She really misses Dog, who has gone off on his annual Passover vacation. I'm sure he's having a riot. The place where he goes has 3 big dogs of their own, plus daycare and a couple of boarding dogs at any given time. They go for huge, challenging walks every single day and eat a raw food diet.
We, on the other hand, are missing him quite a lot. There's nobody to curl up behind my knees when I lie down in bed or on the couch. There's nobody to drink up the leftover milk from Dear Child's Pesach cereal or to ask for the bones from the lamb chops. There's nobody to bounce up to you when you come in the door from being out someplace or to check out what you're doing when you open the fridge. There's nobody to turn a somersault in your lap and ask to have his belly scratched or to lick Dear Child's feet as she wakes up in the morning.
We won't get him back until Friday but maybe we'll get some pictures emailed to us in the interim....
We, on the other hand, are missing him quite a lot. There's nobody to curl up behind my knees when I lie down in bed or on the couch. There's nobody to drink up the leftover milk from Dear Child's Pesach cereal or to ask for the bones from the lamb chops. There's nobody to bounce up to you when you come in the door from being out someplace or to check out what you're doing when you open the fridge. There's nobody to turn a somersault in your lap and ask to have his belly scratched or to lick Dear Child's feet as she wakes up in the morning.
We won't get him back until Friday but maybe we'll get some pictures emailed to us in the interim....
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Ticking Items Off the List
Well, I was busy today! No, I didn't tile the floors, but we did move a bookshelf from the living room into the bedroom (which necessitated moving a bunch of stuff and tipping my bed on its side so we could get the bookshelf upright -- love those 7 foot ceilings!). It was blocking the glass front one that I wanted hubby to attach to the wall in the living room. Somehow we never got that far.
But I did clear off our nightable and windowsill and clean them. I also cleaned the inside of our bedroom window and the outside of ALL our windows! We vacuumed under my bed while it was on its side and my hubby filled the new bookshelf with all his music and sports magazines.
Maybe we can finish with the glass front shelves tomorrow. Then I can empty the 6 boxes in Dear Child's room into there.
On Friday I finally got my missing pay and my benefit cheque as well as two other small ones. I made it to both banks and also used the credit union ATM to deposit to my other credit union account in the Okanagan. The benefit cheque went in there to cover 2 months worth of electic at the house, the pay one went into the credit union here to pay for part of the cost of Dog's upcoming vacation and the other 2 cheques reduced my overdraft slightly.
Oh yes, and I baked cinnamon buns today! I was busy, I tell you.
But I did clear off our nightable and windowsill and clean them. I also cleaned the inside of our bedroom window and the outside of ALL our windows! We vacuumed under my bed while it was on its side and my hubby filled the new bookshelf with all his music and sports magazines.
Maybe we can finish with the glass front shelves tomorrow. Then I can empty the 6 boxes in Dear Child's room into there.
On Friday I finally got my missing pay and my benefit cheque as well as two other small ones. I made it to both banks and also used the credit union ATM to deposit to my other credit union account in the Okanagan. The benefit cheque went in there to cover 2 months worth of electic at the house, the pay one went into the credit union here to pay for part of the cost of Dog's upcoming vacation and the other 2 cheques reduced my overdraft slightly.
Oh yes, and I baked cinnamon buns today! I was busy, I tell you.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Payday Wednesday and Some Progress
I got paid today and received the pay advice while I was at work (usually it's sent to my home). I opened it and just about had a heart attack when I looked at the amount. I knew the cheque was going to be a little smaller than my past few cheques because I didn't work quite as many hours as usual but I wasn't expecting it to be around $250 smaller!
I pulled up my time sheet and compared it to my pay advice and discovered it was 9 hours short, compared to what I'd actually worked. That'll do it. I called the accountant at our Head Office back east and she promised to correct it tomorrow. So I'll have a cheque for roughly the net difference in my hands sometime on Friday (G-d willing).
Regardless, I still needed to take care of some business today. My son-in-law was off, so I was able to work until 2:30 pm. Dear Child was having early dismissal again today, so I picked her up and went to update my passbook. We went to Pini's Pizza on the way home (our local kosher pizza place) but not for pizza. They also stock groceries and I wanted a few very specific things for Passover before they disappeared from the store.
When I went through my menus from last Pesach and the notes I wrote just afterwards I saw that we had bought and enjoyed fish sticks with a potato coating twice last year. So I bought another 2 boxes, double bagged them and stuck them in the freezer. I also bought shmurah matzo meal, a special (stricter) form of matzo meal where the grain used to make the matzos was watched from the time it was harvested to make sure it couldn't have gotten wet (which would disqualify it from being used for Passover). And I bought us each a small package of cheese puffs, which are almost never available (at least not kosher). Those we ate in the car before we ever got home! Hey, everybody needs a treat now and then.
When we got home I made chocolate chunk cookies with DC and my 4 year old granddaughter because I'd promised we'd do it today before I got so sick. After that I went to bed for a while and Hubby took the girls to Play Dome (a spring break midway under the dome at BC Place). I lay around with the TV off, read some blogs, had a cup of chai tea and just generally tried to get a bit of rest. Well, I started a load of laundry too, but that just takes a couple of minutes.
When they came home I got dinner started (veggie cheeseburgers with mushrooms on challah buns) but turned the final part over to Hubby and went back to bed until it was ready. After we ate I rebooted the laundry and did a bit of work in DC's room. I got 3 or 4 more boxes into her closet, verified that 6 other boxes in her room contain fragile items that are supposed to go in the glass front cabinet (assuming it ever gets attached to the wall) and went through part of a box of clothes. Her room still isn't done but it's looking a little emptier every day. As for working on my bedroom, that was kind of what the load of laundry was all about. The clothes were all scattered about and now they're a) clean and b) not lying on the floor.
I paid the overdue portion of my cell bill and wrote cheques for Dog's upcoming boarding (or as we like to think of it, his vacation). Oh yes, and I cleaned out most of the fridge. When you consider how sick I am, I really accomplished a lot. Too bad there's still so much more to do.
I pulled up my time sheet and compared it to my pay advice and discovered it was 9 hours short, compared to what I'd actually worked. That'll do it. I called the accountant at our Head Office back east and she promised to correct it tomorrow. So I'll have a cheque for roughly the net difference in my hands sometime on Friday (G-d willing).
Regardless, I still needed to take care of some business today. My son-in-law was off, so I was able to work until 2:30 pm. Dear Child was having early dismissal again today, so I picked her up and went to update my passbook. We went to Pini's Pizza on the way home (our local kosher pizza place) but not for pizza. They also stock groceries and I wanted a few very specific things for Passover before they disappeared from the store.
When I went through my menus from last Pesach and the notes I wrote just afterwards I saw that we had bought and enjoyed fish sticks with a potato coating twice last year. So I bought another 2 boxes, double bagged them and stuck them in the freezer. I also bought shmurah matzo meal, a special (stricter) form of matzo meal where the grain used to make the matzos was watched from the time it was harvested to make sure it couldn't have gotten wet (which would disqualify it from being used for Passover). And I bought us each a small package of cheese puffs, which are almost never available (at least not kosher). Those we ate in the car before we ever got home! Hey, everybody needs a treat now and then.
When we got home I made chocolate chunk cookies with DC and my 4 year old granddaughter because I'd promised we'd do it today before I got so sick. After that I went to bed for a while and Hubby took the girls to Play Dome (a spring break midway under the dome at BC Place). I lay around with the TV off, read some blogs, had a cup of chai tea and just generally tried to get a bit of rest. Well, I started a load of laundry too, but that just takes a couple of minutes.
When they came home I got dinner started (veggie cheeseburgers with mushrooms on challah buns) but turned the final part over to Hubby and went back to bed until it was ready. After we ate I rebooted the laundry and did a bit of work in DC's room. I got 3 or 4 more boxes into her closet, verified that 6 other boxes in her room contain fragile items that are supposed to go in the glass front cabinet (assuming it ever gets attached to the wall) and went through part of a box of clothes. Her room still isn't done but it's looking a little emptier every day. As for working on my bedroom, that was kind of what the load of laundry was all about. The clothes were all scattered about and now they're a) clean and b) not lying on the floor.
I paid the overdue portion of my cell bill and wrote cheques for Dog's upcoming boarding (or as we like to think of it, his vacation). Oh yes, and I cleaned out most of the fridge. When you consider how sick I am, I really accomplished a lot. Too bad there's still so much more to do.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Part 3 Parnassah (or How am I Going to Pay for That?)
And now, the answer to the $64,000 question: How am I going to pay for that? (How many of you even remember the $64,000 Question? That goes back quite some time.)
The intelligent way to pay for the extra expenses associated with holidays like Purim and Pesach (fill in your own holidays folks, you all have them) would be to divide up what you typically spend and put away 1/12 of it every month. Then, when the time came, the money would be sitting there in the bank. No nail-biting. No juggling. No running up credit cards.
Well, I am intelligent, the test results all say so; I just don't seem to be very smart. I haven't put away money for expenses in advance for years now. Guess what? I'm 6 and a half weeks away from Pesach and I have no money saved up. So what am I going to do, especially when you consider that the only 2 credit cards we have that allow you to charge things like food are maxed?
For starters I've already arranged to start paying for Dog in advance, so that I'll have made 2 payments before he ever goes away. Plus, I'm counting on the fact that I'm getting 3 paycheques in the month of April and I have a little extra coming in for some other work I've done recently (and some more that I will be doing over the next month or two).
The other thing is that I always overbuy for Pesach. I'm not going to stop that. We don't buy anything once Pesach starts. That means if I don't buy enough we have some seriously grumpy, hungry individuals roaming the house (me included!). I'd much rather buy too much and then incorporate what's left into my menus over the next week or two after Pesach than run short. The fact is, I do always have some food left over. Plus, there's always some food that gets boxed up and sold with the everyday dishes, etc. for the duration of Pesach. Afterwards, I can use it up too.
We eat a lot during Passover, far too much in fact. That means we'll probably welcome an austere week immediately after. All in all, after spending huge amounts of money on food from mid March to early April, we'll probably spend a little less than normal for the rest of the month.
I also hope that I can start to put away even a portion of what we need on a monthly basis in preparation for next year. To really cover it I'd have to save a little over $100 per month and I don't see that happening at the moment until I have all the bills under control and make some serious progress on one or both credit cards. But if I even saved half of that it would cover half our expenses next year and it would be a real help.
The intelligent way to pay for the extra expenses associated with holidays like Purim and Pesach (fill in your own holidays folks, you all have them) would be to divide up what you typically spend and put away 1/12 of it every month. Then, when the time came, the money would be sitting there in the bank. No nail-biting. No juggling. No running up credit cards.
Well, I am intelligent, the test results all say so; I just don't seem to be very smart. I haven't put away money for expenses in advance for years now. Guess what? I'm 6 and a half weeks away from Pesach and I have no money saved up. So what am I going to do, especially when you consider that the only 2 credit cards we have that allow you to charge things like food are maxed?
For starters I've already arranged to start paying for Dog in advance, so that I'll have made 2 payments before he ever goes away. Plus, I'm counting on the fact that I'm getting 3 paycheques in the month of April and I have a little extra coming in for some other work I've done recently (and some more that I will be doing over the next month or two).
The other thing is that I always overbuy for Pesach. I'm not going to stop that. We don't buy anything once Pesach starts. That means if I don't buy enough we have some seriously grumpy, hungry individuals roaming the house (me included!). I'd much rather buy too much and then incorporate what's left into my menus over the next week or two after Pesach than run short. The fact is, I do always have some food left over. Plus, there's always some food that gets boxed up and sold with the everyday dishes, etc. for the duration of Pesach. Afterwards, I can use it up too.
We eat a lot during Passover, far too much in fact. That means we'll probably welcome an austere week immediately after. All in all, after spending huge amounts of money on food from mid March to early April, we'll probably spend a little less than normal for the rest of the month.
I also hope that I can start to put away even a portion of what we need on a monthly basis in preparation for next year. To really cover it I'd have to save a little over $100 per month and I don't see that happening at the moment until I have all the bills under control and make some serious progress on one or both credit cards. But if I even saved half of that it would cover half our expenses next year and it would be a real help.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The 3 P's Part 2
As I was saying before I fell asleep a couple of nights ago, Purim is a lot of fun. And it can be done fairly inexpensively, but it often ends up costing at least somewhat more.
Costumes are easy. Keep a bin for costume type clothes, whether you hit the stores for leftover costumes on November 1st, check out Value Village (I once got a Pakistani silk suit for $7 that I wore a 2 or 3 times for Purim), or just toss in bits and pieces of adult clothes that would make a jazzy kid costume. Of course you could go all out and rent a really fancy costume from a costume supply place, but there's no need.
Giving charity to 2 people isn't optional, but you don't have to give a fortune. I usually give $18 each these days because the numerical equivalent of "chai" (life) is 18, but when I was a single parent with 3 school-age kids I sometimes gave $10 apiece.
Then there's mishloach manot, the gifts of food. At it's most basic the mitzvah is fulfilled with 2 types of food given to one person. But you also usually want to reciprocate and give a basket or bag to everyone who gives to you. And 2 items of food looks pretty skimpy, so you toss in a few nuts and a couple of candies to go with the cookies and the cake and pretty soon you've spent at least $20 on food. Plus most people try to package the food attractively and that also costs money. I've often bought brown lunch bags and drawn on them with coloured scented markers as an inexpensive packaging alternative.
This year I'm faced with the school fundraiser. For $5 per household you can send to as many people as you like. The school (read: a group of mothers) puts together boxes and baskets and volunteer drivers deliver them for you on Purim day. If up to x many people send to one family they get a small box, if more people send to them they get something bigger, and so on up to a few really big baskets that usually go to the rabbis. I'm sure each small box costs the school less than $5 to put together, so it's a great fundraiser for the school.
I went online and made a tentative list, totalled it up and found it would cost $75. Plus I'm already committed to buying a dozen cookies from another organization for $20 (also a fundraiser, and one I've supported for several years). Now, $75 is more than I would spend on the bags and contents if I packed them myself. I use the cookies in the bags, but would probably spend about another $30 on everything else I'd need (including a few extra cookies because a dozen isn't enough). So the convenience cost of doing it through the school is about $45. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do.
A month after Purim comes Passover, the 8 day festival that commemorates the story of the Exodus from Egypt. We eat matzo (kind of like a large flat cracker, made of flour and water and baked very quickly in a very hot oven) to remember how we left Egypt in a hurry and didn't have time for our bread to rise. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be too difficult.
But we also get rid of all our bread, pasta, cereals, cookies, etc. that contain flour made of any of the 5 grains (wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt). The pots and pans and dishes that we use throughout the year get put away and out come new sets of everything that get used just over 1 week per year. The whole house is cleaned to get rid of every crumb that may be hiding in a pocket, under a sofa cushion or on the floor. The kitchen gets very special treatment. It's intense.
We have 2 seders, special meals where we read the story of the Exodus and discuss it. I host the seders for our family because we're the only ones that really keep kosher and we normally have 14 people before we even get around to inviting any guests (and usually we have a few of those as well). The food bills at Pesach are horrendous. We only use very special dairy products, supervised from the time of milking. We eat a lot of meat during 4 full festival days plus Shabbat and a couple of semi-festival days. Normally we only eat meat on Shabbat. We go through a lot of wine and grape juice because you each have to have 4 cups at each seder, plus there's kiddush on all the other festive meals, which you say over a cup of wine. We have a lot more people over than we do the rest of the year. It all adds up.
I figure I usually spend about $1,000 on Pesach food and related products plus about another $400 to board Dog for 10 days. He can't eat his usual food if he stays home and I don't think his tummy would do too well on matzo and tunafish (some of the human tummies have issues after a few days of matzo). Besides he loves where he goes. The dogs aren't crated or in a kennel. They have the run of the house, dog beds in the family's bedroom, go hiking through the woods for a couple of hours a day, can eat a gourmet raw food diet, play outside with the other boarding dogs and the 3 family dogs on their fenced acreage and just generally have a riot. I'm surprised he ever wants to come home. And I know there are places that charge as much or more but keep the dogs in wire and concrete kennels and runs and feed them Dog Chow. At best, I might save $5 per day. Believe me, it's not worth it.
But how do we pay for it all? That will be the subject of Part 3, Parnassah.
Costumes are easy. Keep a bin for costume type clothes, whether you hit the stores for leftover costumes on November 1st, check out Value Village (I once got a Pakistani silk suit for $7 that I wore a 2 or 3 times for Purim), or just toss in bits and pieces of adult clothes that would make a jazzy kid costume. Of course you could go all out and rent a really fancy costume from a costume supply place, but there's no need.
Giving charity to 2 people isn't optional, but you don't have to give a fortune. I usually give $18 each these days because the numerical equivalent of "chai" (life) is 18, but when I was a single parent with 3 school-age kids I sometimes gave $10 apiece.
Then there's mishloach manot, the gifts of food. At it's most basic the mitzvah is fulfilled with 2 types of food given to one person. But you also usually want to reciprocate and give a basket or bag to everyone who gives to you. And 2 items of food looks pretty skimpy, so you toss in a few nuts and a couple of candies to go with the cookies and the cake and pretty soon you've spent at least $20 on food. Plus most people try to package the food attractively and that also costs money. I've often bought brown lunch bags and drawn on them with coloured scented markers as an inexpensive packaging alternative.
This year I'm faced with the school fundraiser. For $5 per household you can send to as many people as you like. The school (read: a group of mothers) puts together boxes and baskets and volunteer drivers deliver them for you on Purim day. If up to x many people send to one family they get a small box, if more people send to them they get something bigger, and so on up to a few really big baskets that usually go to the rabbis. I'm sure each small box costs the school less than $5 to put together, so it's a great fundraiser for the school.
I went online and made a tentative list, totalled it up and found it would cost $75. Plus I'm already committed to buying a dozen cookies from another organization for $20 (also a fundraiser, and one I've supported for several years). Now, $75 is more than I would spend on the bags and contents if I packed them myself. I use the cookies in the bags, but would probably spend about another $30 on everything else I'd need (including a few extra cookies because a dozen isn't enough). So the convenience cost of doing it through the school is about $45. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do.
A month after Purim comes Passover, the 8 day festival that commemorates the story of the Exodus from Egypt. We eat matzo (kind of like a large flat cracker, made of flour and water and baked very quickly in a very hot oven) to remember how we left Egypt in a hurry and didn't have time for our bread to rise. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be too difficult.
But we also get rid of all our bread, pasta, cereals, cookies, etc. that contain flour made of any of the 5 grains (wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt). The pots and pans and dishes that we use throughout the year get put away and out come new sets of everything that get used just over 1 week per year. The whole house is cleaned to get rid of every crumb that may be hiding in a pocket, under a sofa cushion or on the floor. The kitchen gets very special treatment. It's intense.
We have 2 seders, special meals where we read the story of the Exodus and discuss it. I host the seders for our family because we're the only ones that really keep kosher and we normally have 14 people before we even get around to inviting any guests (and usually we have a few of those as well). The food bills at Pesach are horrendous. We only use very special dairy products, supervised from the time of milking. We eat a lot of meat during 4 full festival days plus Shabbat and a couple of semi-festival days. Normally we only eat meat on Shabbat. We go through a lot of wine and grape juice because you each have to have 4 cups at each seder, plus there's kiddush on all the other festive meals, which you say over a cup of wine. We have a lot more people over than we do the rest of the year. It all adds up.
I figure I usually spend about $1,000 on Pesach food and related products plus about another $400 to board Dog for 10 days. He can't eat his usual food if he stays home and I don't think his tummy would do too well on matzo and tunafish (some of the human tummies have issues after a few days of matzo). Besides he loves where he goes. The dogs aren't crated or in a kennel. They have the run of the house, dog beds in the family's bedroom, go hiking through the woods for a couple of hours a day, can eat a gourmet raw food diet, play outside with the other boarding dogs and the 3 family dogs on their fenced acreage and just generally have a riot. I'm surprised he ever wants to come home. And I know there are places that charge as much or more but keep the dogs in wire and concrete kennels and runs and feed them Dog Chow. At best, I might save $5 per day. Believe me, it's not worth it.
But how do we pay for it all? That will be the subject of Part 3, Parnassah.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Stinky Dog Update
Last night there was no question about it: Dog smelled bad. So did the house. I'd washed his head and face three times and the smell of Pepe Le Peu was still there. But I couldn't do any more. It was late, I was tired, we didn't have the proper deskunking ingredients so we just went to bed.
Morning came. Stinky Dog was still stinky. The house smelled like the skunk had moved in. I took Dear Child to school and went to work for an hour and a half. Then I went to Safeway and purchased three apparently everyday items in the hopes that they would change our life.
Hydrogen Peroxide.
Baking Soda.
Dawn dish soap (I bought the lavender scented one!).
I didn't use them right away. I went home, picked up my granddaughter from preschool, had lunch, took a nap with Stinky (who was still feeling pretty miserable and needed to cuddle), picked up my DC from her school and waited for Hubby to get home. Why? Because I knew from my reading that I needed to do this outside and I wanted help! Dog had cooperated well to start with last night (probably because he really wanted the spray out of his eyes) but got tired of the process after the first shampoo and rinse. If he was reluctant today I knew it would go much easier with 4 more hands.
We changed into old clothes and went outside with the ingredients and a bucket. I mixed it up (a 500 ml bottle of peroxide, plus 1/4 cup baking soda and a couple of teaspoons of Dawn) and used it right away, lathering up his entire head, muzzle and throat. We let the mixture sit on him for 5 minutes, then rinsed him off under the hose bibb. There was still some smell so I did it all again. After that the smell was very faint so we towelled him off and went inside. We sprayed the house with Febreeze and I dumped the rubber gloves I'd used last night into the garbage and threw the 2 towels into the wash.
Then I went to my class and to work. After that I stopped at Superstore so I didn't get home until after 11 pm. I walked into the house and took a deep sniff.
The house smelled almost normal. Wow. I peeled Dog off me (he was very happy to see me) and sniffed him. He doesn't stink! He doesn't smell at all. No wonder he's happy. Dogs have much more sensitive noses than we have. Imagine how horrible the past day has been for him. I just hope he's learned his lesson about skunks. He's been sick as the proverbial dog after eating chocolate a couple of times, but that doesn't stop him from trying to get it.
So, now you know. If you or your pet gets sprayed by a skunk wash the oil off with a combination of Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and Dawn dish soap!
Morning came. Stinky Dog was still stinky. The house smelled like the skunk had moved in. I took Dear Child to school and went to work for an hour and a half. Then I went to Safeway and purchased three apparently everyday items in the hopes that they would change our life.
Hydrogen Peroxide.
Baking Soda.
Dawn dish soap (I bought the lavender scented one!).
I didn't use them right away. I went home, picked up my granddaughter from preschool, had lunch, took a nap with Stinky (who was still feeling pretty miserable and needed to cuddle), picked up my DC from her school and waited for Hubby to get home. Why? Because I knew from my reading that I needed to do this outside and I wanted help! Dog had cooperated well to start with last night (probably because he really wanted the spray out of his eyes) but got tired of the process after the first shampoo and rinse. If he was reluctant today I knew it would go much easier with 4 more hands.
We changed into old clothes and went outside with the ingredients and a bucket. I mixed it up (a 500 ml bottle of peroxide, plus 1/4 cup baking soda and a couple of teaspoons of Dawn) and used it right away, lathering up his entire head, muzzle and throat. We let the mixture sit on him for 5 minutes, then rinsed him off under the hose bibb. There was still some smell so I did it all again. After that the smell was very faint so we towelled him off and went inside. We sprayed the house with Febreeze and I dumped the rubber gloves I'd used last night into the garbage and threw the 2 towels into the wash.
Then I went to my class and to work. After that I stopped at Superstore so I didn't get home until after 11 pm. I walked into the house and took a deep sniff.
The house smelled almost normal. Wow. I peeled Dog off me (he was very happy to see me) and sniffed him. He doesn't stink! He doesn't smell at all. No wonder he's happy. Dogs have much more sensitive noses than we have. Imagine how horrible the past day has been for him. I just hope he's learned his lesson about skunks. He's been sick as the proverbial dog after eating chocolate a couple of times, but that doesn't stop him from trying to get it.
So, now you know. If you or your pet gets sprayed by a skunk wash the oil off with a combination of Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and Dawn dish soap!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Eau de Pepe Le Peu
Hubby took Dog out for his late night walk and guess what? Dog took off like a maniac, pulling the leash out of Hubby's hand and ran right up to a small skunk! Hubby grabbed the leash and brought him back home but Dog had been sprayed in the face.
It's funny, but it doesn't smell like the skunk smell on the road when someone hits one. I went looking on some websites for what to do and "burning tires" and "rancid garlic" really do describe it pretty well. It's also not as strong as I thought it would be, but it's pervasive.
The best mixture seems to be Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishsoap (I already knew tomato juice was a myth), but we didn't have the ingredients and it's too late to be going out for them. Instead, I dug out the mango scented dog shampoo and washed Dog's face and head 3 times, rinsing well between. I wore rubber gloves and an old Tshirt while I washed him to try to protect myself. We could barely smell it after the 3 washings but now I smell it everywhere and I feel like I have heartburn because you can sort of taste the smell. Gross.
Dog is lying here looking miserable, with sore eyes although I think all the rinsing really helped. I think he was also trying to lick it off his face and he won't even eat his favorite treats. (I probably wouldn't want to eat if my mouth really tasted like skunk. The sensation I have is bad enough.)
I'd take him to the vet if I thought that would help, but I read a lot of people's comments including what the vet told them to do, so I'm pretty sure that I'd just be told to rinse his eyes and wash him repeatedly (probably with the mixture I don't have). But the only vet that's open costs $700 and I don't think he's in any danger. I may end up buying the peroxide etc. tomorrow and giving him a full bath if he still smells really horrible but there's not a lot you can do with the house other than cover up like brewing coffee, baking spices in the oven, putting out vinegar, burning candles, etc.
Fun. Fun. Fun. I hope I don't smell like skunk but who knows?
It's funny, but it doesn't smell like the skunk smell on the road when someone hits one. I went looking on some websites for what to do and "burning tires" and "rancid garlic" really do describe it pretty well. It's also not as strong as I thought it would be, but it's pervasive.
The best mixture seems to be Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishsoap (I already knew tomato juice was a myth), but we didn't have the ingredients and it's too late to be going out for them. Instead, I dug out the mango scented dog shampoo and washed Dog's face and head 3 times, rinsing well between. I wore rubber gloves and an old Tshirt while I washed him to try to protect myself. We could barely smell it after the 3 washings but now I smell it everywhere and I feel like I have heartburn because you can sort of taste the smell. Gross.
Dog is lying here looking miserable, with sore eyes although I think all the rinsing really helped. I think he was also trying to lick it off his face and he won't even eat his favorite treats. (I probably wouldn't want to eat if my mouth really tasted like skunk. The sensation I have is bad enough.)
I'd take him to the vet if I thought that would help, but I read a lot of people's comments including what the vet told them to do, so I'm pretty sure that I'd just be told to rinse his eyes and wash him repeatedly (probably with the mixture I don't have). But the only vet that's open costs $700 and I don't think he's in any danger. I may end up buying the peroxide etc. tomorrow and giving him a full bath if he still smells really horrible but there's not a lot you can do with the house other than cover up like brewing coffee, baking spices in the oven, putting out vinegar, burning candles, etc.
Fun. Fun. Fun. I hope I don't smell like skunk but who knows?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
CPP and Me
I wanted to know how much money I could expect from my Canada Pension, so I asked for a Statement of Contributions. According to the government, if my earnings continue at this level until I turn 65, I could expect to get $385.91/mo in CPP benefits. It’s nowhere near the current maximum of $884.58 thanks in part to all the years I spent as a SAHM, but I can have those years “dropped out” and have the amount refigured. Or I could apply to split my ex-spouse’s CPP for the duration of our marriage. Now there’s a way to bring your ex back into your life after almost 25 years – just arrange to have the government take half his pension eligibility for a 7 year period!
I also have an annuity that was purchased for me by a previous employer that will pay me $98 or $100/mo, so let’s just say that I can count on $485.00 per month. Next there’s Old Age Pension. How much does that pay? It looks like $505.83. So, that’s a total of $990.83 per month, or $11,880 annually just for me.
My hubby should apply for his Statement of Contributions too, but I know he’ll make more in CPP because he makes more money than I do. However, he doesn’t have that handy dandy little annuity waiting for him. The average amount of CPP is currently $481.46, so let’s use that for him. Combined with OAS that would give him a monthly pension of $987.29 or an annual amount of $11,847.48. That’s a total of $23,727.48, or just a hair under the $24,000 in today’s dollars that I estimate we’ll need to live at a fairly basic level in retirement.
(It should be noted that all the money for CPP and OAS is in today’s dollars and that the amount of our CPP pensions would continue to rise if our incomes continued to rise over the next 15 years. The OAS pension amount is set annually and gets adjusted upwards.)
All of this makes it look as though my fears of us being destitute in our senior years are not based in fact. You can even go back to work after you retire and continue to receive your CPP. You just don’t contribute to CPP anymore and your pension amount doesn’t change. (In contrast, if you put off applying for CPP until your 70th birthday and continue to work in the meantime you’ll be given 30% more than the pension you would have received at 65.) Now, that’s not to say that I want to work until I’m 70, or want to retire and then start working again. I’m just stating the possibilities.
And what about our RRSPs? Well, they would give us money on top of our basic needs to do the kinds of things we want to do in retirement. Right now we have about $13,000 in RRSPs between the 2 of us and will put in another $16,800 over the next 15 years at our current (extremely low) rate of savings, for a total of at least $30,000 (ignoring interest at about 3%). At a 4% withdrawal rate, that would mean we could take out $1,200/year or $100/month. That’s not enough money for much in the way of travel, although it might improve our general standard of living slightly.
So, I’m going to say we still don’t have enough in our RRSPs. We need to improve on our savings in order to live it up just a little in our old age. But we’re unlikely to be fighting Dog for his dinner, which is good news.
I also have an annuity that was purchased for me by a previous employer that will pay me $98 or $100/mo, so let’s just say that I can count on $485.00 per month. Next there’s Old Age Pension. How much does that pay? It looks like $505.83. So, that’s a total of $990.83 per month, or $11,880 annually just for me.
My hubby should apply for his Statement of Contributions too, but I know he’ll make more in CPP because he makes more money than I do. However, he doesn’t have that handy dandy little annuity waiting for him. The average amount of CPP is currently $481.46, so let’s use that for him. Combined with OAS that would give him a monthly pension of $987.29 or an annual amount of $11,847.48. That’s a total of $23,727.48, or just a hair under the $24,000 in today’s dollars that I estimate we’ll need to live at a fairly basic level in retirement.
(It should be noted that all the money for CPP and OAS is in today’s dollars and that the amount of our CPP pensions would continue to rise if our incomes continued to rise over the next 15 years. The OAS pension amount is set annually and gets adjusted upwards.)
All of this makes it look as though my fears of us being destitute in our senior years are not based in fact. You can even go back to work after you retire and continue to receive your CPP. You just don’t contribute to CPP anymore and your pension amount doesn’t change. (In contrast, if you put off applying for CPP until your 70th birthday and continue to work in the meantime you’ll be given 30% more than the pension you would have received at 65.) Now, that’s not to say that I want to work until I’m 70, or want to retire and then start working again. I’m just stating the possibilities.
And what about our RRSPs? Well, they would give us money on top of our basic needs to do the kinds of things we want to do in retirement. Right now we have about $13,000 in RRSPs between the 2 of us and will put in another $16,800 over the next 15 years at our current (extremely low) rate of savings, for a total of at least $30,000 (ignoring interest at about 3%). At a 4% withdrawal rate, that would mean we could take out $1,200/year or $100/month. That’s not enough money for much in the way of travel, although it might improve our general standard of living slightly.
So, I’m going to say we still don’t have enough in our RRSPs. We need to improve on our savings in order to live it up just a little in our old age. But we’re unlikely to be fighting Dog for his dinner, which is good news.
Friday, August 29, 2008
On the Road Again
We're only working a half day Friday. Then we're going to pack up the van and head for our rural home with our daughter, 2 granddaughters and Dog. The original plan was to come back Sunday night and celebrate my milestone birthday on the holiday Monday. I was also supposed to be doing the bathroom floor because the bathroom renovation was supposed to take place this weekend. And we weren't taking the granddaughters in the first version of the plan.
Things change. My Eldest Daughter is working the whole long weekend at the PNE and our son-in-law always works weekends so, if we want to go away, we have to take the girls. Son-in-Law's father isn't coming to town this weekend, so there's no bathroom renovation in sight. And the holiday weekend isn't convenient for my big kids to come and have a party with me.
So, I think we're going to come back sometime in the middle of the day on Monday. I'm really hoping for good weather, so we can take the girls to the lake and fill the little pool in the back yard. We have a bunch of work to do at the house but I'm not sure how much will get done seeing as we're going to have the baby. How much flooring do you suppose I'll be able to lay with her "help"?
Anyway I'm looking forward to a couple of days at the house. It's always relaxing, even when we end up doing lots of house and yard work. And this is the last weekend we'll probably have there for quite a while. We might go for Sukkot again, like we did last year, but it becomes impossible to get there before Shabbat starts when the days start to get significantly shorter (and especially once we change the clocks back). Then we can go after Shabbos is over, but we still have to leave to come back around dinner time on Sunday. Nine hours driving and over a tank of gas just to have the one day at home is tough. Add snow in the mountain passes and we really only go once every couple of months or so.
I can't believe I just started talking about snow. What I want for this weekend is blue sky, warm weather (not boiling hot, just nice), time to relax and some good food and wine.
Things change. My Eldest Daughter is working the whole long weekend at the PNE and our son-in-law always works weekends so, if we want to go away, we have to take the girls. Son-in-Law's father isn't coming to town this weekend, so there's no bathroom renovation in sight. And the holiday weekend isn't convenient for my big kids to come and have a party with me.
So, I think we're going to come back sometime in the middle of the day on Monday. I'm really hoping for good weather, so we can take the girls to the lake and fill the little pool in the back yard. We have a bunch of work to do at the house but I'm not sure how much will get done seeing as we're going to have the baby. How much flooring do you suppose I'll be able to lay with her "help"?
Anyway I'm looking forward to a couple of days at the house. It's always relaxing, even when we end up doing lots of house and yard work. And this is the last weekend we'll probably have there for quite a while. We might go for Sukkot again, like we did last year, but it becomes impossible to get there before Shabbat starts when the days start to get significantly shorter (and especially once we change the clocks back). Then we can go after Shabbos is over, but we still have to leave to come back around dinner time on Sunday. Nine hours driving and over a tank of gas just to have the one day at home is tough. Add snow in the mountain passes and we really only go once every couple of months or so.
I can't believe I just started talking about snow. What I want for this weekend is blue sky, warm weather (not boiling hot, just nice), time to relax and some good food and wine.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, Wednesday
I had thought I'd go to the gym for It Won't Wait Wednesday, but I didn't. What I did do was groom the Dog. I started with the clippers but they were clogging up so I switched to scissors and Dog was super good about it.
Now I'm not 100% finished, but he was getting tired of it and I didn't want to push it. There's just a little left to trim around his face, near his ears and his tail. He hates having his tail even touched, let alone trimmed. The whole time I was cutting he had his tail curled so tightly downward that you couldn't tell he had a tail!
What did this accomplish? It was bonding time for us. I kept cuddling him and telling him what a good boy he was and he loved that. Dog doesn't look all shaggy anymore. I improved my dog grooming skills. He's not going to get covered in sticky burrs when we go to the house this weekend. And I saved $54! Gotta like that.
The other stuff I did was all work related. I finally finished some complicated financial reporting and got some other backed up work done. I mailed a number of tribute cards and organized some more work for tomorrow. Only a day and a half of work before we go to the house for the long weekend. When I get back to work my co-worker will be back from her 3 week vacation and I'm pretty happy about that!
So I didn't get to the gym and I haven't miraculously lost 10 pounds. I've got about another 9 months of paid membership at the gym. Sooner or later I'll get there. It's just not likely to be before my birthday.
Now I'm not 100% finished, but he was getting tired of it and I didn't want to push it. There's just a little left to trim around his face, near his ears and his tail. He hates having his tail even touched, let alone trimmed. The whole time I was cutting he had his tail curled so tightly downward that you couldn't tell he had a tail!
What did this accomplish? It was bonding time for us. I kept cuddling him and telling him what a good boy he was and he loved that. Dog doesn't look all shaggy anymore. I improved my dog grooming skills. He's not going to get covered in sticky burrs when we go to the house this weekend. And I saved $54! Gotta like that.
The other stuff I did was all work related. I finally finished some complicated financial reporting and got some other backed up work done. I mailed a number of tribute cards and organized some more work for tomorrow. Only a day and a half of work before we go to the house for the long weekend. When I get back to work my co-worker will be back from her 3 week vacation and I'm pretty happy about that!
So I didn't get to the gym and I haven't miraculously lost 10 pounds. I've got about another 9 months of paid membership at the gym. Sooner or later I'll get there. It's just not likely to be before my birthday.
Friday, August 22, 2008
A Quiet Day
Today wasn't as exciting as yesterday, probably because nobody sent me money. I just went to work all day. I took my lunch for the 2nd day in a row and I'm going to buy my lunch tomorrow! Frugal is fine but, you know, it's Friday.
We had the girls all evening until after 11 pm. My DC and Boo Boo were asleep but my other granddaughter was still wide awake. She didn't even want to go upstairs when her folks got home. It's nice to be popular but I'm getting pretty tired, between working all day and then looking after little ones.
I didn't have the energy to do much for dinner, so it was 2 packages of Wacky Mac with cherries for dessert. I knew it would be popular with the girls but we practically had to restrain Dog. He was sneaking closer and closer to the girls, hoping for an unguarded instant when he could get at somebody's dish. We told him to take a hike, so he went to the kitchen and got a stick of butter off the counter! Dog is a miniature poodle for goodness sake. I have yet to figure out how he's getting things off the counter.
He's talented, Dog is. He's started to play football with my Hubby and DC. They throw it and he jumps up and grabs it with both front paws! He isn't always able to hold on, but he does manage it some of the time. And now he's started to "throw" it back by shoving it with his face when it's in his paws. Then it sort of shoots out from his paws back towards the person who just threw it to him.
Tomorrow I have to go pick up grape juice and challah, although I did the rest of the shopping earlier in the week. I'd rather have wine, but there's about an $8 difference between wine and grape juice and that will more than cover the cost of my lunch. If they had more choices I might have gone for wine and packed a lunch.
Or, if I had a brain, I could have bought some wine in the States last Sunday before I came back home. Even in the grocery store in Seattle they had kosher chardonnay and shiraz from Australia! In BC there's Manischewitz, a French wine and a few Israeli ones. Just wait until I start making wine in quantities big enough to sell it via BCLCB. It's going to be kosher, from BC and made with organic grapes! They'd better stock it!
We had the girls all evening until after 11 pm. My DC and Boo Boo were asleep but my other granddaughter was still wide awake. She didn't even want to go upstairs when her folks got home. It's nice to be popular but I'm getting pretty tired, between working all day and then looking after little ones.
I didn't have the energy to do much for dinner, so it was 2 packages of Wacky Mac with cherries for dessert. I knew it would be popular with the girls but we practically had to restrain Dog. He was sneaking closer and closer to the girls, hoping for an unguarded instant when he could get at somebody's dish. We told him to take a hike, so he went to the kitchen and got a stick of butter off the counter! Dog is a miniature poodle for goodness sake. I have yet to figure out how he's getting things off the counter.
He's talented, Dog is. He's started to play football with my Hubby and DC. They throw it and he jumps up and grabs it with both front paws! He isn't always able to hold on, but he does manage it some of the time. And now he's started to "throw" it back by shoving it with his face when it's in his paws. Then it sort of shoots out from his paws back towards the person who just threw it to him.
Tomorrow I have to go pick up grape juice and challah, although I did the rest of the shopping earlier in the week. I'd rather have wine, but there's about an $8 difference between wine and grape juice and that will more than cover the cost of my lunch. If they had more choices I might have gone for wine and packed a lunch.
Or, if I had a brain, I could have bought some wine in the States last Sunday before I came back home. Even in the grocery store in Seattle they had kosher chardonnay and shiraz from Australia! In BC there's Manischewitz, a French wine and a few Israeli ones. Just wait until I start making wine in quantities big enough to sell it via BCLCB. It's going to be kosher, from BC and made with organic grapes! They'd better stock it!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wow, What a Day!
Today was payday. I stopped at the bank on my way into work to update my book and got a bit of a shock. My paycheque is direct deposited and the amount that showed up in my account was about twice as big as it should have been! Considering that I had a few hours deducted on my last cheque because I'd been slightly overpaid on two occasions I wasn't about to "wait and see". I got to the office and phoned our accountant.
Guess what? She paid out everybody's 2008 vacation pay, all at once. The amount is right, but I can't just trot off and spend it because I now have 15 days coming to me where I won't get paid! So, what to do?
I'm going to take $750 and move it to my ING account. Whenever I take vacation days, I'll just transfer $50/day back into my regular bank account. The rest of the money goes into this month's pot.
Then I retrieved the messages on my cell from the 2 holiday days (I was too tired to do it last night). Remember in my last post I hinted at something? Well, I've been waiting for the final payout of the insurance claim from the flood we had 2 years ago. It was actually supposed to arrive around the end of February (right about when we were moving in here with my daughter and son-in-law) but it never did. Some other mail, including another cheque, went missing and I had tried a few times to follow up, but messages left on the adjuster's voice mail went unanswered and eventually that progressed to his mailbox being perpetually full, so one day a week or so ago I finally looked up a main number for the insurance company, fought my way through their voice mail system to a live person in the claims department and discovered that my adjuster was no longer working there!
Anyway, I got a call from a nice girl who just had to confirm with her Accounting department that the cheque hadn't been cashed and arrange for a stop payment on it before she could issue a new one. And Monday or Tuesday she called and left a message saying it was ready! Hip hip hooray! I worked for an hour this morning, then went and picked up a cheque for $3,000!
So, how is this cheque going to be spent? Pay off Dell (the laptop I bought to replace the desktop that was fried in the flood), IKEA (furniture we bought to replace stuff that was trashed in the flood), Home Depot (the first of three 0% interest plans we used for our fireplace, lighting, flooring, etc, for the new city place) and some miscellaneous bills that we need to catch up on. I want to use the rest to pay down a chunk on at least one of our 2 major credit cards. Hubby would like to use $300 of it to pay the deductible so we can have our car repaired.
You see, there has been a recurrent problem here in the Lower Mainland with a guy who goes around to parking lots and keys all four doors of every car he can get his hands on. We were actually one of the early victims, before every episode of keying started making it onto the nightly news. He's been arrested, but we'll see what happens to him when the case goes to trial. If he's found guilty maybe several hundred angry car owners can sue him for all the deductibles, but I don't know if he has the money to pay it anyway.
Or we could use $200-$300 to take Dog in for his annual physical, rabies shot, blood tests, etc. He just had his birthday, so the anniversary of when we actually got him and started taking him to the vet will be coming up in August. If we set aside money for that now, we won't be scrambling in 2 months time or whipping out the plastic to pay the vet.
Or I could just go out and buy that $3,000 purse people have been talking about over on The Simple Dollar. Yeah, right.
Guess what? She paid out everybody's 2008 vacation pay, all at once. The amount is right, but I can't just trot off and spend it because I now have 15 days coming to me where I won't get paid! So, what to do?
I'm going to take $750 and move it to my ING account. Whenever I take vacation days, I'll just transfer $50/day back into my regular bank account. The rest of the money goes into this month's pot.
Then I retrieved the messages on my cell from the 2 holiday days (I was too tired to do it last night). Remember in my last post I hinted at something? Well, I've been waiting for the final payout of the insurance claim from the flood we had 2 years ago. It was actually supposed to arrive around the end of February (right about when we were moving in here with my daughter and son-in-law) but it never did. Some other mail, including another cheque, went missing and I had tried a few times to follow up, but messages left on the adjuster's voice mail went unanswered and eventually that progressed to his mailbox being perpetually full, so one day a week or so ago I finally looked up a main number for the insurance company, fought my way through their voice mail system to a live person in the claims department and discovered that my adjuster was no longer working there!
Anyway, I got a call from a nice girl who just had to confirm with her Accounting department that the cheque hadn't been cashed and arrange for a stop payment on it before she could issue a new one. And Monday or Tuesday she called and left a message saying it was ready! Hip hip hooray! I worked for an hour this morning, then went and picked up a cheque for $3,000!
So, how is this cheque going to be spent? Pay off Dell (the laptop I bought to replace the desktop that was fried in the flood), IKEA (furniture we bought to replace stuff that was trashed in the flood), Home Depot (the first of three 0% interest plans we used for our fireplace, lighting, flooring, etc, for the new city place) and some miscellaneous bills that we need to catch up on. I want to use the rest to pay down a chunk on at least one of our 2 major credit cards. Hubby would like to use $300 of it to pay the deductible so we can have our car repaired.
You see, there has been a recurrent problem here in the Lower Mainland with a guy who goes around to parking lots and keys all four doors of every car he can get his hands on. We were actually one of the early victims, before every episode of keying started making it onto the nightly news. He's been arrested, but we'll see what happens to him when the case goes to trial. If he's found guilty maybe several hundred angry car owners can sue him for all the deductibles, but I don't know if he has the money to pay it anyway.
Or we could use $200-$300 to take Dog in for his annual physical, rabies shot, blood tests, etc. He just had his birthday, so the anniversary of when we actually got him and started taking him to the vet will be coming up in August. If we set aside money for that now, we won't be scrambling in 2 months time or whipping out the plastic to pay the vet.
Or I could just go out and buy that $3,000 purse people have been talking about over on The Simple Dollar. Yeah, right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
