Days 618 & 619 and Tom won the chili cook-off

Sorry about yesterday. My allergies and sinuses were killing me, I took two Benadryl and went to bed early.

Anyway, congrats to Tom, he won the chili cook-off this year at work, AGAIN! I'm so proud of him! Now he gets to go to the big cook-off downtown (which he hasn't won yet, but he SHOULD!)

Day 617 and changes in behavior

So whenever I'm feeling discouraged and down about how things are going for us, I try to remind myself of the positive changes we've made in our life over the last 617 days. This is a summary of our courtesy pay/bank overdraft charges for the past few years:

2009: $0 so far!
2008: $90 (two before we began FPU and two after from stupid mistakes)
2007: $1170 in courtesy pay fees and $90 in returned check fees for a total of $1260!
2006: $1282.50

Wow! what a turnaround, huh? So no matter what else we've done wrong or had go wrong, at least we have saved over $2000 by not being stupid with our checking account. LOL.

Days 614, 615, & 616 and got to see my parents yesterday

My parents came for a short visit yesterday. My mom retired a few months ago and she's been cleaning stuff out of her house. As she so morbidly put it "she's doing it now so we don't have to do it after she's gone". Um...yeah, thanks for THAT mental image, Mom. LOL. So anyway, she brought us a carload of stuff from her house, so apparently when I retire, I can clean it out of my house so my kids don't have to go through it. LOL. Anyway, it was great to see them, wish they could have stayed longer. Hope everyone had a good weekend and has a great week!

Day 613 and homework due this weekend

I have homework due this weekend, along with grocery and Wal-Mart shopping to get done, so don't know how much I'll be around. Hope all of you have a super one!

Day 612 and splurging a bit tonight

I need a break so Tom & I are having a little date tonight. Yeah! Hope everyone has a great evening!

Day 611 and a couple of interesting things I've noticed...

When we eat at home, we go through our groceries faster. LOL. By the time grocery weekend rolls around, we are wiped out on food.

When we eat at home and I cook a lot of home-cooked meals, we go through dishwasher detergent faster because there's a lot more dishes.

On other news: Serenity got her car fixed (WE HOPE), it was a radiator hose. She found a mechanic there in town and took it there this morning, he had it ready by noon.

I remembered that we had towing coverage on our vehicles. I thought we had it on all of them, but apparently I had just put it on Josh & Serenity's. At any rate, we should get reimbursed for Josh's truck being towed back to town, so that is a little extra money. I also added it to Tom's car and when we replace the van, I'll add it to that. It's only $3.20 every 6 months and with our luck, it's well worth it.

I have an interview tomorrow for a drop-in spot two days a week, they got my card at the Napa store here in town. Keep your fingers crossed!

Days 607, 608, 609, & 610 and ENOUGH with the car troubles!

Okay, well, I've had enough with the car troubles!!!!!! Serenity called Friday and her car is broke down. Her friend from work hoped it might be something simple like the radiator reservoir. They were able to find a universal one that fit and changed it out, she drove it back to her apartment and it did fine. Then she drove it to school yesterday and it overheated again. She had class and work all day so I have not talked to her since to see what, if anything, she found out. So, please pray that it is something else easy and cheap because we're all about tapped out on money!