It was one of my best (savings-wise) outings. I had a $5 off a $30 purchase coupon, plus a couple of store coupons printed from the in-store kiosk, plus manufacturer's coupons. All those babies stacked up!

I got a variety of shampoos, razors, body wash, cleaners... all things we will use. I do not hoard for the sake of having it!

The total was $51 and some change. After coupons it was $20.19... and I got $13 worth of Extra Bucks for next time. Sweet!

It doesn't always work so nicely, and even with all those stacked coupons, sometimes the deals just aren't that great. But today I got much more than $20 worth, so I was pleased. I don't always do the coupon thing regularly. Sometimes life just gets too busy and I take a few weeks (or months) off from the coupon game. Today was a good day.

Don't we all love getting a little money in the mail?! Today, two checks arrived. One from Pinecone for ... you guessed it... $3.00.... and another from Ebates for $15.76. I already put them in the postage paid envelope to mail to my Ally savings account which I don't ever plan to touch (well, maybe someday!) I use it only for these kinds of checks, and I've never withdrawn a cent. Basically "extra" money that I get through rebates, surveys, small reimbursements, etc.

Okay first of all, the pictures are in all crazy different directions. I took them with my phone, emailed to my laptop, and tried to post here. For some reason, I just can't get them right tonight. I've been messing around for a while, and this is how it is. Tilt your head! Sorry!

I got up early this morning, did a load of laundry and went to the gym. Check that off the list!

Then, The Husband, the swimbabies (minus the one away at college) and I got in the new *flashy frugal* car and went to Half Moon Bay.

Half Moon Bay is on the coast of the peninsula, between San Francisco and San Jose. It was a bit of a drive, but so worth it! I felt like we were gone for three days, not just an afternoon. SO relaxing. More often than not, Half Moon Bay is foggy and cold. We were prepared with lots of warm clothes and blankets, but it was sunny and warm.

It was beautiful at the beach.

We walked in the surf, kids played in the sand, we had a picnic, and I read a little. Bliss. Then we packed up and drove north. I took this picture for y'all in Pacifica, which is just south of San Francisco. Luckily, I had filled up last week at $4.09 per gallon! Premium!


We stopped at a Starbuck's between 3pm and 5pm, and took advantage of their half-price frappuccino happy hour. It was a HUGE treat for everyone, and was around $9 for five delicious drinks. We continued north, stopped at Boudin Bakery in SF and bought some sourdough bread for tomorrow's dinner...I like to pick it up, because it somehow seems like it extends our weekend to have San Francisco sourdough bread with Monday's dinner.

The husband bought some delicious Godiva heart-shaped cookies for me, and we nibbled on those in the car.

One of the swimbabies is a bit obsessed with the Golden Gate Bridge, and always wants to drive over it, so we did. It was an unbelievably clear day and we actually stopped at the "Vista Point" by the bridge to take pictures. That's San Francisco on the right, and in the middle you can see Alcatraz. Fun! We hit some traffic on the way home, but oh well.

The husband also took some great pictures of the swimbabies and me. It was a wonderful Mother's Day!

I went out to do my shopping today. I went to Walgreens, Safeway, Raleys and CVS. It actually didn't take that long. Just over an hour... I had lists and coupons ready for each place.

Total without discounts and coupons: $195.62

What I paid: $108.79

This included $31 worth of allergy meds and $24 worth of other meds/vitamins.... plus 12 boxes of cereal... and a long list of other things. Mostly stock-up kinds of things. I'll still need to make a run for produce once I make up the week's menu.

The little bonus of the day was that as I was getting into my car, I saw a little pile of receipts and paperson the ground in the parking lot. It looked like someone had just emptied their car trash bin. I happened to see in the pile that there was a $10 off next purchase coupon to Raley's. It doesn't expire until June! I squealed!

Hot here... time to make a cold drink!

Remember... I've got that long commute? The Mother's Day ads on the radio are driving me nuts!

Suddenly EVERYTHING is the perfect gift for your mom! Phones, jewelry, flowers, gift cards, concert tickets, movie tickets, new tires (!), shoes... you name it! The ads are frequent and irritating! I wouldn't consider asking or buying any of those for gifts!

I told The Husband that what I really want for Mother's Day is for the kids to cook all weekend and for someone to do some iPod updating for me. I just don't have time to work on organizing my iPod and the only time I really think about it is when I'm on my way to the gym. I want a couple of playlists organized and my iPod synched with my laptop, not the home desktop. And I want the collection of songs on my iPod loaded to my phone in duplicate. I asked for the cooking relief just so I can have a break. I LOVE to cook. A lot. But I just don't want to think about it. Truth be told, I wouldn't mind a pedicure, either...

Those seem like tiny requests for a day meant *JUST FOR ME* so I might ask for a little toilet scrubbing and window cleaning, as well!

Today was our fourth day at 90 or above... and that makes me think of a few things.

1. It's been a busy week, and I haven't done much laundry. I love the warm weather because I can hang everything and it will dry in no time at all. Hope to save a few dollars this weekend by hanging all the laundry I do then. I don't think it will be quite as warm, but close. And lucky for the laundry... it's a DRY heat! Haha!

2. My threshold for turning on the air conditioner is when the house temperature reaches 80. When I got home from work yesterday, I was greeted by sweaty teens, and when I checked the temp, it was 81. Thankfully, our powerful air conditioner cools our small house fast. It was on for maybe 15 minutes, and we turned it off and opened up windows. That's all we've had the air on all week. We installed ceiling fans in our family room last summer. What a great investment!

3. I need to start thinking about no-cook or bake ahead meals. Last night would have been a terrible night for homemade pizza! Here are two favorite hot weather meals.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Cajun-Chicken-Salad-with-Spicy-Ranch-Dressing-105281

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Chicken-Sandwiches-with-Sage-Pesto-and-Apples-108306

I think I will make the salad tomorrow for dinner. It's one of our family favorites. I usually make half the dressing.

Not sure why this has taken me so long to figure out...

Last night I was on a coupon website that listed all the stores they follow. There are only two different grocery chains in our town, though I can get to a third in less than eight miles.

But I realized that along my commute, there are several grocery and drug stores that we don't have locally. I can stop on my way home very easily! I will start planning around those stores, too.

Today I went to a Winco, where I got 2 pounds of mozzarella, two bottles of Tabasco, 2 avocados and a bag of broccoli for $7.23.

I also went to Walgreens and got a few things.

Homemade Pad Thai for dinner... delicious recipe!

When we got our new-to-us car, we made a conscious decision to put most of the money down, but get a loan for part of it. We don't have any credit cards, (of course that's changing now with the good rewards deals that have been coming our way) and we wanted to demonstrate our ability to pay in case we ever need a loan/want to buy a new house/refinance, etc.

The loan is through Bank of the West, which is not particularly convenient. They don't take online payments and phone payments cost $9.00 PER TRANSACTION. And we don't have a Bank of the West nearby. As luck would have it, the credit union associated with The Husband's company sent an ad today--- transfer your existing car loan or get a new one and get $100. I had already been suggesting we try to get a better rate through them! So that's on the list for tomorrow! Even if we get the same rate, we'll get the extra $100!

It won't matter. We plan to pay off the loan before Christmas. We didn't NEED to borrow the money, just thought it could give our credit scores a boost. I'm not even counting it as debt, really. The funds are available to pay it off.

Didn't spend anything today, but we'll probably need milk and bread tomorrow.

Monday's done! Hurray!

Dinner: Stromboli

Yesterday we did a little cleaning, some cooking, and one of the swimbabies had a crowd of girls over for the evening. I had a chance to do a little work on my computer, catch up on laundry, and clean the oven (mostly it cleaned itself, but I had to wipe it out.)

We are still trying to work out a better deal on our phone bill. We really don't use our home phone at all, and we want to change our service to internet only. The Husband called to try to cancel all phone service yesterday, but got the major run around from AT&T. We're still researching, but it looks like it might be cheaper to switch to Comcast, even though we want just internet and no cable or phone. Research will continue...

Today I got up early and went running, washed the car, did a little more laundry. We went out to lunch with a family member (she paid), which was a treat. I spent the afternoon lying on the couch reading a book, which was AMAZING! It was so relaxing, and I needed it!

We had two days of not spending a dime, which I love!

I found avocados for 69 cents each! Time to celebrate!

Last night we had homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. I make it with whole wheat pasta and strong cheeses for more flavor.

I love to wear flip flops. I have many pairs, but one favorite pair that is black, comfortable, and made by Speedo. I should say HAD. The other day, they broke. I'm sad. Really. They were a great pair. The next day, my "dressy" black flip flops broke as well (they had a nice sole, beads and sequins, and I could wear them to work with the right pants or skirt.) Two pairs of shoes I really liked... Gone in two days!

Really, I'm sure it was time. I got the Speedos at a swim meet at least five years ago, maybe six. The dressier pair, Kenneth Cole, I got at Marshalls around the same time. Neither cost more than $20 and they have been spring/summer/fall staples.

So yesterday, I went out looking for flip flops. The Husband needed a pair, too, because the Swimboy stole his. I found a pair for the husband, but couldn't find any for myself. I will have to keep looking. I don't like the $1.99 kind because they're not that comfortable and they don't last long. I haven't spent much in the clothing budget for a while, so not worried.

Ironically, it's cold, windy, and there is a forecast of rain here today.

Safeway is doing this again this week. I went to Costco last week, so we're pretty stocked up on everything. Unfortunately, milk doesn't count toward the $75. I'll be looking at the ad and planning next week's menus. I'm sure by Sunday, I'll have a list of things we need.

Avocados... the swimbabies love guacamole. Okay, I love it, too. The Husband makes The Best guacamole, and I was thinking he could make some this weekend and we'd call it our Cinco de Mayo celebration. But there aren't any bargain avocados this week. Every single store in town is advertising them as 4 for $5, which isn't really a price I get excited about!

If only all the days could be like this one... no on in the family spent any money at all.

Well, not money I count. The only transactions I participated in today involved gift cards that were long ago paid for. I used the leftover $9 on a Costco gift card to get some gas, and I bought a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks with a gift card. No money left any of our accounts, however.

I should specify that we don't track gift card spending. We track the money we spent to purchase the gift card and that's it. So once a month, I might put $15 on my Starbucks card. I deduct that from the food budget right then.

I'm really into my "cleaning everything out" mode, and I have a stack of things for either ebay or half.com. One thing that always hold me up is the postage/shipping costs. I worry and usually mess it up. So tomorrow I'm off to look for a postage scale.

No matter how diligent I am, we end up paying overdue book fines to the library. Not all the time, but frequently.

So I've started posting the receipt (which lists all the books) right on the inside of the front door. It's not completely foolproof, but I think it is helping. Last week we checked out some DVDs, watched them, and got them turned in on time.

It's not as if we owe tons of fines, but it perhaps totals $20 a year. I try to look at is as if it's a membership fee. Did I mention that it's often a swim baby, and I'm not always to blame? In fact, since I've insisted that everyone keep the receipts and post them on the door, we haven't had any overdues.

On the list for today:
1. Find the cheapest gas I can. Time to fill up!
2. Laundry. Does it ever stop?!
3. Make homemade wheat thins. Dinner: salad, wheat thins, buffet of whatever is leftover in the fridge.

I like getting a little free money here and there. I use Ebates when I order things online. But in the last two months, I've ordered two things and not gotten my credit. Today, I took the time (all of five minutes!!) to contact Ebates about my orders. I'm hoping I hear from them soon. It's not tons of money, but they were good percentages for my running shoes and raincoat (huge hassle getting that raincoat! )It will add a few dollars, I think.

I bought that iced tea today... the one that the crazy, rushed guy at the post office treated me to when he bought a 45 cent stamp from me for $2.00! It was wonderful. I like plain black tea, and the Tazo tea that they use at Starbuck's is YUM!

We had a delicious dinner. Pasta with a creamy cashew sauce and salad. I love Brianna's Blue Cheese salad dressing, and it makes even the most boring salad seem like something special... rarely goes on sale here, though.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

I think my kids bumped into the ironing board and knocked the iron off one too many times. It's gone for good. So now that's on my list of things to shop for. I have coupons for Bed Bath and Beyond, and the local hardware store, but I'll also check Target. Since the iron always seems to break because it falls to the floor, it's not worth investing in anything too high quality.

And I need a sun shade to put in the windshield to block the searing sun. The new car is a dark color. The darkest. I'm thinking they aren't too expensive. I'll stop at the auto parts store (on the way to drop kids at activities) to check the basic price, and then I'll look at Target when I'm there to compare. I might have a coupon for the auto parts store.

And I mentioned last week that right at tax time I ran out of toner for one printer and ink for the other. It's all gone. So I need to start looking for bargains on that. Of course I could dash out to Staples today, but that's not going to happen.

Last Friday, April 13th, the high here was 55 degrees. Brr! We turned on the heat.

This past Friday, April 20th, the high was 88 degrees. I thought about turning on the air conditioning, but we managed to hold out until it began to cool off.

Yesterday it was 90 degrees, and we turned on the air. It just got too hot. My breaking point is when it's over 80 in the house, and it hit that around noon. Today it's not quite as hot, and I think we'll be able to make it with no air conditioning. The rest of the week is supposed to be cooler... in that nice middle range where we don't need either heat or air. Thank goodness.

April is usually a month when our electric/gas bill is very low because of the mild weather. We'll see...

1. Not mine. The Husband's. He said he was in heavy traffic, and when he looked, the light was green. As he got up to the intersection, the sun shined just right so that he couldn't see any of the lights at all (sun was behind him, reflecting off the lights). Traffic all around him was moving and he made the quick decision to move with it. Apparently the light had turned to red. He went back later and sat in a parking lot near the intersection and found that the yellow lights there are extremely short. He's writing something up to appeal. I hope it works.

2. Used grocery store Gas Rewards to get a 25 cent per gallon discount, which made the premium gas $4.00 per gallon. I filled up.

3. I went out with some friends for dinner and icy adult drinks. It cost $13.00, but it was therapy and well worth the money!

Today I convinced The Husband to call to get some info about refinancing the mortgage. He made the first phone call, at least, although we might not really get anywhere.

We bought our current house and the top of the market. I know. Ugh. It was a price we could afford, it was reasonable at the time, and it was a conservative purchase considering the other options at the time.

Now, however, we probably couldn't sell it for $120,000 less than what we paid. Ouch. It's always been our plan to pay off the mortgage as fast as possible, and we're continuing with that goal. But we are also debating moving to be closer to our jobs, and wondering what to do. If we move closer to The Husband's job, we could save a lot of money on commuting. A LOT. (Amtrak tickets, BART tickets, gas...) Currently, we're thinking we would just continue with the plan to pay it off and rent it, but we will see.

At this point, with no firm plans, I would be happy to get even a small reduction in the interest rate.

Today a local grocery store had eggs on sale for 69 cents a dozen. With the hungry swimbabies, we eat a lot of eggs. I dragged all those kids plus The Husband to the store... Yeah, it was limit one. But it didn't say one per person or one per household... just "Limit 1." So I assumed it meant per transaction. I gave everyone two quarters and two dimes and let them keep the change!! Haha. They can appreciate a deal like this, so they were quite willing.

The new car is getting great gas mileage, especially on the long commute. Yesterday, I went to a Safeway gas station, used my club card to get 20 cents off per gallon, and got premium gas for $4.01 per gallon. Not really a deal, but far cheaper than anything else I could find. We are still debating/researching the "Use Premium Fuel Only" label. We have another car that said it required premium, but I gave up on that at some point long ago (said car has over 200.000 miles). I've heard different things from different people. Any opinions/advice out there on regular vs. premium gas?

Our pretax spending account... we over-estimated this year. I had hoped that I'd get a kid or two into braces in 2011, but they weren't quite ready. So today The Husband ordered a new pair of prescription sunglasses, so as not to waste the dollars. I've just emailed our doctors to request refills on all the regular medicines we take for things like allergies and eczema, and we have dentist appointments the first week in May. Unfortunately (fortunately, really), our health and dental benefits are so good that we don't pay much out of pocket, except copayments to the doctor. The last time we all went to the dentist, I think our insurance covered everything but something like $8.00 for six people. I have consultations for the two younger swimbabies at the orthodontist for mid-May, and may yet get them into braces in time to pay part from that account. For some reason, our pretax account isn't by calendar year. So we have until June 30. If only it covered pedicures... which are good for my mental health!

It's still sunny and warm here! The husband calls it "margarita weather!" So for dinner we're having guacamole, salsa and make-your-own burritos to go with our icy beverages!

Taxes. Blech. It has NEVER been this much of a hassle.

I had planned to efile, as usual, but the money I was using to pay got lost out there in transfer outer space and didn't appear in our checking account fast enough. "No problem," I thought. "I'll just print and mail. We all used to do it that way, right?!"

OF COURSE, just as I was printing the return, the printer ran out of toner. Of course, it was my last cartridge. Of course.

So I emailed the return to The Husband, who opened his email at work today and printed the whole thing, and got everything organized while I was at work...extra copies, forms, etc. I stopped by his office when I was done working, signed, and went to the post office.

And here's where it gets good... because this is the kind of little stuff we love, right?!

I walked into the post office to drop my two envelopes into the slot. I had left a kid (old enough!) and my purse in the car. The line is a million miles long, and there was this guy yelling, "Does anyone just have a stamp I can buy?!" Everyone was ignoring him, so I said, "I have one in my car if you want to follow me there." So he did. And paid me $2.00. For one stamp. I tried to tell him that the stamp wasn't close to that, but he just said that I'd saved him and walked away.

I was tickled... he made my day!

I know. $1.55 profit. (Not like I can quit my job or anything!) Probably a little more because the stamps I have in my purse are Forever Stamps and they're Forever Old. Seems like we rarely mail anything these days. But it was free and easy money! I can treat myself to a Starbuck's iced tea if I want to...

I'm trying to cross things off my list today!

1. I made some phone calls to change appointments.

2. I ran. Only 2 1/2 miles this morning, but I may go again tonight. I've been following the Boston Marathon and my friend who is running. I heard the weather was pretty hot, and was worrying about her... but she finished! So fast-- just over 4 hours!

3. I made a THIRD phone call to a professional organization to cancel a membership option and get a refund. Third call! So frustrating... but this time I got a confirmation email, so I'm going to hope that the $60 refund hits my account in the next day or two.

Still to do:
1. Go buy a few packs of seeds for the garden, and perhaps two more tomato plants. I'll go to the dollar store first, because I've found seeds there before... five packs for a dollar. If no deal, I'll just go to the local garden store. I got my plant tower set up with the terra cotta pots (I bought one, and scrounged the rest from my own yard and from a neighbor), and I want to plant herbs in it.

2. Pick up The Husband's cleaning. I would love to drop this expense, and I've gone back and forth over the years. But, he has to dress up for work. The dress pants last much longer when professionally cleaned vs. washed in cold water and ironed by me. And the shirts are $1.50 each, so hardly worth my time to iron. Still, it's not something I enjoy paying for.

3. Finish shredding! I've been going through our gigantic filing cabinet with the hope that I can whittle down the contents enough to get rid of it. The filing cabinet lives in the garage, but it's enormous... a behemoth steel tower! I've shredded a ton of things, most ridiculously old... paystubs from 2001, old tax returns, information on a vehicle we no longer own, insurance information from long ago... I'm saving a few select documents, in case we need to document anything, but most of it has become confetti!

Usually I've done the taxes by Valentine's Day, if not earlier. We had an especially stressful few months, and I kept thinking about taxes, but put it off.

Now I don't care. It was just fine that I waited.

We owe. Big time. Just over $5000 between the federal and state returns.

Some things changed, and although I tried to make adjustments, it didn't work well enough.

1. In 2011, I worked full time for the first year since 1997 or so. I'm back to part time now, but may be full time again in six months or so. I've alternated between full and part time since 2006, but being full time the entire year made a big difference. Ouch.
2. I received a fellowship last summer. Seemed like a great deal at the time, but I was considered "self-employed" by the IRS, and the money I received was taxed A LOT!

Bleh. So I'll pay the IRS tomorrow, and will adjust some with-holding amounts for the rest of this year. Life goes on.

It's another gorgeous day here in sunny California. Besides finishing the taxes, we got some tomato plants in the ground, and did some chores like laundry and cleaning. Still to do: make the week's menu and bake bread. When that's done, I'm going to read!

It was an amazing day here. Blue sky, lots of sun... so after a delicious breakfast of homemade blueberry pancakes, vegetarian sausage and mochas, The Husband and I gathered the kids and we all went for a hike. Funny how it was raining and stormy a few days ago, and this morning we were packing icy water bottles and sunscreen to take with us.

We drove 15 minutes or so, and then hiked up a ridge (way, way up there!) We had beautiful views of a lake, valley, and creek below. We took the dog, and she loved it, too. Some members of our group were hiking in tank tops... it really warmed up! There were beautiful native California plants in bloom, lots of lizards to see (The Husband caught one with a long piece of grass-- a great trick!), and we all love the exercise part of it, too.



After we got home and took thorough showers (LOTS of poison oak on the trail), I went to the grocery store. Thanks to Monkey Mama, a certain nearby chain is back on my radar. It's actually not that close--- the closest store is about 10 miles away, and there are probably at least 7 stores closer. But they do have some good deals, so I'll need to watch and drive when it's worth it.

I did great there today! I had lots of coupons (only for things we would use anyway), and stocked up on fruit, four boxes healthy granola bars and pretzels for kids' lunches, body wash, five boxes cereal, tortillas, pizza toppings, potatoes, avocados, eggs, sour cream, cilantro, hot peppers, four pints Ben and Jerry's, goldfish crackers, Tide, dish soap and cat food... my total was $108 after coupons, and I got $20 in vouchers to use next time. One was the "spend $75, get $10" deal, and the other was "spend $30 on specific products, get $10." I walked out of that store pretty pleased. It was a lot of food for the money! Again, thanks to Monkey Mama for the heads up on those deals!

Dinner? grilled chicken, tortillas, lettuce, salsa, homemade guacamole, sour cream, mexican rice and grated cheese. Ice cream for dessert. Delicious!

Ugh. Today I drove to the Bay Area for work in the new-to-us car. Forgot that the other cars both have Fastrak, even though I was talking about it here the other day! I'm just in the habit of NOT thinking about bridge toll. I was already almost to the toll booth before I remembered, but it was too late to do anything. I didn't have any cash on me, as usual.

Bleh. So I got up to the toll booth and said (embarrassed), "Um. I'm a regular commuter. And I just got a new car, and I forgot to get a Fastrak. My other cars both have them...(stumble)...(mumble)..."

The toll lady wasn't really sympathetic. She handed me a "TOLL VIOLATION" card and told me to call the number. Grrr! Looks like there might be a $25 fine, but that I might get it waived by showing I have a Fastrak.

I stopped soon after at a Costco, and picked up a Fastrak. I won't be doing that again!

I went to CVS and did a little playing. I picked up a large supply of Claritin, some deodorant, a fancy razor, sunscreen, moisturizer and a handful of clearance Easter candy. The total was $83 something and I paid $34 and got $5.50 back in Extra Bucks. It took two transactions, but that was okay. The regular price for the Claritin alone was $24.99. And I've paid that before, when I've had a suffering swimbaby in need. Glad I didn't today!

A friend called and said she was going to a wedding and wanted my advice. It's a beach wedding, and she wasn't sure what to wear, both dress and shoes. After some discussion, I got some strappy black sandals out of my closet and took them to her so she can borrow them. She thought they were perfect. The receipt was in the shoe box, so I got to enjoy the bargain a second time. I had gotten them on a clearance rack in the teen section of Nordstrom in December 2000! They are a classic style, and I've worn them to many parties and weddings since then. I've definitely gotten my $27 worth, and I feel particularly pleased to help out my friend, who was considering buying new shoes just for the occasion.

Feel like I always have a list...

Things I Want Right Now

#1 Boots.
Wow. I found the most amazing boots on sale at Macy's in Southern California a month ago. Did I mention they were amazing? The fit was perfect. PERFECT. I debated and decided that I didn't want to spend $120 even though they were AMAZING. When I got back home, I changed my mind, and I called the store and they were gone. I searched online... and the cheapest place I could find them was Shoes.com. And they are... get ready... $398. But they are the most amazing boots!

#2 Make Up.
I need a few items to replace things that have run out. I don't wear much, but I like my 5 products. I'm currently out of one (and going without) and about to run out of another.

#3 Clay Pots.
A friend gave me this really cool metal pole-thing that you use to stack pots in this clever, tilted, kind of arrangement. There is a 12 inch pot on the bottom, and then progressively smaller pots on top, for a total of five. I have the pole, which I think was pretty pricey (but it was a gift). Now I need the pots. I want to plant all the pots with different herbs.

#4 New Pillows.
Our bed pillows are lousy. They were cheap to start with and they're all squished-out and pretty useless. I've been wanting new ones since before Christmas, but I keep finding reasons NOT to buy them. The Husband and I each need two pillows.

#5 Gas
We now have three cars and three drivers and some car or another or all seems to need gas every day. I could just fill up, but I don't like to unless I'm pretty sure I'm getting a good price.


What I'm Going to Do About It

#1 Are you kidding?! $398?! WHO PAYS THAT FOR BOOTS?! I'm not a movie star for heaven's sake! I'll keep looking for something really similar, and continue to check clearance racks. Dang. Should have bought the pair I saw. Next time, I'll buy with the idea that I can return if I want to. And I would. I should have searched for an online price on the spot.

#2 I haven't done the couponing for this week, but I will check to see what kind of a deal I can get. IF not this week, maybe next week. I don't need it so desperately that I'm not willing to wait a few days for a $5-10 savings.

#3 I would go buy these today, if I knew where to go, but I really haven't done my homework. I know, pots aren't that expensive, but I want the cheapest price! I'm thinking Lowes might have decent prices, and I do have a coupon for there, but I don't want to commit just yet.

#4 I wish I knew why I keep putting this off. But I've survived a few months without, so maybe I can go a little longer. I will watch for sales and try to purchase them in the next month or two.

#5 Well, darn. I'll probably need to buy gas tomorrow. I check gasbuddy.com, but not everyone in my family is so committed to finding the best deal. I think they tell themselves, "It's only 10 cents more a gallon, and I'm only buying 8 gallons, so what's the big deal?" I'm going to make everyone get the app on their phones and try to convince them. As most of us know, those pennies add up to be dollars.

I still haven't added up the pre-Easter spending, but I'm feeling better about it. I did look at each transaction, and I can justify all of them. I prefer to not spend everything in each budget category every month. In fact, I rarely do. But I can do some "moving around" of money from categories I don't need this month. It is what it is! And we had a wonderful weekend! Saw friends and family and bought a fun new (to us) car. Life is good. I'm going to try not to beat myself up about it! Wasn't our last dime. If there is anything left at the end of the month in any category, it all goes to extra savings. Not sure there will be much this month (there was a chunk last month, so that's good), but we will see.

So... we haven't had credit cards for years. There was a point when there were so many games and tricks and even though we tried to follow the rules, we got screwed a few times. (Not big time, but I hated paying interest... and we got caught in the crazy way they calculate things by the number of days in a month. So it was off when the month had 31 or something...Meh. Made me mad!) So we closed all the accounts and have paid cash ever since. It has worked great for us, but I've been feeling a little jealous of all the credit card rewards that everyone is talking about.

Three offers came in the mail today. Chase for The Husband, and Bank of America for both of us separately. I'm tempted. Any ideas? Warnings? Suggestions? All of them are "spend $500 in 90 days, get $150 back." Each has a percentage of cash back for purchases, too. Hmmm... I'm not quick to make any kind of financial decision, including this one. But I'm thinking about it.

Why haven't I done the taxes yet?! Not worried, yet!

I haven't even added it all up. But it was a lot. I had not really planned to do the whole egg hunt thing, but my kids spent most of today talking about how much fun it is... So I did some shopping for treats. I mostly got things they can use... flip flops, swim goggles, sunscreen, etc... for the baskets. I hate spending, but I do have a little surplus in the gifts catagory. I have a few bags of candy that I got for nearly free a few weeks ago, so we're set.

Bought a $10 gift card for someone who donated lots of sports equipment to my children, just to say thanks.

Bought lunch at Whole Foods on the way home from San Jose, where we went to... oh, yeah... buy a car! Car is nice, will be great to have, just the model we wanted, low mileage, feel like we got a good deal, blah, blah, blah... when that check clears... ugh. It will hurt! Of course it's gone already...

Spend, spend, spend! Glad I won't be buying anything tomorrow!

I paid for the brakes today, which ended up being $499.13 when all was said and done.

I also paid $4.83 for a new brake light bulb for the other car. Big day for cars at our house.

The Husband spent $13.59 at Chipotle. It's complicated, but he sort of owed a friend. I know he was pleased to treat... Chipotle is one of the fast food places that I actually like. The ingredients always seem fresh and I love the lime-cilantro rice, although I'm certain I could duplicate it at home.

We ended up with cheese pizza and salad for dinner. The swimbabies are always thrilled with pizza and I was able to whip it up really fast, so it was win-win for us!

Well, the picture is sideways, and it's not fabulous quality since I took it with my phone. But the pizza was yummy.

Tomorrow I will definitely have to do some grocery shopping. We're out of milk and fruit. Those are the things we always run out of first!

I somehow feel a sense of accomplishment when something costs less than the amount I budgeted for it. Which is good for me... because I usually fret and worry and feel lousy when something ends up costing more than the I amount I had budgeted.

And truly, this is not a big deal... but I budget $200 per month for our electric and gas. Of course, I really count on being below budget some months to make up for other months when I fully expect to go over. I decided on the $200 based on the average cost.

So for March 2012, the total cost was $176.21... a whopping $23.79 under budget! (not really whopping, but still...) The best part, however, is that our bill for March 2011 was $194.42. I tried to think of whether anything was different this March over last March, and I couldn't come up with anything at all, except that I've really tried to keep the thermostat set a degree lower than is really comfortable.

March is not normally a month when we are significantly below $200. April should be great! Whatever it was, I'll take the $23.79!

Well the IRA contributions I made finally appeared in our accounts. Actually, I know they've been there a week, at least, and I'm thinking that there is a glitch in their notification system. Oh, well. No harm. IRA funded for 2011!

No new car, yet. We're not in an enormous hurry, even though sooner would be better. The Husband found a couple of deals on ebay/Craigslist/other online sites, but the cars weren't exactly what he had in mind. It feels pretty sweet having two cars that work fine, and knowing we have time to wait for the right thing. It's his deal, though. I expect that one day, he'll just show up after work with a car, which is fine with me. It seems that the cars that were leased new are pretty good deals now that they have 50,000-90,000 miles on them.

Must work on the taxes this week. I NEVER wait this long to complete them. I actually entered information into Turbo Tax in January, and it looks like we'll get some back from Fed, but owe the state about the same. I didn't feel compelled to finish that day because it's not a huge amount either way. I've been juggling withholding numbers for a few years to try to get things to come out even at tax time. This year I did pretty well. So I put it off. It's got to happen soon, though.

On the list for today: plan the week's menu and catch up on laundry after I run five miles!

Happy Monday!