Things on my mind (which is all over the place these days; I think it's because my new project hasn't started yet, and maybe I'm a little bit bored).

Spotify:
I signed up for the free version on my computer. I can't usually work with music on, but as I said, I don't have a lot to do until my new project starts up. I can't stop singing! If I told you my taste in music, you'd be horrified. I like any song I've heard more than 5 times, so there are a lot of songs I like. Oh - and I still remember all the words to all of the songs I listened to in High School (think: Duran Duran, Adam Ant, the GoGo's). My singing is pretty appalling; Taylor Swift (who I also like) would cringe. Thank you, Spotify, because otherwise I'd probably buy a lot on itunes.

FICO Score:
American Express said I could see my FICO score for free, so I did. Do you think it's real? I got an 849.... yay! Not sure what I'd actually do with my score. Is it like these Chinese "citizen scores" - hope not. If you haven't heard about that, google it - totally frightening.

Exercise:
After running two laps around the horse track and then walking as a cool down during F's soccer practice, my friend T and I decided we are definitely social exercisers. It's hard to do it on your own. Which is why I teach exercise classes. Tomorrow is the day I run on my own from the office. And it's cold out. Not that cold; I'm such a whiner! Wish T could go with me, but her job (elementary school counselor) allows for a 2 minute lunch at her desk. Anyway, I am a little faster than T, but my friend B is faster than I am. Need to find a running partner who gets lunch and is right at my level. Do you like to exercise with people or alone? Or not at all? Or only one type of exercise? If you are here in Santa Fe, you should come to the gym and work out with me, because I need the social thing when I exercise! We can talk about how much money we're saving by investing in our future health!!!

Our mortgage is now at $46,633 (so over $550k in equity - wow! But you have to have somewhere to live, so I don't like to think about it that much).

The thing is, when we owed $200k, I could never have dreamed of such a low number, but now that we're in the $40k's all I can think about is being in the $30k's. Ugh. A bad habit of mine: not savoring the present, but always looking toward the future.

Today is the second chilly day of autumn, and it has me a little melancholy. I am a warm weather summer kind of person. Or snow... I love snow!

I am going to chalk up my feelings about the mortgage to the weather.

Other things on my mind: friends coming over tomorrow evening for the Great British Bakeoff final (it's on today but we have to watch on the iplayer, so please don't leave any results comments!!!!). We are doing make your own pizzas, which is fun, but not as frugal as I would have liked. More frugal than going out, though. And I'm making a tunis cake.

Also: I bought a new pair of winter boots on Amazon. They were on sale ($34! For really nice Teva boots!), and pretty much exactly what I want except that all the reviews said that they're for a narrow calf. There isn't a ton of room in the calf, but it isn't super fitted. I am trying to decide if this is ok or not. Maybe it is for $34. There is a stretchy gusset thing on the side without the zipper that I am sure is so that people with wide calves can put these on. Maybe I could get that part sewed shut (It's behind the leather, so it doesn't show but it makes the side stick out a little). Any opinions?

And: I am looking at a new pair of x-c skis and boots for F. She got a lot of use out of her old ones, but they're now way too small. I will sell these on craigslist, but it's hard to find kids' sizes used in the size you want, so I think I have to spring for the $150 setup from REI new. We used to have Play it Again Sports here, but it went out of business a long time ago. I looked on ebay, but the NNN binding skis are more expensive than the REI ones on sale!

Finally: we were going to take a trip down to White Sands for an upcoming four day weekend, but the night in the hotel room would pay for that x-c ski setup (and it really is too cold at this point for camping)! I am thinking it'd be better to do a day trip instead! Luckily I have lots of ideas... Tent Rocks? Tsankawi? Maybe even Hinkle Family Fun Center (F would like that better anyway).

Today was our big shopping day... grocery stores and gas. We didn't do too badly considering we're having friends over for dinner on Thursday (to watch the final of the Great British Bakeoff).

We also got things for F's "hot lunch." She no longer wants any of the hot lunches through school, and I'm just as happy; they charge $7 for the school hot lunch (yikes!) and it's not good, and it's not hot. She (and the other kids) don't like it. Hot lunch used to be a treat, so this is a way that she can have a treat once a week. And it costs $3 less!

The big money savings today: went to my friend's house to feed her cat. We feed each other's pets when we go away. It works for both of us, and I know it's not current money savings, but every time I pop in on her cat, I think "that's money saved for both of us!" We still take our dog to the free-roam boarding place, but this friend said she'd be happy to take our dog and watch her in her own home, so that might be a future option. When we go away for a long time, we have a friend come stay at our house with all of the pets.

Do you have a petsitting arrangement with any friends?

I did the numbers for September and we had a good month.

Income increased 9% compared to the same month last year.
Spending down 2% (even with a $616 car repair bill)
Savings increased 27%

Now I'm putting our salary into all the YNAB categories.

We are still paying ourselves back for the restuccoing ($1680 to go). I will feel really good when that's below $1000. I thought it'd take less time, but because it's not super urgent, I am putting our extra money toward the mortgage instead of paying ourselves back.

I realize I didn't post this week's meal plan, and I'm already thinking about next week...
S - baked potatoes and salad
S - out to dinner - yum!
M - french dinner (olives, cheese, crackers)
T - non-kebab chicken and veg (used to be kebabs, but now I just roast everything - courgettes, red pepper, red onions)
W - posole from the freezer and a salad
T - cheddar bay biscuits and chicken/rice soup
F - fish with aolii and broccoli

One last update: the Physical Therapy is going really well... I went today but it was two weeks since my last visit. My low back was not doing well yesterday or the day before, but I made it almost two weeks, which is great! I now have a new exciting exercise called the sacrum clock. I've been doing all of my exercises every night, and it's making a difference.

Sometimes my attempts at being frugal backfire.

A couple of months ago, I bought a large shampoo. It's the same brand as the bodywash we use. All natural, no added scent (just the scent of ingredients). And it isn't expensive; in fact it's pretty inexpensive.

But here is the thing: it doesn't work! Ack! My head is sometimes itchy. My hair never feels clean.

I've been using it anyway, because I don't like to waste things, but I finally gave up.

I spent about 20 minutes in the shampoo aisle sniffing shampoos because I'm pretty sensitive to smells/perfumes but I don't want entirely unscented. And I found a not-quite-as-cheap shampoo that smelled great. It was a brand I'd used before.

And now my hair is clean. My head isn't itchy. I am so happy!

Is there anything you spend a little more money on because it's worth it?

There are two types of insurance that I'm not sure we need...?

Personal Articles Floater
This covers our wedding rings which we wear every day and also a pearl necklace that lives in the safe deposit box. I wear it maybe every other year once. So the Personal Articles Floater is $248 a year. The necklace is worth a lot (no idea how much), and the rings are probably $2000 each. Should I self insure instead with that $248? Maybe get the pearls appraised? (No idea in our town where I'd do that).

Dental
We pay about $50/month for dental insurance. What if I put that into an account instead and self-insure on that? I need to review what we're covered for. I think the insurance only covers half. It pays for part of one annual cleaning. But $50/month is $600 per year. That's a lot of cleanings! This is just for me and F... it's an add on to our medical insurance.

A little more research is in order.

Yesterday was a wonderful day... low key, fun, lots going on - my kind of day.

F scored a goal in her soccer match; they won 4-0. We got Vietnnamese food for our Anniversary lunch. Not expensive, but really good. And then we got our annual green chile. We only got half a bushel, because we can't eat a full bushel in a year. We put it on homemade pizza, hamburgers, and these are the right size to stuff with cheese (naked rellenos). Oh, and tostadas; it's really yummy chopped up on tostadas.





At home we made potatoes dauphinoise for dinner; the house smelled like a French bistro.

And then we went out to the Plaza to hear the Mavericks... we danced around and saw a bunch of friends down there. Then home to watch the new episode of Dr. Who!

I hope your weekend is going well, too. Anyone else watch Dr. Who last night?

Tomorrow is our 12th anniversary... Here's the day we have planned:
- F's soccer game (45 mins away)
- Lunch in Albuquerque (another 15 mins, we're most of the way down there for soccer) at the Vietnamese place we all love. It's not expensive, but it's yummy!
- Get our green chile on the way back up

Relax while we bag our chile. I want to watch a movie or a show or something. Any ideas that would be good for the entire family? Something funny would be good. F is ten. She doesn't like scary (and I don't either!). I love Melissa McCarthy but I think her stuff is too raunchy for a ten year old.

Then - light dinner (not sure what yet).

Then - off to the Plaza to dance, dance, have fun! It's the Mavericks at 8:00 pm! Love that F stays up late, and there's nothing to wake up early for on Sunday!

D is doing student photos for F's school again this year. He doesn't charge the school, but he makes money when parents order photos. Not sure how much he'll make, but he is going to take part of it to buy a new smartphone since his is now pretty old (isn't it weird what counts as old now?). The rest will go into savings which I need to shore up since we "borrowed" a little to redo our stucco and pay for D's allergy shots.

I helped out with the school photos today, so I didn't get much work done, but that's fine - I finished my deadline on Monday and this week is pretty quiet. Just a couple of meetings and misc. work.

Because of the busy day, I didn't have time to spend any money!

And I returned a lunch container which said it was 5x5 (perfect sandwich size) but turned out to be 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 (not perfect at all!).

Lunch was a very frugal: slice of turkey, a few chips, pluot, home-made muffin.

Dinner is: Spaghetti Gambino Crime Family (not the real name). It's actually this Jamie Oliver recipe (a really nice combination of shrimp, lemon, garlic, rocket, white wine and sundried tomatoes):
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/spaghetti-with-prawns-and-rocket-spaghetti-con-gamberetti-e-rucola/#wXgBfvWfM3AdzisI.97

The rest of the week's meal planning (including the past few days) looks like this:
S - quesadillas with guacamole
S - chicken piccata and broccoli and rice
M - posole
T - gambino crime family pasta
W - grilled cheese with salad
T - crash potatoes from freezer and roasted broccoli
F - big salad with radishes, carrots and cucumber

Now I am super hungry, so I'm going to make dinner... what are you having tonight?

The bad first:
- I had to buy a drill bit today in order to hang my yoga swing (this is so I can hang upside down and get traction for my lower back pain; it works pretty well, and I guess if I can cut down on the PT it will save me money). Also had to buy two climbing straps because the yoga swing did not come with extenders (ugh! I did an Amazon review and noted the things people will need to buy to mount the swing, since I had no idea). With the bicycle hooks I bought the other day to screw it into our garage beams, I probably spent about $20 extra on the swing.

Also bad:
- Need to bring something to a soccer potluck party tomorrow, but we'll be going right from F's school Country Fair where I'll be volunteering from about 2 pm on... I think I just have to buy some tubs of cookies at Trader Joe's... more expensive than baking something or making something, but they won't go bad in the car.

But this is good:
- Had a great PT appt. today and my back feels so much better, plus she taught me how to fix things myself a little bit if my back starts to hurt in between.

And also good:
- We had a nice frugal dinner of pasta with butter and pecorino romano plus sauteed courgettes with a little garlic.

And even more good:
I got $70 from the gym, and took it right to the bank so now we owe $48,064 on our mortgage. I am not sure how much our house is actually worth... during the recession they said about $500k, but things have picked up a lot since then.

How on earth can I have accumulated SO MUCH food. I meal plan every week, but I've never done a food inventory until now. I am embarrassed and awed and shocked.

Our fridge isn't bad, but I was going to buy a ton of fruit this week and realized we already have 4 pluots, 3 apples, 3 nectarines, most of a cantaloupe and half of a watermelon.

The freezer is insane: two portions of freezer meals which I had in my head and shrimp I bought last week on sale to use later, but everything else was sort of crazy... I have a ton of things I can bring to the office for lunch (lunch sized portions) that I just forget about. Also two turkey burgers that were left over when I made turkey burgers the last time. And 16 (16?!) hot dog buns plus a package of 4 hot dogs (left over from the coach party). Looks like we need to eat some sausages and hot dogs in the near future.

Also tons of dinner ingredients in the pantry. And a lot of chips and crisps. I like to have variety, but sheesh!

With careful meal planning, it looks like we can whittle this down a little bit, and have a pretty low grocery bill for the next couple of weeks.

OK, a new spending trigger I need to consider: being tired! I am tired, so I need sugar which makes me want to go out and buy a muffin. Lucky for me with my food intolerances and celiac, it's not so easy to just go buy something.

I just completed the work I wanted to complete today. I've figured out the work I need to finish on Tuesday. The work load is not too high right now because I am waiting for a big approval from the County before things kick in. So it's not like I have to be glued to my desk today... I could easily pop out and get that muffin.

F is doing better with dropoffs. She's still worried and anxious, but she sees that she needs to go to school and it's not optional! Monday was terrible, but the rest of the week has been great. So I feel like I need to reward myself... with a muffin!

Argh!

And I paid off $487.32 this month toward the mortgage principal. If we stop applying any more to principal we'll own the house in September 2019. åΩ But our goal is June 2017. Either way, that is within THIS decade. Wow. Don't you think I deserve a muffin for that sort of financial control?

The office will buy it for me since it's pretty much a work necessity at this point.

Today we:

- are eating all of our meals at home, even though it's a weekend and sometimes we eat a meal out on the weekend. We only have $8.37 left in the dining out budget (we committed to a breakfast out next weekend, but that is September). Tonight: tostadas. Mmmm...

- went to the pool. It's the next to last weekend, and the weather was iffy, but we got pool time before it started pouring rain, and then played a game that was a combination of 4-square and ping pong! We used our last two guest punches taking F's friend and our coach. Next weekend there is an ice cream social Sunday with lots of pool games.

- did a load of laundry and hung it to dry before the rain came.

- checked "track package" a million times for F who is very keen to get her bribe/reward tomorrow "before 8:00 pm" according to Amazon.

- vacuumed the house, cleaned the litterbox, cleaned the birdcage and assorted other household chores. D did some yardwork thinning out the arugula which has taken over.

- invited F's friend L over to play. This means a fun day for her without having to spend money!

- finished knitting the first slipper sock. Now knitting the foot of the second one. And then I need to reacquaint myself with mattress stitch in order to sew the bottoms on!

- made a frugal grocery list for tomorrow's shopping trip. We have $90 left in the grocery category. Pasta with red sauce and courgettes, fish with green beans and roasted cauliflower, taquitos with a salad, chili with chips/avocado/sour cream, something from the freezer with a salad, baked potatoes and broccoli.

And now it's 6 pm... quiet evening at home!

Mortgage Principal:
We paid off a whopping $856.71 on our mortgage principal this month. We are still set to pay off everything in Oct. 2019 even if we don't put another dollar toward principal. Of course we will, though!

Back to School, Back to Anxiety:
F is having more anxiety with the start of school. She is working on it, though. We've been seeing someone and insurance covers it, so it's only $10 each session, but I'm beginning to doubt how helpful it is. The dropoff separation anxiety was so bad, though, that the school psychologist finally stepped in and since she was able to witness it, had some very constructive ideas.

Another Day, Another Coach:
We are hosting another soccer coach this week, and it's kind of a two-fer... he came with his girlfriend. We'd asked her to dinner, but then she didn't have anywhere to stay. She's a soccer coach, too, and her flight back to Ireland is Sunday. She needs to be in Denver by then. First she had no idea how to get there (there isn't a train system here like Ireland or the UK or the Eastern US and you have to go south to Albuquerque to get a bus to Denver). The bus leaves at 3 am! And she missed her bus last night even though they were there super early (long story). So we've been feeding two coaches for now a third night... a bit of a strain, but she's such a sweet girl!

Camp Coach Reimbursement:
We get reimbursed for feeding the coaches who come to camp (not for the ones who are staying with us now, though). We received our $80 check and I'm going to put it toward groceries rather than our mortgage. Our grocery budget was stretched pretty thin this month now that we've had THREE coaches in the same month! We don't have enough left for this weekend's grocery shop without this money. What's good: with the money we have plenty. Also good: lots of food in the freezer to build on.

Stupid Hot Lunch Program:
The hot lunch program at school this year is super confusing. It's also expensive. And F had it on Monday and hated it. She hated chicken tenders; really?! She looooves chicken tenders usually. She said they were gross. The sweet potato fries were gross and not actually fries. The sauce was gross. The caesar salad wasn't good. And the choices of drink didn't include chocolate milk which is a huge treat she only used to get for hot lunch. So.... I am going to invent my own hot lunch at a cheaper price. I never buy convenience foods, but I am going to go to Whole Foods and get a veggies sushi or a slice of pizza and a cookie from the individual cookie thing and a chocolate milk and send her with that. Maybe not the most cost-effective, but cheaper than the hot lunch program, and I need that 5th day each week to be easy, because I am stuck with the 5th day even though we split the task of making her lunches.

There were lots of mortgage snowflakes this month (and one more to come)...
- $325.52 from Irish house rent
- $150 budgeted
- $5 craigslist sale
- $78 ebay sale
- $77 gym payment
the mystery addition to this should be about $210! It's more Irish rent money. We can only take out 300 euro at a time, so we do a 200 euro withdrawal every two months as well. So this adds to this month and next.

Knitting: I am furiously knitting myself slipper socks before the cold weather starts! My old pair pretty much disintegrated.

I'm still paying ourselves back on a few negative categories:
- household repairs (the remainder of the restuccoing project)
- medical unforeseen
- medical

All other categories are positive. Some have money in them because they're building up for annual purchases (like the camp category and our HOA fund. Also F's camp fund and the fund for the pool we join each summer.

And then there are categories with a lot of money in them; I'm afraid to transfer the balances to the negative categories, and I have no idea why. I mean, if some emergency came up, then those would be negative categories instead, right?
- Utilities has $228 in it. I want some money in there for winter when the bills are higher, but even in winter, our bills are under $115, and I have a budget of $95, so I don't need to keep that much in there. Spring bills are about $50 and summer bills are under $30.
- Auto registration has $93 in it, and we pay about $40 in March for one car and $50 in December for the other car... we put in $10 per month. Quick math problem... we can take out $73 and still have enough built up for both December and March.
- $58 in Entertainment; I put in $50 per month and this covers our netflix subscription plus any fees to museums, etc., but I doubt we're going to do much since school starts Wednesday and we have soccer every weekend.
- $128 in Gifts for Others - We'll probably spend some of that at Christmas, so maybe I should keep it in there, but I put in $31 a month, so that will build up more
- $97 in pets - yes, there could be an emergency, but then this could be the negative category. That's what the emergency fund is for, right? All of our pets have a ton of food and treats, and both just went to the vet for well exams, so no expected expenses for the rest of the month.

When F was a baby, D and I each worked half time. So that meant that we worked 4 hours each (plus more in the evenings after F was asleep) and were each alone with her 4 hours a day. We often met for lunch as a family for what we called the "switcheroo."

Each year in August, we'd meet and discuss the schedule and rearrange as needed. Maybe she had her baby music class on a Tuesday morning and I wanted to go to that, so I was with her on Tuesday morning. Maybe D had a standing meeting on Wednesday afternoon, so I was with her on Wednesday afternoons. We also talked about various chores and who did what; that got revised each year as well.

As she got older and was in school, our work hours increased. In the beginning, D picked her up from school some days and I picked her up others. We still did our chore check-in before the new school year started. We made a whole schedule, and now there were other things on the schedule like soccer (which she started at 4!).

Then D got a full-time job. I was scheduled for dropoff and pickup, which I love, so it's ok. D was tired after work, and I was home with F by 4 pm most days, so besides doing a little extra work while she did her homework, I would get her a snack, undo the lunch box, maybe empty the dishwasher...

Then D got full-time allergies. He couldn't really dust anymore. Vacuuming was out the question. He wasn't feeling well most weeks, so I took over cleaning the mirrors or the front of the fridge/oven/dishwasher.

After the job and allergies started (around the same time) we didn't do our annual chore check-in. Well - it's time to do it again (because I am starting to feel like I am a home-maker but with a full time job, plus D's allergies are a lot better after the shots).

Here is how we do it:
- list all of the household chores in 7 categories: daily, every other day, weekly, monthly, two or three times a year, annual, every so often. These are chopped up into smaller pieces. Like we don't just say "laundry" because maybe I will put them in the wash and take them out and hang them, but D can fold them or put them away.
- we each highlight which chores we're ok doing and which we have really high standards for so we need to do them ourselves.
- figure out what to do with what is left.

Maybe all of this comes naturally for some couples, but my fallback position is do everything and D's is hang out in the living room watching football (soccer).

We need to make sure we don't skip this really important annual check-in.

And here is the financial part of this: we don't have a house-cleaner or a personal assistant, or whatever else people have to make all of this work.

What do you do to divide up all of the various chores that go into running a household?

So having finally paid off our Dublin house, we now need to tie up some loose ends. I made D make sure that we are not still paying the mortgage (it was an auto payment). Also, Ireland requires a life insurance policy for mortgages, so D was paying 62 euro a month for a policy that would pay about 192,000 euro.

Contrast this to our US life insurance policy for him that is $22.90 a month for $500,000.

The surrender value of the life insurance policy in Ireland is 3000 euro, so we will surrender the policy and keep the US one.

Now we need to make a plan for the 3000 euro. I think it will be half into flights to the UK for next summer and half into emergency fund.

So, now we really can start thinking about next summer's trip to see D's family with a holiday over there for the second week.

I don't even want to think about it. I spent like $100 today.

A lot of it was household supplies. It seems like I run out of everything all at once, but some things I didn't need to buy quite yet. The thing is, I was down at Target, and I don't want to go down there again in a week. That was about $70. (Anti-eye wrinkle stuff, toilet paper, paper towels, tinfoil, paper plates, napkins, new underwear for F, face soap for me).

I also bought about $30 in extra groceries for the BBQ we're having at our house tonight for the four coaches who are running the soccer program F is in this week. I offered to host at our house, which is totally great! I love having people over. Three of us are hosting coaches, so the other two families will bring things, too. But I got hot dogs, buns, french fries, cookies, paper plates and lemonade for the kids (probably the bulk of what we need to feed everyone). I think K is bringing watermelon and a salad... T is bringing beer/wine/ice.

Whatever they don't eat, we'll eat in the next few weeks... I made sure that I got things that we like. The hot dogs and buns can go in the freezer if we don't eat them all.

I am hoping that the grocery budget is just fresh fruits and veggies for the next few weeks - that's a challenge to myself! Eat from the pantry!!

Just random thoughts for today, some financial/some not...

1. I bought a new mouse for using at the house with my laptop since the old one broke. Bought with office credit card since I need it for working from home (really only need it to use Autocad). The scroll thingy is sort of weird (smooth rather than clicky; I preferred clicky). This is the updated version of my old mouse. I guess I'll get used to it.

2. I got the mouse at Staples. We were also there to get some plastic/acetate display pockets for F's sports illustrated womens world cup covers. My "framing" idea is to put them in the acetate, then use a big bulldog clip and hang on the wall in a grid pattern. Much cheaper than framing, and she can keep the covers on the magazines. But they didn't have the pockets or the bulldog clips. I went home and ordered on Amazon. Can't believe how irritating stores are; I'd much rather shop online.

3. We ordered 8 more salad plates because we use those most often and always run out before we run the dishwasher. Ordering more plates was on the Declutter Calendar for last week, so I'm a little bit late.

4. We are leaving in a few mins. to go to a horse show (free!!). It's the last weekend. I'll let you know how it is.

5. Here are the other things on the Declutter Calendar for this month:
week 1
- change water filter
- declutter hall closet
- reorder plates and bowls that are broken
week 2
- wash car
- dust tops of all framed pictures
week 3
- clean out paper stacker thingy
- wash and rehang white curtains
week 4
- clean shower and apply rain-x
- weed

Soccer camp starts next week, which means that we get to meet the coach we are hosting on Sunday evening. Except I just got a call from the organizer, and we may be hosting TWO coaches! This is great and a little terrifying.

One can stay in our spare room of course, and the other can either put a futon in there or take F's room (she said "I hope he's an Arsenal fan" - there are Arsenal posters and memorabilia all over the room!). F always sleeps in our room anyway. It'll make things a little more complicated in terms of having to move things around (she'll need access to her clothes and she'll want to move certain toys down to our room, too.

Also means making three lunches in the morning. And extra food at night, so I need to make a careful meal plan.

I was thinking:
- white chicken chile
- tostadas
- tortilla espanola with a salad
- pasta with bacon and peas and goat cheese
- maybe risotto? maybe lemon crumbed fish?

One night we're having a barbeque with all four of the coaches at our house, but it'll be potluck. I'll get hot dogs and buns and fun toppings (chile, cheese, relish, etc). Maybe with french fries...

So... soccer season has started... I can't believe it! F's first practice was Monday night, and she has practice tonight as well.

When she practices, I run around the old horse racing track (the fields are in the middle of what is now a derelict racetrack). It's flat, it's packed dirt, it's 1.1 miles - perfect! I have my running stuff ready to go.

F is feeling very anxious about me running, worried that something will happen to me. Yes, she is still seeing someone, and I think we're making progress. But I AM going to run tonight.

No game this weekend, which is good because I want to go to the pool and hang out and relax. Next week is soccer camp for F. Then school starts the middle of the week after that. And at the end of that week - first tournament!

So - a lot of soccer.

I'm pretty happy to get my running in while she practices; free fun! (If you can call it fun). My other exercising happens at lunch time.

How do you fit in your exercise? It's not easy with work and all of the other obligations we all have!

We just got back from a long weekend in Denver! What a great trip! There are some things I would have done differently, but it was a lot of fun and not too expensive.

What we should have done differently:
- We chose a hotel on 16th street... in the end it really didn't matter that we were in the heart of Denver. If we go again, I'll pick a nicer area and a hotel with a pool that doesn't charge for parking.
- The mermaid show at the Aquarium was recommended to us. Not that great, and the food was not that great either. To me that could have been skipped and we could have eaten somewhere better.

What we did right:
- We drove (and we specifically drove our more fuel efficient car that uses the less expensive fuel). I filled up the car before we left and spent about $18, then put $30 in the car while we were gone and came home with 3/4 of a tank of gas still in the car.
- We chose street parking lots rather than the $35/day that the hotel charges for parking. We saved $50! Walked less than a block.
- We ate lunch at the Aquarium to see the mermaid show, but didn't go to the Aquarium itself. We have an Aquarium here.
- Botanic Garden was worth seeing though not incredibly cheap. But beautiful!
- We visited the Denver County Fair - super fun! F made a Peeps Diorama, and there was a scavenger hunt. We didn't eat there, and I'm glad; fair food = yuck. But D did try a cookie made with ground up crickets that they were letting people sample. Again.. yuck.
- We met friends who live in Denver for a nice meal out at a Korean place. I was stuffed! D got a beer, which he normally doesn't do out, but hey, he's on vacation. They had unlimited sides and the food was really good! We don't have a Korean place here.
- Hammond's Candy Factory tour - FREE and they gave us each a giant lemon candy cane at the end. The tour was short, but fascinating, and totally worth doing!
- Colorado Rapids soccer game - my friend's son is the event manager for the Rapids so we got free tickets, 8th row, to a sold out game against the LA Galaxy! So much fun!!! We even saw two of the British soccer coaches that stayed with us during the summer when they ran the camp F did. She was so excited to see them!!
- Stopped in Trinidad, CO on the way back down for lunch - that might have been one of the best meals we had, and it was only $22 for all three of us. If you are ever in Trinidad, stop at the Daily Grind. They even had gf bread, so I had a sandwich, too.

We fit a lot in a three day trip. Since we didn't have airfare or soccer tickets to buy, we decided to splurge a little on food... usually I bring food, but we wanted to eat out.

The dining out budget is almost gone for this month, but it was worth it!

I did a little spreadsheet a year or so ago of all of my clothes, how many of each type, etc. to figure out the ideal number of each item. This was fine, except that I forgot to take into account condition. I had a lot of things with holes, stains, faded, didn't fit, that I never wore, that looked terrible on me.

This is what happens when you stop buying clothes for a long time. Things wear out. Even if you don't use your dryer.

Well, Creditcardfree and Snafu opened my eyes a little bit, and I went through my closet and removed 27 items of clothing (this is everyday wear, not once-in-a-year going out clothes or pajamas or underwear or socks or workout gear). I wasn't left with much, but I did see that I had the basis of a wardrobe. I have about 4 long sleeved tshirts and 4 short sleeved tshirts. One tank top in a pretty color. A couple pairs of jeans that fit well. Two pairs of cropped summer pants. Two nice summer dresses (one black, one brown). One pair of shorts, two casual skirts and one skirt I can wear to work.

I also saw that when I removed certain items that I was left with a big wardrobe gap. Primarily: things to wear to work. My work is very casual, but not so casual that a threadbare tshirt with holes is ok. Also not so casual that I can wear workout gear to a meeting.

I had $111 in my clothing category (I put in $15 a month, but often raid it for other things like and outing with F).

Armed with a list of things in my reject pile that I actually really need, and was wearing, but were not really wearable, I went all the way down to the outlet mall (20 minutes away! that seems like not that far, but that's pretty much on the edge of town). A friend had mentioned that there is an Ann Taylor Loft outlet down there, and that's where she shops. I put on a podcast because that way I would be distracted and not turn around and go home.

I had a clear morning (no work to finish imminently) so I could take my time. F is in camp.

With the help of a super nice salesperson (and the fact that I was there at opening so it wasn't busy), I managed to buy:
- one pair of black narrow pants in a knit fabric but jean style perfect for autumn because they are long and not jeans (original price was $69.99, I paid $14.88)
- one pair of the same pants in grey (original price $69.99, I paid $9.88)
- really pretty tank top in purple (original price was $29.99, I paid $14.99)
- the same tank top in a black/white print (original price was $29.99, I paid $14.99)
- black tank top with cinched in waist (original price $36.99, I paid $14.99)
- purple tshirt ($9)
- green tunic with 3/4 sleeves ($27.99)

Total: $105

Everything is knit fabric (it's a sensory thing for me), machine-washable. I made sure of that; I don't dry clean/lay flat/iron or otherwise tweak my laundry.

I am feeling like a really good shopper right now whereas before I felt like a terrible shopper with a hideous wardrobe. Thank you to this group for pushing out of my comfort zone a little - I am pretty excited to get dressed tomorrow!

Today I sold an old suitcase on craigslist... the suitcase is way to big and the only time I ever traveled with it was when I moved to Dublin. It got a big "heavy" sticker on it at the airport because it had everything I needed to live for a year over there!

I sold it to a woman who works right around the corner from me... her daughter is going to college in Hawaii... I told her about the history of the suitcase and its travels to Ireland, and she said it was definitely good luck! I hope her daughter loves college! Apparently there is an agreement between New Mexico and Hawaii that students from her get in-state tuition there and vice versa... hmmm....

The money from the suitcase will go to the mortgage of course.

I saved $75 today! We bought a new mattress, and had no way of getting rid of the old mattress.

Options:
- The easiest option was to ask for a "large item pick-up" from the City's solid waste department - they charge $75.
- Find a friend with a pickup (I don't have any friends with pickups or trucks that I can think of, but I was going to put a post on facebook)
- Pay someone to haul it to the dump, but I figured that would cost about $75 with the dump fee
- Put the mattress on craigslist as a free item - that was my first option and best option... and someone emailed! So now the mattress is gone and it's not filling up the dump either.

We (and particularly my back) are loving the new mattress. It's a Keetsa Pillow Plus, and it's not particularly expensive, and it has a memory foam top and feels great. A big purchase, but according to my physical therapist, one I won't regret.

The meal plan for this week:

- turkey burgers with roasted mini peppers
- crustless quiche
- tostadas
- chicken piccata
- gambino crime family pasta
- big salad with cheddar bay biscuits (copycat recipe!)
- grilled cheese and tomato soup

We have two girls coming for a sleepover tonight and F requested turkey burgers and roasted peppers for dinner. We'll barbecue at the pool and the girls can go in and swim, play foosball, etc. Ice cream sundaes back at home for dessert. We just went to the store to get more sprinkles.

Savings v. spending:

- I took F and her friend to Baskin Robbins yesterday. Saved $1 from a coupon, and got the coveted "buy any cone, get one for 99c" coupon on the bottom of my receipt. Spent: $5.17, Saved: $3.89

- I found a meter at the post office today with money in it. Saved: 10c

- Four of my items sold on ebay (which is why I was at the post office). I've received payment for one, but the total is $60! Saved: $60 plus I got another $1.38 off the shipping from paypal because I printed shipping with them.

- Picnic dinner tonight at Music on the Hill (the last Music on the Hill of the summer - sob!). We're bringing white chicken chile from the freezer (our favorite crockpot recipe) and sour cream, tortilla chips, raspberries and cookies from home. Spent: $0 extra (this is from our regular groceries).

- Took F to Sonic for slushies, then brought them home to eat and made our own tater tots (much healthier Trader Joe's version which is just potatoes and salt) so we didn't buy them there. Spent: $2.17 for two because it was happy hour.

D and I realized it's time to start planning our next visit to the UK. For those of you who don't know: we go every other year to see D's family. His mum was able to travel here this past Spring (after several years of medical issues), but his dad can't travel and his sister won't come to the US (long story). So to see everyone (including our nephews and niece), we have to go there. Oh - and I forgot all of D's cousins!

Anyway, we always add a vacation on to the end of the trip, since at that point we're already in Europe and Ryanair flights are pretty inexpensive if you don't check anything.

After our trip to Las Vegas, F was pretty enchanted by the Venetian, and we thought it might be nice to at least have a day in Venice (it's beautiful, but not really the type of place we'd like to stay for a week - we like a more low-key, small vacation town and a weekly let). We've been to Italy before (actually we were in that region in a town called Montalto de la Marche which was quite a bit less expensive and more real than Italian tourist spots). But this time, we're thinking outside Italy a little bit... Our current options are coastal Slovenia or coastal Croatia. (Somewhat cheaper than Italy, close to Venice, especially by boat, and there are several towns that are exactly what we're looking for).

We have $2770 in the airfare category and $650 in the rewards category, plus I have another $691 that I can redeem in rewards. At the moment, flights next summer are about $5300 for all three of us - gulp. Is there a better time to buy tickets? (We have to do summer, but if we purchase them 6 months in advance, is that better than purchasing them a year in advance?).

I just saw this map on Apt. Therapy...
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/what-is-100-worth-where-you-live-221874?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=managed&utm_content=FaceBook

Our County says $100 is worth $100 (but is the most expensive place to live in our state), but for some places on the map it's like having a 20% pay cut (or a 5% raise in others). Interesting.

In other news:
Went to a party last night and had a great time. And of course another bonus was that we didn't need to make dinner, just a dish to share.

F has a friend coming over today, then soccer kick-around and then we may go out for pizza. We haven't eaten out since we got back from our vacation 3 weeks ago, so we've got money in that category.