F's two week camp is over at noon today; we'll have lunch at home. And then she goes back to camp for the end-of-camp performance. It's a circus camp, and F is doing fabric/silks (aerials) and unicycling and stilt-walking. This is her fourth camp with this circus troupe. So much fun!

Nine to noon is not a lot of time to get much done, but I made some work phone calls, went for a short run (it's the only kind I do - 1.5 miles). And I also paid down mortgage principal with a few snowflakes.

$77 gym money
$5 craigslist sale
$15 survey amazon certificate

We've paid off $6830 this year so far! And the mortgage is down to $51,357. Next month we'll be below $50k and we're celebrating by going to Denver for a Colorado Rapids soccer game and weekend break!

Several snowflakes came in today and yesterday... I am so happy because I thought we'd paid down as much as we could on the mortgage this month.

- $77 payment for June from the gym
- $5 sale on Craigslist
- $15 amazon credit from a professional survey that I participated in

Wow!

So I'll be taking a trip to the bank tomorrow.

The difficult thing today is that F has been really anxious at camp this week. I had to pick her up early. She is going to see her psychologist tomorrow to work on how to talk herself back down when she gets really worried.

Tonight: we're bringing dinner to Music on the Hill. Should be fun, and we should see lots of friends up there!

Today...

1. I started the day off right and sold something on Craigslist (just $5, but still...). The person I sold it to is the boyfriend of a friend of mine! We both had no idea when we were working out how to meet up. Small town.

2. Went to weightlifting class at the gym. Free because I teach there. I went to Pilates yesterday. (Still sore! That was a lot of hip work).

3. Had lunch at home (leftover tuna with celery and some crisps; also a plum and some blackberries). I love that there is a ton of fresh fruit in season. We bought cantaloupe, blackberries and pineapple. Fruit makes even my boring lunches sort of exciting.

4. Having some new friends over tomorrow. This always makes me look at our house with new eyes. I identified two quick jobs: fixed trim on a window in our bedroom and sewed a fraying part of our slipcovers. It's nice when new people come over because I take care of small things that I've let go for a while.

5. F seems keen to go to the pool (yay!). She went off the diving board for the first time yesterday (and then repeated her new trick about a thousand times). She's pretty excited to go back this evening. The pool is open until 7:45 pm, so I think we'll bring dinner over and D can meet us there. Tonight: chili and corn on the cob. Yum! Maybe I'l bring some pineapple, too.

I see that I didn't mention work at all in my five things... which is good - it means that everything is going smoothly. I got in enough hours while F was at camp and I got a lot done.

Hoping your day was good, too!

Today was pretty low-key. I wanted to go to the pool, but F said she'd rather go tomorrow when her friend is over.

So... I vacuumed and cleaned out the litterbox, washed the picnic blanket, dusted, got the fur off the pet covers that I keep on the sofa, cleaned all of the kitchen appliances (including toaster crumbs and the inside of the microwave).

We had a nice lunch on our patio (finally it's warm enough after weeks of rain every day!). Quesadillas and watermelon and leftover roast courgettes and red pepper.

Then I worked on the General Store dollhouse I made for F. It's almost done! I think we'll be able to decorate it tomorrow! I will definitely post some photos.

We played tennis at the park (and unfortunately lost a ball; ah well).

Then we went to the store to get strawberries and whipping cream. I made mini pavlovas for dessert tonight. That might be my favorite dessert ever. I had two egg whites I'd saved from a recipe that used just yolks, so I wanted to use them up, and meringues are perfect.

Tonight we're going to watch Married at First Sight which is sure to be completely stupid, but we all need to relax. Last week was stressful (work) and rainy (a day of crazy hail which made the upper patio fill with dirt which we had to dig out) and emotional (F had some anxiety due to the thunder associated with the rain). I am looking forward to sitting at the pool tomorrow and reading the book on my phone!

Sometimes I feel like our weekends are dull compared to other people (I'm on Facebook too much obviously), but I think I like them that way. Are you a high intensity weekend person or a low-key weekend person? I think they can both be frugal...

Today was pretty busy (every day this week has been busy). I managed to get a lot of work done, but also exercised and did some stuff around the house etc.

Here is the Free Stuff from today:
- Got two books from the library for F (Chomp and When you Reach Me)
- While I was there, picked up three magazines for me at the magazine exchange rack
- The pay machine was out of order so I parked for free which is good since I was only there for 2 minutes
- There's been a flooding situation at one of the neighborhoods I work with (I am their Design Review Committee Chair) and it's meant a ton of phone calls. I've been carefully logging my hours; so I guess I've made some extra money this week.
- Tonight is crash potatoes and grilled veggies (courgettes and red pepper). Yum!
- Spent some time today listening to the Undisclosed podcast on my phone (it's a follow-up to Serial; if you were super into Serial, you need to listen to Undisclosed!)
- I have a ridiculous but fun book on my phone by Liane Moriarty (also from the library)
- We'll watch another episode of Celebrity Masterchef tonight (best show ever!)
- I went for a run today (free exercise!) which was both awful (running is awful) and felt great afterward. And I passed another woman who was running like me (I don't know how to explain it - we were both the same age and we were clomping along similarly in our non-fancy running clothes) and we said hi and "keep going!" which felt good!
- Went to the bank to pay down mortgage principal (got a $23 check from our utility and had $327 from our Irish house) - and it was popcorn day! I love popcorn day!

I hope you had some Free Stuff, too!

The last couple of days have been so stressful work-wise! Ugh! I don't even want to go into it... just lots of work, not enough time to do it, millions of phone calls from people who want me to help them but it's not part of my role to settle disputes between property owners (and even if I wanted to help, it would be bad for me to do that).

So, I am exhausted.

The result, though: no spending. No time to spend anything.

What we did spend money on: got a few stickers for F's Women's World Cup sticker book. Yes, she was THRILLED about the final match! She wore her Klingenberg jersey. She was so passionate about the game, some people at the next table (we saw it on a big screen at a restaurant her in town) said "We want her to sit with us!"

Right now: it's just stopped hailing (for the second time). Big hail, too - like 3/4 of an inch! And I'm super sad because the one thing I really look forward to all week (besides Celebrity Master Chef) is Music on the Hill. And it's not looking likely. We'll see what the weather does.

I'm going to go pick up F from Circus Camp. And then I guess either Music on the Hill or a quiet evening at home.

We've been trying for several days to bring money from our Irish account to the US. Now that we don't have to make mortgage payments on our Irish house anymore, we decided to use some of the rent money we receive for the house to pay down principal on our US house (about $400 a month).

TransferWise seemed to be our best option because we don't have to pay ATM fees and the fee they do charge is really small. They give you a good interest rate, too.

There were a couple of options on TransferWise, but because our Irish bank charges for transfers to other banks, we decided to go with their debit card option. It didn't work, so D called the Irish bank, and they said it needed to be used at an actual ATM first.

There's a bank in town that doesn't charge a fee (although our Irish bank does, ugh). So we took out $80 and tried TransferWise again.

It still didn't work. So D called the Irish bank, and they said that we could only take out 300 euro at a time using the debit card.

D tried taking out only 300 euro, and it worked! So now we have a way to get that money out of Ireland and into our US account. It should show up on Thursday.

D took the $80 from the ATM to the bank to pay down principal today on our US mortgage.

This month's mortgage principal so far:
- $150 budgeted
- $80 reimbursement for coach hosting
- $90 gym payment
- $80 from Irish house
- more to come!

I got paid by the gym yesterday, and it was $90! That was for May; the owner is characteristically late on paying us. I drove it to the bank this morning to pay down principal so we're now at $52,817 (and that's before our regular payment posts on the 7th).

A little more about the gym: we used to have a space close to downtown, but the owner is moving us to his other gym. It's ok with me because my house is equidistant between the new place and the old one, but I think we're going to lose some members who won't be able to make it there on their lunch hours. I thought we'd pick up members from the new gym, but after I toured around, I realized it's really two separate types of clientele. Our people take classes in weights (light weights, high reps) and cardio (spinning, zumba) and the people at the gym do only Golds type freeweights (heavy weights, low reps). They won't be coming to our classes.

And we won't be using their gym. I thought that the treadmills that were taken out of our gym went to the new gym, but I think they were sold. There is no cardio equipment at the new gym at all.

Also - I thought there would be someone to greet, check people in, take payments. There isn't. The people at that gym have a key to get in when they want. Our instructors have a key so we can teach our classes. We still have to take payments and sign people in, open the case to sell water, etc.

Here's the thing: I am really considering calling the private club here in town where most of my friends belong. It's far from my house, but not that far. And it's closer to my office. I have so many friends there, I know I could build up some classes. And I'm pretty sure they pay better (and on time). It feels risky for some reason, and I don't know why. I've been really loyal to this gym, but maybe it's time for a change.

Anyway, the other thing I did today was take our cat to the vet. He is so fat, they gave us some free food to try. He is honestly not that fat. He's a big cat to start with, and he's pretty sedentary. We play catch with him, and we give him less food than it says on the bag to maintain his ideal weight. The doctor gave us wet food to try. I guess free food is good.

I am realizing this post sounds sort of grumpy, and I am almost never grumpy, so I apologize. I will have a better attitude tomorrow!

F was not very happy with me this morning. I had to drag her around on a few errands...
1. To the office to pick up some things I needed to bring to my client. Plus a check that had arrived.
2. To the bank to deposit the check, and the reimbursement for hosting a coach at camp. And paid down mortgage principal (regular $150 plus $80 reimbursement check). Also bought tickets to the Fourth of July pancake breakfast.
3. Dropped off the things to the client.

It took less than an hour.

We bought the pancake tickets with cash from a counter check... If I had gotten cash, I would have had leftover cash which somehow just disappears. This way, nothing leftover to spend. Buying them early saved us $2. We only buy two tickets because I can't eat the pancakes, so I just bring something along and we all sit on a blanket on the grass. We park at my office so we don't have to pay for parking.

On the mortgage front: we now owe $52,907, and that will be less when our regular payment goes through on the 7th. When we get to $50,000 I promised that we would do something fun. That will most likely be in August... wow... I guess that'll be our road trip to Denver to see the Colorado Rapids!

Made $10 selling some books on craigslist, and I took that over to the bank to pay down principal right away. So we've paid down $252 this month to principal. And I have an $80 check that just came in the mail (reimbursement for hosting our coach). Since we were happy to host her from our regular budget, that will go to mortgage principal as well.

Our meal plan this week is:
chili with avocado, chips, sour cream
fish with courgettes and red pepper
risotto with peas and sundried tomatoes and goat cheese
tostadas
big salad with garlic bread
pasta with red sauce
baked potatoes and broccoli

That kept our grocery budget down since we already had a lot of the ingredients.

And finally... the BIG NEWS: we made the final payment on our house in Dublin, so we now officially own it! I am hounding D to make sure we don't somehow make an auto-payment or pay the life insurance policy we no longer need. We can now take money out of the rent we receive for that house to pay down the mortgage on our US house.

I of course have been playing with the mortgage pay-down spreadsheet to see how this will affect how long it will take us to finally own this house. Just a few more years...

And I found out today that my close friend and her husband just took his bonus and paid their house off. It was a big bonus, I guess! She said they discussed it and (like us) decided they didn't want to fritter it away or spend it on something they didn't need. He's already contributing to their 401k. Their daughter goes to the same private school ours does, and will most likely go to the same high school. This is probably why we hang out with these friends the most! We prefer bbq potlucks to expensive restaurants and paying our houses off instead of new cars!

We had so much fun in Las Vegas! We were smart about certain things (and not as smart about others) so I thought I'd share... Here are some of our ways that we saved money in Las Vegas:

1. We don't drink - drinks are expensive in Las Vegas.

2. We don't gamble. But I found a dime on the stairs down to the pool!

Now the not so obvious things:

3. We booked our vacation through Southwest Airlines (flights and room) and got a way better deal than booking flights and hotel separately.

4. We stayed at the MGM Signature because we wanted a kitchen, but we also wanted access to the MGM's fun pool! The hotel is non-smoking. We asked for Tower 1 because it's closest to the MGM pools (in fact it's closer than MGM rooms) and we asked for a room on the strip side (no music from the pool bothering us, plus a strip view).

5. We bought water for $2.50 (big water!) just outside the MGM at the ABC Store. A huge savings over buying water in the hotel. We put it in our fridge.

6. We brought a suitcase full of food (bread, cereal, cheese, chips, veggies, ranch dip, butter, cookies, fruit etc.) so we only ate out one meal a day. Our room's kitchenette came with a microwave, toaster, plates, cups, utensils and a little stove. We didn't use the stove, though. Southwest lets you check two bags each for free; this was the only bag we checked since we all just do carry-on.

7. The international coke product sampler at Coke world (or whatever it's called) is more than enough for a family. You just need to buy one! And a really fun activity for $8.65.

8. We brought our own tubes for the Lazy River at the MGM pools; I bought them at the dollar store. No one cared that we were using our own tubes. One waitress by the pool told us if we took them to the little tube kiosk they'd blow them up for us.

9. If you want a snack at the pools, the fries are the criss-cut type with good seasoning and are only $5 (not bad for Las Vegas) at the snack bar. We brought our own water down to the pool each day.

10. If you are willing to walk a little bit, there is an In-n-Out not very far away (about a mile). Our total was $22 for all three of us. We found out how to walk online - you need to be on the Excalibur side of the street and then cross at Tropicana.

11. It was super hot and we did want to see some hotels which were pretty far away, so we got a 24 hour monorail pass for $10 each (D used a link online). We went in the evening to the Venetian and a show at the Mirage, then we used them the next day to go up to Paris and the Bellagio. The great thing about the monorail was that we didn't need to walk through the sometimes smoky casino to get to it from the MGM Signature.

12. The Bellagio is pretty fun to walk around and they have a crazy Conservatory that is worth seeing. The Venetian has separated their casino so no smoke to walk through - and there are free opera shows in the main piazza.

13. We didn't buy anything except a coca cola tiny polar bear at Coke World and a magnet at the M&M Store for F. We're not big shoppers. At M&M world, if you buy something, you get a shopping bag for $1. We didn't need another shopping bag, so we passed, but especially if you're buying a $4 magnet, this is a good deal.

14. The Hershey store is worth seeing; they were handing out Hershey kiss samples when we were there. If I had a younger child, I would consider bringing a few Hershey treats from home just in case they "needed" chocolate, but F was fine with our homemade chocolate chip cookies back at our room.

15. The pool at the MGM was amazing, so we spent every morning at the pool and only ventured out to see things in the afternoons. We brought a huge bottle of sunscreen and used a lot of it!!

It was a fun trip and if we hadn't seen shows, it would have been pretty reasonable. The shows... well, that's why we were there! We don't get these sorts of things where we live! Blue Man Group - amazing. Beatles Love - awesome! Worth the splurge!

We are going to Las Vegas tomorrow, so today is all about prep:

- Got work stuff in order (deposited a check, sent drawings to the printer so they can print while I'm gone for a project that will advertise for bidding this weekend).

- Post office to mail off F's thank you cards for her birthday

- To the grocery store (we are taking a suitcase of food and also got lunch for the plane) - $38 total

- Books back to the library

- Deposited the $10 I got from a Craigslist sale so now the mortgage is $53,147

- Updated transactions in YNAB so we know how much money we have when we're away.

- Packing is ongoing... ugh.

- Syncing phone because we're not taking computers.

- Check in online (in 11 minutes!)

Our coach V left just after lunch today - we're so sad! But it's less bad for F because she has a friend over, so it's not so quiet around the house without V here. And V, who is Welsh, left F with lots of Welsh goodies including a Swansea City teddy bear.

I've already done the sheets and they're hanging on the solar dryer (clothesline!).

I took F and her friend to Baskin Robbins (coupon!) and we'll be driving the friend home soon. The two of them are both keen soccer players and they're in the living room with D watching the Germany-Sweden World Cup game. They were just outside squirting the wall and each other with squirt things.

I have a weakness for ice cream in the summer when it's this hot, but other than that, today is a low-cost day.

Tonight - dinner at a friend's house. They told us we don't need to bring anything, but we'll probably stop and get some kid-friendly drinks (lemonade?) to share.

1. My coworker's wife left me a magazine (brand new issue of RealSimple) that she is done with; she leaves me magazines which is awesome! When I am done I take them to the magazine exchange at the library. I was actually at the library today and I picked up the current issue of Dwell at the magazine exchange, so I have two new magazines to read!

2. I got a book for me (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) and a book for F at the library today. Hope she likes her book! It's difficult to find books for her (she doesn't like scary or disturbing but everything at her reading level seems to be scary and disturbing).

3. Went to the dollar store and got three floating tubes for $1 each. We are going to be at a pool next week, and it's not clear if you can bring your own floaties or not. If you can't, at least we're only out $3. If you can, we save a lot of money not having to rent their tubes.

4. We are going to the pool today! It's hot, and it'll be something fun to do with our soccer coach who leaves tomorrow for a camp in another city.

5. Lunch will be at home. Dinner, too (bbq chicken and veggies with yummy sauce).

That's it for now! I need to head off to pick up F from camp; I don't want to miss the big water fight!!!

We have enough in the EF to cover unexpected expenses, but I am trying to pay back the EF.

The accounting right now is that I've used the EF to pay for:
1442 for new stucco
444 for medical

We'll see how it goes, but I am figuring we can pay both of these categories back over the next few months.

In the meantime, our budget is working out well. I just split our personal articles floater (21/month) off of our auto insurance (108/month) to track things better. I know that the personal articles needs to build up and is paid in January, and the auto is paid monthly, so they're a little different. Even though it may be easier to lump things together in some ways, it helps me to have things divided up as much as possible.

By doing this I realized that I had too much saved up in the insurance category (more than I need to build up enough for the yearly personal articles payment). So I have an extra $75 to pay back the EF.

All the camp payments for this summer have been made now, too, so the camp category is building back up for next year.

And I just took a $10 craigslist payment to the bank to pay down the mortgage principal, so we're now at $53,158.

F's school was very generous and gave me a gift at the end of my year as Parent Association President.... so nice! Here in Santa Fe, it's traditional to give a Nambe for gifts like that. Nambe is local and very unique and also useful.

If you don't know Nambe, you should look them up!

Anyway, they gave me a really beautiful cheeseboard, but it was so LARGE and something I'd only use maybe once a year. I called the Nambe store which is a 5 minute walk from my office and they said I could exchange it. I got a (much smaller!) dish, and it's really beautiful.

Part of me felt a little guilty to exchange a gift, and also I'm usually super practical, but I am uncharacteristically excited about having something beautiful.

I took a photo of it next to the Alessi bowl we got for our wedding, but I think the image thingy isn't working....

I have these friends who hired an architect to draw up some plans for their house, paid him a lot of money, and were completely unsatisfied with what he came up with. I stepped in to help even though I don't do houses, mainly because they are friends and also because N has MS, so this project is not just about making their home nicer, it's about making it wheelchair accessible so that N can get around if she ever has to have the wheelchair. Right now it's leg brace and drastically reduced mobility.

They are really funny people, so we've had a lot of fun working together. Also - F is friends with their daughter I. The two of them went to preschool together, and are still friends even though they go to different schools.

The other architect failed to consider things like: existing windows (headers) that could be used for doors or openings, putting N's therapy room where there is LIGHT rather than a wall with no windows (ugh!), existing ceilings and how that would work with new rooms. He even had one scheme where he moved the kitchen to a completely new location (moving water and gas and everything else - this is slab on grade! this would mean a lot of jackhammering and cost). He also didn't give them a floor plan to show which walls come out and which are new, which means that it's impossible for a contractor give any sort of preliminary pricing.

So - I think they are really happy now! They keep emailing me to say thank you. They brought over pizza last night and desserts and we hung out while F and I and D watched the US v. Sweden match.

So I guess the work isn't free... the pizza was really good!

Frugal things and thoughts for today:

- I grouped my errands yesterday to save both mental energy and gasoline.

- One of those errands was a trip to the library. I haven't bought a book in ages.

- One of the books I picked up was Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I have to confess, I think most of the book is ridiculous. But a friend who I ran into last night said that's because I'm already tidy. There was one thing in the book that was eye-opening. She said don't think about what you want to get rid of, but rather what you want to keep. I do think there are many fewer things that I really WANT in my life than what I actually have. She says to start with clothes, so I may try that. I wear the same clothes every day.

- F requested Chinese food for her birthday dinner as well as lemon pie. I made both myself which I'm certain saved a lot of money!

- I have a meeting set up to sell a blanket on Saturday morning. That'll be a nice snowflake.

We are pretty frugal most of the time... part of the reason is so that we can spend it where it counts (for us). We don't have any debt other than our house (and we should have that paid off in less than 3 years), we save for retirement and we have an emergency fund.

Here is why we're frugal:
- continue to save for retirement
- keep our spending low so that when we do retire we're used to living on less
- afford private school and college for our daughter
and.....
- be able to spend money on things that matter to us

We save here, spend there...

I don't spend money on haircuts or manicures. We don't eat out much. We don't have expensive cars. These aren't things that matter much to us.

But we like to have experiences together. We go to Europe to see family. We're going to Las Vegas for vacation and seeing three shows in four days. I'm willing to spend on birthdays and holidays and hosting guests. We improve our house (our biggest investment). We have four pets and they eat a lot.

Do you have things you're willing to splurge on?

We've had to find the right weather for swimming - unlike most summers which are super predictable (June gets very hot, it rains in the afternoons in July, etc), this summer has been strange. It rains mid-day some days; it's not as warm as it usually is. Right now it's cloudy and windy.

We went to the pool yesterday and as soon as we got there it started pouring! So we went and got ice cream instead (using a birthday coupon from Baskin Robbins for F). It warmed up and got sunny later, so we went to the pool at 5 pm, then went home and made pizza for dinner.

Meanwhile, I've been working on the General Store. Dollhouses aren't exactly a cheap hobby, but I have a Victorian house and lots of furniture and accessories from when I was younger, and I also have an entire general store's worth of things. I just didn't have the store itself, so decided to build one.

It's not a kit, and I'm lucky to have lots of scrap wood as well as my own chop saw and scroll saw (F can tell you that this is one of the advantages of having an architect mom). I actually drew the plans on Autocad (nerd!).

It's not done yet. I still need to put in the clerestory windows, make the bathroom door, trim out the windows in the interior, finish the mezzanine and railing (this is going to be a tailor and hatmaker because I have a sewing machine and sewing mannequin), finish the floor (which is made of stained popsicle sticks), make the shelves, put in the ceiling and light fixtures and put in the baseboard.

I was going to post photos but I am having trouble - every time I try to link the photo shows a broken link... ugh!

So, this is how we handle summer days when I need to get some work done but F doesn't have camp: playdates! Only today was sort of difficult. We had F's friend A over because the mom really needed to do our playdate trade so she could go to a meeting, but I had to teach my weightlifting class, which meant the girls needed to go with me.

I fed them a big snack since the class is at noon and figured we'd eat afterward as well. One of my weightlifters is F's former preschool and Kindergarten teacher (and school owner) N, and she brought her 9-month old, so the girls spent their time entertaining the baby so N could exercise. At the end of class she gave me $20 to take the girls to lunch or a treat or something since they were so great, and she said if I didn't take it, she'd have to get a gift certificate and mail it to me and that would be a big pain in the behind, so I better use it!

So I took the girls to lunch, and they were thrilled!

I got paid at the gym today, too, for April (he's always a month behind) so that's another $72. I used it for a principal payment plus my regular $150. We now owe $54,096 (but that will go down when our regular payment posts on the 7th.

Now I am going to go work on my little project for F which will definitely not be done by her birthday (oh well) - I am making a little general store (1"-1') to house all the cute general store dollhouse stuff that I had when I was a kid; time to pass it on! I will save photos for my next post!

I just went through websites for all of the events coming up where we live. The goal is free or at least low cost things to do.

1. We join an outdoor pool every summer (since it's outdoor, it's only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day). It should get up to 75 today, so we're going! And we'll continue to go all summer especially when F has half day camps.

2. Kickoff Party for our Tuesday Farmer's Market; lots of music and activities for kids - FREE

3. Festivals at El Rancho de las Golondrinas (a living history museum Spanish village) - there's one Fiber Arts festival with lots of sheep and another is Viva Mexico and then there's the Wild West Festival - $8 adults and free for kids

4. Santa Fe Bandstand on our Plaza - evenings in June and July - FREE

5. Music on the Hill - meet our friends, bring a picnic dinner and listen to music while the kids play - FREE

6. Movies in the park - they set up a big screen - this year among others they're playing Grease, Wizard of Oz, the Commitments and Goonies! FREE

7. Parade downtown to promote our Rodeo (we don't really want to go to the rodeo, but it's nice to see the horses and the huge paper mache bull with the flashing red eyes) - FREE

8. Folk Art Market - family day - $10 adults, kids free

9. Storyteller Joe Hayes (a New Mexico treausre) - tells wonderful stories and tales about the Southwest in a really pretty outdoor setting - FREE

10. Hikes to the waterfall and Nambe falls - $5 parking fee

Have you made a list of summer activities where you live?

F's tenth birthday is in a week and a half, but her party is today so that one of her best friends can attend (she is leaving for sleepaway camp in the middle of next week).

F determined what she wanted her party to be like, and once again she's proven to be pretty frugal!

We're having 7 girls plus F of course.

We'll start off in the park and have a bunch of soccer games. We're playing jailbreak, splat, lightning, king of the ring and the numbers game and also having a scrimmage. We bought pop up goals as part of her birthday present (since we play in the park almost every Sunday night, these will be super useful and I think she'll be really excited). We'll use them today, and it's a surprise!

Then we'll go back to our house and the girls will have veggies/dip/crisps and ice cream cake. Because there really aren't a lot of costs involved in this party, we were able to get her dream cake: a soccer ball cake from Baskin Robbins. Their cakes aren't cheap, but I guess my theory is to save and then splurge where you really want to splurge.

Then the girls will use F's microphone and do commentary for funny soccer clips that D found.

Party favors have nothing to do with soccer, but are pretty fun - they are story dice (have you seen these?). I like favors that aren't junky plastic toys that'll be thrown out, and there was a huge price cut on these on Amazon. They aren't cheap, but it's another good place to splurge in my opinion.

Then the parents will pick their girls up, except for one girl who is both one of her best friends and really more like a cousin. She's staying for dinner (tostadas). This will be great for F and also gives her parents (who are some of our best friends!) an opportunity to go on a hike or whatever.

So...
goals - $85 (part of her birthday gift)
food for party - $21
cups/plates/thank you cards/napkins with soccer theme - $11
cake - $35
favors - $42

Less than $200, and I've saved up $240 (party only, not gifts) throughout the year (I save $20 a month).

Small snowflakes... we sold our old composter for $15 and I got a $15 swagbucks amazon gift card. So I paid down the mortgage principal by $30 today.

For the record we've paid of $5730.27 this year. We owe $54,318 on our house (so quite a lot of equity at this point! about $500k!).

I am still under budget for F's birthday. I bought some veggies to cut up and some hummus and ranch dip. Also crisps and lemonade. I so hope the weather is ok on Saturday afternoon!

F had her last appointment with the psychologist today (at least until something else comes up). She's doing so well, so essentially she's graduated! And now my friend's daughter is going to the same place (for anxiety), and the son of another friend is seeing someone because (at 10 years old!) he feels like he's stupid (he's not! he has some learning issues, but he is one bright boy!). It's making me sort of sad, but also happy that parents are getting help for their kids and hopefully giving them tools to cope.

Oh - one more money thing, and this is a happy thing that I've budgeted for just in case! F made the select soccer team! This is a really big accomplishment, and I'm so happy for her! It's $350 per season and $250 for the kit (which lasts until she grows out of it). The first tournament is in August.

Expense #1
They are almost done restuccoing our house; it had to be done (cracks which were soon going to mean leaks). And it looks amazing. And it's our biggest investment, so an important maintenance item.

Expense #2
Went to the dr. today about my low back pain (which I've been trying hard to ignore). She wants 8 weeks of PT 2x/week and also wants me to get an xray. I'm almost at my deductible so I guess that's the bright side, right?

Expense #3
I have a certain chunk budgeted for F's birthday, and due to her not-very-expensive tastes (and desire to only invite a few girls) we'll be well under our budget. She's having a soccer party. I was able to splurge on soccer plates and napkins. And we bought her pop-up goals as a birthday present that will be used at the party (a surprise!). We got cool favors, too, thanks to what seemed to be a big sale on Amazon (storytime dice). And an ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins (soccer cake; what else?); used a coupon.

Expense #4
We got tickets for three shows in Las Vegas (Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil Beatles, Tournament of Kings at Excalibur). We don't gamble, so the basic structure of our trip will be:
morning - breakfast in our room, walk around and see weird stuff for free
afternoon - play in the pool, lunch in our room (we have a kitchenette)
evening - see a show
We're saving on the things we don't care about (expensive meals, expensive hotel, gambling, roller coasters) to spend it on shows (which we don't have access to where we live).

I cashed in $15 in swagbucks for an amazon gift card (which I'll use for something I am going to get anyway, then put $15 toward the mortgage). Won't it be weird when the mortgage is paid off and I have to actually decide what to do with those snowflakes?

We are restuccoing our house right now. I didn't realize how disruptive it would be. I know they'll clean up, but they had to dig down 6" around the house and then powerwash. I can't wait until everything is back to normal.

In the meantime, they had to get everything out of our trash enclosure, and in there was an old composter which we never used because it needs to heat up to work, and it's too shaded in the trash enclosure. There really isn't anywhere else to put it. I think I'm going to sell it.

Today's purchase: almond flour. They were having 20% off sale, and I want to make a cake!

And in free/cheap news:
- F got a letter from her Irish pen-pal (my friend's daughter)
- D is making frittata (yum!)
- I turned in a project for County review and rewarded myself by cleaning out the spare room closet (and at this point it's not done; it's just a disaster!); this is all to unearth my dollhouse from when I was a girl (F and I are going to renovate together!).

It's been a very weird week...

1. F's soccer coach was not asked to coach next year's select team; I didn't think he would be because they don't like parent coaches for select and his daughter is on the team. He, apparently, did think he would be, and is pretty upset right now, and has decided to leave our league for another one that is just starting up. He said he wouldn't take the girls to the Memorial weekend tournament, so D stepped up and said he would do it. Select tryouts are next week; I guess the coach's daughter won't be trying out, but I think most of F's group will.

2. F's school has a committee that deals with retiring teachers and other transitions. Our much-loved school secretary is retiring and they asked the Parent Association to help collect memories for a scrapbook and also cash. And then some of the teachers wanted me to include another teacher who is leaving... it's turning into a big deal. I don't really have the time to do this, but I'm going to figure it out because I love both teachers.

3. I have a big deadline on Friday and I'm in good shape for it, but yikes, it's taken a lot out of me.

4. The British soccer coach is still staying with us. He's great, but we're eating a lot later because I want him to be able to eat with us. Which means after we eat, I'm exhausted. And after the dishes there really isn't time to unwind.

5. I spent a ton of money stocking up on staples because Sprouts had the bread and flour and tortillas I use on sale. But after the coach leaves, we won't have a ton of money left for groceries for the month. I'm going to have to meal plan really carefully.

6. We want to take the coach out for dinner on Friday. Not budget-friendly, but luckily we have the money in our dining out category.

7. So... Memorial Weekend will be soccer, soccer, soccer! We'll need to pack lunches and have easy dinners.

8. And the following weekend is F's bday party (not her birthday which is in early June, but she has a friend that is really important to her and she can't come unless it's before June 5). It'll be a soccer party (what else?) and we'll have it at the park.

9. I can't think of anything else... need to go make dinner.

We got an email from our neighborhood association to let us know that they were redoing the plantings near the entry to our streets (we have 66 homes total and a big sign out front). They said that they'd be taking out some feather grass and we could take some if we wanted. This was the plant I was planning for the area along our driveway anyway, so D went down and got three plants.

Feathergrass tends to self-propagate, which for us is a good thing since that area is so barren. I want to plant some allium, too.

It's hard to grow anything here. It's not just the water; it's the terrible soil, too.

I'm starting to get excited about our garden despite the fact that it is really cold, and it's supposed to be cold all week. It snowed last weekend. I'm ready for summer!

We spent a few hours weeding the yard today (D didn't have a choice since it's Mother's Day and this is what I wanted to do!).

F is playing at a friend's house, but we'll leave in half and hour and pick up F (and the friend!) to go have a soccer kickaround in the park.

So, not an expensive day.

I did go to the store today to do the grocery shopping for the week. We still have the soccer coach staying with us, so I had to buy a little more of everything.

Here is the menu plan:
S - tortilla espanola with salad
S- taquitos with corn on the cob
M - lemon-crumbed fish with broccoli
T - chili with chips, lettuce and sour cream
W - quesadillas with quacamole
Th - freezer with salad
F - out to dinner with our coach!

My hands smell like cilantro and cumin from mixing up the taquito filling - yum!! It's a great recipe - chicken, cream cheese, green salsa, spices, lime...

OK, time to go gather up the soccer stuff now... hope everyone had a great weekend and happy mother's day!

I haven't written anything for a few days because I've been dealing with a big deadline (next Friday!) and an exasperating plumbing problem.

The deadline is going well.

The plumbing problem... we'll see. I won't go into it, but the gist is: our shower valve is messed up. We need a new one because no one seems able to repair it (paid $75 to a plumber for a temporary fix), but I can't figure out what to order. I went to the office today and found the original cut-sheets for the original valve. I found out Friday at like 5 minutes to 5 pm that the woman who originally sold it to me is still in town and works for a different plumbing supply place. I'm hoping she can help when I send the original info.

In other news:
- big gluten-free sale at Sprouts so I bought extra bread and baking flour
- we have a soccer coach staying with us for two weeks. He's so tired from all the games (and sun and rain and hail!) today that he's upstairs napping.
- our free entertainment today was F's soccer game. She played so well; I'm really proud! Two goals and one setup for another girl who then made a goal. Select team tryouts are in a few weeks, and she's nervous but excited.
- I went to our cheesemonger (I love that Santa Fe has a cheesemonger!) today and bought ridiculously expensive cheese for mother's day. That's all I really wanted was some nice, ridiculously expensive food. Also bought cherries (also spent too much).
- I'll need to reign in the food spending once the coach is gone and mother's day is over, but I'm okay with splurging on food once in a while.

And now it's time to make a budget (but kind of fancy) dinner: tortilla espanola (spanish omelette) with salad (with goat cheese). Yum! F went to a bday party today, so she asked me to save dessert for tomorrow (she said she'd had enough sweets - funny kid!)