So we got an order form for my kindy kid. I generally just throw these away, but this time I actually looked through it.

I found a whole set of books we've been considering for about $1.50/book. These are a minimum of $3/book in the bookstores. You can't even find these used for less than $2.00/book (plus shipping).

Then, they had a book from a current series for less than half price. Another 8 books of a series we'd started for $2.50/book (these are about $4.50 in stores) and a book for $1.00.

Total? $62.80. For 36 books. I've heard that you can find these at garage sales, but I don't know if people here just don't buy books or what, but I've not found these at garage sales. Plus, when I do find a kid's book at a garage sale, it's usually torn.

This is sooo not in budget right now. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't give the books to the kids at school, if I could get them at home so they'd be a surprise and I could give them as a gift, well, that wouldn't be soooo bad.

Yesterday was the first time we've gone to the beach since christmas. Way too long.

It's a not completely frugal day - we use about 3 gallons of gas - which is $8 right now. PLUS, we have a fish place we love to stop to eat. It isn't too expensive - about $25 for the 4 of us (all you can eat fish for DH and I) with tip.

Yesterday was worse than normal. We stopped at the fish place on the way to the island, so of course we were starving when it was time to leave the island. Since we left at 7:00 and the kids go to bed at 8:00 and it's an hour drive, we stopped at a drive-in and spent $12.00.

But it was a great day. For once the kids behaved really well, no whining at all. I can't remember the last time we did something like that where there wasn't at least one meltdown.

C

One of our workers has been out sick, she was back today, so she and I walked to the soda machine to have a gab session (it's down the block). $0.65 frivolous spending.

At my office, the ladies are supposed to take a turn during the week manning the phones and taking payments during lunch. At no time am I supposed to be alone in the building (safety issue).

Yesterday it was the sick co-workers day. Now if anyone else is gone a day and didn't make arrangements, she's always the one to stay. So, you'd think one of the other ladies would say "Oh, she's out sick, I'm sure she didn't think to ask someone to stay" or that they'd at least notice that everyone was leaving. Yeah right, that'd require them to be less than selfish.

So, they all went to lunch. Not a big deal, there were 2 other people in the office with me (we have 2 other attorneys who rent space and they have staff) plus one of our staff attorneys was still there (the boss's wife). So the attorney looked around and didn't see anyone. She wanted to go to lunch. She asked me if anyone else was there and I named the two people, so she went to lunch. Well, those 2 people were just late taking lunch, they left.

In all, I was probably only alone in the office 15 minutes and I don't feel particularly unsafe there, but it was frustrating. I'm really far behind and if no one is there, I'm constantly interrupted to answer the phone and take payments. I don't mind doing either thing and I often do them during lunch because I know it's hard for one person to do it all.

So, I unloaded on my sick coworker. She was LIVID. I have a feeling she went to the boss to let him know. I won't do it because there are enough hard feelings towards me. Besides, I suspect the wife probably told him. He was a little out of sorts today.

We drove to Waco to pick up our boys. It was a more expensive trip than it had to be - dh decided we HAD to stay overnight, so there was the hotel bill.

Then, we went to Costco. They had a coupon on a 4 man tent. He really wants to start taking the kids camping and our tent is a very small 2 man tent. I was going to buy myself a skirt (there was a coupon) but I decided I didn't like it, there were a lot of raw edges and loose strings.

But we also stopped at Whole Foods. It's March 19 and we have $20 left in the grocery budget for the month. We shouldn't need much but I know he's going to go beyond the budget.

The good thing is that we didn't eat out much. He promised me Taco Bueno for Saturday but we didn't make it all the way into Waco and then couldn't find one that is supposed to exist in Georgetown. So, another 6 months without Bueno (yes, he's in the doghouse). So at that point I just didn't care. Eat? Whatever, I'll just be hungry. So we used a coupon and had a milkshake at Ben & Jerry's. Then we went on to Costco and had supper there.

Today we had b'fast at the hotel and then just bought snacks at whole foods for lunch.

Well, one of my coworkers beat me to the treating, so I'll have to find another day.

But, I bought a soda for the receptionist. One of these days the office helper is going to let me buy her soda.

I'm so glad to be done with the full time days. It was necessary and it helped a lot, I am almost fully caught up. But I'm exhausted and ready to go back to being able to veg in the afternoons and just relax with the kids. To get a little time to let my brain think about something other than foreclosures, probate and wills. And now it's business organizations. I've created 6 in the last 6 weeks and have one more to do (well, and 2 of the 6 still need some paperwork prepared).

But, I managed to earn one full day off and 2/3 of a day off. This will come in very handy. I think I'll work another full time day on 3/31, the kids are out of school and dh has comp time to stay home with them. That will get me the rest of my 2nd day off.

So, my kids are on Spring Break and visiting family in Oklahoma (all kids should get to spend time on a farm, right?). While they are there, I'm working full time to get caught up and to bank some comp time.

I have to admit, it's exhausting working full time. It's exhausting being home with 2 kids, but it's a different kind of exhausting.

Couple that with my innate issues with change and I am one tired little girl. I ended up taking a 2.5 hour nap after dinner. I feel MUCH better.

But, because I was so exhausted today, I decided I needed a soda. And because I know there are "issues" with me at work today, I offered to buy for others - only one took me up on it. So, $1.30 in frivolous spending.

I also drove to the bank and the library at lunch today. Generally I would walk to the library and go to the bank only on my way home (slightly out of the way, but not much). But the bank closes at 5:00, so if I wanted to get my check in the bank, I had to do it at lunch. I had several pinecone checks that I'd been holding onto for a while (it was part of the transition between houses), checks from MIL for our costco trip, etc so I wanted to get those in the bank.

So today we ordered McDonalds. It started with one woman saying she would pay for McGriddles (which I don't like), so I pulled out the only money I had - a $5 - and asked them to get me a hashbrown.

Well, it was a short day for me today. So by the time they got back with the breakfast it was almost time for me to leave. I asked about my change and was told "we're working on it". I asked about it again and was told "oh, someone else is doing that". Then I *HAD* to go so I figured out who had the change and handed her a note to just put my change in my drawer. She gave me a nasty look and said "I have no idea what you mean."

Okay, look, I'm not paying $5 for a McDonald's hashbrown.

I picked up the kids and remembered something I hadn't gotten to, so we went back to the office to take care of that fax. While there, I tried to tell the woman what I meant and she didn't believe me. "You did what? I don't have time for this, if you want your money, here just take this $5."

So, now I'm made to look like a cheapskate just because I wanted my change. I know the office politics and I know they are now there talking about how cheap I am.

It's time to do some baking and take something in.

So, I'm transferring my domain registration. This is not a secret.

I got the email from the registrar with their agreement. I went to print it out and my DH acted like I was too anal for words. Rolling his eyes, etc.

But really, who doesn't read a contract? And if you don't, how do you know what kinds of charges you will face later?

This man drives me nuts. I'm trying to set up an amortization schedule for his car and I can't get it to work out. I don't have the interest rate but I have 4 months of statements. So, I've been looking at those and trying to figure the interest rate from them and it isn't working. So, he brings in his book and says "well, the last payment in July 2008." "Yes, dear, I know that was the scheduled maturity date, but we paid extra" "well, just work back, it doesn't matter".

It doesn't matter? They could be charging him tons more interest than in his agreement and it doesn't matter?!!?? Seriously, how can he be so cavalier about it? Especially since what they are doing makes absolutely no sense at all.

"Well they charge what they charge and it isn't like there is anything we can do about it." There is lots we can do about it. If they are breaking the contract, I can file a lawsuit. I can sue for damages, etc. We have legal remedies. We aren't helpless here.

ARGH!!!!!

Okay, so he did okay. We needed fire ant bait (organic) because just getting the mail is turning into an obstacle course. So he bought that. We also needed toothpaste, I'm one step away from getting the pliers (which is fine for me, but the kids can't really handle it).

Then, because our first aid kit seems to have disappeared, he bought band aids. If we find the first aid kit, fine, bandaids seem to last forever (I know for a fact I have bandaids that are almost 12 years old and still stick).

And then he bought sunflower seeds. We have a lot of birds. Part of me thinks this is wonderful, but part of me thinks "I already can't sleep at night because they are sooo loud". I'll enjoy the seed though, it's soo much fun watching birds at a feeder, and maybe this will help keep our lizards safe.

He spent a little less than $30 today, so it wasn't that bad. But I'm seeing our spending get awfully high already and we're only a week into the month.

So far, the grocery and "other" category total $225 for the month. OUCH! AND that doesn't include the $300 or so for dh's new tires.

This too shall pass, this too shall pass.

My dh. God love him. He means well. But he just can't help himself.

We discuss our goals. How if we work to pay off debt, we can have all the cc debt paid by summer. How the best way to do that is to not buy things that we don't absolutely have to have right now.

So he went to Sam's today. Not because we really needed anything, but because he was in the town with one. He asked "do we need anything?" "I can't think of anything".

So he spends $100. He bought a trash can. Now we haven't had a kitchen trash can, well, ever. And it was something we wanted, but not something we HAD to have right now.

I had some frivolous spending as well. 65 cents on a soda. Mine doesn't seem so bad. (Yeah, I was going to give up soda for lent, but I'm not Catholic so it just didn't "take" for me).

First one for the month.

We walked a total of 3.25 miles (give or take) to market days. While there, we spend $1.00 on cookies for the kids, $3 on sausages for the kids and $3.75 on tropical fruits.

We also spoke to the coordinator of the farmers' market and she wants me to be on the committee. I think I'll probably do it. I love farmers' markets and I do have some experience.

We'll have to be creative with this market. Most of the farmers here sell to wholesalers and are under contract. So we'll have to concentrate on the smaller, backyard gardeners. This will probably take scheduling classes and coordinating with the master gardeners and extension.

I got just a tad bit of sun today - LOL. I'm so fair, I wore a hat, so my face is fine, but I didn't think about my shoulders and neck. We left the house before ten and were back by noon, so sun wasn't something we really thought about. Thank goodness, uber-fair DS2 (so fair his skin sometimes looks translucent) didn't seem to get the same amount of sun, he had longer sleeves and a hat as well.

I spent a little time looking around at prices and things for sale. My thought is that it's flea market prices and people want a real deal, not a nice artisan piece. I don't know if the market could ever have that feel. I think if I want to sell jewelry, I'll have to combine it with produce or something and just be happy when I sell a single piece.

My registry information is still not updated for my website. A friend of mine has offered me the use of her site for now.

But, I need to know what my legal remedies are here. I paid for the domain name. I own it. I should control who is my registrar. It should be my choice to change.

I can get my boss to sign a letter if I write it, I'm sure. As I see it, this is a form of theft, no? My ability to use a resource of mine has been severely limited to the point where I cannot derive any benefit from it.

It looks like I'm starting a sinus infection. This is the first one since 2004, but that one was major, it took 6 months and 3 rounds of antibiotics to go away.

I'm rinsing my sinuses with a homemade saline solution (recommended by an allergy doctor) and (this is gross, so skip if you want) I'm getting lots of gunk to wash out, but the pressure is still there. Especially if I bend over.

I'm so far behind at work. DH agreed to be responsible for picking up the kids today so I could put in a fulltime day (I normally work 6 hours). I worked straight through lunch, but came home some early. I ended up working 8.5 hours today. And, I really didn't get that much more accomplished.

I told my bosses on Friday that I was drowning, so today they spoke to one of our other office workers and will have her help me with the easier stuff. I think that I should be able to funnel a lot of just paper pushing tasks to her (like making copies, sending invoices, cleaning up scanned documents).

I did finish the major project today. My boss wanted to only charge $1500 for our fees, but I reminded him that we rushed this through and I put a lot of work on hold for it (pissing off some of our current clients) so we decided to charge $2100 - which I still think is a little on the low side. We set up 2 new corporations and a new limited partnership for him - doing all the paperwork and filing with the secretary of state.

I have one more business project to do. This one has required 3 hours of conferences with the client. One thing I like about him, though, is that we gave him example documents and he put them together to fit what he wanted so all the attorney has to do is make sure he didn't contradict himself anywhere.

I'm so ready to get these done and get back to my regular tasks. Of course, Tuesday is foreclosure sale day and I have 15 foreclosures set, so I'll have to do bids, deeds, affidavits and bills for all of those. That will easily take all day. I'll see if the helper can help with those, I've got the bids mostly done and the documents are set up as mail merge documents (if I use a form, I set it up as a merge to make sure I get all the fields filled in and to save time).

Please God, let this sinus thing be a virus and resolve itself without needing a sick day (or at least wait until next week).

In other news - I bought a soda today - 65 cents frivolous spending.

I've used siteturn networks as my webhost and I am soooo frustrated with them. They always treat me very poorly. Getting them to do anything requires jumping through a million hoops and then you still aren't sure they've done it.

One for instance is that when I changed my email address, I let them know, they didn't note it anywhere. So, I had to call back when I couldn't get into my site (apparently they decided to stop taking discover card for a while). So they changed it, but they didn't change it on my registration and didn't tell me that there were further steps I needed to take.

So, their charges are out of line - $130/year for very basic stuff. Stuff you can get for $30/year at other sites.

So, I'm in the process of changing hosts. DH found a host he likes, so I'm working on getting that set up. Siteturn, however, are being jerks about releasing MY domain name. They agree that I own the name, but that's about as far as they will go.

I swear, if I didn't love the name, I'd just give it up and go on with my life. I'm so frustrated dealing with the hoops and being told I was done and the changes were being made only to find out later that nothing was done.

I really want to start a naturalist (not naturist) blog on my site. It fits with the name and I think it's something I will actually do if I have some accountability. Plus, I can then work on making some money from the internet.

So, if you are looking for a webhost, stay far, far, far away from siteturn.

Now this one is a little hard to complain about, but ... He found a coupon code for $40 off an office chair (we've been needing one for the boys' desk) and matched it with a sale where the chair was priced at $39.99. He had to buy something else because he was afraid they'd refuse to apply the coupon code if the transaction came out -$0.01. That's the part that I can complain about. He paid $13 for a file box. Yes, I wanted a file box (my filing "system" has consisted of putting everything in a box), but this seems awfully high to me.

He really wants to go to this estate auction Saturday. We do need some chairs, but we've really spent a lot more than we should have this month - and it's a short month! Plus, I'm not sure if we need cash or they'll take a check. I guess if it's cash then we can go knowing we won't spend over a certain limit.

DH intended to buy our kids a new computer (theirs is older than they are and can't run their learning software). He went to the store, picked it out, took it to the register and then didn't have his wallet. So, no new computer. I really want them to have one we can turn off (if we turn this one off it may or may not boot back up) and save some power.

DS2 is not getting what he needs at school, so we're using the computer to help him learn to read, etc. DS1 is using the computer to research reports and email with his grandparents.

So I consider this a good buy. I'm not letting them use mine.

I made beans yesterday to add some heat to the house and tonight we had beans and cornbread for supper. I mashed the rest of the beans and I now have two full containers of refried beans in my freezer for this summer.

We did have to spend some money today - $10 for DS2 to take a field trip, and $3.35 at the grocery (butter and clearance salad mix).

We decided to have our valentine's day dinner tonight. I used my chili's card (a gift from a client) and we had a great time. I had a soda ( ) and dh and I shared an awesome blossom. We got the kids their own kids' meal (often we have them share). I still have $28 on the card, next time we might splurge a little more (I'm thinking of waiting until spring break when it would just be DH and I eating).

I feel a little bad about the dinner out, I could have given up the soda and had the kids share and we'd have enough room for 2 more meals, but it was a holiday dinner, so ...

I took my moving boxes to a coworker today. She was very happy and bought me a soda. This gave us a chance to gossip about work. I think a good vent session is important to maintaining morale.

I caved. I totally caved.

First, I bought a Dr Pepper ($0.65 frivolous spending) then I ate some candy in the office.

Loverly. I guess I'll have to back up on the diet some. I'm getting discouraged with the diet, though, because it appears that I haven't lost any weight or inches around my belly. If anything, some of my clothes are actually tighter.

The good news? DH called and said they were stopping at the grocery store for lunch rather than fast food. So, we should meet our January goal of no eating out (I won't count the grocery store deli).

Other good news? DS1 woke up with no fever and didn't develop one before the time for them to leave and last time I spoke to dh still didn't have one. So he got well just in time to be able to go see his grandmothers.

Argggh, I'm sick-ish. I have a sore throat, slight fever and a sore back. I've tried some of the home remedies but what has always worked best for a sore throat for me is a soda. I think it's the sodium and fizzy (I think the fizzy overstimulates the nerve endings and then it just feels like it doesn't hurt as much - but it's just a theory).

So, I spent 65 cents on a can of Dr Pepper. And I did feel better for 4 hours. Until I picked up my kids and had to start raising my voice to be heard over their bickering. It might be psychosomatic, but hey, whatever works. Too bad it was so expensive though.

DH has to work late tonight so me and the boys will do a pickup meal. I have some pizza leftover from their treat which will be great for them. For myself, I'll probably have refried beans with chili and cheese.

Confession - DH does almost all the cooking. I rarely, if ever cook. I hate to cook. Except, I don't mind making beans and baked goods. It works well for us, he likes to cook, he's good at it and he likes the things I make in bulk to use as ingredients for meals.

Frivolous spending - $0.65

It's only 30 minutes extra, but it felt much longer. I had to come home and take a nap when DH got home. So I missed exercise. We've made a deal that we won't eat ice cream unless we've "earned" it. So I haven't had ice cream for a while.

DH says he bought a cell phone from ebay for $34. @@ I think we have something like 6 cell phones right now. We each have one (no landline) and he has a work phone then we have extra phones. One doesn't work though, so I guess it evens out. He swears he didn't expect to get the phone, but I don't know why he was bidding in the first place.

He's ready to send $1,200 to credit cards and is upset that it isn't more. Yes, it will be more when I get paid, but I want to make sure that we have enough money in our account to cover the bills even if I don't get paid (I have never not been paid, but I still like to make sure that I could get by if the paycheck was late for any reason).

I don't feel like I got anything done at work today. I need to do 3 letters and 3 business filings first thing tomorrow morning. This on top of my other duties (and both attorneys will have 3 dozen emergencies pop-up). I also need to draft a will ASAP. So my whole morning will be slam-packed with emergencies. Then I've got to figure out a payoff statement for a closing. That will be fun. I've also got about 5 phone calls to make. Lucky, lucky me.