Haven't posted in a while, and now we are getting ready to leave in the morning for vacation.

Will plan on catching up when we are back.

Take care SA friends!

May was a bit of a spendy month. Other than regular expenses, this is what was spent.

1. Storage racks for garage $1100

2. 3 family b-days $75 (3 gc's at $25 each)

3. $140 for a gps for DD2 graduation gift

4. $220 for a new spring for the garage door opener that broke on Memorial Day.

5. $160 on Friday to have furnace and a/c unit cleaned and tuned up.

6. $156 for luau for upcoming vacation.

June is looking to be a little spendy also. DD2's 18th b-day is next Saturday. We are having a family lunch and still need to get her a gift. She wants to take 3 friends downtown for part of the day to Saturday market. We will give her money for lunch and also treat her friends. She is graduating on the 13th and we will also host a small graduation party for her soon after.

In July, my sister and I are hosting a 50th anniversary party for my parents. We already have the venue reserved and my sister has already paid me back for her half. We will have to pay for coffee and punch as they will not allow us to bring in our own. We will split the cost of that, plus a nice cake. She has purchased some decorations and such so I will owe her for that. Her bday is also in July, so we will need to get her a gift card for that (she prefers gift cards for b-day's and Christmas). Vacation is almost paid for (last payment due on the 7th), so we will just need to mainly worry about food and maybe a few small trinkets. We are thinking of doing a cave tubing excursion, but are not completely sure. If we do, we will book that online and pay with the Wells Fargo cc, which will give us points.

Luckily, most of this has been planned, and we have had the funds to cover it, but I try to always be aware of those surprises that seem to pop up!

Here are some pic's of our new storage racks.







DH found a place called Safe Racks and we had them out a few weeks ago to install.

I have to say, it was expensive...about $1000.

But it is so nice to have that stuff up and out of the way. I finally have the closet back in our 4th bedroom...it is nice to be able to open the doors and not have stuff fall out on me. It mainly now holds my scrapbooking supplies and my wrapping paper/gift bags. I can actually get to the stuff without having to pull almost everything out and then put it all back.

It is mainly for large items, such as our luggage, tote along chairs, 1 bin of fall decorations, and a few storage bins of memorabilia from before kids (old albums, yearbooks, letters).

We actually have quite a bit of nice storage in the house...meaning drawers and cupboards...but for things like luggage and such, as you know, those take up alot of space in closets.

Not that we will get our money back or anything, but I think extra storage is attractive when you go to sell your house. Hopefully it will be a nice "extra".

I really don't want it to end!

Friday night, DD2 and I went to see The Great Gatsby, for free since most of you know that DD2 works at the theater. It was a pretty good movie, and free makes it even better. DH got me some beautiful tulips for Mother's Day.

Saturday, DD2 and I went to grab a hold from the library, grabbed coffee (BOGO) and then my sweet girl treated me to a pedicure. It was so nice! DH and I headed out for dinner and a treat at Baskin Robbins after. DD2 came home for a quick overnight visit as she was in town for a volunteer event that she had to do. She walked in with tulips for me. Now I have 2 lovely vases to enjoy all week.

Sunday, DH made french toast for breakfast and I popped over to see my mom and took her some flowers and her favorite coffee drink. We got pizza for an early dinner before DD1 headed back to college. Unfortunately, DD2 had to work from 11 to 8, so I was missing her today.

The weather on Friday and Saturday was sunny and WARM....in the high 80's. So very unusual for our neck of the woods this time of year. No complaints though! Sunday was cloudy and humid...again very unusual as we do not get a lot of humidity here. It did rain a bit, but it is not cold. Next week the forecast is for clouds and maybe some rain and definately cooler weather. That's ok though, that is why it is so green around here

All in all, it was a bit of a spendy weekend (more than usual for us) and I felt very spoiled and pampered.

Next week it is back to business though!

Hope everyone had a very nice weekend!

I added an extra $39 principal to the mortgage payment today....total paid...$950.00

I had our travel agent charge 1/2 of the remaining balance due on our upcoming vacation...the rest will be due on June 7th.

We have been having unusually gorgeous weather around here! Last week was sunny and in the 70's....had a couple of days of gray/light rain...and yesterday started back with the gorgeous weather again....it may hit the mid 80's this weekend! So nice after a very wet Spring last year.

DD1 has been home for college this past week for Spring Break and it has been so nice having her home!

DD2 was also on Spring Break and worked quite a bit...she is so excited to see what her next check will be.

We didn't go any where, but just enjoyed having some time together as a family. We took the girls to pizza and frozen yogurt last weekend, and this past weekend we all went to see Olympus Has Fallen, courtesy of DD2...parents get in free when we are with her, and she had a free pass for selling candy when she works the concession stand so that got DD1 in free. We did spring for popcorn and soda though....we all really liked the movie.

We had a quiet Easter...DD2 had to work 11:30 to 8:30 today My parents invited us over for dinner along with my sister, so DH and I along with DD1 went...DD1 only stayed about an hour as she had almost a 2 hour drive back to school. DD2 received her last Easter basket (they get one through senior year of high school), and I sprung for a chocolate bunny for DD1

We were lucky to have BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend...in the mid 70's and sunny....very unusual for this time of year, but we will take it.

Wrapping up the weekend with Monday off from work! Planning to galavant around with my mom and have lunch. DH is heading out to lunch with his mom too.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

My gift to myself? Better health this year....AND.... being debt free except for the mortgage by the end of the year...I am so excited for next week. We will be paying my car off!

Oh...and we had a no spend day yesterday!

Hardly EVER happens....hope it is going to happen more now that I have given up my daily iced coffee....honestly...not so much for financial reasons...more just to lose some weight! Ugh...the calories! I am on day 4 of my "no more coffee"...and it's going well, but I still miss it. It's funny...I have NEVER owned a coffee pot...not in 25 years of marriage. I am one of those "fancy schmancy" coffee drinkers and have taken to visiting various coffee shops over the last couple of years for my daily fix. I don't like regular brewed coffee....just shots with all of the extra goodies (except whip) Staying strong and not going to give in!

Had a nice and relaxing weekend. We saw 2 movies...Impossible...highly recommend this one! We also saw Silver Linings Playbook....got into this one free since DD2 was working

Speaking of DD2, she is really enjoying her job at the theater! She is also enjoying the money A proud mom moment....DD said her friend (who has worked there for a while now), overheard the managers talking about DD and how much they liked her. Warms my heart. She is pretty much getting 10-13 hours a week...mostly weekends, but that is how it is when you are low man on the totem pole.

Working on planning our Kauai trip...we have paid the air fare, rental car, trip insurance, and a deposit. We are now just trying to narrow down where we want to stay. Pretty much think we are going to do a condo. There is one "resort" type place we are considering, where if you pay extra, you can get a buffet breakfast every morning. However, that is an extra $160 than if you don't get it... a condo has always been in the running, and I am quite sure we can do breakfast for 7 days cheaper than $160! Hoping there will be a cooler in the condo so we can pack a lunch everyday while we are out exploring, or just eating at the condo if we want pool time. I'm not going to cook dinner...that's my one thing I put my foot down on. I don't however, mind getting a pizza one night, or even doing fast food one night...that will help cut the cost down too. Trying to stay frugal while planning a spendy vacation is going to take a little planning...I don't mind though...I'm up for it! Just happy and blessed we are able to go.

Except for the mortgage!

My car will be paid off in the middle of February.

We have been paying extra every month on DH's car, but, in February, will start sending $500 a month. This is more than double the actual payment required per month.

With my car being paid off, we are pondering what to do with the extra money every month.

Some idea's

More to savings
Extra to mortgage
Increase contributions to DH's 401K and/or my SEP IRA through work.

More than likely we will do a combo of these.

We will however, need to be thinking ahead about our vacation to Kauai at the end of July. We will put the vacation expenses on our Wells Fargo card to earn points towards principal mortgage rewards, but will definately want to pay the card off as we are booking hotel/condo, air, and car rental in the next few months.

Good news regarding DH's work shut down. Originally they were told 1 week in Jan and Feb...then told a couple of days each month...then told if they had projects to work on, they wouldn't have to take any time off. DH said he and his co-worker's in his department had plenty of things to work on..whew! Then he finds out today that it looks like for Jan, there is not going to be a shut down after all.

DH and I were also talking about vacation this year....we discussed many things (Alaska cruise, Carribean cruise, Cabo/Cancun, DC). For various reasons, none of these were working for us...so....we decided to go to Kauai! We have been to Maui and I have been to Ohau...DH thought it would be fun to go to an island we haven't been to.

We are in the early stages of planning it...air is high right now, but there is a possibility my parents might be giving us or selling us their air miles (for cheap). Trying to decided where to stay was so overwhelming, we decided to have our travel agent help us.

We will be going at the end of July....I can't go any earlier in the summer, as DD2 is graduating high school June 13th, and my co-worker (who does the same job as me), is going back to her home country for 4 weeks...she will be gone from 6/24 and coming back to work on 7/22, so I will be the only one in the billing department for that time period.

I think I will be more than ready to get away at that point!

Today I had my annual review. It went well. I was surprised to receive a raise....only 1%....I wasn't expecting anything, especially since they put a freeze on raises for everyone last year.

We had a lot of changes at the office last year, most of which was good, but are still feeling things out and I think they are just being careful. Dr felt bad he couldn't offer more and said it just didn't seem right (I've been there 14 years)...in this day and age, I am just happy to have a job...a job that I get to go to every day with NO drama what so ever and no backstabbing co-workers...I count myself blessed!

We did receive a bonus at Christmas (which we always do) and it was $200 more than 2011...that certainly helps a bit to make up for the small raise.

DH also received his $750 perfect attendance bonus. That went straight into savings for now.

I had a day off today as I needed to use 1 vacation day before 1/4/2013....we are allowed to carry over 40 hours of unused PTO to our anniversary date. Nice that it is not the new year instead. With the holidays and other co-workers schedules, today was the only day that worked....no big deal...I worked Monday, off Tuesday, worked Wednesday, off Thursday, and half day Friday...not a bad week

DH called from work today....it is his second day back after his company shut down for the holidays. It looks like some kind of time off and/or furloughs are going to happen. At this point it is not exactly clear when....could happen at the end of the month. He said they are talking about a week off every month through possibly April...it could end up being a couple of days every month. Hopefully we will hear soon.

Spending will definately be watched! Luckily with the holiday's over, we really don't have any needs (material wise that is). It was actually hard to come up with what was wanted and needed for Christmas presents when asked anyway.

We still plan on paying off my car in February....no question about that. What we send (extra) to DH's car will be discussed as we hear further information about any time off.

Financial:

Pay off SUV loan of $1000. Should be able to accomplish by mid February.

Pay off Ford Focus loan: $6000.00.

Savings to $30,000

Pay before we leave: A trip to Washington DC this summer (July or Aug)

Increase DH's contribution to his 401K from 12% to 15%

I think these are all attainable....we will have to see what the early months bring in terms of DH's work....since work has been closed since 12/24, DH goes back tomorrow....who knows if and when they might announce a slow down....you never know with this company...it may not even happen at all.

More on personal goals in a seperate post

Happy New Year everyone!

DH and I are very excited for her...as well as she is! She will be working at a movie chain. She had paperwork and some training on Thursday and today (Friday) is her first day!

There are some perks too....when she see's a movie, she can get 1 person in free....we also found out that her manager decided that if your child is working on a particular day, the parents can get in free! She says that extra perk seems to really help the kids (high school I imagine) really focus and are great workers...she wants to thank the parents for being supportive....I've never met her, but I think I really like her She also gets a discount on concessions.

She also gave everyone 2 free guest passes....we hope to use these this weekend to see Les Meserables....with the 2 free passes, and DD2 being able to get one of us in free...DD1 can come with us.

Once she gets her first paycheck, we will go to the bank and have her open up a student account.

We had a lovely Christmas and now are back in the swing of things. Everyone seemed happy with what was given and received. We still have another Christmas gathering to attend on New Years Day. DH's sister decided that this year she was opting out of Christmas on Christmas and wanted to get together with the family after. Her mom (my mil) puts alot of pressure on her to make the perfect holiday and this year she had had enough. She has decided that in the future, she will host Christmas on Christmas Eve and whoever can make it can come and celebrate. Works for me. We also decided that on some years, I can host. Also works for me

I had a 4 1/2 day weekend but so glad tomorrow is Friday. I have had a cruddy cold going on almost 2 weeks now and I am really ready to be over this. My co-worker I share my office space was nice enough to gift me with that for Christmas...lol. Now DH has it and has been thanking me profusely...lol...NOT

Friday (as always) was a 1/2 day at work...around 1:30, 3 other co-workers and I delivered gifts and food to a family we adopted for Christmas...they were so excited! It was so nice making the holiday a little brighter for a family in need. Saturday was spent finishing up the Christmas shopping...Sunday was grocery shopping and housework. Monday, Dh, the girls and myself along with my parents went to Olive Garden for dinner...we came home and opened gifts (DH, the girls and myself). On Tuesday, we went to my mom's for brunch and did Christmas with my parents and sister. Brother and his wife were not there as they are not speaking to us. We had DH's mom and brother over for dinner a bit later. I didn't want them both to be alone for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since SIL opted out of both of those days. A nice time was had by all.

So I am back to work but DH is off until the 2nd.

Been thinking alot about goals...personal and financial. Hope to post those soon.

Laying low, trying to get rid of the crud....hope it ends soon!

As I mentioned in a previous post, DH's work is having a shutdown from the 24th through the 1st. We are not sure what will happen in the first quarter of the year...rumblings are happening that business will be slow.

So, we are preparing a bit for a possible furlough.....my bonus check of $1400 went directly into the savings account. DH's $750 bonus that will come sometime in January will also go into savings.

I have been slowing stocking up on things....mainly toiletries....we do not have a CVS so those awesome deals people get, well, they just don't happen here. However, I have been keeping my eye out for sales and when they happen, if I have a coupon, I am buying things such as bodywash, toothpaste, make-up, toothbruhes and the like. This way, if anything does happen, we will not have to run to the store if we run out of something like that. Spending can be kept to a minimum. I always have a small stockpile of these things, but it will be nice to have a bit extra just in case.

And hey, if it doesn't happen, well, all the better...we will still be able to use that stockpile...it certainly won't go to waste

Today was our office Christmas party....we also received our bonus's....I was really happy and excited to receive $1400! $200 more than last year.

Our festivities were dampened by the tragedy in CT. I am in just such disbelief. You may have heard about the shooting in the mall in Portland, earlier this week? That's one of "my" malls. A day later, my great newphew's high school (across the river in the Vancouver WA area) went into lockdown due to a gun scare.

I can hardly watch the news or read the articles on the internet...it just makes me so sad.

I blogged a while back about rumors at DH's work. So far, it appears some of it may be true. For the immediate, they are having a shut-down from the 24th through the 1st. DH will be paid for the 24th and 25th, and also the 1st as holiday pay. He is planning on taking only 1 vacation day (the 31st) and unpaid the rest. He wants to hold onto his vacation, in case there are lay-off's...that way they have to pay that out to him if he was let go. There are also rumors of a slow down for the 1st and 2nd quarters of next year. No idea if there will be furlough's and/or lay-off's. For now, we wait. To be honest, I am not too worried at this point. You may wonder why? Well, we have a very healthy emergency fund. We are 2 payments away from paying my car off (Yay!)and we are ahead on payments for DH's car. Plus, he would get unemployment. With my paycheck, we would be just fine.

In other news, our office Christmas party is on Friday...fingers crossed for a bonus! The past 2 years it has been $1200.00....of course, anything is nice.

If DH can make it to the end of year with no sick time, he will receive a bonus sometime in January of $750....this is to reward people for not calling in sick...years ago, if you had all of your 80 hours (different than vacation)saved, you would receive the equivilant of 2 weeks pay...those days are gone, but again, anything extra sure is nice.

For now, these checks will go into savings....if everything ends up ok, DH and I will be planning a trip to Washington DC next year...that money will go towards that, and should help offset the cost.

DD2 had her semi-winter formal this past Saturday night....we gave her a budget of $100....this covered:

$39 dress
$25 tickets
$23 shoes
$8 boutineer
$3 earrings
$2 nail poish

I sprung for the "formal" pics at the highschool...$22 and her boyfriend paid for dinner. Another "last" in our household and I am mourning the days gone by....DH and I also headed out to dinner with another couple who's daughter also attended the dance with her boyfriend.....this girl does not go to our highschool, but is dating one of DD2's and her boyfriends friend....since they live about 30 min from us, they asked if we wanted to have dinner since they were coming out our way....of course we said yes! I've only seen my friend once since club soccer ended in the Spring (that's how we met). The husbands get along well so we had a great time....well worth an evening out.

DH and I also hit Costco to the tune of $183...stuff we all needed...well...except for the M & M's

We also hit Kohl's.....Got DD2 a fragrance set she wanted and I got 2 pairs of much needed jeans....we had a coupon for 20% off and if you spent $100, 25% off....well the total came to $99.73 and Kohl's was nice enough to give us the 25%! We also had $15 in Kohl's cash.

DD2 had her soccer banquet on Sunday night at a local restaurant....MUCH better than last years's AWFUL dinner at the country club....coach paid (out of team funds) for the girl's dinner and beverages and we adults and any other family members had to pay $12, plus our drinks....I spent $14 total for a much better dinner than last year...very well worth it!

We also went shopping at Fred Meyer's for the family my office adopted for Christmas....again had some great coupons....I've talked about the employee discount card my parents have, and that they let me use it whenever I want....Fred Meyer occasionally sends out a pass where you can save like an associate....it is the same discount employee's and retiree's of the company. We were able to get some good deals with the pass and also the coupons they had in the paper....even though the pass is expired now, I am hoping to get my parent's card and head back to get a few more things. It's a great feeling to be able to help a family in need...their greatest wish? Things to stay warm.....our office will definately help this family to have a brighter holiday season!

It has been a super busy week and a busy weekend too. It has been one of those weeks where I was feeling a little bit sad.

DD1 turned 21 on the 24th
DD2 had her last regular season soccer game of high school on Thursday and this past Tuesday was her last home game (it was also senior night where they honor the seniors on the team with a ceremony before the game starts).

Several milestones in our lives (and the girls too), it was just making me reflect!

I had a laundry list of things to do and managed to accomplish most of it! Paperwork and appointment type stuff I had been putting off. Gald to have gotten most of it done.

Had the 2 soccer games this past week, a visit to the vet with the cat, and we hosted our family for lunch today for DD1's b-day. We are taking DD1 out to dinner tonight at Olive Garden for a b-day celebration. We told her she could pick where she wanted to go and she wants to try and italian margarita there, so that was her pick..they are super tasty!

My sister and I are headed out of town (2 hours away) on Sunday to see yet another Cirque show. We are going to the 1:00 showing so we will be back hopefully before dark. She conned me into going saying she would drive. Since we both have a bucket list of sorts to see every Cirque show, this gets us one step closer to our goal...lol

The house is clean, but the laundry is not. Might try to work on that tonight when we get back from dinner. I also need to find time to go to the grocery store. My Sunday is shot as I will be gone most of the day.

That's life and what's going on around here!

We headed to Vegas this past Monday at dark o'clock and arrived home on Wed night. We had a great time!

Took in some of the sights of the strip and saw two shows....Mystere by Cirque du Soleil and Jersey Boys. I have seen 4 other Cirque shows and just love them. DH had never seen one and I am happy to say he really enjoyed it. The one I really wanted to see was "O" but they are "dark" on Mon or Tues. We also took in Jersey Boys which was fantastic!

Happy to say we didn't buy any thing except food. Food was VERY expensive though....it kind of surprised me just how expensive it was. I know we were in a tourist spot and all, but again, prices were high!

Our 25th anniversary was on Tuesday. We did splurge and have a nice dinner after the show. It was probably the most expensive dinner we have ever had, but it was worth it....I think 25 years is worthy of a celebration

Had to do the order for dd2's cap, gown, and tassel order on Monday night as it was due on Tuesday.

Total for all 3: $48.95

Also ordered announcements and name cards.

With the shipping they charge it all came to $117.30 (cap, gown, tassel, announcements, and name cards)

Still haven't turned the heat on! Usually by this time of year it is on. We have had the most glorious and beautiful summer and fall this year. Kind of makes up for last year when we had about 2 weeks of sun! Lol Seriously though, it has been beautiful here all summer and into the fall....mostly mid 80's over the summer, with a couple of weeks of 90's...we usually turn the a/c on if it is going to be 85 or above.

It has been in the mid 70's here the past few weeks and sunny days, every day.

Mornings are a bit chilly, but the warm days seem to keep the house at a comfortable temperature.

The weather is suppose to change by Friday, so we will see how long we last!

September was a busy and spendy month. October looks to be the same. It will be nice to skip the October house payment as the refi closed at the end of Sept.

The big Sept expenses were:

$2100 to pre-pay property taxes for closing
$1300 for drainage work in the yard
$1000 to the SUV loan...so close to paying it off

October is bringing a very busy schedule and money will be spent. Here is what is on tap:

Oct 15th-17th Vegas! For our 25th anniversary...we already took the anniversary cruise in April but thought it would be fun to be somewhere on our actual anniversary (the 16th)...we found a great deal through SW Airlines for airfare and hotel. We will be staying at Paris....very excited...we have only been to Vegas once....when our kids were 4 and 7 1/2, we drove to Vegas and spent 4 nights there and had a blast...we are excited to go back and see how much it has changed. We booked 2 shows to see....Mystere by Cirque du Soleil (my pick) and Jersey Boys (dh's pick). For the most part, we plan to keep it low key and just sightsee...no real spending...we are also not gamblers to no temptation there. Just hoping for good weather.

Oct 23rd....DD2's senior night for varsity soccer.

Oct 24th....DD1's 21st b-day! Gifts still to be purchased.

Oct 27th...family b-day party for DD1

Oct 28th....another Cirque show with my sister

DD2 also brought home the catalogue for senior stuff...cap and gown and such....have to go through that this weekend as it is due back Tuesday.

We have nothing planned this weekend so it will be nice to relax and catch up!

Oh the saga continues.

I called our mortgage guy at 8:00 to confirmed he received dh's email and voice mail.

He said he did....I then mentioned that it was too bad we couldn't just lower our credit limit if that would take care of the issue we were having....well guess what?

No problem...that is what we did last time...it is called a subordination (not subrogation...I knew that wasn't what it was called...just couldn't remember)!

So he says that apparently the credit line didn't show up on our credit report so he didn't even know we had it anymore....sounds like even he didn't know it would be in the papers from the title company (or so he says)....I do remember that when we refinanced a few years ago, the same thing happened.

So, I certainly don't mind it being lowered....we definately do not need as much as it is....we are totally fine with it being lowered....all of about $6000 lol, but we are not going to put the effort out to go to the bank and lower it even more.

He is going to have his assistant work on getting that paper to us to sign and hopefully we can "re-close" in approximately a week.

I also confirmed that the interest rate is going to be the ORIGINAL amount he quoted and that those fee's that somehow ended up on our side of the paper will be removed and the only thing showing that we had to pay for was the appraisal and credit report. I also requested he let me know the amount we need for property taxes so I can have the certified check at the time of closing this time.

No more surprises please! Let's just get this done

Yep.....we are

About 3 months ago, we decided to refinance to a 15 year fixed....we contact the mortgage guy we used before at Wells Fargo.

It was suppose to be a no fee (except appraisal) refinance at 3.5%.

So on Friday, when we went to sign papers....there were several problems that left us extremely annoyed.

The first one was that there were some fee's that "accidentally" got put on....he said something to the effect that they were put on accidentally and we would receive a credit and then a check.

The second problem was that I was told on Thursday, that since we are within 60 days of property taxes being due (in our state they are due Nov 15th), we would have to bring money to closing (approx $2100)Now, I get why they do it...basically then our taxes wouldn't be due in Nov, they would be paying them in Oct when they are certified....they also collect 115% to adjust (in case they go up from the previous year)and we receive back any overage, but since we had already made house payments, it wasn't the full amount....again, no problem, we have the money, but to be told the day before was rather irritating...on top of that, when they asked me how we were paying (on Friday at 4:00) I was like....uh a check?? No can do, it must be a cashiers check...again never told this...so I am told I can do it Monday which means I would have to leave work early...I get off at 4:15 Monday through Thursday, but in order to get to the bank in time and do all that I would need to leave early as there is not a branch close enough to do it on my lunch or anything.

The third and final issue was that they told us we had to close our credit line (through our bank). This happend the last time we did a refinance...we said no way so we were able to sign some paper (I think it is a subrogation or something) and were able to keep the line of credit. We were rather surprised as nothing had been said ahead of time. This time they said we couldn't keep it open as it has something to do with the value of the house, the amount of the credit line limit and 80% of something....it is a rather large credit line, which we haven't used in years, but we want to keep it open, just in case anything really bad happened...I certainly wouldn't mind lowering the limit at all though. We declined to sign the paper on Friday and figured we would work it out on Monday. Unfortunately, DH was 45 min late to signing due to getting out of work late and our mortgage guy had to leave due to a doctor's appt...he would have stayed the entire time, but we didn't count on DH being so late...anyway, DH called our mortgage guy on Sat and left him a message stating we were not going to close the line of credit....he called back when we were on an outing and left a message saying that was fine but they were going to raise our interest rate then.

So, I guess we will find out tomorrow if he can do anything...by anything, I mean let us keep our credit line and not rasie the rate. If not, we exercise our right to cancel.

Again, it's not that we don't understand why they want us to do it....it is the fact, that NONE of this was told to us ahead of time....extremely annoying to find out the day of signing...on a Friday at 4:00 no less. We have credit scores in the 800's, excellent payment history, and virtually no other debt, except the car loans which now total approx $11,000 total.

I wish he would have warned us this could have been a possibility from the start, or at least early on so we could have discussed it then...now we may be out $445 for the appraisal.

Bummed

Thanks for all of the sweet comments on DD2's senior pic....I think it's always fun to get a peek into each other's lives, but for privacy, I took the photo down.

As I mentioned in the original post, instead of going with one of the expensive "collections" she offered, we decided (as we did with DD1), to print our own. That way every family member can get their favorite pose and the size they want. We will however, take the cd to a somewhat quality printing place...probably Ritz as we did before. We were very happy with how DD1's turned out when we printed them there.

I must admit though, she did have some really cute offering's. But I think these days, it's pretty easy to be somewhat crafty on your own....especially with digital prints. She charges $40 an image, and we picked 7 for a total of $280.00 and we can do whatever we want with them. I am looking forward to putting together something really fun!

For dd2:

1) $75 high school soccer camp

2) $175 high school soccer participation fee

3) $25 parking permit

4) $56.80 out of pocket for school registration

a) $45 yearbook
b) $25 senior graduation fee
c) $15 asb card (gets in free to home games)
d) $3 student body fee

$88.00 minus the $31.20 I had in my scrip account left us with the balance of $56.80. I had hoped to do better last year with buying scrip but I wasn't so great with it....oh well...every bit helps!

There will be other related "senior" spending I am sure....cap and gown for sure and probably announcements (we will get a small package for that) I am sure once school starts we will be bombarded!

Until then, I will enjoy the calm

Yesterday and this week. We are refinancing our home....for some reason DH thought we would be done this week....he is wrong...it is still going to be another 30 days at least until we sign. They are out approximately 90 days from the start. So here is what it looks like:

Monday: $445 to mortgage company for appraisal and $75 for dd2 soccer camp at high school.

Thursday: $175 to said high school for the privilege of playing soccer

In the next few weeks: school registration...it is all done via mail...not sure what to expect....dd2 will be a senior and I am sure there will be some school costs associated with that (other than things like cap and gown) There will be the studentbody fee, yearbook (which she won't get until NEXT year), and possibly other fee's for classes...on the other hand, I think way back when she was a freshman, I paid $50 for some reason for her senior year....I can't remember but I think there was a credit back for that amount for dd1 when she was a senior. I do have $31 in my scrip account which I can use towards school fee's. Also, dd2 is having her senior pictures done on Wed....I am so excited! It will be 2-3 weeks before the proof's are done and then we will see what she has to offer as far as collections ect. We are not planning on spending a ton, but do want some nice pictures. My brother and sil did dd1's, but due to some family stuff, we aren't speaking right now.

Thankfully the mastercard bill is very low this month and the garbage and water/sewer bill won't be billed until next month (we pay every 2 months).

No big plans for the rest of month except the state fair at the end of the month. DD2 doesn't even start school until the day after Labor Day.

I forgot to add that I also sent $500 to the suv loan on Sat and also stopped at Costco ($225).