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I mentioned earlier about a giant dead tree in my backyard that needed to come down.  Well, the day finally came, and for an entire morning, my backyard look like a construction zone:

The tree removal crew was very effective.  In fact, they were a little TOO effective.  There was a flower patch and a couple of bushes I wanted to keep, but they already cut it down before I could come out and tell them that.  In fact, they even accidentally chopped down a neighbor's...
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Whelp, my dog-sitting stint is over, and Violet's dad stopped by yesterday to pick her up. He told me his wife said to pay me more, so I got what I consider a very generous "tip" for my trouble.
The house felt kind of empty when she left, but truth be told, I'm glad to be able to get back to my usual routine as I'd put a lot of chores/errands to the side so as not to leave the dog alone any more than necessary. Even when I stayed home, I modified my behavior because she followed...
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As a retired educator, I want to remain a life long learner. 
There's a new studio about 25 minutes away that has classes and I've attended a couple of them. But they are expensive and basically a treat. But since I've married DH and we live in a small town, I'm on the lookout for more economical things.
I know many of us have talked about what a money saver the local library is. We live outside the city limits so I have to pay $60 a year to use the library, but it is a...
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When my fridge piles up with too much leftovers, especially perishable items, I would cook them in what I call leftover nights.  Uh, cooking is most definitely not my area of expertise.  In fact, the reason why I am blogging about it tonight is, by some miracle, it actually came out pretty good!  That doesn't always happen....
So what's on menu tonight?  Well, imagine leftover onions and tomatoes, sausages, leftover pasta sauces in jars, and ramen noodles....
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Feeling both annoyed and triumphant this morning after calling my local paper to cancel.
I really want to support local journalism, so I have stayed subscribed to my local paper (digitally) while also having digital subscriptions to the NY Times ($29/month, family edition = 4 log-ins), Wall Street Journal ($12.27/month), Washington Post (included with Amazon Prime), as well as supporting a handful of independent journalists writing through Substack.
But the local subscription...
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Almost to tax day, which (working in financial services as I do) is somewhat of a marker for busy-ness, but not as much as it was when I worked for an accounting firm or tax department.  At least most of the "administratrivia," as I call it, is over for the year.  That's all the tax forms (1099s and K-1s) that I need to send to clients and their CPAs early in the year.  The 1099s are out in January or February, but the K-1s continue to trickle in, with several coming...
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We tired of winning yet?  This latest Trump-manufactured Epstein Files distraction-of-the-month has taken me down a bit of a rabbit hole about America's oil supply chain.  For example, I learned just how speculative the gas market is, because according to the internet:
* While 20% of the world's oil supply comes out from the Strait of Hormuz, only roughly 7% is actually destined for the US.
* It takes at least a month or more for a typical oil tanker, traveling at the...
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MM(22) Feb 2026 'Gifted College Fund': $2,600 (+$5K ROTH)
MM(22) Mar 2026 'Gifted College Fund': $1,347 (+$5K ROTH)
Rent is paid through 4/30.
There are ample funds to pay May rent.  & I am feeling pretty *shrugs* about June rent.  I've accumulated ~$500 interest in DL's 'college rent fund' (that he currently has no plans to use).  So I will put the $500 and remaining funds to MM(20)'s June rent.  I think his returned deposit will cover July. ...
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So we got our tax return into the bank it was $192 where we figured it to be $522 so hopefully we will get paperwork to say why it is so low...but I guess happy that it has finally been processed since they had it for 10 plus weeks, frustrating but cant say it suprises me...will probably take a couple months for the letter to get here..so will see
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Ever had a friend who is always longing for adventures, and for some reason, they always want you to come along?  Or perhaps you are that wonderous, adventurous friend?  If so, I just hope you will understand that, well, some of us have budgets we have to adhere to.  Yeah, it really is a shame we never managed to be born as trust fund babies or win the powerball lottery.
Jokes aside, a friend of mine called me up again, asking if I wanted to go camping... again. ...
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So I was watching this old show (filmed in 2010) called homeless - the motel kids of orange county. They live right by disneyland in california. This hotel was a dump, they had bed bugs, so many people on drugs/drinking etc..some of the families were working they were all cramped in 1 room sometime a couple of families...the kids were picked up and went to a free school that went all year and they got breakfast and lunch (not that it was great food) it was sent to the school the...
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I don't typically do monthly net worth updates, but this month is slightly different so I figure I might as well make an entry about it.
Back when Trump kidnapped Maduro, the president of Venezuela, I thought this might cause a shockwave of economic blowbacks that would result in drops in the stock market, and therefore, my portfolio value.  Fortunately for us all, this magically did not come to pass.  However, I would not have known that at the time, and among other...
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I hope everyone is enjoying their Easter.
My friend dropped off his dog, on Saturday, and so I've adjusted my schedule to revolve around her pee breaks outdoors and her one big walk I take her on around mid-day. I'm afraid she  might be a bit bored with not much else going on today.
Made plans to meet for another lunch with a friend in town this week. We both want to try a new-to-us Italian restaurant that's supposed to be quite good and has a price fixe menu for lunch....
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Last week I flew to Reno to meet up with my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces. We rented an Airbnb and had a wonderful time together.  I hadn't seen any of them in 2+ years.
The company I work for was owned by a husband and wife in their 60s.  Unfortunately, he died about 3 weeks ago.  I am uncertain what changes may be coming as a result.  I have been surprised by how sad I am over his death. He was quite a character and apparently grew on me more...
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Today has been a fun day. With the rain forecast, doing much outside was sort of a risk. DH and I had tried to get as much done earlier in the week outside so we could do stuff inside. 
As mentioned before, I have been making greeting cards. I wrote down all the people from now until the end of the year and as I have time, I make a couple here or there. It's not really a cost savings, but I enjoy making them. Dollar Tree has had some cool little embellishments so I add those...
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Another month has gone by. I am still watching my spending very carefully.  Here is how it went in March:
I spent $850 on housing -- that's mortgage and assessment fees. Utilities I track separately, and they came in at $257 because I paid for gas twice (timing thing). It was time to pay my semi-annual property taxes -- $523.
I spent $132 on gifts and charities. 
Only $59 on groceries. I surprised myself. I have to wonder if I forgot to count something. But I can't...
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TSP $1,515,502
IRA $446,553
Brokerage $13,371
Investments Sub-Total $1,975,426
House Equity $148,000
Savings $ 5,616
March 2026 Net Worth $2,129,042
February Net Worth $2,247,163
Monthly Gain/Loss -$118,121 
April Fool's is losing over 6 digits this month, I guess. Booo...not a fan.
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Well, it was a rough month for net worth, but not really a surprise considering who's steering the ship of this crazy country. 
Part of it was us: AS and I had a low-income start to the year, so we had to take another $2500 out of the HELOC. Luckily we've got a big few months coming in April and May so we should be able to pay back that amount soon. We also took out a loan for replacing some of our ancient windows. We had a plan for paying back a big chunk of that this year,...
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So the IRS has had our taxes for 9 weeks and I know this because they have to sign for them..we finally have online this last week that they have received them....yes they have had them for 9 weeks but only now just saying that so lets see how long it takes them to do them...honestly dont know why we would do them anymore what are they going to do if we dont pay them...they are so incompetent as a business/govt agency...I dont even go on them anymore just my hubby because I dont...
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I did a small Roth conversion last year and it worked out perfectly; I remained just inside the 12% tax bracket at tax time. This year, I hadn't planned on doing a conversion since, if I'm committed to staying within the 12% bracket (upper end is just $50,400 for a single filer), there's not a lot of room to spare between my essential annual expenses and the extra room a conversion would take up. (I'm sure there's a more elegant way of expressing that thought but hopefully you...
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