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OK, maybe I'm being a little optimistic. Maybe it isn't solved, but I'm thinking it might be.

What mystery, you query?

Well, it's a personal one for me. I have been messing around with genealogy for the past few years. One thing I did know is my maternal grandmother, some of her siblings, and her parents came to America in May of 1902. I kept searching the year to see if there had been an issue in or around 1902 as to why they left England. No war, both World Wars happened...
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Mostly out of fear for our upcoming college expenses over the next half dozen years, I made a plan over a year ago to get our house debt paid. Our house debt is a combination of a mortgage and a HELOC. The mortgage interest rate is 3.49%. The HELOC rate, which can change, is 5.64%. So every extra principal payment I make goes to the HELOC.

In order to make it doable when I started, and also to use a method where one bad month couldn’t blow it for me, I created a schedule...
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Actually, with tax, it was .22. I bought a screw at the local hardware store. It replaces one that is missing from my table. I figure the refinisher would charge me a lot more than that. When the time comes.

I also parked some distance away and walked to the hardware store. I haven't been too good about walking, and I want to commit to a minimum of 5,000 steps a day.

I'm going to walk to the hairdresser today, but that is a shorter walk, and I'll have to figure out another...
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After many, many years, I finally paid my very last bill for 1 credit card. That was a tough and something that I have struggled with for most of my adult life.

It was one of my best life's decision, actually, to JUST.STOP.CHARGING. Paying in cash made me more aware about my spending. And it was great motivation to see my credit card bill getting smaller and smaller every month, making me more eager to pay it all off as soon as I can. It took a long time, saving even the extra...
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Well we saw the urologist today not great news it is a 9 which means he has an aggressive cancer we are booked in later in the month for a cat scan to see if it has spread then see him a eek later for treatment options...so we will see what happens, we are staying optomistic and hoping for the best but we will deal with what is dealt to us...so by end of month we will have a plan on treatment...the scan will cost us $200 but we were not waiting the 8 weeks to get it for free!!

his...
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I've listed quite a few things on eBay. I've already sold a pair of brand new jeans I never wore when I was that size! The other items may or may not be in demand. I have noticed that it is easy to keep listings up long term, through the Buy It Now option. Eventually someone seems buy many of them. I just have to manage how long I want the items that I no longer want sitting in my closet!

My husband traveled for work in January. His travel payment came through this week. He...
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We had to pay the property taxes on our two rentals (our house is escrowed, the two rental properties are not). YIKES! I really don't like being down this low in savings! Hoping to get our taxes files by the end of the month and that will help replenish.

Current Balance $13,765.00
-$1330.00 Rental #1 Property Taxes
-$2300.00 Rental #2 Property Taxes
Balance $10,135.00

Local Savings $1020.00
GC Savings $570.00
Capital 360 Savings (US) $2935.00
Capital 360 Savings...
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Well, it was a good day and a bad day. I got my tax refund -- yay! I have now collected all the money I was waiting for. Broke a tooth -- boo! I can't believe something else happened that's going to drain my funds. It's a molar -- a chunk fell off and I saved it, but I doubt it can be glued back on.

The worst part about the broken tooth is that my dentist is on a mission trip and I couldn't get an appointment until next Wednesday. I could go to the emergency dentist,...
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Mom made it through surgery with flying colors as she always does. I went up and saw her for about half an hour and she was eating and alert. I didn't stay longer, though, because she was very tired. She wasn't in any pain because the nerve block hadn't worn off yet. I'm sure tomorrow will be a lot harder.

It snowed today for about 4 hours. Ugh. Now it is sleeting though, so I am sure it will be gone by morning. At least I hope so.

I made it about halfway through the...
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A brand-new Aldi opened near us last week. What do you like best/least at Aldi? I've occasionally shopped Aldi before but now it's on my regular route home. I'm mostly a Costco/local grocer shopper, so curious about Aldi favs.


My NS streak has ended with a haircut and some greeting cards purchased. I normally don't buy many cards, but some of these were for folks who needed some cheering up, and a cute one for my BF's birthday.

A surprise $20 check arrived in the mail...
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My first goal was to get our ice account back to $2000, I have achieved this month already next step is to pay off the dredded credit card which we can hopefully do by march!!
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We chronically don't get enough sleep. Even though I don't work right now, we are crazy short of time. Something always comes up! Every day, every week.

What we did today:

Took son to take passport photos

Got the form allowing new passport for son notarized ($19 for both)

Bought breakfast pastries at a new place near UPS store - around $20 - it sucked, won't do that again

Met with Arlington country regarding yard draining (that resulted in a bunch of things we...
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Really loving this new "daily interest" display on the student loan website. I sent in the $550 cash back bonus as mentioned before, and also $3354 from extra shifts/side work in the last several months. The daily interest cost is now $11.26, for a saving of 33 cents per day/$9.90 a month. That's more than my Hulu subscription!
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I started working on our tax return today. I've been dreading it.

Figuring the American Opportunity Tax credit correctly is always a chore for some reason. I only felt it was a chore last year when I realized both schools report differently on the 1098T. You would think there would be clear requirements. One includes books bought at the school book store and the other doesn't is one example.

Only the youngest qualifies for the AOTC this year, and I'm still waiting on her...
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I guess this is a question for the message boards but I'm trying to find a bank that will offer an 85% loan to value ratio on a home equity installment loan.

I currently have 1 lien on my house. This lien is due a 15 year home equity (3.99% int) that we just refinanced into 6 months ago up to 80% equity limit with provident.

We took out a personal loan (20k) to add a garage to the house and I'm looking to see if I can roll the personal loan into my home equity loan. Since...
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If I can swing two $270 payments by April, I'll have a shortfall of $520 for a full contribution to my Roth IRA (2019). I feel certain that I can contribute $100 from the checking account making it a $420 shortfall. I got this; I'm going to make it happen without withdrawing from the savings account. Once done, I'll battled it with 2020 contributions. It's a must for me to continue fully funding as I am playing catch up.
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As I said earlier, I was proud of him no matter what because he took initiative and prepared himself for this opportunity. I’m glad it paid off. He’s going to be a lifeguard at a local fancy-pants hotel.

The vet bill finally cleared on the Ally CC, so I redeemed my last rewards – 80 bucks to the Ally savings account. Ka-ching.



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Last night I bought my Oscar ticket ($38) and saw the first movie in the series, "1917." It was fantastic -- hard to watch, because it was very graphic and didn't pull any punches about the horrors of war -- but it was uplifting, too. Riveting.

I also bought the tickets for the four movies that BFF will join me for this weekend, but she will pay me back.

I didn't do much during the day, other than the lab visit. I hope to get the results today. Also on tap: gym, laundry,...
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Although below is my plan for the week, with Mom's surgery and us unsure what day she is coming home for sure, things may get swapped around so that an easier meal is made that day. And there is the very real possibility that exhaustion may lead to one or two nights of take out. I hope not, though, because I feel much better when I cook myself. We do have two gluten free options for restaurants, though, so at least there is that.

I am trying to find other restaurants that...
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I love pay weeks, have managed to pay just about all our bills for the month, other than groceries and gas which we take out every fortnight in cash the first which will be this thursday

So far this month we have managed to put money into our
ice account 1799 (should reach the $2000 by end of month)
Car $170
house $107

Our goal is to work on the ice acct to $2000 then the car to $15000 then a house deposit...

we are thinking about moving in august when this lease is...
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