hi

Still waiting for my new modem so my Mom is adding these posts for me. I haven’t heard from the seller but I am hoping they shipped it out yesterday since I paid for it right away. Probably not thought. They might not have even checked their ebay account yet. How depressing.

Today I made a $3,600 payment on my mortgage. That consists of $1,200 for February, March and April according to my mortgage re-payment plan. I had the money in the bank from my rental guests so I decided to pay the money now instead of $1,200 each month. By paying early I save $21 in interest. Now I just have to figure out how to keep my house rented. I had one inquiry so far but they wanted to arrive on the same day as my previous guests left. That would not be nearly enough time to clean. I need a whole day for that. Even if I re-made the beds with extra sheets instead of waiting for them to be washed, I would still need at least 4 hours.

I am excited about this weekend. I will have lots of time to organize, clean and de-clutter. I will miss the internet though. So far I have been able to find things on TV to watch, not that they are good but I don’t miss cable TV yet. There is only so much de-cluttering I can do without making trips to my mobile home where I store my other stuff. Once the sun goes down I don’t like to go outside even thought it is probably too cold for the snakes and tarantulas. Tonight is ‘Chuck’ and I get good reception on that channel so I have something to look forward to. I know, I am easily amused. I have put off going grocery shopping until Friday. I have run out of most of my common items. Today I ate perogies and ramen noodles for lunch. It was an interesting combination. I ran out of carrots yesterday but I have a few frozen peas. I think I have enough milk to make the box of mac and cheese that I found in my cupboard for lunch tomorrow.

I added up my January expenses yesterday to see how much money I had left for the month. I write down every penny in a notebook and I have a monthly budget of $580 which is derived from individual budget categories. I have around $150 left for the month. My natural gas bill was $90! The usual bill is $28. I had guests for one week last month so they probably cranked up the heat. I don’t want to see next month’s bill.

If I can keep my grocery spending to about $60 I should have a little bit left over for the telephone cable and power supply for my modem and maybe even a plug for my dryer so that I can hook it up. I might be able to put off replacing my pressure tank for a while. The pump seems to work ok even though the tank no longer holds pressure. Before, the pump filled the pressure tank only when the pressure was low, now the pump runs every time I turn on the faucet. At least I have good water pressure for now.

Life in my little RV is getting a little more comfortable every day. It usually takes about a week to settle in again and that week is almost up.