Mortgage Update for December 2016

The gift buying is over and I managed to pay $1,200 extra towards my mortgage principal which brings the total to $22,931.  One year and 4 months left.  Now, to be honest, I haven't paid my credit card bill yet.  I don't get the bill until January 4th and  it's going to be a big one but I don't have to pay it for 30 days.

So, how did I spend my vacation days?  It stared off with a half day last Wednesday to take my nephew to the airport.  He wanted to be left at the curb so I was at work by 9am.  This meant I only had to work 4 hours and then I would be free.  I happily left by 2 and I don't even remember what I did after I got home.  On Thursday, I had the whole day off.  I slept late, did at least 6 loads of laundry, mopped the floor, vacuumed the bedrooms, moved stuff around in a semi-organized manner.  It was great.  The weather was great.  Everything was great until I made myself dinner and noticed liquid on the floor.  

I thought one of the dogs was angry at me for mopping but when I threw some paper towels down, it was clear that this was no dog puddle.  This was a major leak.  I threw a towel down and the water just laughed.  I thought the water might be coming from the closest appliance which was the dish washer so I got a wrench and tried to shut off the water valve under the sink.  

While I was trying to do that, my elbow went through the water soaked particle board, which is what my 70's cabinets are made of.  Curious, I easily broke off hunks of particle board to reveal a half inch of water under the sink cabinet.  Then, looking to my left, I noticed water around the gap between the tile and cabinet next to the fridge.  

Orange electrical cord for the Tiny House people.

Pondering that for a moment, I decided to check the bathroom pipes located on the other side of the wall.  They looked ok but the grout was a little damp.  Not wanting to break into the walls at that moment, I decided that it was probably a leak from the laundry drain pipe.

My laundry was mostly finished for the day and I wanted to eat dinner so I stopped the investigation and finished eating.  Then I remembered that I had a ShopVac in the other room.  Perfect for sucking up wet messes.  I dragged all the wet, dirty towels into a trash bag and out to the back porch and quickly sucked up all of the water and mess.  What a handy little machine.

I left everything to dry out and went to bed.  The next day was Friday and I picked up my aunt from the airport and had a nice dinner with my mother and sister.  Saturday was another cleaning day but I did not pursue the laundry leak mystery and that is where I will stop for today because I should just post this or else it will get too long.

Spending Fatigue

Last weekend I had planned to take my dog trap over to a co-worker's house to get fixed but I just wanted to stay home and not have to drive anywhere so that's what I did.  On Sunday, I decided to put the dog trap in my truck so that I would be prepared to go over to his house after work.  Just for fun, I tried to start the truck which has been sitting for a few weeks now.  Of course, it didn't start.  Since I have 3 vehicles at the moment, I was able to jump start it all by myself.  I think that was only the second time in my life that I have jump started a car on my own.  I was nervous but thrilled that it worked.  Off to the auto parts store where the manager replaced my battery for free and asked me out.  I declined.  I also bought myself a battery trickle charger and jump starter because I don't plan on having 3 cars forever.  $65, Merry Christmas to me.

On Monday, I received a reply from the building department.  I had asked if I could close my building permit since I passed the pull test.  They said that I still needed to pass a grading inspection and a final inspection.  I could put off the electrical inspection until later.  I had no idea  I needed those other inspections.  I called to schedule a grading inspection because I was pretty sure my grading was good.  The grader I had hired was very good and made sure the drainage went away from all buildings.  I thought they would tell me what time to meet them out at my building but no.  I sat at work refreshing the permitting website in case an inspection time was entered.  I tried to call them but got transferred to a dead phone.  Finally, after lunch, the website updated and said PASSED!  I was so relieved.  Now I just need the final inspection if I decide not to put in the electrical wiring yet.  Since I just passed an inspection, I think I have another 365 days before my permit expires so maybe I should just wait and see if I can get the electrical in.  Or, maybe I am being too optimistic.  Anyway, I have spent so much this month already, I know the electrical isn't getting done any time soon.

I have the next 4 days off and I plan to spend them relaxing, cooking, and hopefully, getting organized.  Last weekend I made Dutch Baby pancakes and hot cocoa like my father used to make.  It was good.

After work today, I bought some gifts for my mother's neighbor in Arizona and then checked on my mother's place.  The tomato and basil plants had been killed by the cold but everything else looked ok.

I  must confess that this month's extra mortgage payment was spend on Christmas gifts.  That's what happens when I let remodeling costs get out of hand and don't have a specific budget category for Christmas.  What was I thinking when I thought that $650 pull test would fit in to my budget this month?  And then there was all the easy point and click shopping on my lunch break.  Except for the gift for the neighbor, I didn't even have to step in a store.  Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.  January will be back on track (as long as there are no unexpected car bills, vet bills, travel bills, etc... oh, and can't forget taxes coming soon!)

PS:  Dog trap was fixed and will be donated to a rescue group after I paint it.  It seems like every week there's another skittish dog on the loose.  I don't have the time to be driving my trap all over town so I will give it to a group who has time for that sort of thing.

I took 4 dogs to the adoption event today. I had people coming to see 3 of them but none of them showed up or at least they didn't tell me who they were. I was sure I would get at least one adoption. Oh well. It was fun hanging out with my dog people friends. We all get to talk dogs, dog problems, funny stories about dogs, it's nice to talk to people who understand.

I brought my friend's foster dog home tonight because she is going out of town for the week after Christmas and I might dog-sit for her so I wanted to make sure my dogs get along. They all do except one. I hope it is better tomorrow but tonight the new dog is sleeping in a crate so that my brat dog will not harass him. That's too bad because she watched my dogs for me for Thanksgiving week so I wanted to be able to pay her back. If he can't stay here he will have to stay in boarding where he will be in a crate most of the day.

Tomorrow I am going to a baby shower for the same friend and I can bring her dog back to her. I think I have only been to one baby shower in my life and that was for my first niece. That's funny because I know a lot of people who have had babies but I never seem to be around for the shower. That's ok though. I'm not really a party/shower kind of person. I need to dig out some appropriate wrapping paper for the gifts. I bet I have some somewhere. If not, Christmas wrapping paper will probably be ok.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Showers

A chance of rain on Thursday! I actually see it in the forecast. Maybe it will really happen. I must say I am looking forward to cooler weather. It is quite hot in the mobile home in the evenings and I have to open the windows for a while to air it out. My windows don't have screens so I can't leave my windows open all the time.

Work was quiet today. The boss flew away at lunch. I'll see him next year. I get to wear jeans for the rest of the week. Little things like that make the day better.

On my break I did some online Christmas shopping. My list has gotten considerably shorter this year. Many friends and family have decided not to exchange gifts this year as it has basically come down to trading gift cards. I have 4 more people to buy for and then I will buy the rest of the gifts when I am visiting my sister for Christmas. It is easier to buy for her kids when they can go shopping with me and pick things out. So far I have stayed within my budget.

On a different topic, I was backing out of the covered parking spaces at work and scraped my truck on a pole. Ouch. I usually park with the pole on the driver's side so when I pull out there is nothing in my way. Today I parked on the other side of the pole...and then forgot and pulled out right in to it. I have really beat it up lately. It isn't something that needs to be fixed immediately but it is a reminder that I should have a replacement car fund. Poor truck.

Staying On Track

Another adoption event has stolen away my Saturday. It would feel worth it if dogs got adopted but this time no takers. While I was waiting with my dogs I decided to browse the store and found that the dog food was on sale and not much more expensive than Walmart. I was planning to sneak out and buy some at Walmart but I opted for convenience and rationalized that the time and gas spent driving to Walmart was worth the few extra dollars that I paid. What I didn't count on was the dog treats that jumped in to my cart as well. Those weren't on sale.

Most of the big hurdles are out of the way for my mortgage. This month I just need to collect the rent next Friday and wait patiently for my checks to arrive for the stocks that I sold and hope that they equal $3,000. Then I just need to keep working and getting my paychecks, stay under budget, which is getting harder and harder to do towards the end because I have put off so many purchases. Just this week I noticed holes in my work socks. Maybe I will get some new socks for Christmas. And speaking of Christmas, it has the potential to cause some major setbacks with my mortgage plan if I don't plan carefully. I was hoping to have my mortgage paid off before Christmas but no sense in dwelling on that now. I'll just have to plan my gifts carefully so I don't max out the credit card (I'm kidding of course because my credit card max is $15k and if I spent that much on gifts I can't imagine what I would be buying!).

Math Is Hard

I wasn't happy when Chase Freedom card changed it's rewards program from cash back to the point system but now I don't mind so much. I had 15000 points which equals $150 and they still have a cash back option so I went on to the web site to cash out. Then I noticed an advertisement for Home Depot gift cards. Like my Discover card, Chase points can now be exchanged for an array of gift cards. Right now a few of the gift cards can be had for $5 less than their value so a $25 gift card can be exchanged for 2000 points. They also had $50 and $100 gift cards. I was going to get a $100 gift card when I noticed something. The $25 gift card was 2000 points, the $50 gift card was 4500 points and the $100 gift card was 9000 points. So if I got 4 $25 gift cards I could get them for 8000 points. You can guess which one I chose. (And for all you family reading this, yes, you are all getting HD gift cards for Christmas!)

Presents For Me

Now that I have pre-spent all of my extra money for the next few months, my birthday is coming up next week and I am thinking about what I want. I probably won't get any of it because I don't have the money to buy myself presents and my family doesn't often give gifts any more but that's ok. It's fun to think about it.

I want a dwarf fruit tree. Maybe a tangerine. I want to plant it in my giant pot outside that I will put under my shower outlet. I still need to take all the dirt out of the pot, move it in to position, and put the dirt back in. I should really try to plant something that takes less tending like marigolds. Vegetables wither under my care and fruit trees might succumb to the same fate.

I want good walking shoes. I will buy these soon even though I don't have money for them. I'll have the money in July so I'll just borrow a little bit. It might actually be July before I buy them. I'm not in a shopping mood right now.

I want a new wardrobe. Or at least 5 new tops and one pair of pants. I would love to go thrift store shopping. I think I could get many new outfits for $20. That will go on my to-do list for later in the Summer when it is too hot to work outside.

So that's what I want. A tree, shoes and clothes. But what I bought last month was:

a new battery for my truck
a netbook!
a 3 gallon dog waterer
a no-bark bird house

Those are nice too...especially the netbook. Now I just need to be good and keep my spending in check so I can pay for them all. Then in a few months I will be able to afford the other things that I want.

Back To It

I suppose going back to work today wasn't too bad because I hoped that I had a present waiting...and I was right! Here is my Hungarian army hat.

Just what I wanted, a nice hat with ear flaps. Too bad I will have to wait until next Christmas before I can take it up to Washington with me. It would have been nice to have. I wore it in the office and everyone thought it was cool and interesting. I could wear it in Arizona. Sometimes it gets down in the 40's during the day and even the 20's at night. We haven't even had our one day of snow yet.

This is my new foster dog, Rusty. Any guesses as to his ancestry? I'm thinking Belgian Malinois and Golden Retriever? One ear is half gone, poor puppy. I think he had been bullied by other dogs. He is sweet and playful. No potty problems so far. He is learning 'sit' well but still likes to jump. It's his first day here so he will calm down.


Only 2 more days of work left this week. I had lots of emails to get through today but it was ok. I am glad that I have a job to come back to but still wish that I could be doing other things. All in good time I hope.

Virtual Gifts

One of my sisters and I have a birthday one day apart. After years of exchanging gifts we finally decided to skip the shipping and just tell each other what we got. That way we get exactly what we want without the hassle and we are both happy. And after years of swapping gift cards, we've started doing it for Christmas too. One sister is paying for a share of my new dog. Another sister got me a new door for my hallway. Isn't that nice? It's exactly what I wanted. Thanks sisters!


I installed my new door yesterday. I must say that I should have put a door there long ago. It makes a great dog barricade and it was only $10. (Some of you long-time readers may recall that all but one interior door was missing from this mobile home as well as the kitchen cabinets, flooring, furnace, water heater...it is basically just a shell with walls...even some walls were missing...weird.) Unfortunately the door knob that I bought did not come with the correct latching mechanism so I still need a working door knob. In the mean time, I am sliding the very heavy sink over a few inches to block the door and it works great. Eventually I would like to be able to leave the dogs with access to the living room but they are not trust worthy yet. Or I should say, I have not dog-proofed the living room adequately yet. For now they spend their days in the hallway and out of mischief.

I Hate Fine Print

Even though I still have a cold I managed to get to Fry's grocery store because they have been advertising their $10 off a $100 gift card purchase and the deal is over today, I think...I can't really think straight with a cold. The commercial and the ad say mix and match, buy $100 worth of gift cards and get $10 off up to $50 total rewards. Since I was planning on buying some gift cards anyway I picked out $200 worth. I bought a little bit more than I had planned to reach that $200 mark. At the cash register the clerk told me that only one of my cards qualified for the deal. So it turns out I didn't get any money back and I made a special trip for nothing. Thanks a lot Fry's. Why do they have to make shopping more complicated? Christmas shopping is already frustrating enough. I am annoyed enough to go shop at Safeway for a while until I forget that I am mad at Fry's. Maybe I'll send them an email to complain. To my family members who are reading this...sorry to spoil the surprise but you'll be getting gift cards this year. Who wants the $50 for Applebees?

A Present For Me

I have been talking about buying a flat screen monitor for a while now. I don't have a lot of room in my RV and my computer takes up the entire dining table. I thought of getting rid of the desktop entirely and buying a laptop but I don't have the money for that right now. Buying a flat screen monitor would give me a little more space but they are expensive when bought separately.

Well, yesterday a friend called and asked if I was still looking for one. He bought a new computer and had an extra monitor. He said I could have it for $20. Yea! It looks great, the screen is bigger than my old one, I have more space for my keyboard, and I can push the monitor farther back on the table so it isn't so close to me. A nice buy for $20.


I was going to put my old monitor in to the mobile home with all of my other junk to save it as back up just in case something happened to my new monitor but I decided to just go ahead and get rid of it. I have been wanting to try out freecycle for a while now so I signed up and posted my monitor. I could have posted it on craig's list for $15 but I always seem to get responses from people on the other side of town who want me to meet them half way. No thanks. So, I listed it on freecycle for my area of town only. It took a day for the post to show up but once it did I got an email from someone who lived a few streets down. She said she could pick it up whenever I was available. I gave her a call and met her at the end of my road. She was thrilled to have it because she said her monitor was dying. I assume she was telling the truth. I really have no way of knowing whether she needed it herself or whether she was going to sell it to someone else. Either way, it is no longer taking up space in my RV! I'm trying to get over my pack rat tendencies. I think it was a nice exchange all around.

The Spirit Of Giving

I spent almost 2 hours staring at Amazon last night. It is a gamble to buy books as gifts that I haven't read or even flipped through but I wanted to buy SOMETHING for my sick nephew and, of course, I had to buy enough to get the Super-Saver shipping! I bought a dragon book that was to be from my sister, 2 football books and an Archie Comics digest. At least he'll have something to look at when he gets out of the hospital. I just hope they don't get back-ordered. That would be bad.

My renters stopped by today and dropped off a pecan pie that they baked for my belated birthday. That was really nice. I left it at the office so that we can all eat it for lunch (or breakfast) tomorrow. This is the second time they have rung the doorbell at work and both times the boss had to answer the door. I wish my renters had a cell phone so that they could tell me they were coming over so I could be waiting for them. I don't want to get in trouble for doing other business on work time. Maybe he won't be mad if he eats some pie tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

I imagine everyone is ready for a Christmas nap right about now. Not me...I'm making a list for after-Christmas shopping with my gift card presents! Thanks everyone! (and no, that snow is not from today)

Stalked By UPS

I was in my garage doing laundry today and I got a phone call. I didn't recognise the number and almost let it go to voicemail but I decided to pick it up. It was the UPS man. He said he had a package for me and couldn't find my house. Well, that's no surprise. My house is set back off the road. I was trying to describe how to get to my house without using terms like 'third cactus on the right' and 'turn when the barbed wire ends' and he said "are you walking outside?" Yes I am. I looked around but couldn't see him. He said, "just point to your house." So I did and he hung up.

Then I heard the UPS truck honk and I spotted it on the next hill. He zoomed down the dirt road and flew up my dirt road and presented me with my package. "Next time", he said, "Include your phone number so they can call you. We had to look it up but finally we found your number." Uh ok. He waved good by and sped down the road. My package was a delicious box of chocolates from a friend. Usually I tell people to send UPS or FedEx packages to my work or send things with the post office because my house is too hard to find. I don't know how I can include my phone number on every gift that is sent to me but I am glad UPS took that extra effort to track me down. Mmmm...chocolate :)

Finally Friday

It's been a long week. Everyone at work wanted to get their projects finished for the end of the year. Today was quiet after a very busy morning. Many of my coworkers left early and will be on vacation for the next 2 weeks. Maybe I can finally clean off my desk and get organised next week.

I finished my Christmas shopping this week. I did it completely online this year. I've never done that before. All of the teens and adults got gift cards. I don't really like giving gift cards but itunes cards were requested by many. The younger children will receive toys from Amazon. I hope they like the gifts. It is kind of difficult to tell the quality of a toy from a small picture. I tried to get free shipping as much as possible but ended up paying to ship a few items. One good thing about buying gifts cards is that it was easy to stay within my budget. The toys did get a little out of control though :)

I still need to pack and ship some copies of old home movies. They won't get there by Christmas but that is ok. It is probably better that they arrive later so that they don't get trampled under the tree. Just a few chores to do this weekend and the rest of the time is my own. It will be nice to just relax for a while.

My $1 Office Gifts

I'm kind of a scrooge at work. I never give gifts for birthdays or holidays. I despise cards because they are over-priced and quickly thrown away. But I was in the grocery store yesterday and Fry's was having a $1 sale on giant candy bars. I couldn't resist. I bought one for myself and before I knew it, I bought one for everyone at the office as well as a few extra so that they could choose the kind they wanted. Luckily, there aren't a lot of people at the office right now with some people on vacation already or else this little extravagance could have cost me a lot of money.

I passed them out at work and the folks were very happy to get them. I'm happy that they are happy and I'm also happy that it only took a few dollars and some giant candy bars to make them happy. Maybe we are all just a bunch of chocoholics. :)

It's Time For Online Shopping

This year I am attempting to do all of my Christmas shopping online. I have 24 people on my gift list and so far 7 can be easily taken care of with online gifts. The others are a little more challenging because I don't know what they want this year.

So, it seems I have 3 choices:

Send money.

Drive to multiple stores until I settle on something in desperation, pack and ship it at the last minute and hope it gets there in time.

Or buy something online, hopefully get free shipping and avoid the hassles of fighting crowds, finding parking, and wasting time and gas.

I have looked for toys on Amazon before and I always seem to want the one that doesn't qualify for super-saver shipping. This year though it looks like more items qualify so my plan might actually work and I might get the shipping for free. I do realize that I might pay more for items online because the things I am looking at are not on sale. So, if I buy online I am probably paying the same amount as if I bought something in a store on sale and then shipped it myself. What I am really saving is time and hassle.

I have grouped my gift list by household so my plan will make the most sense if I can find gifts for every person in that house online. If I have to send half of the people gifts by mail I won't be saving any time or hassle at all.

I had better get back to my shopping because I only have 3 weekends left and I am way behind!

Another Office Birthday

This is the third office birthday this month and we only have 8 people in my office! Usually the birthday person is taken out to lunch and their lunch is paid for by the rest of us. One lady is the designated cake person who brings the cake, plates and plasticware. I really don't know if she gets reimbursed for that or not. I don't think she does. Anyway, today it was her birthday so I volunteered to buy the cake. The cake, card, morning donuts (because I wanted them) and lunch trip set me back $22. Not too bad.

I think that was the last birthday for the year. I don't buy Christmas gifts for the office so hopefully I won't have any more extra work expenses. The only other event is the Christmas party but that will only cost me in gas. It is always on the opposite side of town from me. Last year the food was really good. I ate so much I felt sick. This year, I must promise myself to take some home.

Anyway, after donuts, lunch out, and cake today, I am tired. I used to go for a walk when I got home but although the weather is much cooler, it is dark by the time I get home now. Too bad. I guess I will either do some calisthenics in my RV and try not to step on the cat or just go to bed early.

One Good Thing About Being Technologically Behind

People who are 'with it' upgrade their electronics and I get the cast-offs. I have to admit...I still have a cassette tape walkman. I haven't listened to it in quite a while. I used to take it with me on plane trips. It started eating batteries too fast to be of any use so I stopped taking it. I remember one very short layover in San Francisco where I dashed off the plane to buy some very expensive AA's from the gift shop. Too much trouble. After that I took a book or magazine or just read one of the many papers people leave behind.

During the last few trips that I have made I started missing being able to listen to music and I almost considered dusting off my walkman. I thought it might be a little embarrassing. Then, one of my coworkers mentioned that she bought a new mp3 player and she didn't need her old one anymore. She gave it to me. Didn't even want any money or anything. She was just happy that it was going to a new home. I am thrilled. It took a little work but I was able to figure out how to transfer music from my cd's. Now I can listen to music on my upcoming plane trip and it didn't cost me a dime!

There is one little catch though. I don't have a big cd collection because I am too cheap to buy them. I transferred a dozen of my favorite songs and now I want more. They cost 99 cents to download. How tempting! Just one or two or twenty songs wouldn't hurt right?

Bon Voyage Little Box

I FINALLY got my box shipped off today. I had to sneak away from work for an hour to go to the post office, which is not conveniently located. I stood in line for another 15 minutes while filling out customs forms, 2 of them because I didn't know which one to fill out, trying to use my wallet as a writing surface because I was not going to fill out the form at the counter and then get in to the line. Then when I get up front the postal worker tells me that I only had to fill out one customs form and that I need to write the address on my box. I had left the address off of the box because I was going to ship online but that didn't work out. I forgot that the customs form is extra, they don't look at it for the address. Actually, I remember now, 2 years ago when I shipped a box to Hungary, it came back to me a week later. The postal worker had attached the customs slip over the "to" address. So they sent it to me. Luckily the woman at the post office was understanding and didn't charge me another $30 for shipping.

Speaking of shipping costs, I really need to find lighter presents to ship. I should be buying tiny diamond jewelry as gifts rather than buying the large inexpensive gifts that I bought and then have to pay $35 in shipping! Now there's a thought.