YMELORD

YMELORD - A license place Jeff and I saw the other day and fell in love with. Perfect for our daughter. A truly good, smart, intelligent, caring person who is a magnet for bad luck. She's one of those people you just wish you had a Magic Wand to wave over her and make her life as good as she deserves. We got the estimate to fix the Montero... not good news. $3500 minimum. We just can't put that kind of money into a car that has an engine with questionable life left in it. So, we need to help Mary find new transportation. She currently has Jeff's car, but he really wants his car back (and I want to have MY car back since he takes my car to work every day and leaves me with no transportation). That's all well and good for a temporary solution, but we need to move on. Mary wants a good car. I know it. I can't blame her. However, her credit is awful from really bad choices a few years ago, and it's coming back to bite her in the butt now. (For all you parents out there who don't see your child suffering the consequences of their actions, just wait it out. Everything does come back to them sooner or later.) We don't see her financially able to make a big car payment, so Jeff's not willing to co-sign for a car loan for her... So what do we do? She has to have a car to get to work, and she has to have a car that runs well and is safe transportation and reasonably good on gas. We're her parents. I'm sure there are parents out there who say, "Deal with it yourself" but we aren't that kind of parent. Good? Bad? Who knows... but we are who we are. So it looks like we're going to buy Mary a used car. She will make car payments directly to us. It will not be anything fancy, and probably not even pretty! But it will be a car. It will be safe transportation to and from work. It will be as cheap as we can possibly get away with, which doesn't seem to be very cheap these days. I'm hoping we can do this for $3500 or less. Meanwhile, we're asking Mary to spend the next two to three years repairing her credit problems so that when this used car goes (and we know it will!), she will be able to get a car loan at a reasonable interest rate on her own. That seems a very fair thing to ask, to me. I'm not sure how Mary will feel about it (Hey! I hear you parents out there saying, "Oh well!"), but it is what it is. We'll help you this one last time, but you have to put yourself in a situation where you don't need help after this. Yeah, that's fair. As I re-read that, I know it's fair. We'll do our part to help, but YOU have to show us you are willing to help yourself from here on out. Lordy, who knew being parents of an adult child was going to be so tough??

The Food Budget price comparison results

Thanks so much friends, family and blog acquaintances! It's interesting to see the difference in prices in our grocery shopping. Colorado -- you definitely win for highest prices. Here are the results: 1 qt milk OH 1.79 TN 2.49 CO 1.49 NH 1.29 1# bananas OH .46 TN .49 CO .50 NH .49 1 soup OH 1.79 TN 1.39 CO 1.79 NH 1.49 1 dz eggs OH 1.89 TN 1.59 CO 2.04 NH 1.89 1# gr beef OH 2.29 TN 2.69 CO 2.99 NH 2.19 1# chick brsts OH 3.99 TN 3.99 CO 5.99 NH 2.59 1 can vegetable OH .69 TN 1.09 CO .89 NH .78 1 can tuna OH .79 TN .73 CO 1.79 NH 1.25 1 qt mayo OH 4.59 TN 3.15 CO 2.59 NH 3.59 1 bx cereal OH 2.49 TN 3.49 CO 3.35 NH 3.00 Alum foil OH 2.89 TN 3.29 CO 2.49 NH 3.49 When we moved down here (Ohio, from New Hampshire), I was stunned by how much higher meat prices were here (a hop skip and jump from the mid-west's "cattle country"!) than in New Hampshire. I see that hasn't changed. Considering how far they have to ship the meat, why is it less expensive in New Hampshire than in Colorado, where you can practically hear the cows moo'ing?!? That makes no sense to me. Colorado - wow, Lisa. I can see why your grocery bill is higher than mine! Everyone mentioned "store brand" prices, which were dramatically less than name brand. I believe all the prices above are name brand prices. It may not be accurate, but it is definitely interesting! Thanks everyone!

I need to get out of the house!

I've been without a car for two weeks now, ever since my daughter was in a car accident. The police dept finally issued the accident report on her accident, and lo and behold, surprise surprise, the guy that hit her had no license and no insurance. Why does that not surprise me?? I am curious, however, as to why the Butler County Sheriff that took the accident report didn't haul the guy off to jail -- driving without a license and without insurance? Last time I checked, that was against the law. Jeff will pay to get the Montero fixed for Mary, though to me it seems like throwing good money after bad, since it had engine problems with a questionable amount of life left to it. I personally would prefer to find her a good used car and put that same money toward it, but it's not my checkbook paying out, so it's not really my decision. Hopefully, I will have a car back by the middle of next week. (Mary is driving Jeff's Ford Focus and Jeff is driving my new car.) So all this means, of course, that I do my errands on the weekends. Today I will go grocery shopping and pick up some books I have on hold at the library, plus go to the bank to get some cash for the week (though why I need cash when I can't go anywhere is up for question!). I will finally get a chance to do my price comparisons that I've asked others to do for my blog! I've had three responses so far! New Hampshire, Colorado, Tennessee -- and we will add my Ohio to it and I'll post them all tomorrow. I did find one great way to cut back dramatically on my grocery bill. Jeff went grocery shopping twice in the past 10 days! LOL! Since he paid for what he bought, it didn't come out of my monthly budget! Poof! An extra $100 for me this month! We do have a great system worked out for budgeting our money. I am fortunate that I don't have to work, but obviously I do need money to spend. So, we came up with a great system so I'm not spending all his money, but he doesn't have to question where every penny of "our" money is going. We have two checking accounts - his and hers. Although each of us has checks for both accounts, neither of us uses the other's checks without asking first. My checking account covers groceries, doctor visits, vet visits, gifts (not including Christmas), clothing and house decor. Jeff's covers mortgage, utilities, car repairs and house repairs, taxes and any other "major" bills that come along. On the first of each month, an automatic deposit is made into my checking account, and that's my money for the month. It's the same amount, and it's generous without being over the top. I have plenty of money for groceries, I can afford to buy a bit of fabric now and then (though I'm trying not to), I can afford to go out to lunch or to the movies with friends during the week, and I can buy an item or two of clothing when I want to. So it's a really good system that takes the pressure off both of us. We used to have one account and neither of us seemed to know at any moment what we could spend, because we didn't know what the other person had spent that same day. This works beautifully for us and really eliminated any heated money discussions between us. I stick to spending no more than my monthly allotment, and there's no problem. If we have something major we want to do (for example, we upgraded our kitchen and added a new patio area, fence and hot tub last year), we sit down and figure out how we can pay for it or save up for it, or whatever makes the most sense financially. So, I'm trying to cut back on my grocery budget for the selfish reason that it gives me more money to spend during the month! I also pay one-half of Mary's daycare expense each month. I can't imagine how most single mothers can afford daycare, and I can't even begin to fathom how parents with more than one child afford it! Here in our area, most daycare facilities charge between $180 and $250 per week per child! Mary was very fortunate to find a wonderful lady who does day care in her home for $30 per day. I have Brayden two days a week, so she pays $90 per week for the other three days, and of that, I pay half. I'm hoping at some point she won't need me to do this, but I do understand that for now, she needs the help, and I'm fine with that. I would much rather have him in a good, clean, loving environment than put him in a cheaper, welfare subsidized daycare situation. If it means I help pay for it, then I'll help pay for it, just so we all have peace of mind about how he's being taken care of during the day. So today, I'm going grocery shopping. I have made my menu for the week: Sat. - Lentil soup (freezer), cornbread (homemade) Sun - Out to eat Mon - Roast chicken, brown rice, brussel sprouts Tue - Soup, grilled cheese* Wed - Chicken stir fry (left over chicken, left over brown rice, veggies in fridge) Thur - Hamburgers on 100 cal english muffins, Salad Fri - Frozen pizza (Jeff bought 2), salad* * These are days I babysit for Brayden and need something "quick" and easy to fix when he leaves at 5:30. I will make chicken soup this week and use leftover chicken for sandwiches for Jeff for work. On Sunday (tomorrow) we're planning on going to Waynesville, OH for the afternoon. We enjoy walking around and going to all the antique shops there, and, of course, the world's best fabric store is there! So the more money I save on groceries today, the more I'll have to spend at Fabric Shack tomorrow! (OK, so maybe I'm not trying REAL hard not to buy fabric!)

I am NOT a stupid person but...

I don't believe I've ever had to deal with a company like Sirius Radio before. Oh...my... God... I called today because our new car came with Sirius Radio and the initial free six months subscription is almost up and I wanted to renew it. We have one "receiver" in the house, and I'd just bought a one year subscription for that ($142), and now wanted to add a second "receiver", which the web site states will be $6.99 a month. Sounds SO simple, doesn't it? After a confusing initial automated voice "menu" I finally arrive at a customer service rep. I told her what I wanted, provide my account number, provide the ID number of the new receiver and told her I wanted a year's subscription... and (drumroll)... how much would it cost? "Well," she says, "What they do is take the cost of your first receiver and divide that between the two receivers." "So, " I respond, "You're telling me that I will get each receiver for half of what I paid for the first receiver... in other words, the second receiver is free?" "Oh no," she says. "A one year subscription on the second receiver is $77.00." "OOOOOk...." I said. "So it will cost me $77.00 to add the second receiver for one year?" "Well, if you divide the first receiver's subscription in half, it will actually be $55.00 for the second one," she replies, AS IF I'M STUPID. I'm starting to get confused. "So it will be $55.00 for a one year subscription for the second receiver?" "Well, Ma'm," she says. "That depends on what kind of car it's in and the plan the dealer picked out." "What?!?! I thought you just said it was going to be another $55.00." "Well, I can't tell, ma'm, until I actually put your receiver ID number into the system and find out what kind of car it is." "Miss," I TRY and say with respect,"Are you actually listening to yourself? So far you have told me the second receiver is going to be free, it's going to be $55, and it's going to be $77. Let's try this again, shall we? Can you please just put the information in and tell me how much the second receiver is going to cost me for one year?" "It will be $83.00, ma'm." THUD.