Petunia in an Onion Patch

Where'd You Get All Those Coupons?

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:18:41 PST

These words were spoken to me - me - by a grocery store clerk the other day.

I am not a coupon queen. I do the bulk of my shopping at a natural foods co-op. I have for decades. It is more expensive than the discount grocery, but I feel that I am feeding my family with a better...

It's Mine if I Want It

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:56:26 PST

I think.

I had an interview - and I use that term loosely - with the person from the non-profit group who is looking for a secretary. We introduced ourselves and she got right into the details of the job. She had a list of the various responsibilities by month, and for each month...

Retirement Discussion. . . Again

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:17:43 PST

We had a second conversation in June regarding retirement savings, and that conversation went no where.

I asked Mr H what he wanted out of retirement. I drew pictures of it with stick figures. I drew what I wanted in retirement. (The pictures didn't really mesh very well, no...

Transaction Clean Up

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:57:41 PST

In July, before Daisy and I went on our journey to The Land of My Youth, we went to the mall and bought some Crocs. Daisy was very interested, I was not so interested but thought they'd make good travelling shoes. I put the shoes on my credit card and paid off the amount when I got...

Job Possibility

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:49:08 PST

I've been keeping my antennae up (figurative, not literal) for job possibilities. I think the time has come. I'm not super-excited about getting back into the work force, but I'm not super-excited about the possibility, no matter how remote it seems right now, of poverty in my old...

Change is Coming

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:35:35 PST

Mr. H let me know a few weeks ago about two changes coming at his work.

These changes are no surprise to me. About a year ago I figured that the business he works for would probably close in 10 years or less. They have lost clients over the years without adding any new clients,...

Weekend Shopping Trip - Frugal Family Fun

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:17:58 PST

A few weekends ago we had a family adventure buying socks and underwear. I guess this is what the somewhat-frugal family does for fun.

On that day I was casually reading the newspaper ads for a local store. I saw a coupon for underwear, but it was men's underwear. And buy two...

Catching Up

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:15:29 PST

I spent the financial part of my day balancing my check book and updating quicken.

Next steps are reconciling Checkbook One - tomorrow - and then figuring out how the money was spent during July, August and the first half of September - tomorrow and Saturday.

How's that for...

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:35:14 PST

What I did with my summer vacation:

* Daisy finished school and we had to keep ourselves busy. And we did. We visited with friends, went places and did VBS.
* Daisy and I traveled. We were gone for two weeks, at the end of July/beginning of August. We went to my hometown,...

More Retirement Discussions

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:22:21 PST

Mr H and I had another discussion about saving for retirement. ** As I've said before, Mr H's plan is to spend what's available to us now, work until he can't work any more, then let the government take care of him. I don't like this plan. . . at all. I would rather save money now...

Allocation Done

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:04:42 PST

In late April I rolled over my 401k to an IRA. The 401k was with my previous employer, which was sold to another company. I decided that it was time to get out. Actually it was past time but I have been busy with other things.

The IRA is with a reputable company, and I rolled...

Car Replacement Negotiations

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:35:20 PST

At some point during our latest car saga I caught Mr H and told him that we needed to discuss car replacement. He told me that he didn't have time/was too tired/some reason he couldn't do it right then. I said, "Okay, when?" "June 1st" was the reply. He surprised me by remembering...

"You're crazy Petunia!"

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:13:13 PST

That's what my mom said to me when I told her about fixing my car with Google.

Thanks Ma, for your vote of confidence in me.

My car saga continues. My car guys fixed my original problem (car dying during acceleration on to the freeway), but another problem turned up after...

Don't Tempt Me

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:12:18 PST

I spent about an hour and a half last Friday morning dealing with my 401k. When I left my former employer several years ago I just left my 401k sitting there. About three years ago I decided that I really should roll my 401k over to an IRA and ordered the paper work to do so. I...

Reflections on a year of blogging

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:50:08 PST

Well, my blogoversary has passed without much fanfare. I don't post much and I guess I'm kind of a lazy blogger. But even the little I've done in the past year has brought some positive changes in my life.

* While Mr H and I are unlikely to ever be on the same page, we have more...

$50,000 or less - Is that all?

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:34:09 PST

In my last post I commented on our small retirement savings. After reading the comments I decided to do a bit more research.

I read the following statistics in different places on the web:
* The average 45-54 year old has less than $25,000 saved for retirement.
* 53% of people...

Retirement

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:20:05 PST

As you can probably guess, retirement is a source of contention in the onion patch.

Mr H's approach is: he'll work until he can't work any more, then he'll live on savings, then the government will support him. (You'll notice that it's "he" and not "we", although I think the...

Do we have enough?

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:53:10 PST

Do we have enough in Checkbook One to buy some bird food? Yes, Mr H asked me this last night. Looks like he's getting with the program.

I just finished running the numbers (I'm behind) and we had a $248.72 surplus in Checkbook One for February. Wow, this budget thing is working!

Unfortunately,...

How'd we do in February?

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:33:18 PST

These words came out of the mouth of Mr. H on the first day of March.

I'm shocked and thrilled. Mr H seems to be engaging a little more in our financial life. I didn't have the information for him - we had commitments throughout the weekend that kept me busy. But even with a...

January and February Update

westernredcedar1@gmail.com (Petunia) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:56:34 PST

We spent a little over a month being sick here in the onion patch - all of us, Mr H, Daisy and me. I finally went to visit my doc and got antibiotics. Normally I'm not in favor of that stuff (plus a doctor visit isn't cheap, even with insurance) but I could feel the difference within...