Him picked a humdinger of a week to ask me about my family obligation. I write this while I wait for a tow truck for my mother’s car. She’s a ditz and left the keys in the ON position and drained the battery by accident yesterday. She wanted to roll down the windows and let a breeze through before we left for dinner.

After everyone arguing about where to take the car this morning, I find that I start screaming,”I’LL PAY FOR IT. JUST SHUT UP.” So the car is going to the local garage that is open vs the dealership which is closed. It’s $45 to tow. Something I gladly will pay to make sure my mother’s car is taken care of TODAY before I leave Philadelphia. (HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.)

(more…)

I’m going home this weekend. I’ll be admiring the new windows my mother put in with the bonus money I handed over to her.

Meanwhile, go read the post at Make Love Not Debt about the expectations of Asian children helping their parents.

Him specifically called me out on this and I certainly have a lot to say about it, but it’s very personal stuff.

More later (ETA: next week). I’m off for work now.

Since I was in class all day, I had no time to cruise my favorite blogs while waiting on large query runs. (Don’t lie. We all do it. We all surf the web from work. Some of are just lucky enough to have built-in downtime while we wait for stuff to grind.)

This is a list of blogs I liked this week. Nothing in particular, but the first places that pop into mind when I want to start wandering aimlessly around the PF Blogosphere. They’re in no particular order either, just what was in front of me as I started clicking around. If there is an article I really liked, it’s a link for it. Sorry for not being fancier. I really wanted to go to bed when I drafted this post.

Young And Broke - How to be a good saver

My Money Blog - Jonathan explains his midterm and longterm goals

Debt Hater - A serious drama with her car. I love a good drama!

Single Ma - Can you keep up with her?

Boston Gal’s Open Wallet.blogspot.com/

Madame X at My Open Wallet.blogspot.com/

English Major Money

Tired But Happy

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary.com/ - Advice your auto shop won’t tell you. Stuff I could have used last year.

Jim at Blueprint for Prosperity

Millionaire Artist.com/

Five Cent Nickel.com/ - An interesting discussion on how do you track your receipts?

JLP at All Financial Matters

There were no deep-fried Twinkies this year. This is tragic. The Howard County Fairgrounds no longer has a deep-fried Twinkie vendor. I’m not sure that they sell deep-fried Snickers bars either. This is tragic! I mean, kettle-corn is great and all, but it’s not the same gooey yumminess. For my overpriced, but delectable pit lamb BBQ sandwich, I like to add a delectable dessert. Instead, I just ate another lamb skewer and sulked for the rest of the afternoon.

WARNING: Non-knitters might have a hard time with the next phase, but it does actually get into personal finance matters.

As far as the personal finance stuff, which is less news-worthy than the absent Twinkies, I was pretty close to budget, though I did break my promise to myself. Originally I budgeted $200.00 for equipment purchases only, and absolutely no fiber. But I got sucked in at The Fold’s booth and bought some Seduction yarn by Blue Moon, the company that makes Socks that Rock. My friends queued early for STR, but I am not a sock-maker like they are. Later in the day, while we were cruising back through the same shed for my friend to get some Blue-Faced Leicester next door for a cardigan, I checked out The Fold a second time and found a lovely ice-blue variegated merino-tencel blend yarn. It’s perfect for a summertime shell for the office. I plan to make it a yoked sweater with cap sleeves, stranded because of the difference in color between the two skeins. (One has a touch of grey and the other spots of white.)

While I don’t need a new hobby, I am very curious about tatting. I love lacework and so I figured for $4, a learning book is cheap. The $20 shuttle (bobbin) is what I shouldn’t have bought. I could have found one cheaper elsewhere, but I like one-stop shopping, and they had thread as well. I am going to find out more about this thing and then once I’m done satisfying the curiosity, I am going to forget about it. I. Do. Not. Need. Another. Hobby.

I also bought three more bobbins for my spinning wheel, which should nudge me to complete the work I have unfinished, and get me started on the kid mohair I purchased last year from Giant Cricket Farm. It’s undyed in natural grey and white which I will spin separately and attempt to 4-ply in a ‘barber-pole’ style.

Lastly, I didn’t have the cash for it, but my enabler girlfriends loaned me the money. I bought a beautiful handwoven basket for my apartment. It’s got lovely firm handles, should I wish to take it some place full of soft yarns. Its about three feet long, one foot wide and about two feet tall. I plan to use it as storage next to my couch, because it has weft that is dyed blues, purples and violets, and matches my furniture. This is what put me over the planned $200.00 budget.

Don’t ask about food, I never count that in my craft budget and fair food is always pricey. We did take some granola bars and bottled water to reduce the cost at fair. Trust me, even on a cloudy day, you’re going to suck some down like you’re sweating constantly, even if you are shivering in a lace sweater due to dropping temperatures. (Hey, at least it didn’t pour down.)

ps - Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. The domain wouldn’t let me log in and publish out.

It’s posted now, and the graph has changed. It’s been available for a few days, but I didn’t have any time to think about what the numbers really meant.

The bottom line is that I am not making much credit card progress again. The main reason is that I had to charge my Oracle class to my credit card and wait for my company to reimburse me. I am waiting right now to find out if I passed the course. I took the exam on Friday afternoon and the results will hopefully come back to me in 15 days. If it does, I can submit it and get reimbursed before the end of June. But I am not holding my breath on all that. Sorry NCN, my graphs probably won’t be changing much for the next 90 days.

My retirement accounts are making good progress, even though I did cut back my 401k contribution by a few percentage points. That’s primarily due to some IRA contributions I wanted to make for 2006 to reduce my taxable income even further. I am going to have to think about doing that again so that the 2007 numbers are good and qualify me again for the Arlington Count property tax credit. I am lucky that my income keeps on rising. The county has a rising income ceiling on the tax credit, but I have yet to bump into it, so it’s a mixed blessing that I make so much/so little.

I also flushed one of my mutual funds because it was a US bond fund. Because I have some fund minimums I am trying to meet to avoid a fee, I decided to sell off that fund and reinvest into one of two low balance funds I need to bulk up. I realized that the balances were so low that I could be negating all my gains by the fees I was incurring, so I pulled the trigger and flushed the bonds in favor of a small cap fund. (More on this subject later this month, I promise.) (Was that just a bad mixed metaphor? Should I have written ‘pushed the handle and flushed the bonds?’)

That’s it for right now. Not much else to say at the moment. I’m too busy catching up from being out of the office last week.

WOO. I might have to stay late at work on Friday, 5pm Eastern to watch NCN’s first TV appearance. I’ve always wondered what he looked like after listening to his podcasts. (There is a weblink to the station on the blog post.)

But alas! I am so frugal, I don’t own a TV and the evil expensive accessories that go with it.

Such as:
Nintendo Wii (for which I might buy a TV, if I could get one.)
XBox
TiVO
Cable TV
Stereo system
VCR
DVD player
Extension cords
Rabbit ear antennae

Total it up and think about what you’ve spent on TV. I’m so glad I don’t own one anymore.

Status: April Net Worth will have to wait for now. Too busy with class to put it up.

I have changed my mind, and I will be taking the exam at the end of class, even though it’s not the official Oracle DBA certification exam. I figure I should take it should I decide to get the independent certification offered by the company/school where I am taking the course. Future rewards may follow.

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend. I am limiting myself to $200 and NO MORE YARN or FIBER buying for now. I am only in the market for some spinning equipment, like extra bobbins or a lazy kate and nothing else unless I see some cute baby stuff for pending births. (But I am currently making stuff like crazy from yarn I already have. See? Isn’t that frugal?)

I just got handed some raw shetland this week. It’s about 2 lbs. To get it milled, I want to mix it with something light, like soy silk to thin it out so it’s not a really heavy yarn. I have something in mind to make for a friend, but men don’t like really heavy wooly stuff usually. So this is going to involve some research. But I love free stuff!